Judge Steiner by the results
I'VE read with interest two reports/comments regarding the opening of a Steiner School in Exeter.
I, and both my brothers, were educated at Steiner schools and have gone on to diverse occupations, my older brother is a qualified builder, working both in the UK and Australia, my younger is currently working in Vietnam, running a school of English with more than 300 pupils. I worked for years in IT, first running IT training courses and latterly managing the training division of a national UK computer company – I now also run summer schools for foreign students learning English.
I have had contact with many of my old classmates and the list of what they have done in their lives is diverse.
For example: A designer (designed for Swatch Watches), an eye specialist, an architect, a sales and marketing manager, a teacher of physically and mentally handicapped children, a manager of their own travel company, a helicopter pilot, a manager of a music company in America, a promoter of popular music in the UK, a deputy head of sector for the European Medicine Agency and an actor. These are just some the ones with whom I have had contact.
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The various misconceptions about Steiner education are vast. His ideas on teaching are based on the growth of the child, the building of individuals and the giving of self confidence to become what one wants to be, while maintaining a balanced view of the world. Children are encouraged to think for themselves and to form their own opinions on everything in life, to be receptive to new and varied ideas, but at no point are they told what to think. Science is as much part of the curriculum as the arts. Because of the timing with which subjects are introduced, if you tested a seven-year-old at a Steiner school against one in "main stream" education, they would not have the same knowledge, but test them at the age of 14 and you would find that pupils from Steiner schools would have a much broader and more varied knowledge, which included all the basics as prescribed by the Education Department.
I fully endorse the opening of a Steiner Academy in Exeter and to those people who oppose it on the grounds of his belief in the "occult", I would suggest they look at existing Steiner schools and the people who have come from these before they make unqualified remarks about the education and what it does or does not do.
Lilias Hill
(by email)
Comments
by clover321
Sunday, July 01 2012, 9:45AM
“I am quite worried that people think that the direct quotes from Steiner himself, as quoted by lecanardnoir, are acceptable. Ok, so some of the people educated this was have done well for themselves, but so did many of the people I went to comprehensive school with. The fact that Steiner educated children get good jobs is not the only factor. This sort of principle behind learning is immoral in my opinion - they have the right to be taught facts.”
by lecanardnoir
Friday, June 29 2012, 10:31PM
“I would suggest that Lilias actually read Steiner and his assertions on education. It is mindblowing, occult barmpottery.
e.g. on the demonic possession of children,
""That little girl L.. in the first grade must have something very wrong inside. There is not much we can do. Such cases are increasing in which children are born with a human form, but are not really human beings in relation to their highest I [the highest element of one's spiritual being]; instead, they are filled with beings that do not belong to the human class. Quite a number of people have been born since the [1890s] without an I, that is, they are not reincarnated, but are human forms filled with a sort of natural demon. There are quite a large number of older people going around who are actually not human beings, but only natural; they are human beings only in regard to their form. We cannot, however, create a school for demons."
On science,
"With the students, we should at least try to...make it clear that, for instance, an island like Great Britain swims in the sea and is held fast by the forces of the stars. In actuality, such islands do not sit directly upon a foundation; they swim and are held fast from outside."”
by abswindell
Friday, June 29 2012, 12:32PM
“Those who want to know more about former Steiner pupils such as Lilias and her brothers should visit the Steiner Waldorf Schools' Fellowship website: http://tinyurl.com/82wcgyn . From PFA footballer of the year Robin van Persie to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg via household names such as Jennifer Aniston and Carrie Mulligan they appear to be making their mark in the world. And remember the amazing light show that lit up Buckingham Palace during the Jubilee concert? Guess which kind of school the technical brains behind all that attended?
Alan Swindell. Steiner Academy Exeter project team.”