Britain: a domesticated country?

This blog is going to be quite different. Its about tracing my perceptions of the inner workings of Britain. these thoughts have come out over the course of a year, and I have been trying to come to terms with them. I sense that I have become somewhat cynical.

Britain is so etherically beautiful. Its as if there is a guardian angel who looks after the landscape, offering gentle watering the minute the top surface dries. Things grow so well here and so quickly, grass is so green, trees are so tall. Could there be anything wrong with this Eden?

As a South African, from a country that was annexed to the Great British Ideal of the Victorian era, I have come with a different view. I thought I knew what it is to be British, as, after all, my ancestors were British, although you would never think so, judging by the difficulty in obtaining a visa longer than 3 months. Something I did resent, as I went through the tortuous and unnecessary questions and information I had to obtain to stay here for a year, a year only, and nothing but a year, so help me God. To see a really amusing take on this by Trevor Noah. Its classic, and worst of all its true. https://vimeo.com/130619176

So, having had a different upbringing and social influence to most Brits, I have been able to see a different side to this beautiful country without the British blinkers that most Brits wear. And they do wear blinkers. Not that its anyones fault. They are just so solipsistic in education, news coverage and types of books available in libraries. Its impossible to learn anything about another country unless you search hard. Most Brits dont. As a Brit you cant help thinking you are the centre of the world..or even the only world worth anything.

THE NATURAL WORLD

Although Britain is beautiful in a cultivated way..almost as if it is landscaped, and I realize that it IS Landscaped. Hardly any land is untouched by that of a human. I was struck by two things. One as I entered the country, was a wildlife photography competition, that portrayed rabbits and foxes and deer, but nothing more wild or aggressive than that.  The other was what I, myself witnessed:

There are few reptiles in England, and the only “snake” you are liable to see is a slow worm or , if you are extremely lucky, a grass snake. (adders, the only other one, are rarely seen) Certainly no mammalian predators, and few wild deer. I have never heard an owl calling, although I believe they are here..somewhere.  Yes, there are lots of rodents, I believe, but most are being hunted by pest control companies, or domestic cats..although I have seen few feral cats. A friend of mine, who is also South African sent me this photo of wildlife in Britain..and it kind of sums it up. Even birds don’t twitter all day as they do in Africa. The dominant bird is of the crow family. There are sweet little robins and tits that are kept quite tame by bird feeders in most peoples gardens. ..and lots of pigeons. The second photo of a stag is actually a sculpture in someones garden.

Insects are also strangely rare. I have seen one fly in a year of being here (most people would be grateful for that), and although there are many wild flowers flashing their wares, there are few bees. Many hives are empty. I have also only seen only two butterflies.

Now I don’t live in the city. I live and work in a deeply rural area, on a farm where wildlife is of concern, and some effort has been made to cultivate wild spaces. I am outside all day, most days. This is a bee hotel trying to encourage rare bumble bees.

Yes, there are animals, but these are of the domesticated kind.

There are a huge amount of dogs, but these are well trained, either indoors or on leads or even muzzled while they walk. They never bark as you walk by and there are a huge variety of special breeds..very few mongrels here.

There are also many sheep and you can smell the cows as you travel through the countryside. This is why the fields look like mown lawn, surrounded by hedgerows to keep some animals in and some animals out.

 

There are woodlands, these are small forests with tall trees. Very few do not get traversed daily by human beings. Very few do not end in a cluster of houses and a pub or church.

There are no night sounds, like crickets and frogs. What sounds like the sound of the sea, is only the muted sound of cars swishing over tarred roads that extend deep into the countryside. Even in the remotest places like on top of Dartmoor, you are likely to see this:

This all says something about the British soul that they have gained physical health and prosperity, but somewhere they have lost their soul..particularly their wild soul.

One lone voice in the British landscape that actually has noticed this is George Monbiot, I discovered recently. Luckily he writes for the Guardian and trawls the country speaking about  this. Maybe his voice will be heard. He talks about re-wilding Britain. (see some of his lectures on youtube), and has written a book I have not yet read, called Feral on Re-wilding Britain.

Britons do realize how much of a gift their country is but only in a recent Historical sense, and spend huge amounts restoring Historical buildings and charging enormous amounts to enter these domains. (Although I have noticed, if you see previous posts, that this care does not extend to the Romans for some odd reason.) .

