It’s the Pedagogy, Stupid
Dennis McCarthy, a teacher from the currently shut down Kings Langley Steiner School in England has been banned from teaching.
This follows accusations of sexual assault. During a hearing in February, the professional panel was told a list of allegations which went back almost a decade.
Ben Raza reported in the Hemel Today that: “These include pushing a 10-year-old girl up against a wall and pulling her underwear and leggings down to her knees when they were alone in a classroom.
“In addition Mr McCarthy is said to have acted inappropriately by touching young female students and having them sit on his lap, ignoring instructions not to do so until he was eventually suspended, and holding a lesson where he told students to list all of the swear words that they knew –many of which were of a sexual nature.
“Police had looked into allegations made against Mr McCarthy but had concluded that the criminal threshold had not been breached.”
Mr McCarthy, who had been teaching at Kings Langley for 33 years, has vehemently denied all these allegations although he did stress that “contrary to the TRA’s case, he had never been given instructions to not physically contact students.”
Inappropriate Touching
The Teaching Regulation Agency report includes “Mr McCarthy stated that the physical contact that he had was 'wholesome' and for the benefit of the pupils as he acted in a grandfatherly manner.
"This particular contact was, however, reduced as the pupils progressed towards puberty."
His behaviour was found to be “inappropriate” by the panel, but there wasn’t enough evidence to convince them there was any sexual motivation.
The conclusion was that “Mr McCarthy is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 1 March 2022, three years from the date of this order at the earliest. This is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed. If he does apply, a panel will meet to consider whether the prohibition order should be set aside. Without a successful application, Mr McCarthy remains prohibited from teaching indefinitely.”
It’s crucial to be aware that isn’t an isolated incident. Teachers being very close to their students has been reported many times in Steiner-Waldorf schools. Not in a sexual way, although this does happen, but this type of contact is viewed as making the child feel close to their teacher, as they would a close relative.
Inappropriate Gifts
The feeling we got when our own children attended a Steiner school was that parents were more of a hindrance than anything else. One teacher was proud of saying that her own child had grown up despite her parenting, and the feeling was very strong that the school knows the child better than the parent does.
One of our child even had a fourth birthday party organised by her kindergarten teacher, Sheryl Mace, at the school. We, her parents, had to provide everything for it but were not invited. At that special event she was given handmade gifts by the teacher, a doll and a cloak.
Less than a month later, that teacher told us “my conscience is clear”, as she allowed her suddenly and without warning to get thrown out of the school because her bigger sister had been threatened with an axe by a notorious bully which the school didn’t want to deal with. They moved that bully sideways to another Steiner school where he later admitted to raping three minors while still a minor himself.
In addition to inappropriate presents, physical contact between teachers and children is normalised in Steiner-Waldorf schools. For instance each morning the teacher shakes the hand of all their pupils in turn as they enter the classroom.
Inappropriate Training
But it goes much deeper than that. Grégoire Perra, a former Anthroposophist and Steiner teacher wrote at length about his experiences in those schools.
One such document, “An Almost Imperceptible Manipulation and Indoctrination”, uses the construct of a fictionalised meeting to explain how the pedagogy encourages such “grandfatherly” behaviour.
We greatly encourage you to read the whole article, but here are some highlights:
“Don’t you remember, you who went right through the Kindy, how the Kindy teachers used to sit you on their knees? Don’t you remember, later on in the younger classes, the frequent affectionate gestures of our teachers? How they would take us in their arms, sit next to us in class, always putting their arms round our necks to help us write or draw?”
“But we’re not talking about something systematic or organised?” he retorts, “These were just spontaneous gestures of teachers touched by their young pupils.”
