Good Parts (Waldorf Watch)

THE GOOD (?) PARTS

Not All Bad;

Not All Good

Following is an edited version of remarks I posted at the free-speech forum

associated with http://waldorfcritics.org/. The address for this ongoing discussion is

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/ .

I encourage anyone with an interest in Waldorf education or Anthroposophy

to consider joining the discussion. Or pop over there just to do a little reading.

Some good things happen at Waldorf schools. I tend to forget this, since I believe that the overall effect of a Waldorf is so damaging. But to be fair, some good things do happen.

As a Waldorf school student, I had roles in two Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, a role in at least one Shakespeare play, and small part in a play by John Synge. I was introduced to great music in the school chorus. I played (badly) in the school orchestra. I learned to play the recorder (a medieval woodwind instrument, which I still enjoy — I have soprano, alto, tenor, and bass recorders, and I play almost daily). [1] I read great literature in English classes. [2] I was exposed to foreign languages (although not really required to learn any). And I was exposed to a great deal of art. I painted and sculpted and carved (wood shop was great: we made bowls and boats and lamps...)

Also, I was shielded from gangs, most forms of bullying, and much of the worst of popular culture, including soda pop machines. (But my classmates and I were not totally ignorant of modern diversions and misconduct. Be realistic. Some of my classmates and I drank fairly regularly by our junior year. The guys read PLAYBOY and snuck into "blue movie" theaters. Some guys and girls experimented gingerly with sex: touching; foreplay — and perhaps, in some cases, more. We were teenagers living in the USA. The school could not totally disconnect us from the planet on which we lived, the culture around us, or the surging of our own hormones. I imagine we were probably better behaved than lots of our contemporaries at other schools. But I also suspect that we were more confused. Many of us truly wished for spiritual blessings. But sex play and inebriation also seemed like blessings to some of us. We were, to varying degrees, innocent, lustful, inhibited, dissipated, self-censuring, and self-loathing. We were teenagers — almost certainly more conflicted than most — living in the USA.) [3]

My sister has often told me she wished she had gone to a public school. I sometimes wished the same for myself. Many public schools suffer from serious problems, I'm sure. Drugs, gangs, hyper-attention to sports, etc. (But to be fair: My old Waldorf now makes a big deal of its sports teams. [4]) But despite their problems — or perhaps because of their problems — public schools represent real life. There, you deal with people as they really are, awful and great, petty and generous, narrow and wide: you confront the truth of the human condition. This is precisely what Anthroposophy avoids, choosing an alternate, imaginary universe to substitute for the real one. And it is what Waldorf schools try to wish away, trying to insulate kids from reality, which only leaves them unprepared for the real lives most of them must lead after graduation.

I need to remind myself that some of my education at Waldorf was beneficial. But I'm still sorry that I went to a Waldorf school, and I'm convinced that the overall effect of a Waldorf education can be profoundly harmful. It was for me.

II.

I don't know how effective sex education classes may be; nor drug and alcohol awareness programs; nor vocational guidance. We never had anything like these at my Waldorf school. Our schooling was aimed more at unseen worlds than at preparation to live in this world.

Also, as I've argued in other essays, we were not given much assistance in learning to think straight. Just the opposite. As I've reported, many of us felt ourselves to be in a fog most of the time. It is probably not surprising, then, if some (many?) of us developed non-clinicial split personalities, on the one hand pious and aspiring, yet also itching for some down-and-dirty worldly experience.

The first PLAYBOY I ever saw was in a classmate's home. The father, who paid to send his kid to Waldorf, subscribed. The first alcohol I ever tasted came out of the well-stocked liquor-and-beer cabinet owned by the father of another classmate.

As in so many spheres of life, Waldorf did little if anything to help us seriously examine the temptations we would have to confront in life. Waldorf simply barred certain topics. We were on our own, in that sense — kids with turbulent hormones who didn't know what we were feeling nor what to do about it. Of course, teenagers going to other schools wrestle with similar circumstances, so for once we Waldorfers were more or less ordinary teens, making ordinary-teen mistakes.