George Monbiot says that when Britons talk about conservation, they see only as far back as the Victorian era. He sees sheep as a curse to the countryside, creating green deserts. Farming subsidies for gentleman farmers intensify this problem, as they are only subsidized on cleared land. So they spend energy keeping their land clear.

LOSS OF THE CARING SOUL

But a further consequence of domesticated Britain is a loss of a caring soul. In Britain you do not see poverty and desperation as you do in Africa. What people call poverty and desperation in Britain, is middle class in most other countries outside it. Yes, they do care for their own kind..perhaps too well, because it is a comfortable country to live in. Nothing to worry about. The NHS takes care of health, the insurance, benefits and pensions take care of wealth, and the BBC takes care of what you should think. News and coverage, I notice, extends very rarely outside Britain, except to report British sport wins, (very rarely losses..these are glossed over very quickly), and only events that involve British citizens, (particularly if others are at fault).

There are many charities in Britain, and so I don’t think it is a lack of desire to care, but again these extend rarely outside Britain. These charities support research into various illnesses not yet cured by the NHS, like cancer and heart disease. The homeless, of which there are a small number, who nevertheless remain homeless, and animals (British animals, that are the most looked after in the world. (Robert Mugabe is absolutely right about that), and children who are also already extremely well looked after..perhaps lacking a cellphone or two. Many can hardly be called charities, as they support (British) art and culture. In a recent Telegraph article, it was shown that only 50% of charity money goes to the recipient, while the rest goes to feed fat salaries in research and administration. I know this is true because a friend of mine receives a fat salary and pension from the Gates Foundation for setting up a few mosquito nets in Bangladesh that he visits once a year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12046438/true-and-fair-foundation-hornets-nest-charity-report.html.

Many charities are run as businesses or donations are tax deductible, and so don’t require much charity, and or don’t do much to alleviate the problems of the world, but remain in Britain, for British citizens that are in any case looked after by the many benefits they can claim.

In England and Wales there are 1,939 active charities focused on children; 581 charities trying to find a cure for cancer; 354 charities for birds; 255 charities for animals, 81 charities for people with alcohol problems and 69 charities fighting leukaemia.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2835947/The-Great-British-rake-really-happens-billions-donate-charity-Fat-cat-pay-appalling-waste-hidden-agendas.html

 

there are three breast cancer charities and three prostate cancer charities..all doing the same thing., and, if you donate overseas, you cannot be called a charity according to charity regulations in the UK!!  This is a charity that supports British soldiers during any UK conflict. Didnt they receive a salary and pension?

I did not want to look at the merits or demerits of British charities, but rather at real needs that knock on Britains door, but are ignored, or worse demonized in the media. Here I talk about the people seeking amnesty in Britain from war torn countries that Britain prefers not to believe exist, and in fact most Britons have no idea of the trauma facing these people daily. Would anyone leave their home and possessions to come to a country whose language you do not speak for an uncertain future if you were not desperate? Britain calls these people “illegal migrants”, and people who host or aid their migration “people smugglers” Both of which at the least deserve deportation, but more likely a prison sentence. This is extended to the point that Britain is prepared to send warships to aid coast control to ensure they do not land in British back yards.

Britain says that it is overpopulated already. This does not feel to be true. I have traveled extensively in Britain and found the following:

Houses are large compare to the two rooms that host entire and extended families in Africa. They all have indoor, water borne toilets..at least one per household. They all have at least 6 fresh water taps (not one per km square as is common in Africa). Roads are tarred, public transport is common, although expensive. Each house has at least one spare bedroom. Many houses are unoccupied except in holidays maybe. Many people own more than one house. In the 2011 Census, 1,570,228 people in England and Wales said they had a second address in England and Wales outside the local authority of their primary residence, that they used for 30 days or more each year.

Another 47,733 of those people had second addresses in Scotland or Northern Ireland, while 820,814 had second addresses outside the UK.

Two fifths of British landlords own more than one property.

Also there is much farm land that is not farmed, as they benefit from EU farming subsidies, and only host sheep that are not used for food or wool to prevent oversupplying the market and keeping prices high.

