Rudolf Steiner stated that Waldorf teachers should be authority figures whom students unhesitatingly obey. It is for the children’s own good: 

“People [i.e., students] will have inner strength when we [i.e., Waldorf teachers]...tell the children to do this and that today and tomorrow and the next day. They will do it out of respect for authority, because they know that in school someone must command.” [1] 

Do this and do that. Today, tomorrow, and the next day. Authority. Command. Such language seems more suited to an Army boot camp than a civilian school: “Soldiers will have inner strength when we sergeants tell the dog-faces to do this and that today and tomorrow and the next day. They will do it out of respect for authority, because they know that in the army someone must command.”

To understand Steiner's views on authority, we should remember that the first Waldorf school opened in Germany many decades ago. Cultural norms were different in that time and place than prevail is most Western nations (including Germany) today. On the other hand, Anthroposophists today generally revere all of Steiner's utterances, on all subjects. If he possessed the higher consciousness he claimed, his views should be timelessly true.

Steiner sometimes discussed faculty authority in somewhat softer — but still unyielding — terms: 

“The situation is that we need to create a mood, namely, that the teacher has something to say that the children should neither judge nor discuss ... An actual discussion lowers the content ... That is something I mentioned before in connection with ‘discussion meetings.’ They need to be avoided.” [2] 

The teacher is the font of unquestioned wisdom. Students have nothing to add: There should be no discussion.

The teacher speaks and the students take it in, silently. If the students resist, the teacher should reassert his jurisdiction and power, reminding the students of their lowly status. 

“The teacher must remain as calm as possible [when students are disobedient or disrespectful] and adopt an objective attitude. This does not mean lessening the teacher’s own authority. The teacher could certainly be the one to say, ‘Without your teachers you would learn nothing and remain stupid.’” [3] 

Steiner explained that Waldorf teachers should use their authority to lay out objective truth — in other words, Anthroposophical doctrines — even if the teachers need to dance around the issue a bit: 

“You need to make the children aware that they are receiving the objective truth, and if this occasionally appears anthroposophical, it is not anthroposophy that is at fault. Things are that way because anthroposophy has something to say about objective truth ... Anthroposophy will be in the school when it is objectively justified, that is, when it is called for by the material itself.” [4] 

For Steiner and his devotees, Anthroposophy is objective truth. Thus, Steiner affirmed that Anthroposophy will pervade virtually every subject in the Waldorf curriculum, albeit it quietly, indirectly. The consequence is that Waldorf students may be indoctrinated in Anthroposophy without the right to discuss or question what they are taught. [5]

Faculty authority, of course, involves maintaining discipline. Steiner claimed to oppose corporal punishment, both because it does nothing to improve discipline, and — perhaps more tellingly — because it gives a school a bad reputation. Note that in the following quotation, Steiner refers to maintaining discipline only as a secondary objective, something that will “also” occur “if” the “ideal” of nonviolence in the classroom can be achieved: 

“There may be teachers in the Waldorf School who slap the children, and so forth ... I have heard it said that the Waldorf teachers hit children, and we have discussed that often. The fact is, you cannot improve discipline by hitting the children ... Perhaps no one [i.e., the teachers] wants to say anything about this, but my question is whether that is simply a story that has been spread like so many other lies, or have children, in fact, been slapped in the Waldorf School? If that has occurred, it could ruin a great deal. We must hold the ideal of working without doing that [i.e., hitting children]; discipline will also be better if we can avoid it.” [6]

“IF we can avoid it.” Steiner left a door open, there. And from time to time, he acknowledged that Waldorf teachers would go through that door. Just don't do it too often, he indicated: 

“Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to spank a child ... I have to admit that there are rowdies ... [But] you should try not to go too far with punishment.” [7] 

So, if Steiner did not give Waldorf teachers a green light to use corporal punishment frequently, he at least gave them a yellow light: Hit the kids only if it really seems necessary. [8] Just don't go too far.

Bizarrely, Steiner also said: 

“If you give them [i.e., students] a slap, you should do it the way Dr. Schubert [one of the Waldorf teachers] does ... There are physical slaps and astral [i.e., spiritual] slaps. It doesn’t matter which one you give, but you cannot slap a child sentimentally.” [9] 

Steiner generally opposed the slapping of students, as we’ve seen. But here he left another door open. If he wanted to prevent teachers from hitting children, he had an easy option: He could have issued the command, Do not hit children in any way at any time. But he chose, instead, to accept the possibility of spiritual and physical assaults on the kids.

It is worth noting that Steiner occasionally prescribed additional forms of physical punishment, such as putting children in what we would now call stress positions: 

“In cases of kleptomania, it is also good to punish children by having them sit for a quarter of an hour and hold their feet or toes with their hands.” [10] 

In cases of tardiness, 

“[W]hen there is some punishment...you can be particularly effective if you allow [sic] them [students] to stand in some uncomfortable place ... We could also buy a number of little sheds [to put students in for punishment] ... They may even get cramps in their legs. We could have the sheds built in the shop class.” [11] 

Some of what Steiner said about discipline and punishment makes perfect sense. Unfortunately, when recommending against corporal punishment, he seems to have been largely motivated by a desire to put up a false front. Public relations were at the forefront of his concerns. 

“I have been back only a few hours, and I have heard so much gossip about who got a slap and so forth. All of that gossip is going beyond all bounds, and I really found it very disturbing. We do not really need to concern ourselves when things seep out the cracks. We certainly have thick enough skins for that. But on the other hand, we clearly do not need to help it along. We should be quiet about how we handle things in the school, that is, we should maintain a kind of school confidentiality ... [G]ossip causes great harm, and I encounter it in the most disgusting forms. Those of us on the faculty should in no way support it." [12]

Nowadays, Waldorf schools are unlikely to officially condone corporal punishment, particularly in countries — such as the US — where people are increasingly quick to sue over perceived wrongs. And yet, violence seems to remain an issue at Waldorf schools — a surprising issue, given the sweet appearance the schools try to project. As one former Waldorf student has written, 

"My Waldorf school, and the kindergarten, too, was very violent; violence was around all the time." [13]

We will look into this further, below.

Footnotes for the Foregoing

(Scroll down to find further sections.)

[1]  Rudolf Steiner, THE FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 93.

Steiner taught that discipline should be especially firm in the lowest grades. As children mature, he said, they may be permitted increasing degrees of latitude. Teachers may then function more nearly as friendly guides than as authoritarian masters. Still, students of all ages should defer to their teachers, accepting the teachers' fundamental authority. In Waldorf schools, Steiner said, discipline should be maintained, authority should be respected, and silence (among the students) should largely prevail. 

"[T]each the children respect. The children should not raise their hands so much." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 65.

[2] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 495.

[3] Rudolf Steiner DISCUSSIONS WITH TEACHERS, Foundations of Waldorf Education (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. 67.

[4] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 495.

[5] Consider this statement by Waldorf educator John Fentress Gardner: 

"A youth whose childhood has been touched by the blight of 'critical thinking' will come to the moment on independent insight badly crippled ... Because skepticism has long since robbed him of part of his heart, he will now feel unable to embrace enthusiastically what he has come to understand." — THE EXPERIENCE OF KNOWLEDGE (Waldorf Press, 1975), pp. 127-128.

If any system of belief should be subjected to intense critical thinking and analysis, it is Anthroposophy. But this is precisely what Anthroposophists work to avoid. 

(Full disclosure: J. F. Gardner was my headmaster at a Waldorf school. My mother was his secretary. Mr. Gardner became a leading spokesman for Steiner education in the USA. Note that in 1975, my alma mater, along with its extension, The Waldorf Institute, had been built up sufficiently to create their own publishing house: the Waldorf Press. Much of this success was attributable to Mr. Gardner. But soon thereafter, Mr. Gardner was involved in a scandal that almost ruined everything. [See “The Waldorf Scandal”.]) 

[6] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 547.

Steiner was often intensely concerned about the Waldorf School’s reputation. See, e.g., his worries about what people might say if they learn about certain occult beliefs at the school (Ibid., pp. 649-650: “Imagine what people would say if they heard that we say there are people who are not human beings ....”), his insistence that teachers avoid using the word “prayer” for the morning verse (Ibid., p.20: “We also need to speak about a prayer. I ask only one thing of you ... Avoid allowing anyone to hear you, as a faculty member, using the word ‘prayer.’”), and his distress over the poor results achieved by Waldorf students on important examinations (Ibid., p. 725: “The results gave a very unfavorable impression of our school to people outside.”)

[7] Ibid., p. 22.

Here is the full paragraph:

"It would certainly be best if you had little need to discipline the children. You can avoid discipline. Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to spank a child, but you can certainly attempt to achieve the ideal of avoiding that. You should have the perspective that as the teacher, you are in control, not the child. In spite of that, I have to admit that there are rowdies, but also that punishment will not improve misbehavior. That will become better only when you slowly create a different tone in the classroom. The children who misbehave will slowly change if the tone in the classroom is good. In any event, you should try not to go too far with punishment." — pp. 22-23.

Steiner urges teachers to aim for the "ideal" of avoiding corporal punishment, but he acknowledges that discipline or punishment — including spanking — may sometimes be needed. Aim to minimize or end the use punishment, he says. "You can avoid discipline," he says, but then he acknowledges that such an outcome is only an ideal. Try to make discipline unnecessary through fostering "a different tone in the classroom." But punishment will remain necessary until that ideal is attained; in the meantime, discipline or punishment will remain a necessity. It is a question of who controls the classroom, or how order is to be maintained ("you are in control, not the child"). So punish kids when you must, but try not to "go too far." 

[8] If a teacher has permission from school authorities and/or from students' parents to use corporal punishment, then s/he cannot be blamed for resorting to such temperate violence. But how can we account for any intemperate violence committed by Waldorf teachers — cases where the teachers apparently lose control?

It is possible that Waldorf teachers are under special forms of strain and feel special forms of anger. Those who are true-believing Anthroposophists yearn for mystical fulfillments that are impossible. They may have been drawn to occultism because they were unhappy with the real world, and their unhappiness may deepen when their chosen alternative to reality — Steiner’s belief system — fails to give them transcendence.  Unhappiness can tip over into disappointment, which in turn can feed anger.

[9] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 323.

Here is a longer version of the quotation and its context:

"The language teacher says something about boxing children’s ears.

"Dr. Steiner: 'If you give them a slap, you should do it the way Dr. Schubert does.'

"Dr. Schubert: 'Did somebody complain?'

"Dr. Steiner: 'No, you are always slapping them. 

"Dr. Schubert: 'When did I do that?'

"Dr. Steiner: 'Well, I mean astral slapping. There are physical slaps and astral slaps. It doesn’t matter which one you give, but you cannot slap a child sentimentally.

"'The class reflects our thoughts. You need to be firmer in your own thoughts. If I were in your class [as a student], I would do the same. I would certainly behave terribly. I wouldn’t understand what is happening. I wouldn’t know what you want. You must be firmer in your thinking....'" — p. 323. 

In provisionally advocating "astral slaps," Steiner steers teachers away from physical slaps (corporal punishment). But he effectively advocates psychological, emotional, or spiritual punishment ("astral slaps"), which actually could be worse. Steiner clearly prefers that all types of slaps be avoided. He indicates that students misbehave when teachers fail to establish the proper tone in class ("I wouldn’t know what you want. You must be firmer..."). But he accepts that teachers will hit students (or box their ears, etc.) from time to time ("If you give them a slap..."), and he tells them which types of "slap" is preferable. Significantly, he does not firmly and explicitly bar corporal punishment. Nor does he bar psychological, emotional, or spiritual punishment. When the language teacher alludes to boxing students' ears, Steiner does not say Box their ears! No! Never! Waldorf teachers must never use violence of any type against their students. No boxing of ears. No slapping. No spanking. No astral attacks. No, no, a thousand times no! He might have said something like this. But he didn't.

[10] Ibid., p. 69.

[11] Ibid., p. 110.

An earlier translation is more brutal: Steiner refers not to sheds but to stocks. 

"You could buy a number of small stocks ... The stocks could also be made in Woodwork lessons." — Rudolf Steiner, CONFERENCES WITH THE TEACHERS OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL IN STUTTGART 1919 to 1920, Vol. 1 (Steiner Schools Fellowship Publications, 1986), p. 91.

