Our Experience
Part 2
The following is excerpted from
"Waldorf Rant — Parts 1 & 2",
by Carol Wyatt
[http://carolwyatt.blogspot.com/search?q=waldorf&max-results=20
http://carolwyatt.blogspot.com/2010/10/waldorf-rant-part-2.html]
I.
Wooden blocks, silk capes, wooden swords, beeswax candles....
I am traumatized for life.
When my ex-husband and I first visited the [X] Waldorf School, we fell in love with the campus. Lush and large with children playing outdoors. A calm and joyous environment where children climbed trees, knitted caps, and painted and crafted daily.
...After leaving a rigorous private school, it took a while for our daughter to get used to the Waldorf style. Although the feeling of happiness is all around, the teachers are strict and sometimes rude to the children. Getting used to the morning rituals and chanting. Songs about God and nature. Learning to never talk about media or pop music.
... When our second daughter was ready for elementary school, we enrolled her into kindergarten.
By this time, I had become very involved in the school. Helping with the annual Elves' Faire, the newly begun Art Festival, and any and all fundraisers
...Our youngest daughter loved hip hop music and all pop music. It was her goal in her short child life to be a diva and sing. She would play music often at home and could not resist singing and dancing. I received a call from her kindergarten teacher alerting me to the fact that parents were upset about my daughter's singing. Not only was she corrupting the other children with music, but it was pop music. The teacher told me that parents were complaining because their children were coming home singing pop songs. In addition, could we put a stop to her wearing sparkles to school? No sparkly tennis shoes, headbands, or shirts of any kind. She was 5 and 6 at the time.
When I spoke to my daughter about this, she mentioned that her teacher had talked to her about her clothing and singing already. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of my daughter's paranoia about what she could and could not do. She started to ask me everyday if what she was wearing was OK. She was afraid to sing outside of her room. Her shirts were sometimes too short and her belly would show when she played. She got in trouble for that as well. She started to check her shirts constantly to make sure they were pulled down over her belt. Luckily she had a couple of friends from preschool who did not got to Waldorf, and she could be free with them.
Finally my ex and I were called into the school for a serious meeting with our daughter's teacher, head of school, and two other teachers. They proceeded to warn us about our daughter corrupting the other children ... Instead of pop music, we should expose her to world music and live music. No radio. She was still too sparkly. Every once in a while some piece of clothing had a sequin or sparkle on it ... [T]his was a very SERIOUS concern.
Needless to say, I was confused. How could a school with so much love and happiness be so critical and judgmental? Is this what we signed up for? Was the school going to start infiltrating every aspect of our home life? We already stopped watching TV and listening to the radio in the car. We only packed nutritional, organic lunches in recyclable containers. We purchased the outrageously expensive required basket for our kindergartners' lunch (the handles broke after two months). Both my ex and I were confounded. I did not like that my daughter was being treated as a troublemaker for something so random and innocent. At 6 years old!
Because Waldorf is a private school, it does not adhere to the laws governing public schools, or any laws as we would soon discover. Parents are ruled by the school. I tried talking to the teacher and different members of the faculty only to be told to do what they ask and our child will benefit greatly. Any resistance on my part would have a negative impact on my daughter's education. So we did everything they asked. Did not question the ridiculous nature of what was asked, but went along with the herd. It was beginning to feel like a cult.
This was the beginning of the slow and painful end to my love of the Waldorf School. There would be much worse incidents to come and one terrible, traumatic experience that left me and my family traumatized for life. I can no longer stay silent.
II.
It was surprising to receive so much feedback from my first Waldorf RANT. I have met victims of Waldorf abuse from all over the world who have been through horrific experiences. Children and parents, all victims of emotional abuse. The schools are everywhere and have large support groups of parents devoted to Steiner's teachings. As long as freedom of religion is a protected right, cults like Waldorf will exist.
◊
The first time we sang a spiritual song out on the green lawn, I got a little bit spooked. But, I was in for the ride. My ex and I had researched the school and loved the spiritual side of Steiner's teachings. Although we didn't agree with some of the strange rules, we decided to invest ourselves for our children.
...What I soon realized was that anthroposophy is a religion. A religion that Steiner invented and Waldorf takes very seriously.
