Rudolf Steiner Schools

[5h1f7y]

My daughter is turning 3 this year and as such my wife and i have started to look into the all important question of education for our gorgeous girl.

My wife and i both attended public schools throughout our childhood and i wasn't really considering a private school for my kids. Mainly because they usually have some sort of religious background and i am athiest and had terrible experiences with the catholic church in my younger years.

My mum suggested the Rudolf Steiner School's and their unique approach to teaching children.

Does anyone send their children to the Steiner schools? If so how do the kids like it and are you happy with your choice?

Any information on your experience with the Rudolf Steiner education system would be greatly appreciated.

 

[galumay]

We dont have a Steiner school here and so our boy attends the local primary. I have spent a bit of time in steiner schools, and friends have put all their kids thru them and I would certainly favourably consider it if we had one here.

I really like their approach, and the encouragement of the creative side of kids, but I would say that IMO the most important thing is to provide a loving and supportive home environment that encourages your child to learn, be free with your praise for their efforts, build their self esteem, teach them to love themselves, teach them respect for others and a healthy scekpitism for authourity, encourage them to try to do the things they think they cant - and cuddle them when they fail. Do all of that and it wont matter which school you send them to, fail to do it and it also and the best school in the world wont fix it!

 

[Christo]

I've looked into this before, there are some appealing things about Steiner schools but the recent issues reported out of Maribyrnong are a concern to me.

In one case, a child was held back a year, the reason given to the parent was that because the child always drew himself from above, his sould had not entered his body yet and was therefore not mature enough.

Here's the article.

He has withdrawn both his boys from the stream and the school, citing a range of concerns that culminated with a teacher's assessment of his younger son.

"She thought his soul wasn't fully incarnated yet, which was strange thing for me to hear at a parent-teacher interview," he said.

"And then she pulled out some drawings that he'd done which showed him, I guess, looking down, like a plan view of what he was drawing.

"And she used this as evidence that his soul was hovering over the earth and looking down on the earth and so, therefore, she felt that he wasn't quite ready to move into the following year."

Now this is just one example and like any teaching method, it has supporters and detractors.

At least traditional education methods are a bit more empirical in their methods.

 

[Tomas]

I had two friends who attended Steiner schools, both detested their time there.

That is all.

 

[Mattydv]

I had two friends who attended Steiner schools, both detested their time there.

That is all.

Likewise, we've had family friends who've had kids that've gone through the Steiner system and performed very poorly academically, yet upon changing to public they excelled. It is a system that only suits some individuals imo, however for those few that it does work for it has the potential to let them excel like few other learning environments could.

My advice is to not disregard private schools whether they may or may not have a religious background. I went to a highly religious high school for my first few years and despite being raised scientifically (and so an athiest) it did not impede on my learning or experiences going through high school. If anything it taught me tolerance and a level of understanding as I was able to interact with people that I would ordinarily not come into contact with.

I know it's very early in your girls life, but later down the track if she is inquisitive and wants to learn I believe she will regardless of the environment.

 

[wombat]

The only real contact I've had with the program was through some people who had come from Steiner schools, and some parents I met who had their kids in the program.

The parents I met left, um... a pretty lasting impression. They were big believers in the school and were more than happy to spruik it at any and every oppurtunity; I'm guessing because we met in a design situation they figured it was relevant (creativity and all that). In short though, they were fucking space cadets. I'd never suggest judging a whole teaching program on the impression of such a small sample size, but bloody hell, just having to interact with these ladies was enough to put me off the thought of having anything to do with Steiner schools.

 

[pin'd_it]

My advice is to not disregard private schools whether they may or may not have a religious background. I went to a highly religious high school for my first few years and despite being raised scientifically (and so an athiest) it did not impede on my learning or experiences going through high school. If anything it taught me tolerance and a level of understanding as I was able to interact with people that I would ordinarily not come into contact with.

I agree. I went to an anglican private school through my years 7-12 and while there was a religious side (namely a christian studies/religion lesson and a 30 minute chapel service once a week) it was very small and they never made any attempts to alter our beliefs. I was raised with no religious beliefs and i take an agnostic view around the whole 'god' idea, and i found that the only people in my year who the school really reached on a religious level where those that had a religious background within their family. However it deffinetly gave me, as Mattydv said, a level of understanding and tolerance. I think it is important to gain an appreciation for others views and beliefs.

Also, I found the level of support given was fantastic and the teachers were (for the best part) first class. If you needed help, it was always provided and there were also many other services that we could make use of.

It may seem like i am trying to 'sell' private schools to you, but i am only trying to give you another perspective.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[stringbean]

I agree. I went to an anglican private school through my years 7-12 and while there was a religious side (namely a christian studies/religion lesson and a 30 minute chapel service once a week) it was very small and they never made any attempts to alter our beliefs. I was raised with no religious beliefs and i take an agnostic view around the whole 'god' idea, and i found that the only people in my year who the school really reached on a religious level where those that had a religious background within their family. However it deffinetly gave me, as Mattydv said, a level of understanding and tolerance. I think it is important to gain an appreciation for others views and beliefs.

Also, I found the level of support given was fantastic and the teachers were (for the best part) first class. If you needed help, it was always provided and there were also many other services that we could make use of.

It may seem like i am trying to 'sell' private schools to you, but i am only trying to give you another perspective.