[12] FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 10.

[13] Former Waldorf student Alicia Hamberg, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9104.

[R.R., 21st century.]

FURTHER

Waldorf schools are, I believe, generally peaceful, pleasant places. The atmosphere is often warm and (at least apparently) welcoming. Some of the pleasing shimmer in the schools' inner atmosphere arises from unspoken spiritualism — the hazy glow given off by devout Anthroposophists who believe they possess holy secrets. Parents who do not realize that Waldorf schools often have a secret religious agenda need to be on their toes. Still, there is no denying that a pleasing ambience can often be found in the schools.

Sometimes, however, things go very wrong at Waldorfs. Here are some startling personal stories, posted early in 2009 at the waldorf-critics discussion group. The topics range from the abuse students have undergone at various Waldorf schools to the deceptive recruitment practices used by many of the schools. The underlying topic in most of the messages is, shockingly, violence. 

Much of the violence described was inflicted on students by other students, but some was inflicted by teachers. In part, the violence described must be considered aberrant, arising from personal issues that are not the fault of the Waldorf system as such. However, to the extent that Waldorf schools today remain authoritarian, with faculty thinking they should exercise great power over their charges, some of the violence may indeed be produced by the system. The situation prevailing in the schools can be worsened if the system encourages faculty to believe they have a divine mandate, and if the unearthly yearnings of Anthroposophy cloud teachers' eyes and perhaps lead to frustration and anger.

I have done a little light editing to tighten the narratives, below, and to eliminate typos. Be cautious about accepting messages like the following. I substantiate my own work with careful documentation. The following messages, more informal, are largely undocumented. Still, they seem sincere, and they may be worth considering.

◊ From message 9051 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9051); a father tells of his disillusionment with Waldorf:

I think it is very important to at least try to understand what some children go through in Waldorf/Steiner schools — especially those where Anthroposophic extremism is the norm. There are the obvious questions around "is Anthroposophic education good for children?" And then there are other issues: I've known more than a few children who were hit, screamed and sworn at by Waldorf teachers — with virtually NO repercussions, other than pathetic suggestions that those who raise concerns do not understand karma. [Steiner taught that the things that happen to us in this life often come from our karma, which we created for ourselves in our previous lives — Steiner’s doctrines include both karma and reincarnation.] Fact is there were no other available teachers, so the wild ones stayed, believing (and being supported by peers) they were destined to be with the children in their class. That's what Steiner says.

◊ From message 9104 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9104); a former student gives a firsthand account of bullying and mistreatment:

My Waldorf school, and the kindergarten, too, was very violent; violence was around all the time. There was lots of bullying, and I've read others state that the school was well-known for its problems with bullying. Nothing was ever done to stop the bullying.

The violence was pretty much a standard method of hanging around, I can't describe it better. You could count on being thrown into the wall, cupboards or into rocks, being hit, being pushed, those kinds of things — every day.

I've been scratched 'til I got bruises, been kicked in my back 'til I couldn't breath, been hit with a wooden "club" on my head so that I saw stars (but no angels). But that's just the tip of an iceberg.

As far as I can remember, I was never physically maltreated by a teacher — my class teacher was a relatively decent human being, although misled by Steinerites. In kindergarten, I don't know, those teachers were more evil and more Anthro. Also, the teacher who was hired to bring me to school against my will when I was in 1st grade, she didn't mind hurting me while she stopped me from fleeing. But she didn't continue to hurt me just because she could.

◊ From message 9120 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9120); a mother discusses violence perpetrated by teachers as well as students: 

At our Waldorf school, my son's class teacher did take bullying seriously when it was brought to his attention and, as far as I could tell, handled the situation well. Parents in other classes, however, told me they were not satisfied with how teachers handled reports of bullying. One girl, who made up stories about other children hurting her, actually broke other children's bones. One of her parents was a Waldorf graduate and at least one of her grandparents was an Anthroposophist. Several teen boys, including the son of Waldorf teachers, assaulted a girl. The girl's mother reported the assault to the police and the teachers' son ended up having to leave the school. Some years later, an Anthroposophist parent and board member told me that the girl's mother had overreacted. Because I knew some of the details of the assault, for me it was one of those moments when you're looking at someone and you suddenly realize they are barking mad.

A girl I knew was rammed against a wall by a teacher, left the school shortly thereafter, and seemed traumatized by it when she told me about it years later. Yet another girl told me that a teacher hurt her when he yanked her arm to try to force her to cross a stream on a field trip and then grabbed her and shook her violently, despite the fact that she kept telling him not to touch her. I saw a teacher go ballistic on two children for playing with some outdoor sprinkler lines when all he needed to do was to say, "Don't play with those pipes." Even a teacher whom we liked and respected had a reputation for occasionally going into extraordinary rages in the classroom.

In all fairness, there were some serious instances of student bullying and violence at a couple of other schools [i.e., non-Waldorf schools] my children attended, although I never heard of teachers being out of control at any of them.  

Clearly, though, our Waldorf school was far from being the peaceful, spiritually evolved environment we had originally believed it to be. It's my opinion that some of the teachers at our Waldorf school should not have been working with children and would never have been able to find employment in a non-Anthroposophical school.

◊ From message 9010 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9010); a mother tells of withdrawing her son from a Waldorf school and educating him at home instead — she says her son was traumatized by Waldorf. (I do not advocate home schooling, but it may be an option for Waldorf parents to consider.)

Home school is actually working out quite well for him, he's reading fluently now, and is well above his age for reading, math, etc. He is enjoying learning. We are so pleased with him.

We are very worried about how his time at the Steiner school is still affecting him, though. He left in May last year, and he still has nightmares. He will wake up very afraid at least 2 - 3 times a week, and while half-asleep will beg us not to send him back to Steiner school in the morning. He still talks about it almost every day, mentioning stupid, stupid things that the so-called teachers filled his head with. It still makes me so angry that he couldn't tell us the ridiculous things they were saying to him while he was there, as the teachers were belittling our role as his parents and telling him what they said was the real 'truth.' [Steiner said that Waldorf teachers should supplant parents, as much as possible, as guides for the children. See “Basement”.] It’s still very much at the forefront of his mind, and for a six-year-old to remember those things in such detail almost a year on is worrying. We decided against sending him to school [again], as 1) the Steiner experience made him very clingy to us, and 2) they put such a block in his head about not being ready to read, etc., that we have had to work very hard to overcome that. It’s taken a lot of patience that I don't think many schools would have had time for. He's also very angry about schools in general now. The utter hatred he has for his former teachers is astounding at times, but I have been told it’s good that he's not internalizing things and taking it out on himself.

I am coping better, but I am still not 100%. To be honest, every time he mentions that place, all the guilt comes flooding back to me, as it was me that did all this to him by sending him there. Especially when he has nightmares about those stupid gnomes. [Many Waldorf schools have gnome statuettes in the classrooms. The gnomes are supposed to represent “nature spirits” who watch the children. According to Steiner, gnomes are at least slightly hostile to human beings.] Actually, the gnome thing is better now. One of my friends is a child psychologist, and I spoke to her about his obsession with gnomes and how he hated them and mentioned them the whole time. She came up with the idea of buying a garden gnome and letting him smash it with a spade while shouting out all the things that made him sad and angry about Steiner school. Sounds unorthodox, but it helped a lot! I must admit, I smashed up one as well, very satisfying!

Still, we are getting there. I am over all the lies and the backstabbing. I can cope with that, I just can't cope with what they did to my son. We never got a conclusion. We complained and complained, but the teacher denied ever saying he was brain-damaged or all the other crap she said to us and him. They all stuck together at the end of the day.

Like I said, he's doing well now. He's learning with me, and we also have a tutor twice a week, and elderly lady who is just so lovely with him and he adores her. We wanted him to see that not all teachers were the enemy.

I just want some way to get the truth out. It infuriates me that so many people are hoodwinked by those schools. I have no problem with people wanting to send their children to Steiner schools if they know the whole truth, but there are so many people who are duped into sending their kids there, as I was. The trouble for Steiner education is, though, that if they did tell the whole truth, the number of children signing up for the schools would be cut dramatically, as most parents would think they were barking mad!

[I will skip ahead here]

The letters we received to our complaints make good reading... One just fobbing us off, and another slamming into us and our child horribly, and denying any wrongdoing. Also a letter threatening expulsion for bullying the day after we removed him from the school because of a bully who had scratched ******** so hard he left scars on his face. The bully was a problem for many other kids, but nothing was done.... 

◊ From message 9085 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9085);  a mother tells of being deceived when choosing a Waldorf school, and she goes on to describe violence and racism in the school:

[W]e had meetings, went to "promotional" days, read the prospectus, asked for reading material about the education, and asked questions. Never once was Anthroposophy mentioned. We had limited access to the Internet then, too, and one expects school administrators and teachers, particularly such so-called gentle, caring child-centered ones as we thought they were, to be honest. We were deceived.

It's true, too, that we were attracted to the school for what it wasn't in many ways; this was also how it "sold" itself — the lack of tests, beautiful buildings and surroundings, wonderful food, so called creativity, music.

To belittle the experiences of families who have been through these schools and seen the worst of Anthroposophy in action would be a grave mistake. Where our children went, not only was there unnecessary physical force from teachers (apparently quite violent), and bullying amongst the children. There were occasions when dark children with some non-European roots (including ours) were singled out; questioning this brought rage from the teachers; I constantly question the motives for this now; at the time, we hadn't read enough Steiner.

Moving them [from the school] was traumatic. But the relief on our children's faces was palpable. Guilt, too, plays a huge part; if a parent can't shield their children from harm, but actually throws them into the arms of the perpetrators, it's not unnatural to react.

◊ From message 9095 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/messages/9095); a mother focuses on gnomes and the anger festering in a Waldorf school:

Anthroposophy has a very screwed-up psychology, full of beliefs that are not conducive to mental health, such as (one of my favorites), "Thoughts are living reality," which leads a person to try to repress bad thoughts or bad emotions rather than accept and deal with them. Instead you're encouraged to project anxieties and fears and anger on spirit entities (e.g., gnomes). This stuff is also inflicted on the children, and it is particularly explosive with children, makes them extremely angry and uncooperative. So you have situations building in the classroom every day where lots of people are getting angrier and angrier, both teachers and students, and have no healthy outlets for it, particularly because with children, you can't talk about anything directly.

I could write a book on this ... We had a lot of teachers walking around who were anger time bombs, and the occasional explosions were truly memorable.

Unfortunately, troubling messages like these are not as rare as we might hope. Other students and their parents have told of violence in and around Waldorf schools. Here are excerpts from a memoir written by a former Waldorf student (http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/teacher_bullying_sarah.html):

My name is Sarah. I'm a college student in Minnesota. I’m in my sophomore year. I’m majoring in legal studies and political science with a minor in women’s studies. I’m a political activist, an A student, I’m on the honor society in college. My career goal is to be a lawyer. I’m also a Waldorf survivor. My academic success is in spite of Waldorf, not because of Waldorf.

I attended a Waldorf school from first grade to the beginning of sixth grade between the years of 1988-1993. I have ADD [attention deficit disorder] ... Even with being smart at a young age, focusing was difficult until I was diagnosed after I left Waldorf and was put on medicine ... Waldorf is totally in the dark about ADD-related disorders and other types of disabilities related to that.

My teacher was a man who I will refer to here as Mr. M, who was and is an asshole and a teacher bully. (I recently read an article about teacher bullying and it cleared a lot of things up that happened to me with him.) ... Mr. M went out of his way to give me a hard time and bully me because of my difficulty paying attention, or if I made a mistake no matter how small. I didn’t act out in any way, I liked school and I tried hard. Even with my learning difference I did fairly well overall, but he just acted like I was stupid and lazy.

I remember him in first grade screaming at me in front of the whole class, because I was having trouble understanding a math problem. I also remember in first grade, we were doing our first painting and I forgot to wet my brush after dunking it with another color and I accidentally mixed the blue and the yellow ... [I]nstead of giving me a chance to correct my mistake he just told me that I couldn’t paint that day. I laid my head down on the desk feeling devastated ... I remember in third grade, I misunderstood a homework assignment and he literally shamed me for the whole afternoon. It was a lot of things like that during the time he was my teacher.

