And so it goes on: you may care to ask if there is any particular vowel sound having a particular relationship to the medieval temperament by which your child will almost surely have been categorized.

Maybe you would care to ask the significance of the copper rods in eurythmy. Should you do so, compare what you are told with these notes, one from U.S.A., one from Sweden:
 
"At my Waldorf, copper was supposed to have therapeutic properties. In manipulating copper rods (sort of like cheerleaders or baton twirlers) we were supposedly warding off disease and strengthening our intuitive powers. (None of this was openly explained to us, but eurythmy teachers -who seem to be especially committed Anthropops- tended to spill some beans from time to time.)

In From Comets to Cocaine: Answers to Questions, Steiners says "This
copper works within the earth and influences the course of typhoid ..." [p.294]

If one cannot find copper rods, Steiner offers this advice: "... to obtain copper rods, let us use wooden ones, bound with copper wire. But it must be copper, for that imparts an inner certainty to the movements; one will move rightly by instinct, one will handle things purposefully; for instance, one will go to a bookshelf and at once pick out the right book."
[Man Before Others: Rudolf Steiner Remembered, ( Rudolf Steiner Press,
1993: ISBN 1855840073, [p.132]"
                                                                  ----------------------------------------------

We had to MAKE copper rods in - i think - 5th grade. We had "metal crafts" lessons in the mornings (the almost 2 hour shift in the morning when the subject "studied" changes every 2-3 weeks). Those rods were then put to use in eurythmy. And, of course, like a lot of the stuff the children produced, the rods were included in the
school's eurythmy-thingies-storage for other students to use. The two last waldorf years (for me) there was a lot of rod-use in eurythmy.

Not that they ever helped me with "inner certainty to movements" or to
"move rightly by instinct"...

A very persuasive case for eurythmy can be found at:
http://www.eurythmy.org.uk/faq/
This site is also useful as an "in" to some other Anthroposophical tenets such as avoidance of recorded music (at least in some situations).
 
From that website:
"By incorporating gestures that express soul moods, planetary and zodiac influences, the eurythmist also reveals what lives silently within the audible"
and
"The vital, life forces that surge through our etheric bodies include the forming power of the zodiac and planets. These can be made visible through their corresponding eurythmy gestures."

Still relaxed about this?
It can have an enticing feel to it.
Can you accept it as science as 'science' is commonly understood
Can you accept it as art as 'art' is commonly understood?
Can you accept this it therapy as 'therapy' is commonly understood?
Are you content that 'therapy' in any guise is required for your special person?
Or does it begin to hint at occultism? Do you begin to think that it is necessary to become an initiate in order to really come to terms with it all?

Have you encountered any explanation of Eurythmy that so much as hints at the connotations of the following note provided by an American former Waldorf/Steiner teacher?
 
"The Parcival class was a big part of our studies and was one or two
hours a day, first thing in the morning, for about four weeks (?). It
was followed by Eurythmy so our bodies could "digest" what we were
going through and "exhale" on a Spiritual level so-to-speak."
All of our classes were alternated between "inhalation"(intellect-Parcival studies, grades training, Anthroposophical studies from specific Steiner texts) and "exhalation" (body-Eurythmy, singing, woodworking, watercolor)."

Just "a form of dance"? You might care to now visit our "Soul Consciousness" page, bearing in mind the foregoing.

Does this begin to hint at something more vicarious, using your kids as unwitting practitioners of someone else's beliefs?

Harmless?
Maybe, but critics don't generally take issue with what is openly taught; rather it is the surreptitious way such things are introduced that proves objectionable.
In this instance, EASE would contend that a good deal more should made available to prospective participants from the point of initial enquiry. For people less than happy with what the occult aspects, such information is uncovered much too late.
We suggest that reference to the above website might be made in promotional material.
From there,people would be better placed to decide for themselves if this is O.T.T. or not.

Published 02/02/06
Revised    14/10/07