Kate Friesen and Peter Westcott

Peter: I have been teaching in the Aspen Middle School since 1987 and when Betsy Engelman and Patty Fox were hosting informative teas for the public school teachers, I went to several. I came home and said to Kate, "I think you should come to these meetings. I think you'd like what they do." From then on, I was a friendly face in the public schools, which, not surprisingly, did not embrace the idea of incorporating a Waldorf track. I must say, though, the public school staff is finally starting to notice how engaged our kids are in education. I recently heard the school secretary say, "Those kids from the Waldorf school are really different."

Kate: I remember once when Patty Fox related to me how, working with the curriculum content and its purpose, she felt her own consciousness evolve in a way that mirrored the evolution of human consciousness she was teaching. She was referring to how humans have developed higher perceptions as they have evolved and how the growing child (and his teacher!) goes through the same changes. Although I nodded, and celebrated with her, I didn't understand what she was talking about. But now, after working with the genius of the curriculum more deeply, I get the same kind of "aha" moments all the time.