...When I was in second grade, Mr. M hung me by the legs over a hockey rink wall. Mr. M was helping kids over the wall and when he lifted me over to the other side, he grabbed me by the legs and hung me over the wall upside-down with my hands on the ground, and I did not know he was going to do this. I was freaked. I told my mom about it and she gave Mr. M a good piece of her mind. She told me he felt bad and realized he was wrong. However, when Mr. M saw me at school, he told me that he didn’t do anything wrong and that I was being too sensitive. I now realize that’s a sign of teacher bullying.

Mr. M also would inappropriately tease me in second grade in ways that were not appropriate to tease small children. Basically, he teased me in ways that are okay to tease adults, but not children. My parents of course told him to stop it.

Whenever dealing with my parents, Mr. M would pretend to act all sweet and nice, but when he was with me, he became a bully. My mom knows now that she should have taken me out of that school a lot sooner, but now that I know about teacher bullying and Waldorf ways of seducing people into the school, I can cut her some slack.

...I remember one time he pounded his fist on the desk trying to get me to pay attention and he would snap his fingers in front of my face. He would single me out and humiliate me in front of the class for my struggles with focusing more than once throughout the years. One time he told me that sometimes he thought I just couldn’t get it, other times he thought I just didn’t care.

...After Waldorf, I went to a Catholic school just for the education. I had to get caught up and I did. Actually I was able to make up six years of school in one. It was there that I was diagnosed with ADD and put on Dexedrine.

For years I suffered from low self-esteem ... I recently learned that a lot of Waldorf students have stories like mine.

...As far as Mr. M is concerned, he still teaches at [the same Waldorf] school and has done this kind of thing to other students and the administration has done nothing about it.

I'll make a little report of my own here. Violence was rare at the Waldorf school I attended, but it burst out on occasion. One day a classmate of mine attacked me, wrestling me to the floor in a school hallway. We rolled on the floor, virtually at the feet of two teachers, yet the teachers ignored the battle going on beside them. This surprised me, but not much. I had seen other instances of our teachers' nonchalance in such situations. I might add that another schoolmate of mine considered these two teachers such paragons that she followed their example and became a Waldorf teacher herself.

I never witnessed a Waldorf teacher strike a student, but I heard of a startling incident. (Many students who were present agreed in their accounts, so I accepted their report.) One day in a science class, a student angered the teacher. The teacher strode to the student's chair/desk (a single unit, a chair with an attached writing surface). Saying something like, "You'd better watch out," the teacher kicked the chair/desk so hard that it flipped over. The student wound up sprawled on the floor.

— Roger Rawlings

I will add a few more reports from varied sources:

Here are excerpts from an Australian newspaper story (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/no-class-act-20090710-dg2v.html?page=-1  — see "Extremity"):

As an English teacher [at a Waldorf school] Roger Graham knows how to write a love letter. But in 2001 when he began writing to one of his 16-year-old female students, the married Graham, in his fifties, may have penned the final chapter for the Newcastle Waldorf School, a Rudolf Steiner school he helped establish in the early 1980s ... The relationship [between Graham and the student] was discovered in May 2001, and Graham was stood down [i.e., dismissed] on full pay. Even then, he continued to write to the girl, his letters passed on by the school's co-founder and senior teacher, Keitha Montefiore ... Graham's re-emergence is the latest in a long line of controversies at the 140-student school, including the sexual grooming of students by male and female teachers in the mid-2000s and allegations of emotional and physical abuse dating back to the early 1990s. In 1995 eight children and several parents made statements to the child protection and investigation unit of Newcastle Police, alleging seven teachers shook, choked, hit and kicked students as young as seven. A teacher also reportedly pushed a boy through a classroom window, breaking his arm ... Parents, former students and former staff allege a culture of secrecy, denial and cover-up at the school, which they claim [was] run as a private fiefdom of Montefiore and Graham, until the latter's dismissal ... Several teachers have gone on to marry former students, who in turn became teachers at the school. "The whole place is incredibly incestuous and parochial," says the former board member. 

The following was posted on the local schools network in the UK (http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2011/08/some-very-good-reasons-why-steiner-schools-shouldnt-have-state-funding/):

Our three-year-old was happy in the kindergarten for over a year, but when our eight-year-old daughter went into Class Three, there was bullying of gang-like proportions. We continually asked the school to follow their own policy on bullying, which claimed that they would not tolerate it. 

In reality, they continually ignored the problem and refused to separate children who were assaulting others in our daughter’s class whilst assuring us that they understood the seriousness of the situation. Forgetting to mention the fact that another parent had just withdrawn her sons from the school because of the bullying, the school then suddenly acted to make the "irritant" — in this case us — disappear. 

Here is a shocking message posted by a former Waldorf student in 1999 (http://waldorfcritics.org/active/articles/RosieTestimonial.html). As with most other messages, I have done a little light editing.

I have had so much telephone air time in the last week from survivors of this absurd and nasty education. One letter from a man whose daughter was sexually abused by a teacher named Stan Price (now dead) in 1982 when she was seven. He is so angry and feels so helpless as his daughter is self-mutilating, in and out of hospital and generally broken. Stan was known by me to be sexually abusing little girls for sure in 1975. We suspected he was doing the same to little boys as well. This had been going on since he joined [a Waldorf faculty] in the late 1960's. Any queries were dismissed, put down, isolated with the implication that the victim had somehow deserved it.

Five days before this letter [I received] a phone call from Canada. She was two years older than me and had had full sexual relations with a teacher (he is still alive and I know his name) at 15, attempted rape by another (he is still alive and I know him also). She thought she was the only one, spent years curled up on her father's floor unable to do anything. Years later she is finally getting her life together but still cannot stand up and speak out.

I personally had a main lesson teacher for eight years. I used to try and count the days I DID NOT get beaten. One term there were no days. I was humiliated verbally, described as a mess, slow and stupid. I was dyslexic. He died a few years ago much respected. I wanted to incinerate his grave.

I learnt to read at 7 because I begged the local state school children on the bus to teach me. [At Waldorf] I was sneered at for being too smart, told I was a classic "melancholic" who needed to see life through rose-tinted glasses. I had 12 years of German and French and do not speak either. My math's has been saved by some private tuition as an adult and my modern history ends in 1600. My understanding of basic biology is from medical instruction pamphlets. I cannot draw, either artistically or technically. My handwriting is illegible and when I type the grammar and sentence structure is "creative."

I am sick to death of hearing about what personalities we Steiner children are, how creative and full of self-confidence. There are borstals where the same claim could be made. The "personalities" have a gallows humour, the creativity is that of the criminal, that of a surveyor, and the self-confidence is bravado. There are so many of those, whom I went to school with, who are totally broken people. Wandering the streets or countryside babbling at the sky, one is in a permanent mental institution, another two committed suicide. Another [got] pregnant at 16 to escape another teacher who had been having sex with her since she was 14 is now working in the local foodmarket, barely surviving after her "Caring and expensive education. Giving her such a rounded education."

Another did get a professorship, after many minor breakdowns. He now lives in self-exile in another country, a hopeless alcoholic virtually living on the street. Another lives in a tent in another country, unable to deal with 'ordinary' people.

I want to scream their names and the potential I know was there. I want to tell everyone what great people they were. But I feel restrained, as how can I out a victim who is trying so hard to forget?

Whether it is the Steiner philosophy, or the people it attracts, the wrong horoscopes, I don't know. But this must be aired to get sorted and made healthy. My experience is that this never gets aired, but is hidden, and the abuser just blames the victim.

I have been plugging away speaking to anyone who shows an interest, and have finally got the ear of the BBC, not an infallible media, I know. I intend to give them all the help I can to research and debate what has been going on for decades.

If a system believes that we inherit our karma and that all bad things are what we chose in a previous life, fair enough. But there is no place for this in education of children. The belief might be there, as we know racism is often there, but any sign that it is being acted out should be nipped in the bud. There is no way this should be an alibi for raping a small child, beating anyone for anything, and actively preventing them from learning.

Steiner schools have a reputation, created by themselves, for nurturing and caring. "A third parent" is another description I have heard. This is so totally the opposite from my experience. So many children came from "dysfunctional" homes. Parents either knew they needed help and hoped the school was the answer or needed an alibi for their own behavior and the school gave them that. 

A report from someone who says she attended a Waldorf school in Australia (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/perth+waldorf+school):

Perth Waldorf School: The place where I spent some of the worst years of my life. The place where, yes, there were some nice people, but I met some of the meanest boys I have ever had the displeasure to meet. They teased me, they threw things at me, they made me angry just because it was funny, they lied to teachers so they wouldn't get in trouble, and they got away with it. You know why, because nobody cared! Not even their parents. THEIR PARENTS WERE SO IN DENIAL! "Oh no, my baby wouldn't have done that! No, no, no." They just didn't get it. They still don't get it. The don't understand that, every insult, every taunt, every GUMNUT, hurt. Really bad. They didn't give a crap if I got scarred for life because of the shit I got from them, or that I cried myself to sleep wondering why they didn't like me. SIX YEARS OF THIS FUCKING SHIT! SERIOUSLY!? So, Dear Arseholes from PWS (they know who they are), please just leave me alone. Don't call pretending to be my ex-boyfriend, don't fake an interest in my life. Just mind your own FUCKING business.

Oh, P.S. Now I will forever be remembered as the girl who was always screaming and crying at school :) Thanks for that. 

The following is excerpted from "Coming Undone", which you can find elsewhere here at Waldorf Watch:

During one of the sessions we attended at the school, my son was violently pushed backwards off a play bridge. I understand this is not unusual, as it could happen in any nursery or school. However, as I sat there comforting my child, I noticed that the teacher who witnessed the incident didn't respond in any way or acknowledge what happened. Instead, she continued to sew in silence. I sat there in utter disbelief. The act of ignoring felt more violent than the original act itself. Seeing that I was somewhat baffled and distressed by  the teacher's lack of concern, a parent later explained to me that the children were "working out their karma." [See "Karma".] I remember questioning her, as I couldn't comprehend what she had just said. She explained that her sister was a Steiner Waldorf teacher in Germany and repeated that it was their karma — it was one child’s karma to push, and my child’s karma to be pushed. I later telephoned the school stating we didn't think the education was suitable for our son. They tried persuading us to stay, explaining that it can take up to a year for some of the children to settle. 

This is from the website Waldorf Awareness (http://petekaraiskos.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-highland-hall-permits-bullying-and.html):

There is no question that bullying and abuse have occurred regularly at Highland Hall [a Waldorf school in California] since its inception in 1955. Back then, it was easier to cover up the occasional abuse of students by teachers (and sometimes parents) – and still cases of abuse at Highland Hall were documented throughout the years. Abuse of children is still acceptable today at Highland Hall. I have personally documented many cases of abuse and brought them to the Highland Hall Board’s attention without too much success (It was because of the combined voices of a few brave parents that a couple of the worst teachers finally left voluntarily). But the question remains, why does Highland Hall turn a blind eye to the bullying and abuse of children by its teachers – both on and off campus?

It may not come as a surprise to many who have been reading my previous letters about racism at Highland Hall, that it’s the same hidden philosophy behind Highland Hall and Waldorf – Anthroposophy, the philosophy that permits racism — which also permits Waldorf teachers to stand by while children bully children, and while teachers abuse children (and parents). 

The following is from a message posted at waldorf-critics in 1997 and reposted in 2013 (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/25574):

I spoke with an old friend the other day who had found herself upset all over again over events that happened in the [Waldorf] school our children had once been in. News items about cults had opened up old wounds for her.

We discussed a number of incidents, and it made me see that it's time to mention some of them here...

At the time our children were at the school, there were many unsettling incidents that happened on the playground in the unsupervised environment. Little boys were being beaten up, and bullying was seriously out of control. Children would come home worried and upset. Some parents were closer to what was going on than others, and tried unsuccessfully to convince the teachers to supervise the playground. There was rarely a teacher out there. It was especially disturbing in light of the fact that the boys being beaten up were not the kind of children who would ordinarily be involved in fighting or bringing on that kind of negative attention.

