Product Description

An internationally acknowledged authority in Steiner education, Brien Masters has worked for decades as a teacher in both public and Waldorf schools, and has served as a teacher trainer, consultant, writer and lecturer. In Adventures in Steiner Education, he draws on his rich and varied experience to paint a vivid picture of Waldorf education in practice. Spicing the text with many personal stories and anecdotes, he brings to life the theory behind this increasingly popular educational approach, from the early years through to the Lower and Upper Schools.

This lively book serves not only as an informative and entertaining introduction, but also as a helpful refresher course for those seeking to become fully acquainted with the basic principles of Steiner Education.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #956424 in Books
• Published on: 2005-08-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 222 pages

About the Author
Brien Masters is qualified as both a state and a Waldorf teacher, and has taught everything from music to math to map reading. He teaches around the world and has acted as a consultant to government ministries. He has written numerous articles and several publications for use in schools. His doctoral thesis is a critical appraisal of Waldorf praxis in the light of Rudolf Steiner’s original educational ideas. Brien Masters is presently director of the London Waldorf Teacher Training Seminar.

Customer Reviews

Mental knots extravaganza
At page 123, I surrendered the uphill battle I had to go through in order to read this book. Had I not read the author's name (Brien Masters), I'd have sworn the person who wrote it was a native German speaker, because the sentence structures are closer to the way German, rather than English, is configured.

While I don't usually dissect the sentence structure of any author, this time, I had to do so in order to figure out how come I cannot understand, even though English is my native tongue?! What I found were loads of extremely long sentences, sometimes paragraph-long, with the main clause usually at the end after countless subordinate clauses (a construction that is typical of German), and, to top it all off, written mostly in the passive tense!

In fact, this book could be used as a classic to study the passive tense.

In a decade of reading "how-to" books about writing, and regardless of their individual approach, there was one constant:

"avoid the passive tense"

which makes me wonder about the editor of this book as well...
(Was there an editor at all??)

In order to make sense out of mile-long sentences written mostly in the passive, I had to constantly reshuffle them until I found a layout that enabled me to see through.. Sometimes not even that helped... The experience was tedious and frustrating. After 123 pages, I was so drained nothing in the world would have made me plod through a hundred more pages of THAT.

If you are into puzzle-solving at a marathon scale (as in 222 pages), get this book, otherwise, the one by "Jack Petrash" is much more user-friendly and informative.

Even when the author attempted to inject some humor into his writing, most of his jokes were incomprehensible, except probably to himself and maybe some friends or family members who understood his references...

The back cover states that the author is the director of the London Waldorf teacher training seminar. If he speaks the way he writes, I am concerned about the quality of learning that his teachers-in-training are receiving, and, consequently, the students of the Waldorf schools where such teachers would be working!

Then again, maybe the author does not speak the way he writes, but he just thought that this obscure, contorted language would sound more "professional", sort of, more "academic"???

While "Academia" abounds with professionals who speak in code, decipherable only to its insiders, Waldorf education, however, and the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner on which it is based, is supposed to be an ALTERNATIVE to the alienating ways of traditional education..... That someone in such a top position of responsibility in the world of Waldorf education can only express himself in such alienated (and alienating) language, is very disconcerting indeed...

Mr. Steiner must be turning in his grave...