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 175 students from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Columbia County, New York, and northwest Connecticut. 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.