• ‘We were so busy playing we forgot to turn up for French’

Reader views (55)

 Add your view

A study shows that Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the founder of anthroposophy, was an active opponent of anti-Semetism (1). The study contradicts allegations, made especially since a broadcast in Germany (Report Mainz) in February (2000), about Waldorf schools and their founder. The allegations about Steiner are based on a lack of overview and an understanding of his views.

http://www.thebee.se/comments/articles/SteinerAgainstAntisemitism1.htm

Rudolf Steiner spoke out on occasion against cultural homogenization. Indeed, he energetically advocated that which he alone considered “healing,” namely a multicultural society in which the autonomy of each culture is not violated.

In this regard Rudolf Steiner even took concrete political action. With the help of leaflet campaigns and by soliciting signatures from prominent people, he opposed State suppression of minorities.

http://docs.google.com/gview?a=v&q=cache:37FITE1IpyYJ:www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/RB2207.pdf+Steiner+National+Socialism&hl=en&gl=uk

It is easy to establish that during the two-three final years before Steiner's death in 1925, there was a clear contrariety between the new national-socialistic movement in Germany and Rudolf Steiner. Not only was Steiner subjected to a Nazi assassination attempt ..

http://www.defendingsteiner.com/sources/hitler-steiner.php

- Jen Cooper, Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

Since Rudolf Steiner died in 1925 it would have been hard for him to support the Jews during the holocaust, unless of course he did so after his death, which anthroposophists might believe is possible.

People have made comments on this site implying that Steiner held racist views, they do not appear to be making racist comments about Rudolf Steiner.

Historian Peter Staudenmaier is writing on this subject at Cornell University NY
http://www.egoisten.de/files/jews_fault.html It's best to look at his research and sources seriously, especially if you are a Tory Minister intending to fund Steiner Education. Denialism in this matter isn't helpful, especially when children are involved.

- Jane Blammer, West Country

Certain people have made racist comments here about Steiner but are they aware of the following.

Steiner in fact was a strong supporter of Jews during the holocaust and he himself was victimized by the National Socialists. He abhorred National Socialism and everything that it stood for.

During the years when Steiner was best known as a literary critic, he published a series of articles attacking various manifestations of Antisemitism and criticizing some of the most prominent anti-Semites of the time as "barbaric" and "enemies of culture". Towards the end of his life and after his death, massive defamatory press attacks against Steiner were undertaken by early National Socialist leaders (including Adolf Hitler) and other right-wing nationalists. These criticized Steiner's thought, and Anthroposophy, as being incompatible with National Socialist racist ideology and charged both that Steiner was influenced by his close connections with Jews and that he was himself Jewish. On a number of occasions, Steiner promoted full assimilation of the Jewish people into the nations in which they lived, a stance that has come under criticism in recent years.

- Jen Cooper, Newcastle Upon Tyne UK

I have worked in state system primary schools for around eight years. Last year I took up a position in a Steiner school. I was very taken aback as to the methods, children and the whole being of the place. Everything I had learnt about education was suddenly not needed. It has taken me a year to undo my experiences of education and embrace the whole Steiner way. The children are very balanced. It is so refreshing that they dont exist for Power Rangers or the latest Nike trainers. I think what I have learnt in this last year is enough to confirm that I wouldn't go back to the state system. If you ever get the chance to visit a Steiner school on one of their open days, pop along and have a look - you may like it!

- Lmo, southeast uk

Not quite. From a culture originating with Noah to the final mixing of people of all races:

http://waldorfanswers.org/OnSalonArticle.html#Noah

- Thebee, Stockholm, Sweden

Steiner made some contradictory statements, depending on whom he was speaking to. Tonight I watched a TV show called "Criminal Minds" about FBI behavioral analysts. The episode was about a cult. The Joe Mantegna character, speaking of cult leaders, said they "have the ability to see what each person needs, and then they become that thing."

Nonetheless, despite Steiner's having made an occasional contradictory statement to some audiences, his reincarnation theory that the darker a person's skin color the less spiritually evolved they are is the basic foundation of Anthroposophy.

- Margaret Sachs, Los Angeles, USA

Is Anthroposophy a "dangerous right-wing 'Blood and Soil' cult" and the Steiner schools a hotbed for future fascists, as somewhat paranoically suspected by Nick?

This is contradicted by an empirical study done in Germany some years ago by an independent criminological research institute at the request of the German parliament, to find out among other things how wide spread racism is among German school pupils.

It showed that the proportion of xenophobic pupils, hostile to foreigners, was by far the lowest among Waldorf pupils, 2.8%, compared to “Gymnasien” (High schools) 8.3%, “Gesamtschulen” 16.5 %, “Realschulen” 17.4 % and “Hauptschulen” (main schools) 24.7 %.

