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I appreciated your detailed account, Eggplant.
Many follow-up questions. Here are a few.
1) You say that there was no pressure on the co-workers there to adopt Anthroposophical teachings. From your write-up, I sense you went there as an individual without children. My interest is whether this "no pressure" policy applies to the children as well.
You are correct, I have no kids. I can't really remember anyone who went there with kids who wasn't what they called a 'houseparent' - someone who has committed to a longer-term stay, and they were mostly anthroposophists. So I don't really have any context to answer that one, although my instinct is that there wouldn't have been pressure.
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There are some 30 children at the Rudolf Steiner Fellowship in NY, the children of the "co-workers" , most of whom are expected to attend the [b:aec5249e42]Waldorf School [/b:aec5249e42]nearby. Are these children free from indoctrination as well?
The kids at the farm where I lived all went to the Waldorf School nearby, but their parents were all anthroposophists, As with the community in general, I have such mixed feelings about Waldorf Schools. There are some excellent aspects to this style of education (I am no expert and I have no children so this is just imho), and frankly the kids I knew at the farm were some of the most level-headed, down-to-earth and open-minded kids I ever met. I don't really know how much of Steiner's 'dark side' is present in the school having never gone to one. Honestly, until pretty recently I would have seriously considered sending my kids (if I have any) to a Waldorf school if it weren't cost prohibitive. I know that locally many of the kids at the Waldorf Schools' parents have no connection with Anthroposophy, they just like the style of education there. I currently live in a college town with lots of wealthy yuppie types who love the fancy private schools LOL.
Given all that, this is pure speculation, but I really don't think there is anthroposophist 'indoctrination' at Waldorf Schools. I imagine there are some teachers who are more intense about Steiner than others, but my understanding is that Waldorf Schools want the non-anthroposphist public to be comfortable sending their kids there.
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2) The disproportionate number of [b:aec5249e42]foreign co-workers[/b:aec5249e42], mostly from Europe, is a bit odd.
Aren't there are many Americans who join other intentional communities and work there simply for the privilege of living there? They often expect little in the way of compensation, and some actually pay simply to be there. So why the preponderance of European co-workers? Do you think that substituting this for military service was really the main reason?
I was surprised by that too. As for americans joining intentional communities, most of the people I know who did so weren't interested in living with DD adults (I apologize b/c I don't know the 'PC' terminology but I am using DD for Developmentally Disabled). I ended up there quite randomly. It's a lot different than other communities I have visited. And when I was researching communities to go to I was a little turned off/concerned by the vaguely Christian flavor personally, I imagine many young people are - not that they are anti-Christian, just that at that point in their lives (mostly early-mid 20s) they may not be so interested in it.
And I want to clarify - the long-term people, the houseparents, were mostly American. There were a few Europeans, many of whom had helped found the community 30-odd years ago, but the majority of them were American.
For the young German men, I am certain that it was 'civildienst' (alternative service) that brought the majority of them there. In fact, I had a 3 year relationship with one of the young German men so I can be 100% certain with him, LOL. These other young co-workers were my social life, I was very close with some of them (and still in contact with a few, 10 years later). Most of these guys just wanted to come to the states and this was a great opportunity to do so. The same is true for the young women that came from Europe. A small number (maybe 10%) of the young co-workers were involved in anthroposophy but the rest were not.
I don't know if this balance has changed, though, given the events of the last 6 or 7 years, difficulty obtaining visas, etc.
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3) Are the work hours unusually long?
Yes and no. For most areas of work, the work-week hours were from 8:30am-noon, and then from 2:30-5pm. However, there were always other tasks, like making breakfast certain days of the week, weekend meals, doing dishes, etc. And when you live with DD adults, anytime you are around them you are pretty much 'on the job', in a sense, having to be aware of what is happening, helping them make tea, dealing with conflicts or health-related problems, etc. Every co-worker is given an afternoon off during the week when you can do whatever you want, and evenings were usually flexible based on the activities of those in your household. There were generally cars available for driving to the city or going somewhere else during free time.
