 CAUTIONS First-Person Accounts By Some Who Got Burned It is easy to find testimonials that make Waldorf schools look good. But it is also easy to find testimonials that make Waldorf schools look bad. The latter should at least give us pause. Why do so many people have bad or even terrible Waldorf experiences? Here is a summary of troubling testimonials about Waldorf schools. Most were written by individuals who were once deeply involved with Waldorf, only to become disillusioned; a few were written by people who disliked Waldorf from the get-go; the remainder were written by folks who still love Waldorf and would perhaps be surprised that their statements can cause consternation for some readers. Critics of Waldorf schooling find compelling arguments against Waldorf in the sorts of things you will read here. Some themes run like threads through many of these testimonials: charges that Waldorf schools misrepresent themselves, that they secretly try to induct children into an occult worldview, that they are defensive and insular, that they discriminate unfairly, that they tolerate bullying and abuse, that they are torn by jealousies and bickering, that they are staffed by overworked teachers who do not know their subjects well, that ... But I'm giving the plot away. Waldorf critics find much that is interesting and important in the following narratives. Defenders of Waldorf schools tend to dismiss the same passages as irrelevancies — malicious and mean-spirited, or misinformed, or innocent remarks misconstrued by malicious and mean-spirited outsiders. Draw your own conclusions. [For links to sites that praise Waldorf and others that criticize Waldorf, see "Links”.] [A word about the format, below. The first statement by any individual is headed by a horizontal line. If there are two or more statements by that individual, they are separated by small, square dingbats.]  "Several years ago, I picked up and moved from another state specifically to enroll my daughter in a Waldorf School. I was excited that art would permeate the curriculum. That there would be lots of drama and music. That there would be an emphasis on environmental issues. That fairy tales and myths would be taught. I was happy that organic food would be the norm and that my child would have other vegetarians in her class.... "When we arrived in rural WI we enrolled our child in the Waldorf School, and began to have some peculiar experiences ... I began to suspect that I'd joined a spiritual movement, but because I was told 'NO NO, not true,' and because I didn't know what Anthroposophy was (I'd heard the word enough at this point so I could say it and spell it,) I just kept on going along with the program but couldn't quite figure out what was going on! "...[Eventually] I realized that the fairy tales were often sexist, patriarchal and very religious. Creationism was taught ... My child was made to recolor Eve's hair blond after choosing black. She was taught about angels, and demons, and page after page of her exercise books reflected a very religious perspective ... I became really depressed and had nothing to do with the school. I just answered their pleas and sent them money, lots of it. “I had made a very poor choice of school for my daughter.” — Sharon Lombard. [See “Thanks PLANS!”, at http://www.waldorfcritics.org/articles/LombardThanksPLANS.html]  “It frustrates me when people deny that Anthroposophy is a religion and [claim] that the schools don’t teach Anthroposophy to children ... My daughter’s books [i.e., class books created by copying from the chalkboard] show that indeed she was taught Anthroposophy, in picture form as well as in written form. ‘The human being is like a little universe inside a big one. Sun, moon and stars find their likeness in mans head, trunk and limbs’; ‘The Sylphs, Salamanders, Gnomes and Undines are the earth’s scribes’; ‘The body is the house of the spirit,’ etc. If you deconstruct the lessons, the curriculum and the pedagogy, you cannot ignore the fact that Waldorf is a mystery school, a magical lodge for juniors.”— Sharon Lombard. [See “Spotlight on Anthroposophy”, CULTIC STUDIES REVIEW, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003.] “The Waldorf school did not present itself as a religious movement but, instead, claimed to be a scientific, art-based, nonsectarian school, having a multicultural emphasis incorporating stories and festivals from around the world as well as having an environmental focus. We believed Waldorf’s claim, because Steiner was portrayed as a scientist, educator, and philosopher ... Initially, it never dawned on us that he was a religious leader and that Waldorf would be a hub for the dissemination of his beliefs ... In the occult tradition, the [Waldorf] group also used veiled vocabulary devised by Steiner i.e., the use of words having alternate meanings ... For example, ‘psychic sight’ was termed ‘imagination’ ... Developing ‘imagination,’ which you’d expect at an art-based school, really meant developing ‘psychic sight.’” [Ibid.] "In the early years of Waldorf, I did not know that some fairy tales being taught were occult parables. Nor had it dawned on me that the 'festivals' celebrated throughout the school year were in reality Anthroposophic rituals devised by Steiner with deep esoteric meaning." [Ibid.] “The reality was slowly sinking in. Waldorf did not offer the kind of art I had expected. There was no free artistic expression. Typical children’s drawings were missing from the classrooms ... Waldorf is like a cult, you all follow Steiner, he is your guru. I have never felt so oppressed, this is like a religion ... I had no inkling at that time that thousands of Steiner’s sermons had been published and distributed by devotees from within the closed world of Anthroposophy.” [Ibid.] “My daughter cried at bedtime and in the mornings as she vehemently resisted going to [our Waldorf] school. However, thinking we should work through her intensifying revolt, because it was in her best interest, we ignorantly kept sending her off as we were dubious about our other options for schooling. When her accumulated wet-on-wet ‘artwork’ came home, I was aware that, unlike her prolific creative drawing done at home, at school the self-expression we had anticipated was actually being frustratingly suppressed. “Mounting idiosyncrasies, prayers, and religiosities (including my daughter's announcement that she had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other) suggested an undercurrent that emanated from the faculty. These were not just isolated beliefs of the mystical seekers in the parent body. Legends of holy people, old testament stories, and much ado about demons, devils, angels, fairies, gnomes, and Saint Michael (all taught as fact) added to the fear that we had allowed [our child’s] tiny head to be opened and filled with a syncretic, superstitious miasma of ages past. Contrary to the claims of nonsectarianism, it was becoming very apparent that everything revolved around Rudolf Steiner; the founder of Anthroposophy and Waldorf education." — Sharon Lombard. [See "Our Brush with Rudolf Steiner" at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/lombard.html.] “I remember when I was a wide-eyed believer receiving a letter from parents who had been harmed by the [Waldorf] school ... I remember skimming the letter and thinking that they were sadly mistaken malcontents ... I remember feeling superior and floating in a sense of knowing so much more than my non-W friends. I had the key to paradise...the Waldorf Way.... “I can't begin to describe to you what it has been like to be pushed off of this beautific throne.... “I was seduced by the beauty [of the school] — by the promise of giving my children a glowing, golden soul. Little did I know that the beauty was gold-plated, propped by deception ... [My children] almost had their spirits robbed by well-meaning, poorly trained, neurotic humans calling themselves teachers and spiritual guides. “...I feel spiritually connected [and] I believed that this school would protect my children from the soul death of the media and capitalistic culture. I blame myself for ... BLINDLY, faithfully, following advice that was justified using Steiner and spiritual science. “I believe my worst mistake is not believing in myself as an authority on my own children, ignoring my feeling of humiliation in the presence of fellow humans who market themselves as spiritually aware.” — Former Waldorf parent A. [See "Anonymous Testimonial From Waldorf Parent" at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/StoryAnon03.html]* “I worked at this [Waldorf] school for seven years ... Despite being chosen Employee of the Month and receiving several national awards and grants, including Teacher of the Year ... I was subjected to ongoing harassment and character assassination after I began to question the legality of Anthroposophical religious indoctrination in staff training sessions led by uneducated, unaccredited Anthroposophists brought over from Europe. Both staff and students were subjected to nonacademic, occultist activities through the Waldorf training and pedagogy adopted from the Rudolf Steiner College, a nonaccredited Anthroposophical religious institution located in Fair Oaks, California. I quit in frustration over the academic dearth of Waldorf education and grief at watching ... students being subjected to occultist religious indoctrination in the place of a sound academic program.” — Former Waldorf teacher Kathleen Sutphen. [See “Ex-Teacher 6".] “Did Mr. Oppenheimer [author of an article praising Waldorf education] compare student books [i.e., lesson books created by the students]? If he had done so, he would have found that most contain almost identical information, word for word. The books are seductive in their beauty, but they are not original creations. Even the artwork is largely copied and adheres to occultist color exercises designed to encourage the incarnation of the soul per Anthroposophical religious belief.” [Ibid.] “[W]hy didn't Mr. Oppenheimer ask about staff turnover or attempt to talk to teachers that quit in frustration over the unsound academic principles being practiced on these, our most needy students? Did he inquire as to whether any staff had protested the religious indoctrination subtly infused in Waldorf teacher training? Did he check to see if current teachers had attended state approved certification and teacher training programs prior to their hiring? Did he speak to any parents?" [Ibid.] “I wonder why [the article] didn't ask how many of [Thomas E. Mathews Community School’s] students were able to obtain their high school diploma since the Waldorf pedagogy was adopted [by the school]. The answer is zero or very close to it. Mathews' students leave the campus with little or no increase in academic skills. They do not have the ability to pass the GED [i.e., General Equivalency Degree]. Instead of learning minimal competencies to pass the GED or read on the most elementary level, these students are copying their lesson books off the blackboard; playing plastic recorders; and chanting anthroposophical verses.” [Ibid.] “I enrolled my son in the San Francisco Waldorf School halfway through the sixth grade. I was very impressed with the school. I liked very much the way art is integrated into the curriculum in Waldorf ... One day while visiting the school, I browsed through some books by Rudolf Steiner that they had for sale. I saw some very strange things about 'astral bodies' and 'root races.' I asked my son's teacher whether these subjects were taught in the classroom. She assured me that though the teachers studied Steiner, only Steiner's teaching methods were used in the classroom, and Steiner's philosophy wasn't taught to the children. I learned later that this is a standard disclaimer, and it is far from the truth. I should have known better, but I was so in love with the facade of the school that I looked the other way. "Over the year and a half my son was in the school, I became increasingly disturbed about three things: 1. Weird science ... [W]hen I obtained Waldorf curriculum guides, I discovered that the inadequate and erroneous science [I had observed in the school] was part of the Waldorf system. 2. Racism. I was shocked to pick up a Steiner book [containing racist passages] for sale at the school ... 3. Quack medicine. An 'Anthroposophical physician' gave a lecture to the parents ... It was classic quackery.... “[D]isenchanted Waldorf parents express a common sense of being misled by the school’s wholesome image. “’There is nothing in the [school brochures] about incarnating children’s souls,' says a Waldorf parent-turned-critic in British Columbia who requests anonymity due to pending legal action with a local Waldorf school. 'How many parents even know that Waldorf teachers study Steiner’s occultism in order to teach at a Waldorf?’ “’When our son started in the San Francisco Waldorf,' recalls critic Dan Dugan, 'I thought it was a progressive, artistic school. The teachers said they teach a standard curriculum, just based on Steiner’s teaching methods. In fact, it is more than that. Waldorf schools are actually about Anthroposophy.’” — Carol Milstone, “Gnomes and Critics at Waldorf Schools”, ReligionNewsBlog. “For many years our family was part of a Waldorf Community. I was there often, helping with classes, field trips, meetings, fairs, etc. I knew nothing of Anthroposophy before we joined and was told it was not in the school. I gradually realized that this is the driving force behind Waldorf Education. “...After years of wanting to believe in this community and trying to help solve some of the problems the school encountered our family was hit between the eyes by an Anthroposophical 2x4 and the pain was intense.... “The word I heard from ex-Waldorf families to describe how they felt about Waldorf was... 'Cult.' ... As painful as it was to leave I am so very relieved to have done so. My children are doing well. We did not have one inquiry from the school as to our children's well being. And still I have nothing against Anthroposophy or Waldorf Education for those who understand and choose this very religious/occult based education [sic; emphasis by author]. Unfortunately, Waldorf Education promotes itself in a misleading manner. This accounts for many painful misunderstandings. “...While some of our Waldorf experience was good (knitting, baking, etc.) the fundamental essence of Waldorf is steeped in occultism, mysticism, karma and (re) incarnation. This is not what I was led to believe prior to enrolling our children. I understand this now. If I had known this before we would not have joined.” — Former Waldorf parent B. [See "Anonymous Testimonial From Waldorf Parent" at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/StoryAnon01.html]* “My first board meeting [at a Waldorf school] included a faculty grilling re: sexual preference, directed at a young gay teacher ... I kept saying, 'This is a violation of her civil rights.' ... [R]egular rules do not apply in Waldorf schools. Anthroposophy is more important than individual rights, laws, or common truths. "...The healthy teachers were eventually run out [of the school] and the ill ones took over hiring ... There was deceit everywhere ... The financial statements were literally made up ... Unpaid payroll taxes, marked as paid, were seized from our bank account ... [T]he school wasn't making enough money to pay rent, salary, and the electricity bill. One classroom was red-flagged for sewage backing up in the tub....
"...[A]t parent gatherings ... the teachers would stand on the stage with their arms around each other, singing songs, while the parents beamed ... [B]ehind closed doors [these teachers] were all backstabbers ... insecure people competing for the top position on the Anthroposophical dog pile ... Board meetings were always exhausting because you could cut the tension between the teachers with a knife.... "...I think it's easier to walk away from Waldorf when Anthroposophy doesn't speak to your spirit, but it still isn't easy. I took 63 families with me to [create] a new school ... My aim was to make a school like we were told Waldorf was but was not. Sixty-three families were ready to move, so I went back to work.” — Former Waldorf parent Debra Snell. [See “Coming Undone”.] "My youngest son, who began Waldorf in kindergarten, complained that he was not learning anything [in first grade] ... After many months of frustrating communication with the school, we placed our Waldorf educated son in public school ... During my last meeting with his Waldorf teacher, I stated that perhaps Waldorf was inappropriate for him. She replied, 'It sounds to me like you are questioning Anthroposophy. If you are, you should leave, because every teacher here is an Anthroposophist except for one, and she is coming to Anthroposophy.'" — Debra Snell, interviewed by Jeff Horseman [“An Interview with PLANS President”, http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/InterviewPLANSPres.html] A former Waldorf teacher explains that many “Anthroposophical schools” — i.e., Waldorf schools staffed by committed Anthroposophists — exist mainly for one reason. This reason is not to educate or even benefit the students; it is to spread Anthroposophy: “Anthroposophical Waldorf [schooling] often fails to address the needs of the individual child and family ... The reason many Anthroposophical schools exist is because of the Anthroposophy, period. It's not because of the children. It's because a group of Anthroposophists have it in their minds to promote Anthroposophy in the world ... Educating children is secondary in these schools....” — Former Waldorf teacher "baandje" [See “Ex-Teacher 7”.]* “Anyone trapped in any dogmatic system of spiritual or religious belief will exhibit the same anti-social and alienating behavior anthroposophists often display ... Anthroposophy is an apocalyptic philosophy, and anthroposophists are quite consciously preparing the groundwork for the incarnation of Ahriman, for the development of Sorat and accompanying demonic entities, for the far-future war of All Against All, etc. ... [T]his is why that typical, never-ending community conflict dynamic in a Waldorf school is accepted and intellectualized away as necessarily preferable to happy, healthy and balanced (normal) human interaction. Conflict is a particular type of ecstatic union: the spiritual feast. I witnessed many teachers who literally went out of their way to create issues if it happened to be too slow a month, problem-wise.” [Ibid.] “[A]nthroposophists welcome and allow themselves and others to be chewed up, swallowed and processed via conflict, which is why for instance a [Waldorf] teacher who is approaching emotional and psychic breakdown status is still supported by his/her colleagues and allowed to teach. It's all seen and understood as part of the great spiritual sacrifice — and you can't fault or fire someone so deeply spiritual and ultra-committed, can you? “And [this is] why parents who remove their children and leave are hardly if ever given the time of day afterwards. Those families are looked upon as uncommitted to the great spiritual task at hand, or as karmically incompatible