Education

By Rudolf Steiner Edited by H. Collison GA 307

The spiritual values inherent in the education of children is the main thrust of these lectures. In addition to education, Steiner connects the results of a pedagogy based on spiritual insights and values with a mature, responsible, adult way of life. The negative results of not incorporating ethical, spiritual ideas and values in education is contrasted to the results of a positive, spiritual methodology. Steiner also points to the practice and realizations in daily life of a living proof of his ideas: the founding of the first Waldorf School in 1 1 . These lectures form one of the most comprehensive introductions to the philosophy of Waldorf education. They have been published under the titles: Education and Modern Spiritual Life, The New Art of Education, and A Modern Art of Education. !ublished in "erman as, Gegenwaertiges Geistesleben und Erziehung, this edition is presented here with the #ind permission of the $udolf Steiner %achlassverwaltung, &ornach, Switzerland.
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C%&TE&TS
'over Sheet !reface /oreword by 0arie Steiner 'ontents Summary ,ecture I S'I1%'1, -$T, $1,I"I2%, 02$-,IT3 Au ust 0'# ()*3

1ducation strives to wor# creatively upon the human being 4 %ature5s most sublime wor# of art. What was implied in the old term 6!edagogy7 must be superseded. In modern times, intellectual #nowledge, art, religion and morality have grown apart from each other, but there was an age in which they were one. 0odem science eliminates the element of art. 0an5s inner activity of thought has gradually been lost8 he is content to let thoughts be aroused by e+ternal ob9ects. The inner forces of thought wor# creatively in childhood. -ctive thin#ing can rise to Imagination and become contemplative #nowledge, leading to art. When this #ind of thin#ing has matured, it must be transcended by a moral act. The spiritual world may then enter man5s consciousness as Inspiration or creative #nowledge which can flow directly into art. Through art, man is then able to give e+pression to &ivine Will8 artistic creation becomes a divine office. /ormerly art could lead men directly to religion. -ll religion has proceeded from Inspiration. When man was aware of a divine:creative power within him, he was able to visualise the presence of the "od not only in the sanctuary but in the world. This is true morality. When man has found his place in the world of the spirit through a life of true religion, Intuition imbues him with morality. We need this Intuition for the renewing of our civilization, in order that we may rediscover the harmony between science, art, religion and morality. ,ecture II !$I%'I!,1S 2/ "$11; 1&<'-TI2% Au ust 0+# ()*3 The art of education must rec#on with the historical course of human civilization, with the changes brought about in the souls of men through epochs. If man, as a being of body, soul and spirit, is to find his right place in social life, education must be founded on a #nowledge of man as he is in the present epoch. Three stages in the development of education: =1> The "ree# ideal was the "ymnast 4 one who #new how to e+press in the beauty of his bodily actions the divine beauty
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of8 the 'osmos. The separation of spirit, soul and body began with $oman culture. Training of the soul @ualities, with bodily training in the bac#ground. =A> The $hetorician is the ideal of mediBval education. Calfway through the 0iddle -ges comes the impulse to intellectualism. The man of #nowledge, no longer the man of practical s#ill in action, is now the ideal of education. =*> In modern civilization the ideal is the &octor, or !rofessor. The ideal of our own times is the 6Cuman <niversal.7 The culture of ancient "reece was a continuation of oriental civilization 4 Dody, soul and spirit are one. 2n earth, between birth and death, soul and spirit live in the body. The wor# of the "ymnast carried further the deeply spiritual philosophy of the 1ast. 62rchestric,7 song and the playing of the zither. Their connection with the systems of breathing and blood circulation in man. 6!alestric7 and wrestling. ,ecture III "$11; 1&<'-TI2% -%& TC1 0I&&,1 -"1S Au ust 07# ()*3 Significance of education at home up to the age of seven. The natural forces of growth and the being of soul and spirit are not as yet separate. They are a unity up to the seventh year. This inner force in the child is active in the pushing upward of the second teeth. -fter the change of teeth, certain forces are withdrawn from the body that the soul may develop the finer forces of her life. -fter puberty, the spirit is made manifest. The "ree# saw the child of seven as a spiritual being who had descended into a physical body. -fter the seventh year, this being descends a second step, ac@uiring an earthly sheath of its own8 before this age, pre:earthly forces have been wor#ing in the body. The tas# of the "ymnast was to understand the divine forces wor#ing in the human body and to develop them further. The peoples streaming in from the 1ast, who founded mediaeval civilization, brought the new consciousness of the unworthiness of slavery8 greater respect was paid to woman8 the idea of E/aithF superseded the primal Wisdom that had previously poured through man. !rimal Wisdom became tradition that must be memorised. The "ymnast sought to preserve the forces of childhood until the time of earthly death. 0usical talent developed naturally from breathing and blood circulation8 intellectual thin#ing from "ymnastics8 a marvellous memory from habitual bodily activities. The e+perience of individual consciousness =which emerges only after the age of puberty> began in the 0iddle -ges. The e+perience of inner freedom. ,ecture IG TC1 '2%%1'TI2% 2/ TC1 S!I$IT WITC D2&I,3 2$"-%S Au ust 0,# ()*3 We must now reach a concrete understanding of the spirit. To:day we theorize about the spirit. We have a s#eleton of spirit as the result of intellectual thin#ing. -bstract ideals must give place to truly human @ualities of soul. -n e+ample of the wor#ing of Spirit in the body. The teeth develop not merely for the purposes of eating and spea#ing, but also in order that the faculty of thin#ing may emerge. -fter the change of teeth, the corresponding physical force appears as the power of thought. The physical force hitherto concentrated in the organs now becomes a force of soul. ,iving thought alone can understand these truths. Through Imaginative #nowledge we understand the relation of man5s etheric body to the surrounding universe. Some of these etheric forces are freed when the child gets his second teeth, and they then become the forces of thought. - transformation of the whole being ta#es place between the seventh and fourteenth years. !uberty is merely an outer symptom of this transformation. /eeling has been freed from the bodily nature. The laryn+ and rhythmic system e+press this in their changing form. -t puberty, the astral nature becomes independent of the body. To perceive the astral nature, Inspiration must be added to Imagination. The teacher has to aid this second supersensible member of man5s being to become independent. It is the tas# of the teacher gradually to ma#e speech free of the bodily nature. -t the age of seven years, organic activity is e+pressed in the labial sounds8 at the age of fourteen, the soul:@uality of feeling pours into the formation of the labials.
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Transition from organic to psychical activity. - truly religious attitude can alone help to permeate the feeling:life of the child with spirit, and this must be our attitude before we can penetrate to the full reality of the spirit. ,ecture G 10-%'I!-TI2% 2/ TC1 WI,, I% TC1 C<0-% 2$"-%IS0 Au ust 0)# ()*3 <ntil about the twentieth year the will is highly dependent on organic activity. -t about the twenty:first year, the will becomes free. <ntil this age the human being is strongly sub9ect to the forces of earthly gravity and struggles with them. -n upward impulse then stri#es into his blood. The direction of the will is from below upwards8 thin#ing, from above downwards. If the life of feeling is rightly developed between the ages of seven and fourteen, these two streams of force harmonize, and with them, thin#ing and willing. In man, this process is of the nature of a moral act. In their gymnastics, the "ree#s stimulated the flow of force from head to limbs. We must learn to understand the sense in which the will becomes free within the organs of movement at the twenty:first year of life. This will fill us with reverence for the process of man5s development, and then we can educate in the true sense. The first line of the "ospel of St. Hohn. To the "ree#s, the EWordF was a direct call to the human will. The Word lived in the movements of the human body. The Word embraced all natural phenomena, was creative. The ,ogos vibrated through the whole cosmos. "ree# gymnastics were an e+pression of the Word. 0usical education contained an echo of the Word. The Word itself was active in "ree# wrestling8 in the "ree# dance there was an echo of the Word in the element of music. Spirit wor#ed right down into the being of man. Then came the 0iddle -ges. The dead Word was offered to man in the ,atin language. The living essence of the ,ogos, as contained in the "ospel according to St. Hohn, died in the feeling:life of man. This lac# is felt to:day and is the cause of the many demands for educational reforms. We have lost the spirit in the Word. In olden times the spirit was immanent in the Word. Dut the Word became an EidolF 4 this was the beginning of intellectualism. 0an turned away from the ,ogos to the world of sense. The new era in education will begin with the rediscovery of the spirit of the Word, in the sense of the "ospel of St. Hohn. ,ecture GI W-,;I%", S!1-;I%", TCI%;I%" Au ust (0# ()*3 ,iving ideas pass over into will and deed. The education of the child must begin directly after birth. This means that education is a concern of the whole of humanity. The first three years of life are the most important for the whole of future development. -t first the child is one great sense:organ. Cis sense of taste is spread over the whole of his being. /orces that in the adult are localised in the different senses, are spread over the child5s whole organism. In the child, spirit, soul and body are not separate8 everything in the environment is imitated. Three fundamental faculties ac@uired by the child during the first three years of life: wal#ing, spea#ing, thin#ing. To wal# means to ad9ust oneself to the directions of space. The forces of orientation issue from organic impulses. The teacher may not e+ercise the slightest coercion8 he must be a helper only. If we follow with inner love every manifestation of human nature in the child, we stimulate health: bringing forces within him. The faculty of speech develops from the process of orientation in space8 it arises from man5s organism of movement. Spea#ing is thus an outcome of wal#ing. The forces of movement are carried over to the head structure8 this is revealed in speech. -s we help the child to spea# we must be inwardly true, for the truthfulness of speech is absorbed by the physical organism. The delicate process of in:breathing and out:breathing is imitated by the child. 2+ygen changes into carbonic acid in the more intimate regions of human life. The capacity to effect this change in the right way depends upon whether we have been handled truthfully or untruthfully during the time we were learning to spea#. Thin#ing arises in turn out of speech. Since the child is one great sense:organ and imitates the spiritual in his spiritual being, clarity and precision must permeate our own thin#ing if we are to help the child in this connection. 'onfused thin#ing in the child5s environment is the primary cause of nervous troubles. &iseases connected with the metabolic process are the result of being unwisely taught to
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wal#. &igestive disturbances may be the outcome of untruthfulness in the way the child has been taught to spea#8 nervous troubles result from confused thin#ing. Inner as well as outer punishment can be inflicted on the child. We must help to build up the child5s brain li#e a sculptor who wor#s on his medium with mobile, delicate hand. The child5s play. -rtistic @ualities of playthings. If we give intellectual training to the child before the fourth or fifth years we shall bring him up to be a materialist. Ce must be left in his gentle, dream:li#e e+istence as long as possible. ,ecture GII TC1 $C3TC0I' S3ST10. S,11!I%" -%& W-;I%". I0IT-TI2% Au ust ((# ()*3 0an is an imitative being up to the time of the change of teeth, and the effects of this imitation continue in his physical constitution through the whole of earthly life. <p to the age of seven the child is an inner sculptor8 the formative forces proceed from the head and give shape to the whole being. The moral @ualities observed in the environment play a part in building up the system of veins, blood circulation, breathing, and so forth, although much may be corrected in later life by moral strength. The rhythmic system is of paramount importance after the change of teeth. The whole teaching at this age must bear a rhythmic @uality. We help the child to breathe in a healthy way if we bring an artistic @uality into the teaching. There is little artistic feeling in modern civilization. -n artistic conception of civilization as a whole can lead to principles of health:bringing education. In the first period of life =to the age of seven> the child is an inner sculptor8 after the seventh year these plastic forces become forces of soul. There must be a musical interplay between teacher and child. Intellectual training must follow artistic development. The child must be taught to use his intellect, but it must never be forced. The rhythm of sleeping and wa#ing. The rhythmic system never tires. Intellect and will cause fatigue. Teaching that is permeated by an artistic @uality flows into the rhythmic system. To coerce the child to thin# is to generate forces connected with salt:deposits and the forming of bone. Thus, if writing is taught in a purely intellectual way, the tendency to sclerosis in later life is set up. /rom the artistic @ualities that are brought into play in drawing and painting, we can lead over from the picture to the concept or idea. Wor#ing from the basis of the artistic, we can educate the human being in such a way that he will feel a sense of inner well:being with every step and every movement of the hand. Dodily activity wor#s upon the life of sleep. The nature of Will. In the activity of milling, a process of combustion is set up in the organism, and this can only be regulated in sleep. !urely conventional e+ercises for the body prevent the child from getting the deep, sound sleep that is necessary for the regeneration of the organism. 'are of the body in education. -fter the seventh year the principle of education must be that of natural authority. 2nly after the age of fourteen is the child ready to form personal 9udgments. ,ecture GIII $1-&I%", W$ITI%", -%& %-T<$1:ST<&3 Au ust (3# ()*3 'haracteristic e+amples of the way in which writing should be taught. Gowels are an 6e+pression of the inner being.7 1urhythmy. $eading and the development of conceptual life. Detween the ninth and tenth years, the child begins to ma#e a distinction between himself and the outer world. -ll outer things must be so described that they seem to spea# as living beings to the child. !lant:lore. The earth as a living being. <p to the twelfth year the child has no interest in or understanding of mineral substance. We must develop in the child a living, not a dead intellect. -nimal:lore. The animal #ingdom in its connection with man. E0an is the synthesis of the animal species spread over the earth.F 0an bears the spirit within him and thus is raised above the animal world. This living conception of the relation of man to the animal world strengthens the will. Thin#ing, feeling, and willing. ,ecture II -$ITC01TI' , "1201T$3, CIST2$3 Au ust (-# ()*3 !ainting, drawing, writing, plant:lore, arithmetic and geometry affect the child5s etheric body as well as his physical body. The etheric body preserves the after:
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effects of these activities during sleep. -nimal:lore, history and the li#e, are ta#en up by the astral body and 1go into the spiritual world during sleep. "eometry and concrete conceptions of space. The right way to teach arithmetic. 2ne particular sub9ect should be continued for three or four wee#s, and we should then pass on to another, finally returning to the first. Cistory should be taught in a living way. The child has no understanding of causality until he has reached the age of twelve. 2ur teaching of history must appeal to the child5s life of feeling and will. !reparation of the sub9ect:matter of the lessons. ,ecture I !C3SI'S, 'C10IST$3, C-%&:W2$;, ,-%"<-"1, $1,I"I2% Au ust ('# ()*3 Teaching in connection with minerals and stones should not begin until the child has reached the age of eleven or twelve. !hysics and chemistry wor# upon the intellect alone. 2nly at this age should the child be taught the relations between cause and effect and the so:called Eob9ectiveF connections in history and geography. Candwor#, spinning, weaving, technical chemistry. The child should be given apractical understanding of modern industrial life. Speech and its connection with the whole being of man. Cow to teach languages. 'onsciousness becomes self:consciousness between the ninth and tenth years. This is the age when we can begin to teach the rules of grammar and synta+. In all religious instruction we must bear in mind the particular age of the child. -t first he must be taught to understand the &ivine:Spiritual immanent in the world. If we have so taught him about plants, clouds, springs, and the li#e that his whole environment seems to live, we can easily pass on to the divine E/ather !rinciple.F "ratitude and love. %ot until the child has reached the age of ten ought we to begin to spea# of Eduty.F -t this age we can lead him on to have some understanding of the 0ystery of "olgotha. ,ecture II 0102$3, T10!1$-01%TS, D2&I,3 '<,T<$1 -%& -$T Au ust (+# ()*3 The right way in which to develop the child5s memory. Three golden rules. The teacher must have an intuitive understanding of certain symptoms of health and disease in the child. Treatment of children according to their particular temperaments. 'ontact between parents and teachers. Special class in the Waldorf School for bac#ward children. Individual treatment. 'urative 1urhythmy. The moment we begin to teach the child physics and chemistry, we must add some form of artistic wor# as a counter balance. -rt is not a mere invention of man8 it is a domain in which the human being is able to gaze into the secrets of %ature at a level different from that of ordinary thought. !$1/-'1 In &ecember, 1 A1, a small group of people left 1ngland to attend a 'ourse of ,ectures on 1ducation which were to be given by &r. $udolf Steiner at &ornach, Switzerland. They had been brought together by !rofessor 0illicent 0ac#enzie, lately professor of 1ducation at 'ardiff <niversity. She had urged &r. Steiner to e+tend his teaching upon education and it was largely due to her efforts that the 'ourse of ,ectures was now to be given. -mongst those who attended the 'onference was 0iss 'ross, one of the principals of a co:educational school at ;ings ,angley !riory, and before the 'ourse was ended she had consulted &r. Steiner as to whether he would be willing to use the school as a nucleus for the introduction of his pedagogy into 1ngland. -s a member of the 'ommittee of the %ew Ideals in 1ducation she also suggested that he should be as#ed to lecture at the forthcoming 'onference at Stratford:on:-von. Invitation to him to do so was given and during the 1aster of 1 AA &r. Steiner lectured several times at the 'onference to an audience of some four hundred people and gave the inaugural lecture on Sha#espeare. 2n his return to ,ondon he visited the school at ;ings ,angley and consented to underta#e the direction of the wor# there. 0eanwhile 0rs. 0ac#enzie set about organizing a conference to be held at 2+ford under the title of ESpiritual Galues in 1ducation and Social ,ife.F This too# place in -ugust, 1 AA, and here &r. Steiner met such well:#nown men as C. -. ,. /isher, 'lutton Droc#, 0a+well "arnett, "ilbert 0urray, 1dmond Colmes and was the guest of ,. !. Hac#s at 0anchester 'ollege.
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In -ugust, 1 A*, he again visited 1ngland and gave a course of lectures at Il#ley under the chairmanship of 0iss 0argaret 0c0illan. - few years later these lectures appeared in a first edition entitled EThe %ew -rt of 1ducationF which has been out of print for some time. It has now been carefully revised and brought up to date in the present volume and the 1ditor is fortunate in having secured the assistance and uni@ue e+perience of 0iss 'ross in this difficult wor#. The original foreword is now out of date, but the few e+tracts supplied may be of interest. The two farewell lectures do not add to the understanding of the boo#, and were not intended to form part of it. They have therefore been omitted. Several schools in 1nglish:spea#ing countries are now wor#ing successfully on &r. Steiner5s principles and among them the old historic !riory at ;ings ,angley, Certs, where &r. Steiner established his plans. This school is still under the direction of 0iss 'ross. With its beautiful grounds and pastures, it has now a fresh interest attached to it 4 namely, &r. Steiner5s -gricultural Wor# 4 #nown as the Dio:&ynamic 0ethod of -griculture. /or the reader of the following pages there will be a note of sadness when he reflects that the Waldorf School at Stuttgart e+ists no longer. It was here that &r. Steiner put into practical shape his wor# in education. Dut all his activities have now been suppressed by the "erman "overnment. TC1 1&IT2$. /2$1W2$& D3 0-$I1 ST1I%1$ =1 A*> =1IT$-'TS> J J J Schools where education is based on the principles laid down by $udolf Steiner in no sense claim to be institutions representative of any particular philosophy or conception of the world. Their aim is to enable the child to develop and unfold in freedom. The child should live in an element of soul and spirit that is at once a support and help, instead of being allowed to sin# into a spiritual void, finally emerging from school life wearied in soul and body. Those who teach must possess a conception of the world that enables them in renewed freshness to grapple with the problems of education and fills them with reverence and devotion so that they may help the child to overcome any hereditary failings and unfold the divine seed within him. - body of teachers borne onwards by these impulses can read9ust individual shortcomings and correct the faults which are inevitably part of all human strivings. J J J This art of education is concerned with the possibilities latent in the whole being of man and rec#ons, at the same time, with the tendencies of modern life. -t the central point stands the human being 4 no longer the boy or the man alone, no longer creed or class, but the human being. 2ur present age needs and is waiting for principles of education arising from the necessities of the times, free from all distinctions of class, se+ and creed, conscious only of the demands which modern life imposes on us. 2ur social life needs a new impulse, but this can only arise as the fruit of past civilizations, as blossom from plant, and not from the forces of decay. Isolated reforms no longer avail in a cultural life that is self:destructive in its nature. - new orientation is necessary. J J J - religious deepening of the whole being is one of the essential tas#s of education. 0oral and religious @ualities inhere in the child5s life of feeling when he realizes that the bodily nature is everywhere a manifestation of the spiritual and that the spiritual is ever see#ing to enter creatively into the body. ,iving sympathies and antipathies for good and evil, delight in goodness, abhorrence of evil 4 these @ualities, not precepts or in9unctions, ma#e the child a truly moral being. With the development of his sense of freedom and individual power of discrimination at the age of fifteen or si+teen, such feelings will then arise of themselves. Ce will be immune to outside influence and able to form his own free 9udgments. 'onventional rules and regulations are of no avail. We must wor#, at the right age, on the child5s life of feeling and perception 4 but not by way of dogma and mental concepts. Then no fetters will limit the individual power of 9udgment that emerges later. If the child has been educated in a wholly human sense, he will learn to feel and #now his full manhood. Cis own free religious and moral sense will have been awa#ened.
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2ur highest endeavour must be to develop free human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. ,1'T<$1 I S'I1%'1, -$T, $1,I"I2% -%& 02$-,IT3 ?th August, 1 A*. The Chair was taken by Miss Margaret McMillan who ga!e a stirring address and "r# Steiner followed on# 0y first words must be a reply to the #ind greeting given by 0iss Deverley to /rau &octor Steiner and myself, and I can assure you that we deeply appreciate the invitation to give this course of lectures. I shall try to show what -nthroposophy has to say on the sub9ect of education and to describe the attempt already made in the Waldorf School at Stuttgart to apply the educational principles arising out of -nthroposophy. It is a pleasure to come to the %orth of 1ngland to spea# on a sub9ect which I consider so important, and it gives me all the greater 9oy to thin# that I am spea#ing not only to those who have actually arranged this course but to many who are listening for the first time to lectures on education in the light of -nthroposophy. I hope, therefore, that more lies behind this 'onference than the resolve of those who organized it, for I thin# it may be ta#en as evidence that our previous activities are bearing fruit in current world: strivings. 1nglish friends of -nthroposophy were with us at a 'onference held at 'hristmas, last year, when the "oetheanum =at &ornach, Switzerland> 4 since ta#en from us by fire 4 was still standing. The 'onference was brought about by 0rs. 0ac#enzie, the author of a fine boo# on the educational principles laid down by Cegel, and the sympathetic appreciation e+pressed there 9ustifies the hope that it is not, after all, so very difficult to find understanding that transcends the limits of nationality. What I myself said about education at the 'onference did not, of course, emanate from the more intellectualistic philosophy of Cegel, but from -nthroposophy, the nature of which is wholly spiritual. -nd indeed 0rs. 0ac#enzie, too, has seen how, while fully rec#oning with Cegel, something yet more fruitful for education can be drawn where intellectuality is led over into the spiritual forces of -nthroposophy. Then I was able to spea# of our educational principles and their practical application a second time last year, in the ancient university of 2+ford. -nd perhaps I am 9ustified in thin#ing that those lectures, which dealt with the relation of education to social life, may have induced a number of 1nglish educationists to visit our Waldorf School at Stuttgart. It was a great 9oy to welcome them there, and we were delighted to hear that they were impressed with our wor# and were following it with interest. &uring the visit the idea of holding this Summer 'ourse on education seems to have arisen. Its roots, therefore, may be said to lie in previous activities and this very fact gives one the right confidence and courage as we embar# on the lectures. 'ourage and confidence are necessary when one has to spea# of matters so unfamiliar to the spiritual life of to:day and in face of such strong opposition. 0ore especially are they necessary when one attempts to e+plain principles that see# to approach, in a creative sense, the greatest artistic achievement of the 'osmos 4 man himself. Those who visited us this year at Stuttgart will have realized how essentially Waldorf School education gets to grips with the deepest fibres of modern life. The educational methods applied there can really no longer be described by the word E!edagogyF a treasured word which the "ree#s learnt from !lato and the !latonists who had devoted themselves so sincerely to all educational @uestions. !edagogy is, indeed, no longer an apt term to:day, for it is an a priori e+pression of the one:sidedness of its ideals, and those who visited the Waldorf School will have realized this from the first. It is not, of course, unusual to:day to find boys and girls educated together, in the same classes and taught in the same way, and I merely mention this to show you that in this respect, too, the methods of the Waldorf School are in line with recent developments. What does the word E!edagogyF suggestL The E!edagogueF is a teacher of boys. This shows us at once that in ancient "reece education was very one:sided. 2ne half of humanity was e+cluded from serious education. To the "ree#, the boy alone was man and the girl must stay in the bac#ground when it was a @uestion of serious education. The pedagogue was a teacher of boys, concerned only with that se+. In our time, the presence of girl:pupils in the schools is no longer unusual, although indeed it involved a radical change from customs by no means very ancient. -nother feature at the Waldorf School is that in the teaching staff no distinction of se+ is made 4 none, at least, until we come to the very highest classes. Caving as our aim a system of education in accord with the needs of the present day, we had first of all to modify much that was included in the old term E!edagogy.F So far I have only mentioned one of its limitations, but spea#ing in the broadest sense it must be admitted
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that for some time now there has been no real #nowledge of man in regard to education and teaching. Indeed, many one: sided views have been held in the educational world, not only that of the separation of the se+es. 'an it truly be said that a man could develop in the fullest sense of the term when educated according to the old principlesL 'ertainly not. To:day we must first see# understanding of the human being in his pure, undifferentiated essence. The Waldorf School was founded with this aim in view. The first idea was the education of children whose parents were wor#ing in the Waldorf:-storia /actory, and as the &irector was a member of the -nthroposophical Society, he as#ed me to supervise the underta#ing. I myself could only give the principles of education on the basis of -nthroposophy. -nd so, in the first place, the Waldorf School arose as a general school for the wor#ers5 children. It was only EanthroposophicalF in the sense that the man who started it happened to be an -nthroposophist. Cere then, we have an educational institution arising on a social basis, see#ing to found the whole spirit and method of its teaching upon -nthroposophy. It was not a @uestion of founding an EanthroposophicalF school. 2n the contrary, we hold that because -nthroposophy can at all times efface itself, it is able to institute a school on universal:human principles instead of upon the basis of social ran#, philosophical conceptions of any other specialised line of thought. This may well have occurred to those who visited the Waldorf School and it may also have led to the invitation to give these present lectures. -nd in this introductory lecture, when I am not yet spea#ing of education, let me cordially than# all those who have arranged this Summer 'ourse. I would also than# them for having arranged performances of 1urhythmy which has already become an integral part of -nthroposophy. -t the very beginning let me e+press this hope: - Summer 'ourse has brought us together. We have assembled in a beautiful spot in the %orth of 1ngland, far away from the busy life of the winter months. 3ou have given up your time of summer recreation to listen to sub9ects that will play an important part in the life of the future and the time must come when the spirit uniting us now for a fortnight during the summer holidays will inspire all our winter wor#. I cannot ade@uately e+press my gratitude for the fact that you have dedicated your holidays to the study of ideas for the good of the future. Hust as sincerely as I than# you for this now, so do I trust that the spirit of our Summer 'ourse may be carried on into the winter months 4 for only so can this 'ourse bear real fruit. I should li#e to proceed from what 0iss 0c0illan said so impressively yesterday in words that bore witness to the great need of our time for moral impulses to be sought after if the progress of civilization is to be advanced through 1ducation. When we admit the great need that e+ists to:day for moral and spiritual impulses in educational methods and allow the significance of such impulses to wor# deeply in our hearts, we are led to the most fundamental problems in modern spiritual life 4 problems connected with the forms assumed by our culture and civilization in the course of human history. We are living in an age when certain spheres of culture, though standing in a measure side by side, are yet separated from one another. In the first place we have all that man can learn of the world through #nowledge 4 communicated, for the most part, by the intellect alone. Then there is the sphere of art, where man tries to give e+pression to profound inner e+periences, imitating with his human powers, a divine creative activity. -gain we have the religious strivings of man, wherein he see#s to unite his own e+istence with the life of the universe. ,astly, we try to bring forth from our inner being impulses which place us as moral beings in the civilized life of the world. In effect we confront these four branches of culture: #nowledge, art, religion, morality. Dut the course of human evolution has brought it about that these four branches are developing separately and we no longer realize their common origin. It is of no value to criticize these conditions8 rather should we learn to understand the necessities of human progress. To:day, therefore, we will remind ourselves of the beginnings of civilization. There was an ancient period in human evolution when science, art, religion and the moral life were one. It was an age when the intellect had not yet developed its present abstract nature and when man could solve the riddles of e+istence by a #ind of picture:consciousness. 0ighty pictures stood there before his soul 4 pictures which in the traditional forms of myth and saga have since come down to us. 2riginally they proceeded from actual e+perience and a #nowledge of the spiritual content of the universe. There was indeed an age when in this direct, inner life of imaginative vision man could perceive the spiritual foundations of the world of sense. -nd what his instinctive imagination thus gleaned from the universe, he made substantial, using earthly matter and evolving architecture, sculpture, painting, music and other arts. Ce embodied with rapture the fruits of his #nowledge in outer material forms. With his human faculties man copied divine creation, giving visible form to all that had first flowed into him as science and #nowledge. In short, his art mirrored before the senses all that his forces of #nowledge had first assimilated. In wea#ened form we find this faculty once again in "oethe, when out of inner conviction he spo#e these significant words: 6Deauty is a manifestation of the secret laws of %ature, without which they would remain for ever hidden.7 -nd again: 6Ce before whom %ature begins to unveil her mysteries is conscious of an irresistible yearning for art 4 %ature5s worthiest e+pression.7

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Such a conception shows that man is fundamentally predisposed to view both science and art as two aspects of one and the same truth. This he could do in primeval ages, when #nowledge brought him inner satisfaction as it arose in the forms of ideas before his soul and when the beauty that enchanted him could be made visible to his senses in the arts 4 for e+periences such as these were the essence of earlier civilizations. What is our position to:dayL -s a result of all that intellectual abstractions have brought in their train we build up scientific systems of #nowledge from which, as far as possible, art is eliminated. It is really almost a crime to introduce the faintest suggestion of art into science, and anyone who is found guilty of this in a scientific boo# is at once condemned as a dilettante. 2ur #nowledge claims to be strictly dispassionate and ob9ective8 art is said to have nothing in common with ob9ectivity and is purely arbitrary. - deep abyss thus opens between #nowledge and art, and man no longer finds any means of crossing it. When he applies the science that is valued because of its freedom from art, he is led indeed to a marvellous #nowledge of %ature 4 but of %ature devoid of life. The wonderful achievements of science are fully ac#nowledged by us, yet science is dumb before the mystery of man. ,oo# where you will in science to:day, you will find wonderful answers to the problems of outer %ature, but no answers to the riddle of man. The laws of science cannot grasp him. Why is thisL Ceretical as it sounds to modern ears, this is the reason. The moment we draw near to the human being with the laws of %ature, we must pass over into the realm of art. - heresy indeed, for people will certainly say: 6That is no longer science. If you try to understand the human being by the artistic sense, you are not following the laws of observation and strict logic to which you must always adhere.7 Cowever emphatically it may be held that this approach to man is unscientific because it ma#es use of the artistic sense 4 man is none the less an artistic creation of %ature. -ll #inds of arguments may be advanced to the effect that this way of artistic understanding is thoroughly unscientific, but the fact remains that man cannot be grasped by purely scientific modes of cognition. -nd so 4 in spite of all our science 4 we come to a halt before the human being. 2nly if we are sufficiently unbiased can we realize that scientific intellectuality must here be allowed to pass over into the domain of art. Science itself must become art if we would approach the secrets of man5s being. %ow if we follow this path with all our inner forces of soul, not only observing in an outwardly artistic sense, but ta#ing the true path, we can allow scientific intellectuality to flow over into what I have described as EImaginative ;nowledgeF in my boo#, $nowledge of the %igher &orlds and its Attain'ent. This EImaginative ;nowledgeF 4 to:day an ob9ect of such suspicion and opposition 4 is indeed possible when the #ind of thin#ing that otherwise gives itself up passively, and increasingly so, to the outer world is roused to a living and positive activity. The difficulty of spea#ing of these things to:day is not that one is either criticizing or upholding scientific habits of thought which are peculiar to our age8 rather does the difficulty consist in the fact that fundamentally one must touch upon matters which concern the very roots of our present civilization. There is an increasing tendency to:day to give oneself up to the mere, observation of outer events, to allow thoughts passively to follow their succession, avoiding all conscious inner activity. This state of things began with the demand for material proofs of spiritual matters. Ta#e the case of a lecture on spiritual sub9ects. Gisible evidence is out of the @uestion, because words are the only available media 4 one cannot summon the invisible by some magical process. -ll that can be done is to stimulate and assume that the audience will inwardly energize their thin#ing into following the indications given by the words. 3et nowadays it will fre@uently happen that many of the listeners 4 I do not, of course, refer to those who are sitting in this hall 4 begin to yawn, because they imagine that thin#ing ought to be passive, and then they fall asleep because they are not following the sub9ect actively. !eople li#e everything to be demonstrated to the eye, illustrated by means of lantern:slides or the li#e, for then it is not necessary to thin# at all. Indeed, they cannot thin#. That was the beginning, and it has gone still further. In a performance of 6Camlet,7 for instance, one must follow the plot, and also the spo#en word, in order to understand it. Dut to:day the drama is deserted for the cinema, where one need not e+ert oneself in any way8 the pictures roll off the machine and can be watched @uite inertly. -nd so man5s inner activity of thought has gradually waned. Dut it is precisely this which must be retained. 3et when once the nature of this inner activity is understood, it will be realized that thin#ing is not merely a matter of stimulus from outside, but a force living in the very being of man. The #ind of thin#ing current in our modern civilization is only one aspect of this force of thought. If we inwardly observe it, from the outer side as it were, it is revealed as the force that builds up the human being from childhood. Defore this can be understood, an inner, plastic force that transforms abstract thought into pictures must come into play. Then, after the necessary efforts have been made, we reach the stage I have 'alled in my boo#, the beginning of meditation. -t this point we not only begin to lead mere cleverness over into art, but thought is raised into Imagination. We stand in a world of Imagination, #nowing that it is not a creation of our own fancy, but an actual, ob9ective world. We are fully conscious that although we do not as yet possess this ob9ective world itself in Imagination, we have indeed a true picture of it. -nd now the point is to realize that we must get beyond the picture. Strenuous efforts are necessary if we would master this inner creative thin#ing that does not merely contain pictures of fantasy, but pictures bearing their own reality within them. Then, however, we must ne+t be able to eliminate the whole
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of this creative activity and thus accomplish an inwardly moral act. /or this indeed constitutes an act of inner morality: when all the efforts described in my boo# to reach this active thin#ing in pictures have been made, when all the forces of soul have been applied and the powers of Self strained to their very utmost, we then must be able to eliminate all we have thus attained. In his own being man must have developed the highest fruits of this thin#ing that has been raised to the level of meditation and then be capable of selflessness. Ce must be able to eliminate all that has been thus ac@uired. /or to have nothing is not the same as to have gained nothing. If he has made every effort to strengthen the Self by his own will so that finally his consciousness can be emptied:a spiritual world surges into his consciousness and being and he realizes that spiritual forces of cognition are needed for #nowledge of the spiritual world. -ctive picture:thin#ing may be called Imagination. When the spiritual world pours into the consciousness that has in turn been emptied by dint of tremendous effort, man is approaching the mode of mode of #nowledge #nown as true Inspiration. Caving e+perienced Imagination, we may through an inner denial of self come to comprehend the spiritual world lying behind the two veils of outer %ature and of man. I will now endeavour to show you how from this point we are led over to the spiritual life of religion. ,et me draw your attention to the following. 4 Inasmuch as -nthroposophy strives for true Imagination, it leads not only to #nowledge or to art that in itself is of the nature of a picture, but to the spiritual reality contained in the picture. -nthroposophy bridges the gulf between #nowledge and art in such a way that at a higher level, suited to modern life and the present age, the unity of science and art which humanity has abandoned can enter civilization once again. This unity must be re:attained, for the schism between science and art has disrupted the very being of man. To pass from the state of disruption to unity and inner harmony 4 it is for this above all that modern man must strive. Thus far I have spo#en of the harmony between science and art. I will now develop the sub9ect further, in connection with religion and morality. J J J ;nowledge that thus draws the creative activity of the universe into itself can flow directly into art, and this same path from #nowledge to art can be e+tended and continued. It was so continued through the powers of the old imaginative #nowledge of which I have spo#en, which also found the way, without any intervening cleft, into the life of religion. Ce who applied himself to this #ind of #nowledge 4 primitive and instinctive though it was in early humanity 4 was aware that he ac@uired it by no e+ternal perceptions, for in his thin#ing and #nowing he sensed divine life within him, he felt that spiritual powers were at wor# in his own creative activity enabling him to raise to greater holiness all that had been impressed into the particular medium of his art. The power born in his soul as he embodied the &ivine:Spiritual in outer material substance could then e+tend into acts wherein he was fully conscious that he, as man, was e+pressing the will of divine ordnance. Ce felt himself pervaded by divine creative power, and as the path was found through the fashioning of material substance, art became 4 by way of ritual 4 a form of divine worship. -rtistic creation was sanctified in the divine office. -rt became ritual 4 the glorification of the &ivine 4 and through the medium of material substance offered sacrifice to the &ivine Deing in ceremonial and ritual. -nd as man thus bridged the gulf between -rt and $eligion there arose a religion in full harmony with #nowledge and with art. -lbeit primitive and instinctive, this #nowledge was none the less a true picture, and as such it could lead human deeds to become, in the acts of ritual, a direct portrayal of the &ivine. In this way the transition from art to religion was made possible. Is it still possible with our present:day mode of #nowledgeL The ancient clairvoyant perception had revealed to man the spiritual in every creature and process of %ature, and by surrender and devotion to the spirit within the nature:processes, the spiritual laws of the 'osmos passed over and were embodied in ritual and cult. Cow do we 6#now7 the world to:dayL 2nce more, to describe is better than criticism, for as the following lectures will show, the development of our present mode of #nowledge was a necessity in the history of man#ind. To:day I am merely placing certain suggestive thoughts before you. We have gradually lost our spiritual insight into the being and processes of %ature. We ta#e pride in eliminating the spirit in our observation of %ature and finally reach such hypothetical conceptions as attribute the origin of our planet to the movements of a primeval nebula. 0echanical stirrings in this nebula are said to be the origin of all the #ingdoms of %ature, even so far as man. -nd according to these same laws 4 which govern our whole 6ob9ective7 mode of thin#ing, this earth must finally end through a so:called e+tinction of warmth. -ll ideas achieved by man, having proceeded from a #ind of /ata 0organa, will disappear, until at the end there will remain only the tomb of earthly e+istence. If the truth of this line of thought be recognized by science and men are honest and brave enough to face its inevitable conse@uences, they cannot but admit that all religious and moral life is also a /ata 0organa and must so remain. 3et the
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human being cannot endure this thought, and so must hold fast to the remnants of olden times, when religion and morality still lived in harmony with #nowledge and with art. $eligion and morality to:day are not direct creations of man5s innermost being. They rest on tradition, and are a heritage from ages when the instinctive life of man was filled with revelation, when "od 4 and the moral world in Cim 4 were ali#e manifest. 2ur strivings for #nowledge to:day can reveal neither "od nor a moral world. Science comes to the end of the animal species and man is cast out. Conest inner thin#ing can find no bridge over the gulf fi+ed between #nowledge and the religious life. -ll true religions have sprung from Inspiration. True, the early form of Inspiration was not so conscious as that to which we must now attain, yet it was there instinctively, and rightly do the religions trace their origin bac# to it. Such faiths as will no longer recognize living inspiration and revelation from the spirit in the immediate present have to be content with tradition. Dut such faiths lac# all inner vitality, all direct motive:power of religious life. This motive:power and vitality must be re:won, for only so can our social organism be healed. I have shown how man must regain a #nowledge that passes by way of art to Imagination, and thence to Inspiration. If he re:ac@uires all that flows down from the inspirations of a spiritual world into human consciousness, true religion will once again appear. -nd then intellectual discussion about the nature of 'hrist will cease, for through Inspiration it will be #nown in truth that the 'hrist was the human bearer of a &ivine Deing Who had descended from spiritual worlds into earthly e+istence. Without supersensible #nowledge there can be no understanding of the 'hrist. If 'hristianity is again to be deeply rooted in humanity, the path to supersensible #nowledge must be rediscovered. Inspiration must again impart a truly religious life to man#ind in order that #nowledge 4 derived no longer merely from the observation of natural laws 4 may find no abyss dividing it ali#e from art and religion. ;nowledge, art, religion 4 these three will be in harmony. !rimeval man was convinced of the presence of "od in human deeds when he made hisP art a divine office and when a consciousness of the fire glowing in his heart as &ivine Will pervaded the acts of ritual. -nd when the path from outer ob9ective #nowledge to Inspiration is found once again, true religion will flow from Inspiration and modern man will be permeated 4 as was primeval man 4 with a "od:given morality. In those ancient days man felt: 6If I have my divine office, if I share in divine worship, my whole inner being is enriched8 "od lives not only in the temple but in the whole of my life.7 To ma#e the presence of "od imminent in the world 4 this is true morality. %ature cannot lead man to morality. 2nly that which lifts him above %ature, filling him with the &ivine:Spiritual 4 this alone can lead man to morality. Through the Intuition which comes to him when he finds his way to the spirit, he can fill his innermost being with a morality that is at once human and divine. The attainment of Inspiration thus rebuilds the bridge once e+isting instinctively in human civilization between religion and morality. -s #nowledge leads upwards through art to the heights of super:sensible life, so, through religious worship, spiritual heights are brought down to earthly e+istence, and we can permeate it with pure, deep:rooted morality 4 a morality that is an act of conscious e+perience. Thus will man himself become the individual e+pression of a moral activity that is an inner motive power. 0orality will be a creation of the individual himself, and the last abyss between religion and morality will be bridged. The intuition pervading primitive man as he enacted his ritual will be re:created in a new form, and a morality truly corresponding with modern conditions will arise from the religious life of our day. We need this for the renewal of our civilization. We need it in order that what to:day is mere heritage, mere tradition may spring again into life. This pure, primordial impulse is necessary for our complicated social life that is threatening to spread chaos through the world. We need a harmony between #nowledge, art, religion, and morality. The earth:born #nowledge which has given us our science of to:day must ta#e on a new form and lead us through Inspiration and the arts to a realization of the supersensible in the life of religion. Then we shall indeed be able to bring down the supersensible to the earth again, to e+perience it in religious life and to transform it into will in social e+istence. 2nly when we see the social @uestion as one of morality and religion can we really grapple with it, and this we cannot do until the moral and religious life arises from spiritual #nowledge. The revival of spiritual #nowledge will enable man to accomplish what he needs 4 a lin# between later phases of evolution and its pure, instinctive origin. Then he will #now what is needed for the healing of humanity 4 harmony between science, art, religion, and morality. ,1'T<$1 II !$I%'I!,1S 2/ "$11; 1&<'-TI2% Kth August, 1 A*. That the sub9ect of education is e+ercising the mind and soul of all men at the present day is not to be @uestioned. It is everywhere apparent. If, then, an art of education is advocated here which is derived directly from spiritual life and spiritual perception, it is its inner nature rather than the urgency of its outward appeal which differentiates it from the reforms generally demanded to:day.
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There is a general feeling nowadays that the conditions of civilization are in rapid transition, and that for the sa#e of the organization of our social life we must pay heed to the many new changes and developments of modern times. -lready there is a feeling 4 a feeling which only a short time ago was rarely present 4 that the child of to:day is a very different being from the child of a recent past, and that it is much more difficult nowadays for age to come to an understanding with youth than was the case in earlier times. The art of education, however, of which I have here to spea#, is concerned rather with the inner development of human civilization. It is concerned with what has changed the souls of men in the course of ages, with the evolution through which, in the course of hundreds, nay even thousands of years, these souls have passed. The attempt will be made to e+plore the means by which, in this particular age, we may reach the being of man as it lives in the child. It is generally admitted that the successive periods of time in %ature can be differentiated. We need only thin# of the way in which man ta#es these differentiations into account in daily life. Ta#e the e+ample nearest to hand 4 the day. 2ur relation to the processes of %ature is @uite different in the morning, at noon, and at night, and we should thin# it absurd to ignore the course of the day. We should also thin# it absurd not to pay due heed to the development revealed in human life itself 4 to ignore, for instance, the fact that an old man5s needs are different from those of a child. In the case of %ature we respect this fact of development. Dut man has not yet accustomed himself to respect the fact of the general evolution of humanity. We do not ta#e account of the fact that centuries ago there lived a humanity very different from the humanity of the 0iddle -ges or of the present time. We must learn to #now the nature of the inner forces of human beings if our treatment of children at the present time is to be practical and not merely theoretical. We must investigate from within those forces which hold sway in this present day. The principles of Waldorf School education 4 as it may be called 4 are, therefore, in no sense revolutionary. In Waldorf School education there is full recognition of all that is great and worthy of esteem in the really brilliant achievements of all countries during the nineteenth century. There is no desire to cast everything aside and imagine that the only possible thing is something radically new. The aim is rather to investigate the inner forces now ruling in the nature of man in order to be able to ta#e them into account in the sphere of education, and thereby to find a true place in social life for the human being in body, soul and spirit. /or 4 as we shall see in the course of these lectures 4 education has always been a concern of social life, and still is so at the present time. It must be a social concern in the future as well. In education, therefore, there must be an understanding of the social demands of any given epoch. To begin with, I want to describe to you in three stages the development of the nature of education in Western civilization. The best way will be to consider the educational ideals of the different epochs 4 the ideals striven for by those who desired to rise to the highest stage of human e+istence, to the stage from which they could render the most useful service to their fellow:men. It will be well in such a study to go bac# to the earliest of those past ages which we feel to survive as a cultural influence even at the present time. %obody, to:day, will dispute the still living influence of the "ree# civilization in all human aims and aspirations, and the @uestion, 6In what way did the "ree# see# to raise the human being to a certain stage of perfectionL7 must be of fundamental significance to the educationalist. We must also consider the progress of subse@uent epochs in respect of the perfecting of the education and instruction of the human being. ,et us see, to begin with 4 and indeed, we shall have to study this @uestion in detail 4 what was the "ree# ideal for the teacher, that is to say, for the man who desired to develop to the highest stage of humanity not only for his own sa#e, but for the sa#e of his being able to guide others along their path. What was the "ree# ideal of educationL The "ree# ideal of education was the "ymnast, that is to say, one who had completely Carmonized his bodily nature and, to the e+tent that was thought necessary in those days, all the @ualities of his soul and spirit. - man able to bring the divine beauty of the world to e+pression in the beauty of his own body, able to bring the divine beauty of the world into bodily e+pression in the child, in the boy 4 this was the "ymnast, the man by whom "ree# civilization was up:borne. It is easy, from a #ind of modern superiority, to loo# down upon the "ymnast5s manner of education, based as it was on the bodily nature of man. Dut there is a total misunderstanding of what was meant in "reece by the word "ymnast. If, nevertheless, we do still admire "ree# civilization and culture to:day, if we still regard it as the ideal of highest development to be permeated with "ree# culture, we shall do well to remember while we do this, that the "ree# himself was not primarily concerned with the development of so:called 6spirituality7 in the human being. Ce was only concerned to develop the human body in such a way that as a result of the harmony of its parts and its modes of activity the body itself should come to be a manifestation of divine beauty. The "ree# e+pected of the body 9ust what we e+pect of the plant8 that it will of itself unfold into blossom under the influence of sunlight and warmth if the root has received the proper #ind of treatment. -nd in our devotion to "ree# culture to:day we must not forget that the bearer of this culture was the "ymnast, one who had not ta#en the third step first, so to spea#, but the first step first: the harmonization of the bodily nature of man. -ll the beauty, all the greatness, all the perfection of "ree# culture was not directly 6sought,7 but was loo#ed for as the natural growth of the beautiful, harmonious, powerful body, a result of the inner nature and activity of earthly man. 2ur understanding of "ree# civilization, especially of "ree# education, will be one:sided unless our
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admiration for the spiritual greatness of "reece is lin#ed with the #nowledge that the "ymnast was the ideal of "ree# education. Then, as we follow the continuous development of humanity, we see that a most significant brea# occurs, in the transition from "ree# to $oman culture. In $oman civilization we have, to begin with, the emergence of that cultivation of abstractions which later led to the separation of spirit, soul, and body, and placed too a special emphasis on this threefold division. We can see how the principle of beauty in "ree# 6gymnastic7 education was indeed imitated in $oman culture, but how, nevertheless, the education of body and soul fell into two separate spheres. The $oman still set great store by the training of the body, but little by little and almost imperceptibly this fell into a secondary place. The attention was directed to something that was considered more important in human nature 4 to the element of soul. The training which in "reece was bound up with the ideal of the "ymnast, gradually changed, in $oman culture, into a training of the soul @ualities. This is developed throughout the 0iddle -ges, an epoch when the @ualities of soul were considered to be of a higher order than those of the body. -nd from this 6$omanized7 human nature, as we may call it, there arises another ideal of education. 1arly in the 0iddle -ges there appears an educational ideal for the men of highest development which was a fruit of $oman civilization. It was in its essence a culture of the soul 4 of the soul in so far as this reveals itself outwardly in man. The "ymnast was gradually superseded by another type of human being. To:day we no longer have any strong, historical consciousness of this change, but those who study the 0iddle -ges intimately will realize that it actually too# place. The ideal of education was no longer the "ymnast, but the $hetorician, one whose main training was the training of speech, that is to say, of something that is essentially a @uality of soul. Cow the human being can wor# through speech, as a $hetorician 4 this was an outcome of $oman culture carried over into the first period of the 0iddle -ges. It represents the reaction from an education adapted purely to the body to an education more particularly of the soul, one which Qcarries on the training of the body as a secondary activity. -nd because the 0iddle -ges made use of the $hetorician for spreading the spiritual life as it was cultivated in the monastic schools and elsewhere in medieval education, it came about, though the name was not always used, that the $hetorician assumed in the sphere of education the place which had once been held by the "ree# "ymnast. Thus, in reviewing the ideals which have been regarded as the highest e+pression of man, we see how humanity advances from the educational ideal of "ymnast to that of the $hetorician. %ow this had its effect upon the methods of education. The education of children was brought into line with what was held to be human perfection. -nd one who has the gift of historical observation will perceive that even the usages of our modern education, the manner in which language and speech are taught to children, are a heritage from the practice of the 0iddle -ges which had the $hetorician as educational ideal. Then, in the course of the 0iddle -ges, came the great swing over to the intellectual, with all the honour and respect which it paid to the things of the intellect. - new educational ideal of human development arose, an ideal which represents e+actly the opposite of the "ree# ideal. It was an ideal which gave the highest place to the intellectual and spiritual development of man. Ce who #nows something 4 the ;nower 4 now became the ideal. Whereas throughout the whole of the 0iddle ages he who could do something, do something with the powers of his soul, who could convince others, remained the ideal of education, now the #nower becomes the ideal. We have only to loo# at the earliest <niversity Institutions, at the <niversity of !aris in the 0iddle -ges, to realize that the ideal there is not the #nower, but the doer, the man who can convince most through speech, who is the most s#ilful in argument, the master of &ialectic 4 of the word which now ta#es on the colour of thought. We still find the $hetorician as the ideal of education, though the $hetorician himself is tinged with the hue of thought. -nd now with this new civilization another ideal arises for evolving man, an ideal which is again reflected in the education of the child. 2ur own education of children, even in this age of materialism, has remained under the influence of this ideal right down to the present time. %ow for the first time there arises the ideal of the &octor, the !rofessor. The &octor becomes the ideal for the perfect human being. Thus we see the three stages in human education: the "ymnast, the $hetorician, the &octor. The "ymnast is one who can handle the whole human organism from what he regards as its divine manifestation in the world, in the 'osmos. The $hetorician only #nows how to handle the soul:nature in so far as it manifests in the bodily nature. The "ymnast trains the body, and through it, the soul and spirit, to the heights of "ree# civilization. The $hetorician is concerned with the soul, and attains his crown and his glory as the orator of the things of the soul, as the 'hurch orator. -nd lastly, we see how s#ill as such ceases to be valued. The man who only #nows, the man, that is, who no longer handles the soul:nature in its bodily:wor#ing, but only that which reigns invisibly in the inner being, the man who only knows now stands as the
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ideal of the highest stage of education. This, however, reflects itself into the most elementary principles of education. /or it was the "ymnasts in "reece who also educated the children. It was the $hetoricians, later on, who educated the children. /inally, in more modern times and in the time of the rise of materialism in civilization as a whole, it was the &octor who educated the children. Thus bodily, gymnastic education develops into rhetorical, soul:education, and this in turn develops into 6doctorial7 education. 2ur modern education is the outcome of the 6doctorial7 ideal. -nd those who see#, in the very deepest principles of modern education for those things which really ought to be understood, must carefully observe what has been introduced as a result of this doctorial ideal. Side by side with this, however, a new ideal has emerged into greater and greater prominence in the modern age. It is the ideal of the 6universal human.7 0en had eyes and ears only for what belonged by right to the &octor, and the longing arose to educate once again the whole human being, to add to the doctorial education, which was even being crammed into the tiny child =for the &octors wrote the te+t boo#s, thought out the methods of teaching>, to add to this the education of the 6universal human.7 -nd to:day, those who 9udge from a fundamental, elementary feeling for human nature, want to have their say in educational matters. Thus for inner reasons the problem of education to:day has become a problem of the times. We must bear this inner process of human evolution in mind if we would understand the present age, for a true development of education must tend to nothing less than a superseding of this 6&octor7 principle. If I were briefly to summarize one particular aspect of the aim of Waldorf School education, I should say, to:day, of course merely in a preliminary sense, that it is a @uestion of turning this 6doctorial7 education into an education of man as a whole. J J J %ow we cannot understand the essential nature of the education which had its rise in "ree# civilization and has continued in its further development on into our own times, unless we loo# at the course of human evolution from the days of "ree# civilization to our own in the right light. "ree# civilization was really a continuation, an offshoot, as it were, of 2riental civilization. -ll that had developed in the evolution of humanity for thousands of years in -sia, in the 1ast, found its final e+pression in a very special way in "ree# education. %ot till then did there come an important brea# in evolution: the transition to $oman culture. $oman culture is the source of all that later flowed into the whole of Western civilization, even so far as to -merica. Cence it is impossible to understand the essential nature of "ree# education unless we have a true conception of the whole character of 2riental development. To one who stood by the cradle of the civilization out of which proceeded the Gedas and the wonderful Gedanta it would have seemed the purest nonsense to imagine that the highest development of human nature is to be attained by sitting with boo#s in front of one in order to get through e+aminations. -nd it would have seemed the purest nonsense to imagine that anyone could become a perfected human being after having literally maltreated =for 6trained7 is not the word> for years if the man be industrious, for months if he be lazy, an indefinite something that goes by the name of the 6human spirit7 in order then to be @uestioned by someone as to how much he #nows. We do not understand the development of human civilization unless we sometimes pause to consider how the ideal of one epoch appears to the eyes of another. /or what steps were ta#en by a man of the ancient 1ast who desired to ac@uire the sublime culture offered to his people in the age preceding that of the inspiration behind the GedasL What he practised was fundamentally a #ind of bodily culture. -nd he hoped, as the result of a special cult of the body, one:sided though this would appear to:day, to attain to the crowning glory of human life, to the loftiest spirituality, if this lay within his destiny. Cence an e+ceedingly delicate culture of the body was the method adopted in the highest education of the ancient 1ast, not the reading of boo#s and the maltreatment of an abstract 6spirit.7 I will give you an e+ample of this refined bodily culture. It consisted in a definite and rigorously systematic regulation of the breathing. When man breathes 4 as indeed he must do in order to provide himself with the proper supply of o+ygen from minute to minute 4 the process is an unconscious one. Ce carries out the whole breathing process unconsciously. The ancient oriental made this breathing process, which is fundamentally a bodily function, into something which was carried out with consciousness. Ce drew in his breath in accordance with a definite law8 held it bac# and breathed it out again according to a definite law. The whole process was conditioned by the body. The legs and arms must be held in certain positions, that is to say, the path of the breath through the physical organism when it reached the #nee, for instance, must proceed in the horizontal direction. -nd so the ancient 2riental who was see#ing to reach the stage of human perfection sat with legs crossed beneath him. The man who wished to e+perience the revelation of the spirit in himself must achieve it as the result of a training of the body, a training directed in particular to the air:processes in the human being, but centred, nevertheless, in the bodily nature. %ow what lies at the basis of this #ind of training and educationL The flower and fruit of a plant live within the root and if the root receives proper care, both flower and fruit develop under the light and warmth of the sun. In the same way, the soul and sprit live in the bodily nature of man, in the body that is created by "od. If a man then ta#es hold of the roots
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in the body, #nowing that &ivinity lives within them, develops these bodily roots in the right way and then gives himself up to the life that is freely unfolding, the soul and spirit within the roots develop as do the inner forces of the plant that pour out of the root and unfold under the light and warmth of the sun. -ny abstract development of spirit would have seemed to the 2riental 9ust as if we were to shut off all our plants from the sunlight, put them into a cellar and then ma#e them grow under electric light, possibly because we did not consider the free light of the sun good enough for them. The fact that the 2riental only loo#ed to the bodily nature was deeply rooted in his whole conception of humanity. This bodily development afterwards, of course, became one:sided, had already become so by the time of Hewish culture, but the very one:sidedness shows us that the universal view was: body, soul, and spirit are one. Cere, on earth, between birth and death, the soul and spirit must be sought for in the body. This aspect of ancient oriental spiritual culture may possibly cause some astonishment but when we study the true course of human evolution we shall find that the very loftiest achievements of civilization were attained in times when man was still able to behold the soul and spirit wholly within the body. This was a development of the very greatest significance for the essential nature of human civilization. %ow why was the 2riental, for it must be remembered that his whole concern was a @uest for the spirit, why was the 2riental 9ustified in striving for the spirit by methods that were really based upon the bodily nature of manL Ce was 9ustified because his philosophy did not merely open his eyes to the earthly but also to the supersensible. -nd he #new: To regard the soul and spirit here on earth as being complete, is to see them =forgive this rather trivial analogy but in the sense of oriental wisdom it is absolutely correct> in the form of a Epluc#ed hen,F not a hen with feathers and therefore not a complete hen. The idea we have of the soul and spirit would have seemed to the 2riental analogous to a hen with its feathers pluc#ed, for he #new the soul and spirit, he #new the reality of what we see# in other worlds. Ce had a concrete supersensible perception of it. Ce was 9ustified in see#ing for the material, bodily revelation of man because his fundamental conviction was that in other worlds, the pluc#ed hen, the na#ed soul, is endowed with spiritual feathers when it reaches its proper dwelling:place. Thus it was the very spiritual nature of his conception of the world that prompted the 2riental, in considering the earthly evolution of the human being, to bear in mind before all else that within the body when man is born, when he comes forth as a purely physical being, there is soul and spirit. Soul and spirit sleep in the physical body of the little child in a most wonderful way. /or the 2riental #new that when this (hysis is handled in the truly spiritual way, soul and spirit will proceed from it. This was the #eynote of the education, even of the Sage, in the 1ast. It was a conviction which passed over into "ree# culture, for "ree# culture is an offshoot of oriental civilization. -nd now we understand why it was that the "ree#s, who brought the conviction of the 1ast to its most ob9ective e+pression, adopted, even in the case of the young, their own particular #ind of training of the human being. It was the result of oriental influence. The particular attention paid to the bodily nature in "ree# civilization is simply due to the fact that the "ree# was the result of colonization from The 1ast and from 1gypt, whence his whole mode of e+istence was derived. When we loo# at the "ree# palBstra where the "ymnasts wor#ed, we must see in their activities a continuation of the development which the 1ast, from a profoundly spiritual conception of the world, strove for in the man who was to reach the highest ideal of human perfection on earth. The 2riental would never have considered a one:sided development of soul or spirit to be the ideal of human perfection. The learning and instruction that has become the ideal of later times, would have seemed to him a deadening of that which the "ods had given to man for his life on earth. -nd, fundamentally, this was still the conception of the "ree#. It is a strange e+perience to realize how the spiritual culture of "reece, which we to:day thin# of as so sublime, was regarded in those times by non:"ree# peoples. -n historic anecdote, handed down by tradition, tells us that a barbarian prince once went to "reece, visited the places where education was being carried on and had a conversation with one of the most famous "ymnasts. The barbarian prince said: 6I cannot understand these insane practices of yours. /irst you rub the young men with oil, the symbol of peace, then you strew sand over them, 9ust as if they were being prepared for some ceremony specially connected with peace, and then they begin to hurl themselves about as if they were mad, seizing hold of and 9umping at each other. 2ne throws the other down or punches his chin so vigorously that his shoulders have to be well sha#en to prevent him from suffocating. I simply do not understand such a display and it can be of no conceivable use to the human being.7 This was what the barbarian prince said to the "ree#. %evertheless, the spiritual glory of "reece was derived from what the barbarian prince thought to be so much barbarism. -nd 9ust as the "ree# "ymnast had only ridicule for the barbarian who did not understand how the body must be trained in order to ma#e the spirit manifest, so would a "ree#, if he could rise again and see our customary methods of teaching and education =which really date from earlier times> laugh within himself at the barbarian that has developed since the days of "reece and that spea#s of an abstract soul and spirit. The "ree# in his turn would say: 6This is analogous to a pluc#ed hen. 3ou have ta#en away man5s feathers from him.7 The "ree# would have thought it barbaric that the boys should not wrestle and fall upon one another in the manner described. 3et the barbarian prince could see no meaning or purpose in "ree# education. Thus by studying
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the course of human development and observing what was held to be of value in other epochs, we may ac@uire a foundation upon which we can also come to a right valuation of things in our own time. J J J ,et us now turn our attention to those places where the "ree# "ymnast educated and taught the youths who were entrusted to him in the seventh year of life. What we find there naturally differs essentially from the #ind of national educational ideal, for instance, that held sway in the nineteenth century. In this connection, what I shall say does not merely hold good for this or that particular nation, but for all civilized nations. What we behold when we turn our attention to one of these places in "reece where the young were educated from the seventh year of life onwards, can, if it is rightly permeated with modern impulses, afford us a true basis for understanding what is necessary for education and instruction to:day. The youths were trained 4 and the word EtrainedF is here always used in its very highest sense 4 on the one hand in )rchestric and on the other in (al*stric. 2rchestric, to the outer eye, was entirely a bodily e+ercise, a #ind of concerted dance, but arranged in a very special way. It was a dance with a most complicated form. The boys learned to move in a definite form in accordance with measure, beat, rhythm, and above all in accordance with a certain plastic:musical principle. The boy, moving in this choral dance, felt a #ind of inner soul:warmth pouring through all his limbs and co:ordinating them. This e+perience was simultaneously e+pressed in the form of a very beautiful musical dance before the eyes of the spectators. The whole thing was a revelation of the beauty of the "odhead and at the same time an e+perience of this beauty in the inner being of man. -ll that was e+perienced through this orchestric was felt and sensed inwardly, and thus it was transformed from a physical, bodily process into something that e+pressed itself outwardly, inspiring the hand to play the zither, inspiring speech and word to become song. To understand song and the playing of the zither in ancient "reece we must see them as the crown of the choral dance. 2ut of what he e+perienced from the dance, man was inspired to set the strings in movement so that he might hear the sound and the tone arising from the choral dance. /rom his own movement he e+perienced something that poured into his word, and his words became song. "ymnastic and musical development, this was the form ta#en by education in the "ree# palBstra. Dut the musical and soul @ualities thus ac@uired were born from the outer bodily movements of the dances performed in the palBstra. -nd if to:day one penetrates with direct perception to the meaning of these ordered movements in a "ree# palBstra 4 which the barbarian prince could not understand 4 one finds that all the forms of movement, all the movements of the individual human being, were most wonderfully arranged, so wonderfully indeed that the further effect was not only the musical element that I have already described, but something else. When we study the measures and the rhythms that were concealed in orchestric, in the choral dance, we find that nothing could have a more healing, health:giving effect upon the breathing system and the blood circulation of man than these bodily e+ercises which were carried out in the "ree# choral dances. If the @uestion were put: Cow can the human being be made to breathe in the most beneficial wayL What is the best way to stimulate the movement of the blood by the breathL 4 the answer would have been that the boy must move, must carry out dance:li#e movements from his seventh year onwards. Then 4 as they said in those times 4 he opens up his systems of breathing and blood circulation not to forces of decadence but to those of healing. The aim of all this orchestric was to enable the systems of breathing and blood circulation in the human being to e+press themselves in the most perfect way. /or the conviction was that when the blood circulation is functioning properly it wor#s right down to the very finger tips, and then instinctively the human being will stri#e the strings of the zither or the strings of the lute in the right way. This was, as it were, the crown of the process of blood circulation. The whole rhythmic system of the human being was made s#ilful in the right way through the choral dance. -s a result of this, one might hope for a musical, spiritual @uality to develop in the playing, for it was #nown that when the individual being carries out the corresponding movements with his limbs in the choral dance, the breathing system is so inspired that it @uite naturally functions in a spiritual way. -nd the final conse@uence is that the breath will overflow into what the human being e+presses outwardly through the laryn+ and its related organs. It was #nown that the healing effects of the choral dance on the breathing system would en#indle song. -nd thus the crowning clima+, zither: playing and song, was drawn from the healthy organism trained in the right way through the choral dance. -nd so the physical nature, the soul and the spirit were loo#ed upon as an inner unity, an inner totality in earthly man. -nd this was the whole spirit of "ree# education. -nd now let us loo# at what was developed in palBstric 4 which gave its name to the places of education in "reece because it was the common property, so to spea#, of the educated people. What was it, we as#, that was studied in those forms, in which, for instance, wrestling was evolvedL -nd we see that the whole system e+isted for the purpose of unfolding two @ualities in the human being. The will, stimulated by bodily movement, grew strong and forceful in two directions. -ll movement and all palBstric in wrestling was intended to bring suppleness, s#ill and purposeful agility into the limbs of the wrestler. 0an5s whole system of movement was to be harmonized in such a way that the separate parts should wor# together truly and that for any particular mood of his soul he should be able to ma#e the appropriate
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movements with s#ill, controlling his limbs from within. The moulding and rounding of the movements into harmony with the purposes of life 4 this was one side of palBstric. The other side was the radial of the movement, as it were, where force must flow into the movement. S#ill on the one side, force on the other. The power to hold out against and overcome the forces wor#ing in opposition and to go through the world with inner strength 4 this was one aspect. S#ill, proficiency, and harmonization of the different parts of the organism, in short the development of power to be able freely to radiate and e+press his own being everywhere in the world 4 this was the other side. It was held that when the human being thus harmonized his system of movement through palBstric, he entered into a true relationship with the 'osmos. The arms, legs and the breathing as developed by palBstric were then given over to the activities of the human being in the world, for it was #nown that when the arm is rightly developed through palBstric it lin#s itself with the stream of cosmic forces which in turn flow to the human brain and then, from out of the 'osmos, great Ideas are revealed to man. Hust as music was not considered to depend upon a specifically musical training but was e+pected as the result of the development of the blood circulation and breathing 4 and indeed did not e+press itself in most cases until about the age of twenty 4 so mathematics and philosophy were e+pected to be a result of the bodily culture in palBstric. It was #nown that geometry is inspired in the human being by a right use of the arms. To:day people do not learn of these things from history, for they have been entirely forgotten. What I have told you is, nevertheless, the truth, and it 9ustifies the "ree#s in having placed the "ymnasts at the head of their educational institutions. /or the "ymnast succeeded in bringing about the spiritual development of the "ree#s by giving them freedom. Ce did not cram their brains or try to ma#e them into wal#ing encyclopaedias but assisted the trained organs of the human being to find their true relationship to the 'osmos, and in this way man became receptive to the spiritual world. The "ree# "ymnast was as convinced as the man of the ancient 1ast of the truth of the spiritual world, only in "reece, of course, this realization e+pressed itself in a later form. What I have really done to:day by giving an introductory description of an ancient method of education, is to put a @uestion before you. -nd I have done so because we must probe very deeply if we are to discover the true principles of education in our time. It is absolutely necessary to enter into these depths of human evolution in order to discover, in these depths, the right way to formulate the @uestions which will help us to solve the problem of our own education and methods of instruction. To:day, therefore, I wanted to place before you one aspect of the sub9ect we are considering. In a wider sense, the lectures are intended to give a more detailed answer, an answer suited to the re@uirements of the present age, to the @uestion which has been raised to:day and will be developed to:morrow. 2ur mode of study, therefore, must be the outcome of a true understanding of the great problem of education raised by the evolutionary course of humanity and we must then pass on to the answers that may be given by a #nowledge of the nature and constitution of the human being at the present time.

