Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy – a Complex Relationship

Waldorf education Steiner e ducation is one of the most well-established and largest alternative education approaches in the world This educational approach was created out of the Anthroposophical worldview founded by Rudolf Steiner and relies on the teachings of Anthroposophy However the relationship between the educational practice in Waldorf kindergartens and schools and the worldview behind it is complex and multi-faceted both from the internal point of view of those who work from within Waldorf education and from the critical point of view of external researchers Indeed Waldorf education has been criticized and attacked in many ways over the years particularly for these reasons In this article I shall attempt to throw l ight on this connection and explain it from different aspects First I shall briefly present Rudolf Steiner s life path and teachings i e the anthroposophical worldview and then I shall show how Steiner the founder of Waldorf education viewed the connection between Anthroposophy and Waldorf education Subsequently I shall explicate why and how this connection has been subject to criticism from various sides Finally I shall present two ways that try to elucidate this connection and justify it before its critics I shall also endeavor to demonstrate the dangers and challenges that stand before the Waldorf education movement with regard to the fact that it is based on the Anthroposophical worldvie

THE ROLE OF STORIES IN WALDORF EDUCATION: MEANING, PRINCIPLES AND METHOD

The subject of the article is the meaning of stories as an essential part of the Waldorf (anthroposophic) educational approach. Firstly, the meaning of stories as an educational tool is described, followed by an understanding of their educational and human value, especially for children of elementary school age. Subsequently, the article reviews the use of stories as an integral part of the educational work in Waldorf schools. In this educational stream, the story serves as a main methodical means for conveying abstract concepts and supporting the development of children as well as supporting different challenges in classroom and school life. Last but not least, the story in itself serves as a kind of mental treasure of images and processes that can help children understand the world and impart meaning to their lives.  Article visualizations

THREE STREAMS IN ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION: A PHILOSOPHICAL, PEDAGOGICAL, AND PRACTICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN DEMOCRATIC, WALDORF, AND MONTESSORI EDUCATION

This article examines the three most prominent movements of alternative education in Israel: Democratic education, Waldorf education, and the Montessori method of education. By comparing the educational approaches according to specific criteria, the goal is to provide the reader with as broad a picture as possible of their similarities and differences. The discussion focuses on the philosophical approach and general principles of each movement and does not aim to provide information or characteristics of specific educational institutions. One of the goals of the article is to bring before parents, educators, and policy makers knowledge of the different approaches so that they can understand and judge them with greater clarity. Article visualizations

Is there a hard tail in the Coma Cluster X-ray spectrum?

We report results from a re-analysis of the BeppoSAX observation of Coma and from the analysis of a second, yet unpublished observation of the same object. From our re-analysis of the first observation we find that the statistical evidence for a hard tail is about 2 sigma. From the analysis of the second observation which, thanks to the lower background and the longer exposure time, is characterized by a larger signal to noise we find no evidence for a hard tail. From the upper limit on the flux of the hard tail, using the standard Inverse Compton formulae, we derive a lower limit for the magnetic of about 0.2-0.4 microGauss consistent with Faraday rotation measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in A&A Letter

Study of the factors affecting the karst volume assessment in the Dead Sea sinkhole problem using microgravity field analysis and 3-D modeling

Thousands of sinkholes have appeared in the Dead Sea (DS) coastal area in Israel and Jordan during two last decades. The sinkhole development is recently associated with the buried evaporation karst at the depth of 25–50 m from earth's surface caused by the drop of the DS level at the rate of 0.8–1.0 m/yr. Drop in the Dead Sea level has changed hydrogeological conditions in the subsurface and caused surface to collapse. The pre-existing cavern was detected using microgravity mapping in the Nahal Hever South site where seven sinkholes of 1–2 m diameter had been opened. About 5000 gravity stations were observed in the area of 200×200 m<sup>2</sup> by the use of Scintrex CG-3M AutoGrav gravimeter. Besides the conventional set of corrections applied in microgravity investigations, a correction for a strong gravity horizontal gradient (DS Transform Zone negative gravity anomaly influence) was inserted. As a result, residual gravity anomaly of –(0.08÷0.14) mGal was revealed. The gravity field analysis was supported by resistivity measurements. We applied the Emigma 7.8 gravity software to create the 3-D physical-geological models of the sinkholes development area. The modeling was confirmed by application of the <i>GSFC</i> program developed especially for 3-D combined gravity-magnetic modeling in complicated environments. Computed numerous gravity models verified an effective applicability of the microgravity technology for detection of karst cavities and estimation of their physical-geological parameters. A volume of the karst was approximately estimated as 35 000 m<sup>3</sup>. The visual analysis of large sinkhole clusters have been forming at the microgravity anomaly site, confirmed the results of microgravity mapping and 3-D modeling

