waldorf steiner

[heninthemidden]

hi,

anyone had good experience of waldorf steiner education system?

ooh ooh I know this one - he's describing just how good it can get....

ra29 this is wearily similar to some recent internet shananigans...

at tattifer

Very simply Isenhart in answer to that question way back: it is extremely complex electrical connections mediated by chemical neuro-transmitters. Enough already.

Tattifer:

One aspect of the Steiner scam I find funny is that many of the parents who dutifully "believe" would be the first to condemn the more easily spottable American style cults
based on the same criticisms that many of us here are aiming at anthroposophy.

Ironic huh?

I don't think they do really "believe". I think that they have no idea. Nor do the teachers - many of them anyway.

The "new age" angle is appealing to many of them, they don't realise how permeating the anthroposophy is- how could they? It's barely touched on.

And the whole steinmer sellijg angle at the moment is on how they don't "test" or have "sats". How they don't "force" formal learning etc etc.

All the things many of us were jaded and fed up with in state primaries....

They go for what it nisn't, not fo what it is, because they don't fully know what it is.
There's an interesting discussion going on on a blog- mentioned earlier- where a Steiner teacher appears to not have read any of Steiner's work. Or apparently not listened at hgis lectures, or read any of the work from the steiner training, assuming he has done it. unless they employ anyone atall these days... he doesn't answer questions.
Anyway, he's apparently been "buzzed" and "got at"

Hi Tattifer and Wilderduck
A very interesting point you raise about parents being able to recognise other belief systems (I have to be very careful with my words here) and not their own.

I did talk to someone who specialises as an exit counsellor of strong belief systems and he said the followers are victims too, they are the last to know, which I hadn't fully understood until recently.

Steiner/anthroposophy as a cult?

We'll have lawyers in smart suits and glasses knocking on the door any minute now...

Isn't that a picture of the guy who trains eragon and does the voice for the lion kings evil uncle?!

Sorry, I am taking this seriously honest

Barking- that's something that I hadn't thought about until recently. And it rings so true.
I think the culture fostered in these communities is conducive to group thinking, community holding sway.
I remeber at parent's evenings , at the beginning, feeling very puzzled and trying to ask the right questions, finding it very hard as a lone voice in the group as it were.
I'd never realised that feeling could be so strong, so hard to be the dissenter, when so many others seemed to think otherwise.

They talked about "outsiders" too.

I'm getting obsessed with this
But if the teachers don't know anything about anthrophosophy then surely they can't be doing any harm with it? (devils advocate)

northernrefugee a more frightening and infinitely more worrying aspect of that fear of being the lone voice is behaviour at a Steiner School that basically amounted to a cover up - withholding relevant information about possible child abuse from agencies such as police and social services.

Have any of you gone to the press with your stories?

ra29 I don't think they need to know what its called in order to promulgate its teachings.

But do you think they know about the utterly nuts beliefs?!

bettername: the press seems to be positive about Steiner ed as it has been with other woo. But this I think is changing.

People who need to be part of a cult generally see the cult's beliefs as nuts I s'pose.

Northern, yes our school also talked about 'outsiders' with pity. Shocking really.

Tattifer, MN really have had the men is suits, a Swedish antho lawyer by the name of Percy Bratt! The difficulty they face is similar to the recent Scientologists case where they began pressing charges on a minor who had carried a placard saying 'Scientology is a c*' - they dropped all charges in the end as someone eventually realised the whole movement would come crashing down if they tried to disprove it.

Let the lawsuit begin...

Scientology story

I REALLY don't want this thread to be deleted and I really want people to hear your stories. As an outsider to all this I'm thinking that you could be thought of as paranoid conspiracy theory types (but you really don't sound like that to me) but I'm thinking how best to get you heard so that's why I'm trying to push your accounts a bit. Isenhart didn't even engage with pushing but s/he could be anyone and steiner could say s/he is not representative.

barking devil's advocate here. Section 5 of the Public Order Act (harassment alarm and distress, spoken or written) is an arrestable offence (sorry if teachng to suck eggs here) He's fifteen so instead of a pnd (which would have to be issued in custody because of his age) they're obviously going the court route. Extreme yes, but the good news for us is I doubt Section 5 would apply here.

Tattifer, I wish you were around MN last year! The lawyer in question is from Sweden, so I'm not sure how the law stands when one country is offended by another?
The internet surely adds more to the soup...

A quick summary here