Welcome to Waldorf Parents Unite

This site was created for Waldorf parents and other supporters of Waldorf education to come together to ensure new Australian Government's national curriculum does not affect our freedom to enjoy a true Waldorf curiculum in Australian Waldorf schools, and does not compromise the integrity of this unique philosophy which is almost one hundred years old. For a brief backgroud of why this website was started, read The story so far or the overview articles under 'Research papers and articles'.

This website is home to a growing collection of articles, videos and other resources about the issue of the impending national curriculum in Australia, and about Waldorf education in general.

This site is a wiki workspace and is designed for you to edit and participate in building up the knowlege stored here. More on 'What is a wiki' below.

Recent media

19 June 2009 Gillard outlines the similarities between the reform agendas in the United States and Australia  - Key philosophy becomes very obvious

In a roundtable discussion on education reform, Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard outlined the similarities between the reform agendas in the United States and Australia.

"Gillard.. (emphasized) ..the fact that their success with creating a national curriculum has largely been the result of effective political maneuvering, including finding the right leader for the effort, beginning the process during the new government’s honeymoon period, and relying on a collaborative, representative, and data-driven approach. She also emphasized that the process is moving slowly and deliberatively enough that by the time the full curriculum is released, the stakeholders will have been involved so significantly and for so much of the process that they will see the actual curriculum as a foregone conclusion."

Concerning considering her further remarks that ".. the U.S. is moving slowly, and with significant opposition, towards the mere possibility of voluntary national standards, while Australia is embracing a full national curriculum."

Gillards prepared remarks - http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/events/2009/0619_australian_education/0619_education_gillard.pdf

22 June 2009 -  Building rush hurts schools (Canberra Times) - Gillard under pressure on standardised testing

..As the financial pressures mount, Gillard can expect increased questioning of her decision to impose narrowly based tests of student performance. Last week, a leading advocate of encouraging creativity among children Sir Ken Robinson told the ABC’s 7.30 Report the repetitive testing of knowledge in narrow subjects was a “blight” on schools. Gillard copied this sort of testing from the US and the UK. More parents might share Robinson’s views once they realise that neither of these countries rank highly in international comparisons of educational achievement.

17 June 2009 - Sir Ken Robinson, UK education expert, Critical of Standardised Testing (ABC 7:30 Report - WebVideo) - Video One, Video Two

3 March 2009 - How teachers lost their autonomy (National Curriculum - The UK experience)

10 November 2008 - National curriculum 'must be flexible'

27 November 2008 - Senate Report into Schools Assistance Bill confirms schools' fears

for more stories see Media Articles

Research Papers & Articles

• National Curriculum: A Bipartisan Bad Idea  (The Centre for Independant Studies)

• National Curriculum Board - Framing Papers (Interim National Curriculum Board)

     for more papers see Research Papers and Articles

Things you can do now

• Help expand this resource, find relevant papers & articles on the web and elsewhere and post here to enhance this reference.
• Join the Facebook groups 'Waldorf Parents Unite' and 'Waldorf Steiner Parents of Australia' invite other parents to join (help bring us togther)
• Make a personal comment on the Coalition's 'Education for Australia' website (which is for people to raise concerns over the 'Education Revolution')
• Determine to keep informed on this issue throughout 2009
• Tell other people about this issue and refer them to this website
• Join a parent group which is taking action on this issue, or start one at your school

What is a wiki? 

This site has been created as what is called a 'wiki' (a hawaiian word for quick) which means that every page can be edited by members, you just press edit at the top of each page. You are encouraged to change and enhance and update any information on this site. Infact that is how wiki's expand and grow.

Please watch this short video on what a wiki is and how to use this site.

As a wiki site, every page has an edit button at the top .

This is a real workspace!  Please edit this page, create new pages, and invite others to use the workspace with you.

Practice editing without fear in the Sandbox.

Get Great Ideas!

• Learn what makes a good collaboration project and see how other PBworks customers are using their workspaces. Check out our PBworks educator community (not a support forum).

Need Help? We're here for you:

• The PBworks Manual and 30-second training videos can help show you how to edit, add videos and invite users.
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