Nov. 1-16, '18
Here is a collection of items that appeared on the Waldorf Watch "news" page in November, 2018. The items appear in reverse chronological order: newest first, oldest last. To find a specific item, scroll down the page.
◊
I am the author of the Waldorf Watch commentaries, editorials, and explanatory notes you will find here. In them, I often generalize about Waldorf schools. There are fundamental similarities among Waldorf schools; I describe the schools based on the evidence concerning their structure and operations in the past and — more importantly — in the present. But not all Waldorf schools, Waldorf charter schools, and Waldorf-inspired schools are wholly alike. To evaluate an individual school, you should carefully examine its stated purposes, its practices (which may or may not be consistent with its stated purposes), and the composition of its faculty.
— Roger Rawlings
November 16, 2018
CHICKENPOX, BLACK MAGIC,
AND WALDORF - PART 5
The chickenpox outbreak at an American Waldorf school has spread further. It has now given the disease to 30+ students.
From the website of Blue Ridge Public Radio [North Carolina, USA]:
This 1981 electron microscope image shows varicella-zoster virions from a patient with chickenpox.
[CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION]
Chicken Pox Outbreak
Hits School With County's
Highest Vaccine Exemption Rate
By HELEN CHICKERING
The Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services says the chicken pox outbreak at an Asheville private school [the Asheville Waldorf School] has now spread to more than 30 students ... [T]he school has a history of high vaccine exemption rates.…
Buncombe County Medical Director, Dr. Jennifer Mullendore…says the private school had the highest vaccine religious exemption rate in the county last year….
The Asheville Waldorf School issued a statement, noting that the school is cooperating with the health department….
During the 2016-17 school year, 57 percent of the kindergarten class at the Asheville Waldorf School (formerly Azalea Mountain School) claimed a religious exemption. During the 2014-15 school year class the religious exemption rate was 73 percent….
[11/16/2018 http://www.bpr.org/post/chicken-pox-outbreak-hits-school-countys-highest-vaccine-exemption-rate This report was originally aired on November 15.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
In North Carolina, receiving a religious immunization exemption (i.e., permission to refuse vaccination) is extremely easy. Membership in a church and belief in God are not required.
The following is from The News & Observer [Raleigh, North Carolina]:
The number of N.C. [North Carolina] kindergarteners opting out of required childhood vaccinations on religious grounds more than doubled in the five school years from 2012 to 2016. And both public health officials and anti-vaccine advocates agree that the exemption is being claimed by parents whose true objection to the shots has nothing to do with faith.…
To claim a religious exemption, a parent needs only to write a statement “of the bona fide religious beliefs and opposition to the immunization requirements,” and give it to the child’s school in place of an immunization record, according to state law.
The statement doesn’t need to be prepared by an attorney, signed by a religious leader or notarized. No form is needed. The statement doesn’t go to the state for review or approval.
Alan Phillips, an Asheville-area lawyer who counsels parents all over the nation on how to exempt their children from vaccine requirements, said that, under the N.C. rules, “You don’t even have to believe in God.”
[https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article188633004.html]
◊
For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see "Chickenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf", November 6, 2018, and subsequent reports dated November 7, November 8, and November 9. All of these reports are available at https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfstraighttalk/indications-12.
– R.R.
November 15, 2018
ALLEGED SEXUAL ABUSE AT
A SWEDISH PRIVATE SCHOOL
From The Express [Stockholm, Sweden]:
Several teachers
accused of abuse
at the same school
[by] Frida Sundkvist
A 50-year-old teacher chose to quit after allegations of intimate emails and approaches to a 15-year-old student — he described himself as "in love.”
The private school claimed that it was a one-off event.
But The Express can now reveal a series of cases involving other teachers, but these cases have been covered up by the leadership of the school.
One girl was 11 years old, another 9 years old. Both had disabilities.
It is a school where everyone knows everyone.
Teachers have themselves gone there, and they let their children go there … The atmosphere at school is familial.
But there is also another story about this school. It is about suspected sexual assaults and teachers who initiate affair with the students.
Several cases have been silenced by the school management, The Express can now reveal.
For three weeks, our reporter has sought [a response from] both teachers and school leaders. Nobody wants to talk about the problems at the school.…
In an email to the school's employees, the deputy principal has forbidden them to speak with The Express.…
[11/15/2018 https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/qs/skolan/ This news account originally appeared on November 8. Translation from Swedish — relying heavily of Google Translate — by Roger Rawlings.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
The Express (in Swedish, Expressen) does not name the school at the center of this article. There are indications that the school may be a longtime Waldorf school situated in Stockholm, but we must remember that any attempt at identification we make here must be tentative, and all the charges mentioned in the article are — from the standpoint of the law — unproven. Moreover, the teachers referred to in the article must be assumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
At the Waldorf Critics discussion site, one of the participants — herself a former Waldorf student and a resident of Stockholm — gives reasons for thinking the school in the article is in fact a Swedish Waldorf school. [See https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/messages/31937.] If this surmise is correct, the article adds to a long litany of similar reports about Waldorf or Steiner schools. [See, e.g., "Slaps" and "Extremity". Also see "Pedophilia at Waldorf?", August 1, 2018.]
Sexual abuse may happen anywhere. It is certainly not a uniquely Waldorf-centered problem. Yet there are some indications that the Waldorf culture may facilitate sexual entanglements between teachers and students. Thus, in his memoir recounting his experiences as a Waldorf student and, later, a Waldorf teacher, Grégoire Perra has written of the "questionable closeness between students and teachers" at Waldorf schools. Here is an excerpt:
One aspect of the insidious indoctrination in Waldorf schools is based on the establishment of a very close relationship between the teacher and his or her students. Firstly, this proximity is enhanced by the fact that the same class teacher remains with the same group of students for six to eight years. This obviously contributes to the creation of relationships that are more familial than professional. In addition, measures are deliberately taken to create the conditions for increased closeness. For example, it is common that some students become babysitters or housekeepers for their teachers ... And I worked in a school where the students knew absolutely everything about the private lives of their teachers. Teachers' private lives had become a common topic of discussion in the playground, due to the feeling of living in a kind of extended family....
This continuing proximity of students with their teachers is such that it does not seem abnormal, unless significant missteps sometimes lead school officials to take some limited measures. Having been both witness and victim, I can say that unusual closeness is part of the rationale of these schools. This is why there is rarely any strong resistance against the excesses that may arise, but as much as possible they are tolerated....
Here I must be very clear and also mention legally reprehensible behavior. Indeed, some ethical rules seem to be disregarded in the Steiner-Waldorf schools, and there are cases of sexual and romantic relationships sometimes occurring between students and teachers. For example, when I was teaching, I witnessed in one of these schools an illicit relationship that had begun between a teacher and a student of the upper classes. They started dating when the student was in 10th grade ... All class teachers of the high school knew about it, including some who were members of the board of the school. How could they ignore it, since this teacher and this student had come to live together in the same apartment?....
I in no way seek to draw attention to the misconduct of a colleague or to throw stones at him; and if I mention this story, it is because it is indicative of the common pitfalls that occur in Waldorf educational institutions. I could moreover provide other examples.....
...There reigns [in these schools] a sort of permanent "incestuous" atmosphere that can go haywire very quickly for everyone. A mantra recited by the teaching community at some faculty meetings reflects this total confusion of identities:
Me in the community,
And the community in me.
Far from being a saying designed to encourage healthy collegial solidarity, these words rather reflect the total confusion of identities prevailing in the Waldorf school system. Nobody there knows who he is or what exactly his role is....
— Grégoire Perra, "The Anthroposophical Indoctrination of Students in Steiner-Waldorf Schools" [see https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatch/he-went-to-waldorf].
◊
I am grateful to Alicia Hamberg for bringing the Expressen report to my attention.
– R.R.
November 14, 2018
PROGRESSIVE? HOLISTIC?
NO, WALDORF
From the CyprusMail Online [Nicosia, Cyprus]:
‘A much-needed boost to education’
[By] Annette Chrysodtomou
A new initiative will bring a much-needed boost to education, and the process of bringing this new school to Nicosia already started on Friday and Saturday with the first Waldorf teacher accredited certification seminars....
“A new type of school is being born, offering an alternative type of education,” the group of parents and teachers who came up with the idea...said on their Facebook page. They explain that this will be a holistic progressive school which is different from all the other schools operating today in Cyprus....
“This type of school applies the holistic Waldorf educational system with great success. This system has been used for the last 100 years in over 1200 schools all over the world" [the group said].
[11/14/2018 https://cyprus-mail.com/2018/11/14/a-much-needed-boost-to-education/]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Efforts to create new Waldorf schools continue apace. There is already one Waldorf school on the island of Cyprus. Now a second Waldorf is struggling to be born there.
New Waldorf schools are often begun by groups of parents seeking alternatives to conventional schools. Whether the parents in these groups fully understand the nature of Waldorf education is often unclear. In any event, the descriptions of Waldorf given by these groups — descriptions that are meant to drum up support and enlist additional families — are often far off the mark.
Let's consider a few of the labels attached to Waldorf education in the report excerpted above.
◊ Waldorf school do indeed represent an "alternative" to ordinary education. In this sense, a new Waldorf school would almost certainly be "different from all the other schools operating today in Cyprus" (except for the other Waldorf school in Cyprus).
The question, though, is whether Waldorf would represent a better alternative. Would Waldorf, in other words, provide a good education for the children of Cyprus?
On this score, the answer is almost certainly no. Waldorf schools have generally had low academic standards from the time the first Waldorf school opened in Germany almost a century ago. [1] Waldorf schools generally do not, in fact, even attempt to provide a good education as this concept is usually understood — they generally do not attempt to equip students with the knowledge and skills needed for successful lives in the real world. The Waldorf focus is actually on other worlds — the worlds of the spirit realm. [2] The real objective of the Waldorf movement is to spread the religion created by Waldorf founder Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophy. [3]
◊ Well, then, is it not at least true that Waldorf education is holistic?
The answer to this question depends on how one defines the term "holistic." Waldorf schools certainly do attempt to affect and mold all parts of their students' constitutions. This goal is often summarized in the Waldorf motto "Head, Heart, and Hands." But Waldorf beliefs about the human constitution are highly unusual; some would say these beliefs are highly unrealistic. Thus, for instance, Rudolf Steiner taught that human beings have four bodies — physical, etheric, astral, and "I." [4] Humans have twelve senses, he said. [5] Humans have both souls and spirits. [6] Humans have karmas [7]; they reincarnate [8]; they have classical temperaments — sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic, and choleric [9]; they stand at various evolutionary levels reflected by their race — blacks stand at a low level, whites at a high level [10]; they have astrological identities [11]; and so forth. Only if you accept the Anthroposophical description of human nature will you consider Waldorf education to be "holistic" in any rational, constructive sense. [12]
◊ But, surely, Waldorf education is progressive, isn't it?
