 “I have heard so much gossip about who got a slap and so forth ... We should be quiet about how we handle things in the school ... We should not speak to people outside the school....” — Rudolf Steiner [1] ADVICE FOR PARENTS including A PARENT’S GUIDE TO WALDORF DANGERS by Roger Rawlings Afterword by Cathy Balme Waldorf schools (sometimes called Steiner schools) generally claim to be nonsectarian. But in fact, all genuine Waldorf schools are religious institutions operated in accordance with the tenets of Anthroposophy, a gnostic semi-Christian religion founded by the mystic Rudolf Steiner. If you are considering a Waldorf school for your child, read a couple of books by Steiner. See if your view of the world coincides with his. Perhaps the best choice is FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER. [2] In it, you will find Steiner’s instructions to the teachers at the first Waldorf school — you will learn, in Steiner’s own words, what Steiner intended Waldorf teachers to do to their students. If after reading Steiner you still have an interest in Waldorf schools, visit the particular school you are considering and ask searching questions. Do the children recite a morning prayer or “verse”? Ask for the precise words. What sorts of books are in (or banned from) the library? Go into the library and look around. Are science courses taught straight, or with an antiscientific bent? Ask what role mythology plays in the curriculum. Ask who Rudolf Steiner was. Ask for his views on evolution. Ask about clairvoyance (Steiner claimed to be clairvoyant — and he taught that people can grow “organs of clairvoyance”). Ask about the purpose of eurythmy (Steiner said this form of dance connects people directly to the spirit realm). Pass around copies of Steiner quotations that raise questions for you, then ask those questions.  Try to learn how deeply committed the school is to Steiner’s doctrines. Not all Waldorfs are alike. Some may distance themselves from Steiner’s racism, for instance. The problem, however, is that Steiner’s entire system is built on his clairvoyant, mystical “insights” (which include his racist “insights”). A Waldorf school cannot wholly rid itself of mysticism unless it wholly renounces Steiner — in which case it ceases to be a real Waldorf school. Halfway measures may be possible — affirming some of Steiner’s mystical teachings while rejecting others — but mysticism would necessarily remain entrenched in the curriculum, while some of the “truths” that gave that mysticism its justification would be absent. The resulting educational approach, tacking among an expurgated set of Steiner’s teachings, would inevitably lose much of its coherence and rationale. Jewish parents may want to take special precautions. Think carefully about Steiner’s racism, the emphasis he placed on Jesus, and the anti-Semitic comments he made, such as that there is no reason for Judaism to exist, Jews are materialistic, Jews are prone to certain diseases, the god of the Jews is only one god among many gods. [3] You also may want to investigate the debate over possible ties between some Anthroposophists and Nazis. [4] All parents of all backgrounds who consider Waldorf schools for their children should press persistently for honest answers about the schools’ policies and underlying theology. If you mistrust any answers you receive, send your kids elsewhere. Their lives are in your hands. [R. Rawlings, 2007.]
A PARENT’S GUIDE TO WALDORF DANGERS Most of the following are passages adapted from other essays on this Web site. If you are acquainted with these passages, please skip ahead to the Addendum. ◊◊◊◊ A child attending a full-fledged Waldorf school will be educated in accordance with Steiner’s dubious theory of human nature. The effects on the child may be profound. Here’s a glimpse of the Waldorf perspective on human nature. (Also see my essay “What We’re Made Of” at this Web site.)
◊ Every real human being eventually has a physical body plus several nonphysical bodies and components (including an “etheric body,” an “astral body,” and an “I”). In order to understand Waldorf teaching methods, you should know that, according to Anthroposophical doctrine, each human child is in the process of gathering additional, invisible “bodies.” A Steiner-inspired education seeks to facilitate the process of acquiring these bodies. Imagine trying to explain to a public school teacher how a curriculum can be designed to help students manifest their nonphysical bodies. (For more on all this, see my essays “Unenlightened” and/or “The Waldorf Scandal” on this Web site. We will look into Steiner's claim that some children are not real humans, below.)