,1'T<$1 III "$11; 1&<'-TI2% -%& TC1 0I&&,1 -"1S Mth August, 1 A*. When I attempted to bring before you the "ree# ideal of education, it was with the ob9ect that this ideal should stimulate ideas which ought to prevail in our modern system of education. /or at the present stage of human life it is, of course, impossible to adopt the same educational methods as the "ree#s. In spite of this, however, an all:embracing truth in regard to education can be learned from the "ree# ideal, and this we will now:consider. <p to the seventh year of life, the "ree# child was brought up at home. !ublic education was not concerned with children under the age of seven. They were brought up at home, where the women lived in seclusion, apart from the ordinary pursuits of social life, which were an affair of the men. This in itself is the reinforcement of a truth of education, without #nowledge of which one cannot really educate or teach, for the seventh year of life mar#s an all:important stage of childhood. The main phenomenon characteristic of the seventh year of human life is the change of teeth. This is an event to which far too little importance is attached nowadays. /or thin# of it, the nature of the human organism is such that it brings the first teeth with it as an inheritance, or, rather, it brings with it the force to produce these first teeth which are discarded at the seventh year. It is incorrect to imagine that the force which pushes up the second teeth at about the seventh year unfolds for the first time at this age. It is developing slowly from birth onwards, and simply reaches its
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culmination at about the seventh year of life. Then it brings forth the second teeth from the totality of force in the human organization. This event is of the most e+traordinary importance in the course of human life as a whole, because it does not occur again. The forces present between birth and the seventh year reach their culmination with the appearance of the second teeth, and they do not act again within the entire course of earthly life. %ow this fact should be properly understood, but it can only be understood by an unpre9udiced observation of other processes that are being enacted in the human being at about this seventh year of life <p to the seventh year the human being grows and develops according to %ature:principles, as it were. The %ature:forces of growth, the being of soul and the spiritual functions have not yet separated from one another in the child5s organization8 they form a unity up to the seventh year. While the human being is developing his organs, his nervous system and his blood circulation, this development beto#ens the evolution of his soul and spirit. The human being is provided with the strong inner impulsive force which brings forth the second teeth because everything in this period of life is still interwoven. With the coming of the second teeth, this impelling force wea#ens. It withdraws somewhat8 it does not wor# so strongly from out of the inner being. Why is thisL %ow suppose new teeth were to appear every seven years. =I will ta#e an e+treme illustration for the sa#e of clarity.> If the same organic forces which we bear within us up to the seventh year, if this unity formed of body, soul and spirit were to continue through the whole of life, new teeth would appear appro+imately every seven years. The old teeth would fall out and be replaced by new ones, but throughout our whole life we should remain children as we are up to the seventh year. We should not unfold the life of soul and spirit that is separated off from the %ature:life. The fact that the physical force decreases in the seventh year and the bodily pressure and impulses to a certain e+tent grow less 4 for the body now produces more delicate forces from itself 4 ma#es it possible for the subtler forces of soul life to develop. The body grows wea#er, the soul stronger, as it were. - similar process also ta#es place at puberty, in the fourteenth or fifteenth year. The element of soul now wea#ens to a certain e+tent and the spiritual functions ma#e their appearance. So that if we ta#e the course of the first three life: periods: up till the seventh year man is pre:eminently a being of body:soul:spirit in one, from the seventh to the fourteenth years he is a being of body:soul with a separate nature of soul and spirit, and from puberty onwards he is a threefold being, a physical being, a being of soul and a being of spirit. This truth opens up deep vistas into the whole evolution of the human being. Indeed, without #nowledge of it we really ought not to venture upon the education of children. /or unless we realise the far:reaching conse@uences of this truth, all education must necessarily be more or less a dilettante affair. The "ree# 4 and this is the amazing thing 4 #new of this truth. To the "ree#, it was an irrevocable law that when a boy had reached his seventh year he must be ta#en away from his parents5 house, from the mere %ature:principles, the elementary necessities of upbringing. This #nowledge was so deeply rooted in the "ree#s that we do well to remind ourselves of it to:day. ,ater on, in the 0iddle -ges, traces of this all:important principle of education still e+isted. The modern age of rationalism and intellectualism has forgotten all these things, and, indeed, even ta#es pride in showing that it places no value on such truths, for the child is usually re@uired to go to school at an earlier age, before the end of the seventh year. We may say, indeed, this departure from such eternal principles of human evolution is typical of the chaos obtaining in our modern system of education. We must rise out of this chaos. The "ree# placed so high a value on this truth that he based all education upon it. /or all that I described yesterday was carried out in order to ground education upon this same truth. What did the "ree# see in the little child from birth to the time of the change of teethL - being sent down to earth from spiritual heights. Ce saw in man a being who had lived in a spiritual world before earthly life. -nd as he observed the child he tried to discover whether its body was rightly e+pressing the divine life or pre:earthly e+istence. It was of importance for the "ree# that in the child up to the seventh year he should recognize that a physical body is here enclosing a spiritual being who has descended. There was a terribly barbaric custom in certain regions of "reece to e+pose and thus #ill the child who was instinctively believed to be only a sheath, and not e+pressing a true spiritual being in its physical nature8 this was the outcome of rigid regard to the thought that the physical human being in the first seven years of life is the vesture of a divine:spiritual being. %ow when the child passes its seventh year 4 and this, too, was #nown in "reece 4 it descends a second stage lower. &uring the first seven years the child is released from the heavens, still bearing its own inherited sheaths, which are laid aside at the seventh year, for not only the first teeth but the whole body is cast off every seven years 4 cast off for the first time, that is to say, in the seventh year. In the first seven years of life the bodily sheaths revealed to the "ree# what the forces of pre:earthly life had made out of the child. The child was thought to bear its earthly sheaths proper, its first earthly sheaths, only from about the seventh to the fourteenth years onwards.

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I am trying now to e+press these things as they were conceived of by the highest type of "ree#. Ce thought to himself: I reverence the &ivine in the little child, hence there is no need to concern myself with it in the first seven years of life. It can grow up in the family in which the "ods have placed it. Supersensible forces from pre:earthly life are still wor#ing in it. When the seventh year is reached it behoves man himself to become responsible for the development of these forces. What must man do, then, when he #nows how to pay true reverence to the &ivine in the human beingL What must he do as regards educationL Ce must develop to the highest e+tent the human faculties that have unfolded in the child up to the seventh year. The &ivine power, the way in which the spiritual e+presses itself in the body 4 this must be developed to the greatest possible e+tent. Thus the "ymnast had perforce to be convinced of the necessity to understand the &ivine power in the human body and to develop it in the body. The same healing, life:sustaining forces which the child possesses from pre:earthly e+istence, and which have been fostered in an elementary way up to the change of teeth 4 these must be preserved from the seventh to the fourteenth year by human insight, by human art. /urther education must then proceed wholly in accordance with %ature. -nd so all education was EgymnasticF because the divine education of the human being was seen as a Egymnastic.F 0an must continue the Edivine gymnasticF by means of education. This was more or less the attitude of the "ree# to the child. Ce said to himself: If through my intuition I am able to preserve in freshness and health the forces of growth which have developed in the child up to the seventh year, then I am educating in the very best way8 I am enabling the forces which are there by nature up to the seventh year to remain throughout the whole of earthly life, right up to death. To see that the 6child7 in the human being was not lost till death 4 this was the great and far:reaching ma+im of "ree# education. The "ree# teacher thought: I must see to it that these forces between the seventh and fourteenth years 4 the forces of childhood 4 remain living throughout the whole of his earthly life, right up to death. - far:reaching and deeply significant principle of education. -nd all gymnastic e+ercises were based on the perception that the forces present up to the seventh year have in no way disappeared, but are merely slumbering within the human being and must be awa#ened from day to day. To wa#en the slumbering forces between the seventh and the fourteenth years, to draw forth from the human being in this second period of life what was there by nature in the first period 4 this constituted "ree# gymnastic education. The very glory of his culture and civilization arose from the fact that the "ree#, by a right education, was at pains to preserve the EchildF in the human being right up to death. -nd when we wonder at the Eglory that was "reece,F we must as# ourselves: 'an we imitate this idealL We cannot, for it rests upon three factors, without which it is unthin#able. These three factors must be remembered by the modern educationalist when he loo#s bac# to "reece. The first thing to remember is the following: 4 These principles of education were only applied to a small portion of man#ind, to a higher class, and they presuppose the e+istence of slavery. Without slavery it would not have been possible to educate a small class of man#ind in this way. /or in order to educate thus, part of man5s wor# on the earth fell to the lot of those who were left to their elemental human destiny, without education in the true "ree# sense. "ree# civilization and "ree# education are ali#e unthin#able without the e+istence of slavery. -nd so the delight of those who loo# bac# with inner satisfaction on what "reece accomplished in the evolutionary history of man#ind is tempered with the tragic realization that it was achieved at the cost of slavery. That is one factor. The second factor is that of the whole position of woman in "ree# social life. The women lived a life withdrawn from the direct impulses at the root of "ree# civilization, and it was this secluded life that alone made it possible for the child to be left, up to the seventh year, to the care of the home influences, which were thereby given full scope. Without any actual #nowledge, but merely out of human instincts, the child was led on by the elemental forces of growth to the time of the change of teeth. 2ne may say it was necessary that the child5s life up to this point, should, despite its different nature, proceed 9ust as unconsciously in the wider environment of the family, detached from the mother5s body, as when the embryonic life had proceeded through the forces of %ature. This was the second factor. The third is really a parado+ to modern man, but he must, none the less, grow to understand it. The second point 4 the position of women in "reece 4 is easier to understand, for we #now from a superficial observation of modern life that between the "ree# age and our own time women have sought to ta#e their share in social life. This is a result of what too# place during the 0iddle -ges. -nd if we still wanted to be as "ree# as the "ree#s were, with the interest in conscious education confined e+clusively to men, I wonder how small this audience would be if it were only made up of the men who were allowed to concern themselves with education. The third factor lies deeper down, and its nature ma#es it difficult for modern civilization to ac#nowledge that we have to attain our spiritual life by human effort, by wor#. -nyone who observes the spiritual activities of civilized life will be obliged to admit that as regards the most important domain of civilized life, we must count upon what we shall achieve in the future by effort. 2bserving all the human effort which has to be spent on the attainment of a spiritual life in present:day civilization, we loo# with some astonishment at the spiritual life of the ancient "ree#s and especially of the ancient 2rientals. /or this spiritual life actually e+isted. - truth such as that of the part played in human life by the seventh year, a truth which modern man simply does not realise, was deeply rooted in "reece. =2uter symptoms indicate
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its significance but modern culture is very far from understanding it.> It was one of the mighty truths that flowed through ancient spiritual life. -nd we stand in wonder before this spiritual life when we learn to #now what wisdom, what spiritual #nowledge was once possessed by man. If, without being confused by modern naturalistic and materialistic pre9udices, we go bac# to early civilization, we find, at the beginning of historical life a universal, penetrating wisdom according to which man directed his life. It was not an ac@uired wisdom, but it flowed to man#ind through revelation, through a #ind of inspiration. -nd it is this that modern civilization will not ac#nowledge. It will not recognize that a primal wisdom was bestowed spiritually upon man, and that he evolved it in such a way that, for instance, even in "reece, care was still ta#en to preserve the EchildF in man until the time of earthly death. %ow this revelation of primeval wisdom is no more to be found 4 a fact deeply connected with the whole evolution of man. !art of man5s progress consists in the fact that the primal wisdom no longer comes to him without activity on his part but that he must attain to wisdom through his own efforts. This is connected in an inner sense with the growth of the impulse of human freedom which is at present in its strongest phase. The progress of humanity does not ascend, as is readily imagined, in a straight line from one stage to another. What man has to attain from out of his own being in the present age, he has to attain at the cost of losing revelation from without, revelation which loc#ed within itself the deepest of all wisdom. The loss of primeval wisdom, the necessity to attain wisdom by man5s own labours, this is related to the third factor in "ree# education. Thus we may say: "ree# education may fill us with admiration but it cannot be dissociated from these three factors R ancient slavery, the ancient position of woman, and the ancient relationship of spiritual wisdom to spiritual life. %one of the three e+ist to:day nor would they now be considered worthy of true human e+istence. We are living at a time when the following @uestion arises: Cow ought we to educate, realizing as we do that these three a priori conditions have been swept away by human progressL We must therefore observe the signs of the times if we desire to discover the true impulse for our modern education from inner depths. J J J The whole of the so:called mediaeval development of man which followed the civilization of "reece and has indeed come right down to modern times, proved by its very nature that in regard to education and methods of teaching, different paths had to be struc# from those of "reece, which were so well:fitted to that earlier age. The nature of man had, indeed, changed. The efficacy and reliability of "ree# education were an outcome of the fact that it was based upon EhabitF 4 upon that which can be built into the very structure of the human body. <p to the change of teeth in the seventh year, the development of man5s being is inwardly connected with the body. The development of the bodily functions, however, proceeds as though unconsciously. Indeed it is only when the faculties wor# unconsciously that they are right8 they are reliable only when what I have to do is implanted into the de+terity of my hands and is accomplished of itself, without need for further reflection. When practice has become habit, then I have achieved securely what I have to achieve through my body. The real aim of "ree# life was to ma#e the whole earthly e+istence of man a matter of EhabitF in this sense. /rom his education onwards until his death, all man5s actions were to become habitual, so habitual that it should be impossible to leave them off. /or when education is based on such a principle as this, the forces which are natural to the child up to the change of teeth, up to the seventh year, can be maintained8 the child forces can be maintained until earthly life ends with death. %ow what happened when through historical circumstances new peoples pouring over from the 1ast to the West founded a new civilization during the 0iddle -ges, and established themselves in 0iddle 1urope and in the West, even in -mericaL These peoples assimilated the @ualities natural to the Southern regions but their coming brought @uite different habits of life to man#ind. What was the result of thisL It set up the conditions for a totally different #ind of development, a development of the individual. In this time, for e+ample, men came to the conscious realization that slavery ought not to be8 to the realization that women must be respected. -t this time it also became apparent as regards the evolution of the individual, in the period between the seventh and fourteenth year, when development is no longer of a purely bodily nature but when the soul is to a certain degree emancipated from the body that the child in this period was not now susceptible of being treated as in earlier times. In effect, the conservation of the forces of early childhood in the boy between the ages of seven and fourteen that had been practised hitherto was no longer possible. This is the most significant phenomenon of the 0iddle -ges and right up to modern times so far as this second period of life is concerned. -nd only now for the first time do we see the powerful forces of revolt which belong to the period when the fourteenth and fifteenth years have been passed, the period during which human nature rises up most strongly in revolt, when indeed it bears within itself the forces of revolt.
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Cow did this revolt in human nature e+press itselfL The old primeval wisdom which flowed down naturally to the "ree#s came to be in $oman and 0ediaeval tradition something that was only preserved through boo#s, through writing. Indeed it was only believed on the authority of tradition. The concept of /aith as it developed during the 0iddle -ges did not e+ist in very ancient civilizations, nor even in the culture of the "ree#s. It would have been nonsense in those times. The concept of /aith only arose when the primeval wisdom no longer flowed directly into man, but was merely preserved. This still applies fundamentally to the greater part of humanity to:day. 1verything of a spiritual, supersensible nature is tradition. It is Ebelieved,F it is no longer immediate and actual. %ature and the perception of %ature this is an actuality, but all that refers to the supersensible, to supersensible life, is tradition. Since the 0iddle -ges man has given himself up to this #ind of tradition, thin#ing at times it is true that he does in fact e+perience these things. Dut the truth is that direct spiritual #nowledge and revelation came to be preserved in written form, living from generation to generation as a heritage merely on the authority of tradition. This was the outer aspect. -nd what of the inner aspectL ,et us now loo# bac# once again to "reece. In "reece, faculties of soul developed as of themselves because the whole human being ac@uired habits of life whereby the EchildF was preserved in man till death. 0usic proceeded from the breathing and blood circulation, intellect from gymnastic. Without being cultivated, a marvellous memory evolved in the "ree#s as a result of the development of the habits of the body. We in our age have no longer any idea of the #ind of memory that arose, even among the "ree#s, without being cultivated in any way, and in the ancient 1ast this was even more significant. The body was nurtured, habits formed, and then the memory arose from the body itself. - marvellous memory was the outcome of a right culture of the body. - living proof of the fact that we have no conception of the #ind of memory possessed by the "ree#s, a memory which made it so easy for the spiritual treasures to be handed down and become a common good, is the fact that shorthand writers have to attend when lectures are given which people want to remember. This would have seemed absurd in "ree# civilization, for why should one wish to #eep that which one has manifestly thrown awayL It was all preserved truly in the memory, by the proficiency of the body. The soul developed itself out of this bodily proficiency. -nd because of this self:development she stood in contrast to that which had arisen from revelation 4 the primeval wisdom. -nd this primal spiritual wisdom disappeared, grew to be mere tradition. It had to be carried from generation to generation by the priesthood who preserved the traditions. -nd inwardly man was forced to begin to cultivate a faculty which the "ree# never thought of as a necessity. In education during the 0iddle -ges it became more and more, necessary to cultivate the memory. The memory absorbed what had been preserved by tradition. Thus, historical tradition outwardly and remembrance and memory inwardly, had to be cultivated by education. 0emory was the first soul @uality to be cultivated when the emancipation of the soul had ta#en place. -nd those who #now what importance was attached to the memory in schools only a short while ago can form an opinion of how rigidly this cultivation of the memory 4 which was the result of an historical necessity 4 has been preserved. -nd so through the whole of the 0iddle -ges education tosses li#e a ship that cannot balance itself in a storm, for the soul of man is the most hard of access. To the body man can gain access8 he can come to terms with the spirit, but the soul is so bound up with the individuality of man that it is the most inaccessible of all. Whether a man found the inner path to the authorities who preserved the tradition for him, whether his piety was great enough to enable him to receive the words in which the mediaeval priest:teacher inculcated the tradition into humanity, all this was an affair of the individual soul. -nd to cultivate the memory, without doing violence to another man5s individuality, this needs a fine tact. What was necessary for the soul:culture of the 0iddle -ges was as much heeded by tactful men as it was ignored by the tactless. -nd mediaeval education swung between that which nourished the human soul and that which harmed it in its deepest being. -lthough men do not perceive it, very much from this mediaeval education has been preserved on into the present age. 1ducation during the 0iddle -ges assumed this character because, in the first place, the soul no longer wished to preserve the Echild8F for the soul itself was to be educated. -nd on account of the conditions of the times the soul could only be educated through tradition and memory. Detween the seventh and the fourteenth years the human being is, as it were, in a certain state of flu+. Dut the soul does not wor# in the same condition of security as is afforded by the bodily constitution up to the seventh year and the direction imparted by the spirit has not yet come into being. 1verything is of a very intimate character, calling for piety and delicacy. -ll this brought it about that for a long period of human evolution education entered upon an uncertain and indefinite course in which, while tradition and memory had to be cultivated, there were e+traordinary difficulties. To:day we are living at a time when, as a result of the natural course of development, man desires a firm foundation in place of the insecurity obtaining in the 0iddle -ges. -nd this search for other foundations e+presses itself in the innumerable efforts towards educational reform in our time. It is out of recognition of this fact that Waldorf School education has arisen. Waldorf School education is based upon this @uestion: Cow shall we educate in a time when the revolt in the soul
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between the seventh and fourteenth years of life against the conservation of EchildhoodF is still going onL Cow shall we educate now that man, in addition to that, has in the modern age lost even the old mediaeval connection with traditionL 2utwardly man has lost his faith in tradition. Inwardly he strives to be a free being, one who at every moment shall confront life unhampered. Ce does not wish to stand on a memory foundation all his life long. Such is modern man, who now desires to be inwardly free of tradition and of memory. -nd however much certain portions of our humanity to:day would li#e to preserve ancient customs, this is not possible. The very e+istence of the many efforts for educational reform indicates that a great @uestion is facing us. It was impossible in the 0iddle -ges to educate in the "ree# way, and in our times education can no longer be based on tradition and memory. We have to educate in accordance with the immediate moment of life in which man enters upon earthly e+istence, when he, as a free being, has to ma#e his decision out of the given factors of the moment. Cow, then, must we educate free human beingsL That is the @uestion which now confronts us for the first time. J J J -s the hour is getting late, I will bring these thoughts to a conclusion in a few words and postpone until to:morrow5s lecture the consideration of the methods of education that are necessary at the present day. In "ree# education, the "ymnast must be recognized as one who preserved the forces of childhood on into the second period of life between the seventh and the fourteenth or fifteenth years. The EchildF must be preserved, so said the "ree#s. The forces of childhood must remain in the human being up to the time of earthly death8 these forces must be conserved. It was the tas# of the "ree# educator, the "ymnast, to develop the fundamental nature, the inherited fundamental nature of the child in his charge, on into the period between the seventh and the fourteenth years of life. It was his tas# to understand these forces out of his spiritual wisdom and to conserve them. 1volution in the 0iddle -ges went beyond this, and, as a result, our present age developed. 2nly now does the position of a modern man within the social order become a matter of consciousness. This fact of conscious life can only come into being after the age of puberty has been reached, after the fourteenth or fifteenth year. Then there appears in the human being something which I shall have repeatedly to describe in the following lectures as the consciousness of inner freedom in the being of man. Then, indeed, man Ecomes to himself.F -nd if, as it sometimes happens to:day, human beings believe themselves to have reached this consciousness before the fourteenth or fifteenth years, before the age of puberty, this is only an aping of later life. It is not a fundamental fact. It was this fundamental fact, which appears after the age of puberty, that the "ree# purposely sought to avoid in the development of the individual man. The intensity with which he invo#ed %ature, the child, into human e+istence, dar#ened and obscured full e+perience of this glimpse of consciousness after puberty. The human being passed in dimmed consciousness through this imprisoned E%ature,F this reality. The historical course of human evolution, however, is such that this is no longer possible. This conscious urge would burst forth with elemental, volcanic force after the age of puberty if attempts were made to hold it bac#. &uring what we call the elementary school age, that is to say, between the seventh and fourteenth years, the "ree# had to ta#e into consideration the earliest %ature:life of the child. We in our day have to ta#e account of what follows puberty, of that which will be e+perienced after puberty in full human consciousness by the boy or girl. We may no longer suppress this into a dreamli#e obscurity as did the "ree#s, even the highest type of "ree#, even !lato and -ristotle, who, in conse@uence, accepted slavery as a self:evident necessity. Decause education was of such a #ind that it obscured this all:important phenomenon of human life after puberty, the "ree# was able to preserve the forces of early childhood into the period of life between the seventh and fourteenth years. We must be prophets of future humanity if we would educate in the right way. The "ree# could rely upon instinct, for his tas# was to conserve the foundations laid by %ature. We, as educationalists, must be able to develop intuitions. We must anticipate all human @ualities if we would become true educators, true teachers. /or the essential thing in our education will be to give the child, between its seventh and fourteenth years something which, when the consciousness characteristic of the human being has set in, it can so remember that with inner satisfaction and assent it loo#s bac# upon that which we have implanted within its being. We educate in the wrong way to:day if, later on, when the child has gone out into life, it can no longer loo# bac# on us and say, 63es.7 Thus there must arise teachers with intuition, teachers who enter once again upon the path along which the spiritual world and spiritual life can be attained by man, who can give the child between the seventh and fourteenth years all those things to which it can loo# bac# in later life with satisfaction. The "ree# teacher was a preserver. Ce said: -ll that lived within the child in earlier life slumbers within him after the seventh year, and this I must awa#en. 2f what nature must our education be to enable us to implant in the age of childhood that which later on will awa#en of itself in the free human beingL We have to lead an education into the future. This ma#es it necessary that in our present epoch the whole situation of education must be different from what it was in the past. In "reece, education arose as the result of a surrender to the
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facts of %ature. It was a fact of %ature which, as it were, played into human life, but as a result of the whole of life up to our time, it has wor#ed itself cut of its natural foundations. -s teachers in schools, this is what we must realize: We must offer to the child before us something to which it may be able to cry 63es.7 when in later life it awa#ens to independent consciousness. The child must not only love us during schooldays, but afterwards too, finding this love for us 9ustified by mature 9udgment. 2therwise education is only a half: education 4 therefore wea# and ineffective. When we are conscious of this we shall realize to what a great e+tent education and instruction from being a fact of %ature that plays into the human being must also become a moral fact. This is the deep inner struggle waged by those who from their innermost being have some understanding of the form which education must assume. They feel this, and it is e+pressed in the @uestion: Cow can we ourselves transform education for the free human being into a free act in the very highest sense, that is to say, into a moral actL Cow can education become out and out a moral concern of man#indL This is the great problem before us to:day, and it must be solved if the most praiseworthy efforts towards educational reform are to be rightly directed on into the future. ,1'T<$1 IG TC1 '2%%1'TI2% 2/ TC1 S!I$IT WITC D2&I,3 2$"-%S Nth August, 1 A*. 1ducation in any given epoch is naturally dependent on the general form of civilization prevailing at the time. What the general form of civilization has to offer, that can be passed on to the child in its education by the teacher. When I was spea#ing of the "ree#s, I told you that they possessed an intimate #nowledge of the whole human being, and from this intimate #nowledge were able to educate the child in a way that is no longer possible for us to:day. The #nowledge of the whole human being possessed by the "ree# was derived entirely from the human body. The body of man was in a certain sense transparent to him. The body revealed both soul and spirit in so far as the "ree#s comprehended these. -nd we have seen how the "ree#s educated the whole human being by ta#ing the body as the starting:point. -ll that could not be made to proceed from the body, in the sense in which I showed that music proceeded from it, was imparted to the human being comparatively late in life, indeed only after his bodily education had been completed, at about the twentieth year or even later. We to:day are in @uite a different position. The very greatest illusions in human evolution are really due to the belief that ancient epochs, which had to do with a totally different humanity, can be renewed. Dut particularly in this present age it behoves us to turn with practical commonsense to reality. -nd if we understand this historical necessity, we can only say: 9ust as the "ree#s had to direct their whole education from the standpoint of the body, so must we direct our education from the standpoint of the spirit. What we have to do is to find the way to approach even bodily education from out of the spirit. /or whether we li#e it or not, man#ind has now come to a point where the spirit must be grasped as spirit and attained to by human effort as the true essence of the human being. %ow it is 9ust when we desire to educate in accordance with the needs of our epoch, that we feel how little progress has been made by civilization in general, in respect of this permeation by the spirit. -nd then there arises precisely in respect of education the longing to ma#e the spirit more and more man5s own possession. Where do we find, let us say at a comparatively high level, the conception of the spirit possessed by modern humanityL 3ou must not be shoc#ed if I characterize this by e+amples from the height of modern spiritual life. That which appears at the top merely symbolically, and within the limits of the cultural life, rules, in reality, the whole of civilization. In the course of our endeavour to grasp what EspiritF is, we have to:day only reached the stage of apprehending the spirit in ideas, in thin#ing. -nd perhaps the best way to understand human thin#ing in our age in its greatest scope is to observe this modern thought as it appears, let us say, in Hohn Stuart 0ill or in Cerbert Spencer. I as#ed you not to be shoc#ed by the fact that I point to the highest level of culture. /or that which in Hohn Stuart 0ill and Cerbert Spencer appears merely, so to say, as an outstanding symptom, in reality dominates every sphere, and is the characteristic thin#ing of our civilization. When, therefore, we as# to:day: Cow do men come to understand the spirit from which education should proceed 9ust as the "ree# educated the bodyL We have to answer that men conceive of the spirit 9ust as Hohn Stuart 0ill or Cerbert Spencer conceived of it. %ow what was their conceptionL ,et us thin# for a moment of the idea people have to:day when they spea# of the spirit. I do not here mean a nebulous and absolutely indefinite image hovering somewhere Eabove the clouds.F This is something that tradition has imparted and there is no actual e+perience connected with it. We can only spea# of the spirit in humanity when we observe the attitude men have towards it, how they wor# and what they do with it. -nd the spirit in our present civilization is the spirit which Hohn Stuart 0ill and
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Cerbert Spencer had already wor#ed into their philosophies. There indeed it is and there it had to be sought. What we must observe is the way in which men apply the spirit, not the way in which they spea# about it in the abstract. -nd now let us consider this Ethought outF spirit, for in our time the spirit is really only a mental conception 4 a spirit that can at most thin# philosophically. 'ompared with the full content perceived by the "ree# when he spo#e of man, of -nthropos, the element of spirit in which we whirl around when we thin#, is something 4 well 4 distilled, unsubstantial to the highest degree. When he spo#e of man, the "ree# had always the picture of bodily man before him and the bodily man was at once a revelation of soul and spirit. This man was somewhere, at some time8 this man had limits to his being8 he was bounded by his s#in. -nd those who trained this man in the "ree# gymnasia covered his s#in with oil in order to emphasize this boundary. 0an was strongly outlined. Ce was a wholly concrete entity, e+isting at some particular point in space and time, with some particular form. -nd now thin# of the #ind of thought we have about the spirit to:day. Where is the spirit, what is its formL It is all indefinite, there is never a EhowF or Ewhen8F never any definite form, never any imagery. !eople do try indeed to build up some #ind of image, but let us loo# at Hohn Stuart 0ill5s idea of imagery, for instance. Ce said: When a man thin#s, one idea is followed by a second and a third. 0an thin#s indeed in ideas 4 which are the inward images of words. Ce thin#s in ideas and the ideas get associated with one another. This really is the essence of the discovery: one idea leads to a second, fourth, and so on. The ideas associate themselves. -nd modern psychology spea#s in the most varied ways of associations of ideas as the real inner essence of spiritual life. %ow suppose we were to as#: What #ind of feeling and perception of our own being should we have if this association of ideas were indeed our spiritL We stand in the world8 now the ideas begin to move8 they associate themselves. -nd now we loo# bac# upon ourselves, upon what we really are, as spirit, in these associated ideas. This leads to a consciousness of the self that is e+actly li#e the consciousness a man would have if he were to loo# at himself in a mirror and see a s#eleton and moreover a dead s#eleton. Thin# of the shoc# you would have if you were to loo# in the mirror and see a s#eleton. In the s#eleton, the bones associate, they are held together by e+ternal means and are fi+ed one above the other, according to mechanical law. 2ur idea of the spirit, therefore, is merely a copy of mechanics. To those who have a full sense of manhood, who feel healthy and are healthy, it is actually as though they were to loo# at themselves in a mirror and see their spirit composed of bones8 for in the boo#s describing association:psychology one sees oneself as in a mirror. We may have this pleasure constantly =not of course in the e+ternal, bodily sense> for it arises whenever we compare the modern state of affairs with that of the "ree#s. Spiritually, we have this e+perience again and again. We go to our philosophers, thin#ing that they may be able to give us self:#nowledge, and they place their boo#s before us as a mirror in which we see ourselves as a bony spectre in associations of ideas. This is what a man e+periences to:day when he tries to thin# in a practical way about education and to approach the real essence of education from the standpoint of general civilization. %o indication of what education ought to be is given him but he is shown how to find a heap of bones and how to piece together a s#eleton. This is how the ordinary man feels to:day. Ce longs for a new education, and everywhere the @uestion arises: Cow ought we to educateL Dut where can he turnL Ce can only turn to the general form of civilization and this civilization shows him that all he can build up is a s#eleton. -nd now a strong feeling for this civilization overwhelms the human being. If his feeling is healthy he should be able to feel himself permeated by this intellectualistic nature of modern thought and ideas. -nd it is this that confuses him. Ce would li#e to thin# that what the mirror reveals is sublime and perfect8 he would li#e to be able to ma#e something of it, above all, he would li#e to ma#e use of it in education 4 but he cannot. 2ne cannot educate with this. If we are to have the necessary enthusiasm as educationalists, therefore, we must learn in the first place to perceive all that is not living, but dead, in our intellectualistic culture 4 for the s#eleton is a dead thing. -nd if we saturate ourselves with the #nowledge that our thin#ing is dead we very soon discover that all death proceeds from the living. If you were to find a corpse, you would not ta#e it as the original. 3ou would only thin# of a corpse as something in itself if you had no conception of a human being. If, however, you have a conception of what a human being is, you #now that the corpse is something that has been left behind. /rom the nature of the corpse, you do not only infer the human being, buy you #now also that the human being was there. If you recognize the #ind of thin#ing that is cultivated to:day as being a thing dead, as being a corpse, you can relate it to something living. 0oreover you then have the inner impulse to ma#e this thing living and so to re:vitalize the whole of civilization. It will then be possible once more for something practical to emerge from our modern civilization, something that can reach the living man, 9ust as the "ree#s reached him in their education. ,et us not undervalue perceptions with which a teacher can set out and, indeed, must set out. The teachers at the Waldorf School were first of all given a Seminary 'ourse. It was not merely a @uestion of following the points of a given programme, but of imparting an understanding in the soul of how to bring bac# all that is the most treasured heritage of our age into relation with the innermost being of man, in order to ma#e dead thin#ing, colourless thin#ing into thin#ing full of character 4 primitive, inorganic thin#ing into truly EhumanF thin#ing. In the first place, then, thoughts must begin really to li!e in the teacher.
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%ow when a thing lives, something follows from this life. The human being who has definite place in space and time, who has spirit, soul, body, a definite form and boundary, does not merely thin#8 he also feels and wills. -nd when a thought is communicated to him, this thought is the germ both of a feeling and of an impulse of will8 it becomes a complete thing. The ideal of our modern thin#ing is to be what people call Eob9ective,F as passive and calm as possible, in short to be a passive reflection of the outer world and a mere handmaiden of e+perience. It contains no force8 no impulse of feeling and of will arises from it. The "ree# too# his start from the bodily man who was there before him. We must ta#e our start 4 and everyone feels this to be true 4 from ideal man, but this ideal must not be merely theoretical8 it must live and it must contain the force of both feeling and will. The first thing needful when we thin# about reform in education to:day is that we grow beyond abstract and theoretical ideals. 2ur thoughts do not become gestures and they must become so once more. They must not only be received by the child who sits passively, but they must move his arms and hands and guide him when he passes out into the world. Then we shall have unified human beings, for we must again educate unified human beings8 we shall have human beings who e+perience their bodily education as a continuation of what we have given them in the schoolroom. !eople do not thin# li#e this nowadays. They thin# that what is given in the schoolroom is so much intellectualism, something that it is necessary to give. Dut it fatigues and strains the human being, perhaps even causes nervous troubles. Something else must be added, so it is felt, and then follows physical training. -nd so to:day we have two separate branches: intellectualistic education and bodily training. The one does not promote the other. We have two human beings in point of fact, one nebulous and hypothetical and the other real, and we do not understand this real man as the "ree# understood him. We s@uint, as it were, when we observe a human being, for there seems to be two in front of us. We must again learn to Esee straight,F to see the whole being of man as a unity, a totality. This is the most important thing of all in education. J J J What we must do, therefore, is to press forward beyond the more or less theoretical ma+ims of education in e+istence to:day to an education that is practical in the real sense of the word. /rom what I have said, it follows that much depends upon how we again bring the spirit which we really only grasp intellectually, to the human being, how we ma#e the spirit human in the true sense, so that this nebulous spirit by means of which we observe men, shall become human. We must learn how to behold man in the spirit, as the "ree#s beheld him in the body. -s a preliminary to:day, let me give an e+ample which will e+plain how, from out of the spirit, we can begin to understand the human being right down into the body. -s an e+ample I will choose the way in which the spirit may be connected with a definite organ in the human being. I choose the most stri#ing e+ample, but merely provisionally. These things will become more definite in the following lectures. ,et me show you the connection between the spirit and a process which the "ree#s too considered to be deeply symbolical and of e+traordinary significance in the development of the child: the coming of the teeth. The time of the change of the teeth was, in "reece, the age at which the child was given over to public education. -nd now let us try to envisage this contact of the spirit with the human being, the relation of the spirit to the human teeth. It will seem strange that in discussing man as a spiritual being, I spea# first of the teeth. It only seems strange because as a result of modern culture, people are @uite familiar with the form of a tiny animal germ when they loo# through the microscope, but they #now very little about what lies before them. It is realized that the teeth are necessary for eating8 that is the most stri#ing thing about them. It is #nown that they are necessary for speech, that sounds are connected with them, that the air flows in a particular way from the lungs and the laryn+ through the lips and palate, and that certain consonants have to be formed by the teeth. It is #nown, therefore, that the teeth serve a useful purpose in eating and spea#ing. %ow a truly spiritual understanding of the human being shows us something else as well. If you are able to study man in the way I described in the first lecture, it will dawn on you that the child develops teeth not only for the sa#e of eating and spea#ing, but for @uite a different purpose as well. Strange as it sounds to:day, the child develops teeth for the purpose of thin#ing. 0odern science little #nows that the teeth are the most important of all organs of thought. /or the child, up to the time of the second dentition, these teeth constitute the organ of thought. -s thin#ing arises spontaneously in the child in its interplay with its environment, as the life of thought rises from the dim sleeping and dreaming life of very early childhood, this whole process is bound up with what is happening in the head where the teeth are pressing through8 it is bound up with the forces that are pressing outwards from the head. The forces that press the teeth out from the 9aw are the same forces that now bring thought to the surface from the dim, sleeping and dreaming life of childhood. With the same degree of intensity as it teethes, the child learns to thin#. %ow how does the child learn to thin#L It learns to thin# because it is an imitative being and as such is wholly given up to its environment. $ight into its innermost being it imitates what is going on in its environment and what happens in
!age A? of ?

this environment under the impulses of thoughts. In e+actly the same measure as thought then springs up in the child, in e+actly the same measure do the teeth emerge. In effect, the force that appears in the soul as thin#ing lies within these teeth. ,et us now follow the further development of the child. -t about the seventh year, the child undergoes the change of teeth. Ce gets his second teeth. I have already said that the force which produces the first and second teeth has been present in the whole organism of the child 4 only it shows itself in the strongest form in the head. The second teeth only come once. The forces which drive the second teeth out from the organism of the child do not wor# again as physical forces in the course of earthly life up till death. They become powers of the soul, powers of the spirit8 they vivify the inner being of the human soul. Thus, when we observe the child between the seventh and fourteenth years of life, with particular regard to his characteristic @ualities of soul, we find that what now appears between the seventh and fourteenth years as @ualities of soul, namely in the child5s thin#ing, wor#ed up to the seventh year upon the organs. It wor#ed in the physical organism, forced out the teeth, reached its culmination as physical force with the change of teeth and then changed itself into an activity of soul. These things can, of course, only be truly observed when one presses forward to the mode of cognition which I described in a previous lecture as the first stage of e+act clairvoyance, as Imaginative ;nowledge. The abstract intellectual #nowledge of the human being that is common to:day does not lead to this other #ind of #nowledge. Thought must vivify itself from within so that it becomes imaginative. %othing whatever can really be grasped by intellectualistic thin#ing8 with it everything remains e+ternal. 2ne loo#s at things and forms mental images of what one sees. Dut thin#ing can be inwardly re:enforced, it can be made active. Then one no longer has abstract intellectualistic thoughts but imaginative pictures which now fill the soul in place of the intellectual thoughts. -t the first stage of e+act clairvoyance, as I have described it, one can perceive indeed how, besides the forces of the physical body, there is wor#ing in man a supersensible body, if you will forgive the parado+ical e+pression. 2ne becomes aware of the supersensible in man, and one of its characteristics in comparison with the physical is that it cannot be weighed. This supersensible body I call the etheric body, which strives away from the earth out into cosmic spaces. It contains the forces that are opposed to gravity and strives perpetually against gravity. Hust as ordinary physical #nowledge teaches us of the physical body of man, so does Imaginative ;nowledge, the first stage of e+act clairvoyance, teach us of the etheric body that is always striving to get away from earthly gravity. -nd 9ust as we gradually learn to relate the physical body to its environment, so do we also learn to relate the etheric body to its environment. In studying the physical body of man, we loo# outside in %ature, in material %ature, for the substances of which it is composed. We realize that everything in man which is sub9ect to gravity, his heaviness, his weight, all this has weight in outer %ature as well. It enters into man through the assimilation of nourishment. In this way we obtain, as it were, a natural conception of the human organism in so far as the organism is physical. Similarly, through Imaginative ;nowledge we obtain a conception of the relationship of the individual etheric body or body of formative forces in man to the surrounding world. That which in Spring drives the plants out of the soil against gravity in all directions towards the 'osmos8 that which organizes the plants, brings them into relation with the upward:flowing stream of light, with that part of the chemistry of the plant, in short, which wor#s upwards, all this must be related to the etheric body of man, 9ust as salt, cabbage, turnip and meat are related to the physical body. Thus in the first stage of e+act clairvoyance, this rich, comprehensive, unified thought is able to approach the etheric body or body of formative forces of man, this Esecond 0an,F as it were. <p to the change of teeth, this body of formative forces is most intimately bound up with the physical body. There from within, it organizes the physical body8 it is the force which drives out the teeth. When the human being gets his second teeth, the part of the etheric body that drives the teeth out has no more to do for the physical body. Its activity is emancipated, as it were, from the physical body. With the change of teeth the inner etheric forces which have pressed the teeth out, are freed and with these etheric forces we carry on the free thought that begins to assert itself in the child from the seventh year onwards. The force of the teeth is no longer a physical force as it was in the child during the time when the teeth are the organs of thought8 it is now an etheric force. Dut the same force which produced the teeth is now wor#ing in the etheric body as thought. When we perceive ourselves as thin#ing human beings and feel that thin#ing seems to proceed from the head =many people only have this e+perience when thin#ing has brought on a headache>, a true #nowledge shows us that the force with which we thin# from out of the head is the same as the force which was once contained in the teeth. Thus our #nowledge brings us near to the unity of the being of man. We learn once again how the physical is connected with what is of the soul. We #now that the child first thin#s with the forces of the teeth and this is why teething troubles are so inwardly bound up with the whole life of the child. Thin# of all that happens when the child is teething. -ll these teething troubles arise because the process of teething is so intimately connected with the innermost life, with the innermost spirituality of the child. The growth:forces of the teeth are freed and become the forces of thought in the
!age AK of ?

human being, the free, independent force of thought. If we have the necessary gift of observation, we can see this process of becoming independent8 we see how with the change of teeth, thin#ing emancipates itself from bondage to the body. -nd what happens nowL In the first place the teeth become the helpers of that which permeates thought, speech. The teeth, which had, at first, the independent tas# of growing in accordance with the forces of thought, are now pressed down one stage, as it were. Thin#ing, which now no longer ta#es place in the physical body but in the etheric body, descends one stage. This already happens during the first seven years, for the whole process goes on successively, merely reaching its culmination with the coming of the second teeth. Dut then, when thought see#s e+pression in speech, the teeth become the helpers of thought. -nd so, we loo# at the human being8 we see his head8 in the head the growth:forces of the teeth free themselves and become the force of thin#ing. Then, pressed down, as it were, into speech, we have all the processes for which the teeth are no longer directly responsible, because the etheric body now ta#es over the responsibility. The teeth become the helpers of speech. In this, their relationship with thought is still apparent. When we understand how the dental sounds find their way into the whole process of thin#ing, how man ta#es the teeth to his aid when through sounds li#e d or t, he brings the definite thought:element into speech, we again see in the dental sounds, the particular tas# performed by the teeth. I have shown you by this e+ample of the teeth 4 which may perhaps seem very grotes@ue 4 how we come to understand the human being from out of the spirit. If we proceed in this way, thin#ing gradually ceases to be an abstract drifting in associated ideas, but connects itself with man, it goes into the man. Then we no longer see merely physical functions in the human being, such as biting by the teeth or at most movement in the dental sounds of speech, but the teeth become for us an outer picture, a %ature Imagination of the process of thin#ing. Thin#ing points to the teeth and says to us, as it were: There in the teeth is my outer countenance. When we really come to understand the teeth, thought that is otherwise abstract and nebulous assumes definite picture:form. We see how thought is wor#ing in the head at the place where the teeth lie and how thought develops from the first to the second teeth, The whole process again ta#es on definite form. - real image of the spirit begins to arise in %ature herself. The spirit is once again creative. We need something more than modern anthropology, for modern anthropology studies the human being in a wholly e+ternal way, and associates the elements of his being 9ust as the different properties of ideas are associated. What we need is a #ind of thin#ing that is not afraid to press onwards to the inner being of man nor to spea# of how the spirit becomes teeth and wor#s in the teeth. This indeed is what we need, for then we penetrate into the being of man from the spirit. -nd then the element of art arises. The abstract, theoretical and unpractical mode of observation, which merely evolves a human being with a s#eleton:li#e thin#ing must be led over into imaginative thought. Theoretical observation passes over into artistic feeling and becomes artistic, creative power. To see the spirit actively at wor# within one must, to begin with, mould the teeth. The element of art, then, begins to be the guide to the first stage of e+act clairvoyance 4 that of Imaginative ;nowledge. Cere we begin to understand man in his real being. 0an is only an abstraction in our thin#ing to:day. %ow in education, the being with whom we find ourselves confronted is the real man. Ce stands there, but there is an abyss between us. We stand here with our abstract spirit, and we must cross this abyss. We must before all else show how we can cross it. -ll we #now of man to:day is how to put a cap on his head. We do not #now how to put the spirit into his whole being, and this we must learn to do. We must learn how to clothe the human being inwardly, spiritually, 9ust as we have learned how to clothe him e+ternally, so that the spirit is treated 9ust as the outer vesture is treated. When we approach the human being in this way, we shall attain to a living !edagogy and a living &idactic. J J J Hust as the period of life at about the seventh year is significant in earthly e+istence on account of all the facts which I have described, so, similarly, is there a point in the earthly life of man which on account of the symptoms which then arise in life, is no less significant. The actual points of time are, of course, appro+imate occurring in the case of some human beings earlier in others later. The indication of seven:yearly periods is appro+imate. Dut round about the fourteenth or fifteenth year, there is once more a time of e+traordinary importance in earthly e+istence. This is the age when puberty is reached. Dut puberty, the e+pression of the life of se+ is only the most e+ternal symptom of a complete transformation that ta#es place in the being of man between the seventh and fourteenth years. Hust as we must see# in the growth:forces of the teeth, in the human head, for the physical origin of thought that frees itself about the seventh year of life and becomes a function of soul, so we must loo# for the activity of the second soul:force, namely feeling, in other parts of the human organism. /eeling releases itself much later than thin#ing from the physical constitution of the human being. -nd during the time of tutelage from the seventh to the fourteenth year, the child5s feeling:life is really still inwardly bound up with its physical body. Thin#ing is already free8 feeling is, between the seventh and fourteenth years, still bound up with the body.
!age AM of ?

