The poster says I'm welcome to copy her posts
"Livng in blank (near blank Steiner school) I heard SO much of what you are saying leweekend. We home educate and over there in home ed. circles are MANY parents who had to take their kids out of the school describing much what you have said. I am glad to hear you speak about this. So often the physical beauty of the schools and the environmental attention to details there bowl parents over and is mistaken for true 'care'. Visiting one time for a festival I overheard one (new) teacher talking to another about how his being a teacher was all about his own personal and spiritual development - not about the kids at all!!!!! I have met so many people with negative social experiences that happened at steiner schools - from bulling (steming from boredom they reckon). My own sons loved the outdoor play but found the circle time tedious and monotomous and rather than 'reverent' little angelic faces looking up at me from polished beeswax floors when I looked at the kids there I saw alternatively only frustration and 'saddness' at being 'held back' both physically and mentally. actually their look was more vacant than sad, sort of worn down. Gah! A true advertisement for home education - unschooling and freedom to me!!"
"The folk I know who have removed their children from the Steiner system seemed to have the most trouble when moving their children from the kindergarten to the main school. Problems they had were then bashed by the teachers, and seen as totally the 'problem' of the child (rather than the class teacher, the environment, the methods used or the school it's self) they viewed their teaching and practices to be totally sound in every way shape and form and were very unwilling to discuss in an open minded way any changes. I lived previously near blank and when visiting once at a festival spoke to one boy just happenstance, in a queue, who went to school there and he was really down, told me about being bullied (I was shocked at his willingness to mention such a thing as I know those being bullied keep it hidden from shame), later I heard another similar story about being bullied and the whole issue being ignored by the school totally (again it was the fault of the individual child) - this girl was 20 and worked in the cafe after having returned from living in London. She said she was bullied her entire life (brought up in the community) at the school and moved away as soon as she could (didn't ask why she was back). She must have sensed my unease and said oh don't worry nothing like that happens there now! Yeah. Right.
But it was not just the bullying, the teaching was stagnant. The same things over and over, the same methods from every child, regardless. Sure everything is so pretty and subtle and so much emphasis on handwork and creativity, but I always just had a sense of unease there. Lovely beeswax crayons and nature tables or not. Too rigid? Too focused on the method and theory at the expense of the individual child. I feel it is only ever one gets a true sense of something by looking at how it effects on an individual level. I saw boys being snide and fighting being told off by adults (oh of course, in that saying no but in a nice thoughtful, long drawn out way - yawn) then hiding around the back to play football because they knew they were not 'allowed'. I have had three friends who were training to be teachers and attended Emerson. One was ended up preaching about Steiner like he was some sort of Jesus figure, and really that was the vibe I had from all of them, constantly harping 'Steiner said...' . So what, I once asked!!! He was one guy, this one weirdo who didn't even have children! No reply Another friend actually studied art and wanted a free and not curriculum led way of teaching, so she thought she'd try the Steiner system. OMG, she was appalled. Then she ended up by saying the whole art curriculum was even more rigid and structured than anything she had ever see. No self expression, only using yellow for like, a year. Then progressing to blue. Finally a dab of red.... No black pencils, everything smudged. Sure, to us adults it all looks so beautiful - but look closer - look at that wall of drawings! They are all exactly the same! They are all told to draw exactly the same things in exactly the same way - and that basically seems to be the essence of what Steiner education is at from my pov. One American friend who came over here fro the training at Forest Row (but lived in Wales) was so smilely, so happy, so have a nice day. Her dd never ever smiled. I kid you not. Oh, ok she did, this one afternoon I looked after her and took her to the beach with my kids. Her mum started this from home Steiner based morning kindergarten, which sounded oh so sweet - baking bread, preparing the veg for lunch, playing with unformed wood 'toys', time in the garden..... but one boy was using the wood circles to roll and measure and she took him aside several times to explain that this was 'imaginative' play time, that these could be pretend food or what ever but were not for rolling and measuring distance. She had to take him aside about five times after he continued and in the end made him sit on the stairs ('time out') al the while smiling like a crazy person and being like syrup. Now why was what he was doing not imaginative??? Scary this training of hers I tell ya. Certainly not 'practicing' on my kids. She is by the way, a proper kindergarten teacher now. The other teacher training 'friend' I no longer see. Her son is, well shall we say, boisterous. He likes to be ACTIVE. At all times if possible. He is not interested in looking at Gerda Muller picture books of spring lambs, or playing with his Camphill tractor. he wants to shape his sticks in to rifles and run around screaming at everyone and talk endlessly about jails and prison, or dungeons or fighting. he is a real BOY. And quite endearing. But this mother of his squashes him at every turn. Always in the sugar coated Steiner kindergarten voice, always sweetly, but always making him sit down, be quiet, listen to the birds, eat slowly, lions don't kill... no no no, they only chase, in a fun way, I heard her say once. He was so pent up constantly, so frustrated, he lashed out at the other kids, always. He bludgeoned them with boulders and smashed them with sticks and poked them in the eye. Just for fun. Just because. Because he had so much of his self, who he was and wanted to be, squished down and away in favour of this smooth, bland, smudged edged world where one must pretend the piece of cloth is a baby dioll and play so nice and quietly in the corner with it. He just could not do it, bless him. I saw that a lot with the boys.
Ok, so far too much personal stuff here, but I feel it is needed in order to get the individual view, which collectively makes up the whole"