And the out of context quote by Nick? It is a historical comment, that refers to the time that preceded the end of postglacial time. For the present, Steiner (1922) considered "blond and blue-eyed people" not to be a "race of the future", but a weak and perishing race.

In 1917 he commented:

“… someone speaking today of the ideal of races and nations and of tribal affiliation speaks of decadent impulses of humanity. And if such a person imagines that with such ideals he is placing before humanity ideals that are progressive, then this is not true. Because through nothing will humanity be brought more into decadence than if the ideals of race, nation and blood continue to hold sway.”

Hardly a protofascist argumentation.

http://waldorfanswers.org/AAnthroposophicalAntiracismRoots.htm

- Ingemar, Stockholm, Sweden

The scale of the Steiner project is truly scary and the Goethean and Theosophical elements make Anthroposophy a dangerous right-wing ‘Blood and Soil’ cult as far as I’m concerned.

A list of UK Steiner organisations can be found at:

http://ukanthroposophy.wordpress.com/recorded-uk-organisations/

I dread to think how long a world-wide list would be. Clearly, the pool of people available for fascist purposes is growing and growing and it is frightening to think that the Nazis looked as ‘benign’ when they started out too.

One pro-active thing that we can all do via our favoured political party or community group would be to actively denounce Steiner and Anthroposophy in as many public ways as possible. As a Green voter, I’m attempting to do just that through my local Green Party, particularly in reference to Steiner’s racism:

“On the one hand there is the black race, which is the most earthly. When
this race goes toward the West, it dies out. Then there is the yellow race,
in the middle between the earth and the cosmos. When this race goes toward
the East, it turns brown, it attaches itself too much to the cosmos and dies
out. The white race is the race of the future, the spiritually creative
race.”

from: http://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/steiners-racism

and if you think that's bad, there's loads of this stuff throughout the Steiner world.

- Nick Nakorn, Buckfastleigh, Devon

The problem with knitting and sewing at Steiner schools is that I've never seen them knit anything useful. At our school they knitted and crocheted shapeless bags, flute cases, and lions (admittedly the lion was a little more complicated than the other items). I never saw anyone knit a sweater or anything useful like that. In sewing classes, they sewed serviettes, or what Americans call table napkins. How hard is that? And how boring!

When I had sewing classes in my traditional private school in England we were right away taught how to make clothes and could make anything we wanted, from skirts to dresses to jackets, with hems, seams, darts, interfacing, waistbands, button holes, zippers, etc. It didn't take long to learn all that stuff. And it was so much fun to be able to select fabrics and create our own clothes.

At the Steiner school, our children didn't even get to choose the materials they worked with. And, of course, everything each child made was identical to what everyone else in the class made. Knitting and sewing for the Borg!

- Margaret Sachs, Los Angeles, USA

Looking at Waldorf education in my neck of the woods, I see children who are ill-prepared for college, believe in fairies and gnomes, do not know a thing about American history, believe in elitist principles and while they can knit up a storm, have no clue what's going on in the world. If that's what folks want to spend their money on, that's their right, but I would be passionate about fighting state funding of such quackery.

- Ann Zuccardy, Vermont, USA

It is such a joy to know that alternative education is being offered in Scotland. I have been a Montessori teacher for ages 6 to 12 since 1991 and very much enjoy the growth and development of each child. I have also worked in Public and Charter Montessori programs in US and Germany and the results are the same as in private school. Good luck and I hope to visit a school or two this week in Edinburgh!

- Jere Newman, Friedrichsdorf Germany

Why is it that when people describe their experiences of Steiner school and Rudolf Steiner's work, they are called "irrational" and "scientisitic" (is that a real word?) yet those who follow Steiner's beliefs, based on his clairvoyance, can call this spiritual gobbly gook "science", and impose their loony beliefs on other people's children.
Anthroposophy is in every curve , every colour, every myth told as history, every temperament children are classified with, every eurythmic move, every song about St Mich-a-el, every action dismissed as karma.
Tell me who is irrational.

- Londonrefugee, Woodland UK

I was told Steiner ed respects the individuality of each child. At our Steiner school it seemed to me students are treated like the Borg in Star Trek. They do so many things as a group, but not in the way a sports team does. In a sports team, each individual must constantly use his/her brain to decide what to do next. Each team member works for the benefit of the team but functions as an individual. In Steiner schools, many activities involve children chanting, clapping and stomping their feet in unison, copying what the Anthroposophist teacher has drawn or written rather than creating their own individual pix and sentences, drawing identical patterns repeatedly, knitting the same items, circling a maypole in identical sequences of movements to create repetitive patterns of ribbons on the pole, etc. No one has to think for themselves in these activities. They just do in unison exactly what the Anthroposophist tells them to do. Another example is eurythmy--communicate-with-the-spirit-world time. The kids move around the room in identical series of movements to create patterns, a bit like Busby Berkeley patterns without dancing talent.