An anxious parent spoke to a teacher who told her that those children were dealing with "past life karma" they needed to work out together. The same parent finally called a member of the College [The College of Teachers, the central committee]...and told him she had observed children climbing the (high) playstructure on stilts, children dragging other children around by ropes, children bullying and using foul language — but no teachers supervising. The teacher answered, "You are not an initiate, and therefore you cannot understand the kind of energies we're dealing with here." When the stunned parent reported this back to another teacher, she was met with wide eyes — "He told you THAT?" The implication was that he had seriously erred in letting a cat out of a bag.

One of the concerns some parents had was that their little girls were continually having their dresses pulled up by boys. This was very disturbing to the girls. When they screamed, it was only the girls who were reprimanded for causing a disturbance. Finally a "Friday Is Skirts Up" policy was started by a teacher so as to placate everyone — that way the girls could have Monday through Thursday as days their skirts were not to be pulled up. The girls, as you might imagine, were not amused...

There was a lot of parent time and energy that went into trying to make the playground a safe place, but the teachers never seemed to share the concern...

I used to regularly hear one parent or another discuss how miserable their child was for one reason or another, but they would do little or nothing to get the child out of the damaging situation ... This does not mean to imply that all children are unhappy in [Waldorf schools]! Many are perfectly happy there. I'm just making the point that some parents feel so personally fulfilled in the cultlike community that they are able to ignore or deny what they see, even when it affects their own children. 

In 2014, events at a Waldorf school in the USA reached a stunning culmination. The following is from a letter and accompanying document sent out by administrators at the school, Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, New York. [http://www.gmws.org/uploaded/What's_Happening_Now/Green_Meadow_Community_Letter_-_July_2014.pdf]

Dear Members of the Green Meadow Waldorf School Community:

This letter is very difficult to write and will be very upsetting to read. On August 6, 2013, we informed you about deeply disturbing allegations made by Green Meadow alumna Kate Christensen ‘80 in her recently published memoir, “Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites.” In her memoir, Ms. Christensen wrote that she had been sexually abused at our school by a teacher (referred to as “Tomcat” in the book) on a number of occasions in the late 1970s. We identified the teacher as John Alexandra, who stopped teaching on a full-time basis at Green Meadow in 1979 ...

A number of factors have been identified as contributing to the School’s failure to stop Mr. Alexandra’s inappropriate and at times criminal conduct when it occurred:

- a lack of expertise in what constitutes sexual abuse;

- a failure to investigate or properly investigate facts when brought to faculty members’ attention;

- a reluctance to avoid confronting a person with prominent standing in the community;

- an administrative structure that was not well-suited to dealing with these types of issues;

- a lack of communication between Threefold-affiliated schools and programs;

- a lack of a written policy identifying clear and appropriate boundary lines between faculty and students and a clear protocol for reporting and investigating such reports; and

- a lack of education and training for GMWS students, faculty and staff, and parents regarding identifying and reporting inappropriate conduct.

For more on this and similar situations, see "Extremity".

I enjoyed my years as a Waldorf student, and I assume most Waldorf students have similarly pleasant experiences. But, clearly, parents need to recognize that while corporal punishment, bullying, and other forms of violence may be rare in Waldorf schools, they are by no means unknown. Waldorf teachers may often believe their authority comes from the gods, which may justify them in almost any actions they choose to take. Likewise, Waldorf teachers may believe that the events that befall children are fated — they are necessary enactments of karma or the gods' will — and thus no one should interfere to prevent such events.

At a minimum, parents who send their children to Waldorf schools should be as vigilant protecting their children in that circumstance as they would be in any other circumstance.

— Roger Rawlings

For other cautionary tales and words of advice,

see, e.g.,

"Advice for Parents"

"Clues"

"Secrets"

"Moms"

"Pops"

"Extremity"

"Nuts"

"Mistreating Kids Lovingly"

In December, 2012, 

a prominent advocate of Waldorf education

posted a video mocking the concerns 

of parents whose children 

had been bullied at Waldorf schools.

[See https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatchannex/december-12.]

Here is a comment written in response:

Humor is often used by those in denial. In light of recent tragic bullying stories (esp. those involving youth suicide), mocking parent concerns is reprehensible. Unfortunately, bullying is a serious problem in lots of social scenes today; the good news is that many schools are holding community forums and inviting psychologists to address the problems. How does Waldorf handle the issue? This movement ostensibly concerned with "social renewal" simply forms study groups where they discuss whether or not Waldorf teachers should interfere with the karma of bullies and victims. Remember the paper Dan posted a few years ago — the one the authors demanded be removed from public view? 

Bullying in Waldorf is probably the #1 complaint I've heard about Waldorf over the years — countless accounts of teachers standing idly by as children are teased and bullied verbally and/or physically on Waldorf playgrounds. A few years ago an acquaintance asked me to speak to her friend (whose son had been bullied at a Waldorf school). I'd never met this woman before and sat with her for hours as she sobbed while trying to explain the gut-wrenching saga of her traumatized young son and what he went through in his Waldorf school. Both her son and her were devastated at what had transpired and at the total lack of accountability by staff at the school. They ended up selling their house and moved far away from the school. Waldorf had been a wonderful dream of a healthy community for this single mom; it turned into a horrible nightmare and she almost lost her son. 

And now their leaders create silly videos mocking the concerns of parents. Very sad. 

If Waldorfers refuse to change their occult beliefs (karma/bullying and children working stuff out from previous lives), they at least owe it to parents and kids to explain these beliefs — and potential repercussions — BEFORE any children join the "community."

— Steve Galliford ("Walden")

[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/25526]

Bullying and karma are intertwined issues often discussed by critics and defenders of Waldorf education. Critics contend that Waldorf teachers allow bullying among their students — in Waldorf belief, the children must be allowed to work out their karmas. Defenders of Waldorf education generally deny that Waldorf teachers look away when bullying occurs or fights break out, although they acknowledge that karma is a key concept in the ideology underlying Waldorf schooling (Anthroposophy).

Here are excerpts from a recent exchange on these matters. The participants were Eugene Schwartz, a leading proponent of Waldorf education, and Dan Dugan, a prominent Waldorf critic. I have edited and trimmed for length and clarity. [To see the entire exchange. go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/25717.]

Eugene Schwartz: “I, too, have often heard people say that Rudolf Steiner said that children need to ‘work out their karma’ in the classroom and on the playground. However, I must tell you that I have never seen that quote in print or heard of its provenance from any experienced Waldorf teacher. To the best of my knowledge, this is one of those apocryphal ‘Steiner said’ statements that have circulated through the Waldorf movement without any substantiation.” 

Dan Dugan: “I agree, I think it's mainly a post-Steiner Waldorf school tradition, based on study of Steiner. An otherwise sensible presentation on bullying to the faculty of Alan Howard Waldorf School by Cynthia Kennedy and Betty Robertson, May 13, 1999, includes the following waffling language: 

'Can a child’s karma or destiny be that of a victim or bully? Is it a child’s destiny to seek certain experiences to build his or her self-esteem and inner self? Should a potentially abusive situation be stopped, and if so, at what point? We do not know the answers...'

"This way of thinking can only be traced to studies of Steiner's books and lectures about karma. I can't imagine where else it would come from. For non-Anthroposophists, there is no question about the responsibility of adults when they see children bullying."

Schwartz: "To my understanding, Steiner was certainly trying to find an alternative to the strict and harsh Prussian model of education that was endemic in his day ... [He was] a man of his time, sharing a fresh and vital educational impulse in common with many others."

Dugan: "Sure, Waldorf was progressive in its day ... [But] it got stuck in the 1920s forever. And Steiner wasn't altogether opposed to the Prussian model: 

'If a child is ten minutes late, keep him standing for thirty minutes. Make them stand uncomfortably! ... [M]ake them stand in an especially uncomfortable place ... You could buy a number of small stocks ... The stocks could also be made in Woodwork lessons.' [Rudolf Steiner, CONFERENCES WITH THE TEACHERS OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL IN STUTTGART 1919 to 1920, Vol. 1 (Steiner Schools Fellowship Publications, 1986), p. 91.]"

Schwartz: "...Steiner...was never in favor of a free-for-all, and he never spoke about children working out their karma through unsupervised Summerhill-like chaos [1] masquerading as 'play.' Waldorf teachers are held to a very high degree of responsibility by Steiner in terms of looking after the children's behavior with one another in and out of the classroom."

Dugan: "If someone today was holding them 'to a very high degree of responsibility' things would be a lot better."

Schwartz: "A teacher who has been negligent in the playground, and allowed bullying or roughhousing to go on to the point where someone was emotionally or physically hurt, may want to justify his negligence and talk about 'karma' in the same way that teachers in a non-Waldorf school might misuse any number of psychological or sociological terms ... However, this is not the way that Rudolf Steiner spoke about karma, nor is it a foundational principle of Waldorf education to let things just happen."

Dugan: "Not a 'foundational principle,' but certainly a tradition, it keeps popping up year after year...."

Schwartz: "Steiner, indeed, rarely spoke about karma without also speaking about the moral wakefulness that his teaching should evoke ... On the playing field, as in the classroom, the Waldorf teacher is meant to carry a deep sense of responsibility, and not justify his nonchalance by misquoting Steiner. 

"I have no question that you will continue to hear from parents who feel that their child's school is not paying enough attention to the bullying issue."

Dugan: "Sounds like denial to me. It's not a matter of 'not paying enough attention.' It's deliberately refusing to intervene when children are fighting, based on principles thatsomeone taught them.

'If you see your child hit another child in the sandbox, what do you do? This was the question posed by the keynote speaker, [Waldorf teacher and author] Jack Petrash, at last month’s Gateways Conference. In his answer he suggested that there are times when you may need to say the word "no", regardless of the age of the listener.' [Kennedy & Robertson]

"There are times when you may need to say no? That's a clue as to who's maintaining this pernicious tradition — the Waldorf teacher trainers.

'[T]he college chair [2] told me that since I was withdrawing my child from the first grade for being bullied, that my child would be "karmically" distressed for the rest of their life because I didn't let them work it out in this classroom, with this group of children.' [Stephanie Brooks, ESTABLISHING SUCCESSFUL AND HEALTHY TEACHER AND PARENT RELATIONSHIPS IN WALDORF SCHOOLS (Antioch New England Graduate School, Spring 2002, Revised Spring 2004, p. 22).]

"There was at least one college chair teaching the tradition. 

"Margaret Meyerkort wrote: 'I want to remind us of another suggestion of Steiner's. In fact for me it is an admonition, and that is: "Do not interfere with the will of the child." Why? Because in his will, in his unconscious, lies his karma and because in karma freedom must reign.' [A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE WALDORF KINDERGARTEN, Vol. 2, edited by Joan Almon (Waldorf Kindergarten Association of North America, Inc., 1993), p. 78.] 

"That's getting close to a smoking gun."

Schwartz: "I don't imagine that the growing number of parents who are gratified by the way in which Waldorf schools are now dealing with bullying are likely to call you ... Waldorf schools have accomplished a lot in terms of raising the consciousness of children, teachers, and parents concerning bullying and its antidotes."

Dugan: "Neither of us has done a real study ... [Y]ou can make fun of parents who are upset [3] by the policy of many Waldorf schools, and...we can report that bullying happens in many Waldorf schools in a  special way endemic to Waldorf: tolerated as a matter of policy.

"And you can say to me that there is a great deal more to be done and I don't  disagree."

A comment from R.R.:

What did Steiner say about karma? He said that karma is not ironclad, but generally it should be allowed to play out.  

◊ "Karma must be fulfilled." — Rudolf Steiner, ACCORDING TO MATTHEW (Anthroposophic Press, 2003), lecture 11, GA 100. 

◊ "Karma must be worked out on the earth." — Rudolf Steiner, THE DEED OF CHRIST AND THE OPPOSING SPIRITUAL POWERS (Steiner Book Centre, 1954), GA 107.

◊ "Karma must be carried out, and these things are necessary....” — Rudolf Steiner, STAYING CONNECTED (SteinerBooks, 1999), p. 36. 

For more, see "Karma".

Notes added by R.R.:

[1] Summerhill School is an experimental academy founded on the educational theories of A.S. Neill; it is not a Waldorf or Steiner school.