 

This farmland in turn keeps Britain environmentally domesticated, as wild land is not classed as farmland and therefore is not subsidized. And so we come full circle to the silent spring that is Britain 2016.

THE SILENT VOICE

Britons have also lost the voice of protest. Perhaps because they have become too comfortable and domesticated. What has happened to the Hippies that protested about war? (They are now in their seventies, old and pensioners. They don’t fight anymore.). What happened to the punks, the rebels who lived in squats? They are verging on retirement. Their hair is now grey rather than dyed black and pink. What about the workers unions, that used to fight capitalistic practices? They are now claiming pensions. If a Briton does anything more than hold up a poster, they are arrested or fined and then followed by the special branch.

Britain has become a country with one of the most CCTV cameras.

It has high consequences for breaking any law. Monetary fines are usually the most effective and are heavy for relatively small offences. (I was fined R 2000 for exceeding the speed limit by 8 miles an hour…(still only going 60km an hour in a 45km an hour zone. ) Anti social behaviour law (ASBO), brought in in 1998, now called a criminal behaviour order (CBO) is defined as: conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person or conduct capable of causing nuisance or annoyance to a person in relation to that person’s occupation of residential premises, or conduct capable of causing housing-related nuisance or annoyance to any person.  Now this is very broad. Consequences are:

You can be fined up to £250 (R5000)if you’re aged 10 to 14 or up to £1,000 (R20 000)if you’re aged 15 to 17. The fine may have to be paid by your parents if you’re under 16. You might also get a community sentence or, if you’re over 12, a detention and training order (DTO) for up to 24 months. Adult offenders can be fined up to £5,000 or sentenced to 5 years in prison, or both. Many ordinary people have prison records for small offences.

An extensive special branch based in Cheltenham, housed in a huge building, monitors any slightly suspicious organisation. It is not too dissimilar to South Africa under apartheid rule. Police state? Well very close. All companies had to do a government sponsored “prevent” training to prevent radicalization. I would not have been surprised at the questions asked if I was in South Africa under the apartheit government. It was a bit like Big brother in the book 1984.

The result of this “muzzling” is that Britons are as tame as their wildlife. At least outwardly so.

WHERE DOES THE WILD SIDE GO?

There two ways that Britons get rid of excessive frustration. One is in the pub, where drinking is something hard not to do. It is seen as the answer to all conditions. Many young people are on drugs. The other is football and gambling. Gambling and drug addiction is an everyday problem, and is the main cause of poverty of any kind. Just watch the Jeremy Kyle show for a short while.

WAR AND PUNISHMENT AND BRITAIN

Britons value war and punishment too much and see this as a first solution to problems. Hence the call to place warships in service to prevent migration and agreement to fund wars in other countries. They venerate war veterans to a huge degree, judging by all the memorials and medals and knighting of war veterans and annual ceremonies. They also spend huge sums glorifying war history by restoring naval dockyards. I always wonder what parents say to their children when they take them around these killing machines that required so much to restore.

They have now converted desperate human issues into something to be fought against to prevent them from really helping someone.

Britons forget their own sins of war (colonial invasions, stealing of wealth and other and natural resources), far too quickly yet are quick to point out that of others. No Briton will apologize for these or seek to return stolen goods and wealth and in fact still thrive from it. (see Trevor Noahs take on returning stolen gold in the video above) In fact most Britons don’t even know of the devastation left after colonization as little is taught in schools on any history outside Britain.

VICTIM MENTALITY

Britain has a victim mentality. The news rarely has reports on forgiveness, but often “the seeking of justice”. Part of it is the litigious nature of Britain. Although I have been heartened to hear people apologizing for breaches on TV news.  I have been told that its because of a recent legal injunction that apologies do not amount to an admission of liability. This something positive we can do with in South Africa where people fear legal liability. In Britain, champerty, which is where a third party finances a legal argument in order to partake in the profits used to be  crime, but is now an incredibly lucrative business. This makes everyone a victim.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

As a result of this, every company has Health and safety precautions that border on the ridiculous.

There is a very active health and safety executive that monitors everything. They are much more insidious than the special branch as they invade EVERY institution. Breach of conditions is considered a crime. Children cant be children because the risks are too high. Notices of precaution are everywhere. they are cautioned at every turn and become domesticated before they even reach the end of school.