◊ According to Steiner, each student represents one of four “temperaments”: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. Waldorf teachers should segregate students into these categories, and discourage any mingling. “The temperaments that are next to each other merge into one another and mingle; so it will be good to arrange your groups as follows: if you put the phlegmatics together it is good to have the cholerics on the opposite side, and let the two others, the melancholics and sanguines, sit between them.” [5] (See my essay “Humouresque” on this Web site.) ◊ Steiner taught that human beings have twelve senses: “First, we have the four senses of touch, life, movement and balance. These senses are primarily permeated by will ... The next group of senses, namely smell, taste, sight and temperature are primarily senses of feeling ... I need to add that the sense of I and the senses of thought, hearing and speech are more cognitive senses....” [6] Some parts of that quotation probably need clarification. The "sense of the I” is one’s perception of her/his defining spiritual self: “the spiritual sense of our Self.” [7] As for “cognitive senses,” Steiner said that there are several ways for an individual to gain knowledge, including some that function while one is dreaming or asleep. [8]
◊ Deep knowledge of the spirit world(s) becomes available when one develops the necessary “organs” for clairvoyance: “[J]ust as natural forces build out of living matter the eyes and ears of the physical body, so will organs of clairvoyance build themselves....” [9] ◊◊◊◊ Waldorf teachers participate in a mystic/gnostic system that has significant potential to harm children. Here’s a revealing comment made by Steiner to Waldorf teachers: “Among the faculty, we must certainly carry within us the knowledge that we are not here for our own sakes, but to carry out the divine cosmic plan. We should always remember that when we do something, we are actually carrying out the intentions of the gods, that we are, in a certain sense, the means by which that streaming down from above will go out into the world.” [10] Note the word “gods.” Anthroposophy is, indeed, a weird religion, and children will be exposed to it — probably indirectly, subtly, secretively — in most Waldorf schools. As Steiner said: “Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.” [11] Steiner promoted Anthroposophy as the great, objective truth that underlies all phenomena and knowledge. He also considered Waldorf teachers to be instruments for achieving the “gods’” purposes. So Anthroposophy will pervade virtually every subject in the Waldorf curriculum. When will Anthroposophy be “called for by the material”? Almost always. Perhaps the plainest way to summarize this is to say that Steiner wished to brainwash children into pro-Anthroposophical beliefs and views. ◊◊◊◊ For Steiner and his followers, the truest thinking is not rational cognition or brainwork, which they deem dry and un-heartfelt. Proper “thinking,” in their view, is tempered by imagination: It is more akin to emotion than to cool, rational conceptualizing. For this very reason, it often leads to complication or even mystification rather than to clarity. Ask yourself whether it is what you want for your children. Seen through Waldorf eyes, nothing in the world is as it seems. What we see around us isn’t what it is, exactly — it is always something more, or less — there are layers upon layers of hidden deeps. The Anthroposophical solution is to feel one’s way past appearances by opening outwards through imagination or clairvoyance (in Anthroposophy, these terms are sometimes synonymous). Here’s an example of the sorts of insight “clairvoyance” can lead to: “There are beings that can be seen with clairvoyant vision at many spots in the depths of the earth ... If you dig into the metallic or stony ground you find beings which manifest at first in remarkable fashion — it is as if something were to scatter us. They seem able to crouch close together in vast numbers, and when the earth is laid open they appear to burst asunder ... Many names have been given to them, such as goblins, gnomes and so forth ... Their nature prompts them to play all sorts of tricks on man....” [12] ◊◊◊◊  By hook or by crook, children in Waldorf schools are directed toward otherworldly aspirations and beliefs, and they are often diverted from a realistic comprehension of the real world. Let’s hear again from Steiner, talking again to Waldorf teachers: “We can accomplish our work only if we do not see it as simply a matter of intellect or feeling, but, in the highest sense, as a moral spiritual task. Therefore, you will understand why, as we begin this work today, we first reflect on the connection we wish to create from the very beginning between our activity and the spiritual worlds.... Thus, we wish to begin our preparation by first reflecting upon how we connect with the spiritual powers in whose service and in whose name each one of us must work.” [13] So, according to Steiner, Waldorf teachers labor in the “service” of “spiritual powers,” and they exercise these labors upon their students. As to whether Waldorf schools impart a realistic view of the real world, here are some enlightening comments made by Steiner:
◊ “[T]he brain and nerve system have nothing at all to do with actual cognition....” [14]
◊ Science “sees the heart as a pump that pumps blood through the body. Now there is nothing more absurd than believing this, for the heart has nothing to do with pumping the blood.” [15]
◊ “With the students, we should at least try to ... make it clear that, for instance, an island like Great Britain swims in the sea and is held fast by the forces of the stars. In actuality, such islands do not sit directly upon a foundation; they swim and are held fast from outside.” [16]
◊ “[I]t is not that the planets move around the Sun, but these three, Mercury, Venus, and the Earth, follow the Sun, and these three, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, precede it.” [17]