[2] The central governing committee at many Waldorf schools is called the college of teachers. The chairperson of this committee is, then, the "college chair."

[3] This is a reference to a video created by Schwartz. [See http://player.vimeo.com/video/56109384.]

The following is a message I posted at waldorfcritics

in response to the Schwartz/Dugan exchange, above.

[See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/25722.]

If Steiner did not explicitly say that children must be allowed to work out their karmas through occasional violence and bullying, Waldorf teachers might nonetheless reasonably conclude, from Steiner's teachings, that any violent tendencies in a child’s karma should be honored. Without referring to bullying as such, Steiner said that Waldorf teachers must expect and indeed accept a certain amount of violence among their students. This is most clearly seen in his discussions of temperament, especially the choleric temperament. And bear in mind, Steiner said that temperament arises, at least in part, from karma, so when children express their temperaments, they also express their karmas.

Choleric kids should be placed together in the classroom, Steiner said, in the full expectation that they will fight one another, at least for a while.

“[I]t has a salutary effect if one seats choleric children together in one corner of the classroom, giving a certain relief in this way to the rest of the class, because the teacher is freed from having to constantly discipline them. Choleric children can’t help pushing and hitting each other. If they now find themselves suddenly at the receiving end, this in itself produces a thoroughly pedagogical effect, because the ones who do the pushing and shoving, goading others into retaliating, are being ‘shaped up’ in a very direct way.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE CHILD’S CHANGING CONSCIOUSNESS (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 177.

Note that the teacher, in this scenario, does not try to prevent violence. Rather, s/he must accept that “choleric children can’t help pushing and hitting each other.” The teacher puts the choleric kids together knowing they will fight; s/he is thus “freed from having to constantly discipline them.” So s/he lets the violence play itself out. And we should understand clearly, this is violence inside the classroom, during actual class sessions!

Steiner frequently reiterated this recommendation: Clump the choleric kids together and let them smack each other. The violence will naturally subside, he said.

◊ “The cholerics hit and smack each other and finally they get tired of the blows they get from the other cholerics ... [T]he children of each temperament rub each other’s corners off extraordinarily well when they sit together.”  — Rudolf Steiner, THE KINGDOM OF CHILDHOOD  (Anthroposophic Press, 1995), p. 63

◊ “[W]e try to determine which children are choleric and place them together. Thus, the teachers know that one corner contains all the children who tend to be choleric ... This method of grouping has great advantages ... [T]he phlegmatics become so bored with sitting together that, to get rid of their boredom, they begin to interact. Cholerics, on the other hand, beat up on one another, and this, too, quickly improves.” — Rudolf Steiner, HUMAN VALUES IN EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), p. 140.

◊ “Waldorf teachers study the temperaments of those children entrusted to them ... They place the melancholics together...[and] the cholerics together [etc.] ... As for the cholerics, they heal each other thoroughly, since it is best to let cholerics work off their choler on one another. If bruises are exchanged, it has a very sobering effect.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE SPIRITUAL GROUND OF EDUCATION (Anthroposophic Press, 2004), p. 83.

◊ “As for the cholerics who constantly push and punch each other when sitting together, they learn in a wonderfully corrective way how to curb their temperament, at least to some extent!” — Rudolf Steiner,  WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY, Vol. 2 (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 202.

Preventing choleric children from expressing their nature would actually damage the kids’ health, Steiner said: 

“When choleric children are seated together, there will be such a constant exchange of blows that the resulting bruises they give each other will have an extraordinary healing effect on their temperament ... [But if] we forced a choleric to sit still and to be quiet, the result would be an accumulation of suppressed choler that would act like a poison in the child’s system. It simply would not work.” — Rudolf Steiner, SOUL ECONOMY  (Anthroposophic Press, 2003), pp. 212-213.

The temperament and, we might add, the karma of a child can cause a Waldorf teacher to accept behavior that would, under other circumstances, be banned. Steiner gave the green light for one group of students to "push and hit" one another, to "hit and smack," to "beat up" one another, to "bruise" one another, and to "push and punch." Might any of this mayhem amount of bullying? Obviously, yes. Not all choleric kids are equally large and strong; some — smaller and weaker — would be at a severe disadvantage when the violence begins. So the group of cholerics would probably include some bullies and some victims of bullying.

We should remembers that, in truth, there is no such thing as a choleric temperament — the four-temperament paradigm is fallacious [1] — so Steiner was really describing a process of segregating an arbitrarily defined subset of kids and allowing them to go at each other. This is sanctioned violence that almost inevitably would spill out of classrooms into hallways and playgrounds, where it would likely escalate into harsh and even brutal (punching, hitting, smacking, bruising) forms of bullying.

To wrap this up, we should note that — according to Steiner — karma expresses itself not just in temperament but in body type. [2] Thus, some kids have bodies that are naturally peaceable while others have bodies that are naturally prone to violence. Waldorf teachers need to recognize this without undue emotion. 

“When we see someone with small hands and arms, we will immediately say to ourselves: well, there’s no great urge in that person to hit someone. But when arms and hands are too long and heavy, the impulse to hit out must be charged to that person’s karma, their destiny, and not judged from an emotional point of view.” — Rudolf Steiner, BALANCE IN TEACHING (Anthroposophic Press, 2007), p. 54.

If a kid with long, heavy arms and hands wallops a smaller kid on the playground, a Waldorf teacher might quite naturally — and unemotionally — stand aside, letting karma work its wonders. In at least some instances, the teacher's passivity would effectively sanction bullying.

Postscript. Is it really possible that any Waldorf school today operates as Steiner said it should? Is it really possible that "choleric" children are allowed to fight during classes in Waldorf schools? It seems incredible. But most of the thinking behind Waldorf education is similarly incredible. Waldorf schooling is based on the preachments of Rudolf Steiner; Waldorf schools are called Steiner schools, and with reason. We should hope that Waldorf teachers today do not segregate children on the basis of "temperament," and that they do not look away when children of one "temperament" punch and push and whack and bruise each other. And yet, we have heard Rudolf Steiner on these points. And, in fact, each quotation I have cited above comes from a book in the "Foundations of Waldorf Education" series, published in recent years. So, do Waldorf schools operate as Steiner said they should? In many ways — indeed, in most ways — yes, they almost certainly do.

[1] See "Humoresque" and "Temperaments".

[2] Steiner said choleric kids are typically short, stocky, and bull-necked. Sanguine children are slender, elegant, well-balanced. Phlegmatics are big, fleshy, and round. Melancholics are large, bony, with heavy limbs and bowed heads. Considerable variation is possible within each category. Thus, for instance, some cholerics are larger and stronger than others.

— R.R.

FROM THE WALDORF WATCH NEWS

May, 2012

Efforts at communication between Anthroposophists and their critics are difficult. Often people on opposite sides of the divide use language in different ways and admire different forms of thought. Still, the efforts are probably worthwhile, even if they rarely lead to true mutual understanding.

One venue for an ongoing conversation is the Waldorf Critics website [https://groups.io/g/waldorf-critics/topics]. This is not a neutral forum — Anthroposophists who visit the site are entering a more or less hostile environment. Still, some do visit, and sometimes interesting messages are passed back and forth.

Today one Anthroposophist decided to quit the discussion there. Here is a portion of her departing message, followed by a message I posted in response:

Message from departing Anthroposophist:

<carynlouise24@...> wrote:

Alas though I can't hang around your fun anymore personally I find it rather dull and stupid.

◊

Message from Roger Rawlings:

Anyone who wants to get a handle on Anthroposophy would do well to come to this site and read the messages posted here by Anthroposophists. These messages speak for themselves.

Like many — perhaps all — forms of faith, Anthroposophy appeals to souls in pain. The mean-spiritedness found in so many Anthroposophical messages often has its roots in suffering. 

One quick example: Anthroposophist Robert Sardello — who explicitly identifies himself as a soul in pain — offers a catalog of the things he finds distressing: 

"Medicine, education, money, food, energy, media, technology, religion, buildings, economics — all of these organizing forms that together ought to make culture no longer do so but instead are making a pathological civilization. The new symptoms are fragmentation, specialization, expertise, depression, inflation, cruelty, hardness, violence and absence of beauty. Our buildings are anorectic, our business paranoid, detached, and abstract, our technology manic." — Robert Sardello, FACING THE WORLD WITH SOUL (SteinerBooks, 2004), pp. 15-16.

This is a virtually all-encompassing catalogue of complaints about life in the modern world. And it reflects the view of life typically promoted at Waldorf schools: Everything in the modern world is horrid. Humankind has gone wholly off track — except us, here, in our lovely, superior, little cultic community.

Steiner said Anthroposophy is meant to be a balm for tortured souls. He spoke of 

"[T]he longing human soul in its yearning, tormented emptiness" [THE SPIRITUAL HIERARCHIES AND THE PHYSICAL WORLD: Reality and Illusion, p. 224] and he offered his system as an antidote to suffering: "[W]e may point to spiritual science as a bearer of the redemption of human longing ... [S]piritual science now provides what tempestuous but also woeful human beings have sought for a long time." [Ibid., p. 231.]

The mean-spiritedness that we so often find in Anthroposophists’ messages derives, at least in part, from pain. We should be sympathetic — although this can be hard when the nastiness is directed at us individually. I myself have (gasp!) not always been utterly Christlike in my responses to attacks directed at my sweet self. But I do try to remind myself sometimes that every Anthroposophist I have ever known has been a good person, or at least has aspired to be a good person, and the suffering these good persons have inflicted can often be attributed to the suffering they either feel or desperately try to deny.

- Roger  [1-5-2012  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/22228]

March, 2013

A message posted on mothering.com:

I am so disappointed. I thought Waldorf would be a great experience for my daughter. It is, EXCEPT 

1. 5 kids in the class are out of control, constantly interrupting, hitting, yelling. Stealing crayons & flutes from other children's desks, etc. The main bully had another child restrain a third child in the boys bathroom so he could punch him — one of 1000 examples. 

2. The teacher says that the rowdy kids "need held" and my dau. needs to be stronger. 

3. The teacher says the bullies are really improving so much since September, that should make all of us parents content. 

4. The school will not acknowledge that there are any problems. 

5. 4/5 of the bullies are from rich families. 

It is too late to apply to other schools for next fall. I am so depressed. When I googled "waldorf bullying" i lost my mind. I had no idea it was like this. 

How can it be OK to tolerate so much chaos? Those 5 kids take up 70% of the teacher's time. 

[http://www.mothering.com/community/t/1377068/help-waldorf-1st-grade-out-of-control]

◊

Waldorf Watch Response:

Bullying has been — and apparently still is — a serious problem in Waldorf schools for several reasons, including ◊ the belief that children must be allowed to enact their karmas (some kids are fated to bully while others are fated to be bullied), ◊ the belief that guardian angels will oversee the children so teachers needn't bother, and ◊ the defensive belief that things cannot possibly go amiss in Waldorf schools, since they are so wonderful. All of these reasons seem to underlie the problem reported here. 

It is important to recognize that most students in Waldorf schools are not physically abused by students or teachers. Waldorf schools are usually peaceful places where the days pass pleasantly. Most graduates of Waldorf schools probably have, for the most part, pleasant memories of their childhood school years.

The chief problem with Waldorf education is not that students are physically abused (although some of them are); the chief problem is that students are lured toward a wholly false view of reality. Typical Waldorf teachers are usually, to one degree or another, followers of Rudolf Steiner, and as such they believe in such things as karma, reincarnation, guardian angels, Atlantis, gnomes, the Sun God, astrology, floating continents, present-day populations of the Moon and planets, clairvoyance, ghosts, magic... The list is long and depressing. [For a catalogue of bizarre Waldorf beliefs, see "Steiner's Blunders".]

The bodies of Waldorf students may not usually be in danger. But the minds and souls of Waldorf students quite often are. [See, e.g., "Sneaking It In".]

October, 2018

From The Telegraph [UK]:

Ministers urged to order fresh inspections 

of all Steiner schools amid fresh child safety fears

By Camilla Turner 

Ministers [i.e., government officials] have been urged to order fresh inspections of all the Steiner schools in the country, as a second school is threatened with closure amid “serious” concerns about child safety. 

The Steiner Academy Exeter was warned by the government this week that it could have its funding cut off, after Ofsted [the Office for Standards in Education] discovered severe safeguarding and governance lapses. 

