cotham I'm really glad the school suits your dc; I know some children who've come through Steiner well, and gone on to do courses at colleges and thrived. But I know more who haven't. Or have found it extremely hard to fit in to "outside" life. ( At the school ours were,"outsiders" was a phrase used quite often) Or simply have very few academic skills, such as fluent reading and writing. Let alone spelling.
Although we don't all have to "fit in", diversity is wonderful and important, I do feel it's fairer to have a choice, and not to have our children part of the great anthroposphical experiment.
I find myself questioning whether it's important to know completely about the belief system your child is immersed in, if they are seemingly benefitting from it, and it isn't causing obvious harm; because this is the stance so often taken by the anthroposophists. My feeling is that the "freedom" talked about by Steiner acolytes, should not be so one sided, and should include the freedom of knowledge (in the non anthroposophical sense) and that we should be aware of the reasons for why certain things are taught, and as they are at the schools.
Justa I agree. The extremes of belief like the Plymouth Brethren are quite scary. That way of "educating" fulfillls the sect's desire to propagate its membership, by ensuring very few of those children can "escape" to lead a normal life.
And there are degrees of that all over the place. But then I'm a great believer in separating state and faith; faith is such a personal thing.
Isenhart, the Times article you linked to about Plymouth Brethren Schools is interesting.
The sect "believes the world is the domain of the Devil, and members spend most of their time in ?safe places? such as meeting rooms and their own homes."
I tend to agree with Keith Porteous Wood who said in the article
"Denying children access to knowledge that would help them to cope in the modern world is tantamount to abuse."
I'm not sure what your point in linking to the article was? Do you find a similarity with Steiner schools in their protecting children from the evils of the modern world, the "outside" world and materialism? ( materialism used in the anthro sense, as in , not believing in spirit worlds)
Or the similarity between them and Steiner's belief in Ahriman (satan, demon) and his future incarnation on earth? Ahriman's desire to keep the earth stuck in the rigd form Steiner's higher beings battle against?
After all, with conference papers like this The Impact of Evil in our Time and the Guarding of Childhood Forces by waldorf teachers, it's obviously something the schools are there to guard against.