The Imperfect Community

Shrimp&Grits · Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2003 1:07 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

I'm starting to research schools for my almost four year old. Does anyone know anything about Waldorf schools? The one I'm starting to research is a charter school.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 12:54 am Post subject: Waldorf School

I've heard there is a certain religion involved...and that's all I've heard. Sorry couldn't really be more help!

Scout · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 2:48 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

No, it's not a religious thing. It's a school of thought that relies heavily on the "Magical Child" idea. It stresses open-ended play and creativity over rote memorization and learning. A lot of Waldorf folks believe that too much early exposure to reading and books can inhibit creativity by ordering the child's thought along that type of symbolic thinking (letters and words). I like it for preschool, but some of the stuff is pretty far out there. I think that like Montessori schools, the individual schools can vary greatly in the way they use the ideas. I love the idea of charter schools, too.

Elizabeth · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 11:41 am Post subject: Waldorf School

I read some things about it, and found some of the ideas to be intriguing, but was ultimately turned off by how much Rudolf Steiner, the founder, is revered, even venerated. He did found a quasi-religion called antropromorphism, which, among other things, holds that there are four elements (water, fire, earth, and air). I think there was something about the sun being a god, and not metaphorically speaking, either. There's too much of the "true beliver" mentality for me.

There's a book called "You are your child's first teacher" that was interesting. I decided to take what I liked from it and forget the rest.

Rebecca_R · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 12:35 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

Elizabeth, did you ever read about him being a nazi sympathizer? I thought I heard that somewhere too...

prescott · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 3:01 pm Post subject: Re: Waldorf School

Jessica · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 3:31 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

It's absolutely religious. In fact, there have been lawsuits against the funding of these schools because they hide the fact that they really are a religion. The Waldorph philosophy is all about reincarnation and karma and the teachers have to be become masters of it's importance. Christ is said to be the sun, literally, and they view education as something that is inside of a person. The teachings focus much upon encouraging the inner knowledge to come out and denial of parental and mainstream teachings.

I just love it... Rolling Eyes

.

Personally, if I were to send my kids to private schools, I would pick a totally non-secular academy, but that's just me. I think private schools are great, but see them as impractical because of the expense. If you add the tuition to your mortgage, you could probably live anywhere and go to the best schools anyway. At least that's my take on it.

Shrimp&Grits · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 11:29 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

I haven't been to the school yet, and have done NO research. I'm like a chicken with my head cut off here. I barely have time to pee. This does get easier, right? All I know is the school isn't a traditional Waldorf school, it's loosely based on the style of teaching. It's a public charter school. I'm just starting to feel out different schools and their approach to education. Attie is going to miss the cut off for public school kindergarten next year by two months. I just don't know if it would be fair to him to keep him out of school for a whole other year and have him start when he's going on six. I don't know what to do. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole process. I don't want to send him away yet, but feel it wouldn't be fair to keep him home beyond next year. Ugh. Can he just stay 3 for a few more years??

honeybee · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 3163

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 5:56 am Post subject: Waldorf School

Alex missed the cutoff by two months, too. His birthday is in November, and you had to be 5 by Sept 1st for kindergarten. I think it's a good thing to be an older kid in class, but yeah, I think you should get Attie into something this next year to prepare him for kindergarten.

I say skip worrying about the names of the schools, because each school is going to vary and be individual--just go look at schools and see what you like.

prescott · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 7:51 am Post subject: Re: Waldorf School

DietCokeHead · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 3805

Most of my class is going on 6 now. I have a handful of them that were still 4 when school started though, our cutoff is Sept 30th. Some of my new 5 year olds are better prepared than the almost 6 year olds, so who knows!

Elizabeth · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 1:00 pm Post subject: Re: Waldorf School

Scout · Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2004 4:50 pm Post subject: Re: Waldorf School

Shrimp&Grits · Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2004 5:19 pm Post subject: Waldorf School

We got pretty freaked out by some of the Waldorf stuff we learned though the internet and talking to Waldorf parents. Our children will never go to one. The children have to ask the gnomes permission to enter the forest, teachers don't interfere when a student is being picked on or bullied because they all have little angels on their shoulders, math class uses counting gnomes and fairies, and tons of other stuff like that. There is definitely a religious aspect to the teaching. It's almost wiccan, imo.