Real questions from a real parent on Steiner education

In 25 words or less, each word of less than 4 syllables, what is anthroposophy? Is this the same as 'Steiner's philosophy' and 'the Steiner school method'?

Anthroposophy is a framework for understanding the human being’s spiritual and physical nature without one denying the other. The Waldorf approach is the application of anthroposophy in the field of education.

How is Steiner’s phillosophy applied to the Steiner education?
Anthroposophy is the foundation of Steiner education. It allows the child to learn in the context of both his\her spiritual and physical natures as they unfold in the course of their growth and development on earth. To be clear, spiritual is not used in a religious sense; it refers to those qualities in human beings that we experience but may not be physically palpable.

What are the stages of man's growth? What is the basis for this? How do the stages translate to education and maturity?

The basic cycle is the seven-year development of man; i.e. every seven years, a change occurs in man that brings about new possibilities of learning. The biological basis if you like is that it takes seven years to replace all the cells in your body. So every seven years, you have a new body. For a child, for example, the first real body that they have which is their own will come around the age of seven. Before that, their body is composed of the cells of the parents. Thus, Steiner education is founded on a deep understanding of this cycle and therefore prepares an education for the child that is appropriate for the development that they are undergoing at the time.

Over the seven years, the body’s forces are used to develop some element or quality of the human being. In the first seven years, the forces and strength of the body are to complete the physical body of the child. Organs, for example, only complete their development during the first seven years of an individual’s life. The culmination of this development is physiologically experienced as the birthing of adult teeth. The teeth are one of the hardest elements in the human body and so take the longest to complete (hence the agony of wisdom teeth even at a later age). At this point, when the child is about 6-7 years old, the body now has extra energy, the very energy that was necessary to complete the organs and the teeth for example, is now available for something else. That “something else” is school. The energy is now channeled into capacity to learn. It takes energy to sit still and listen. Since the physical body is now complete (it will only change in size), the energy that was necessary for the completion of the physical body is used to keep the same body still and to listen to the teacher. This process repeats every seven years (more or less) until about 21 with the birth of the ego, an individual’s highest self. Then the process starts over but now experienced by the individual as an adult. Other aspects develop and other insights are unveiled.

What are the learning objectives in each stage?

There are two ways to look at this… objectives and themes. Objectives are more complicated in the sense that these tend to color our expectations. For example, if we say that the objective of grade 2 learning is to be able to read simple words, then this becomes an expectation on reading. However, in real life, this is not the case. There are different themes through each year of school. These themes carry an experience of the child. These may also be been seen to correspond to the development of the 12 senses of the human being. In this way, one perspective, themes, is like a vessel to hold the individual; the other experience of the unfolding of the senses is to bring what is “inside” to the outer world. The themes that guide the 12 years are:

1. Grade 1 = Fairy Tale World (also the Spirit in the world and nature)
2. Grade 2 = Archetype
3. Grade 3 = Hebrew (not in the religious sense but in the wandering and searching sense, i.e. exodus)
4. Grade 4 = Norse mythology
5. Grade 5 = Greek world
6. Grade 6 = Roman world
7. Grade 7 = Medieval world
8. Grade 8 = Industrial world
9. Grade 9 = Polarities
10. Grade 10 = Process
11. Grade 11 = Analysis
12. Grade 12 = Synthesis

This can be discussed further through an interactive discussion for better clarity.

Can maturity and growth really be expected to proceed on a straight-line method?
No. That is purely an invention of modern science. To say yes to this question would be to deny the innate individuality of everyone on earth. However, this also does not mean that the development of growth and maturity does not follow a cycle. It does and there is every opportunity to appreciate and understand what has transpired so that we can learn and grow from that situation.

What happens to children in the Steiner school environment who mature earlier or later than their peers?

There is no motherhood answer for each individual would have to be seen in light of their karma, destiny, and the constellation of their friends. Each case must be seen on an individual basis.

Anthroposophy seems so western in its rigidity and intellectualism. Are there any aspects of fuzzy eastern thought that are integrated in anthroposophy that would make it more flexible, more 'spiritual' rather than focused on the material world, more other-worldly? I know there are the verses but even these seem very western philosophical.

