TOP 2 THINGS I HATE ABOUT WALDORF SCHOOL

I went through the whole 13 year (1990 - 2003) curriculum of Waldorf School. These are my thoughts. Everything is my opinion and not to be taken as facts.

[debman]

I have a granddaughter who attends a Steiner School in Australia. She is currently in kindergarten and was in the preschool class last year. As an educator (on the other end of the spectrum- my focus is on adult education) I fall a little more in love with the school every day. My other grandchildren have been through a Montessori preschool and I love that too, but due to financial and geographical issues have had no choice but to follow on with mainstream public education. While globally all alumni of Steiner/Waldorf schools unite in their hate of Eurythmy, so do their publicly educated counterparts complain about compulsory dance or gym classes in their own schools. Movement is part of all education programs, the fact than dance is one of the most beautiful arts, school interpretations of dance classes have to cater to all comers regardless of skill. As the teachers have limited dance ability themselves this can lead to some pretty horrific practices. I still remember folk dancing, or having to do very bad ballroom dancing with changing partners such as in the Pride of Erin or some other crap. The fact that you can only find 2 things that you hate about your 13 years of education is a pretty great testament to the value of a Steiner education. Ask most mainstream educated kids to limit the things they hated about school to only 2!!!

[GarethWareth]

The language thing isn't specific to Waldorf/Steiner education, that was just your school. Eurythmy was dumb but I'd still rather go back to Steiner than go through mainstream UK education. Might be different if you live in Finland as their state education is great.

[cathelijnedotinga]

Eurythmy was so stupid, everybody at my school hated it, we had one eurythmy teacher who believed her cat could talk and she just kept going on about her talking cat, an other eurythmy teacher believed my dyslexia was an evil spirit and had to be prayed out🤦‍♀️

[mollyduke]

Everything you said about Eurythmy is so true! My class made a Eurythmy teacher leave because we banded together and terrorized him so much! I also feel like all Eurythmy teachers that we had were such strange human beings. We hated Eurythmy so much and I don't understand the point of it really. I feel like you get everything it is trying to teach you from other aspects of the education. Especially through Spacial Dynamics and just music. And how the teach you the alphabet in the beginning. I feel like Eurythmy is kind of unnecessary. I also want to say that I love Waldorf Education a lot. I believe it is so much better than public USA school's and I am so glad I went to a Waldorf school through 8th grade.

[lavoltare]

I dare say you missed it all entirely, you have been educated better than 90% of the population. You have the building blocks now to do what ever you want.. Lucky you :)

[ellenf.]

I studied eurythmy (after studying dance) so I'm now supposedly "equipped" to teach it. During my internships I realised I didn't find that prospect particularly appealing, because it seemed very hard to find ways of reaching and moving the children of all different ages. But I have seen brilliant teachers, mostly German but also Dutch, who believe in eurythmy as a worthwhile subject and somehow have found ways of relating to the children /students so that there is a relationship of mutual respect, eventhough the students may not understand exactly what the use of it is. I think that brings me to learning foreign languages from a young age. You think it would be best to learn two foreign languages that would be most useful. And you mention that the reason why at waldorf schools children learn foreign languages so young is because it practices or engages certain neural pathways. I think what also might be part of the reason is that through learning a foreign language, you get to see the world through the eyes or sounds of a different culture, so in a way eventually it helps broaden your perspective on the world. So for that reason the foreign language doesn't need to be of direct use. I understand the desire for it to be useful as well though...
But indeed, as you say, I think eurythmy and how it's perceived really depends on the person teaching or implementing it. Now less so than in the past, I think eurythmy teachers lacked pedagogical skills. But I also observed that in some schools there was an institutionalised hatred for eurythmy, which means that it becomes very difficult for any child to express enthusiasm for the subject because they would be ridiculed. So sometimes there might be a spiral of negativity in place. I read some other comments, also from a person who got to choose eurythmy as an extra or minor subject. None of the students knew it from waldorf education, yet they chose it because something about it fascinated or interested them. So eurythmy in itself might not be as weird as waldorf children think. To me, eurythmy makes sense. But how do you communicate to a 12 year old why they are obliged to do eurythmy? Or a 14 or 15 year old? There are ways of going about it... Most of the time teachers get the students to answer this question themselves, very waldorfian approach...

