Wasn't this nice of Dan Dugan?
From: golden3000997
Date: Wed Feb 18, 2004 5:32 pm
Subject: Wasn't this nice of Dan Dugan?
Subj: Anthroposophical
Society to Benicia School Board
Date: 2/18/2004 7:58:34 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Dan Dugan
To: waldorf-critics@topica.com
PLANS has received a libelous
diatribe from the Anthroposophical Society in America. Sorry
it's a couple of weeks late; they didn't send us a courtesy copy.
I'll reproduce it in full and reserve my comments for a separate
message.
A .pdf of Dan Dugan's report
to the Benicia school board, mentioned below, is available at
http://www.waldorfcritics.org/benicia/.
In the text reproduced below,
underscore is transcoded -thus- and italics *thus*.
-Dan Dugan
***
Anthroposophical Society
in America
Main Office
1923 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104-1797
Telephone: 734/662-9355
Fax: 734/662-1727
Internet: www.anthroposophy.org www.spiritworking.org
February 4, 2004
Board of Directors
Benicia Unified School District
350 East K
Benicia, CA 94510
Dear Sir or Madame:
The philosophy of Rudolf Steiner
is known as "Anthroposophy" (from "anthropos"
meaning human and "sophia" meaning wisdom) and is a
method of spiritual inquiry. Steiner established an Anthroposophical
Society to foster and protect his methodology. The Anthroposophical
Society in America, Inc. was incorporated in 1938 as a New York
State corporation which has its headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
You may find out more about us at: http://www.anthroposophy.org or more about the "anthroposophical
movement" at http://www.spiritworking.org.
This letter is to inform you
of our very strong objections to the false and defamatory assertions
made about anthroposophy and the work of Rudolf Steiner in a
document which you have recently received, "Notes on the
Carquinez Charter School (Waldorf) Petition".
A group of critics centered
in San Francisco is leading a campaign of defamation using hate-group-like
tactics against both anthroposophy and Waldorf education. The
group is known as "People for Legal and Non-Sectarian Schools"
(PLANS) and they maintain a "Waldorf Critics" web site
at http://www.waldorfcritics.com and they also maintain a "Waldorf
Critics" list-serv which is publicly re-published at http://www.topica.com/lists/waldorf-critics. This site and these list-servs have
a similar character in relation to Waldorf education and anthroposophy
in its defamation and demonization of them as the hate site "Jew
Watch" at http://www.jewwatch.com has in relation to Judaism.
-PLANS' "Misinformation
campaign"-
PLANS has been conducting
its campaign against anthroposophy and Waldorf education since
1995. In a June 10, 1997 top of the page editorial, which the
Sacramento "*Bee*" entitled "The Attack on Oak
Ridge", the *Bee* called PLANS action at Oak Ridge elementary
school a "misinformation campaign". School districts
such as yours are targeted by PLANS for similar "misinformation
campaigns" solely based on their connection with Waldorf
educational methods which might become a part of a public school
education program in your district.
One part of their campaign
is a document such as the one you have received. you will note
that these comments actually say very little about the school
being proposed in your district. Instead, the document seeks
to impugn the proposed school by making outrageous and defamatory
allegations about anthroposophy and Waldorf education.
-Question the motive-
The motive of PLANS for submitting
this document must be questioned by your group as it is clearly
part of the on-going defamation campaign which PLANS initiated
in 1995. This campaign has included a wide range of hate-group-like
tactics in print, radio and on the internet. We are grateful
that internet service providers have helped us remove PLANS'
defamatory material from their sites.
-Consider the source-
If the motive is suspect,
one must also consider the source: Dan Dugan, PLANS Secretary,
is not an "expert" in education or pedagogy. And so,
his comments about your proposed school should be given no more
weight as any other layman's opinion.
You should also know that
Dugan is not an "expert" in anthroposophy or the work
of Rudolf Steiner. A Judge has not allowed Dan Dugan to appear
in a court case as an "expert witness" on what Dugan
called "Anthroposophy; Steinerism; occult, spiritual &
pseudo-science practices in Waldorf". His commentary about
anthroposophy--given his agenda and past practices--should be
given no credence whatsoever.
-No Basis In Fact-
The PLANS document is based
on untruths, innuendo and the twisting of fact in order to place
anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, the Anthroposophical Society and
Waldorf education in a false light. We categorically reject the
"anthroposophy" which PLANS presents in their document.
It is a fiction of their own invention.
-No connection-
My understanding is that public
schools employing "Waldorf methods" aspire to use the
best pedagogical practices from a wide variety of sources and
look to a Waldorf approach for a foundation of their program.
I know for a fact that Waldorf methods schools are entirely separate
from the private Waldorf school movement. They are very distinct.
And, I know that my office has had no connection with Waldorf
in the public sector until a copy of the Carquinez school petition
came my way.