Following the inspection, the regional schools commissioner took the unusual step of instructing it to close immediately while the issues were addressed, so it can ensure a "safe environment" for its pupils. It re-opened a week later. 

It comes after the The Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley (RSSKL) was ordered to shut down, following a series of damning Ofsted inspections which uncovered a raft of safeguarding failings.

Favoured by bohemian, middle-class parents, Steiner schools base their curriculum on the spiritual philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, called anthroposophy….

[T]here are fears that the safeguarding failures unmasked at two Steiner schools raise questions about the movement as a whole.… 

Richy Thompson, director of public affairs and policy at Humanists UK, [said] ministers should “urgently review whether similar issues are at play in the all Steiner schools”.... [Humanists UK is a charitable organization that promotes humanism.]

A DfE [Department for Education] spokesperson said that any allegation of a school putting pupils at risk is investigated, and if a school is failing to protect children “we will take immediate action, which can include closing that school down”…. 

[10/21/2018     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/10/20/ministers-urged-order-fresh-inspections-steiner-schools-amid/   This article originally appeared on October 20.]

◊

Waldorf Watch Response:

The safety of students should be a fundamental consideration at any school. When parents entrust their children to a school, they certainly should be assured that the school will do everything in its power to keep the children safe.

Steiner or Waldorf schools often affirm their commitment to protecting children and promoting their welfare. In this, they are probably wholly sincere. But several factors make child safety problematic within the Steiner/Waldorf culture.

One factor is belief in karma. Rudolf Steiner taught that karma is a crucial feature of contemporary human life. Much that happens to us in life is the result of karma, he said. And, indeed, a central purpose of life on Earth is to fulfill one's karma. [1] This set of beliefs raises a serious difficulty for Steiner/Waldorf schools. If a child gets hurt, this may be karma — it may be good for the child. If a child gets bullied, or taunted, or physically attacked — this may be an expression of the child's karma, so perhaps we should stand back and allow such events to play out. This, at any rate, is how Steiner's followers — including at least some Waldorf/Steiner teachers — typically view things. [2] Laxness on the issue of student safety may easily result.

Another factor is the Steiner/Waldorf belief in angels. Rudolf Steiner taught that angels are actually gods — specifically, they are gods who stand one rank higher than human beings. (Other gods stand at higher ranks, he said.) Each angel oversees the life of one human being on Earth. In this sense, every angel is a guardian angel. Well, if every child has a guardian angel — a protective god — then surely we should allow these gods to do their work unhampered. We needn't worry about the safety of the children in our care — the guardian angels will keep the kids safe. Such, in any case, is how Steiner's followers — including at least some Waldorf/Steiner teachers — typically view things. [3] So, again, laxness on the issue of student safety may easily result.

Yet a third factor — ironically, or perhaps tragically — is love. Rudolf Steiner encouraged Steiner/Waldorf teachers to love their students, and he urged Steiner/Waldorf students to love their teachers. [4] This sounds wonderful, and in some ways it certainly is. But in other ways, it can cause severe problems. Proper barriers between teachers and students may be breached. Relationships outside school hours may develop. Friendships may develop into love affairs — or sexual exploitation. It is terrible to think that Steiner/Waldorf teachers might harm students out of love, or desire, or sexual craving. Yet we have numerous reports of precisely this sort of dire misconduct occurring in and around Steiner/Waldorf schools. [5]

Government officials certainly should scrutinize Steiner/Waldorf schools on the urgent issue of student safety.

— R.R.

◊

For previous coverage here of events at Steiner Academy Exeter, see "Struggling Steiner Academy Postpones Kindergarten Reopening", October 18, 2018, "What the School Must Do to Save Itself", October 17, 2018, "Exeter Closure Extended Again", October 16, 2018, "Exeter Update: More than Safeguarding", October 14, 2018, "Another Inspection, Another Closure", October 13, 2018, and "Problems at Another U.K. Steiner School", July 29, 2018. [https://sites.google.com/site/waldorfwatchannex/october-2018].

For coverage of events at Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, see "RSSKL".

◊

Waldorf Watch Footnotes:

[1] See "Karma".

[2] See "Slaps".

[3] See "Polytheism" and "Serving the Gods".

[4] See "Mistreating Kids Lovingly".

[5] See "Extremity".

November, 2019

From a message posted at the Waldorf Critics discussion site:

At Anthroposophie.blog, Oliver Rautenberg has written an article titled "'Strong slaps' - About Violence in Waldorf Schools". In it, he describes a seemingly endless list of reports of teacher violence in various German Waldorf schools. I was surprised at just how many there were, especially in light of recent attempts by French Anthroposophists to claim that Grégoire Perra [1] was alone in his criticism of Waldorf schools, a claim they had to change to a claim that he was the only critic in France, which of course is also not true...." — Margaret Sachs [2], November 8, 2019 [https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/waldorf-critics/conversations/messages/32209].

◊

Waldorf Watch Response:

In his survey of teacher-on-student violence in Waldorf schools, Rautenberg reaches as far back as the founding of the first Waldorf school (1919, in Germany) and he carries his survey forward to the present day. He focuses primarily on German Waldorf schools, but he also mentions episodes of violence in Waldorf schools in other countries.

Here are excerpts from "'Kräftige Ohrfeigen' – Über Gewalt an Waldorfschulen" {"'Strong Slaps in the Face' — About Violence at Waldorf Schools"} [3]. Because of the exceptional importance of the topic — and the great controversy surrounding it — this will be an unusually long item for the Waldorf Watch News. (I will make occasional interpolations, marked by my initials, R.R.)  [4]

There are reports of violence in Waldorf schools — violence by teachers against pupils. Is this regrettable but "normal," because Waldorf schools mirror society at large? Or are there specific reasons for violence at these esoteric private schools, which are so often depicted as being soft and cuddly? [5]

One thing is certain: Waldorf Schools like to treat accusations of violence as an exclusively internal matter. They want to prevent these problems from becoming publicly known. If children and parents make an official complaint, they become the problem. They are intimidated, interrogated — and often simply expelled from the schools. From the Waldorf teachers' point of view, talking about violence seems to be worse than violence itself.

Violence is a Waldorf tradition - since the first Waldorf school

Teacher violence was already a topic at the very first Waldorf School: the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, founded by clairvoyant and occultist Rudolf Steiner. After returning home from a trip, Steiner found the school chaotic because teachers had slapped pupils in the face and parents were upset. Steiner gave instructions that the incidents should be kept secret:

Secrecy as a principle

"I've only been back for hours now, but I've heard so much gossip about who got a slap in the face, and so on; it's already boundless, such gossip spread by people, that it was terrible for me. No, we don't have to care if gossip leaks out through the cracks. We have hard enough skins to withstand that, but we should not contribute to it ourselves. 

"Let us remain silent about everything we do in school. Let us stick to a kind of school secrecy." (Rudolf Steiner, Conferences with the Teachers of the Waldorf School, 1920)  [6]

Was the foundation laid then and there for covering up violence at Waldorf schools? More about that later. Meanwhile, the actress and "crime scene commissioner" Karoline Eichhorn [7] remembers her school days at the Waldorf school in Stuttgart during the 1970s:

"We had really hard teachers. They beat us, put us in the cupboard and chained us to the radiators." (Karoline Eichhorn, "Chained to the Heater — Actress Didn't Experience Stress at Waldorf School, but Violence", Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung, 2011)

Recent cases of beatings at the original Waldorf school in Stuttgart have been revealed:

"Police have apparently received two complaints from parents of former Waldorf pupils. The accusation: bodily injury and ill-treatment of those under protection. (...) The teacher is even said to have threatened pupils not to disclose anything about the alleged assaults." (Stuttgarter Zeitung, "Attacks at the Waldorf School?", 2016)

RR: Rautenberg proceeds to catalogue a long list of violent episodes that have allegedly occurred in Waldorf schools throughout Germany. He breaks the list down by decade: 1970-1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Here are a few of the more recent instances [8]:

At the Waldorf School in Jena, parents report in 2011 "physical assaults" by a teacher against their children. The school then terminates its relationship with the parents. (TLZ, "Jena Waldorf teachers want to fire pupils", 2011)

At the Gera Waldorf School in 2012, a teacher attacks a student and slams him against a wall. The pupil is nonetheless required to sit for a class test. He was taken to hospital with a concussion. When he then changes to a regular school, he is judged to be a year behind. (The World, "Teacher Hits Unpunctual Students Against the Wall", 2012)

At the Waldorf School Münster in 2015, a teacher slaps a girl in the face. An expert calls violence "a weakness of the [Waldorf] school system." The school was concerned that the "image of the school would be damaged." (Ruhr-Nachrichten, "Teachers Right to Slap Girls in the Face", 2015)

At the Waldorf Kindergarten in Berlin in 2016, parents reported their daughter's bottom had been beaten. This was followed by a "disgusting tirade" against the parents from the the kindergarten teacher, who argued that the child "seemed to ask for severe treatment." (Lead Medium, "Waldorf Is Anything But Safe", 2016)

RR: Rautenberg alludes to a study that concluded violence of at least some types is more common at Waldorf schools than at other educational institutions:

Study: Violence at Waldorf Schools more frequent than at regular schools

There are few studies on violence at Waldorf schools. However, one study in 2010 concluded that [some types of] violence was more frequent at Waldorf schools than at other types of schools:

"As the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported, according to the study certain forms of violence occur even more frequently in Waldorf schools than in state primary and secondary schools. There are hardly any crimes such as grievous bodily harm or robbery [at Waldorf schools]. The study shows, however, that pupils there are beaten and kicked more often. In addition, their property is destroyed more frequently." (Süddeutsche Zeitung, "More Violence at Waldorf Schools", 2010)

RR: Rautenberg proceeds to list reports of violence at Waldorf schools outside Germany. He cites instances in Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Holland, and Great Britain. He then traces the Waldorf penchant for violence back to certain statements made by Rudolf Steiner. He quotes these:

"Under certain circumstances it may even be necessary to beat them a little." (Rudolf Steiner)  [9]

"If we are really convinced of karma [10], then when someone slaps us, we must not say: It is unpleasant for me that you give me this slap!Instead one would have to say: Who actually gave me this slap in the face? I myself, for I have done something in my former life that caused the other person to slap me, and I have no cause whatsoever to tell him that he is wronging me." (Rudolf Steiner)  [11]

RR: On the subject of karma, Rautenberg alludes to the belief — evidently common among Waldorf teachers — that some students have the karma to be bullied while others have the karma to act as bullies. Because karma should usually be allowed to play out, Waldorf teachers may hesitate to interfere when some kids are bullied by others [12]. Rautenberg quotes from a document attributed to a Canadian Waldorf school:

"Can the karma or destiny of a child be that of a victim or tyrant? ... For a child who becomes a victim, it must be the role and responsibility of the teacher to determine how much victim support is healthy so that the child can be strengthened by the experience [of being bullied]." (Alan Howard Waldorf School, "Bullying Presentation to Faculty", 1999)

RR: I will skip ahead, here, to the concluding section of Rauteberg's essay. (I will condense the section.)

Is the reason for this violence inherent in the role of the Waldorf teacher?

How can this violence be explained? Are teachers who are willing to believe a psychic [Rudolf Steiner] and his inspirations from "higher worlds" [13] mentally unstable? Is the violence caused by the special role of a Waldorf teacher, who has the task of recognizing and assisting the child's "karma"? [14] Is it due to insufficient pedagogical training? [15] ... Is a Waldorf teacher overburdened because he is the primary teacher for a group of students for a period of up to 8 years, and thus subject to enormous pressure and, often, criticism? [16] Is it due to the image of the "highly esteemed teacher," as Rudolf Steiner put it...a teacher who is like a king, almost like a god?...

"In the Waldorf school the teacher rules; he is king, absolute monarch and not bound to any constitution except his understanding of human nature, against which there is no appeal and no vocation." (Klaus Prange, "Education in Anthroposophy. Presentation and Critique of Waldorf Education", Bad Heilbrunn, 1985).

