Founded in 1972, The Waldorf School of Mendocino County is located in the Russian River valley of central Mendocino County, approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco. The three-acre campus, complete with oak groves and playgrounds, houses our early childhood through 8th grade programs.

We are dedicated to cultivating the capacities of each child through a developmentally respectful education. The imagination, joy, and wonder essential to childhood are cultivated to foster a natural love of learning in which the whole child is engaged—body, mind, and spirit. At WSMC, we offer a comprehensive, child-centered Waldorf education from preschool through 8th grade. Our Roots and Shoots program offers education and support for parents and children, ages 1 to 3.

Waldorf education was founded in 1919, by Rudolf Steiner, a renowned Austrian philosopher, and has developed into the most rapidly growing educational movement in the world!

Waldorf education is a vital and dynamic process designed to develop free, confident human beings who have the creativity, discipline, and moral strength to meet the challenges of our changing world. Waldorf education is committed to competence in all the basic academic skills and goes far beyond that goal. Some activities develop a child’s intellectual faculties, others develop artistic and moral faculties, still others instill strength, skill, and courage for action. The art of Waldorf education lies in recognizing the unfolding capacities in each individual child, and in presenting each subject so as to help the child awaken and integrate all of his or her powers.

"Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of responsibility - these three forces are the very nerve of education."

— Rudolf Steiner