An AWSNA conference this summer [pdf]. From page 1, the intro:
Our ability to meet the adolescent today is deeply dependent on understanding Rudolf Steiner’s overarching conception of child development. When we weave together the practiced observations of the doctor with the experience of the teacher, the genius of Waldorf Education becomes apparent.
Oh really? The ability to ‘meet’ young people today is dependent on knowing Steiner’s teachings? Seems slightly exaggerated. Page 4, ‘focus groups’:
Why is my life where it is at this moment? Who are the members of my karmic family and what are we truly meant to do together? […] Parzival, the story of the soul in modern times, can help us recognize and shape our karmic relations and intentions for our current life.
Yes, who are they, these members of the karmic family? And why does waldorf education, once again, seem more like a self-realization program for spiritual seekers (i e, the teachers) than an educational system whose goal is to teach children stuff they need in life?
On page 8, we learn of a eurythmy workshop, about which they say:
we imagine this focus group as a homeopathic dose of fun.
Not fun at all then, I presume. Or, more accurately, so extremely diluted fun it can’t be recognized as fun anymore, much less cause any effect (such as pleasure or laughing).
Go ahead and read the brochure. It includes drugs, sex, diversity and islam. And some more eurythmy. Just to tempt you.
the ethereal kiosk 
The link at the end is broken.
I cannot get over the sheer amount of delusional nonsense.
‘When we weave together the practiced observations of the doctor with the experience of the teacher, the genius of Waldorf Education becomes apparent.’
Yes, it’s about the adults. Again.
Oh, thank you, copy and paste mishap (with the link, which wasn’t a link).
Yep, there was a huge amount of it. But I think they’re probably on target about the amount of fun in the eurythmy session!
Ewwww. I read the brochure.
You might want to compare & contrast with the recent annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Schools””
http://naisac11.wordpress.com/about/
Hello Liz!
‘What has Parzival to do with my life today?’ is a question that would not normally be asked at the annual meeting of the US National Assn of Independent schools.
You’re not trying to tell me they are actually running schools knowing nothing about karmic relationships? No? Can’t be…
‘Seeking the Journey: Wilderness education in the Waldorf High School’
Seeking a journey into the wilderness to find the journey. Then going on the journey.
…and getting lost in the woods (report). Sorry, that’s the program at the SWSF conference…
the SWSF conference should be called: ‘finding the politician who has not read DC’s blog’.
… if they can locate these woods, and that shouldn’t be too difficult (frequent gnome hunts have beneficial side-effects in this regard), I’m sure they’ll find the politician, wandering cluelessly and lost, among the threes and shrubbery (stuck on thorns possibly?).
you guys crack me up.
I love “Gestures of embryology in light of health and sex education.” Note that this workshop will actually consist of making pastel drawings. Sometimes I actually forget just how wacky anthroposophy is.
sigh ……………..
Fixed!
Yep, a really fine workshop, that one.
Thank you :(
Forgot to take my senility pills.
I think the “gestures of embryology” one attracted me because I once attended a similar lecture at Sunbridge. Wackiest thing I have ever sat through in my life. I took copious notes but at some later point threw them away in disgust. Then I wished I still had them. All about the forces of the cosmos on the embryo/fetus, and lots of talk about verticality and horizontality. Certain cosmic forces, you know, make you vertical. Other educators and child development people talk about the child learning to walk, anthroposophists talk about the Child attaining Verticality under the influence of Beings and Forces.
How interesting! I can’t say that I myself have made any “gestures of embryology,” but I can say that that I have made many “gestures towards embryology” — which involved some verticality but mostly horizontality.
I mean, I never ever saw the embryo, mind you, but the emergent baby was nice and healthy. And since I was in the delivery room, I can say definitively that no birds were involved, especially not storks.
For some reason, it seems to strike anthroposophists as extremely amazing that humans in their development progress from horizontality to verticality, i.e., babies learn to sit up and then stand and walk. I never understood why such things needed to cast in pretentious faux-spiritual terminology (“gestures” etc. WTF is a gesture).
Diana,
The whole difference between man and animal is predicated on the vertical vs. the horizontal. The most developed animals, i.e., the mammals have a horizontal spine, i.e. parallel to the earth’s surface. They are thus unable to receive the spiritual forces of the cosmos. They remain stuck in the terrestrial forces, their heads dragged down by the force of gravity.
In order for these animals to open up to the spiritual forces and beings of the cosmos, they must liberate their head from gravity. In order to do that they must have an upright vertical spine which supports the head completely. (The “resting head”). Only then can the cerebral cortex form well enough to receive the individual ego and ego-consciousness from the universe.
And you can see this struggle especially in primates, as monkeys, gorillas, etc., manage to pull up their spines to, say, 45 degrees to the vertical. Alas, they didn’t quite make it, but some of the other creatures did, and lo and behold, here we are discussing it all.
Dog ‘attaining Verticality under the influence of Beings and Forces’:
http://twitpic.com/45r2ou
He’s quite good at it. He walks on two legs easily, but only sees the point of it if someone holds something tasty where he can’t reach it. (It’s an old photo.)
‘In order for these animals to open up to the spiritual forces and beings of the cosmos, they must liberate their head from gravity.’
Mr Dog — the flying fur-ball — would like to tell you he’s much less restrained by gravity than most humans!
