PN said (June 21, 2010):

I too had a bad experience working at a Waldorf school. I was not able to meet the expectations of the faculty and the parents and was asked to leave. This was a very painful experience for me and I was very angry. But now I'd have to say that most of the people I've met working at Waldorf schools are really just trying to do the right thing. They are characterized by sensitivity, thoughtfulness, idealism, and an astounding work ethic. Some are small minded and some are a bit scary. Some really do approach Anthroposophy and Waldorf in a cultish way. I can see how the Waldorf schools could be an attractive place for anyone interested in incorporating a spiritual dimention into education, and that could certainly include a lot of strange people. But even if there are many unstable or immoral people connected to the Waldorf movement, would that really set it apart from any other organization? The Waldorf educational philosophy is an ideal that is as subject to curruption as any other, but to make an intelligent judgement, one should examine closely that ideal. As far as I can see, Waldorf education strives to use all the insight and information possible to best facilitate the healthy development ultimately of a free and moral adult. The insights and information ought to include all the latest research and theories as well as traditional wisdom, insights from any and all spiritual traditions, and especially the faculties' unbiased judgments. Those concepts that further the schools' aims are to be incorporated as much as possible into a cohesive whole. Insofar as the methods arrived at conflict with legality or custom, compromise and balance is to be sought. At all times, faculty members should strive against sectarianism.

This is a herculean task so I think we should forgive faculties for leaning a bit too heavily on traditions and suggestions from Rudolf Steiner. As another responder has said, most schools around today fall short of their goal as did the original pilot school in Stuttgart. But the aim, I think, is a worthy one and should not be dismissed because of any number of bad experiences.

James said (June 8, 2010):

Thanks to you and your friend there for making this article...creepily enough public education in the negative about these dens of spiritual
decay is almost non-existent, their wikipedia article, for instance, reads likea a pamphlet from their PR department (and wikipedia has
summarily upheld this non-neutral point of view, which should speak volumes of who's side they're on.). I have the unfortunate experience
of having attended one such waldorf school myself the experience was rather bad on the whole...that is to say you could physically assault
other students in front of the teachers and it was a stretch to even get a verbal reprimand (non-discrimination "positiveness" policy)
myself being on the recieving end of that. The peculier curriculum was also sub-par, in this particular case, half of the school day was
devoted to two classes, one of speaking german, and another of knitting, and both were "enforced silence" with bathroom breaks strictly discouraged...2 hours a piece of each. In the german class, you were greatly discouraged from speaking english, and could not obtain a pass for the restroom unless you did so in german, and don't even get me started on the knitting class, yeah as if that wasn't an effeminate class to say the least.

During my unfortunate term there, I took note of several odd things aside from those being that a few of the children of the younger
classes seemed to have a strange attraction to pretending that the devil won in fights with god etc. Another thing that occured was a
celebration of something they called "michaelmas" which I now recognise as patently offensive angel-worship with a hefty ammount of
neo-gnostic malarky thrown in for good measure...suffice to say I tried to be as non-particpatory as I could get away with...which, in
stark contrast to the lack of any form of discipline in other areas, seemed to be strictly enforced, being a "team player" and such.
Lastly, it goes without saying that some of the students that attended should have gone to a correctional facility, this is the only school
where on a field trip I was presented with a death threat from another very unstable student; and here's the kicker, for this "privilege" of
attending such a "prestigious" private school, the fee was 400 U.S.

Dollars a month...Thankfully I was able to quit the school after my dad witnessed firsthand the student's sociopathic behavior since, you
know, taking me at my word obviously was not an option as I was known to "hate school".

Alasdair said (June 7, 2010):

Longtime fan but i'm compelled to write after reading "Alice Shapiro"'s subjective Steiner expose.

Both of my kids go to Waldorf schools and though initially sceptic of the
entire waldorf *scene* i can honestly say that sending my kids there, rather than to a state indoctrination center is the best decision i've made as regards their *education*. Each child is encouraged as to their abilities/interests, there is no attempt to force square kids into round holes as is compulsory when trying to create a homogenic workforce capable of manning conveyer belts in factories.