...I saw my first Eurythmy performance. I have tried to explain eurythmy to people who have never visited a Waldorf school. It is impossible ... It's not pretty. It isn't ballet, tap, jazz, or gymnastics. The children wear special cloth slippers and robes while performing. They gesture and move stiffly: movement from the spirit.
...When the children began painting, they were allowed one color for a week. They painted exactly what the teacher painted in exactly the same formation. Each color was introduced one by one and only one color at a time ... No deviation or individuality. No black.
...The Wishing Well was our hub. Where parents and kids gathered after school. Knitting circles gathered in the morning. Bake sales every Friday. And gossip abounded all day long. It was a happy place of comfort until I was banished from campus. Then it was dark and full of gossip. All of a sudden I was an expelled member of anthroposophy and Waldorf. Never to be spoken to again. Even by my friends.
Here's where it got crazy:
How can you have such close friends for 6 years only to be silenced by the school? How can parents allow a school to have so much power over their opinions and friendships? Friends called me occasionally and asked that I tell no one they called. What kind of crazy was this?
The head of school ignored a cease and desist order I sent the school and held a meeting in my daughter's classroom to explain to the confused parents that they should not have any contact with me.
All because my daughter's teacher and her father were in a secret relationship. The teacher stopped communications with me about my daughter. Even when I initiated communication.
My ex and the teacher told the head of school that I was crazy and jealous. They did not believe that my daughter was upset.
...I could not stop my daughter's tears for months, and she still cries a few times a month, confused about what happened.
All of a sudden I was banned from campus.
...My ex refused to allow our daughter to leave the school. She went to school every day, with her teacher who chose her Dad over her. Went to her father's house who chose the teacher over his own daughter. But was stuck in class all day every day no matter how uncomfortable she was.
...The situation got much worse. The head of school, my ex, and the teacher worked together to try to take my daughters away from me in court. The head of the school concocted a letter and sent it to my ex for him to use in court. He lost in court.
...So much distrust: The school and teacher deliberately separating my children from me. The teacher not divulging information about my daughter in school, although I had full custody. The exclusion from parent/teacher meetings and school events that my children were participating in.
There were quite a few broken laws.
Now that all of our children are attending public school, they are thriving. It was a blessing in disguise to get out of Waldorf. I just wish it hadn't been so traumatic. It didn't have to be!
The ex and the Waldorf teacher are getting married next year.
"Waldorf Rant" Replies
"Waldorf Rant", above, inspired a long, interesting discussion. Here are excerpts. (Several participants chose to remain anonymous. I have attempted to sort them out by labeling them Anonymous 1, 2, etc. In some cases, my guesses as to who is who may be wrong.) — R.R.
Andrew said...
I have to say: the first time an allegedly intelligent adult told me that I had a 5 year old that was "corrupting" other five year olds, my first action would be to ask them if they knew what "corrupt" actually meant and my second would be to find another school ...
Pile Girl said...
How tragic that they would squash the spirit of such a wonderfully sparkly child. I hope she was freed before long
Carol Wyatt said...
Yes ... She is free now. We love the public schools in our area and I will never go back to private.
Andrea said...
[N]ot all Waldorf schools are like this, they aren't all so strict ... It is unfortunate that this school has taken what is a wonderful base and something that can be so whole -- and corrupted it with the typical ego filled crud! Sorry you had a bad experience!
Carol Wyatt said...
I agree with you Andrea. There is a reason why this particular Waldorf School has not been accredited. The people who run the school are pretty deceitful. It was a huge disappointment because I really loved the philosophy and people there ... But our public schools are pretty wonderful. We are lucky.
Anonymous 1 said...
Having sent my eldest son to a Steiner Waldorf school in the UK, I understand every word ... You are far from alone ...
Carol Wyatt said...
Anonymous: Thank you ... [U]nfortunately, I was one of those parents the head of the school and staff went after with a vengeance.
My daughter's teacher started a relationship with her father (my ex) and all hell broke loose after that. I was banned from the school ...
Obviously, we left the school. It took a few months for my ex to agree to leave ... He finally saw how depressed our daughter was ... My children today are still traumatized by their experiences at Waldorf ...