INTEGRAL discovery of non-thermal hard X-ray emission from the Ophiuchus cluster

We present the results of deep observations of the Ophiuchus cluster of galaxies with INTEGRAL in the 3-80 keV band. We analyse 3 Ms of INTEGRAL data on the Ophiuchus cluster with the IBIS/ISGRI hard X-ray imager and the JEM-X X-ray monitor. In the X-ray band using JEM-X, we show that the source is extended, and that the morphology is compatible with the results found by previous missions. Above 20 keV, we show that the size of the source is slightly larger than the PSF of the instrument, and is consistent with the soft X-ray morphology found with JEM-X and ASCA. Thanks to the constraints on the temperature provided by JEM-X, we show that the spectrum of the cluster is not well fitted by a single-temperature thermal Bremsstrahlung model, and that another spectral component is needed to explain the high energy data. We detect the high energy tail with a higher detection significance (6.4 sigma) than the BeppoSAX claim (2 sigma). Because of the imaging capabilities of JEM-X and ISGRI, we are able to exclude the possibility that the excess emission comes from very hot regions or absorbed AGN, which proves that the excess emission is indeed of non-thermal origin. Using the available radio data together with the non-thermal hard X-ray flux, we estimate a magnetic field B ~ 0.1-0.2 mu G.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, accepted by A&

High Energy Emission from the Starburst Galaxy NGC253

Measurement sensitivity in the energetic gamma-ray region has improved considerably, and is about to increase further in the near future, motivating a detailed calculation of high-energy (>100 MeV) and very-high-energy (VHE: >100 GeV) gamma-ray emission from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC253. Adopting the convection-diffusion model for energetic electron and proton propagation, and accounting for all the relevant hadronic and leptonic processes, we determine the steady-state energy distributions of these particles by a detailed numerical treatment. The electron distribution is directly normalized by the measured synchrotron radio emission from the central starburst region; a commonly expected theoretical relation is then used to normalize the proton spectrum in this region. Doing so fully specifies the electron spectrum throughout the galactic disk, and with an assumed spatial profile of the magnetic field, the predicted radio emission from the full disk matches well the observed spectrum, confirming the validity of our treatment. The resulting radiative yields of both particles are calculated; the integrated HE and VHE fluxes from the entire disk are predicted to be f(>100 MeV)~2x10^-8 cm^-2 s^-1 and f(>100 GeV)~4x10^-12 cm^-2 s^-1, respectively. We discuss the feasibility of measuring emission at these levels with the space-borne Fermi and the ground-based Cherenkov telescopes.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in the MNRA

Fast growth of magnetic fields in galaxy clusters: a self-accelerating dynamo

We propose a model of magnetic-field growth in galaxy clusters whereby the field is amplified by a factor of about 10^8 over a cosmologically short time of ~10^8 yr. Our model is based on the idea that the viscosity of the intracluster medium during the field-amplification epoch is determined not by particle collisions but by plasma microinstabilities: these give rise to small-scale fluctuations, which scatter particles, increasing their effective collision rate and, therefore, the effective Reynolds number. This gives rise to a bootstrap effect as the growth of the field triggers the instabilities which increase the Reynolds number which, in turn, accelerates the growth of the field. The growth is explosive and the result is that the observed field strength is reached over a fraction of the cluster lifetime independent of the exact strength of the seed field (which only needs to be above ~10^{-15} G to trigger the explosive growth).Comment: latex (AN style), 5 pages, 2 figure

Magnetic helicity in primordial and dynamo scenarios of galaxies

Some common properties of helical magnetic fields in decaying and driven turbulence are discussed. These include mainly the inverse cascade that produces fields on progressively larger scales. Magnetic helicity also restricts the evolution of the large scale field: the field decays less rapidly than a non-helical field, but it also saturates more slowly, i.e. on a resistive time scale if there are no magnetic helicity fluxes. The former effect is utilized in primordial field scenarios, while the latter is important for successfully explaining astrophysical dynamos that saturate faster than resistively. Dynamo action is argued to be important not only in the galactic dynamo, but also in accretion discs in active galactic nuclei and around protostars, both of which contribute to producing a strong enough seed magnetic field. Although primordial magnetic fields may be too weak to compete with these astrophysical mechanisms, such fields could perhaps still be important in producing polarization effects in the cosmic background radiation.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, talk given in Bologna, August 2006, proceedings of "The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism", Astron. Nachr. (in press