School Cultures: Universes of Meaning in Private School

Focusing on private schools, this book makes an important contribution to our understanding of schools as social settings, illustrating their potential to create alternative cultures. Intriguing comparisons are made between the Waldorf School, a clear example of holistic education, and St. Catherine’s, a traditional, elite college-preparatory school. The characteristics of each school are examined and compared. On the one hand, the Waldorf School, embracing an holistic model, advocates an aesthetically enriching life in harmony with nature for its students. Its emphasis on natural materials, as well as its developmental view of the child and curriculum focused on music and the arts, is unique. The Waldorf School asserts a romantic and progressive view of education that is relevant in a world that is becoming increasingly alienating and dehumanizing. On the other hand, St. Catherine’s represents an academic elite model of education and faces the problems of our modern society in a different way, by teaching students to compete and excel in a competitive world while holding onto moral and ethical values. The schools’ meanings are shown to be imbued through five cultural domains: history and myths; curriculum; rituals; time and space; and social relationships. The analysis reveals the schools’ quite different responses to the world, to others, and toward the individual self.