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WALDORF / STEINER 

NEWS ARCHIVE

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November 17, 2018

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November 30, 2018

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This site supplements Waldorf Watch.

To go to Waldorf Watch itself, please click here:

Waldorf Watch.

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The news items below are presented in reverse chronological order — newest first, oldest last.

Please excuse a certain amount of repetition in the contents of this archive. Items that now appear close together on the screen may have originally been separated by intervals of several days.

Many of the items in this archive generalize about Waldorf schools, describing them as Rudolf Steiner and leading Waldorf representatives have said they should be and as evidence shows they often are today. Not all Waldorf schools, Waldorf charter schools, and Waldorf-inspired schools conform to this model precisely. 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

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November 30, 2018

CHANGING THE SUBJECT: MESSIANISM; 

AND RETURNING TO THE SUBJECT: CHICKENPOX 

1. Messianism

An upcoming event at an American Waldorf school:

Finding Our Voice

San Francisco Waldorf High School

January 12 & 13, 2019 ~ San Francisco, California

Are you regularly faced with the challenge of representing anthroposophical ideas and methods to the wider public? … Is your organization struggling with how to stay true to its founding mission, principles and history in the context of present-day pressures and demands? …

The age of isolation is over! We have capably grown Waldorf education, Biodynamics, Camphill, etc. We now must find our voice and be in partnership with one another and with our kindred spirits to lead the transformation the world needs.

Please note, this is a “by invitation” gathering and you have been identified by a colleague as someone who could both contribute to and benefit from being part of such a gathering of leaders.

[11/30/2018    https://www.waldorfeducation.org/news-resources/events-calendar]

Waldorf Watch Response:

The purpose of Waldorf education is the same as the purpose of other Anthroposophical initiatives. It is to represent — and spread — Anthroposophical beliefs. This was true in Steiner’s day, and it remains true today. [See “Here’s the Answer”.]

As Steiner himself said, when describing the purpose of Waldorf education:

“One of the most important facts about the background of the Waldorf School is that we were in a position to make the anthroposophical movement a relatively large one.” — Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 156.

The “founding mission” of all Anthroposophical organizations, including Waldorf schools, is to help spread Anthroposophy — to making Anthroposophy big.

Anthroposophical organizations generally disguise or deny their messianic intentions. Waldorf schools are especially coy in this regard (just as they restrict attendance at events such as the upcoming gathering at the San Francisco Waldorf School). But, in the end, this is what Waldorf education aims for: “to make the anthroposophical movement a relatively large one.”

Biodynamics is a form of agriculture that incorporates Anthroposophical beliefs in magic and astrology. [See "Biodynamics".]

Camphill communities are Anthroposophical organizations that, among other efforts, seek to provide spiritual assistance to individuals having special needs. [See the section "Camphill communities" on the page "Who Gets Hurt".]

2. Chickenpox

The flood of negative publicity triggered by the chickenpox mini-epidemic at an American Waldorf school continues.

From Biospace [an online forum for life sciences professionals]:

Anti-Vaccine Movement Causes 

First Deaths, Doctor Says

By Alex Keown

A movement against vaccines based on the belief that the medication causes more harm than good, has now led to its first deaths, according to reports.

In an interview with The Hill Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert, noted that as flu season is upon the United States, there were more than 200 deaths of children associated with influenza. Of those deaths, 80 percent of the children were not vaccinated against the illness, said Hotez, who is dean of the School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

"So for the first time now we're seeing deaths because of this anti-vaccine movement," Hotez told The Hill….

Earlier this month an outbreak of chickenpox was reported in Asheville, N.C. [North Carolina]. According to reports, 36 students at one school all came down the virus. The school, The Asheville Waldorf School, has one of the highest rates for religious exemptions from vaccines, according to the Asheville Citizen-Times….

Hotez has been an outspoken critic of the anti-vaccination crowd who often suggest that vaccines are related to the growing rate of autism in the United States....

[11/30/2018    https://www.biospace.com/article/anti-vaccine-movement-causes-first-deaths-doctor-says/    The article in Biospace originally appeared on November 28.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

So far as we know, there have been no deaths among the Asheville Waldorf students who contracted chickenpox. Nor are any deaths likely. Chickenpox is usually a mild childhood illness.

Usually. But not always. Every year, thousands of chickenpox victims develop complications that lead to hospitalizations. And occasionally — tragically — a few chickenpox patients die. 

Prior to the introduction of the chickenpox vaccine, approximately 100 to 150 cases of chickenpox in the USA resulted in death each year. That’s 1,000-1,500 deaths every decade, on average, in the USA alone. Moreover, it is estimated that today, worldwide, more than 4,000+ chickenpox victims die each year. That's 40,000+ deaths every decade.

If your child were hospitalized due to chickenpox, I’m sure you would consider the situation serious. And if your child died due to chickenpox, then all the statistics showing that chickenpox is usually mild would have little meaning for you. You would know that chickenpox can be a serious disease. You would know that children should be vaccinated against chickenpox.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, 28 and 29.

— R.R.

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 .November 29, 2018

CHANGING THE SUBJECT: CLAIRVOYANCE; 

AND RETURNING TO THE SUBJECT: CHICKENPOX 

1. Clairvoyance

Here are excerpts from a Steiner lecture currently featured at the Rudolf Steiner Archive and e.Lib:

“What we can read in the spiritual-scientific books [1] about the different human members [2], about reincarnation and karma [3], the life after death [4], the development of the human races and cultures [5] … [these are things] you cannot see with senses [6] … Spiritual science gives the human being a thinking free from sensuousness [7] … Clairvoyance and initiation [8] are necessary for that … Clairvoyance is necessary to find the higher profundities….” — Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF SOUL AND SPIRIT (The eLib, Inc., 2016), GA 56, lecture 5 [https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Dates/19071128p01.html].

Waldorf Watch Footnotes:

[1] “Spiritual science,” as Steiner used the term, means the objective, “scientific” study of the spirit realm. Steiner claimed that his own teachings about the spirit realm are scientific in this sense. [See "Steiner's 'Science'".]

[2] I.e., the parts of the human constitution, physical organs and also spiritual or incorporeal organs. [See “Our Parts”.]

[3] Belief in these is basic to Steiner’s "science." [See “Karma” and “Reincarnation”.]

[4] I.e., life in the spirit realm between Earthly incarnations.

[5] Steiner taught that we evolve upward from low racial forms and cultures to high racial forms and cultures. [See “Steiner’s Racism”.]

[6] I.e, they cannot be seen by using the physical senses. Higher, incorporeal organs of perception are needed, Steiner taught.

[7] I.e., freed from reliance on the physical senses.

[8] Higher perception, Steiner taught, is clairvoyance. The higher organs of perception are “organs of clairvoyance,” he said. We become “initiates” (we become privy to secret spiritual knowledge) when we use clairvoyance to objectively (“scientifically”) learn about the spirit realm.

“[O]rgans of clairvoyance are formed ... The organs thus formed are spiritual eyes. The student [i.e., the spiritual aspirant] gradually learns, by their means, to see something like soul and spirit colors. The spiritual world with its lines and figures remains dark as long as he [is uninitiated]; through enlightenment [i.e., the attainment of clairvoyance] this world becomes light.” — Rudolf Steiner, KNOWLEDGE OF THE HIGHER WORLDS AND ITS ATTAINMENT (Anthroposophic Press, 1947), p. 52.

