I'd like to use the thread called "television ban" as a point of departure for discussing a deeper issue in Waldorf Education. It is a question that I believe is being sorely "begged" by the arguments pro and con concerning how parents are to deal with the electronc media of television and home computers.

Rudolf Steiner stated very clearly that Waldorf Education is a methodology. Further, he stated that Waldorf Schools would exist as separate, independent schools --- as a kind of temporary "stop-gap" measure--- only until the time came that the impulse living in Waldorf Education would percolate through or permeate what he called "education-at-large," meaning the entire system of education . He went on to say that when that time was reached, then "Waldorf Schools would become unnecessary," and that they would quietly go out of existence.

The question I would like to put to the List is whether or not we have reached that tine that Rudolf Steiner predicted?

Personally, I believe that we have definitely reached that time, and that all the discussion about "television ban" could be seen from a fresh angle according to Steiner's prediction.

Furthermore, I believe that the existence of  Dan Dugan's Waldorf Critics list and his political activity to stop the gov't financing of  Waldorf Schools, etc. is actually a positive force which is helping to bring about the dissolution of the separate independent Waldorf Schools, in fulfillment of Rudolf Steiner's own predictions about the future of Waldorf  Education.

What other evidence do I have for this being the "time at hand?"  I look at the increasing growth of Charter Schools which are called "Waldorf-inspired."  This phenomenon is a clear permeation of what Steiner called "education-at-large."

If you would like an imaginative picture of this process, then consider the separate Waldorf Schools, especially here in the USA, as separate salt crystals which are put into a soup. The crystals dissolve away with the result that the essence of the salt permeates the whole soup. The form disappears, but the essence pervades and improves the entire soup.

Are we all getting ready now to stir that soup, then ladle it out and eat it with all our fellow human beings who are interested in real education for their children?

Tom Mellett