According to the Waldorf pedagogy the American Civil War along with the Revolutionary War is taught in an eighth grade US history main lesson block along with the French revolution and industrial revolution. During this time political and social upheaval and change in history, the Grade 8 student is going through their own adolescent changes. Upon entering adolescence, the Grade 8 student has a desire for stronger critical thinking opportunities and growing capacity for topics that rest in the grey.

The ability to engage in critical thinking is a milestone marker of puberty. The Civil War provides a rich opportunity for student to discuss and examine conflict, freedom, justice, and human rights. By this age, students can understand social and political change and national transformation. With this newfound critical thinking capacity, students are able to connect historical struggles with their own emerging sense of individuality, responsibility and a desire for freedom.

However, we did not teach the Civil War as part of the Grade 8 main lesson block for US history. Instead, we presented the Civil War as a unit study which complemented our Colonial Times unit study, and our American Revolution unit study. Included in these mini US history unit studies are the Western Movement and the Lewis and Clark Expedition as well as California history. As many of these units were small, lasting only a few weeks, and as most of them were rich in living books, our hands-on projects vary drastically from unit to unit. Sometimes we would have extensive hands-on projects, including kits and recipes, other times we focused primarily on reading our Charlotte Mason Living books.