There are many problems with Steiner’s “spiritual science” — i.e., Anthroposophy. But one problem is by far the greatest. Anthroposophy depends on the use of clairvoyance. But clairvoyance is a fantasy; it does not exist. [See “Clairvoyance”.] So Anthroposophy has no foundation. Alluring though it may be, Anthroposophy stands on nothing. It is unsupported. It is hollow. It is void.

2a. Chickenpox

Faithful readers here are surely tired of seeing reports about the chickenpox epidemic in an American Waldorf school. But additional reports keep appearing in the news media. We should, at a minimum, acknowledge their existence. They represent the most media attention directed at American Waldorf schools in many years. Unfortunately, it is attention of a kind no schools would want.

Here are two more reports:

From The Washington Post [Washington, D.C., USA]:

Why small groups of vaccine refusers 

can make large groups of people sick

Outbreaks happen more easily 

in clusters of immunization skeptics.

By Saad B. Omer

Infectious diseases such as chickenpox and measles — once a rite of passage for American children — have been made uncommon because of vaccines. However, in recent years, an increasing number of parents are refusing vaccines [for their children], resulting in outbreaks....

The ongoing chickenpox outbreak at a Waldorf school in Asheville, N.C., is the most recent example of this problem … [A]lternative educational institutions such as Waldorf have much higher rates of vaccine refusal than public schools and other private schools. In a study of California schools, we found that Waldorf schools had vaccine refusal rates that were 19 times as high as those at public schools.

Alternative schools, specifically Waldorf schools, have been associated with outbreaks outside the United States as well….

[11/29/2018    https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/11/29/why-small-groups-vaccine-refusers-can-make-large-groups-people-sick/?utm_term=.6f242705f27a]

2b. Chickenpox

From The News & Observer [North Carolina, USA]:

Asheville chickenpox outbreak revives debate 

about religious exemptions to vaccines

By Carli Brosseau

At least three dozen students at an Asheville private school have come down with the chickenpox in what state health officials are calling the worst outbreak of the disease since a vaccine was introduced in 1995.

The outbreak at Asheville Waldorf School has reignited controversy about the North Carolina law that allows parents to exempt their children from receiving mandatory vaccines based on their religious beliefs.…

Contrary to scientific evidence, some parents have come to believe that vaccines cause more serious health issues than they’re meant to cure. The source of much of their skepticism is a 1998 study that purported to show a link between vaccines and autism. The results had been falsified, the study was retracted and scores of studies since have shown no such link.…

In the 2017-18 school year, 1.2 percent of North Carolina kindergarteners were excused from receiving mandatory vaccines on religious grounds….

[The school with the highest exemption rate was] Asheville Waldorf School [with a rate of 67.9% among 28 kindergartners].…

[The school with the third-highest rate was] Emerson Waldorf School [with a rate of 28% among 25 kindergartners].…

[11/29/2018    https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article221988420.html    This report originally appeared on November 28.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 26, and 28.

— Compiled by R.R.

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 .November 28, 2018

DISHONOR, DISEASE, 

KARMA, AND WALDORF 

The Asheville Citizen-Times is a newspaper serving the city where a Waldorf school has become internationally notorious as the epicenter of a chickenpox mini-epidemic. Yesterday, the Citizen-Times ran an editorial bemoaning the damage done to the city's reputation:

Asheville's anti-vaccine problem 

earns city a new badge of dishonor

Yet again, Asheville has made international news for all the wrong reasons. This time, the dishonor comes courtesy of an alarming number of parents who have allowed junk science-fueled paranoia to put their children — and their community — at risk.

As of last week, 36 students at The Asheville Waldorf School had contracted chickenpox. The school has one of the highest rates of religious exemptions from vaccination in North Carolina. Those two facts are not unrelated.…

When parents withhold immunizations, it’s not just their children who are at risk. A large number of non-immunized children, as at Asheville …

Asheville Waldorf, which enrolls children from nursery age through sixth grade, has the dubious distinction of having North Carolina’s third highest rate of vaccination exemptions. Of the 28 kindergartners who enrolled in the 2017-18 school year, 19 had an exemption to at least one vaccination required by the state. No wonder the malady has spread so rapidly….

[11/27/2018    https://www.citizen-times.com/story/opinion/2018/11/27/asheville-anti-vaccine-problem-chickenpox-outbreak-waldorf-school-editorial-vaccination-nc/2079555002/]

The editorial board of the Citizen-Times understandably focuses on local issues and concerns, in this instance the reputation of the city of Asheville. Here at Waldorf Watch, we can take a somewhat broader view.

The recent events involving the Asheville Waldorf School are not unique or unprecedented. There have been similar mini-epidemics at other Waldorf and Steiner schools far and wide. Like the chickenpox outbreak at Asheville Waldorf, these have involved infectious diseases that could have been prevented if the students had been vaccinated. In other words, the outbreaks — and the consequent sufferings of the children — were unnecessary. Rational medical practices would have prevented them.

Here are excerpts from a report posted a few years back at the website Justthevax:

Pertussis Closes Waldorf-Based 

Private School in Virginia 

A whooping cough outbreak hitting more than half (23 of 45) their pupils has led to the closure of that small private school for a week. The local Health Care Director unambiguously stated that lack of vaccinations caused this outbreak and that the children who were affected were unvaccinated (7 adult contacts also got the disease).

This outbreak is demonstrating two things — disease outbreaks happen in "pockets" of unvaccinated children, and, those "pockets" are often found in Waldorf/Steiner oriented institutions … Indeed, the last whooping cough outbreak I personally saw was in the Steiner Kindi [i.e., a Steiner kindergarten] two streets down from where we lived in Germany. The daycare director interpreted the outbreak as "the children seeking disease [presumably to enact their karma]”.…

Similarly, quite impressive measles outbreaks…have started in Steiner schools and Kindergartens and were sometimes specifically centered around Anthroposophical doctors with [a] vaccine-critical outlook. Steiner himself deemed rashy diseases, like measles and Scarlet fever…important for the development of proper karma and the shedding of bad miasms….

[4/6/2011      http://justthevax.blogspot.com/2011/04/pertussis-closes-waldorf-based-private.html]

The following report from the website Vaxopedia is also informative:

Waldorf Schools and Vaccines

…[M]any of the kids that go to the 250 Waldorf schools in North America are not vaccinated, including schools with some of the highest vaccine exemption rates in the country, including:

• Waldorf School of Mendocino County (California) – 79.1% vaccine exemption rate

• Tuscon Waldorf Schools (Arizona) – 69.6% vaccine exemption rate

• Waldorf School of San Diego (California) – 63.6% vaccine exemption rate

• Orchard Valley Waldorf School (Vermont) – 59.4% MMR vaccine exemption rate

• Whidbey Island Waldorf School (Washington) – 54.9% vaccine exemption rate

• Austin Waldorf School (Texas) – 48% vaccine exemption rate

That shouldn’t be a surprise, as anthroposophical medicine “attempts to mix the theories and practices of real medicine with quack cures, physical and artistic therapies and biographical counseling” and “their anti-vaccination stance derives from a dangerous and ignorant belief in diseases being something you must go through to strengthen the soul in its present incarnation”….

