Oh my. You can't make this stuff up.
...it is not known today how harmful it is when the children learn to read and write too soon. It is a very bad thing to be able to write early. Reading and writing as we have them today are really not suite to the human being till a later age - the eleventh or twelfth year - and the more a child is blessed with not being able to read and write well before this age, the better it is for the later years of life. A child who cannot write properly at thirteen or fourteen (I can speak out of my own experience because I could not do it at that age) is not so hindered for later spiritual development as one who early, at seven or eight years can already read and write perfectly.
And:
However, some Waldorf parents and educators take a more relaxed approach towards early reading. Instead of discouraging reading until the etheric body is born at age 7, or the "cutting of the teeth," they allow for children to learn to read on their own time table. So if your child expresses an interest and aptitude before age 7, you might consider honoring their interest and ability. However, keep in mind that if your child learns to read early, this may have a ripple effect of causing problems in the classroom as your child shares his/her reading ability with other children who are being discouraged from reading. You would not want to bring the "tragedy" of early reading upon another child unintentionally.
The "etheric body" indeed. They don't seem to leave much room for different kinds of children with different kinds of interests (you can let your five-year-old read if you
really want to, but of course you'll be scarring him for life,
along with his little classmates.)
If this works for your kid, great. But I don't like the sweeping statements. My eleven-year-old would have been tearing his hair out at a Waldorf school and my six-year-old (almost 7 entering third grade, having done a lot of third grade work already) would have no brain left at this point. It seems that they have very early birthday cutoffs, and would want her to start first grade this year!