The answer to this question is suggested by some of the Waldorf beliefs we have already reviews. Karma, reincarnation, classical temperaments, etc., are hardly modern or forward-thinking concepts. In fact, many fundamental Waldorf beliefs are medieval or even older than that. [13]
For the most part, instead of being truly progressive, Waldorf education represents are rebellion against progressive thinking. Thus, for instance, historian Peter Staudenmaier has written this:
"Central aspects of Waldorf pedagogy stand in direct opposition to standard principles of progressive education. Several of Waldorf's more conspicuous weaknesses stem directly from Steiner's rejection of progressive educational ideals...." [14]
◊
Parents who want to send their children to Waldorf schools should certainly have the right to do so. But they would be well advised to make sure that they really understand what Waldorf education actually is.
◊ • ◊
[1] See "Academic Standards at Waldorf".
[2] See "Spiritual Agenda" and "Higher Worlds".
[3] See "Here's the Answer" and "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?"
[4] See "Incarnation".
[5] See "What We're Made Of".
[6] See the entries for "soul" and "spirit" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.
[7] See "Karma".
[8] See "Reincarnation".
[9] See "Humouresque" and "Temperaments".
[10] See "Steiner's Racism" and "Races".
[11] See "Astrology" and "Horoscopes".
[12] Steiner laid out his key teachings about human nature — which comprise the premises for Waldorf education — in the lectures presented in the book STUDY OF MAN or, in a different edition, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE. [See "Oh Humanity".]
[13] See, e.g., "The Ancients".
[14] See "Waldorf Now".
— R.R.
November 13, 2018
QUACK TREATMENTS
VS. REAL HEALING
From the website of the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA), an announcement of an upcoming event:
Nov 15 2018
The Changing Nature of Childhood Health & Illness
Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Program,
November 15, 2018 - Chicago, IL
Lecture: Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D.
Please join us in welcoming world-renowned doctor and author Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D. from San Francisco, CA as he describes his research and experience with today’s children and their health, based on his newest book, Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness.…
Dr Thomas Cowan M.D. is board-certified in anthroposophic medicine. He is a founding board member of the Weston A Price Foundation and is author of The Fourfold Path to Healing ... He writes the “Ask the Doctor” column in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts. He is author of Human Heart, Cosmic Heart (A Doctor's Quest to Understand, Treat and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease)....
[11/13/2018 https://www.waldorfeducation.org/news-resources/events-calendar]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Dr. Cowan's presentation seems sure to be interesting. Whether it will be medically valid is, however, a different question.
Anthroposophic medicine is, by and large, quack medicine. [See "Steiner's Quackery".] Dr. Cowan seems to follow in the Steiner tradition. Thus, for instance, his book THE FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING offers advice for the health of all four human bodies described by RudolfSteiner: the physical body, the etheric body, the astral body, and the "I". This is certainly interesting. But if three of these four bodies are entirely imaginary — that is, if they do not exist — then the value of Dr. Cowan's advice is greatly reduced. [For more on the four bodies as posited in Anthroposophic belief, see "Incarnation".]
The following is from a review of THE FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING posted at The Online Waldorf Library:
This in-depth book is truly a fourfold look at healing the human being. The healing of the physical body is affected in large part by nutrition [Dr. Cowan says] … In the realm of the etheric body, or life-force body, healing for Dr. Cowan is especially through natural medicines, homeopathy and herbal extracts. The emotional body [i.e., the astral body], or soul…finds healing through movement and exercise. The fourth realm of the mental body or spirit [i.e., the “I”] can attain health through discovering one's own life purpose on a path of self-observation and meditation. Dr. Cowan stresses the importance of finding a healthy balance and integration between the working of the various bodies of the human being….” — Spring/Summer 2005, Issue #48: Book Review: The Fourfold Path to Healing
Concerns about infectious diseases have recently arisen in and around the Waldorf movement, due to an epidemic of chickenpox at an American Waldorf school. [See "Chickenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf", November 6, 2018, and the succeeding coverage.] Here is an excerpt in the section of THE FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING dealing with infectious diseases:
"All of the major natural healing systems in the history of humanity have recognized that acute illness is the body’s main mechanism for cleansing itself … Wise doctors have always made us of the ‘infectious’ process. Hippocrates said, 'Give me a medicine that will produce fever and I can cure any disease' … The true nature of acute illness presents a real challenge to orthodox therapies with their fever-reducing medicines, antibiotics, and vaccines…." — Thomas Cowan, THE FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING (Newtrends Publishing, 2004), p. 100.
Several telltale signs of dangerous quack medicine are evident here. Dr. Cowan suggests that illness is good of us — fever, in particular, cleanses the body. He relies heavily on ancient and outmoded medical traditions — he quotes, for instance, Hippocrates (who died in about 377 BCE). Most worrisomely, he indicates his opposition to "orthodox therapies" — that is, the proven treatments offered by genuine medicine ("orthodox...medicines, antibiotics, and vaccines"). And Dr. Cowan mischaracterizes these orthodox therapies, particularly antibiotics and vaccines. These are not used for the purpose of lowering fevers — they are used for curing or preventing harmful diseases. The following is from the National Institutes of Health:
"A fever is a body temperature that is higher than normal … Infections cause most fevers. You get a fever because your body is trying to kill the virus or bacteria that caused the infection ... Treatment depends on the cause of your fever. If the fever is very high, your health care provider may recommend taking an over-the-counter medicine such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen." — "Fever", MedLine Plus, the National Institutes of Health.
Antibiotics and vaccines are not prescribed for lowering fever. They affect fever only as a secondary result as they work to effect their chief purpose, which is counteracting harmful diseases. And contrary to the tenets of Anthroposophical medicine, protecting children from diseases should always be a principle objective of responsible pediatric practice.
Fever in and of itself is not usually harmful, as long as it remains below 41°C (about 106°F). But the underlying diseases that cause fever generally should be addressed — that is, they should be either prevented or cured. We have recently looked into the severity of chickenpox. Let's turn our attention, now, to a more serious disease, measles. The following is from the World Health Organization:
"Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus. Before the introduction of measles vaccine in 1963 and widespread vaccination, major epidemics occurred approximately every 2–3 years and measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.
"Approximately 89,780 people died from measles in 2016 — mostly children under the age of 5 years, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine." — Fact Sheet, Measles, World Health Organization.
The world's children deserve the benefits of real medicine, the very "orthodox therapies" derided by Dr. Cowan and other Anthroposophical doctors.
— R.R.
November 12, 2018
◊ READINGS ◊
RETURNING TO HIGHER WORLDS
RATHER THAN CROSSING THE RIVER BELOW
In covering the recent news about an epidemic at an American Waldorf school, we have touched on a terrible topic: the deaths of children. The contagion at the Asheville Waldorf School [1] involves chickenpox, a disease that is rarely fatal. On some occasions, however, chickenpox can kill. [2] This raises a significant question. If a follower of Rudolf Steiner chooses not to vaccinate her/his child, and if the child later dies of a disease that might have been prevented by vaccination, what consolation does Steiner's belief system — Anthroposophy — offer?
A recent Waldorf book offers one answer. The book is RUBICON — The Nine Year Change and Child Development Between the Ages of Seven and Twelve (Waldorf Publications, 2014). Compiled by Waldorf teacher Monica Ruef, RUBICON consists of excerpts from the works of Rudolf Steiner.
[Waldorf Publications at the Research Institute for Waldorf Education, 2014.]
According to Waldorf belief, children pass through an important transition at about age nine — they effectively leave childhood behind and enter the first stages of adulthood. This transition is often called, in Waldorf terminology, "crossing the Rubicon." [3] Here is the opening of the foreword to RUBICON:
"In this collection of written works, Monica Ruef has, for the first time, assembled the various indications given by Rudolf Steiner about the beginning of preadolescence. Steiner calls this period in a child's development the 'Rubicon' because it is during this time that one developmental stage is brought to fulfillment and the maturing person irretrievably leaves behind his or her childhood." — Michaela Glöckler, RUBICON, p. 15.
On average, according to Waldorf doctrine, children cross the Rubicon at age nine, although some children may do so as early as age seven or as late as age twelve.
Believing that a crucial developmental stage occurs around age nine has important implications for Waldorf belief about the deaths of children. Before s/he crosses the Rubicon, a child has not truly incarnated on Earth, Steiner taught. The young child retains close ties to the spirit realm, the realm from which s/he descended at the moment of Earthly birth. When a young child dies, therefore, s/he essentially returns to her true home, the spirit realm. Our sorrow at the child's death should be moderated by this consoling thought.
Here are some of Steiner's indications on these matters:
"[O]nly at this point in time, between the ninth and tenth years of life, is there a real detachment of the 'I' and the astral body from the etheric and physical bodies during sleep. [4] For some children it will be earlier or later, but the average is between ages 9 and 10 ... [C]hildren who die before this point...have something that has separated them very little from the spirit-soul world which they went through between death and a new birth. [5] These children are relatively easily pulled back into the spirit-soul world [6] ... A child that is present before us before this point in time between ages 9 and 10 embodies the physical-soul aspect and the spiritual-soul aspect much less separately than is the case later on [7] ... As a physical being, a child is much more of a soul-being than the later adult. During the growth period, the soul forces still thoroughly hold sway in the physical body of a child [8] ... [I]n the early years of life, a child [who dies] will be 'thrown back' to an earlier existence [9]; after this phase of life, a human being is separated from the previous life [10]...." — Rudolf Steiner, RUBICON, pp. 26-27.
All in all, then, the death of a young child is not really a very sad event. The child simply returns to the spirit realm and resumes her happy life there.
Not everyone would be consoled by such reasoning, but Steiner's followers generally are consoled. And for this reason, Steiner's followers may have little hesitation deciding to spare children the pain of vaccination.
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Footnotes:
[1] See "Chickenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf", November 6, 2018, and the succeeding coverage.
[2] See "Chickenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf - Part 4", November 9, 2018. Chickenpox is usually mild; children usually come through it without suffering severe damage. In a minority of cases, however, serious complications arise. And, in rare instances, children die of the disease. If your child were hospitalized due to chickenpox, presumably you would consider it a serious matter. And if your child died from chickenpox, you would presumably know that chickenpox is a serious disease. You would presumably know, then, that children should be vaccinated against chickenpox.
[3] The Rubicon is a river Julius Caesar and his army crossed when Caesar made a fateful decision. In common usage, "crossing the Rubicon" refers to taking step from which there is no turning back. [See "crossing the Rubicon" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.]