[10/13/2016    https://vaxopedia.org/2016/10/13/waldorf-schools-and-vaccines/]

According to the CDC — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — "Pertussis (whooping cough) can cause serious and sometimes deadly complications in babies and young children." Of the babies hospitalized due to whooping cough, one out of 100 die of the disease, the CDC says. [See https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/about/complications.html.] Likewise, the CDC says "Measles can be a serious in all age groups. However, children younger than 5 years of age and adults older than 20 years of age are more likely to suffer from measles complications." One or two out of every 1000 children who contract measles will die of the disease, the CDC says. Also, "As many as one out of every 20 children with measles gets pneumonia, the most common cause of death from measles in young children. [See https://www.cdc.gov/measles/about/complications.html.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, and 26.

— Compiled by R.R.

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 .November 27, 2018

BEES, GNOMES,  

AND AN EX-WALDORF TEACHER  

Currently featured at the Rudolf Steiner Book Centre [Sydney, Australia]:

THE GENIUS OF BEES AND THE ELEMENTAL BEINGS

How the spiritual world works through bees

for nature and humanity

by Ralf Roessner 

Temple Lodge Publishing, 2017

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Describing the Genius of Bees as the ‘group consciousness’ of the hive, Ralf Roessner presents an extraordinary commentary based on first-hand spiritual-scientific [i.e., Anthroposophical] research and experience. He studies the mission of the Genius of Bees, the hexagonal structure of ‘the crystalline heaven’ within which the bees operate, and the healing of the world through their work. Roessner elucidates the relationships between the Genius of Bees, the elemental world and the human being….

RALF ROESSNER is a passionate bee keeper and a biodynamic farmer … Ralph has been working in the field of water research for 20 years. As an ex-Waldorf school teacher he is interested in all new developments in education … All the above informs his quest for healthy nutrition for the future.…

[11/27/2018      https://rudolfsteinerbookcentre.secure-chrislands.com/product/6625/BGenius-of-Bees-and-the-Elemental-Beings-BI-How-the-spiritual-world-works-through-bees-for-nature-and-humanityI-ROESSNER-RALF]

Waldorf Watch Response:

Bees have long fascinated mankind. Bees are industrious; they produce marvelous hexagonal structures — and golden, delicious honey. Bees work in marvelous coordination with one another, seemingly guided by a silent form of intelligence. Strange myths and doctrines have arisen, centered on these strange little beings.

"In [ancient] Egypt, the bee was associated with the sun and regarded as a symbol of the soul. — In Greece, it was regarded as a priestly animal ... The bee, which seems to die in the winter and return in the spring, is also occasionally encountered as a symbol for death and resurrection...." — Udo Becker, THE CONTINUUM ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SYMBOLS (Continuum, 2000), p. 38.

Rudolf Steiner taught that the communal intelligence of a bee colony stands at a higher evolutionary level than mankind.

“The group soul of a beehive is a very high level being ... It is of such a high development that you might almost say it is cosmically precocious. It has attained a level of evolutionary development that human beings will later reach in the Venus cycle, which follows the completion of the present Earth cycle.” — Rudolf Steiner, BEES (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 176.

The "Venus cycle" will be a time in the future when the entire solar system will reincarnate in a form occultly denominated "Future Venus." At that stage, human beings will have risen to a spiritual, evolutionary level far beyond anything we can attain today. Indeed, in that distant, wonderful time, we will be as smart as bees.

The "elemental beings" referred to in the title of THE GENIUS OF BEES AND THE ELEMENTAL BEINGS are invisible, incorporeal entities that — Rudolf Steiner and his followers believe — dwell within the "four elements" of the natural world. Essentially, Steiner and his followers cling to ancient beliefs that were rejected long ago by most educated people in the modern world. 

The four elements of ancient belief are earth, air, fire, and water. The four primary elemental beings, Steiner affirmed, are gnomes (who dwell in the earth), sylphs (fairy-like winged beings who dwell in the air), fire beings (sometimes called "salamanders", who dwell in fire), and undines (lovely or not-so-lovely tiny mermaid-like beings who dwell in water).

Steiner and his followers — including many Waldorf teachers — are perfectly serious about these matters. They believe in the actual existence of gnomes and the other elemental beings. Some of their teachings about such beings tend to stagger the modern mind. So, for instance, Steiner taught this about gnomes:

“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.

Former Waldorf teacher Ralf Roessner presumably believes Steiner on such points.

For more about the Anthroposophical view of bees, see "Bees". For more about the Anthroposophical view of nature and the elemental beings within it, see "Neutered Nature". For more on the evolutionary incarnations of the solar system (extending from OId Saturn to Future Vulcan), see "Matters of Form".

— R.R.

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November 26, 2018

MAKING WALDORF A SYMBOL 

OF THE WRONG KIND 

Having inspired news articles all around the world, a Waldorf school in the USA is also inspiring editorials. The school has unintentionally made itself a symbol of the worst sort. The school shows us precisely how not to deal with childhood illnesses.

From The Journal Times [Wisconsin, USA]:

A school's chickenpox epidemic

highlights importance of vaccinating kids

Regular readers of [this column] know that we have frequently editorialized about the importance of vaccinating your children, that it’s dangerous for parents sending their children to any school, public or private, to presume that they know more about vaccinations than a pediatrician.

Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, N.C. [i.e., North Carolina], is the latest locale to prompt us to make this argument again.

Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines.…

The school is a symbol of a movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old [in the USA] who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.…

Chickenpox is serious, warns the CDC, “even life-threatening, especially in babies, adolescents, adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems”….

The outbreak [at Asheville Waldorf] prompted Buncombe County health officials in early November to call for the quarantine of 104 of school’s 152 students ... Nearly 75 percent hadn’t been vaccinated for the virus.…

Asheville attorney Lakota Denton said Tuesday the quarantine violated the civil liberties of the children — two of whom he represents.

Well, Mr. Denton, do you know what else could violate the civil liberties of those children? Death from a disease preventable by vaccination.

When it comes to vaccinations, don’t take advice from anyone who isn’t a pediatrician.

Vaccinate your children. Consider it an act of compassion for the many children who need community immunity [i.e., group or "herd" immunity] because their immune systems are not working.

[11/26/2018    https://journaltimes.com/opinion/editorial/journal-times-editorial-a-school-s-chickenpox-epidemic-highlights-importance/article_5f00968b-029f-5875-a515-ffa63a84c7f2.html]

Waldorf Watch Response:

The outbreak of an infectious disease at a small school in the American South — an outbreak that has sickened nearly a quarter of the school's students — has received notice from reporters and editorial writers from far and wide. Wisconsin, the home of The Journal Times, is nearly a thousand miles from North Carolina, home of the Asheville Waldorf School.

Presumably no school anywhere, of any kind, wants to promote behavior that endangers the health and even the lives of its students. And surely no school anywhere wants to be known worldwide as an institution that has done precisely this.

But this is what the Asheville Waldorf School has done. And, to the extent that Asheville Waldorf is representative of Waldorf schools generally, the infamy the school has attained reflects on the entire Waldorf movement — throughout the USA and around the world.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School — including items from as far away as Britain and New Zealand — see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 20, 22, and 23.

The statement from the CDC (accurately quoted by The Journal Times) is a bit confusing. It seems to say that chickenpox is "especially" dangerous for just about everyone ("babies, adolescents, adults..."). The medical consensus is that chickenpox is usually mild, but the disease can sometimes cause serious complications, and in some instances it may be deadly. Those who are especially endangered include pregnant women, newborns, and individuals having weakened or compromised immune systems. So, for instance, the UK's National Health Service says that anyone who has chickenpox should stay away from "pregnant women, newborn babies and people with a weakened immune system, as it can be [especially] dangerous for them."

— R.R.