The bottom line: One is encouraged to THINK as opposed to simple memorization and repition of whatever the designated (by the state) curriculum happens to be.

Languages (english, german & french) are taught by native speakers from
primary one onwards, as well as extensive vegetable & herb gardens and eurythmics.

As a whole, the steiner concept furthers and nurtures their understanding of the world in accordance with natural cosmic laws.

I am glad that my kids are introduced to subjects such as Vedic mathematics, Prof. Dr Hans Jenny's (ex-waldorf teacher!!) Field of cymatics and Schauberger's works on water vortices, schumann's resonance, Keppler's astronomy and Riemann's geometry.

Corey2 said (June 7, 2010):

Thanks for posting my response. I can't tell you how affirming it is to, on the one hand, read James and myself describe what we went through at that hellish school and, on the other, hear the anthroposophists drone on about "Christ Consciousness" rather than offering the faintest glimmer of remorse or sympathy for what we, as children, went through.

Reading these posts makes me feel saner.

Carol said (June 7, 2010):

Beware of the power of Devil, Henry - watch that you are not currently blindly serving Lucifer in the stance you are assuming - for if you ask me, you do have no choice but to know what Anthroposophy is really all about – and hopefully you will come to know that without it's concepts, you will have no means for equipping yourself with what you will ultimately need for a deeper study on the THEME which interests so well.

Anthroposophy, if rightly understood allows the only natural, direct chance at knowing the Christ Spirit at a more refined, spiritual level. (Supernatural encounters are rare, limited and somewhat harsh on the physical organism.)

As well, in the absense of a renewed intimate quality of companionship with the spiritual PRESENCE of Christ, at the soul level yet with increased conscious awareness, you WILL be left forlorn of the necessary reassurance and direction needed to face the demands of our day: which involve distinguishing when and how it can happen that Lucifer ( and Ahriman) manage so slyly to trick and play circles around not only you but most our honest brethren.

For the demands of our day require that the battle against the forces of evil must necessarily be fought at the occult level – because the Dark Brotherhoods are already well established there - yet they hope that the majority remain ignorant of this. Thus, they encourage ridicule of Anthroposophy as if it were something dangerous and 'demonic'.

My goodness Henry - please consider praying to the Christ Spirit for
assistance (and I will for you also) so as to approach Anthroposophical truths with courage. But I can assure you of this, that Lucifer
is more than ready to keep you 'on his side' - yet at the same time, as you must well know, Christ and his angels are always 'there' to guide His children along His path.

Did you know Henry, that the Christ Spirit has some serious work happening these days and that Anthroposophy is assisting some of us at consciously witnessing and facilitating little bits of it ?

Rixon (of Truthseeker.co.uk) said (June 6, 2010):

Steiner heavily influenced my own teachers and I have no doubt about their integrity. However, they did question that of others who taught Steiner's work. So the fault may not be in the original teaching but in HOW IT IS INTERPERATED AND TAUGHT. Steiner's teaching is advanced and esoteric and consequently highly vulnerable to being twisted, as happens to most authentic religious teachings, let alone an esoteric one like Steiner's.

Moreover, the writer fails to make a crucial distinction on the relation between Christ, Lucifer and Ahriman.

Steiner taught that Lucifer and Ahriman (otherwise known as Satan) both found expression in mankind's activity. There is however a critical third force, the Christ force, which brings balance and the potential to render the forces of Lucifer and Ahriman to humanities benefit.

I should add that one of my teachers who had been head of the Rudolf Steiner organisation in London visited me one night after she had passed on from this physical realm. In other words she appeared before me after she had died. For me this effectively confirmed much of what she taught while alive.

Finally to claim that: "Racism and discrimination are prevalent in Steiner's" work reveals a truly profound ignorance. Steiner taught that in earlier epochs various races had pioneered man's spiritual evolution, at one time or another different groups would take the lead. Right now and for the foreseeable future the white race are predominate at the forefront of spiritual evolution. But that could change with changing circumstances and the emergence of new racial types.

