Why does Steiner education remain so aloof, self-referring and separate?

Is it really because Steiner schools are full of enlightened beings whose contemplative isolation enables them to better care for the well-being of children? Or is it because the Steiner movement is lumbered with a tainted spiritual legacy of dogmatic zealots who can’t let go of control?

The abusive words and actions of this group of people, so prevalent in the stories of those who have been “rejected” by the movement (read “those who asked too many awkward questions”), are protected by the labyrinthine structures of the schools, the distancing and disempowerment of parents, and the apparent tendency of the movement to attract sociopathic bullies, who love nothing more than to fan the fires of unhappiness until they explode, or implode, inevitably damaging children.  

This way of manipulating energy, unfortunately appears to be a core part of the experience of so many of those whose openness to Steiner Education has left them burned.   Sometimes you may hear reference within the movement to “Lucifer energy”.

As we consider the twisting to one’s own advantage, others’ reasonable protestations to be the work of the very devil, we are going to refer to it here as Luciferocity.

This kind of bullying is also rampant on the internet, as threads are “policed” and sanitised, diluted, or exploded with argument, resulting in a lack of free speech, as hosts sometimes simply shut them down to stop the deluge.

Video evidence of this kind of Luciferocious behaviour will also be posted here as we believe that hiding the fact of children and families being hurt, is itself evidence of Steiner education putting children at risk.

Unfortunately, this malific energy, has got so out of control in some schools, that they are apparently prepared to brain-wash people in order to hang onto power;  a technique of those who are threatened and weak perhaps, but hardly a fitting mode of behaviour for the fastest growing alternative education movement in the world!

Reminiscent of the ring in Lord of the Rings, of the Flies in Lord of the flies, some people’s obsession with Karma appears to have run riot.

When something occurs in some Steiner schools which could be a problem for the power-structure, which has been effectively obfuscated anyway, by an apparently non-hierarchical arrangement, the situation is often deliberately not dealt with and sometimes even purposely stirred up which gives the power structure time to manipulate it (the situation) and people’s perceptions of it (a really key feature) to their own advantage.  This phenomenon appears time and time again in the stories of those for whom Steiner education was not “a good fit”.  

Unfortunately this phrase can cover up some truly grisly realities as testimony can sadly prove.

It may be crass but we would like to point out that Rudolf Steiner didn’t invent Karma, in fact, billions of people have lived with this understanding of life over millennia.  And guess what, it actually isn’t a weapon to use to explain why you had to damage children, or why they need to be bullied.  That’s just an excuse for not running a school properly.  

If these kind of justifications or excuses came from Rudolf Steiner himself, then the whole thing must be flawed.

But if it is coming from people who are drawn by the promise of power within a small closed “community”, then the Steiner movement must now surely demonstrate the difference by standing up and being prepared to name and disown such despotism as an unfortunate association with their movement, and something that they are working to replace with modern, democratic, humane administration.  

In the same way they must also disown all racist elements in Steiner, even if, as current researchers are now demonstrating, the problem is structural in some of the very basic tenets of Steiner education such as the inclusion of physical characteristics in delineating what he described as the Temperaments.

It is time for the Steiner/Waldorf movement to take stock.  Instead of appointing leaders who follow a fundamentalist attitude of closing up, reigning in, going to ground, no matter what the facts are, in a pseudo-intellectual but actually very visceral reaction to any form of challenge, Steiner school communities must practise the habit of weeding out all forms of corruption with humility as part of the practise of education.  It is what they should demonstrate to all, including the millions of non-Steiner people who are and who soon will be funding the schools through their taxes, to the families who read, absorb and make choices based on advertising, and not least, of course, to the children who will learn by example.

Steiner/Waldorf schools must now show the fruits of their labour in precisely not being dogged by tragic stories of damaged children and bullying, of racist under- and not rarely over-tones, and if they cannot, then, as an act of faith in education they should own up to that and submit to external reorganisation, to re-align the teachings of Rudolf Steiner into a modern framework, in which the use of metaphor and what Steiner called “spiritual science” is not that unusual.

Luciferocious control

In a circumstance, where Luciferocious energy has been fanned, and a family is feeling the brunt of it, all the people around in the “community” have to decide what to do, and that’s really where the drama comes in.  When such things happen in a community, skuttling occurs, people shift, stir, rattle and snort, in a kind of odiferous warp which creates a change in vibe and allows time, for a (sanitised) story to emerge through the school entities.

People surrounding such events may and do try to speak up, but forces can easily be mobilised to make that unlikely.  After all, if you have a physical aversion to the state school system, and plenty of people do, you might feel that you cannot really afford to alienate the Steiner community, however oppressive it is.

Those who control the power structures of these schools have a huge amount of power.  The usual school structure effectively hides any end point, any ultimate responsibility of a person who will stand, if necessary, and take the flack.

What that means is that the “flack” is put back onto the child, children and families who are henceforward described as “not a good fit”, regardless of the true circumstances of any threat to their mental or physical health.

If Steiner schools exist as private schools in a country where private schools are completely deregulated then they in fact have absolute power.

Using this energy, any event that does not serve the status quo can be adjusted to appear that it does, in believing that image, and so much of Steiner is based on images, we travel further along the Anthroposophical path.

Using Luciferocious energy, any event, even if the evidence is clear that it was a flagrant abuse of human rights, can be re-presented as an affront to a central principle, and even ignorance of Anthroposophy can be used against you, whether or not the school has made these principles clear.

If absolute power has to the power to corrupt absolutely, which clearly it does, then these schools must be seen as vacuums of democracy, unless there is considerable evidence to the contrary.  That is what this site is for.  All contributions will be useful to the future of Steiner Education, whatever that might be.

On the occasion of the 150th birthday of Rudolf Steiner, let him stand four square, and have a look at where his life’s work, his establishment, his very temperament, has left the children.

Unless those who truly know the answers, both positive and negative, speak up now, and there are many, they will bear responsibility for the damage to the futures of those children who may not be “a good fit” for Steiner.

We therefore propose a Steinermentary Project to examine the legacy of this self-proclaimed Guru.

Fear of personal responsibility, liability, fear and greed and any form of slavery, have no place in the education of children.