School rituals as educational contexts: symbolizing the world, others, and self in Waldorf and college prep schools

This paper examines school rituals as educational contexts. Rituals in two private schools, an elite preparatory school and a Waldorf school, are compared. The schools were studied through extended fieldwork over a school year. School rituals and related symbolic relationships serve to orient participants in schools to particular world‐views. College Prep is shown to foster an instrumental‐rational way of perceiving the world. Waldorf School, in contrast, encourages an organic, holistic, and aesthetic perspective. The implications of differing perceptions of the world, relations to others, and the individual or “self” are discussed.