Stiener Schools

Steiner School may have a dark side

The local Steiner school has just found a new site in Exeter University, the previously fee paying school will become a free school giving a real alternative choice for parents. Right now the school has a temporary home at Foxhays in Exwick and before then they operated from the huts in Belmount Park.  Now the school is a popular free school will be available to all and is so in demand it has a waiting list.


A Stiener school is based on Steiner's philosophy, he opened schools in 1919 to educate the children of tobacco workers. This is a wholesome education that can be interpreted by the teacher the official Steiner website tells the reader that these schools will help a child be creative and questioning. There is less pressure on children to read and pass exams.

There are aspects of a Steiner education that are more controversial. Steiner schools have been called "unvaccinated communities" as parents tend not to get their children vaccinated, this is because the school has a different approach to health in general believing that even serious illnesses are part children's spiritual development  Steiner schools say immunization is up to parents.

Part of the Steiner way may involve putting children in a category, part of the Steiner ethos is to read a child's characteristics by their body shape and clothing. Handbooks tell teachers to look at a spiritual realm and categorize child as various entities. Some may think this is harmless but could this categorization of children be damaging? Many websites deny  they use this part of the educational program.

There have also been allegations of unchecked bullying, the schools believe in a "gentle" approach to discipline, there have been nasty allegations of bullying that have not been properly dealt with. This is again seen as part of childhood. The Bristol Steiner school has a robust anti bullying policy that concentrates on sorting the problem out on an emotional level, an interesting sentiment in the policy is "there is no blame"

Exeter Steiner school tells readers that the school does not teach Steiner's strange philosophy but many have pointed out people would object to the stranger parts of the ethos.

So Steiner, good or bad, please tweet your experiences.


So are Steiner schools a great education or a dangerous idea? Please tell me.
http://www.steineracademyexeter.org.uk/school/steiner-anthroposphy-and-some-background/

  http://www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2011/01/should-the-state-be-funding-schools-which-were-founded-by-a-racist-mystic/

http://www.dcscience.net/The_Four_Temperaments_Rudolf_Steiner.jpg

http://steinermentary.com/SM/Steinermentary.html

http://www.titirangisteinermessenger.com/TSM/1990-2.html
https://humanism.org.uk/2013/10/22/first-steiner-free-school-opened-despite-opposition-local-population-schools-council-nhs-trust/
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2012/may/25/steiner-state-funded-free-schools?commentpage=6
http://steinermentary.com/SM/Anti-Bullying.html
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23steiner&src=hash

Walking away from Demons

Depressed? Do your bad days last too long and thoughts of your past haunt you for too long and your mind feel like a prison of misery? If so you’re not alone, 1 in 5 us of suffer from demons in our mind they don’t go away by themselves.  More of us are going to the doctor and getting a

So when the dark days affect our work, family and friends and us we need to do something. Depression is disabling, even mild depression can make you feel like life is not worthwhile, now we’re here for a good time, not a long time, and why should anyone put up with being down and wander through life in a grungy haze?

Even children and teenagers are suffering, we think of kids and teens being happy hedonists enjoying the best years of their lives but they are unhappy, 1 in 12 are so unhappy they self-harm, these are shocking figures that need to change.

You could go to your doctor, they may well prescribe pills but these aren’t in cases of mild depression because of side effects, these are nasty, they range from going off sex to not being able to stay still and ironically the can make you commit suicide.  Talking therapy is available but even the NHS website admits services need improving, many could be in for a long wait for short term therapy.

One form of self-help is walking, this is my happy pill of choice. When you’re feeling down and the gym is a luxury you can’t afford it’s really great therapy. Walking doesn’t solve your problems but it does help you solve them yourself. If life is a puzzle walk and by the end the pieces may well fit a little better. There are great side effects to nature’s anti-depressant, a better body is just the start, walking can help you avoid cancer, type 2 diabetes and  Alzheimer’s.

Anti-depressants may seem like an easy option, there has been a trend to look at all of our ills as a chemical problem, but we are designed to make our won happy chemicals and they work better than the ones made in a lab and the affects last longer.