-ll the feelings of 9oy, of sorrow and of pain that e+press themselves in the child still have a strong physical connection with the secretions of the organs, the acceleration or retardation, speed or slac#ening of the breathing system and so on. If our perception is #een enough, we can observe in these very phenomena the great transformation that is ta#ing place in the life of feeling, when the outer symptoms of the change ma#e their appearance. Hust as the appearance of the second teeth denotes a certain clima+ of growth, so at the close of the subse@uent life:period, when feeling is gradually released from its connection with the body and becomes a soul function, these processes are e+pressed in speech. This may be observed most clearly in boys. The voice changes8 the laryn+ reveals the change. The head, therefore, reveals the change which lifts thin#ing out of the physical organism, and the breathing system, the seat of the organic rhythmic activity, e+presses the emancipation of feeling. /eeling detaches itself from the bodily constitution and becomes an independent function of soul. We #now how this e+presses itself in the boy. The laryn+ changes and the voice gets deeper. In the girl different phenomena appear in bodily growth and development8 but this is only the e+ternal aspect. -nyone who has reached the stage of e+act, imaginative clairvoyance, #nows, for he perceives it, that the male physical body transforms the laryn+ at about the fourteenth year of life. The same thing happens in the female se+ to the etheric body, or body of formative forces. The change occurs in the etheric body and the etheric body of the female ta#es on, as etheric body, a form e+actly resembling the physical body of the male. -gain, the etheric body of the male at the fourteenth year ta#es on a form resembling the physical body of the female. Cowever e+traordinary it may appear to a mode of #nowledge that clings to the physical, it is nevertheless the case that at this all:important point of life, the male bears within him the etheric female and female the etheric male from the fourteenth year onwards. This is e+pressed differently through the corresponding symptoms in the male and female. %ow if one reaches the second stage of e+act clairvoyance =it is described in greater detail in my boo#s>, if beyond Imagination, one attains to Inspiration 4 the actual perception of the purely spiritual that is no longer bound up with the physical body of man 4 then one becomes aware of how in actual fact at this important time round about the fourteenth and fifteenth years a third human member develops into a state of independence. In my boo#s I have called this third member the astral body according to an older tradition. This astral body is more essentially of the nature of soul than the etheric body8 indeed the astral body is already of the soul and spirit. It is the third member of man and constitutes his second supersensible being. <p to the fourteenth or fifteenth years, this astral body wor#s through the physical organism and, at the fourteenth or fifteenth year, becomes independent. Thus there devolves upon the teacher a most significant tas#, namely to help the development to independence of this being of soul and spirit which lies hidden in the depths of the organism up to the seventh or eight years and then gradually frees itself. It is this gradual process of detachment that we must assist, if we have the child to teach between the ages of seven and fourteen. -nd then, if we have ac@uired the #ind of #nowledge of which I have spo#en, we notice how the child5s speech becomes @uite a different thing. The crude science of to:day 4 if I may call it so 4 concerns itself merely with the obvious soul @ualities of the human being and spea#s of the other phenomena as secondary se+ual characteristics. To spiritual observation, however, the secondary phenomena are primary and vice versa. This metamorphosis, the whole way in which feeling withdraws itself from the organs of speech, is of e+traordinary significance. -nd as teachers and educationalists it is our tas#, a tas# that really inspires one5s innermost being, gradually to release speech from the bodily constitution. Cow wonderful in a child of seven are the natural, spontaneous movements of the lips which come from organic activity. When the seven:year:old child utters the labial sounds, it is @uite different from the way in which the child of fourteen or fifteen utters them. When the seven:year:old child utters the labial sounds, it is an organic activity8 the circulation of the blood and of the fluids into the lips is entirely involuntary. When the child reaches his twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth years, this organic activity is transferred into the organism proper and the soul activity of feeling has to emerge and to move the lips voluntarily, in order that the element of feeling in speech may come to e+pression. Hust as the thought:element in speech, the hard thought:element is manifested in the teeth, so is the soft, loving element of feeling manifested in the lips. -nd it is the labial sounds which impart warmth and loving sympathy to speech, sympathy with another being and the conveying of it. This marvellous transition from an organic functioning of the lips to a functioning conditioned by the soul, this development of the lips in the organic soul nature of the human being is a thing in which the teacher can ta#e part and thereby a most wonderful atmosphere can be brought into the school. /or 9ust as we see the supersensible, etheric element that permeates the body emerging at the seventh year of life as independent thin#ing:power, so do we see the element of soul and spirit emerging at the age of fourteen or fifteen. -s teachers we help to bring the soul and spirit to birth. What Socrates meant is seen at a higher level. In the following lectures I shall e+plain the new elements that appear in wal#ing, in movement, even when the human being is twenty or twenty:one years old in the third period of life. It is enough to:day to have shown how thin#ing
!age AN of ?

emancipates itself from organic activity and how feeling goes on emancipating itself from organic activity until the fourteenth or fifteenth year8 to have shown how this gives us insight into man5s development and how an otherwise merely abstract mode of thin#ing becomes a picture, an Eimagination8F to have shown also how that which finds e+pression in human speech, in words, actually appears in its true form as soul and spirit when the human being reaches his fourteenth or fifteenth year. Cence it can be said that if we would reach the human being from the standpoint of living thought, we must soar into the realm of art. If we would bring the living spirit, the spiritual essence of feeling to the human being, we must not merely set about this with an artistic sense as in the former case, but also with a religious sense. /or the religious sense alone can penetrate to the reality of the spirit. 1ducation between the seventh and fourteenth years, therefore, can only be carried on in the truly human sense when it is carried on in an atmosphere of religion, when it becomes almost a sacramental office, not of course in a sentimental, but in a truly human sense. -nd so we see what happens when a man brings life and soul to his otherwise abstract thin#ing, thin#ing that merely arises from the association of ideas. Ce finds the way to an artistic apprehension of man8 to an apprehension of man within the religious life. -rt and religion are thus united in education. ,ight is thrown not only on the @uestion of the pupil, but on that of the teacher as well when we realize that pedagogy should become so practical, so clear and so living a #nowledge that the teacher can only be a true educator of youth when he is able inwardly to become a thoroughly religious man. ,1'T<$1 G TC1 10-%'I!-TI2% 2/ TC1 WI,, I% TC1 C<0-% 2$"-%IS0 th August, 1 A*. In yesterday5s lecture I tried to show how thin#ing and feeling become independent at about the seventh and fourteenth years of life respectively and release themselves from the bodily constitution of the human being. To:day I want to show how the will in the being of man gradually presses on to its independence during the process of growth. The human will really remains bound up with the organism longest of all. <ntil about the twentieth or twenty:first year of life, the will is very largely dependent on organic activity. This organic activity is generated in particular by the way in which the breathing is carried over into the blood circulation, which then in its turn, by the inner fire or warmth thus engendered in the organism, ta#es hold of the functions of movement. It lays hold of the force arising in legs, feet, arms and hands when man 'o!es and transforms it into a manifestation of the will. It may be said that everything of the nature of will in the child, even including 6children7 between the ages of fifteen and twenty:one, is dependent upon the manner in which the forces of the organism play over into movement. The teacher especially must cherish the power for unpre9udiced observation of such things. Ce must be able to notice that a child has a strong will or the predisposition to a strong will if, when he wal#s, he places the bac# of his foot, his heel, firmly on the ground and that he is endowed with a less energetic will if he uses the front part of his foot and has a tripping gait. -ll this however, the way in which the legs move, the capacity to prolong the movement of arms into de+terity of the fingers, all this is still an outer, physical manifestation of the will in the boy or girl, even after the fifteenth year. 2nly at about the twentieth year does the will release itself from the organism in the same way as feeling releases itself at about the fourteenth year and thin#ing at about the seventh year at the change of teeth. The e+ternal processes that are revealed by the freed thin#ing, however, are very stri#ing and can readily be perceived: the change of teeth is a remar#able phenomenon in human life. The emancipation of feeling is less so8 it e+presses itself in the ad9ustment of the so:called secondary se+ual organs 4 their development in the case of the boy, the corresponding transformation in the girl 4 the change of voice in the boy and the change of the inner life habits of the girl, and so forth. Cere, the e+ternal symptoms of the metamorphosis in the human being are less stri#ing. /eeling, therefore, becomes independent of the physical constitution in a more inner sense. The outer symptoms of the emancipation of the will at about the twentieth or twenty:first year are still less apparent and are therefore practically unnoticed by an age li#e ours, which lives in e+ternalities. In our time, in their own opinion, human beings are 6grown:up7 when they have reached the age of fourteen or fifteen. 2ur young people do not recognise that between the fifteenth and twenty:first years they should be ac@uiring not only outer #nowledge but inner character and, above all, will power. 1ven before the age of twenty:one they set up as reformers, as teachers, and instead of applying themselves to what they can learn from their elders, they begin to write pamphlets and things of that #ind. This is @uite understandable in an age that is directed to the e+ternalities of life. The decisive change that ta#es place at about
!age A of ?

the twentieth or twenty:first year is hidden from such an age because it is wholly of an inner #ind. Dut there is such a change and it may be described in the following way. <p to his twenty:first year of life, appro+imately of course, man is not a self:contained personality8 he is strongly sub9ect to earthly gravity, to the earth5s force of attraction. Ce struggles with earthly gravity until about the twenty:first year. -nd in this connection, e+ternal science will ma#e many discoveries that are already #nown to the 6e+act clairvoyance7 of which I spo#e yesterday. In our blood, in the blood corpuscles, we have iron. <ntil about the twenty:first year, the nature of these blood corpuscles is such that their gravity preponderates. /rom the twenty:first year onwards, the being of man receives an upward impulse from below8 an upward impulse is given to all his blood. /rom the twenty:first year he sets the sole of his foot on the earth otherwise than he did before. This, indeed, is not #nown to:day but it is a fact of fundamental importance for the understanding of the human being in so far as this understanding has to be revealed in education. /rom the twenty: first year onwards, with every tread of the foot there wor#s through the human organism from below upwards, a force which did not wor# before. 0an becomes a being complete in himself, one who has paralysed the downward:wor#ing forces by forces which wor# from below upwards, whereas before this age all the force of his growth and development flowed downwards from the head. This downward stream of forces is strongest of all in the little child up to the seventh year of life. The whole process of bodily organization during this period has its start in the head:organism. <p to the seventh year the head does everything and only when thin#ing is set free with the change of teeth, does the head also release itself from this strong downward streaming force. - great deal is #nown to:day about positive and negative magnetism: a great deal is #nown about positive and negative electricity, but very little indeed is #nown about what is going on in man himself. The fact that the forces streaming from the head to the feet and from the feet to the head are only organized in the course of the first two decades of life, is an anthroposophical truth of great significance, fundamentally significant, indeed, for the whole of education. It is a truth of which people to:day are wholly unconscious. -nd yet all education is really based on this @uestion. /or why do we educateL That is the great @uestion. Standing as we do within the human and not in the animal #ingdom, we have to as# ourselves: Why do we educateL Why is it that the animals grow up and carry out the functions of their lives without educationL Why is it that the human being cannot ac@uire what he needs in life merely through observation and imitationL Why has a teacher to intervene in the child5s freedomL This is a @uestion that is practically never raised because these things are ta#en as a matter of course. Dut one can only become a true teacher when one ceases to ta#e this @uestion as a matter of course, when one realises that it is an interference with the child to stand in front of him and want to educate him. Why should the child put up with itL We regard it as our obvious business to educate our children 4 but not their subconscious life. -nd so we tal# a great deal about the children5s naughtiness and it never occurs to us that in their subconscious life 4 not in their clear consciousness 4 we must appear very comic to the children when we teach them something from outside. They are @uite 9ustified in their immediate feeling of antipathy. -nd the great @uestion for education is this: Cow can we change what at the outset is bound to be unsympathetic to children into something sympatheticL %ow the opportunity to do this is given between the seventh and fourteenth years. /or at the seventh year, the head, which is the bearer of thin#ing, becomes independent. It no longer generates the downward:flowing forces so strongly as it did in the child up to the seventh year. It settles down, as it were, and loo#s after its own affairs. %ow only when the fourteenth or fifteenth year has been reached do the organs of movement assume a personal nature of will. The will now becomes independent in the organs of movement. The forces flowing from below upwards, forces which have to become those of will, begin to wor# for the first time. /or all will wor#s from below upwards8 all thought from above downwards. The direction of thought is from heaven to earth8 the direction of will from earth to heaven. These two functions are not bound up with each other, not enclosed one within the other, between the seventh and fourteenth years. In the middle system of man, where breathing and circulation live and whence they originate, there lives also the feeling:nature of man which frees itself during this period. If we rightly develop the feeling:nature between the seventh and fourteenth years we set up a true relationship between the downward:flowing and the upward:flowing forces. It comes to no less than this, that between the child5s seventh and fourteenth years, we have to bring his thin#ing into a right relationship with his will, with his willing. -nd in this it is possible to fail. It is on this account that we have to educate the human being, for in the animal this interplay of thin#ing and willing 4 in so far as the animal has dreamli#e thought and will 4 comes about of itself. In the human being, the interplay of thought and will does not come about of itself. In the animal, the process is natural8 in the human being it must become a 'oral process. -nd because here on earth man has the opportunity of bringing about this union of his thin#ing with his willing, therefore it is that he can become a moral being. The whole character of man, in so far as it proceeds from the inner being, depends upon the true harmony being established by human activity between thin#ing and willing. The "ree#s brought about this harmonization of thin#ing and willing by again calling into play in their gymnastics the stream of forces flowing from the head into the
!age *O of ?

limbs which is there naturally in the earliest years of life and allowing the arms and legs so to move in dancing and wrestling that the head:activity was poured into the limbs. %ow we cannot return to "ree# culture nor have that civilization over again. We must ta#e our start from the spirit. -nd so we must understand how in the twenty:first year, the will of man is freed as a result of the inner processes in the organs of movement which have been described, 9ust as feeling was freed at the fourteenth year and thin#ing at the seventh year. 0odern civilization is not awa#e to this. It has slept away its insight into the fact that education must consist in bringing the will, which appears in full freedom as a @uality of soul about the twentieth year, into union with the thin#ing that is already released at the seventh year. We only ac@uire true reverence for the development of the human being when we bring the spirit into contact with the bodily nature of man, as we showed yesterday with regard to thin#ing and feeling and as we have 9ust tried to show with regard to the will. We must see the will at wor# in the organs of movement, in the @uite distinctive movement of fingers and arms, in the individuality of the tread of the feet when the twentieth or twenty: first year is reached. !reparation for this has, however, been going on since the fifteenth year. If we can thus get bac# the spirit that is no more a mere association of ideas, a s#eleton spirit, but a li!ing spirit which can now even perceive how a man wal#s, how he moves his fingers, then we have again come bac# to the human being and we can educate once more. The "ree#s still had this power of perception instinctively. It was gradually lost but only very slowly. It continued as a tradition down to the si+teenth century, and the most conspicuous thing about the si+teenth century is that civilized humanity as a whole loses an understanding of the relation between thin#ing and willing. Since the si+teenth century people have begun to reflect about education and yet have no regard for the weightiest problems of the understanding of man. They do not understand man and they want to educate him. This is the tragedy that has e+isted since the si+teenth century and has continued up to our present age. !eople feel and realize nowadays that alteration must be made in education. 2n all sides educational unions and leagues for educational reform are springing up. !eople feel that education needs something but they do not approach the fundamental problem, which is this: Cow can one harmonize thin#ing and willing in the human beingL -t most they say: 6There is too much intellectualism8 we must educate less intellectually, we must educate the will.7 %ow the will must not be educated for its own sa#e. -ll tal# as to which is best, the education of thought or the education of will, is amateurish. This @uestion alone is really practical and pertinent to the nature of man: Cow can we set up a true harmony between the thin#ing that is freeing itself in the head and the will that is becoming free in the limbsL If we would be educators in the true sense, we must have neither a one:sided regard to thin#ing nor a one:sided regard to willing, but we must envisage the whole being, in all its aspects. This we cannot do with the associated ideas to which we are accustomed when we spea# of spirit to:day: it is only possible to do so when we regard the thin#ing which dominates the present age as the corpse of a living thin#ing and when we understand that we must wor# our way through to this living thin#ing by self: development. In this connection let me here place fran#ly before you one fundamental principle of all educational reform. I must as# your forbearance if I state this truth @uite fran#ly, because to utter it seems almost li#e an insult to modern humanity and one is always reluctant to be insulting. It is a peculiarity of present:day civilization that people #now that education must be different. Cence the innumerable unions for educational reform. !eople #now @uite well that education is not right and that it ought to be changed8 but they are 9ust as firmly convinced that they #now very well indeed what education ought to be, that each one in his union can say how one ought to educate. Dut they should consider this: If education is so bad that it must be fundamentally reformed, they themselves have suffered from it and this bad education has not necessarily made them capable of #nowing that they and their contemporaries have been badly educated but they e@ually assume that they #now perfectly well what really good education ought to be. -nd so the educational unions spring up li#e so many mushrooms. The Waldorf School method did not ta#e its start from this principle but from the principle that men do not yet #now what education ought to be and that first of all one must ac@uire a fundamental #nowledge of the human being. Therefore the first seminary course for the Waldorf School contained fundamental teaching concerning the being and nature of man, in order that the teachers might gradually learn what they could not yet #now 4 namely, how children ought to be educated. /or it is only possible to #now how to educate when one understands the real being of man. The first thing that was imparted to the teachers of the Waldorf School in the seminary course was a fundamental #nowledge of man. Thus it was hoped that from an understanding of the true nature of man they would gain inner enthusiasm and love for education. /or when one understands the human being the very best thing for the practice of education must spring forth from this #nowledge. !edagogy is love for man resulting from #nowledge of man8 at all events it is only on this foundation that it can be built up.

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%ow to one who observes human life as e+pressed in present:day civilization in an e+ternal way, all the educational unions will be an outer sign that people #now a great deal nowadays about how children ought to be educated. To one who has a deeper perception of human life, it is not so. The "ree#s educated by instinct8 they did not tal# very much about education. !lato was the first who spo#e a little, not very much, about education from the standpoint of a #ind of philosophical 'is:education. It was not until the si+teenth century that people began to tal# a great deal about education. -s a matter of fact people spea# as a rule very little of what they can do and much more of what they cannot. To one possessed of a deeper #nowledge of human nature, a great deal of tal# about any sub9ect is not a sign that it is understood8 on the contrary, human life reveals to him that when in any age there is a tendency to discuss some sub9ect very much, this is a sign that very little is #nown about it. -nd so for one who can truly see into modern civilization, the emergence of the problem of education lies in the fact that no longer is it #nown how the development of man ta#es place. In ma#ing a statement li#e this one must of course as# pardon, and this I do, with all due respect. Truth, however, cannot be concealed8 it must be stated. The following is interpolated from a source that the 1ditor cannot trace. It is not in his original "erman te+t. 4 1d.: 4
If the Waldorf School method achieves something, it will achieve it by substituting for ignorance of the human being, #nowledge of the human being, by substituting for mere e+ternal anthropological tal# about man, a true anthroposophical insight into his inner nature. -nd this is the bringing of the living spirit right down into the bodily constitution, the bodily functions. Some time in the future it will be 9ust natural to spea# of the human being with #nowledge as it is mostly natural nowadays to spea# with ignorance. Some day it will be #nown, even in general civilization, how thin#ing is connected with the force which enables the teeth to grow. Some day people will be able to observe how the inner force of feeling is connected with that which comes from the chest organs and is e+pressed in the movement of the lips. The change in the lip movements and the control of them by feeling which sets in between the seventh and fourteenth years will be an outer significant sign of an inner development of the human being. It will be observed how the consolidation of the forces flowing from below upwards, which occurs in the human being between the ages of fourteen and twenty:one, ta#es place and is chec#ed in the human head itself. Hust as the @uality of thought is made manifest in the teeth and that which comes from feeling in the lips, so a true #nowledge of man will see in the highly significant organism of the palate which bounds the cavity of the mouth at the bac#, the way in which the upward:flowing forces wor# and, arrested by the gums, pass over into speech. If at some future time people do not only loo# through the microscope or the telescope when they want to see the most minute or the greatest, but observe all that confronts them outwardly in the world 4 and this they do not see to:day, in spite of microscope and telescope 4 then they will perceive how thin#ing lives in the labial sounds, willing in the palatal sounds which particularly influence the tongue, and how through the labial and palatal sounds, speech, li#e every other function, becomes an e+pression of the whole human being. -ttempts are made to:day to EreadF the lines of the hand and other e+ternal phenomena of this #ind. !eople try to understand human nature from symptoms. These things can only be rightly understood when it is realized that one must see# for the whole human being in what he e+presses8 when people perceive how speech, which ma#es man as an individual being into a social being, is in its inner movement and configuration a reflection of the whole man. &ental sounds, labial sounds, palatal sounds do not e+ist in speech by accident8 they are there because in the dental sounds the head, in the labial sounds the breast system, in the palatal sounds the rest of the being of man wins its way into speech. 2ur civilization must therefore learn to spea# about the revelation of the whole human being and then the spirit will be brought to the whole man. Then the way will be found from the spirit of man into the most intimate e+pressions of his being, namely of his 'oral life. -nd out of this there will proceed the inner impulse for an education such as we need.

J J J The most significant document that can reveal to us how different must be our conception of the world and its civilization from that of olden times, is the "ospel of St. Hohn 4 the deepest and most beautiful document of "ree# culture. This marvellous "ospel shows, even in the first line, that we must rise to ideas of @uite a different nature, to li!ing ideas, if we would learn from ancient times something for our present age. In the "ospel of St. Hohn, "ree# thought and feeling were the vesture for the newly arising 'hristianity. The first line runs: EIn the beginning was the W2$&F 4 in "ree# ,2"2S. Dut in the ordinary recital of EwordF there remains nothing of what the writer of the "ospel of St. Hohn felt when he wrote EIn the beginning was the W2$&.F The feeble, insignificant meaning we have when we e+press EwordF was certainly not in the mind of the writer of his "ospel when he wrote the line. Ce would mean something @uite different. With us, the EwordF is a feeble e+pression of abstract thoughts8 to the "ree#s it was still a call to the human will. When a syllable was uttered, the body of a "ree# would tingle to e+press this syllable even through his whole being. The "ree# still #new that one does not only e+press oneself by saying EIt is all one to me.F Ce #new how, when he heard the phrase EIt is all one to me,F he tingled to ma#e those corresponding movements =shrugging the shoulders>. The word did not only live in the organs of speech but in the whole of man5s organism of movement. Dut humanity has forgotten these things.
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If you want to realize how the word 4 the word that in ancient "reece still summoned forth a gesture 4 how the word can live through the whole being of man, you should go to the demonstration of 1urhythmy ne+t wee#. It is only a beginning, 9ust a modest beginning, this effort to bring will once again into the word8 to show people, at any rate on the stage if not in ordinary life, that the word does actually live in the movement of their limbs. -nd when we introduce 1urhythmy into our schools, it is a humble beginning, and must still be regarded as such to:day, to ma#e the word once more a principle of movement in the whole of life. In "reece there was @uite a different feeling, one that came over from the 1ast. 0an was urged to let the will reveal itself through the limbs, with every syllable, with every word, every phrase, with the rhythm and measure of every phrase. Ce realized how the word could become creative in every movement. Dut in those days he #new still more. Words were to him e+pressions for the forces of cloud formations, the forces lying in the growth of plants and all natural phenomena. The word rumbled in the rumbling waves, wor#ed in the whistling wind. Hust as the word lives in my breath so that I ma#e a corresponding movement, so did the "ree# find all that was living in the word, in the raging wind, in the surging wave, even in the rumbling earth@ua#e. It was the word that pealed forth from the earth. The paltry ideas which arise in us when we say EwordF would be very much out of place if one were to transfer them to the primal beginning of the world. I wonder what would have happened if these words and ideas 4 these feeble ideas of the EwordF 4 had been there at the beginning of the world and were supposed to be creativeL 2ur present:day intellectualistic word has, to be sure, little in it that is creative. Thus above all, we must rise to what the "ree# perceived as a revelation of the whole human being, a call to the will, when he spo#e of the W2$&, ,2"2S. /or he felt the ,ogos throb and pulse with life through the whole 'osmos. -nd then he felt what really resounds in the line: EIn the beginning was the W2$&. ...F In all that was con9ured up in these words there lived the living creative force not only within man but in wind and wave, cloud, sunshine and starlight. 1verywhere the world and the 'osmos were a revelation of the W2$&. "ree# gymnastic was a revelation of the W2$&. -nd in its wea#er division, in musical education, there was a shadowy image of all that was felt in the W2$&. The W2$& wor#ed in "ree# wrestling. The shadowy image of the W2$& in music wor#ed in the "ree# dances. The spirit wor#ed into the nature of man even though it was a bodily, gymnastic education that was given. We must realize how feeble our ideas have become in modern civilization and rightly perceive how the mighty impulse pulsating through such a line as EIn the beginning was the W2$&F was wea#ened when it passed over into $oman culture, becoming more and more shadowy, until all we now feel is an inner lassitude when we spea# of it. In olden times, all wisdom, all science was a paraphrase of the sentence EIn the beginning was the W2$&.F -t first, the W2$&, ,2"2S, lived in the ideas that arose in man when he spo#e these words, but this life grew feebler and feebler. -nd then came the 0iddle -ges and the ,2"2S died. 2nly the dead ,2"2S could come forth from man. -nd those who were educated were not only educated by having the dead ,2"2S communicated to them, but also the dead word 4 the ,atin tongue in its decay. The dying word of speech became the chief medium of education up to the time of the si+teenth century, when there arose a certain inner revolt against it. What then does civilization signify up to the si+teenth centuryL It signifies the death of human feeling for the living ,2"2S of the "ospel of St. Hohn. -nd the dependence on dead speech is an outer manifestation of this death of the ,2"2S. If one wants briefly to characterize the course of civilization in so far as it fundamentally affects the impulses of education, one really should say: -ll that humanity has lost is e+pressed above all in the fact that understanding of what lives in the "ospel of St. Hohn has disappeared step by step. The course of civilization through the 0iddle -ges up to the si+teenth century in its gradual loss of understanding of such writing as the "ospel of St. Hohn fully e+plains the failure of present:day humanity to grasp its significance. Cence the clamour for educational reform. The @uestion of education in our age will only assume its right bearing when people, see#ing to understand the "ospel of St. Hohn, realize the barrenness of the human heart and compare this with the intense devotion arising within man in times when he believed himself to be transported from his own being out into all the creative forces of the universe as he allowed the true content of this first sentence of the "ospel to ring within him 4 7In the beginning was the Word.7 We must realize that the cry of the si+teenth and seventeenth centuries for a different #ind of education arose because the most devout people of that time, those who felt most deeply the need for a renewal of education, also sensed the loss of the inner elementary life:force which enables man to have also a living understanding of the spirit. /or it is the spirit to which the "ospel of St. Hohn refers when it spea#s of the ,ogos. We have reached a point where we do indeed long for the spirit but our speech is composed of mere words. -nd in the words we have lost the spirit that still e+isted for the "ree#s inasmuch as then the whole human being in his activity
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in the world rose up into the EwordF when it was uttered8 man indeed ascended to cosmic activity when, in the world: creative EwordsF he e+pressed the idea of the &ivinity, which lies at the foundation of the universe. -nd this must become living in us too if we would be men in the full sense. -nd the teacher must be a EwholeF man, for otherwise he can only educate half men and @uarter men. The teacher must again have an understanding of the Eword.F J J J If we would bring before our souls this mystery of the W2$&, the W2$& in its fullness, as it wor#ed and was understood in the age when the full significance of the "ospel according to St. Hohn was still felt, let us say to ourselves: In the old consciousness of man, spirit was present in the W2$& 4 even in the feeble EwordF that was used in speech. Spirit poured into the EwordF and was the power within it. I am not criticizing any epoch, nor do I say that one epoch is of less value than another. I merely want to describe how the different epochs follow one another, each having its special value.Dut some epochs have to be characterized more by negative, some more by positive characteristics. ,et us picture to ourselves the dimness, the dar#ness, that gradually crept over the living impulse in the EwordF when the sentence 6In the beginning was the W2$&7 was spo#en. ,et us now consider civilized man#ind in the si+teenth or seventeenth centuries and how it had to prepare for a growth of the inner impulse of freedom. 3ou see one has also to value elements that were not present in certain periods. 'onsider, then, that humanity had to win its freedom with full consciousness and this would not have been possible if the spirit had still poured into and inspired the W2$& as in earlier times. Then we shall understand how education in its old form became an impossibility as soon as /rancis Dacon, in the si+teenth and seventeenth centuries, came forward with a significant statement which, when we face it honestly, implies an annihilation of what is contained in the phrase 6In the beginning was the W2$&.7 Defore this time there was always a shadow of the spirit in the W2$&, in the ,2"2S. Dacon as#s man#ind to see in the EwordF only an idol, no longer the spirit but an idol, no longer to hold fast by the EwordF with its own power but to guard against the 6intellectualism7 of the Eword.F /or if one has lost the real content of the EwordF out of which, in earlier times, #nowledge, civilization and power were created 4 one is clinging to an idol 4 so thin#s /rancis Dacon. In the doctrine of idols which appears with Dacon lies the whole 6swing:away7 from the EwordF which too# place during the si+teenth and seventeenth centuries. Whither then does man tendL Towards the things of sense. 0an was taught to hold fast to all that the senses can perceive. Thus there was once an age when man was not only aware of the EwordF in itself but also of the world:creative spirit living in the W2$&, in the ,2"2S. Then came the age when the EwordF became an idol, a misleading thing, an idol that misleads one into intellectualism. 0an was taught to hold fast by the outer, sensible ob9ect lest he fall a prey to the idol in the Eword.F Dacon demands that man shall not now hold fast to that which pours into him from the "ods but to that which lies in the outer world in lifeless ob9ects or at most in e+ternal living ob9ects. 0an is directed away from the EwordF to outer sensible ob9ects. This feeling alone remains in him: he must educate, he must approach human nature itself. The spirit is there within the human being but the EwordF is an idol. Ce can only direct the human being to loo# with his eyes at what is outside man. 1ducation no longer ma#es use of what is truly human but of what is outside the human. -nd now there e+ists the problem of education in the form we have to:day bringing fierce zeal but also fearful tragedy. We see it arising very characteristically in the si+teenth and seventeenth centuries in 0ichel de 0ontaigne, in Hohn ,oc#e and 4 parallel with what was happening here in 1ngland 4 we see it in 'omenius over on the 'ontinent. In these three men, 0ontaigne, ,oc#e, 'omenius, we can see appro+imately how the departure from the ,ogos and the turning towards the things of sense becomes the strongest impulse in civilization. /ear of the idol in the EwordF arose in men. The ,ogos disappears. What is called perception or observation, a function which is @uite 9ustifiable as we shall see in the following lectures, but which is now understood in the sense of material perception, becomes the decisive factor. -nd we see how an+iously 0ontaigne, Hohn ,oc#e and 'omenius desire to divert man from all that is supersensible, all that is li!ing in the ,2"2S. Hohn ,oc#e and 0ontaigne always point to what is outside the human and try e+pressly to avoid all that is not the direct ob9ect of the senses, to bring as much of the sense:world as possible to the young through education. 'omenius writes boo#s the ob9ect of which is to show that one ought not to wor# through the EwordF but through artificially created sense:perceptions. -nd thus the transition is accomplished8 we see man#ind losing the feeling of all connection of the spirit with the Eword.F 'ivilization as a whole can no longer accept the inner sense of 6In the beginning was the W2$&,7 and grapples on to outer facts of sense. The W2$&, the ,2"2S, is only accepted at all because it forms part of tradition. Thus the longing arises, with intense zeal but also with fearful tragedy, only to educate by means of sense:perception, because the EwordF is felt to be an idol in the Daconian sense. -nd this longing appears in its most symptomatic form in 0ontaigne, Hohn ,oc#e and 'omenius. They show us what is living in the whole of humanity8 they show us how the mood which finds e+pression to:day as our deep longing to bring the spirit once again to the human being arose 9ust when
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men could no longer believe in the spirit any more but only in the idol of the Eword,F as did Dacon. /rom that which has lived in all educational unions until the present, beginning with 0ontaigne and 'omenius, fully 9ustified as it was in those times, there must develop for the sa#e of the present age something which is able to bring the spirit, the creative spirit, the essential spirit, the will:bearing spirit to the human being, something which can recognize in the body of man and in his earthly deeds a revelation of that spirit which reveals itself in supersensible worlds. With this pouring of the supersensible into the sensible, with this rediscovery of the spirit which has been lost in the W2$&, in the ,2"2S since the EwordF became an idol, begins a new era in education. 0ontaigne, Hohn ,oc#e, and 'omenius #new very well what education ought to be. Their programmes are 9ust as splendid as those of modern educational unions and all that people demand for education to:day is already to be found in the abstract writings of these three. What we have to find to:day, however, are the means which will lead us to reality. /or no education will develop from abstract principles or programmes8 it will only develop from reality. -nd because man himself is soul and spirit, because he has a physical nature, a nature of soul and a spiritual nature, reality must again come into our life8 for reality will bring the spirit with it and only the spirit can sustain the educational art of the future. ,1'T<$1 GI W-,;I%", S!1-;I%", TCI%;I%" August 1Oth, 1 A*. The previous lectures have indeed in no way attempted to formulate new educational theories, but rather to create a true feeling for education. 0y aim has been to spea# to the human heart rather than to the intellect. This is most essential for the teacher because, as we have seen, the art of education must develop from a deeper #nowledge of man5s whole being. /or a long time now it has been usual to hear in educational circles that this or that method should be used in teaching. Gery fre@uently the training of teachers consists in little besides the assimilation of certain rules and theories as to the treatment of the child. This, however, will never ma#e the teacher fully aware of the greatness of a tas# which he cannot approach with true devotion unless he has a deep insight into the whole nature of man as body, soul and spirit. living conception of the human being develops into pure will in the teacher when, from hour to hour, he has learned to give really practical answers to the eager @uestions of the child he has to instruct. The first essential is that he himself shall understand the child, and this he can only do in the truest sense if he has a real and concrete #nowledge of man in body, soul and spirit. It is for this reason difficult to describe the education given at the Waldorf School. It is not a thing that can be ElearntF or discussed8 it is purely and simply a matter of practice, and one can only give e+amples of a practical way of dealing with the needs of particular cases. Such practice must be the outcome of actual e+perience and it is always essential that the re@uisite #nowledge of the human being should be available. Dut education is a social concern in the widest sense for it begins immediately after birth. It is the concern of the whole of man#ind, of each individual family, of each community. This is most significantly brought home to us by a #nowledge of the child5s nature before the change of teeth at about the seventh year. - "erman writer, Hean /riedrich $ichter, spo#e words of great truth vShen he said that in the first three years of life man learns more than in all his subse@uent student years. In his time there were only three academic years. The first three years, and from then onwards to the seventh year, are much the most important in the whole development of a man, for the child is not at all the same being as in later life. In his earliest years the child is one great sense+organ. The scope of this truth is not generally understood8 indeed it is a @uestion of using very emphatic words if the whole truth is to be e+pressed. In later years, for instance, man tastes his food in his mouth, tongue and palate. The sense of taste is, as it were, localized in the head. Dut with the child, and especially so during these early years, this is not the case. Taste then wor#s throughout the whole organism8 the child tastes its mother5s mil# and first food right down into its very limbs. The processes that in later life are localized in the tongue, e+tend over the whole organism in the young child who lives, as it were, in this sense of taste. There is a strong element of animality here, but we must never compare this element in the child with the ordinary animal nature. The animality of the child e+ists on a higher level. The human being is never an animal, not even in the embryonic state 4 in fact, at that period least of all. - comparison may help to ma#e this clearer. Those who have a true insight into the processes of nature may have the following impression of these processes in the animal, if they loo# at a herd of cows grazing in a meadow. -s each cow lies down to digest its food, it gives itself up in a most wonderful way to the 'osmos. It is as though cosmic forces were active in the digesting animal, inducing the
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most marvellous visions. The digesting process in the animal is a mighty act of wisdom. While the cow digests it is given up to the 'osmos in an imaginative, dreamli#e e+istence. This may seem an e+travagant statement, yet strange to say it is absolutely true. If we now raise this process one stage higher, we can understand how the child e+periences the functions of its bodily organism. -ll these physical functions are accompanied by a #ind of tasting, and, moreover, the other processes that in later life are localized in eye and ear, also e+tend over the whole organism of the child. Thin# of the wonder of the eye, of how the eye ta#es in colour from outside and ma#es an inner picture. This process is localized, separated off from our conscious e+perience of life as a whole. The intellect ta#es hold of what the eye forms in so wonderful a way and ma#es of it a shadowy, mental image. 1@ually wonderful are those processes which, in the adult, are localized in the ear. Dut all that is localized in the several senses of the adult is spread out over the whole organism in the child. In the child there is no separation between spirit, soul and body. 1verything from without is mirrored in his inner being. Ce imitates his whole environment. -nd now, bearing this in mind, we must observe how three faculties, conditioning the whole of life, are ac@uired by the child during his earliest years 4 the faculties of wal#ing, spea#ing, and thin#ing. ETo wal#F is but the limited e+pression for something far, far greater. We say that the child learns to wal# because this is the most evident feature of the process. Dut this learning to wal# is in reality the bringing of man into a right e@uilibrium in the world of space. The child strives for the upright posture, he strives to relate his legs to the law of gravity in a way that will give balance. Ce does the same with the arms and hands. The whole organism finds its orientation. ,earning to wal# means to set the whole organism in a right orientation with the directions of space. %ow it is important to perceive in the right way that the child is an imitative being, for during the first years of life everything must be learnt from imitation of the environment. %ow it is evident that the forces of orientation must inhere in the organism itself8 the organism is adapted from the very beginning to attain the vertical and not to remain in the horizontal position. The arms must also find their right relation to the laws of space. -ll this inheres in the very nature of the child and is brought about by the impulses of the organism itself. If in education we coerce the impulses of human nature, if we do not #now how to leave this nature free, and to act only as helpers, then we in9ure the organism of the child for the whole of its later earthly life. If we wrongly force the child to wal# by e+ternal methods, if we do not merely help but urge him to wal# or to stand, we do the child an in9ury which lasts till death and is especially harmful in advanced age. In true methods of education it can never be a @uestion of considering the child as it is at a given moment, but the whole of its 9ourney through life from birth to death must be ta#en into account, for the whole earthly life is already present from the first. %ow because the child is a most delicately balanced organ of sense, he is not only sensitive to the physical influences of his surroundings, but also to the moral influences, especially of those of thought. Cowever far:fetched it may appear to the modern materialistic mind, the child does, nevertheless, sense all that those in his environment are thin#ing. -s parents or teachers we must not only refrain from actions that are outwardly unseemly, but we must be inwardly true, inwardly moral in our thought and feeling, for the child senses our moods and absorbs them. Ce does not merely shape his nature according to our words and actions, but in accordance with our whole attitude of heart and mind. The environment, then, is the most important thing of all in the first period of the child5s education, up to the seventh year. -nd now the @uestion will arise: EWhat #ind of help are we to give in this process of orientation and learning to wal#LF Cere it must be remembered that the connections of life can be observed by a science that is spiritual in character, but not by a science that is materialistic and dead. ,et us ta#e a child who has been forced on to wal# and to ad9ust himself in space by all #inds of coercive measures, and then loo# at him in his fiftieth year, or between the fifties and si+ties. If nothing else has intervened, we shall find him suffering from all manner of metabolic diseases which he cannot throw off, from rheumatism, gout, and so on. 1verything of the nature of soul and spirit that we do to the child 4 for we are e+ercising forces of the soul and spirit if we urge him to adopt the vertical position, or to wal# 4 everything comes to the stage where the spiritual wor#s right down into the physical. /or the forces that have been called into play by the use of highly @uestionable methods remain for the whole of the earthly life, and reappear later in the form of bodily diseases. -s a matter of fact, all education of the child is at the same time physical education. We cannot spea# of a specifically physical training of the child, for soul and spirit are always at wor# upon his bodily nature. We observe how the child5s organism ad9usts itself to attain the upright position, and to wal#, and we lovingly watch this wonderful mystery enacted by the human organism as it passes from the horizontal to the vertical position. !iety and reverence must pervade us as we observe how the divine powers of creation are adapting the child to the laws of space, and then we must lovingly help him to wal# and to ac@uire balance. If with inner devotion we observe every e+pression of human nature in the child and hold
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out a helping hand, we generate health:bringing forces which can then re:appear as healthy metabolic activities between the ages of fifty and si+ty, a time of life when we especially need control of the processes of the metabolism. Cerein lies truly the mystery of human evolution: -ll that is of the nature of soul and spirit at one stage of life becomes physical, manifests itself physically in later life. 3ears later it ma#es itself evident in the physical body. So much then as regards learning to wal#. - child who is lovingly guided to wal# develops into a healthy man, and to apply this love in the process of learning to wal# is to add much to the healthy education of the body. %ow from this process of orientation in space there develops speech. 0odern physiology #nows something of this, but not very much. It #nows that the movements of the right hand correspond to a certain activity of the left side of the brain, which is related to speech. !hysiology admits the connection between the movements of the right hand and the so: called convolutions of Droca at the left side of the brain. -s the hand moves and ma#es gestures, forces pour into it8 all this motive force passes into the brain, where it becomes the impulse of speech. Science #nows only a fragment of the process, for the truth is this: Speech does not arise merely because a movement of the right hand coincides with a convolution in the left portion of the brain8 speech arises from the entire motor:organism of the human being. Cow the child learns to wal#, to orientate himself in space, to transform the first erratic and uncontrolled movements of the arms into gestures definitely related to the outer world, all this is carried over by the mysterious processes of the human organism to the head, and appears as speech. -nyone who is able to understand these things realizes that children who shuffle their feet as they wal# pronounce every sound, and especially the palatal sounds, @uite differently from those whose gait is firm. 1very nuance of speech is bound up with organic movement8 life to begin with is ail gesture and gesture is inwardly transformed into speech. Spea#ing, then, is an outcome of wal#ing, that is to say, of the power to orientate the being in space. -nd the degree to which the child is able to control speech will depend very largely upon whether we give him really wise, loving help while he is learning to wal#. These are some of the finer connections revealed by a true #nowledge of man. %ot without reason have I described in detail the process of guiding the spirit to the human organism. With every step that is ta#en, the body follows the spirit, if the spirit is brought into the child in the right way. -gain, it is a fact that to begin with the whole organism is active when the child is learning to spea#. /irst there are the outer movements, the movements of the legs corresponding to the strong contours of speech8 die more delicate movements of the arms and hands correspond to the inflection and plastic form of the words. In short, outer movements are transformed into the inner movements of speech. Hust as the element of love should pervade the help we give to the child as he learns to wal#, so while we help him to spea# we must be inwardly true. The strongest tendencies to untruthfulness in after life are generated during the time when a child is learning to spea#, for in those years the element of truth in speech is ta#en into the whole bodily organism. - child whose teachers are filled with inner truthfulness will, as he imitates his environment, so learn to spea# that the subtle activity constantly generated in the organism by the processes of in:breathing and out:breathing will be strengthened. %aturally, these things must be understood in a delicate and not in a crude sense. The processes are highly rarefied but are nevertheless revealed in every manifestation of life. We breathe in o+ygen and e+hale carbonic acid. 2+ygen has to be changed into carbonic acid in the body by the breathing process. We receive o+ygen from the cosmos, and give bac# carbonic acid. Truth or untruth in those around us while we are learning to spea# determines whether, in the more subtle functions of life, we are able to change the o+ygen within us into carbonic acid in the right way. This process consists in a complete transformation of the spiritual into the physical. 2ne of the most common and untruthful influences brought to the child is the use of 6baby:language.7 <nconsciously the child does not li#e this8 he wants to listen to true speech, the speech of grown men and women. We should spea# in ordinary language to the child and avoid the use of this 6baby:language.7 -t first the child will naturally only babble in imitation of words, but we ourselves must not copy this babbling. To use the babbling, imperfect speech of the child to him is to in9ure his digestive organs. 2nce more the spiritual becomes physical, and wor#s directly into the bodily organs. -nd everything that we do spiritually for the child constitutes a physical training, for the child is not all individual. 0any later defects in the digestive system are caused by a child5s having learnt to spea# in a wrong way. -nd 9ust as speech arises from wal#ing and grasping, in short from movement, so thought develops from speech. Hust as in helping the child as he learns to wal# we must be pervaded by love, so in helping the child to gain the power of speech we must be absolutely truthful8 and since the child is one great sense organ and his inner physical functions are
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also a copy of the spiritual, our own thin#ing must be clear if right thin#ing is to develop in the child from out the forces of speech. %o greater harm can be done to the child than by the giving of orders and then causing confusion by reversing them. 'onfusion set up in the child5s surroundings as the result of inconse@uent thin#ing is the actual root of the many so:called nervous diseases prevalent in our modern civilization. Why have so many people EnervesF to:dayL Simply because in childhood there was no clarity and precision of thought around them during the time when they were learning to thin# after having learned to spea#. The physical condition of the ne+t generation, as evinced by its gravest defects, is a faithful copy of the preceding generation. When we observe the faults in our children which develop in later life, we should gain self:#nowledge. -ll that happens in the child5s environment e+presses itself in the physical organism 4 though in a subtle and delicate way. ,oving treatment while the child is learning to wal#, truthfulness while he learns to spea#, clarity and precision as he begins to be able to thin#, all these @ualities become a part of the bodily constitution. The vascular system and organs develop after the models of love, truth and clarity in the environment. &iseases of the metabolic system are the result of coercive treatment while the child is learning to wal#. &igestive disturbances may arise from untruthful actions during the time at which the child is beginning to spea#. %erve trouble is the outcome of confused thin#ing in the child5s environment. When we see the prevalence of nervous disease in this third decade of the twentieth century, we cannot but conclude that there must have been much confused thin#ing on the part of the teachers about the beginning of the century. 0any diseases of the nerves to:day are really due to confused thin#ing, and again the nerve troubles from which people suffered at the beginning of the century were e@ually the result of the confused thought of the last three decades of the nineteenth century. %ow these matters can be handled in such a way that physiology, hygiene, and psychology no longer need to remain shut off from each other as specialized branches of #nowledge, so that to:day the teacher must call in the doctor the moment any @uestion of health arises. !hysiological education, school hygiene and the li#e can be united in such a way that the teacher5s wor# will come to include an understanding of the activity of the soul and spirit in the physical organism. Dut since everyone has in a certain sense to train children from birth up to the seventh year, a social tas# stands before us, inasmuch as a true #nowledge of man is absolutely necessary if humanity is to follow an ascending, and not a descending, path. J J J Tuite rightly has our 6humane7 age attempted to do away with a certain educational measure very fre@uently applied in earlier days, I mean the habit of caning. The last thing I wish to do is to spea# in favour of such punishment, but this I must say, that the reason why our age has made some attempt to get rid of corporal punishment is because it very well #nows the evil results of this8 the moral conse@uences of in9ury to the physical body are very evident. Dut, my dear friends, one terrible form of punishment has crept into the educational methods of to:day, when all eyes are so concentrated on the physical and material and there is so little comprehension of the soul and spirit. I am here referring to a form of punishment that is never realized as such because men5s minds are not directed to the spiritual. !arents often thin# it desirable to give their little girl a beautiful doll as a plaything. This EbeautifulF doll is a fearful production because for one thing it is so utterly inartistic, in spite of its ErealF hair, painted chee#s and eyes which close when it is laid down or open when it is lifted up. We often give our children toys that are dreadfully inartistic copies of life. The doll is merely one e+ample. -ll modern toys are of the same type and they constitute a form of cruel punishment to the child5s inner nature. 'hildren often behave well in the presence of others merely from a fear of conventional punishments8 e@ually they do not always e+press aversion from toys li#e the Ebeautiful doll,F although this disli#e is deeply rooted in their souls. Cowever strongly we may suggest to children that they ought to love such toys, the forces of their unconscious and subconscious life are stronger, and the children have an intense antipathy to anything resembling the beautiful doll. /or, as I will now show you, such toys really amount to an inner punishment. Suppose that in the ma#ing of our toys we were to ta#e into consideration what the child has actually e,perienced in his infant thought up to the age of si+ or seven in the processes of learning to wal# after learning to stand upright and then we were to ma#e a doll out of a hand#erchief, for instance, showing a head at the top with two in#:spots for eyes. The child can understand and, moreover, really love such a doll. !rimitively this doll possesses all the @ualities of the human form, in so far at any rate as the child is capable of observing them at this early age. - child #nows no more about the human being than that he stands upright, that there is an EupperF and a ElowerF part of his being, that he has a head and a pair of eyes. -s for the mouth, you will often find it on the forehead in a child5s drawings. There is as yet no clear consciousness of the e+act position of the mouth. What a child actually e+periences is all contained in a doll made from a
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hand#erchief with in#:spots for eyes. -n inner, plastic force is at wor# in the child. -ll that comes to him from his environment passes over into his being and becomes there an inner formative power, a power that also builds up the organs of the body. If the child has a father who is constantly ill:tempered and irritable, and the child as a result of this lives in an environment of perpetual shoc#s and unreasonableness, all this turmoil e+presses itself in his breathing and the circulation of the blood. The lungs, heart and the whole venal system are affected by such a condition. Throughout the whole of his life the child bears within him the inner effects upon the organs of his father5s ill:temper. This is merely an e+ample to show you that the child possesses a wonderful plastic power and is perpetually at wor# as a #ind of inner sculptor upon his own being. If we give the child the #ind of doll made from a hand#erchief, these plastic, creative forces that arise in the human organism from the rhythmic system of the breathing and blood circulation and build up the brain, flow gently upwards. They mould the brain li#e a sculptor who wor#s upon his material with a fine and supple hand, a hand permeated with the forces of the soul and spirit. In the child5s perception of the hand#erchief:doll these plastically creative elements are called upon and healthy forces are generated which then flow upwards from the rhythmic system and wor# upon the structure of the brain. If, on the contrary, we give the child one of the so:called EbeautifulF dolls, with moving eyes and painted chee#s, real hair and so on 4 a hideous, ghostly production from the artistic point of view 4 then the plastic, brain:building forces that are generated in the rhythmic system have the effect of the constant lashing of a whip. -ll that the child cannot as yet understand wor#s upon the brain li#e the lashings of a whip. The whole brain is lashed to its very foundations in a terrible way. Such is the secret of the EbeautifulF doll, and it can be applied to many of the playthings given to the child to:day. If we would give loving help to the child at play we must realize how many inner, formative forces are active in his being. In this respect our whole civilization is on the wrong road. /or instance, modern culture has evolved the concept of E-nimism.F - child bumps against the table and stri#es it in anger. We say to:day that the child imagines the table to be a living thing, he endows it with imaginary life and stri#es it. %ow this is not true. The child does not imaginatively endow the table with life, or with anything at all, but feels as though the living were lifeless. When he hurts himself, a #ind of refle+ movement ma#es him stri#e the table. Ce does not thin# of the table as living, for everything is as yet lifeless for him8 he treats the living and the lifeless e+actly in the same way. These false ideas show that our civilization does not #now how to approach the child. The first great essential is to learn to deal with children wisely and lovingly and give them what their own being needs. We should not inflict inner punishment by giving the child toys of the type of the beautiful doll. $ather should we be able to throw ourselves into the child5s inner life and give him such toys as he can himself inwardly understand. Thus play also is something that calls for true insight into the nature of the child. If we prattle li#e a little child and thin# to bring our speech down to his level, if we model our words falsely, we bring an untruthful influence to bear upon him. 2n the other hand, however, we must be able to descend to the stage of the child5s development in everything that has to do with the will+nature in play. We shall then realize that intellectuality, a @uality so much admired in this age, simply does not e+ist in the child5s organic nature, and should therefore have no place in his play. The child at play will naturally imitate what is going on in his surroundings, but it will seldom happen that a child of four e+presses a wish to be a philologist, let us say, although he may say he would li#e to be a chauffeur. WhyL Decause everything about a chauffeur ma#es an immediate sense:impression. It is different with a philologist, for what he does ma#es no impression on the senses8 it simply passes unnoticed by the child. 1verything intellectual leaves the child unaffected, he passes it by. What, then, must we do if we are to help the child to the right #ind of playL %ow when we plough, or ma#e hats, or sew clothes, and so on, all these things are done with a certain purpose and have a certain intellectual @uality. Dut everything in life, no matter whether it be ploughing, building carriages, shoeing horses, or the li#e, besides having a definite purpose, contains another element in outward appearance. -t the sight of a man guiding his plough over the field one can feel, apart from the ob9ect of ploughing, the plastic @uality of the picture8 it is a picture which arises. If we can feel this pictorial element @uite apart from its purpose =and it is the *sthetic sense that enables us to do this> then we can begin to ma#e toys that really appeal to the child. We shall not aim at intellectual beauty as in the modern doll, but at something e+pressed in the whole content, in the whole feeling of the human being. Then, instead of the beautiful doll, we shall produce for the older children a primitive, really enchanting doll something li#e this one. U&r. Steiner here showed a doll made by pupils of the Waldorf SchoolV
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In true education therefore the essential thing is to be able to bring an artistic element into our wor# and to apply it in the ma#ing of toys, for then we begin to satisfy the needs of the child5s own nature. 2ur civilization has made us almost e+clusively utilitarian, intellectualistic, and we offer even our children the result of what we have Ethought outF with our brains. Dut we ought not to give them what adult life has Ethought out,F but what our maturer life feels and percei!es. This is the @uality the toy ought to e+hibit. If we give a child a toy plough, the essential thing is that it should e+press the aesthetic @uality of form and movement in the plough, for this will help to unfold the natural forces in the child. 'ertain ;indergarten systems, in other ways worthy of all respect, have made great mista#es in this direction. /roebel5s system, as also others, have arisen from a true inner love for children, but they have failed to realize that although imitation is a part of the very nature of the child, he can only imitate that which is not yet permeated by an intellectual @uality. We must therefore not introduce into the ;indergarten such various forms of handiwor# as have been ingeniously Ethought out.F The stic#:laying, plaiting, and so on, that often play so large a part in modern ;indergarten methods, have all been ingeniously thought out. ;indergarten wor# ought rather to be so arranged that it contains an actual picture of what older people do, and not mere inventions. - sense of tragedy will often arise in one possessed of a true #nowledge of man when he goes into these modern ;indergartens, for they are so full of good intentions and the wor# has been so conscientiously thought out. They are based on infinite goodwill and a sincere love of children, yet on the other hand it has not been realized that all intellectualism ought to be eliminated. ;indergarten wor# should consist simply and solely of imitative pictures of what grown:up people do. - child whose intellectual faculties are developed before the fourth or fifth year bears a dreadful heritage into later life. Ce is being educated for materialism. To the e+tent that an intellectual education is given to the child before the fourth or fifth year, will he become materialistic in later life. The brain can either develop in such a way that the spirit dwells within it and gives birth to intuition, or on the other hand the whole nature can tend towards materialism if at this early age the child5s brain is intellectually forced. If we would so train the child that as man he may comprehend the spirit, we must delay as long as possible the giving of mental concepts in a purely intellectual form. -lthough it is highly necessary, in view of the nature of our modern civilization, that a man should be fully awa#e in later life, the child must be allowed to remain as long as possible in the peaceful, dreamli#e condition of pictorial imagination in which his early years are passed. /or if we allow his organism to grow strong in this way, he will develop in later life the intellectuality needed in the world to:day. If the child5s brain has been punished in the way I have described, permanent in9ury is done to the soul. The use of Ebaby:languageF in9uriously affects the digestion8 unloving, mista#en coercion in the process of learning to wal# has an unfavourable effect upon the metabolic system in later life. Soul and body ali#e suffer if the inner being of the child is in9ured in these ways, and it must be the first aim of education to do away with such inner punishments as are represented, for instance, by toys li#e the beautiful doll. These do not only lacerate the soul of the child, but also harm his bodily constitution, for in childhood body, soul and spirit are one. The essential thing, therefore, is to raise the games and play of children to their true level. In these lectures I have tried to indicate how false forms of spirituality must be avoided when we are dealing with the child, so that a true spirituality, in short, the whole individuality, may come to full e+pression in later life. ,1'T<$1 GII TC1 $C3TC0I' S3ST10, S,11!I%" -%& W-;I%", I0IT-TI2% August 11th, 1 A*. The transition from early childhood to the school age is mar#ed by the change of teeth at about the seventh year, and in studying this period it must above all be remembered that up to the seventh year the child is wor#ing, as it were, as an inner sculptor and with the creative forces of the head is organizing and moulding his whole being. -ll that has been present in his environment, including the moral @ualities, now plays a part in the development of the vascular system, the circulation of the blood and the processes of the breath, so that as a physical being man bears within him throughout his earthly life the results of the imitative period of his childhood from birth up to the time of the second dentition. It cannot, of course, be said that he is conditioned only by this, for naturally much can be rectified in the body later by the e+ercise of moral forces and by inner activity of soul. Still we should realize with what a wonderful heritage we can endow the child on his path of life if we are able to prepare his physical organism to be the bearer of moral and spiritual
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@ualities, if we help the wor# of the sculptor within him up to the age of seven by ourselves living a moral and spiritual life at his side. 'ertain details and other matters of which I spo#e yesterday, will come to light as the lectures proceed. The teacher, then, must understand that when the child has passed his seventh year and comes then to actual school age, these plastic forces are transformed into an activity in the soul which must be rec#oned with by his teacher. The child longs for pictures, imagery, and this fact should indicate to us the fundamental principle of his education at this age. /rom the time of the second dentition up to the age of adolescence, the development of the rhythmic system, i#e#, the breathing and the circulation of the blood and also the digestive functions, is all:important. The soul of the child during that period longs for pictorial imagery and his rhythmic system is there to be dealt with by the teacher in an organic bodily sense. -nd so a pictorial, imaginative element must dominate all that the child is given to do8 a 'usical @uality, I might even say, must pervade the relationship between teacher and pupil. $hythm, measure, even melody must be there as the basic principle of the teaching, and this element demands that the teacher must himself feel and e+perience this EmusicalF @uality. It is the rhythmic system that predominates in the child5s organic nature during this first period of school life, and the entire teaching must be pervaded by rhythm. The teacher must feel himself so inwardly living in this musical element that true rhythm may prevail in the class:room. Ce must be able to feel this instinctively. It thus becomes evident that during the early years of school life =that is to say after the age of seven> all true education must develop from the foundation of art. The reason why education in our day leaves so much to be desired is because modern civilization is not conducive to the development of artistic feeling. I am not here referring to the individual arts, but to the fact that sound educational principles can only arise from a civilization penetrated with artistic @uality. This has very great significance. -nd if we can imbue our whole teaching with artistic @uality, we influence the rhythmic system in the child. Such lessons actually ma#e the child5s breathing and circulation more healthy. 2n the other hand, our tas# is also to lead the child out into life, to develop a sound faculty of 9udgment for later life, and so during this age we must teach him to use his intelligence, though never by constraint. There must also, naturally, be some physical training and e+ercise, for it is our duty to help the child to have a healthy body in later life, in so far as his destiny permits. Dut to accomplish all this we need a deeper insight into the whole nature of man. In our modern civilization, where all eyes are concentrated on outer, material things, no attention is given to the consideration of the state of sleep, although man devotes to it one:third of his earthly life. This alternating rhythm of our wa#ing and sleeping is of the greatest possible significance. %ever should it be thought that man is inactive while he sleeps. Ce is inactive only in so far as the outer, e+ternal world is concerned, but as regards the health of his body, and more especially the welfare of his soul and spirit, sleep is all:important. True education can provide for a right life of sleep, for the activities which belong to man5s wa#ing hours are carried over into the condition of sleep, and this is especially the case with the child. -t the base of all artistic creation lies in reality the unceasing activity of the rhythmic system. Dreathing and the action of the heart continue without intermission from birth to death. It is only the processes of thought and will that induce fatigue. Thin#ing and movements of the body cause fatigue, and since they everywhere come into play, we may say that all life5s activities cause fatigue. Dut in the case of the child we must be especially watchful to guard against over: fatigue. The best possible way to do this is to see that throughout the all:important early school years our teaching has a basic artistic @uality, for then we call upon the child5s rhythmic system where he tires least of all. What then will happen if we ma#e too great a demand on the intellect, urging the child to thin# for himself, forcing him to thin#L 'ertain organic forces that tend inwardly to harden the body are brought into play. These forces are responsible for the salty deposits in the body and are needed in the formation of bone, cartilage and sinew, in all those parts of the body in short that have a tendency to become rigid. This normal rigidity is over:developed if intellectual thin#ing is forced. These hardening forces are normally active during our wa#ing consciousness, but if we ma#e undue claims upon the intellect, if we force the child to thin# too much, we are sowing the seeds of premature arterial sclerosis. Thus here too it is essential to develop by means of a true observation of the nature of the child a fine sense of the degree to which we may call with safety upon the different forces at wor#. - most vital principle is here at sta#e. If I allow the child to thin#, if I teach him to write, for instance, in an intellectual way, saying: ECere are the letters and you must learn them,F I am overstraining the mental powers of the child and laying the germs of sclerosis, at any rate of a tendency to sclerosis. The human being as such has no inner relationship whatever to the letters of modern script. They
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are little EdemonsF so far as human nature is concerned, and we have to find the right way to approach them. This way is found if to begin with we stimulate the child5s artistic feeling by letting him paint or draw the lines and colours that flow of themselves on to the paper from his innermost being. Then, as the child5s artistic sense is aroused, one always feels 4 and feeling is here the essential thing 4 how greatly man is enriched by this artistic activity. 2ne feels that intellectuality impoverishes the soul, ma#es a man inwardly barren, whereas artistic activity ma#es him inwardly rich, so rich in fact that this richness must somehow be modified. The pictorial and artistic tends of itself to pass into the more attenuated form of concepts and ideas, and must in a measure be impoverished in this process of transference. Dut if, after having stimulated the child artistically, we then allow the intellectuality to develop from the artistic feeling, it will have the right intensity. The intellect too will lay hold of the body in such a way as to bring about a rightly balanced and not an e+cessive hardening process. If we force intellectual powers in the child we arrest growth8 but we liberate the forces of growth if we approach the intellect by way of art. /or this reason at the Waldorf School value is placed upon artistic rather than upon intellectual training at the beginning of school life. The teaching is at first pictorial, non:intellectual8 the relation of the teacher to the child is pervaded by a musical, rhythmic @uality, so that by such methods we may achieve the degree of intellectual development that the child needs. The mental training in this way becomes at the same time the very best training for the physical body. To the more sensitive observer there is abundant evidence in our present civilization that many grown:up people are too inwardly rigid. They seem to wal# about li#e wooden machines. It is really a characteristic of our day that men and women carry their bodies about li#e burdens, whereas a truer and more artistically conceived educational system so develops the human being that every step, every gesture of the hand to be devoted later to the service of humanity brings to the child an inner sense of 9oy and well:being. In training the intellect we free the soul from the bodily activities, but if we over:intellectualize, man will go through life feeling that his body is 6of the earth earthly,7 that it is of no value and must be overcome. Then he may give himself up to a purely mystical life of soul and spirit, feeling that the spirit alone has value. $ight education, however, also leads us by ways of truth to the spirit that creates the body. "od in creating the world did not say: 0atter is evil and man must avoid it. %o world would have come into being if the "ods had thought li#e this. The world could only emanate from the &ivine because the "ods ordained that spirit should be directly and immediately active in matter. If man realizes that his highest life in every sphere is that which is directed according to divine intention, he must choose a form of education that does not alienate him from the world, but ma#es him a being whose soul and spirit stream down into the body throughout his whole life. - man who would deny the body when he immerses himself in thought, is no true thin#er. J J J The wa#ing life is beneficially affected if we develop the intellect from the basis of the artistic, and all physical culture has a definite relation to the child5s life of sleep. If we wish really to understand the form that healthy culture and e+ercise of the body should ta#e, we must first as# this @uestion: ECow does bodily e+ercise affect the life of sleepLF -ll bodily activity arises supersensibly from the will, is indeed an out:streaming of will:impulses into the organism of movement. 1ven in purely mental activity the will is active and is flowing into the limbs. If we sit at a des# and thin# out decisions which are then carried out by others, our will:impulses are, nevertheless, streaming into our limbs. In this instance we simply hold them bac#, restrain them. We ourselves may sit still, but the orders we give are really an in: streaming of the will into our own limbs. We must therefore first discover what is of importance in these physically active impulses of the will if their unfolding is to have the right effect upon the state of sleep8 and the following must be ta#en into account. 1verything that is transformed into action by the human will sets up a certain organic process of combustion. When I think, I burn up something in my organism, only this inner process of burning up must not be compared with the purely chemical combustion of the science of physics. When a candle is alight there is an e+ternal process of combustion, but only materialistic thin#ing can compare this inner process of combustion with the burning of a lighted candle. In the human organization the processes of outer %ature are ta#en hold of by forces of the soul and spirit, so that within the human body, and even within the plant, the outer substances of nature are @uite differently active. Similarly the burning process within the human being is altogether different from the process of combustion we see in the lighted candle. 3et a certain #ind of combustion is always induced in the body when we will, even though the impulse does not pass into action.