Some longtime Steiner students appear to me to be polite, comfortable with adults, but dazed, a little disconnected, and lacking enthusiasm for life--a stark contrast to my (now adult) children's other friends who for the most part are full of ideas, opinions, and enthusiasm for one thing or another.

Parents, do your research. Dig deep.

- Margaret Sachs, Los Angeles, USA

I notice this subject has been taken up by political blog Ministry of Truth.

- Jane Blammer, West Country

It is fascinating how, whenever the subject of Steiner education is discussed in public, it inevitably girds into hyperactive activity the virulent scientistic Steiner-bashers in all their irrational and intemperate splendour. No doubt there are some sincere parents who have had unfortunate and regrettable experiences in a Steiner school - as there will be in any and every human organisation you can mention. But for neutral, fair-minded readers of blogs like this, it's essential to distinguish the latter from the congenital, fully paid-up Steiner-bashers who seem to spend their lives lying in wait to launch their latest virulent diatribes.

If you want to see how many thousands of eminent academics and professionals from across the globe subscribe to the broad 'transpersonal' worldview enunciated by people like Rudolf Steiner, just visit the Scientific and Medical Network website. The idea that the kind of worldview supported by Steiner is one held by some kind of fringe extremist cult doesn't stand up to the slightest dispassionate scrutiny.

Regarding the education itself, the only reliable way to find out is to visit a school or Kindergarten yourself, and to trust your own perception and intuition; don't take the word of either biased converts like me, or the bigots of the virulent anti-Steiner Tendency.

Finally, if you want to see a comprehensive refutation of the ridiculous view that Steiner was a racist, see my article published in 'New View' magazine in 2002.

- Dr Richard House, London

There are no Steiner schools marked as 'outstanding'. They may be judged outstanding in one or more areas but only exceptional schools have the right to carry the logo that marks them out in this way. Our small rural school has won that right but the headmaster was unable to travel to London to accept the award because the school could not afford his fare. This really 'outstanding' school is starved of funds and struggles every year.

But still every year it takes on children from the local Steiner school, the fall-out from an institution that systematically fails children academically and leaves parents bewildered and often distressed. We are astounded that the Tories have even considered funding Steiner schools, it would be an appalling mistake.

The Steiner system represents schools like ours as fearful of meeting targets and as somehow less creative, more prescriptive than Steiner schools. This is arrogant and simply not true. Steiner Waldorf education is not creative. It is dogmatic, doctrinaire and above all: based on bizarre, spiritualist nonsense. We do not need to fund woo (and worse) in the name of diversity.

- Jane Blammer, West Country

Our youngest daughter is about to start her last year of Steiner Education in Glasgow. We do not have an Upper School like Edinburgh, Moray or Aberdeen. I sure wish we had! Our daughter came to Steiner education after 2 disastrous years at a little village school. It should have been ideal - a superb headmaster, good teachers and small class sizes.

Unfortunately the state curriculum is so rigid that teachers are constantly in fear of not reaching targets. As expected, like her two older sisters, our daughter is dyslexic and struggled badly, even in P1. The result - more than 1 hours homework per night at age 5, being kept in at break or missing games to 'catch up'. End result - bullying and being made fun of by her peers - refusing to go to school.

We moved our daughter to the Steiner School and her attitude to school changed overnight. The pressure is removed and children are allowed to develop at their own pace. Main and subject lessons are taught in a way that encourages children to want to learn. That makes all the difference!

I sincerely regret that our youngest daughter did not attend Kinde in Glasgow from age 4. Instead she had 2 years of her life & education destroyed in the state system.

Our eldest daughter never had the opportunity to attend a Steiner School - because there was not one locally. She had the most horrific time at a variety of schools and was educated at home from age 15. That is when she learned to read!

- Sandra, glasgow

Do you have any idea what you are defending?

"Anthroposophy is structured around a hierarchy of biological and psychological as well as “spiritual” capacities and characteristics, all of them correlated to race.

The affinities with Nazi discourse are unmistakable. Wolfgang Treher makes a convincing case that Steiner’s racial theories, especially the repeated scheme of a small minority evolving further while a large mass declines, bear striking similarities even in detail to Hitler’s own theories. He concludes: “Concentration camps, slave labor and the murder of Jews constitute a praxis whose key is perhaps to be found in the ‘theories’ of Rudolf Steiner.”

