new website…..

I have started a new website of my own at shanehaua.com. Come visit.

Our concerns

I thought I would post our concerns so far with the Christchurch steiner school. I would make it clear that “our concerns” have not been dealt with by the school. You can read those concerns here. It is why I have ended up blogging about our experience with waldorf education and anthroposophy.

steiner pedagogy a little at a time……

It is a pedagogy [waldorf education] which has its origin in the child and its goal is to develop each child’s individual  potential (this is not observable, what is observable is the waldorf system’s unflagging push to indoctrinate children into anthroposophical thinking. Everything is copied from the board. No thinking required. No critical analysis. No thinking out of the waldorf box. How does that produce individual potential?).

The Waldorf School is a unified, inclusive school model spanning all ages from preschool to the end of the upper school/high school (unless you ask questions. Then they exclude you and kick you out instead of answering the questions). Within the curriculum framework of the various class levels, the subjects are connected to each other (it saves testing and planning to meet student’s needs). As the subjects are oriented to the developmental phases of the children and adolescents, they enable multi-faceted, age-related possibilities of developing the individual (strictly eurocentric or aryan in nature). These consist of, for example, the acquisition of (occult)knowledge, cultural competence (as long as it’s european, german specifically), social and emotional skills (bullying), as well as various practical and artistic skills (see also multiple intelligence).

 

some research

One wonders if all the authors of this unoriginal document are attached to the waldorf / steiner movement in some way?

The learning of one to one matching of number words eg; one (the word) to one concrete object, say a block of some kind, is not new and common in the teaching of numeracy. There’s nothing “esoteric” or hidden about this knowledge and I am affronted by this rather lame attempt to make numeracy some kind of “spiritual science” by the waldorf / steiner community. Rhythmical teaching strategies have always been a part of “State Teaching” in Aotearoa NZ. We know it helps rote learning of basic facts but does little to teach that the formula (say 3 x 4 = 12)actually means that there are 3 groups of 4 objects and when I join them together, I end up with 12 objects. Repeated addition is very useful. Of course the child rarely comes to their first class knowing this concept and it takes some time to learn. But it is not “esoteric” or “magical” in any way. Contrary to anthroposophical opinion, it is not only for the initiated. See what waldorf answers has to say here.

Using evidence in the classroom for professional learning

Something different this time. A statement from the Ministry of Education about Evidence Based (written by Professor Helen Timperley) research for learning in the classroom. A long way from steiner pedagogy indeed.

occult science of steiner

I have been reading this lecture that steiner gave on ‘occult science.’ How the heck can our minister of education justify her stand on the accountability of steiner schools in Aotearoa NZ when state schools must be transparent and accountable?

This is an indication of how anthroposophical teaching indoctrination will bridge the gulf between the so-called living and the so-called dead; and already now we can see how human beings who have some understanding of the spiritual occult may be a blessing to the so-called dead by reading to them in thought the truths inventions  of Spiritual Science. If, either reading aloud or to ourselves, we follow in thought the ideas and concepts inventions of Spiritual Science, at the same time feeling that one or more who have passed through death are there in front of us while we read, then this reading becomes very real to them, because such thoughts are inscribed into the Akasha-substance. Such reading may be of the greatest service, not only to those on the other side of death who while they were on earth concerned themselves with Spiritual Science, buffoonery but also to those who during their earthly life would have nothing to do with it.

steiner school off hook over standards

The Taikura Rudolf Steiner school community has been reassured by the Minister of Education, Anne Tolley, that they can rest easy over National Standards and the future of their school. The Hastings school was one of hundreds throughout the country opposed to the controversial new directive, but in June cried foul when a letter from Ms Tolley urged them to comply or face legal action, and potentially lose government funding.

Protest was rife since the forced compliance, and included a large presence of parents at Prime Minister John Key’s Napier meeting.Last month, after a meeting with concerned Taikura parents, Tukituki MP Craig Foss wrote to Ms Tolley on their behalf, and received a reply on Thursday he said alleviated many of their concerns. Read more here on Hawkes Bay Today.

Well done John Key! Buckling to this type of educational philosophy in Aotearoa NZ is just what our children need. Obviously you are either a steiner proponent or your researching is somewhat cursory. The question needs to be asked. Why don’t steiner schools have to be accountable to the ministry for their delivery of ‘education’ (I use the word advisedly) in Aotearoa NZ?

election issue

One of my concerns is the election issue, electoral reform. I believe that returning to ‘first past the post’ as a way of deciding government disenfranchises many people especially from education. The proliferation of waldorf/steiner schools is just one example of the issue. People are looking to the spiritual sciences to provide them with answers to their concerns. There are of course bonafide educational issues that need our support and more of the treasury vote to enable really good programmes like this.