◊ “[R]ealize that looking at the human head you are looking at the transformed body of your previous earth life, and that the head you had then was the transformed body of your preceding life — you must imagine it without the head, of course. The head you see now is the transformed organism of the last life lived on earth. The rest of the organism as you see it now will be the head in the next life. Then the arms will have metamorphosed and become ears, and the legs will have become eyes.” [18] This last one is extremely strange, even by Waldorf standards. The gist of the quotation is that Anthroposophists believe in reincarnation. ◊◊◊◊ I wish that my parents or I had read some of Steiner’s books while I was in a Waldorf school. Surely my parents would have yanked me out fast if they had seen passages such as the ones I’m quoting here. The parents of the other students in my school should have read a few of these books, too. Waldorf would quickly have become depopulated. If anyone who gets involved with a Waldorf school winds up feeling deceived about the nature and purposes of the school, s/he must accept part of the responsibility. Steiner frequently spoke with Waldorf teachers about the need to deceive non-Anthroposophists. Three quick examples: ◊ “We also need to speak about a prayer. I ask only one thing of you. You see, in such things everything depends upon the external appearances. Never call a verse a prayer, call it an opening verse before school. Avoid allowing anyone to hear you, as a faculty member, using the word ‘prayer.’” [19] ◊ “Such cases are increasing in which children are born with a human form, but are not really human beings ... I do not like to talk about such things since we have often been attacked even without them. Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings....” [20] We’ll examine the subject of people who are not human, below. ◊ When the students at the first Waldorf did poorly in standardized final exams, Steiner said he wished he and the Waldorf faculty dared to be honest about their intentions: “ ... whether we dare tell those who come to us that we will not prepare them for the final examination at all....” [21] As we saw in the epigraph I used, above (“I have heard so much gossip...”), Steiner’s general rule was that Waldorf teachers should reveal nothing to anyone outside the school, and even within the school that should keep parents generally uninformed. I will return to this statement later. ◊◊◊◊ The Waldorf school I attended projected the image of a nonsectarian, arts-intensive preparatory school with a progressive curriculum. This appearance undoubtedly led many parents to enroll their children without realizing what they were letting them in for. Even after enrollment, families found Waldorf’s disguise hard to penetrate. We students memorized no passages from holy books, we sang from no hymnals. Yet a strange aura hung about the school. There was a pervasive but unspoken spiritualistic vibe in almost every lesson, in almost every activity. If it was hard for most parents to detect, we students all felt the vibe to one degree or another. It was in the air we breathed, it defined the tenor and subtext of our days. Ultimately, it shaped and colored our educations at least as effectively as if priests were delivering sermons to us. (See my essays “Unenlightened” and/or “I Went to Waldorf” on this Web site.) ◊◊◊◊ Whether or not Steiner was clinically sane, it is frightening that anyone ever took him seriously, much less founded schools devoted to his doctrines. Above, I said that Steiner taught that some people are not human. Let’s return to a passage I quoted and flesh it out a bit more (the original passage is too long to quote in full, here — but you can easily find it in the book I refer to). The following is a little discussion between Steiner and Waldorf teachers, concerning a first-grade student who had learning disabilities: [Dr. Steiner]: “Such cases are increasing in which children are born with a human form, but are not really human beings ... instead, they are filled with beings that do not belong to the human class. Quite a number of people have been born ... [who] are not reincarnated, but are human forms filled with a sort of natural demon....” [A teacher]: “How is that possible?” [Dr. Steiner]: “Cosmic error is certainly not impossible ... I do not like to talk about such things since we have often been attacked even without them. Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings....” [22]
◊◊◊◊
It seems undeniable that, as a general trend, what happened within my Waldorf’s walls decades ago is being replayed now, in different forms, throughout the nation. Here’s a statement made, not long ago, about what goes on inside Waldorf schools today here in the USA. The speaker — who is a Waldorf teacher, one who sends his own children to a Waldorf school — first refers to a prayer that students in most Waldorf schools recite every morning. Then he enlarges on his theme: "I'm glad my daughter gets to speak about God every morning ... That's why I send her to a Waldorf school. She can have a religious experience. A religious experience. I'll say it again: I send my daughter to a Waldorf school so that she can have a religious experience." [23] (See my essays “Waldorf Now” and “Non-Waldorf Waldorfs” on this Web site.) Perhaps you want your children to have religious experiences. Fine. But do you want that religion to be Anthroposophy? ◊◊◊◊ I would not want others to go through what I experienced after graduating from a Waldorf school: a long, wearisome struggle to recover from a Waldorf “education” and to find one’s footing in reality. ◊◊◊◊ “Steiner viewed human beings as consisting of three spheres of activity — the head, the heart, and the will — that manifest through thoughts, feelings and physical actions. To educate children to be complete and balanced human beings, we must attend to the needs of all three aspects of a child’s being. From the Waldorf perspective, attaining knowledge is one purpose of the learning process, but just as important — and perhaps even more important — is to educate the heart and the will of the child, so that knowledge is joined with reverence and action.” [24] Note that at Waldorf schools, educating hearts and wills is at least as important as — and may be “even more important” than — imparting knowledge. This deviates significantly from a conventional definition of education. Also, clearly, you should ask what is meant by “educating” the heart and the will. What sorts of emotions and desires are Waldorf schools pushing? I’ll sketch in some of the answers in the following two passages. ◊◊◊◊ In sensitizing a child to the supernatural, Waldorf teachers are at least partially trying to preserve what Anthroposophists say is the child’s innate connection to the spirit realm:  “Childhood is commonly regarded as a time of steadily expanding consciousness.... Yet in Steiner’s view, the very opposite is the case: childhood is a time of contracting consciousness.... [The child] loses his dream-like perception of the creative world of spiritual powers which is hidden behind the phenomena of the senses. This is ... the world of creative archetypes and spiritual hierarchies. “In mastering the world of physical perception the child encounters difficulties in that he first has to overcome a dream-like yet intensely real awareness of spiritual worlds. This awareness fades quickly in early childhood, but fragments of it live on in the child for a much longer time than most people imagine. “ ... In a Waldorf school, therefore, one of the tasks of the teachers is to keep the children young.” [25] Think about the implications of keeping children young as opposed to