In the west they would probably say that anthroposophy is very eastern in its philosophy. What makes it “rigid” is that spiritual science may be studied via a scientific method. This means learning and experiencing our spiritual nature may be achieved by everyone following a scientific approach. This does not turn it into cold and hard science, rather, it makes it accessible to everyone. One of the qualities of the scientific method is that it is replicable and the same result should occur. What Steiner brought through anthroposophy was the chance for everyone to have access to their spiritual nature through the proper preparation and training. In the old days, such clairvoyance was only possible to those selected few known as initiates. In older civilizations, initiates had many names ranging from priests, to pharaoh, to oracle, and so forth. Access to the spiritual world, so to speak, was only possible through these select few. As the world has changed and modernized, such talents have slowly slipped from humanity’s experience. Steiner is proposing that such talents are now available to all through an approach known as spiritual science, an alternative name for anthroposophy, and because it is a science, others can achieve the same results following an approach. This does not mean, however, that all one has to do is memorize the approach. Exercises provided by Steiner to develop these capacities are difficult due to their simplicity.

Having said that, anthroposophy is Christ-centered and gives every individual the chance to learn about it, grapple about it, in an individual manner. Steiner always gives two bits of advice: 1) don’t believe him just because he said – try it and find out for yourself and 2) he is offering an alternative point of view, that’s all. If anthroposophy is experienced with any rigidity of any sort, then it is possible that this is a dead form of anthroposophy. Of course this does not mean anything goes. On the other hand, anthroposophy has a very interesting way of developing each individual to eventually see a commonality in their experiences, not a uniformity. One may say that anthroposophy, for a philosophy, is quite practical in its nature.

Have any controlled evaluations been done on the Steiner education?

There probably are some out in the world somewhere. There are also evaluations done in reverse, i.e. what happens to students who pursue “mainstream” education. The fact that there are so many of us does not make it better. It could simply mean that it was appropriate for our time. Furthermore, success of Steiner education graduates are not usually headline news items. They generally find success in work that is socially oriented and not the usual business or news headline grabbers. The best guide that I can think of to answer this is the readiness of our graduates to face the challenges of the world, confident that they can address the issues that arise not because they know a lot but because they feel they have capacity to overcome the hurdle.

Are there any empirical (see, now you've got me spouting western philosophical terms) proofs to support anthroposophy, other than theories and anecdotal stories?

What proof is sufficient proof? In many respects the question is what is the truth? If a grownup says that they saw an angel, how will the world react? If a child says that they saw an angel how would the parents react? Is seeing the only way to experience an angel? While sight dominates our world, it represents a fraction of the entire experience. We choose to let light and color dominate our experience of the world. When this happens, the narrow experience of sight effectively makes us forget the other elements of the experience. What is the empirical proof that your spouse loves you and is faithful to you? In modern life, where we may not see our spouses for the most of the day, we consistently believe that we have proof that they are faithful and love us.

This is the challenge of empirical proof. What does empirical really mean? What does proof really mean? The root word of empirical is the Greek empeirikos which means experienced. On the other hand, proof comes from the Latin act of testing or making trial of anything. Thus, empirical proof would literally mean the experience of testing or making trial of anything. As you can see, empirical proof is in the experience not in the end result. Thus, anthroposophy is really about testing the experience one has. As parents, we currently experience Steiner education as parents, not as a children and so we can test our experiences as parents. Part of these experiences include our experiences of our children and their experiences through their eyes. So, in a certain sense, the proof of the pudding is in how we experience our own children. In a strange way, one could ask parents… do we trust our own experiences relative to our children.

The children in the upper levels seem exceptional in their abilities, in their intelligence, in their outlook of life, but what amount is due to Steiner education, and what is due to the exceptional family atmosphere created by exceptional parents?

This is only one perception. What is true about Steiner education is that the more involved the parents are in the education of the child, the more the child will “maximize” the chance to have a Steiner education. Parents who are actively involved in any child’s education, whether Steiner education or not, always give their children the chance to do better. The wonderful thing about Steienr education is we cannot give the children the answer to their questions. This is because Steiner education does not approach education simply through a question and answer perspective. Parents are challenged to work with the children and work through the experience as well.