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%ow because we generate this process of inner combustion, we bring about something in our organism that sleep alone can rectify. In a certain sense we should literally burn up our bodies if sleep did not perpetually reduce combustion to its right degree of intensity. -ll this must again be understood in a subtle sense and not in the crude sense of %atural Science. Sleep regulates the inner burning by spreading it over the whole organism, whereas otherwise it would confine itself to the organs of movement. %ow there are two ways of carrying out bodily movements. Thin# of the #ind of e+ercises children are often given to do. The idea is =everything is 6idea7 in a materialistic age in spite of its belief that it is dealing with facts> that the child ought to ma#e this or that #ind of movement in games or in gymnastics, because only so will he grow up to be a civilized human being. -s a rule movements which grown:up people practice are considered the best, for since the ideal is that the child should grow up an e+act copy of his elders, he is made to do the same #ind of gymnastics. That is to say, a certain opinion is held by ordinary people and must apply also to the child. -s a result of this abstract public opinion, outer influence is brought to bear on the child. Ce is given this or that e+ercise merely because it is customary to ma#e these movements. Dut this sets up processes of combustion which the human organism is no longer capable of ad9usting. $estless sleep is the result of mere e+ternal methods of physical culture. These things cannot be observed by the methods of ordinary physiology, but they ta#e place nevertheless in the finer and more delicate processes of the human body. If we give children these conventional gymnastic e+ercises, they cannot get the deep, sound sleep they need, and the bodily constitution cannot be sufficiently refreshed and restored in sleep. If on the other hand we can give cur educational methods an artistic form =and remember, in artistic activities the whole nature comes into play> a certain hunger for physical activity will arise @uite naturally in the child, for, as we have seen, the e+cessive richness of the artistic sense reacts as an impulse towards the more sobering element of the intellect. %othing so easily induces a craving for bodily e+ercise as artistic activity. If the child has been occupied artistically for about two hours 4 and the length of time must be carefully arranged 4 something that longs for e+pression in movements of the body begins to stir in the organism. -rt creates a real hunger for true movements of the body. Thus gradually we should lead over into games, into free movements in space, what the hands have e+pressed in painting and drawing, or the voice in singing. -lso the child should be encouraged to learn some #ind of musical instrument at the earliest possible age, for this involves direct physical activity. The inner forces must be allowed to stream out into movements in space, which should be a continuation, as it were, of the inner organic processes called up by the artistic wor# in the school. !hysical training is then a natural development from the methods of teaching that are right for this age of life, and there is an intimate connection between the two. If the child is given only such physical e+ercises as his artistic wor# creates a need for, he will get the #ind of sleep he needs. - right provision for the wa#ing life can thus cause a right life of sleep in which all the organic processes of combustion are harmonized. Dodily and mental training ali#e must develop from the artistic element. Thus especially so far as the body is concerned, nothing is more essential than that the teacher himself should be an artist through and through. The more 9oy the teacher can e+perience in beautiful forms, in music, the more he longs to pass from abstract words into the rhythms of poetry8 the more the plastic sense is alive in him the better will he be able to arrange such games and e+ercises as offer the child an opportunity for artistic e+pression. Dut alas. our civilization to:day would li#e the spirit to be easy of access, and people do not feel inclined to strive too strenuously for spiritual ideals. -s I said in a previous lecture most people, while admitting the inade@uacy of their own education, claim at the same time to #now what education ought to be and are @uite ready to lay down the law about it. -nd so it comes about that there is little inclination to ta#e into consideration the finer processes of the human organism, as to how, for e+ample, an artistic conception of gymnastic is determined by the artistic activity itself. What are the movements demanded by the human organism itselfL %o artistic feeling is brought to bear on the solution of these problems. The reading of boo#s is the main occupation of the modern intellectual class8 people study "ree# ideals and a revival of the E2lympic "amesF has become a catch phrase, though this ErevivalF is of a purely e+ternal nature. The 2lympic "ames are never studied from the point of view of the needs of the human organism, as they were in "reece, for the modem study of them is all boo#: learning, based on documents or outer traditions that have been handed down. %ow modern men are not ancient "ree#s, and they do not understand the part played by the true 2lympic "ames in the culture of "reece. /or if one penetrated fully into the spirit of ancient "reece, one would say: the children were instructed by the gymnasts in dancing and wrestling, as I have described. Dut why were they thus instructedL This was due to the 2lympic "ames, for these were not only artistic but also religious in their nature 4 a true offspring of "ree#
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culture. In their 2lympic "ames the "ree#s lived wholly in an atmosphere of art and religion, and with a true educational instinct they could bring these elements into the gymnastic e+ercises given to children. -bstract, inartistic forms of physical culture are contrary to all true education, because they hinder the development of the human being. It would be far better to:day if, instead of trying to find out from boo#s how to revive the 2lympic "ames, people made some attempt to understand the inner nature of man. /or then they would realize that all physical education not based on the inner needs of the organism sets up an e+cessive process of combustion. The result of performing such e+ercises in childhood will lead in later life to flabbiness of the muscular system. The muscles will be incapable of carrying out the behests of the soul and spirit. While on the one hand a false intellectual education inwardly so hardens the body that the bones become burdensome instead of moving with resilience in harmony with the soul, on the other hand the limbs are wea#ened through too strong a tendency to the process of combustion. 0an has gradually become a creature who is dragged down on the one hand by the burden of the salts that have formed within him, and on the other hand is always attempting to escape, to free himself from those organic processes which are due to faulty combustion. -n intimate #nowledge of man is necessary before a true relationship can be established between these two processes of combustion and salt:formation. 2nly when we lead over artistic feeling into the intellectual element can the tendency to over:rigidity be balanced by the right degree of combustion. This right balance then affects the life of sleep, and the child sleeps deeply and peacefully. The restlessness and fidgetiness caused by most modern systems of bodily training are absent. 'hildren who are forced to practise the wrong #ind of physical e+ercises fidget in soul during sleep, and in the morning, when the soul returns to the body, restlessness and faulty processes of combustion are set up in the organism. 2ur conceptions must therefore be widened by #nowledge, for all this will show you that a profound understanding of human nature is essential. If in this earthly e+istence we hold man to be the most precious creation of the "ods, the great @uestion must be: What have the "ods placed before us in manL Cow can we best develop the human child entrusted to us here on earthL J J J <p to the seventh year the child is through and through an imitative being, but from the time of the change of teeth onwards, his inner nature longs to shape itself according to the models set up by a natural authority. - long time ago now I wrote The (hilosophy of Spiritual Acti!ity, and in view of what I said there, I do not thin# you will accuse me of laying undue stress upon the principle of authority in any sphere of social life. -lthough man5s self: e+pression is directed by an impulse of spiritual freedom, it is 9ust as fully sub9ect to law as the life of %ature. It is therefore not for us to decide according to our li#es or disli#es what #ind of education should be given to our children between the time of the change of teeth and adolescence. 1ducation should rather be dictated by the needs of human nature itself. <p to the second dentition, at about the seventh year, the child imitates in every gesture, nay, even in the pulsations of the venal blood and in the rhythms of the breath, everything that goes on around him. /rom birth to the age of seven, the environment is the model which the child copies. Dut from the seventh to the fourteenth or fifteenth years, to the age of puberty, he must unfold a free spiritual activity under the influence of natural authority. This must be so if development is to be healthy and free and if the child is rightly to use his freedom in later life. The faculty of personal 9udgment is not ripe until the fourteenth or fifteenth year. 2nly then has the child developed to a point at which the teacher is 9ustified in appealing to his faculty of 9udgment. -t the age of fourteen or fifteen he can reason for himself, but before this age we in9ure him, we retard his development if we enter into 6the why and wherefore.7 The whole of later life is immeasurably benefited if between the seventh and fourteenth years =appro+imately, of course> we have been able to accept a truth not because we see its underlying reason 4 indeed, our intellect is not mature enough for this 4 but because we feel that the teacher whom we revere and love feels it to be true. 2ur sense of beauty grows in the right way if we are able to accept the teacher5s standard of the beautiful 4 the teacher to whom we give a spontaneous, and not a forced respect. 2ur feeling for the good will also be a guide in later life if we have not been forced to observe petty rules, but have realized from the teacher5s own warm:hearted words how much he loves a good deed and hates a bad one. Cis words can ma#e us so warmly responsive to the good and so coldly averse from evil that we turn naturally to the good because the teacher himself loves it. Then we grow up, not bound hand and foot by dogma, but filled with a spontaneous love for what the teacher declares to be true, beautiful and good. If during the first period of school life we have learnt to adopt his standard of truth, beauty and goodness because he has been able to e+press them in artistic imagery, the impulse for these virtues becomes a second nature, for it is not the intellect that develops goodness. - man who has over and over again been told dogmatically to do this, or net to do that, has a cold, matter:of:fact feeling for the good, whereas one who has
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learnt in childhood to feel sympathy with goodness and antipathy to evil has unfolded in his rhythmic nature the capacity to respond to the good and to be repelled by what is evil. Ce has a true enthusiasm for the one and power to resist the other. In later life it is as though under the influence of evil he cannot breathe properly, as if by evil the breathing and the rhythmic system were adversely affected. It is really possible to achieve this if after the child has reached his seventh year we allow the principle of natural authority to supersede that of imitation which, as we have seen, must be pre:dominant in the earlier years. %aturally authority must not be enforced for this is 9ust the error of those methods of education that attempt to enforce authority by corporal punishment. I have heard that what I said yesterday in this connection seemed to suggest that this form of punishment had been entirely superseded. -s a matter of fact, what I said was that the humanitarian feelings of to:day would like to do away with it. I was told that the custom of caning in 1ngland is still very general and that my words had created a wrong impression. I am sorry that this should have been so, but the point I want now to ma#e is that in true education authority must never be enforced and above all not by the cane. It must arise naturally fro' what we oursel!es are. In body, soul and spirit we are true teachers if our observation of human nature is based upon a true understanding of man. True observation of man sees in the growing human being a wor# of divine creation. There is no more wonderful spectacle in the whole world than to see how definiteness gradually emerges from indefiniteness in the child5s nature8 to see how irrelevant fidgeting changes into movements dominated by the inner @uality of the soul. 0ore and more the inner being e+presses itself outwardly and the spiritual element in the body comes gradually to the surface. This being whom the "ods have sent down to earth becomes a revelation of "od Cimself. The growing human being is indeed Cis most splendid manifestation. If we learn to #now this growing human being not merely from the point of view of ordinary anatomy and physiology, but with understanding of how the soul and spirit stream down into the body, then as we stand with pure and holy reverence before that which flows from divine depths into the physical form our #nowledge becomes in us pure religion. Then as teachers we have a certain @uality that is perceptible to the child as a natural authority in which he places spontaneous trust. Instead of resorting to the cane or using any form of inner punishment such as I mentioned yesterday we should arm ourselves with a true #nowledge of man, with the faculty of true observation. This will grow into an inner moral sense, into a profound reverence for "od5s creation. We then have a true position in the school and we realize how absolutely essential it is in all education to watch for those moments when the child5s nature undergoes certain changes. Such a metamorphosis occurs, for instance, between the ninth and tenth years, though with one child it may be earlier with another later. -s a rule it occurs between the ages of nine and ten. 0any things in life are passed by unperceived by the materialist. True observation of the human being tells us that something very remar#able happens between the ninth and tenth years. 2utwardly, the child becomes restless8 he cannot come to terms with the outer world and seems to draw bac# from it with a certain fear. In a subtle way this happens to almost every child, indeed if it does not occur the child is abnormal. In the child5s life of feeling, a great @uestion arises between the ninth and tenth years8 he cannot formulate this @uestion mentally, he cannot e+press it in words. It lies wholly in his life of feeling, and this fact intensifies the longing for its recognition. What does the child see# at this ageL Till now, reverence for the teacher has been a natural impulse within him, but at this age he wants the teacher to prove himself worthy of this reverence by some definite act. <ncertainty rises in the child, and when we observe this we must by our demeanour respond to it. It need not be something specially contrived. We may perhaps be especially loving in our dealings with the child 4 ma#e a special point of spea#ing to him 4 so that he realizes our affection and sympathy. If we watch for this moment between the ninth and tenth years and act accordingly, the child is saved as it were from a precipice. This is of far:reaching significance for if this sense of insecurity remains it will continue through the whole of later life, not necessarily in this particular form, but none the less e+pressed in the character, temperament and bodily health. -t all times we must understand how the spirit wor#s in matter and hence upon the health of the body and how the spirit must be nurtured so that it may rightly promote the health. - true art of education unmista#ably shows us that we must conceive of this co:operation of spirit and matter as harmonious and never as in opposition. 0odern civilization with its tendency to separate everything is guilty in regard to educational @uestions. Its conceptions of %ature are materialistic, and when people are dissatisfied with the results of this conception of nature they ta#e refuge in spiritualism, attempting to reach the spiritual by methods that are anything but scientific. This is one of the tragedies of our day. - materialism which intellectualizes everything is now only able to understand the concepts itself has evolved about matter8 materialism however can never reach the heart of matter. -nd modern spiritualismL Its adherents want the spirits to be tangible, to reveal themselves materially by means of table: turning, physical phenomena and so on. They must not be allowed to remain spirits, and so invisible, intangible, because men are too lazy to approach them in a supersensible form.
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These things are really tragic. 0aterialism spea#s only of matter, never of the spirit. Dut as a matter of fact materialism does not even understand matter, but spea#s of it only in empty abstractions, while spiritualism, imagining that it is spea#ing of the spirit, is concerned only with matter. 2ur civilization is divided into materialism and spiritualism 4 a strange phenomenon indeed. /or materialism understands nothing of matter and spiritualism nothing of spirit. 0an is both body and spirit, and true education must bring about a harmony between the two. It can never be too strongly emphasized that the goal of education must be to give man an understanding of the spirit in matter and a spiritual understanding of the material world. We find the spirit if we truly understand the material world, and if we have some comprehension of the spirit we find, not a materialized spirituality, but a real and actual spiritual world. If humanity is to find a path of ascent and not be led to its downfall, we need the reality of the world of spirit and an intelligent comprehension of the world of matter. ,1'T<$1 GIII $1-&I%", W$ITI%" -%& %-T<$1 ST<&3 1*th August, 1 A*. In the previous lectures I have shown that when the child reaches the usual school age =after the change of teeth> all teaching should be given in an artistic, pictorial form. To:day, I propose to carry further the ideas already put before you and to show how this method appeals directly to the child5s sentient life, the foundation from which all teaching must now proceed. ,et us ta#e a few characteristic e+amples to show how writing can be derived from the artistic element of painting and drawing. I have already said that if a system of education is to harmonize with the natural development of the human organism, the child must be taught to write before he learns to read. The reason for this is that in writing the whole being is more active than is the case in reading. 3ou will say: 3es, but writing entails the movement of only one particular member. That is @uite true, but fundamentally spea#ing, the forces of the whole being must lend themselves to this movement. In reading only the head and the intellect are engaged, and in a truly organic system of education we must draw that which is to develop from the whole being of the child. We will assume that we have been able to give the child some idea of flowing water8 he has learnt to form a mental picture of waves and flowing water. We now call the child5s attention to the initial sound, the initial letter of the word Ewave.F

We indicate that the surface of water rising into waves follows this line:

Then we lead the child from the drawing of this line over to the sign W derived from it. The child is thus introduced to the form of the letter EWF in writing. The W has arisen from the picture of a wave. In the first place the child is given a mental
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picture which can lead over to the letter which he then learns to write. 2r we may let the child draw the form of the mouth: 4

and then we introduce to him the first letter of the word 60outh.7 In one of our evening tal#s U Detween the lectures there were meetings for discussion and @uestions at which $udolf Steiner was often present. V I gave you another e+ample. The child draws the form of a fish8 when the fundamental form is firmly in his mind, we pass on to the initial letter of the word 6fish.7

- great many letters can be treated in this way8 others will have to be derived somewhat differently. Suppose, for instance, we give the child an imaginative idea of the sound of the wind. 2bviously the possibilities are many, but this particular way is the best for very young children. We picture to the child the raging of the wind and then we allow the child to imitate and to arrive at this form: 4

Dy drawing the child5s attention to definite contours, to movements, or even to actual activities, all of which can be e+pressed in drawing or painting, we can develop nearly all the consonants. In the case of the vowels we must turn rather to gesture, for the vowels are an e+pression of man5s inner being. E-F =ah>, for e+ample, inevitably contains an element of wonder, of astonishment. 1urhythmy will prove to be of great assistance here for there we have gestures that truly correspond to feeling. The EIF the E-F and all the other vowels can be drawn from the corresponding gesture in 1urhythmy, for the vowels must be derived from movements that are an e+pression of the inner life of the human soul. In this way we can approach the abstract nature of writing by way of the more concrete elements contained in painting and drawing. We succeed in ma#ing the child start from the feeling called up by a picture8 he then becomes able to relate to the actual letters the @uality of soul contained in the feeling. The principle underlying writing thus arises from the sentient life of the soul. When we come to reading, our efforts must simply be in the direction of ma#ing the child aware, and this time in his head, of what has already been elaborated by the bodily forces as a whole. $eading is then grasped mentally, because it is
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recognized in the child5s mind as an activity in which he has already been employed. This is of the very greatest significance. The whole process of development is hindered if the child is led straight away to what is abstract, if he is taught, that is, from the beginning to carry out any special activity by means of a purely mental concept. 2n the other hand, a healthy growth will always ensue if the activity is first of all underta#en, and then the mental idea afterwards unfolded as a result of the activity. $eading is essentially a mental act. Therefore if reading is taught before, and not after writing the child is prematurely involved in a process of development e+clusively concerned with the head instead of with the forces of his whole being. Dy such methods as these all instruction can be guided into a sphere that embraces the whole man, into the realm of art. This must indeed be the aim of all our teaching up to the age of about nine:and:a:half8 picture, rhythm, measure, these @ualities must pervade all our teaching. 1verything else is premature. It is for this reason utterly impossible before this age to convey anything to the child in which definite distinction is made between himself and the outer world. The child only begins to realize himself as a being apart from the outer world between the ninth and tenth years. Cence when he first comes to school, we must ma#e all outer things appear living. We should spea# of the plants as holding converse with us and with each other in such a way that the child5s outloo# on %ature and man is filled with imagination. The plants, the trees, the clouds all spea# to him, and at this age he must feel no separation between himself and this living outer world. We must give him the feeling that 9ust as he himself can spea#, so everything that surrounds him also spea#s. The more we enable the child thus to flow out into his whole environment, the more vividly we describe plant, animal and stone, so that weaving, articulate spirituality seems to be wafted towards him, the more ade@uately do we respond to the demands of his innermost being in these early years. They are years when the sentient life of the soul must flow into the processes of breathing and of the circulation of the blood and into the whole vascular system, indeed into the whole human organism. If we educate in this sense, the child5s life of feeling will unfold itself organically and naturally in a form suited to the re@uirements of our times. It is of incalculable benefit to the child if we develop this element of feeling in writing and then allow a faint echo of the intellect to enter as he re:discovers in reading what he has already e+perienced in writing. This is the very best way of leading the child on towards his ninth year. Detween the ages of seven and nine:and:a:half, it is therefore essential that all the teaching shall ma#e a direct appeal to the element of feeling. The child must learn to feel the forms of the various letters. This is very important. We harden the child5s nature unduly, we over:strengthen the forces of bones and cartilage and sinew in relation to the rest of the organism, if we teach him to write mechanically, ma#ing him trace arbitrary curves and lines for the letters, ma#ing use only of his bodily mechanism without calling upon the eye as well. If we also call upon the eye 4 and the eye is of course connected with the movements of the hand 4 by developing the letters in an artistic way, so that the letter does not spring from merely mechanical movements of the hand, it will then have an individual character in which the eye itself will ta#e pleasure. Tualities of the soul are thus brought into play and the life of feeling develops at an age when it can best flow into the physical organism with health:giving power. J J J I wonder what you would say if you were to see someone with a plate of fish in front of him, carefully cutting away the flesh and consuming the bones. 3ou would certainly be afraid the bones might cho#e him and that in any case he would not be able to digest them. 2n another level, the level of the soul, e+actly the same thing happens when we give the child dry, abstract ideas instead of living pictures, instead of something that engages the activities of his whole being. These dry, abstract concepts must only be there as a #ind of support for the pictures that are to arise in the soul. When we ma#e use of this imaginative, pictorial method in education in the way I have described, we so orientate the child5s nature that his concepts will always be living and vital. We shall find that when he has passed the age of nine or nine:and:a:half, we can lead him on to a really vital understanding of an outer world in which he must of necessity learn to distinguish himself from his environment. When we have given sufficient time to spea#ing of the plant world in living pictures, we can then introduce something he can learn in the best possible way between the ninth and tenth years, gradually carrying it further during the eleventh and twelfth.

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The child is now ready to form ideas about the plant world. Dut naturally, in any system of education aiming at the living development of the human being, the way in which the plants are described must be very different from such methods as are used for no other reason than that they were usual in our own school days. To give the child a plant or flower and then ma#e him learn its name, the number of its stamens, the petals and so forth, has absolutely no meaning for human life, or at most only a conventional one. Whatever is taught the child in this way remains @uite foreign to him. Ce is merely aware of being forced to learn it, and those who teach botany to a child of eleven or twelve in this way have no true #nowledge of the real connections of %ature. To study some particular plant by itself, to have it in the specimen bo+ at home for study is 9ust as though we were to pull out a single hair and observe it as it lay there before us. The hair by itself is nothing8 it cannot grow of itself and has no meaning apart from the human head. Its meaning lies simply and solely in the fact that it grows on the head of a man, or on the s#in of an animal. 2nly in its connections has it any living import. Similarly, the plant only has meaning in its relation to the earth, to the forces of the sun and, as I shall presently show, to other forces also. In teaching children about a plant therefore, we must always begin by showing how it is related to the earth and to the sun. I can only ma#e a rough s#etch here of something that can be illustrated in pictures in a number of lessons. Cere =drawing on the blac#board> is the earth8 the roots of the plant are intimately bound up with the earth and belong to it. The chief thought to awa#en in the child is that the earth and the root belong to one another and that the blossom is drawn forth from the plant by the rays of the sun. The child is thus led out into the 'osmos in a living way. If the teacher has sufficient inner vitality it is easy to give the child at this particular age a living conception of the plant in its cosmic e+istence. To begin with, we can awa#en a feeling of how the earth:substances permeate the root8 the root then tears itself away from the earth and sends a shoot upwards8 this shoot is born of the earth and unfolds into leaf and flower by the light and warmth of the sun. The sun draws out the blossoms and the earth retains the root. Then we call the child5s attention to the fact that a moist earth, earth inwardly watery in nature, wor#s @uite differently upon the root from what a dry earth does8 that the roots become shrivelled up in a dry soil and are filled with living sap in a moist, watery earth. -gain, we e+plain how the rays of the sun, falling perpendicularly to the earth, call forth flowers of plants li#e yellow dandelions, buttercups and roses. When the rays of the sun fall obli@uely, we have plants li#e the mauve autumn crocus, and so on. 1verywhere we can point to living connections between root and earth, between blossom and sun. Caving given the child a mental picture of the plant in its cosmic setting, we pass on to describe how the whole of its growth is finally concentrated in the seed vessels from which the new plant is to grow. Then 4 and here I must to some e+tent anticipate the future 4 in a form suited to the age of the child we must begin to disclose a truth of which it is difficult as yet to spea# openly, because modern science regards it as pure superstition or so much fantastic mysticism. %evertheless it is indeed a fact that 9ust as the sun draws the coloured blossom out of the plant, so is it the forces of the moon which develop the seed:vessels. Seed is brought forth by the forces of the moon. In this way we place the plant in a living setting of the forces of the sun, moon and earth. True, one cannot enter deeply into this wor#ing of the moon forces, for if the children were to say at home that they had been taught about the connection between seeds and the moon, their parents might easily be prevailed upon by scientific friends to remove them from such a school 4 even if the parents themselves were willing to accept such things. We shall have to be somewhat reticent on this sub9ect and on many others too, in these materialistic days. Dy this radical e+ample I wished, however, to show you how necessary it is to develop living ideas, ideas that are drawn from actual reality and not from something that has no e+istence in itself. /or in itself, without the sun and the earth, the plant has no e+istence. We must now show the child something further. Cere =drawing on the blac#board> is the earth8 the earth sprouts forth, as it were, produces a hilloc# =swelling>8 this hilloc# is penetrated by the forces of air and sun. It remains earth substance no longer8 it changes into something that lies between the sappy leaf and the root in the dry soil 4 into the trun# of a tree. 2n this plant that has grown out of the earth, other plants grow 4 the branches. The child thus realizes that the trun# of the tree is really earth:substance carried upwards. This also gives an idea of the inner #inship between the earth and all that finally becomes earthy. In order to bring this fully home to the child, we show him how the wood decays, becoming more and more earthy till it finally falls into dust. In this condition the wood becomes earth once more. Then we can e+plain how sand and stone have their origin in what was once really destined for the plants, how the earth is li#e one huge plant, a giant tree out of which the various plants grow li#e branches.
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Cere we develop an idea intelligible to the child8 the whole earth as a living being of which the plants are an integral part. It is all important that the child should not get into his head the false ideas suggested by modern geology 4 that the earth consists merely of mineral substances and mineral forces. /or the plants belong to the earth as much as do the minerals. -nd now another point of great significance. To begin with, we avoid spea#ing of the mineral as such. The child is curious about many things but we shall find that he is no longer an+ious to #now what the stones are if we have conveyed to him a living idea of the plants as an integral part of the earth, drawn forth from the earth by the sun. The child has no real interest in the mineral as such. -nd it is very much to the good if up to the eleventh or twelfth years he is not introduced to the dead mineral substances but can thin# of the earth as a living being, as a tree that has already crumbled to dust, from which the plants grow li#e branches. /rom this point of view it is easy to pass on to the different plants. /or instance, I say to the child: The root of such and such a plant is trying to find soil8 its blossoms, remember, are drawn forth by the sun. Suppose that some roots cannot find any soil but only decaying earth, then the result will be that the sun cannot draw out the blossoms. Then we have a plant with no real root in the soil and no flower 4 a fungus, or mushroom:li#e growth. We now e+plain how a plant li#e a fungus, having found no proper soil in the earth, is able to ta#e root in something partly earth, partly plant, that is, in the trun# of a tree. Thus it becomes a tree:lichen, that greyish:green lichen which one finds on the bar# of a tree, a parasite. /rom a study of the living, weaving forces of the earth itself, we can lead on to a characterization of all the different plants. -nd when the child has been given living ideas of the growth of the plants, we can pass on from this study of the living plant to a conception of the whole surface of the earth. In some regions yellow flowers abound8 in others the plants are stunted in their growth, and in each case the face of the earth is different. Thus we reach geography, which can play a great part in the child5s development if we lead up to it from the plants. We should try to give an idea of the face of the earth by connecting the forces at wor# on its surface with the varied plant:life we find in the different regions. Then we unfold a living instead of a dead intellectual faculty in the child. The very best age for this is the time between the ninth or tenth and the eleventh or twelfth years. If we can give the child this conception of the weaving activity of the earth whose inner life brings forth the different forms of the plants, we give him living and not dead ideas, ideas which have the same characteristics as a limb of the human body. - limb has to develop in earliest youth. If we enclosed a hand for instance in an iron glove, it could not grow. 3et it is constantly being said that the ideas we give to children should be as definite as possible, they should be definitions and the children ought always to be learning them. Dut nothing is more hurtful to the child than definitions and rigid ideas, for these have no @uality of growth. %ow the human being must grow as his organism grows. The child must be given mobile concepts, concepts whose form is constantly changing as he becomes more mature. If we have a certain idea when we are forty years of age, it should not be a mere repetition of something we learnt at ten years of age. It ought to have changed its form, 9ust as our limbs and the whole of our organism have changed. ,iving ideas cannot be roused if we only give the child what is nowadays called 6science,7 the dead #nowledge which we so often find teaches us nothing. $ather must we give the child an idea of what is living in %ature. Then he will develop in a body which grows as %ature herself grows. We shall not then be guilty, as educational systems so often are, of implanting in a body engaged in a process of natural development, elements of soul:life that are dead and incapable of growth. We shall foster a living growing soul in harmony with a living, growing physical organism and this alone can lead to a true development. This true development can best be induced by studying the life of plants in intimate connection with the configuration of the earth. The child should feel the life of the earth and the life of the plants as a unity: #nowledge of the earth should be at the same time a #nowledge of the world of the plants. The child should first of all be shown how the lifeless mineral is a residue of life, for the tree decays and falls into dust. -t the particular age of which I am now spea#ing, nothing in the way of mineralogy should be taught the child. Ce must first be given ideas and concepts of what is living. That is an essential thing. J J J Hust as the world of the plants should be related to the earth and the child should learn to thin# of it as the offspring of a living earth:organism, so should the animal:world as a whole be related to man. The child is thus enabled in a living
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way to find his own place in %ature and in the world. Ce begins to understand that the plant:tapestry belongs to the living earth. 2n the other hand, however, we teach him to realize that the various animals spread over the world represent, in a certain sense, stages of a path to the human state. That the plants have #inship to the earth, the animals to man 4 this should be the basis from which we start. I can only 9ustify it here as a principle8 the actual details of what is taught to a child of ten, eleven or twelve years concerning the animal world must be wor#ed out with true artistic feeling. In a very simple, very elementary way, we begin by calling the child5s attention to the nature of man. This is @uite possible if the preliminary artistic foundations have already been laid. The child will learn to understand, in however simple a sense, that man has a threefold organization. /irst, there is the head. - hard shell encloses the system of nerves and the softer parts that lie within it. The head may thus be compared with the round earth within the 'osmos. We shall do our utmost to give the child a concrete, artistic understanding of the head:system and then lead on to the second member, the rhythmic system which includes the organs of breathing and circulation of the blood. Caving spo#en of the artistic modelling of the cup:li#e formation of the s#ull which encloses the soft parts of the brain, we pass on to consider the series of bones in the spinal column and the branching ribs. We shall study the characteristics of the chest, with its breathing and circulatory systems, that is, the human rhythmic system in its essential nature. Then we reach the third member, the system of metabolism and limbs. -s organs of movement, the limbs really maintain and support the metabolism of the body, for the processes of combustion are regulated by their activities. The limbs are connected with metabolism. ,imbs and metabolism must be ta#en together8 they constitute the third member of man5s being. To begin with, then, we ma#e this threefold division of man. If our teaching is pervaded with the necessary artistic feeling and is given in the form of pictures, it is @uite possible to convey to the child this conception of man as a threefold being. We now draw the child5s attention to the different animal species spread over the earth. We begin with the lowest forms of animal life, with creatures whose inner parts are soft and are surrounded by shell:li#e formations. 'ertain members of the lower animal species consist, strictly spea#ing, merely of a sheath surrounding the protoplasm. We show the child how these lower creatures image in a primitive way the form of the human head. 2ur head is the lower animal raised to the very highest degree of development. The head, and more particularly the nervous system, must not be correlated with the mammals or the apes, but with the lowest forms of animal life. We must go far, far bac# in the earth5s history, to the most ancient forms of animal life, and there we find creatures which are wholly a #ind of elementary head. Thus we try to ma#e the lower animal world intelligible to the child as a primitive head:organization. We then ta#e the animals somewhat higher in the scale, the fishes and their allied species. Cere the spinal column is especially developed and we e+plain that these 6half:way7 animals are beings in whom the human rhythmic system has developed, the other members being stunted. In the lowest animals, then, we find at an elementary stage, the organization corresponding to the human head. In the animal species grouped round the fishes, we find a one:sided development of the human chest:organization, and the system comprising the limbs and metabolism brings us finally to the higher animals. The organs of movement are developed in great diversity of form in the higher animals. The mechanism of a horse5s foot, a lion5s pad, or the feet of the wading animals, all these give us a golden opportunity for artistic description. 2r again, we can compare the limbs of man with the one:sided development we find in the limbs of the ape. In short, we begin to understand the higher animals by studying the plastic structure of the organs of movement, or the digestive organs. Deasts of prey differ from the ruminants in that the latter have a very long intestinal trac#, whereas in the former, while the intestinal coil is short, all that connects the heart and blood circulation with the digestive processes is strongly and powerfully developed. - study of the organization of the higher animals shows at once how one:sided is its development in comparison with the system of limbs and metabolism in man. We can give a concrete picture of how the front part of the spine in the animal is really nothing but head. The whole digestive system is continued right on into the head. The animal5s head belongs essentially to the digestive organs, to the stomach and intestines. In man, on the other hand, that which has remained, as it were, in the virginal state 4 the soft parts of the brain with their enclosing, protecting shell of bone 4 is placed above the limb and metabolic system. The head organization in man is thus raised a stage higher than in the animal, in which, as we have seen, it is merely a continuation of the metabolism. 3et man, in so far as his head organization is concerned, preserves the simplest, most fundamental principles of form, namely, soft substance within surrounded by a cup:li#e bony formation. 2ne can show too how in certain animals the structure of the 9aw can best be understood if the upper and under 9aw are regarded as the foremost limbs. This best e+plains the animal head. In this way, the human being emerges as a
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synthesis of three systems 4 head system, chest system, system of limbs and metabolism. In the animal world there is a one:sided development of the one or other system. Thus we have first, the lower animals, the crustaceans, for e+ample, but also others8 then the mammals, birds and so on, where the chest system is predominantly developed8 and finally the species of fishes, reptiles and so on.

