LED ASTRAY
SIR,—Through the thin disguise of Jonathan Miller's humorous article 'Led Astray,' which appeared on May 12, I recognised the school about which he writes and myself as the teacher to whom he erroneously refers as the headmistress. Perhaps, therefore, I may be permitted to correct impressions which might lead others astray.
I well remember Jonathan as a red-haired, rest- less, precocious little boy of eight years old. He stayed, as he says, for six months, and after an interval of sixteen or seventeen years it is not sur- prising that his adult wit has concocted a hotch- potch of childish memories.
Mr. Miller is obviously referring to the Rudolf Steiner methods of education, and veracity should take precedence over humour.
No chanting or mystical movements ever accom- panied the morning verse, although certain eurhythmy exercises probably followed it. As the teacher in question, I know that every reference made to the aura is completely untrue.
As for this business about Manu, in the curricu- lum of the Lower School history leads from the earliest mythologies to the facts of the present day, and what was presumably one story has been magnified and made ridiculous.
There are many lesser inaccuracies not worth while to refute.
Is it likely, for instance, that the Rudolf Steiner methods of education • should be spreading in so many parts of the world, and that graduates in the arts and sciences should devote their lives to teach- ing in these schools, if, even at eight or nine years old, mathematics were confined to the multiplication tables in French?—Yours faithfully,
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