For land workers, this is a whole different story (dairy farm, vegetable garden, orchard). We were given fewer responsibilities in the household, esp during the growing season, because we had to work a *lot* of extra hours. Harvesting as soon as it was light enough to see, often working till dark in the evening (although in the heat of late July.August we often had a longer break midday). Of course the winter was a little mellower for us (except for the dairy, where I worked my first winter there - that was the hardest I have worked in my life!).
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4) Suppose you had desired to continue residing there on a long term basis-- - to make it your home as a co-worker---would you have been permitted to do so? [b:aec5249e42]Or is the tendency for co-workers to leave after a year or two unless they somehow move up into the core group? [/b:aec5249e42]Are decisions as to who joins, who stays, and who leaves made exclusively by that core group?
I can think of one family in particular who were not anthroposophists at all. Their son was DD and and they had been pretty much subsistence living on their own somewhere in Tennessee. They realized that he need a little more socialization etc, but they wanted to live with him, and this community was the perfect balance. They ran a household for years, and respected the basic norms of the community but they weren't into the anthroposophy thing at all.
I know that I could have stayed as long as I was willing as a land-worker - in fact, I extended my original length of commitment a couple times. I think there was a bit of a struggle to keep people there because the benefits weren't so great, the reality of the 'outside world', concerns about retirement and aging, etc...so I think there was a fair amount of flexibility in this area. Probably not as a 'houseparent' though, mainly because as a landworker there you can't feasibly run a household too.
However, there was a sense of a 'core group' - there were various committees who made decisions about new houseparents, moving DD people from one house to another (due to personality clashes, etc). There was some sense of insider/outsider but not really in day-to-day stuff. Moreso in the bigger decisions. While the family I described above was probably on some committees, I doubt they would have had a lot of influence if they were dissenting on a decision.
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5) If they in fact would have allowed you to stay on , do you suppose that would have required you to join the Anthroposophical movement?
No, as demonstrated by the example above.
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I realize we're speaking of two different Intentional Communities here. The one you worked at was somewhat smaller than the one I'm asking about. I'm guessing the one you describe was : Plowshare Farm. [I might be wrong though]
Actually, no, not Plowshare. The one I lived at was a Camphill farm - it was a year-round longterm community for DD adults. Many of them lived there for 20 years or more. It had about 12 acres of veggies to feed the community as well as a CSA available to the public, and a rather large dairy production as well. About 130 residents.
WOW, I can't believe how much I have written! It's funny, I haven't talked about this much in years, especially since I have learned the creepy truth about Steiner. It's really hard to reconcile those things.
I guess my bottom line, now that I am thinking this through, is that I don't think this is a cult, because they are very welcoming to non-anthroposophists, they have a solid, nonprofit foundation with a board of directors etc. And even for the insiders, there is a fair amount of disagreement even on major principles and interpretations, a variety of levels of 'devoutness', etc. I remember a guest lecture at the community center by a prominent anthroposophist called something like "Jesus is Buddha" that caused quite an uproar because some thought it made perfect sense and others thought it was the ultimate sacrilege.
However, I think there is definitely an elitism inherent in the philosophy, members of the 'society' being in the upper levels of the social hierarchy, exclusive events for members only (certain lectures etc were for card-carrying members only although this was rare).
And my biggest beef with it is what was explained at the link in my earlier post, the details of Steiner's beliefs as far as race and ethnicity. Despite the good that some of these manifestations of Steiner's philosophy may do, this is far overwhelmed by the root beliefs of his philosophy, imo. Thinking back, this was the 'whitest' place I have ever lived. People of color were nowhere to be found. I remember there was occasionally discussion about this, how to get more diversity in the short-term co-worker population as far as race, ethnicity and nationality. But no one ever seemed to look real deeply as to why this was the case. I am starting to understand why.
For me the problem is a [b:aec5249e42]moral[/b:aec5249e42] one, and I think one has to seriously take that into consideration if they are thinking about living in such a community, or sending a family member there. I won't go on and on about this because I don't want to start getting preachy but I do want to emphasize this.