Why are Steiner schools so controversial?
A
Last week, Newsnight ran a report on the 30 or so private Steiner
schools that showed how different they are from anything else. The schools are
known for being playful and hippyish. But we revealed the contents of two memos
from the Department for Education (DfE) on complaints about bullying in the
private Steiner schools – also known as Waldorf schools or Steiner Waldorf
schools – and concerns about racism. The Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF) responded by saying “Our schools do
not tolerate racism” and “bullying is not tolerated by our schools and all our
schools have strong anti-bullying policies”.
B
Some people also tweeted me to praise their Steiner education.
As our report made clear, the issues are not ubiquitous in Steiner schools. None of the reports concerns any of
the three, open state Steiner schools. But Steiner schools could be susceptible
to these problems. That is because of the particular views of Rudolf Steiner,
the intellectual father of Steiner schools. The ideas are based in a belief in
reincarnation. Or, for example, the Steiner curriculum’s focused on a late
start to learning is driven by the pace at which souls incarnate.
C
Steiner himself believed illnesses in our current lives could be
explained by problems in the previous ones. And in overcoming illnesses with a
root in a previous life, individuals could gain “reinforced power” and improve
their “karma”. That may help explain the Steiner school attitude to
vaccination. The Health Protection Agency used to note that Steiner schools ought to be considered “unvaccinated
populations” for measles.
D
The DfE memos report a complaint that a teacher allowed violence
among children for karmic reasons. Steiner was, by any modern definition, a
racist. He believed each race had a geographical location where they should
live – black people in Europe were “a nuisance”. There was also a hierarchy
in races; a soul with good karma could hope to be reincarnated into a race
which is higher up in the hierarchy. But some of the ideas have polluted some
Steiner schools. The SWSF was “horrified” by our report on a training day at a
private Steiner school, which had been triggered
by a real issue around racism. Four white teachers, asked to tick a box giving their ethnicity,
ticked every box.
E I
am not clear why Steiner Schools are not considered faith schools. It is
not clear whether all Steiner schools are more focused on improving children’s
life chances for this life or the next. Lots of Steiner schools, and the SWSF,
believe they have got past these problems with Steiner’s work. They have taken
something from his ideas without the problematic parts.
Adjusted to (1)
ubiquitous – všudypřítomný
nuisance – nepřístojnost
trigger – spustit
tick – odškrtnout
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Steiner school students aren’t vaccinated
2 Reports on Steiner
Waldorf schools
3 Problems with racism
4 Steiner school affirm they have overcome the
problems
5 The ideas of Waldorf schools are based in a
belief in reincarnation
2) Read the
article and answer the questions.
1 What are Steiner schools like?
2 Who was Rudolf Steiner? What were his opinions?
3 What were his controversial ideas?
4 How is the idea of reincarnation
included in curriculum?
5 How do Steiner
Waldorf Schools describe themselves?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 strong anti-bullying policies
2 praise their Steiner education
3 measles
4 faith schools
5 focused on improving children’s life chances
4) Answer the following questions.
What is Waldorf school? What is the program like? What
are other types of alternative education? What are their positives and
negatives? What is the difference between alternative and usual type of
education?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
COOK,
Chris. Why are Steiner schools so controversial? BBC News [online].
2014 [cit. 2015-09-21]. Available at:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-28646118
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