I went from one extreme to the other. Started off at a Steiner school before going to a traditional public school.
As far as Steiner is concerned, I think the Core philosophy (anthroposophy) is mad as a box of frogs. Although there is a lot about the Steiner system that is easy to mock I think it fairly good in terms of creating a holistic learning environment that very much focuses on developing independent and creative thinking processes, individual responsibility , the understanding of ethical principles and building a sense of social responsibility. It is the execution of that philosophy that tends to vary wildly as Steiner schools (well the one I went to anyway) seemed occasionally guilty of recruiting staff who were employed on the basis that they were ardent believers in the Steiner system rather than them actually being good teachers.
One thing I do remember was that for the most part the kids were very happy. Additionally, Steiner schools do offer much more diversity with regards to the subjects taught compared to mainstream schools. For instance I had classes in geology, astronomy, Greek mythology and architecture . They also excel in languages, introducing French and German at Kindergarten level. The schools are very arts/humanities/crafts orientated which is great if that is the direction you want to head but if you wanted to do hard sciences you were f*cked really. I left as I wanted to be an engineer and there was bugger all chance of that happening if stayed at the school. But it was the quirky stuff I remember, things like moving a lesson outside if it was a warm sunny day, building a footbridge across a river or taking part in the acting and full set production of a play infront of 800 people
On the downside the schools seemed to attract the worst elements of the very vocal batshit crazy ‘alternative’ community, the sort of folk who think television is evil and insist on making their own organic clothes out of home grown hemp. Fine if they kept their views to themselves but more often than not these groups had a very strong influence or the PTA/governors often to the detriment to the wider school community. My dad used to love winding them up. Other negatives to consider was that there were no competitive sports, homeopathic treatments were ‘encouraged’ ,science subjects were not taken too seriously and were at times made a mockery of by members of staff who had a slightly different take on a particular well established peer reviewed and historically robust theory. Mad really.
Anyway, I finished my schooling at a good old fashioned boarding school where I was turned into a rugby playing Tory voting sadistic prefect in no time ;-p
Finally, I recently attended a school reunion with my old Steiner mates and while great to catch up with everyone I sensed an awful lot of bitterness in terms of the schools not really preparing its pupils for life beyond the Steiner system. Quite a few of my former class mates seemed to have gone off the rails a bit before finding direction in their lives.
Well that’s my 0.02$