Tell me everything you know about Steiner schools/philosophy

[Pruni]

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hi shrub - was busy typing when you posted. Interested to hear your experience. As you say - some people very happy with Steiner ethos, but doesn't suit everyone. I wouldn't have the confidence to send my 2 there - they enjoy the more rigid structure at their state school and I think would find it hard to deal with other kids 'expressing themselves' by pushing them off a beam! But who knows - maybe they would have loved it. I was lucky to be able to take 12 years off to be at home with them and do all the 'getting into nature' stuff outside school time. They seem to be quite well adjusted and sensitive to others' feelings. As you say - it wouldn't be nice to offend anyone - I'm always very happy to see that people are doing what they genuinely believe is best for their children - whether it's Steiner/State Stay at home/return to work etc. We're all different, aren't we - I just get cross if people get all 'holier than thou' and imply that whatever they're doing is the only 'right' way.

Interesting link to PLANS Shrub - I've not heard that the Anthroposophy is so dominant in the Steiner schools attended by friend and friends children - maybe the Steiner schools in America are far more 'occult' based (I'm a bit dubious about the use of this word here.

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Oh Shrub... that website it's really something

I thought Stainer philosophy was a bit more "diluted" in the schools, but it seems as if it's all going on hidding under a harmless surface.

Pruni - you're still the right side of the 'big' birthday then! I did choose my nickname deliberately so that people would know how ancient I am. I wish there'd been something like this around when I was tearing my hair out with pre-school kids!

I hope I'm not coming across as indoctrinated by Steiner... I also think it depends on the child in question whether Steiner education would be right for them or not. My dd has been through state education from reception onwards and she's now 14 - she's had awful experiences at times but I've never considered Steiner for her as she's the type to take advantage of any autonomy she might be given about her choice to work!!! (She has laziness running through her like Blackpool in a stick of rock )

Pruni's early reading and her flourishing imagination through the medium of reading at such an early age also proves that any one theory of education isn't right for all children

I certainly couldn't swallow the eeerm, more wacky ideas I've seen mentioned! but I love playing with my one year olds gnome village building blocks he got for his first birthday... I am a gnome! I am a gnome!!!

It's an American site though Chandra...

Pruni, Chandra and Fortyplus - not saying all the stuff on Plans website is true, its just that during that time when things weren't going right some of it made sense. I wish I had found it earlier so I would have had both sides.
I think some of the parents put pressure on themselves so as to be seen doing the right thing by embracing all aspects of the Steiner philosophy - you can get some extremes ie. the artifact (I do know one mum who rides to school Chandra - I wonder if its the same school) and then you get the other extreme where some parents have (hidden) satellite telly!

Just taken a look at that website - only very quickly - but a lot of the angst seemed to be from America? Perhaps Steiner is more extreme over there?

ps My friend's son has a computer, a Gameboy, an X-box...
The only things I remember her saying she thought were weird were...
Everyone except her having about 5 kids
Not being allowed to wear anything with camouflage (even to go bird watching!)
Introducing horse riding as part of the curriculum - her son is appalled!

I've only been to the school once. Three things struck me -
Most of the boys have long straggly hair (but who cares?)

I thought it was brilliant that the grounds are full of brick-built structures (some of them look like forts!) that have been designed & built by the kids.

Inside there were some model houses supposedly built by 8 year old children and it was just so OBVIOUS that most of them had been made by parents. (But you'd get that in any school, especially a fee paying one)

Steiner education is in line with how the brain develops, there are several stages of development and the teaching is believed reflect and enhance the childrens natural development. It also believes in spiritual development. I attend the local steiner school with my daughter for the mother toddler group to learn more about it. I don't think its a panacea and they tend to stick like glue to the old methods rather than incorporate new thought. But generally it increases confidence in children and enhances their learning experiences. The children from the school close to me join in at 14 to secondry school so they get the best of both worlds. There is a school that works in conjunction with them and helps integrate them. Apparently they do very well. They have a different approach to learning, extremely positive. My thoughts were to supplement aspects that are missing like French and Computers. My daughter is at Montessori at the moment, which is more about self motivated learning, not quite sure how I'll manage the transition. I think it's about what you want for your child and what you think is important that they learn - it depends on the child too. Incidentally I'm kicking out my tv i'm sick to death of it (nothing to do with steiner just my own thoughts - full of rubbish and propaganda not a positive influence and poor for developing a childs concentration)

Shrub is spot on, Steiner schools are bloody humourless places. The teachers don't joke around with the kids, they don't even play with the kids ffs.

