Steiner schools, loony, bonkers, the parents I mean. My sister is turning I fear.

[Quincywincy]

Ok I'll preface by saying we could afford private education for our dc if we felt so inclined (we don't)So this is not a simple case of sour grapes. My sister and her dh moved away from London so (according to them) they could get their son into a good school, they even chose their house on this basis.

They put his name down good and early then just two weeks ago (he was due to start this september)they go to the school and both were freaked out about the fact that their dc would get some kind of homework.They suspect he will not be academic (their words not mine)

They decided this was not the school for them and they opted for the local Steiner school instead.

All well and good but I'm a little bit peeved that they are both refusing to come and see us at our house as we have a TV (strictly against Steiner rules?) DC has placcy sparkly toys and get up to all sorts including eating sweets and being loony every so often.

Erm, we not good enough for them now? Do you know any Steiner parents, is this the norm?

so are children from steiner schools not allowed to play with sparkly toys or eat sweets either?

Not according to them.

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I don;t undertsnad why they would refuse to visit you because you have a tv. Or is it that they don;t want their DS to watch tv. fair enough, I suppose - youc an have it switched off.

seems very strange that just two weeks ago they weren't even considering steiner. I have a friend who's a steiner teacher but she's too busy creating fluffy things about love and teaching abroad and going to festivals to stay in touch...so I can;t ask her for you. fat lot of good aren;t i?

90 is a very non-steiner angle then?

I just thought they were a bunch of hippies, didn't have them down as fruitcakes.

I have heard from friends attending our local steiner school that they are discouraged from mingling with people who aren't into the steiner philosophy, ie people who have tv's, plastic toys etc.

I don't know if this is across the board or whether this particular one is more extreme.

Why no right angles or the colur black? I couldn't keep all those rules myself, never mind expect the kids to do it.

I'm assuming they don't want him to watch it but weve never had it on when they've ever been here anyway. Perhaps they're worried he will cause a scene, he does get his way alot.

I feel a bit let down really and it's as if we're no longer good enough for them.

Mrscarrot , this is what I suspect.

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speaking as a total hypocrite in this respect, i do think that steiner is absolutely right in terms of no tv. does children damage.

and I am a hypocrite because although i've cut down i can't get rid completely.

think it's weird though because you can HAVE THE TV SWITCHED OFF WHEN THEY COME can't you????? you can can't you?

sorry6 just read your last post.

sounds like they are in a weird place to me and that isn't down to steiner....

Perhaps she'll calm down after a few months. New converts to anything are often boringly concerned with minutae (sp?) of their new obsession.

There was a thread on here ages ago about someone who lived in a village where there was a Steiner school but her child didn't attend. She found that she was being shunned as a non-Steiner.

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Great minds and all that Pruners.

nothing about right angles

Yes good point perhaps they are trying to wean him off tv (if this is a recent thing) and just don;t want to visit anywhere with one atm?

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Bloody Steiner obssessives. They lead a dull life. Not all Steiner parents are like that, though. Hopefully your rellies will calm down a bit and not turn into the 'Steiner witch' on my road (a miserable woman with miserable children).

God it sounds freakish

I heard that at our local Steiner (which we looked into being a bit hippified myself ) there is a really big bullying problem! They aren't quite as rigid about the other stuff though also - needless to say we took our chances at the local comp!

She sounds like a loon tbh. Steiner is fine if that's your bag. In fact ds's paed suggested it as a possibility for him (Aspergers) but I was put off by the extreme nature of the lentil-weaving at the Xmas fair ...but to refuse to come to yours in bonkerooney.

lol about the black thing. i took ds2 to a STEINER toddler gp once. we had to wear slippers and bake bread. the kids had stones and pebbles and shells to play with. they sang all the time eg sang about washing hands etc. the parents had to make craft things. i was told to make a teazle hedgehog (i have an art degree ffs!!!!!). i asked for black wax for the eyes. the woman looked horrified and hissed at me- 'we dont have black in steiner'. everyone else became hushed. but i couldnt keep quiet- 'what? have you run out?' 'its not suitable for children, its too dark'. of course its fucking dark you cant get much darker than bloody black ffs can you?!!! ds2 who has HFA (but didnt know at the time) went utterly loopy during next bout of singing and we ended up in corridor followed by all the other children and their cross looking parents. oh and he was bit on the face by another child who was not told off 'because thats what children do, just expressing himself'. yeah right.

we never returned.