We see, as it were, the animal #ingdom as a human being spread out in diversity over the earth. We relate the world of the plants to the earth, and the diverse animal species to man who is, in fact, the synthesis of the entire animal world. Ta#ing our start from man5s physical organization, we give the child, in a simple way, an idea of the threefold nature of his being. !assing to the animals, we e+plain how in the different species there is always a one:sided development of certain organs, whereas in man these organs are united into one harmonious whole. This one:sided specialized development is manifested by the chest organs in certain animals8 in others by the lower intestines, and in others again, by the upper organs of digestion. In many forms of animal life, birds for instance, we find metamorphoses of certain organs8 the organs of digestion become the crop, and so forth. We can characterize each animal species as representing a one:sided development of an organic system in man, so that the whole animal world appears as the being of man spread over the earth in diversity of forms, man himself being the synthesis of the animal #ingdom. When it has been made clear to the child that the animal world is the one:sided e+pression of the bodily organs of man, that one system of organs comes to e+pression as one species, another as a different species, then we can pass on to study man himself. This should be when the child is approaching his twelfth year, for he can then understand that because man bears the spirit within him, he is an artistic synthesis of the separate parts of his being, which are mirrored in the various species of animals. 2nly because man bears the spirit within him can he thus unite the lower forms of animal life in a harmonious unity. The human head and chest organizations arise as comple+ metamorphosis of animal forms, all of which have evolved in such a way that they fit in with the other parts of his body. Thus he bears within himself that which is manifested in the fishes and that which is manifested in the higher animals but harmonized into a limb. The separate fragments of man5s being scattered over the world in the realm of the animals are in man gathered together by the spirit into unity8 man is their synthesis. Thus we relate man with the animal world, but he is at the same time raised above the animals because he is the bearer of the spirit. Dotany, taught in the way I have indicated, brings life into the child5s world of ideas so that he stands rightly in the world through wisdom. - living intelligence will then enable him to become efficient in life and to find his place in the world. Cis will is strengthened if he has ac@uired an e@ually living conception of his own relation to the animal world.
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3ou will naturally realize that what I have had to discuss here in some twenty minutes or so must be developed stage by stage for a long period of time8 the child must gradually unite these ideas with his inmost nature. Then they will play no small part in the position a man may ta#e in the world by virtue of his strength of will. The will grows inwardly strong if a man realizes that by the grace of the living spirit he himself is the perfecting and the synthesis of the animal #ingdom. -nd so the aim of educational wor# must be net merely to teach facts about the plants and animals, but also to develop character, to develop the whole nature of the child. - true understanding of the life of plants brings wisdom, and a living conception of his relation to the animals strengthens the will of the child. If we have succeeded in this, the child has entered between the ninth and tenth years, into a relationship with the other living creatures of the earth such that he will be able to find his own way and place in the world through wisdom on the one hand and on the other through a purposeful strength of will. The one great ob9ect of education is to enable the human being to find his way through life by his intelligence and will. These two will develop from the life of feeling that has unfolded in the child between the ages of seven and nine: and:a:half. Thin#ing, feeling and willing are then brought into a right relationship instead of developing in a chaotic way. 1verything is rooted in feeling. We must therefore begin with the child5s sentient life and from feeling engender the faculty of thought through a comprehension of the #ingdom of the plants. /or the life of the plants will never admit of dead conceptions. The will is developed if we lead the child to a #nowledge of his connection with the animals and of the human spirit that lifts man above them. Thus we strive to impart sound wisdom and strength of will8 to the human being. This indeed is our tas# in education, for this alone will ma#e him fully man and the evolution of the full manhood is the goal of all education. ,1'T<$1 II -$ITC01TI', "1201T$3, CIST2$3 1)th August, 1 A*. -rithmetic and geometry, indeed all mathematics, occupy a uni@ue position in education. 1ducation can only be filled with the necessary vitality and give rise to a real interplay between the soul of the teacher and the soul of the child, if the teacher fully realizes the conse@uences of his actions and methods. Ce must #now e+actly what effect is made on the child by the treatment he receives in school, or anywhere else. 0an is a being of body, soul and spirit8 his bodily nature is formed and moulded by the spirit. The teacher, then, must always be aware of what is ta#ing place in the soul and spirit when any change occurs in the body, and again, what effect is produced in the body when influences are brought to bear on the life of spirit or soul. -nything that wor#s upon the child5s conceptual and imaginative faculties, anything that is to say of the nature of painting or drawing which is then led over into writing, or again, botany taught in the way indicated yesterday, all this has a definite effect. -nd here, above all, we must consider a higher member of man5s being, a member to which I have already referred as the etheric body, or body of formative forces. The human being has, in the first place, his physical body. It is revealed to ordinary physical sense:perception. Desides this physical body, however, he has an inner organization, perceptible only to Imaginative 'ognition, a supersensible, etheric body. -gain he has an organization perceptible only to Inspiration, the ne+t stage of supersensible #nowledge. =These e+pressions need not confuse us8 they are merely terms.> Inspiration gives insight into the so:called astral body and into the real 1go, the Self of the human being. /rom birth till death, this etheric body, this body of formative forces which is the first supersensible member of man5s being never separates from the physical body. 2nly at death does this occur. &uring sleep, the etheric organization remains with the physical body lying there in bed. When man sleeps, the astral body and 1go:organization leave the physical and etheric bodies and enter them again at the moment of wa#ing. %ow it is the physical and etheric bodies which are affected when the child is taught arithmetic or geometry, or when we lead him on to writing from the basis of drawing and painting. -ll this remains in the etheric body and its vibrations persist during sleep. 2n the other hand, history and such a study of the animal #ingdom as I spo#e of in yesterday5s lecture wor# only upon the astral body and 1go:organization. What results from these studies passes out of the physical and etheric bodies into the spiritual world during sleep.

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If, therefore, we are teaching the child plant:lore or writing, the effects are preserved by the physical and etheric bodies during sleep, whereas the results of history lessons or lessons on the nature of man are different, for they are carried out into the spiritual world by the 1go and astral body. This points to an essential difference between the effects produced by the different lessons. We must realize that all impressions of an imaginative or pictorial nature made on the child have the tendency to become more and more perfect during sleep. 2n the other hand, everything we tell the child on the sub9ect of history or the being of man wor#s on his organization of soul and spirit and tends to be forgotten, to fade away and grow dim during sleep. In teaching therefore, we have necessarily to consider whether the sub9ect:matter wor#s upon the etheric and physical bodies or upon the astral body and 1go:organization. Thus on the one hand, the study of the plant #ingdom, the rudiments of writing and reading of which I spo#e yesterday affect the physical and etheric bodies. =I shall spea# about the teaching of history later on.> 2n the other hand, all that is learnt of man5s relation to the animal #ingdom affects the astral body and 1go:organization, those higher members which pass out of the physical and etheric bodies during sleep. Dut the remar#able thing is that arithmetic and geometry wor# upon both the physical:etheric and the astral and 1go. -s regards their role in education arithmetic and geometry are really li#e a chameleon8 by their very nature they are allied to every part of man5s being. Whereas lessons on the plant and animal #ingdoms should be given at a definite age, arithmetic and geometry must be taught throughout the whole period of childhood, though naturally in a form suited to the changing characteristics of the different life:periods. It is all:important to remember that the body of formative forces, the etheric body, begins to function independently when it is abandoned by the 1go and astral body. Dy virtue of its own inherent forces, it has ever the tendency to bring to perfection and develop what has been brought to it. So far as our astral body and 1go are concerned, we are 4 stupid, shall I sayL /or instead of perfecting what has been conveyed to these members of our being, we ma#e it less perfect. &uring sleep, however, our body of formative forces continues to calculate, continues all that it has received as arithmetic and the li#e. We ourselves are then no longer within the physical and etheric bodies8 but supersensibly, they continue to calculate or to draw geometrical figures and perfect them. If we are aware of this fact and plan our teaching accordingly, great vitality can be generated in the being of the child. We must, however, ma#e it possible for the body of formative forces to perfect and develop what it has previously received. In geometry, therefore, we must not ta#e as our starting point the abstractions and intellectual formulae that are usually considered the right groundwor#. We must begin with inner, not outer perception, by stimulating in the child a strong sense of symmetry for instance.

1ven in the case of the very youngest children we can begin to do this. /or e+ample: we draw some figure on the blac#board and indicate the beginning of the symmetrical line. Then we try to ma#e the child realize that the figure is not complete8 he himself must find out how to complete it. In this way we awa#en an inner, active urge in the child to complete something as yet unfinished. This helps him to e+press an absolutely right conception of something that is a reality. The teacher, of course, must have inventive talent but that is always a very good thing. -bove all else the teacher must have mobile, inventive thought. When he has given these e+ercises for a certain time, he will proceed to others. /or instance, he may draw some such figure as this =left> on the blac#board, and then he tries to awa#en in the child an inner conception of its spatial proportions. The outer line is then varied and the child gradually learns to draw an inner form corresponding to the outer
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=right>. In the one the curves are absolutely straightforward and simple. In the other, the lines curve outwards at various points. Then we should e+plain to the child that for the sa#e of inner symmetry

he must ma#e in the inner figure an inward curve at the place where the lines curve outwards in the outer figure. In the first diagram a simple line corresponds to another simple line, whereas in the second, an inward curve corresponds to an outward curve.

2r again we draw something of this #ind, where the figures together form a harmonious whole. We vary this by leaving the forms incomplete, so that the lines flow away from each other to infinity. It is as if the lines were running away and one would li#e to go with them. This leads to the idea that they should be bent inwards to regulate and complete the figure, and so on. I can only indicate the principle of the thing. Driefly, by wor#ing in this way, we give the child an idea of 6a:symmetrical symmetries7 and so prepare the body of formative forces in his wa#ing life that during sleep it elaborates and perfects what has been absorbed during the day. Then the child will wa#e in an etheric body, and a physical body also, inwardly and organically vibrant. Ce will be full of life and vitality. This can, of course, only be achieved when the teacher has some #nowledge of the wor#ing of the etheric body8 if there is no such #nowledge, all efforts in this direction will be mechanical and superficial. - true teacher is not only concerned with the wa#ing life but also with what ta#es place during sleep. In this connection it is important to understand certain things that happen to us all now and again. /or instance, we may have pondered over some problem in the evening without finding a solution. In the morning we have solved the problem. WhyL Decause the etheric body, the body of formative forces, has continued its independent activity during the night.
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In many respects wa#ing life is not a perfecting but a disturbing process. It is necessary for us to leave our physical and etheric bodies to themselves for a time and not limit them by the activity of the astral body and 1go. This is proved by many things in life8 for instance by the e+ample already given of someone who is puzzling over a problem in the evening. When he wa#es up in the morning he may feel slightly restless but suddenly finds that the solution has come to him unconsciously during the night. These things are not fables8 they actually happen and have been proved as conclusively as many another e+periment. What has happened in this particular caseL The wor# of the etheric body has continued through the night and the human being has been asleep the whole time. 3ou will say: 63es, but that is not a normal occurrence, one cannot wor# on such a principle.7 De that as it may, it is possible to assist the continued activity of the etheric body during sleep, if, instead of beginning geometry with triangles and the li#e, where the intellectual element is already in evidence, we begin by conveying a concrete conception of space. In arithmetic, too, we must proceed in the same way. I will spea# of this ne+t. J J J - pamphlet on physics and mathematics written by &r. von Daravalle =a teacher at the Waldorf School> will give you an e+cellent idea of how to bring concreteness into arithmetic and geometry. This whole mode of thought is e+tended in the pamphlet to the realm of physics as well, though it deals chiefly with higher mathematics. If we penetrate to its underlying essence, it is a splendid guide for teaching mathematics in a way that corresponds to the organic needs of the child5s being. - starting:point has indeed been found for a reform in the method of teaching mathematics and physics from earliest childhood up to the highest stages of instruction. -nd we can apply to the domain of arithmetic what is said in this pamphlet about concrete conceptions of space. %ow the point is that everything conveyed in an e+ternal way to the child by arithmetic or even by counting deadens something in the human organism. To start from the single thing and add to it piece by piece is simply to deaden the organism of man. Dut if we first awa#en a conception of the whole, starting from the whole and then proceeding to its parts, the organism is vitalised. This must be borne in mind even when the child is learning to count. -s a rule we learn to count by being made to observe purely e+ternal things 4 things of material, physical life. /irst we have the 1 4 we call this <nity. Then A, *, ), and so forth, are added, unit by unit, and we have no idea whatever why the one follows the other, nor of what happens in the end. We are taught to count by being shown an arbitrary 9u+taposition of units. I am well aware that there are many different methods of teaching children to count, but very little attention is paid nowadays to the principle of starting from the whole and then proceeding to the parts. <nity it is which first of all must be grasped as the whole and by the child as well. -nything whatever can be this <nity. Cere we are obliged to illustrate it in a drawing. We must therefore draw a line8 but we could use an apple 9ust as well to show what I shall now show with a line.

This then is 1. -nd now we go on from the whole to the parts, or members. Cere then we have made of the 1 a A, but the 1 still remains. The unit has been divided into two. Thus we arrive at the A. -nd now we go on. Dy a further partition the * comes into being, but the unit always remains as the all:embracing whole. Then we go on through the ), ?, and so on. 0oreover, at the same time and by other means we can give an idea of the e+tent to which it is possible to hold together in the mind the things that relate to number and we shall discover how really limited man is in his power of mental presentation where number is concerned. In certain nations to:day the concept of number that is clearly held in the mind5s eye only goes up to 1O. Cere in this country money is rec#oned up to 1A. Dut that really represents the ma+imum of what is mentally visualised for in reality we then begin over again and in fact count what has been counted. We first count up to 1O, then we begin counting the tens, A times 1OWAO, * times 1OW*O. Cere we are no longer considering the things themselves. We begin to calculate by
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using number itself, whereas the more elementary concept re@uires the things themselves to be clearly present in the mind.

We are very proud of the fact that we are far advanced in our methods of counting compared with primitive peoples who depend on their ten fingers. Dut there is little foundation for this pride. We count up to 1O because we sense our hands as members. We feel our two hands symmetrically with their 1O fingers. This feeling also arises and is inwardly e+perienced by the child, and we must call forth the sense of number by a transition from the whole to the parts. Then we shall easily find the other transition which leads us to the counting in which one is added to another. 1ventually, of course, we can pass on to the ordinary 1, A, *, etc. Dut this mere adding of one or more units must only be introduced as a second stage, for it has significance only here in physical space, whereas to divide a unity into its members has an inner significance such that it can continue to vibrate in the etheric body even though @uite beneath our consciousness. It is important to #now these things. Caving taught the child to count in this way, the following will also be important. We must not pass on to addition in a lifeless, mechanical way merely adding one item to another in series. ,ife comes into the thing when we ta#e our start not from the parts of the addition sum but from the sum total itself. We ta#e a number of ob9ects8 for e+ample, a number of little balls. We have now got far enough in counting to be able to say: Cere are 1) balls. %ow we divide them, e+tending this concept of a part still further. Cere we have ?, here ), here ? again. Thus we have separated the sum into ? and ) and ?. That is, we go from the sum to the items composing it, from the whole to the parts. The method we should use with the child is first to set down the sum before him and then let the child himself perceive how the given sum can be divided into several items. This is e+ceedingly important. Hust as to drive a horse we do not harness him tail foremost, so in the teaching of arithmetic we must have the right direction. We must start from a whole which is always actually present, from a reality, from what is present as a whole and then pass on to the separate parts8 later, we find our way to the ordinary addition sum. 'ontinuing thus, from the living whole to the separate parts, one touches the reality underlying all arithmetical calculations: i#e#, the setting in vibration of the body of formative forces. This body needs a living stimulus for its formative activity and once energised it will continually perfect the vibrations without the need of drawing upon the astral body and 1go:organization with their disturbing elements. 3our teaching wor# will also be essentially enhanced and vivified if you similarly reverse the other simple forms of calculation. To:day, one might say, they are standing on their heads and must be reversed. Try, for instance, to bring the child to say: 6If I have M, how much must I ta#e away to get *,7 instead of 6What remains over if I ta#e ) from ML7 That we have M is the real thing and that * remains is also real8 how much must we ta#e away from M to get *L Deginning with this form of thought we stand in the midst of life, whereas with the opposite form we are dealing with abstractions. !roceeding in this way, we can easily find our way further. Thus, once more, in multiplication and division we should not as# what will result when we divide 1O into two parts, but how must we divide 1O to get the number ?. The real aspect is given8 moreover in life we want eventually to get at something which has real significance. Cere are two children, 1O apples are to be divided among them. 1ach of them is to get ?. These are the realities. What we have to deal with is the abstract part that comes in the middle. &one in this way, things are always immediately adapted to life and should we succeed in this, the result will be that what is the usual, purely e+ternal way of adding, by counting up one thing after another with a deadening effect upon the arithmetic lessons, will become a vivifying force, of especial importance in this
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branch of our educational wor#. -nd it is evident that precisely by this method we ta#e into account the sub:conscious in man, that is, the part which wor#s on during sleep and which also wor#s subconsciously during the wa#ing hours. /or one is aware of a small part only of the soul5s e+perience8 nevertheless the rest is continually active. ,et us ma#e it possible for the physical and etheric bodies of the child to wor# in a healthy way, realizing that we can only do so if we bring an intense life, an awa#ened interest and attention, especially into our teaching of arithmetic and geometry. The @uestion has arisen during this 'onference as to whether it is really a good thing to continue the different lessons for certain periods of time as we do in the Waldorf School. %ow a right division of the lessons into periods is fruitful in the very highest degree. 6!eriod7 teaching means that one lesson shall not perpetually encroach upon another. Instead of having timetables setting forth definite hours: 4 N X , arithmetic, X 1O, history, religion, or whatever it may be, we give one main lesson on the same sub9ect for two hours every morning for a period of three, four, or five wee#s. Then for perhaps five or si+ wee#s we pass on to another sub9ect, but one which in my view should develop out of the other, and which is always the same during the two hours. The child thus concentrates upon a definite sub9ect for some wee#s. The @uestion was as#ed whether too much would not be forgotten, whether in this way the children would not lose what they had been taught. If the lessons have been rightly given, however, the previous sub9ect will go on wor#ing in the subconscious regions while another is being ta#en. In 6period7 lessons we must always rec#on with the subconscious processes in the child. There is nothing more fruitful than to allow the results of the teaching given during a period of three or four wee#s to rest within the soul and so wor# on in the human being without interference. It will soon be apparent that when a sub9ect has been rightly taught and the time comes round for ta#ing it up again for a further period it emerges in a different form from what it does when it has not been well taught. To ma#e the ob9ection that because the sub9ects will be forgotten it cannot be right to teach in this way, is to ignore the factors that are at wor#. We must naturally rec#on on being able to forget, for 9ust thin# of all we should have to carry about in our heads if we could not forget and then remember again. The part played by the fact of forgetting therefore as well as the actual instruction must be rec#oned with in true education. This does not mean that it should be a matter for re9oicing whenever children forget. That may safely be left to them. 1verything depends on what has so passed down into the subconscious regions, that it can be duly recalled. The unconscious belongs to the being of man as well as the conscious. In regard to all these matters we must realize that it is the tas# of education to appeal not only to the whole human being, but also to his different parts and members. Cere again it is essential to start from the whole8 there must first be comprehension of the whole and then of the parts. Dut to this end it is also necessary to ta#e one5s start from the whole. /irst we must grasp the whole and then the parts. If in counting we simply place one thing beside another, and add, and add, and add, we are leaving out the human being as a whole. Dut we do appeal to the whole human being when we lay hold of <nity and go from that to %umbers, when we lay hold of the sum, the minuend, the product and thence pass on to the parts. J J J The teaching of history is very open to the danger of our losing sight of the human being. We have seen that in really fruitful education everything must be given its right place. The plants must be studied in their connection with the earth and the different animal species in their connection with man. Whatever the sub9ect:matter, the concrete human element must be retained8 everything must be related in some way to man. Dut when we begin to teach the child history, we must understand that at the age when it is @uite possible for him to realize the connection of plant:life with the earth and the earth itself as an organism, when he can see in the human being a living synthesis of the whole animal #ingdom, he is still unable to form any idea of so:called causal connections in history. We may teach history very s#ilfully in the ordinary sense, describing one epoch after another and showing how the first is the cause of the second8 we may describe how in the history of art, 0ichelangelo followed ,eonardo da Ginci, for instance, in a natural se@uence of cause and effect. Dut before the age of twelve, the child has no understanding for the wor#ing of cause and effect, a principle which has become conventional in more advanced studies. To deduce the later from the earlier seems to him li#e so much unmusical strumming on a piano, and it is only by dint of coercion that he will ta#e it in at all. It has the same effect on his soul as a piece of stone that is swallowed and passes into the stomach. Hust as we would never dream of giving the stomach a stone instead of bread, so we must ma#e sure that we nourish the soul not with stones but with food that it can assimilate. -nd so history too, must be brought into connection with 0an and to that end our first care must be to awa#en a conception of the historical se@uence of ti'e in connection with the human being. ,et us ta#e three history boo#s, the first dealing with anti@uity, the second with the 0iddle -ges, and the third with our modern age. -s a rule, little attention is paid to the conception of time in itself. Dut suppose I begin by saying to the child: 63ou are now ten years old, so you were alive in the year 1 1*. 3our father is much older than you and he was
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alive in the year 1N O8 his father, again, was alive in 1N?O. %ow imagine that you are standing here and stretching your arm bac# to someone who represents your father8 he stretches his arm bac# to his father =your grandfather>, now you have reached the year 1N?O.7 The child then begins to realize that appro+imately one century is represented by three or four generations. The line of generations running bac#wards from the twentieth century brings him finally to his very early ancestors. Thus the si+tieth generation bac# leads into the epoch of the birth of 'hrist. In a large room it will be possible to arrange some si+ty children standing in a line, stretching an arm bac#wards to each other. Space is, as it were, changed into time. If the teacher has a fertile, inventive mind, he can find other ways and means of e+pressing the same thing 4 I am merely indicating a principle. In this way the child begins to realize that he hi'self is part of history8 figures li#e -lfred the "reat, 'romwell and others are made to appear as if they themselves were ancestors. The whole of history thus becomes an actual part of life at school when it is presented to the child in the form of a living conception of time. Cistory must never be separated from the human being. The child must not thin# of it as so much boo#:lore. 0any people seem to thin# that history is something contained in boo#s, although of course it is not always @uite as bad as that. -t all events, we must try by every possible means to awa#en a realization that history is a living process and that man himself stands within its stream. When a true conception of time has been awa#ened, we can begin to imbue history with inner life and soul, 9ust as we did in the case of arithmetic and geometry, by unfolding not a dead but a living perception. There is a great deal of @uibbling to:day about the nature of perception, but the whole point is that we must unfold living and not dead perception. In the symmetry:e+ercises of which I spo#e, the soul actually lives in the act of perception. That is li!ing perception. Hust as our aim is to awa#en a living perception of space, so must all healthy teaching of history given to a child between the ages of nine and twelve be filled with an element proceeding in this case not from the @ualities of space, but from the @ualities of heart and soul. The history lessons must be permeated through and through with a @uality proceeding from the heart. -nd so we must present it as far as possible in the form of pictures. /igures, real forms must stand there and they must never be described in a cold, prosaic way. Without falling into the error of using them as e+amples for moral or religious admonition, our descriptions must nevertheless be coloured with both morality and religion. Cistory must above all lay hold of the child5s life of feeling and will. Ce must be able to enter into a personal relationship with historic figures and with the modes of life prevailing in the various historical epochs. %or need we confine ourselves merely to descriptions of human beings. We may, for instance, describe the life of some town in the twelfth century, but everything we say must enter the domains of feeling and will in the child. Ce must himself be able to live in the events, to form his own sympathies and antipathies. Cis life of feeling and will must be stimulated. This will show you that the element of art must everywhere enter into the teaching of history. The element of art comes into play when, as I often describe it, a true economy is e+ercised in teaching. This economy can be e+ercised if the teacher has thoroughly mastered his sub9ect:matter before he goes into the classroom8 if it is no longer necessary for him to ponder over anything because if rightly prepared it is there plastically before his soul. Ce must be so well prepared that the only thing still to be done is the artistic moulding of his lesson. The problem of teaching is thus not merely a @uestion of the pupil5s interest and diligence, but first and foremost of the teacher5s interest, diligence and sincerity. %o lesson should be given that has not previously been a matter of deep e+perience on the part of the teacher. 2bviously, therefore, the organization of the body of teachers must be such that every teacher is given ample time to ma#e himself completely master of the lessons he has to give. It is a dreadful thing to see a teacher wal#ing round the des#s with a boo# in his hands, still wrestling with the sub9ect:matter. Those who do not realize how contrary such a thing is to all true principles of education do not #now what is going on unconsciously in the souls of the children, nor do they realize the terrible effect of this unconscious e+perience. If we give history lessons in school from note:boo#s, the child comes to a certain definite conclusion, not consciously, but unconsciously. It is an unconscious, intellectual conclusion, but it is deeply rooted in his organism: 6Why should I learn all these thingsL The teacher himself doesn5t #now them, for he has to read from notes. I can do that too, later on, so there is no need for me to learn them first.7 The child does not of course come to this conclusion consciously, but as a matter of fact when 9udgments are rooted in the unconscious life of heart and mind, they have all the greater force. The lessons must pulsate with inner vitality and freshness proceeding from the teacher5s own being. When he is describing historical figures for instance the teacher should not first of all have to verify dates. I have already spo#en of the way in which we should convey a conception of time by a picture of successive generations. -nother element too must pervade the teaching of history. It must flow forth from the teacher himself. %othing must be abstract8 the teacher himself as a human being must be the vital factor.
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It has been said many times that education should wor# upon the being of man as a whole and not merely on one part of his nature. Important as it is to consider what the child ought to learn and whether we are primarily concerned with his intellect or his will, the @uestion of the teacher5s influence is e@ually important. Since it is a matter of educating the whole nature and being of man, the teacher must himself be 6man7 in the full sense of the word, that is to say, not one who teaches and wor#s on the basis of mechanical memory or mechanical #nowledge, but who teaches out of his own being, his full manhood. That is the essential thing. ,1'T<$1 I !C3SI'S, 'C10IST$3, C-%&W2$;, ,-%"<-"1, $1,I"I2% 1?th August, 1 A*. /rom what I have said as to the way. in which we should teach the child about %ature, about plant and animal, I thin# you will have realized that the aim of the Waldorf School is to adapt the curriculum e+actly to the needs of the child5s development at the successive stages of growth. I have already spo#en of the significant turning:point occurring between the ninth and tenth years. 2nly now does the child begin to realize himself as an individual apart from the world. Defore this age there is in his life of thought and feeling no sense of separation between himself and the phenomena of the outer world. <p to the ninth year, therefore, we must spea# of plants, animals, mountains, rivers and so on in the language of fairy:tales, appealing above all to the child5s fantasy. We must ma#e him feel as if his own being were spea#ing to him from the outer world, from plant, mountain and spring. If you will bear in mind the way in which after this age we lead on into botany and zoology, you will realize that the aim of the teaching is to bring the child into a true relationship with the world around him. Ce learns to #now the plants in their connection with the earth and studies them all from this point of view. The earth becomes a living being who brings forth the plants, 9ust as the living human head brings forth hair, only of course the forms contained in the earth, the plants, have a much richer life and variety. Such a relationship with the plant world and with the whole earth is of great value to the well:being of the child in body and soul. If we teach him to see man as a synthesis of the animal species spread over the earth, we help to bring him into a true relationship with other living beings standing below him in the scale of creation. <ntil the age of eleven or twelve, the mainspring of all %ature:study should be the relationship of the human being to the world. Then comes the age when for the first time we may draw the child5s attention to processes going on in the outer world independently of man. Detween the eleventh and twelfth years, and not until then, we may begin to teach about the minerals and roc#s. The plants as they grow out of the earth are in this sense related to stone and mineral. 1arlier teaching about the mineral #ingdom in any other form than this in9ures the child5s mobility of soul. That which has no relationship with man is mineral. We should only begin to deal with the mineral #ingdom when the child has found his own relation to the two #ingdoms of nature which are nearest to him, when in thought and feeling he has grasped the life of the plants and his will has been strengthened by a true conception of the animals. What applies to the minerals applies e@ually to physics and chemistry, and to all so:called causal connections in history and geography, in short, to all processes that must be studied as only indirectly related to the human being in the sense of which I spo#e yesterday. The teaching of all this should be postponed until the period lying between the eleventh and twelfth years. The right age for a child to begin his school life is when he gets his second teeth, i#e# at about the seventh year. <ntil then, school is not really the place for him. If we have to ta#e a child before this age, all #inds of compromises are necessary. I will however, e+plain certain basic principles When the child first comes to school, we teach him in such a way that as yet he ma#es no distinction or separation between himself and the world at large. Detween the ninth and tenth years we begin to awa#en a living understanding through a #nowledge of the plants, and to strengthen his will through a #nowledge of the animals. In mineralogy, physics, and chemistry we can only wor# through the intellect, and then as a necessary counterbalance art must be introduced. =I shall be spea#ing more of this in to:morrow5s lecture.> /rom the eleventh or twelfth year onwards we shall find that the child is able to form a rational, intellectual conception of cause and effect and this must now be elaborated by physics and chemistry. These processes which should gradually lead into the study of astronomy must not however be e+plained to the child before he has reached the age of eleven or twelve. If we describe simple chemical processes 4 combustion for instance 4 before this age, our descriptions must be purely pictorial and imaginative. -bstract reasoning from cause to effect should not be introduced until the child is between eleven and twelve years of age. The less we spea# of causality before this time the stronger, the more vital and rich will the soul become8 if, on the other hand, we are constantly spea#ing of causality to a younger child, dead concepts and even dead feelings will pass with a withering effect into his soul.
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The aim of the Waldorf School has been on the one hand to base the whole curriculum upon the actual nature of the human being8 thus we include in the curriculum all that answers to the needs of the child at each of the different life: periods. 2n the other hand, we strive to enable the child to ta#e his rightful part in the social life of the world. To achieve this we must pass on from physics and chemistry to various forms of practical wor# when the child has reached the fourteenth and fifteenth years. In the classes for children of this age, therefore, we have introduced hand: spinning and weaving, for these things are an aid to an intelligent understanding of practical life. It is good for boys and girls to #now the principles of spinning and weaving, even of factory:spinning. They should also have some #nowledge of elementary technical chemistry, of the preparation and manufacture of colours and the li#e. &uring their school life children ought to ac@uire really practical ideas of their environment. The affairs of ordinary life often remain @uite incomprehensible to many people to:day because the teaching they receive at school does not lead over at the right moment to the practical activities of life and of the world in general. In a certain direction this is bound to in9ure the whole development of the soul. Thin# for a moment of the sensitiveness of the human body to some element in the air, for instance, which the organism cannot assimilate. In the social life of the world of course conditions are not @uite the same. In social life we are forced to put up with many incongruities, but we can adapt ourselves if at the right age we have learnt in some measure to understand them. Hust thin# how many people nowadays get into a train without having the least idea of the principles governing its motion, its mechanism. They see a railway every day and have absolutely no notion of the machinery of an engine. This means that they are surrounded on all hands by inventions and creations of the human mind with which they have no contact at all. It is the beginning of unsocial life simply to accept these creations and inventions of the mind of man without understanding them. -t the Waldorf School therefore when the children are fourteen or fifteen years old, we begin to give instruction in matters that play a role in practical life. This age of adolescence is nowadays regarded from a very limited, one:sided point of view. The truth is that at puberty the human being opens out to the world. Citherto he has lived chiefly within himself, but he is now ready to understand his fellow:men and the social life of the world. Cence to concentrate before puberty on all that relates man to %ature is to act in accordance with true principles of human development, but at the age of fourteen or fifteen the children must be made ac@uainted with the achievements of the human mind. This will enable them to understand and find their right place in social life. If educationalists had followed this principle some si+ty or seventy years ago, the so:called 6Social 0ovement7 of to:day would have ta#en a @uite different form in 1urope and -merica. Tremendous progress has been made in technical and commercial efficiency during the last si+ty or seventy years. "reat progress has been made in technical s#ill, national trade has become world trade, and finally a world:economy has arisen from national economies. In the last si+ty or seventy years the outer configuration of social life has entirely changed, yet our mode of education has continued as if nothing had happened. We have utterly neglected to ac@uaint our children with the practical affairs of the world at the time when this should be done, namely, at the age of fourteen or fifteen. %evertheless at the Waldorf School we are not so narrow:minded as to loo# down in any way on higher classical education, for in many respects it is e+tremely beneficial8 we prepare pupils whose parents desire it, or who desire it themselves, both for a higher classical education and for final certificates and diplomas. Dut we do not forget how necessary it is for our age to understand the reason that induced the "ree#s, whose one purpose in education was to serve the ends of practical life, not to spend all their time learning 1gyptian, a language belonging to the far past. 2n the other hand, we ma#e a special point of familiarizing our boys, and girls too, with a world not of the present but of the past. What wonder that human beings as a rule have so little understanding of how to live in the world of the present. The world5s destiny has grown beyond man5s control simply because education has not #ept pace with the changing conditions of social life. In the Waldorf School we try to realize that it is indeed possible to develop the human being to full manhood and to help him to find his true place in the ran#s of humanity. J J J 2ur endeavour to develop the child in such a way that he may later reveal the @ualities of full manhood and on the other hand be able to find his true place in the world is more especially furthered by the way in which languages are taught. So far as the mother:tongue is concerned, of course, the teaching is adapted to the age of the child8 it is given in the form I have already described in connection with other lessons. -n outstanding feature of the Waldorf School, however, is that we begin to teach the child two foreign languages, /rench and 1nglish, directly he comes to school, at the age of si+ or seven. Dy this means we endeavour to give our children something that will be more and more necessary in the future for the purposes of practical life. To understand the purely human aspect of the teaching of languages we must
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remember that the faculty of speech is rooted in the very depths of man5s being. The mother:tongue is so deeply rooted in the breathing system, the blood circulation, and in the configuration of the vascular system, that the child is affected not only in spirit and soul, but in spirit, soul and body by the way in which this mother:tongue comes to e+pression within him. We must realize however that the forces of languages in the world permeate man and bring the human element to e+pression in @uite different ways. In the case of primitive languages this is @uite obvious8 that it is also true of the more civilized languages often escapes recognition. %ow amongst 1uropean languages there is one that proceeds purely from the element of feeling. -lthough in the course of time intellectualism has tinged the element of pure feeling, feeling is nevertheless the basis of this particular language8 hence the elements of intellect and will are less firmly implanted in the human being through the language itself. Dy a study of other languages then, the elements of will and intellect must be unfolded. -gain, we have a language that emanates particularly from the element of plastic fantasy, which, so to say, pictures things in its notation of sounds. Decause this is so, the child ac@uires an innately plastic, innately formative power as he learns to spea#. -nother language in civilized 1urope is rooted chiefly in the element of will. Its very cadences, the structure of its vowels and consonants reveal that this is so. When people spea#, it is as though they were sending bac# waves of the sea along the out:breathed air. The element of will is living in this language. 2ther languages call forth in man to a greater e+tent the elements of feeling, music, or imagination. In short each different language is related to the human being in a particular way. 3ou will say that I ought to name these various languages, but I purposely avoid doing so, because we have not reached a point of being able to face the civilized world so ob9ectively that we can bear the whole impersonal truth of these things. /rom what I have said about the character of the different languages, you will realize that the effects produced on the nature of man by one particular 6genius of speech7 must be balanced by the effects of another, if, that is to say, our aim is really a human and not a specialized, racial development of man. This is the reason why at the Waldorf School we begin with three languages, even in the case of the very youngest children8 a great deal of time, moreover, is devoted to this sub9ect. It is good to begin teaching foreign languages at this early age, because up to the point lying between the ninth and tenth years the child still bears within him something of the @uality characteristic of the first period of life, from birth to the time of the change of teeth. &uring these years the child is pre:eminently an imitative being. Ce learns his mother: tongue wholly by imitation. Without any claim whatever being made on the intellect, the child imitates the language spo#en around him, and learns at the same time not only the outer sounds and tones of speech, but also the inner, musical, soul element of the language. Cis first language is ac@uired 4 if I may be allowed the e+pression 4 as a finer #ind of habit which passes into the depths of his whole being. When the child comes to school after the time of the change of teeth, the teaching of languages appeals more to the soul and less strongly to the bodily nature. %evertheless, up to the ages of nine and ten the child still brings with him a sufficient faculty of fantasy and imitation to enable us to mould the teaching of a language in such a way that it will be absorbed by his whole being, not merely by the forces of soul and spirit. This is why it is of such far:reaching importance not to let the first three years of school:life slip by without any instruction in foreign languages. 2n purely educational principles we begin to teach foreign languages in the Waldorf School directly the child enters the elementary classes. I need hardly say that the teaching of languages is closely adapted to the different ages. In our days men5s thin#ing, so far as realities are concerned, has become chaotic. They imagine themselves firmly rooted in reality because of their materialism, but in point of fact they are theorists. Those who flatter themselves on being practical men of the world are eminently theorists8 they get it into their heads that something or other is right, without ever having tested it in practical life. -nd so, especially in education and teaching, they fall with an utterly impracticable radicalism into the opposite e+treme when anything has been found wrong. It has been realized that when the old method of teaching languages, especially ,atin and "ree#, is based entirely on grammar and rules of synta+, the lessons tend to become mechanical and abstract. -nd so e+actly the opposite principle has been introduced simply because people cannot thin# consistently. They see that something is wrong and fall into the other e+treme, imagining that this will put it right. The conse@uence is that they now wor# on the principle of teaching no grammar at all. This again is irrational, for it means nothing else than that in some particular branch of #nowledge the human being is left at the stage of mere consciousness and not allowed to advance to self:consciousness. Detween the ninth and tenth years the child passes from the stage of consciousness to that of self:consciousness. Ce distinguishes himself from the world.
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This is the age when we can begin gradually of course to teach the rules of grammar and synta+, for the child is now reaching a point where he thin#s not only about the world, but about himself as well. To thin# about oneself means, so far as speech is concerned, to be able not merely to spea# instinctively, but to apply rational rules in speech. It is nonsense, therefore, to teach languages without grammar of any #ind. If we avoid all rules, we cannot impart to the child the re@uisite inner firmness for his tas#s in life. Dut it is all:important to bear in mind that the child only begins to pass from consciousness to self:consciousness between the ages of nine and ten. To teach grammar before this age, therefore, is absolutely irrational. We must #now when the change occurs between the ninth and tenth years in order to lead over gradually from an instinctive ac@uiring of language to the rational element of grammar. This applies to the mother:tongue as well. $eal in9ury is done to the child5s soul if he is crammed with rules of grammar or synta+ before this eventful moment in his life. !reviously the teaching must appeal to instinct and habit through his faculty of imitation. It is the tas# of speech to inaugurate self:consciousness between the ninth and tenth years and generally spea#ing the principle of self: consciousness comes to light in grammar and synta+. This will show you why at the Waldorf School we ma#e use of the two or three preceding years in order to introduce the teaching of languages at the right age and in accordance with the laws of human development. 3ou see now how Waldorf School education aims, little by little, at enabling the teacher to read, not in a boo# and not according to the rules of some educational system, but in the human being himself. The Waldorf School teacher must learn to read man 4 the most wonderful document in all the world. What he gains from this reading grows into deep enthusiasm for teaching and education. /or only that which is contained in the boo# of the world can stimulate the all: round activity of body, soul and spirit that is necessary in the teacher. -ll other study, all other boo#s and reading, should be a means of enabling the teacher ultimately to read the great boo# of the world. If he can do this he will teach with the necessary enthusiasm, and enthusiasm alone can generate the force and energy that bring life into a classroom. J J J The principle of the 6universal human,7 which I have described in its application to the different branches of teaching, is e+pressed in Waldorf School education in that this school does not in any sense promulgate any particular philosophy or religious conviction. In this connection it has of course been absolutely essential, above all in an art of education derived from -nthroposophy, to remove from the Waldorf School any criticism as to its being an 6anthroposophical school.7 That certainly it cannot be. %ew efforts must constantly be made to avoid falling into anthroposophical bias, shall I say, on account of possible over:enthusiasm or of honest conviction on the part of the teachers. The conviction of course is there in the Waldorf teachers since they are anthroposophists. Dut the fundamental principle of the Waldorf School education is the human being himself, not the human being as an adherent of any particular philosophy. -nd so, with the various religious bodies in mind, we were willing to come to a compromise demanded by the times and in the early days to confine our attention to principles and methods to be adopted in a 6universal human7 education. To begin with, all religious instruction was left in the hands of the pastors of the various denominations, 'atholic teaching to 'atholic !riests, !rotestant teaching to !rotestant !riests. Dut a great many pupils in the Waldorf School are 6dissenters,7 as we say in 'entral 1urope, that is to say they are children who would receive no religious instruction at all if this were limited to 'atholic and !rotestant teaching. The Waldorf School was originally founded for the children of wor#ing:class people in connection with a certain business, although for a long time now it has been a school for all classes of the community, and for this reason a large ma9ority of the children belonged to no religious confession. -s often happens in schools in 'entral 1urope, these children were being taught nothing in the way of religion, and so for their sa#e we have introduced a so:called 6free religious instruction.7 We ma#e no attempt to introduce theoretical -nthroposophy into the School. Such a thing would be @uite wrong. -nthroposophy has been given for grown:up people8 one spea#s of -nthroposophy to grown:up people, and its ideas and conceptions are therefore clothed in a form suitable for them. Simply to ta#e what is destined for grown:up people in anthroposophical literature and introduce that would have been to distort the whole principle of Waldorf School education. In the case of children who have been handed over to us for free religious instruction, the whole point has been to recognize from their age what should be given to them in the way of religious instruction. ,et me repeat that the religious teaching given at the Waldorf School 4 and a certain ritual is connected with it 4 is not in any sense an attempt to introduce an anthroposophical conception of the world. The ages of the children are always ta#en into fullest account. -s a matter of fact the great ma9ority of the children attend, although we have made it a strict rule only to admit them if their parents wish it. Since the element of pure pedagogy plays an important and essential part in this free religious teaching, which is 'hristian in the deepest sense, parents who wish their children to be educated in a 'hristian way, and also according to the Waldorf School principles, send them to us. -s I say, the teaching is 'hristian
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through and through, and the effect of it is that the whole School is pervaded by a deeply 'hristian atmosphere. 2ur religious instruction ma#es the children realize the significance of all the great 'hristian /estivals, of the 'hristmas and 1aster /estivals, for instance, much more deeply than is usually the case nowadays. -lso the ages of the children must always be ta#en into account in any teaching connected with religion, for infinite harm is wrought if ideas and conceptions are conveyed prematurely. In the Waldorf School the child is led first of all to a realization of universal &ivinity in the world. 3ou will remember that when the child first comes to school between the ages of seven and ten, we let plants, clouds, springs, and the li#e, spea# their own language. The child5s whole environment is living and articulate. /rom this we can readily lead on to the universal /ather:!rinciple immanent in the world. When the rest of the teaching ta#es the form I have described, the child is well able to conceive that all things have a divine origin. -nd so we form a lin# with the #nowledge of %ature conveyed to the child in the form of fantasy and fairy:tales. 2ur aim in so doing is to awa#en in him first of all a sense of gratitude for everything that happens in the world. "ratitude for what human beings do for us, and also for the gifts vouchsafed by %ature, this is what will guide religious feeling into the right path. To unfold the child5s sense of gratitude is of the greatest imaginable significance. It may seem parado+ical, yet it is nevertheless profoundly true that human beings should learn to feel a certain gratitude when the weather is favourable for some underta#ing or another. To be capable of gratitude to the 'osmos, even though it can only be in the life of imagination, this will deepen our whole life of feeling in a religious sense. ,ove for all creation must then be added to this gratitude. -nd if we lead the child on to the age of nine or ten in the way described, nothing is easier than to reveal in the living world around him @ualities he must learn to love. ,ove for every flower, for sunshine, for rain this again will deepen perception of the world in a religious sense. If gratitude and love have been unfolded in the child before the age of ten, we can then proceed to develop a true sense and understanding of duty. !remature development of the sense of duty by dint of commands and in9unctions will never lead to a deeply religious sense. -bove all we must instil gratitude and love if we are to lay the foundations of morality and religion. Ce who would educate in the sense of true 'hristianity must realize that before the age of nine or ten it is not possible to convey to the child5s soul an understanding of what the 0ystery of "olgotha brought into the world or of all that is connected with the personality and divinity of 'hrist Hesus. The child is e+posed to great dangers if we have failed to introduce the principle of universal divinity before this age, and by Euniversal divinityF I mean the divine /ather:!rinciple. We must show the child how divinity is immanent in all %ature, in all human evolution, how it lives and moves not only in the stones, but in the hearts of other men, in their every act. The child must be taught by the natural authority of the teachers to feel gratitude and love for this Euniversal divinity.F In this way the basis for a right attitude to the 0ystery of "olgotha between the ninth and tenth years is laid down. Thus it is of such infinite importance to understand the being of man from the aspect of his development in time. Try for a moment to realize what a difference there is if we teach a seven:or:eight:year:old child about the %ew Testament, or, having first stimulated a consciousness of universal divinity in the whole of %ature, if we wait until he has reached the age of nine or ten before we pass to the %ew Testament as such. In the latter case right preparation has been made and the "ospels will live in all their supersensible greatness. If we teach the child too early about the %ew Testament it will not lay hold of his whole being, but will remain mere phraseology, 9ust so many rigid, barren concepts. The conse@uent danger is that religious feeling will harden in the child and continue through life in a rigid form instead of in a living form pervaded through and through with feeling for the world. We prepare the child rightly to realize from the ninth and tenth years onwards the glory of 'hrist Hesus if before this age he has been introduced to the principle of universal &ivinity immanent in the whole world. This then is the aim of the religious teaching given at the Waldorf School to an ever:increasing number of children whose parents wish it. The teaching is based on the purely human element and associated moreover with a certain form of ritual. - service is held every Sunday for the children who are given this free religious instruction, and for those who have left school a service with a different ritual is held. Thus a certain ritual similar in many respects to the 0ass but always adapted to the age of the child is associated with the religious teaching given at the Waldorf School. %ow it was very difficult to introduce into this religious instruction the purely human evolutionary principle that it is our aim to unfold in the Waldorf School, for in religious matters to:day people are least of all inclined to relin@uish their own point of view. We hear a great deal of tal# about a Euniversal humanF religion, but the opinion of almost everyone is influenced by the views of the particular religious body to which he belongs. If we rightly understand die tas# of humanity in days to come, we shall realize that the free religious teaching that has been inaugurated in the Waldorf School is a true assistance to this tas#.

