News Archive
To see "news"* items posted
in the years indicated,
click on the appropriate links:
2016**
2015**
2014**
* I place the word "news" in quotation marks because this archive includes items from blogs and other online sources that traffic more in opinion than hard, factual news. But all of the items in the archive help draw a portrait of Waldorf education today.
** I discontinued the Waldorf Watch News for a few years in the mid-2010's, before quitting altogether in early 2021. I had hoped to document at least one entire decade of Waldorf news, but circumstances in my personal life ruled otherwise.
Here is an item from the "news" page,
February 17, 2011:
"In 1919, after the devastation of the First World War, a visionary scientist named Dr. Rudolf Steiner was asked by a colleague, 'What can we possibly do in our society to prevent a repeat of this most horrific event?' Dr. Steiner replied, 'We need a new way of thinking.' This conversation led to the development of the Waldorf curriculum. One of the ways Waldorf education develops this new way of thinking is through a curriculum that nurtures and develops not only the mind, but the whole human being."
[2-16-2011 http://www.nsnews.com/travel/Private+Schools/4293559/story.html]
• ◊ •
Waldorf Watch Response:
Much of the "news" coming out of Waldorf schools is — not to put too fine a point on it — propaganda. Waldorf supporters often provide slanted, starry-eyed statements, and reporters pressed for time often accept these uncritically.
Let's look through the passage quoted here.
◊ Rudolf Steiner was indeed a "visionary" — he claimed to be a clairvoyant. [See "Exactly".]
◊ Steiner was not, however, a "scientist" — despite his own claims and the claims of his followers. Steiner's "science" consisted of his professed use of clairvoyance to study the spirit realm. Steiner performed no actual scientific work in any scientific laboratory or elsewhere. [See "Everything" and "Steiner's 'Science'".]
◊ The "new way of thinking" proposed by Steiner is — for starters — the irrational, imaginative, proto-clairvoyance promoted in Waldorf schools. [See "Thinking Cap".] Steiner's adult followers attempt to move beyond proto-clairvoyance to full-blown clairvoyance, and especially its high version (which Steiner claimed to possess) "exact" clairvoyance. [See, e.g., "Exactly".]
◊ The Waldorf curriculum (geared especially to the spiritual needs of Germans, as comprehended by Steiner) is meant to foster irrational, imaginative, proto-clairvoyance and lead children toward the occult, pagan religion created by Steiner, Anthroposophy. [See "Curriculum", "The Good Wars", "Here's the Answer", and "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?"]
◊
Why, aside from spreading propaganda, are so many "news" accounts about Waldorf schools so far off the mark? Imagine a cub reporter who rushes up to an overworked editor and shouts, "Chief! I've got a hot one! I've learned that Waldorf schools are based on occultism! Paganism! Mysticism! Gnomes and demons and ghosts! Let's crack this wide open!" After giving the kid a calming shot of bourbon and the rest of the day off, the editor would start the process of hiring a new cub reporter.
The truth about Waldorf schools is almost incredible. Yet it is the truth. Waldorf schools, otherwise known as Steiner schools, follow the directions laid out by Rudolf Steiner. He was a good man, Rudolf Steiner. Or at least he meant well. He hoped to remake the world, suffusing it with loving kindness. And what was the tactic he meant to employ? Spreading occultism.
“There is no other means of bringing about a universal human brotherhood than the spreading of occult knowledge through the world.” — Rudolf Steiner, THEOSOPHY OF THE ROSICRUCIAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1953), p. 143.
OK? Take a deep breath and remind yourself that Waldorf schools, otherwise known as Steiner schools, follow the directions laid out by Rudolf Steiner, who was an avowed occultist. His most important book is titled AN OUTLINE OF OCCULT SCIENCE. Some of his other books are OCCULT SIGNS AND SYMBOLS, AN OCCULT PHYSIOLOGY, OCCULT HISTORY, and so on. [See "Occultism".]