Money wasted by the government funding crazy stuff like this is exactly that. A waste of tax payer’s dollars.

Quote of the Day 

“In the course of our whole evolution we have seven Planetary conditions: Saturn, Sun, Moon, Earth, Jupiter, Venus, Vulcan … [W]e stand exactly in the middle of our Earthly evolution. This is frequently felt to be something extraordinarily important for man. We have behind us three Planets … and the same number still lie before us. But if we were standing on the Old Moon, we should see yet another Planetary condition before Saturn; if we were standing on future Jupiter we should no longer see Saturn, but in its place a Planet beyond Vulcan.” — Rudolf Steiner, FOUNDATIONS OF ESOTERICISM (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1982), lecture 26, GA 93a.

anthroposophical claptrap

 

Wellspring: Reverential Pleas

“Anthroposophy is not mere learning like any other (it’s based on clairvoyance). The ideas that Anthroposophy presents and the words it uses are not meant as abstract theory (how else can one view clairvoyant revelations to a racist Austrian)?. Anthroposophical ideas are not shaped in the way other kinds of learning have been shaping ideas for the past several centuries (no not based on peer reviewed research, they have used a sprirtual jump of sorts. But they jumped backwards!); words are not used the same as they are elsewhere. Anthroposophical ideas are vessels fashioned by love fear and we are summond possessed  by the spiritual world to partake of their content perversity. Anthroposophy must bring the light of true humanness to shine out in thoughts that bear love’s imprint (after livind amoung anthroposophists for two years, I’d have to point out, that this concept was not obsevable in the community): knowledge is only the form in which we reflect our heart’s receiving the light of the world spirit that has come to dwell in our heart and from our heart illumine human thought (absolute rubbish, they do not live this!). Since Anthroposophy cannot really be grasped except by the power of love, it is love-engendering when human beings take it in a way true to its own nature. Words expressing Anthroposophical truths are not like words spoken elsewhere today (true, there’s much gobbledygook); rightly conceived, they are all really reverential pleas that the spirit make itself known to us (opps I better move my ecologically sound diesal SUV).”

waldorf schools

News – Waldorf Watch

Waldorf schools emphasize imagination, (After having looked at what Christchurch Steiner deem to be imagination, I can only emphasise that what they term ‘imagination,’ is really a case of young people being indoctrinated to the steiner paragdim) inspiration,  and intuition. (both inspriration and imagination are merely one step removed from steiner’s view of clairvoyance. I am not surprised that someone born in those times thought it was a real and observable thing).  You may be surprised by the reason. A basic tenet of Anthroposophy is that humanity is evolving upward through higher and higher stages of consciousness or cognition (I absolutely fail to see how racism, bad science and illogical teaching pedagogy can be mistaken for a higher stage of consciousness or cognition. One would have to ignore some fundamental truths to accept this philosophy). If we live wisely and well, we move to higher forms of consciousness during our present lives, (how can anthroposophy be given any level of respect when it is based on faery tales, gnomes, undines, claivoyance, occult science and many other untruths) during coming our lives after death, and during our future evolution on other planets. (evidently, planet x is on it’s way)?* Imagination, for instance, is the form of consciousness we will perfect on Jupiter. Inspiration is higher than imagination — we will perfect it on Venus — and intuition is higher still — we will perfect it on Vulcan (obviously didn’t know the physical makeup of these planets). Essentially, these are all stages of “exact” or “strict” clairvoyance. Here is Steiner speaking of intuition, which involves contending with occult Moon forces:  “Conscious Intuition, therefore, the highest development of strict clairvoyance, actually consists in arresting the actions which a sleepwalker is instinctively compelled by the Moon-forces to perform. Anyone who brings about this metamorphosis does not give himself up to the physical forces of the Moon but holds them in check within himself. Thus he is enabled to devote himself intuitively to the relevant spirituality; that is, he attains to Intuition.” — Rudolf Steiner, THE Devolution EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS, lecture 7, GA 227. *In Steiner’s teachings, clairvoyant meanderings such planets are future evolutionary conditions of the entire solar system. The planets we see in the sky today are remnants and precursors of past and future stages. Waldorf schools work try to prepare the way for future human evolution as  described imagined by Steiner. In this effort, they rely heavily on clairvoyance imagination.