Tell me about Waldorff Schools

[summer]

Everything I've heard sounds like woo, so I'm sure someone else can tell me something.

A friend of mine's daughter is in the 3rd grade at a Waldorf school and my friend is the class parent.  The class has 19 boys and 8 girls and apparently the children do WHATEVER they want.  A couple of girls have left the school after writing emails to the school that there girls were verbally and physically harassed and bullied by the boys and the school pretty much shrugged. 

Once when one of the girls said she didn't want to come to school anymore, the boys were high fiving each other.  

My friend is all like, "I don't know what to do" to which I said, "Please let me go up there with you when you talk to these people."  

I've never heard anything about Waldorf that was appealing to me.  What are your experiences?  Maybe I'm biased.

[ijack]

I think it's a little woo, but nothing I know about it would lead me to believe that behavior (and acceptance of those behaviors) is the norm.

[frlcb]

Waldorf is all kinds of crazy. All kinds. You can't use certain colors until you are certain ages. Black is never allowed. No media of any sort is allowed. They teach concepts with fairies and gnomes.

[debatethis]

All I know about Waldorf is from the "survivors'" blogs. It doesn't seem good, to say the least.

Black crayons represent Satan and gnomes run the school printers.

www.waldorfcritics.org/concerns.html

www.salon.com/2004/05/27/waldorf/

[epphd]

Kids aren't *allowed* to read until they lose baby teeth. WTF. And the knitting - don't get me wrong, I like knitting. but the first I heard of a Waldorf school was in a yarn shop with some pretentious as fuck dad going on about his kid being in a Waldorf school. That was all I needed to understand it was about parents and not the kids.

[heyjude]

They are also anti vaccine germ factories.

[sparrowsong]

They come on field trips to an animal sanctuary where I volunteer and are a complete nightmare. Definitely do whatever they want, have no respect for rules, even given by people outside the classroom. We require one adult for every four kids, but the adult chaperons don't do anything but stand around and talk to each other and ignore the total chaos their charges are creating. It's completely up to our staff to chase these kids around and tell them over and over, "no running!, no yelling!, no throwing stuff!" They are horrible. There are places where there are rules for a reason. Kids need to learn to follow rules when they are for their safety, if nothing else.

I have an extremely negative impression of Waldorf. I don't know what the classrooms are like, but the children seem completely incapable of taking part in the rest of the world.

[thecatinthehat]

Oct 9, 2014 23:48:37 GMT -5 epphd said:

Kids aren't *allowed* to read until they lose baby teeth. WTF. And the knitting - don't get me wrong, I like knitting. but the first I heard of a Waldorf school was in a yarn shop with some pretentious as fuck dad going on about his kid being in a Waldorf school. That was all I needed to understand it was about parents and not the kids.

I just found a Waldorf school near me (I was intrigued about a pumpkin patch event since we are new to the area) and noticed the whole: We don't teach kids to read until much later. That was enough to know the woo level. 

Why do Waldorf schools teach reading so late?

There is evidence that normal, healthy children who learn to read relatively late are not disadvantaged by this, but rather are able quickly to catch up with, and may overtake, children who have learned to read early. Additionally, they are much less likely to develop the "tiredness toward reading" that many children taught to read at a very early age experience later on. Instead there is lively interest in reading and learning that continues into adulthood. Some children will, out of themselves, want to learn to read at an early age. This interest can and should be met, as long as it comes in fact from the child. Early imposed formal instruction in reading can be a handicap in later years, when enthusiasm toward reading and learning may begin to falter.

If reading is not pushed, a healthy child will pick it up quite quickly and easily. Some Waldorf parents become anxious if their child is slow to learn to read. Eventually these same parents are overjoyed at seeing their child pick up a book and not put it down and become from that moment a voracious reader. Each child has his or her own optimal time for "taking off." Feelings of anxiety and inferiority may develop in a child who is not reading as well as her peers. Often this anxiety is picked up from parents concerned about the child's progress. It is important that parents should deal with their own and their child's apprehensions.