Well, what I was going to say — in case people who aren’t on the list are reading here — was that I recommend Pete’s post on critics about one of the conference workshops is worth reading: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/waldorf-critics/message/17636
Cutie!! -the dog, that is … yeah you too Tom :)
“The most developed animals, i.e., the mammals have a horizontal spine, i.e. parallel to the earth’s surface. They are thus unable to receive the spiritual forces of the cosmos. ”
I fail to see how this follows, even if one did accept nonsense about receiving cosmic forces. WTF does horizontality or verticality have to do with anything?
Diana,
I’m tracking down the lecture where he explains it all in 2 paragraphs. I haven’t found it yet, but I did come across this related passage which I know you and Alicia will enjoy because here he explains why parrots can talk but Mr. Dog can’t. And it has everything to do with the vertical vs. the horizontal. Polly want a cracker? Arf! Arf!
Lecture 6 of “Between Death and Rebirth”, given Jan. 5, 1913 in Berlin, GA 141
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/BetDeaReb/19130107p01.html
There is, in fact, a natural correspondence between the true form of man and the faculties of standing and walking upright, speaking and thinking. It is impossible to conceive of any other being who can walk as man does, that is to say with a vertical spine, and who can speak and think. Even a parrot is able to talk only because its form is upright. The fact that it is able to talk is connected fundamentally with the vertical position. Animals with an intelligence much greater than that of a parrot will never learn to talk because their backbone is horizontal, not vertical.
Sounds to me like the same reasoning as is applied to the “change of teeth,” which supposedly heralds momentous changes in the child’s development. It doesn’t seem to occur to anthroposophists that just because two things occur around the same time, or develop in tandem, doesn’t always mean one causes the other, or is a condition of the other. Walking, talking, and thinking … yeah the child makes great progress in these all at the same time. Not rocket science.
‘…he explains why parrots can talk but Mr. Dog can’t’
So you think…
Anyway, ‘never over-estimate the role of verticality in the evolution of consciousness’, as it says in the Canineosophical Leading Thoughts. It continues: ‘four legs are always better than two’.
What about the penguins? They seem quite daft too me. Certainly no more progressed than wolves…
I found this very funny, for some reason…: http://twitpic.com/460j6h
I have to run, but this, on the list, was brilliant. I just want to agree, but don’t want to post just to agree… And I’m in too much of a hurry to think of anything clever to say. Diana to Stephen.
*****
>remember: no system or philosophy – even yours – can encompass the >whole world. There are always pieces – real pieces, very important >pieces – that will not fit. Yes, I know that applies to me, too.
It seems to me though that atheism and agnosticism leave a lot more room for pieces that don’t fit than esoteric religions do (or any religions). Who exactly pretends to know all the answers about cosmic history, past and future? Who pretends to know the spiritual “meaning” in every drop of rain? It isn’t me.
******
“Not fun at all then, I presume. Or, more accurately, so extremely diluted fun it can’t be recognized as fun anymore, much less cause any effect (such as pleasure or laughing).”
Hilarious!
“but I can say that that I have made many “gestures towards embryology” — which involved some verticality but mostly horizontality.”
Are you sure this wasn’t on tiptoes?
Questions of verticality vs horisontality seem less important now that we know a wax block is capable both of waving and writing blog comments! Come to think of it, the wax block has transcended the vertical vs horisontal duality. It looks — is! — the same from all positions. And is still able to perform typically human-vertical tasks! It’s running for president, it seems.
http://killingthebuddha.com/ktblog/alles-gute-zum-geburtstag-rudolf/#comment-6204
Shall I ask the waxy highness about his thoughts on gestures towards embryology?
‘The last we can do is wave to each other.’
How exciting that the Beeswax Block responded on Mary Valle’s blog. Of course the Wax Block was created by the secretions of approximately 5 million German bees, so its native language is of course German. However, I believe that I am karmically destined to teach it proper English — well, my New Yawk City English is not dat propa, but after a few lessons I believe that the German Wax-Block will . . . yes, of course . . . WAX . . . poetic and maybe even comment here.
In the meantime I am going to Mary’s blog to ask the Wax Block in its native German if it successfully brought both anthroposophy and democracy to Croatia as the culmination of the Steiner Sesquicentennial Express.
It seems that the Wax Block brought anthroposophy but is still working on the democracy. Not that I understand what it is saying, to be honest, I think it google translated some of the already gibberish content on its own website:
‘The contribution of the wax block will bring quality back into the talks at the highest level. We seek the appointment by a sum of eligible voters who cast their vote not to a power structure clamped party or faction, but will instruct delegates directly democratic question properly raise.’
‘Wax block has to be understood as a directed pulse of a pulse can be recorded and forwarded. Sun participation arises from a growing structure that integrates a corridor without external order, the special interests in indirect, not direct form.’
But it has great comedic properties.
‘Of course the Wax Block was created by the secretions of approximately 5 million German bees, so its native language is of course German. However, I believe that I am karmically destined to teach it proper English — well, my New Yawk City English is not dat propa, but after a few lessons I believe that the German Wax-Block will . . . yes, of course . . . WAX . . . poetic and maybe even comment here.’
As for the native languages of bees… some bees are difficult to understand even for those of us who share their native language. What about 5 million bees, all contributing their individual linguistic idiosyncracies… think about all of that buzzing merged into one big lump of speaking/writing bees wax.
I think you’ll be a great teacher for it, Tom, but I suspect you’re in over your head with this one. In addition, wax blocks are notoriously dense. It’s not easy to get them to communicate at all.