PLANS
PLANS
People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools (PLANS) is a lobby group based principally in the USA and on the World Wide Web. It is an alliance of people disillusioned with Waldorf education. It seeks to expose Waldorf schools as what it sees as an occultist sect, the most public activity of Anthroposophy, the group founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
It runs a discussion list on Topica for critics of Waldorf education. [1] and has its own extensive web page. [2]
In 2005, a lawsuit by the organization against California public schools that used Waldorf methods was decided by the Federal District Court of California for the defendants (the schools). The court ruled that the plaintiffs, PLANS, had brought no admissible evidence to support their contention that Anthroposophy was a religion, or that Waldorf education had a religious basis.
Critiques of the critics
A substantial proportion of the chief contributors to PLANS’ discussion list have said that they:
- have limited first-hand experience with the schools, or
- are not the guardian parent of their child enrolled in the schools, and that the guardian parent is happy with the education.
In addition, the ‘historian’ frequently cited on the site has no academic credentials.
Another frequent claim is that the schools hide their background in Anthroposophy. There are thousands of books readily available about Waldorf education and Anthroposophy; all of these describe the historical and philosophical connection between the two in great detail. The brochures and websites of most schools also mention the connection explicitly. It is evident, however, that some people who attend the schools are nevertheless not aware that Waldorf education was established by Rudolf Steiner, and/or that he was the founder of Anthroposophy and an esotericist.
External links
 |
This article relating to education is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |