What makes Waldorf education, Waldorf education?


BBC’s Chris Cook asks a good question, “Is Waldorf education worth public money?” I can’t speak for England, but I can say for the US, there is a fair amount of Waldorf charter schools receiving public funding. After all, there is an Alliance for Public Waldorf Education.

I remember asking one of my teacher trainers about a Waldorf charter school that was starting up around the time I was graduating. She said she didn’t consider it to be a “real” Waldorf school since charters cannot teach or bring Anthroposophy into the classroom. Essentially, Waldorf-inspired or charters can only focus on the methods, but not the meaning behind them.

So, what makes Waldorf education, Waldorf education?

Is Waldorf a religious school? If it is then they cannot and should not receive public funding. That would be like having a Catholic-inspired or Catholic charter school. Another way to look at this is, if we talk about, say, Shaolin Kung Fu. If you take away the Buddhist aspect to the discipline, is it still Shaolin Kung Fu? I would wager a lot of kung fu that is practiced today in the US lacks any spiritual training or element, but it still looks like kung fu, more or less.

I think if Waldorf-inspired or Waldorf charter schools are completely devoid of Waldorf trained teachers, then I think we can safely say the religious aspect to these schools are absent. But once you start getting teachers or administrators who have studied Steiner and have been through the training, the influence of Anthroposophy can become a real issue - and in the case of public funding, a conflict of interest.

Even for a teacher who is well-aware of the dated, controversial and eccentric material that Steiner presents, I think it would be hard for that teacher to not carry that knowledge into the classroom because we were trained to do so. We were trained to see the children as choleric or phlegmatic. We talked about fairies and gnomes as very real elemental creatures that influence our world. Karma was a complicated topic with lectures on reincarnation and the effects of past lives.

To the everyday person these subject matters seem loony. And this is why so many parents are concerned about Waldorf, and why many are call it a “cult”. Trained teachers are not told to teach the children Anthroposophy, but it inevitably comes in – otherwise, why would they teach us Steiner’s spiritual science at all?

At the time of training, all of this seemed mind-boggling and rather like you are getting a glimpse into the cosmic profound. Now, I think how impressionable and open-minded I was. I wanted to believe in something, and I found it. This is not a bad thing, but ultimately it became a bad thing – for me. I didn’t fit whatever mold they thought I should be. And that shook the foundation of what I was previously taught, and I’ve never been the same since.

If, however, we took away the occult in Waldorf education, we do have a really compelling education. Back to the basics. Creative. Fun. Light. Imaginative. I think Steiner did give us something wonderful in using stories as the framework to the curriculum.

What do you think? Should Waldorf charter schools receive public funds?

Comments

  1. OMG, I find this topic so fascinating (and your book topic). We had a Waldorf in SF (of course) and I'd heard such good things about it, but was also somehwhat wary of it, but I couldn't put my finger on it as to why.

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  2. I'm glad you find it interesting! It is definitely a controversial educational system, and I'm truly looking forward to getting my story out there. Cheers ^^

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  3. I do a lot of work to do with experiential learning and skills-based approaches (recently Heathcote's 'Mantle of the Expert'), much of which Steiner was talking about years ago.

    However, there must be a disassociation between sound ideas to do with learner development (much of which is rooted in Vigotsky) and nonsensical mumbo-jumbo.

    Looking forward to your book coming out as I'm interested to know more about it as well as your personal journey through it.

    Cheers!

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  4. Thank you so much tastehitch. Appreciate the words of encouragement.

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  5. Hi Lani, I purchased your book through gumroad and I loved it! Unfortunately, the kids and parents who do not fit 'the mold' and speak up against the bullying and the 'working out karma" by letting one child bully the other -are kicked out or leave- that is the only normal and educated option. Many children do not read by grade 4- and that is taken as "it will come, because Steiner said so"...plus, nonsense like " Ahriman is hardening the soul, and the spirit is moving from the head to the chest"- when this movement will finish the child will read- and utter garbage like that. Yes, it is in the teaching, in the classroom- everywhere, this is the foundation and it harms. The ineptness of Waldorf education and schools can harm many children and in return the schools themselves- but the schools are blind to realize!

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  6. The utter garbage of letting a child be bullied by another one, because of the reincarnation/karma nonsensical belief that comes from anthroposophy - and therefore it is in every Waldorf school- is VIOLATING the most important rule of school SAFETY and COMPASSION. But parents most of the time have no idea, they do not see that the rot is coming from the school's ideological belief, because the school claims that the anthroposophycal ideas are not being brought into the classroom- but that is a stinking lie: they do all the time! So, because this is not knows by parents and it is not transparent, the parents of the children start to not like each other, sort of like "your child did this to my child" etc, but have no idea that the school lets it happen!. It is SICK! When the bullied child's parents might threaten with calling the police- if the school continues to do nothing- they are kicked out rapidly. Parents are in a state of cognitive dissonance from the disbelief- of what the heck is going on? The messages from school is different from the messages from the teacher, from the messages from their own child, that it becomes so confusing- they do not know what to do. Same thing happens, if a child is not reading in time, or math is slow. The messages from teacher and school, are very different from what their child is stating- so many parents frantically take their kids to Kumon, or Sylvain or other reading and math programs- as they realize how 'behind' their kids are, not because there is something wrong with them- oh no, that is another matter- simply because nothing properly is being taught, academically the teaching is soooo behind!. And many parents are deceiving themselves, paying money and yet nonsense is being taught- and they say "oh, it is ok, I am in it for the spiritual/emotional development"- having no idea about this means or really what they are saying, as if this kind of development happens without the brain. Even the kids who are doing ok in the Waldorf program, they are also 'behind' simply because the Waldorf curriculum is behind- research has evidence- but lots of parents are so stuck in their beliefs about what they heard from the school- that they do not ask questions, and never think twice to critically think about the info. Oh, Gregoire Perra has a fantastic 6 parts memoire on him being in Waldorf school, then became a teacher and an anthroposophists- and then could not take it anymore, he left, he wrote his memoires and so much is in that memoire. He talks about teacher bullying, one teacher being ganged upon by others, exactly like what you are saying Lani in your book, which violates for teachers the first rule of safety as well: not just children have to feel safe in a school, but teachers as well. The harm is enormous for many!

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