helping them to mature, especially mentally. ◊◊◊◊ Waldorf-style “thinking” is intended to be moderated by the faculties of intuition and/or imagination and/or clairvoyance. Taught that logic (i.e., methodical reasoning) is insufficient, the Waldorf student is directed toward spiritual experience that is notionally self-evident (i.e., no proof required). Is this is genuine thinking at all, or merely a form of wishfulness? Consider: “To what extent will [a child’s] thinking become purely logical and colorless, unenriched by imagination, uninformed by experience? ... More than ever, therefore, should the attempt be made with our adolescents to preserve from the earlier stage of childhood those capacities which are natural to it, and to unite them with the new gift of intellectual thought. For this means to transform thought from what it is at present — the capacity for abstract hypothesis — into the capacity for self-evident spiritual experience.” [26] Ask yourself whether an education aiming at such a form of “thought” is likely to equip children for life in the real world. In brief: Should we teach our children to live rationally in the real world or to have unsubstantiated intuitions of unseen worlds? (Steiner did not deny that some types of thinking occur in the brain, but he found little significance in such forms of thought. For him “real” thinking means clairvoyance.) ◊◊◊◊ For anyone who does not subscribe to Anthroposophy, Steiner’s blunders must seriously weaken the plausibility of “spiritual science” (i.e., Anthroposophy, the religion that underlies Waldorf “education”). His errors are hard to overlook or excuse. From today’s perspective, Steiner’s racism was a particularly grave error. Perhaps we might explain it away by saying that Steiner was a man of his times, sharing the prevailing views and attitudes (including prejudices) of his times. The trouble with such a defense, for Anthroposophists, is that it undermines the indispensable premise that Steiner, a professed clairvoyant, could see ultimate truth. The whole point of being a soothsayer, after all, is to say sooth: speak truth. Yet Steiner repeatedly failed this paramount test of his “profession.” Here’s what Steiner said about the French “race” and their language: “The use of the French language quite certainly corrupts the soul. The soul acquires nothing more than the possibility of clichés. Those who enthusiastically speak French transfer that to other languages. The French are also ruining what maintains their dead language, namely, their blood. The French are committing the terrible brutality of moving black people to Europe, but it works, in an even worse way, back on France. It has an enormous effect on the blood and the race and contributes considerably toward French decadence. The French as a race are reverting.” [27] ◊◊◊◊ On the crucial subject of racism: ◊ Steiner taught that the external physical characteristics of the various races reflect and even cause those races’ inner qualities. Hair- and eye-color, for instance, have great significance, showing why whites are smarter: “In the case of fair people, less nourishment is driven into the eyes and hair; it remains instead in the brain and endows it with intelligence. Brown- and dark-haired people drive the substances into their eyes and hair that the fair people retain in their brains.” [28] ◊ Racial differences, according to Steiner, are much more than skin deep. He taught that whites are humanity’s vanguard: “The white race is the future, the race that is creating spirit.” [29] You'll find more on this disagreeable subject in the Addendum, below. ◊◊◊◊ According to Steiner, a Waldorf school should be authoritarian, with strict discipline. If need be, the discipline should include corporal punishment. Waldorf teachers should present themselves as unyielding authority figures. Steiner said, “[K]eep the children from losing their feeling for authority. That is what they need most. You can best achieve this by going into things with the children very cautiously, but under no circumstances giving in.” [30] The discipline needed for the school to work properly must be maintained strictly. “We may never place ourselves in a situation where we may have to relent in a disciplinary decision.” [31] This may require inflicting pain on the students. For instance, “If a child comes late ten minutes, have him or her stand for half an hour ... Let them stand uncomfortably ... you can be particularly effective if you allow [sic] them to stand in an uncomfortable place ... They may even get cramps in their legs.” [32] In extreme cases, spanking or slapping may be required. “Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to spank a child ... I have to admit that there are rowdies....” [33] Slapping is generally not productive, Steiner said. But he allowed that a teacher may feel compelled to administer a slap. In that case, the student should recognize the gravity of the action. “If you give them a slap, you should do it the way Dr. Schubert does ... There are physical slaps and astral [nonphysical] slaps. It doesn’t matter which one you give, but you cannot slap a child sentimentally.” [p. 323] “Astral” slaps — psychological or spiritual punishment — may be preferable to physical slaps, but note that Steiner’s statement is quite different from what he could have said, such as: You must never slap a student, period. ◊◊◊◊ If you are thinking about sending your children to a school where Steiner’s doctrines are observed, think long and hard. If you already have children in such a school, consider removing them. My advice? Get them out.
◊◊◊◊ Parents may also want to read “Non-Waldorf Waldorfs: Looking for a Good One” and "Clues" here at Waldorf Watch. For a detailed discussion of Steiner’s teachings and the nature of Waldorf education, please see “Unenlightened” on this site. For a selection of revealing statements made by Steiner, see “Say What?” and "Wise Words" — I have included several statements from FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER. And in the essay "Faculty Meetings", I analyze several of these, and other, quotations. For advice Steiner gave to Waldorf teachers, see "Advice" For an overview of the Waldorf spirit, see "Spirit" For information on signs and symbols you may spot at a Waldorf school, see "Signs"
 A temple of learning, so to speak. This is the front door of the Waldorf school I attended, as it was when the school first opened. Later, as the school expanded, this became a minor side door. [1963 PINNACLE (Inter-Collegiate Press, 1963.] The Norse goddess Freya. Many myths, fables, and legends weave through Waldorf schooling. Norse mythology is especially emphasized at most Waldorf schools. [Johannes Gehrts.] ADDENDUM
