Anyone heard of Rudolf Steiner?

[bilko]

Just bought a book entitled 'The secret life of nature' by peter Tomkins from the charity shop.
He wrote The secret life of plants amongst others. The book is about living in harmony with the hidden world of nature spirits, from fairies to quarks.
i have always been intersted in this sort of thing so i snapped up the book as soon as i saw it. I have often wondered how such things as Dragons can be depicted in nearly every civilized culture at the same point in time of earth history and simply disapear.
However the book starts with several metions of rupert Steiner http://www.rsarchive.org/Basics/BasicBooks.php
Just wondered what you know about him and his work.
Right, back to reading my book

 

[Chance]

My grandmother was one of his acolytes, as was revealed to us grandchildren by my aunts and uncles after we'd planted her. Biodynamics, planting things at the correct cycle of the moon, Findhorn, that type of thing.
He has/had quite a following, with schools dedicated to his teachings. Mr Interweb will be helpful.

 

[fred gordon]

If its the same guy he also set up schools which look after and teach people with special needs. There is one in Aberdeen and its has a philosophy all of its own for teaching.

 

[Tony]

Copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner

Rudolf Steiner (February 25, 1861 – March 30, 1925) was an Austrian philosopher, literary scholar, architect, playwright, educator, social thinker and esotericist [1]. He was born in Kraljevica, Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire. He is the founder of anthroposophy, a movement based on the notion that there is a spiritual world accessible to pure thought through a path of self-development,[2] and many of its practical applications, including Waldorf education, biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine, and new artistic impulses, especially eurythmy.

Steiner advocated a form of ethical individualism, to which he later brought a more explicitly spiritual component. In his epistemological works, he advocated the Goethean view that thinking itself is a perceptive instrument for ideas, just as the eye is a perceptive instrument for light.

He characterized anthroposophy as follows:

“Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe... Anthroposophists are those who experience, as an essential need of life, certain questions on the nature of the human being and the universe, just as one experiences hunger and thirst.”

We looked into the schools for the kids a few years ago but there were none close. Last year I heard that there were quite a few celebs that had been to Steiner schools.

 

[bilko]

Well i spent 4 hours reading last night ( a pastime that is new to me but becoming more enjoyable by the page ) and i have to say that this book could be bordering on the fantastic or utter garbadge to anyone with a closed mind.

If one tenth of it were true then it would make proof of God mundane by comparison. Fortunately i have a very good imagination and an open mind.
The idea that every part of nature has a team of humanoid like spirits to care for them and that we too could see them if we could tune in to the right vibration.

Still if nothing else it's a good read. The secret life of plants was hailed as a life changing experience for many, has anyone read it?

 

[Montivagus]

Yep! Heard of him......just another in a long line of cult leaders/founders trying to flog their version/mix of christianity/evolution to the credulous. Nutters are nutters even if 90% of what they're saying sounds normal!
There is also some concern about racism in general and anti semitism in particular in his "teachings" though of course this mainly comes from ex cultists and other nutters.
I'm no expert on him though because this type of person bores me stiff. Having an open mind I tend not to delve too deeply into the unscientific preachings of closed minds! I simply don't have time for it. Good for a laugh though!

 

[Jodie]

I'd have to agree with Montivagus on this one.
http://skepdic.com/steiner.html

A Steiner school is about to open up near me in Greenwich / Blackheath.

 

[drstrange]

My daughter spent two and a half years in a Steiner school. She now attends a state school.

It didn't work for her for many reasons. It was 'elitist' in its outlook. It was dogmatic to the point of religious. It promoted a revivalist norse and arian mythology in a similar way to the early nazi-party (child of light, worship of anthropomorphic manifestations of elemental forces etc.)

The parents frowned upon those without organic pseudo-spiritual pretensions, or those who did not conspire to edify the school's belief in its own self-righteousness and superioriority.

It is 90% rediculous. It seemed better than state educationation at first, but turned out to be riddled with hypocrisy and ignorance.

 

[bilko]

Thanks guys
Just confirms what was at the back of my mind.
shame though, i guess it says something when you want to believe something.
yes i am gullible and should realise that a half inch thick paperback isn't going to open a different world for me.
That's what you get for being a dreamer

 

[drstrange]

Thanks guys
Just confirms what was at the back of my mind.
shame though, i guess it says something when you want to believe something.
yes i am gullible and should realise that a half inch thick paperback isn't going to open a different world for me.
That's what you get for being a dreamer

Life changing books? Lets start a thread.

 

[Montivagus]

a half inch thick paperback isn't going to open a different world for me.

Oh I wouldn't say that! Try Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman or A Brief History of Time or......

 

[philaw]

I visited a rudolph steiner school simply to compare it to state schools, and the obvious things were that they had ten year olds performing a play in french (wouldn't see that in a state school) and there was a strong christian ethic, which is somethin I'm not a fan of in schools.

The school said they get better exam results than schools with comparable socio-economic intakes, but I think that any school like that is going to be filled with the children of parents with a passion for education. They had some different ideas about the stages of child development; introducing reading and writing at later than in state schools. I don't think they should be written off without looking into more, but my experience of them is very limited and there's a huge amount that I don't know.

 

[drstrange]

I visited a rudolph steiner school simply to compare it to state schools, and the obvious things were that they had ten year olds performing a play in french (wouldn't see that in a state school) and there was a strong christian ethic, which is somethin I'm not a fan of in schools.

The school said they get better exam results than schools with comparable socio-economic intakes, but I think that any school like that is going to be filled with the children of parents with a passion for education. They had some different ideas about the stages of child development; introducing reading and writing at later than in state schools. I don't think they should be written off without looking into more, but my experience of them is very limited and there's a huge amount that I don't know.

My daughter went to Steiner school for two and a half years (I said this a couple of posts ago, repeat for those only reading the latest posts) and yes, they do have some ideas which work better, i.e. the lessons are geared around the child's natural rhythmns etc. But the system is spoilt by the heavy pseudo-spirituality which the children are indoctrinated with. Also, the chrisitan slant is very simplistic and literal in its presentation (they preach the concept of original sin instigated by the decieving female, a story which has been used to supress women for millennia), and it is fused with what I can only describe as fascist-folklore.

Yes the parents are concerned with their childrens education, but they don't have a monopoly on that, and I realy felt that in many cases the children's education was an extension of their parents 'spiritual' pretensions, I would consider their interest bordered more on the obsessive and neurotic.

Before I withdrew my child from the school I had a heated discussion with one of the staff who claimed that Steiner education produced 'better' human beings than state schools. That the children comming out of the system were somehow engendered with a special gift not given to other children.

It would be interesting to see a system of education devised which took the best of everything and left out the nonsense.