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-nthroposophy as given to grown:up people is naturally not introduced into the Waldorf School. $ather do we regard it as our tas# to imbue our teaching with something for which man thirsts and longs: a realization of the &ivine, of the &ivine in %ature and in human history, arising from a true conception of the 0ystery of "olgotha. This end is also served when the whole teaching has the necessary @uality and colouring. I have already said that the teacher must come to a point where all his wor# is a moral deed, where he regards the lessons themselves as a #ind of divine office. This can only be achieved if it is possible to introduce the elements of morality and religion into the school for those who desire it, and we have made this attempt in the religious instruction given at the Waldorf School in so far as social conditions permit to:day. In no sense do we wor# towards a blind rationalistic 'hristianity, but towards promoting a true understanding of the 'hrist Impulse in the evolution of man#ind. 2ur one and only aim is to give the human being something that he still needs, even if all his other teaching has endowed him with the @ualities of manhood. 1ven if this be so, even if full manhood has been unfolded through all the other teachings, a religious deepening is still necessary if the human being is to find a place in the world befitting his inborn spiritual nature. To develop the whole man and deepen him in a religious sense8 this we have tried to regard as one of the most essential tas#s of Waldorf School education. ,1'T<$1 II 0102$3, T10!1$-01%TS, D2&I,3 '<,T<$1 -%& -$T 1Kth August, 1 A*. There are two sides to be considered in teaching and education. 2ne is connected with the sub9ect:matter of the lessons and the other with the child whose faculties it is our tas# to unfold in accordance with what we learn from a true observation of the human being. If we adopt the methods described in these lectures, our teaching will always appeal to the particular faculties that should be unfolded during the different life:periods. Gery special attention, however, must be paid to the development of the child5s memory and here it must be realized that on account of a deficient understanding of the being of man our predecessors have been prone to burden the memories of children and, as I said yesterday in another connection, there has been a reaction from this to the very opposite e+treme. The tendency in the most modern systems of education is to eliminate memory almost entirely. %ow both methods are wrong. The point really is that the memory ought to be left alone up to the time of the change of teeth, when in the ordinary way the child is sent to school. I have already said that during this period of life physical body, etheric body, astral body and 1go:organization are wor#ing in unison. The way in which the child wor#s out by imitation everything he unconsciously observes around him has the effect of stimulating, even in the physical body itself, the forces underlying the development of memory. &uring these years of life therefore the memory must be left to develop without interference. 2n the other hand, from the time of the change of teeth, when the nature of soul and spirit is in a certain sense released from the body, systematic training of the memory is of the greatest importance. Through the whole of a man5s life the memory ma#es claims on his physical body. <nless there is an all:round development of the physical body the memory will be impaired in some way. Indeed it is well #nown to:day that any in9ury to the brain at once results in defective memory. When we are dealing with children, it is not enough to notice how in illness an element of soul is involved. -s teachers, we must always be on the alert for every little intimate effect that is being produced on the bodily nature of the child by the soul and spirit. -n undue development of memory will in9ure the child for the whole of life, will even in9ure his physical body. Cow then can we rightly unfold the faculty of memoryL -bove all we must realize that abstract concepts, concepts built up by the rationalizing intellect, are a load on the memory in the period of life between the change of teeth and puberty. !erceptions of a living nature, plastic ideas conveyed to the child in his art lessons on the other hand call forth those living forces which play down even into the physical body and allow the memory to unfold in the right way. The best foundation for the full development of memory is laid when the whole teaching during the 1lementary School period is informed with artistic @uality. -rt rightly taught leads to perfect control of bodily movement. If we are able to stimulate the child to self:activity in art, if as he paints, writes or draws, his bodily nature bestirs itself together with his @ualities of spirit, we shall rightly unfold the forces that must proceed from the soul and come to the aid of memory in the physical body. In to:morrow5s
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lecture I will e+plain how this is achieved in 1urhythmy. We must not fall into the error of believing that a complete elimination or an insufficient feeding of memory can ever be of benefit to the child. There are three golden rules for the development of memory: 'oncepts load the memory8 'oncrete artistic activity builds it up8 activities of will strengthen it. We have splendid opportunities for applying these three golden rules if we teach nature:study and history in the way I have been indicating during these lectures. -rithmetic too may be used for the same end, for in arithmetic we ought always to begin with an artistic understanding of things. Dut when the children thoroughly understand the more simple operations with numbers up to ten or twenty, let us say, we need not be afraid of wor#ing upon the memory afterwards. It is not more right to overload the child with too many concrete pictures than it is to put too great a strain on his powers of memory, for concepts carried too far into comple+ity have the same effect. We must therefore carefully observe how the memory is unfolding in the case of each individual child. Cere we see how necessary it is for the teacher and educationalist to have some understanding of tendencies to health and disease in the human being. Strange e+periences have often come one5s way in this connection. - gentleman whose whole life is concerned with education once came to visit the Waldorf School and I tried to e+plain the spirit underlying the teaching there. -fter a little while he said: 63es, but if you wor# on those lines the teachers will have to #now a great deal about medicine.7 It seemed to him @uite impossible that they could understand medicine to the e+tent necessary in such a school. I said that even though this would arise naturally out of a #nowledge of the nature of man, a certain amount of medical instruction ought to form part of the training course for teachers. Tuestions concerning health ought not to be left entirely to the school doctor. I thin# we are particularly fortunate at the Waldorf School in that our school doctor himself is on the staff of the 'ollege of Teachers. &r. 1ugen ;olis#o is a doctor by profession and besides loo#ing after the children5s health, he is also a member of the teaching staff. In this way everything connected with the bodily health of the children can proceed in fullest harmony with their education. This, in effect, is necessary: our teachers must learn to understand matters connected with health and sic#ness in the child. To give an e+ample: a teacher notices a child growing paler and paler. -nother child may lose his natural colour because his face begins to be e+cessively red. The teacher will find, if he observes accurately, that the latter child is showing signs of restlessness and peevishness. We must be able to connect all such symptoms in the right way with the spiritual nature. -bnormal pallor, or even the mere tendency to it, is the result of over:e+ertion of the memory. The memory of such a child has been overstrained and one must put a stop to this. In the case of a child with an abnormally high colour, the memory has not been given enough to do. This child must be given things to memorize and then we must ma#e sure that he has retained them in his mind. The memory of a child who grows paler and paler must therefore be relieved, whereas in the case of a child with e+cessive colour, we must set about developing the memory. We only approach the whole human being if we are thus able to handle his nature of soul and spirit in intimate harmony with his physical body. In the Waldorf School, the child, the growing human being, is handled according to his @ualities of spirit, soul and body, above all according to his particular temperament. In the classroom itself we arrange the children in a way that enables the various temperaments 4 choleric, sanguine, melancholic or phlegmatic 4 to be e+pressed and ad9usted among themselves. The very best way is to ma#e the choleric children or again the melancholic children sit together, for then they tone each other down. 2ne must of course #now how to 9udge and then deal with the different temperaments, for this in turn affects the very roots of bodily development. Ta#e the case of a sanguine child, inattentive in his lessons. 1very impression coming from the outer world immediately engages his attention but passes away again as @uic#ly. The right treatment for such a child will be to reduce the @uantity of sugar in his food, not unduly, of course. The less sugar he absorbs, the more will the e+cessively sanguine @ualities be modified and a harmonised temperament ta#e their place. In the case of a melancholic child who is always brooding, 9ust the opposite treatment is necessary. 0ore sugar must be added to his food. In this way we wor# right down into the physical constitution of the liver, for the action of the liver differs essentially according to whether a large or small @uantity of sugar is ta#en. In effect, every activity of outer life penetrates deeply into the physical organism of man. -t the Waldorf School we ta#e the greatest care that there shall be an intimate contact between the teaching staff and the parents of the children. - really intimate contact of course is only possible to a certain degree, for it depends on the amount of understanding possessed by the parents. We try however to the greatest possible e+tent to induce the parents to come to the different teachers to obtain advice as to the most suitable diet for the individual children. This is 9ust as important as what is taught in the classroom. We must not imagine in a materialistic sense that the body does everything, for obviously a child with no hands cannot be taught to play the piano. The role of the body is to be a suitable instrument. Hust as one cannot teach a child
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with no hands to play the piano, one cannot rid a child whose liver is over:active, of melancholy, no matter what physical measures are employed by abstract systems of education. If, however, the action of the liver is regulated by increasing the @uantity of sugar in the child5s diet, he will be able to use this bodily organ as a fit instrument. Then only and not till then will spiritual measures begin to be effective. !eople often imagine that reforms can be introduced into education by the reiteration of abstract principles. -ll the world #nows what is desirable in teaching and how education ought to proceed. 3et true education demands an understanding of the human being that can only be ac@uired little by little, and so, although I neither attac# nor belittle the #nowledge possessed by nearly everyone on the sub9ect of education, I say that it is of no practical use. This #ind of #nowledge seems to me 9ust li#e someone who says: 6I want a house built8 it must loo# nice, be comfortable and weather: proof ...7 -nd then off he goes to someone who #nows @uite well that the house must have all these @ualities and thin#s he can set about building. Dut to #now these things is of no practical use. That is appro+imately as much as people in general #now about the art of education and yet they thin# they can bring about reforms. If I want a house properly built, I must go to an architect who #nows in detail how the plans must be drawn, how the bric#s are to be laid, how massive the girders must be to bear the weight upon them and so on. The essential thing is to #now in detail how the human being is constituted, and not to spea# vaguely about human nature in general as one spea#s about a house being weatherproof, comfortable and beautiful to loo# at. The civilized world must realize that techni@ue, a spiritualized techni@ue of course, is necessary in every detail of the art of education. If it becomes general, this realization will indeed be a boon to all the very praiseworthy efforts in the direction of educational reform that are ma#ing themselves felt to:day. J J J The significance of these principles is revealed above all when we come to consider the very different individualities of children. It has become the practice in schools not to allow children who cannot #eep up with the wor# in a particular class to go on to the ne+t. %ow in an art of education where the child is taught in accordance with his particular age of life, it must gradually become out of the @uestion to leave a child behind in a class, for then he will fall out of the se@uence of the #ind of teaching that is suited to his years. In the Waldorf School, of course, each class consists of children of one particular age. If therefore, a child who ought to go up to the fourth class is left behind in the third, the inner course of his education comes into variance with his age. -s far as we can we avoid this in the Waldorf School. 2nly in very e+ceptional cases does it happen that a child stays behind in his class. We ma#e every effort to handle each child individually in such a way that it will not be necessary for him to stay behind. %ow as you all #now, there are children who do not develop normally, who are in some way abnormal. -t the Waldorf School we have instituted a special EhelpingF class for these children. This helping class provides for children whose faculties of thin#ing, feeling and willing are under:developed and it has become very dear to our hearts. - child whom we cannot have in a class because of a wea#ness of some power of soul is ta#en into this separate class. -nd it is really delightful at the Waldorf School to find a #ind of competition among the staff of teachers arising round a child when it is found necessary to move him from his normal class into the helping class. -fter all I have been saying, you will realize that there is the greatest harmony between the members of the teaching staff at the Waldorf School, but there is always a certain struggle when such a thing has to be done. It means that &r. ;arl Schubert to whom, on account of his wonderful @ualities, the helping class has been entrusted has to face a regular onset. The teachers never li#e giving up a child to him. The children too feel it rather against the grain to have to leave their normal class and the teacher whom they love to go into the helping class. Dut again it is a blessing that before very long they do not want to leave the helping class because they have such a love for &r. Schubert. Ce is e+traordinarily well:fitted to have charge of this helping class on account of his @ualities of character, temperament and his great capacity of love. This capacity of love, devotion and unselfishness 4 and they are really the foundation of the art of teaching 4 are specially needed when it is a matter of bringing on children in an isolated class of this #ind to a point where they can again return to the class corresponding to their age8 and this is the goal we set ourselves with the aid of the helping class. True #nowledge of the nature of man brings the following facts to light. It is really nonsense to spea# of abnormalities or disease of the spiritual part of man5s being, although of course in collo@uial language and for the purposes of everyday life there is no need to be fanatical and pedantic about such matters. /undamentally spea#ing the spirit and the soul are never ill. Illness can only occur in the bodily foundation and what then passes over from the body into the soul. Since however in earthly e+istence the being of soul and spirit can only be approached through the instrument of the body, it is above all necessary in the treatment of so:called abnormal children to #now that the body, precisely through its abnormality, ma#es this approach to the soul and spirit impossible. -s soon as we overcome a defect of body or of body and soul in the child and are able to approach his nature of soul and spirit, we have done what is necessary. In this
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connection therefore our constant aim must be to perceive the delicate and intimate @ualities and forces of the bodily nature of man. If we observe that a child is slow of apprehension, that something hampers him from connecting concepts and ideas, we must always realize that there is some irregularity in the nervous system. Individual treatment will do much in such a case, perhaps by going more slowly in the teaching or particularly in rousing the will and the li#e. When a child is abnormal, our treatment must always be individual and we shall do infinite good by such measures as I have indicated, perhaps by teaching slowly or stimulating the element of will into greater activity. "reat attention of course must be paid to bodily training and culture in the case of such a child. ,et me e+plain certain principles by giving you a simple e+ample. Suppose it is difficult for a child to put together ideas. We shall achieve much by giving the child physical e+ercises in which his own body, his whole organic system is made to act in accordance with an activity in his soul. We may tell him for, instance, to touch the lobe of his left ear with the third finger of the right hand and ma#e him @uic#ly repeat the e+ercise. Then we may tell him to touch the top of his head with the little finger of the left hand. Then we may alternate the first and second e+ercises @uic#ly, one after the other. The organism is brought into movement in such a way that the child5s thoughts must flow swiftly into the movements he ma#es. Thus by stimulating the nervous system we ma#e it into a good foundation for the faculty which the child must e+ercise when it is a @uestion of connecting or separating ideas. In such ways we can e+perience how the spiritual nature of the child may be stimulated by the culture of the body. Suppose, for e+ample, a child returns again and again to one fi+ed idea. This tendency is obviously a great wea#ness in his soul. Ce simply cannot help repeating certain words or returning over and over again to the same ideas. They ta#e a deep hold of his being and he cannot get rid of them. If we observe such a child closely, we shall generally find that he wal#s too much on his heels and not with the toes and the front part of the foot. =-ll these symptoms of course ta#e an individual form in each child and that is why a true #nowledge of the human being, by means of which one can ma#e individual distinctions, is so necessary.> Such a child needs e+ercises in which he must pay attention to every step he ta#es and these must be repeated until they gradually become a habit. -nd then, if it is not too late 4 in fact a great deal can be achieved in this direction between the seventh and twelfth years 4 we shall see an e+traordinary improvement in the inner condition of the child5s soul. We should, for e+ample, understand too how movement of the fingers of the right hand influences the speech organism, and how movement of the fingers of the left hand wor#s upon all that which comes to the help of thin#ing out of the speech organism. We must #now too how wal#ing on the toes or wal#ing on the heels reacts upon the faculties of speech and thought, and specially on the will. The art of 1urhythmy, wor#ing as it does with normal forces, teaches us a great deal when we come to deal with the abnormal. The movements of 1urhythmy also, although they are founded upon that which is normal, are e+tremely valuable where the abnormal is concerned. /or while for the normal human being they are artistic in their nature, for abnormality they can be adapted for therapeutic use. Since the movements are derived from laws of the human organism itself, the faculties of spirit and soul, which always need stimulus during the period of growth, are given an impulse that proceeds from the bodily nature. This proves how very necessary it is to realize the unity between spirit, soul and body when we have to deal with abnormal children at school. The e+cellent course of teaching that is being developed by &r. Schubert in this branch of wor# at the Waldorf School is achieving really splendid results. - great power of love and unselfishness is of course necessary when it is a matter of individual treatment in every case. These @ualities are absolutely essential in the helping class. In many cases, too, resignation is re@uired if any results at all are to be achieved, for one can only wor# with what is there or can be brought out of the human being. If only a @uarter or a half of what would ma#e the child absolutely normal is attained, the parents are apt not to be @uite satisfied. Dut the essential thing in all human action that is guided and directed by the spirit is to be independent of outer recognition and to become more and more deeply aware of the sustaining power that grows from a sense of inner responsibility. This power will increase step by step in an art of education that perceives in these intimate details of life the harmony between the child5s spirit, soul and body. Insight, perception, observation, these are what the teacher needs8 if he has these @ualities, speech itself will come to life in his whole being. Tuite instinctively he will carry over into his practical teaching, what he has learnt from observation of the human being. -t a certain age, as I told you yesterday, the child must be led on from the plant: and animal:lore which he grasps more with his faculties of soul, to mineral:lore, to physics and chemistry, where greater claims are made on his conceptual faculties and intellect, but it is all:important that these sub9ects shall not be taught too soon. &uring this period of life when we are conveying the idea of causality to the child and he learns of cause and effect in nature, it is essential to balance the inorganic, lifeless elements in nature:study by leading him into the domain of art. If we are to introduce art to the child in the right way, not only must all our teaching be artistic from the beginning, but art itself must play its proper part in education. That the plastic:pictorial arts are to be cultivated you can see if only from the fact that the writing lessons begin with a #ind of painting. Thus, according to the Waldorf School principle, we
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begin to give painting and drawing lessons at a very tender age of childhood. 0odelling too is cultivated as much as possible, albeit only from the ninth or tenth year and in a primitive way. It has a wonderfully vitalizing effect on the child5s physical sight and on the inner @uality of soul in his sight, if at the right age he begins to model plastic forms and figures. So many people go through life without even noticing what is most significant in the ob9ects and events of their environment. ,earning to see is what we must learn, if we are to stand rightly in the world. -nd if the child is to learn to observe aright, it is a very good thing for him to begin as early as possible to occupy himself with modelling, for what his head and eyes perceive is thus guided into the movements of fingers and hand. In this way we shall not only awa#en the child5s taste for the artistic around him, in the arrangement of a room perhaps, and distaste for the inartistic, but he will begin to observe those things in the world which ought to flow into the heart and soul of man. Dy beginning musical instruction with song, but leading on more and more to instrumental playing, we develop the element of will in the human being. This musical instruction is not only a means of unfolding his artistic @ualities, but also his purely 6human7 @ualities, especially those of the heart and will. We must of course begin with song, but we must pass on as soon as possible to an understanding of instrumental music in order that the child may learn to distinguish the pure element of music, rhythm, measure, melody from everything else, from imitative or pictorial @ualities of music and the li#e. 0ore and more he must begin to realize and e+perience the purely musical element. Dy leading the child into the sphere of art, by building a bridge from play to life through art, we can begin, between the eleventh and twelfth years, and that is the proper time, to teach him to understand art. In the principles of education which it is the aim of the Waldorf School to realize, it is of vital importance for the child to ac@uire some understanding of art at the right age. -t the age when the child must realize that %ature is ruled by abstract law, by natural law to be grasped by the reason, when he must learn in physics the lin# between cause and effect in given cases, we must promote an understanding of art as a necessary counterpoise. The child must realize how the several arts have developed in the different epochs of human history, how this or that motif in art plays its part in a particular epoch. 2nly so will those elements which a human being needs for all: round development of his nature be truly stimulated. In this way too, we can unfold the @ualities which are essential in moral instruction. If he ac@uires an understanding of art, the relation of the human being to his fellow:men will be @uite different from what it could be without such understanding. /or what is the essence of the understanding of the world, my dear friendsL It is to be able at the right moment to re9ect abstract concepts in order to attain insight into and true understanding of the affairs of the world. The mineral #ingdom and also the domain of physics can be understood in the light of cause and effect. When we come to the plant:world, however, it is impossible to grasp everything through logic, reason and intellect. The plastic principle of man5s being must here come into play, for concepts and ideas have to pass into pictures. -ny plastic s#ill that we develop in the child helps him to understand the formations contained in the plants. The animal #ingdom can only be comprehended if the ideas for its understanding are first implanted and developed in us by moral education. This alone will activate such inner powers as enable us to understand the forces building up the animal structure from the invisible world. Cow few people, how few physiologists to:day #now whence the form of an animal is derived. Indeed the origin of the animal form is the structure of organs which, in man, become the organs of speech and song. That is the origin of the organic forms and structure of the animal. The animal does not come to the point of articulate speech8 it only comes to the point of song as we #now it in the birds. In speech and song, form:giving forces stream outwards, giving shape to the air:waves, and sound arises. That which in the organism of speech and song develops from out of a vital principle passes bac# into the for' of the animal. It is only possible to understand the form of an animal if we realize that it develops, musically as it were, from organs which at a later stage are metamorphosed in the human being into the organic structures connected with the element of music. To understand man we need an all:round conception of art, for the faculty of reason can only comprehend the inorganic constituents of man5s being. If at the right moment we #now how to lead over the faculty of mental perception to artistic feeling, then and only then is a true understanding of man possible. This understanding of man5s being must be awa#ened by the teaching we give on the sub9ect of art. If the teacher himself is possessed of true artistic feeling and can introduce the child to ,eonardo5s 6,ast Supper7 or $aphael5s 6Sistine 0adonna7 at the right age, not only showing the definite relations between the various figures, but how colour, inner perspective and so forth were treated in the time of ,eonardo or $aphael, in short, if nature and history ali#e are imbued with an inner @uality of soul through teaching that conveys an understanding of art then we are bringing the human element into all education. %othing must be left undone in the way of imbuing the child with artistic feeling at the right age in life. 2ur civilization will never receive an impulse of ascent until more art is introduced into schools. %ot only must the whole teaching be permeated with art, but a living understanding of art, called into being by the teacher5s own creative power, must set up a counterpoise to prosaic conceptions of nature and of history.
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We deem this an all:essential part of Waldorf School education. True indeed it is, and every artist has felt the same, that art is not a mere discovery of man but a domain wherein the secrets of nature are revealed to him at a level other than that of ordinary intelligence, a domain in which he gazes into the mysteries of the whole universe. %ot until the moment when man realizes the world itself to be a wor# of art and regards %ature as a creative artist, not until then is he ready for a deepening of his being in the religious sense. There is profound meaning in these words of a "erman poet: E2nly through the dawn gates of beauty canst thou pass into the realm of #nowledge.F It is so indeed8 when we understand the whole being of man through art, we generate in others too an all:embracing conception of the world. That is why our aim in education should be to add to what is re@uired by prosaic culture and civilization, the purely human element. To this end, not only must cur teaching itself be full of artistic feeling, but an understanding of art must be awa#ened in the children. -rt and science will then lead on to a moral and religious deepening. Dut as a preliminary to religious and moral progress, education and teaching must set up this balance: in the one scale lie all those things that lead into prosaic life, that bind men to the earth8 in the other scale lie the counterbalancing factors leading to art, factors that enable man at every moment of his life to sublimate and raise to the spirit what must first be wor#ed out in the EproseF of life.

Education for Adolescents

A lecture by Rudolf Steiner Stutt art# .une *(# ()** GA 30*a
- lecture, hitherto untranslated given at Stuttgart on Hune A1, 1 AA. !ublished in The Hournal for -nthroposophy, Spring 1 M . In a few cases the repetitions appropriate for spo#en style have been omitted and sentences condensed. It is the fifth of nine lectures in the volume Education and -nstruction ###. In the collected edition of $udolf Steiner5s wor#s, the volume containing the "erman te+ts is entitled, Erziehung und .nterricht Aus Menschenerkenntnis, =Gol. *OAa in the Dibliographic Survey, 1 K1>. Translation by '.D.
'opyright ( 1 M This e.Te+t edition is provided through the wonderful wor# of: The Golden Blade

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Education for Adolescents/

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Hournal for -nthroposophy Spring 1 M When children come to the age of puberty, it is necessary to awa#en within them an e+traordinarily great interest in the world outside of themselves. Through the whole way in which they are educated, they must be led to loo# out into the world around them and into all its laws, its course, causes and effects, into men5s intentions and goals 4 not only into human beings, but into everything, even into a piece of music, for instance. -ll this must be brought to them in such a way that it can resound on and on within them 4 so that @uestions about nature, about the cosmos and the entire world, about the human soul, @uestions of history 4 so that riddles arise in their youthful souls. When the astral bodyJJ becomes free at puberty, forces are freed which can now be used for formulating these riddles. Dut when these riddles of the world and its manifestations do not arise in young souls, then these same forces are changed into something else. When such forces become free, and it has not been possible to awa#en the most intensive interest in such world:riddles, then these energies transform themselves into what they become in most young people today. They change in two directions into urges of an instinctive #ind: first into delight in power, and second into eroticism. <nfortunately pedagogy does not now consider this delight in power and the eroticism of young people to be the secondary results of changes in things that, until the age of AO or A1, really ought to go in an altogether different direction,
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but considers them to be natural elements in the human organism at puberty. If young people are rightly educated, there should be no need whatsoever to spea# about love of power and eroticism to them at this age. If such things have to be spo#en about during these years, this is in itself something that smac#s of illness. 2ur entire pedagogical art and science is becoming ill because again and again the highest value is attributed to these @uestions. - high value is put upon them for no other reason than that people are powerless today 4 have grown more and more powerless in the age of a materialistic world:conception 4 to inspire true interest in the world, the world in the widest sense ... When we do not have enough interest in the world around us, then we are thrown bac# into ourselves. Ta#en all in all, we have to say that if we loo# at the chief damages created by modern civilization, they arise primarily because people are far too concerned with themselves and do not usually spend the larger part of their leisure time in concern for the world but busy themselves with how they feel and what gives them pain ... -nd the least favorable time of life to be self: occupied in this way is during the ages between 1), 1? and A1 years old. The capacity for forming 9udgments is blossoming at this time and should be directed toward world:interrelationships in every field. The world must become so all:engrossing to young people that they simply do not turn their attention away from it long enough to be constantly occupied with themselves. /or, as everyone #nows, as far as sub9ective feelings are concerned, pain only becomes greater the more we thin# about it. It is not the ob9ective damage but the pain of it that increases as we thin# more about it. In certain respects, the very best remedy for the overcoming of pain is to bring yourself, if you can, not to thin# about it. %ow there develops in young people 9ust between 1?, 1K and AO, A1, something not altogether unli#e pain. This adaptation to the conditions brought about through the freeing of the astral body from the physical is really a continual e+perience of gentle pain. -nd this #ind of e+perience immediately ma#es us tend towards self:preoccupation, unless we are sufficiently directed away from it and toward the world outside ourselves ... If a teacher ma#es a mista#e while teaching a 1O or 1A year old, then, as far as the mutual relationship between pupil and teacher is concerned, this does not really ma#e such a very great difference. Dy this I do not mean that you should ma#e as many mista#es as possible with children of this age ... The feeling for the teacher5s authority will flag perhaps for a while, but such things will be forgotten comparatively @uic#ly, in any case much sooner than certain in9ustices are forgotten at this age. 2n the other hand, when you stand in front of students between 1), 1? and AO, A1, you simply must not e+pose your latent inade@uacies and so ma#e a fool of yourself ... If a student is unable to formulate a @uestion which he e+periences inwardly, the teacher must be capable of doing this himself, so that he can bring about such a formulation in class, and he must be able to satisfy the feeling that then arises in the students when the @uestion comes to e+pression. /or if he does not do this, then when all that is mirrored there in the souls of these young people goes over into the world of sleep, into the sleeping condition, a body of detrimental, poisonous substances is produced by the unformulated @uestions. These poisons are developed only during the night, 9ust when poisons ought really to be bro#en down and transformed instead of created. !oisons are produced that burden the brains of the young people when they go to class, and gradually everything in them stagnates, becomes 6stopped up.7 This must and can be avoided. Dut it can only be avoided if the feeling is not aroused in the students: 6%ow again the teacher has failed to give us the right answer. Ce really hasn5t answered us at all. We can5t get a satisfying answer out of him.7 Those are the latent inade@uacies, the self:e+posures that occur when the children have the feeling: 6The teacher 9ust isn5t up to giving us the answers we need.7 -nd for this inability, the personal capacities and incapacities of the teacher are not the only determining factors, but rather the pedagogical method. If we spend too much time pouring a mass of information over young people at this age, or if we teach in such a way that they never come to lift their doubts and @uestions into consciousness, then the teacher 4 even though he is the more ob9ective party 4 e+poses, even if indirectly, his latent in:ade@uacies ... 3ou see the teacher must, in full consciousness, be permeated through and through with all this when he deals with the transition from the ninth to the tenth grades, for it is 9ust with the entire transformation of the courses one gives that the pedagogy must concern itself. If we have children of si+ or seven, then the course is already set through the fact that they are entering school, and we do not need to understand any other relationship to life. Dut when we lead young people over from the ninth to the tenth grade, then we must put ourselves into @uite another life:condition. When this happens, the children must say to themselves: 6"reat thunder and lightning. What5s happened to the teacher. <p to now we5ve thought of him as a pretty bright light who has plenty to say, but now he5s beginning to tal# li#e more than a man. Why, the whole world spea#s out of him.7 -nd when they feel the most intensive interest in particular world @uestions and are put into the fortunate position of being able to impart this to other young people, then the world spea#s out of the' also. 2ut of a mood of this #ind, verve
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0Schwung1 must arise. Gerve is what teachers must bring to young people at this age, verve which above all is directed towards imagination8 for although the students are developing the capacity to ma#e 9udgments, 9udgment is actually borne out of the powers of imagination. -nd if you deal with the intellect intellectually, if you are not able to deal with the intellect with a certain imagination, then you have 6mis:played,7 you have missed the boat with them. 3oung people demand imaginative powers8 you must approach them with verve, and with verve of a #ind that convinces them. Scepticism is something that you may not bring to them at this age, that is in the first half of this life: period. The most damaging 9udgment for the time between 1), 1? and 1N is one that implies in a pessimistically #nowledgeable way: 6That is something that cannot be #nown.7 This crushes the soul of a child or a young person. It is more possible after 1N to pass over to what is more or less in doubt. Dut between 1) and 1N it is soul:crushing, soul: debilitating, to introduce them to a certain scepticism. What sub9ect you deal with is much less important than that you do not bring this debilitating pessimism to young people. It is important for oneself as a teacher to e+ercise a certain amount of self:observation and not give in to any illusions8 for it is fatal if, 9ust at this age, young people feel cleverer than the teacher during class, especially in secondary matters. It should be 4 and it can be achieved, even if not right in the first lesson 4 that they are so gripped by what they hear that their attention will really be diverted from all the teacher5s little mannerisms. Cere, too, the teacher5s latent inade@uacies are the most fatal. %ow if you thin#, my dear friends, that neglect of these matters unloads its conse@uences into the channels of instinctive love of power and eroticism, then you will see from the beginning how tremendously significant it is to ta#e the education of these young people in hand in a bold and generous way. 3ou can much more easily ma#e mista#es with older students, let us say with those at medical school. /or what you do at this earlier age wor#s into their later life in an e+traordinarily devastating way. It wor#s destructively, for instance, upon the relationships between people. The right #ind of interest in other human beings is not possible if the right sort of world:interest is not aroused in the 1? or 1K year old. If they learn only the ;ant:,aplace theory of the creation of the solar system and what one learns through astronomy and astrophysics today, if they cram into their s#ulls only this idea of the cosmos, then in social relationships they will be 9ust such men and women as those of our modern civilization who, out of anti:social impulses, shout about every #ind of social reform but within their souls actually bring anti:social powers to e+pression. I have often said that the reason people ma#e such an outcry about social matters is because men are antisocial beings. It cannot be said often enough that in the years between 1) and 1N we must build in the most careful way upon the fundamentally basic moral relationship between pupil and teacher. -nd here morality is to be understood in its broadest sense: that, for instance, a teacher calls up in his soul the very deepest sense of responsibility for his tas#. This moral attitude must show itself in that we do not give all too much ac#nowledgement to this deflection toward sub9ectivity and one5s own personality. In such matters, imponderables really pass over from teacher to pupil. 0ournful teachers, un: alterably morose teachers, who are immensely fond of their lower selves, produce in children of 9ust this age a faithful mirror picture, or if they do not, #indle a terrible revolution. 0ore important than any approved method is that we do not e+pose our latent inade@uacies and that we approach the children with an attitude that is inwardly moral through and through ... This sic#ly eroticism which has grown up 4 also in people5s minds 4 to such a terrible e+tent appears for the most part only in city dwellers, city dwellers who have become teachers and doctors. -nd only as urban life triumphs altogether in our civilization will these things come to such a terrible 4 I do not want to say 6blossoming7 but to such a frightful 4 degeneracy. %aturally we must loo# not at appearances but at reality. It is certainly @uite unnecessary to begin to organize educational homes in the country immediately. If teachers and pupils carry these same detrimental feelings out into the country and are really permeated by urban conceptions, you can call a school a country educational home as long as you li#e, you will still have a blossoming of city life to deal with ... What we have spo#en about here today is of the utmost pedagogical importance and, in considering the high school years, should be ta#en into the most earnest consideration. J This te+t consists of e+cerpts from a lecture given in Stuttgart on Hune A1, 1 AA. In a few cases the repetitions appropriate for spo#en style have been omitted and sentences condensed. Translation by '.D. JJ - term used to designate all that is sentient in man and in animals.

!age MA of ?

/ruits of Anthro0oso0hy
An 1ntroduction to the 2or!s of 3r. Rudolf Steiner

111.
Education at the 2aldorf School.
4&%25E3GE %/ THE CH153# A&3 1TS /R61TS 1& THE PRACT1CE %/ E36CAT1%&. 7&ote *8 B9 CAR%51&E :. HE93EBRA&3.
This article is an e+erpt from the boo# 6The /ruits of -nthroposophy 4 an Introduction to The Wor# of &r. $udolf Steiner7, published in 1 AA by The Threefold 'ommonwealth, ,ondon. The boo# was compiled and edited by "eorge ;aufmann, 0.-. 'antab.
'opyright ( 1 AA This e.Te+t edition is provided through the wonderful wor# of: The Threefold Co""on;ealth, ,ondon

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TC1 serious student of -nthroposophy or Spiritual Science, as it is represented by &r. $udolf Steiner, cannot fail at some time or other to ma#e the following observation: It will appear to him as though many things, that were indeed around him in the world before, now for the first time become visible and perceptible. The world will astonish him with a flood of facts that come suddenly into his field of vision, arranging themselves in a certain se@uence and ma#ing him conscious of a vast enrichment both of his store of #nowledge and of his inner soul:life. Through the pursuit of Spiritual Science, through a certain self:education in the sense of Spiritual Science, he begins to ma#e his own that which highly: endowed men 4 painters, musicians, poets, philosophers 4 already have and possess in their own talents, in their own artistic instincts, have, as it were, as a gift of "od. 2ne may indeed without presumption venture to say that the man who lets himself be penetrated by -nthroposophy is directed to a path where he may find his way consciously into the realm of art. 1specially is this the case with one who has the good fortune to be concerned with the observation and education of children. If he desires to do his wor# with conviction in the anthroposophical sense, he will before everything else fill his mind with the #nowledge of man that flows out of -nthroposophy. Cow body, soul and spirit wor# together in man 4 and especially in the growing child 4 this will have continually to be the sub9ect of his most earnest study. It will be of the greatest satisfaction to the teacher if through &r. Steiner5s Spiritual Science he can learn to recognise in single concrete instances the connection between body, soul and spirit in the child. /or in education it is particularly unsatisfying, particularly discouraging to have to wor# without real insight into, and #nowledge of, this deep connection8 while the responsibility resting on the teacher is enormous, nob only for the children, but for the future, which it will be for the children to shape out of the impulses awa#ened in them by their education. -nd yet it must be admitted that, in spite of all the e+perimental !sychology of the present day, not forgetting too all the theories given out with authority concerning the nature of the soul, the teachers of to:day cannot get beyond rather hazy and abstract ideas of the connection between body and soul. There is indeed no one engaged in teaching who will not be able to enter into the feelings of than#fulness with which the teacher receives the anthroposophical #nowledge of man and learns to perceive, for e+ample, how the forces wor#ing in the child are transformed in the Mth year of his age8 how before this period they wor# as psychic:spiritual forces giving form and shape to the body, and how these moulding processes come to a certain conclusion at the time of the change of teeth, the forces being then set free from the bodily and able to wor# in their own character as soul:forces, building up the life of ideas and memory in the child. The teacher can now begin to ma#e observations of his own in this direction, to recognise through his own perception the wor#ing of these moulding forces in the child, and to ma#e use of them 4 in the way, for instance, in which he introduces the child to the art of writing. Ce wor#s with confidence, #nowing he is wor#ing in the line of the child5s development, not against it. To this fact indeed are due the confidence and 9oyfulness which characterise the wor# that is being attempted by the teachers at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart.
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If the teacher goes deeply into the understanding of man contained in -nthroposophy, out of the whole fulness of which understanding 9ust one point has been noted, viz. the alteration in the wor#ing of the life forces at the time of the change of teeth, then he will e+perience what I tried to indicate at the beginning of this article. Ce will contemplate the growing child in a wholly new and a far deeper way, he will ac@uire an intimate understanding of the child, an understanding that penetrates right to the very details of his bodily figure and bearing. - few e+amples may be noted from observations made at the Waldorf School, a school that owes its origin to the impulses of Spiritual Science and is carried on under the guidance of &r. Steiner. I call a child out, for instance, for him to say something in front of the class. %ow it is possible that I may never before have observed what I observe in this child to:day. $ising slowly, as if unwillingly, and supporting himself with both hands on the des#, he approaches with an embarrassed smile, that partly e+presses a certain pleasure at the notice ta#en of him, and has something in it too of fatigue and annoyance at feeling himself disturbed. 2ne notices the heavy eyelids, the round, rather puffy, pale face, the unhappy to:and:fro movement of the body, the spiritless, resigned smile, with which he receives a gentle rebu#e for his not altogether satisfactory performance. 2ne recognises in him the phlegmatic temperament, feeling at the same time that his melancholy is conditioned by an unsound constitution, and that if this were overcome, the boy would not be lac#ing in a certain vigour and manliness. If a teacher has once had the e+perience 4 and it is an e+perience that is actually possible 4 of thus feeling his way right into the temperament of a child, he is encouraged to believe that in the case of the other pupils also, who are entrusted to his care, he will in course of time be able to penetrate behind the outward appearance and to solve the riddles of their individualities. Ce will of course, in ma#ing such observations of the children, not confine himself to what they shew him in the school hours, but observe them on wal#s, during intervals, in their relationships with the other children. To ta#e another instance. - s@uare:built, but sturdy and active little person, with a shoc# of curly hair, sits through the lessons as if in a dream, wrapt up in all #inds of affairs of his own, loo#s surprised and ta#en unawares if he is called upon to do anything, flushes up and is deeply hurt at the slightest rebu#e, 9oining in with eagerness only when something very special is e+pected of the class. 2bserve the same child at play, and you will see him ta#ing the part of the high: spirited leader of his playfellows, the most brilliant, the most pugnacious, the most cheery of them all. 1vidently a boy with a choleric temperament8 he only wor#s in a phlegmatic manner, when his interest is not aroused from within and out of his own free will. The manner in which a child reacts to the lesson will be a matter of no small interest to the teacher. Cere is a child, for instance, continually holding up his hand, 9oining in with intense #eenness, raising himself on his seat, glancing up with an e+pression of delight on his face, pleased with everything all the time, whether because he #nows it already or because it is something he is eagerly wanting to #now. Cere again is another, whose disposition finds a different e+pression. -fter the teacher has finished and is passing on to a fresh sub9ect, or else the school hours are at an end, he @uietly leaves his seat, and approaching the teacher with earnest gaze as#s a @uestion in a half whisper, relating to what the teacher has been telling them, either wanting to carry the matter to a fuller completion, or indicating something that puzzled him, that was not @uite clear. Dy such signs can we recognise the sanguine and the melancholic respectively among our pupils.

The teacher who lets the anthroposophic #nowledge of man wor# upon his thought and feeling, comes, as we have seen, to a #ind of artistic vision of the growing child, who is to him as individual, as full of mystery and enigma, as is every great wor# of art. Dut this is not all. 2ut of such a vision of the child proceeds also the manner in which the lesson is handled, the actual art of teaching. %ot that the teacher consciously converts the #nowledge of the child that he has ac@uired 4 whether by study or by his own observation 4 into educational formulae, into pedagogic ma+ims. The process is a more instinctive one than that. In the first place, the children gradually sift themselves out for the teacher. -ccording to their characteristics, according to their different dispositions, they form themselves into certain groups. This means for the teachers in the Waldorf School an actual assistance, an actual lightening of their wor#. 'hildren who With all their individual differences yet show a real similarity of temperament are placed together in groups, and thus is provided a natural solution to one great difficulty in teaching. Imagine a teacher standing up before a large class of children, who are sitting all in confusion, not according to any inner law, 9ust as for the untrained eye the stars stand arbitrarily in the heavens at night. Cow is he to comprehend his class, how is he to set to wor# with such a crowd of children so that each individual child may find his right placeL This
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difficulty it is that gives rise to the cry for small classes. Dut it is for the teacher to carry out the tas# 4 and it is no light tas#, and is only possible on the foundation of a spiritual understanding of man 4 the tas# of so sounding the children in the depths of their being as to be able to sort them out into groups according to their peculiar temperaments. Dy this means order and harmony are brought in, where before was confusion, and it is then possible to conduct lessons in large classes8 for as far as the actual class instruction is concerned, instead of having to handle a great number of particular children as so many individuals, the teacher is able to handle particular groups of children whose inner natures resemble one another. The effect of such group classification may be illustrated by reference to a history class of children of 11 and 1A years old. -fter classification, the lessons too# on a form somewhat as follows: Cere sits a group of contented happy:go:luc#y children, most of them of slender and well:proportioned figure. They loo# about them in a lively manner, and are fond of stealing a glance through the window or a chat with the boy or girl sitting ne+t them. They en9oy the lesson and are all attention, but they en9oy 9ust as well to have their attention drawn away by something of no importance. Instinctively, without hesitation, one would call upon these children to point out, for e+ample, on the map the line of march of -le+ander the "reat. !ictures of Ionic and &oric pillars they loo#ed at with interest8 they could give good descriptions of them, pointing out their differences, and were delighted to ma#e models of them in plasticine, which they did with a fair measure of success. Their attention was easily gained for everything that could be seen and loo#ed at8 in this way one could meet their instinctive interest in the outside world, and turn it to good purpose. Dut now if one were relating to the children the story, for e+ample, of -le+ander taming the wild horse Ducephalus, and how from a very child the desire of fame burned in his soul, how he cut the "ordian #not with his sword, how he swam through raging torrents, and so forth, one would turn to the group of children who follow with the closest attention whatever inspires them and arouses their human interest, who are full of life and enthusiasm when the sub9ect matter in hand is such as to stir their feelings, but whose attention flags at once, directly the personal interest is at an end. 2ne turned, once again almost instinctively, to these children in relating the stories, and one would call upon them too to tell them bac# again to the class. Deing approached in this way, they will in due time show results in their wor# in accordance with their temperament8 whilst the presentation of an e+ample of heroism such as they cannot themselves yet attain, tends to allay a little their self:assurance, which is generally not inconsiderable. 3et a third group of children are sitting @uiet and good, but all too inclined to do their wor# in a sleepy, uninterested fashion. 2ne can see among them pleasant round:faced, comfortable loo#ing little people, with smoothly brushed hair and an e+pression that is thoroughly good:natured, if at times a trifle dull and slow. The first thing to be done with them is to wa#e them up, they must somehow or other be induced to listen and attend8 one may even resort, as it were in 9est, to some such device as culling upon them suddenly to pull their right ear with their left hand. When they do however once give their mind to the lesson, they retain what they hear faithfully and in orderly se@uence, and they en9oy repeating it over. These were the children to call upon, when one wanted some events of history correctly set forth and related, and they never tired of going over the same events. 2nly they do not e+press themselves easily in speech, they prefer to do so in writing and, given plenty of time, will do this well, in a neat clear hand. - certain balance and rhythm in life is an actual need for children of this #ind8 their love of order and their trustworthiness ma#e them a valuable element in the class and give it a certain stability. Where the sleepiness is e+cessive, and goes with a dull brooding melancholy, the tas# of the teacher is indeed difficult. 1+perience shows, however, that such a child does ta#e in, during a history lesson, considerably more than his apparent listlessness would lead one to suppose. 2nce again, occasions arose in the course of the lessons when it was desired to direct the children5s attention to the deep historical connections, to give them an understanding of how one great epoch of culture differs from another 4 let us say, the 1gyptian from the "ree# 4 and so lead them to select from the descriptions they had heard what is symptomatic in each and to compare them. This time one would find the greatest support in the group of children who bring to what the teacher has to give a thoughtful understanding, who are already able to grasp, if not actual ideas, something of the nature of ideas, something that for the other children remains still in the bac#ground of consciousness. They can understand, for instance, how the life of -le+ander the "reat is symptomatic of an entirely new impulse in the world5s history, how it points to a culture that rests on the development of personality, a culture that in the time of -ristides the Hust had not yet begun to wor# in "reece8 they can enter into such thoughts and reflect upon them, and in this way the inclination not infre@uently shown by such children already at their early age to be pensive and brooding, and even introspective, will be diverted to the great facts of history and their deep connections. These form a strengthening and health:giving food for mind and soul, for the growing child from let us say 1A years onwards, and especially for children of this more melancholic tendency. The response of their more developed power of thought and reflection ma#es them a source of
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great 9oy to the teacher, they stand indeed at not so great a distance from the grown:up mind and outloo# as do children of other temperaments. Thus can the child of e!ery #ind of temperament have his value in the class8 every #ind is absolutely necessary in its place, every #ind completes the others, even leaves the others lagging helplessly behind if it is wanting. It will be readily seen that this arranging of the children according to inclination and talent will help very greatly to the promotion of the right #ind of social outloo#. There is indeed no @uestion that by its means the children have already developed @uite a strong sense of their need of one another and their power to supplement one another in class 4 altogether irrespective of whether they come from a Cigh School, a 6School for 3oung ,adies,7 an 1lementary or a Secondary School. The seed of a social understanding is one of the most gratifying signs the class teacher can observe as a result of his method of teaching. ,ight will also be thrown by these considerations on the ruthless one:sidedness of what is #nown as the selection of 6promising7 scholars.

- further effect of this intimate understanding of the child is to be found in the special character it gives to the relationship of the teacher to his pupils. The loving concern, with which it must be the aim of the teacher to meet every child entrusted to his care, grows, and gradually outgrows even the personal sympathies and antipathies which very naturally arise in the first place in respect to a great number of the children. This loving understanding ta#es the place of a more moral 9udgment and estimation of character, and ma#es of course a great difference to the attitude of mind with which the teacher approaches the pupil. 1liminating as far as possible all personal feelings, he confronts the child as a phenomenon, as an ob9ect to which he consciously gives himself up in order that the law of its being may declare itself in his soul8 and the remar#able thing is that, with all this apparent coldness, with all this impersonality, the human relationship does not suffer. 2ut of the interest that see#s to en@uire and to #now, there begins to grow up a true love, resting on real fact and #nowledge and uniting teacher and child with a depth and freedom of intercourse hitherto undreamt of. In their school years, mid especially between the ages of M and 1), it is right and natural that children should without any compulsion loo# upon their teacher as an authority and respect him as such. It is @uite pathetic to observe how children, to whom the chance is denied of loo#ing up to persons really worthy of their respect and reverence, try to ma#e up for the loss, choosing either someone they have met in real life or else a figure in history or literature, and, with the help of a vivid imagination, turning this person into the e+ample, the hen, that they need. The @uestion may be as#ed 4 it is often as#ed of the teachers in the Waldorf School 4 what is the effect of such an authority:relationship in the best sense of the worldL We are not now spea#ing of its effect on the lesson as such, but on the moral education of the children and on what is #nown as school discipline. - year and a half5s teaching in the Waldorf School, during which time one has tried to establish such a relation between pupil and teacher, has brought many interesting e+periences bearing on this @uestion. The children were aware of an emancipation from the customary coercive methods, and the discipline suffered accordingly. -t first this was disturbing to the progress of the lesson, and the children themselves felt it to be so. It often happened indeed that they sought to help matters, e+horting each other to be @uiet and to attend. !unishments had also to be resorted to. -s the year went on, however, it became increasingly evident that, as punishment could only be of use when carried out consistently and repeatedly, its introduction made ail too easy the return of the old relationship of distrust between teacher and pupil. 2ne was more and more persuaded that the very best means of education 4 ta#ing the word in its widest sense and to include education through discipline 4 lies to the teacher5s hand in the sub9ect matter of the lesson itself, and in the handling of it8 it is not to be found in tas#s and punishments lying outside the scope of the lesson, nor even in a strong personal influence over the children. Setting aside e+ceptional cases, it is indeed in and through the actual teaching alone that the personal relation with the children should ma#e itself felt. /or e+ample, the turning point in the discipline difficulty in a certain large class of children was reached, and a mar#ed improvement began to shew itself, when the #nowledge of the plant world was opened up to them 4 opened up in all the method and clearness made possible by its penetration with Spiritual Science. 'hildren5s feelings are more pure and unbiassed than those of grown people, and these children divined the fulness of that #nowledge that is finding its way to man through Spiritual Science and whose treasures the teacher was bringing within their reach. %ot that the teacher was giving them -nthroposophy, far from it8 -nthroposophy would of necessity have been to them of the nature of dogma8 but he was directing them to connections that they could really find in the world and understand and see for themselves. In this way their eyes were opened to
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many things hitherto unnoticed, many things that were there all the time, but generally never brought near to them at all. They divined how much that is interesting and wonderful and mysterious lies hidden in the universe, they felt something living in the soul of their grown:up teacher which they with their childish understanding were not yet able to reach. -nd the result of this was not only that the children of their own free will accepted the position of subordination to the teacher, it also widened out their too often narrow horizon, gave them a larger outloo# and a happiness which was for them every bit as real and whole:hearted as the happiness they felt in play or in companionship. 1specially, for instance, in the case of girls approaching the 6flapper7 age and apt to find pleasure in all sorts of frivolous and foolish things, one could observe e+cellent results from teaching of this #ind. The 9oy in the great world, the feeling of oneness with the world around them, which they were beginning to be able dimly to apprehend, could be more and more fully awa#ened in the children, and the effect of this again on conduct and behaviour was far greater than one would perhaps at first imagine. There is one thing that all children enter into with great animation, and that is the stories that are told them. In the light of -nthroposophy it becomes clear to the teacher that when he wants to ma#e an impression on the memory and the will of small children, he will do this with the most lasting effect by clothing what he has to teach in the form of parables and allegories. !arables and allegories, that is, of whose inner truth he is himself convinced in his inmost soul. In this connection the whole attitude of mind of the teacher and his relationship with the children are of the utmost importance. It was found again and again that when an allegorical story of this #ind was being told to the children, they would sit drin#ing it in in breathless silence, with full and undivided attention8 provided, that is, the story were the outcome of the teacher5s own wor# and thought, and not 9ust one that he had read somewhere or other and deemed suitable for the occasion. %ever did one feel so close to the children as in such moments. The e+perience that teacher and children have gone through together in this way 4 the teacher, out of his own #nowledge of the children, giving them in the form of pictures what will meet the needs of their moral life 4 such an e+perience has an influence that spreads over the whole of the life they share together. %o disciplinary measures, no education in morals by means of discussion and appeal to the reason, can compare with the deep and lasting impression made by parable and allegory. 0any instances could be cited, when boys of about or 1O years of age, who were by nature very difficult to manage and who were a considerable source of disturbance to the conduct of the class as a whole, have made a most satisfactory change for the better after the repeated narration in class of such stories. 'hildren have a touch of genius8 they live with their whole being, they do not want to ta#e things in only through their head. What is put in artistic form ma#es the strongest appeal to them, they understand it, it remains fi+ed in their memory, it ta#es hold of their feeling and their will.

It often happens that the conduct at school of an individual child may give the teacher occasion to single him out with the definite purpose of wor#ing upon him for his good. -lmost every class has its child, who through his continued restlessness, inattention and mischievous behaviour drives his teacher as well as his fellow:pupils to despair. The causes of such a state of things may be many and various8 in addition to an inner wea#ness of character, nervousness and ill: health of some sort are often present. With these children the teacher will go very carefully to wor#, #nowing that probably at home they are 9ust as troublesome and are accustomed there to be scolded, beaten and punished. %ot infre@uently there are signs of an inward discontent, at times of an unhappiness bordering on bitterness, and the very features, though the features of a child, may assume an evil, sullen e+pression. The teacher will bear in mind that he will effect no real change in the child by e+ercising a sudden restraint on each occasion of disturbance, still less by chec#ing with severe measures every outward e+pression of naughtiness. The child bottles up his naughty feelings, and they will be absolutely sure to come out later in some far worse, perhaps morbid form, it may be when he is growing up into manhood and is no longer under the eye of the teacher. 2n the basis of advice given by &r. Steiner to the Waldorf School teachers, the e+periment was made of handling such children in the following manner. 2ne did not come down on them in the very act of some breach of discipline and punish them for it on the spot8 but, so far as was possible without disturbance to the lesson, let them go their way, always however #eeping an eye upon them. 2ne noted silently all they did, remaining at the same time @uite calm and friendly and refraining from blame. Candled In this way, a child did not get into that irritated condition, that a perpetual fault: finding was apt to induce, and that was spoiling his wor# in the class. %e+t morning, at the beginning of the lesson, the teacher recalled to him, shortly but impressively,, his behaviour on the previous day, in such a manner that the child could not but perceive he was being met with real sympathy and that the teacher had an honest desire to help him. Ce was still fresh from his night5s sleep, peaceful, and in a manner receptive, as he by no means was later in the day. %othing had yet occurred to irritate him, and generally he was very ready to ma#e good resolutions and to be put on his guard. I was able to observe good results in the case of a boy, with whom before using this method one could do absolutely nothing, and
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whom even his school:fellows all loo#ed upon as the bane of the class. The child was inclined to be melancholy and to feel himself in the blac# boo#s of the whole world8 so one had at the same time to encourage him by laying especial stress on his few good points, such as, for e+ample, a neat handwriting or a readiness to lend a hand when help was wanted. This much at any rate has been attained8 the boy feels he belongs to the class, has his place in it and, in his right place, is a necessary member of it. It is to be hoped that this will also react favourably on his unpleasing physiognomy and his physical health. In the case of some children an influence on their moral development may be greatly assisted by the use of the principle of repetition. Whatever they have to say and do over and over again impresses itself deeply upon them and has a strengthening influence on the will. If a child for instance showed a particular failing, @uite his own, it was possible in certain cases to have a helpful influence by putting into a short sentence 4 preferably rhythmical 4 or into a verse, whatever a deep insight into his nature led one to desire to impress upon him. The child had then to repeat this at a fi+ed time every day. Such sayings, not of course tedious moralisings, but short pregnant sayings, will naturally vary greatly according to the individuality of the child. The faculty which &r. Steiner in his 6!hilosophy of /reedom7 =%ote *> calls 6moral imagination7 will indeed be indispensable to every teacher. Ce will need it if he is going to meet with presence of mind the various problems that face him in his educational wor#, meet them in such a way as to find their answer and solution: he will need it in his dealings with each individual child. Ce can attain the faculty by ma#ing a thorough study of the #nowledge of man as it is contained in -nthroposophy. The point of view here e+pressed will be contested in many particulars by teachers as well as by others who feel themselves e@ually @ualified to 9udge of educational @uestions. The opinion will be put forward that the educational ideas and the particular teaching methods that are growing up out of -nthroposophy are by no means new and are to be found either in old:established educational theories or in modern schemes of educational reform. 0any also hold that the important thing for the teacher is not so much whether he has a grasp of the anthroposophic #nowledge of man, but rather whether he has an inborn gift for teaching. %ow it may well be that some of the conclusions resulting from spiritual scientific investigation have also been reached by the e+perience and observation of modern teachers and psychologists8 for e+ample, the changes that Spiritual Science discovers in the development of the child at the Mth, th, 1Ath and 1)th year respectively. %o one however can point to a school now being carried on where the method of teaching, the whole formation of the curriculum, are systematically ordered in the light of these conclusions. To learn to #now in all their detail the laws that govern the development of the child5s inner nature, as these manifest themselves to supersensible research, and with sureness of aim to build up one5s whole method of instruction in accordance with them 4 this is something wholly and absolutely new in the domain of pedagogy. -nd it is to this tas#, to this duty that the teachers of the Waldorf School are again and again being called and directed. These teachers #now that in the present condition of things in the world man#ind can no longer rely on teaching instincts, however definite in their aim, nor on an inborn gift for teaching8 but that a true -rt of 1ducation springs from a science of man, a science of man grasped with full consciousness and ta#ing into account the supersensible as well as the sensible part of his being. Such an -rt of 1ducation can indeed only appear in its full beauty, in its full maturity, within a completely free and independent spiritual life8 nevertheless those who have the good fortune to be teaching in the Waldorf School under the guidance of &r. Steiner, can already out of their own e+perience than#fully record their conviction that the education born of Spiritual Science will in the future, as it e+tends to more and more children, bear beautiful fruit for the healing and advancement of man#ind.

%ote A: /rom the opening number of 6"ie "rei7 =see Dibliography, *OM> by #ind permission of the !ublishers. Translation by 0ary ;aufmann, D.-. /or introductory remar#s, see pp. ?M:? , also Section GII. in the -ppendi+. %ote *: 6The !hilosophy of /reedom7 by $udolf Steiner. See Dibliography, %o. 1?.

EDUCAIA COPILULUI DIN PUNCTUL DE VEDERE AL TIINEI SPIRITUALE

GA 3-

!age MN of ?

GiaYa contemporanZ pune [n discuYie multe din problemele pe care omul le:a mo\tenit de la [nainta\ii sZi. &e aceea epoca noastrZ este marcatZ de at]t de multe 6chestiuni epocale7 \i 6cerinYe ale vremii7. 'e fel de 6probleme7 agitZ astZzi lumea: !roblema socialZ, problema femeii, problemele educaYiei \i ale \colii, probleme 9uridice, problemele sZnZtZYii \.a.m.d., \.a.m.d. 'u cele mai diverse mi9loace se [ncearcZ rezolvarea acestor probleme. %umZrul celor ce apar cu vreo reYetZ, sau cel puYin pentru a contribui cu ceva la rezolvarea acestora, este nemZsurat de mare. 'u acest prile9 se manifestZ toate nuanYele posibile de atitudini suflete\ti umane: radicalismul, cu Yinuta sa revoluYionarZ, dispoziYia temperatZ care, respect]nd cele e+istente, vrea sZ dezvolte ceva nou din acestea, \i conservatorismul ce intrZ [n agitaYie imediat ce sunt atinse vechile instituYii \i tradiYii. !e l]ngZ aceste orientZri principale apar toate treptele intermediare posibile. 'ine poate arunca o privire mai profundZ [n viaYZ, acela nu:\i va putea [mpiedica un sentiment anume faYZ de toate aceste manifestZri. 1ste vorba despre faptul cZ diversele mi9loace cu care epoca noastrZ rZspunde cerinYelor ce se pun oamenilor sunt ne[ndestulZtoare. 0ulYi doresc sZ reformeze viaYa fZrZ a:i cunoa\te cu adevZrat temeliile. 'ine vrea sZ facZ prognoze referitor la ceea ce se va petrece [n viitor, acela nu are voie sZ se mulYumeascZ a cunoa\te viaYa numai la suprafaYa ei. 1l trebuie sZ o cerceteze [n profunzimile sale. ^ntreaga viaYZ este ca o plantZ ce nu conYine numai ceea ce oferZ ea privirilor noastre, ci care mai ascunde [n ad]ncimile ei \i un stadiu de viitor. 'ine prive\te o plantZ ce are numai frunze, acela \tie foarte bine cZ, dupZ un timp, pe tulpina ce poartZ frunze, vor fi \i flori \i fructe. -scunse privirilor noastre, plante are de pe acum chiar, premisele acestor flori \i fructe. 'um ar [nsZ spune cineva felul [n care vor apZrea aceste organe, c]nd nu vrea sZ cerceteze planta dec]t ceea ce oferZ ea acum privirii. %umai acela care a a9uns sZ cunoascZ fiin2a+esen2a plantei ar putea s:o spunZ. ,a fel, [ntreaga viaYZ a omului conYine [n sine premisele viitorului. &ar pentru a putea spune ceva despre acest viitor, trebuie sZ pZtrundem [n natura ascunsZ a omului. 1poca noastrZ [nsZ nu prea are [nclinaYia cuvenitZ s:o facZ. 1a se preocupZ de ceea ce apare la suprafaYZ \i se crede [n nesiguranYZ c]nd e vorba sZ pZtrundZ la ceea ce se sustrage observaYiei e+terioare. ,a plantZ, chestiunea este de altfel mult mai simplZ. 2mul \tie cZ plante asemZnZtoare au dat flori \i fructe la un anumit interval de timp. GiaYa omului se desfZ\oarZ numai odatZ8 iar florile pe care le va avea [n viitor n:au mai e+istat [nainte niciodatZ. 'u toate acestea, ele sunt prezente [n om, la fel ca florile unei plante ce poartZ acum numai frunze. 1+istZ o posibilitate de a spune ceva despre acest viitor dacZ pZtrunzi dincolo de suprafaYa naturii umane, p]nZ la esenYa acesteia. &iversele idei reformatoare ale prezentului pot deveni cu adevZrat fructuoase \i practice abia atunci c]nd provin dintr:o asemenea cercetare profundZ a vieYii omene\ti. 0isiunea de a da o concepYie practicZ despre lume, care sZ cuprindZ esenYa vieYii omene\ti, trebuie sZ o aibZ, conform [ntregii sale alcZtuiri, \tiinYa spiritualZ. &acZ ceea ce numim astZzi, adeseori \tiinYZ spiritualZ, este [ndreptZYit sau nu sZ ridice o asemenea pretenYie, acesta e un fapt fZrZ importanYZ. 1ste vorba mai mult de esenYa \tiinYei spirituale a ceea ce poate fi ea, conform acestei esenYe. 1a nu trebuie sZ fie o teorie aridZ, care sZ satisfacZ doar curiozitatea de a cunoa\te, \i nici mi9locul prin care unii oameni, din egoism, ar vrea sZ a9ungZ, numai ei, pe o treaptZ superioarZ de evoluYie. _tiinYa spiritualZ poate contribui la [ndeplinirea celor mai [nsemnate sarcini ale omenirii de azi, la evoluYia ei spre prosperitate U ( V. &ar tocmai asum]ndu:\i o asemenea misiune, ea va trebui sZ se a\tepte la multe atacuri \i suspiciuni. $adicalii \i moderaYii, precum \i conservatorii din toate domeniile vieYii o vor [nt]mpina, inevitabil, cu o asemenea ne[ncredere. &eoarece, de la [nceput, ea nu va putea mulYumi nici un partid, premisele sale afl]ndu:se foarte departe de orice agitaYie partizanZ. -ceste premise [\i au rZdZcina numai \i numai [n adevZrata cunoa\tere a vieYii. 'ine cunoa\te viaYa [\i va putea asuma sarcini numai e+trZg]ndu:le din viaYa [nsZ\i. 1l nu:\i va asuma programe arbitrare, deoarece \tie cZ [n viitor nu vor domni alte legi fundamentale ale vieYii dec]t cele ce domnesc astZzi. -stfel, cercetarea spiritualZ va a9unge [n mod necesar la respectul faYZ de cele e+istente. 2ric]t de multe ar gZsi de [mbunZtZYit la ceea ce e+istZ, ea nu va negli9a sZ vadZ [n acestea, germenii viitorului. &ar ea mai \tie \i cZ [n orice devenire, e+istZ cre\tere \i dezvoltare. &e aceea, [n cele e+istente acum, va deslu\i germenii transformZrii \i cre\terii. 1a nu in!enteaz3 programe, ci le cite\te din ceea ce e+istZ. &ar ceea ce cite\te [n acest fel, devine, [ntr:un anumit sens, chiar program, [ntruc]t poartZ [n sine tocmai natura evoluYiei. &e aceea, aprofundarea spiritual:\tiinYificZ a fiinYei omului, oferZ cele mai rodnice \i mai practice mi9loace de a rezolva problemele vitale cele mai importante ale contemporaneitZYii. -cest fapt [l vom prezenta aici referitor la una din aceste probleme, anume referitor la proble'a 4n!323'5ntului. %u vor fi enunYate cerinYe, nici programe, ci va fi descrisZ pur \i simplu natura copilului. &in fiinYa omului [n devenire vor rezulta, ca de la sine, punctele de vedere pentru educaYie.
!age M of ?