The point of all this is that although Waldorfs may attempt to shield students from the wickedness of the wide world, their success seems quite limited. Indeed, I believe they would be more successful if they looked on the world more realistically and addressed its problems more directly.

I was the monarch of the sea.

[1964 PINNACLE (Kansas City: Inter-Collegiate Press, 1964).]

I've included a few images of myself on pages at this site

just to show that I was there: I went to Waldorf.

(But I didn't usually dress this way.)

The emphasis on arts is perhaps the most obviously appealing

good part. Most parents would be thrilled if their kids

created paintings like this.

[Courtesy of PLANS.]

Waldorf nurtured my interest in art.

I'm sorry, however, that the arts — as found in Waldorfs schools —

are interwoven with occultism.

[R. Rawlings, ~ 1995.]

AFTERWORD

Here are excepts from an absolutely horrifying news account about a Waldorf school. Presumably this school is an extreme case. Presumably such misbehavior is not found at other Waldorf schools — or at least, such behavior may not happen exclusively at Waldorf schools. Still...

I will mark places where I have skipped passages, inserting the symbol <snip>. To read the entire story, go to http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/no-class-act-20090710-dg2v.html?page=-1

While the details of events described in the news report may be unique, some elements in the report are reminiscent of issues I cover in "Report Card" and "Slaps" as well as other essays here at Waldorf Watch.

NO CLASS ACT

By Tim Elliott

Brisbane Times.com.au

July 11, 2009

As an English teacher with a penchant for romantic poetry, Roger Graham knows how to write a love letter. But in 2001 when he began writing to one of his 16-year-old female students, the married Graham, in his fifties, may have penned the final chapter for the Newcastle Waldorf School, a Rudolf Steiner school he helped establish in the early 1980s.

"Dearest heart! Most beloved, heart of my heart!" he wrote to the girl, then in the same class as his daughter. "I yearn for your lips and arms … "

Graham wrote to "my luminous goddess" some 20 times over the next six months, during which they began a physical relationship, hugging and kissing before, during and after school.

<snip>

The relationship was discovered in May 2001, and Graham was stood down [i.e., removed] on full pay. Even then, he continued to write to the girl, his letters passed on by the school's co-founder and senior teacher, Keitha Montefiore.

In 2003 Graham was re-employed as a consultant to the school, but the position was terminated in 2006.

<snip>

Graham's re-emergence is the latest in a long line of controversies at the 140-student school, including the sexual grooming of students by male and female teachers in the mid-2000s and allegations of emotional and physical abuse dating back to the early 1990s.

In 1995 eight children and several parents made statements to the child protection and investigation unit of Newcastle Police, alleging seven teachers shook, choked, hit and kicked students as young as seven. A teacher also reportedly pushed a boy through a classroom window, breaking his arm.

The school - the recipient last year of $800,000 in state and federal funding - has since been the subject of complaints to the Department of Community Services, the NSW [New South Wales] Ombudsman, the Association of Independent Schools, the Board of Studies and politicians.

"And yet nothing ever seemed to change," says Peta Ridgeway, who removed her children from the school at the end of 2006. "It's a mystery to me how the place wasn't closed down."

<snip>

Many parents told the Herald of being initially attracted to the school's perceived freedoms, including lack of uniform, long play in natural surroundings and a sheltering from the excesses of popular culture.

"They espouse all these beautiful things about 'the kingdom of childhood' and the creative and expressive side of the education," says Maria Larratt, who withdrew her son Leo in June 2006. "But after a while you start to notice some strange things about the way the place is run."

Parents, former students and former staff allege a culture of secrecy, denial and cover-up at the school, which they claim is run as a private fiefdom of Montefiore and Graham, until the latter's dismissal.

Montefiore - whose four children have taught at the school - "is a power unto herself", says a former member of the school board. "And they all idolise Roger. When the board dismissed him, two female teachers came to me, weeping, and begged me not to do it."

