Last weekend I was able to attend a "Waldorf in the Home Conference", offering three keynote speakers who talked about very different issues, and also dozens of various breakout sessions (which I had a hard time choosing between). The conference also brought together lots of excellent vendors offering books, toys, wools and silks, etc that are often hard for Waldorf parents to find locally. It was fantastic.
But I was amused by examples that appeared to me on all sides debunking some of the most persistent Waldorf "rumors".
* Rumor one-Waldorf forbids black crayons. Black crayons were right there for sale in the set with all kinds of other colors. (Lyra, the company that provides the colored pencils used in most Waldorf classrooms, also has a "skin tones" set of twelve additional colors to add to the basic browns, black, peach and pink colors already included in the 24 color set).
* Rumor two-Waldorf requires angels have blond hair. Toy angels were offered for sale that had every color of hair, though each I saw all had the same color body--bright sheet white. In fact, I think they probably were made from white sheets.
* Rumor three-Waldorf dolls are always caucasian. I probably saw a couple hundred dolls for sale, and they were a wide array of skin, hair, and eye color. As I browsed, the first family who walked up after me immediately chose a beautiful doll with very black, black skin.
* Rumor four-There's no ethnic or racial diversity in Waldorf. Judging by appearances only, the keynote speaker wasn't white. He looked to be African American to me.
* Rumor five-Waldorf educators are deaf and blind to any pedagogical influence except Steiner. A second keynote speaker talked almost exclusively complimenting four independent philosophies of education, none of them directly influenced by or from Rudolf Steiner. She made a point of saying that Steiner would appear somewhere below them on her own ranked scale, and [shock of shocks] nobody fainted or rushed up to eject her from the podium.
* Rumor six-Waldorf educators are gravely serious all the time and don't have senses of humor. All the speakers I saw used a lot of humor, including the conference presenter, Rahima Baldwin Dancy who was very down-to-earth and self-deprecatingly funny.
* Rumor seven-in Waldorf education, all the women are required to wear these 'odd' long dresses. I only saw one woman presenter in a long dress, and even that one didn't strike me as "odd".
* Rumor eight-Waldorf teaches that "the heart doesn't pump blood". Actually, one of the keynote speakers may have bolstered those rumors by discussing his own conclusions about the role the heart plays in blood circulation. He didn't talk about how this issue should or shouldn't be taught to children, (my children haven't been taught the heart doesn't pump blood), but instead more or less directed his comments to parents themselves, focusing on the role diet would play in proper blood circulation if the 'exchange' chemistry taking place in the capillaries, rather than pure power of pumping heart muscle, were more responsible for generating the coursing of blood through the body. This question about whether the heart is really pumping blood, as opposed to regulating and 'pulsing' the blood flow, has given some of the waldorf critics conniption fits for years, so I'm sure they'll froth at the mouth hearing this. However their position has been (as I've heard it anyway) that in Waldorf, students are taught "beings" living inside us cause the blood to circulate, which wasn't even remotely close to the scenario I heard described in this talk.
Unfortunately, there was no way for me to attend everything - including "Understanding Waldorfspeak" which I was really looking forward to. Luckily, it will be made available on CD so I can at least catch it there. I've often thought the topic would be a great subject for a feature article or pamphlet, so I'll be interested to see how it was handled in this conference.
BTW, it seems there's a kind of Waldorf philosophical 'advice for parents' television program about to happen. I'm going to hold my ear to the wind to find out more about the particular whens and wheres.
Linda
But I was amused by examples that appeared to me on all sides debunking some of the most persistent Waldorf "rumors".
* Rumor one-Waldorf forbids black crayons. Black crayons were right there for sale in the set with all kinds of other colors. (Lyra, the company that provides the colored pencils used in most Waldorf classrooms, also has a "skin tones" set of twelve additional colors to add to the basic browns, black, peach and pink colors already included in the 24 color set).
* Rumor two-Waldorf requires angels have blond hair. Toy angels were offered for sale that had every color of hair, though each I saw all had the same color body--bright sheet white. In fact, I think they probably were made from white sheets.
* Rumor three-Waldorf dolls are always caucasian. I probably saw a couple hundred dolls for sale, and they were a wide array of skin, hair, and eye color. As I browsed, the first family who walked up after me immediately chose a beautiful doll with very black, black skin.
* Rumor four-There's no ethnic or racial diversity in Waldorf. Judging by appearances only, the keynote speaker wasn't white. He looked to be African American to me.
* Rumor five-Waldorf educators are deaf and blind to any pedagogical influence except Steiner. A second keynote speaker talked almost exclusively complimenting four independent philosophies of education, none of them directly influenced by or from Rudolf Steiner. She made a point of saying that Steiner would appear somewhere below them on her own ranked scale, and [shock of shocks] nobody fainted or rushed up to eject her from the podium.
* Rumor six-Waldorf educators are gravely serious all the time and don't have senses of humor. All the speakers I saw used a lot of humor, including the conference presenter, Rahima Baldwin Dancy who was very down-to-earth and self-deprecatingly funny.
* Rumor seven-in Waldorf education, all the women are required to wear these 'odd' long dresses. I only saw one woman presenter in a long dress, and even that one didn't strike me as "odd".
* Rumor eight-Waldorf teaches that "the heart doesn't pump blood". Actually, one of the keynote speakers may have bolstered those rumors by discussing his own conclusions about the role the heart plays in blood circulation. He didn't talk about how this issue should or shouldn't be taught to children, (my children haven't been taught the heart doesn't pump blood), but instead more or less directed his comments to parents themselves, focusing on the role diet would play in proper blood circulation if the 'exchange' chemistry taking place in the capillaries, rather than pure power of pumping heart muscle, were more responsible for generating the coursing of blood through the body. This question about whether the heart is really pumping blood, as opposed to regulating and 'pulsing' the blood flow, has given some of the waldorf critics conniption fits for years, so I'm sure they'll froth at the mouth hearing this. However their position has been (as I've heard it anyway) that in Waldorf, students are taught "beings" living inside us cause the blood to circulate, which wasn't even remotely close to the scenario I heard described in this talk.
Unfortunately, there was no way for me to attend everything - including "Understanding Waldorfspeak" which I was really looking forward to. Luckily, it will be made available on CD so I can at least catch it there. I've often thought the topic would be a great subject for a feature article or pamphlet, so I'll be interested to see how it was handled in this conference.
BTW, it seems there's a kind of Waldorf philosophical 'advice for parents' television program about to happen. I'm going to hold my ear to the wind to find out more about the particular whens and wheres.
Linda
: All better now 
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