Good Morning Linda!

Haven't even had my first cup of coffee yet and already had to face really
dumb responses from Dan Dugan to my post about studying "handedness". Got one
last night from Peter Farrell pointing me to a professor in Washington State
who makes a case that the correlation between body side dominance and brain
hemisphere research is basically over rated and over referred to and is akin to
phrenology in the 19th century.

http://williamcalvin.com/bk2/bk2ch10.htm

now this one from Dan

http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/

So, I'm really not in the mood to laugh. I might never be. I would be able to
laugh if what they are doing didn't have such serious implications. You see,
if parents do not like Waldorf Education principles and practices and find
those who do laughable and without merit, they can choose not to send their
child
to such a school or to pull the child out of one. That is why I agree with
them about not allowing Waldorf in public education. Parents who remain by
default or choice in the state system have very little choice about which school
their child goes to except by moving to a different town. They have every right
to state their grievances with a particular Waldorf teacher or school in
public and even encourage others to avoid Waldorf Schools. People can just as
easily make very good cases against sending children to Catholic schools (wanna
talk about left hand switching and Catholic schools?). And even in the face of
the barrage of pedophile cases being brought to light in the Catholic community,
no group has the right to blanket label ALL Catholic schools a "racist Nazi
cult" - even though a case with historical basis might be made.

There is no place for "us" (WE & Anthros) to move to to "avoid" this
particular group of people that we disagree with about educational principles
and
practices and who we might find laughable. The slurs and defamations reach world
wide through the internet and will follow us anywhere and eat at the worldwide
system like a virus.

In the case of the professor who refuses to respond to slanderous personal
remarks, we have a different situation. His individual reputation and position
in the college society was secure and well recognized. Waldorf Schools do not
yet enjoy this kind of respect and acknowlegement widely enough yet to rest
confidently on their basis of support in world opinion. There are simply too
many
people around the world who have not yet "heard" of Waldorf Education and
whose first exposure to it could well be through the PLANS group and their court
case.

To continue the analogy started above with the Catholic Schools, the Catholic
Church is certainly established world wide, in spite of violent opposition
and equally violent defense. They have legal protection in the United States and
most other countries around the world against many forms of attack. They also
have the membership numbers and financial backing to fight off legal or
public relations attacks whereever and whenever they occur, as well as as many
of
the finest lawyers in the world at their disposal as they may ever need. So,
even though cases are brought against them, they have to be extremely well
founded legally to even get a preliminary hearing. Waldorf Schools and the
Anthroposophical Society have no such advantages. Our work and our existence is
very
open and vulnerable to attack from any sector of public or private opinion. It
makes no difference in the "court of public opinion whether the facts support
the allegations. Public opinion is powerful and easily manipulated.

Catholic and Montessori Schools do not belong in the state school system and
I believe they recognize and accept this (maybe some Montessori exceptions, I
don't know). Krishna schools, Sufi schools, Fundamentalist Christian schools,
ANY school which identifies itself with a religious ideology which is stated
to be exclusive and in its nature considers itself "mandated" by God to provide
recruits to its belief system - all have no place in the school system as it
exists now in the United States. Despite the fact that the "religious" element
to be found in Waldorf Education is universal and inclusive and despite the
fact that there is no organized religious institution to recruit any members
to, there is enough "associative" religious connotation in our principles and
practices to warrant the separation of Waldorf Schools and the government school
system.

But we cannot and do not have to allow detractors to enter the private school
arena of our work and make wholesale condemnations and accusations that have
no basis in fact. Let them stick to the arena of public legality, whether we
like it or not. But private schools in this country are still free to operate
and enjoy (to this date at least) some protection from state interference and
public slander. We must use this protection to the fullest extent while it is
still available.

I would like to call on the Waldorf School movement and the Anthropsophical
Society at large to address this issue and to work diligently to gather legal
aid and information needed to protect our work in the private sector and to
"immunize" us against this very vicious virus that has begun to infect our
worldwide school system.

If anyone knows of people active in the Waldorf Education movement who have
formed or are in the process of forming action committees in this direction, I
would appreciate it if you would send me the contact information and/ or pass
my writings on this issue to people involved.

I also need to state that I reserve the right to write to this list and to
speak about the WC/ PLANS group without the need to cc them each time, unless I
am offering direct quotes and interpretations of those quotes. If what I say
here is taken out of context and missed on any other forum I will protest with
every resource at my disposal.

Now I'm going to get some coffee.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Christine