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How they learn at a different school of thought
More articles on this topic: AntroposophyIt’s a well-worn phrase used by countless parents and relatives over the years as junior gets home: “So, what did you do at school today?”
The answer isn’t usually “thermodynamics, gardening and the history of architecture” – but it could easily be if the child in question goes to a Steiner school.
Edinburgh’s own Steiner school in Merchiston, like all the 750 Steiner schools worldwide, is run along the lines devised by Austrian academic Rudolf Steiner, who died 80 years ago this year.
Steiner believed learning should target the heart – as in the feelings – and the hands – as in the practical – as well as the intellect.
In practice, this means Steiner schools put far more emphasis on the arts, such as singing, and practical subjects, such as gardening, than regular schools.
Astrid Maclean, who has been a teacher at the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School for 20 years, says: “An awful lot of schools put huge pressure on pupils to just learn facts and figures and regurgitate them back in tests and exams.
“But many children are very intimidated by that rigid way of learning, and find that they cannot be creative or individual as a result. What we do here is to harness the potential of every child and let them learn and explore in a nurturing environment.
“In the lower school, which has pupils between the ages of six and 14, we encourage them to dance and sing at the very start of the school day because it makes them more focused for learning.”
But it’s aspects like a morning song and dance, rather than, say, the more traditional assembly, that critics would leap on. It was once derided as a dangerous cult, but now the main criticism of the Steiner system is that it’s fine if pupils want to be a fashion designer but not if they want to be a brain surgeon.
And some Steiner schools in Scotland – though not the Edinburgh one – have been criticised by HM inspectors for not placing enough emphasis on basic reading and writing as well as giving pupils coursework and homework that is “insufficiently challenging”.
The fact that the teachers only have to attain a Steiner teaching qualification rather than be state-qualified has caused difficulty in the organisation’s appeal to the Scottish Executive for funding.
So why would a parent spend up to ?1898 a term – fees rise with the age of the pupils – sending their child there? Pauline Brews’ son Matthew, 11, has been attending the school for the last three years. The 36-year-old mother, from Little France, says Matthew was at a well-established fee-paying school elsewhere in the city, but since moving to the Steiner campus, he has flourished.
“When Matthew was at his previous school, he went from being an alert, inquisitive boy to being very anxious and unhappy. Because so many schools make such a big deal of tests and forced learning, he thought that he wasn’t bright because he couldn’t do some of the subjects he was learning.
‘IT was a really difficult decision to take him out of the school, but it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever done. We didn’t really know that much about what the Steiner school did, but as soon as we’d had an interview with the staff it just seemed perfect.
“Now there has been such a change in him and the fact that it’s visual learning as well as academic learning is ideal for him. Beforehand, he wouldn’t have even dreamed of asking questions in lessons, but now he is constantly asking them whilst doing work that is equally as challenging as that at any independent school.”
Along with music and drama, Steiner schools put an emphasis on foreign languages – children as young as six are taught French and German and there are frequent exchanges with other Steiner schools across Europe.
Dorothy Baird, 45, from Currie, who has three children at the Edinburgh school, Thomas, 14, Kirsty, 12, and Hannah, nine, says: “I think all of the children here actually grow up to be more rounded.
“They take Standard and Higher exams just like anywhere else, but they get the chance to learn about specific things like philosophy and geology they may not get the chance to elsewhere.
“My eldest son often comes home from school and tells me about a subject he’s learned that I never got to learn myself when I was at school.
“They grow up to be happy, contributing positive adults with a good sense of social responsibility. It isn’t about growing up to care about how many letters you have after your name or how big your bank balance is.
“And they still get taught more than enough about their subjects to be able to pass important exams and get university places.”
The Edinburgh Steiner School has more than 300 pupils, aged three to 18, and 30 teachers.
One of those pupils is 18-year-old Chris Snow, in his final year. About to start life in the real world, he doesn’t think the Steiner system will put off potential employers.
“I don’t think there’s anything that puts us at a disadvantage,” he says. “There’s a big stress on learning languages at an early age, and in the lower years there’s also a lot of focus on co-ordination and speech which I think has a good effect on physical development.
“The fact that we don’t just focus on exam subjects is good too, and I think that we probably end up learning more than we would at any other school.”
And while the most famous ex-pupil may be the artistic fashion photographer Albert Watson, there are certainly some pupils who go into more academic careers, such as 25-year-old Sam Condry who was at the school until 1998.
Now training to be a lawyer, he says: “Some of the teaching might seem a little strange – particularly in the Lower School where there is a lot of focus on creativity – but I think that it encourages a good sense of individuality that is often lacking in other schools.
“The good thing about the Steiner system is that it actively encourages pupils to become what they want to – whether it’s an artist or musician, or a lawyer or doctor. There’s no negative competition or discrimination taught there.
“It certainly isn’t somewhere that holds its pupils back at all. If anything, I think they probably get more out of it than they would at a hierarchical public school.”
SPARK OF GENIUS IN A GERMAN CIGARETTE FACTORY
RUDOLF STEINER was born in 1861 in what is now Croatia.
While lecturing in Berlin in 1898, he devised a spiritual and religious science known as “anthroposophy”, which taught the need for clear and free thought, as well as developing spirituality and consciousness.
In 1919, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart asked him to establish a school for the children of the factory’s employees. Steiner’s Free Waldorf School soon opened.
Since 1919, more than 750 Steiner schools have been set up in more than 32 countries.
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