Anyone had any dealings with steiner schools? Thinking about sending my 10 yr old but have some concerns.

They teach that goblins are real and that the UK is a floating island. .

He’ll be fine.

A friend of mine went to one.

They teach that goblins are real and that the UK is a floating island. .

This would explain a lot!

Kids i’ve taught post-steiner, say they’re great but probably up to secondary then a “formal” education is needed. It’s a system that works for very few, too much freedom.

Mrs CD worked at a Steiner school for disabled children for 14 years. She was a residential manager but some of the she told me about some of the bunkum things they had to do. Having said that if you child has particular requirements I’ve heard than Steiner schools can make the difference.

Quite a lot of material at Quackometer, especially this one with links to BBC reports.

Other views are available.

Read around, go and visit the school, make an informed decision.

More for (much) younger kids IMHO – benefits of the contact time and unstructured approach can outweigh the woo-ism. 10yo kid though is starting to need a degree of seriousness to their education so Steiner not the right choice for the majority IMHO. Also worth noting that re-integrating to mainstream schools after Steiner can be v hard.

Obv don’t know your circumstances – what the available schools are like, whether your kid has particular circumstances etc.

Have been to visit but got the feeling they tell you what you want to hear, its all a bit liberal and wooly. He has no special needs – its just that hes special to me and its an important decision as I have researched and theres a lot of good but some quite shocking almost like a cult….. cant quite put my finger on it?

Hilarious places

My favourite thing is to ask them is “exactly what is it about Rod Steiger that made you dedicate an education system to him?” They dont like that but often dont spot the sarcasm and you get some lovely and sincere answers

My kids went briefly [ not my choice]and the school genuinely consisted of two types of people

Older mother with lots of money turning up in Landrovers bringing little tarquin
Dreadlocked commune dwellers walking in with Moonstruck

It was frankly bonkers

they had a winter celebration/party for the kids and we had to bring a cake. i got told off for bringing a chocolate one with jam as they only did plain sponge. After speaking to me as if i was 5 they then “let me off” because I did not know. I was actually laughing at this – they did not like me to be fair and i can see why.

Would not wish it on anyone and cannot see who would be best served by this type of education tbh.

you can read more here

http://www.steinerwaldorf.org/distinctiveeducation.html

I like
6. The Spoken Word
The oral and narrative tradition is brought to life though recitation, drama and an extensive use of poetry, stories, myths and legends from all cultures, often told rather than read. Modern languages are taught, ideally two, from age six

No mention of the digital world for what its worth – probably because you cannot make wooden computers hewn from the earth

I am not a fan – can you tell – and other more objective sources will be required for balance

EDIT: given the above they are sincere and genuine people who passionatetly believe in what they do bit like if you went on a Yoga retreat or to the local alternative therapy college or listen to a tripping druid at Stonehenge and just as well grounded IMHO.
Its very marmite and you will ether thrive or flounder.

Thanks Garry Lager – not the balanced answer I would expect from your id but makes sense and about the way Im swaying. 🙂

My kids go to one in sweden. Totally different than in the uk as it is free. I am no hippy and would class myself as a rationalist/scientific bent but did go to art college. It’s Mrs geda’s thing. The nursery is fantastic, real attention too detail, beautiful space and a really nice feel for weeuns. They celebrate lots of festivals and want to create rhythm to the year. Stiener philosophy I would say is a load of bunkum. More of a religion with no ability to question or develop as he ‘got his philosophy from a higher plane’ so how do you question that? I would rather my children did not go near a computer at school though so that’s good. I am a software engineer but I can’t see any benefit of training kids to do word processing and PowerPoint. I work out most of my stuff by talking to people and paper and pencil. Music is good but art not so good as Steiner’s theories about what kids are allowed to use and do are a bit limiting. languages are good, they learn german, english and Swedish. Sure it depends more about the parents than the school though. Going to teach my kids programming with scratch from MIT. I would say it is for people who are scared of the modern world but it is no bad thing to try to minimise a commercial c##p that we are exposed to.

Friend of a friend story but…

My mate Erick (who is french and teaches french) new an English guy that went to a Steiner school. Erick said this guy had the best French of any non-native speaker he had ever met but was long term unemployed as he had pretty much no other skills. When he asked him about it he had basically spent his Steiner years doing nothing but French.

So swings and roundabouts!

I went for a year. The main problem for me was that you have a ‘class teacher’ for 8 years. He turned out to be a nutter who took a shine to beating me, then scaring me into silence(my folks had been through the hard days at public school, Harrow etc and had hoped to spare me).
Anyways, positives; Music, languages, crafts, handwriting. Negatives; Poor leadership(sometimes in some schools, they differ), some esoteric stuff thats primo BS, bit removed from the real world, an inability to guide kids in teenage years and intrusion into family life(again in some schools)
That all said the kindergarden’s are fantastic and all my kids have been before normal primary(a dedicated kinder, not part of a school). The simple gentle aspects and brilliant care suit little ones, great transition from home to school.
I personally begged to be in the state system as, even from a young age, did not want to be shielded from the world around me or the people in it, or turn out like my toff cousins.
Things may have changed a bit and I recommend checking the school itself as the differ quite a bit. I must say also that my visits to friends in Germany and Switzerland the Steiner system is far better and integrated.

I went to a Steiner school; they taught me how to spell “knew”, but not much else! 😀
The creativity and individuality bit is actually rather good, but some of the ideology is quite bonkers. You also have one teacher for most of your subjects for 8 years (6-14)and if that teacher is shaky about say maths or English, you’re pretty much stuffed.

From what I’ve seen Steiner works for kids who struggle with purely academic schools. One friends girl thrived being artistic but dyslexic. But a lot of normal kids I’ve seen at them seem to have no discipline and struggle in the real world, coming across as precocious and/or special