One of PLANS' first myths started out as a "witch hunt" when their anti-Waldorf campaign was thrust into the public eye by television and newspaper
stories in Sacramento, CA in 1997:
"Anthroposophy is a satanic religion"
and "Waldorf schools practice and teach the pupils witchcraft".
These media reports of the false allegation of teaching
witchcraft at a public Waldorf-methods charter school were then used by PLANS to apply successfully for a $15,000 grant from an evangelical organization to finance the initiation of the PLANS lawsuit in 1998 against two California school districts for illegally
"advancing religion".
When criticized by a supporter for his way of supporting the myths in question, Mr. Dugan answered on June 9, 1997 on the PLANS mailing list:
"What I say 'in defense of the Waldorfians' is that 'they don't eat babies.'" "Am I pandering to the prejudices of Christians? Personally, yes I am!"
Today, eight years later, the group is still pursing this litigation. For documentation of the history of the case in more detail, see here and here.
During depositions in 1999 for the lawsuit, when asked if he actually believed that Waldorf is the work of Satan, Mr. Dugan responded, "I do not believe that Waldorf is the work of Satan." Even so, PLANS continued for a time to push this myth about the satanic origin and nature of Waldorf education on its home page.
And this myth still resurfaces in different writings from PLANS, for example, a comment from PLANS president, Debra Snell, in 2000 and later a PLANS press release in 2004.
But the public cultivation of this specific myth,
for the most part, seems to have been abandoned in favor of other allegations
and myths. One reason for this is probably that the allegation damages
PLANS' credibility.
And most of the other myths published by PLANS, such as the allegation that Waldorf education is "racist" and "anti-Semitic", probably suffer similar credibility problems, when you look at some of the students who have attended Waldorf schools, including the African-American President and CEO of American Express, Kenneth Chenault, Diana Kerry in the 1950s, the daughter of Heinz Galinski, an Auschwitz survivor and former Chairman of the Central Jewish Council in Germany, and a son of Helmut Kohl, former German Chancellor.
Nevertheless, PLANS persists in endless repetitions of such myths, undoubtedly with the expectation that if you repeat something often enough people will assume it is true.
To the overview of myths cultivated by PLANS Inc.
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