Waldorf teaching derives from the educational research and insights of the Austrian educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner. He founded the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart in 1919 for the children of the factory workers at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory.

Steiner worked throughout his life toward a comprehensive knowledge of human nature and development, which he entitled Anthroposophy, or "wisdom of the human."

Neither the word, "Anthroposophy," nor the philosophy, is taught to students, but it inspires and guides the teachers and the operational principles of the school. Central to this view of the world is a belief that every person consists of a "body, soul, and eternal spirit," and these all seek to reach full potential.

Therefore it is not enough to educate the intellect alone. This cultivates thinking, but not feeling, or willing, which Steiner considered equally important. To educate all three of these faculties, whether the subject is history or arithmetic, painting, singing or physics, the teaching is essentially an artistic process which must live. Students learn by encountering the world as experience.

For example, a student may encounter multiplication for the first time as motion. The group of first graders, moving in a circle and clapping and chanting will come down harder with one foot, say on the multiples of three: one, two, three – four, five, six – seven, eight, nine – and so on. The numbers soon become part of the body’s understanding. Feeling and willing are involved in the action. The whole being of the child is involved. The concept of three then follows and can be worked with intellectually later on. Extended across the whole spectrum of learning this is a powerful principle.

The idea of a "spiritual being" is important to Waldorf education, though Pine Hill, like other Waldorf schools, is nonsectarian. Waldorf education makes students aware of the great religions of the world, and their rich contributions. Festivals are celebrated as cultural events at various times in the school year. Pine Hill serves families from a wide range of religious and philosophical backgrounds who sense the value and richness of this approach to education.

Thanks to Steiner’s close observation of childhood, Waldorf teaching takes into account the way in which child development unfolds in cycles of approximately seven years. In each stage, children need certain methods of teaching, subjects, and activities that promote healthy and harmonious growth.

In early childhood (until about age 7), children are deeply affected and shaped by impressions of the people and environment around them, and learn primarily through imitation. Waldorf teachers provide their students with examples of goodness that are worthy of imitation, in a warm, protected and beautiful setting. They encourage play as the natural mode of learning. This fosters physical coordination, imaginative thinking, and important social skills. In addition, a rhythm of practical activities strengthens the will and meets the very young child’s fundamental impulse to learn imitatively through doing.

Children of the elementary school (7–14 years old) learn primarily through their feelings for those who teach them, whom they come to love and trust and with whom they develop a long-term relationship. Waldorf class teachers uniquely foster continuity in the lives of students by staying with their classes, ideally for eight years. The children come to sense how their teachers, as lifelong learners, are engaged in the daily creation of new and exciting lessons about the beauty and wonders of the world.

The contagious enthusiasm of their adult role models sparks their own continual interest, imparts valuable habits, and engenders reverence for life and a respect for – and love of – learning. Children of this age remember best whatever has stirred their feelings, and respond to lively lessons that have the elements of movement, rhythm, and repetition. The arts play a predominant role in engaging students in heartfelt and memorable experiences. These stimulate creative imagination and promote healthy emotional growth, self-motivation, and connection with the world

Over the course of the elementary school years, Waldorf teachers act as pedagogical and social artists who integrate the arts (language, visual, musical and movement) with a full course of sciences, mathematics, geography and history. A comprehensive academic program is firmly based on lively experience. The developmental needs of children are met by gradually leading them from more imaginative, experiential modes of learning to one involving the emergence of concepts and ideas. From age twelve onwards, teachers increasingly provide stimuli to a growing thinking capacity, powers of reason and independent judgment, and a budding idealism and search for truth.

These are the qualities that can unfold to bring about a flowering and fruition in the high school years. Some students may continue in a Waldorf high school. The Waldorf curriculum is a highly integrated educational organism in which subjects of the primary school are revisited at the secondary level with new insight, rigor, and depth. Pine Hill is committed to a long-standing collaboration with High Mowing, a Waldorf high school nearby.

Throughout the course of the Waldorf school years, students are guided in developing a sense of responsibility to the earth and environment, and to other human beings. An appreciation of human differences and ethnic diversity is cultivated, which supports the formation of healthy human relationships and a caring community life at all levels.

Critical to the development of a child’s social capacities and skills is the example of the cooperation and mutual respect of the adults around them. Parents’ interest in schoolwork and involvement in adult class evenings, workshops, volunteer work, and in the school community as a whole are keenly and meaningfully sensed by student.

Communication and regular reports between parents and teachers are an essential part of the educational process. Pine Hill encourages and relies on a close, mutually supportive relationship between the classroom and family life.

As an integral part of its mission, the school takes a strong stance against the inappropriate exposure of children to the harmful effects of television, videos, computers and other electronic devices that undermine the healthy growth of essential learning capacities in the formative years of childhood. Pine Hill is committed to providing ongoing opportunities for parents to know more about Waldorf Education, human development, and the protection of childhood, and to become involved and active in the process.

Serving the wider community, Pine Hill seeks to provide educational and cultural opportunities to children and adults by sponsoring or providing space for concerts, speakers, performers and a variety of other events. Nourished by the Waldorf and Anthroposophical movements, both within this country and internationally, Pine Hill reciprocates by supporting the training of teachers, and hosting and participating in conferences. Beyond that, the school provides a successful educational model to inspire educators and parents outside the Waldorf movement.