[4] According to Steiner, fully incarnated human beings have four bodies, three of which are invisible. [See "Incarnation".] Steiner taught that, among adults, the higher two bodies — the astral body and the 'I' — return to the spirit realm at night, while the lower two bodies — the physical and etheric bodies — remain on Earth. Among very young children, however, the process of Earthly incarnation is incomplete. Steiner said. A young child is still fundamentally a spiritual being for whom various constitutional components have not yet become distinct and separate. (The child still effectively lives, all the time, in or near the spirit realm.)
[5] I.e., young children are still closely connected to the spirit realm, the realm they lived in after their most recent deaths and births. (Reincarnation is a key Anthroposophical doctrine. A young child is actually an old spirit, in a sense — she has had many previous lives on Earth and also in the spirit realm. After she died at the end of a recent Earthly life, she went to the spirit realm where she lived a while before coming back down to Earth for a new life here.)
[6] I.e., a young child who dies on Earth returns easily and painlessly to the spirit realm. (Steiner refers to the spirit realm, here, as the "spirit-soul world," because he distinguished between spirit and soul. [See the entries for these terms in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.] More often, Steiner taught that there are actually two "higher worlds" above the physical world — the soul world and the spirit world. Together, these may be understood as comprising the spirit realm. [See "Higher Worlds".])
[7] Steiner sometimes described human beings on Earth as having three major components: a physical component, a soul component, and a spirit component. Here he says that among young children, the three parts of still intermingled (there is little separation between the physical body, the soul, and the spirit).
[8] I.e., a child consists more of soul than of physical body — soul forces still dominate within the physical body of a child. (So the physical death of a child is less difficult than the death of an adult — there is less strain when a child separates from her physical body.)
[9] I.e., a child who dies will return to the life s/he had previously in the spirit realm. (The child had not yet really left that life, because s/he had not yet fully incarnated on Earth.)
[10] I.e., only after crossing the Rubicon does a human being become genuinely separated from the previous life in the spirit realm.
— R.R.
November 11, 2018
◊ News Roundup ◊
SAFEGUARDING AND
SACRED GROUNDS
1.
From Humanists UK:
Humanists UK expresses alarm that
inspections in some private schools
are not being adequately monitored
Humanists UK has expressed concern that the education regulator still lacks the relevant powers to properly monitor inspections in some private schools. These include Waldorf and Steiner schools, which have recently been reported for serious safeguarding problems….
Last year, the Daily Telegraph reported that, in the four years leading up to 2017, inspectors had raised safeguarding concerns at nearly half of all Steiner schools in the country. Additionally, last month, it was announced that The Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) would shut permanently as the result of a slew of inadequate Ofsted [Office for Standards in Education] reports relating to safeguarding issues....
Humanists UK has a long history of campaigning against poorly regulated Steiner schools. Alongside increasing evidence of serious safeguarding problems, these schools are subject to longstanding concerns about the inclusion of pseudoscience on the curriculum. In the past, civil service briefings have also raised concerns about racism, systemic bullying, and a lack of academic rigour at Steiner institutions….
[11/11/2018 https://humanism.org.uk/2018/11/09/humanists-uk-expresses-alarm-that-inspections-in-some-private-schools-are-not-being-adequately-monitored/ Humanists UK originally posted this item on November 9.]
◊
Formerly known as the British Humanist Association, Humanists UK is a charitable organization that promotes humanism.
Criticism of Steiner education has been growing louder and more frequent in the UK. The ultimate effect on the Steiner movement remains to be seen.
Here at Waldorf Watch, we have had extensive coverage of the problems found by inspectors at some British Steiner schools. See "RSSKL" and "S. A. Exeter”.
Concerning pseudoscience in Anthroposophy and at Waldorf/Steiner schools, see "Pseudoscience", "Steiner's 'Science'", and "Science".
Concerning racism, see "Steiner's Racism". On the subject of "systemic bullying", see "Slaps". On the subject of "lack of academic rigour at Steiner institutions," see "Academic Standards at Waldorf".
On November 10, the Humanists UK news item was picked up at Cult News 101: See https://www.cultnews101.com/search/label/Waldorf%20School.
◊ • ◊
2.
From Cincinnati.com [Ohio, USA]:
Mariemont students playing
on 'sacred ground?'
Archaeologists disagree
[by] Jeanne Houck
A playground or 'sacred ground?' That's the question University of Cincinnati archaeologist Ken Tankersley is asking after finding artifacts and human bones on a Mariemont hillside. [Mariemont is a community in the Cincinnati area.]
Tankersley said he and some college students made finds dating to Fort Ancient-era Native Americans or village pioneers when they did a surface search of the area between the school and a pioneer cemetery on Sept. 22. [Fort Ancient is an area of ancient Native American earthworks.]
Waldorf School [i.e., the Cincinnati Waldorf School] isn’t convinced, and it is continuing to allow students to use the hillside for “gentle” play and as a dismissal area where the children sit and wait for their parents to pick them up.…
Waldorf School also said it is in touch with an archaeologist who doubts there is much to protect there….
Tankersley…said he and his students have been making Native American- and pioneer-related discoveries in exposed areas of the hillside since 2007.
On Sept. 22, “In addition to historic artifacts, which date to the time of the cemetery, we found a plethora of shell-tempered Fort Ancient pottery, temporally diagnostic triangular arrowheads and other flaked-stone artifacts and human and non-human vertebrate remains….”
[11/11/2018 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/hamiltoncounty/2018/11/09/waldorf-students-continue-use-hillside-gentle-play/1891946002/ This article originally appeared on November 9.]
◊
Rudolf Steiner's followers are usually sympathetic to, and respectful of, the dead. Indeed, Anthroposophists often claim to communicate with the dead. See, e.g., "Honoring, and Bucking Up, the Dead", October 27, 2018.
Steiner claimed to maintain contact with a dead German general — Steiner conveyed messages from the general to his widow. See "Steiner and the Warlord".
The attitude of Steiner's followers toward Native Americans is equivocal at best. Steiner taught that Native Americans represent a decadent branch of the human family tree. Native Americans were unable to continue evolving, and therefore they decayed, degenerated, and died out, Steiner said.
◊ "We have before us in the American race a primitive aboriginal people that has remained far, far behind [in evolution] ... In the course of millennia our planet transforms itself, and this transformation also demands a development of humankind. Those side branches that no longer fit in to current conditions become decadent. Thus we have an upright evolutionary trunk as well as side branches which decay." — Rudolf Steiner, MENSCHHEITSENTWICKELUNG UND CHRISTUS-ERKENNTNIS (Rudolf Steiner Verlag, 1981), GA 100, pp. 243-44.
◊ “Groups of men in whom the bones had, as it were, become too strong, were...left behind as degenerate races. They could not adapt themselves to post-Atlantean conditions [i.e., conditions after Atlantis sank]; the last remnant of these people are the American Indians; they had degenerated.” — Rudolf Steiner, UNIVERSE, EARTH AND MAN (Collison, 1931), chapter 6, GA 105.
◊ "The American Indians died out, not because of European persecutions, but because they were destined to succumb to those forces which hastened their extinction." — Rudolf Steiner, THE MISSION OF THE FOLK SOULS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 76.
Steiner's teachings about Europeans who emigrated to America was distinctly critical. According to Steiner, European explorers of the New World were materialistic seekers of gold, and in coming to America they fell under the influence of the arch-demon Ahriman. Their successors, the pioneers, were physically transformed after coming to America — their limbs became elongated, and they began relying on lower parts of the brain.
◊ “America was discovered under the influence of the greed for gold, under the influence of a purely materialistic culture....” — Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 67.
◊ “This is the region where, through the prevailing external conditions, above all a relationship is developed with the mephistophelian-ahrimanic nature [i.e., the spirit of Ahriman].” — Ibid., p. 69.
◊ "In Europe, you see, [the man headed for America] was like other Europeans, who mainly use the forebrain. Well, in America, the native people are those who were actually decaying negroes previously, which means they do not thrive, they perish — the Indians. When you get there, there is almost always a struggle between the forebrain and hindbrain in the head. And there is this peculiarity that when a family moves to America and settles down there, the people who come out of this family always have slightly longer arms. The arms are longer. The legs grow even more if the European settles in America — not in himself, of course, but in his descendants. That's what happens, because the family’s story is influenced more by the midbrain through the hindbrain, when you come to America, as Europeans." — Rudolf Steiner, "Color and the Human Races", lecture 3, VOM LEBEN DES MENSCHEN UND DER ERDE, ÜBER DAS WESEN DES CHRISTENTUMS (Verlag Der Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, 1961), GA 349.
Leaders of the Cincinnati Waldorf school may or may not know what Steiner taught about these matters.
[For more information about Ahriman, see "Ahriman". For Steiner's teachings about Atlantis, see "Atlantis and the Aryans" and "Atlantis".]
— R.R.
November 10, 2018
KNITTING, FINGERS, KARMA,
TEETH — AND WALDORF
From The Conway Daily Sun [New Hampshire, USA]:
Knitting program at Waldorf School
has many benefits
Knitting is the perfect antidote to life in the fast-paced world we live in. It offers a very tangible way to connect yourself to creativity something truly useful as well as beautiful. In a world where technology advances such as electronic books, video games and cell phones have deprived us of many tactile pleasures, the feeling of yarn and the steady repetition of stitch after stitch is a restorative tonic.….
In Waldorf schools, knitting is one component of the first-grade curriculum, and kindergarten children are taught to finger knit before they learn to do math. Older students continue their skills in handwork class. Do you wonder why? While knitting, children must count stitches, follow patterns of numbers and colors, coordinate right and left hands and give careful attention to the activity. This is the very basis of mathematical reasoning and number sense….
Taking on a project like knitting a flute case also helps first-graders learn to manage frustration and understand that mistakes are a natural part of the learning process for everyone. The culminating project in fifth grade is a pair of socks — something that takes the students nearly the whole year to complete. Imagine the sense of accomplishment!....
[11/10/2018 https://www.conwaydailysun.com/community/education/knitting-program-at-waldorf-school-has-many-benefits/article_bce6d2f6-e455-11e8-9a69-0f031deb62fd.html This article originally appeared on November 9, and it was updated on November 10-11.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Reading like a Waldorf PR handout, the article in The Conway Daily Sun reflects several of the overt and attractive features of Waldorf education. And if we dig a little below the surface, we can find several of the mystical features that constitute the essence of Waldorf education.