and so forth.” [Ibid.] "My daughter, being defiant (I thought they [i.e., Waldorf teachers] like independent thinking), was labeled a demon by her [Waldorf] teacher and was bullied for years... cutting herself and finally going into a mental breakdown. [X Waldorf school] denies any responsibility — despite years of permitting this to go unchecked. "Waldorf is not harmless and Steiner's ideas are used by very insensitive people to harm children in the name of Waldorf! And everyone else stands by and watches. Why?" — Former Waldorf parent Pete Karaiskos. [See "Nuts".] "[Here's] why Waldorf teachers think of children as demons... [W]hat other being would confront a Waldorf teacher who had been lying? Right? Only a demon would confront the Angels of education... Waldorf teachers. The teacher who labeled my daughter as a demon is TEACHING Waldorf TEACHERS at [X Waldorf school]. Hopefully, they will be able to spot demonic children with pinpoint accuracy like this one could. "Here's an experiment parents can try at home... convince your child they are a demon... and see how they grow up... or you could save yourself the trouble and send them to Waldorf!" [Ibid.] "One cure for blindness is opening one's eyes. I hope to file a case with the attorney general, besides my own lawsuit. [X Waldorf school], over the course of a decade, destroyed my daughter's mental health. I was finally able to get her out of [X] by the 9th grade ... The state of California is footing the bill for my daughter's health care and schooling ... [X] is responsible and should be paying these costs — NOT the taxpayer. I hope to get the attorney general involved to recover the taxpayer dollars that [X] should pay — and to investigate what happened to my daughter. I have a paper-trail a mile long pointing out what happened and the lies that were told to cover things up. There is gross negligence here, conspiracy to commit fraud, and a whole lot of other crimes by various people. [X] WILL PAY for what they did... of that there is no question." [Ibid.] “I pushed hard to do my student teaching in the [Waldorf] school ...To be honest, I did see some wonderful things; beautiful classrooms, art work, story time...but I had a problem with Waldorf’s way of handling academic subjects. Waldorf educational philosophy states that focusing children's learning on intellectual endeavors too soon distracts from their physical, spiritual, and emotional development, so reading, writing, and math are not taught at all during preschool. Instead, emphasis is placed fantasy, imagination, storytelling, rhyming, and movement games ... I wanted to teach children to learn to think for themselves; to analyze, synthesize, and extrapolated information as opposed to simply regurgitating it the way it is done in more traditional settings. What I soon found out was that children were simply regurgitating in the Waldorf settings [like in public schools]. Only instead of taking a standardized test or filling out a worksheet, in Waldorf it was copying a drawing or memorizing a poem. Although this was esoterically more pleasing to the casual observer, in essence it was still superficial learning.” — A former Waldorf student teacher who went on to teach in Montessori schools. [See “Ex-Teacher 5”.]* “Worse in my eyes than not teaching accurate facts in the classroom was the reality that children who had interests in things that were not part of the Waldorf curriculum for their age were not only not allowed to learn about those interests at school, but their parents were encouraged, (dare I say 'pressured') to not allow them to pursue their interests at home either. Their parents were told that exposure to anything non-Waldorf would hurt their development....” [Ibid.] “The longer I spent at the [Waldorf] school, the more I saw what I considered an attack on the intellect and personal needs and interests of a child. “Here are some examples that were burned into my memory forever. A first grade boy, loved numbers. He had a firm grasp of numbers ... Yet he was forced to sit and draw numbers and then animals to go with those numbers (one dog, two cats...) during math time ... [T]his one child, (and in all honesty some of his peers), was far beyond it and was bored ... I was told that it was OK for him to be bored.... “...I was once berated for over an hour because a preschooler drew a happy face ... Twenty years later I still remember the teacher screaming at me, ‘I cannot believe an educator like you would allow such a thing... What in your right mind would make you think that such a thing would be allowed?!?!?’ “Later, the same child was ‘caught’ drawing a heart ... The school's way of handling this was to ask the parents not to bring the child to non-Waldorf activities until she was older. “Another time a sixth grader asked me how the copy machine in the office worked. Before I could even open my mouth, a teacher ran over to the child, and told him that there was a gnome asleep in the box....” [Ibid.] “What I saw as a lack of honoring of personal interests inhabited everything [at the Waldorf school]. Only certain colors were used at certain ages, only certain materials for certain groups. No black, no lines, no exceptions. I hated seeing the joy in a child’s face fade ... None of these rules made sense to me. Yet when I asked why they were there, the only response I received was that there was a higher meaning to everything and I was not ‘enlightened’ enough to understand. “ [Ibid.] "[A]lthough the teachers believed that everything from the color crayon a child used at a certain age, to the knowledge that they were exposed to, had to be completely controlled, they [the children] could be left utterly alone on the playground. It was explained to me that this was because ‘The angels watched over and protected them’ while they were playing ... Once, when a child was in tears because the other children kept on pushing her off of a stump they were playing on, I tried to teach conflict resolution skills to the group and was, once again, admonished by the staff. I was told that all of the children were ‘working through’ things [i.e., karma] and needed to be left alone. Eventually the bullying got so bad that it permeated every part of the child’s school day. Yet still the teachers would not intervene. The child became sullen and withdrawn....” [Ibid.] “As I was walking in with my first box of things my new housemate [a Waldorf teacher] confronted me about my belongings. She was upset that I had so many books and made it clear that I had to keep them locked away in my bedroom! After that first encounter everything I did seemed to be horrible in her eyes. She didn’t like the medicine I took; it was made in a lab. I needed to go to anthroposophical doctor and use only natural medicines. She didn’t like the clothes that I wore; they weren’t all cotton and dyed with natural dyes. She didn’t like me talking on the phone even though it was in the kitchen and belonged to the house; the phone was a tool of [the devil] Ahriman.... “...[T]here were teacher gatherings and study groups at our house often ... [A]ll the teachers were passionate and really believed in what they were doing. It soon became obvious to me that ... what I had hoped was a misinterpretation of Steiner’s philosophy was in actuality the perfect implementation of it. As far as the outright distortion scientific or historical facts in the Waldorf curriculum, I was asked, 'Whose facts are they? How sure are you that yours are true?' ... For many of the teachers, the only science or history they knew were what they learned in their Waldorf teacher training courses. Then came the statement that clarified all their misinformation for me. I was told, “Steiner had exceptional powers, he saw the future, he knew the truth. If you truly need to learn, you need to study and follow Steiner. Steiner is all anyone ever needs to know.” [Ibid. ] “ “...The almost outright ban of media in any form for preschool and elementary children, especially TV and computers, can sound wonderful to the average parent, most of whom are all too aware of the problems that too much exposure to the mass media will bring, but for the Waldorf educator it has a much deeper and important meaning. They believe that Steiner stated that such things embody a materialistic spirit named Ahriman who alienates the human being from his spiritual roots. “...The gnomes that permeate Waldorf schools, craft fairs and publications are not just a return to a fanciful lost world of childhood, they are beings that are truly believed in and are used in a variety of ways. They can displace teachers and students emotions and reactions, they can evade children's questions about the world and how it works, they mystify children asking questions about things like topics sex, violence, illness or death. They can even be threatening and confusing since children who don't see gnomes often feel like there is something wrong with them.... “... I know now that what [Waldorf schools] present to the world is a beautiful façade that is covering their new-age beliefs, only one of which is a fear of the intellect. For a parent who believes in Anthroposophy a Waldorf school will be a heaven-sent. For parents, who are willing to overlook the religious concepts and themes for the beautiful setting and art based curriculum, a Waldorf school might be fine also. But parents should be told that their children will be taught religious beliefs while they are in a Waldorf school. They need to know what these religious beliefs are, and they need to know that they will take precedence over their child’s individual needs and