Steiner schools ( Autism and learning difficulties )

[almendras]

I fairly recently began working at a Steiner school for children with profound learning difficulties, including Autism Spectrum Conditions. I work mainly in the care side as it's a boarding school. At first I was really pleased with the move I had made and found the staff to be far more caring and well educated than the last place I worked. I'm a qualified Social Worker with 20 years experience but I needed a break and change of direction. I am now very concerned about a number of issues. Parents really need to very clear about what Steiner means and the implications before they consider it as an option for their children. I have seen things and felt things that have made me very uncomfortable and wonder how much people really know about the Steiner 'religion' ( non denominational Christianity with Pagan elements. ) and Anthroposophy, which appears to reject logic and science. I'm sure the approach varies hugely from school to school but from what I have seen it can be stifling and controlling and things are being hidden from parents that should not be.

"If I had been told the true nature of Steinerism and Anthroposophy I would never have taken the position in the first place."
Of course - and I am sure this applies to most employees. It seems there are two choices as an uninitiated Steiner employee; either assimilate into the cult and gradually take on their values and habits, or leave fairly soon. It is difficult to believe that you can work in a Steiner school and have no idea anthroposophy even exists, considering it influences every aspect of the school day, but it is true. When the penny drops that there is a belief system at work, it can be a shock.
Steiner institutions don't care about the effects of their secrecy on families or employees, but carry on regardless without making any attempt to change their secretive ways. The same thing happened to me over 20 years ago.

Just placemarking.
Don't have anything to add at present but very interested in this discussion.

There is a similar SEN school near us. It consistently gets outstanding from ofsted. I do think it is a good school; perhaps less 'fundamental' than some. Looking at the alternatives in the area, I would definitely consider it if I had a child with ASD who couldn't cope in ms. (Although I definitely wouldn't consider the un-linked ms waldolf school). My dc went to the kindergarten for a year each (kindie was both sen and ms). They had a great time. However, it is definitely religious and as a Christian I wouldn't say it was Christian - there is too much new age/pagan stuff mixed in to sit happily with my faith. That was one reason my dc only went for a year each. At that stage a lot of the new age beliefs look like children's fairy tales (which is how we took them) though they aren't.

The big problem with Steiner seems to be rather than taking his philosophies as a starting point from which they have learnt over the decades and moved away from the dodgy beliefs of his day, schools have taken it as an immutable belief system.

stopsteinerinstroud.com/a-steiner-experience/

Worth reading!

I agree with almedras. We sent our son with SEN to a Steiner School in West London and he was humiliated and not accepted at all by some kids because he was different. During that one year he was there he developed paranoia and signs of self harm. We also felt that the school was hiding facts from us and made uns and our son feel that all problems were due to his issues only. Not a very good place to be.

I have to add that our Steiner was not a SEN school it was a "mainstream Steiner".

Oh no, thats worrying - i have two autistic boys, the eldest of which cant cope in high school, so ive just done the first week of steiner teacher training course to add onto my pgce, so i can home-school my son x

I had the good fortune of attending Rudolf Steiner Waldorf School in Johannesburg in the 70's, I was highly sensitive, highly strung and lacking in confidence having been bullied at a previous primary school. I was diagnosed with Dyslexia in my early 50's and high functioning autism in my late 50's. I have achieved a high position in my work place, now in my early 60's. I also came to Lord and became a Christian as an adult and am a committed Christian. I cannot speak highly enough for Waldorf, I am aware of Rudolf Steiner methodology. My best friend there, was a Methodist church goer and has also done extremely well in his career. So please do not put down Waldorf , if it wasn't for Waldorf, whose wonderful teachers encouraged us all without the horrendous exam system, I am not sure whether I would have achieved what I achieved.

Well, I can only say what I experienced, in the early 70's , Waldorf in Johannesburg, which was brilliant and encouraging. Oh, and by the way, i came to know the Lord in as an adult, God put me there for a reason which helped me.

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2015