��<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//w3c//dtd html 4.01 transitional//en"> <html><head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-16"> <meta name="description" content="Waldorf teachers informing the public about the basis, philosophy and practice of Waldorf education."> <meta name="keywords" content="Waldorf, Waldorf education, education, K-12, school, Waldorf school, Waldorf schools, charter schools, Steiner, Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, Anthroposophy, church and state"> <meta name="Author" content="Robert Mays, Sune Nordwall and others"> <title>Waldorf answers - Some myths about Waldorf education and anthroposophy</title></head> <body alink="#0000ff" background="bg.gif" bgcolor="#fde9b3" link="#0000ff" text="#000000" vlink="#551a8b"> <center><img src="space.gif" height="10" width="10"></center> <center><br><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="1" cellpadding="20" cellspacing="0" width="725"> <caption> <center></center></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top" width="150"><img src="space.gif" height="10" vspace="5" width="10"> <br><table background="bgh.gif" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100" width="120"> <caption></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr align="center" valign="CENTER"> <td height="110"> <center><a href="index.htm"><img src="WA-logo.gif" border="0" height="45" width="105"></a></center> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <center><img src="space20.gif" height="20" width="20"></center> <center><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="120"> <caption> <center></center></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr> <td> <center><a href="index.htm"><img src="Home.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Waldorf.htm"><img src="Waldorf.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="RudolfSteiner.htm"><img src="RudolfSteiner.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Anthroposophy.htm"><img src="Anthroposophy.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="PublicWaldorf.htm"><img src="PublicWaldorf.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="WaldorfFAQ.htm"><img src="Questions.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="WaldorfComments.htm"><img src="Comments.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><img src="Myths.jpg" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Studies.htm"><img src="Studies.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Resources.htm"><img src="Resources.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="More.htm"><img src="More.jpg" border="0" height="28" vspace="3" width="120"></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> <center><br><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="120"> <caption> <center></center></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr align="center" valign="bottom"> <td align="center" valign="bottom"></td> </tr> <tr valign="bottom"> <td></td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> </td> <td valign="top"> <center><img src="space.gif" height="10" vspace="5" width="10"></center> <center><table background="bgh.gif" border="1" cellpadding="16" cellspacing="0" height="100" width="525"> <caption> <center></center></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr> <td height="110" valign="CENTER"><font size="+3">MYTHS ABOUT WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY</font></td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> <table border="0" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0" width="480"> <caption><br></caption><tbody> </tbody> <tbody><tr> <td><a name="Top"></a><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Waldorf, or Steiner education is a 90 year old educational tradition, of European origin, that in a number of respects differs from public education. Today (2014), it is practiced at some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldorf_education#Origins_and_history" target="_blank">1,000 independent schools world wide</a>, appr. 146 of them in North America.</font> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In addition, the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education has a membership of <a href="http://www.allianceforpublicwaldorfeducation.org/find-a-school/" target="_blank">37 public Waldorf methods schools</a> in the US. There are also 102 Waldorf Kindergartens that are members of <a href="http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/" target="_blank">WECAN</a> (Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America).</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For a number of decades now, there exists an abundance of published literature, including in English, on <a href="Resources.htm">Waldorf education</a>, <a href="RudolfSteiner.htm">Rudolf Steiner</a>, and <a href="Anthroposophy.htm">anthroposophy</a> as the general philosophical basis of Waldorf education, and much information has also been available for a number of years on the internet.</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In spite of this, some people find for various reasons that they have not been informed enough about and understood the nature and basis of Waldorf education, when putting their child or children in a Waldorf school.</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This has been a problem especially to some parents with an outspoken secular humanist orientation, who have felt their philosophical world view challenged by Waldorf education, with anthroposophy as its spiritual philosophical basis, and to some parents with a fundamentalist Christian orientation.</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Anthroposophy as such, as the philosophical basis for Waldorf education, is not taught in a theoretical sense, nor as a subject, at the overwhelming majority of Waldorf schools world wide.</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In spite of this, some people have developed more or less intense, long term negative reaction for different reasons, at times in an obsessive direction. Such people have reacted by cultivating and publishing not only different forms of criticism but also a number of myths about Waldorf education, anthroposophy and Rudolf Steiner as the founder of both Waldorf education and anthroposophy.</font> </p><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">For a description and comment on some of these myths, see:</font> </p><p><a name="Myths-about-Waldorf-Education"></a><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="MythsOnWaldorfEducation.htm">SOME MYTHS ABOUT WALDORF EDUCATION</a></font> </p><ul> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="Studies.htm">Myth: Waldorf education methods have not been investigated and are unproven and unsupported by modern research</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="WAnthroposophyMyth.htm">Myth Waldorf schools teach anthroposophy and want to make the pupils into anthroposophists</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="WNonscienceMyth.htm">Myth: Science teaching in Waldorf education is not scientific</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="Nonsectarian.htm">Myth: Waldorf education is religious</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="WRacismMyth.htm">Myth: Waldorf education is racist</a></font></li> </ul> <a name="Myths-about-anthroposophy"></a><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="MythsOnAnthroposophy.htm">SOME MYTHS ABOUT ANTHROPOSOPHY</a></font> <ul> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="NotReligion1.htm">Myth: Anthroposophy is a religion</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="ARacistMyth.htm">Myth: Anthroposophy is racist</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana"><a href="AAntisemitismMyth.htm">Myth: Anthroposophy is anti-Semitic</a></font></li> </ul> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">See also</font> <br><ul> <li><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.thebee.se/Myths/">Some comments on a rationalist anti-Steiner campaign in the UK</a></font></li><li><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="OnSalonArticle.html">Some comments on a libelous article on Waldorf education in Salon.com in May 2004</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="http://www.americans4waldorf.org/OnPLANS.html" target="_blank">Some comments on a small defamatory anti-Waldorf criticism-hate type of group in San Francisco</a></font></li> <li> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="Lawsuit.html">Documentation of lawsuit by the group against two public school districts in California for supporting two public Waldorf methods schools</a></font></li> </ul> <center><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#top">return to top</a></font> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="-1"><a href="Copyright.htm">Copyright</a> 2004-2014: Robert Mays and Sune Nordwall</font></font></p></center> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <center><img src="space20.gif" height="20" width="20"></center> </td> </tr> </tbody></table></center> </body></html>