They are highly dogmatic and there is no real room to negotiate with the teachers

That aside, they are pretty much a bog standard private school, IMO, but with more knitting.

That's strange when the emphasis is on learning through play. Which school did you attend?

As I've said before - I've only once been up to the Steiner School that my friend's ds attends, but it was all very jolly - the teacher came out and was chatting to various mums. She says he occasionally phones her at home in a very friendly way. So I don't think that anyone could level the 'humourless' accusation at the Kings Langley Steiner School. Oh - and I nearly forgot - my friend who teaches French there is lovely - very warm and caring. She has very strong views re: ecology etc, but wouldn't buy in to anything 'wacky'

Can I just point out that there is nothing in Steiner theories of brain development (webcrone's post of 11am, or rebelmum's post of 1.53pm) that bears any relationship to anything that we know as modern neuroscience?

Steiner theories about particular brain hemispheres corresponding to different developmental stages are myth not science.

Just wanted to get that off my chest...

I find steiner teachers, in the main, pretty humpurless.

am not saying they are not nice, just humourless. They don't make jokes, or have a craic. It unnerves me when people don't really seem to make jokes.

I do, however, know kings langley school pretty well, though thats not the school i went to.

oh and don't think theres any great secret re them not playing, they think playing with kids hinders the imagination I think.

Watching this thread with interest. Nothing to add, just great to hear these views. Thanks all.

My youngest dd went to a steiner kindergarten and it was FANTASTIC. Loads of nature stuff, loads of cooking, lovely toys, lovely creative activities, great festivals and appreciation of seasons. When the teacher came round for our home visit prior to us joining I confessed that we do own plastic toys and we do watch tv and we do have a COMPUTER. She shrugged and said, of course. I didn't find any of it dogmatic or ridiculous. My daughter absolutely loved it. However, when I looked into extending her education in Steinerland, the other schools I went to were totally loopy - much more doctrinaire, much more doggedly anthroposophical, "children's souls are fuschia when they are 9" etc and I ran. So I guess it depends on the school/teacher.

Sunnydelight and Shrub, thank you both for posting your link to the Humanscale website. DH and I have been very worried about DD (has dyspraxia) coping at middle school. There's a school on there that might just be what we've been looking for so we are going to look into it futher.

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A Definition of Steiner Education
Rudolf Steiner believed that education should be designed to meet the changing needs of a child as they develop physically, mentally and emotionally. He believed that it should help a child to fulfil their full potential but he did not believe in pushing children towards goals that adults, or society in general, believed to be desirable.

His approach was systematic, and appears to have been based on his own extensive experience of working as a tutor, and on his study of 'anthroposophy' or 'spiritual science'.

Here are some of its key points:

Up to the age of seven encourage play, drawing, story telling, being at home, nature study and natural things.
Do not teach children younger than seven to read.
Teach a child to write before you teach them to read.
Do not keep changing a child's teacher: allow one teacher to carry on teaching the same class for seven years.
Allow children to concentrate on one subject at a time - do history two hours per day for several weeks and then do geography for two hours per day etc.
Find links between art and science.
Engage with the child and make sure that they are enthusiastic about the material being covered.
Give a moral lead but do not teach a particular set of beliefs.
Encourage learning for its own sake. Do not just work for exams.
He made specific curriculum suggestions for history, geography, mathematics, languages, literature, science, handwork, gymnastics, painting, music, shorthand and many other subjects that were taught in the school in Stuttgart. Obviously, some of these are more appropriate than others to today's conditions.

It is important to remember that although an idealist who never compromised what he believed, Rudolf Steiner was also a pragmatist. He made an agreement with the authorities in Stuttgart that his school would not follow the same curriculum as the state schools but that its pupils would be able to transfer from one to the other at certain key ages. He was very rigorous in ensuring that this promise was fulfilled, and modified the work done in the school to ensure that the children had covered the same subject matter, and attained the same skills, as children in other schools at the appropriate ages.
www.freedom-in-education.co.uk/Steiner.htm#definition

I think that Steiner believed that his method of education was in line with how children naturally develop. He was born in 1861 which is possibly why it doesn't bear 'any relationship to anything that we know as modern neuroscience'

BTW recent article on Montessori education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1884006,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

Yes, thank you for the history lesson, rebelmum, but if Steiner schools are justifying their 2006 pedagogic methods on the basis that development pre-age 7 is somehow based on the right brain hemisphere and that the left hemisphere becomes dominant post age 7, then that is simply bunk. By all means have a belief system and justify anything you want to on the basis of that belief system, but don't dress it up as science and expect people to take you seriously.