Australian Academic Supports Sectarian School Whistleblowers

June 5, 2008 - PRLog -- Today, Dr Adrienne Huber, Australian educator and psychologist, was formally welcomed as an international supporting advisor for the San Francisco-based world movement People for Legal and Nonsectarian Schools.

“PLANS is now drawing on expertise from three continents,” said Debra Snell, PLANS President, welcoming Dr Huber to this select group.  “She will add invaluable breadth and depth to our exhaustive research on Waldorf schools and Anthroposophy, the occult religion that both guides and inspires Waldorf teachers.”

“It is evident that concerns about the claimed secularity of Steiner schools (as they are more commonly known in Australia) are being voiced around the world,” said Dr Huber, recently returned from attending an international education convention in the USA.

Waldorf education has never been examined critically to determine whether it lives up to its claims. On its web site, PLANS reports that Waldorf's two-year teacher training program is woefully inadequate. The first "foundation" year is an Anthroposophical seminary program, consisting mostly of the study of Rudolf Steiner's occult philosophy and leading the teacher on Steiner's path to "initiation" as described in his book Knowledge of Higher Worlds and its Attainment. Teacher trainees also must read Steiner's Reincarnation and Karma and Occult Science.

Steiner, in his book, Education for Adolescents, wrote, “All that is needed is to take from the depths of the soul what has been put into it through anthroposophy, if it is to be applied to education.  What I mean to say is that if the qualities present in each human being are given pedagogical direction, the anthroposophical understanding of the human being will also become a true pedagogy.” (p118).

“Most people will recognise this as a clear statement that anthroposophy is the pedagogy and Anthroposophy is religious at heart--since it is concerned with inputting to ‘souls’, not the education of minds and hearts,” said Dr Huber. “Religion is not taught explicitly, rather it is implicit in everything that is done and ‘lived’ in the name of ‘pedagogy’.”

This is a dangerous route for the uninitiated: the students and their parents.  “They have no idea of what they are being drawn into and that makes it difficult for them to challenge the practices.  They have no idea what they are looking for,” Dr Huber said.

Commenting on Huber’s appointment, the President of the Australian Rationalists, Ian Robinson, said, “Here, in the state of Victoria, the Steiner beachhead has succeeded so far.  This is due to the partisan lobbying by groups of acolytes who seek to provide a spiritually-based education for their children at the secular system’s expense.  It is encouraging to find some educational expertise will at last be applied to the scrutiny of this controversial niche schooling which calls itself ‘nonsectarian’.”

“There is virtually no hard information about what goes on in Steiner classrooms or on the effects it has on children’s learning,” he said.

Contact (North America): Dan Dugan, Secretary, PLANS, Inc. +1 (415) 821-9776
Contact (Europe): Alicia Hamberg, Stockholm, Sweden, aliciahamberg@yahoo.com for appointment
Contact (Australasia): Dr Adrienne Huber, Perth, Australia, +61 (0)431 391 468

BACKGROUND: ANTHROPOSOPHY

Anthroposophy, an occultist sect founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) and still headquartered in the Swiss village of Dornach, is the spiritual movement behind the worldwide network of schools called “Steiner,” or “Waldorf.” PLANS alleges that in reference to the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Anthroposophy is a religious sect. The defendants claim that it is a philosophy. This is a crucial issue in the PLANS lawsuit. If Anthroposophy is a religious activity, then taxpayer-funded Waldorf schools violate the U.S. Constitution by being entangled with religion. Common references classify Anthroposophy as religious; for example, Encarta: "a religious philosophy developed by Rudolf Steiner from theosophy, holding that spiritual development should be humankind's foremost concern."

U.S. LAWSUIT

PLANS contends that both private and public Waldorf schools are intrinsically and inseparably based on Anthroposophy. Curriculum decisions and teacher training are based on Anthroposophy's child development theory, which defines stages of reincarnation, a religious doctrine. Science teaching in Waldorf schools includes crackpot Anthroposophical doctrines like "the heart is not a pump." The framework for history in Waldorf schools is based on Anthroposophy's proto-Nazi “root-race” theory. Publicly funded use and reliance on the doctrines of Anthroposophy endorse that religion in violation of the United States and California constitutions.

PLANS filed its federal lawsuit in Sacramento on February 11, 1998, naming as defendants the Sacramento Unified School District, which operates a "Waldorf Methods" magnet school, and the Twin Ridges Elementary School District, which carried on a veritable franchise operation, establishing six "Waldorf-inspired" charter schools, all located in other school districts.

In May, 2001, Judge Damrell dismissed the PLANS lawsuit against the two school districts, based on lack of standing. PLANS appealed the decision, and in February, 2003, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed PLANS' right to sue the school districts as taxpayers and reinstated the case.

When the U.S. District Court tried the case in September, 2005, PLANS refused to proceed without certain key witnesses and evidence that the judge had excluded, forcing a dismissal. PLANS appealed, and in November, 2007, the appeal succeeded. The case now goes back to the Federal District Court, Eastern District of California, in Sacramento.

The Twin Ridges district was dropped from the lawsuit after it no longer authorized any Waldorf schools. As a result of a reform of California’s charter school law, schools originally chartered by districts outside their physical locations were required to apply for charter renewal in their home districts.

For more information, please see the PLANS web site, http://www.waldorfcritics.org.

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-Dan Dugan, Secretary
PLANS, Inc.

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About PLANS:

PLANS was organized in late 1995 by former Steiner/Waldorf parents, teachers, students, administrators and trustees, and their expert support base. International in membership and scope, it became a California non-profit corporation in 1997. PLANS' mission is to provide parents, teachers, school officials and journalists with views of Waldorf education from outside the cult of Rudolf Steiner, to expose the illegality of public funding for Waldorf school programs in the US, and to litigate against schools violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.