I very much regret that your
district has had to be subjected to this attack on anthroposophy
conducted by PLANS. I also very much hope that you will feel
free to include this office to verify any of the specific allegations
contained in the document you may receive.
Sincerely,
[signed]
Jean W. Yeager
Administrative Director
...................................................................................................................................
From: at
Date: Wed Feb 18, 2004 6:45 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Wasn't this nice of Dan
Dugan?
I'm sorry. How is this libelous?
Dugan's "Notes on the Carquinez Charter
School (Waldorf) Petition" (which he linked to below) start
out with quotations out of context (the very first one isn't
even Steiner's own words, altough it is attributed to him as
such - it a translation of an editor's compilation - 50 years
after the fact - of the notes of participants at a conference,
detailing what they remember Steiner to have said). The quality
of scholarship hardly improves. Diana Winter's objection to "festivals"
is cited as an expert source. Dugan even objects to the use of
the phrase "light filled" in a school context as "a
typical Anthroposphical expression". He also objects to
teaching projective geometry in the 11th grade because "it
is used to illustrate Anthroposophical cosmological concepts."
The document also includes the statement: "It is not appropriate
that U.S. schools teach Old Testament as history." It also
contains the factually inaccurate statement "this racial
theory of history, which Rudolf Steiner declaimed in lecture
halls in the 1920's, became part of the official mythology of
Nazi Germany (see Rosenberg)." (To anyone who has done a
comparative study of the two, similarities between Rosenberg
and Steiner are tenuous at best. Claiming that Rudolf Steiner's
teachings became official mythology of Nazi Germany is patently
absurd). That Dugan of all people is calling such careful objections
"libelous" would be amusing if the issue weren't so
serious.
Daniel Hindes
...................................................................................................................................
From: dottie zold
Date: Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:15 pm
Subject: Re: Wasn't this nice of Dan Dugan?
Daniel wrote:
I'm sorry. How is this libelous?
Dottie:
Reading Dugans words was just stomach turning.
Seeing critics noted as experts show how far they will go to
make their case which stinks to high heaven. All the benefit
of the doubt one is willing to give them must be giving a second
thought. This is going after Waldorf schools on a level that
can have national implications. And all because they do not like
to hear God or any kind of spirit relationship in the mix. All
their pent up frustrations of their religious feelings have turned
this case into what it is: a witch hunt.
No more breaks,
Dottie
...................................................................................................................................
From: dottie zold
Date: Wed Feb 18, 2004 11:29 pm
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Re: Wasn't this nice of
Dan Dugan?
--- dottie zold wrote:
Daniel wrote:
I'm sorry. How is this libelous?
Dottie:
Dugan and Lisa are worried about being called
a hate group? Well if the cat didn't just bite the dog. Say what?????
Well, Lisa and Dan what do you think you look
like? A group of parents upset about feeling decieved by Waldorf?
Think again. You got a full cruscade going on over their in critic
land. A straight out witch hunt supported by the 'anti-cult,
conservative to the extreme, religious propagandist' paying your
bills. And to top it all off most of you are atheist. Talk about
strange bedfellows. And what do they come together for big bad
meany Waldorf Schools. Ooooooohhhh...One only has to check in
your archives to the nastiness and down right manipulation of
facts, to get to the truth. Once again it seems you can bite
but don't want to be bitten back. Too bad.
Dottie
...................................................................................................................................
From: Tarjei Straume
Date: Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:19 am
Subject: Re: [anthroposophy_tomorrow] Wasn't this nice of Dan
Dugan?
At 03:45 19.02.2004, Daniel wrote:
I'm sorry. How is this libelous?
This is something for "Dial-a-Joke"
if that service is still around. A new career could be launched
in the Comedy Store in Hollywood with material like this.
I don't think I've laughed so hard in my llife.
The PLANS-WC clan has not only succeeded in becoming a cult in
its own right a long time ago; now they have even managed to
brainwash themselves without being aware of it! Man, this
is deep, this is dynamite, hilarious and tragic. Deprogrammers
and therapists and exit counsellors should be called in. It must
be a classical example of the effects of Orwellian doublethink
and newspeak. Wow.
Imagine Percy's dog pisses on Goofey's lawn,
which pisses Goofey off. Imagine Percy won't "refute"
what his dog did. So Goofey decides to take revenge; he establishes
a committee against dogs pissing on other people's property,
but it's not juicy enough and people aren't interested. So he
calls the committee "People Concerned About Percy and His
Dog".
And then Goofey begins to juice it up. Goofey
says Percy is a pedophile, a serial killer, using dogs to maul
children on their way to school, to eat them at home later. Percy's
dog is a small Yorkshire Terrier that has never bitten a child;
Percy is a vegetarian. So he openly calls Goofey a liar, wherepon
Goofey sues Percy for slander!
(Big laugh and applause!)
I love it.
Tarjei
http://uncletaz.com/
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