Waldorf schools generally strive to disconnect students from fast-paced, high-tech, modern life. Gizmos such as movie projectors, TVs, and computers are often absent from Waldorf schools, or their use is tightly restricted. [1] In addition, Waldorf schools often have "media policies" under which the parents of Waldorf students pledge to switch off most electronic media devices in the home, at least during the school week. [2] Instead of high-tech activities, Waldorf schools emphasize traditional, non-electricified, manual arts and crafts — such as knitting.
Waldorf schools claim to educate the whole child. "Head, Heart, and Hands" is a motto used throughout the Waldorf movement, suggesting the "holistic" Waldorf approach. [3] Brainwork is generally downplayed, especially in the lower grades. Instead, class time is devoted to activities that engage the hands and (in theory at least) school the heart. [4]
Mystical doctrines laid down by the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, lie behind the Waldorf approach to arts and crafts.
Steiner taught that no real thinking occurs in the brain. [5] Instead, some types of thinking occur in our bones, Steiner said — for instance, we can do arithmetic by counting on our fingers. [6] Steiner tied this conception to his belief in karma. [7]
“As soon as we begin to think with our fingers — and one can think with one's fingers and toes much more brightly, once one makes the effort, than with the nerves of the head — as soon as we begin to think with...the lower part of our being, then our thoughts are the thoughts of our karma." — Rudolf Steiner, BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS 1919-1924 (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2003), p. 126.
Activities such as knitting drive the soul down into our finger bones, Steiner indicated. Remarkably, he said one result is that our teeth become healthier:
“Go into our needlework classes and handicraft classes at the Waldorf School, and you will find the boys knit and crochet as well as the girls ... This is not the result of any fad or whim, but happens deliberately in order to...permeate the fingers with soul. And to drive the soul into the fingers means to promote all the forces that go to build up sound teeth.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE RENEWAL OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 10.
◊
To understand the Waldorf approach, we should expand our focus to consider not just handcrafts but also fine arts. Waldorf students are expected to become as deeply involved in the arts as they are in handcrafts. [8] The Waldorf emphasis on the arts is, for many parents, one of the chief attractions of these schools.
Various arts have marvelous effects on various parts of the human organism, Steiner taught. A fully incarnated human being, Steiner said, has four bodies (three of which are invisible). [9] If crafts such as knitting and crochet are good for our fingers and teeth, higher art forms have more pervasive effects. Here is a summary offered in a recent Anthroposophical publication:
"Which art works on which body?
"• Architecture impresses itself on the experience of the physical body.
"• Modeling, sculpture, and drawing educate the etheric body.
"• Music move the astral body and speaks to it most strongly, but also color [speaks to the astral body]
"• Speech formation [i.e., declamation, acting] reveals the workin of the 'I' [i.e., the spiritual ego]". [10]
— Astrid Schmitt-Stegmann, THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 2015), p. 139.
Through arts such music and painting, we can ascend into the spirit realm, Steiner taught. Moreover, spiritual beings may enter our consciousness through the same channels. So, for instance, if we paint a room red, we will "see" [11] different spirits than we would "see" in a blue room.
"If a person devoting himself to the colour which covers these physically dense walls were one who had made certain occult progress [12]...the walls would disappear from his clairvoyant vision ... [S]piritual facts and spiritual figures become visible ... [A]ccording to the capacity of clairvoyant vision, there may be visible and invisible beings in the same space. What spiritual beings become visible in any particular instance depends on the colour to which we devote ourselves. In a red room, other beings become visible than in a blue room.... ” — Rudolf Steiner, quoted in ART INSPIRED BY RUDOLF STEINER, John Fletcher (Mercury Arts Publications, 1987), p. 95.
Steiner's followers today still embrace the mystical conceptions he promoted a century ago. And these conceptions continue to guide the practices of Waldorf educators today.
◊
[1] See, e.g., "Spiders, Dragons and Foxes".
[2] See the entry for "media policies" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.
[3] See "Holistic Education".
[4] The academic caliber of Waldorf education is an issue at least in part because non-academic activities take up so much of the Waldorf school day. [See "Academic Standards at Waldorf".]
[5] See "Steiner's Specific".
[6] People do tend to "count on their fingers," especially when doing simple sums. But the actual thinking — the tabulation of numbers — occurs in the brain, not in the fingers. Steiner and his followers generally deny the importance of the brain, however.
[7] See "Karma".
[8] See "Magical Arts".
[9] See "Incarnation".
[10] See "Ego".
[11] The "seeing" depends primarily on the use of clairvoyance. Much of Waldorf practice hinges on belief in clairvoyance. This is a major flaw, since clairvoyance is almost certainly nothing but a delusion. [See "Clairvoyance".]
[12] I.e., progress in developing clairvoyance and becoming initiated in occult mysteries. [See "Inside Scoop".]
— R.R.
November 9, 2018
CHICKENPOX, BLACK MAGIC,
AND WALDORF - PART 4
The following items provide some context and background for the recent news reports of a chickenpox mini-epidemic at an American Waldorf school.
1.
From the Waldorf Critics discussion site:
Here is what the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] has to say about chickenpox:
"Before the vaccination program, about 4 million people in the United States got chickenpox, over 10,000 were hospitalized, and 100 to 150 died each year."
and
"Each year, chickenpox vaccine prevents an estimated 3.5 million cases in the United States, and is almost 100% effective at preventing severe cases.
"Although it is still possible for vaccinated people to get chickenpox, the symptoms are usually milder with fewer blisters and mild or no fever. Chickenpox cases have declined about 92% in the United States from the period before the vaccination program started and chickenpox outbreaks rarely occur.”
[https://www.cdc.gov/about/24-7/savinglives/chickenpox/]
Another complication is that one in three people who have had chickenpox get shingles years later, caused by the chickenpox virus (varicella-zoster) that stays in the body near the spinal cord and brain after one has recovered from chickenpox. Shingles carries the risk of further complications.
I had chickenpox as a very young child and I've had shingles three times, when I was six, when I was in my early 20s, and again a few years ago. My children had chickenpox and and one of them has had shingles. It was close enough to the eyes to cause us all great anxiety since it can cause blindness. Shingles is extremely painful and the pain can stick around for years after the blisters have disappeared.
I would encourage everyone to vaccinate their children against chickenpox.
Also, a vaccine exists for shingles and is currently recommended for people over 50 in the US since older are people are more susceptible to getting shingles.
— Margaret Sachs [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/messages/31922]
◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Chickenpox is usually a fairly mild disease. But, as the statistics above indicate (10,000 hospitalizations, 100 to 150 deaths annually in the USA), it is not always mild. And bear in mind: These statistics are for a single, admittedly rather large, country. Totals for the entire world would doubtless be far higher.
Here is what the World Health Organization says:
Nature of the disease
Varicella [i.e., chickenpox] is an acute, highly contagious disease. In temperate climates most cases occur before the age of 10 years. The epidemiology is less well understood in tropical areas … While mostly a mild disorder in childhood, varicella tends to be more severe in adults … The disease may be fatal, especially in neonates [i.e., newborn children] and immunocompromised individuals….
Geographical distribution
Worldwide.
[http://www.who.int/ith/diseases/varicella/en/]
Evidently no firm worldwide statistics are available, but we have a few indicators. In Nigeria, in the 1970s, there were 14 chickenpox deaths reported among 2,153 hospital admissions. In Papua New Guinea, in the 1980s, there were 10 chickenpox deaths in adults at one small hospital over two years in a total population of 130,000. In Sri Lanka, in 2000-2001, there were 41 chickenpox death among 989 hospital admissions (4.2%). Overall, it is estimated that — at a minimum — there are 140,000,000 cases of chickenpox cases every year worldwide. Severe complications, leading to hospitalizations, occur in approximately 4,200,000 cases. The best estimate is that 4,200 deaths from chickenpox occur worldwide each year. [See "Varicella Disease Burden and Varicella Vaccines", 2014 — http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2014/april/2_SAGE_April_VZV_Seward_Varicella.pdf.]
Estimates are only estimates, of course. But the World Health Organization — like the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Heath — speaks with considerable authority. We can generally rely on these organizations to provide reliable information.
◊ • ◊
2.
From a former Waldorf school doctor:
If in childhood we have to undergo chicken pox, diphtheria, whooping cough, mumps or German measles it means that we suffer because through the illness an opportunity is provided for our future development.
This brings us to the subject of immunisation, or the artificial suppression of disease. If successful at all this does not take into consideration the vital factor that a children's disease occurs for the sake of the child's development....
— Dr. Norbert Glas, “How to Look at Illness” (New Knowledge Books, London; see Rudolf Steiner Archive, https://www.rsarchive.org/RelAuthors/GlasNorbert/How_To_Look_At_Illness.php)
◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Dr. Glas offers the standard Anthroposophical line: Illness can be good for us; it may be a blessing. [See "Steiner's Quackery".] Illness can help us to fulfill our karma. More generally, it can be a process of purification, enabling us to evolve to higher levels of spiritual development. For this very reason, vaccination is generally unwise — by suppressing diseases that would be good for us, vaccination interferes with our "development."
We find this view of disease and its prevention in various Anthroposophical texts, such as the following, written by a Waldorf teacher:
"Childhood diseases...result from a necessary developmental process in which the human being tries to overcome influences from the inherited physical body. The child must bring inherited substances into line with his own 'I' [that is, the child's spiritual individuality] ... The intensity of this process depends on the degree of conformity between the physical body and the 'I'. The bigger the difference, the more intense the harmonization process expressed in these types of disease will have to be. This basic concept of the origin of childhood diseases has been complicated by new forms of medication that suppress symptoms (vaccination) ... [T]he harmonization process is partly blocked by their use." — Henk Van Oort, ANTHROPOSOPHY A-Z (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2011), p. 20. (The parenthetical reference to vaccination occurs in the text; I did not add it. — R.R.)
Beliefs such as these lead Waldorf schools to frown on vaccination. The result can be the sort of situation reported recently at the Asheville Waldorf School: A large percentage of the students, unprotected by vaccination, have been stricken with a potentially serious infectious disease. And we should note that bias against vaccination can easily lead to epidemics involving diseases considerably more dangerous than chickenpox often is. Note that in his list, Dr. Glas includes "diphtheria, whooping cough, mumps or German measles." Any and all preventable, infectious diseases can threaten children who have been denied proper medical care. Among other measures, proper medical care certainly includes vaccination.
— R.R.
November 8, 2018
CHICKENPOX, BLACK MAGIC,
AND WALDORF - PART 3
News of the chickenpox crisis at an American Waldorf school has reached across the ocean. The following account, based on Associated Press reporting, appears in today’s Daily Mail [United Kingdom]:
Panic over chickenpox outbreak
in North Carolina private school
as the state's rate of
unvaccinated kids soars
• North Carolina's rate of unvaccinated children doubled between 2012 and 2016 due to easy exemption rules for religious reasons
• There is no approval process for religious exemptions: the parents just need to write a letter claiming religious beliefs
• Religious exemptions have risen dramatically, from 871 in 2012 to 2,073 in 2016
• Asheville Waldorf School is now quarantining unvaccinated kids as 28 contract chickenpox
Twenty-eight private school students in North Carolina now have chickenpox in an outbreak that began last week.…
North Carolina's rate of unvaccinated children doubled between 2012 and 2016 due to easy exemption rules for religious reasons.