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November 25, 2018

A WALDORF SCHOOL 

BY ANY OTHER NAME 

From The Kelowna Capital News [British Columbia, Canada]:

Kelowna private school re-brands

after failure to receive funding

Kelowna Waldorf School renamed Lakeside School

[by] Carli Berry

A Kelowna school that had its funding pulled last year because it failed to meet the province’s curriculum guidelines has now been re-branded.

In December 2017, Kelowna Waldorf School, a preschool and elementary private school, failed to meet “legislated requirements around curricular compliance and delivery of the B.C. [British Columbia] curriculum,” according to Ministry of Education communications manager Sean Leslie at the time.

It has since been reclassified as a Group 3 school, meaning it is not eligible for provincial funding until it amends its programs and passes a further inspection.

Rick Salsa, president with the board of trustees, confirmed the school will be renamed Lakeside School as a new initiative….

The private school serves students from preschool to Grade 8.

[11/25/2018    https://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/kelowna-private-school-re-brands-after-failure-to-receive-funding/    This article originally appeared on November 23.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

Waldorf schools may run afoul of education authorities for many reasons. Two Waldorf or Steiner schools in Britain have become flagrant examples. [See "RSSKL" and "S. A. Exeter".] 

Conflicts with authorities can be one reason — among many others — for Waldorf schools to fail. [See "Failure".]

Then again, Waldorf schools in trouble sometimes try to save themselves by adopting various public-relations stratagems. [See "PR".] Often these ploys are meant to deceive outsiders, especially education officials. Rudolf Steiner encouraged faculty and staff at Waldorf schools to mislead outsiders whenever it seems necessary. [See "Secrets".]

In the most extreme cases, a Waldorf school in difficulty may elect to become a different sort of school — but this is rare. Usually the commitment to the Waldorf belief system is too strong to permit such apostasy. So, instead, cosmetic alterations are as far as a struggling Waldorf school will usually go. And the changes at Kelowna Waldorf School/Lakeside School appear to be superficial at best. 

One tip-off: There are still references to "Waldorf" on the school's website, and these indicate that the Waldorf approach will still be used at the school.

So, for instance, Lakeside says this about its program for "Parent and Tot":

"For young children ages about 15 months–3 years, accompanied by a parent, the Parent & Tot program is a twelve-week class meeting once each week for two hours, offering activities and parent support based on Waldorf educational philosophy."

And the school will continue to give instruction in eurythmy, a form of dance created by Rudolf Steiner and found in virtually no schools except Waldorf schools:

"Most simply put, eurythmy is a dance-like art form in which music or speech are expressed in bodily movement ... Eurythmy is part of the curriculum of all Waldorf schools [and it will still be taught at Lakeside] ... Eurythmy lessons follow the themes of the curriculum, exploring rhyme, meter, story, and geometric forms."

[For these and other answers to frequently asked questions, see https://lakesideschoolkelowna.ca/faq/]

— Comments and compilation by R.R.

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November 24, 2018

A VOICE FROM INSIDE 

A TROUBLED STEINER SCHOOL 

Here is a new article about the Steiner Academy in Exeter, UK, a school that has received a withering inspection report from the UK government's Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The article appears today at DevonLive.com [Devon, UK]: 

This is what life is really like 

inside Exeter’s troubled Steiner School 

By Anita Merritt

Real life inside Exeter’s troubled Steiner School has been revealed by a member of staff who knows it inside out.

A concerned teacher has told how they believe such large numbers of children with high special needs and insufficient funding has led to many of the problems that saw the school immediately closed as a temporary measure and has resulted in it being placed into special measures. 

An Ofsted inspection has highlighted shocking failures in leadership, teaching standards and the safety of pupils at Steiner Academy Exeter….

The teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “The real situation here is funding and also bad practice.

“Life as a teacher here depends on what class you have. Some classes have really high needs children and others have very low numbers….

“Of course every child has the right to be educated, but they also have a right to be looked after. We were clearly failing and we need money to put that right…. 

“Teachers are told we have no choice but to help these pupils because we’re not a private school, we have to abide by the admissions process as do all state schools. We have now got a terrible name due to the Ofsted which we all want to turn around….” 

The teacher said being taken over by the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust [a local trust that works to improve education in the region] as an interim measure following the school's closure by the Regional Schools Commissioner has been welcomed in the school…. 

A new independent Academy Management Committee has been introduced at the school and is being supported by the trust…. 

[11/24/2018    https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/what-life-really-like-inside-2254834]

Waldorf Watch Response:

There is much apparent truth in the teacher's comments. But the teacher also defensively leaves out a lot — s/he defends the Steiner Academy even as s/he admits to some of its shortcomings. 

Steiner education has long had problems providing adequate care and instruction for students who have special needs. [1] And it is certainly true that when Steiner schools attempt to operate within state school systems, they become subject to requirements they would otherwise avoid if they operated as independent or private institutions, as most Steiner schools have done. [2]

But it is clearly insufficient to argue that the problems at the Steiner Academy Exeter arose principally because of an influx of students having special needs. The Ofsted inspection report identifies a broad range of serious problems affecting all parts of the Academy's operations. [3] These problems range from seriously deficient teaching to seriously deficient management. Inadequate safeguarding of students drew particular attention. Thus, today's article in DevonLive refers to "shocking failures in leadership, teaching standards and the safety of pupils" at the Academy. These problems potentially affect all pupils, not just those with special needs.

The larger truth is that the problems found at Steiner Academy Exeter are of a piece with problems that have characterized Waldorf/Steiner schools from the inception of the Waldorf movement. These are systemic problems, in other words; they are rooted in Waldorf/Steiner culture. [4] 

Of course, not all Waldorf/Steiner schools suffer from all of the typical Waldorf/Steiner problems, and not all of Waldorf/Steiner schools suffer from such problems to the same degree. But in general, the revelations coming out of Exeter now reflect problems that can be discerned in many other Waldorf/Steiner schools worldwide, past and present. [5]

The teacher quoted in today's DevonLive article wants to help clear the school's name ("We have now got a terrible name due to the Ofsted which we all want to turn around"). To this end, s/he pleads for more money ("The real situation here is [inadequate] funding..."), as if increased cash flow would cure the Academy's woes. 

But the Academy's woes almost certainly run deeper than that. The real problems at the school are the practices of the faculty and staff (“The real situation here is funding and also bad practice" [emphasis added]). The teacher mentions money first and bad practice second. But, clearly, the practices of the teachers and staff are the most important issue — as they would be at any educational institution.

The practices of faculty and staff at any real Waldorf or Steiner school derive from the very nature of such schools. They derive, ultimately, from the preachments of Rudolf Steiner. [6] A Waldorf or Steiner school can truly correct itself only if it ceases to be a Waldorf or Steiner school.

[1] See the entry for "special needs" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia. Also see, e.g., "Slaps" and "Horoscopes".

[2] Rudolf Steiner established the first Waldorf school (or Steiner school) in Germany in 1919. Like most of the Waldorf/Steiner schools that have followed, it was a private institution. Only recently have some Waldorf/Steiner schools in the USA and in the UK attempted to operate as charter schools or free schools within government-funded public school systems. [For a report looking into the situation of Steiner schools in the UK, see "BBC & SWSF". The situation varies in other countries, depending on the laws and traditions prevailing there.]

[3] See "Devastating Inspection Report on U.K. Steiner Academy", November 17, 2018, and the reports following it. 

