Rudolf Steiner School

History

On January 13, 1971, The Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School (then called The Pumpkin Hollow School) opened its doors to twelve kindergarten children. We now enroll approximately 230 students from Berkshire County, northwest Connecticut and Columbia County.

The school is one of over 1,000 Waldorf schools, a world-wide movement of independent schools founded in 1919 by Rudolf Steiner. At the heart of the school's philosophy is the belief that education is an art. Whether the subject is arithmetic, history, or physics, the presentation must resonate in the child's imagination and experience. To educate the whole child, the heart and will must be engaged as well as the mind.

30th Anniversary Address
by Betty Krainis

Betty Krainis, one of the founders of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, offered this speech at our 30th birthday party on January 12, 2001.

Back in 1959 my husband Bernie and I, in love with the Berkshires, were lucky enough to buy a house in Great Barrington complete with a cottage, barn, barn-apartment, garage and 48 acres. We got it for a song, comparatively, in a buyer's market, just the opposite of today's.

For years our family summered and vacationed here but waited till 1966 when my daughter Judy graduated from the Rudolf Steiner School in New York City before moving up for good. I remember early on looking at the finished barn interior with Patti Livingston, both of us then New York Steiner School parents. We had the same thought: wouldn't this room make a perfect kindergarten? Of course, we meant a Steiner kindergarten.

Thoughts are real. Dreams can come true.

Today we celebrate an incredible moment. Thirty years. It takes the breath away.

As one who was here from the start I can only marvel at the splendid strides the school has taken. I'm proud of and grateful to the resourceful teachers and staff for their total dedication and outstanding accomplishments.

Why did we do it? Why did we start this school? I can only say that we believed in it heart and soul. We didn't expect to change the world exactly, but we did have high hopes that the children who attended the school would help make the world a better place. What did it take? Well, I guess the usual. Absolute devotion, hard work, faith. Where did we get support? Our families, friends, neighbors, well-wishers. I know I also felt strengthened by the good thoughts of teachers in other Steiner schools. At that time there were about 90 Steiner schools worldwide. Now, I understand, there are over 1,000. Were there criticisms? Sure. Some parents objected to our not using black crayons. Some didn't like it that we used the word "God". Some said all the artwork looked the same. Some found it difficult to live with our strong stand against children watching television. We teachers took these issues seriously and tried to explain why we did what we did.

To give you an idea of what we were like in the early days, I'd like to quote from my husband Bernie's talk twenty years ago at the school's 10th birthday. He spoke of me as his 'crazy wife, Betty Krainis,' and my colleagues as my 'crazy friends'.

He said, and I quote, "It is simply crazy to believe in the face of such harsh and obvious realities as inflation, recession, depression, unemployment, tiny population base, gasoline shortages, high living costs, high buildings costs, absurd building codes, it is crazy, I repeat, in the face of such overpowering reality to believe that a small band of wholly dedicated human beings could create in this lovely setting such a rare flowering of love and beauty and growth and humane learning. It is crazy, and only a very special kind of inspired craziness can account for the idea and reality of Pumpkin Hollow." It is the craziness of those whose every waking moment seems dedicated to the proposition that the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School and all it stands for is the most important thing in the world.

The school's original Board was comprised of the following members: Gerhard Bedding, Dolores and Tilo Kaufmann, Betty Krainis, Patti Livingston, Jane Parriot, and Jean and Thorn Zay.

As the recipient of 13 acres of land and the original barn building that still houses the kindergarten, the school has had the good fortune never to worry about rents or mortgages. Many extraordinary benefactors worked to ensure the long-term stability of the school. The continuing healthy financial situation has been based on the Thorn Zay principle: never borrow--no debts. Thorn, sculptor and woodwork teacher, was also the school's treasurer in the early days.

A crucial gift from lawyer Richard Morass, in August '71, was the school's incorporation and listing as a non-profit organization.

Read more about the school's history in The Birth & Growth of a School: 1971 - 1991, an online archive publication from 1991 by Betty Krainis and Honey Sharp Lippman.