The writer's ignorance is further underlined by the fact that Steiner taught that over time we incarnate in various races to complete our spiritual education. That is hardly a "racist" teaching.

Bruce said (June 6, 2010):

Your posting these hystrical diatribes against the work of Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy and Waldor Schools is quite an unfortunate demonstration one whom is allowing his own impotent emotional makeup to allow himself to become a slave to the promotion of an agenda of lies whose only benefit is to help keep mankind enslaved.

Obviously you have no understanding of Rudolf Steiner's work. If you did you would not be promoting such poison on your website with such Christ hating pharisees. This though is on par with your paranoic's undertanding of spirituality. As such you are not a free person, but still haunted by your own castration, which was not caused by Rudolf Steiner. It is your fear of Steiner that is symptomatic of your enslavement, which through your column you try to combat, and with often good insight.

The fact of the matter is that I suggest you come to understand Steiner by reading through his Philosophy of Freedom, the basis for all of his work. Recognize and study his work as regards reviving , or rather discovering the epistimological method contained within Goethe's scientific approach. Also understand the true nature of his battles with the Theosophical Society. Recognize that his understanding of the Christ and his conception of evil obsessional forces confronting mankind and the indvidual, where indeed the philosophical method of the Philosophy of Freedom does provide the seed for the truth of the Christ freedom as a dignity of moral freedom and maturity.

Sadly attacking the Waldorf School's is unfortuante in that these are perhaps the closest place to get a 'Classical Eductation" on the planet now. To define a classical education you would have to reference the work of Lyndon LaRouche and his collegues. They though do not have an unbiased understanding of Steiner, but that is from a short sited ignorance.

Now this is not to say that , Steiner Anthroposophy and Waldorf are not
open to critique and question, or have been infiltrated, but the scummy
articles that you have posted on the subject are quite worthless pieces of pure propagandistic drivel.

Corey said (June 6, 2010):

I was a student at Waldorf for many years and cannot overemphasize how utterly damaging that system is to a child. I was completely unprepared for high school and university because, instead of teaching history, Waldorf taught mythology; instead of sciences, I learned about the four elements;

I learned about the fairies, elves and dwarfs living in trees and rocks; how wooden toys are good and plastic toys are evil; that beeswax crayons are more holy and pure than commercial crayons; that watercolors are a truer, more spiritual medium of art than oil-based paints.

When I was sick in bed with pneumonia, instead of taking me to an actual doctor, my "anthroposophist" mother (cult member of Anthroposophy) took me to the "naturopath" doctor (Naturopathy began with, you guessed it, Steiner and Anthroposophy). He prescribed some little herbal pills that were placed under my tongue and allowed to dissolve... along with lemon slices on my feet to "purify" my "aetheric body" as it returned from the "spirit world" while I slept... (you see, when you fall asleep, something called your "aetheric body" leaves your physical body through the top of your head, and before you wake, it returns through your feet).

A priest with the so-called "Christian Community" (anthroposophical version of church), and his wife, were foster-parents to an autistic boy who they kept cooped up in a basement that reeked of mildew, while their natural children lived in bright and sunny rooms. They were horrible to that boy.

There was also this time where one of our teachers who was, frankly, a man of high repute in the anthroposophic community, led a meditation group in our home. While he was leading the meditation - and everyone had their eyes closed - he was twirling his finger inside a narrow glass (I think it was a glass) in a very sexual manner... while speaking about fairies, Arch Angels, the "akashik record", or whatever. This one had quite a reputation amongst the single mothers at the school.

A mother at the Waldorf school took showers with her sons when they turned the age of 12 or 13... for whatever reason.

Another family were nudists... parents and children just crusin' around the house nude.

Many of the children at the school were sexual. I'm not talking about curiosity or playing doctor. We all knew about fallacio, intercourse, etc... and many were doing it at very young ages. I thought it was normal (of course, not normal enough to tell my family about). I now assume it's not.

