Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: joint venture with cohousing and Waldorf school

[Mac & Sandy Thomson (ganesh]

>From Sandy,

Steiner also said  some very insightful things about community, the
environment, and other things that relate to becoming a better person.  I
wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Here at Heartwood we formed our own Waldorf inspired homeschool cooperative.
We have two teachers and 11-13 kids.  And it has been a great experience for
the whole community.  We use the common house during the day when it
normally doesn't get a lot of use.  Festivals are a big part of Waldorf
education and the whole community gets involved with them.  And there are
people in the community that don't have kids that still have things to
contribute to educating our kids that get to share that with the kids.  All
around it has made our community closer and richer.

I have found people involved with Waldorf education to be by and large more
tolerant of diversity and sensitive to the needs of each human as an
individual than most other groups of people I have met.  They are also very
in tune with the environment like many  cohousing communities are.

I think it is an interesting idea that could work.  I know that there is
more dogma involved in partnering with an established Waldorf school than
the kind of homegrown Waldorf inspired cooperative we have been involved in
but I think it might be a nice match.  It sure is nice for the kids to be
able to walk to school and home and to have a built in community to share
festivals and resources with.

On 08/05/03 11:00 AM, "cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org"
<cohousing-l-request [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Message: 4
> From: Sue Pniewski <SPniewski [at] Habijax.com>
> To: "'cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org'" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: RE: [C-L]_joint venture between co housing and Waldorf school
> Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 09:27:29 -0400
> Reply-To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> 
> I am not sure Cohousing would fit in with the Waldorf theology.  You might
> want to research the dogma very thoroughly before committing to any joint
> venture in which your reputation as a community may be tied to a group such
> as that.  The following quotes are from the founder of the Waldorf schools--
> 
> "You see, when we really study science and history, we must conclude that if
> people become increasingly strong, they will also become increasingly
> stupid. If the blonds and blue-eyed people die out, the human race will
> become increasingly dense if men do not arrive at a form of intelligence
> that is independent of blondness. Blond hair actually bestows intelligence.
> ... It is indeed true that the more the fair individuals die out the more
> will the instinctive wisdom of humans vanish."
> [Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Schools. Health and Illness: Volume I,
> p86. (1922) Spring Valley: Anthroposophic Press, 1981]
> 
> "It can certainly not be denied, that today Jewry still appears as a closed
> totality, and as such many times has intervened in the development of the
> present situation in a way that has been less than positive for Western
> cultural ideas. But Jewry as such has long since outlived itself, and has no
> justification any more within modern life of the peoples, and that it
> nevertheless has preserved itself is a mistake of world history, whose
> consequences have been inevitable."
> [Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Schools. from his review of "Homunculus"
> by Hammerling (1888) published in the German Weekly]
> 
> Please see this website for more information-
> http://www.waldorfcritics.org/
> 
> -------------------------------------

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