BREXIT

The Brexit campaign to separate Britain from the responsibilities of being part of the EU in the light of the migrant crisis has revealed much of the British attitude to the rest of the world. There is  arrogance and insularity hiding under the outer politeness. There is great fear that the past may finally catch up.  Unsurprisingly, the Brexit campaign won. Denial is a good strategy.

 

 

Meeting Sam Makumba at Stroud Community Pottery

I notice that I have not spoken much recently of Ruskin Mill, and so I will dedicate some posts to it.

This term I have been assigned to the pottery, which is based in Stroud.It is located in the basement of an interesting old listed building, called the centre for science and art, that was used to house the Stroud College that closed 6 years ago. This college offered many artistic opportunities based on Steiner education for 16-18 year olds. Run very much like Ruskin Mill, but appealed to “normal” students. It was expensive and closed through lack of students, which was a real pity, as they did many interesting and diverse things from photography to building dams in Egypt. Anyway, what still remains is the community pottery. Community means that anyone can go there. You pay a set amount for a 2 hour session, where you can use all the facilities. An experienced potter is on hand for any advice or lessons. Many children come after school.

What was good for me was meeting the extraordinary potter on hand . This was Sam Makumba, and his fame preceded him. He is a smiley true blue African from Uganda, with an African accent nogal! And what a wonderful man. He is always happy and is very skilled, making his own  clays from Ruskin Mill trust properties and glazes from ashes of various plants. This shows some of the processes used to make glazes.

He was also responsible for building the inner walls of the field centre using clays from the various Ruskin Mill colleges, and is involved in designing the interesting basement there.

Although we did not know too much about pottery, he threw us into the deep end. He has no mercy and teaches you to not be precious about your creations. We started by throwing pots on a wheel for practice. Amazingly the first one was not bad. However he shows you how to be precise so that you can make a series of bowls the same size.This takes a lot of practice.

I then made a teapot. Now this is quite advanced. This is a 12 cup teapot for the farm, which has many students for tea on most days.I started by rolling the clay and printing in some sticks, which was a bit of a mistake, as they went in too deep and I fear my pot may leak.I them moulded it in two rounded moulds which I then stuck together to make the basic shape.

Here is Sam demonstrating on Luisa’s pot how stick together and cut out the lid and spout holes.

 

here is my pot:

The handle was initially too long,

and so I changed the design rather radically, and it came out to be quite interesting. After bisque firing it looked like this

and I am still waiting to see the results after glazing. I realize, that with all the processes involved, you can mess it up at any point. And so I wait anxiously, as the glaze seemed too thick.

Our most recent creation has been a sign for the pottery, which Luisa and I did together.

Sam also works with Ruskin Mill students daily, and he is demanding but also kind and never hasty. His students produce beautiful and careful things. I will post a photo of just one students work when they have their exhibition in July, where they can also sell their work. I am amazed at how much they learn here.

Sam also is involved in a similar enterprise to Ruskin Mill in Uganda on the edge of Lake Victoria. A number of people associated with Ruskin Mill help support the project. Called Dewe Land based Education and social Enterprise project. It was started as an art project while Sam was doing a Masters in Social sculpture at Oxford Brooks University. “Dewe is a land & people based restorative project that demonstrates by many examples how a project for people and nature can re-enliven shared feelings of human community and these then restore lost balance in the local natural environment. ”

I am hoping to visit it on my travels up Africa, which I plan to do quite soon. This is his project website http://dewelbp.weebly.com/

 

BRITISH SIGNS

Signs tell you a lot about a place. In Britain, as in keeping with their public policy, they are generally polite. If the sign tells you to do something, it usually has an explanation as to why, rather than just giving orders, even although it uses a lot more words than necessary. This makes you feel better about complying. I have been told never to demand anything from a Brit, but to always precede a request by “ sorry to trouble you…”

Many signs show humour. Their speed limits are VERY low, and so you have to feel better about complying, and you do when you read these:

 

They also usually thank you for driving carefully when you leave too.

Parking signs are usually the worst, and most threatening. This is an unusually polite one:

Some signs seem mild, but come with terrible threats and HUGE fines for non compliance.