So when the Black Dog comes, walk away from it, helping yourself, not taking pills and getting a better body have to be better than popping a pill of chemical happiness.

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/

://www.youngminds.org.uk/training_services/p http policy/mentalhealthstatistics

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/12329/45896/45896.pdf

http://apt.rcpsych.org/content/9/3/202.full

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/whybeactive.aspx

Make the Dentist less of a Horror Movie

Do you have a fear of the dentist? It might be fairly irrational, you see that needle coming towards you, know you need a filling but think "I'm off now", you could just not like being trapped in a chair with a bright light in your face being hurt or you might have another fear, the cost. These things are the stuff of horror movies.

Now the NHS do charge for treatments, and they're pretty reasonable, even so a crown can cost £214. People on low incomes can get help if they receive benefits or get under £1600 a year you don't fit the criteria you may still not to be able to afford the dentist if your teeth suddenly go wrong.   

In Exeter we have another way, we are lucky enough to have the Peninsula dental school for dentists where you can get all sorts of treatments free. The experience is pretty good, the students have nearly finished their four year training and all work is supervised by an experienced dentist. They take things slowly, explain everything is done gently.

The location is fairly central near to the new Waitrose supermarket.  Many of us end up with dentists a long way from home so if this is closer it may be a great option. You are also helping the dentists of the future while you save your cash. Also a visit to the dentist many be less of a horror story.

http://www.dentalfearcentral.org/fears/embarrassment/bad-teeth/

http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1786.aspx?CategoryID=74&SubCategoryID=742
http://www.exeter.co.uk/listing/124674-Peninsula-Dental-School-Dental-Education-Clinic/

Dinner at Mine

The first Rabble mum community dinner went well. I started small with a family friend at my house. My friend bought veggies, cheese and pepperoni and I bought more cheese and pizza bases. We chatted and cooked. My 14 year old played with my mates two year old son. It all helped cement a friendship and bring two families together.

To get over different diets we made four slightly different pizzas, my friend didn't eat fish on Fridays, I don't eat meat at all and my kids are just fussy. It was cheaper and healthier to buy pizza bases at 70p for two and put our own toppings on them, this worked well.

This small success has made me want to take the project further, I want more people, more kids and more fun evenings.

To do this I have permission to use the local community center and microwave, people could to be heated up dish each.  The problem with this is at home there were my sons old toy cars to play with and a homely atmosphere, unlike my vision the boys played on the XBox360. I have organised  projects as a volunteer youth worker, I could take art materials and get the kids working on a project while the adults chat. The community dinners could also be a way to get more writers for Rabble.

If the idea was to make meal times more fun and have some family fun it worked, now it needs to include more people.

Rabble Rant, Benefits Street

You've seen reality telly now here's reality. You've seen Benefits street and now you know everything about people on the dole, they're lazy addicts, they use their brains to go shoplifting and everything they say is a moan. Oh sorry, you're on benefits and you're nothing like that, really but I saw that on the box, it must be true

Well here's reality, people on the dole are sucking the country dry and enjoying themselves while us decent, hardworking people pay for these layabouts. 

Well let's look at the maths from another source, it's only fair. According  to Guardian figures we don't spend much on these people, on fact only 4.9 billion, that sounds like a fortune but it's those good for nothing, slipper loving tea swilling pensioners manage to cost the country 74 Billion, how much Tetley’s can anyone drink? Look at them watching Dave in the afternoon, making underpaid girls make their sarnies, disgusting. Well no, nobody wants to see people starve, do they?

And look at those underpaid people you make sarnies for those scabbing pensioners. Look at getting up for work, taking our taxes, yes that may be you because of you if take tax credits. You cost more than the residents on benefits street, as a group you cost the country 29.9 billion. Now think about that the next time you go shopping, that's hard working peoples cash you're spending, make sure none of that money goes in the pub or god forbid a big telly or a family trip to a festival.

You landlords aren't much better, how dare you rent your houses to single mums and disabled people, hardworking people graft for that, yes housing benefits cost this country 16.9 billion, now that goes to landlords, not people wanting their next can of beer and packet of fags. Now many skint people pay some of their rent leaving the skint even poorer, put on top bedroom tax and some people are starving.

