What do people think about Theosophy?

[Jonti]

There was a previous thread on anarchism and the tao here.

 

[panpete]

Is thoughtforms part of theosophy?
I'm about as religious as a retail park, but I can relate to thoughtforms.

I read about them online once, (sorry no link) and it was uncanny.

I can relate to them in a scientific way.
Its good now that modern science is embracing metaphysics and not dismissing it narrow mindedly.
Mind, I guess, the more modern science discovers, the more it will have to admit.

Remember, it wasnt so long ago, in the grand scheme of things, that people laughed at those who thought the world was round.

 

[panpete]

www.toxicpop.co.uk/library/taoism.htm

the word chaos is related to the word tao.
anarchy represents the chaos which happens in the transition from one thing to another, in this case, authoritarian totalitarianism, back to nature, anarchy being the chaos inbetween.

 

[laptop]

Except it's Blavatsky

It's amazing how many fruitloop cults she managed to found.




I'm fairly sure she was on drugs. I intuit that Rudolph Steiner wasn't, which would make his mad ramblings and the fact that people continue to fall for them all the more alarming.

 

[Jonti]

Theosophists believe in the physical reality of gnomes, and in being kind to children.

I think it's the "being kind to children" part that attracts some folks who find also fairy tails about Santa Claus and fairies and gnomes rather charming.

 

[cesare]

Blavatsky -> Theosophy -> 'root' races including aryan -> Ariosophy

Wasn't all about gnomes and being kind to children, Jonti

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Do they still hang out in Letchworth? I'm sure I walked past a plate saying Theosophical Society when I was last at the pictures there, which would be about 1999.

 

[Jonti]

Blavatsky -> Theosophy -> 'root' races including aryan -> Ariosophy

Wasn't all about gnomes and being kind to children, Jonti

I'm astonished, frankly.

More about Steiner at freedom-in-education.co.uk, here.

* Up to the age of seven encourage play, drawing, story telling, being at home, nature study and natural things.
* Do not teach children younger than seven to read.
* Teach a child to write before you teach them to read.
* Do not keep changing a child's teacher: allow one teacher to carry on teaching the same class for seven years.
* Allow children to concentrate on one subject at a time - do history two hours per day for several weeks and then do geography for two hours per day etc.
* Find links between art and science.
* Engage with the child and make sure that they are enthusiastic about the material being covered.
* Give a moral lead but do not teach a particular set of beliefs.
* Encourage learning for its own sake. Do not just work for exams.

It's smart not to introduce reading and writing too early. Scandinavian countries don't start till the kid is seven or eight. It's not long before their kids have caught up with, and then overtaken, the literacy levels of kids on UK schools.

 

[cesare]

I'm astonished, frankly.

More about Steiner at freedom-in-education.co.uk, here.

Actually, I don't have a problem with Steiner schooling

I was talking about the darker side of what came out of Theosophy Jonti, as I think you well know

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Here we go

 

[Jonti]

Actually, I don't have a problem with Steiner schooling

I was talking about the darker side of what came out of Theosophy Jonti, as I think you well know

I was reacting to your patronising tone.

I take it you didn't know?

 

[kyser_soze]

So what are the differences between Steiner, Monstessori and Ferrer methods?

 

[cesare]

I was reacting to your patronising tone.

I take it you didn't know?

Didn't know what?

 

[Jonti]

That your tone was patronising, and orthogonal to my comment.

 

[Jonti]

So what are the differences between Steiner, Monstessori and Ferrer methods?

According to the Guardian, here ...

Montessori schools put a child's sense of independence and decision-making over their education at the centre of their lessons. There's very little teaching from the front of the class, pupils are more likely to work in small groups or on their own. They learn practical skills, such as how to darn a sock, from an early age and a lot of the learning is based on movement and interaction with equipment, rather than reading from textbooks. Pupils are taught about culture and the world they live in from early on. Montessori teachers are often called "directresses" because they direct a child towards learning opportunities rather than teach them. It's much less structured than either the national curriculum or the Steiner system.

Dunno about this Ferrer stuff (goes off to google).

 

[cesare]

That your tone was patronising, and orthogonal to my comment.

And my comment was that theosophy wasn't only about that. Which it isn't.

 

[butchersapron]

Far more chance of being fitted up and executed if you're involved with ferrer schools.

 

[Jonti]

Why?