The answer seems to lie in an unfortunate mixture:

Overstressed teachers, some of them poorly trained, encouraged to overestimate their own abilities, embracing an attitude reminiscent of megalomania. Teachers who, as an insular "karmic community of fate," jointly run the school [17] and seal themselves off [from the outside world]. A closed belief system that does not accept criticism from the outside and looks upon any external involvement as interference [18]. And the image of the child as someone who is guilty from birth [19] and who needs punishment, including physical punishment, for his proper development.

[11/9/2019   "'Kräftige Ohrfeigen' – Über Gewalt an Waldorfschulen"   Translation by Roger Rawlings, relying heavily on Google Translate and DeepL Translator.    Rautenberg posted his essay on May 14, 2019.]

◊

Waldorf Watch Footnotes:

[1] Grégoire Perra is a former Waldorf student who went on to become a Waldorf teacher. He is now one of the foremost critics of Waldorf education.

[2] Margaret Sachs and her husband sent their children to Waldorf schools before becoming disillusioned with Waldorf education. Ms. Sachs has subsequently become a prominent Waldorf critic. [See, e.g., "Our Experience".]

[3] Oliver Rautenberg is an influential German critic of Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. His blog is located at https://anthroposophie.blog. 

For the full text of "'Kräftige Ohrfeigen' – Über Gewalt an Waldorfschulen", see https://anthroposophie.blog/2019/05/14/kraftige-ohrfeigen-uber-gewalt-an-waldorfschulen/. Machine translation into many languages, including English, is available in a sidebar. (Such translation is far from perfect, but it may enable readers to glean the gist of a text.)

[4] For previous coverage of alleged abusive treatment of students at Waldorf schools, see, e.g., the entry for "abuse" in the Waldorf Watch Annex Index.

[5] See "Glory" and "Slaps".

[6] Two translations of this passage have been given in English-language Anthroposophical publications that recount Steiner's meetings with the teachers at the first Waldorf school. Here is the earlier of the two translations:

"I have only been back here a few hours and I have already heard a whole heap of gossip, about who has had his ears boxed, etc. There is no end to what the people are saying; I had quite a shock. Of course, it need not worry us if it comes out in other ways. We are thick-skinned enough for that. But we must not be the ones to tell them. We must hold our tongues about everything we do in the school. We must keep school matters private." — RUDOLF STEINER'S CONFERENCES WITH THE TEACHERS OF THE WALDORF SCHOOL IN STUTTGART, 1919-1920, Vol. 1 (Steiner Schools Fellowships Publications, 1986), p. 41. 

("Boxing" someone's ears means slapping or punching someone on the side of the head. "Box ... verb (used with object) to strike with the hand or fist, especially on the ear." — Dictionary.com, November 9, 2019.)

Here is the more recent of the two translations of the passage in question:

"I have been back only a few hours, and I have heard so much gossip about who got a slap and so forth. All of that gossip is going beyond all bounds, and I really found it very disturbing. We do not really need to concern ourselves when things seep out the cracks. We certainly have thick enough skins for that. But on the other hand, we clearly do not need to help it along. We should be quiet about how we handle things in the school, that is, we should maintain a kind of school confidentiality." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 10.

[7] Karoline Eichhorn (b. 1965) attended the Waldorf school in Stuttgart. An actress, she has appeared in numerous films and television dramas. One of her famous roles was that of a crime scene investigator.

[8] See, also, "Child-Care Allegations auf Deutschland', November 7, 2019: 

"'I was told that some children were grasped by two educators by their hands and feet and held on the toilet seat for more than 30 minutes despite their resistance and screaming' ... Children are also said to have been dragged through the hall or garden of the school to the point of exhaustion, although they cried and defended themselves." — Berliner Morganpost, November 7, 2019.

[9] “Under certain circumstances it may be necessary to spank a child...." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, p. 22.

[10] Karma is a fundamental concept in Anthroposophy and, therefore, in the thinking that underlies Waldorf education. [See "Karma".] Anthroposophists' belief in karma is related to their belief in reincarnation. [See "Reincarnation".]

[11] Here is a similar quotation as currently presented at a pro-Steiner website:

"Take a radical example [of karma]: someone has given another — me for instance — a slap in the face ... [How do we account for this?] I was here in a previous life, and so was he. I had, perhaps in that previous life, given him a reason to justify his present actions; forced him to do it, simultaneously directed him towards it ... [Hence] I, myself, delivered this slap because I have put him in this place, I have lifted the very hand myself which was raised against me." — Rudolf Steiner, "What Is Self Knowledge?", a lecture (transcript, Rudolf Steiner Archive), GA 108.

[12] See "bullying" in the Waldorf Watch Annex Index.

[13] See "Higher Worlds". 

Steiner claimed to be clairvoyant, and he said he could communicate with the dead. [See "Clairvoyance" and "Steiner and the Warlord".]

[14] Here is a telling assertion by a prominent Waldorf teacher:

“[T]he purpose of [Waldorf] education is to help the individual fulfill his karma.” — Roy Wilkinson, THE SPIRITUAL BASIS OF STEINER EDUCATION (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1996), p. 52.

This conception of education places extraordinary pressures on Waldorf teachers because it requires them to do the impossible — to detect and steer something that does not exist (karma).

[15] See "Teacher Training".

[16] See "class teacher" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia (BWSE)

[17] Waldorf schools are often — but not always — run collegially by the teachers, without headmasters or other administrators. [See "college of teachers" in the BWSE.]

[18] A core principle of Waldorf education, according to one authoritative body, is this:

"Freedom in Teaching: Rudolf Steiner gave curriculum indications that 'the teacher must invent the curriculum at every moment.' Out of the understanding of child development and Waldorf pedagogy, the Waldorf teacher is expected to meet the needs of the children in the class out of his/her insights and the circumstances of the school. Interferences with the freedom of the teacher by the school, parents, standardized testing regimen, or the government [emphasis added - RR], while they may be necessary in a specific circumstance (for safety or legal reasons, for example), are nonetheless compromises." — "Core Principles of Waldorf Education", Pedagogical Section Council of North America (January 2013), CREATING A CIRCLE OF COLLABORATIVE SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP, edited by Waldorf teacher Roberto Trostli (Waldorf Publications, 2014), p. 157.

Steiner instructed Waldorf teachers to reject such compromises. Indeed, he argued that Waldorf teachers will know they have gone in the wrong direction if they find themselves acting in ways that outsiders would recommend or praise:

"What is important is that we cannot be moved to make any compromises ... As teachers in the Waldorf School, you will need to find your way more deeply into the insight of the spirit and to find a way of putting all compromises aside. It will be impossible for us to avoid all kinds of people from outside the school who want to have a voice in school matters ... [But] when those people working in modern pedagogy praise us, we must think there is something wrong with what we are doing. We do not need to immediately throw out anyone who praises us, but we do need to be clear that we should carefully consider that we may not be doing something properly if those working in today’s educational system praise us. That must be our basic conviction." — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER, pp. 117-118.

[19] I.e., through the processes of karma and reincarnation, the child carries the effects of her/his misdeeds committed during past lives. The effects of past misdeeds constitute a major portion of the child's karma.

— R.R.

January, 2021

In recent weeks and months, we have seen disturbing narratives about Waldorf schools emerge from the UK [1], Germany [2], Belgium [3], Spain [4], and France [5]. Here is yet another such report, coming once again out of France. In this instance, the description of Waldorf culture is extremely disturbing, worse than we've seen in the other recent articles reviewed here.

The following is excerpted from an article appearing in the French edition of Slate. As the title of the article indicates, the piece focuses on some of the most scandalous behavior that has sometimes been reported occurring in and around Waldorf schools. Such behavior has not been alleged at all Waldorf schools, by any means. Waldorf schools are often seen as lovely, peaceful havens. But there have been enough reports of violent and racist conduct at enough Waldorf schools to warrant serious consideration. The article directs our attention to some of the worst excesses that may arise in the Waldorf milieu when certain components of Anthroposophical belief — components that are often suppressed or hidden — find expression.

I have added some explanatory footnotes to supplement the article.

Violence, Abuse, Racism: 

the Law of Silence in 

Steiner-Waldorf Schools

[By] Laure Dasinieres

Because it is necessary to let the "karma" of the children be fulfilled, teachers at Steiner-Waldorf schools permit free-for-alls among the pupils.

...[S]o-called "alternative" pedagogies are attracting more and more parents anxious to offer their children an education that they hope is more suited to their needs...

Among these "new" pedagogies, Steiner-Waldorf education draws particular attention because of its more-or-less admitted spiritual dimension [6]...

In appearance, Waldorf kindergartens and schools are quick to appeal to parents with artistic and ecological interests. "When we first visited the Trille des Bois school in Ottawa [in Canada, note], it was a delight," says Bettina, who enrolled her little son, Max, from September to December, 2018. "It was what we were looking for: a French-speaking school with a good reputation, right next to us. At first glance, the school is a pastel cocoon, very lovely, with handmade decorations. As the people were so nice, we didn't ask questions. At no time were Steiner beliefs mentioned [7]."

Marc Giroud, who was a teacher at the Steiner-Waldorf school during the 1980s, explains: "When you train as a Steiner teacher, you only study one author, Steiner [8]. It is an educational dogma. You are there to accomplish a transcendent mission, which justifies lying or being silent [9]. We learn to hide our inner calling from people who entrust their child to us. This is why misleading representations are given [10]."

"What can be regulated at school is regulated at school"

In 2018-2019, Marianne lived with her 2.5-year-old son in an ecovillage in the south of France where there is a Steiner kindergarten ... "I was charmed by the all-wood decor … Later I realized, by searching the Internet, that the school is a copy-paste of all Steiner schools around the world [11]."

If interior decoration is a tiny indicator that may seem insignificant, Marianne quickly realized that something deeper was wrong and the children were not treated as in a regular school. "Morning rituals are taken very seriously, there is great solemnity [12]."

It was the meals given in the canteen that first began to worry her [13] ... Marianne also reports that her son was one of the only children to have been vaccinated and that vaccination was quite frowned upon [14].

For her part, Bettina quickly noticed that her boy's behavior changed: "The first day, he was excited to go to school. But he quickly became disillusioned. He started crying in the morning saying he didn't want to go anymore." The teachers had told Bettina and her husband that "what can be fixed at school is fixed at school" and that they would not be informed of everything concerning their child. "In fact, teachers cultivate the idea of ​​a secret garden, and they taught the children not to share school matters with their parents," says Bettina [15].

This echoes Marianne's experience: "One day, my son said to me: 'Mom, I have to stop loving you and take care of myself on my own' [16]. You can imagine the shock for the mother of a child barely 3 years old! On his birthday, the teacher gave him a little gnome [17]. When he got home, my son was withdrawn, he hugged the gnome very tightly. He placed it in a strategic place in the room and said to me: 'Mum, this is my injury repairer' [18]... 

Lack of intervention and karma

What is passed over in silence, what should not be discussed outside of school, undoubtedly includes the violence that often occurs between Waldorf students, and the lack of intervention by teachers. This reflects the belief system of the teachers: "Anthroposophists believe in reincarnation [19]," explains Marc Giroud. "For them, children have chosen their parents, their school, and what happens to them. Their karma has led them to make these choices — karma being understood as payment for bad deeds committed in a previous life [20]. In fact, teachers allow violence between children [21]. Inappropriate intervention would prevent a child from fulfilling his karma..."

Grégoire Perra, a former Anthroposophist and former Waldorf teacher, confirms this: "Children are deliberately left unattended [at Waldorf schools]. You have to let karma play out, allowing souls to clash." And he adds: "Children are often bored by Waldorf instruction, which is oppressive [22]. Some consequently become impassive, but others go wild."

Gradually, Bettina managed to get her son to talk to her. "One day at home, Max said to me 'A boy called me a fucking idiot.' And then Max quietly said that this boy — who was 6 years old and had behavioral problems — hit and abused him ... The big kid scratched him, kicked him in the stomach and in the face." Meetings between Bettina, her husband, and Max's teacher came to nothing [23] ... "We were advised to find a counselor to teach Max about resilience," she recalls, bewildered.

Marianne testifies to similar acts: "My window overlooked the schoolyard. One day I heard my son cry out: He was being beaten up. The teacher did not intervene, but kept playing a flute on the swing … My son told me such violence was constant … I decided to withdraw him from the school."