Several teachers have gone on to marry former students, who in turn became teachers at the school. "The whole place is incredibly incestuous and parochial," says the former board member.

<snip>

While not accredited to teach years 11 and 12, the school regularly invites its more promising students - the "culturally worthy" - to stay on as "colleagues". These students attend TAFE as well as the Newcastle Waldorf School in year 11, but the school exclusively in year 12.

Called the College of Students, the practice has led to an unusual level of fraternisation between students and teachers. In 2006 a female teacher was dismissed, allegedly for inappropriate contact with two male year 12 students. That same year, a male teacher resigned, reportedly after a physical altercation with a student.

<snip>

Of most concern perhaps has been the school's history of unorthodox discipline - what a Newcastle DOCS [Department of Community Services] officer described in a 1995 letter to the school as a "concerning pattern of [the] use of physical force". The letter queried the school's solicitor, Bruce Hansen, about the use of "milkshakes", together with teachers pushing, throttling and kicking children, and quoted a girl, 8, claiming "nearly all of the teachers tell you that if you tell your mum you get more of it tomorrow".

Maria Larratt first became concerned in 2002, when her five-year old son Leo came home talking about how he received a "milkshake" from Montefiore. When Larratt and her husband asked what he meant, Leo picked up a doll, grabbed it by the shoulders and shook it violently.

<snip>

DOCS received reports of risk of harm against specific children in 1991, 1995 and 2000; a further nine instances were reported and investigated in 2006 and 2007, and one last year.

<snip>

Parents who have complained are baffled by what they claim is a lack of remedial action. "Every time the Board of Studies comes to accredit the school, it goes through a period of window dressing," one parent told the Herald. "I've come to believe that nothing will change until Keitha and Roger have been totally removed from that school."

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

•••

I'll add a few comments.

The situation at that Waldorf school seems genuinely horrendous. Of course, such things do not happen only at Waldorf schools. I'm prepared to go even farther and stipulate that the situation described in the article may be uniquely terrible, never seen before or since in precisely that form at any other Waldorf school. (And, quite important: We must bear in mind that the news account count be mistaken in minor or major ways. Roger Graham must be considered innocent until proven guilty.)

Still, I would argue that Waldorf schools ask for such problems — specifically, the create an atmosphere in which teachers may easily wind up abusing students. Waldorf schools are meant to be authoritarian. Steiner said that students’ “souls are open to consciously receiving what works on them from teachers on the basis of a natural, unquestioned authority." [Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 4.] Waldorf teachers should have unquestioned authority.

Steiner also said, “The situation is that we need to create a mood, namely, that the teacher has something to say that the children should neither judge nor discuss ... An actual discussion lowers the content ... That is something I mentioned before in connection with ‘discussion meetings.’ They need to be avoided.” [Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p.495.] Students should sit down, shut up, and accept what they are told without judgment or discussion.

Steiner expected parents, also, to accept Waldorf teachers’ authority with a minimum of questioning or discussion.

What happens in the real world when people are given unquestioned, unsupervised authority over others? Unquestioned Waldorf teachers cannot lead students to the sorts of evolutionary or spiritual fulfillment that Steiner described, even though this may be their purpose. Steiner was peddling fantasies; the rewards he described do not exist; Waldorf teachers cannot give students rewards that are impossible.

In the real world, when people have unquestioned authority over others, they almost inevitably abuse this authority — that is, they abuse the people who are under their control. It is sadly true that, in the real world, power corrupts.

Waldorf schools are dangerous places for many reasons, and this is one of them. The schools are authoritarian, which means that sooner or later Waldorf teachers are likely to abuse their unquestioned power. The abuse may not always entail physical violence; it may not usually entail sexual misconduct. More generally, the abuse may simply entail luring children into dark, empty occultism — with or, more commonly, without the consent of the children’s parents. Quiet manipulation of this sort may not seem abusive, but it is — potentially very severely so. Teaching kids that the real is unreal (the physical universe is illusory) and the unreal is real (karma, gnomes, invisible presences...) can mean inflicting deep psychological damage. It can unfit children for real life, making them dissatisfied with everything that is possible in the real world, while encouraging them to form impossible yearnings for the otherworldly.

