I WRITE in response to Jim Watson’s letter of April 22, alleging that underlying the Steiner Waldorf movement is a racial theory that is racist.

In the 30-plus years I worked in this movement I never met racism in theory or in practice.

I was not an unquestioning follower. How did I miss the racism and where is it, Mr Watson?

When I set out on teacher training I was interested to find meet alternatives to the state model of education.

Waldorf schooling was impressive for its insight into child development and offered content and method to meet and nurture that development.

In the UK we live with a degree of cultural freedom in the arts and media. But the state continues to define and control education both in content – The National Curriculum – and method: assess, measure, test, test, test.

The state taxes us widely to fund education then offers us only one brand, its own.

Credit the Steiner educators for offering an alternative to state-controlled education.

Regrettably for parents who choose Waldorf schooling it must be bought and paid for while their tax input to the public purse funds the state education of their neighbours' children.

Leonard Roach

Stroud