interests. Parents also need to know that their children will not be academically on par with many of their peers unless they take to breaking with Waldorf guidelines and teach them academics at home.” [Ibid.] Academic subjects — the substance of ordinary education — are often given short shrift at Waldorf schools. Waldorf students often lag far behind students in other schools, and many may never develop basic skills. The problem is especially acute in sciences and math. As a result, "In my thirty-two years as a Waldorf teacher I met very few classes in which more than a handful of students were fluent in the most elementary math." — Retired Waldorf teacher Keith Francis. [See “Ex-Teacher 9”, “Academic Standards at Waldorf”, “Steiner’s ‘Science’”, "Pseudoscience", "Science", and “Mystic Math”.] "I have attended countless [Waldorf] open houses ... I have seen scores of [student] notebooks, copied and illustrated with enormous care and devotion and riddled with all kinds of errors, placed where parents and visitors are most likely to see them ... Copying is the curse of the Waldorf Schools. There is altogether too much of it, and it is not confined to the elementary school. In high school, where there is much less excuse for it, it still goes on. The way in which many [Waldorf] teachers organize their work implies that they consider that the whole object of the course is the creation of a gorgeous notebook. And the way in which some teachers judge the work of other teachers implies the same thing.” — Former Waldorf teacher Keith Francis. [See “Ex-Teacher 9”.] Not only do Waldorf students copy from their teachers, but the teachers copy from other Waldorf teachers, whose work often contains multiple errors. These problems stem from at least two underlying problems. One is that teachers who have gone through Waldorf teacher training may know a lot about Waldorf methods and rationale, but they often have little or no mastery of the subjects they are assigned to teach. The other problem is that Waldorf teachers are often expected to move rapidly from subject to subject (math, geography, history...). Even when a particular teacher is well-grounded in some subjects, s/he is inevitably less well-equipped to teach other subjects. So s/he copies from books or booklets written by other Waldorf teachers, and if these contain errors (as they often do), s/he unwittingly passes these errors along. Critical thinking is not highly prized at Waldorf schools or among Anthroposophists. Instead, Anthroposophists tend to be true believers who uncritically choose gurus for themselves. The gurus are, of course, almost always fellow Anthroposophists. “As anthroposophists we are enjoined to practice veneration and to silence the inner voice which is apt to be saying, 'But.. But... But...' ... Anthroposophists, however, seem to adopt their gurus uncritically, often simply on the strength of reputation or position. I have seen it happen often enough and it seems to be quite easy to become an anthroposophical guru ... I have no doubt that some of the anthroposophical authorities whom I have encountered over the years have been people of genuine insight ... Equally there are those who are ‘negative influences’, some of whom do it with charisma and some with bumbling sincerity. A few are self-serving charlatans.” — Retired Waldorf teacher Keith Francis. [See “Ex-Teacher 9”.] An underlying problem at Waldorf schools is that real knowledge about the real world is often rejected. Anthroposophists believe the occult, "clairvoyant" teachings of Rudolf Steiner, not the knowledge produced by modern science and scholarship. A subsidiary problem is that Anthroposophists can become arrogant in their belief that they — and only they — know the Truth. "Anthroposophists generally practise what they preach ... but only up to a point. We certainly have no difficulty in rejecting most of the world's recognized authorities, along with the orthodoxies of politics, economics, medicine, science, art, agriculture and education that they represent — except when they just happen to fit in with something that we are pushing. As a group we believe that we have access to knowledge that puts us in a superior position, and the tendency to let this feeling of superiority show is one of the most off-putting features of the anthroposophical personality." [Ibid.] There is often considerable turmoil within Waldorf faculties. • "When Waldorf teachers work together the external opposing forces [i.e., opponents of Waldorf education and/or Anthroposophy] can be resisted effectively, if not defeated. Bitter experience has taught me, however, that these periods of well-being do not last, and that when things go bad they do so from the inside.” • "When it comes to ordinary human weaknesses, we cannot assume that anthroposophists and Waldorf teachers will be any better than average for the human race as a whole. Since there is a tendency for anthroposophy to bring out the very best and the very worst in people, the deviations from the norm are greater than usual, and this only compounds the problems of making good decisions and keeping the school on course.” • "Between them the school's managers and their protégés had turned the Rudolf Steiner School into a place where I didn't want to be ... I got myself a job at the Lenox School ... My work at Lenox was rather trying, since the students were much nastier than the ones at the Rudolf Steiner School and this was only partly compensated for by the fact that the teachers were considerably easier to get on with." [Ibid.] Waldorf teachers are expected to teach too many subjects with too little preparation. The best they can do, often, is to quickly memorize some material, write it on the board, attach an illustration, and then have the students make copies. If the teachers have limited knowledge of their subjects, these limitations are passed along to the kids in the form of unrecognized errors. “Class teachers have to cover an immense range of topics. A seventh grade teacher, for example, has to teach course in mathematics, physics, chemistry, physiology, English language and literature, geography and history ... [I]f you have only a few weeks in which to prepare to teach a block in physiology or medieval history you may well find yourself simply copying what someone has told you or what you read in a few — maybe a very few — books.” [Ibid.] Competitiveness and jealousy are not unknown among Waldorf teachers. Consider a case in which several teachers are being considered for a high position in a Waldorf school. “[T]he flamingly idealistic enthusiasts who did not get the job are still present [in the school] and may have some difficulty in channeling their will forces cooperatively. Waldorf communities make very convenient homes for loose cannons ... I remember several occasions when the work of the College [of Teachers] ground to a halt for weeks or even months because of implacable bees in the bonnets of one or two members. I remember other occasions when good people left the school because they couldn’t stand it any more.” [Ibid.] How Waldorf teachers talk about their students: "Amy and Jack must be very artistic children who are incarnating just a little slowly and need help ... Maria and Cliff are over-intellectual (tsk, tsk) and already too deep into the physical. Their intellectuality must be checked and they must be given more artistic work and made to recopy their main lesson books — several times, if necessary. Their parents must be instructed to keep them off the Internet, away from the TV and video games and to discourage them from reading the modern novels that fascinate them and doing many other things that an intellectually curious child is apt to do." [Ibid.] At most Waldorf schools, the inner council of faculty members is called the College of Teachers. The members study Rudolf Steiner's teachings, pray and meditate, and make administrative decisions for the school. “The College of Teachers of which I was privileged to be a member for many years had a strong tendency to oscillate between two extremes and I have seen similar tendencies in my travels as a visiting teacher [at other Waldorf schools]. One extreme is the position that the College should concern itself with purely spiritual matters and leave the nuts and bolts to other groups or individuals. The other is that the College should take the responsibility for everything, right down to the shape of the bathroom doorknob. Proponents of the first view say that it is the task of the College to maintain the lines of communication with the spiritual beings who hover over the school, and if the College doesn’t do it perhaps no one will. The school is a spiritual organism and there must be an organ to receive and cherish what flows in from the spirit [realm]. Those who take the second view say that decisions about nut and bolts are spiritual matters.” [Ibid.] Waldorf faculties often have very high opinions of themselves, believing that they are engaged on a holy mission. “Before I left England I had realized that there was something close to consensus among the teachers at Wynstones [a British Waldorf school] that their school was the one place in the world where things were being done correctly according to Rudolf Steiner’s wishes ... I also learnt that the staff at Michael Hall [another British Waldorf school] in Sussex thought the same thing about their school, although the exactly correct things being done there were often in contradiction to the exactly correct things being done at Wynstones. It did not occur to me that the same kind of scholastic chauvinism might operate in [Waldorf schools in] the USA until I had my nose practically rubbed in it ... The teachers at Wynstones and Michael Hall knew that they carried the sacred flame of Waldorf education. Some people at Garden City [a Waldorf school in suburban New York] had the same idea about themselves.” [Ibid.] "For many years, we were enthusiastic about the [Waldorf] school in spite of many red flags. Ultimately, however, we became disillusioned, in particular by what we considered to be Waldorf’s low academic standards. When we first enrolled, we were told that taking children out of the school between the beginning of first grade and the end of third grade could be a problem because many Waldorf students don't learn to read before the end of third grade; but by the end of third grade, we were told, Waldorf students are even with, or ahead of, students in other schools. That was not our experience, nor that of many other people I know.