- Compos Mentis, London

I am a parent of two children who attended the Bristol Steiner School for a number of years. My children were lucky enough to attend when the school was able to offer places to all families regardless of income, they would not have been able to attend otherwise. The teachers and other staff made financial sacrifices to work within an education system they believed was the best. Unfortunately the school had to introduce fees to survive. I now work as a kindergarten teacher at the same school. I welcome state funding for all schools that promote the healthy development of the child. I would be pleased if our education was available to all. All state and private schools including The Bristol Steiner School are regulated by the government, our last ofsted report was 'outstanding'.

- Louise Sinclair, Bristol

as said before, to understand the strength of steiner school, one should just look at the children that go to steiner schools. also, as someone mentioned before, these kids have a inner strength, that in other kids going state schools, just go to an open day.
And: as far as I have talked to adult former steiner pupils, they are not indoctrinated by antrophosophical ideologies, they just learn in the most common sense. Physics is not taught on paper, rather on paper, in the garden (the apple falls from the tree, water runs down the hill etc) and put together. Someone *a steiner opponent told me last week, you remember what you do with your hands, you don't what you do only with your head". to be simple, steiner school make your child remember things better... nothing else.

In Germany children go to state schools at 6 or 7 years of age. In the state kindergarden, there is only play, no learning. There are textile and craft classes, parent activities together with children, many structures and ideas from steiner school and kindergarten. So why can the national curriculum look not deeper into the steiner "curriculum" and see what works and adapt ideas for mainstream education. I am not talking about fairies and angels, but about proven, practical and cohesive ways of edcuating our children.

- Volker Stiens, Wiltshire, UK

Although the Steiner philosophy does promote education with an emphasis on art, dance and music, it is not true that all Steiner schools are wonderful. Each school does as it pleases in interpreting the way to use the fundamental Steiner philosophy.

Our children attended the Bristol Steiner School and we were very much disappointed with the competence and the quality (lack of)at this particular Steiner school. Bullying, although reported was not addressed. The school discipline policy was not applied equitably, and commitments to care, made by the school were not delivered.

I would be very shocked to see the taxpayers fund schools which follow no particular set of rules or guidelines. This is what the Steiner Fellowship allows for all of their schools, a re-definition of SOP. Each school does exactly what it wants. And this is a quote from and "Education Administrator" employed by the Steiner School. His comment is taken by the Steiner fellowship as a given, and there is no accountability to any governing bodies, or parent.

Think twice Mr. Minister before you wind up with another problem on you hands.

- Michael Meldru, Bristol, UK

Like most of the other parents at my children's Steiner school, I am NOT a follower of Anthroposophy. There is very little Anthroposophical content at all in the school day at a Steiner school. There is no indoctrination, no cult, no teaching of Steiner's writings as fact, no creationism, etc. Talk to the young people in upper school, and they are for the most pleasant, normal mature young people. Most of them finish up with good GCSE results in science, maths, English, etc. and head on to study A-levels. In many other countries (whose education systems Britain might look at with envy like Germany, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) Steiner education is already state-funded along with other alternatives like Montessori, Krishnamurti, Comenius etc. Is it not time for the British to shake off the restrictive one-size-fits-all philosophy of education and recognise "different strokes for different folks"? By all means set standards, but why not let parents and schools choose how we reach them?

- Richard Holmes, Stourbridge, UK

My two children attend a large Steiner school and are very happy. There are many people who would like to send their children to the school and cannot afford it, though. This is one of my biggest concerns about the schools: that they end up not taking many children merely because of the economic situation of the parents.

If state support can give children of parents in weaker economic circumstances equal opportunity to those who happen to come from wealthier backgrounds, this can only help many who are deserving academically but who would not otherwise be permitted to have the education my children are graced with.

- Happy With The School, NY, NY

"Compos Mentis" writes:

"Once you read Staudenmaier's work, you will see why the Steiner Waldorf movement are so scared"

Reading what Staudenmaier has written related to anthroposophy and comparing it with the sources he has claimed to describe does not make me scared.

The repeated untruthfulness of what he has written in relation to the sources he refers to makes me disgusted.

http://thebee.se/comments/PS/Staudenmaier.html

- Thebee, Stockholm, Sweden

I imagine Michael Davis' parenthetical ! following mention of the Fortean Times is emblematic of the usual prejudice against any organ of thought that steps outside of the box of accepted opinion. Clearly any source of information as questionable as the Fortean Times - which has received honours from a number of mainstream critics - must be tainted. That my article as well as my book contains considerable criticism of Steiner and his ideas has escaped Davis' attention, a common occurence in this type of selective reading. That Davis resorts to uninformed emotive language - 'gushing' - again suggests that the intent is not intelligent, unbiased debate, but simple defamation. One wonders what he would make of the interest in Steiner shown by people like the novelist Saul Bellow, the conductor Bruno Walter, and the poet T.S. Eliot, all of whom 'gushed' about their appreciation of his work. Obviously, they too must be 'guru followers'. Sadly, in polarized situations like this it is extremely difficult to maintain a detached, objective view. But that, of course, is the only kind worth having.

