Steiner-Waldurf schools

[eyedrop]

What are people opinions on these schools, in 2007 there where a bit less than 1000 of them, most of them situated in Western Europe. Can't these kind of schools be yet another proof that our organisatorial principles work?

Their organisational principles fit quite well with anarchism, not suprising as they (the steiner-school group in Norway atleast) had a close relationship to the most known anarchist here, Jens Bjørneboe. (Of-course everyone knows about him, but noone knows that he was an anarchist, or even checked the names of the books he wrote) BTW if you come across any Henrik Ibsen works you should keep in mind that he leant towards anarchism.



Governance

One of Waldorf education's central premises is that all schools (not only Waldorf schools) should be both self-governing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-governance) and grant teachers a high degree of creative autonomy within the school.[34] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-FE-33)[20] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-uwe.ac.uk_RR645_1.5_Findings-19)[45] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-Unesco-44) Most Waldorf schools are not directed by a principal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal_%28school%29) or head teacher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_teacher), but rather by a number of groups, including:


The college of teachers, who decide on pedagogical issues, normally on the basis of consensus. This group is usually open to full-time teachers who have been with the school for a prescribed period of time. Each school is accordingly unique in its approach, as it may act solely on the basis of the decisions of the college of teachers to set policy or other actions pertaining to the school and its students.[30] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-IO-29) Waldorf schools have been cited for having a high level of teacher collegiality.[37] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-Ward-36)
The board of trustees, who decide on governance issues, especially those relating to school finances and legal issues.

Parents are encouraged to take an active part in non-curricular aspects of school life.[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-McDermott_etal-1) Waldorf schools have been found to create effective adult learning communities.[46] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-45)
There are coordinating bodies for Waldorf education at both the national (e.g. the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (http://www.awsna.org/) and the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (http://www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk/) in the UK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK) and Ireland (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland)) and international level (e.g. International Association for Waldorf Education (http://www.iao-waldorf.de/englisch/iao_1.htm) and The European Council for Steiner Waldorf Education (ECSWE) (http://www.ecswe.org/)). These organizations certify the use of the registered names "Waldorf" and "Steiner school" and offer accreditations, often in conjunction with regional independent school associations.[47] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-46) Some Waldorf schools are independently accredited by governmental authorities.[48] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-47)

Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education)


Here they are mostly ignored by the media or slandered as cultural elitism schools. The cultural elitism is partly true as they aren't a religious school, so they don't get government funding, and they have quite a bit of students coming from families who have been influential in Norwegian culture.

Shouldn't that say that the schools are actually much better than the state schools when the cultural elite send their children there. Can't that be said to speak for anarchist organisatorial principles? Besides they mostly beat all the state schools on most statistics too.

[ZeroNowhere]

They're certainly better than public schools. However, a school more in touch with anarchism would be a free skool ("free as in free speech, not free beer"), which shouldn't be too surprising, it was invented by an anarchist. However, I would see Steiner schools as an alternative to free skools or unschooling under socialism, and would wish to abolish the current system altogether. Of course, in the end these kinds of things would be democratically decided, though I can't imagine the kind of masochistic youth that would subject themselves to the current mainstream schooling system voluntarily.
Something that could also be effective is a Steiner school until 10-11 years old, then a free skool, though I would personally state a preference for a complete free skool, this would also be a good alternative that could pop up occasionally.
Also, if anybody calls you a 'lifestylist' (I've seen bloody anarchists do it, so...), you may feel free to cut the entire text of all three volumes of Capital into their skin. With AIDS infected needles. Also termites.

[manic expression]

That's funny, I actually went to one for two years. It's hard to explain; we had classes in stuff like gardening and handwork (sewing, felting). We did recitations of poems as a class, along with mandatory recorder-flute playing. We had recess twice a day, even up to 8th grade (in public school we stopped having recess in 5th grade or so). Also, I remember a TON of colored pencils...we decorated all our notebooks with borders and drawings (and remember this is in 8th grade). And oh yeah, we weren't graded back in the day...but I think they introduced formal grades a few years ago though.

By far, one of the wierdest parts of my time in Waldorf was Eurythmy. If you don't know what that is, just watch this and prepare to be amazed :lol::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcCvcy0zAlM

Yeah, I know, wierd as hell. Is it anarchist? No, it really really isn't. Not by a long shot. It's just alternative and earthly...the vibe you get from a group of nice Unitarians (or Wiccans). Think Emerson and Thoreau mixed with European romanticism and that's roughly what Waldorf is.

[eyedrop]

Yeah, I know, wierd as hell. Is it anarchist? No, it really really isn't. Not by a long shot. It's just alternative and earthly...the vibe you get from a group of nice Unitarians (or Wiccans). Think Emerson and Thoreau mixed with European romanticism and that's roughly what Waldorf is.

Just to clarify a bit, although my knowledge of Steiner-schools are quite limited except hearing propaganda against them for a few years at the public schools, what I meant to say was that part of the way the schools are run is quite compitable with most anarchistic theory. Namely that the teachers run the school as a councel instead of the usual way with a principal as the boss.





The college of teachers, who decide on pedagogical issues, normally on the basis of consensus. This group is usually open to full-time teachers who have been with the school for a prescribed period of time. Each school is accordingly unique in its approach, as it may act solely on the basis of the decisions of the college of teachers to set policy or other actions pertaining to the school and its students.[30] (http://www.anonym.to/?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-IO-29) Waldorf schools have been cited for having a high level of teacher collegiality.[37] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#cite_note-Ward-36)

THis seems to be somewhat close to how I can imagine a group of teachers to organise in a post-revolutionary society. (One of the possible ways)