“When my daughter went from Waldorf third grade to public school fourth grade, her new teacher told me she was two or three years behind grade level. Later in the year, she corrected that estimate and said that my daughter had been more than three years behind grade level. Walking around the public school classroom on parents' night, looking at the children's work, said it all. The children had written essays that were easy to follow, even with the occasional mistake here and there. Our daughter's essays were incomprehensible. She had made brave attempts to write words, guessing at the letters involved, but not succeeding in spelling a single word correctly. The other children's work was the result of four years of public education. Our daughter's was the result of four years of Waldorf ‘education.’ Our daughter worked extremely hard. As she began to progress, she told us she liked having grades and knowing whether she was learning how to do things right or not. When she finally started getting good grades in subjects other than art and physical education, she took pleasure in her own sense of accomplishment.” — Former Waldorf parent Margaret Sachs. [See “Our Experience”. ] “I asked specific questions about Anthroposophy and its role in our local Waldorf school before enrolling our children. This was before the Internet was a part of people's lives. I later discovered the answers I was given were lies. “I had no reason not to trust the information I was given. I've interviewed numerous private school directors and principals, and in those cases where my children ended up attending their schools there were no conditions or events that contradicted anything they told me about the schools. Because my father was in the army, my parents interviewed many private school principals before sending my brother and me to new schools. None of those schools had hidden agendas. There are some people you expect to lie, such as criminals, politicians, and teenagers. It is not normal, however, for schools to lie to parents of prospective students.” [Ibid.] “Another thing you might want to consider is that many parents have concerns about safety and hygiene issues at Waldorf schools. At our Waldorf school, it was apparent to me that teachers were woefully ignorant in this area. A friend's son fell from a tree at school. He lay on his back, in pain. A teacher came over and scooped him up in her arms, completely unaware that moving a person who is lying on the ground after a fall could cause permanent paralysis. On a camping trip, teachers forced two girls to pick up other people's soiled toilet paper with their bare hands. They were ignorant of first aid rules that adults who supervise children on camping trips are supposed to know — in this case, that latex gloves must always be worn when touching anything involving other people's bodily fluids because they could transmit HIV or other dangerous infections. Another parent reported that on a badly organized field trip, chaperones failed to keep all children in view. Some of those children, exhausted from having to hike too far, hitchhiked in strangers' cars. I have heard many other stories like these.” [Ibid.] "We discovered our children had been surreptitiously exposed to Anthroposophy in many different ways, such as through rituals, 'art,' history classes filled with ancient myths, and a boring form of movement called 'eurythmy' which supposedly links people directly to Steiner's 'supersensible world.' Much of it might might seem harmless, but in the long run it affects the development of a child's thinking. One of my children, now an adult, is still angry at having been led to believe things that were not true." [Ibid.] “At our Waldorf school, my son's class teacher did take bullying seriously when it was brought to his attention and, as far as I could tell, handled the situation well. Parents in other classes, however, told me they were not satisfied with how teachers handled reports of bullying. One girl ... actually broke other children's bones ... Several teen boys, including the son of Waldorf teachers, assaulted a girl ... A girl I knew was rammed against a wall by a teacher ... Yet another girl told me that a teacher hurt her when he yanked her arm to try to force her to cross a stream on a field trip and then grabbed her and shook her violently ... I saw a teacher go ballistic on two children for playing with some outdoor sprinkler lines ... Even a teacher whom we liked and respected had a reputation for occasionally going into extraordinary rages in the classroom. "In all fairness, there were some serious instances of student bullying and violence at a couple of other schools my children attended, although I never heard of teachers being out of control at any of them. "Clearly, though, our Waldorf school was far from being the peaceful, spiritually evolved environment we had originally believed it to be. It's my opinion that some of the teachers at our Waldorf school should not have been working with children and would never have been able to find employment in a non-Anthroposophical school." [See "Slaps".] Using pseudonyms for her former colleagues, a former Waldorf teacher has written, “[F]aculty meetings were a disaster ... It didn’t take me long to realize there were too many Indians and not enough chiefs in the room. I think because there was no recognized leader and because the school was small everyone seemed to believe that we could hold an informal conversation every Thursday after school and organically figure it out ... One of the reasons why faculty meetings felt like a root canal was not only due to the fact that no one seemed to be able to speak succulently [sic] thus toying with my nerves, but because of Mrs. Bear ... Because the concept of clear and concise never entered a faculty meeting (a salt and pepper combination essential to everyday living), I started to react physically. After one particular name-calling session between Mrs. Bear and Mr. and Mrs. Turtle, I got sick with the flu....” — Former Waldorf teacher Lani Cox. [See “Ex-Teacher”.] “’The sun with loving light makes bright for me each day. The soul with spirit power gives strength unto my limbs. In sunlight shining clear I do revere O God, the strength of humankind. Which thou so graciously has planted in my soul. That I will all might, may love to work and learn. From Thee come light and strength. To Thee rise love and thanks.’ “...[T]he candle is blown out and the class sits down.” [Ibid.] “Because we had little funding and because of everyone’s inexperience, all of my assistants were pulled from kindergarten and so they inevitably had to go back to their original classrooms. There was little consistency. Or you could say there was a great deal of consistent change. Just when one of the assistants stayed long enough to understand how to work with me and the children, she had to go back. “...Mrs. Peacock showed up one day unexpectedly and announced that she wanted to try her hand at leading the class. She always wanted to be a grade’s teacher and wouldn’t I let her have a chance? She played a few games with them and left smiling, satisfied by her performance. Another day Mrs. Blue jay stopped by. She sat back and watched. Then on another Mrs. Bear. Mrs. Raven observed my class as well. Other days, I had no assistant or visitors. “First grade had become a revolving door.” [Ibid.] “Staring at the sea of angry parents, I realized I was the youngest person in the room, that my mentor was of no use (when she was around) and that I was quickly developing a bad reputation. “...All eyes went to #18’s dad who was leaning back in his chair, ‘Yes. Truthfully I think you all are crazy. I can’t wait to get out of this school. I think Miss Cox is doing a fine job and all of you are making her crazy.’” [Ibid.] “At the end of my first year, a parent meeting was called by Mrs. Blue jay (who never showed up) because four families were pulling their children out of my class.... “This meeting was one of those dark stains, a memory that I have tried to blot out, like much of my time as a teacher. “...In the middle of the nauseating discussion ... #14’s mom said, ‘One of the problems is Trembling Trees is a young school that does not attract quality teachers. It attracts teachers with little or no experience, like Lani who was not emotionally available for my child.’ “I sat there in silence. I was, by this point, used to being insulted both privately and publicly. “...I was surprised when my mentor Amy cut her off because no one had ever done this before, ‘I really don’t feel that is appropriate. We’re here to talk about the class.’ “The tension in the room was not just thick, it was stifling. Someone unaccustomed to the thickness of Trembling Trees would have been gagging from the tension but we all had learned to breathe in this environment by now. The parents went back and forth discussing their happiness with me and the smaller size of the class or their alarm and concern with my inability to hold the class together. I clutched my pen as I took notes trying to keep my throat from closing in.” [Ibid.] “[M]uch to the protest of the other faculty members, the loudest being from Mrs. Bear, a ‘Core Group’ was formed consisting of Mrs. Blue jay, Mr. Worm (later replaced by Mrs. Squirrel when Mr. Worm stepped down due to health problems) and Mr. Wolf. “Yes, that is the name they called themselves. The Core Group ... This elitist group became the court of law in the land, thus most of us who went to plead our cases left defeated or angry or both. When I went to them asking if we could come together and discuss what happened in the first and fourth grade class last year as a case study, Mr. Skunk told me that, ‘From what I heard you should have been fired last year. I would have fired you.’” [Ibid.] “[D]espite how humiliated I felt, how out of control the whole meeting seemed and useless, very useless unless the point was to dance on my grave as if I were dead. But then the pivotal moment occurred, when 14’s mom nonchalantly said, 'I don’t think Lani cares.’ “My face slid off. I lost it. I lost it. I began to cry and the harder I tried to hold it like a child holding her breath, the more helplessly I sobbed. “...’This is an opportunity for you to tell Mrs. Fourteen how you feel, Lani.’ Amy placed her hand over mine. But my mouth would not open. “...I kept shaking my head. I don’t remember looking up very much during that meeting. I didn’t trust myself to speak besides I was crying too hard. Instead I crumbled and re-crumpled the tissue that had been placed in my hands. I refused to be any more vulnerable than I already was and so for the rest of the meeting everyone said polite things and then thankfully like an operation gone wrong, it ended. “I braced myself as Amy made the announcement that I had just learned before the meeting — she was pregnant with her second child and would no longer be mentoring me. I felt continuously abandoned. Everything was becoming a personal blow.” [Ibid.] "In September 2005, the [Waldorf] high school students, teachers and some staff members went to what was called a 'communication retreat' on an island set up for summer camps. "The retreat was the creation of two staff members who claimed to be experienced in this kind of group work. It was later discovered that they had never tried this with a large group of students. "The main activity of students (ages 14 to 19) and staff members was to sit in a large circle, 67 people in total, in the cafeteria for six hours divided by three sittings. "All were asked to keep silent unless [one] individual felt moved to speak. The beginning of this activity was signaled by a chime used by a staff member. No one could speak until they said their name each time they wanted to speak, i.e. 'My name is ...'. "The stated goal of this five-day activity was to bring all members of the group to one consensus of one thought. By the end of the second day, many students were intimidated by this process and were not able to express themselves. Many students showed signs of restlessness, agitation and they were clearly uncomfortable. They were not allowed to call their parents privately. Some students called this cult indoctrination and refused to attend meetings. " — Former Waldorf teacher "Alice Shapiro." [See "Ex-Teacher Too".]* “Many parents were furious about this kind of indoctrination, some students left the school and damage control was in effect. Instead of taking responsibility for an ill-fated retreat, they made me their scapegoat. I was accused of doing and saying things I did not do or say. Be this said, the exit cost from this cult was very high causing irreparable damage to my family and my career.” [Ibid.] “Waldorf schools are a religious messianic-type cult built on the dogmas of theosophical principles and beliefs put in place by a charismatic cult leader, Rudolf Steiner, who is a self-proclaimed clairvoyant wielding his own style of New World Order. “This is a polytheistic religion using the word 'verses' to replace 'prayer' used every morning in all classes. Teachers are expected to use these prayers, meditations akin to the Buddhist method and Steiner prescribed spiritual exercises to gain knowledge of the gods, their hierarchies and their higher worlds.” [Ibid.] “According to a well-known present-day anthroposophist, Roy Wilkinson, [Waldorf] teachers are expected to develop clairvoyant faculties. Wilkinson outlines this path in the book THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION, The Waldorf Approach, noting specifically in the chapter ‘Esoteric Development and the Teacher’; ‘This is the same path that should be followed by every teacher who takes his vocation seriously.’" [Ibid.] “My Waldorf school, and the kindergarten, too, was very violent; violence was around all the time. There was lots of bullying, and I've read other state that the school was well-known for its problems with bullying. Nothing was ever done to stop the bullying. "The violence was pretty much a standard method of hanging around, I can't describe it better. You could count on being thrown into the wall, cupboards or into rocks, being hit, being pushed, those kinds of things — every day. "I've been scratched 'til I got bruises, been kicked in my back 'til I couldn't breath, been hit with a wooden 'club' on my head so that I saw stars (but no angels). But that's just the tip of an iceberg. "As far as I can remember, I was never physically maltreated by a teacher — my class teacher was a relatively decent human being, although misled by Steinerites. In kindergarten, I don't know, those teachers were more evil and more Anthro. Also, the teacher who was hired to bring me to school against my will when I was in 1st grade, she didn't mind hurting me while she stopped me from fleeing. But she didn't continue to hurt me just because she could.” — Former Waldorf student Alicia Hamburg [See “Slaps”.] "I have had so much telephone air time in the last week [i.e., phone calls] from survivors of this absurd and nasty education [i.e., Waldorf education]. One letter from a man whose daughter was sexually abused by a teacher named [X] in 1982 when she was seven. He is so angry and feels so helpless as his daughter is self mutilating, in and out of hospital and generally broken. [X] was known by me to be sexually abusing little girls for sure in 1975. We suspected he was doing the same to little boys as well. This had been going on since he joined in the late 1960's. Any queries were dismissed, put down, isolated with the implication that the victim had somehow deserved it. “...I personally had [one] main lesson teacher for eight years. I used to try and count the days I DID NOT get beaten. One term there were no days. I was humiliated verbally, described as a mess, slow and stupid. I was dyslexic. He died a few years ago much respected....” — Former Waldorf student “Rosie.” [“See Waldorf Student Testimonial - Rosie” at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/RosieTestimonial.html.] "If a system believes that we inherit our Karma and that all bad things are what we chose in a previous life, fair enough. But there is not place for this in education of children. The belief might be there,as we know racism is often there, but any sign that it is being acted out should be nipped in the bud. There is no way this should be an alibi for raping a small child, beating anyone for anything and actively preventing them from learning. "Steiner school have a reputation, created by themselves, for nurturing and caring. A third parent [i.e., the school is a third parent] is another description I have heard. This is so totally the opposite from my experience. So many children came from 'dysfunctional' homes. Parents either knew they needed help and hoped the school was the answer or needed an alibi for their own behavior and the school gave them that." [Ibid.] "I had been assigned [as classroom assistant] to the ‘main lesson’ teacher of a 2nd grade class [in a Waldorf school], but I also had the opportunity to obtain some inside views into the lessons given in other grades. In this class, forty-two (!) children sat in pairs at double desks, all facing the teacher. The organic form of the room and the pastel-colored walls didn't compensate for such an arrangement. I quickly learned that large classes were the rule at this school, and not the exception. In this light, a cap of thirty-three students in public school classes seems like paradise — even though we rightly complain that one cannot properly work with the individual student in groups that large.” — Claudia Pangh, “The Phlegmatic Sits by the Window”. [See "Ex-Teacher 3”.] “Every school day [at the Waldorf school] was so ritualized that a large part of the morning was taken up by the recitation of verses, either individually or as a group. I don't know how many parents are aware of the nature of these verses to which their children are exposed on a daily basis, and which the students have to learn by heart. From my point of view, they carried a distinctly Christian-Anthroposophical world view, which, in my opinion, should only have a place in religious instruction. I would even doubt that the seven and eight year old kids had any understanding of the meaning of the words they parroted every day. Fortunately, conflicts with