Pedagogical Director

Email: adarian@desertmarigold.org

Andrew Darian, Ph.D.

As a young man, I ran a successful corporation in Chicago – hiring, training, and managing over thirty employees. I left the corporate world after realizing a passion for teaching. I attended Rudolf Steiner College, a Waldorf based curriculum. . After receiving my Waldorf certificate in the Grades, I went on to teach Kindergarten  and served as co-founder, teacher trainer, board president, faculty chair and lead teacher at the Waldorf School of Louisville (now K-8th grade). Later, my family and I moved to Wisconsin where I became a grades teacher at Prairie Hill Waldorf School where I taught first through sixth grade consecutively.

Although my private school teaching experiences were deeply satisfying, I desired to help bring Waldorf education to mainstream students. I returned to college to earn my public teaching degree, imagining I would become a public school teacher working out of Waldorf methodologies. However, during my college years at University of Wisconsin–Madison, I became known amongst my peers as the veteran teacher (having more preschool, kindergarten and elementary teaching experience than most of my professors combined). During four years of observation, practicum and student teaching, I realized my vision to become a teacher of teachers.

While earning my Masters in curriculum and instruction and Ph.D. in early childhood education, I continued to teach in Public and Waldorf classrooms as well as in teacher preparation programs at community colleges and Arizona State University. After completing my Ph.D. research and dissertation on movement-based learning in the Waldorf classroom, I took a job working in a teacher training program at Lebanon Valley College.

My interests shifted from teaching teachers to aiding already certified teachers to be better in the classroom. Thus, I took a position at Highland Hall Waldorf School. I Trained, evaluated and assisted teachers in the Pre-school to 12th grade. On top of daily tasks, I co-lead the the team for Highland Hall’s accreditation process for both Waldorf and Private school certification.

My spouse and I made a decision to return to the Phoenix area. After venturing into middle school teaching and teaching at Arizona State Prison, my path lead to taking the position at Desert Marigold School as the Pedagogical Administrator. What an absolute delight that choice as been.