&acZ vrem sZ cunoa\tem aceastZ fiinYZ a omului 4n de!enire va trebui sZ pornim mai cu seamZ de la e+aminarea naturii ascunse a omului. 'eea ce observaYia senzorialZ cunoa\te din om, \i ceea ce concepYia materialistZ asupra vieYii vrea sZ o recunoascZ drept unicZ, este, pentru investigaYia spiritualZ, numai o parte, o componentZ a naturii umane, \i anume, trupul sZu fizic. -cest trup fizic se supune acelora\i legi ale lumii fizice, este alcZtuit din acelea\i substanYe \i forYe ca [ntreg restul lumii a\a:zis ne[nsufleYite. de aceea, \tiinYa spiritualZ afirmZ cZ omul are comun acest rup fizic cu [ntreg regnul mineral. _i desemneazZ drept trup fizic al omului numai ceea ce face ca acelea\i substanYe care acYioneazZ \i [n lumea mineralZ sZ fie puse [n amestec, [n legZturZ, [n formare \i [n dezvoltare, dupZ acelea\i legi. &epZ\ind acest trup fizic, \tiinYa spiritualZ cunoa\te [ncZ o entitate a omului: trupul vieYii sau trupul eteric. /izicienii sZ nu se [mpiedice de aceastZ denumire 6trup eteric7. 61teric7 desemneazZ aici altceva dec]t eterul ipotetic al fizicii. SZ luZm termenul pur \i simplu ca denumire a ceea ce va fi descris [n continuare. -cum c]tva timp se considera o [ntreprindere ne\tiinYificZ faptul de a vorbi despre un asemenea 6trup eteric7. ,a sf]r\itul secolului al optsprezecelea, \i [n prima 9umZtate a secolului al nouZsprezecelea, ce:i drept, nu era 6ne\tiinYific7. Se spunea atunci cZ substanYele \i forYele ce acYioneazZ [ntr:un mineral nu pot plZsmui de la sine fiinYe vii. -cestea trebuie sZ posede \i o 6forYZ7 aparte, ce era desemnatZ ca 6forYZ a vieYii7. 2amenii [\i reprezentau apro+imativ faptul cZ [ntr:o plantZ, [n animal, [n trupul uman acYioneazZ o asemenea forYZ \i dZ na\tere manifestZrilor vieYii, a\a cum forYa magneticZ din magnet realizeazZ atracYia. ^n epoca urmZtoare, a materialismului, o asemenea reprezentare a fost datZ de o parte. S:a spus atunci cZ o fiinYZ vie se alcZtuie\te [n acela\i fel ca una a\a:zis fZrZ viaYZ8 [n organism nu domnesc alte forYe dec]t cele din mineral8 ele acYioneazZ doar mai complicat8 ele dau na\tere unei formaYiuni combinate. -zi, numai cei [ncZpZY]naYi materiali\ti au rZmas fi+aYi la aceastZ negare a 6forYei de viaYZ7. 2 serie [ntreagZ de g]nditori naturali\ti au susYinut faptul cZ ar trebui acceptat totu\i ceva ca forYZ de viaYZ sau principii al vieYii. -stfel, \tiinYa mai recentZ, se apropie [n acest mod, \i [ntr:un anumit sens, de ceea ce spune \tiinYa spiritualZ [n legZturZ cu trupul vieYii. Totu\i e+istZ o deosebire considerabilZ [ntre cele douZ. _tiinYa contemporanZ a9unge, pornind de la realitatea percepYiei senzoriale, \i prin supoziYiile [nYelegerii raYionale, sZ accepte un fel de forYZ de viaYZ. &ar nu aceasta este calea cercetZrii adevZrate, de la care porne\te \tiinYa spiritualZ \i din ale cZrei rezultate sunt alcZtuite e+punerile sale. %u putem atrage [ndea9uns atenYia asupra felului cum \tiinYa spiritualZ se deosebe\te [n acest punct de \tiinYa obi\nuitZ de astZzi. -ceasta prive\te e+perienYa senzorialZ ca bazZ a oricZrei cunoa\teri, iar ceea ce nu poate fi clZdit pe acest fundament [l socote\te incognoscibil. 1a [\i e+trage rezultatele \i concluziile din impresii ale simYurilor. Iar ceea ce depZ\e\te aceastZ sferZ, este respins \i se susYine cZ s:ar afla dincolo de limitele cunoa\terii omene\ti. !entru \tiinYa spiritualZ, o asemenea pZrere se aseamZnZ celei a unui nevZzZtor, care nu vrea sZ YinZ seama dec]t de ceea ce poate fi pipZit, \i de concluziile ce rezultZ din cele pipZite, \i care va respinge afirmaYiile vZzZtorului ca fiind dincolo de capacitZYile de cunoa\tere ale omului. ^nsZ \tiinYa spiritualZ aratZ cZ omul este capabil de evoluYie, cZ poate sZ cucereascZ noi lumi prin dezvoltarea unor noi organe. -\a cum culorile \i lumina e+istZ [n 9urul celui nevZzZtor, doar cZ el nu le poate percepe, ne:av]nd organe pentru aceasta, tot a\a \tiinYa spiritualZ aratZ cZ e+istZ multe lumi [n 9urul omului iar el, le poate percepe numai dacZ [\i dezvoltZ organele necesare pentru aceste lumi. -\a cum orbul prive\te [ntr:o nouZ lume, [ndatZ ce este operat, tot a\a \i omul, prin dezvoltarea unor organe superioare, mai poate cunoa\te [ncZ \i cu totul alte lumi dec]t acelea pe care simYurile obi\nuite [l fac sZ le perceapZ. &acZ un orb din na\tere poate fi operat sau nu, aceasta depinde de constituYia organelor sale8 organele superioare [nsZ. prin care omul poate pZtrunde [n lumile superioare, e+istZ [n germen la fiecare om. 2ricine \i le poate dezvolta dacZ are rZbdarea, perseverenYa \i energia de a aplica asupra sa metodele descrise [n lucrarea Cum se dobndesc cunotine despre lumile superioare? U * V. _tiinYa spiritualZ nu spune cZ omul ar avea, prin organizarea sa, limite [n cunoa\tere8 dar ea afirmZ cZ pentru om e+istZ acele lumi pentru care el posedZ organele de percepYie corespunzZtoare. _tiinYa spiritualZ vorbe\te numai de mi9loacele prin care se pot e+tinde limitele amintite. ^n acest fel situeazZ ea \i referitor la cercetarea trupului vieYii sau eteric la tot ce va fi descris [n continuare ca membre =componente> superioare ale naturii omene\ti. _tiinYa spiritualZ acceptZ faptul cZ investigaYia prin intermediul simYurilor trupe\ti poate avea acces doar la trupul fizic \i cZ, pornind de la punctele acesteia de vedere, doar cel mult prin deducYie ar putea a9unge investigarea senzorialZ la o corporalitate superioarZ. ^nsZ \tiinYa spiritualZ face cunoscut felul [n care poYi avea acces la o lume [n care aceste componente superioare ale naturii umane apar observatorului [n acela\i fel [n care celui nZscut orb, dupZ operaYie, [i apar culorile \i luminozitatea obiectelor. !entru cei care \i:au dezvoltat organele de percepYie superioare, trupul eteric sau al vieYii este un obiect al observaYiei \i nu al [nYelegerii sau al deducYiei. -cest trup eteric sau al vieYii, omul [l are comun cu plantele \i animalele. 1l face ca substanYele \i forYele trupului fizic sZ se constituie [n fenomene de cre\tere, reproducere, de mi\care internZ a umorilor \i a\a mai departe. 1l este a\adar constructorul \i formatorul trupului fizic, locuitorul \i arhitectul acestuia. &e aceea am mai putea numi trupul fizic \i imaginea ori e+presia acestui trup al vieYii. ^n privinYa formei \i mZrimii, ambele componente ale fiinYei umane sunt apropiate, [nsZ [n nici un caz egale. ,a animale, \i [n mai mare mZsurZ la plante, trupul eteric se deosebe\te considerabil, ca formZ \i [ntindere, de trupul fizic.
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- treia componentZ a fiinYei umane este a\a:numitul trup al senzaYiei =simYirii> sau trup astral. 1l este purtZtorul durerii \i plZcerii, al pornirilor, poftelor \i pasiunilor \.a.m.d. 2 fiinYZ care constZ numai din trup fizic \i trup eteric nu le are pe toate acestea. !utem cuprinde toate cele enumerate mai sus [n e+presia: simYire. !lanta nu are simYire. &acZ astZzi vreun [nvZYat, pornind de la faptul cZ multe plante rZspund la e+citaYii prin mi\cZri sau [ntr:un alt mod, trag concluzia cZ plantele ar avea o anumitZ capacitate de a simYi, el nu aratZ prin aceasta dec]t cZ nu cunoa\te esenYa simYirii. -ici nu este vorba de faptul cZ fiinYa [n cauzZ rZspunde la un e+citant e+terior, ci mai ales de faptul cZ e+citaYia se reflectZ printr:un proces =fenomen> interior, ca de e+emplu plZcerea sau durerea, pornirea sau pofta \.a.m.d. &acZ nu am accepta acest fapt, atunci am putea fi [ndreptZYiYi sZ spunem cZ \i h]rtia de turnesol simte anumite substanYe deoarece, [n atingere cu ele, se [nro\e\te U 3 V. Trupul simYirii, omul [l are comun doar cu lumea animalZ. 1l este deci purtZtorul vieYii de simYire. SZ nu comitem eroarea anumitor cercuri teosofice [nchipuindu:ne cZ trupul eteric \i trupul simYirii ar consta dintr:o materie mai subtilZ dec]t cea aflatZ [n trupul fizic -ceasta ar [nsemna sZ materializZm aceste componente superioare ale naturii omene\ti. Trupul eteric este o configuraYie de forYe8 el constZ din forYe active, iar nu din substanYZ8 iar trupul astral sau al simYirii, este o configuraYie de imagini mi\c]ndu:se [n sine, colorate sau luminoase U ) V. Trupul simYirii se deosebe\te ca formZ \i mZrime de trupul fizic. ,a om, el se prezintZ ca o formaYiune ovoidalZ =de ou alungit>, [n care [\i au lZca\ul trupul fizic \i cel eteric. Trupul astral le depZ\e\te pe am]ndouZ celelalte, [n toate pZrYile, ca o configuraYie de imagini luminoase. 2mul are apoi \i o a patra componentZ fiinYialZ pe care nu o [mparte cu nici o altZ fiinYZ de pe !Zm]nt. -ceasta este purtZtoarea 61ului7 omenesc. 'uvinYelul 61u7, a\a cum este el [ntrebuinYat de e+emplu [n limba germanZ, este un nume care se deosebe\te de toate celelalte. 'ine cugetZ [n mod corespunzZtor asupra naturii acestui nume, acela [\i deschide calea spre cunoa\terea naturii omene\ti. Toate celelalte nume pot fi utilizate de toYi oamenii, [n acela\i fel, referitor la obiectul corespunzZtor. 2ricine poate numi masa 6masZ7, iar scaunul 6scaun7. ,ucrurile nu se petrec la fel cu numele 61u7. %imeni nu:l poate utiliza ca sZ desemneze pe un altul8 oricine [\i poate zice numai lui [nsu\i 61u7. %iciodatZ nu:mi va putea rZsuna la ureche cuv]ntul 61u7, ca desemn]ndu:mZ pe 'ine. !rin faptul cZ omul se desemneazZ pe sine ca 61u7, el trebuie sZ se numeascZ lZuntric pe sine. 2 fiinYZ care [\i poate zice sie\i 61u7, este o lume [n sine. -cele reguli care s:au [ntemeiat pe \tiinYa spiritului, au simYit [ntotdeauna aceasta. &e aceea ele au afirmat: odatZ cu 61ul7, 6&umnezeu7, care se reveleazZ fiinYelor inferioare numai din afarZ, ca fenomene ale realitZYii [ncon9urZtoare, [ncepe sZ vorbeascZ 4n3untru. !urtZtorul [nsu\irilor descrise aici este 6trupul:1u7, a patra parte constitutivZ a fiinYei omene\ti U ' V. -cest 6trup:1u7 este purtZtorul sufletului omenesc superior. !rin el omul este [ncoronarea creaYiunii pZm]nte\ti. 61ul7 [nsZ nu este c]tu\i de puYin, [n omul contemporan, o entitate simplZ. !utem cunoa\te natura sa dacZ vom compara [ntre ei oameni aparYin]nd diferitelor trepte de evoluYie. SZ ne [ndreptZm privirea spre sZlbaticul necultivat \i spre omul european de medie \i sZ:i comparZm cu un om de [nalte idealuri. 'u toYii au capacitatea de a:\i spune sie\i 61u78 6trupul 1u7 este prezent la toYi. SZlbaticul necultivat [\i urmeazZ cu acest 61u7 patimile, pornirile \i poftele, ca un animal. 'el superior dezvoltat [\i spune, referitor la anumite [nclinaYii \i plZceri ale sale: pe acestea ai voie sZ le urmezi, pe altele [nsZ el \i le va [nfr]na, \i le va domina. Idealistul \i:a format pe l]ngZ [nclinZrile \i pasiunile iniYiale, altele superioare. Toate acestea s:au petrecut pentru cZ 61ul7 a lucrat asupra celorlalte componente ale fiinYei omene\ti. Tocmai [n aceasta consta misiunea 61ului7, de a [nnobila \i purifica celelalte componente, pornind din sine. -stfel, la omul care \i:a depZ\it starea [n care l:a plasat lumea e+terioarZ, componentele inferioare ale fiinYei sale au fost mai mult sau mai puYin, transformate sub influenYa 1ului. ^n starea [n care omul abia s:a ridicat deasupra animalului, prin aceea cZ 61ul7 sZu a scZpat [n el, referitor la componentele inferioare ale fiinYei sale, acestea se aseamZnZ [ncZ animalului. Trupul sZu eteric sau al vieYii este doar purtZtorul forYelor plZsmuitoare vii de cre\tere \i reproducere. Trupul sZu de simYire e+primZ doar acele porniri, pofte \i patimi care vor fi stimulate de natura e+terioarZ. !e mZsurZ ce omul rZzbate de pe aceastZ treaptZ de dezvoltare, de:a lungul vieYilor sau [ncarnZrilor succesive, spre o evoluYie tot mai [naltZ, 1ul sZu prelucreazZ celelalte componente ale fiinYei sale. -stfel trupul de simYire devine purtZtorul simYZmintelor purificate de plZcere \i neplZcere, al dorinYelor \i poftelor [nnobilate =rafinate>. &e asemenea \i trupul eteric sau al vieYii este transformat. 1l devine purtZtorul obi\nuinYelor, al [nclinaYiilor de duratZ, al temperamentului \i al memoriei. <n om al cZrui 1u nu a prelucrat [ncZ trupul vieYii, nu are nici o amintire a trZirilor sale. 1l [\i trZie\te traiul a\a cum natura l:a sZdit [n el. ^ntreaga evoluYie culturalZ se e+primZ la om prin acest fel de muncZ a 1ului asupra componentelor subordonate ale fiinYei umane. -ceastZ muncZ se coboarZ p]nZ [n trupul fizic. Sub influenYa 1ului, se modificZ fizionomia, gesturile \i mi\cZrile, [ntreaga [nfZYi\are a trupului fizic.

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Se poate distinge chiar \i felul [n care diversele mi9loace culturale \i de instruire acYioneazZ [n mod diferit asupra pZrYilor constitutive separate ale fiinYei omene\ti. /actorii obi\nuiYi acYioneazZ asupra trupului de simYire8 ei [i procurZ acestuia feluri de plZcere ori neplZcere, de porniri \.a.m.d. dec]t avea el iniYial. -d]ncirea [n operele de artZ acYioneazZ asupra trupului eteric. !rin faptul cZ omul dob]nde\te prin intermediul operei de artZ, bZnuiala a ceva superior, mai nobil dec]t ceea ce [i oferZ mediul [ncon9urZtor senzorial, el [\i transformZ trupul vieYii. <n mi9loc puternic de purificare \i [nnobilare a trupului eteric este religia. !rin aceasta, impulsurile religioase au o mZreaYZ misiune de:a lungul evoluYiei omenirii. 'eea ce se nume\te con\tiinYZ, nu este nimic altceva dec]t rezultatul muncii 1ului asupra vieYii de:a lungul unei serii de [ncarnZri. &acZ omul pricepe cZ nu trebuie sZ facZ un lucru sau altul, \i dacZ aceastZ [nYelegere face asupra lui o puternicZ impresie, astfel [nc]t ea se perpetueazZ p]nZ [n trupul sZu eteric, prin aceasta ia na\tere tocmai con\tiinYa. -ceastZ muncZ a 61ului7 asupra pZrYilor constitutive subordonate ale fiinYei omene\ti poate fi de a\a naturZ [nc]t sZ fie proprie mai mult [ntregului regn uman, ori poate fi, o realizare a 1ului individual asupra sa [nsu\i. ^n primul caz, la transformarea omului colaboreazZ oarecum [ntreaga specie umanZ8 [n cazul al doilea transformarea trebuie sZ se spri9ine pe cea mai personalZ activitate a 1ului. &acZ 61ul7 devine at]t de puternic [nc]t prelucreazZ prin forYe proprie forYZ trupul de simYire, ceea ce 1ul face pe aceastZ cale din trupul de simYire sau astral, se nume\te: sine spiritualZ =sau, cu o e+presie orientalZ: 0anas>. -ceastZ transformare se spri9inZ, [n esenYZ, pe [nvZYare, pe o [mbogZYire a spaYiului interior cu iedei \i concepYii =intuiYii> superioare. X Se poate [nt]mpla [nsZ ca 1ul sZ a9ungZ la o activitate cu totul originarZ asupra propriilor pZrYi constitutive ale fiinYei umane. -ceasta se [nt]mplZ atunci c]nd nu numai trupul uman este [mbogZYit ci este transformat \i trupul eteric sau al vieYii. 2mul [nvaYZ multe [n viaYZ8 \i c]nd, dintr:un anumit punct el prive\te [napoi asupra acestei vieYi, [\i poate spune: am [nvZYat multe8 el [nsZ va putea vorbi numai [ntr:o mult mai micZ mZsurZ de o transformare a temperamentului, a caracterului, de o [mbunZtZYire sau de apreciere a memoriei pe parcursul vieYii. ^nvZYarea prive\te trupul astral8 celelalte transformZri pricesc [nsZ trupul eteric al vieYii. &e aceea nu este o imagine nepotrivitZ compararea transformZrii trupului astral pe parcursul vieYii, cu mersul minutarului unui ceas, iar transformZrii trupului vieYii, cu mersul orarului. ']nd omul [\i [ncepe educaYia superioarZ sau a\a:ocultZ, aceasta depinde [n primul r]nd, mai ales, de faptul de a:\i propune transformarea trupului vieYii pornind de la puterea cea mai personalZ a 1ului. 1l trebuie sZ lucreze pe deplin con\tient \i individual la transformarea obi\nuinYelor, a temperamentului, ca caracterului, a memoriei \.a.m.d. -t]ta c]t poate el prelucra, [n felul acesta, din trupul vieYii, ca fi transformat, [n sensul e+primZrii spiritual:\tiinYifice, [n spiritul vieYii =sau, dupZ cum sunZ e+presia orientalZ: [n Duddhi>. !e o \i mai [naltZ treaptZ, omul a9unge la a dob]ndi forYe prin care poate acYiona asupra trupului sZu fizic, transform]ndu:l =de e+emplu, modific]nd tensiunea sanguinZ sau pulsul>. ']t anume din trupul fizic este transformat [n acest mod, se va numi om:spirit =e+presia orientalZ: -tama>. TransformZrile pe care omul le realizeazZ [n pZrYile constitutive inferioare ale fiinYei sale, mai ales [n sensul [ntregului regn omenesc, sau [n sensul unei pZrYi a acestuia, de e+emplu a unui popor, neam ori a unei familii, poartZ [n \tiinYa spiritualZ urmZtoarele nume: Trupul astral sau simYire, transformat pornind de la 1u, se nume\te sufletul simYirii =al senzaYiei>, trupul eteric transformat se nume\te sufletul [nYelegerii =al [nYelegerii raYionale>, iar trupul fizic transformat se va numi sufletul con\tienYei. %u trebuie sZ ne [nchipuim [nsZ cZ aceastZ transformare a celor trei pZrYi constitutive ale fiinYei omene\ti s:ar oarecum succesiv. -ceastZ transformare de petrece simultan asupra tuturor celor trei componente, [ncep]nd de la momentul strZfulgerZrii 1ului. ^ntr:adevZr, munca 1ului nu va fi c]tu\i de puYin clar perceputZ de om p]nZ el nu \i:a transformat o parte a sufletului con\tienYei. &in cele e+pune mai sus se vede cZ, la om, se poate vorbi de patru componente =membre> ale fiinYei sale: trupul fizic, trupul eteric sau al vieYii, trupul astral sau al simYirii \i trupul:1u. X Sufletul simYirii =al senzaYiei>, sufletul [nYelegerii =raYionale>, sufletul con\tienYei, dar de asemenea \i componentele =membrele> superioare ale naturii umane: sinea spiritualZ, spiritul vieYii, omul spirit apar ca produse ale transformZrii celor patru componente ale fiinYei umane. -tunci c]nd este vorba de purtZtorii [nsu\irilor omene\ti, [n discuYie intrZ, de fapt, numai cele patru componente ale fiinYei umane. 'a educatori, noi lucrZm la aceste patru pZrYi constitutive =membre ale fiinYei omului. Iar dacZ vrem sZ lucrZm [n mod corect, va trebui sZ cercetZm natura acestor pZrYi ale omului. SZ nu ne [nchipuim [nsZ cZ aceste pZrYi se dezvoltZ la om astfel [nc]t, la un anumit moment al vieYii sale, apro+imativ la na\tere, ele sZ fi fost la fel de avansate [n evoluYia lor. 1voluYia lor are loc mai degrabZ [ntr:un mod diferit, la diferite v]rste ale vieYii. Temeiurile corecte ale educaYiei \i ale instruirii se spri9inZ pe cunoa\terea acestor legi de evoluYie ale naturii umane. ^nainte de na\tere fizicZ, omul [n venire este [ncon9urat din toate pZrYile de un trup fizic strZin. 1l nu intrZ [n mod independent [n atingere cu lumea fizicZ e+terioarZ. Trupul fizic al mamei este mediul sZu [ncon9urZtor. &oar acest trup
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poate acYiona asupra omului ce se maturizeazZ. %a\terea fizicZ va consta deci [n eliberarea omului din [nveli\ul matern \i [n faptul cZ, prin aceasta, mediul fizic [ncon9urZtor, poate acYiona nemi9locit asupra sa. SimYurile se deschid cZtre lumea e+terioarZ. -ceasta dob]nde\te influenYa pe care [nveli\ul fizic matern a avut:o mai [nainte asupra omului. !entru concepYia spiritualZ asupra lumii, a\a cum este ea reprezentatZ prin cercetarea spiritualZ, acum se na\te [ntr:adevZr trupul fizic, dar nu \i trupul eteric sau al vieYii. &eoarece, a\a cum omul p]nZ la momentul na\terii sale, este [ncon9urat de un [nveli\ fizic matern, tot astfel, p]nZ la momentul schimbZrii dentiYiei, adicZ apro+imativ p]nZ la v]rsta de \apte ani, el este [ncon9urat de un [nveli\ eteric \i de unul astral. -bia [n timpul schimbZrii dentiYiei, [nveli\ul eteric pune [n libertate trupul eteric, apoi mai rZm]ne, p]nZ la [nceputul maturizZrii se+uale [ncZ un [nveli\ astral U + V. ^n acest moment \i trupul astral sau al simYirii devine complet liber, a\a cum trupul fizic s:a eliberat la na\terea fizicZ iar trupul eteric la schimbarea dentiYiei. -stfel, \tiinYa spiritualZ va trebui sZ vorbeascZ despre trei na\teri ale omului. !]nZ la schimbarea dentiYiei, impresiile ce ar trebui sZ a9ungZ la trupul eteric [l ating tot at]t de puYin pe c]t de puYin lumina \i aerul lumii fizice ating trupul fizic, c]tZ vreme el se gZse\te [n p]ntecele mamei. ^nainte de [nceputul schimbZrii dentiYiei, trupul vieYii nu lucreazZ liber [n om. -\a cum, [n trupul mamei, trupul fizic prime\te forYe ce nu:i sunt proprii dezvolt]ndu:\i:le pe ale sale treptat, [n [nveli\ul protector, tot astfel stau lucrurile \i cu forYele de cre\tere, p]nZ la schimbarea dentiYiei. Trupul eteric [\i desZv]r\e\te acum forYele, mai [nt]i [n uniune cu cele strZine, mo\tenite. ^n timpul acestei perioade a eliberZrii trupului eteric, trupul fizic este de9a independent. Trupul eteric ce se elibereazZ desZv]r\e\te ceea ce are de dat trupul fizic. !unctul final al acestei lucrZri [l constituie dentiYia proprie a omului, ce apare [n locul celei mo\tenite. -ceastZ dentiYie constituie ceea mai densificatZ parte =depunere, [nmagazinare> din trupul fizic \i de aceea ea apare la sf]r\itul acestei perioade. &upZ acest moment, cre\terea este asiguratZ e+clusiv de propriul trup al vieYii. -t]ta doar cZ aceasta se aflZ sub influenYa unui trup astral care [l [nvZluie. ^n momentul [n care \i trupul astral devine liber, trupul eteric [ncheie o perioadZ. -ceastZ [ncheiere se e+primZ [n maturizarea se+ualZ. 2rganele de reproducere devin de sine stZtZtoare pentru cZ, de acum [nainte, trupul astral eliberat nu mai acYioneazZ spre [nZuntru ci, lipsit acum de un [nveli\, intrZ [n legZturZ nemi9locitZ cu lumea e+terioarZ. &upZ cum asupra copilului ne:nZscut nu putem face sZ acYioneze [n mod fizic factorii lumii e+terioare, tot astfel n:ar trebui sZ facem sZ acYioneze nici asupra trupului eteric, [nainte de schimbarea dentiYiei, acele forYe care sunt asemZnZtoare impresiilor ambientului fizic ce se e+ercitZ asupra corpului fizic. Iar asupra trupului astral ar trebui sZ lZsZm sZ se desfZ\oare [nr]uririle corespunzZtoare doar din momentul maturitZYii se+uale. %u fraze generale, ca de e+emplu, 6dezvoltarea armonioasZ a tuturor forYelor \i predispoziYiilor7, \i altele asemenea, ar putea constitui principiile unei adevZrate arte a educaYiei, ci numai pe o realZ cunoa\tere a fiinYei umane se poate clZdii o asemenea artZ. %:ar trebui nici sZ se afirme cZ frazeologia amintitZ n:ar fi corectZ, ci numai faptul cZ aceasta poate fi la fel de utilZ ca afirmaYia fZcutZ [n faYa unei ma\ini: ar trebui sZ punem [n acYiune armonioasZ toate pZrYile ei componente. &oar cel care se apropie de ma\inZ av]nd cuno\tinYe reale asupra tuturor detaliilor acesteia, iar nu fraze generale, poate sZ acYioneze. -stfel, [n cazul artei educaYiei este vorba de o cunoa\tere a pZrYilor constitutive a fiinYei omene\ti \i a evoluYiei acestora, [n detaliu` Trebuie sZ \tim asupra cZrei pZrYi din fiinYa omeneascZ avem de acYionat la o anumitZ v]rstZ, \i cum sZ aibZ loc aceasta [ntr:un mod adecvat. %u este nici o [ndoialZ cZ o artZ a educaYiei, cu adevZrat realistZ, a\a cum o vom schiYa aici nu:\i poate croi drum dec]t [ncet. -ceasta provine din felul concepYiei epocii noastre care va considera [ncZ multZ vreme realitZYile lumii spirituale drept emanaYii ale unei fantezii bolnave, [n timp ce frazeologiile complet nereale i se vor pZrea rezultatul unui mod realist de a g]ndi. SZ descriem aici fZrZ reticienYe ceea ce astZzi mulYi vor considera o imagine a fanteziei, dar care va fi acceptat c]ndva ca un lucru de la sine [nYeles. 2datZ cu na\terea fizicZ, trupul fizic al omului este e+pus mediului [ncon9urZtor al lumii e+terioare, [n timp ce, anterior, el fusese [ncon9urat de [nveli\ul protector al mamei. 'eea ce, anterior, sZv]r\iserZ asupra forYele \i sevele [nveli\ului matern, vor trebui sZ facZ acum forYele \i elementele lumii e+terioare fizice. !]nZ la schimbarea detenYiei, la \apte ani, trupul omenesc are sarcina de a se sZv]r\i pe sine, o sarcinZ esenYial deosebitZ de sarcinile tuturor celorlalte perioade de viaYZ. 2rganele fizice trebuie, [n aceastZ perioadZ sZ a9ungZ la anumite forme8 raporturile lor structurale trebuie sZ capete anumite direcYii \i tendinYe. 0ai t]rziu are loc cre\terea, [nsZ aceastZ cre\tere se desfZ\oarZ, [n toatZ perioada urmZtoare, pe baza formelor ce s:au constituit p]nZ la momentul amintit. &acZ s:au creat forme corecte, ele vor \i cre\te corect, iar dacZ s:au constituit de:formaYii, atunci acestea vor cre\te mai departe. ^n toatZ perioada urmZtoare nu mai poate fi corectat ceea ce ai omis, negli9at, ca educator, [n perioada p]nZ la \apte ani. -\a cum natura creeazZ [nainte de na\tere mediul 9ust pentru trupul fizic al omului, tot astfel \i educatorul trebuie sZ se [ngri9eascZ, dupZ na\tere, de ambientul fizic 9ust. %umai acest mediu [ncon9urZtor fizic adecvat poate acYiona asupra copilului astfel [nc]t organele sale fizice sZ se toarne [n forma corectZ.
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1+istZ douZ cuvinte magice care indicZ felul [n care copilul intrZ [ntr:o relaYie cu mediul sZu [ncon9urZtor. -cestea sunt: i'ita2ia 6i 'odelul. /ilosoful grec -ristotel a denumit omul drept cel mai imitator dintre animale8 pentru nici o altZ v]rstZ nu este mai adecvatZ aceastZ afirmaYie ca pentru v]rsta copilZriei, p]nZ la schimbarea dentiYiei. 'eea ce se petrece [n mediul fizic [ncon9urZtor, copilul imitZ, iar prin imitaYie organele sale fizice se toarnZ [n forme ce vor dZinui. Trebuie [nYelegem mediul fizic [ncon9urZtor [n sensul cel mai larg posibil. &e aceasta Yine doar ceea ce se petrece [n mediul sZu fizic [ncon9urZtor, tot ce poate fi perceput de simYurile sale, tot ce poate acYiona, din spaYiul fizic asupra forYelor sale spirituale. -ici sunt cuprinse \i toate acYiunile morale sau imorale, [nYelepte ori proste\ti pe care le poate vedea. %u frazele moralizatoare, nici poveYele pline de sens =raYionale> sunt cele ce au efect =[n sensul arZtat> asupra copilului, ci tot ce sZv]r\esc sub privirea sa adulYii [n mediul sZu [ncon9urZtor. !oveYele nu acYioneazZ formator asupra trupului fizic, ci asupra trupului eteric, ori acesta din urmZ, este p]nZ la \apte ani, [ncon9urat de un [nveli\ protector eteric matern, la fel cum trupul fizic este [ncon9urat p]nZ la na\terea fizicZ de un [nveli\ matern. 'eea ce [nainte de \apte ani trebuie sZ se dezvolte [n acest trup eteric drept reprezentZri, obi\nuinYe, memorie \.a.m.d. va trebui sZ se petreacZ 6de la sine7, [n acest fel [n care se dezvoltZ ochii \i urechile [nlZuntrul trupului matern, fZrZ influenYa lumii e+terioare` /ZrZ [ndoialZ cZ este corect ceea ce se poate citi [ntr:o lucrare pedagogicZ e+cepYionalZ a lui Hean !aul, 6,evana sau _tiinYa educaYiei7, \i anume cZ un cZlZtor prin lume [nvaYZ mai multe de la doica sa, [n primii ani de viaYZ, dec]t din toate cZlZtoriile sale la un loc. &ar copilul tocmai cZ nu din sfaturi [nvaYZ, ci prin imitaYie. Iar organele sale fizice [\i creeazZ formele prin influenYa mediului fizic [ncon9urZtor. <n vZz sZnZtos se va educa prin realizarea [n ambientul copilului, a unor reporturi corecte de culoare \i luminZ, iar premisele fizice pentru simYul moral sZnZtos se vor forma [n creier \i [n circuitul sanguin, atunci c]nd copilul va vedea manifestZri morale [n 9urul sZu. &acZ [nainte de v]rsta de \apte ani copilul vede [n ambianYa sa numai acYiuni proste\ti, creierul sZu ca adopta astfel de forme care [l vor face \i pe el apt numai pentru prostii, mai t]rziu [n viaYZ. -\a cum mu\chii de la m]nZ se [ntZresc \i capZtZ forYZ dacZ efectueazZ o muncZ pe mZsura lor, tot astfel, creierul \i alte organe ale trupului omenesc fizic, vor fi diri9ate pe cZi corecte dacZ recepYioneazZ impresii 9uste din ambianYa lor. <n e+emplu va ilustra cel mai bine despre ce este vorba. <nui copil [i putem face o pZpu\Z rZsucind un \ervet vechi8 din douZ colYuri X picioare, din alte douZ colYuri facem m]ini, dintr:un nod facem capul, apoi punctZm cu cernealZ ochii, basul \i gura. !utem [nsZ \i cumpZra o a\a zisZ pZpu\Z 6frumoasZ7, cu pZr adevZrat \i obra9i pictaYi, \i s:o dZm copilului. %u este nevoie sZ discutZm aici c]tu\i de puYin faptul cZ aceastZ ultimZ pZpu\Z este totu\i hidoasZ, nefiind aptZ dec]t pentru a deforma pentru tot restul vieYii simYul estetic al copilului. -ici problema principalZ de educaYie este alta. ']nd are [n faYZ \ervetul [nnodat, copilul trebuie sZ completeze din fantezia sa ceea ce face ca acest obiect sZ arate ca un om. -ceastZ muncZ a fanteziei acYioneazZ constitutiv asupra formelor creierului. Iar acesta se deschide, se dezvoltZ a\a cum mu\chii m]inii se dezvoltZ printr:o muncZ pe mZsurZ. &acZ pruncul prime\te a\a:zisa 6pZpu\Z frumoasZ7, creierul sZu nu mai are nimic de fZcut. 1l se sfri9e\te \i se usucZ [n loc sZ se dezvolte, sZ prospere` dacZ oamenii ar putea, asemenea cercetZtorilor spirituali, sZ priveascZ creierul constituindu:se [n formele sale ar da copiilor lor numai acele 9ucZrii care sunt potrivite pentru a stimula [n mod viu activitatea formatoare a creierului. Toate 9ucZriile care constau numai [n forme matematice moarte, au efect pustiitor \i nimicitor asupra forYelor plZsmuitoare, constitutive ale copilului, [n timp ce din contrZ, tot ce stimuleazZ reprezentarea viului, acYioneazZ [n mod 9ust. 1poca noastrZ materialistZ produce numai puYine 9ucZrii bune. 'e 9ucZrie sZnZtoasZ este, de e+emplu, aceea fZcutZ din douZ lemni\oare \i \i reprezent]nd doi fierari care stau faYZ [n faYZ \i bat un fier. -semenea 9ucZrii mai pot fi cumpZrate [ncZ la YarZ. /oarte bune sunt \i acele cZrYi ilustrate ale cZror figuri pot fi trase dedesubt cu fire, astfel [nc]t copilul [nsu\i sZ poatZ transpune imaginea moartZ [ntr:o redare X simplZ a acYiunii. Toate acestea realizeazZ o modalitate lZuntricZ a organelor, iar pornind de la ceastZ mobilitate se clZde\te forma corectZ a organelor. Dine[nYeles aceste lucruri pot fi aici doar schiYate, dar \tiinYa spiritualZ va fi chematZ [n viitor sZ prezinte cele necesare, [n amZnunt, iar aceasta [i stZ [n putere. &eoarece ea nu este o abstracYiune de\artZ ci o sumZ de fapte pline de viaYZ ce pot trasa linii directoare pentru realitate. SZ mai prezentZm [ncZ vreo douZ e+emple. ^n sensul \tiinYei spirituale, un copil a\a:zis nervos, agitat, trebuie astfel tratat, referitor la mediul sZu [ncon9urZtor, dec]t unul letargic, pasiv. Se are aici totul [n vedere, de la culorile camerei \i ale celorlalte obiecte care [l [ncon9oarZ de obicei pe copil, p]nZ la culorile hainelor cu care [l [mbrZcZm. Se procedeazZ adeseori gre\it atunci c]nd nu vrei sZ te la\i ghidat de \tiinYa spiritualZ, deoarece simYul materialist recurge [n multe cazuri tocmai la opusul a ceea ce este corect. <n copil agitat trebuie [ncon9urat de culori ro\ii sau galben ro\iatice, pun]nd sZ i se facZ haine [n aceste culori, din contrZ, [n cazul copilului pasiv, se va recurge la culori albastre ori verzi albZstrui. &epinde tocmai de aceste culori pentru a da na\tere, [n interior, culorilor complementare. -ceasta este, de e+emplu, pentru ro\u verdele, pentru albastru culoarea galben portocalie, dupZ cum ne putem cu u\urinYZ convinge, dacZ privim un timp o suprafaYZ coloratZ corespunzZtor \i apoi ne [ndreptZm repede privirea spre o suprafaYZ albZ. -ceastZ culoare complementarZ este iscatZ de organele fizice ale copilului acYion]nd aspra structurilor organice corespunzZtoare ce:i sunt necesare. &e are copilul o culoare ro\ie prinpre9ur, el a da na\tere [nlZuntrul sZu imaginii verzi complementare. Iar activitatea de creare a verdelui acYioneazZ lini\titor, organele prelu]nd tendinYa de lini\tire, [n ele.
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<n anume aspect este luat [n mod hotZr]t [n considerare: anume trupul fizic [\i creeazZ scala de mZsuri pentru ceea ce poate el tolera. 1l face aceasta prin modelarea corespunzZtoare a poftelor. ^n general am putea spune cZ trupul fizic sZnZtos a9unge sZ t]n9eascZ dupZ ceea ce [l face sZ fie cu mZsurZ. _i c]tZ vreme la omul [n cre\tere, avem [n vedere trupul fizic, va trebui sZ luZm [n consideraYie [n mod intim ceea ce 6voie\te7 dorinYa sZnZtoasZ, pofta, plZcerea. Ducuria \i plZcerea sunt forYele ce dezleagZ, stimuleazZ [n modul cel mai potrivit formele fizice ale organelor. &e altfel se poate pZcZtui grav [n aceastZ direcYie, de nu a\ezZm copilul [n raporturi fizice corespunzZtoare cu ambianYa. -ceasta se poate [nt]mpla [ndeosebi referitor la instinctele de hrZnire. !utem [ndopa copilul cu astfel de lucruri [nc]t el [\i poate definitiv pierde instinctele sZnZtoase de hrZnire, [n timp ce, printr:o hrZnire potrivitZ el \i le poate pZstra, astfel [nc]t sZ cearZ totul, p]nZ \i paharul cu apZ, [n mZsura [n care, [n funcYie de condiYii tolereazZ aceasta, resping]nd tot ce [i este dZunZtor. _tiinYa spiritualZ va \ti sZ sfZtuiascZ [n amZnunt, chiar p]nZ la fiecare alimente \i delicatese [n parte, dacZ va fi chematZ sZ colaboreze la construirea unei arte a educaYiei. -ceasta pentru cZ ea este o chestiune serioasZ pentru viaYZ, iar nu o teorie incolorZ a\a cum [ncZ \i astZzi ar mai putea pZrea datoritZ rZtZcirilor unor teosofi. &e forYele care acYioneazZ modelator asupra organelor fizice Yine deci bucuria pentru \i [mpreunZ cu mediul [ncon9urZtor. /eYele voioase ale educatorilor \i mai ales, iubirea onestZ, neforYatZ. o astfel de iubire ce se revarsZ [ncZlzind, parcZ, ambientul fizic 6cloce\te7 X [n adevZratul sens al cuv]ntului X formele organelor fizice. &acZ imitarea modelelor sZnZtoase este posibilZ [ntr:o asemenea atmosferZ de iubire, atunci copilul este cu adevZrat 6[n elementul7 sZu. -r trebui urmZrit cu rigurozitate ca [mpre9urul copilului sZ nu se petreacZ nimic din ceea ce el n:ar avea voie sZ imite. %:ar trebui sZ facem nimic despre care sZ trebuiascZ sZ spunem copilului: 6Tu n:ai voie sZ faci asta7` ']t de deschis este copilul imitZrii ne putem convinge observ]nd cum el, cu mult [nainte de a le pricepe, imitZ literele pict]ndu:le. 1ste chiar bine c]nd copilul imitZ mai [nt]i literele \i abia apoi [nvaYZ sZ le [nYeleagZ. &eoarece imitaYia Yine de perioada de dezvoltare a trupului fizic, [n timp ce sensul se adreseazZ trupului eteric, iar asupra acestuia ar trebui sZ acYionZm abia dupZ schimbarea dentiYiei, c]nd [nveli\ul eteric e+terior a cZzut de pe el. ^ndeosebi [n sensul imitZrii ar trebui sZ se petreacZ, [n anii ace\tia, [ntreaga [nvZYare a vorbirii. 'opilul [nvaYZ sZ vorbeascZ cel mai bine auzind. orice reguli \i orice dZscZlealZ artificialZ nu pot avea nici un efect bun. ,a v]rsta timpurie a copilZriei, important este [ndeosebi ca astfel de mi9loace de [nvZYare, precum sunt, de pildZ, c]ntecele de copii, sZ facZ o impresie pe c]t posibil ritmicZ, frumoasZ asupra simYurilor. SZ punem mai puYin accent pe sens \i c]t mai mult pe sunetul frumos. 'u c]t mai proaspZt, mai [nviorZtor ca acYiona ceva asupra ochiului \i urechii, cu at]t mai bine va fi. SZ nu subapreciem. de e+emplu, ce forYZ de a modela organe au mi\cZrile dansate fZcute pe ritmuri muzicale. 2datZ cu schimbarea dentiYiei, trupul eteric [\i leapZdZ [nveli\ul eteric e+terior \i, cu aceasta, [ncepe vremea [n care, educ]nd, se poate acYiona din afarZ asupra trupului eteric. Trebuie sZ ne clarificZm c]te pot acYiona dinafarZ asupra trupului eteric. $emodelarea \i cre\terea trupului eteric [nseamnZ remodelare, respectiv dezvoltare a [nclinaYiilor, obi\nuinYelor, a con\tiinYei, a caracterului, a memoriei, a temperamentelor. -supra trupului eteric acYionZm prin imagini, prin e+emple, printr:o regularizare diri9are a fanteziei. -\a cum, p]nZ la \apte ani, trebuie sZ dZm copilului un model fizic pe care sZ:l poatZ imita, tot a\a astfel, [n ambianYa omului [n devenire, [ntre schimbarea dentiYiei \i maturizarea se+ualZ, vor trebui anume aduse, toate cele dupZ ale cZror sens \i valoare sZ se poatZ diri9a acesta. acum [\i are locul tot ce este plin de sens \i acYioneazZ prin imagine \i simbol. Trupul eteric [\i dezvoltZ forYa atunci c]nd fantezia regularizatZ se poate or]ndui dupZ ceea ce [i deslu\esc imaginile \i simbolurile =comparaYiile> cele vii ori cele care [i dau acces la spirit, \i pe care \i le asumZ drept fir cZlZuzitor. %u noYiunile abstracte sunt cele ce acYioneazZ [n mod 9ust asupra trupului eteric [n cre\tere ci cele evidente, dar nu evidente [n mod senzorial, ci cele spiritual evidente. 0odul spiritual de a concepe este mi9locul educativ 9ust [n ace\ti ani. ,ucrul important pentru t]nZr, [nainte de toate, este ca, [n ace\ti ani, [n\i\i educatorii din 9urul lui sZ fie personalitZYi prin al cZror mod de a privi lumea sZ se poatZ trezi [n el forYele intelectuale \i morale de dorit. -\a cum, [n primii ani ai copilZriei, cuvintele magice pentru educaYie sunt: i'ita2ie 6i 'odel, tot astfel, pentru anii acum [n discuYie, ele sunt: ur'are 6i autoritate. -utoritatea de la sine [nYeleasZ, nu constr]nsZ, trebuie sZ fie reprezentatZ prin intuire, prin felul spiritual de a vedea =concepYia>, dupZ care t]nZrul sZ:\i modeleze con\tiinYa, obiceiurile, [nclinaYiile, prin care sZ:\i poatZ aduce temperamentul pe o cale regularizatZ, \i prin ochii cZreia sZ priveascZ obiectele lumii. /rumoasa e+presie poeticZ: 62ricare om eroul va sZ \i:l aleagZ, pe urma cui el calea spre 2limp s:o strZduiascZ7 este valabilZ mai ales la aceastZ v]rstZ. Stima \i veneraYia sunt forYe prin care trupul eteric cre\te [n mod corect. iar cui i:a fost imposibil ca, [n perioada pe care o discutZm, sZ priveascZ cu nemZrginitZ veneraYie spre cineva, acela va avea de ispZ\it [ntreaga viaYZ. -colo unde veneraYia lipse\te, forYele vii ale trupului eteric se [nchircesc. SZ ne [nchipuim [n cele ce urmeazZ, efectul asupra simYirii tinerilor: unui bZiat de opt ani i se poveste\te despre o personalitate deosebit de demnZ de cinstire. tot ceea ce i se poveste\te despre aceasta face sZ se reverse [n copil o sf]ntZ sfialZ. -poi se apropie ziua [n care el va putea vedea pentru prima oarZ acea personalitate stimatZ. <n tremur de veneraYie [l cuprinde atunci c]nd apasZ clanYa u\ii [n spatele cZreia i se va arZta cel venerat. /rumoasele sentimente pe care i le prile9uie\te o asemenea trZire aparYin realizZrilor durabile ale vieYii. _i numai acela se poate considera fericit care, nu numai [n momentele festive ale vieYii, ci fZrZ [ntrerupere, poate privi spre dascZlii \i educatorii sZi ca spre ni\te autoritZYi fire\ti ale sale.
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!e l]ngZ aceste autoritZYi vii, pe l]ngZ aceste [ncorporZri ale forYei morale \i intelectuale, trebuie sZ aparZ \i autoritZYile accesibile spiritului. marile modele istorice, povestiri despre bZrbaYi \i femei model, sunt acelea care trebuie sZ determine con\tiinYa, orientarea spiritualZ, nu at]t legile morale fundamentale abstracte ca:\i vor putea e+ercita acYiunea 9ustZ abia atunci c]nd, odatZ cu maturizarea se+ualZ, trupul astral [\i depune [nveli\ul astral matern. ^naintea schimbZrii dentiYiei, povestirile, basmele \.a.m.d., pe care le oferim copilului pot avea ca scop doar producerea bucuriei, prospeYimii, veseliei. &upZ aceastZ perioadZ, va trebui sZ luZm [n considerare, la materialul de povestit, pe l]ngZ cele e+puse, \i aducerea [n faYa sufletului de copil a imaginilor de viaYZ ce au un scop de echilibrare. SZ nu lZsZm neluat [n seamZ faptul cZ obiceiurile rele pot fi eliminate prin prezentarea imaginilor respingZtoare ce le corespund. 'el mai puYin a9utZ avertizZrile [n faYa unor astfel de obi\nuinYe \i [nclinaYii8 dacZ [nsZ facem o imagine plinZ de viaYZ a unui om cu defectele respective sZ acYioneze asupra fanteziei t]nZrului, arZt]nd \i [ncotro duce [n realitate o asemenea rea [nclinaYie, vom putea face atunci mult pentru a o st]rpi. 1ste bine [ntotdeauna de a urmZri faptul cZ nu reprezentZrile abstracte acYioneazZ asupra trupului eteric [n dezvoltare, ci imaginile pline de viaYZ, prin evidenYa lor spiritualZ. oricum [nsZ, acest din urmZ aspect, trebuie prezentat cu cel mai mare tact posibil ca nu cumva sZ se a9ungZ e+act la contrariul. ,a povestiri totul depinde de felul [n care se poveste\te. &e aceea, povestirea oralZ nu va putea fi [nlocuitZ chiar a\a, pur \i simplu, cu lectura. Spiritul:imagisticul, sau altfel spus reprezentarea simbolicZ, va fi luatZ [n considerare \i [ntr:un alt mod [n perioada dintre schimbarea dentiYiei \i maturizarea se+ualZ. 1ste necesar ca t]nZrul sZ preia [n sine secretele naturii, legile vieYii, pe c]t posibil nu [n noYiuni seci \i raYionale ci [n simboluri. ^n suflet, trebuie sZ pZtrundZ [n a\a fel simbolurile =comparaYiile> referitoare la corelaYiile spirituale, [nc]t [n spatele simbolurilor =comparaYiilor> legea e+istenYei sZ poatZ fi mai mult bZnuitZ \i simYitZ dec]t cuprinsZ [n noYiuni pe mZsura [nYelegerii. 6Tot cei vremelnic S e numai simbol7 X trebuie sZ fie tocmai motoul atoatecuprinzZtor pentru educaYia [n aceastZ perioadZ. 1ste e+trem de important pentru om ca el sZ primeascZ tainele e+istenYei prin comparaYii =simboluri> [nainte de a le trece prin suflet sub forma legilor naturii \.a.m.d. <n e+emplu ne va lZmuri acest fapt. SZ presupunem cZ am vrea sZ:i vorbim unui t]nZr despre nemurirea sufletului, despre ie\irea lui din trup. -r trebui s:o facem [n a\a fel [nc]t sZ aducem, de e+emplu, comparaYia =simbolul> ie\irii =provenirii> fluturelui din pupZ. -\a cum fluturele se [nalYZ din pupZ tot astfel \i sufletul, dupZ moarte, din carcasa trupului. %ici un om care nu a receptat anterior starea realZ a acestor fapte, prin intermediul unor asemenea imagini, nu le va putea cuprinde [n mod corespunzZtor [n noYiuni ale [nYelegerii =raYionale>. !rintr:un asemenea simbol =comparaYie> ne adresZm nu numai [nYelegerii =raYiunii> ci \i sentimentului, simYirii, sufletului [ntreg. <n t]nZr care a trecut prin toate acestea se apropie de chestiunea [n discuYie cu o complet altZ dispoziYie atunci c]nd, 'ai t5rziu, aceasta [i este prezentatZ prin noYiuni raYionale =de [nYelegere>. Da este chiar foarte rZu c]nd omul nu se poate apropia de tainele e+istenYei, mai [nt]i cu simYirea. _i atunci este necesar ca, pentru toate legile naturii \i pentru toate tainele lumii, educatorului sZ:i stea la dispoziYie simboluri =comparaYii>. &in acest aspect se poate vedea e+traordinar de bine c]t de rodnic trebuie sZ acYioneze \tiinYa spiritualZ asupra vieYii practice. -tunci c]nd cineva care \i:a constituit simboluri pornind de la un mod de prezentare materialist, raYional =de [nYelegere>, se adreseazZ cu aceste simboluri tinerilor, el va face de regulZ, mai [nt]i simbolurile, cu a9utorul [ntregii raYiuni =a [ntregii mZsuri a raYiunii sale>. -semenea simboluri pa care a trebuit mai [nt]i sZ \i le confecYioneze singur, nu acYioneazZ convingZtor asupra celora cZrora le sunt comunicate. &acZ vorbim, de pildZ cuiva, [n imagini, atunci asupra acestuia, acYioneazZ nu numai ce spunem sau arZtZm ci, de la cel care vorbe\te, trece un flu+ subtil spiritual cZtre cel cZruia i se adreseazZ. _i dacZ vorbitorul [nsu\i nu are un sentiment cald \i plauzibil pentru simbolurile =comparaYiile> sale atunci el nu va putea face nici o impresie asupra celuia cZruia i se adreseazZ. Spre a acYiona corect trebuie ca tu [nsuYi sZ crezi simbolurile tale drept realitZYi. -ceasta o poYi doar dacZ ai modul de a privi spiritual:\tiinYific, \i dacZ simbolurile [nse\i sunt nZscute din \tiinYa spiritului. omul de \tiinYZ spiritualZ veritabil nu are nevoie de chinuri pentru a zZmisli simbolul de mai sus pentru sufletul ie\it din trup, deoarece acesta este, pentru el, realitate. !entru el, prin ie\irea fluturelui din pupZ, este datZ, pe o treaptZ inferioarZ a e+istenYei naturii, acela\i proces care, pe o treaptZ superioarZ, [ntr:o configuraYie mai [naltZ, se repetZ la ie\irea =pZrZsirea pro:venirea> sufletului din trup. 1l [nsu\i crede cu toatZ puterea [n aceasta. Iar aceastZ credinYZ trece ca prin tainice efluvii de la vorbitor la ascultZtor, realiz]nd convingerea. GiaYa nemi9locitZ se revarsZ dintr:o parte [ntr:alta, [ntre educator \i elev. &ar pentru a a9unge la aceastZ viaYZ este necesar tocmai ca educatorul sZ creeze pornind de la izvorul \tiinYei spirituale \i ca vorba sa, cu tot ce provine din aceasta, sZ conYinZ simYire, cZldurZ \i culoare sufleteascZ, datorate convingerilor =modului de a privi> spiritual:\tiinYifice veritabile. ^n acest fel se va deschide atunci o minunatZ perspectivZ asupra [ntregului [nvZYZm]nt. _i dacZ acesta se va lZsa inspirat =fecundat= de la izvorul de viaYZ al \tiinYei spirituale, \i el se va umple de viaYZ plinZ de [nYelegere. Ga [nceta b]9b]iala care, [n acest domeniu, este uzualZ. 2rice -rtZ a 1ducaYiei, orice !edagogie sunt uscate \i moarte de nu se alimenteazZ cu seve [ntotdeauna prospere, prin asemenea rZdZcini. _tiinYa spiritualZ are pentru orice tainZ a lumii simboluri =parabole> potrivite X imagini:luate din esenYa lucrurilor, pe care nu omul trebuie sZ le creeze mai [nt]i, ci care au fost puse la temelia 'reaYiunii chiar de cZtre /orYele 'osmice =ale lumii>. &e aceea trebuie ca \tiinYa spiritualZ sZ fie temelia plinZ de viaYZ a oricZrei -rte a 1ducaYiei. 2 forYZ a sufletului pe care, [n aceste vremuri, va trebui sZ se punZ temei [n mod deosebit, este memoria. &ezvoltarea memoriei este legatZ tocmai de re:modelarea trupului eteric. _i pentru cZ formarea acestuia se petrece [n a\a fel [nc]t el devine liber tocmai [n perioada dintre schimbarea dentiYiei \i maturizarea se+ualZ, atunci aceastZ perioadZ este cea [n care
!age NK of ?