children from different religions or cultures did not arise; I found my Waldorf school to be a zone completely void of foreigners.” [Ibid.] “The actual instruction in [a Waldorf] class was executed ... rigidly ... No matter whether students wrote, drew, or calculated, everything was done in rigid monotony. There were only a few moments in which the children could contribute their own ideas. Usually, people stuck to the prescribed schedule. Each of my shy questions about the reasons for the various measures and schedules was answered with a reference to Rudolf Steiner's works. For my host, the maxims Steiner had developed in the twenties contained clear and unconditional truth, and they were never questioned.” [Ibid.] “I could tell you more [about my experiences teaching in a Waldorf school] ... [such as] the pedagogical criteria to judge students according to their temperaments, which were completely new to me, and the strange seating arrangement resulting from them. The sanguines sit by the wall, because they're already so wound up, but the phlegmatics sit by the window, cause they need the energy of the light! Or I could talk about the often praised foreign language instruction, which I found to be a stupid memorization of poems and verses.” [Ibid.] “Based on my experiences [as an assistant teacher in a Waldorf school], I think that many parents don't realize what immense importance the Anthroposophical ideology has in Waldorf schools. Families will probably get into conflicts right away if the parents aren't convinced and practicing Anthroposophists themselves; the impression of a certain amount of indoctrination appeared at least partly justified. As I said, Anthroposophically oriented families probably won't have a problem with that, but others should think twice about what they are getting into.” [Ibid.] “What bugs me most is that the Waldorf schools are still presented as THE ultimate progressive schools, and many parents who only want the best for their child blindly trust their concept. Of course, it is possible to find plenty of negative experiences with teaching and teachers in public schools, but this makes it even worse if Waldorf pedagogy is presented as THE shining counter-ideal. The expectations of many critical parents will remain unfulfilled, for example when it comes to self-determined and individualized learning. A pedagogical concept becomes questionable in my eyes if it tunes out the reality of society to the extent Waldorf pedagogy does. Some may view this as shelter for their children, but I would call it otherworldliness. If school is to prepare for an emancipated life in society, it has to confront the difficulties and problems of the children, no matter whether it is the media, violence, racism or other issues. “Finally, one should realize in this public discussion that in the mean time the ideas and goals of progressive education have made their way into public schools. The picture that is painted in public about the teaching reality in public schools these days is often wrong. As a student of social pedagogy, herself a Waldorf graduate, said when she watched independent work in a [public school] classroom run by myself and a colleague: ‘Oh, how wonderful, I didn't know teaching like this can be so much fun!’" [Ibid.] "My name is Sarah ... I attended a Waldorf school from first grade to the beginning of sixth grade ... I have A DD [attention deficit disorder] ... Waldorf is totally in the dark about ADD-related disorders and other types of disabilities..... “My teacher was a man who I will refer to here as Mr. M, who was and is ... a teacher bully ... Mr. M went out of his way to give me a hard time and bully me because of my difficulty paying attention, or if I made a mistake no matter how small ... I remember him in first grade screaming at me in front of the whole class, because I was having trouble understanding a math problem ... I remember in third grade, I misunderstood a homework assignment and he literally shamed me for the whole afternoon.... “...Whenever dealing with my parents Mr. M would pretend to act all sweet and nice, but when he was with me, he became a bully. My mom knows now that she should have taken me out of that school a lot sooner ... I recently learned that a lot of Waldorf students have stories like mine. “...As far as Mr. M is concerned, he still teaches at [the same Waldorf] school and has done this kind of thing to other students and the administration has done nothing about it.” — A former Waldorf student. [See “Slaps”.] " "When I returned to Los Angeles I was determined to go back to school [for graduate work] in a more humanistic and spiritualized course of study. I chose to study psychology and astrology. I found my perfect partner and was married in 1973 at my Saturn return ... I went to work on a construction job ... I was there for one hour when a steel door slammed shut in an ‘accident,’ and I lost the tips of three fingers ... I recognized that I had a karmic relationship with the owner of the company ... In a previous life he had lived as a woman, and I had carelessly cut her fingers with my sword. “...I began to study Anthroposophy ... I then found the Waldorf School teacher training program at Highland Hall [a Waldorf school] in Los Angeles ... After completing my course of study I went to work as a Waldorf teacher at the Denver Waldorf School.” — Former Waldorf teacher Ron Odama, in ASTROLOGY AND ANTHROPOSOPHY (Bennett & Hastings, 2009). [See “Ex-Teacher 4”.] “When it became time for my wife and I to find a Waldorf school for our own children, our search led us to Portland, Oregon. There we found a Waldorf school where I could teach and our children attend ... Teaching the Waldorf curriculum while incorporating Anthroposophy as a background for inspiration was of great benefit.... “[Later] I went to work as an insurance agent/financial planner ... I wanted to teach in Waldorf schools [again]. I found a position in Kona, Hawaii ... [Still later] we left to teach in Seattle. I was forced out due to political differences ... My last teaching attempt was at a Waldorf school in Bellevue, Washington. To my dismay I found that the Waldorf school was not following Rudolf Steiner’s indications.... “...I retired and began to devote my time to astrology.... ” [Ibid.] "[I pulled] my kids out of a ridiculous waldorf situation years ago ... [N]ow, after a couple of years of being at the public school i have to say that yes — a lot of things are easier to accept at a waldorf school. aesthetically it is much more pleasing, they don't send home loads and loads of meaningless worksheets, the kids are outdoors — well, you know the pros. (and i hate to admit this prejudice; the parents are a heck of a lot more interesting than the parents at the public school!) BUT the secrecy, the 'us and them' mentality of the faculty and the 'born-again anthro parents' — it's lunacy!! someone here once said that the waldorfgang was the most unintellectual group of people she ever met and I completely agree. i've been in study groups where some old anthro is reinterpreting what steiner said and basically spewing racist ideas and these (mostly) moms just sit there, absorbing it all! ... it IS a cult. and it would be completely fine, if they just were open about it. instead there is so much deception and secrecy going on that once you start exposing it, people just don't want to believe that they had been so gullible. the issue about prayers is a perfect example — are they just verses or are they prayers. you go sit in a classroom where a bunch of four year olds are thanking god for the trees and the blossoms and some of them even saying amen at the end of it and then try to pretend it's just a verse.” — Former Waldorf parent C. [See “Testimonial of a Former Waldorf Parent” at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/anonymous_testimonial_4.html ] " I had previously read about Steiner Waldorf schools in a glowing article in a national newspaper. It described an holistic creative education based outdoors using 'nature as teacher.' Intrigued, I began by taking my son to a Steiner parent and toddler group. So enchanted was I at the time, I managed to persuade my family to move 40 miles away to be near a bigger Steiner school where our son would be able to attend long term. I remember attending the summer fair and whilst I stood in the queue to request a prospectus, a woman in front of me asked the administrator the following question: ‘How will the school meet the needs of my psychic daughter?’ He smiled and replied ‘We are all psychic here.’ I thought he was joking. “Once we had moved and enrolled our son, the teacher started to mention the word ‘Anthroposophy’ and the existence of a study group for new parents. I felt foolish that I had to ask what Anthroposophy was (I had previously looked for the word in my dictionary and had not found it) and was told it was the study of human wisdom. The teacher didn't tell me the core belief of Anthroposophy is the concept of reincarnation of the soul through racial hierarchies from Black to Aryan as a consequence of a person's karma; or the classification of a child's soul according to their physiognomy, nor was I told of the Anthroposophical movement's history. I didn't question further at that stage. As one parent recently observed ‘You don't expect a school to lie.’" — Former Waldorf parent D. [See “Coming Undone”.] "Many alarm bells rang during our time [at a Steiner school]. I remember the intense gaze of the teachers that would continue far longer than was comfortable. There was little laughter, everything was carried out in a very slow and purposeful way with a singsong voice, the lighting of candles, the wearing of strange hats, their infatuation with wool ... I recall the time the teacher took both my hands in hers and explaining my son had 'chosen me as his mother [before birth],' on a further occasion she stated he had 'chosen the school' ... I also recall politely refusing a teacher's offer [to] compile an astrological chart based on my son's birth date.