Good luck with your decision.

had the same experiance at the school i was at, had to do a religion subject, but it was more learning about it than trying to make us believers and go to church every sunday morning.

Both my parents are public school teachers, mum would have been happy for me to go to her school (primary), dad would never of sent me to the high school he was teaching at, but were considering sending me to a different public highschool.

in my opinion, it depends on the other students, not the money you pay or the teachers that are there on how well the children do.

 

[wespelarno]

I haven't heard a huge number of positive things about the Steiner/waldorf schools, so here are my experiences through friends and family

It does seem to suit a very select few individuals. Straight up, it does suit some people. BUT, that is often because other systems don't suit them at all for one reason or another.

There isn't a huge amount of structure to the education, and while it is important to fuel creativity in combination with education, there is some stuff you do just have to sit down and learn. Fueling creativity seems to often come at the expense of rigourous education.

The other offshoot of a somewhat unstructured education is lack of motivation. In a lot of schools the kids self direct-if a 5 year old wants to do puzzles all day, or play with playdough, or do whatever, they philosphy deems that the child is in a critical stage of learning where they will benefit from whichever activity they are doing. This is fine in early years, but later on, if the child doesn't want to do any more maths (and wants to go play soccer etc), they don't have to do any more maths as they obviously aren't in a the critical learning stage for maths. There is no drive nor pressure to finish anything, which becomes an issue later in life.

I've seen similair people to Wombat, swore Steiner schools were the greatest thing on earth, but they had named their kid some etherial name that actualy translated to bubblegum in arabic.

 

['Ross]

I used to play sports with a few kids who attended one of these schools about 5 years ago, I had never heard of them and after being around these kids/listening to their description of going there I assumed it was some crazy cult school.

They were all good guys, but struggled to grasp a lot of things that were normal for other people our age, I guess the best way to describe them was 'sheltered'. They were also all emotionally fragile, if they got sledged or made fun of it wouldn't be uncommon for them to cry, and they also often spat the dummy....this may have been coincidental but I always associated it with their education.

They said they enjoyed their school and bragged about not doing any 'real' work and not doing VCE, they had a very naive attitude in this regard.

Now I know absolutely nothing about these schools besides what these few guys told me, and I put it in the same basket as scientology, now they seem more popular and well regarded to a degree, it would be interesting to know what happened to those guys 5 years on, but I know none of them would have gone to university and I think one went to a private school to re-do VCE in a more regular setting.

 

[rabatt]

the only kid i know who went to a steiner school was (and still is as far as a know) a self centred brat, but that may have been more to do with his upbringing, though his mothers veiw of raising kids was pretty similar to the steiner philosophy anyway.

I (and about half of my freinds) were home schooled, with mixed results, some of my freinds ended up going to oxford uni and graduating with top honors, others as far as i know are on the dole and spend most of there time drunk or stoned...

gulamay is on the money.

 

[Mattydv]

some of my freinds ended up going to oxford uni and graduating with top honors

...aren't you like, 17?

 

[Purt]

I've had a few friends go there then move across into the public school system. I've noted 2 things.

1. They didn't like their time there.

2. Academically basically all 3 of them were at a grade 2 level in grade 7.


As a result of them having such a bad first 4 years at Steiner and not learning all that much on Maths or English. 2 of them got pissed off at school because they just couldn't work out basic sums and were always quite behind on what we were doing (Part the public schools systems fault but they did have a teacher come and do 1 on 1 lessons with them to try and get them to catch up)

By Grade 8 those 2 had gotten quite heavily involved in drugs and by Grade 9 they had both dropped out and not working just into drugs.


After seeing anybody who went there that I knew change that much academically I would never think of sending my kid there (if I had one).

 

[rabatt]

...aren't you like, 17?

haha i act like it sometimes but i'm actualy nearly 21...

 

[wespelarno]

So i talked to one of my friends who went to one today, and she said they put butterfly stickers on everything. By the time she left she was so so sick of seeing every piece of everything covered in butterflies.

 

[thecat]

I had two friends who attended Steiner schools, both detested their time there.

That is all.

Same, my mrs was sold the idea from somewhere until she talked to exstudents..... Hard to find 1 who thought the experience was a good thing


bit of an article here from a "Stiener Dad"
http://goodreasonblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/rational-look-at-steiner-schools.html

Makes a good point about parental input....

 

[pinkgoat]

My daughter is turning 3 this year and as such my wife and i have started to look into the all important question of education for our gorgeous girl.

My wife and I both attended public schools throughout our childhood and i wasn't really considering a private school for my kids. Mainly because they usually have some sort of religious background and i am athiest and had terrible experiences with the catholic church in my younger years.

Err, What's wrong with a public school?

Is the religion the only thing deterring you from a private school? That seems a bit narrow minded if you're going to the extreme of considering such a (radical) alternative. If you want the best for your 'gorgeous girl' then clearly the extra opportunites potentially available at private schools should not get in the way of your bitterness to a particular religion (there are non-catholic private schools too, you know).

For a child of such a young age, it may be ideal to send them to a local school, ie. keep them with playgroup/childcare friends and other local children, rather than potentially alienating them at a wierd school. Just remember that by the time it really matters (high school) that you have to choose again.

Although it looks like the comments so far have said enough..

 

[MrSafety]

Personally, I hated the whole Steiner thing. In grade 6 were were still spending about 1 hour a day singing S**t about Gnomes and Fairies. Happy I'm out of there.