Who is popular today?

Fran Russell, former jails inspector, says the government is wrong to dismiss the Steiner movement to run state schools
A former HM prisons inspector might seem an unusual choice to head up Steiner schools, the liberal-minded movement whose aim is to provide “unhurried and creative” education. Fran Russell says in some ways she is surprised to find herself in the job. “I never imagined this is where I’d be,” she laughs. “But I feel compelled. I feel Steiner education has something important to contribute.”
Steiner schools have attracted controversy worldwide for many years, in particular around the “anthroposophy” of the movement’s founding father, Rudolf Steiner, the social reformer and clairvoyant, who died in 1925. Steiner himself had racist views – he espoused a hierarchy of races from “black to Aryan” – and at some UK schools there have been complaints about racism. He also believed that naturally overcoming illness could improve one’s “karma”, a theory linked to anti-vaccination ideas among some followers. Continue reading...