{"id":3163,"date":"2012-11-23T23:45:57","date_gmt":"2012-11-23T22:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/?p=3163"},"modified":"2016-06-16T10:42:45","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T09:42:45","slug":"the-bbc-report-on-frome-steiner-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/the-bbc-report-on-frome-steiner-academy.html","title":{"rendered":"The BBC Report on Frome Steiner Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/what-every-parent-should-know-about-steiner-waldorf-schools.html\">criticisms<\/a> of Steiner Schools have focused mainly on how they avoid telling parents an authorities about the occult nature of their philosophy. Indeed, Rudolf Steiner was very clear to his teachers about how they should mislead and obfuscate when enquiries were made into their beliefs and intentions.<\/p>\n<p>It is therefore illuminating to see BBC South West ask some difficult\u00a0questions\u00a0of the new Head Teacher at the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/2012\/02\/frome-steiner-academy-absurd-educational-quackery.html\"> state funded Frome Steiner School.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here is the segment. Within the limitations of a 15 minute slot, I think they have done very well in tackling important issues of the occult underpinnings of their pedagogy (Anthroposphy) and the racism that is embedded within Steiner&#8217;s views on reincarnation and karma.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WpOXitdxzk4?list=UUei35H3nu7bduw-6DBJFGrQ&amp;hl=en_US\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This film sets a number of\u00a0precedents. Media coverage of Steiner Schools has almost always ducked the most important issues of their inherent absurd philosophy, racist views on human development and occultism.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, I have been arguing that Steiner Schools deliberately obscure their anthroposophical roots. It is astonishing to see Head Teacher Trevor Mepham attempt to dodge and weave these questions.<\/p>\n<p>In a remarkable statement, Mepham tells us that he would not say Steiner believed in reincarnation. Let us remember what anthroposophy\u00a0is:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cspiritual advancement through karma and reincarnation, supplemented by the access to esoteric knowledge available to a privileged few.\u201d If Steiner did not believe in reincarnation he wasted decades writing books and lecturing on a subject he did not really support.<\/p>\n<p>Steiner Schools are keen to obfuscate their anthroposophical aims. The Frome Steiner School says on its web site, &#8220;The school, however, will neither promote nor teach the wider philosophy which is known as &#8220;anthroposophy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But without anthroposophy, Steiner schools are nothing. They are required to follow anthroposophy and are defined by it. But Steiner knew their occult aims might frighten parents \u00a0and so warned teachers to be coy. In this video, we see their Head Teacher unable to give a straight answer to a direct question as to whether his school was founded in anthroposophy.<\/p>\n<p>There is still much scope for mainstream media to cover much more detail: their absurd and dangerous health beliefs and the role of\u00a0anthroposophical doctors within schools; the teaching of barmpot pseudoscience, being two areas.<\/p>\n<p>As I have said, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/what-every-parent-should-know-about-steiner-waldorf-schools.html\">Steiner Schools are a ticking time bomb under the government<\/a>. Well done to the BBC for starting to expose their secrets.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe must worm our way through\u2026[I]n order to do what we want to do, at least, it is necessary to talk with the people, not because we want to, but because we have to, and inwardly make fools of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;W]e have to remember that an institution like the Independent Waldorf [Steiner] School with its\u00a0Anthroposophical\u00a0character, has goals that, of course, coincide with\u00a0Anthroposophical\u00a0desires. At the moment, though, if that connection were made official, people would break the Waldorf School\u2019s neck.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In choosing your words, never say \u2018prayers,\u2019 say \u2018words for opening the school day.\u2019 We should not hear the word \u2018prayer\u2019 in the mouth of a teacher. Thus you will neutralize to a large extent the prejudice against Anthroposophic matters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rudolf Steiner<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>In conrtast, here is a uch more typical, naive, casually accepting &amp; uncritical recent @BBCLookNorth report on Steiner Schools. (UK only)<\/p>\n<p>http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/iplayer\/episode\/b01nymf4\/Look_North_(North_East_and_Cumbria)_23_11_2012\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>&nbsp; My criticisms of Steiner Schools have focused mainly on how they avoid telling parents an authorities about the occult nature of their philosophy. Indeed, <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/2012\/11\/the-bbc-report-on-frome-steiner-academy.html\" title=\"The BBC Report on Frome Steiner Academy\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168060002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[203,9],"tags":[145,168],"class_list":["post-3163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bbc","category-rudolfsteiner","tag-steiner","tag-steiner-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3163"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":168060029,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3163\/revisions\/168060029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168060002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quackometer.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}