[4] Thus, the problems at Steiner Academy Exeter are distinctly similar to problems found at Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, which the UK government ordered to close. [See "RSSKL".]

[5] See, e.g., "Failure", "Mistreating Kids Lovingly", "Academic Standards at Waldorf", "Who Gets Hurt", and "Non-Waldorf Waldorfs".

[6] To delve into the real nature of Waldorf/Steiner schools, see, e.g., "Here's the Answer".

— R.R.

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November 23, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

STILL MORE COVERAGE 

Waldorf schools rarely make big news. They generally operate on the fringes of society, out of sight and out of mind. 

But sometimes this pattern is broken. Sometimes a Waldorf school flares into prominence. This has happened recently in the UK, where a pair of Waldorf schools (called Steiner schools there) have received blistering inspection reports from education authorities. One of those schools has been ordered to close, and the other seems to be teetering on the brink. [See "RSSKL" and "S. A. Exeter".]

Now a Waldorf school in the USA is making big news of its own. The Asheville Waldorf School is currently the site of an entirely avoidable infectious disease mini-epidemic. Numerous students at the school have come down with chickenpox. Most or all of these children would have been spared this disease is they had been vaccinated against it, but — as is often the case at Waldorf schools — an anti-vaccine ethic prevails at the school. And now the school is reaping the results in terms of sickened students and worldwide negative publicity. 

Here, for instance, are excerpts from an article in The New York Times. The article doesn’t tell us much that we didn’t already know from the many articles we have reviewed from other news outlets. But the very fact that a Waldorf school is receiving attention in the pages of America’s leading newspaper is, in itself, noteworthy. 

Chickenpox Outbreak at School

Linked to Vaccine Exemptions

By Christina Caron

At least three dozen students have come down with chickenpox at a private school in North Carolina — nearly one-quarter of the student body — in what health officials call the largest outbreak in the state since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than two decades ago.

The students, who range in age from 4 to 11 years old, attend the Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, N.C. [North Carolina]….

The school has 152 children in nursery school through sixth grade, and one of the state’s highest rates of religious exemptions for vaccination.

“The size of this outbreak and the fact that this school continues to have a large number of unvaccinated students makes it very likely there will be continued spread of chickenpox within the school,” [local health director] Dr. [Jennifer] Mullendore said. “This also poses a risk of spread to the surrounding community”….

Schools in the county have had smaller chickenpox outbreaks in recent years of no more than five to 11 children, Dr. Mullendore said….

[Chickenpox] usually presents as a mild illness, but can sometimes cause complications like bacterial skin infections, bloodstream infections, pneumonia, infection of the brain — even death.…

[11/23/2018    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/health/chicken-pox-vaccine-asheville.html     The Times' article originally appeared on November 20.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 18, 20, and 22.

— R.R.

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November 22, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

FURTHER COVERAGE 

From the Asheville Citizen Times [North Carolina, USA]:

After chickenpox outbreak

at Asheville Waldorf,

county quarantine order

challenged in court

[by] Sam DeGrave

First came the rash, then the quarantine — and with it, a legal challenge.

The late October outbreak of chickenpox at Asheville Waldorf School prompted Buncombe County health officials in early November to call for the quarantine of 104 of school's 152 students. Nearly 75 percent hadn't been vaccinated for the virus….

Asheville attorney Lakota Denton said Tuesday the quarantine violated the civil liberties of the children — two of whom he represents….

The quarantine order the county provided to Asheville Waldorf School parents gave them a choice. They could have their children vaccinated, prove they're immune to the virus or keep them away from others.

Given [such a] choice, parents — even those who oppose vaccines — typically choose to immunize….

[But] that wasn't the case with this outbreak. The majority of parents presented with the county's order chose quarantine….

[T]he county said the quarantine was the "least restrictive means" to control the outbreak, which the North Carolina Department of Health and Human says is the worst the state has seen since the chickenpox vaccine became available in 1995….

[11/22/2018    https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/11/20/chickenpox-asheville-waldorf-school-quarantine-court-challenge-religious-freedom-civil-liberities/2069844002/    This article was originally published on November 20.]

From ABC News, WLOS [North Carolina, USA]:

Judge sides with

Buncombe health officials

in chicken pox case

A judge has ruled Buncombe County health officials [in western North Carolina] had the authority to keep unvaccinated children from returning to Asheville Waldorf School.

Earlier this month, county health officials issued a 21-day quarantine to all students who could not provide proof of immunity against chicken pox.

The health department, which has been monitoring an outbreak at the school since the end of October, said there have been 36 confirmed cases of chicken pox at the school.

Asheville Waldorf School is a private school with two campuses in West Asheville.

[11/22/2018    https://wlos.com/news/local/judge-sides-with-buncombe-health-officials-in-chicken-pox-case    This report originally aired on November 21.]

From Newshub [New Zealand]: 

Chickenpox outbreak at school

full of unvaccinated children

[by] Dan Satherley

Dozens of children have come down with chickenpox at a US school with one of the highest exemption rates in the state.

Thirty-six students at Asheville Waldorf School in Asheville, North Carolina, have contracted the varicella virus responsible for the infectious and painful disease….

More than 70 percent the private school's children have an exemption to at least one standard vaccine, the chickenpox vaccine the most common, NPR [National Public Radio] reported.

The usual reason given is religious opposition, but some [people] just don't think vaccines are worth bothering with.

"What's the big deal with chickenpox? There is no big deal," local [resident] Amy Gordon told the Citizen-Times. "If I was a parent with a kid who wasn't vaccinated, I'd want to send my kid to the Waldorf School to get chickenpox."

Health officials say this is a bad idea. While often mild, chickenpox causes around 100 deaths a year in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control….

[11/22/2018    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2018/11/chickenpox-outbreak-at-school-full-of-unvaccinated-children.html]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18 and 20.

— R.R.

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November 20, 2018

WALDORF AND INFECTION - 

THE WORD SPREADS 

The Asheville Waldorf School is getting a lot of free publicity these days. Unfortunately, this publicity is overwhelmingly bad. 

Here are news reports published in the capital cities of the US and the UK. 

From The Washington Post [Washington DC, USA]: 

Anti-vaccination stronghold in N.C. 

hit with state’s worst 

chickenpox outbreak in 2 decades

By Isaac Stanley-Becker

Chickenpox has taken hold of a school in North Carolina where many families claim religious exemption from vaccines. 

Cases of chickenpox have been multiplying at the Asheville Waldorf School, which serves children from nursery school to sixth grade in Asheville, N.C. [i.e., North Carolina] About a dozen infections grew to 28 at the beginning of the month. By Friday, there were 36, the Asheville Citizen-Times reported.

The outbreak ranks as the state’s worst since the chickenpox vaccine became available more than 20 years ago. Since then, the two-dose course has succeeded in limiting the highly contagious disease that once affected 90 percent of Americans — a public health breakthrough. 

The school is a symbol of the small but strong movement against the most effective means of preventing the spread of infectious diseases. The percentage of children under 2 years old [in the USA] who haven’t received any vaccinations has quadrupled since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Like the Disneyland measles outbreak in 2015, the flare-up demonstrates the real-life consequences of a shadowy debate fueled by junk science and fomented by the same sort of Twitter bots and trolls that spread misinformation during the 2016 presidential election. And it shows how a seemingly fringe view can gain currency in a place like Asheville, a funky, year-round resort town nestled between the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.… 

But not all parents seemed to grasp the gravity of the outbreak. Nor does everyone see the rationale behind vaccines, which some believe — contrary to scientific evidence — cause more severe health issues than they’re meant to cure. The claim of an autism risk, though it has been debunked, has remained a rallying cry of the anti-vaccine movement…. 