[f.f.]

Just my opinion, but I think that learning languages never is useless, it is so important to get the culture and it can actually really enrich your own life I feel.

[poisxe]

My local Waldorf teaches Japanese and Spanish.

[koribjazic]

You really made me laugh! Eurythmy can get pretty weird! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself.

[theelizabethan]

Your English ability is impressive -- especially in view that it seems to be a fourth? language for

One grammar usage faux-pas detected in your monologue:

The Past Tense for the verb, "TEACH" is "taught" rather than "teached."

[yarawilde]

Loved this video! And you make a good argument for learning language via computer games since your English vocabulary is amazing!

[gesturesoflife]

I watched your video last night. It was New Year's Eve. Now, a new day and I must say I am still thinking about your video. Why? Because I am a eurythmy teacher and always looking for how to bring eurythmy to children especially in big classes. Having loved eurythmy myself and having spent many years studying and practicing and teaching, I know there is great value in it. I also know that a chaotic, confused class of children in a large space with nothing to ground them other than the teacher's voice or the music, can make for a very uncomfortable experience that is far removed from healthy beautiful eurythmy. Eurythmy teachers do have a reputation for being weird, and you may be right in your theory that eurythmy teachers become weird by soaking up so much ridicule and negativity. It is a daunting task. I hope you will remember when you speak about eurythmists, that they are just people who have chosen an art form that is unknown. That is eccentric. There is room in the world for all, though, and compassion for others is as golden as silence or valuable as love.

All that being said, I am really glad that you did have one positive experience of eurythmy. It may have been the only true eurythmy that you got to do.

[ginagina]

Oh a curious thing I thought of .. is I’ve lived in Hawaii most of my life and Hula and all Polynesian dances tell stories without words. They didn’t write down things they would dance it. Maybe that’s the concept of Eurythmy… however it’s very different because Polynesians have amazing meaning and energy within these dances so I’m guessing that’s what this Eurythmy lacks.

[EmilyGloeggler]

Not all people like the Waldorf/Steiner school and it does not work for everyone. I personally am all for homeschooling my children and taking them around the world to learn from real life and learn practicality, common sense, and independence.

[tamrokankava]

That's strange. Usually, at Waldorf, we don't start with more than one language. Waldorf is famous for not pushing small kids intellectually and giving them as much free space as possible.

[YareRD]

Well, in Waldorf schools don´t necessarily those two languages are mandatory, maybe it was specific to your country. In South America for example, one of those languagues is English.

[kathrynfitzharris]

Thank you so much for this video. My 3 year old is enrolled in a Steiner school but her personality and the fact she won't start school until she is a 6 years old is making me reconsider. You are so articulate and that is what draws me into Steiner but what you mentioned at the end of your video is exactly what I have had fears about lately. Again, thank you and I would love to hear more about your experience!

[selbalamir]

This is a very useful report. Thanks very much for sharing your insights.

[KITIG]

I love education, I love developmental psychology and psychiatry. I wasn’t educated at Waldorf but my cousins were and after years of confusion I finally decided to learn more about Waldorf and Anthroposophy - some of it is straight up brilliant if you let go of some teachers who’re way to strict for the method of Waldorf itself.
Why Eurythmy is so difficult? Why wearing weird shaped baggy silky dresses while chanting lines that make little to no sense? why the fun and the connection of this activity is not considered by some of the institutions? Why is it so serious and often strict? (it breaks the flow of it and that’s a bummer) I mean the point is to stay focused while holding a flowy rhythm, but the fun matters as well, boredom isn’t good for learning- so what’s the point of this?

[kathinkadalseg]

I learned that eurytmi, is sound and tune, given in in a movement. Whatever that means.