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Why are we asking this question now?
This afternoon the Government faces a crucial stage of its attempt to set up the first state-funded school to follow the education principles of the Steiner movement. Ministers plan to back the setting up of one of Tony Blair's flagship academies in the village of Much Dewchurch in Here-fordshire, which would be sponsored by the Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship. It could open as early as September. However, a committee of Herefordshire County Council is recommending the project be refused planning permission.
What was Rudolf Steiner's background?
Rudolf Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, playwright and artist who lived between 1861 and 1925. He founded a spiritual movement called Anthroposophy, which works on the basis that children's creative, spiritual and moral dimensions need as much attention as their intellectual ones. During his life, he was known as a literary scholar, artist, playwright and social thinker. An important influence on his life was Johann Wolfgang Goethe who wrote that "thinking is no more and no less an organ of perfection than the eye or ear - just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas".
After the First World War, Steiner was denounced as a traitor to Germany for suggesting Upper Silesia should be granted independence - and the political theorist of the new National Socialist movement (Nazi party) claimed, mistakenly, that he was a Jew. He was the victim of a personal attack by Adolf Hitler, who called on other nationalist extremists to declare a "war against Steiner". His health began to suffer and he died soon afterwards.
How did Steiner's schools develop?
Steiner founded his first school in 1919 for the children of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory workers - philosophising that rhythmic co-ordinated physical exercise helps the...