This danger is accentuated at Waldorf schools by other factors. The conception of human nature preached by Steiner is utterly bizarre and unrealistic. As a result, devoted followers of Steiner may have great difficulty understanding their own motivations. Who knows what was going through Roger Graham's mind when he wrote to, and later caressed, his "luminous goddess"? (For the sake of argument, at least, let's stipulate that the news account is accurate in these matters.) Think of the spiritualistic meaning an Anthroposophist might find in such words, or in the phrase "heart of my heart". Did Graham think the young woman was his spiritual soulmate? Did he think his karma and hers were intertwined? Did he find his passion to be a form of spiritual exaltation? Did he fail to realize that he, like all men, can be excited by a nubile young woman in ways that are entirely earthly, not in the least spiritual?

The sense of moral and spiritual superiority within Waldorf communities also may lead to behavior like Graham's reported misdeeds. Anthroposophists believe they possess truths that most of the rest of us don't. They have, in their own opinion, a superior vision. Perhaps they are more highly evolved than other humans. Perhaps their spirits are purer. Perhaps the rules applying to the rest of us don't apply to them. Certainly they feel justified in lying to outsiders, disguising their real intentions, and blurring mere societal lines, such as the distinction between secular tax-supported schools and private religious schools. If the morality and laws of the secular world don't apply to Waldorf teachers in some matters, maybe they don't apply to them in other matters as well — such as sexual predation. At the least, note that other faculty members pleaded for Roger Graham: "When the board dismissed him, two female teachers came to me, weeping, and begged me not to do it." They apparently considered Graham to be above sanction.

This reflects the enclosed, cult-like culture of many Waldorf schools. Waldorf schools are often spiritually incestuous. Deeply committed members of the faculty may only look within the tiny Waldorf community for friendship and support. They think they see in one another qualities they cannot spot in outsiders. “When we today — permeated even a little with anthroposophical consciousness — take a walk in the streets, we no longer see human people; rather we see moles that move about in the smallest of circles....” [Rudolf Steiner, EDUCATION FOR ADOLESCENTS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 92.] It isn't surprising, then, if Waldorf teachers seek sexual partners only within their cult, even if the partners they find would be off limits when judged by the rules of blind "moles." Indeed, forbidden sex may be all the more exciting if it is interpreted (perhaps just in one man's mind) as being entirely, spiritually proper within the uniquely glorious society of a cult.

To my mind, one of the most troubling elements in the "culture" of the Waldorf School at New Castle is shown in this: "While not accredited to teach years 11 and 12, the school regularly invites its more promising students - the "culturally worthy" - to stay on as 'colleagues' ... Called the College of Students, the practice has led to an unusual level of fraternisation between students and teachers." This reflects an extraordinary degree of self-approbation and elitism. The teachers of the Waldorf inner circle (called the College of Teachers at many Waldorfs) select the most "worthy" students to join them in a fraternity that considers itself superior to the world outside the school. This is a cult recruiting new cult members. It is a disaster waiting to explode — and at Graham's school, the explosion occurred.

To reiterate: Sexual abuse of minors is in no way confined to Waldorf schools. Reports of such problems in all sorts of schools show up in newspapers all the time. The same is true of violence inflicted on minors. But if most Waldorf schools have not been scenes of sexual mistreatment and/or violence against children, some have. And a great many — perhaps all — Waldorf schools have been guilty of the psychological abuse of innocent children, twisting their conception of reality out of recognition. This is an important reason for opposing such schools. As authoritarian institutions, Waldorf schools are places where abuses arising from the corruption of unchallenged power are virtually guaranteed to occur.

