It's not Steiner - but it was started in response to what we felt was lacking in the current school system of that country.
The original concept started in Taiwan - a very developed and "westernised" corner of Asia.
As a society, Asians perhaps more than many others push their children for academic excellence - to what we may see here as "extreme" - i.e. they have school 6 days per week, and ideally private tuition every night and Sundays, along with music lessons etc.
It was noted (not sure by any research but perhaps empirically) that there seemed to be more cases of
- "Social Disconnect" - often disliking the real world situtations and taking refuge in cyberspace. Unable to communicate face to face with people, let alone groups of people. The "head down" syndrome (everyone you see on the street is facing down to their electronic device - no one talks to each other. eg texting a person sitting next to you in preference to talking)
- Lack of physical fitness - perhaps from the parents belief that exercising the brain is more important than exercising the body
- Total lack of knowledge of same basic things we might take for granted (eg. what does a celery look like? what does a chicken look like before being turned into KFC? Did you know beef is made from cows)
- Academic brilliance - which has lead to "academic inflation". You now can not get a job just graduating from Uni - Post grad is now mandatory, and often a PhD is required. This has lead to despondency and depression for those who can't make it to the top
The start of the "Eden" school (in reference to the Biblical Garden of Eden being the origins of life) was quite dramatic - with a very public show of parent barging into the schools their children were attending and "rescuing" them out of the system.
A very organised system of "home teaching" was developed to ensure that basic numeracy and literacy skills were developed (while we declare it as home teaching to the authorities, in practice we have class rooms and qualified teachers who also "left the system" because they felt something was wrong).
A (comparatively) huge portion of time was spent in getting the kids outdoors - doing "old fashioned" things like climbing trees and swimming (supervised!) in rivers and lakes.
When they get older, they go and work on building projects, farming, etc - learning in the field from older tradies. We used to call them the "slave labour force" and pitied them a bit - but now looking back and at the kids who have "graduated" - they seem very disciplined, very well adjusted young adults with an amazing array of skills and knowledge - not about nuclear physics mind you - but about how to construct a building, what tools and equipment are needed, what to plant where, how to harvest, how to slaughter prep poultry from bird to plate, how to catch, clean and cook fish...
How many kids can operate an excavator (let alone a Bobcat) before they can drive a car?
The kids don't stay in one place either - they get rotated out to our properties in various countries - Malaysia, USA, South Africa, Australia, UK - so they can take in the local conditions.
While it may sound like they are locked in a commune (the kids do complain about this sometimes), they do get to go out and run some of our shop fronts and market stalls (now that's putting communications skills and your maths to the test).
A "qualification" is not the aim - it's about gaining basic skills in sheltering, clothing and feeding yourself. Ironically, those skills can get you a job easier in a place like Taiwan than a PhD grad with no "real world" exposure.
The other interesting outcomes in Taiwan was in relation to their compulsory military service.
It has been noted on quite a few occasions that they find our students far more suited to life in the military - able to "rough it", hands on skills, physically fitter, and used to quite a disciplined lifestyle (in fact, many of the kids say military service is a bit of a "holiday" for them because they wake up later, do less physical work, do far less chores, and get rec leave!).
The Y-man