To obtain a medical exemption, parents need a doctor to prove that their child is immunocompromised and would be harmed by the vaccine....
However, religious exemption is much simpler. There is no oversight. The parent need only write a letter to the school claiming religious beliefs, and their child is exempt….
Asheville Waldorf, a private school, opened in 2009….
It serves students from nursery school age to Grade 6, with approximately 130 students, for up to $8,900 a year.
'Asheville Waldorf School is committed to protecting the health and safety of our community,' the school said in a statement.
◊ • ◊
In the proud tradition of the British press, the Daily Mail plays a little fast and loose with some facts. (There does not seem to be a "panic" in Asheville over the situation, for instance.) But, generally, the article conveys the nature of the problem at the Asheville Waldorf School.
Meanwhile, other news media — chiefly in the USA — have been publishing and broadcasting coverage such as the following:
WTVD-TV [Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina]:
Chickenpox outbreak in North Carolina sickens 29
By Tisha Powell
A chickenpox outbreak in western North Carolina now has more than two dozen people sick with the illness.
The Buncombe County Health Department is confirming 29 people have chickenpox and 28 are students at a private school in Asheville.
Officials said the outbreak remained under investigation….
[https://abc11.com/health/chickenpox-outbreak-in-north-carolina-sickens-29/4626881/]
◊
WKYC-TV [Cleveland, Ohio]:
Doctors issue warning about chicken pox:
What you need to know
Chicken pox is something doctors say
parents shouldn't take lightly.
If you hear that chicken pox is going around your child’s school, you may not worry because everyone gets chicken pox, right?
You’ve probably even heard that some people purposely expose their children to chicken pox.
But doctors are warning parents about “chicken pox parties” [where kids are intentionally exposed to someone having the disease]….
Dr. Ellen Rome is head of the Center for Adolescent Medicine at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital. Several years ago, she remembers a 2-year-old child who died — and the only thing wrong was chicken pox….
“People used to think of chicken pox as a rite of passage. Nowadays, we think of it as an opportunity missed to be better vaccinated,” Dr. Rome said….
◊ • ◊
As far as I know, there have been no reports of "chicken pox parties" in or around the Asheville Waldorf School. However, any school with large numbers of unvaccinated students is a hazard zone where children may easily catch, and spread, infectious diseases.
— R.R.
November 7, 2018
CHICKENPOX, BLACK MAGIC,
AND WALDORF (CONT.)
The Associated Press has picked up the story of a chickenpox mini-epidemic in a Waldorf school. Here is a version of the AP story as reported by NBC News:
Chickenpox cases up to 28 at
private school in North Carolina
The outbreak at the Asheville Waldorf School
began last week, with 13 cases.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Health officials say 28 private school students in North Carolina now have chickenpox in an outbreak that began last week.
The number of children infected grew from 13 the week before….
In a statement, the Asheville Waldorf School said it has provided information about the outbreak to the health department.
Buncombe County Medical Director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore said students who can’t provide proof of vaccination against chickenpox have been quarantined for 21 days.…
[11/7/2018 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/chickenpox-cases-28-private-school-north-carolina-n932086 This report was originally aired by NBC on November 6.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
The founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, sometimes advanced specific esoteric reasons why humanity should fear vaccination. Yesterday, for instance, we touched on Steiner's teachings about potential links between vaccination and black magic. [1]
But Steiner also created a more generalized climate of fear that leads Waldorf schools to be averse to vaccination. Teachers in these schools, heeding Steiner, tend to fear all products of modern technology: vaccines, certainly; but also computers, and televisions, and even steam engines. [2] This fear is rooted in Steiner's teachings about demons. So, for instance, Steiner made statements such as this:
“When we build steam-engines, we provide the opportunity for the incarnation of demons.” [3]
Build a technological device such as a steam engine, turn it on — and here come the demons! This, amazingly enough, is Steiner's warning. And, amazingly enough, Steiner's followers take it seriously. Indeed, they believe that Steiner's warning applies even more disinctly to the higher-tech gizmos we have today:
"[W]hat has been said here about the steam engine applies in a much greater degree to the technology of our time ... [T]elevision, for example. The result is that the demon magic spoken of by Rudolf Steiner is spreading more and more intensively on all sides ... It is very necessary that anyone who aspires towards the spiritual should realise clearly how the most varied opportunities for a virtual incarnation of elemental beings and demons are constantly on the increase." [4]
With such worries in mind, Steiner's followers shun modern technology as much as they can. They attempt to live natural, wholesome lives. Eat organic foods. Wear natural fabrics of cotton or wool. Turn off the TVs and smart phones and computers. And don't submit to vaccination.
The effort to live naturally and wholesomely may be admirable. But if such behavior is based on superstition instead of reason, then "admirable" is hardly the right description. In reality, the superstitious Waldorf/Anthroposophical fear of vaccination is groundless. [5] Consider. Catching various childhood diseases (chickenpox, measles, mumps...) may be "natural" for young kids, but is it good for them? Wouldn't effective preventative measures — first and foremost, vaccination — be better for them? Bear in mind, some preventable childhood diseases are potentially fatal.
◊
Another reason Steiner's followers have misgivings about vaccination is that they believe in karma. The things that happen to a person during earthly incarnation, they believe, are often the result of karma. And, by and large, we should allow karma to play out. If, for instance, you acquire a certain illness due to karma, then you need that illness — it is required for your ultimate purification and spiritual advancement. [6]
But, here, things get a bit muddled. Steiner sometimes acknowledged that vaccination can prevent diseases, and he sometimes said that interfering with karma to prevent diseases may sometimes be warranted. But, he added, we should do this only if we supplement physical medical care with hefty doses of his esoteric spiritual teachings:
"If we destroy the susceptibility to smallpox, we are concentrating only on the external side [i.e., the physical side] of karmic activity. If on the one [hand] we go in for hygiene, it is necessary that on the other [hand] we should...contribute...something also for the good of [the patient's] soul. Vaccination will not be harmful if, subsequent to vaccination, the person receives a spiritual education." [7]
The form of spiritual education that Steiner advocated was, of course, education centering on his own spiritual preachments. Waldorf schools, which base their practices on these preachments, would seem to be in the ideal position to meet Steiner's criterion. They could promote vaccination among their students, after which they would provide the requisite spiritual education. Arguably, they were already providing this education anyway — Waldorf education is fundamentally spiritual. [8]
In other words, we might expect Waldorf schools to be enthusiastic promoters of vaccination. But this is almost never the case. Worries about unnatural modern technology, with the accompanying fear of demons, and the concern about disrupting karma, and warnings about black magic — these lead Waldorf schools to be deeply wary of vaccination.
Waldorf schools often appear on lists of schools having the highest numbers of unvaccinated students in a district or state. Waldorfs could avoid such infamy through the simple expedient of requiring that all students be vaccinated before the start of the school year. They could stipulate that parents provide certificates of vaccination for their children. But they almost never do this. Consequently, news accounts like the following appear from time to time:
All 10 kindergartens with the highest rates of vaccine exemptions are in N. California
Across the state [i.e. California], kindergarteners are being vaccinated at the highest rates in years. But that has led to some "pushback" from anti-vaxxers, particularly in Northern California.
Some Californians, the Los Angeles Times finds, are seeking doctors who will issue medical exemptions so they can avoid immunizing their children...
California kindergartens with the highest medical exemption rates include:
58 percent: Sebastopol Independent Charter - Sonoma County
52 percent: Yuba River Charter - Nevada County
51 percent: Sunridge Charter - Sonoma County
43 percent: Live Oak Charter - Sonoma County
38 percent: Berkeley Rose School - Alameda County
38 percent: The New Village School - Marin County
37 percent: Coastal Grove Charter - Humboldt County
37 percent: The Waldorf School of Mendocino County - Mendocino County
35 percent: Summerfield Waldorf School & Farm - Sonoma County
33 percent: Santa Cruz Waldorf School - Santa Cruz County [9]
Three of the schools on this list are immediately identifiable as Waldorf schools. But the situation is actually far worse. Although the article does not mention it, every single kindergarten on the list is associated with Waldorf education. Some of these kindergartens, such as Sebastopol Independent and Live Oak, are "Waldorf-inspired" programs. Others, such as Yuba River and Central Grove, say that they are guided by the "principles of Public Waldorf Education." Similarly, Berkeley Rose says it is "accredited by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA)," and The New School says its curriculum is "inspired by and based on indications given by Rudolf Steiner."
The high numbers of unvaccinated students at many Waldorf schools makes these institutions dangerous. They are potential centers of contagion.
◊
[1] See "Chlckenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf", November 6, 2018.
[2] See, e.g., "Spiders, Dragons and Foxes".
[3] Rudolf Steiner, “The Relation of Man to the Hierarchies” (ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, Vol. V, Nos. 14-15, 1928).
[4] Anthroposophist Georg Unger, “On ‘Mechanical Occultism’” (Mitteilungen aus der Anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland nos. 68–69, 1964).
[5] There may be rational reasons for being cautious about vaccination, but worries about demons, and karma, and black magic are not among them.
[6] See "Karma". Also see the entry for "evolution of consciousness" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.
[7] Rudolf Steiner, MANIFESTATIONS OF KARMA (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2000), pp. 165-166.
[8] See, e.g., "Here's the Answer" and "Schools as Churches".
[9] SFGATE, July 19, 2018: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/kindergartens-vaccines-medical-exemptions-calif-13085811.php.
— R.R.
November 6, 2018
CHICKENPOX, BLACK MAGIC,
AND WALDORF
From The Asheville Citizen Times [North Carolina, USA]:
Chickenpox cases grow at
Asheville Waldorf School
[by] Jennifer Bowman
The number of children diagnosed with chickenpox at a private school in Asheville has increased, Buncombe County health officials said Monday.
There are now 28 cases of chickenpox at Asheville Waldorf School, located in West Asheville. That's up from 13 cases — 12 of whom are students and another a child in the community — when the Health and Human Services Department announced the outbreak last week….
Asheville Waldorf, formerly known as Azalea Mountain School, was founded in 2009. It serves students from nursery to 6th grade.
The most recent tax form available shows the school in 2015 served some 130 students.