I understand the need to remain anonymous. They ruin you, as they did me.
Really, we should all be suing the schools for a failed education. My kids were two and three years behind [public school students].
Ahhh...Cults.
Anonymous 1 said...
You were banned?? I'm so sorry, what an absolute nightmare ... The behaviour of the movement is horrifying ...
In order to try and understand what happened [to us] I have spoken with many families worldwide over the last few years ... [W]hen a family complains and begins to ask too many questions there appears to be a pattern:
1. When the parents complain and request a meeting, the school deliberately procrastinates [thereby] delaying the parent alerting the authorities.
2. A meeting is finally arranged where a very different (Anthroposophical) interpretation is given by the teachers/trustees in an attempt to manipulate the parents into thinking there is no problem.
3. The parents become so frustrated they make contact with the authorities.
4. The school may expel the child at this point and start a smear campaign ...
5. The authorities request the notes, the school 'loses' the notes.
6. In order to further suggest the parents/child are at fault a trespass notice is issued.
7. When all else fails the schools have been known to make anonymous calls to social services.
Anonymous 2 said...
Hello from Sweden!
I am a regular teacher who was deceived in a similar way as presumptive parents are. If the real requirements upon me would have been presented prior my signing the contract, I would never ever have signed.
There are many with similar experience as yours.
In Sweden, there is a blog maintained by a former Waldorf pupil ...
The woman... who maintains the blog, has been net-stalked, as were some of the mothers at "mumsnet" (a British parent's forum).
Carol Wyatt said...
Unfortunately, in America, Waldorf Schools can pretty much do whatever they want because they are private schools.
What a relief it is to be in public school where my children and I am protected by the law. And the education is great!
I receive many phone calls and emails from parents who leave the [Waldorf] school every year. They are baffled by how they are being treated ...
Anonymous 2 said...
Carol Wyatt: "I was treated like a criminal".
Me too, as I persisted following the Swedish School legislation and ordinances....
By the way, the Swedish net-stalker [Sune Nordwall]...is on the pay-roll of the Swedish Waldorf School Federation (corresponding to AWSNA [The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America]) ...
Liz Ditz said...
Dear Carol,
Thanks for posting your story. I also thank Anon #1 for posting her story.
These and others are why I will protest the proposed "Waldorf influenced" charter schools. The one I know about (in Oakland [California]) has a majority of Waldorf-trained teachers.
Carol Wyatt said...
Until my friends outside of Waldorf kept telling me how crazy Waldorf was acting, I had no idea how brainwashed I had become ...
My ex, who was and is now living with the teacher, told me that the head of school had convinced him to try to take the kids away from me... Which he tried.... And failed, thank God.
They went into all of my professional websites, facebook, searched my drawings (I'm an artist), and threatened to use just about anything I wrote or drew against me. They told my friends at the school to not talk to me anymore ...
They wrote an inflammatory and completely false letter stating that I was dangerous and sent it to my ex so he could use it in court to try to take the children from me ...
They actually had a classroom meeting declaring me dangerous, despite cease and desist letters from my attorney ...
I wrote everyone including the head of AWSNA. No response. Only from their lawyer threatening me.
It was the craziest thing I have ever gone through. And the fact that my daughters are still seeing the same teacher, whenever they stay with their father...The one who tried to separate them from me...is unsettling, to say the least ...
The school protected the teacher. Not the child.
Anonymous 3 said...
...What you have written sounds familiar to me, I have read several stories and discussions.
Yes, the anthro/steiner/waldorf is a cult ... People who do not conform with the cult will be treated as enemies, be it parents, a regular teacher or whoever. What is particularly rotten is the treatment of the children of the non-conforming parents ...
Anonymous 4 said...
Hi We had a very similar experience to the one you describe (without the custody issue) we left over two years ago. We were in a small UK school. Waldorf schools are cults and my son refused to conform. Thank God ... I now work in mainstream secondary education and occasionally stumble across Waldorf graduates struggling to catch up with everything they missed out in primary [school] ... My children spent one of their two years there doing pretty much NOTHING. So annoying. I think you have to see it to believe it because it is unimaginable!
