Decatur, United States
146 New St
N/A
+1 4044052173
Wheelchair-accessible entrance
My son graduated from Academe of the Oaks in 2014. One of the things he most liked about the school is the lack of a \social food chain\. As a parent I appreciate how each child is encouraged to be fully expressed in their individual way. The teachers are committed, they love the kids and enjoy working with them. The school has a beautiful garden with goats, bees, chickens, veggies and a pond. Every kid has to sing in the choir and play an instrument. The arts flourish there. Academe of the Oaks teaches kids how to think. The curriculum is academically challenging and unlike public high schools, the kids are required to write lots of essays. Writing essays for college entrance was much easier for my son than his friends who attended public high school.
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My two sons attended Academe; one graduated from there and the other attended his first two years of high school there. In brief, I highly recommend Academe. Academe is Atlanta's Waldorf high school, and as such, it’s strengths lie in the Waldorf approach as articulated by Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. There is way too much in his thinking to even start talking about here, but from a parent's practical perspective, my sense of the approach's overall effect is this: if you wish to raise renaissance children, Waldorf is probably your best partner. In terms of Academe particulars, I really like these attributes: 1) The curriculum really is designed to promote thinking for oneself. Also, it is balanced – arts and physical activities have their place – and includes practical arts as well, doing things with one's hands. This is missing from almost every other school. 2) The teachers are very good, by and large well-trained and committed to the Waldorf approach. They engage, challenge and care. And because of the favorable student-teacher ratio, they really know their students and can approach each one where they are. 3) The size of the school, which is very small, is ideal, in my mind. Whatever might be gained in scale is often lost at the personal level, which is simply not worth it when it comes to educating your children. Both my boys played varsity basketball, and they would not have been able to do so at almost any other school. But the benefits of a competitive and team experience, not to mention the inherent benefits in self esteem upon increasing one's skill level in any endeavor, should not be confined to the few, which is how athletics works everywhere else. It is also worth noting that the faculty and staff really try hard to support any extracurricular activities that students may dream up. I could go on, but check it out for yourself!
Teachers at Academe are very engaged in each student journey. The personal bond they develop for their students combined with original and dynamic teaching approaches are engaging and interesting for the students who become much more involved in their education. The students receive a thorough training in the design and writing of essays in various disciplines, a skill that is of utmost importance for College education. They are also extremely well trained in science, not through learning from textbooks, but in designing, performing and presenting their own experiments, and in developing critical thinking in the interpretation of their results. This is all balance by a great Art and Music program. For our family, Academe of the Oaks is a dream come true as to what we were looking for our son's education. The teachers are fostering his personal creative thinking, and he feels empowered by the care and respect he receives at the Academe of the Oaks.
I will let the education speak for itself - my 21 year daughter, an Academe graduate and lifelong Waldorf student, graduated with excellent grades, full academic scholarship to a prestigious \college that changes lives\ and is now studying at a top university in China for the year. She is resilient, resolute and extremely capable of being in the eal world\. My younger daughter is mid-way through her senior year at Academe, she too has excellent grades and has been accepted into her top choice school. She has a vision to travel and, like her sister, the qualities of character and the educational foundation, both of which have been nourished and honed at Academe, to take on the challenges of college and real life. The education is rigorous, the encouragement and support to set your sites high is indefatigable and the development of character and sense of self of the students is highly compelling. Am I satisfied? Yes!
My son is currently a freshman at Academe. We could not be happier with the transition that he has made from the Waldorf grade school to Academe. The support he is getting from the beginning of school social activities (where the whole student body participate together), his assigned teacher advisor (that will follow him through to 12th grade) , and the caring attention of the teachers and staff have made the difference for him. But the engaging curriculum is the real star, and I am glad that it is being presented to him in a way that makes it easier for him to receive.
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