Racial differences and abuse

Grégoire Perra explains that children of non-Anthroposophical parents, or those who are not part of the school community, are often subjected to more violence: "Everything is permitted for the children of Anthroposophists [24]."

Élisabeth Feytit, documentary filmmaker, independent podcaster and co-author with Grégoire Perra of UNE VIE EN ANTHROPOSOPHY [25]...adds this: "There are clearly children who are treated less well, especially those who are they are colored or not white." This difference in treatment refects basic Anthroposophical teachings: "Anthroposophy stems directly from the theosophy of Mrs. Blavatsky [26] who attached great significance to racial differences. For Steiner, there are dominant races at different stages of humanity [27]. According to him, today, it is the Aryan race which dominates [28]. It is as if the others had missed the boat. There are non-white children in Steiner-Waldorf schools, but they are considered to be less advanced than whites [29]."

Grégoire Perra remembers: "The children of my ex-partner are Afro-Colombians. They were victims of harassment throughout their [Waldorf] schooling without any reaction from the teachers. The youngest regularly received insults like 'You have poo-colored skin' from her classmates. It is customary for [Waldorf] teachers to give students a postcard with a design supposed to represent their soul. The daughter of my ex-girlfriend was offered the image of a little white blond girl. It was very hurtful for her ... This is a racism that is not even aware of itself [30]"... 

"I have never seen children fight like that"

Bettina was able to observe widespread violence on the playground: "...I have never seen children fight like that! There were 3-4 year olds punching a child on the ground ... I never saw an adult intervene ... There are three 'camps': the hitters, the ones who are hit, and the little ones sitting alone in a corner crying. It was really an unhealthy atmosphere."

The climax came on the day of the school Christmas party: "...Max began to fight like a ragpicker with other boys in the middle of the class. It was horrible ... A father said, 'That's just the way boys are.' I was appalled. The teacher put her hand on my shoulder and said, 'Leave them. Look at how well Max is playing. He's a real boy.' It was the last time my son set foot in that school. I asked him if he wanted to say goodbye to his classmates or to his teacher, but he did not…"

Bear in mind, all schools [in France]...are subject to regular educational inspections by officials from National Education [31]. However, despite warnings, the [Steiner-Waldorf] system endures. The Steiner-Waldorf school that we contacted to find out more about its pedagogy did not respond to our requests.

[1/5/2021    http://www.slate.fr/story/198667/violences-abus-racisme-enfants-ecoles-steiner-waldorf-pedagogie-alternative-anthroposophie     This article originally appeared on January 4. Translation by Roger Rawlings, making use of Google Translate.] 

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Waldorf Watch Footnotes

[1] See "The Steiner School Crisis".

[2] See, e.g, "More Unwelcome Exposure for Waldorf Schools in Germany", December 6, 2020 — scroll down to this item.

[3] See "Belgian Political Party Raises Waldorf Alarm", December 11, 2020 — scroll down.

[4] See "A Waldorf School Ignores Covid-19; Now Infection Has Raged Through It", November 25, 2020.

[5] See "Secrecy, Occultism, & Waldorf Schools", January 3, 2021.

[6] Waldorf schools usually acknowledge their interest in spiritual matters, but they almost always downplay their devotion to the occult religion created by Waldorf founder Rudolf Steiner: Anthroposophy. [See "Here's the Answer" and, e.g., "Spiritual Agenda". For a brief introduction to Anthroposophy, see the entry "Anthroposophy" in The Brief Waldorf / Steiner Encyclopedia (BWSE).]

[7] Fundamentally, Waldorf pedagogy is based on Anthroposophy. So, for instance, Steiner once said 

"As Waldorf teachers, we must be true anthroposophists in the deepest sense of the word in our innermost feeling.” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 118. 

When they drop their guard, Waldorf teachers today say much the same thing. For instance,

"Waldorf teachers must be anthroposophists first and teachers second." — Waldorf teacher Gilbert Childs, STEINER EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE (Floris Books, 1991), p. 166.

[8] Training to be a Waldorf teacher is often tantamount to training to become an initiated Anthroposophist. Acquiring ordinary teaching skills and mastering academic subjects may be skimped or ignored altogether. [See "Teacher Training".]

[9] See, e.g., "Secrets".

[10] One of the chief complaints made against Waldorf schools is that they mislead parents about the nature and purpose of Waldorf education. [See, e.g., "Our Experience".] The underlying objective of Waldorf schooling is to draw students — and, if possible, their families — toward embrace of Anthroposophy. True-blue Waldorf schools are, at base, disguised religious institutions, and the religion involved is Anthroposophy. [See "Schools as Churches".] 

[11] Not all Waldorf schools look alike; there can be considerable variation. But certain design principles apply in most Waldorf schools, such as the colors used for the walls of the classrooms — colors that Steiner said have spiritual powers. [See "Mystical Colors".]

[12] Most days at Waldorf schools begin with the students reciting prayers written by Steiner. These invocations are often disguised as mere "verses." So, for instance, Steiner said the following to teachers at the first Waldorf school: 

“We also need to speak about a prayer. I ask only one thing of you. You see, in such things everything depends upon the external appearances. Never call a verse a prayer, call it an opening verse before school. Avoid allowing anyone to hear you, as a faculty member, using the word ‘prayer.’” — Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 20. [See "Prayers".]

[13] Anthroposophists often restrict themselves to vegetarian diets consisting of specially grown organic foods. Steiner prescribed magical and astrological processes for Anthroposophical farmers and gardeners to follow. [See "Biodynamics".] Waldorf lunchrooms often serve food grown in accordance with these restrictive beliefs.

[14] Mystical, unscientific "medical" practices are often followed in and around Waldorf schools. Accordingly, Waldorf communities often display a deep aversion to vaccines. [See "Steiner's Quackery".]

[15] Waldorf teachers often believe that they should supplant parents as the most important adults in their students' lives. Indeed, Waldorf teachers may think students' parents exert injurious influences on their children. So, for instance, Steiner once said this to Waldorf teachers: 

"You will have to take over children for their education and instruction — children who will have received already (as you must remember) the education, or mis-education given them by their parents." — Rudolf Steiner, STUDY OF MAN (Rudolf Steiner Press, 2004), p. 16. 

Steiner also said the following to the same teachers: 

"[I]t might almost be preferable from a moral viewpoint if children could be taken into one's care soon after birth." — Rudolf Steiner, WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY, Vol. 2 (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p. 69. 

One consequence is that Waldorf teachers, viewing students's parents askance, may withhold much information from them. [See, e.g., the discussion of students' parents in "Faculty Meetings".]

[16] According to Steiner, children arrive on Earth bearing their karmas formed during their past lives. Each person's karma is believed to be unique and virtually sacrosanct. This means it is more important for children to obey the requirements of their karmas than to heed the views of their parents. Hence, children may need to cut their emotional bonds with their parents. A Waldorf student may internalize, then, the idea expressed by Marianne's son: "Mom, I have to stop loving you and take care of myself on my own." If Waldorf teachers encourage such attitudes and beliefs among their students, they may be crossing lines that should never be crossed.

[17] Steiner taught that gnomes really exist. [See "Neutered Nature".] Gnomes are among the innumerable invisible beings who, according to Steiner, populate the cosmos and surround us here on Earth. [See "Beings" and "Polytheism".] Gnome statuettes and dolls are often used in Waldorf schools as representing invisible presences to which the students should attend. [See "Gnomes".]

[18] Here, a gnome doll has been sent home with a child, to fill the same role at home that such dolls fill at school. The child evidently believes the gnome will protect him or cure his ailments. It is as if the gnome were a tiny god or an intercessionary spirit in contact with the gods. [Anthroposophy is polytheistic: See "Polytheism".] The school's occult belief system is thus extended into the home.

[19] See "Reincarnation". In Anthroposophical belief, humans lileadve many, many lives, alternating between lives in the spirit realm and lives on the physical plane. The goal of human existence is to evolve to higher and higher levels of spiritual awareness. [See "evolution of consciousness" in the BWSE.] A good person uses each life to climb a little higher, whereas a bad person may slip from one level to a lower level. [See "bad souls" in the BWSE.]

[20] Belief in karma is supplementary to belief in reincarnation. [See "Karma".] In each life, an individual performs good or bad actions. Good actions help one to evolve higher. Bad actions produce a punishing karma that must be discharged in future lives.

The cruelty of the doctrine of karma shows itself here. People who are impoverished, or afflicted with grave diseases, or enslaved, or brutalized (by bullies, for instance) deserve their torment. Their karmas require them to undergo these tribulations in order to compensate for errors or sins committed in past lives. [See "Sin".] Indeed, according to Anthroposophical doctrine, people actually choose their karmas: During their lives in the spirit realm, between lives on Earth, people choose the parents they will have, the schools they will attend, and so on, in their next earthly lives. Karma is thus, in a sense, voluntary — which may make it seem less cruel. But the effect is to make karma all the more inescapable. You deserve your fate, indeed you have chosen  your fate.

[21] The idea is that some children are born with karmas that requires them to be punished by bullies, whereas other children are born with karmas leading them to act as bullies. Thus, when bullying among children occurs in a Waldorf school, the teachers may stand aside because presumably the bullying represents the necessary enactment of the children's karmas. Bullying by Waldorf teachers themselves may tolerated for similar reasons. [See, e.g., "Ex-Teacher 5" and "Slaps".]

[22] Although Waldorf schools often advertise themselves as offering stimulating, progressive education, in fact their practices and methods are often old-fashioned and enervating. Typically, Waldorf students sit at desks, in rows, silently listening to lectures or instructions delivered by teachers standing at the head of the room. [See "Methods" and "Waldorf Now".]

[23] This is another frequent complaint about Waldorf schools: The teachers are unresponsive to requests, comments, or suggestions from parents. The reason for this impassivity is that Waldorf teachers typically treat the Steiner belief system as if it has divine sanction. For many, Anthroposophy serves as their religion. [See "Is Anthroposophy a Religion?"] Wavering from Waldorf practices, then, would be virtually an act of apostasy. The views of outsiders, then, may be deemed irrelevant or irreverent.

[24] I.e., Waldorf teachers tend to be more lenient with the children for their co-religionists. Waldorf teachers often send their own children to the schools in which they teach; a Waldorf student body may include of a large contingent of teachers' children, who may be treated differently from the other children in the school.

[25] See "Secrecy, Occultism, & Waldorf Schools", January 3, 2021.

[26] Helena Blavatsky was one of the founders of modern Theosophy. [See "Blavatsky, Helena" in the BWSE.] Steiner was a Theosophist before breaking away to establish Anthroposophy as a separate spiritual movement. Much of Anthroposophical doctrine is drawn, with revisions, from Theosophy. [See "Basics".]

[27] Steiner taught that some races are higher than others. He said there is a hierarchy of races, extending from black (the lowest) to white (the highest). If we evolve upward, we reincarnate in higher and higher races, he said. But if we deteriorate, we fall to lower and lower races. [See "Steiner's Racism" and "Races".]

[28] See "Aryans" in the BWSE. Also see "Atlantis and the Aryans".

[29] See, e.g., "N-Word", "'Negro'", and "Embedded Racism".

Not all Waldorf teachers look down on non-white students, of course. Perhaps few do, at least consciously. And we should remember that kindness is possible even when there is a belief in racial hierarchies: A member of a "higher" race may show charity to members of "lower" races. Still, Anthroposophical doctrine asserts the superiority of some races over others. If such a belief was deemed more or less acceptable in Steiner's day (the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), it would be almost universally deplored today, at least in enlightened circles. (Even in Steiner's day, many enlightened individuals recognized the evils of racism, and they rejected racist teachings.) 

[30] The teacher may have thought s/he was praising or encouraging the little black girl, telling her that her soul is white or blond. But the implication is that being white is superior to being black. This is a type of racism "that is not even aware of itself."

[31] The Ministère de l'Éducation nationale — the Ministry for National Education — has responsibility for supervising public education in France.

Grégoire Perra has written about tactics used by French Waldorf schools to hoodwink inspectors during their visits. [See, e.g., the brief section "Concealment Vis-à-Vis Institutions" in the essay "The Anthroposophical Indoctrination of Students in Steiner-Waldorf Schools".]

— R.R.

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