Carol Wyatt said...
It is true that it is hard to imagine.
I find people in the "real world" do see how crazy the Waldorf schools are. Within the Waldorf community, they really don't want to see the damage being done ...
Anonymous 4 said...
It is a shame that Waldorf teachers are permitted to educate (and judge) children with NO prior education or understanding of child development. Mr. Steiner was also uneducated about the true essence and development of the child. I wish more parents would do their homework and look into Anthroposophy BEFORE they subject their children to this nonsense!
Carol Wyatt said...
I have a lot to say about the so called "education" Waldorf teachers receive ... A Waldorf teacher would have to go through a college master's program and get a teacher's credential that constantly has to be updated, in order to teach at any normal school on the US ... I'm all for a few of the philosophies Waldorf spews, but if they are not educating my children...Why do we pay an exorbitant amount for one year of knitting and chanting?
Hollywood Tomfortas said...
I'm from NYC [New York City] originally, but I came out here in 2003 to teach high school math and physics at the Highland Hall Waldorf School in Northridge ... I've also been an Anthroposophist for 34 years, but I'm quite the renegade ...
[D]on't fear the "Swedish cyber-stalker" because I'm hoping he will come here just to watch you make mince meat, or maybe minced tofu out of him.
Carol Wyatt said...
...Instead of the teachers and the head of a school handling terrible situations caused by a specific teacher (or even the head of a school), Waldorf does the opposite. They turn the victim and victim's family into criminals worthy of expulsion.
Anonymous 4 said...
just wondering -
1. Why would a parent support an educational system that believes that the (Waldorf) teacher has a mystical knowing for what is best for your child?
2. Do you think parents actually understand the foundation of Waldorf education which is Anthroposophy?
3. Are parents so taken with the superficial 'warm and fuzzy' feel of the school that they do no research into this philosophy?
4. How do children who have no exposure to reading until 3rd grade and learn by copying from the board become competent readers?
Mule said...
In response to the last comment, the answer is plain and simple: they lie.
Prospective parents, education ministers and inspectors...are not told that:
• The schools are a front for Anthroposophy, an esoteric religion ...
• Spiritual science [i.e., Anthroposophy] was supposedly gained through the clairvoyant knowledge of their founder Rudolf Steiner
• The core belief of Anthroposophy is the reincarnation of the soul though racial hierarchies from Black to Aryan
• The soul progresses through this hierarchy via the actions of karma
• The soul presents indications of past lives through physiognomy and the four temperaments
• Vaccination is discouraged, illness is seen as an opportunity for spiritual growth strengthening the souls progression for the next life ...
• The movement is not honest about their belief system, many Steiner Waldorf teachers believe they possess occult secrets that cannot be shared with the uninitiated. Following directions from Steiner, they lie, obfuscate and mislead intentionally ...
Carol Wyatt said...
All of the actions of the school resemble a cult.
Separate the students and parents from society and the real world ...
Create your own random rules and consequences ...
Put yourselves above others. Teach the parents to believe they [i.e., Waldorf teachers] are more wise and know better than anyone ...
Do whatever the school administration tells you to do without question.
The school administration truly believes they are above the law ...
There is no system in place for complaints or dissent ...
There is no parent in the College of Teachers meetings [meetings of the inner core of teachers, the real powers in the school] to defend or have a say in how things are done ...
When we visited and researched the Steiner philosophy, there were things that were worrisome. When we and other parents asked questions about those things, the teachers and administration shook their heads and reassured us that they were not that extreme. They really made everything sound great!
That's why it is all the more shocking when things get weird.
Here is an excerpt from
"My Life Among the Anthroposophists, Part 3",
by Grégoire Perra:
My lawyer: "In the name 'Steiner-Waldorf' education, we find the name of Rudolf Steiner. One may imagine that there is a link between Anthroposophy and Steiner-Waldorf education, since they are derived from the same person. Is this not so? But do you inform parents that Anthroposophy is behind this education? Do you tell them, for example, during visiting days?"
Mrs X: "No, it is for the parents to learn."
My lawyer: "But where can they learn this? On the website of the [Steiner-Waldorf] Federation? I went there and I saw no mention of Anthroposophy or Rudolf Steiner!"
