THE MEN OF STEINER

There was no head at The Parsifal School.

Removing any opportunity to occupy the traditionally assumed position of a headmaster or headmistress in the school was actually seen as one of its chief virtues to those looking for a less restrictively orthodox approach to education. But it went deeper than just this one school. It was all part of the social thinker Rudolph Steiner's founding philosophy in revolutionising children's development into adults.

The Steiner ethos at The Parsifal School had been generally maintained by a community led group of teachers and trustees who were all saturated in the Waldorf tradition of teaching and learning.

And for the most part it worked

Except when it didn't.

The unravelling of The Parsifal School began with a typically casual philosophical conversation between two anthroposophist teachers on an exchange trip with their respective classes travelling back from Sweden late one night.

Taking it in turns to drive the school bus across European route E47 to Germany while the students were either sleeping or chatting quietly in the back of the vehicle, Johaan took the opportunity to talk to Nicolaus about the future.

"I've been thinking, Nicolaus. It's time to have a conversation about the lack of discipline in the school lately. Things are getting unruly. I'm all for reverence to tradition and to Herr Steiner but sometimes you need to call things out when they're simply not working. You've heard the maxim - too many cooks etc. Well we have a bloody army of cooks and we're failing to keep up with the orders."

Nicolaus considered his colleague's statement and took a moment before responding.

"You could be right. There has been a lack of focus of late. How would you resolve it, though?"

Smiling, Johaan elaborated.

"I'm glad you asked. I've been thinking about setting up my own school. Taking all the ideas of Steiner but having a more focused approach that enables a single leader to conduct the destiny of the school so that we're not at the mercy of wishy washy unfufilled power battles between the teachers. How much time have we wasted in debate when it was action that was needed? Besides, I'm tired of this endless clash of masculine and feminine energy."

Nicolaus wasn't quite so sure about Johaan's line of argument but tried to understand as best he could.

"You feel emasculated somehow?"

"No. How could I? I've slept with half of them, for Chrissake. I just don't know if I like this endless gender war that goes on in the school. I feel that it gets away from the pure focus of what we should be doing with the children."

"I doubt you'll be considered a legitimate Steiner school if you stray from the ethos Johaan. It would be like Lucifer believing he was greater than God and then soon finding himself cast from heaven."

Accidentally tooting the horn of the vehicle whilst driving, Johaan had clearly taken umbrage at Nicolaus's veiled accusation.

"Steiner is not God!"

And with that final declaration, the conversation quickly dried up, after which Nicolaus took the opportunity to take a quick nap whilst Johaan remained passively enraged behind the steering wheel.

Looking back on that conversation on the bus almost one year later in December, Nicolaus felt as if he might have better persuaded Johaan to reconsider his messianic plans to create his own vision of heaven in the form of a school.

The fall out from his departure left The Parsifal School fractured as a civil war amongst the teachers erupted, dividing half the staff between those who remained and those who left to follow Johaan's new project.

More than comfortable with his own moderate sense of ambition and happy to serve the Steiner ethos without bastardisation, Nicolaus returned to his reduced class after it had been considerably balkanised by Johaan's impressive sales pitch to naive parents easily persuaded by his promise of a more focused approach to learning.

"Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love, and send them forth in freedom," he said under his breath, quoting his hero and inspiration, Rudolph Steiner.

And with that, his remaining pupils began to assemble into class as they prepared 'Gabriel's Message' for the forthcoming Christmas concert.