But surely Steiner's occultism doesn't find its way into Waldorf schools themselves, right? Actually, sadly, it does. Steiner said that Waldorf teachers need to develop a special clairvoyant form of consciousness, the "Waldorf teacher's consciousness":
“[W]e must work to develop this consciousness, the Waldorf teacher’s consciousness, if I may so express it. This is only possible, however, when in the field of education we come to an actual experience of the spiritual ... [We need] what humanity has lost in this respect, has lost just in the last three or four centuries. It is this that we must find again.” — Rudolf Steiner, DEEPER INSIGHTS INTO EDUCATION (Anthroposophical Press, 1983), p. 21.
What have people lost? According to Steiner, clairvoyance. But Steiner promised his followers a new, higher form of clairvoyance — and he explicitly told Waldorf teachers that they should strive to develop such clairvoyance.
At a minimum, Steiner said, Waldorf teachers should accept the teachings of people like himself who are clairvoyant.
"Not every Waldorf teacher has the gift of clairvoyance, but every one of them has accepted wholeheartedly and with full understanding the results of [clairvoyant] spiritual-scientific investigation concerning the human being. And each Waldorf teacher applies this knowledge with heart and soul ... In educating the child, in the daily lessons, and in the daily social life at school, the teachers find the confirmation for what spiritual science [i.e., Steiner's occult teachings, Anthroposophy] can tell them about practical teaching." — Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), Vol. 2, pp. 224-225.
[For more on the way occultism pervades Waldorf consciousness, see "The Waldorf Teacher's Consciousness".]
◊
The truth about Waldorf schools is almost incredible. Yet it is the truth.
(Oh. I almost forgot. • About nurturing "the whole human being" — the Waldorf concept of the whole human being is occult. In Waldorf belief, whole humans have twelve senses, three invisible bodies, both souls and spirits, karmas, doppelgängers or doubles, spiritual connections to the zodiac, and other good occult stuff. The Waldorf curriculum focuses on these and on the all-important process of reincarnation. [See, e.g., "What We Are", "Holistic Education", "Astrology", and "Incarnation".] The truth about Waldorf schools is almost incredible. Yet it is the truth.)
[R. R., 2011.]
This archive is a collection of excerpts from news articles, blogs, and other Web postings about Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. Most of the items posted on the Waldorf Watch "news" page end up here, along with my commentaries, and numerous quotations from Rudolf Steiner and his followers. The items, commentaries, and quotations touch on almost all facets of the Waldorf/Steiner universe.
Items here appear in reverse chronological order: The newest item is first, the oldest is last. The date of each item is shown in the bracketed area following that item. I give dates following US custom, so that July 30, 2010, for instance, is shown as 7-30-2010.
I gather news items primarily by using the Google Alerts service. Please note that items published near the end of a month may wind up in the following month's archive if Google did not index them immediately. So, if you can't find an item in the month of its publication, check the following month's archive.
Illustrations accompany some of the items here. In some cases, these are images that appeared with the items at their original Web locations; in other cases, they are illustrations I have chosen. The difference should usually be evident. In any event, the presence of illustrations here results from my own editorial choices.
On various pages here, I show the covers of books put out by such publishers as the Rudolf Steiner Press and the Anthroposophic Press. I encourage you to buy and carefully study such books. You will be enriching the Steiner movement, which is unfortunate, but if you are serious about Waldorf education, you should endeavor to comprehend what Anthroposophists say and write, especially when they think nobody outside their occult circle is paying much attention.
◊ Because my responses to news items were written quickly and posted immediately, they may contain typos and other small errors. Please be charitable. (I have subsequently reread, edited, and to some degree rewritten at least some of my responses. Whether I have thereby introduced new typos is an open question. I've never claimed to be a superb typist or a stellar proofreader.)
To read expositions that had the benefit of longer preparation and more thorough editing, see the pages at Waldorf Watch proper. To get there, click on this link: "Waldorf Watch".
◊ The formatting of most pages here at the News Archive became disarranged when I was forced to transfer the Archive from an old version to Google Sites to a newer version. Perhaps someday I will find the time to clean up the unsightly results. Sadly, I haven't found the time yet.
— R.R.