Human growth and development do not occur in a linear fashion, nor can they be measured. What lives, grows, and has its being in human life can only be grasped with that same human faculty that can grasp the invisible metamorphic laws of living nature.

—From "Five Frequently Asked Questions" by Colin Price; originally printed in Renewal Magazine, Spring/Summer 2003

[summer]

Thanks. I was going to go with her to yell at them but if thus is what they are known for, I can't be bothered. She needs to just stop giving them money and pull that child out.

[frlcb]

Oct 10, 2014 4:51:36 GMT -5 summer said:

Thanks. I was going to go with her to yell at them but if thus is what they are known for, I can't be bothered. She needs to just stop giving them money and pull that child out.

We go to a pretty hippy preschool, and every family at our school who has tried out Waldorf has pulled their kids out. I have never heard a good experience from one.

[ttt]

I immediately associate Waldorff schools with anti vaccination.

I'm a big Montessori cheerleader so I'm not against non-traditional schools, but these people sound nuts.

[IIOY]

Oct 10, 2014 3:06:24 GMT -5 sparrowsong said:

They come on field trips to an animal sanctuary where I volunteer and are a complete nightmare. Definitely do whatever they want, have no respect for rules, even given by people outside the classroom. We require one adult for every four kids, but the adult chaperons don't do anything but stand around and talk to each other and ignore the total chaos their charges are creating. It's completely up to our staff to chase these kids around and tell them over and over, "no running!, no yelling!, no throwing stuff!" They are horrible. There are places where there are rules for a reason. Kids need to learn to follow rules when they are for their safety, if nothing else.

I have an extremely negative impression of Waldorf. I don't know what the classrooms are like, but the children seem completely incapable of taking part in the rest of the world.

LOL, this is basically every school and social outing involving kids. #IHateOtherParents

[summer]

So how do these kids turn out as adults

[ChillyMcFreeze]

Oct 10, 2014 8:05:50 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

Oct 10, 2014 8:01:32 GMT -5 summer said:

So how do these kids turn out as adults

pandce.proboards.com/thread/377353/nope

[heyjude]

Oct 10, 2014 8:05:50 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

Oct 10, 2014 8:01:32 GMT -5 summer said:

So how do these kids turn out as adults

pandce.proboards.com/thread/377353/nope

LOLOLOLOL!

[heyjude]

My friends who are crazy looooooooove their Waldorf school. So that's enough for me to say NOPE.

[mouse]

There's one very close to us with a gorgeous campus that some family friends adore, so we kind of checked it out. They asked Bug's age and said "well, she can go into 3rd grade." She was just finishing up 3rd grade in public schools, so we asked what benchmarks she should be meeting. There were no benchmarks, unless she turned 9 before June, she'd be in the 3rd grade. That was enough for us.

Later I heard some weird shit about how they aren't allowed to wear dinosaurs on their clothes because it might confuse them about evolution. No idea if that's normal for Waldorf.

[lingome]

I am generally not a big fan of Waldorf (from what I know, I think it works for some), but I DO believe in their philosophy of delaying reading. I think that in mainstream schools, we push reading too early, when most children are in fact developmentally primed to learn to read closer to age 7 or 8.

I have a relative with 3 children in Waldorf who are now teenagers and crazy voracious readers. I never made a point to sit down with my daughter and teach phonetics, etc., but when she was 6.5 reading suddenly clicked for her. What I DID do was read and read and read TO her. She is an excellent reader now. I think that as long as you surround children with books and read to them and create an atmosphere that appreciates and respects literature, they'll learn to read fairly easily and in a healthy way when they are developmentally ready (assuming no other learning issues).

[m1and1m]

That's not typical of my experiences with Waldorf. That sounds like a problem with that particular school, and isn't an uncommon problem with schools of any kind, sadly.

