Government forced to reveal what they knew about racism and bullying in Steiner Schools

Let’s hope that this finally brings the issue of state funding of Steiner schools to a head. Funny (peculiar) that they should resort to the charge of anecdotal evidence regarding the bullying, when they have zero evidence for the sheer nutjobbery of the ideas of Steiner, e.g. the elves, to pick just one.

Kudos to the BHA and Andy for having pursued this so tenaciously.

Comment seconded and thanks Andy for bring this to people’s attention. Let’s hope this dangerous philosophy gets exposed more and more!

Andy,

I’m glad the documents have been made public: I think discussions of the role (if any) of Steiner education in the publicly funded sector should be open and honest.

But I’d like to see you being honest too. Above, you have again used the misleadingly distorted edit of Steiner’s quote which you used several years ago, the inaccuracy of which I pointed out to you ages ago (I think it was when you gave your talk at Reading SitP).

Your version:

[W]e have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people would break the Waldorf School’s neck.

– seems to date back (at least) to Roger Rawlings and has been repeated verbatim by anti-Waldorf activists since.

What Steiner actually said was:

“We are working toward threefolding, but we have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf School with its objectively anthroposophical character, has goals that, of course, coincide with anthroposophical desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people could break the Waldorf School’s neck.”

Since Steiner’s “threefolding” ideas have liberal and socialist-leaning social, political and economic characteristics which, in mid 1920s Germany, might have literally got necks broken it’s not surprising that he didn’t want to put the teachers he employed at unnecessary risk.

If you are going to allege dishonesty in the Steiner-Waldorf movement then using distorted quotes to do so doesn’t put you on the moral high ground.

Regarding your comment:

As for the racism, until such time as the Steiner movement can openly discuss Steiner’s abhorrent racism, admit it is central to his philosophy, they are not going to be believed that it is all in the past.

From discussions with, and the writings of, some in the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship, it seems there’s a school of thought there that the overall tenor of Steiner’s thought was non- or even anti-racist. Given the guy’s prolific output, much of which I think even Staudenmaier has remarked is ambiguous and/or mutually contradictory, I daresay it’s possible to construct such an anti-racist reading of RS’ works. I don’t think it serves historianship well (which no doubt arouses Staudenmaier’s ire) but from what I know of Steiner teachers they’re more interested in teaching, and Waldorf education in practice, than the historical details of Steiner’s every word uttered almost a century ago.

Oops, sorry: this is the correct link to what Steiner actually said.

“Steiner teachers they’re more interested in teaching, and Waldorf education in practice, than the historical details of Steiner’s every word uttered almost a century ago.”

AGAIN… Then why is the racist stuff in the TEACHER TRAINING MATERIALS? People aren’t that dumb John. If they can afford people to work 24 hrs a day cleansing Wikipedia, they can afford to have someone edit the racist stuff out of their training materials… IF it isn’t important to Waldorf teacher training that is.

Racism is the CORE of Waldorf education. It helps Waldorf teachers determine the individual child’s spiritual status.

BTW, the “parent” on the film – who was so happy with the school’s response to her child’s bullying… happens to be an actress. What are the odds?

I think the interesting thing about this ‘affair’ is not so much what is revealed about the Steiner schools or the underlying ideas (anthroposophy). The problems mentioned in the documents have been known for years. Though perhaps they haven’t been as widely known as they deserve.

However, what is most astonishing is discovering something about the lengths to which a government is prepared to go to protect the movement. They’re willingly making themselves complicit in a deception they didn’t create — and perhaps don’t understand. (Although, who knows.) It seems they wanted to fund these schools no matter what the consequences. It’s astounding, I believe, that — if one tries to draw out and interpret the essence of what the documents seem to say — the big problem with and reason to say not to Steiner schools wasn’t what the pedagogy contained, the academic deficits, the complaints that had been made about it or all the concerns that already existed and were know, no, the big problem was what do to do in order to hide all of this. That, in my opinion, is far more serious than anthroposophy itself, because, by their very nature, these schools are anthroposophical. One can perhaps understand (but not accept) why anthroposophists want to be less than truthful and open, but what’s in it for the government? Not wanting to admit incompetence, ignorance, mistakes?

I don’t know enough to say, but I think more likely a coincidence, as the BHA has fought for the documents to be released for a while now, and I believe the tribunal’s decision also came before Gove left.

Still, they can go to the local socialist utopian comprehensive where bullying and poor teaching are bog-standard. Mustn’t let the proletariat have any choice and any chance of challenging the chattering classes and liberal intelligentsia.

Steiner is “off the wall” but his followers are far less of a threat than “the usual suspects”.

Is it just me, or are the regular Steiner people awfully quiet lately? Where’s all the people with their strange definitions of racism we usually see? Where are the Steiner defenders? So far, just one guy with reading comprehension problems. Has the one, two, three punch of Green Meadow, Te Ra and BHA investigations (and their accompanying publicity) shocked the Waldorf movement into silence? Is it better to remain silent and be thought a racist than to speak and remove all doubt?