Any parent should certainly be aware of Rudolf Steiner's racial doctrines — and then check to see if these are present, even in disguised form, in any Waldorf school you may be considering for your children. I deal with this subject at length elsewhere on this Web site — se, e.g., "Steiner's Racism". But here is a brief, unpleasant exposure. It is drawn from a message I posted as part of an online discussion in August, 2009. To see the message in its original form, please use this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/11627 The following covers some of the same ground we have already been over, but it adds further information and may, on the whole, be helpful. Rudolf Steiner frequently discussed race. He made statements that may seem, at least to some readers, reasonable; and he made statements that would strike many readers as appalling. I think I am violating no one's confidence by reporting that I have shown some of Steiner's "good" statements about Jews to Jewish friends who have been shocked; they found nothing even remotely acceptable in them. I can report the same thing concerning black friends; when I showed them quotations about "Negroes" or "the black race" that Anthroposophists generally consider fine, they said — sometimes angrily — that those statements were absolutely racist. Perhaps this is not the best test. Members of ethnic groups that have suffered horrifically (the Holocaust, slavery) naturally have heightened sensitivities. But, then, one reason everyone needs to avoid racist comments is to avoid hurting one another for no good reason. Steiner's own sensitivity on this point was deficient, although he may have been no more insensitive than many other people in his time and place. Anthroposophists today, however, have little or no excuse for such insensitivity. ••• A related point. Dan Dugan, in his review of Ida Oberman's THE WALDORF MOVEMENT IN EDUCATION, comments on the surprising number of black and brown faces in the book's photos. I've noticed the same thing in other Waldorf publications, including material disseminated by my old Waldorf school. It may be purely a coincidence, but since I started publishing/posting my essays, the number of minority students in such photos seems to have increased markedly. Maybe this is well and good. But maybe not. Racism entails singling people out due to their race, whether for special mistreatment or special favors and notice. Racism, in other words, includes patronization. I think it is not unfair to say that an Anthroposophical attitude (declining today? I hope so) is that members of nonwhite races and non-Christian faiths deserve compassion. Blacks can't help it if they are childish; Jews can't help it if they were born into an outmoded religion and culture. But we Anthroposophists may be able to steer them in the right direction, away from their inferior group or culture toward a better race (white) or culture (Christian, meaning Gnostic Christian: Anthroposophy). Good little Jewish children might be led to abandon Judaism in this life. Good little black children cannot become white in this life, but with help they may make it in some future incarnation. I'm simplifying, of course, but I think my basic point is valid: Anthroposophists who are true to Steiner inevitably attach undue significance to people's race. This may show up as discrimination against some people or discrimination for some people. Both forms of discrimination are racist. I'll offer the group a few quotes many of which may have first shown up on the list thanks to your own research, Peter: “One can only understand history and all of social life, including today's social life, if one pays attention to people's racial characteristics. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin.” [Rudolf Steiner, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1993) p. 52. Translations provided by Peter Staudenmaier.] “[T]he impregnation of the flesh by the spirit is the characteristic mission, the overall mission of white mankind. People have white skin because the spirit works in the skin when it wants to come down to the physical plain.” [Rudolf Steiner, DIE GEISTIGEN HINTERGRÜNDE DES ERSTEN WELTKRIEGES (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1974), p. 37.] “Races would not stay behind and become decadent if there were not people who wish to stay behind and are obliged to stay behind ... Older races only persist because there are people who cannot or will not move forward to a higher racial form.” [Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), p. 69.] A person who evolves properly -- a good black child or Jew, for instance -- moves upward through racial forms: “By striving forward ... he is drawn up from race to race to ever higher stages.” [Ibid.] “[E]ach person has the opportunity to become caught up in the essence of one incarnation ... or instead to undergo the transformation into higher races, toward ever higher perfection. Races would never become decadent, never decline, if there weren’t souls that are unable to move up ... Look at the [lower] races ... they only exist because some souls could not climb higher.” [Rudolf Steiner, DAS HEREINWIRKEN GEISTIGEN WESENHEITEN IN DEN MENSCHEN (Rudolf Steiner Verlag), p. 174.] But good individuals do rise -- according to Steiner, they reincarnate in higher and higher racial forms. So we should be good to them even when they are unfortunate enough to temporarily incarnate in low racial forms. "That is why we must distinguish so carefully between soul evolution and racial evolution. The souls reappear in bodies belonging to higher races, while the bodies of the lower races die out." [Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION OF MORALITY (SteinerBooks, 1995), p. 30.] “As you know, we distinguish the Jews from the rest of the earth's population ... Look where you may, the Jews have a great gift for music ... The Jews have a great gift for materialism....” [Rudolf Steiner, FROM BEETROOT TO BUDDHISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 59.] Talk about backhanded compliments! But Steiner made his meaning plain. Here is the same quote with the omitted words included: "Look where you may, the Jews have a great gift for music and very little talent when it comes to sculpture, painting, and the like. The Jews have a great gift for materialism, but little recognition of the spiritual world, because out of the whole world beyond this earth they venerated only the moon [Jehovah's seat], really, and hardly knew that they did so any more. Jewish and Greek nature are complete opposites. The Greeks were mainly concentrating on sculpture and painting and architecture -- at least as far as sculpture went. The Jews are the musical people, the priest nation where the inner life is essentially developed; and that is due to gifts originally developed in the womb.” [Ibid.] Isn't this nice? Can't blame the Jews; they have certain gifts; extremely infantile, to be sure; but they didn't know what they were doing. (And by the way: I consider Steiner's statement as stereotyping Greeks just much as it stereotypes Jews. Greeks have certain racial qualities, Jews have other racial qualities: "Jewish and Greek nature are complete opposites." This is racism; this is deplorable, even when it seems complimentary.) Certainly we can't blame sweet little black children or red children for being what they are: It is out of their hands. “[T]he most childlike and the most aged racial types — the Negro and Red Indian — are both of them, though in such different ways, the result of planetary forces working into the glandular system.” [Rudolf Steiner, SOULS OF THE NATIONS, lecture 6 http://wn.