On Wednesday, April 15th, around 150 students from around Long Island attended Adelphi University’s annual Poetry Day, which included workshops, a student slam poetry reading, and a keynote address by James Richardson, professor of English and Creative Writing at Princeton University and author of several collections of poetry, criticism and aphorisms. At the end of the conference, Rebecca Cooperstein, a junior at the Waldorf School of Garden City, won a citation for her poem, “Feminist” and Dorothy K. Rule, also a junior, received a citation for her poem “Record.” All the students took part in a small writing workshops.

Alexios Kritas, Waldorf’s high school English teacher and creative writing club advisor, said “I am incredibly proud of our students. Throughout the year, we examine poetry in our daily English classes as well as in the Main Lesson courses and these students applied their experiences in the classroom towards this fine achievement.” Main Lessons are seminar-type classes that are central to the high school student’s academic experience and are unique to Waldorf education. These courses meet every day and focus on a specific topic, in a defined sequence, for 4 week blocks of time. Among the English Main Lessons offered are Dante’s Inferno, Transcendentalism, and Russian Literature. The extended length of the Main Lesson enables students to approach the topic through many modalities, adding depth and breadth to their understanding.

Rebecca Cooperstein

Dorothy K. Rule