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Walden School is a non profit private school in Louisville, Kentucky. Walden School offers Kindergarten through twelfth grade education. The school promotes itself as emphasizing small class sizes, limiting the lower grades to no more than 16 students.〔Walden's Admissions Packet〕 In practice, the school's classes are usually closer to a dozen students per class in the lower grades.〔School records〕 The High School division's student/teacher ratio is 6/1, according to Louisville Magazine's 2010/2011 School Guide.〔Louisville Magazine, Nov. 2010〕 In grades K-8, the ratio is 8/1, according to The Book of Lists, a publication of Louisville's Business First newspaper.〔The Book of Lists, Dec. 24, 2010〕 It is the 11th largest K-8 private school in Louisville.〔The Book of Lists, Dec. 24, 2010〕 ==School history== According to the school records, the school was founded in 1975 and named Walden after the classic work by Henry David Thoreau. The book, Walden, or Life in the Woods, is about Henry David Thoreau's experiences living in a cabin he built near Walden Pond for 2 years, 2 months, and 2 days. Henry inspired many of the school's ideas and beliefs, and many of his quotes are painted on the walls. In an article published on Sept. 16, 1976 in The Voice newspaper, the school was described as having already developed a "classy" reputation.〔The Voice, Sept. 16, 1976〕 The article contained an extensive interview with the school founder, Dr. Edward F. Vermillion, who was a former principal in the Oldham County school district, and a member of the Anchorage School Board. Though the 1970s was a time of great experiments in education, Dr. Vermillion said that he wanted to take the best parts of traditional education, but to combine them some of the gentler aspects of more experimental techniques. "At Walden," he said, "we've married the traditional school to concepts of love, compassion."〔The Voice, Sept. 16, 1976〕 Originally housed in an old military school, Walden now exists on Westport Road, near Hubbards Lane. The school is in a building that was once a public school, Stivers Elementary. Walden moved into the building after Stivers closed in 1980. A large expansion, including a gym, has been added onto the older building. The $1.8 million expansion, which was dedicated in February 2004, houses the high school, and gave each of the three school divisions their own "home.".〔The Courier-Journal, Feb. 12, 2004〕 In an obituary, that ran after Vermillion's death on Oct. 20, 2004, The Courier-Journal in Louisville noted that the school "stresses a nurturing environment, small classes, a college-preparatory curriculum and parental involvement." "In its early days," the paper said, "the school was noted for its unorthodox teaching methods -- one shop class learned carpentry by building its own classroom our of an old Quonset hut. A history class studied the first Thanksgiving by re-creating it in a meadow."〔The Courier-Journal, Oct, 21, 2004〕 A joint, sit-down, Thanksgiving dinner is still a school-wide tradition at Walden, although it has moved inside for comfort and convenience.〔School Records〕 As of Feb. 7, 2011, Walden received the highest possible community ranking on GreatSchools.com, with five out of five stars the average ranking about 30 reviewers. This reflects Walden's excellent reputation as one of Louisville's best private schools.〔http://www.GreatSchools.com〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Walden School (Louisville)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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