The virus used to crop up in about 4 million cases annually in the United States, causing more than 10,000 hospitalizations and between 100 and 150 deaths. Children were especially susceptible, as schools seemed to incubate the blisterlike rash, which appears first on the stomach, back and face and can extend over the entire surface of the body, creating as many as 500 itchy blisters…. 

[11/20/2018    https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/11/19/anti-vaccination-stronghold-nc-hit-with-states-worst-chickenpox-outbreak-decades/?utm_term=.25f7035fdaf3    This article originally appeared on November 19.]

From the British Broadcasting Corporation - the BBC [London, UK]:

Anti-vaccine community behind 

North Carolina chickenpox outbreak 

A North Carolina school with a large anti-vaccine community is at the heart of the state's largest chickenpox outbreak in decades, officials say. 

On Friday 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School were diagnosed with the disease, the Asheville Citizen-Times newspaper reported. 

The school has one of the state's highest rates of religious exemption, allowing students to skip vaccination. 

US health officials say vaccinating is far safer than getting chickenpox…. 

The primary school did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the BBC… 

Buncombe County, home to the city of Asheville, with a population of over 250,000, has the highest rate of religious-based immunisation exemptions in the state. 

Local health officials are closely monitoring the situation, according to the county's health department. 

"We want to be clear: vaccination is the best protection from chickenpox," County Medical Director Dr Jennifer Mullendore said in a statement.... 

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends vaccinating children between one and 12 years of age. Though serious cases are uncommon, the CDC says chickenpox spreads easily and can be deadly…. 

[11/20/2018      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46267038    The BBC first posted this story on November 19.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

To understand the Waldorf approach to childhood illnesses such as chickenpox, we should dip into Waldorf/Anthroposophical writings. Here, for example, is an excerpt from the Waldorf Online Library, downloaded today (November 20, 2018). To aid the reader, I have added a few explanatory footnotes.

The fundamental Anthroposophical view of childhood illnesses is that these diseases are beneficial and, generally, should not be prevented or artificially cured. We must, however, be sensitive and humble as we attend to the true needs of each child.

This view is applied, in particular, to Waldorf schooling:

We must cultivate in the child the joy of learning. When lessons become more personal, more individual, then we enter the realm of the childhood illnesses — measles, mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox. We must give time for illness and the joy of recovery. [1]

Change means sacrifice. Fever in the small child is a sacrificial fire — it burns itself in order to move forward. [2] The adult world has become frightened of fever. We tend to judge illness instead of listening to it. It might be necessary for the child to produce illness in order to bring about change. [3] The child may be fine, but his environment awful. Illness in small children may have to do with us. Who needs to change me or the child? [4]

There are two dangers:

1. Medical technology. Ahriman slides in and takes away illness. [5]

2. Arrogance under the excuse that illness is necessary. Lucifer takes hold in a different way.... [6]

— Anthroposophical physician Jenny Josephson, "Laying the Physical Foundation of the Consciousness Soul" [http://www.waldorflibrary.org/journals/15-gateways/281-spring-1996-issue-30-laying-the-physical-foundation-of-the-consciousness-soul]

The Waldorf approach to many things, including childhood illnesses, is heavily influenced by Rudolf Steiner's teachings about demons or "evil" gods, especially Ahriman and Lucifer. If you do not share Waldorf beliefs about such demonic beings, you probably will not ultimately agree with the way Waldorf schools deal with childhood illnesses.

[For more on these matters, see, e.g., "Steiner's Quackery", "Ahriman", "Lucifer", and "Evil". For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at the Asheville Waldorf School, see reports on November 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, and 18.]

Coverage of the Asheville Waldorf outbreak has spread to other news media. See, e.g., reports on CNN and WLOS, and at Precision Vaccination.

[1] I.e., schooling should take a child's illnesses into account. In the Waldorf/Anthroposophical view, illness is a blessing — it aids in the child's spiritual or karmic development. See, e.g., a book by Waldorf physician and teacher L. F. C. Mees: BLESSED BY ILLNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1983). Recovering from an illness is a joy, but undergoing a needed, spiritually-beneficial illness should also be a joy. Both sorts of joy redound to the joy of Waldorf education.

[2] I.e., the fever accompanying a childhood illness is particularly beneficial. It helps burn away impediments to the child's advancement.

[3] I.e., a child may become ill in order to cause needed, beneficial changes.

[4] I.e., the cause of a child's illness may lie in the environment or in the actions of the adults in the child's life. The environment or the adults may need to change, whereas the child — and its illness — should be allowed to develop as they ought.

[5] I.e., medical technology — like all modern technology — is potentially baleful. It functions under the sway of the arch-demon Ahriman, who beguiles us with the false allure of materialism. When we use modern medical measures, we allow Ahriman to intrude and cure ("take away") a disease that really should be allowed to run its course.

[6] I.e., we may err in the opposite direction. We may become arrogant in our professed spirituality, and thereby we may allow the arch-demon Lucifer — who beguiles us with false spirituality — to take hold. We may then fail to do our best for the sick child.

— R.R.

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November 19, 2018

COMPUTERS, DEMONS, 

AND WALDORF 

From The Times [London, UK]: 

Why the Silicon Valley titans 

who got our kids addicted to screens 

are sending their own children 

to tech‑free Waldorf schools 

The tech elite in America are paying up to $40,000 a year to send their children to schools that enforce a back-to-basics approach. Danny Fortson reports on the screen-free education that has a new-age twist 

Inside a concrete block at the top of a hill in San Francisco, 27 nine-year-olds are handed needles and ordered to sew. Across the hall, eight-year-olds churn butter by hand, while downstairs four-year-olds are busy carrying out their duties: sweeping up, washing dishes and dehydrating fruit. 

This is not a child-labour camp in the heart of America’s richest city. It is a school, and among the tech crowd it has become much sought after. The San Francisco Waldorf School, you see, has a strict “no screens” policy. In fact, it is deliberately “analogue”, a throwback to a time when it was all blackboards, pencils and paper — but with a new-age twist. And in the crucible of the global technology industry, the same executives who have flooded the world with smartphones and addictive social-media apps happily pay up to $40,000 a year to wall off their kids from their creations…. 

[11/19/2018    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/magazine/the-sunday-times-magazine/silicon-valley-titans-got-our-kids-addicted-to-screens-are-sending-their-own-children-to-tech-free-waldorf-schools-xl7vm60bk    The Times' article originally appeared on November 18.]

This is getting to be old news. There have been many stories for many years now about executives at high-tech firms sending their kids to low-tech Waldorf schools. 

Consider the following, for example. This is from a New York Times article published in 2011:

A Silicon Valley School 

That Doesn't Compute

The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here [in California]. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula....

[10/23/2011    https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html]

We have discussed these matters here several times in the past. [See, e.g., “Waldorf and Technology”, February 10, 2018, and "Waldorf, and Technology, and Demons", January 5, 2018.] 

We might repeat a few salient points here and now. 

1) It is perfectly true that a minority of Silicon Valley bigwigs send their kids to Waldorf schools. But it is also true that the majority of Silicon Valley bigwigs don't.

2) It is not surprising that some execs at high-tech firms, knowing that their kids will spend most of their lives in a high-tech world, may want to give the kids a little exposure to other sorts of experiences: low-tech experiences. But this does not necessarily mean that these execs are opposed to the very high-tech culture that they themselves are creating. They, themselves, are creating it — and, generally, they like and approve of the culture they are creating.