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/AdamsKaufmannGeorge/SoulNation/SouNat_lecture06.html] Yes, the planets affect us in amazing ways: “Venus and Jupiter work in the nervous system via the breathing and senses, producing respectively the Malayan racial type and the Caucasian or European racial type. The Greeks [are] under the Jupiter influence ... Mercury and Saturn work in the glandular system. Mercury is connected with the growth forces of the body, hence Mercury creates the Negro racial type. Saturn ossifies the glandular system and creates the Red Indian; hence his bony features.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 16 - synopsis, lecture 6.] Races are affected by the mystic forces that focus in a particular part of the earth: “[A] centre of cosmic influence [is] situated in the interior of Africa. At this centre are active all those terrestrial forces emanating from the soil which can influence man especially during his early childhood ... The locality where a man lives exercises its most potent influence in early childhood and thereby determines for their whole life those who are completely dependent on these forces, so that the particular locality impresses the characteristics of their early childhood permanently upon them. This is more or less typical of all those who, in respect of their racial character, are determined by the etheric formative forces of the Earth in the neighbourhood of that particular locality. The black or Negro race is substantially determined by these childhood characteristics.” [THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS, p. 75.]* That last quote overlooks the possibility that a black child might be born and raised far from Africa. But of course Steiner opposed allowing races to go where they don't belong: “On one side we find the black race, which is earthly at most. If it moves to the West, it becomes extinct. We also have the yellow race, which is in the middle between earth and the cosmos. If it moves to the East, it becomes brown, attaches itself too much to the cosmos, and becomes extinct. The white race is the future, the race that is creating spirit.” [VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE, p. 62.] Or, as Steiner nicely put this on another occasion: "The French are committing the terrible brutality of moving black people to Europe, but it works, in an even worse way, back on France. It has an enormous effect on the blood and the race and contributes considerably toward French decadence. The French as a race are reverting.” [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), pp. 558-559.] Oh, the poor little French children! Born into a "race" that is reverting! What could a good Waldorf teacher do to help a French tike? Well, s/he might try to prevent the child from speaking French: Here's how the above quotation begins: “The use of the French language quite certainly corrupts the soul. The soul acquires nothing more than the possibility of clichés. Those who enthusiastically speak French transfer that to other languages. The French are also ruining what maintains their dead language, namely, their blood. The French are committing the terrible brutality of moving black people...." [Ibid.] I assume everyone is as sickened by all this as I am, so I will now desist. — Roger Rawlings * There are several such centers of cosmic influence. “Dr. Steiner ... draws a line, shaped roughly like a horseshoe opening westward, connecting three or four important points, foci of cosmic influence in the configuration of our planet. These centres, as he indicates, are still existent, though we are no longer subject to them in the same intense degree. The first is in the interior of Africa; there work the forces which influence the human being most of all in early childhood. The race there formed impresses characteristics of early childhood upon the human being for his entire life. It is the black, the Ethiopian or Negro race.” [Rudolf Steiner, THE SOULS OF THE NATIONS, lecture 4 http://wn.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/AdamsKaufmannGeorge/SoulNation/SouNat_lecture04.html]
◊◊◊◊ AFTERWORD Late in August, 2009, Cathy Balme posted the following message in an online discussion. I was impressed by it and asked her for permission to reprint it here. She kindly consented. If you'd like to see the original message, please use this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/11628 As far as I can see, the way Anthroposophists view race isn't in line with anyone's opinion I know. A Steiner teacher on a blog recently couldn't see (refused to see?) the racism in what was to others quite a racist quote from Steiner. The way children are dealt with, using an Anthroposophical model, is deep in the schools. Who can intuit when or who may use Steiner’s spiritual racial hierarchies? His writing is used as some kind of sacred text at the best of times; even the Woods Report for the DES commented on how Waldorf teachers often don't stray from referring to Steiner at every opportunity. I read an Anthroposophist about a year ago, advising teachers to take into account a child's temperament, and I'm fairly sure he also said race, when dealing with children (I think it's been taken from the Internet or I'd link to it). I don't know if our children with their Jewish/Asian roots were treated in a particular way according to some Anthroposophical law (our youngest was certainly "encouraged" to change her left-handedness.) Some of what happened was scandalous, and all roads led to Anthroposophical "indications" as far as I could see. If Anthroposophists and teachers reject Steiner on race, they have to then make choices about it all: do you leave in trolls, or simply gnomes? Mars, Jupiter — or start at Atlantis and Lemuria and forget the extraterrestrial bit? Dinosaurs evolving simultaneously with man? Steiner's race beliefs are included in some books used for teacher training, I think. Waldorf teachers surely have been taught a bit of it before they attend the in-depth study groups later, haven't they? The thing is, Steiner's race beliefs, how central they are to his model of reincarnation, makes fairly uncomfortable reading. There were some discussions