DD went to a Waldorf/Lifeways preschool, and we loved it. It was a great fit for her and for our family. The Waldorf school in our area is regarded as a "good" one, and it is very strict with regards to their contract which is NOT a good fit for us. I have no issues with the overall philosophy of not introducing concepts too early (subjective phrasing, I know, but I've got allergy head and I don't want to think about a better way to say that right now), but some of the ways they implement are too much for us. The contract isn't just for at school, it's for your time at home, too. No media, no technology? We may be woo-woo hippy dippy types, but we like computers and books 'round these parts, TYVM.

I definitely wouldn't call it permissive, though.

[mmmomof2]

We have a Waldorf charter near us and some of the concepts seem nice, but overall it's just not for us. They knit instead of doing math. The colors for certain grades. No technology at all - if the kid asks how the printer works you are supposed to tell them there are fairies inside of it! Nuts. And while I think the no characters/commercial labels clothing is nice the strict dress code rubs me the wrong way. But I'm not a rule follower by nature. I picture some kid whose family has little money who scrimped so they could have that Elsa sweatshirt and then getting shunned for wearing it. Sniff. Plus the no vaccine thing. It is definitely not for us.

For the most part the people who go to this charter I think are excited to get it for free. They always inform me that people in Silicon Valley pay $30K a year for the same education. I get it if your home school is not great, but over all the schools in our area are pretty good.

[rosiebear]

They're very expensive, and IMO full of woo. My sister subbed at a Waldorff one year and she had to tear off all along the edges of stacks of construction paper, because the school did not believe in "neat, precise corners and edges" that would apparently send an unhealthy message to children about perfectionism, or some such horse shit.

Around here, highly indulged special snowflakes flock to the Waldorff.

[heyjude]

Delaying reading seems like a bourgeoise approach to education and it seems like it would hurt kids from backgrounds who are disadvantaged. It seems like kids who already come from advantged homes will have no issue with delaying reading. Not that Waldorf schools seem to have any interest in educating anyone other than privileged rosey cheeked white kids.

[sangria]

I have a friend who does the Waldorf thing.

Let's just say they have removed any/all plastic from the home, her kids can't play with anything or wear anything that has any type of logo/character on it and she bought a hammock for her 6 week old baby.

A hammock.

Woo xinfinity.

[heyjude]

And if your state or county compiles vaccine opt out records aggregated by school. Check those out. The top 10 offenders are always Waldorf schools.

[Deleted]

Delayed reading sounds like the opposite of everything we know about children's development.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Oct 9, 2014 16:36:09 GMT -5 frlcb said:

Waldorf is all kinds of crazy. All kinds. You can't use certain colors until you are certain ages. Black is never allowed. No media of any sort is allowed. They teach concepts with fairies and gnomes.

sounds like the one in Napa ....

[sangria]

Oct 10, 2014 12:30:46 GMT -5 @cse1960 said:

Oct 10, 2014 10:42:13 GMT -5 sangria said:

I have a friend who does the Waldorf thing.

Let's just say they have removed any/all plastic from the home, her kids can't play with anything or wear anything that has any type of logo/character on it and she bought a hammock for her 6 week old baby.

A hammock.

Woo xinfinity.

Well, I have to say, we have no plastic dishware in the home, no logos on clothes was standard rule through high school at their independent school, and  my babies had a hammock kind of thing made of pvc pipe wherein they slept pretty well. 
That said, they were in early reading Montessori school from 3 on, and by god they behaved like civilized people or there was trouble. And machines ran by the laws of physics at their schools. 
Edit: and if they were not vaccinated, they were not allowed in class. 

Right. But my point is Waldorf mandates these things are a barrier to kids learning. As in, Oh hey, your kid can come to school here but don’t expose him/her to any Disney characters, or Daniel Tiger etc. in any way shape or form. Don’t let them come into contact with plastic- it hinders their learning. Any screen time will ruin their small developing brains.



That’s great that you don’t have plastics in the home and no logos allowed at school is not abnormal- Waldorf goes waaaaay beyond this though.