Parking is at a premium, and so you have to pay for parking EVEN IN THE REMOTEST places. And it is pay and display..so you have to hurry back. These are cheap rates (60p is R12!..mostly its at least 1 pound (R20 per hour)Makes it hard to enjoy yourself. Britain could make a lot more out of tourism if they did not charge for parking. Luckily some towns like Nailsworth do not charge for parking, but this is unusual.

 

I only discovered this sign by accident..and it means no stopping. You also find these in the remotest  and most beautiful places. The only place where you can get a view WITHOUT A BLOODY HEDGE in the way and a roadside verge you can actually get off the road. As you can see, as a South African I dont feel the need so much to obey British signs.

Shop signs can be engaging, and definitely British (who else sells these things grouse and pigeon breast)

Interesting signs; at the top of the moors in the peak district is this sign that says “some people look but do not see”

And a sign with no words at Cottingley showing you wordlessly that the fairies were here.

This sign, in the middle of absolutely nowhere warns that you are under CCTV surveillance! Britain is one of the most surveiled countries in the world, apparently. Big brother is watching you.

These are unique signs to Britain that allow you to walk over private land everywhere. The common people do fight back.

In Wales the signs are in Welsh, a weird language.

Some signs are an enigma, I am not yet sure what it means. )

At the college there are many signs that promote good behaviour..not that they are all adhered to.

The most complicated and funny and interesting signs have to do with doggie poo. Brits love their dogs and are always taking them for walks. These are some of the signs you can find:

 

 

There are a lot of elderly people in Britain..the commonest hair colour is grey so you find these signs:

 

Stroud is a small town by British standards and this is what you can expect from the local rag.

A sign that you can only get in Britain is this one, as some of their buildings have weird upper extensions or often are not built straight.

As you can see Brits love signs. They are very concerned for Health and Safety and so there are warnings on everything. Even at pubs, your glass will always say exactly what you are drinking.

Nobody seems to adhere to this warning, however.

 

In an English country garden

I know the song “How many flowers do you know in an English country garden” And although I know all the names, many I have never seen until now. It makes me realize how colonial my education was.

So at Christmas, I discovered Yew trees and Yew hedges (everyone has one),Holly bushes with sharp spiny leaves

and Of course mistletoe in every tree that had lost its leaves. Some trees are highly infected. Mistletoe is usually high up, but I managed to get some down without breaking my wrist this time.

Trees are also overtaken by Ivy that you see only when the leaves fall off, and they give the trees a ghostly outline so that you can imagine them stomping through the Lord of the Rings, as visualized by JRR Tolkein. When we sang Christmas carols in the cow barn (see previous blog), I knew them all. But they took on another dimension when we sang “the holly and the ivy”. Here we are making wreaths with holly, ivy and yew. 

 

Then, as spring came I discovered more. Our childhood cows had been called buttercup and bluebell, but I had never seen any, and now I have, and all the others in an English country garden:

Daffoldils I had seen, but not with such abundance. In spring they pop up anywhere and everywhere. Snow drops pop out at the same time.  Forgetmenots (the little blue flowers seen below) once you have seen, you cannot forget, bleeding heart..yes they really look like hearts. Cow parsley is every where and these wild garlic that have amazing edible leaves.

England definitely has a major guardian angel who gently waters everything just as much as needed. Brits complain about the weather, but without it they would have a very boring country. Everything grows so abundantly..no wonder it is seen as the land of goblins and fairies. Gardeners hardly need to plant a thing, but they have to spend hours cutting things back..lawn mowing takes place at least once a week, not because people like cut lawns, but if they didn’t, there would be in a jungle within a week. Here I am cutting back read that has clogged the rivers. most of winter is spend clearing the abundant growth of the summer.Things grow so fast. I was away for 2 weeks and literally everything had doubled in height when I came back.

Medicinal plants are abundant: I had also never seen Equisetum (horse tail used to make silicea) in real life, and here they are everywhere and considered a weed. My landlord has an amazing witchhazel in his garden. Never mind the magical plants of lore: ragwort and hemlock was difficult to find, but it is related to our own blister bush that blisters your skin when you touch it. And then there is foxglove, from which digitalis, a heart remedy is made. It has an incredibly tall flowering stalk, often 2m tall!At christmas there is little flowering, but there you see Christmas roses, which I know as hellebore, a witches poison and cure. I have  yet to find any of the nightshades that are abundant in SA, but deadly nightshade is found here. This is lungwort, long used medicinally.

