It was very interesting to read this story by our colleague Dominick Tao on the Suncoast Waldorf School, where students get their education without a heavy focus on passing exams. They don't even start reading until second grade. There are no letter grades or exams in this K-8 school attended by students from all over Pinellas County. Instead, there are essays written about each student by instructors at year's end, complete with a personalized poem. Art, music and physical activity are laced into nearly every academic endeavor.

So what do you think? The school's philosophy has its share of fans and critics  and parents who call it a lifesaver or a mistake, but it seems to have found an audience in families and teachers tired of the stress of the high-stakes testing we have in our classrooms these days.

--By Sharon Kennedy Wynne

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