Ted and Mary Fisher Honored at Waldorf Graduation
by Lisa Espenshade
July 1, 2010, pg 17

A packed audience was treated to selections of Mozart’s Magic Flute during the high school commencement ceremony at the Charlotte campus of the Lake Champlain Waldorf School on Saturday, June 12. Eleven students in the class of 2010 performed a cappella and in full, gorgeous harmony during the students’ poignant farewell.
For the graduation ceremony, the school drew upon the rich festivals and celebrations that mark each student’s career. On the first day of each school year, every first grade student walks through a flowered arbor, and is presented a rose by a high school senior who welcomes them into the school community. As a lovely closing to their Waldorf education, each graduating senior received a rose to mark the completion and flowering of their education, along with their diploma that was created by an alumnus of the school.

A highlight of the ceremony was the presentation of the Michael Service Award, a tradition that recognizes significant service to the school. Charlotte residents Ted and Mary Fisher, chosen for their generosity of heart and spirit, were the proud, and deeply moved, recipients of this year’s award.

Steve Crimy, one of the school’s humanities faculty, described each student to the gathered parents, alumni, friends and teachers before presenting the diplomas, each a beautiful water color. He spoke not about their accomplishments but about a unique quality that each individual brought to the class and to the whole Lake Champlain Waldorf School community.

Founded in 1984 upon the philosophy of Rudolph Steiner, Waldorf education’s overarching goals is to provide students with the basis on which to develop into free, moral and integrated individuals. Through a curriculum of academically challenging lessons, infused with the arts and informed by a unique understanding of a child’s developmental needs, the Lake Champlain Waldorf School educates its students to become well-rounded individuals capable of bringing purpose and direction to their lives, ready to think on their own, stand for themselves and act with empathy toward others. The school is the largest early childhood through high school in the state of Vermont.