Plants used as wool dyes: woad, used as a blue dye magically changes its colour, weld,  and orange madder roots have astounding colour.

I also saw familiar plants that were obvious relatives of ours, like the heathers that are like our cape ericas., and arums of various kinds., and pelargoniums of all kinds.

Weeds are weeds here too, but harder to distinguish as weeds. When I asked about it, I was told that anything in too much abundance is a weed. Where we prize nettle that is an annual in SA, here it is perennial, with invasive underground stems, and HUGE and vicious to touch. It makes me think of the Grimms fairy tale of the seven brothers, where they turned into swans and their sister made cloaks of thistles to free them from the spell, and I cringe at the pain, as I have been stung many times.

The most difficult weed to remove is Dock that has extensive underground roots, and of course many many Dandelions..these seem to seed much quicker than ours..one day they are yellow and the next they are ready to blow away.

The trees I am only just discovering, but there are amazing wild plum bushes full of berries: these black thorns, prunus spinosa, produce sour berries used in Black berry elixir or Schlen elixir used for recovering from illness. Also hawthorn, cranberries, currants and of course Blackberries everywhere (a weed here that has to continually be cut back).

There are many that are too exotic for me, but I nevertheless find them amazing. Rachel, who landscaped much of Ruskin Mill did an amazing job. There are always flowers in the garden. As soon as the daffodils die, the tulips pop up their heads and there are some flowers that I have never seen before that are magnificent.

 

You definitely cannot see evolution as an accident if you live in this world. It makes me wonder why Richard Dawkins is a Brit.  The mathematical skill of each plant is too astounding. Here, from  biodynamic perspective, you get more than a glimpse of the working of the planets on the plants.

I really think that most Brits do not appreciate how much they have the Goldilocks effect here wrt to perfect soil..not too much clay, not too much sand, not too stoney. And the smatterings of rain that keep the soil not too wet not to dry, the lack of insect pests. Its interesting that there are so few insects. I have seen only one butterfly and spring is well on its way. Snails and slugs are here in abundance. At Ruskin mill, I know the abundance of earthworms are deliberately cultivated and there are so many per square inch!

Of course there are very few indigenous plants as so much has come from other places that no one really knows what indigenous English plants are, really, as with the colonization of much of the world and the legal and illegal moving of plants to Kew gardens and subsequent cultivation in everyone’s garden, what is an English plant, really?

Brits love their gardens. A good lawnmower is essential in summer, as the grass grows so quickly. A common phenomenon is a village opening their gardens for viewing. Of course, they charge for the honour, often linked to fundraisers for a British hospice (as if the British government doesnt do enough. You would swear people were neglected in this country. Very few British charities look outside the country, and really, Brits do not know about need. They are an incredibly comfortable lot!) Anyway I went to a open garden on the queens birthday (her second one) in a small village called Box (its a name of a plant, if you were wondering). I was first amazed at how many people attended these. All the gardens were very sweet and trimmed within an inch of their lives. Why do people topiarise every small tree or bush! I must say, Gods tree shape is much prettier. Most topiarised trees end up looking like hooded bandits. Perhaps its for wont of something to do. I also find that they overdo the spring colours that end up clashing badly. Everyone beds in colourful annuals that they buy from their local nursery that end up looking so false and twee.

Everyone has a hanging basket somewhere.

Going for drive, I came across whole fields of flowers. Here is a field of poppies as far as the eye can see, and next to it a field of buttercups. For me, God is a much better creator of gardens.

TEACHING IN A STEINER SCHOOL IN ENGLAND

 

I had the opportunity to teach a class 9 maths main lesson at a UK Steiner school. This was a chance for me to see if teaching was still for (or against me). This school was very similar to Imhoff Waldorf school, the school I was teaching at in Cape town in that it was partially housed in wooden buildings. In this case the High school was in the temporary/permanent classrooms as opposed to the primary school in Cape Town.

Of course there were things to envy, like the green wood workshop, the light filled art room, the outdoor kitchen and the emphasis on farming, not to mention the new building, which I believe will be housing some upper school activities.