So here's the reality, reality TV can be as false and made up as any other telly. Yes Benefits Street is entertaining, but so was channel four drama Shameless, it's the same show with actors they don't have to pay, in fact if they did pay these people had money they wouldn't make quite such good telly. This is made to make you watch next week not to help these people. 

As soon as the TV crew met social victim Fungi they should have seen many of these people are sick, addicted, and depressed they should had taken their cameras home and called out a team of social workers. What stopped them doing that? Because they were so happy they found a bunch of people who with a bit of editing fulfill every nasty stereotype the media has come out with, and they knew people would talk about it everywhere and feel some self-righteous anger that would make them feel better about their lives, they can blame the poor for their problems.

And how did Fungi end up spending our hard earned cash on drugs and beer, he's off his face while the rest of us our working our fingers to the bone. Well drug addiction has always been popular but got worse in another time when the Tories ruled Britannia the 1980 when the North took a battering. This leaves people unemployed with nothing better to do and with a past like Fungi's it's no shock he can't get a job. Yes it's wrong that he spends his dole money on beer and drugs but Dee it’s trying to stop him, but this man needs help not benefit cuts.

So talk to a doley, plenty volunteer at St Sidwells Community, think of the lovely people you know who simply can't find a job. Come to a Rabble community dinner and meet people, don’t trust the telly, trust reality.

TV is not a window on the world it's edited high lights, or in Benefits Street real low lights. . Dee was a lovely woman who showed common sense and compassion in a difficult situation, she was disappointed by the finished show.  Dee told the media it was supposed to be about community spirit but "they turned a positive into a negative"   believe her, not Shameless with cheaper actors and a TV show that is after viewing figures.

Crazy Exeter Weather

Friday 3 Jan

A short but dramatic thunderstorm hit Posle Exeter today. At about 10 am Rain hail and even snow fell with a mix of sun just to confuse weather watchers.

A deep low pressure is causing these heavy storms, the center of the storm is hovering over the Irish sea with the worst of the winds. The area is full of showers waiting to fall and will probably bring more chaos.

The jet stream is causing this terrible weather. This is a ribbon of air that sits 11 kilometers above the Earth,. The is important to British weather as it often sits over us bringing unpredictable conditions. From forecasts it looks as if it will be sitting over us for a very long time.

The weather is making life very  in Devon and Cornwall. There are severe weather warnings in place from the Met Office, the whole county is on yellow alert, this means be aware.

http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=jetstream
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_warnings.html

Pocket money for housework

Scroll down and you will see a blog entry about not spoiling your children. We learnt that treating your little darlings like rock stars is not good. Then I realized my own kids do very little around the house. Generally the house looks messy and we are all to stubborn to do much, also cleaning the kitchen or watching a  re run of Dr Who, no contest.

I have attempted to get my darlings to clean up but nothing has worked, I've tried the football manager approach, no luck, I've tried simply asking them, they run away, my daughter has admitted  "anything"to get out of a bit of washing up. She uses emotional blackmail, slimy arguments in fact anything to make me give up and for her to get on the computer and listening to "Slipknot".

So I decided to take my own advice and get my kids to do some work, I used simple bribery. My son had to tidy his room before I took him to a friends house and my daughter was told to clean the bathroom to get all her pocket money. After much complaining my daughter did a great job and was happy when I praised her for a job well done.

My son filled my dirty washing basket for me but he was a quick worker, he got his reward.

I felt great, in control with two tidier rooms and more incentive to clean myself, the kitchen got scrubbed while I raved to cheesy old tunes on local radio, know we had worked as a team made me really happy, that day the hole burden wasn't on muggins mummy.

As well as a rest getting the kids to do some housework is a valuable life lesson, look at this blog about an intelligent woman who was never taught to do the basics in life and now doesn't know how to pass these skills on to her kids. There is no way I'm being smug, I am not the perfect housewife either, but I would like a cleaner house and some old school parenting may well help us all. Now I'm off, cleaning to do.

So it's time to make a stand, stop running around after capable kids who can help clean the mess they make. Please tell me how you get on. 

http://perche-si.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/how-much-housework-should-children-do.html