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Green Acres, Waldorf, Oneness
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clarabow
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| Hmm. It may be when DS is closer to school age we'll just need to go witness for ourselves (or discuss, as I guess it might be intrusive to ask to observe?) how the silent time operates. I get that Friends congregations aren't led in the same way that other denominations are, and I find most of the principles extremely appealing. I'm probably stuck on a past experience with someone I knew who was Jewish and married to a Quaker, who had said he ultimately became uncomfortable attending meetings because there remained much talk of Jesus and it just felt weird for him. I'll admit that's exactly one data point, and I probably need to think about it more. |
Anonymous
| My good friend sent her children to a Waldorf school in MI. This is what she told me. Kids are very nice, creative, earthy. But at 9 years old, they can't read. The school discouraged reading "this young". She pulled her DD out and put her in the public school She was way behind. Her DS is still in and is staying. I think if you are going to stay with that type of school, it is fine. The students go to great colleges, and are as educated as the rest of the world, just at a different pace. If you plan on sending child to a school with more traditional ways of educating, I would skip Waldorf. Just my 2 cents. good luck |
Anonymous
At Sidwell in the 1980s, you literally just sat there on the benches, unless you were moved to speak. No deity talk, as I recall. |
Anonymous
It's true that Waldorf takes a relaxed approach to reading. But many kids who are "behind" at first quickly surpass their public-school counterparts in reading ability. The only large-scale study of Waldorf graduates' performance on assessments vs. other kids' performance was done in Germany. It showed that Waldorf kids were far more literate than other graduates -- something like triple the pass rate on assessments. For sure it's not for everyone, but my understanding is that Waldorf graduates eventually do very well, especially on measures of verbal ability. One might argue that, in some ways, they're more educated than the rest of the world, depending on how you look at that sort of thing. |
Anonymous
| I have heard about the great results in Germany, but I would like to see the data. I also wonder if German Waldorf Schools are less liberal than American Waldorf Scools. |
Anonymous
| It would be really easy to analyze these schools if they would all post their standardized test results like the public schools do. Sometimes I think that the reason that they don't is because the scores are somewhere about what you see at the better public schools. |
Anonymous
| What standardized tests are you referring to? My understanding is that the private schools don't have to administer the state tests that public schools use for comparison to each other. |
Anonymous
| SAT, PSAT (aka, national merit test), and ACT |
Anonymous
| Waldorf just seems to need to move with the times. Who knows how Steiner would have done it if he lived today. The system seems out dated. It has been said that he made an attempt to relax an overly strict German education system. Montessori on the other hand has been said to have tried to straighten up a lax Italian school system. Who knows what is best, but I think that the answer is somewhere in between. |
Anonymous
| Montessori could be less rigid, and Waldorf more modern. |
Anonymous
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Waldorf does sound very cultish and disturbing from an academic standpoint. Waldorf teachers are required to study a religion that Steiner come up with in the 1800s. Knitting and crochet is taught instead of math. Kids don't learn to read until 8 or 9. This isn't being relaxed on reading and math skills, its not doing it and trying to pretend it doesn't matter. Ritual, re-incarnation, good/bad energy, astrology integrated into the classes is all very inappropriate. The school teaches a lifestyle and does not provide an education.
Who cares if some kids get into a college above community college level. There are kids from terrible inner city schools who receive no solid education, who get into college. I suspect the Waldorf do OK in the end in spite of not because of their lack of education. I would not want to decide for my children that education is not important. I would hate for them to miss out on reading, math, and science. Your children could excel in these areas even if you did not. Why make it difficult to become writers, scientists, engineers, or doctors? Sure, professional knitting and selling crystals on eBay is very meaningful but kids should have the chance to make their own path. Waldorf, like eevry diet that doesn't work, opportunity to buy the Brooklyn bridge and other cons out there, they insert several attractive features to lure people. The no commercial, plastic, Barbie policy and less pressure is attractive but this is available at other schools or can be instituted at home. It is not unique to Waldorf or Steiner. In fact, Blues Clues wasn't around in the 1800s, neither was consumer plastic come to think about it. The whole dishonesty pattern is very bothersome. They don't have any studies to back up that their approach works at all. Parents who find out later how much the ritual religious aspects are integrated is just terrible. Use your common sense and pass on the Waldorf and the brain washed Waldorf educators. |
Anonymous
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this is old, but for anyone interested i thought i'd mention that i'm an atty in DC who went to a Waldorf School in MN -- it was absolutely wonderful. It's a very close community (as are all elementary schools, i suppose), and thus it would be important to get to know who your child's main teacher would be. Anyway, the imaginative and creative skills i developed i credit with my outside of work interests today, and they are big part of who i am. I went to Waldorf for K - 8, and then to an academy prep school. I wasn't behind at all, but i wasn't in accelerated math. i liked math a lot (and yes we learned it as first graders through knitting and crocheting, two things i still enjoy!), so i studied a geometry textbook by myself the summer after my freshman year and tested out no problem (and got an A in AP calculus my senior year). i went to an academically rigorous school, got mostly As, and then went to top 20 university, and later at top 10 law school. And my waldorf education served me well every step of the way, and continues to do so as I imagine my life with a new baby in a few months.
a little ranty, but waldorf was important to me. oh, and we weren't forced to read. when we finally did, it was pretty darned easy and we all ate it up. we read alexandre dumas the count of monte cristo in 8th grade. still one of my favs... |
Anonymous
OK, PP, but seriously, do you like, believe in gnomes and fairies? 
While you are practicing law, I mean? Did you study "anthroposophy"? There have been some Waldorf threads where critics were pretty insistent that Waldorf was a religion/freaky cult. |
Anonymous
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no, i don't believe in gnomes and fairies, but they were lovely parts of a creative and imaginative childhood.
no i didn't study anthroposophy, i studied, science, history, math, etc, and spent time out doors. anthroposopht impacted how things were presented in the classroom, i suppose, but that was the business of my teachers and parents (if they cared), not me. I was busy being a kid and learning about the world around me. it was wonderful. i'm about as well adjusted and academically successful as people get, i think, and those things come from having good character. for me, waldorf school (plus wonderful parents) gave me all the tools to make all this happen. just wanted to give one person's long-term opinion of the benefits of an early waldorf education. |
Anonymous
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pp I have a great friend wich is in college and loved waldorf .. I have a 10 months old and I'm trying to put my baby here in Brazil at Waldorf... I think it is very important lots of things that teach... ALL my friends think that I'm crazy since at school they dont have TV and they eat only organics.... and in the same time I do have baby einstein at home... elmo..etc... I think will be hard for me.. but i'm kind of lost right now.
would you think it will be possible putting him at waldorf and in the same time having some tv etc at home? |