last year on the waldorf-critics list that were fairly conclusive about Steiner's meaning, how race and skin colour play a central role in rising spiritually; Stephen Clark, the Anthroposophist, discussed this in a dignified way, examined Steiner's work, and said some quite damning things about his fellow Anthros, if I remember. Recently I heard an Anthroposophist talking about their beliefs in a free, unguarded way; it left me reeling. He touched on many subjects, Steiner's "truths" about a host of things; I found it disquieting, to put it mildly; it's one thing to discuss Steiner's work and beliefs here, but to stand next to someone who truly believes this stuff is another matter; if I hadn't known much of it I would have said he was distinctly unbalanced, but in retrospect I realised that the only difference between him and, say, our children's teachers, was that they have the presence of mind to be restrained. Among the disturbing things he talked about was race; he said Steiner's views about races and skin colour were just facts, observances, not racist at all. Anthroposophists think it so unfair for us to analyze their beliefs; unfair that their beliefs are deconstructed and the magic wrenched from them; unfair that by spotlighting the offensive, it somehow negates all the lovely things Steiner said. Steiner's offensive statements on race (right up until the end of his life. too) throw into doubt his more pleasing, acceptable ones. His audiences were variable, his lectures differed from his books. I don't think there's "hate" against Anthroposophy in our discussions here. Isn't it funny how that word slips so easily from Anthros' mouths? "Hate' and "evil" and "materialistic." Does it make Steiner's world seem better to them, when they say the outside world is so filled with venom? There's outrage from parents who've read Steiner and realised they've been deceived, and there's a need to put what's ethically right in place; people should know about Anthroposophy. Parents should be told. Anthroposophists aren't special; who cares that they believe in Atlantis, karma, reincarnation, spirits, trolls, angels, and devils? Who wants to step on their path of initiation, with its impulses and essences? That's their affair. But they have no right to use this supernatural hokum secretly on children or people with learning difficulties. Until they are truthful about Anthroposophic belief, and until they lift their heads from the mire of denial about race, those of us who have read Steiner owe it to other parents to suggest they find out about it, too. No one's making this up, it's there, in Steiner's writing. As a parent, shouldn't one know what the teachers who have care and influence over your children are trained in and using in the classroom? Isn't this right? ◊◊◊◊
ENDNOTES [1] Steiner considered students’ parents to be outsiders. He told Waldorf teachers to keep quiet about what happens inside the school. To protect the reputation of the school, they should talk to no outsiders, except for parents — and with them, only about their own children, nothing more. Here is a more extended version of the quotation I use as this essay’s epigraph: “[D]o not attempt to bring out into the public things that really concern only our school. I have been back only a few hours, and I have heard so much gossip about who got a slap and so forth ... We should be quiet about how we handle things in the school, we should maintain a kind of school confidentiality. We should not speak to people outside the school, except for the parents who come to us with questions, and in that case, only about their children, so that gossip has no opportunity to arise ... There are people who like to talk about such things because of their own desire for sensationalism ... Those of us on the faculty should in no way support it.” [FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 10.] By gossip, Steiner clearly means speculation and reports about what happens inside the school, including the slapping of students. Parents who are treated as outsiders may have difficulty learning what really goes on at a Waldorf school. I discuss this at length in my essay “Clues”. I return to the issue of teachers slapping children, below. [2] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998). This two-volume set consists of notes taken by Waldorf faculty members during their meetings with Steiner. We should not place too much emphasis on any one sentence attributed to Steiner, since the note takers may have made errors. A similar problem arises in the many books consisting of Steiner’s lectures — these, too, generally rely on transcriptions rather than texts approved by Steiner for publication. However, when any of Steiner’s reputed remarks is compatible with several other statements Steiner made, we can have a high level of confidence that it probably is an accurate reflection of Steiner’s meaning. Moreover, the note takers were usually devoted followers who considered Steiner’s words virtually to be divine wisdom. We can be sure that they intended to be as accurate as possible. For a guide in how to interpret Steiner, you might consult Steiner’s OCCULT SCIENCE - AN OUTLINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1969). Steiner wrote the first version of this book in 1909 and thereafter he revised it many times, the final revision coming just months before his death. Thus, the contents absolutely present Steiner’s views. And what are they? Occultism, “mystery” knowledge, occult initiation, irrationality, racism, heresy, a preposterous version of mankind’s past, an even more preposterous vision of its future, and a bizarre presentation of the spirit realm. In brief, OCCULT SCIENCE provides the context for Anthroposophy and Waldorf education. The quotations I present here and in my other essays are consistent with it. [3] “The Jews have a great gift for materialism, but little for recognition of the spiritual world.” [Rudolf Steiner, FROM BEETROOT TO BUDDHISM Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 59.] “Judaism as such has long outlived itself and no longer has a legitimate place in the modern life of peoples.” [Rudolf Steiner, “Vom Wesen des Judentums” {On the Nature of the Jews}, DIE GESCHICHTE DER MENSCHHEIT UND DIE WELTANSCHAUUNGEN DER KULTURVOLKER, Dornach, 1968.] “It certainly cannot be denied that Jewry today still behaves as a closed system, and that it has frequently intervened in the development of our current states of affairs in a way that is anything but favorable to European ideas of culture. But Jewry as such has long since outlived its time ... We do not mean the forms of the Jewish religion alone, but above all the spirit of Jewry, the Jewish way of thinking.” [Steiner in the Deutsche Wochenschrift in 1888, in Steiner, GESAMMELTE AUFSÄTZE ZUR LITERATUR, 152.] “I consider antisemites [sic] to be harmless