- Gary Lachman, London

My children are at a Steiner School - but more importantly, both have excellent, dedicated teachers. There may certainly be an issue with some of Steiner's more "early 1900s" ideas, which you could say history has shown to be a dead-end by them not gaining wide acceptance (including among Steiner teachers). But the child focus of the general philosophy and the flexibility this does allow a good teacher to teach well, and this part of Steiner's teachings have inspired many teachers and parents.

In the end, the teacher is the most important. If Steiner Schools are able to attract good inspirational teachers and your child is lucky enough to have one, what more could a parent want from a school?

- Andrew Henderson, Stroud

Anthroposophists don't want you to read Peter Staudenmaier, perhaps his Phd dissertation: 'Between Occultism and Fascism: Anthroposophy and the politics of Race and Nation in Germany and Italy, 1900 - 1945' won't sit so nicely with the wholesome image they wish to peddle...

http://www.social-ecology.org/author/peter-staudenmaier/

Once you read Staudenmaier's work, you will see why the Steiner Waldorf movement are so scared, especially now the possibility of public funding is now within their grasp.

- Compos Mentis, London

Forgot: For some basic information about Steiner Waldorf education and some of the myths cultivated about it, see http://www.waldorfanswers.org

- Thebee, Stockholm, Sweden

Some supporters of the small hate-type of group "PLANS Inc." have posted comments on the article and recommend the site of the group as "Information" about Steiner Waldorf education.

For some information about the group, its history and argumentation, see http://americans4waldorf.org/OnPLANS.html

For an exposition of the "truthfulness" of the writings of a Peter Staudenmaier on Steiner, also recommended, see http://americans4waldorf.org/MrStaudenmaier.html and http://www.defendingsteiner.com/refutations/anthroposophy-and-ecofascism.php

- Thebee, Stockholm, Sweden

After reading Lachman's gushing eulogy to Steiner in the Fortean Times(!)
I used the word "guru" as an entirely emblematic one; it appears to have passed him by.
(Love the comparison of Steiner to Jung and the Dalai Lama by the way. I wonder why he isn't as well known as them?)
Ray Olsen reviews Lachmabook about Steiner "If some of (Steiner's) theories were goofy, Lachman sees beyond them to point out his very real contributions to the world of ideas during his rise from obscure scholar to spiritual leader."

"Ignorance", now there lies a plethora of roads to travel; I dare say Steiner's reverence of primitive clairvoyance and insight of spirit relied on a certain raw lack of learning, just like those "complex cons" of Steiner education. Academic learning being all too Ahrimanic and materialistic, holding back those old spiritual forces; which is presumably how Geoffrey Aherne's account is viewed by anthroposophists. There is nothing so blatant as the arch condescention of the spiritually superior.

Aren't German anthroposophists trying to get helmut Zander's degree revoked
on the basis that he neglected to consult the Higher Worlds in writing his history of anthroposophy?
I really can't see how an objective academic view can be "biased", unless that evasive esoteric rhetoric is what you mean.
In conjunction with Aherne, I recommend Peter Staudenmaier's fine work on Steiner and anthroposophy.

- Michael Davis, London

The pros and cons regarding Steiner education are complex; regarding it as either a pedagogical panacea or a spiritualist conspiracy isn't helpful. I do object to Michael Davis calling me a 'guru follower', which brings the debate down to ignorant name calling. As I have written biographies of other 'spiritual' figures - Jung, Swedenborg, Ouspensky, along with other books - I am curious about which 'guru' I am supposed to be following. Aherne's "Sun at Midnight" is a helpful sociological study, written from a biased academic view. However it tells its readers little about Steiner's ideas and their context.

- Gary Lachman, London

We had a truly awful experience with Steiner education involving my son aged four at the time.He was left alone and forgotten in a high fenced 'nature garden'in the freezing and pouring rain and was overheard screaming by taxi drivers in the street adjacent.The caretaker was eventually contacted and he was returned to his teachers who were completely oblivious of his absense.This was in a class of 9 children to three adults which tells you something about the level of attention he was getting anyway!
Our son developed recurring nightmares of his ordeal and we spent the next month trying to arrange a meeting with the teachers to discuss the situation and to help reassure our son.
At each step they acted obstructively and without sympathy. The main feeling was one of impatience and outrage that we were daring to complain or even question them .They were soo spiritually committed to the children how could we think of doubting them.