[11/6/2018 https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/11/05/chickenpox-outbreak-asheville-waldorf-school-cases-grow/1893708002/ This story originally appeared on October 5.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Rudolf Steiner's followers generally oppose the use of vaccination to prevent diseases. One consequence is that Waldorf schools often have high numbers of unvaccinated students. The schools are prone, then, to become centers of contagion. If Asheville Waldorf School has about 130 students, then an outbreak affecting more than two dozen students (so far) means that about a fifth of the students in the school have been afflicted (so far).
A previous article in The Asheville Citizen Times included the following:
"We want to be clear: vaccination is the best protection from chickenpox," Buncombe County Medical Director Dr. Jennifer Mullendore said in a statement. "Two doses of varicella vaccine can offer significant protection against childhood chickenpox and shingles as an adult. When we see high numbers of unimmunized children and adults, we know that an illness like chickenpox can spread easily throughout the community — into our playgrounds, grocery stores, and sports teams.”
Mullendore said unvaccinated people put others at risk, including babies who are too young to receive their shots or those who are "medically fragile or immunocompromised.”
"As a medical provider and a parent myself, I urge everyone in our community to get vaccinated against chickenpox," she said.
The case for vaccination is perhaps not as straightforward as Dr. Mullendore suggests. Many people today are skeptical of vaccination. However, the scientific and medical communities are virtually unanimous in advocating vaccination. The following is from the National Institutes of Health (an agency of the US Department of Health):
Vaccines prevent infectious diseases in people who receive them and protect those who come in contact with unvaccinated, infected individuals. Vaccinating children against diseases helps protect our community’s and our children’s health.
Before vaccines, many children died from diseases such as whooping cough and polio — diseases that vaccines are now able to prevent. However, according to reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there has been a resurgence of certain vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States in recent years. For example, since 2010, we have seen between 10,000 and 50,000 cases of whooping cough each year in the United States, with cases reported in every state.
[Downloaded 11/6/2018 https://nccih.nih.gov/health/vaccinations]
Rudolf Steiner did not absolutely forbid the use of vaccination as a preventative medical practice. He said that vaccination may be permissible and safe in some circumstances. But he warned against the hidden dangers that may lurk in vaccines.
"When things that ought to come later make their appearance as spiritual premature births [1]...through criminal occult activity [2]...[then] those who intentions towards humanity are not good, in other words those who are black or grey magicians [3], can gain possession of such secrets ... Certain circles [4] in this materialistic age are striving to paralyse and make impossible all of humanity's spiritual development [5], through causing people...to reject everything spiritual and reject it as nonsense ... Endeavors to achieve this will be made by bringing out remedies to be administered by inoculation [6] ... [T]hese inoculations will influence the human body in a way that will make it refuse to give a home to the spiritual inclinations of the soul. [7]" — Rudolf Steiner, SECRET BROTHERHOODS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), pp. 90-91.
Fear of black magic is surely not a valid reason to leave children unprotected against potentially serious diseases. Superstition should not trump rational thought and scientific knowledge.
There has been much discussion in the press, recently, about the safeguarding of students in Waldorf schools. [8] Surprising as it may seem, these schools — which present such a sunny face to the world — may be dangerous places for children. This is doubly so when the schools, officially or otherwise, reinforce unmerited, superstitious fear of vaccination.
◊
[1] I.e., when occult spiritual wisdom that should be withheld until a later epoch is revealed prematurely.
[2] The word "occult," as Steiner used it (in German, "okkult"), means hidden. The most important spiritual knowledge, Steiner taught, is hidden or occult knowledge. Most such knowledge needs to remain hidden until mankind has evolved high enough to comprehend and benefit from it, Steiner taught. "Criminal occult activity," as Steiner says here, includes the discovery and misuse of spiritual wisdom that should remain hidden for now. Steiner himself claimed to know when various bits of occult knowledge should be revealed to mankind at large. His most important book, AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE, reveals secrets that he decided mankind could safely receive at its current stage of evolution. [See "Everything".]
[3] According to Anthroposophical belief, black magicians engage in evil (black) magical practices; grey magicians dabble in black magic but also in white magic. [For more on Anthroposophical teachings about magic, see "Magic" and "Magicians".]
[4] I.e., secret societies and conspiratorial enclaves. [See, e.g., "Double Trouble".]
[5] I.e., mankind's spiritual evolution. [See "Evolution, Anyone?"]
[6] I.e., vaccination. [See "Steiner's Quackery".]
[7] I.e., the physical body will then be impervious to spiritual influences — it will reject the human soul, refusing to allow it to incarnate. [See the entries for "soul" and "spirit" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.]
[8] See, e.g., "RSSKL" and "S. A. Exeter".
— R.R.
November 5, 2018
GNOMES, UNDINES, SYLPHS,
AND SALAMANDERS — AND WALDORF
One of the lectures by Rudolf Steiner currently featured at the Rudolf Steiner Archive and e.Lib:
"Gnomes, Undines, Sylphs, and Salamanders and their Various Activities and Attitudes"
from MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 9, GA 230
[See https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19231104p01.html]
Here is the official synopsis of the lecture:
For the gnomes solid earth is hollow and offers no resistance. They experience the different qualities of its substances. Their relation to the moon, and their different appearance at its phases. Their work in carrying over the hard structure from one manifestation to another. Undines and sylphs find their true life in death. Undines assimilate the colours of phosphorescent water, and offer themselves to the hierarchies. The sylphs carry the astrality of dying birds to the hierarchies. The fire beings do the same with the gleaming of the warmth ether on the butterflies' wings. All four classes of elemental beings are astonished at man's lack of awareness in sleep. They speak to man in admonishment. Their sayings, which form part of the creative Word.
[See https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA230/English/RSP1970/ManSym_index.html]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
It can be hard for outsiders to believe that Rudolf Steiner's followers, including many Waldorf teachers, believe what they do. But they do. Rudolf Steiner's followers really do believe in gnomes and all the rest of the stuff contained in the lecture currently featured at the Steiner Archive.
Here's a quick primer on a few of the beliefs relevant to lecture 9 in MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD:
◊ Steiner and his followers accept the ancient belief that there are really just for elements: earth, air, fire, and water. (For the most part, Steiner and his followers reject or downplay modern scientific discoveries, such as the discovery, to date, of 118 elements.)
◊ Steiner and his followers believe that four "nature spirits" dwell within the four elements: gnomes live in earth, sylphs live in air, undines live in water, and "salamanders" or "fire beings" live in fire. [See "Neutered Nature".]
◊ Steiner and his followers believe that there are a vast number of gods arrayed in a hierarchy; they use the term "hierarchies" to refer to the gods. Anthroposophy is polytheistic. [See "Polytheism".]
◊ Steiner and his followers believe that the gods create things simply by speaking their intentions: The gods utter "the creative word(s)," and the things spoken of become incarnate. (Steiner and his followers believe that humans will soon have a similar power. Then, the human larynx will replace the womb as the organ of reproduction.)
◊
The strange beliefs of Rudolf Steiner and his followers are woven into Waldorf education. Usually (but not always) these beliefs are conveyed to the student indirectly, covertly — but they are conveyed. [See "Sneaking It In".] Representations of gnomes adorn Waldorf schools because this is one subtle way to bring Anthroposophy into class.
Here are reports from two women who send their kids to Waldorf schools (and later regretted it):
◊ "The presence of stuffed-fabric gnomes in Waldorf kindergartens strikes some parents as charming or even humorous. The gnomes are not only physically present: they often appear in stories the teachers tell, and the children are encouraged to draw gnomes. But the gnomes' role is more complicated than this ... The gnomes aren't cuddly. They aren't friendly. They're actually just a little bit threatening. Gnomes in Waldorf lore are not quite sympathetic to humans — they're tricky and conniving ... Gnomes aren't friends or playmates for children ... [Nonetheless] gnomes are something that Waldorf schools can hook onto in popular culture, from suburban lawn ornaments to familiar fairy tales, and insinuate a message about 'nature spirits' that is meant to prepare children to be receptive to a wide variety of related beliefs about the 'spiritual hierarchies' as outlined by Rudolf Steiner. Nature spirits are at or near the bottom of a very complex hierarchy ... I think gnomes get more systematic emphasis because talk of angels [i.e., low-ranking gods] is too blatantly religious, parents will wonder if their child comes home always talking about angels, whereas gnomes can be treated as simply creatures from children's stories or fairy tales, and of course most Waldorf schools deny to parents that the curriculum is religious." — Diana Winters
◊ "The felt gnome in my son's Waldorf classroom sat on a shelf near the top of the chalkboard. I remember the class teacher telling a group of parents that the gnome's role was to watch the children while he was out of the classroom. He said it with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, so my reaction was that it was funny and cute. I assumed it was intended as a big joke and that all the other parents shared that assumption. It never occurred to me the gnome might have a different significance for the children. But, in retrospect, I don't remember my children ever including gnomes in their conversation or play ... It's really weird to look back now, picturing all those adults sitting at their children's desks, listening attentively to a man who, unknown to us, believed his guru [Rudolf Steiner] could see real gnomes." — Margaret Sachs
In brief, gnomes populate Waldorf classrooms because they provide a way to smuggle the religion of Anthroposophy into Waldorf schools without exciting suspicion and opposition. [See "Gnomes".]
◊ • ◊
Oh, and about the larynx:
“The larynx is the future organ of procreation and birth. At present we give birth to words through it, but in future this seed will develop the capacity to give birth to the whole human being once we have become spiritualized.” — Rudolf Steiner, EVIL (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1997), p. 50.
It can be hard to believe that Rudolf Steiner's followers believe what they do. But they do.
— R.R.
November 4, 2018
INCARNATION, MEDITATION,
GODS, AND WALDORF TEACHERS
A fascinating book from the Rudolf Steiner College Press is available again, after apparently being out of print for a while. Written by a Waldorf teacher, the book provides further evidence that the occult fantasies of Rudolf Steiner — taken as profound spiritual wisdom by his followers — continue to inform Waldorf education in the 21st century.
The book is THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 2015), by Astrid Schmitt-Stegmann. It is available through the Rudolf Steiner College Bookstore [see https://rscbookstore.com/products/the-uniqueness-of-waldorf-education]. In addition to working as a Waldorf teacher, Schmitt-Stegmann has served on the faculty of Rudolf Steiner College.
[Rudolf Steiner College Press]
Here are a few excerpts from the book. (I have added some explanatory footnotes.)
According to Schmitt-Stegmann, an important goal for Waldorf teachers is helping students to incarnate successfully on Earth. Children have both souls and spirits, Anthroposophists believe. [1] Schmitt-Stegmann says Waldorf teachers should ensure that kids’ souls and spirits incarnate fully and harmoniously, interpenetrating each other:
"The task of the Waldorf teacher then clearly is to assist in this process of interpenetration of the two different entities [soul and spirit]." — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 68.