people.” [Rudolf Steiner, "Die Sehnsucht der Juden nach Palästina," Magazin für Literatur, vol. 66 no. 38, 1897.anti] “These people have a tendency to diabetes. The Jew has more difficulty absorbing sugar....” [Rudolf Steiner, FROM COMETS TO COCAINE (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2001), p. 284.] “Jahve [Jehovah] cooperated with His six colleagues....” [Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2005), p. 99.] “The best thing that the Jews could do would be to disappear into the rest of humankind, to blend in with the rest of humankind, so that Jewry as a people would simply cease to exist.” [DIE GESCHICHTE DER MENSCHHEIT UND DIE WELTANSCHAUUNGEN DER KULTURVOLKER, 189.] [4] See, e.g., Peter Staudenmaier, “Race and Redemption: Racial and Ethnic Evolution in Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy,” 2004, http://www.waldorfcritics.org .) [5] Rudolf Steiner, RHYTHMS OF LEARNING: What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers, p. 72. [6] Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), pp. 142-145. [7] Ibid., p. 67. [8] Ibid., p. 118. [9] Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT, p. 28. [10] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 55. [11] Ibid., p. 495. [12] Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), pp. 62-3. [13] THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, pp. 33-34. [14] Ibid., p. 60. [15] Rudolf Steiner, FREUD, JUNG, AND SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY, pp. 124-125. [16] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 607. [17] Ibid., pp. 30-31. [18] Rudolf Steiner, POLARITIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF MANKIND (Steiner Books, 1987), p. 59. [19] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 20. [20] Ibid., pp. 649-650. [21] Ibid., p. 712. [22] Ibid., pp. 649-650. [23] Eugene Schwartz, “Waldorf Education — For Our Times or Against Them?”, November 13, 1999, transcript edited by Michael Kopp. Schwartz is an Anthroposophical writer and educator. He is the author of WALDORF EDUCATION: Schools for the Twenty-First Century (Xlibris Corporation, 2000) and MILLENNIAL CHILD: Transforming Education for the Twenty-First Century (Anthroposophic Press, 1999). [24] Lawrence Williams, Ed.D., OAK MEADOW AND WALDORF. Williams is an Anthroposophist who has given an account of the scandal at my old Waldorf school. He is the author of OAK MEADOW AND WALDORF and THE OAK MEADOW TRILOGY (Oak Meadow, Inc., 1997) — see http://www.oakmeadow.com . (Access to the account of my school's history seems to be blocked. It was freely available when I first came upon the site.) [25] A.C. Harwood, PORTRAIT OF A WALDORF SCHOOL (The Myrin Institute Inc., 1956), pp. 15-16. A.C. Harwood had a long career as a Waldorf educator and lecturer. Harwood died in 1975. [26] Ibid., pp. 23-24. [27] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, pp. 558-559. [28] Rudolf Steiner, HEALTH AND ILLNESS, VOL. 1 (Anthroposophic Press, 1981), pp. 85-86. [29] Rudolf Steiner, ON THE LIFE OF HUMAN BEINGS AND OF THE EARTH (VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE (Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), translated by Roger Rawlings, 2005), p. 62. Some of Steiner’s most dreadful statements are hard, if not impossible, to find in English translations of his works. Here is another example: “White mankind is still on the path of absorbing spirit more deeply into its essence. Yellow mankind is on the path of preserving the period when the spirit is kept away from the body, when the spirit can only be sought outside of the human-physical organization. But the result will have to be that the transition from the fifth cultural epoch to the sixth cultural epoch [i.e., historical periods since the sinking of Atlantis] cannot happen differently than as a violent fight between white mankind and colored mankind in the most varied areas.” [Rudolf Steiner, DIE GEISTIGEN HINTERGRÜNDE DES ERSTEN WELTKRIEGES {The Spiritual Background of the First World War} (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1974), p. 38, translated by Roger Rawlings, 2005.] Yet even in the translations of Steiner's works offered by Anthroposophical presses, we can find his appalling opinions exposed. See the passage I quote, above, about the French “race” and “blacks” (i.e., Africans). Here is another example: “Lucifer and Ahriman ... fought against [the] harmonious tendency of development in the evolution of humanity, and they managed to change the whole process so that various developments were shifted and displaced. While there should have been basically only one form of human being ... Lucifer and Ahriman preserved [earlier human types] ... even into the time after the Atlantean flood. Thus, forms that should have disappeared remained. Instead of racial diversities developing consecutively, older racial forms remained unchanged and newer ones began to evolve at the same time. Instead of the intended consecutive development of races, there was a coexistence of races. That is how it came about that physically different races inhabited the earth and are still there in our time although evolution should really have proceeded [unimpeded].” [Rudolf Steiner, THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN: THE EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALITY, Lectures from 1909-1916 (Anthroposophic Press, 1990), p. 75.] To explicate: In this passage, Steiner is discussing higher and lower races, explaining why humanity is divided into various races instead of comprising a single, highly-evolved race. Lucifer and Ahriman are demonic spiritual powers. “Atlantean” refers to Atlantis. Steiner professed to believe the Atlantis myth, and he traced the “Aryan” race back to it. Consider the following: “The ancestors of the Atlanteans lived in a region [i.e., Lemuria, an earlier lost continent] which has disappeared ... After they had passed through various stages of development the greatest part of them declined. These became stunted men, whose descendants still inhabit certain parts of the earth today as so-called savage tribes. Only a small part of Lemurian humanity was capable of further development. From this part the Atlanteans were formed. Later, something similar took place. The greatest part of the Atlantean population declined, and from a small portion [that did not decline] are descended the so-called Aryans who comprise present-day civilized humanity ... ” [Rudolf Steiner, COSMIC MEMORY (Garber Communications, 1990), pp. 45-46.] The Aryans equate with progress; other races descend from “stunted men” and Atlanteans who “declined” — hence, the existence today of “savage tribes.” (See my essay “Steiner’s Racism” on this Web site.) [30] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p.14. [31] Ibid., p. 109. [32] Ibid., p. 110. [33] Ibid., p. 22. [34] Ibid., p. 323. |