 

[kyser_soze]

I was having a think about schooling last night (I'd just finished reading some stuff about anarchist education theory), and have decided in advance of even conceiving a kid that modern schooling is rubbish, and I want to keep my kids away from it as long as possible...

 

[butchersapron]

Well, that's what happened to Franciso Ferrer.

 

[Jonti]

There's an amusing table showing the differences between Steiner and Montessori methods at goodreasonblog.blogspot.com

 

[Jonti]

I was having a think about schooling last night (I'd just finished reading some stuff about anarchist education theory), and have decided in advance of even conceiving a kid that modern schooling is rubbish, and I want to keep my kids away from it as long as possible...

I'd say this is essentially correct, but that it also depends on the child. Main problem seems to be that teachers no longer teach children, they deliver lesson content according to a timetable set by Whitehall.

 

[butchersapron]

Anyone seriously interested in Ferrer and the Modern School Movement that developed out of his ideas/practice should have a look at Paul Avrich's book The Modern School Movement.

 

[Jonti]

Waldorf critics has this to say about the difference between Ferrer and Waldorff/Steiner approaches

Probably the most obvious and irreconcilable difference between alternative education visions is in their conflicting attitudes toward freedom and structure. Educators such as Francisco Ferrer, Caroline Pratt, John Holt, A. S. Neill, and George Dennison, and psychologists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow have argued that if we truly trust human nature, we will allow it to find expression in a free and supportive atmosphere. Whatever the source of human dreams, desires, and impulses (these theorists have tended not to invoke transcendent, spiritual sources), children can demonstrate genuine responsibility, initiative, compassion, and even wisdom when their personal selfhood is allowed to emerge and proclaim itself; according to this point of view, educational techniques are artificial, and are usually barriers to meaningful growth. Thousands of homeschoolers and the "democratic" schools such as Sudbury Valley in Massachusetts have proven that there is value in this libertarian vision.

Waldorf educators, however, insist that this sort of freedom is premature and actually hinders the development of genuine personal autonomy. In a Waldorf classroom, the teacher is solidly in command of students' attention moment after moment after moment; children have little opportunity to engage in independent activities or conversations; younger children, in particular, are not encouraged to question the teacher but to imitate what he or she models. Steiner insisted that he did not advocate such discipline for the sheer sake of adult authority but because he truly believed, on the basis of his intuitive perception, that the natural development of the child's spiritual being requires strong adult guidance. As John F. Gardner has explained this perspective (1995), the "organism" (the material, animal aspect of human life) needs to be "cancelled" through the strengthening of "universal reason"; the spiritual realm of Mind transcends the individual ego and the task of education is to cultivate the infusion of true spiritual knowledge into the child's receptive soul.

source

 

[kyser_soze]

There's an amusing table showing the differences between Steiner and Montessori methods at goodreasonblog.blogspot.com

The comments are funny - in some cases for the wrong reasons...jesus, I hope I never get to the point where my sense of irony and humour dissappear the way the anon Montessori teacher and dokedtalefetha seem to have lost theirs...

I guess the thing I'm looking for is a method that teachers the child, first and foremost, the belief they can and ability to learn. It strikes me that many people aren't inculated with this self-belief...

 

[butchersapron]

Do they still hang out ian Letchworth? I'm sure I walked past a plate saying Theosophical Society when I was last at the pictures there, which would be about 1999.

Was a bit surprised to see this in Clifton (Bristol) the other day - exactly the right sort of area for an eltist racist cult to be based in though if you think about it.

 

[JimW]

Not exactly relevant, but since this has been revived, read an anecdote about Christmas Humphreys somewhere the other day, who was a Theosophist and early Western Buddhist convert, such that when he became a High Court judge he would refuse to sit on capital cases, but for some reason had no problem prosecuting Ruth Ellis while still a barrister and allegedly doctoring the evidence.

 

[butchersapron]

See also his (and his fathers) role in hanging Timothy Evans - a sort of precursor of the Stefan Kiskco case...

 

[butchersapron]

Bloody hell, he was the senior prosecutor in the Derek Bentley case as well - a very bloodthirsty Buddhist indeed. Perfect for the Theosophy nuts.

 

[Sirena]

Major Theosophical figures did include Annie Besant, Anna Bonus Kingsford and Jiddu Krishnamurti. All fruitloops too?