Open to dialogue
The Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands is open to diverse forms of identity – but there is still work to be done.
The Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands accepts diverse kinds of sexual orientation as normal. The proportion of ‘white’ and older members is high, some were born in Indonesia or Surinam; as far as I know only a few members do not have a Christian background.
In Waldorf Schools too, an estimated 90 percent of students are white, one exception being the Tobias School in Amsterdam, where 50 percent of apprentices come from non-Dutch families. When this school was founded around 1999/2000 in the north of Amsterdam, a district with a high percentage of Muslims, it was not easily accepted by the population, partly because of other schools in the area. Retirement and care homes have a relatively high proportion of multicultural staff: up to fifty percent.
In the Netherlands Anthroposophy is seen as a Central European legacy. Anthroposophists are seen as an elite that has idiosyncratic if not weird ideas but is nonetheless met with a fair amount of goodwill.
The Waldorf movement in the Netherlands is growing fast – around ten new schools open every year. The discussion here is about how one can become a more comprehensive mirror of the population.
The Anthroposophical Society strives to be a society of the centre; we endeavour to reach all people. We also seek the dialogue with other groups such as Sufis, theosophists and Rosicrucians.