“...I noticed that some of the Steiner school parents became progressively withdrawn from family and friends outside the Steiner movement and gradually surrounded themselves only with those who followed the Anthroposophical belief system. I remember being invited to various other self-development programmes ... I remember the school reception displaying numerous leaflets promoting homeopathy. Mention of vaccination was conspicuously absent. I remember asking many questions and being told I was 'too in the head' and that I should 'learn to think with my heart.' I recall parents asking the teacher's advice regarding well-meaning grandparents buying electronic and plastic toys, both of which are frowned upon in Steiner schools. The teacher directed them to a specialist Steiner Waldorf toy catalogue. I began to think this was more about control than care.” [Ibid.] "[T]he Steiner dream ends for many families with the realisation that their child is academically far behind his or her peers. Susan Godsland, an independent reading intervention expert, has helped many ex-Steiner children learn to read at 8, 9 and 10. Though she acknowledges that some children can blossom in Steiner school, that a percentage will learn to read earlier in spite of the pedagogy, she believes it’s cruel to deny a child the chance to read until so late. In the last paragraphs of her Room 101 she explains why early reading isn’t encouraged [in Steiner schools]. A child is ‘blessed’ with not being able to read and write, since Steiner says early reading will hinder the later spiritual development of children. She adds: ‘this is simply mumbo-jumbo and should be treated with the contempt it deserves.’ “While it is evident that this failure in basic teaching could cause low self esteem, the influence of anthroposophical medicine within Waldorf schools is an added concern (for example, mistletoe as a ‘treatment’ for cancer). In addition the measles epidemics linked to European Waldorf schools are an indication of an anti-vaccination culture.” [Ibid.] From an article about Lillian Cooper, a former public school teacher who later took Waldorf teacher training: “Tubman, which is a Waldorf school, promotes an offbeat ‘New Age’ religion known as Anthroposophy. Teachers, she said, were told that Anthroposophy is ingrained in the curriculum of the school and that they would be responsible for the spiritual development of their pupils. "’The red flag went up when I was told that I would be responsible for developing the soul consciousness of the children,’ Cooper says. ‘They started talking more and more about it ... To be a good Waldorf teacher, we had to develop our inner lives in a certain way. What I realized after quitting was that this inner path is the path according to [Waldorf schools founder] Rudolf Steiner.’ “During one session, Cooper recalls, instructors posted a diagram labeled ‘Teacher as Priest.’ Says Cooper, ‘I thought, “I can't do this; I have public school credentials.” I just got real scared at that point....’" [See “Ex-Teacher 8”.] ] “Waldorf writings seem to back this up. In one book, STEINER EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, author Gilbert Childs writes, ‘Waldorf teachers must be anthroposophists first and teachers second....[I]t must never be forgotten — and one must be emphatic about this — that the whole of teaching matter and method in Steiner schools is aimed at developing within each child the consciousness that spirit permeates everything in the world.’" [Ibid.] “I was involved in a Steiner school for quite a few years....
“The kindergarten was a disaster... . “The bullying was awful. The teacher ignored it, capitulated in it, or simply showed all these little kids how to do it best. One time my daughter told her kindergarten teacher a little boy had kicked her, hard, right then as they were sitting there, and the kindergarten teacher had said in her sing-song voice ‘Oh, I don't think he did, did he?’ "...The teacher often gripped my daughter hard on the arm when she was displeased with her.... “The kids at that school were and are so angry because the parents were so busy arguing and getting exhausted and keeping up appearances and trying to hold down jobs as well so they could afford a certain kind of right-on organic whole-foods yoga-mum lifestyle in North London AND the Steiner school fees as well AND the time they were supposed to put in [volunteering at the school]...it made them all totally wired-up, short-circuiting really, quite crazy and paranoid and twitchy to be around.... “[Eventually] I really realised nothing about that school in particular could ever do my daughter any good ... [Many people there were] hardcore Steiner followers who didn't acknowledge me, or others I knew, time and time again, who would look straight through us, and only talk to each other.... "When my child was going through a bad time [at her Waldorf school] it was draining emotionally and my energy was gone. I needed to get him out of the situation, as a few other parents did with their children. I looked at the big picture and realized I wasn't up for the fight. The horizontal administration [i.e., 'collegial' faculty governance], not one person accountable, makes for very slow changes ... My child is now at a wonderful [non-Waldorf] school and his behavior and attitude have changed beyond belief ... [L]ast year 35 families, approximately 75 children left our [Waldorf] school, I was not an isolated case ... Obviously those families did not think the fight was worth it. The fifth grade class at our school went from 24 children to 9 children, they lost most children this year and last year. The lower grades are fairing better but there have been at least 5 families that have left Kindergarten through second grade this year, mid-term.” — Former Waldorf parent E. [See "Anonymous Testimonial From Waldorf Parent" at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/StoryAnon02.html.] "We pulled our child out [of her Waldorf school] not because of some incident that happened but because we read Steiner. We didn't like what we read and felt very violated that the school had been operating on a level that excluded us from the pedagogy [i.e., they accepted no input from parents]. I say this because in addition to not being provided the information up front, many questions that I asked of different teachers were not answered in a straightforward manner.
“In the case of the kindergarten teacher I know for a fact that her vague and deflective manner was not due to her limited knowledge of RS and anthroposophy. In discussions I've had with another parent in that class there was a wide range of knowledge about anthroposophy and Rudolph Steiner that this teacher shared with that parent. I found out at a meeting I attended after leaving the school that the teacher's husband (also a board member) stated that he had been studying Steiner for 2 decades.” — Former Waldorf parent Kathy H.. [See “Parent Testimonial in waldorf-critics Post” at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/KathyTestimonial.html.] "Have you seen it written somewhere that Steiner believed white people were most evolved??? This was blatantly apparent in the curriculum of the Waldorf school we visited.
"My daughter is African American, and this is one of the two reasons (along with the sexist dynamics) that we decided against the school. The teacher, telling me about the history part of the curriculum, said that since 5th graders are becoming rational, and rationality 'came in with the Greeks,' that's what they study in 5th grade. "The whole 'history as a developmental process paralleling children's development, with Western civilization at the pinnacle' is inherently racist. "I saw the unit study books one class had done about Africa. At the beginning, under their identical paintings of a traditional African man hunting in silhouette, they all had the same saying copied: 'Perhaps this life of ours which begins as the quest of the child for the adult, ends as a journey by the adult to rediscover the child...It is in the Bushman wherein the two are finally and lovingly joined.' (Laurens van der Post) I shudder to think of my daughter learning about her heritage in this way." [See “Woman See Waldorf Racism on First Visit" at http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/WomanSeesRacism.html.] "We are very worried about how [our son’s] time at the Steiner school is still affecting him ... He left in May last year, and he still has nightmares. He will wake up very afraid at least 2 - 3 times a week, and while half-asleep will beg us not to send him back to Steiner school in the morning. He still talks about it almost every day, mentioning stupid, stupid things that the so-called teachers filled his head with. It still makes me so angry that he couldn't tell us the ridiculous things they were saying to him while he was there, as the teachers were belittling our role as his parents and telling him what they said was the real 'truth.' It’s still very much at the forefront of his mind, and for a six-year-old to remember those things in such detail almost a year on is worrying.“ — Former Waldorf parent F. [See “Slaps”. ] |