Testimonial From the 2010s

My daughter wasn't even at the school, but did attend the local Titirangi Kindy. I write because i want to share our experience. In my 2 daughter's  6.5 years and 5 years I have only encountered shameful bullying once. My eldest daughter was bullied by a group of Steiner kindy children at the local beach. We went to meet a friend we had had over at ours only 3 weeks earlier and her 2 sons had played beautifully with my 2 daughters.

I was so pleased to have this further playdate and completely unconcerned to find they had another boy and met up with a mother and daughter, so there were 3 older children, friends from Steiner. My younger child, and her younger son went off happily and played but i could immediately see there were rucktions between the 3 friends from Steiner and my eldest. She is quiet and peaceful and usually plays happily especially with physical play (she's not a big talker). As the 2 mothers chatted I went over repeatedly to step in and remind them to be inclusive. At one stage I ran over as they seemed to be threatening my daughter with a stick. At no point did the other mothers seem to notice. I became increasingly concerned as the young girl (they were about 5years old?) seemed to be the ringleader and had no respect for me as an adult and a parent. She was bullish, petulant and unreasonable. All my daughter wanted to do was join in and all I asked was that they play fair. They went into the bushes and all was quiet then I realised I was late for an appointment and went in to collect my child and found her covered in mud. They had smeared her face, her hair, made her lift her t-shirt and smeared her torso. I have never come across such abusive behaviour and was shaking with fury, told them all off and took my children away. I was so furious I was shaking and tried to calm myself and explain that that was being taken advantage of and they needn't have friends like that. All she would say was "they didn't want to ply with me unless i would do that!". It was 3 weeks before i phoned my friend and told her what had happened and that I would never meet her with that girl again.

This has coloured my attitude to Steiner and I am very happy with the responsible peer mediation used at my girls schoo, which I would encourage Steiner to adopt. Is there some prevalent bullying culture? Socialisation should involve teaching inclusiveness and right from wrong. I fear that when a child meets nothing but positive encouragement and doesn't get some authority on right from wrong you get bullying. I certainly watch Steiner children more carefully now.