STEINER SCHOOLS NOT WELL REPRESENTED IN BRITAIN

I was quite surprised that UK Steiner schools were not well represented, as they had been going for a lot longer in the UK than in SA. After closer inquiry, I found that one reasons is that State schools are free for British citizens, paid by taxes, and so British parents wanted to use as much as could be provided by their high tax load, and so rarely considered  a Steiner school, as they were mostly private and therefore cost a wack. Although, Steiner schools, as is usual, are non-profit and  try to accommodate this by varying fees to income, it left many Steiner schools struggling financially and without resources. Also, even although many parents criticized the state education, they did not feel it warranted the financial burden of a Steiner education. They would far rather spend money on other things, like extra music, extra dancing extra… you get the picture.

STEINER ACADEMIES

With recent moves by the government to make schools more independent in their administration, it became possible to establish Steiner academies that were free. However, with this came a whole load of compromises that had to be made, and so this is still in the process of being set up. There are a few Steiner academies, but they seem to be struggling, not only in being set up, as a recent attempt in Leeds gave up trying after a couple of years. This because of all the requirements required by the authorities. One of the requirements are that they have more than one year per grade, the other is that they do not have an exclusion clause. Some academies have taken on the challenge, I am pleased to see. Steiner education, as we know from South Africa, was never meant to be exclusive.

THE INTERNATIONAL STEINER CERTIFICATE

The other thing I found is that Steiner schools rarely completed the Waldorf curriculum, as many left after class 9 to go to colleges to get their GCSE’s and A levels, which is the UK matric equivalent for going to University. However, what is new in some UK and European Steiner schools is the International Steiner Senior Certificate (ISSC) which is offered by New Zealand. This follows the Steiner curriculum with a points based system based on outcomes based education. As the UK has signed education accords with the New Zealand government, who has approved the qualification, the universities in Britain are obligated to accept New Zealand qualifications. This means that UK (and European) Steiner schools would not need to do GCSEs and A levels but can offer the ISSC instead. This makes them more able to go up to class 13 using the ISSC. The school I taught at is attempting to offer this, but thus far have not managed to get to class 11 yet, so students still leave in class 10 to go to college elsewhere. Parents are also not confident enough that the ISSC will allow them unlimited access to Universities. With help from the pressure from Europe, where there are many more Steiner schools, it may become more accepted. Britain has a strongly conservative and authoritarian Education system, under the guise of “protecting the child”, and dissenters usually give up often because they are too polite to rock the boat. Oh for a good revolution! Britain is stuck in class 8 in so many ways.

TEACHING

So what was it like to teach conic sections at this school?

Well, the class was a bit like a Constantia Waldorf class. Mostly white and privileged. There was one slightly shaded child in a class of 25, and a couple of exchange students from Europe. There was one student who had coincidentally been at Imhoff Waldorf school up to class 3, and I must say, she was the nicest to teach. Engaged, good quality of work, interested and just plain sweet. (her teacher had been Annie). Other than that, It was really a typical class 9 class…hormonal and fluctuating from day to day..a smouldering revolution in process.

I think they did the best they could under the circumstances, and so did I. This was where there was a huge compromise made.Their main lessons were only 2 weeks long ..actually only 9 days as one was a bank holiday. and occurred from 11am to 12.45! A bad time to expect focus after a long maths and English running lesson (one hour each and a short 15 minute break). Especially on the theoretical aspects. So I compromised by keeping it practical and had to leave out a lot to get any semblance of coherence. This was my squashed up main lesson: Maths Main Lesson 9

THE STRESS OF TEACHING

I also realized how stressful teaching actually is. This year I have not had to take any responsibility at Ruskin Mill and just follow other peoples instructions, and I have become relaxed and peaceful. After the first day..of only 2 hours, I was exhausted and slept the afternoon away. I have been observing how I react, and realizing all my bad habits surfacing..like worrying incessantly about the outcome. Something I seem unable to stop. Also constantly hating myself for not being perfect as we always do.

Now I sit with work to mark, feeling lazy. The weathers good…finally. Procrastination rears its ugly head. Once the tests and books are marked and reports written, that took an entire weekend, I sent them off and could relax again. Its interesting how you forget the stress, and hanker for it again.