Mrs X: "Well, they are adults, they just need to look harder!"
Here are excerpts from a message posted by a mother in 2012,
after she withdrew her daughter from a Waldorf school:
Waldorf Critics 25468
[http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/25468]*
My criticism [of the school my daughter attended] has more to do with pedagogical issues, such as having children copy from the board rather than putting voice to their own ideas on paper....
I misunderstood the whole Steiner thing, thinking it was ONE of their resources ... [But all] knowledge garnered post-Steiner, from brain research studies, from Piaget, from Gardner, are all swept aside!
...The idea that the great outdoors is for every child, every day unless conditions are unsafe (i.e., tree branches flying through the air) led to some really risky playground situations. The playground supervisors would send the children out in pouring rain...and themselves huddle under a sheltered area where they could not see the children. One child went to the hospital when another child slammed a brick down on his hand. I myself showed up early to take my child out early for the dentist, and a brick sailed right by my head, missing me by inches! The supervisors, AFTER I complained, told the boy, "NO throwing bricks." They did not move him away from the area. The bricks were finally covered after I made a fuss, but many parents thought they were acceptable because the children "like to build with them".
...[And] oh goodness, the restrictions! ... What I objected to was the extremity with which the school regulated what my child could have in her lunch box, and what she could wear. Can you believe that although she was clad in cotton tights and dress (allergic to the wool they preach so fervently), I was told that if I sent her to school wearing a fleece sweater...she would be sent home. This is because fleece is dead. I swear this happened.
I always sent a vegetable, a fruit, a protein source, and some carbohydrate such as wheat crackers in my child's lunch. If I made homemade cookies...that was fine. They were "wholesome". If I made a special trip to the bakery to get cookies that LOOKED homemade, they were "wholesome". If I sent packaged oatmeal cookies, I got a phone call. PLEASE do not do this again! We had to take them from her!
In our public schools, if there are hot stand-up radiators for heat, they are enclosed. Though our daughter's first grade classroom had been beautifully redone so that the walls were rounded, the desks handmade, the floors polished, there was a hot radiator exposed. The little first graders were asked not to touch it. One day something of my child's rolled behind it; she tried to retrieve it, and came home with a blistered hand (not medicated or treated in any way; she had been afraid to admit she had touched the radiator!). When I complained, I was told she should not have broken the rule! Since Waldorf Schools are private, the authorities can do nothing unless you can prove child abuse. I asked if the radiator could be enclosed, and I was told yes, if we would buy the enclosure, and if it were aesthetically in keeping with the room's decor. We shelled out a considerable (to us) amount for a lovely white cast iron grill to surround the radiator. The next year, she went to second grade, in a room with another exposed radiator.
* Note: The writer identifies herself as an atheist and a Marxist. Some readers will disregard her testimony as a result. But bear in mind that many other parents, holding very different religious and political views, have made similar reports about Waldorf schools.
To bring this page full circle,
we should hear once more from Margaret Sachs.
Losing My Illusions:
My Family’s Waldorf School Experience
by Margaret Sachs
Each year in our Waldorf school, the 10th grade students went on a camping trip to Native American territory in another state. When my daughter was in 10th grade, prior to the trip girls in the 11th grade warned some of the 10th grade girls about the inappropriate behavior of a part-time male teacher who was to accompany them. One of them described how he had pinned her down on a rock and tried to kiss her. Some of those 10th grade girls shared their concerns with one of their two female class sponsors. The sponsor was dismissive and said that, in any case, she and the other sponsor would be there if they had any problems while on the trip.
During the trip, the part-time teacher lived up to his reputation.
• He rested his legs on the lap of a female student while she was asleep on a train, and when she woke up, ignored her repeated requests to remove them.
• He ran his fingers along the bare skin of another girl’s thigh when she asked if it was going to get too cold for her to continue wearing shorts.
• He groped my daughter’s buttock while everyone was standing up and waiting to get out of a crowded horse trailer in which they had been traveling. (We were not told ahead of time that our children would be transported in a horse trailer!)
• Another classmate said he hurt her when he used physical violence in an attempt to force her to cross a flooded trail. She was subsequently too traumatized to participate in any more of the hikes during the week-long trip.