We have since learned we were not alone in our experience.They truthfully believe guardian angels are looking after the kids anyway so whats the bother if they get lost now and again.
I think these schools should be state funded so that parents are protected.We had no way of getting through to these people,Ofsted referred us back to the Steiner governing body, a closed shop, by which point we were too demoralised to pursue it.For our sons sake we had to let our anger go and move on.We enrolled him in the local state school and have not looked back.

- Jude, Wandsworth,London.

I wish I had gone to a Steiner school as a child.

My 3 children, under 7 years of age, attend a Steiner school and have already learnt social, craft and physical skills that I think are very important. They've also learnt more maths than I expected (my 6 year old can do maths in his head that most adults cannot, which comes from cooking, setting the table, etc.) and some reading and writing.

The ofsted report says:
"
The school provides good quality education. The curriculum and teaching are good and closely follow the Steiner-Waldorf guidance and philosophy. Pupils make good progress and their standards are generally average or above in English and arithmetic by the age of 11 years. The school promotes pupils’ personal development
effectively and it is good.
"

I love the Steiner school and the very strong family community that surrounds it.

- Mike Rose, Cambridge, UK

The proof of the pud is in the eating!
Just look, speak and listen to the pupils of a Steiner school(from kindergarden to upper school)then ask tutors in further ed. what they think and feel about these students.My experience is that you will find a well-rounded ,open-minded human being who tackles the challenges of todays world with inner strength and a respect for their community, the world and those around them.

- Shp, Nottingham UK

Reality or reality? I have no kids of my own. For a long while I have been researching this education & came across the Cirtics sites. Steiner schools are varied. The Critis say they are all the same, racialist & nonsense. Some Steiner schools have weaknesses, but what I met from formaer pupils & seen of the education working is brillinat. Whether Steiner was deluded, I do not know. He seems to have had lots of ideas which were typically around at the begiining of last century, but the schools have grown into true, rounded, humane places of learning. Some wacky ideas linger around most people (even if they try to be super-rationalists) & Steiner schools' room for "more in heaven & earth" is part of their strength. They have a lot to offer if the Tories do as they say. I'd cheer them, for once!
My view will not go down well with some of the cirtics here (you will find most of their names again & again on different internet fora), but, after the time I have spent trying to understand these schools & what they are about, I'd rather spend time with "wacky Steiner people" that the likes of Mr Dugan & his frenzied camp-followers. I have never - as a mixed race person - expereinced anything but open-hearted people in Steiner schools, most of all the kids - & that's what matters. Get real!

- R. D'Aubigny, UK

Agree wholeheartedly about the religious/occult undertones of Steiner and anthroposophy. Everything that happens has a "reason" in these schools, they aren't led by esoteric beliefs for nothing.
Poppycock Peter Snow, the more you read the more you realise. I suggest Geoffrey Aherne's Sun at Midnight for an entirely unbiased picture. Gary Lachman is a guru follower.

- Michael Davis, London UK

Look, you're not going to get anthroposophists approaching you on the street or knocking on your doors asking for money or trying to convert you to their point of view. They aren't going to offer you personality tests that reveal your weaknesses in order to draw you in. Your kids aren't going to be spirited away into weird camps miles from anywhere and brainwashed. And in Steiner schools, you'll find kids of all shapes sizes and colours being taught by teachers of all shapes, sizes and colours, some good, some excellent, some not so good. Do the research properly, and don't think googling something is real research. Steiner kids are okay, and that's the real test.

- Pearse O'Clennert, Glasgow, Scotland

After finding out later in life about Steiner education and philosophy I really wish I could have afforded to send my son to a Steiner school. As it was he was bullied and suffered badly at the state school he attended (as indeed I had done at mine)
I was a young parent and ignorant of other ways of educating.I became an artist later in my life and I now realise that the freedom to choose 'a way to be' is the really important and essential thing for any free human being today. Let's have freedom of choice wherever possible. My school assemblies rammed religion down my throat for ten years every day. I do not intend to conform to a christening or confirmation or attendance in any church by compulsion but I do read Steiner in complete freedom and I do not expect to force this on another human being. If I want to hold a view that reincarnation and karma could be a possibility then that is my choice isn't it? I want a future education system that has real choice for parents and for me this would include Steiner Education as part of a fuller picture.

- Kate Sheffield, sheffield england

What a ghastly mish-mash of half-truths, misunderstanding, prejudice and lies is spoken of Steiner-Waldorf education! Racism! Wikipedia whitewashed! Who has actually gone to the trouble of bothering to find out exactly what Steiner said, to whom he said it and when? Who has ever done the man the justice of trying to understand him? The most objective and balanced view is to be found in Gary Lachman's book about Rudolf Steiner. People should read at least that before making a lot of half-baked accusations!