— Roger Rawlings

This, I think, is how I remember the good parts of Waldorf:
a pastel mist, attractive (once you get used to it) and warm —
but disorienting and, in the end, insubstantial.
I've based this image on the contours of the flowing
robes worn by an angelic eurythmist shown on p. 231 of
Rudolf Steiner, EURYTHMY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2006).
The colors are those I remember appearing in
painting after painting created and displayed around the school.
[R.R., 2009.]

ENDNOTES

[1] “The recorder was invented during the Middle Ages and has remained basically unchanged. It became popular during the 1500's and 1600's and was an important part of the music of the Renaissance. By the mid-1700's, the modern flute had largely replaced the recorder.” The World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia, Mac OS X Edition, Version 6.0.2.

[2] See my essays “Unenlightened” and/or “The Waldorf Scandal” on this site.

[3] Waldorf schools may provide safe havens, at least against physical threats. Dire influences from outside the schools cannot be wholly ignored or excluded, however. Here are two news items from early in 2009. The first reflects a commendable undertaking: “In an effort to squelch school bullying before it begins, Sunrise Waldorf School is bringing Kim John Payne, M.Ed., an international expert on bullying, to the Cowichan Valley to teach practical playground, classroom and home based [sic] tools to foster a culture of social inclusion and respect.” [Lexi Bainas, “Anti-Bullying Expert Coming to Cowichan” (Canwest News Service, Feb. 4, 2009).] The threat of bullying is real, even at a Waldorf; in this case, preventive measures were taken. The second item, from a police log, shows weaponry finding its way inside a Waldorf, although once again prevention apparently prevailed. “Students found ammunition for a .22-caliber gun and a knife on the property of Portland Waldorf School, 2300 SE Harrison Street.” [www.oregoncitynewsonline.com/news , Feb. 4, 2009.]

In other cases, Waldorf schools may not provide the sanctuary parents hope for. Here are three troubling reports about bullying and violence at Waldorf schools, all posted early in February, 2009. (I have cleaned up some typos.) Be cautious about accepting messages like the following. I substantiate my own work with careful documentation. The following messages, more informal, are largely undocumented. Still, they seem sincere, and they may be worth considering. The first message was written by a mother who removed her child from a Waldorf school: “The letters we received [from the school, in answer] to our complaints make good reading ... One just fobbing us off, and another slamming into us and our child horribly, and denying any wrongdoing. Also a letter threatening expulsion for bullying the day after we removed him [their child] from the school because of a bully who had scratched ******** so hard he left scars on his face. The bully was a problem for many other kids, but nothing was done....” [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9010 ]

A former Waldorf student describes a similar situation firsthand: “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 others 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 breathe, 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.” [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9104 ]

The most distressing report comes from a former Waldorf parent who describes violence and bullying committed by Waldorf teachers: “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 he across a stream on a field trip and then grabbed 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.” [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9120 ]

[4] The school publishes a small magazine called The Waldorf News. Many issues include reports of sporting successes, and some list “most valuable players,” “coaches awards,” “most improved players”, and “player of the year” honors for a variety of sports. Photos suggest that winners of various sports awards received Olympic-style medals. There is an annual Sports Night Dinner — I assume this is when the awards are distributed. See, e.g., the issue for the summer of 2007, pp. 16-17.

The school’s e-mail newsletter, Waldorf eUpdate, also gives prominence to sporting achievements. The February, 2008 edition includes an item titled “Go Waldorf! Garden City [i.e., the Waldorf School of Garden City] Wins Big at Kimberton Tournament": “The boys and girls varsity basketball teams participated in the annual Waldorf schools basketball tournament ... In their Friday night opener, the Garden City boys beat the High Mowing School in a spirited overtime game, 59-57. Junior W [I will omit students’ names] scored 16 points and had 12 rebounds. Freshman X chipped in a team high [sic] 25-points [sic] in the dramatic win. The Girls Varsity Team [ sic] shut-out [sic] the Hawthorne Valley School in a dramatic, 30-7 win. Juniors Y and Z both scored 10-points [sic] each.” Note the implication that other Waldorf schools, participants in the tournament, may also place emphasis on sports.