By the time I found out what was happening, the sponsors had used various tactics over a period of several days to try to intimidate the students into retracting their stories. These tactics included:
• Telling my daughter she was mistaken because the part-time teacher would never do what my daughter said he had done.
• Telling students in the 9th grade, according to another parent, that if they were not able to go on the annual 10th grade Native American class trip the following year, it would be the fault of the girls who had made accusations, since it was the part-time teacher’s friendship with tribal leaders that made visiting the Native American territory possible.
• Holding a meeting with girls in the 11th grade — what was said to the eleventh-graders we do not know ― and then calling in all the girls in the 10th grade who had accused the part-time teacher and those who supported the accusations. The eleventh-graders said their “warnings” about the teacher had been misunderstood. They defended him now. The eleventh-grader who had described being pinned on a rock now described the teacher as a friendly father figure. It was an unpleasant meeting in which the older girls criticized the younger girls. A parent told me at least one 10th grade girl was reduced to tears.
By law, the sponsors were mandated reporters, required to notify law enforcement immediately — not days later — upon hearing any reports of abuse. Additionally, the law requires that such reports be kept confidential for the protection of both the accusers and the accused. By taking matters into their own hands and trying to force an outcome in favor of one of the parties, the sponsors and at least one other teacher committed the additional offense of interfering with a legal investigation. Their failure to follow the law was particularly egregious because they had no excuse for not being aware of their legal responsibilities as school employees. Only a few months earlier, there had been a scandal in which the school had failed to properly protect children from a class teacher’s family member whom they knew to be a pedophile. I had read a cryptic letter to parents that indicated something had happened, but I did not learn any details or how serious it was until years later.
I called an Anthroposophist friend to ask her what my husband and I should do, since we were not yet aware of reporting laws and we did not know who to talk to as there was no school principal. She told me the part-time teacher had had an affair with one of the high school students about 15 years previously. He and the student claimed they had waited until she was the legal age of consent, but apparently this was little consolation to the girl’s parents. As a result, the teacher had been asked to resign. I don’t know how many years passed before he returned to the school after his resignation.
My friend advised me to make an appointment that evening with the chair of the school’s college of teachers (the central committee in the school). She asked me to go alone and keep it confidential because she did not want other parents to think badly of the school. Because I believed that what had happened was an anomaly, I agreed. Despite our long involvement in the school as parents and volunteers, my husband and I did not know at that time about all the other scandals that had occurred there over the years.
Two board members also attended the meeting, which seemed to go well. The chair of the college of teachers seemed genuinely frustrated by the high school sponsors’ failure to notify the lower school faculty and to follow legal reporting laws. She said she would make the report herself.
The girls were questioned by police at the school. My daughter told me she felt uncomfortable because a teacher from the school was in the room while she was being questioned. It still bothers me that my husband and I were not given the option of being present during our daughter’s questioning since she was a minor. Instead, one of the accused teacher’s colleagues was present.
When I asked our local police about the results of their investigation, I was told that because the incidents occurred on Native American territory in another state, the matter was outside the local department’s jurisdiction. The local police had done the interviews with the students as a courtesy and had forwarded the information to the tribal police.
Things only got worse after that. After a couple of unproductive conversations with one of the two board members who had attended the initial meeting, no one from the school ever contacted us again about the matter. My attempts to speak with school representatives were either ignored or rudely rebuffed. One board member compared me to the mother of a former student, claiming that mother had “overreacted” by calling the police when her teenage daughter had been the victim of a group assault by male classmates, one of them the son of two of the teachers. It wasn’t until a few years later that I learned the shocking details of that assault and realized that the board member’s comments were even more inappropriate than I had initially realized.
During the period after the class trip, our daughter told us most of the teachers were unfairly picking on her. Other students corroborated this. A parent also told me her child had observed this bad treatment and told her about it. Our daughter had the impression the staff were trying to drive her out of the school. We told her she only had to say the word and we would take her out immediately. She wanted to tough it out, however, because she did not want to let the sponsors get away with what they were doing to her, and more importantly, she did not want to be separated from her school friends, one of whom is still her best friend to this day.