Schmitt-Stegmann identifies two situations Waldorf teachers must work to correct. Some children fail to incarnate fully (they don't descend far enough into the physical body), while others incarnate too much (they descend too far into the physical body). [2]
"[The] child needs to make a good connection with the physical body … The harmonious connection [between soul, spirit, and body] can fail in two directions. On the one hand, the soul and spirit may not connect well enough with the body, remaining outside [3] … The second way a harmonious connection can fail to come about is when the soul and spirit are drawn too deeply into the physical body [4]…." — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, pp. 68-71.
The issue of incarnation is crucial in Waldorf education. Schmitt-Stegmann gives specific recommendations on how to deal with insufficiently incarnated students and excessively incarnated students. [5] So, for instance, insufficiently incarnated kids tend to be dreamy and inattentive. Schmitt-Stegmann provides guidance such as the following for helping these students:
"Artistic work is ideal for a dreamy child ... Any art or craft using the hands, bringing attention to the work of the hands, is already an incarnating process. Writing or drawing with their feet will bring their attention...all the way down to their feet....
"In addition, tasks in the classroom such as watering plants, sweeping the floor, washing the counters, emptying the trash, and so on are excellent challenges for the child [who is] not sufficiently incarnated...." — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, pp. 70-71.
Schmitt-Stegmann gives comparable recommendations for helping children who have plunged too deeply into material existence. [6]
◊
The most important, and revealing, part of the book is the last: "Part III: The path of the Waldorf teacher". Here, Schmitt-Stegmann stresses the crucial role played by contemplation and meditation in the life of a Waldorf teacher. Teachers in Waldorf schools should make "inner work" part of their daily routine. [7]
"The teacher's inner life[:] ... Rudolf Steiner considered contemplative, meditative practice to be part of the Waldorf teachers' daily work ... As teachers, we should discover [the] higher Self in us, for this is the selfless self, capable of working for the common good, while our self-seeking, self-interested self is what needs to be transformed!" — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 154.
Seeking spiritual self-improvement is an unending obligation for Waldorf teachers. They need to elevate the invisible, inner parts of themselves in order to have the proper effect on their students. Thus, the teachers need to be mindful of their own etheric bodies, astral bodies, "I"s, and spirit selves. [8] According to the "Pedagogical Law" elucidated by Rudolf Steiner, each inner part of the teacher has a powerful effect on the part of the student that is one step lower. So, for instance, the etheric body of the teacher has a powerful effect on the physical body of the student. Schmitt-Stegmann summarizes the Pedagogical Law in this little chart:
Teacher.............. Child
The teacher's etheric body [has influence] on the child's physical body
The teacher's astral body [has influence] on the child's etheric body
The teacher's "I" [has influence] on the child's astral body
The teacher's Spirit Self [has influence] on the child's ["I"]
— THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 157.
You may be unacquainted with the inner parts we're talking about here. You may even doubt that they exist. (And you would be right.) But the key point is that Waldorf teachers believe in these inner parts, and they think the "Pedagogical Law" is unquestionably true.
Let's press ahead. Schmitt-Stegmann explains that, in order to guide their students properly, Waldorf teachers need to work in conjunction with the gods who oversee Waldorf education. The chief of these gods is Michael, the militant Archangel of the Sun. [9]
"Steiner...made clear who is the being that stands behind this education [i.e., Waldorf education]. It is Michael, who is the ruling Spirit of our Time, the one who sends his inspirations to humanity to re-spiritualize human life. This is currently a necessity in order to save humanity from another 'fall,' this time into the subterranean realm of electricity and magnetism. [10]" — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 163.
Re-spiritualizing humanity may be taken as the ultimate goal of Anthroposophy in general [11] and Waldorf education in particular. A Waldorf faculty should convene under the guidance of gods who, spiritually speaking, stand one step and two steps higher than humanity. [12] The gods one step above us are the spirits who are usually called "angels", while the gods two steps above us are the spirits who are usually called "archangels." Each Waldorf teacher is overseen by one angel, while each Waldorf faculty jointly is overseen by a cohort of archangels. (The following passage is couched in typical, murky-mystical Waldorf jargon. I will offer a paraphrase in the footnotes.)
"We can experience the archangels in a circular sweep above the heads of the group of teachers weaving together the offering of each teacher, brought to life through the meeting with her angel, with the offering of the others in a great, uniting gesture. They form and shape what they thus weave together into a sculpted vessel. A chalice is formed above the heads of the teachers. It is composed of a special substance: it is formed out of courage. The archangels allow creative forces of inspiration to stream to the teachers for their work." [13] — THE UNIQUENESS OF WALDORF EDUCATION, p. 165.
That, dear reader, is the uniqueness of Waldorf education.
Still. Now. In the 21st century.
◊ • ◊
[1] According to Waldorf belief, souls are short-term spiritual identities that exist during a single lifetime; spirits are immortal spiritual identities that last through, and beyond, all lifetimes. [See, e.g., the entries for "soul" and "spirit" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.]
[2] How can a Waldorf teacher know whether a child has fallen into one of these undesirable conditions? In part, through the use of clairvoyance — what Steiner called the Waldorf teacher’s consciousness. [See "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness".]
[3] This is the condition of insufficient incarnation.
[4] This is excessive incarnation.
[5] Two section headings in the book are "The child not incarnated enough" [p. 69] and "The child too deeply incarnated" [p.71].
[6] See pp. 69-74.
[7] In Waldorf schools, inner work may often be deemed more essential than mundane objectives such as mastering subject matter. Waldorf teachers often attempt to give their students instruction in subjects about which they, the teachers, know little. [See, e.g., "The Waldorf Curriculum".]
[8] Steiner taught that the physical body is animated by a higher, invisible body: the etheric body. Above the etheric body is the astral body, consisting of soul forces. Above the astral body is the "I" — one's unique spiritual essence. Above the "I" is the spirit self, which is the purified and transformed astral body, the reincarnating self. Above that are still other invisible, inner parts of the human constitution. [See "What We're Made Of" and "Our Parts".]
[9] See "Michael".
[10] Our first "fall" occurred in the Garden of Eden. (In Anthroposophy, this is taken as emblematic of our descent from the spirit realm to existence on the physical Earth.) We currently stand in danger of a second fall: We may slip into the clutches of the arch-demon Ahriman. Ahriman incarnates on Earth through technological devices such as televisions and computers — gizmos that use electricity and magnetism. [See "Ahriman" and "Spiders, Dragons and Foxes".]
[11] Anthroposophy is sometimes called the "School of Michael". [See, again, "Michael".]
[12] See "Polytheism".
[13] Paraphrase: A circle of archangels hovers above each Waldorf faculty. This circle weaves together the spiritual offerings made by the individual Waldorf teachers in that faculty. Each Waldorf teacher makes her/his offering in conjunction with her/his angel. All of these offerings, woven together, unite the teachers in a great gesture to the gods above. The teachers' united offerings form a spiritual vessel above the heads of the teachers — they form a spiritual chalice. The chalice is composed of the teachers' courage. Out of the chalice, the archangels pour "creative forces of inspiration" down to the teachers below.
— R.R.
November 3, 2018
◊ WALDORF WISDOM TODAY ◊
WHAT THEY SAY NOW
Anyone who wants to understand Waldorf education must, inevitably, dig into Rudolf Steiner’s books and lectures. Almost everything that happens in Waldorf schools today, with only rare exceptions, derives ultimately from Steiner’s preachments.
But Rudolf Steiner is long gone — he died in early 1925. And today’s proponents of Waldorf education often make the misleading claim that Steiner’s influence is over and done with. They often say that Waldorf schools today are really quite modern, up-to-date, and utterly divorced from any odd, mystical doctrines that Rudolf Steiner may have promoted long, long ago.
The claim is false, but — for the sake of argument — let’s accept it, at least provisionally. Let’s turn our gaze away from Steiner to consider, instead, statements made recently by representatives of the Waldorf movement and the broader Anthroposophical movement. Such statements can be almost as eye-opening as Steiner’s own remarks. Moreover, the new statements clearly reflect the old ones — that is, they show that Waldorf/Anthroposophical beliefs today still originate in Steiner’s occultism.
Here are a few modern, up-to-date statements reaching us from within the Waldorf and Anthroposophical movements today. All of these statements were made or published during the second decade of the 21st century. They represent contemporary Waldorf/Anthroposophical thinking, the thinking that continues to underlie Waldorf education. Today. Still. In the 21st century.
(I have added a few explanatory footnotes.)
◊ • ◊
"A Waldorf school…is an organization that seeks to allow the spiritual impulses of our time to manifest on earth ... Steiner described the founding of [the first] Waldorf School as a ceremony within the Cosmic Order* ... [T]he founding of every subsequent Waldorf school also has cosmic significance." — Waldorf teacher Roberto Trostli, "On Earth as It Is in Heaven", Research Bulletin, Vol. 16 (Waldorf Research Institute, Fall 2011), pp. 21-24.
* I.e., the hierarchical order consisting of, and created by, spiritual beings.
◊
"A school class is a destiny community* ... A class is not a group of children who have been thrown together arbitrarily." — Anthroposophist Peter Selg, THE ESSENCE OF WALDORF EDUCATION (SteinerBooks, 2010)‚ p. 45.
* That is, students and teacher are bound together by karma. [See "Karma".]
◊
"Etheric aura — every living being, a plant, an animal or human being, has an ether body* which can be seen as a luminous configuration around the physical body by people who have developed the necessary perception.**" — Waldorf teacher Henk van Oort, ANTHROPOSOPHY A-Z (Sophia Books, 2011), p. 39.
* In Waldorf belief, humans have three invisible bodies in addition to their physical bodies. Helping children to incarnate their invisible bodies (the etheric, astral, and ego bodies) is a central purpose of Waldorf education. [See "Incarnation".] The etheric body is supposedly visible to clairvoyants as an aura. [See "Auras".] It is also possible for clairvoyants to perceive one another's astral bodies, Steiner's followers believe, but the ego body can only be perceived by its owner.
** The "necessary perception" is clairvoyance. Waldorf/Anthroposophical beliefs hinge on clairvoyance. This is extremely problematic, since clairvoyance almost certainly does not exist. [See "Clairvoyance".]
◊
"…Once the child has taken hold of his or her physical body and some of the growth forces are freed for other creative functions*, the child has gained his or her own 'protective garment,' usually referred to as the life body or etheric body. Waldorf educators recognize this freeing of some of the creative forces…as a sign of the birth of the child’s own life body or etheric body...." — Waldorf teacher Holly Koteen Soulé (editor), CHILD DEVELOPMENT YEAR BY YEAR (Waldorf Early Education Association of North America, 2017), p. 18.