3) It is certainly possible to think that many people nowadays are getting far too caught up with high-tech, flashy, buzzy, beepy, razzle-dazzle electronic gimcracks. Many people nowadays spend far too much time staring at electronic screens. This goes double for kids nowadays. There are, in other words, perfectly rational reasons for wanting to reduce the amount of time kids nowadays spend in virtual realities instead of real reality.

4) But if you want your child to spend more time in real reality, sending her/him to a Waldorf school is probably exactly the wrong thing to do. The Waldorf reasons for wanting to reduce the amount of time kids spend staring at electronic screens are not at all rational. Waldorf schools, in fact, stand very near the center of an utterly unreal fantasy world. They stand near the epicenter of the New Age-ish religion called Anthroposophy.

Here is a quick peek at some irrational elements of the Waldorf view, specifically related to high-tech gimcracks.

Start with steam engines (which were high-tech gimcracks in their time):

“When we build steam-engines, we provide the opportunity for the incarnation of demons ... In the steam-engine, Ahrimanic demons [i.e., the arch-demon Ahriman and his minions] are actually brought to the point of physical embodiment.” — Waldorf Founder Rudolf Steiner, “The Relation of Man to the Hierarchies” (ANTHROPOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT, Vol. V, Nos. 14-15, 1928). 

Extend this to the use of electricity (which was a high-tech marvel when it was first introduced into homes and businesses):

"[S]team engines...are by no means the most demoniacal. Whenever electricity is used...there is far more of demon magic." — Rudolf Steiner, THE KARMA OF VOCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 1984), lecture 9, GA 172. 

Extend this to today, when computers and the Internet seem extremely high-tech and wow!-making:

"[T]he whole computer and Internet industry is today the most effective way to prepare for the imminent incarnation of Ahriman or at least to allow his earthly task to run as smoothly as possible for him. The net of ahrimanic spider beings developing out of the internet around the earth stands right from the beginning in a direct relationship to Ahriman appearing in a physical body and will serve him particularly effectively and offer him extremely favourable potential to work." — Steiner follower Sergei Prokoffief, "The Being of the Internet", available at, e.g., https://philosophyoffreedom.com/the-being-of-the-internet.

There are perfectly rational reasons for wanting to reduce kids' involvement with high-tech stuff. And then there are the Waldorf reasons.

[For more on these matters, see, e.g., "Spiders, Dragons and Foxes". For more on Ahriman, see "Ahriman". For more on Anthroposophy, see the entry for this term in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia; also see, e.g., "Everything". For more on Rudolf Steiner, see "What a Guy".]

My guess is that Silicon Valley bigwigs who sent their kids to Waldorf schools didn't do their homework first — they didn't delve deeply enough into the beliefs upon which these schools stand. A simple Google search (or Bing, or DuckDuckGo, or...) might have saved them from an embarrassing mistake.

– R.R.

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November 18, 2018

DEVASTATING INSPECTION REPORT 

ON U.K. STEINER ACADEMY - PART 2 

Yesterday we considered a brief excerpt from a long article posted at DevonLive.com. The article conveys the findings of an inspection report on the Steiner Academy Exeter. 

Anyone interested in Waldorf/Steiner education should read the entire article. The many problems found at Steiner Academy Exeter arguably reflect systemic flaws found in many, if not all, Waldorf/Steiner schools worldwide. 

Steiner Academy Exeter is presumably an exceptional case, suffering from such a wide array of problems in such acute form. Other Waldorf/Steiner schools may exhibit only a few of these problems at any one time, or the severity of the problems may be lower. But, to one degree or another, such problems evidently mark the operations of numerous Waldorf or Steiner schools in many countries. 

The causes lie in the very nature, structure, and culture of Waldorf/Steiner schools as established originally by Rudolf Steiner at the first Waldorf school, opened in Germany in 1919. In general, Waldorf and Steiner schools today continue to model themselves on that school — and they generally continue, therefore, to exhibit characteristic Waldorf/Steiner flaws that first arose at that school. [Concerning such flaws, see "Slaps", "Extremity", "Mistreating Kids Lovingly", "Who Gets Hurt", "Academic Standards at Waldorf", and related essays.] 

With this in mind, let's return to the DevonLive article — "Fighting, failures and physical restraint - Ofsted report reveals inside Exeter's Steiner school" — and look more closely at the problems found at Steiner Academy Exeter. According to author Rom Preston-Ellis, the UK Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) leveled the following criticisms in their official inspection report. (The passages below are in reporter Preston-Ellis's words. In some instances, Preston-Ellis quotes from or paraphrases the inspection report. Words enclosed in brackets are my own interpolations or clarifications. I have altered the sequence of the passages, aiming to group related passages with one another.)

◊ "Many teachers at the school lack the training and experience that are necessary to carry out their job properly, the report [stated]. In particular, teachers lack the skills and subject knowledge to [give instruction] in key subjects such as reading, writing[,] and mathematics...."

◊ [The report said] 'in some of the [school] settings, teaching is particularly poor. Teachers avoid interacting with children and keep any communication to a minimum.'"

◊ "Serious issues with the employment of staff and a lack of safeguarding checks were also highlighted. 'The processes used to recruit and check on the suitability of new staff do not meet statutory requirements and therefore they put pupils at potential risk of harm,' said the report … 'Some staff have been appointed because they are known by the school and not because they have been thoroughly appraised to check that they have the necessary skills and experience.'"

◊ 'In July, DevonLive.com reported that a safeguarding investigation had been launched at the school after two pupils, believed to be six years old, walked out unnoticed during lessons … Ofsted's inspectors found that this incident had been 'inadequately investigated' by senior leaders [of the school].…"

◊ "Leadership was dysfunctional at every level in the school, the report stated. [It added] that the principal [of the school] did not work effectively with governors [i.e., members of the school's board of governors] and kept them at arm’s length from what is happening.…"

◊ "Governance at Steiner [i.e., the Steiner Academy] was described as in 'disarray'[,] with governors not addressing [the problem] that teachers were subject to regular physical assaults by younger pupils."

◊ "Inspectors found that staff in the Kindergarten use physical interventions regularly and inappropriately with children. They pull children up from the floor, carry them across the room[,] and force them to sit upright. Staff reported that this is common practice and that incidents of physical restraint also occur and are not reported.…"

◊ "The atmosphere in some Kindergarten classrooms was described as 'frequently loud and chaotic’. The report stated that children engage in risky behaviour, such as vaulting from five-foot apparatus onto wooden flooring and hurling wooden blocks around. 'Adults’ awareness of risk is poor, and their supervision of such activities is completely ineffective,' it added.

◊ "Leaders [of the school] were found not to have the skills to understand how the needs of pupils with specific emotional and behavioural difficulties can be met[,] leading to vulnerable children simply being removed from the classroom or excluded from the school [i.e., expelled].…"

◊ "A quarter of parents who responded [to] an Ofsted questionnaire reported that bullying was not dealt with effectively at the school...."

◊ "The supervision of pupils during outside break times [i.e., recesses] was found to be poor. 'While adults may be present, they do not actively monitor behaviour nor intervene when 'rough play' can tip over into actual physical aggression,' added the report..…"

— Rom Preston-Ellis, "Fighting, failures and physical restraint - Ofsted report reveals inside Exeter's Steiner school", DevonLive.com, November 16, 2018.