- Peter Snow, Edinburgh, Scotland

Hi - Just wanting to clarify with Anne that Montessori generally commences in all earnestness at around 3 years of age. By 7 children have moved past the best age to learn many of the foundational cognitive and social aspects that Montessori is known for. The main difficulty for State provided Montessori (as we have 1 here in Sunny Queensland) is that they compromise many of the essential principles of Montessori - (such as the social age bracketing)to fit the method into their structures. These compromises are not without negative effect.

- Vicki, Brisbane Australia

For more about Steiner schools from outside the cult, see http://www.waldorfcritics.org.

- Dan Dugan, San Francisco, CA, USA

We are taking our daughter out of a Steiner school and moving her to a 'regular school'.We are removing her because we were told that the school was not religious but was 'Christian In Essence' but the whole drive of the education is to help the children's soul incarnate properly.Teachers go to bed each night and think of the children,answers to problems come from the spirit world and they have the answer in the morning.I heard this at a lecture given by Jeremy Smith from the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship.He also said that a teacher told parents that if their child had an accident when he had run onto a busy main road that it was down to the childs karma.When the children learn about a country they will have no text books with photos of that country,everything is copied from the board,no recorded music is allowed.The children are not discouraged to read until they are seven,they are not allowed,they have to do art in a certain way,as it is to help them reincarnate properly.These schools are not creative they in fact stifle creativity and discussion in children.We loved the look and feel of the school too,but prospective parents must look into anthroposophy and feel ok with it before they inroll their children.We are leaving as our daughter suffered awful racism and we are angry that the philosophy of anthroposophy wasn't explained to us.One of the main beliefs is that we all reincarnate through the races,Black at the bottom,blond at the top ! Google Steiner racism.

- Maura Kwaten, London UK

It disturbs me that the two movements have been considered together.
Montessori schools are based in the real world and Steiner Waldorf schools are based in the imaginary
For more information see here http://www.montessorianswers.com/montessori-and-waldorf.html

What deeply concerns me and many former parents and students of Steiner Waldorf schools is that hiding behind the movement is the highly secretive and particularly dangerous occultist sect called Anthroposophy, and what underpins Anthroposophy is the belief of reincarnation through racial hierarchies through the act of karma. Rudlolf Steiner believed he gained this special knowledge through clairvoyance. Utterly bonkers and sinister when you consider this is applied to children.
It would appear that Michael Gove has been 'friendly fished', who's going to be the one to tell him?

- Compos Mentis, London

We look to schools to educate, scientists to base their findings on evidence based on empirical research, and philosophers to think; and we expect government officers and researchers to their job thoroughly. Steiner schools apparently fail these on all counts.
Rudolf Steiner is frequently called “scientist and philosopher”, giving a false sense of security about the education offered in his name. This education is based on a pseudo religion, the occult science, spiritual science called anthroposophy, although one would be hard pushed to find the word in their promotional material.
Centred around karma and reincarnation, anthroposophic belief teeters on the brink of madness,"truths" include Atlantis, root races, aryans, mistletoe to treat cancer, blondeness, Lucifer, angels, cosmic forces and ...GNOMES.
Enter at your own risk.
http://www.social-ecology.org/2009/01/anthroposophy-and-ecofascism-2/

- Londonrefugee, Woodland, UK

Being a bright child myself and having gone the competitive and acadamic route I knew something was not right about mainstream education. Children are bored stiff and it's so often about crowd-control. Competition harms your confidence so often. Having my children already for 10 years on a Steiner school I really experience the difference. It's very hard work for parents and teachers but hey ... that is it anyway. It pushes your buttons ... but hey, life does that anyway. It's for me an endlessly inspiring education which educates all and the whole of us. Every lesson that is given in the way it is supposed to be is a true miracle. And the children come out the other end as people who know who they are and know what they want and can relate with young, old and peers. They are respectful to nature and have learned life-skills. Of course there are big, big challenges and people make mistakes and sometimes things go wrong big time, but to me that is how we all have to learn and evolve. It would be very helpful if this kind of education will be available for everybody who wishes so and not just for people who are able to afford it.

- Jobs Weverling, London, UK

The aim of Steiner education is to develop the whole child rather than just the intelectual part.

The curriculum, teaching methods and materials take account of children's emotional, physical and intellectual development. The curriculum focuses on training the will through imitation for the first seven years; orientating the feeling through love of authority in the 7 to 14 year olds and awakening the powers of independent judgement and thinking by developing a love for truth in the 14 to 19 year olds..

UK inner cities would be kinder gentler places if more children were educated using this method.

- Ez Elliott, London UK

Great idea. Lets start with Luton schools.

- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants

The catch with John Ward's commonsense remarks is that Technical was always regarded as inferior to Academic in this country for cultural reasons which would leave a German completely baffled ('Johnny's not very academic, but we found him a vocational course'). Ministers still talk like this, having emerged through the lumpen-graduate route, and cannot conceive of a political class whose members can actually DO stuff. Vocational education is for other people's children, if you watch where they put their money on this issue.
I went to a very 'Academic' school on Tyneside in the 60's, which zealously pumped its brainy little charges into Oxbridge to become bank managers and civil servants, while all around the great industries were rusting off their hinges.
For young children, which is where it all goes right or wrong, the catch is to provide a service equally open to all, but not offering a one-size-fits-all solution. I think Gove recognises this problem, tho' whether he has the answer I haven't the faintest idea.

- Mdj E10, london uk

Rudolf Steiner, an occultist, dressed up as his spiritual science as Anthroposophy. (Don’t bother to Wikipedia it - anthroposophists have whitewashed it!)
The ‘anthroposophical’ basis to SW education involves ‘truths’ such as karma, temperaments, astrology, nymphs, gnomes, clairvoyancy, telepathy and more - all lunacy best left in the miasma of the 12th Century.
Steiner teachers can start teaching with minimal background qualifications, the art is proscribed and bullying is tolerated as part of the child’s ‘karmic destiny’; ‘inferior race’ children are tolerated so they might re-incarnate into higher beings. Parents have removed children from Steiner schools when they’ve discovered these lunatic beliefs and Steiner schools try to cover over any ‘troubles’.
Now...the Hereford Steiner School receives state funding. Why? Because the Woods Report (to Ofsted) was concocted by Glenys Woods – an angelic reiki healer. Go to the Hereford Steiner Academy website – it looks enticing but there is not a single word about the core principles of Anthroposophy.
What is both insidious and pernicious is the way that this touchy-feely method of ‘education’ deceives and a major revision of Steiner-Waldorf schooling is urgently needed. There are enough damaging ‘faith’ schools in this country without S-W calling on the unsuspecting taxpayer to cough up more cash.
Tim Ross and Michael Gove - have a long, deep look at S-W schooling before financing this weird educational sect.

- The Polecat, The Lowlands, UK

You got to give it to the TORRIES,but where do they think they are going to find the money from.Best thing for us in the UK is to get rid of all parties and vote for individuals.

- Dave, london

Let get mass education right before we start splinter groups

- Ge, Kernow

Interesting. Especially as Montessori schools usually start children at age 7. So the Tories will save 2 years money at a stroke.

- Anna, London SE9

Just sounds like a bog standard nursery to me, and about thirty quid a day, is not within the reach of many people,any Education should be within the reach of every child, what is wrong that each successive Government want to put their own stamp on everything, why not improve on what we have, instead of adding to the mish mash, this Gove chap, when I first saw him, he came across, as a bit of a double glazing salesman, he may look a bit smarter and had a hair cut, but that's all, he does not convince me at all, in fact I do not think he knows what he is talking about, I want better education for the kids, but I do not want some bloody MP building up his ego on some daft scheme that very few can afford, whats wrong with a few objectives like the 11plus, Grammar Schools, sports schools,High Tech Colleges and the like, but lets have less of the dumbed down exams for Universities. We also need youth and sports clubs springing up across the UK, which could help to reduce crime underage drinking, which is on the increase.

- David Crocket, Bradford , UK.

I have a friend who is a primary school teacher. She says you can always tell the Montessori children when a new year starts. They're the ones who can hang up their own coats, sit quietly, read and remain focused during the day. She says its a noticeable difference in development.

- Emma, London, UK

My kids had a Froebel education which promotes similar ideas, the difference being I had to pay for it. As a former grammar school success, I bitterly resented paying, but am glad I did. However, can somebody answer me one simple question:
Why are we providing new names, methods, standards and packaging every other year for education, when the answer - a return to selective grammar and technical schools - is both more socially fair and meets the trade/technology skill demands our country so obviously lacks?
To answer my own question, I think (1) Old Labour's public school elite guilt got rid of Grammar schools from sheer spite in the 1960s; and (2) the same Oxbridge/Eton Tory wallies are in denial about the need for its return.
Promising a simple, wholesale switch to targeted,selective education would add two million votes to Cameron's thus far derisory Poll performance against the most inept, arrogant and controlling government in our history.
But as it happens,I'm not a Tory.I'm a lower middle-class bloke who made good thanks to the greatest positive force for social mobility in our history: not the politicians or the Establishment or the Oxbridge Silk elite - but the Grammar and Technical Schools which emerged from the 1944 Butler education act. (And piffle to the 11-Plus hysteria: my elder brother failed it and did even better via Technical School and Sandwich Degree).
Sincerely
John Ward

- John Ward, UK, Lyme Regis

Add your comment