trebuie vegheat, din afarZ, [n mod con\tient, asupra dezvoltZrii [n continuare a memoriei. 0emoria va avea permanent o valoare inferioarZ celei pe care ar putea:o avea pentru oameni, dacZ, [n aceastZ perioadZ, se vor negli9a cele trebuincioase ei. 'ele negli9ate nu se vor putea recupera niciodatZ mai t]rziu. 2 manierZ raYional:materialistZ de a g]ndi face multe gre\eli [n aceastZ direcYie. o artZ a educaYiei provenitZ din aceasta, a9unge u\or la pre9udecZYi faYZ de cele [nsu\ite doar prin memorare. ']teodatZ ea nu va obosi sZ se [ndrepte cu toatZ severitatea [mpotriva simplului antrenament al memoriei, utiliz]nd cele mai 6de v]rf7 metode, numai ca t]nZrul sZ nu preia prin memorare nimic din ceea ce nu pricepe. &a, ce important mai e \i acest 6a pricepe7. 2 g]ndire materialist: raYionalZ se lasZ at]t de u\or [n voia credinYei cZ nu e+istZ nici un fel de pZtrundere a lucrurilor dec]t prin noYiuni abstracte8 ea va strZbate doar cu greu la cunoa\terea faptului cZ celelalte forYe suflete\ti sunt cel puYin la fel de necesare pentru cuprinderea =sesizarea> lucrurilor, ca forYa [nYelegerii =raYiunii>. %u vorbim numai [ntr:un mod oarecum plastic =[n imagini> atunci c]nd spunem cZ [nYelegem cu sentimentele, cu simYirea, cu sufletul la fel de bine ca \i cu raYiunea. %oYiunile sunt numai unul din mi9loacele prin care [nYelegem lucrurile acestei lumi. %umai concepYiei materialiste acesta [i pare a fi unicul. 1+istZ, fire\te, mulYi oameni care nu vor crede cZ sunt materiali\ti, dar care totu\i considerZ priceperea raYionalZ drept singurul mod de a [nYelege. -stfel de oameni se considerZ, poate ca av]nd o concepYie idealistZ despre lume, ba chiar una spiritualZ. ^nsZ ei, faYZ de aceste concepYii, [n sufletul lor, se comportZ [n mod materialist. &eoarece [nYelegerea =raYiunea> este mai ales instrumentul sufletesc al priceperii =[nYelegerii> celor materiale. $eferitor la temeiurile mai profunde ale [nYelegerii, sZ prezentZm aici un pasa9 din e+celenta carte educativZ, de9a amintitZ, a lui Hean !aul. ^n [ntregul ei, aceasta scunde pZreri 6de aur7 asupra educaYiei \i ar merita sZ fie mai mult luatZ [n consideraYie dec]t se [nt]mplZ ea sZ fie. !entru educatori, ea este mult mai importantZ dec]t multe din cele mai apreciate scrieri din acest domeniu. !asa9ul aici [n discuYie sunZ astfel: 6%u vZ temeYi de ne[nYelegere, nici chiar [n fraze [ntregi8 atitudinea \i accentul vostru \i av]ntul vostru presimYind [nYelegerea, va limpezi 9umZtate din aceasta \i prin ea, cu timpul, \i pe cealaltZ. -ccentul, la copii, ca \i la chinezi \i la oamenii de lume, constituie o 9umZtate de limba9. X "]ndiYi:vZ cZ propria limbZ, la fel ca greaca ori ca orice altZ limbZ strZinZ, ei [nvaYZ mai repede s:o [nYeleagZ dec]t s:o vorbeascZ. X -veYi [ncredere [n 6oficiul de descifrZri7 al timpului \i al conte+tului. <n copil de cinci ani [nYelege cuvinte ca: 6totu\i, de fapt acum, dimpotrivZ, [ntr:adevZr78 [nsZ [ncercaYi sZ daYi o e+plicaYie a lor, nu pruncului ci tatZlui sZu. %umai [n 6de fapt7 se ascunde o micZ filozofie. &acZ un copil de opt ani va fi [nYeles pe limba lui de9a formatZ, de cZtre cel de trei ani, de ce vreYi voi s:o mZrginiYi pe a voastrZ la g]nguritul luiL GorbiYi, dar, mereu [n avans cu c]Yiva ani =doar geniile ne vorbesc din cZrYi, cu secole [n avans>8 cu cel de un an vorbiYi ca \i cum el ar fi de doi, cu acesta, ca \i cum ar fi de \ase, deoarece deosebirile de cre\tere se reduc invers proporYional cu anii. SZ se g]ndeascZ, dar educatorul, care subscrie orice [nvZYare predZrii, cZ 9umZtate din lumea sa, \i anume, cea spiritualZ =de pildZ aspectele concepYiei morale \i metafizice> copilul o poartZ [n sine de9a formatZ \i [nvZYatZ \i cZ tocmai de aceea, limba [nzestratZ doar cu imagini corporale, nu poate reda cele spirituale, ci doar le poate lumina =deslu\i>. Ducuria, ca \i hotZr]rea [n limbile vorbite cu copiii, ar trebui sZ ne dea ceva din propria lor bucurie \i hotZr]re. &e la ei se pot [nvZYa limbile, precum prin limbi sunt \i ei [nvZYaYi8 configuraYii [ndrZzneYe dar corecte de cuvinte, ca de e+emplu cele pe care le:am auzit de la copii de trei \i patru ani: der Dierfasser =W de bere Dutoierul, trad. literalZ>, der Sailer =W cordarul>, der /lascher =W sticlarul> X pentru cei ce fac butoaie de bere, corzi, sticle X die ,uftmaus =W \oarece aerian>, cu siguranYZ mai bine dec]t die /ledermaus =W \oarecele f]lf]itor>, die 0usi# geigt =W muzica arcu\e\te>, das ,icht ausscheren =W a forfeca lumina, provenind de la 6mucarniYZ7, cu care se taie mucurile de lum]nare>, dreschflegeln =W a [mblZciui>, pentru drescheln =W a treiera>, eu sunt der &urchsehmann =W omul care vede prin, adicZ cel ce stZ [n spatele lunetei>, a\ vrea sZ fi fost anga9at ca !feffernuDchenesser =W m]ncZtor de nucuYe de piper> ori ca !feffernuDler =W pipernucu\or>, la 6urm:oi fi chiar prea de\tept7, 6m:a glumit 9os de pe scaun7, 6uite cum de9a unu =pe ceas> este7 \.a.m.d.7 -cest anume pasa9 vorbe\te despre [nYelegerea dinainte de cuprinderea =priceperea> raYionalZ a realitZYii, pe un alt tZr]m dec]t pe cel despre care tocmai vorbiserZm, doar cZ, referitor la cele discutate, sunt valabile spusele lui Hean !aul despre limbZ. -\a cum preia copilul [n organismul sZu sufletesc te+tura =ansamblul> limbii, fZrZ a avea nevoie, pentru aceasta, de legile construcYiei limbii prin noYiuni raYionale, tot astfel t]nZrul, spre a:\i cultiva memoria, trebuie sZ [nveYe lucruri asupra cZrora [\i va [nsu\i abia mai t]rziu o [nYelegere raYionalZ. Da chiar, mai t]rziu, omul [nvaYZ cel mai bine sZ cuprindZ [n noYiuni ceea ce, la aceastZ v]rstZ, \i:a [nsu\it la [nceput doar memor]nd, a\a cum regulile limbii se [nvaYZ cel mai bine [n limba vorbitZ la acel moment. &iscuYia referitoare la materialul memorat pe ne[nYelese nu este nimic mai mult dec]t pre9udecatZ materialistZ. T]nZrul are nevoie sZ [nveYe doar legile cele mai necesare ale [nmulYirii, pe c]teva e+emple pentru care nu are deloc nevoie de calculator, ci pentru care mult mai bune sunt degetele, \i apoi va putea sZ:\i [nsu\eascZ [n mod ordonat \i memor]nd:o tabla [nmulYirii. !roced]nd a\a, se are [n vedere natura omului [n devenire. !ZcZtuim [nsZ faYZ de acesta dacZ, [n timpul [n care importantZ este constituirea memoriei, se ia prea mult [n considerare [nYelegerea =raYiunea>. ^nYelegerea =raYiunea> este o forYZ sufleteascZ ce se na\te abia odatZ cu maturizarea se+ualZ \i deci asupra cZreia nu ar trebui, la aceastZ v]rstZ, sZ se acYioneze din afarZ. !]nZ la maturizarea se+ualZ, t]nZrul ar trebui sZ:\i [nsu\eascZ prin memorare comorile asupra cZrora a cugetat omenirea, \i dupZ aceea va veni \i vremea de a pZtrunde cu noYiuni ceea ce, mai [nainte, el \i:a imprimat bine [n memorie. 2mul nu trebuie sZ ia [n seamZ pur \i simplu numai ceea ce a [nYeles =priceput> ci el ar trebui sZ cuprindZ =[nYeleagZ> lucrurile pe care el le cunoa\te, adicZ pe care el le:a luat [n stZp]nire prin memorare [n felul [n care a fZcut:o copilul cu limba. -cest aspect este valabil la scarZ mare. ^nt]i [nsu\irea prin memorare
!age NM of ?

a evenimentelor istorice, apoi cuprinderea acestora [n noYiuni. ^nt]i o bunZ imprimare [n memorie a realitZYilor geografice, apoi cuprinderea =priceperea> corelaYiilor dintre ele \.a.m.d. ^ntr:o anumitZ privinYZ, ar trebui ca orice cuprindere [n noYiuni sZ fie realizatZ din comorile de memorie [nmagazinate. 'u c]t \tie t]nZrul mai multe prin memorare, [nainte de a trece la noYiuni, cu at]t mai bine` %u e nevoie c]tu\i de puYin sZ:i fie prezentat [n mod e+plicit faptul cZ toate acestea sunt valabile doar pentru v]rsta despre care este vorba aici, iar nu pentru mai t]rziu. &acZ [nsZ [nvZYZm recuper]nd, ori [ntr:un alt fel, ceva, la o v]rstZ ulterioarZ, natural cZ drumul invers poate fi corect \i de dorit, de\i chiar \i aici multe ar trebui sZ depindZ de constituYia spiritualZ a celui [n cauzZ. ,a v]rsta [n discuYie [nsZ nu este permis sZ secZm spiritul printr:o prea:umplere cu noYiuni raYionale. 'hiar \i o predare intuitivZ, [n prea mare mZsurZ pur senzorialZ, provine dintr:un mod de reprezentare materialist. ,a v]rsta aceasta, orice intuiYie trebuie spiritualizatZ. %:ar trebui, de e+emplu, sZ ne mulYumim sZ prezentZm [ntr:un mod pur e+plicit:intuitiv o plantZ, o sZm]nYZ, o floare. Totul ar trebui dZ devinZ o parabolZ =un simbol> al celor spirituale. &eoarece o sZm]nYZ nu e numai ceea ce apare ochilor. ^nlZuntrul acesteia se ascunde, nevZzutZ, [ntreaga nouZ plantZ. /aptul cZ un asemenea lucru este mai mult dec]t ceea ce vZd simYurile, aceasta trebuie cuprins [n mod viu cu senzaYia, cu fantezia, cu sufletul. Trebuie sZ simYim bZnuiala tainelor e+istenYei. %u putem pretinde cZ printr:un asemenea procedeu s: ar tulbura percepYia =privirea> pur senzorialZ: din contrZ, prin rZm]nerea la percepYia =privirea> pur senzorialZ nu prea putem cunoa\te realitatea. &eoarece [ntreaga realitate a unui lucru constZ [n spirit \i materie, iar observarea fidelZ are nevoie sZ fie condusZ nu cu mai puYinZ gri9Z, atunci c]nd se pun [n activitate diverse forYe suflete\ti \i nu doar simYurile fizice. &acZ oameni ar putea sZ vadZ a\a cum poate \tiinYa spiritualZ, tot ce se pustie\te [n suflet 6i 4n trup printr:o \colarizare doar senzorial intuitivZ, ei ar stZrui mai puYin pentru aceasta. ,a ce [i folose\te t]nZrului, [n sensul cel mai [nalt al cuv]ntului, sZ i se arate toate mineralele, plantele, animalele posibile, toate e+perienYele fizicii, dacZ acestea nu se leagZ de utilizarea simbolurilor =parabolelor> sensibile =senzoriale>, cu scopul de a:i permite presimYirea tainelor spirituale. 'u siguranYZ cZ simYul materialist n:ar prea \ti ce are de fZcut cu acestea8 aspectul acesta este chiar prea bine cunoscut omului de \tiinYZ spiritualZ. ,ui [nsZ [i este clar \i faptul cZ o artZ a educaYiei cu adevZrat practicZ nu poate cre\te din simYul materialist. 2ric]t de practic ar fi considerat, acest simY este cu at]t mai nepractic [n realitate, atunci c]nd e vorba de a cuprinde viaYa [ntr:un mod viu. ^n faYa adevZratei realitZYi, convingerea materialistZ este ceva fantastic, [n timp ce acestei con!ingeri, e+plicaYiile \tiinYei spirituale i se par oricum, [n mod obligatoriu, fantastice. %e[ndoios, multe piedici vor mai trebui [ncZ [nlZturate p]nZ c]nd principiile nZscute [n [ntregime din viaYZ ale \tiinYei spirituale vor pZtrunde [n arta educaYiei. -ceasta este [nsZ ceva natural. -devZrurile \tiinYei spirituale trebuie sZ fie, [n ziua de azi, [ncZ pentru mulYi, neobi\nuite. &ar dacZ ele sunt o realitate, atunci se vor asimila [n culturZ. 1ducatorul va putea gZsi [ntotdeauna tactul potrivit \i soluYia corectZ pentru fiecare caz [n parte, numai printr:o con\tientizare clarZ a felului [n care acYioneazZ fiecare mZsurZ educativZ asupra t]nZrului. -stfel, trebuie sZ \tim felul [n care tratZm fiecare forYZ sufleteascZ: g]ndirea, simYirea \i voinYa pentru ca, prin dezvoltarea lor, acestea sZ poatZ acYiona, la r]ndul lor, asupra trupului eteric, [n timpul [n care, de la schimbarea dentiYiei la maturizarea se+ualZ, acesta se poate forma tot mai desZv]r\it prin influenYe dinafarZ. Temelia dezvoltZrii unei voinYe sZnZtoase, plinZ de forYZ, se a\eazZ de:a lungul primilor \apte ani de viaYZ prin utilizarea 9ustZ a principiilor de educaYie amintite. -ceasta pentru cZ o asemenea voinYZ trebuie sZ:\i aibZ suportul [n formele deplin dezvoltate ale trupului fizic. ^ncep]nd cu schimbarea dentiYiei, important este ca trupul eteric [n dezvoltare sZ acorde trupului fizic acele forYe prin care acesta sZ:\i poatZ realiza formele, masiv \i consolidat. 'eea ce e+ercitZ impresia cea mai puternicZ asupra trupului eteric se va rZsfr]nge, cu cea mai mare putere, \i asupra consolidZrii trupului fizic. &ar impulsurile cele mai puternice asupra trupului eteric vor fi suscitate prin acele simYZminte \i reprezentZri prin care omul [\i simte, \i trZie\te, raportul sZu cu temeliile originare ale 'osmosului, adicZ prin trZirile religioase. GoinYa unui om \i, cu aceasta, caracterul sZu, nu se vor dezvolta niciodatZ [n mod sZnZtos dacZ omul nu ca putea trece, [n perioada de viaYZ amintitZ, prin impulsuri religioase profund pZtrunzZtoare. ^n organizaYia sa unitarZ de voinYZ se e+primZ felul [n care omul se simte integrat [n [ntregul cosmic. dacZ omul nu se simte integrat prin legZturi sigure [n realitatea divin:spiritualZ, atunci voinYa \i caracterul sZu vor rZm]ne [n mod obligatoriu nesigure, ne:unitare \i nesZnZtoase. ,umea de sentiment se dezvoltZ [n mod corect prin parabole \i simbolurile descrise, mai ales prin tot ce va fi prezentat sub forma imaginii unor oameni reprezentativi din istorie ori din alte domenii. ,a fel de importantZ pentru constituirea lumii de sentimente este \i cufundarea corespunzZtoare [n tainele \i frumuseYile naturii. Iar aici intrZ [ndeosebi [n discuYie cultivarea simYului pentru frumos \i trezirea sentimentului pentru cele artistice. -spectul muzical va trebui sZ confere trupului eteric acel ritm care [l va capacita pe acesta sZ simtZ ritmurile, de altfel ascunse, din toate lucrurile. <n t]nZr care nu este pZrta\ [n aceastZ perioadZ de viaYZ la cultivarea binefZcZtoare a simYului muzical, va fi lipsit de multe [n [ntreaga sa viaYZ ulterioarZ. ^n mod obligatoriu, dacZ acest simY [i lipse\te cu desZv]r\ire, anumite laturi ale e+istenYei lumii, [i vor rZm]ne ascunse. ^n acest caz [nsZ, celelalte arte nu trebuie sZ fie negli9ate. Trezirea simYului pentru formele plastice, pentru linie graficZ, pentru armonia culorilor X nici una din acestea nu trebuie sZ lipseascZ din planul educativ. 2ric]t de simplu vor trebui uneori organizate aceste arte, datoritZ anumitor condiYii, nu va putea fi niciodatZ acceptatZ 9ustificarea cZ acele condiYii n:ar permite sZ se facZ absolut nimic pentru a le organiza. Se poate realiza mult cu cele mai simple
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mi9loace, dacZ, [n [nsu\i educatorul, domne\te simYul potrivit pentru acestea. Ducurie [n faYa vieYii, iubire pentru e+istenYZ, forYZ pentru muncZ X toate acestea germineazZ, prin cultivarea simYului pentru frumos \i pentru artZ, [n folosul [ntregii e+istenYe. Iar relaYia de la om la om X c]t va fi ea de [nnobilatZ, [nfrumuseYatZ prin acest simY. Sentimentul moral care, \i el, se constituie [n ace\ti ani prin intermediul imaginilor vieYii, prin autoritatea:model, va dob]ndi siguranYZ dacZ, prin simYul pentru frumos, binele va fi perceput [n acela\i timp ca frumos, iar rZul ca ur]t. ^n perioada de timp discutatZ, g]ndirea, [n configuraYia ei de viaYZ lZuntricZ a unor noYiuni abstracte, trebuie sZ rZm]nZ [ncZ reYinutZ, retrasZ. 1a va trebui sZ se dezvolte oarecum de la sine, ne:influenYatZ, [n timp ce sufletului i se [mpZrtZ\esc parabole =comparaYii, simboluri> \i imagini ale vieYii \i ale tainelor naturii. -stfel, [ntre \apte ani \i maturizarea se+ualZ, g]ndirea va trebui sZ creascZ, puterea de 9udecatZ sZ se maturizeze, [nlZuntrul celorlalte trZiri suflete\ti, \i astfel, mai apoi, dupZ [mplinirea maturizZrii se+uale, omul sZ fie capabil sZ:\i constituie complet de sine stZtZtor, o pZrere proprie [n faYa lucrurilor vieYii \i cunoa\terii. 'u c]t se intervine mai puYin [n mod direct, [nainte de vremea potrivitZ, asupra dezvoltZrii puterii de 9udecatZ, \i cu c]t se face acest lucru mai bine [n mod mi9locit, indirect, prin intermediul dezvoltZrii celorlalte forYe suflete\ti, cu at]t va fi mai bine pentru [ntreaga viaYZ ulterioarZ a omului [n cauzZ. _tiinYa spiritualZ oferZ temeiuri 9uste nu numai pentru partea spiritualZ a educaYiei ci \i pentru cea fizicZ. !entru a prezenta \i aici un e+emplu caracteristic, sZ ne referim la educaYia fizicZ =gimnastica> \i la 9ocurile pentru tineret. -\a cum iubirea \i bucuria trebuie sZ pZtrundZ ambianYa primilor ani ai copilZriei tot astfel, trupul eteric [n cre\tere va trebui sZ trZiascZ [n mod real [n sine, sentimentul propriei cre\teri, al continuei potenYZri a forYei, prin intermediul e+erciYiilor corporale. 1+erciYiile de gimnasticZ, de e+emplu, trebuie sZ fie [n a\a fel constituite, [nc]t, la orice mi\care, la fiecare pas, [nlZuntrul t]nZrului sZ se instaleze sentimentul: 6simt [n mine forYa ce cre\te7. Iar acest sentiment, sub forma plZcerii sZnZtoase, a satisfacYiei, tihnei, trebuie sZ punZ stZp]nire pe lZuntricul t]nZrului. Spre a nZscoci e+erciYii de gimnasticZ, [n acest sens, e nevoie, fire\te de mult mai mult dec]t de o cunoa\tere raYionalZ, anatomicZ \i fiziologicZ, a trupului omenesc. de aceea Yine cunoa\terea ad]ncZ, intuitivZ, complet pe mZsura simYZmintelor, a conlucrZrii dintre plZcere, comoditate =satisfacYie, tihnZ>, pe de o parte, \i poziYiile trupului omenesc. %Zscocitorul unor asemenea e+erciYii trebuie sZ poatZ trZi, [n sinea sa, felul cum o mi\care, o poziYie a membrelor creeazZ un sentiment de forYZ plZcut, comod, iar un altul, un fel de pierdere de forYZ \.a.m.d. /aptul cZ gimnastica \i e+erciYiile trupe\ti pot fi cultivate [n aceastZ direcYie, Yine de ceea ce numim \tiinYa spiritualZ, \i mai ales numai convingerea spiritual:\tiinYificZ, poate sZ de. !entru aceasta nu e nevoie de o privire imediatZ [n lumile spirituale, ci numai de simY pentru a utiliza [n viaYZ ceea ce provine din \tiinYa spiritualZ. ']nd cuno\tinYele spiritual:\tiinYifice se vor utiliza [n asemenea domenii practice, cum este de e+emplu educaYia, atunci, cur]nd, va [nceta \i discuYia complet fZrZ sens asupra faptului cZ aceste cuno\tinYe ar trebui totu\i mai [nt]i demonstrate. -celuia care le utilizeazZ corect ele [i vor fi demonstrate [n viaYZ, prin efectul de [nsZnZto\ire, de [ntZrire pe care [l au. 1l va observa cZ aceste cuno\tinYe sunt adevZrate prin faptul cZ ele se confirmZ [n practicZ \i prin aceasta ele se 6demonstreazZ7 mai bine dec]t prin orice 6fundamentZri logice7 \i a\a:zis 6\tiinYifice7. -devZrurile spirituale se recunosc mai bine dupZ roadele lor nu printr:o demonstraYie, \i [ncZ una pretins \tiinYificZ ce, nu poate fi totu\i, dec]t o 6controversZ7 logicZ. 2datZ cu maturizarea se+ualZ, se na\te trupul astral. !rin dezvoltarea lui liberZ, [n afarZ. abia acum poate avea acces la oameni tot ceea ce se desfZ\oarZ [n lumea abstractZ de reprezentZri =raYiunea> liberZ. S:a amintit de9a cZ aceste aptitudinii suflete\te trebuie sZ se fi dezvoltat anterior ne:influenYate, [n cadrul unei 9uste aplicZri a altor mZsuri educative, tot a\a cum, ne:influenYaYi dinafarZ, ochii \i urechile fZtului se dezvoltZ [nlZuntrul organismului matern. 2datZ cu maturizarea se+ualZ vine \i timpul [n care omul este copt pentru a:\i alcZtui propria 9udecatZ asupra lucrurilor pe care le:a [nvZYat anterior. <nui om nu:i poYi pricinui un mai mare rZu dec]t sZ:i treze\ti prea devreme propria 9udecatZ. poYi 9udeca abia atunci c]nd ai [nmagazinat [n tine material pentru 9udecare, pentru comparare. dacZ:Yi construie\ti 9udecZYi [nainte de vremea potrivitZ, obligatoriu, lor le va lipsi temeiul. Toate e+tremismele din viaYZ, toate 6crezurile7 oarbe ce se [ntemeiazZ doar pe c]teva cr]mpeie de cunoa\tere, vr]nd sZ clZdeascZ pe acestea cu a9utorul reprezentZrilor trZite de omenire \i pZstrate peste largi intervale de timp, toate provin din erori de educaYie [n aceastZ direcYie. !entru a fi matur, copt [n g]ndire, trebuie sZ:Yi fi [nsu\it respectul faYZ de ceea ce au g]ndit alYii. %u e+istZ g]ndire sZnZtoasZ care sZ nu fi provenit dintr:o sensibilitate \i simYire sZnZtoasZ pentru adevZr \i care se spri9inZ pe [ncrederea, de la sine [nYeleasZ, [n autoritate. &acZ este urmat acest principiu fundamental de educaYie, atunci nu se va mai a9unge la situaYia ca oamenii sZ se considere maturi [n 9udecatZ, \i nu:\i vor asuma posibilitatea de a lZsa viaYa sZ acYioneze asupra lor, [ntr:un mod multilateral dezinvolt. 'Zci orice 9udecatZ ce nu se clZde\te pe temelia tezaurului sufletesc corespunzZtor, pune piedici [n calea celui ce 9udecZ. !entru cZ atunci c]nd ai emis o 9udecatZ asupra unui lucru, vei fi influenYat [ntotdeauna de acesta, \i nu vei mai prelua trZirea a\a cum ai fi fZcut:o dacZ n:ai fi emis 9udecata referitoare la acel fapt. ^n omul t]nZr trebuie sZ trZiascZ simYul de a [nvZYa [nt]i \i de a 9udeca abia pe urmZ. 'e anume are de spus [nYelegerea =raYiunea> despre o chestiune, ar trebui spus abia dupZ ce toate celelalte forYe suflete\ti au grZit8 [nainte, raYiunea ar trebui sZ 9oace rolul de mi9locitor. -r trebui sZ slu9eascZ doar la a cuprinde cele vZzute \i simYite, de a le prelua [n sine a\a cum vin, astfel [nc]t 9udecata necoaptZ sZ nu acapareze imediat chestiunea respectivZ. -\a [nc]t, [nainte de v]rsta amintitZ, t]nZrul ar trebui sZ fie ferit de orice teorii referitoare la lucruri, iar accentul principal sZ fie pus pe confruntarea cu trZirile e+istenYei, pentru ca el sZ le primeascZ [n sufletul sZu. Dine[nYeles cZ omului [n formare [i poate fi adus la cuno\tinYZ ceea ce omenirea a g]ndit despre cutare sau cutare lucru, dar va trebui sZ evitZm sZ:l anga9Zm [n formarea unei pZreri, prin emiterea prea timpurie de 9udecZYi. Iar pZrerile, el ar trebui sZ le preia cu sentimentul cZ poate sZ asculte, fZrZ a hotZr[ imediat pentru una sau alta,
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cum cutare a spus [ntr:un fel iar cutare [ntr:altul. ,a cultivarea unui asemenea simY se cere dealtfel mult tact dascZlilor \i educatorilor, iar felul de a g]ndi, convingerea spiritual:\tiinYificZ este [n stare de a da acest tact. -ici am putut dezvolta numai anumite puncte de vedere asupra educaYiei, [n sensul spiritual:\tiinYific. Ga mai trebui [nsZ arZtat \i ce misiune culturalZ are modul acesta de reprezentare a realitZYii, cu referire la direcYia discutatZ. !osibilitZYile sale vor depinde de rZsp]ndirea [n cercuri tot mai largi a simYului pentru acest mod de reprezentare. !entru ca acest fapt sZ fie posibil, sunt necesare douZ aspecte: mai [nt]i, renunYarea la pre9udecZYi asupra _tiinYei Spirituale. 'ine o va admite cu adevZrat, va observa cZ ea nu este 6o chestie fantasmagoricZ7, a\a cum cred mulYi astZzi. &e altfel acestora nu le facem nici un fel de repro\, deoarece toate mi9locele de educare oferite de timpul nostru sunt de a\a naturZ [nc]t obligatoriu trebuie sZ creeze la [nceput pZrerea cZ oamenii de \tiinYZ spiritualZ ar fi ni\te fanta\ti \i ni\te visZtori. ,a o privire superficialZ nici nu Yi:ai putea forma o altZ 9udecatZ deoarece s:ar pZrea cZ aici avem contradicYia perfectZ dintre -ntroposofia reprezent]nd _tiinYa SpiritualZ \i tot ceea ce [nvZYZm]ntul de azi, pune la [ndem]na omului ca temelie a unei concepYii sZnZtoase despre viaYZ. &oar la o mai ad]ncZ e+aminare se dezvZluie c]t de profund contradictorii rZm]n pZrerile contemporane fZrZ acest fundament al _tiinYei Spirituale \i, de asemenea, cum aceste pZreri provoacZ de:a dreptul la gZsirea acestei temelii, fZrZ de care, ele nu pot dZinui pe termen lung. -l doilea aspect at]rnZ de [nsZ\i dezvoltarea sZnZtoase a _tiinYei Spirituale. -bia atunci c]nd peste tot [n cercurile antroposofice cunoa\terea va fi pZtrunsZ de importanYa fructificZrii [nvZYZturilor, [n modul cel mai cuprinzZtor \i pentru toate condiYiile vieYii, nerZm]n]ndu:se doar la teoretizarea lor, atunci \i viaYa se va deschide plinZ de [nYelegere faYZ de _tiinYa SpiritualZ. -ltfel [nsZ, ea va fi [n continuare consideratZ un soi de sectarism religios al unor visZtori ciudaYi \i aiuriYi. &acZ [nsZ ea va realiza o muncZ spiritualZ pozitivZ \i utilZ, mi\cZrii spiritual:\tiinYifice nu:i va mai putea fi refuzatZ, [n continuare, o acceptare plinZ de [nYelegere.

An 1ntroduction to 2aldorf Education

An Essay By Rudolf Steiner fro" GA *This essay was written during 1 1 . In the 'ollected edition of $udolf Steiner5s wor#s, the volume containing the "erman te+ts is entitled, Aufsatze .ber die "reigleiderung der sozialen organis'us und zur 7eitlage 898:+89;8 =Gol. A) in the Dibliographic Survey, 1 K1>. It was translated from the "erman by 1. Dowen:Wedgewood8 the translation was revised by /rederic# -mrine. This translation has been authorized for the Western Cemisphere by agreement with the $udolf Steiner %achlassverwaltung, &ornach, Switzerland.
'opyright ( 1 N? This e.Te+t edition is provided with the cooperation of: The -nthroposophic !ress

An 1ntroduction to 2aldorf Education

The aims 1mil 0olt is trying to realize through the Waldorf School are connected with @uite definite views on the social tas#s of the present day and the near future. The spirit in which the school should be conducted must proceed from these views. It is a school attached to an industrial underta#ing. The peculiar place modern industry has ta#en in the evolution of social life in actual practice sets its stamp upon the modern social movement. !arents who entrust their children to this school are bound to e+pect that the children shall be educated and prepared for the practical wor# of life in a way that ta#es due account of this movement. This ma#es it necessary, in founding the school, to begin from educational principles that have their roots in the re@uirements of modern life. 'hildren must be educated and instructed in such a way that their lives fulfill demands everyone can support, no matter from which of the inherited social classes one might come. What is demanded of people by the actualities of modern life must find its reflection in the organization of this school. What is to be the ruling spirit in this life must be aroused in the children by education and instruction. It would be fatal if the educational views upon which the Waldorf School is founded were dominated by a spirit out of touch with life. Today, such a spirit may all too easily arise because people have come to feel the full part played in the recent destruction of civilization by our absorption in a materialistic mode of life and thought during the last few decades. This feeling ma#es them desire to introduce an idealistic way of thin#ing into the management of public affairs. -nyone who turns his attention to developing educational life and the system of instruction will desire to see such a way of thin#ing realized there especially. It is an attitude of mind that reveals much good will. It goes without saying that this good will should be fully appreciated. If used properly, it can provide valuable service when gathering manpower for a
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social underta#ing re@uiring new foundations. 3et it is necessary in this case to point our how the best intentions must fail if they set to wor# without fully regarding those first conditions that are based on practical insight. This, then, is one of the re@uirements to be considered when the founding of any institution such as the Waldorf School is intended. Idealism must wor# in the spirit of its curriculum and methodology8 but it must be an idealism that has the power to awa#en in young, growing human beings the forces and faculties they will need in later life to be e@uipped for wor# in modern society and to obtain for themselves an ade@uate living. The pedagogy and instructional methodology will be able to fulfill this re@uirement only through a genuine #nowledge of the developing human being. Insightful people are today calling for some form of education and instruction directed not merely to the cultivation of one:sided #nowledge, but also to abilities8 education directed not merely to the cultivation of intellectual faculties, but also to the strengthening of the will. The soundness of this idea is un@uestionable8 but it is impossible to develop the will =and that healthiness of feeling on which it rests> unless one develops the insights that awa#en the energetic impulses of will and feeling. - mista#e often made presently in this respect is not that people instill too many concepts into young minds, but that the #ind of concepts they cultivate are devoid of all driving life force. -nyone who believes one can cultivate the will without cultivating the concepts that give it life is suffering from a delusion. It is the business of contemporary educators to see this point clearly8 but this clear vision can only proceed from a living understanding of the whole human being. It is now planned that the Waldorf School will be a primary school in which the educational goals and curriculum are founded upon each teacher5s living insight into the nature of the whole human being, so far as this is possible under present conditions. 'hildren will, of course, have to be advanced far enough in the different school grades to satisfy the standards imposed by the current views. Within this framewor#, however, the pedagogical ideals and curriculum will assume a form that arises out of this #nowledge of the human being and of actual life. The primary school is entrusted with the child at a period of its life when the soul is undergoing a very important transformation. /rom birth to about the si+th or seventh year, the human being naturally gives himself up to everything immediately surrounding him in the human environment, and thus, through the imitative instinct, gives form to his own nascent powers. /rom this period on, the child5s soul becomes open to ta#e in consciously what the educator and teacher gives, which affects the child as a result of the teacher5s natural authority. The authority is ta#en for granted by the child from a dim feeling that in the teacher there is something that should e+ist in himself, too. 2ne cannot be an educator or teacher unless one adopts out of full insight a stance toward the child that ta#es account in the most comprehensive sense of this metamorphosis of the urge to imitate into an ability to assimilate upon the basis of a natural relationship of authority. The modern world view, based as it is upon natural law, does not approach these fact of human development in full consciousness. To observe them with the necessary attention, one must have a sense of life5s subtlest manifestations in the human being. This #ind of sense must ran through the whole an of education8 it must shape the curriculum8 it must live in the spirit uniting teacher and pupil. In educating, what the teacher does can depend only slightly on anything he gets from a general, abstract pedagogy: it must rather be newly born every moment from a live understanding of the young human being he or she is teaching. 2ne may, of course, ob9ect that this ,ively #ind of education and instruction brea#s down in large classes. This ob9ection is no doubt 9ustified in a limited sense. Ta#en beyond those limits, however, the ob9ection merely shows that the person who ma#es it proceeds from abstract educational norms, for a really living an of education based on a genuine #nowledge of the human being carries with it a power that rouses the interest of every single pupil so that there is no need for direct 6individual7 wor# in order to #eep his attention on the sub9ect. 2ne can put forth the essence of one5s teaching in such a form that each pupil assimilates it in his own individual way. This re@uires simply that whatever the teacher does should be sufficiently alive. If anyone has a genuine sense for human nature, the developing human being becomes for him such an intense, ,iving riddle that the very attempt to solve it awa#ens the pupil5s living interest empathetically. Such empathy is more valuable than individual wor#, which may all too easily cripple the child5s own initiative. It might indeed be asserted 4 again, within limitations 4 that large classes led by teachers who are imbued with the life that comes from genuine #nowledge of the human being, will achieve better results than small classes led by teachers who proceed from standard educational theories and have no chance to put this life into their wor#. %ot so outwardly mar#ed as the transformation the soul undergoes in the si+th or seventh year, but no less important for the art of educating, is a change that a penetrating study of the human being shows to ta#e place around the end of the ninth year. -t this time, the sense of self assumes a form that awa#ens in the child a relationship to nature and to the world about him such that one can now tal# to him more about the connections between things and processes themselves, whereas previously he was interested almost e+clusively in things and processes only in relationship to man. /acts of this #ind in a human being5s development ought to be most carefully observed by the educator. /or if one introduces into the child5s world of concepts and feelings what coincides 9ust at that period of life with the direction ta#en by his own developing powers, one then gives such added vigor to the growth of the whole person that it remains a source of strength
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throughout life. If in any period of life one wor#s against the grain of these developing powers, one wea#ens the individual. ;nowledge of the special needs of each life period provides a basis for drawing up a suitable curriculum. This #nowledge also can be a basis for dealing with instructional sub9ects in successive periods. Dy the end of the ninth year, one must have brought the child to a certain level in all that has come into human life through the growth of civilization. Thus while the first school years are properly spent on teaching the child to write and read, the teaching must be done in a manner that permits the essential character of this phase of development to be served. If one teaches things in a way that ma#es a one:sided claim on the child5s intellect and the merely abstract ac@uisition of s#ills, then the development of the native will and sensibilities is chec#ed8 while if the child learns in a manner that calls upon its whole being, he or she develops all around. &rawing in a childish fashion, or even a primitive #ind of painting, brings out the whole human being5s interest in what he is doing. Therefore one should let writing grow out of drawing. 2ne can begin with figures in which the pupil5s own childish artistic sense comes into play8 from these evolve the letters of the alphabet. Deginning with an activity that, being artistic, draws out the whole human being, one should develop writing, which tends toward the intellectual. -nd one must let reading, which concentrates the attention strongly within the realm of the intellect, arise out of writing. When people recognize how much is to be gained for the intellect from this early artistic education of the child, they will be willing to allow art its proper place in the primary school education. The arts of music, painting and sculpting will be given a proper place in the scheme of instruction. This artistic element and physical e+ercise will be brought into a suitable combination. "ymnastics and action games will be developed as e+pressions of sentiments called forth by something in the nature of music or recitation. 1urythmic movement 4 movement with a meaning 4 will replace those motions based merely on the anatomy and physiology of the physical body. !eople will discover how great a power resides in an artistic manner of instruction for the development of will and feeling. Cowever, to teach or instruct in this way and obtain valuable results can be done only by teachers who have an insight into the human being sufficiently #een to perceive clearly the connection between the methods they are employing and the developmental forces that manifest themselves in any particular period of life. The real teacher, the real educator, is not one who has studied educational theory as a science of the management of children, but one in whom the pedagogue has been awakened by awareness of human nature. 2f prime importance for the cultivation of the child5s feeling:life is that the child develops its relationship to the world in a way such as that which develops when we incline toward fantasy. If the educator is not himself a fantast, then the child is not in danger of becoming one when the teacher con9ures forth the realms of plants and animals, of the s#y and the stars in the soul of the child in fairy:tale fashion. Gisual aids are undoubtedly 9ustified within certain limits8 but when a materialistic conviction leads people to try to e+tend this form of teaching to every conceivable thing, they forget there are other powers in the human being which must be developed, and which cannot be addressed through the medium of visual observation. /or instance, there is the ac@uisition of certain things purely through memory that is connected to the developmental forces at wor# between the si+th or seventh and the fourteenth year of life. It is this property of human nature upon which the teaching of arithmetic should be based. Indeed, arithmetic can be used to cultivate the faculty of memory. If one disregards this fact, one may perhaps be tempted =especially when teaching arithmetic> to commit the educational blunder of teaching with visual aids what should be taught as a memory e+ercise. 2ne may fall into the same mista#e by trying all too an+iously to ma#e the child understand everything one tells him. The will that prompts one to do so is undoubtedly good, but does not duly estimate what it means when, ,ater in life, we revive within our soul something that we ac@uired simply through memory when younger and now find, in our mature years, that we have come to understand it on our own. Cere, no doubt, any fear of the pupil5s not ta#ing an active interest in a lesson learned by memory alone will have to be relieved by the teacher5s lively way of giving it. If the teacher engages his or her whole being in teaching, then he may safely bring the child things for which the full understanding will come when 9oyfully remembered in later life. There is something that constantly refreshes and strengthens the inner substance of life in this recollection. If the teacher assists such a strengthening, he will give the child a priceless treasure to ta#e along on life5s road. In this way, too, the teacher will avoid the visual aid5s degenerating into the banality that occurs when a lesson is overly adapted to the child5s understanding. Danalities may be calculated to arouse the child5s own activity, but such fruits lose their flavor with the end of childhood. The flame en#indled in the child from the living fire of the teacher in matters that still lie, in a way, beyond his 6understanding,7 remains an active, awa#ening force throughout the child5s life. If, at the end of the ninth year, one begins to choose descriptions of natural history from the plant and animal world, treating them in a way that the natural forms and processes lead to an understanding of the human form and the
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phenomena of human life, then one can help release the forces that at this age are struggling to be born out of the depths of human nature. It is consistent with the character of the child5s sense of self at this age to see the @ualities that nature divides among manifold species of the plant and animal #ingdoms as united into one harmonious whole at the summit of the natural world in the human being. -round the twelfth year, another turning point in the child5s development occurs. Ce becomes ripe for the development of the faculties that lead him in a wholesome way to the comprehension of things that must be considered without any reference to the human being: the mineral #ingdom, the physical world, meteorological phenomena, and so on. The best way to lead then from such e+ercises, which are based entirely on the natural human instinct of activity without reference to practical ends, to others that shall be a sort of education for actual wor#, will follow from #nowledge of the character of the successive periods of life. What has been said here with reference to particular parts of the curriculum may be e+tended to everything that should be taught to the pupil up to his fifteenth year. There need be no fear of the elementary schools releasing pupils in a state of soul and body unfit for practical life if their principles of education and instructions are allowed to proceed, as described, from the inner development of the human being. /or human life itself is shaped by this inner development8 and one can enter upon life in no better way than when, through the development of our own inner capacities, we can 9oin with what others before us, from similar inner human capacities, have embodied in the evolution of the civilized world. It is true that to bring the two into harmony 4 the development of the pupil and the development of the civilized world 4 will re@uire a body of teachers who do not shut themselves up in an educational routine with strictly professional interests, but rather ta#e an active interest in the whole range of life. Such a body of teachers will discover how to awa#en in the upcoming generation a sense of the inner, spiritual substance of life and also an understanding of life5s practicalities. If instruction is carried on this way, the young human being at the age of fourteen or fifteen will not lac# comprehension of important things in agriculture and industry, commerce and travel, which help to ma#e up the collective life of man#ind. Ce will have ac@uired a #nowledge of things and a practical s#ill that will enable him to feel at home in the life which receives him into its stream. If the Waldorf School is to achieve the aims its founder has in view, it must be built on educational principles and methods of the #ind here described. It will then be able to give the #ind of education that allows the pupil5s body to develop healthily and according to its needs, because the soul =of which this body is the e+pression> is allowed to grow in a way consistent with the forces of its development. Defore its opening, some preparatory wor# was attempted with the teachers so that the school might be able to wor# toward the proposed aim. Those concerned with the management of the school believe that in pursuing this aim they bring something into educational life in accordance with modern social thin#ing. They feel the responsibility inevitably connected with any such attempt8 but they thin# that, in contemporary social demands, it is a duty to underta#e this when the opportunity is afforded.

A 5ecture on Peda o y
A 5ecture on Peda o y
An Article By Rudolf Steiner GA 3+
-n article from "as Goetheanu', Golume A, %umber 1M, "-a *K. In "erman, "er Goetheanu'gedanke -n'itten der $ulturkrisis der Gegenwart# Gesa''elte Aufsaetze aus der &ochenschrift <"as Goetheanu'= 89;8>89;:. - lecture on pedagogy during the /rench course at the "oetheanum, 1KS1M September, 1 AA. This translation has been authorized for the western hemisphere by agreement with the $udolf Steiner %achlassverwaltung, &ornach, Switzerland. The translator is un#nown. /rom "-a *K.
'opyright ( 1 AM This e.Te+t edition is provided through the wonderful wor# of: The Anthro0oso0hical <uarterly

- ,1'T<$1 2% !1&-"2"3
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TC1 present is the age of intellectualism. The intellect is that faculty of soul in the e+ercise of which man5s inner being participates least. 2ne spea#s with some 9ustification of the cold intellectual nature8 we need only reflect how the intellect acts upon artistic perception or practice. It dispels or impedes. -nd artists dread that their creations may be conceptually or symbolically e+plained by the intelligence. In the clarity of the intellect the warmth of soul which, in the act of creation, gave life to their wor#s, is e+tinguished. The artist would li#e his wor# to be grasped by feeling, not by the understanding. /or then the warmth with which he has e+perienced it is communicated to the beholder. Dut this warmth is repelled by an intellectual e+planation. In social life intellectualism separates men from one another. They can only wor# rightly within the community when they are able to impart to their deeds 4 which always involve the weal or woe of their fellow beings 4 something of their soul. 2ne man should e+perience not only another5s activity but something of his soul. In a deed, however, which springs from intellectualism, a man withholds his soul nature. Ce does not let it flow over to his neighbour. It has long been said that in the teaching and training of children intellectualism operates in a crippling way. In saying this one has in mind, in the first place, only the child5s intelligence, not the teacher5s. 2ne would li#e to fashion one5s methods of training and instruction so that not only the child5s cold understanding may be aroused and developed, but warmth of heart may be engendered too. The anthroposophical view of the world is in full agreement with this. It accepts fully the e+cellent educational ma+ims which have grown from this demand. Dut it realises clearly that warmth can only be imparted from soul to soul. 2n this account it holds that, above all, pedagogy itself must become ensouled, and thereby the teachers5 whole activity. In recent times intellectualism has permeated strongly into methods of instruction and training. It has achieved this indirectly, by way of modern science. !arents let science dictate what is good for the child5s body, soul and spirit. -nd teachers, during their training, receive from science the spirit of their educational methods. Dut science has achieved its triumphs precisely through intellectualism. It wants to #eep its thoughts free of anything from man5s own soul life, letting them receive everything from sense observation and e+periment. Such a science could build up the e+cellent #nowledge of nature of our time, but it cannot found a true pedagogy. - true pedagogy must be based upon a #nowledge that embraces man with respect to body, soul and spirit. Intellectualism only grasps man with respect to his body, for to observation and e+periment the bodily alone is revealed. Defore a true pedagogy can be founded, a true #nowledge of man is necessary. This -nthroposophy see#s to attain. 2ne cannot come to a #nowledge of man by first forming an idea of his bodily nature with the help of a science founded merely on what can be grasped by the senses, and then as#ing whether this bodily nature is ensouled, and whether a spiritual element is active within it. In dealing with a child such an attitude is harmful. /or in him, far more than in the adult, body, soul and spirit form a unity. 2ne cannot care first for the health of the child from the point of view of a merely natural science, and then want to give to the healthy organism what one regards as proper from the point of view of soul and spirit. In all that one does to the child and with the child one benefits or in9ures his bodily life. In man5s earthly life soul and spirit e+press themselves through the body. - bodily process is a revelation of soul and spirit. 0aterial science is of necessity concerned with the body as a physical organism8 it does not come to a comprehension of the whole man. 0any feel this while regarding pedagogy, but fail to see what is needed to:day. They do not say: pedagogy cannot thrive on material science8 let us therefore found our pedagogic methods out of pedagogic instincts and not out of material science. Dut half:consciously they are of this opinion. We may admit this in theory, but in practice it leads to nothing, for modern humanity has lost the spontaneity of the life of instinct. To try to:day to build up an instinctive pedagogy on instincts which are no longer present in man in their original force, would remain a groping in the dar#. We come to see this through anthroposophical #nowledge. We learn to #now that the intellectualistic trend in science owes its e+istence to a necessary phase in the evolution of man#ind. In recent times man passed out of the period of instinctive life. The intellect became of predominant significance. 0an needed it in order to advance on his evolutionary path in the right way. It leads him to that degree of consciousness which he must attain in a certain epoch, 9ust as the individual must ac@uire particular capabilities at a particular period of his life. Dut the instincts are crippled under the influence of the intellect, and one cannot try to return to the instinctive life without wor#ing against man5s evolution. We must accept the significance of that full consciousness which has been attained through intellectualism, and 4 in full consciousness 4 give to man what instinctive life can no longer give him. We need for this a #nowledge of soul and spirit which is 9ust as much founded on reality as is material, intellectualistic science. -nthroposophy strives for 9ust this, yet it is this that many people shrin# from accepting. They learn to #now the way modern science tries to understand man. They feel he cannot be #nown in this way, but they will
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not accept that it is possible to cultivate a new mode of cognition and 4 in clarity of consciousness e@ual to that in which one penetrates the bodily nature 4 attain to a #nowledge of soul and spirit. So they want to return to the instincts again in order to understand the child and train him. Dut he must go forwards8 and there is no other way than to e+tend anthropology by ac@uiring -nthroposophy, and sense #nowledge by ac@uiring spiritual #nowledge. We have to learn all over again. 0en are terrified at the complete change of thought re@uired for this. /rom unconscious fear they attac# -nthroposophy as fantastic, yet it only wants to proceed in the spiritual domain as soberly and as carefully as material science in the physical. ,et us consider the child. -bout the seventh year of life he develops his second teeth. This is not merely the wor# of the period of time immediately preceding. It is a process that begins with embryonic development and only concludes with the second teeth. These forces, which produce the second teeth at a certain stage of development, were always active in the child5s organism. They do not reveal themselves in this way in subse@uent periods of life. /urther teeth formations do not occur. 3et the forces concerned have not been lost8 they continue to wor#8 they have merely been transfor'ed. They have undergone a metamorphosis. =There are still other forces in the child5s organism which undergo metamorphosis in a similar way.> If we study in this way the development of the child5s organism we discover that these forces are active before the change of teeth. They are absorbed in the processes of nourishment and growth. They live in undivided unity with the body, freeing themselves from it about the seventh year. They live on as soul forces8 we find them active in the older child in feeling and thin#ing. -nthroposophy shows that an etheric organism permeates the physical organism of man. <p to the seventh year the whole of this etheric organism is active in the physical. Dut now a portion of the etheric organism becomes free from direct activity in the physical. It ac@uires a certain independence, becoming thereby an independent vehicle of the soul life, relatively free from the physical organism. In earth life, however, soul e+perience can only develop with the help of this etheric organism. Cence the soul is @uite embedded in the body before the seventh year. To be active during this period, it must e+press itself through the body. The child can only come into relationship with the outer world when this relationship ta#es the form of a stimulus which runs its course within the body. This can only be the case when the child i'itates. Defore the change of teeth the child is a purely imitative being in the widest sense. Cis training must consist in this: that those around him perform before him what he is to imitate. The child5s educator should e+perience within himself what it is to have the whole etheric organism within the physical. This gives him #nowledge of the child. With abstract principles alone one can do nothing. 1ducational practice re@uires an anthroposophical art of education to wor# out in detail how the human being reveals himself as a child. Hust as the etheric organism is embedded in the physical until the change of teeth, so, from the change of teeth until puberty, there is embedded in the physical and etheric a soul organism, called the astral organism by -nthroposophy. -s a result of this the child develops a life that no longer e+pends itself in imitation. Dut he cannot yet govern his relation to others in accordance with fully conscious thoughts regulated by intellectual 9udgment. This first becomes possible when, at puberty, a part of the soul organism frees itself from the corresponding part of the etheric organism. /rom his seventh to his fourteenth or fifteenth year the child5s life is not mainly determined by his relation to those around him in so far as this results from his power of 9udgment. It is the relation which comes through authority that is important now. This means that, during these years, the child must loo# up to someone whose authority he can accept as a matter of course. Cis whole education must now be fashioned with reference to this. 2ne cannot build upon the child5s power of intellectual 9udgment, but one should perceive clearly that the child wants to accept what is put before him as true, good and beautiful, because the teacher, whom he ta#es for his model, regards it as true, good and beautiful. 0oreover the teacher must wor# in such a way that he not merely puts before the child the True, the "ood and the Deautiful, but 4 in a sense 4 is these. What the teacher is passes over into the child, not what he teaches. -ll that is taught should be put before the child as a concrete ideal. Teaching itself must be a wor# of art, not a matter of theory.

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