Waldorf Review by Parent

http://www.mothering.com/community/t/683104/life-after-waldorf-a-support-group/3\
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Oh wow
I am so glad to find this. I was feeling pretty lonely in post-traumatic
anthroposopohy. I could literally write a book about this... but I will spare
you guys all the grisley details! I want to say that I do not think people that
go to Waldorf are "bad" I am just relating and looking for healing in my and my
childrens experiences. When I first found out about Waldorf I was so happy I
thought that it sounded like something that supported my beliefs..Not pushing
children into things before they are ready, being surrounded by gentleness and
beauty, etc. I enrolled my eldest son who was 5 at the time. I also began to do
classroom support every friday. Nowkeep in mind I was 23 at the time and my
husband and I were pretty low income at the time so we would take turns getting
up early to come clean the school-to help with tuition. At the first parent
/teacher meeting the teacher expressed concern about our son- he kept insisting
on - gasp-drawing dinosaurs!! When the rest of the class was drawing what they
were supposed to. You see the "beautiful" artwork that children at waldorf
create is basically dictated to them--this is what we are drawing, these are the
colors we use, this is how we do it. So you have 20 pictures in the hall of an
apple. ( I would rather see the childs own creative perspective) Well my sons
drawings were showing that he had emotional problems- they were concerned for
his poor,little, damaged spirit. Now at the time I immediately felt like a
terrible parent, I wanted to do anything I could to be better and to help him. I
did not even think to question... Over the next couple years I did everything I
could think of to help my son and to follow the waldorf way but i started to
become aware of a few things..the children were not allowed to use the color
black, All the women teachers are supposed to wear long pastel dresses and speak
quietly, I did not observe any way the male teachers had to dress or speak
differently. The children were supposed to observe the female teachers making
specific gestures such as sewing, ironing, cooking and knitting. Hmmmm.... I
observed that the whole thing was incredibly eurocentric and elitist. We can
only use this paint brush and this paint and these toys and this color. Now I
can get all behind fair trade and responsible consumerisim- but this is alittle
beyond --to me it feels very materialistic. Everything came to a head when I
found out that my youngest son was being molested in the bathrooms by older
children. The whole staff knew that the 2nd grade boys were messing with the
kindergartners- cps had even been called. But no one had told me that my son was
involved!!! I diddnt even know about it until my son told me. I marched into the
office and demanded to know how the children were going to be kept safe... They
refused to talk to me and I was given the cold shoulder by all the staff. Now
this same week I had another parent/teacher conference the teacher told me that
she believed that my eldest son was a sociopath. She believed this because he
kept running away and he had bitten a child. When I got the whole story from her
it turned out a group of children had my son cornered -they had sticks and were
poking him with them. He bit one of the children to get away and ran off. Okay I
call this self-defense. Some of the children who did this and who regularly did
this were the staffs children-who NEVER got reprimanded. They were literally the
biggest bullies of the school. After hearing this I pulled my children out and
began to homeschool. Since that time I have also done some research into Steiner
and I am not all that impressed. Here is another guy telling us moms everything
we do wrong to mess up our kids-including family beds ( pushes your etheric body
on to the child), breastfeeding past 9 months-very bad!! having certain colors
or patterns oin your childrens clothing. Competitive sports are very bad- they
will give you diseases- yes it is true! Also any taped music/sound is very bad.
I just have to say I really dont care for the everything is scary, bad and gonna
mess us up perspective. I will not make my desicions based on fear of the bad
thing. And I dont think it is a healthy message for children that they are the
center of every fear-based desicion. Okay I am going to get off the soap box!! I
am glad to find this thread and to connect with all of you.