If DevonLive and, more important, Ofsted have given an accurate appraisal of Steiner Academy Exeter, the school seems to have operated in an atmosphere of incompetence and virtual chaos. As reported by Rom Preston-Ellis, the Ofsted report is indeed "damning."

The conditions at Steiner Academy Exeter have certainly been extreme, yet they reflect conditions prevailing — to varying degrees — at many other Waldorf or Steiner schools. Thus, the problems at Steiner Academy Exeter are distinctly reminiscent of the problems discovered earlier at Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, which UK education officials ordered to close. [See "RSSKL".]

Surely some Waldorf/Steiner schools operate smoothly. Surely some are as peaceful and lovely as the schools' PR efforts suggest. [See "Upside", "Glory", and "PR".] But the reports on Steiner Academy Exeter and Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley appear to lift the lid from a Pandora's box of Waldorf/Steiner failings. Parents looking for a good school for their children should certainly bear these reports in mind. 

For some guidance on evaluating Waldorf/Steiner schools, see "Non-Waldorf Waldorfs - Looking for a Good One", "Advice for Parents", and "Clues".

For a concise summary of the dangers Waldorf/Steiner schools may pose for students, see the entry for "harm potentially caused by Waldorf schools" in The Brief Waldorf/Steiner Encyclopedia.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at Steiner Academy Exeter, see "S. A. Exeter".

– R.R.

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November 18, 2018

ILLNESS TOLL AT WALDORF SCHOOL 

RISES TO THREE DOZEN 

The number of students at an American Waldorf school stricken with chickenpox has reportedly risen to 36. 

From The Asheville Citizen-Times [North Carolina, USA]: 

A leader in vaccine exemption, 

Asheville Waldorf has NC's 

worst chickenpox outbreak since ’95 

[by] Sam DeGrave 

A chickenpox outbreak at a private school now ranks as the state's largest since a vaccine for the virus became available more than 20 years ago, health officials say. 

As of Friday, 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School had contracted the varicella virus, known to most as chickenpox. The school has one of the highest vaccination religious exemption rates in North Carolina. 

The viral infection manifests in an itchy rash in most cases and is not typically life-threatening. But the outbreak at Asheville Waldorf should cause concern, said Dr. Jennifer Mullendore of Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services. 

"People don't think it's a serious disease, and for the majority of people it's not. But it's not that way for everybody," Mullendore said. Two to three out of every 1,000 children infected with chickenpox required care in a hospital, she said. 

"To me, that's not a mild disease, and if you're the parent of one of those children, you probably don't think so either," Mullendore said.… 

[R]ecommendations [for children to be vaccinated] have by and large gone unheeded by the parents of Asheville Waldorf's 152 students — 110 of whom have not received the chickenpox vaccine…. 

During the 2017-2018 school year, the last for which data were available, Asheville Waldorf had a higher rate of religious exemptions for vaccination than all but two other schools in the state. 

Of the 28 kindergartners who enrolled that year, 19 had an exemption to at least one vaccination required by the state for school entry. 

School officials did not respond to questions from the Citizen Times Friday…. 

[11/18/2018    https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/11/16/asheville-waldorf-chickenpox-outbreak-ncs-largest-decades/2024694002/    This article originally appeared on November 16.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

When the epidemic at Asheville Waldorf School was first reported, approximately 24 students at the school had come down with chickenpox. The total has now increased by about fifty percent, rising from two dozen to three dozen students made ill by the disease.

If the student body of Asheville Waldorf consists of 152 students, then the 36 ill students represent about a quarter — one in four — of all the students at the school.

Approximately three-quarters of the students at the school have not been vaccinated against chickenpox (110 out of 152 students).

About two-thirds of the children in the Asheville Waldorf kindergarten (19 out of 28) have been exempted from one or more vaccinations otherwise required by the state of North Carolina.

Although reliable worldwide statistics have not been compiled, it appears that more than four million people are hospitalized each year due to complications from chickenpox. Moreover, authoritative estimates indicate that as many as 4,200 people worldwide die each year due to chickenpox. [See http://www.who.int/immunization/sage/meetings/2014/april/2_SAGE_April_VZV_Seward_Varicella.pdf.]

As Dr. Mullendore suggests, chickenpox can indeed be a serious disease. You would certainly recognize this fact if your own child had to be hospitalized, or — tragically — died, due to chickenpox.

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at Asheville Waldorf, see "Chickenpox, Black Magic, and Waldorf", Parts 1-5 (November 6, 7, 8, 9, and 16).

– R.R.

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November 17, 2018

DEVASTATING INSPECTION REPORT 

ON U.K. STEINER ACADEMY 

The Steiner Academy Exeter, a Steiner “free school” in the United Kingdom, has recently come under intense scrutiny and criticism. Now the release of a government inspection report is clarifying the problems at the school.  

The following is from DevonLive.com [Devon, UK]: 

Fighting, failures and physical restraint - 

Ofsted report reveals 

inside Exeter's Steiner school 

An Ofsted report has revealed a catalogue of failings at the troubled school 

[by] Rom Preston-Ellis

Shocking failures in leadership, teaching standards and the safety of pupils have been uncovered at Exeter's Steiner school in a damning Ofsted report. [Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, a department of the UK government.]

The 442 pupil school on Cowley Bridge Road was shut down for more than a week following a visit from inspectors in October. 

Now a full report has revealed a catalogue of failings at the school including leadership being 'dysfunctional at every level', Kindergarten pupils being physically restrained by teachers and a lack of support for vulnerable children. 

Other concerns raised by the watchdog include teachers being subjected to regular physical assaults by pupils, the needs of children with special educational needs not being met and a lack of evidence that safeguarding checks have been made when employing new members of staff. 

A new leadership team has since been appointed at Steiner overseeing a period of special measures which the school says will mark a 'seismic shift' in the way it is run.

The Ofsted report found the school to be 'inadequate' in every area inspected.…

[11/17/2018    https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/fighting-failures-physical-restraint-ofsted-2226397    This article was originally published on November 16.]

Waldorf Watch Response:

The Ofsted report indicates that Steiner Academy Exeter has failed its students in virtually every way a school could fail. The school has had poor teaching, poor management, and poor safeguarding of students. The school was found to be inadequate "in every area inspected."

A new management team, brought in from outside, has been given the task of correcting the school's multiple shortcomings. Whether the team can possibly succeed is not at all evident. The following is from commentary posted at The Quackometer:

"The new external management from the Ted Wragg Trust need to get to grips quickly with what a Steiner School is. THEY WILL BE LIED TO. Rudolf Steiner himself made it clear that teachers should lie to external authorities about their aims and methods. The new management have a simple choice: if the school is to survive, it cannot ‘blend’ in Steiner education. It is all or nothing. Steiner control and influence has to be stripped out if these problems are to be solved. And Ofsted, if they have not already, need to recognise that these issues are systemic to Steiner education — to Anthroposophical schools. Again, these are not failures — they are features. All other Steiner Schools need urgent independent inspection." — The Quackometer, November 16, 2018.

The problems at Steiner Academy Exeter may well reflect systemic problems in the Steiner/Waldorf movement generally. The Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) was ordered to close after similar problems were discovered there. [See "Remembering RSSKL — The Faults Found", July 7, 2018.]

For previous Waldorf Watch coverage of the situation at Steiner Academy Exeter, see "S. A. Exeter".

For a review of the dramatic events at Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, see "RSSKL".

– R.R.

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