Why is it that even parents of children who have been in the Steiner system for years, find in hard to accept the Steiner philosophy, and need to be constantly reassured that yes, it works, yes, it's good, yes, your children will learn, and no, they will not get left behind in the big, bad
world out there?

The best ones to answer this question are the parents who have these questions. What are the genuine fears of parents or the individuals who are the parents? The fears we often express in public are our sanitized fears; however, this is not the root cause fear. The fact that an individual may need continuous validation is also a question in itself. This does not diminish the fear; but the fear is a window to the inner being of the one who fears.

Is it possible they have extra-sensory perception powers that are warning them against the Steienr system, powers that I am sorely lacking? You see, I don't know anything about the philosophy, but I trust the process. I have faith in the system. but then, that's faith, isn't it?
the acceptance of things unexplainable and mysterious.

If they had genuine ESP, who knows what they might be doing. In any case, you could ask yourself the question… why do you have faith in the system? Faith is a very real experience. We should not demean it. What we forget is that faith is ultimately founded on knowledge. So perhaps we know something, this is why we have faith. The fact that we don’t know what it is that we do know will not alter the faith and is a completely different question.

How much can we tweak, modify, or localize Steiner education before it stops being Steiner education?

It depends on your definition of “tweak, modify or localize.” All Steiner schools have individuality. All Steiner schools work with the inherent culture of the countries in which they are located. These may also be perceived as tweaking, modifying or localizing the approach. The guideline is anthroposophy and its application to education (in the case of Steiner education). Once fundamental pillars of the philosophy, e.g. that man is spirit, soul, etheric, and physical body, are compromised, then one could say that the system or the approach is no longer consistent with what is generally referred to as Steiner education.

We're toying with the idea of holding teachers to 4-year terms rather than 8-year terms because of the difficulty of long-term commitments. But what's to stop this from being 2-year terms, or 1-year terms?

The challenge is the word “commitment.” This is almost like saying that a pre-nup agreement (an agreement between couples about to marry describing what and how things will be shared or divided if they separate) automatically prepares the couple for their eventual separation. Otherwise, if they were truly committed to each other, then they know that they could not separate or at least, they would enter the agreement with the belief that separation is not an option. Commitment literally means to do together. If the teacher is the bride, who is the groom? If the teacher commits, who will she work with to meet her end of the commitment? This is the real question in this case. The schools position is to still encourage the teachers to stay eight years accepting four as the minimum with the understanding that in some cases, there are teachers who work best in grades 1-4 and these are different from grades 5-8. Even existing Steiner schools have documented instances where teachers struggled beyond grade 5 and then recycled to grade 1 with a new teacher taking on the pre-adolescents.

And is it still Steiner education?

The question is what is the problem. Any solution is only as good as the problem identified. One of the greatest challenges in anthroposophy is coming up with the right question, the question that will open insight. The challenge is commitment. Commitment is a modern day question because it requires individuals working with others in community. For this reason, marriages, vocations, even business objectives are generally fraught with the issue of commitment. Commitment, by its very definition, means to send out together. Thus whether we send out or do something, the key element is that it is done together. Together with whom is the next obvious question. Thus a teacher’s commitment to eight years, for example, also requires the togetherness of the community she is in, the students, the parents, her fellow teachers, non-teaching personnel, etc. Without the commitment of the others, there is no “together” to speak of in terms of meeting one’s commitment. A teacher, regardless of how long they stay, will recognize their limitations in meeting their end of the commitment if they begin only with a one-year framework. While the teacher struggles with the daily grind of teaching, ideally, they keep a vision of the entire 12-year process of Steiner education.

If training teachers in the Steiner philosophy is so difficult and expensive, wouldn't it be better to pay the teachers higher salaries already?

Of course this is true; but in the nature of social communities, this is not how it works. This is a long and complex answer that goes into the nature of anthroposophical economics as well. The teachers are basically paid what they say they need. So if they say they need 10K a month, and we offer more and she refuses, then this is the call of the teacher. Working in communities, as discussed in anthroposophy, is quite complicated and not as clear-cut as we like to think. The overall administration of a Steiner school is a an entire field of study in itself, covering the breathe of community life, alternative economics, community social justice and rights protection while retaining its practical nature. So you can see, it is quite a challenge in its own way.