“I don’t think so,” I tell him, “When I did my training at l'Institut Rudolf Steiner de Chatou, the trainee Kindy teachers told us that they were often told to be very maternal with the children, to initiate cuddles, to take the children onto their knees etc., Those are pedagogical indications, not spontaneous gestures. It was ceaselessly drummed into them that the Kindy teacher should be ‘like a mother’ for the children in her care. In her passionate work called “psychological bullying” (“le harcèlement moral”), Marie-France Hirigoyen explains that this kind of developed manipulation is like some sort of hypnosis used to put the future victim to sleep. 80% of it takes place in non-verbal communication like gestures, looks, etc., which slowly control people. In the public school you’ve put your own son in, are the teachers allowed such spontaneous gestures?”
[...]
“our class teacher used to go and eat with each family at least once a month. It was supposedly in order to become better acquainted with the family environment of each student but it was still annoying. Initially I experienced it as an intrusion into our intimacy. Then I got used to it. Before long, he had become a bit like an uncle we saw a lot of.”
[...]
“It’s a pedagogical practice of these schools. And as you pointed out, one that creates a profound confusion between what belongs in the family sphere and what belongs in the professional domain”
[…]
“Do you remember the poems our professor used to write in the early years?”
“Yes,” he answers. “Each pupil had their own. It was an objective poetic description of our deepest personality. One year, one of our friends received such a rewarding one that he recited it to us for the next ten years. He was so bowled over by it, it was as if he became drunk.”
“It’s extremely validating when someone takes the time to write a poem about you,” I reply. “Who writes poems like that apart from anguished lovers? That explains the diffuse feeling that old students of these school often talk about. It really does create the feeling that they are understood in a way that no one else will ever be able to understand them. Something inside them preserves this nostalgic memory from a time where their very soul, was seen as it really is, in all its vulnerability, by their teachers”.
Inappropriate Advice
Perra’s testimony is troubling, but when put next to the official “Handbook for Waldorf Class Teachers”, compiled by Kevin Avison, the Executive Officer/Senior Adviser of the UK’s Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF), you should start getting really concerned.
Appendix M is the most relevant section of that handbook regarding McCarthy’s behaviour. Avison states very clearly that the title - “How to make it difficult for anyone else to teach your class - ever!” - is ironic. But he also says “some of the points listed […] have something positive in them, and may even be indispensable for the bond the class and teacher must form if class teaching is to work.”
Here are a few examples:
“2. Tell the class frequently that they are a very special group (they must be to have you as a teacher) and let them know implicitly and explicitly that you are the only person fit and able to teach them. Alongside this, it helps to hint frequently that no-one else can or could handle them as you do.
7. Class ‘pet names’ can be useful. Rewards, for example chocolates (especially if the school rule is no chocolate), should be awarded to indicate how pleased you are with the individual (and, of course, it’s “our secret”)
8. Make a particular point of cultivating the strongest leaders in the class so that they see you as their special ally, the only adult who understands them.”
9. Ensure that the parents, especially the most vocal ones, regular you as their friend.
10. Ensure that class evenings have as much as possible the quality of a party held in your own home.
11. Reports should be as personalised as possible. Of course, only you know the ‘soul’ of each child.
18. Keep a glowing personal profile about each child, but never allow anyone access to lesson notes or records, because, as an inspired educator, there are unnecessary for you (anything indicating what the class might have learnt, or covered in Morning Lesson should be ‘lost’ before you leave the school).
19. Let your parting be as emotionally charged as possible, but you might tell them, “I’m going to miss you all terribly and I’ll always be thinking of you. Please be s good as you can be for our new teacher” (a few tears at this point would be a nice touch).”
Faced with such advice from the SWSF, it’s no wonder Dennis McCarthy insisted what he did was harmless.
There’s a tendency to deal with events such as McCarthy’s case in isolation. Unfortunately this keeps the anthroposophical connection obscured. It’s clear from Perra’s testimony and Avison’s handbook, this inappropriateness is taught. Yet not many take the time to delve into the pedagogy and start connecting the dots. Which is probably why so many parents fall for the veneer and never scratch the surface, or if they do, by then, the damage to their child is already done.
The image of the Kings Langley Steiner School was taken from The Telegraph.