* According to Waldorf belief, childhood is a series of seven-year-long periods. During the first period, a child's energies are focused on the development of the physical body. Starting at age 7, the child's energies are redirected, at least in part, to the development of her/his newly incarnated etheric body. Later, starting at age 14, the focus shifts to the astral body, and later yet — at age 21 — to the ego or ego body. [See the entries for such terms in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia.]
◊
"It is wise, on encountering a fairy, not to be too overeager in one’s scrutiny.* Little People — like those other innocents, animals, and children — have an intense dislike of being stared at. They love to stare at us, of course, but will turn away at once and disappear the moment we return the favor. They have grown shy in the face of our disbelief in them." — Waldorf teacher Marjorie Spock, FAIRY WORLDS AND WORKERS (SteinerBooks, 2013), pp. 36-37.
* Amazingly, this is not a joke. Anthroposophists believe in the literal existence of fairies, aka nature spirits or elemental beings. [See "Neutered Nature".]
◊
"[V]arious hierarchical entities*...spoke through Rudolf Steiner** … Rudolf Steiner in his own life [manifested] the highest ideal and goal of Earth evolution." — Anthroposophist Sergei O. Prokoffief, MAY HUMAN BEINGS HEAR IT (Temple Lodge Publishing, 2014), p. 42.
* I.e., gods. Anthroposophy is polytheistic. Anthroposophists believe that there are nine ranks of gods arranged in a divine hierarchy. [See "Polytheism".]
** Within Waldorf/Anthroposophical circles, Rudolf Steiner is deemed to have spoken for the gods. His teachings are considered virtually sacrosanct. Thus, in a meeting of Waldorf teachers, one participant said this:
“Steiner had exceptional powers, he saw the future, he knew the truth ... [Y]ou need to study and follow Steiner. Steiner is all anyone ever needs to know.” [See "Ex-Teacher 5".]
◊ • ◊
"Waldorf Wisdom Today" is a new department here at the Waldorf Watch News. I hope to offer further installments, from time to time, as the 21st century wings its way into the future.
— R.R.
November 2, 2018
FORMER WALDORF SCHOOL
OFFERS LEARNING OUTDOORS
From LAMORINDA WEEKLY [California, USA]:
Communing with nature
in the outdoor classroom
by John T. Miller
Using the 35-acre Twin Canyon Girl Scout Camp in Lafayette [California]...for its classroom, Wild Oak Education, a nonprofit home school enrichment program, offers a unique approach to education.
Formerly Singing Stones School, a Waldorf [school]…the group moved to the Lafayette location earlier this year….
Classes are conducted using various campgrounds, picnic areas and other sites nestled in the hillsides. "We conduct education outdoors..." says Kate Newkirk, Business Manager at Wild Oak.
Lead Grades Teacher Meryn Gruhn Di Tullio reinforces the concept of using the outdoors, "Something magical happens in nature that can't happen within four walls. Being backed against the wall and being trapped in a corner requires walls. There's a feeling of openness and a freedom to be yourself in nature's sanctuary."
The staff has had wilderness first aid training, especially concerning rattlesnakes.…
While its emphasis for seven years previous as Singing Stones was as a Waldorf School, the Wild Oak curriculum employs many different educational philosophies — including Montessori — in addition to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner....
Wild Oak is a home school enrichment program, and not a school, per se….
[11/2/2018 http://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1218/Communing-with-nature-in-the-outdoor-classroom.html This article originally appeared on October 31.]
◊ • ◊
Waldorf Watch Response:
Some Waldorf schools thrive. They attract a sufficient number of students, and sufficient financial support, to stay in operation year after year.
Other Waldorf schools fail, for one reason or another. Despite the best efforts of faculty and staff, they close down. [See, e.g., "Failure".]
In a third category, some Waldorf schools evolve into something different from Waldorf schools. Wild Oak Education seems to be an example. No longer a Waldorf school — indeed, no longer a school at all, per se — it is now a "home school enrichment program" that uses "many different educational philosophies," not just the Waldorf philosophy.
Homeschooling is a growing trend in the USA and in some other countries. Kids stay home with their parents, who take on the role of teachers. Whether this is a good idea — whether parents who have no training as teachers are able to succeed as teachers — is debatable. The effectiveness of homsechooling undoubtedly varies from home to home, from parent to parent, from child to child. But the trend is growing, and programs such as Wild Oak Education have come forward to support it. (There are also flat-out Waldorf homeschooling services, such as Waldorf Homeschoolers: http://www.waldorfhomeschoolers.com.)
The concept of conducting most or all classes outdoors is less widespread, but it has at least a thin connection to Waldorf tradition. Many Waldorf schools send students outdoors in all weathers, rain or shine. Usually, these schools hold their classes indoors, but they want students to experience nature in all of its manifestations. So the kids are taken outdoors no matter how inclement the weather may be — they play outdoors, they are led on nature walks, they work in school gardens, and sometimes they are given certain kinds of formal instruction out of doors.
The Waldorf attitude toward nature — derived principally from Waldorf founder Rudolf Steiner — is complex. Nature is considered to be holy, in some sense. It is the outward guise, or the handiwork, of the gods. On the other hand, nature exists at the physical level of existence, which Steiner warned can be deceitful and corrupting. [See "Neutered Nature".]
Also, of course, nature contains various hazards, such as rattlesnakes.
Importantly, according to Waldorf belief, nature is the abode of invisible "nature spirits" or "elemental beings." These entities dwell within the four primary elements of nature, Steiner said. Gnomes dwell in the earth, undines dwell in water, sylphs dwell in the air, and "salamanders" or "fire spirits" dwell in fire.
Waldorf preschool classrooms and elementary-school classrooms often display pictures or figurines of nature spirits, especially gnomes. These pictures and dolls are usually quite cute. But nature spirits are not our friends, exactly. Gnomes, for instance, lack a sense of morality. They trick and deceive us.
Here are a few Waldorf beliefs about nature spirits, as laid out by R. Steiner. (In some of these statements, Steiner uses still other names for nature spirits: He refers to "goblins," "elves," and so forth.)
◊ “There are beings that can be seen with clairvoyant vision at many spots in the depths of the earth ... Many names have been given to them, such as goblins, gnomes and so forth ... What one calls moral responsibility in man is entirely lacking in them ... Their nature prompts them to play all sorts of tricks on man.... ” — Rudolf Steiner, NATURE SPIRITS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1995), p. 69.
◊ "[O]ur brain connects us with certain elemental beings, namely those elemental beings that belong to the sphere of wisdom ... [T]hey are called elves, fairies, and so on." — Rudolf Steiner, THE RIDDLE OF HUMANITY (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1990), lecture 5, GA 170.
◊ "If you could observe certain spots, as, for instance, springs where underneath there is stone overgrown with moss...[and] water trickles over it...then you would see that what are called Nymphs and Undines are very real, [they are] an actuality." — Rudolf Steiner, THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS ON MAN (Anthroposophic Press, 1961), lecture 9, GA 102.
If nature spirits are not exactly our friends, nonetheless they have conferred various benefits on us. For instance, they created the physical Earth.
◊ “The predecessors of our Earth-gnomes, the Moon-gnomes, gathered together their Moon-experiences and from them fashioned this structure, this firm structure of the solid fabric of the Earth, so that our solid Earth-structure actually arose from the experiences of the gnomes of the old Moon.” — Rudolf Steiner, MAN AS SYMPHONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1970), lecture 9, GA 230.
[For more on these matters, see, e.g., "Beings" and "Gnomes".]
— R.R.
November 1, 2018
CONSPIRACY THINKING
IN TODAY'S STEINER MOVEMENT
There has long be contentious debate over allegations that leading Anthroposophists became embroiled in Fascism and Nazism. [See, e.g., "Sympathizers?"] Today, a related controversy hangs over the Anthroposophical movement. Various commentators have argued that Anthroposophy today is aligning itself with the radical right in Europe and elsewhere.
Here is a statement posted by historian Peter Staudenmaier at the Waldorf Critics discussion site:
For those who have been following developments over the past few years among German-speaking anthroposophists, the core of Steiner's movement, it has been hard to miss the unsettling drift toward an increasingly open embrace of conspiracy myths, many of them directly indebted to the rising far right. Last week a fascinating report on this unfortunate ongoing trend was posted to the Egoisten blog, one of the best sources for critical anthroposophical perspectives:
https://egoistenblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/ein-halbes-jahr-in-einer.html,
The report offers an inside look at a non-public anthroposophical Facebook group ... I recommend it highly.
— Peter Staudenmaier
[11/1/2018 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/messages/31917 Staudenmaier posted his message on October 30.]
The report is written in German, making it inaccessible to most Waldorf Watch readers. Here is a translation of a few excerpts, which I created using, among other resources, the translation service DeepL. As you read, bear in mind that the author of the report — Rainer Herzog — is himself an Anthroposophist. You should also recollect that Waldorf education stands upon the ideological foundation provided by Anthroposophy. [See "Oh Humanity".]
Half a Year in an Anthroposophical Facebook Group - A Personal Experiment
I must confess that until recently I doubted the various reports, admonitions, and warnings about the receptiveness of the Anthroposophical movement to conspiracy theories….
But now I know: It's much worse — crazed and crazier — than I thought. [I learned this when] for half a year I was a member of a closed Anthroposophical group on Facebook….
[Discussions there provided me with] a living picture of what I consider to be the desolate, embarrassing, and precarious state of the present Anthroposophical movement.…
At some point, I think in May, "it" started: The discussions in the group increasingly revolved around various manifestations of conspiracist thinking … You can't trust the "mainstream media" because basically they are "NATO-compliant" and controlled by "the deep state," you have to "look behind the scenes," you can't speak "the truth" anymore because powerful people in the state, the economy, and secret societies work to prevent this….
[O]nce the discussion was even about the combustibility of office furniture (!) in the World Trade Center [the twin towers in New York City that were destroyed on September 11, 2001] … One can see the hand of the US government behind the events of 9/11….
Over the coming weeks and months, it became clear that conspiracist attitudes have become a firmly anchored and uncontroversial matter of course for a large part of the membership….
…In recent months, I have increasingly received the impression…that the quality and vehemence of the conspiracist thinking I described in this Facebook group was representative of today’s Anthroposophical movement as a whole.
If one, like myself, has been closely connected with Anthroposophy for over 30 years, so that it is an integral part of one's own life, one cannot and will not silently watch as Anthroposophy opens itself to derision and demagoguery.
— Rainer Herzog
[Translation by Roger Rawlings]