The abuse children endured at that school... one child was misbehaving, so the teacher "creatively" improvised by making a smallish leash, and tied the child to a desk for the remainder of the class...

as James said, classes in Waldorf are long. Another girl misbehaved, and another teacher grabbed her by both shoulders and slammed her against the gym wall - like breath-knocked-out-of-her slammed.

Rumors of sexual abuse abounded. Teacher turnover was unbelievably quick - in a school where the same teacher is supposed to be with the same class from Grades 1 through 9. The teachers that stayed were, in my humble experience, hysterical crazies and abusers of the first magnitude.

A big thank you to James for reminding me how the teachers wouldn't allow us to go to the washroom... because, until you mentioned it, I couldn't remember why I was so terrified to ask for permission when I went into junior high school.

After leaving Waldorf, I was so behind on math and English that I had to spend a few lunch hours a week with some GREAT public school teachers who taught me basic grammar. As an adult, unraveling the lies and false belief systems taught by waldorf, anthroposophy, and naturopathy is a never-ending battle. They hammer that superstitious nonsense so hard into your soul that, well, it's a wonder any kids make it out without PTSD (if any do). I was totally unprepared for the world or modern society and I thank Steiner, my mother, and the cult of anthroposophy for a great deal of my adulthood challenges. "Hate" isn't strong enough a word for how I feel about it all.

Charles said (June 6, 2010):

I think on balance that nearly anything institutionalized in modern culture is overtly or covertly satanic since modern culture is itself satanic. From our corporations, to our schools, to our churches, to our idols in music, arts, etc we see a demonic evil manifesting-not light bearing Lucifer the morning star.

Steiner was a man of his era in Germany. A Romanticist who broke with Theosophy over Krishnamurti being the reincarnated world teacher. A man who was entranced by Goethe and the Occult as well.

To understand Steiner best we need to see his contemporaries and understand the ferment in the German speaking world with the rapid advancement of what was thought to be accurate knowledge about the past...however Romantic and irrational it may seem.

Like other institutions that have come down to us Steinerism has been modified by her followers.

John said (June 6, 2010):

"Is Steiner's Anthroposophy a Satanic Cult?" You have got to be kidding. I am not a member of Anthroposophy, but I has been reading Steiner's works for over 35 years & have over 300 of his books, many of them are lectures put in book form. I also have about 100 volumes from other Anthroposophists. Every volume & lecture that Steiner put out was about a deeper, more esoteric understanding of Christ & his mission, & also understanding the influence of the Spiritual Hierarchies & the Spiritual Beings that are part of the Hierarchies. Some of those Beings & their followers are indeed very negative toward Humanity. But Steiner NEVER said that you should worship those Beings, but simply be aware that they exist. So someone better tell Alice Shapiro to educate herself by reading a lot of Steiner books, because right now, she is totally clueless.

James said (June 6, 2010):

I have the unfortunate experience of having attended one such Waldorf school myself the experience was rather bad on the whole...that is to say you could physically assault other students in front of the teachers and it was a stretch to even get a verbal reprimand (non-discrimination "positiveness" policy) myself being on the receiving end of that. The peculiar curriculum was also sub-par, in this particular case, half of the school day was
devoted to two classes, one of speaking German, and another of knitting, and both were "enforced silence" with bathroom breaks strictly discouraged...2 hours a piece of each.

During my unfortunate term there, I took note of several odd things...a few of the children of the younger classes seemed to have a strange attraction to pretending that the devil won in fights with god etc. Another thing that occurred was a celebration of something they called "Michaelmas" which I now recognize as patently offensive angel-worship with a hefty amount of
neo-gnostic malarky thrown in for good measure...suffice to say I tried to be as non-participatory as I could get away with...which, in
stark contrast to the lack of any form of discipline in other areas, seemed to be strictly enforced, being a "team player" and such.

Lastly, it goes without saying that some of the students that attended should have gone to a correctional facility...and here's the kicker, for this "privilege" of attending such a "prestigious" private school, the fee was 400 U.S.
Dollars a month...Thankfully I was able to quit the school after my dad witnessed firsthand a student's sociopathic behavior since, you
know, taking me at my word obviously was not an option as I was known to "hate school".