waldorf steiner

[heninthemidden]

hi,

anyone had good experience of waldorf steiner education system?

Just thought I should apologise for my terrible grammer in the above post. Must be all that hanging around a Steiner school I have done over the last few years.

Also wanted to add I am now putting my kids to bed, guilt free, although if I was still living under the Steiner ideals I would feel dreadful for them having watched a dvd today, eaten chocolate and played with plastic toys. The Steiner School would have made me feel like an utter failure for all that, which no parent needs really!

But I would have thought Barbie, blonde, blue eyed and athletic as she is would be the epitome of Steiner chic

I just wanted to pop in and say that if it hadn't been for threads like these any children I will have would have most likely have attended our local Steiner school. So a big thank you for the inside truth.

senseoftouch interesting you should talk about bullying - I've seen several examples of this at Steiner schools. Grr!

Not blonde enough perhaps!? (according to Steiner the blondest and fairest have all their developmental energy focused on their mind, while the darker the skin, the poorer the quality of the mind .

Sleepyeyes, I know I am not really saying anything positive about Steiner ed right now, don't make a decision based upon what you are hearing here, because my son's fab time there has been clouded by recent events, so I am not raving on about that! Steiner toddler groups are a good way to get a better insight and judge for yourself, but it is definitely a good thing to be aware of the negatives too, and just do your research.

Yep. I'm definitely thicker in summer with a good tan

Sense after reading these types of threads I have gone away and done a bit of research and I don't agree with the philosophy it's based on, particularly the beliefs they don't tell you on their Website.
One thing I couldn't have coped with is the interfering in family life.

Aww well I'm very dark haired all year round I must be thick as a plank of wood and just too dumb to realize.
So since I have dark hair, DH too, our kids will most likely have very dark hair should I for the sake of their education start bleaching there hair from birth?

Absolutely sleepeyes!

I found out I should have been cutting up fruit at a particular time of day...

Hmmm, I'm not sure what Steiner would think of hair dye, he advised hair was not cut until three years

The interfering in family life is particularly unpleasant and happens more in some schools than others. Someone I now has been told by the Steiner School her son will be starting after Easter, that they should not move from the house they live in now, 45 minutes away from the school, so as to make the change to a new school more gradually, and they disapproved of her studying for a degree, even though she is studying for a degree in steiner education!!!

senses that's ok, you wouldn't have to cut it to dye it

In the end I had to turn my computer off yesterday as my eyes were burning - possibly due to the demons pouring out of my Mac. Thinking again about this business I'm grateful to my dcs lovely, normal primary school and its cheerful mother's day celebration, even though they (hilariously) showed our children's portraits of us on a slide projector. Very bad hair day all round.

SENSESofTOUCH- I wonder if the positive aspects of Steiner schools are about 'human scale' education. There's an organization about this easy to google. No one should have to compromise family life in this bizarre way to find a small or 'alternative' school for their child.

Have you read the letter in the SWSF newsletter brought up by Auroraandflora on 10th March? Barking cut and pasted it just afterwards. I wonder if we're now part of a group of obsessive anti-Steiner trolls and at what point a small group becomes quite a big group. Jeremy seems unable to keep his women in line, anyway: it was a tough call from the start. Must now go and recklessly cut up fruit in my own time.

It is hard for me to say I am 'anti-Steiner' having spent 6 years raving about how great it is! But for most of those years our Steiner School was very small, and more of a collection of parents who were not entirely happy with the mainstream appoach, it was a great community, and always seemed vey inclusive.
It is as it has grown and strives to become like the larger Steiner schools that these 'incidents' seem to have started occuring. I do feel incredibly sad this is happening.
So I am now in the same position as you Wilderduck, being grateful for our lovely, little state primary.

SofT: You're not anti your school as it was and I'm sure that was very precious to you, my first experience of a Steiner school was very similar and I'm also sad about the loss of that community. Most of the women I knew there no longer send their dcs to Steiner schools. At the time we really had no idea what 'Steiner' meant and felt we were urban and sophisticated enough to take those gnomes into our lives: my ds just told me how much they frightened him! At that time there wasn't the web culture that might have alerted us to more worrying undercurrents in Steiner education and no one seemed to know much about anthroposophy. When I delved into it I wasn't encouraged by the Steiner apparatchiks (teachers)
I should have been warned by a friend with a special needs child gently telling me it wouldn't suit her family, she'd heard peculiar things about Steiner's attitude to disabled children.
If we'd understood more at the time I'm sure none of us would have wanted to be in any way involved with Steiner education.
I note: we had v little to do with the SWSF at that time so don't know if they've always been so paranoid. Right now I'm surprised at the anti-intuitive PR they seem to be pursuing.

So sorry to read about the problem with your eyes wilderduck. When a small group of obsessive anti-Steiner trolls clone themselves into a greater number of actual people versus just additional on-line personas then they will be a big group.

Why are you talking about cloning? You sound like some kind of trekkie. Didn't I see you on Diablo 11?
I'm sure these women can speak for themselves. And I'm sure that they will.

What women are you referring to?

Us clones I suppose

I'll steer clear of discussions about Steiner's thoughts on the disabled/challenged/special (laugh titter snarl) needs kids lest I put down my box of oatcakes and reach for my chainsaw instead. The copse has only just recovered from my last temper tantrum...

You do mean 'copse' not 'corpse' don't you?

wilderduck definitely. Although it might be my corpse soon, I am sewing seeds of sedition on another thread.

Doesn't everyone read New Internationalist?!?

Tattifer, I do hope you asked the gnomes for permission before entering

Lots to catch up on here but in the meantime I thought it was time to draw up a chair, light a candle and share with the circle:

Waldorf Mums

"Waldorf mums wear cotton socks
Woolen sweaters, Birkenstocks.

Waldorf mums have long full skirts,

Big silk scarves and layered shirts.

Waldorf mums have fluffy hair,

They?re kind and firm and make you share.

Waldorf mums drive Volvo cars

And talk of fairies, gnomes, and stars.

Waldorf mums love Waldorf meetings

Where they greet with Waldorf greetings.

Waldorf mums make Waldorf dolls

From purest wool and cotton balls.

Waldorf mums drink lots of tea

Which has been grown organically.

Waldorf mums serve fruits and meats.

Veggies, grains, and not much sweets.

Their favorite word is ?nourishing.?

They love to hike and knit and sing.

They leave the gluten out of bread

And make you spend twelve hours in bed.

And if you fall and scrape your knee

They give you rescue remedy!"

So sweet I nearly stabbed myself in the eye with a knitting needle (bamboo, ethically sourced).

If only it was this harmless...

Barking, you're so clever!
I don't suppose you could get 'sing-song voices and a faraway look in the eyes' to scan.

Barking...although all very true, (although you forgot to mention the Steiner meetings you mentioned never actually result in anything getting done!) and image provoking (in that I have many memories of situations you describe!), it is slightly mean, after all, they are duped into believing Steiner's crap, as I was for so long.

(btw, I am SENCESofTOUCH, I changed my name...)