A parent whose children had attended the school years before warned me to be careful because she had been part of a group of parents trying to get the school to fire another male teacher who had a sexual relationship with a student. She told me her children had not been invited to return to the school for the following year. Eventually, however, the school had agreed to fire the teacher. He subsequently became a class teacher at another Waldorf school in the area.
A parent who was working at our Waldorf school told us she heard a rumor that some girls who were getting into trouble for bad behavior and getting bad grades had made up stories about the part-time teacher to cause trouble for their teachers. She would not tell us the source of this false rumor, but at a meeting, we heard the sponsors lie to other parents about what had happened before and during the class trip. When those of us who knew the truth tried to speak out, the sponsors refused to let us speak. My husband and I wanted to fight back, but our daughter begged us not to rock the boat.
Three weeks before the end of the school year, we received a letter telling us our daughter was not invited to return for the following school year. At that point, she had already decided to leave because she could not stand her teachers’ meanness any longer. She had become severely depressed, and had developed TMJ (pain in her jaw) from anxiety. She was so devastated by the letter that she did not return to the school for the final three weeks. It was not the part-time teacher’s groping that caused her suffering; it was the treatment by the other teachers. One of the hardest things for her to deal with was wondering how it was that she had a clear memory of something she was being told did not happen. Her self-confidence was completely destroyed. Her emotional recovery took a long time.
For more personal reports by
parents who sent children to Waldorf schools,
and by former Waldorf students,
and by former Waldorf board members,
and by former Waldorf teachers, etc.,
see
"Secrets"
"Slaps"
"My Life Among the Anthroposophists"
"Moms"
"Pops"
(etc.)
The thinking behind Waldorf schools may seem attractive; the question is whether it is realistic. Here is an apparently innocuous example about blades of grass. Steiner claimed that everything on Earth is subject to occult powers that come from the other planets, the stars, and the etheric universe in general. ("Ether" is a substance that theoretically fills the entire universe. Science accepted this concept in the 19th century but later rejected it. Steiner clung to it, modifying it somewhat to suit his own vision.) A blade of grass, for instance, is not pushed upward by forces coming from within the Earth; it is pulled upward by forces coming through the ether.
“A stalk of grass is...a tower ... It can be rocked by the wind and does not break in two ... [T]here are no forces on earth that would allow us to build such a thing using the materials of the earth ... [A] stalk does not grow by resting on what is below ... The stalk is drawn out into cosmic space. So if you visualize the earth, and these are the stalks, they are pulled in all directions into cosmic space, for there everything is filled with a more subtle form of matter which is called the 'ether' and which lives in the plant. But this life does not come from the earth; it comes from cosmic space. And so we are able to say: 'Life comes from cosmic space.'" — Rudolf Steiner, FROM LIMESTONE TO LUCIFER (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1999), p. 3.
[R.R. sketch, 2009, based on illustration on p. 4.]
Life on Earth certainly depends on forces from outside the Earth — predominantly, light from the Sun. But life on Earth certainly is not affected by the ether, which does not exist. Steiner's entire body of doctrines is woven from concepts that are unreal and untrue, just as his thinking is marred by obvious illogic. Here, he makes a gigantic leap from unsupported claims about blades of grass to an enormous conclusion about the origin of life. His conclusion (life comes from cosmic space) may or may not be true, but Steiner does not show it to be true. Rather, proceeding as usual, he uses misinformation to "support" his occult doctrines. This is the sort of thinking admired and promoted by Waldorf schools — it entails astrology, clairvoyance, reincarnation, polytheism, racial hierarchies, magic, and other assorted concepts that should, at a minimum, give us pause.
Public schools in America and elsewhere need improvement. Many families are unhappy with the quality of education provided at such schools. But if you seek something different, make sure that the alternate school you select offers higher academic standards, better preparation for life, and an environment that will nurture a child's real capacities. Waldorf schools are oriented to nonexistent occult realms; their academic standards are often low, and the preparation they provide for life in the real world is often deficient. Instead of being helped to fulfill their highest potentials, Waldorf students may often be hindered and misdirected.
[R.R. sketch, 2010.]
Compilation and commentary by Roger Rawlings
