anthroposophic playgroup in Manhattan

[anja]

Hi!

My daughter (almost 2 ½) and I, are looking for an existing anthroposophically oriented playgroup, or we would like to
start one.

Please call Anja

at

(212) 644 8768

You can watch my flyer here:

http://leoni.rockefeller.edu/~anja/playgroup.jpg

[aolwife]

You know what, I think you might have scared some people with that really big word! LOL

I met a group of really great NY mamas last year in central park. I would love to meet up with them again, but people in this area are usually really busy. I would be willing to come into the city anytime though. We love an excuse to take the ferry! We live right next to Hoboken on the Hudson River. When it's warm we are in the city at least once a week, but this cold has kept us inside.

Let me know if you get anything together.

Joy

[sohj]

Just haven't heard it used in this context :thumb

Where do you live? I'm on ninth street in east village.

--Sarah

[merpk]

Not scared of it. Just assumed you're talking Waldorf stuff, & it's not my thing ...

Was more scared by the e-mail link ... you or your partner is at Rockefeller. So you're, like, um, really really smart.

Too much pressure, hanging around you smart folks ... :p

But would love for you to come to the Central Park (or whatever park) thing this year ... :thumb

:)

[mimmy]

Well, I'm not scared by the big word - but I am not in Manhattan. However, if you are ever planning to be up near Woodstock or New Paltz, look us up. :D Ds and I are always up for a playdate!:thumb

[merpk]

Thinking about it, you could have an easier time starting your playgroup if you posted your sign at one of the Rudolph Steiner schools ... they're on the east side, too ...

Just a thought.

:hippie

[goodcents]

Ok - I relish in words and devour baby data - but this one sent me for a loop.

What in the dickens is a anthroposophically oriented playgroup? :eek


Baby is only 3 months - but hey maybe we will start one someday!!

[sohj]

from the greek: Anthropos -- man (in the general sense, not in the specific, aner or andros, or male man:rolleyes: ...looks funny in english) and sophia -- wisdom.

Chambers English Dictionary defines it as "the knowledge of the nature of men: human wisdom: esp. the spiritualistic doctrine of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)"

His thought was heavily wound up in that of Goethe (a german scientist, poet and philosopher) with an addition of the thought of theosophists and various "occult" intuitions. [ That is "occult" in the sense of "hidden" NOT in some hollywood sense of the word. Maybe "esoteric" would b a better description. ]

The Encyclopaedia of Philosophy says under his name: "Mechanistic science gives only abstract knowledge of some uniform relations in nature. The model for fuller knowledge of individual beings is the organic idea of a self-evolving and self-directing organism, which Goethe saw in the "primal plant". The method for generalizing such knowledge is one of intuitive thinking." They also write about the Waldorf School he founded: "While the higher aim of Steiner's pedagogy was to develop special powers of spiritual insight, the cultivation of moral balance, a harmony of virtuous dispositions intermediate between excess and defects, was considered a prerequisite."

Essentially, Steiner was, I think, aiming for the Platonic Ideal, an admirable aim. Intuition and the so-called inexplainable are not pooh-poohed in his educational philosophy. Science was to him (as to Goethe) the child of inspiration, not some inflexible system ridgidly bound. And, I think, 'science' was not limited. Many people see 'science' as something taught through the language of math (a limited definition, but it serves to make my point :) ) while he saw 'science' as the human condition. When I think of Steiner and his thought (which, I confess, I've read very little of, only some of Mein Lebensgand---his autobiography and some of his writings on Goethe and Nietzsche. He seemed to think that he was intellectually in the same camp, but I disagree...looking from the perspective of the intellectual changes of the 20th c.) I think of Goethe's poetry, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (a great book about education, really!:D), and the novels of Peter Hoeg (danish, wrote Smilla's Sense of Snow and The History of Danish Dreams, etc.). I am not sure why these things are apparently classified together in my mind, but maybe that would be of help to you.

End of today's lecture. Come back next week for a discussion of ethics in the construction industry. :p :) :)