Vowels, Tongues, Gnomes and Bullshit
August 24, 2008 08:14 PM
The summer when O turned five years old, his mother
and I started looking around for kindergartens. We
had a really nice one lined up, but some last minute
confusion led to us getting bumped to a waiting list.
We had only a few days before school started and we
desperately went looking for another school.
We made an appointment with the nearby Waldorf school. At the time, we honestly knew nothing about the school. Most new parents don’t. Often enough, the school system is uttered in the same breathe as Montessori, and both are generally considered to be progressive and alternative educational systems.
When we arrived at the school, we met a gentleman who led us to a Kindergarten classroom, painted an unusual color of peach. We were introduced to the teacher and her assistant. They then proceeded to sell us on the benefits of a Waldorf education. I’ll spare you the details, but it essentially is sold as an arts based education where individuality and creativity reign supreme.
The classroom was conspicuously devoid of certain materials, namely, plastic. Everything was made of wood or cloth. In the corner was a table with a display of natural elements, tree branches, draped cloth and little wooden statues. It seemed a pleasant enough space, and we agreed to send O to the school.
The night before school started, I attended an orientation for parents to meet the teachers at the school. Not having gone to a parent/teacher orientation before, the meeting went pretty much as I expected until the very end. The teachers asked everyone in the room to stand up and repeat the words on the back of a sheet of paper that was on everyone’s chair. Well, I was a bit taken back when I looked down and saw what could only be described as a prayer. The crowd chanted the prayer and the meeting ended.
As I was walking out, an elderly lady with a thick German accent approached me. She introduced herself as one of the teachers. When I asked her what she taught, she deflected the question and proceeded to talk about something else.
“Its all so amazing isn’t it?” She asked.
“What’s that?”
“How it is all connected. Everything.”
“How do you mean?” I asked
“Well like the sounds of the words you are speaking, they are connected to the organs in your body. The sound of the vowel E for example, that is connected to your spleen. The A, connected to the heart.”
‘Good grief.” I thought to myself. ‘I sure hope this isn’t the science teacher. What a lot of rot.”
O went to school the next day. Everything seemed fine. When he got home, he told us about his day. The class spent part of the day in a nearby grove of trees.
“What did you do there?” I asked.
“We looked for faeries and gnomes,” he said.
That night, O awoke in the middle of the night screaming. It was his first nightmare. Coincidence? Maybe. But I always remembered it because it was after that first day of school.
O went back the next day and I went to pick up O after class. I was a bit put off by the fact that all of the classrooms had curtains over the windows. You could not see in from the outside. All of the other parents waited diligently until the door finally opened and the children emerged.
Well, that night I finally had a few free minutes so I went online to learn more about Waldorf. In my searches, I came across this site. WaldorfCritics.
I’ll leave it to you to check it out. It says everything I’d like to say in this already overly long post. Essentially it provides convincing (to me) evidence that the Waldorf school system is a religious organization with a basis in the occult writings of an Austrian madman named Rudolf Steiner. Essentially, it is a cult like organization. Complete with mystical foundations and elaborate and strict rules of acceptable behavior and conduct.
I finished reading and just about had a heart attack. I told my wife about it and of course we agreed that O would never go back there again.
But I was curious. I wanted to find out more about the school myself with my new eyes.
I returned to the school the next day without O. I asked the teacher if I might sit in on the class and observe for a while. “Absolutely NOT” She insisted and actually grabbed me forcefully by the upper arm and directed me out of the classroom. ”It will disrupt our schedule and these children need regular routines.” Then she shut the door.
I slowly made my way across the school grounds. I was happy to see a 4th grade classroom that had been left open. They had gone on some outing. I quickly stepped inside. The classroom was immaculate. Every desk had a pencil on it in the same position. The violins (one for every child. They are all required to play) on the wall were hung with precision. In spite of the presence of musical instruments, everything had a sterile military feel to it. But it was when I looked up on the chalkboard that my greatest fears were confirmed.
I quickly got out a piece of paper and copied verbatim what I saw there in flowing cursive writing.
The warmth of the cow’s tongue melts a hole in the ice and a god appears. Bundi is the name of this God. The chosen one.
My heart quickened and I left the room. I ran back to the school office. I asked the secretary if I could see O’s records.
“Why?”
“Oh, I didn’t answer one of the medical questions and I have the information now.” I lied.
The secretary gave me O’s file and I sat down as if to immerse myself in some paperwork. When the secretary got involved with something else. I ran out of the office with O’s records in my hand. There was NO way I was going to let that loony bin keep these records. They had way too much personal information about our family.
We moved O to another school that week and put a stop on the check we wrote to the Waldorf school. There are so many other things that happened, but there just isn’t room enough in one post to list them all. Some of the strange things I noticed included, a set of child sized brooms on the wall outside the kindergarten class. The strange “dance” class that is taught there called Eurethmy. The fact that I could not get straight answers out of anyone who worked there. They were experts at deflecting direct questions.
There are a lot of opposing views about Waldorf on the net. I’m just telling you what my experience was. I’m sharing this with you so that you don’t make the same mistake I did. Because I am convinced...
1. The Waldorf School is a religious pagen cult.
2. They systematically mislead parents into thinking their children are part of a progressive educational system, when in fact the children are trained to stop trusting their parents and rely entirely on school leaders.
3. They do not teach a real curriculum, but mystical pseudo science, and mystical symbolism. They regularly do not teach children to read until the 3rd grade.
4. The entire curriculum is infused with the beliefs of Steiner, a man who believed he was a mystical leader and who believed it was the destiny of mankind to leave the earth in flying saucers.
How else can I say it? Waldorf is f**ked. Pure and simple. Stay the hell away from it.
And if you have found that the Waldorf system works for you, then please, stay the hell away from me.
We made an appointment with the nearby Waldorf school. At the time, we honestly knew nothing about the school. Most new parents don’t. Often enough, the school system is uttered in the same breathe as Montessori, and both are generally considered to be progressive and alternative educational systems.
When we arrived at the school, we met a gentleman who led us to a Kindergarten classroom, painted an unusual color of peach. We were introduced to the teacher and her assistant. They then proceeded to sell us on the benefits of a Waldorf education. I’ll spare you the details, but it essentially is sold as an arts based education where individuality and creativity reign supreme.
The classroom was conspicuously devoid of certain materials, namely, plastic. Everything was made of wood or cloth. In the corner was a table with a display of natural elements, tree branches, draped cloth and little wooden statues. It seemed a pleasant enough space, and we agreed to send O to the school.
The night before school started, I attended an orientation for parents to meet the teachers at the school. Not having gone to a parent/teacher orientation before, the meeting went pretty much as I expected until the very end. The teachers asked everyone in the room to stand up and repeat the words on the back of a sheet of paper that was on everyone’s chair. Well, I was a bit taken back when I looked down and saw what could only be described as a prayer. The crowd chanted the prayer and the meeting ended.
As I was walking out, an elderly lady with a thick German accent approached me. She introduced herself as one of the teachers. When I asked her what she taught, she deflected the question and proceeded to talk about something else.
“Its all so amazing isn’t it?” She asked.
“What’s that?”
“How it is all connected. Everything.”
“How do you mean?” I asked
“Well like the sounds of the words you are speaking, they are connected to the organs in your body. The sound of the vowel E for example, that is connected to your spleen. The A, connected to the heart.”
‘Good grief.” I thought to myself. ‘I sure hope this isn’t the science teacher. What a lot of rot.”
O went to school the next day. Everything seemed fine. When he got home, he told us about his day. The class spent part of the day in a nearby grove of trees.
“What did you do there?” I asked.
“We looked for faeries and gnomes,” he said.
That night, O awoke in the middle of the night screaming. It was his first nightmare. Coincidence? Maybe. But I always remembered it because it was after that first day of school.
O went back the next day and I went to pick up O after class. I was a bit put off by the fact that all of the classrooms had curtains over the windows. You could not see in from the outside. All of the other parents waited diligently until the door finally opened and the children emerged.
Well, that night I finally had a few free minutes so I went online to learn more about Waldorf. In my searches, I came across this site. WaldorfCritics.
I’ll leave it to you to check it out. It says everything I’d like to say in this already overly long post. Essentially it provides convincing (to me) evidence that the Waldorf school system is a religious organization with a basis in the occult writings of an Austrian madman named Rudolf Steiner. Essentially, it is a cult like organization. Complete with mystical foundations and elaborate and strict rules of acceptable behavior and conduct.
I finished reading and just about had a heart attack. I told my wife about it and of course we agreed that O would never go back there again.
But I was curious. I wanted to find out more about the school myself with my new eyes.
I returned to the school the next day without O. I asked the teacher if I might sit in on the class and observe for a while. “Absolutely NOT” She insisted and actually grabbed me forcefully by the upper arm and directed me out of the classroom. ”It will disrupt our schedule and these children need regular routines.” Then she shut the door.
I slowly made my way across the school grounds. I was happy to see a 4th grade classroom that had been left open. They had gone on some outing. I quickly stepped inside. The classroom was immaculate. Every desk had a pencil on it in the same position. The violins (one for every child. They are all required to play) on the wall were hung with precision. In spite of the presence of musical instruments, everything had a sterile military feel to it. But it was when I looked up on the chalkboard that my greatest fears were confirmed.
I quickly got out a piece of paper and copied verbatim what I saw there in flowing cursive writing.
The warmth of the cow’s tongue melts a hole in the ice and a god appears. Bundi is the name of this God. The chosen one.
My heart quickened and I left the room. I ran back to the school office. I asked the secretary if I could see O’s records.
“Why?”
“Oh, I didn’t answer one of the medical questions and I have the information now.” I lied.
The secretary gave me O’s file and I sat down as if to immerse myself in some paperwork. When the secretary got involved with something else. I ran out of the office with O’s records in my hand. There was NO way I was going to let that loony bin keep these records. They had way too much personal information about our family.
We moved O to another school that week and put a stop on the check we wrote to the Waldorf school. There are so many other things that happened, but there just isn’t room enough in one post to list them all. Some of the strange things I noticed included, a set of child sized brooms on the wall outside the kindergarten class. The strange “dance” class that is taught there called Eurethmy. The fact that I could not get straight answers out of anyone who worked there. They were experts at deflecting direct questions.
There are a lot of opposing views about Waldorf on the net. I’m just telling you what my experience was. I’m sharing this with you so that you don’t make the same mistake I did. Because I am convinced...
1. The Waldorf School is a religious pagen cult.
2. They systematically mislead parents into thinking their children are part of a progressive educational system, when in fact the children are trained to stop trusting their parents and rely entirely on school leaders.
3. They do not teach a real curriculum, but mystical pseudo science, and mystical symbolism. They regularly do not teach children to read until the 3rd grade.
4. The entire curriculum is infused with the beliefs of Steiner, a man who believed he was a mystical leader and who believed it was the destiny of mankind to leave the earth in flying saucers.
How else can I say it? Waldorf is f**ked. Pure and simple. Stay the hell away from it.
And if you have found that the Waldorf system works for you, then please, stay the hell away from me.
. . . . . . . . . .