Does anyone here ever ask themselves why Andy Lewis devotes so much of his time and energy to bullying Waldorf education, and proving that its underlying philosophy actually sees (the blindingly obvious fact of) some differences between the world’s ethnicities?

He seems a nice enough guy to me; but the critical energy, the passion, the determination to win his battle, to defeat a small opponent, all smack of a vendetta that nobody on this list has ever clearly explained.

Why is it so important to knock Steiner schools? They’re clearly not churning out racists or bullies. The criticisms of Anthroposophy vacillate between “woo-woo” and “nazi” – I seriously wonder how it can be both. And yes, the people who work in Waldorf education are human beings – warts ‘n all.

Why are you all so angry?

“I’ve never met a Steiner school parent who felt deceived. And if there are any, they’re a tiny minority. And the phrase “by extension” is meaningless.”

Where do you suppose you would “meet” one? At your Waldorf school? “Tiny minority”? EVERY Steiner parent is deceived to varying degrees. Even Steiner teachers aren’t fully aware of what goes on in their own schools. If Waldorf schools don’t intend to be deceitful, why do they lie to parents right on their websites? Why do Waldorf organizations like AWSNA continually publish material that is blatantly false? Why do their representatives flatly lie to people about the most basic ideas behind Waldorf?

“By extension” means, if you deceive the parents, the children are also harmed by the deception. Understand the meaning now?

“This is insulting rubbish. Pete – you sound like you’ve never been further than your keyboard to study Waldorf education?”

I dare say, I probably have more solid experience of Waldorf education than you have. But you’re not going to engage me… because I know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen it a million times. You’ll try to discredit me and when you can’t, you’ll disappear.

http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/ features HUNDREDS of reviews from parents who felt deceived. Indeed, that’s a “tiny minority” of parents who were actually deceived by Waldorf, but at least they went to the trouble of documenting their deception.

“Absolutely! The important word here is “spiritual”. There is no physical hierarchy.”

So, then, it must be true that persons with black skin in the physical world can belong to the highest spiritual hierarchy, according to Steiner? Where does he say that? Do you have a quote somewhere? Has any Anthroposophist since Steiner ever suggested this? Are YOU suggesting this?

Here’s Steiner talking about the “spiritual” hierarchy:

“On the one hand there is the black race, which is the most earthly. When this race goes toward the West, it dies out. Then there is the yellow race, in the middle between the earth and the cosmos. When this race goes toward the East, it turns brown, it attaches itself too much to the cosmos and dies out. The white race is the race of the future, the race that works creatively on the spirit.” (Rudolf Steiner, “Farbe und Menschenrassen”, lecture in Dornach March 3, 1923, in Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde, Dornach 1993, p. 67)

“one can only understand history and all of social life, including today’s social life, if one pays attention to people’s racial characteristics. And one can only understand all that is spiritual in the correct sense if one first examines how this spiritual element operates within people precisely through the color of their skin.” (Rudolf Steiner, “Farbe und Menschenrassen”, lecture in Dornach March 3, 1923, in Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde, Dornach 1993, p. 52)

“In the Negro the rear-brain is especially developed. It goes through his spinal cord. And this is able to assimilate all the light and warmth that are inside a person. Therefore everything connected to the body and the metabolism is strongly developed in the Negro. He has, as they say, powerful physical drives. The Negro has a powerful instinctual life. And because he actually has the sun, light, and warmth on his body surface, in his skin, his whole metabolism operates as if he were being cooked inside by the sun. That is where his instinctual life comes from. The Negro is constantly cooking inside, and what feeds this fire is his rear-brain.” (Rudolf Steiner, “Farbe und Menschenrassen”, lecture in Dornach March 3, 1923, in Steiner, Vom Leben des Menschen und der Erde, Dornach 1993, p. 55)

> Do you think it is acceptable for a school not to disclose its spiritual
> philosophy to parent before they enroll their pupils?

Absolutely not! Anthroposophy should be mentioned to all parents (but never to the children). However many Steiner school teachers are not Anthroposophists; so omissions sometimes happen.

So, because a teacher is not an Anthroposophist, they sometimes forget to disclose that Anthroposophy is the spiritual philosophy that defines everything that happens in the school. An Anthroposophists would think to mention this to parents… I see… So Anthroposophists are more forthright about the school’s underpinnings… it’s the NOT-Anthroposophists who are to blame if parents aren’t told about Anthroposophy. This make total sense, now.

I’m guessing it’s the not-Anthroposophists who must be producing all the websites and literature for these schools. Funny, that they are careful to put the not-Anthroposophists out there when prospective parents come to visit a school too.

“(but never to the children)”

http://thewaldorfreview.blogspot.com/2014/08/is-anthroposophy-taught-in-waldorf.html

I had spent over 20 years in state education before joining the Steiner/Waldorf ‘movement’. My previous experience counted for nothing among these cultic people, particularly the upper caste of Anthropops. They were addicted to knoweverythingness, an addiction they had picked up from the arch-guru of omniscience himself, Rudolf Steiner. I eventually found the atmosphere both toxic and suffocating and was lucky to escape with my mental health intact. PMcE