Steiner’s Lectures To Teachers & Educators 1 2 Steiner’s Lectures On Teaching And Education About The Transcripts Of The Lecture Courses “The results of my anthroposophical work are, first, the books available to the general public; and secondly, a great number of lecture courses… But it must be borne in mind that faulty passages occur in these lecture-reports not revised by myself. The right to judge such material can, of course, be conceded only to someone who has the prerequisite basis for such judgment. And in respect of most of this material it would mean at least knowledge of the human being and of the cosmos insofar as these have been presented in the light of Anthroposophy.”1 The Unique Value Of Each Course “Thus, the educational course given here at the Goetheanum just over a year ago2 can be compared with what I presented to you again differently in this course. You will find that, basically, the substance of both courses is the same as, for example, the head and the stomach; each form a part of one organism… because of how various themes mutually support each other, one cannot say: I have read and understood the first course; and because the later one is supposed to carry the same message, there is no need for me to study it as well. The fact is, however, that, if one has studied both courses, the earlier one will be understood in greater depth, because each sheds light on the other. It could even be said that, only when one has digested a later teachers’ course, can one fully understand an earlier one because of these reciprocal effects. As a Waldorf teacher, one has to be conscious of the necessity for continually widening and deepening one’s knowledge, rather than feeling satisfied with one’s achievements.”3 1 Extract from Rudolf Steiner, An Autobiography, (GA 28). 2 Soul Economy; Body, Soul, And Spirit In Waldorf Education. 3 22.IV.1923, Dornach (GA 306). 3 Why Are The Books Written In A Way That Is So Difficult To Understand? “If it were made easy to enter Spiritual Science then each one could enter without overcoming his egoism. But in the work accomplished spiritually by the efforts we have to make, we get rid of a little of our egoism; we enter what we wish to acquire through Spiritual Science in a more hallowed frame of mind if we have had to take trouble over it, than if it had been presented to us in quite an easy and popular form.”4 * * * * 4 7.XII.1915, Berlin. 4 1. The Foundations of Human Experience5 (Fourteen lectures delivered in Stuttgart, Germany, August 21 - September 5, 1919) Early in 1919 Rudolf Steiner was asked by the director of the Waldorf Astoria Tobacco Company in Stuttgart, Germany, to give lectures to the factory workers on the question of what new social impulses are necessary in the modern world. Responding to the lectures, the factory workers requested of Rudolf Steiner that he further help them in developing an education for their own children based on the knowledge of the human being and of society that he had opened up for them. By the end of April, that same spring, the decision had been made to establish a new school for the workers’ children, the first Waldorf school. Today, there are over 600 schools in almost forty countries… Before the opening of the first Waldorf school, Rudolf Steiner met with the group of teachers who were preparing themselves for their new task. For fourteen days, from August 20 to September 5, 1919, he gave these teachers a foundation for an understanding of the growing human being in body, soul, and spirit. This understanding made it possible for the teachers to call forth the true artists in themselves, enabling them to create their lessons out of imaginative and inspired thought pictures. Rudolf Steiner began the day with the lectures that are collected in The Foundations of Human Experience (previously titled The Study of Man); then he followed these with the practical advice contained in the lectures now titled Practical Advice To Teachers. The sessions which are known under the title Discussions with Teachers followed in the afternoons. Together these three books constitute the solid foundation upon which every Waldorf teacher can build, for, as we hear at the beginning of the first lecture of this book, Waldorf teaching methods will have to differ from other methods. They will draw on the teacher’s spiritual-scientific understanding of the child and of the time in which they live. 5 Allgemeine Menschenkunde als Grundlage der Pädagogik (GA 293). 5 2. Practical Advice To Teachers6 (Fourteen lectures delivered in Stuttgart, Germany, August 21 - September 5, 1919) The seminal significance of these three courses for the teachers is perhaps best captured by Steiner’s own remarks toward the conclusion of this intensive fortnight of lectures when he reassures the teachers that, “While there may be times when you feel uncertain how or when to bring one thing or another into your teaching, or in what place to introduce it, if you remember rightly what has been brought before you during this fortnight, then thoughts will surely arise in you which will tell you what to do.”7 This book contains so many gems and profound insights into how to address the needs of the growing human being in a healthy way that it is positively astonishing. For that reason these lectures can be an inspiration to parents, home schoolers, and all others who are interested in human development and education. In his closing words to the teachers (lecture 14), Steiner brings before them the ideal of a healthy and inspired teacher, one who can be a true model for children. It is also the ideal of a healthy human being in general but one that is particularly necessary for the teaching profession. However, it can also stand for the kind of human beings that Waldorf education wants to foster: Human beings of initiative Human beings interested in the world Human beings who seek the truth Human beings who will not grow sour.8 6 Erziehungskunst Methodisch-Didaktisches (GA 294). 7 6.IX.1919, Stuttgart (GA 294). 8 From the Foreword by Astrid Schmitt-Stegmann. 6 3. Discussions With Teachers9 (Fourteen seminars in Stuttgart, Germany, August 21-September 5, 1919) These discussions are part of the first Waldorf Teacher Training. They took place along with two other courses that Rudolf Steiner gave to prepare the individuals he had chosen as teachers for the first Waldorf school, which opened in Stuttgart on September 7, 1919. Emil Molt, the managing director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory, had requested that Rudolf Steiner help found a school for the children of the factory employees. From that request has grown what is now a worldwide educational movement. But the questions can be asked: Is an educational impulse more than seventy five years old relevant today? How do teachers keep themselves up to date? Can the Waldorf curriculum be effective for children in the twentieth and into the twenty first centuries? This original Waldorf teacher training was brief: it lasted only two weeks. It was understood by those who attended, however, that Waldorf education was to be based upon the continuing training or self- education of the teacher, and that this was only the beginning of that process. These fifteen discussions — along with three lectures on the curriculum, translated for the first time into English — can give the teachers of today the tools for becoming true educators. In this book, along with its companion courses, The Foundations of Human Experience and Practical Advice to Teachers, is a foundation for the continuing self-education of teachers. These courses provide the basis out of which a teacher of today can educate a child of today, at each new moment, with a fresh and healthy mood of soul. A more modern art of education could not be created. 9 Erziehungskunst Seminarbesprechungen und Lehrplanvorträge (GA 295). 7 4. Education As A Force For Social Change10 (Six lectures delivered in Dornach, Switzerland, August 9-17, 1919) For the Western world, the years 1914 to 1918 were cataclysmic. Western society, whether in Europe, England, or America, had collectively marched out of the nineteenth century waving the banners of Science and Prosperity. People widely believed that this wonderful tool, rational science, developed and refined by the best minds on both continents, had placed humanity just steps away from being able to completely eliminate suffering, poverty, and despair… Then came the Great War. From August 1, 1914 to November 11, 1918 volley after volley, battle after battle, drove home the enormity of the error of these beliefs. The cycle of six lectures printed here were presented in Dornach during August, 1919… Throughout the first three lectures, Steiner presents again and again the disastrous futility he beheld — the emptiness, the selfishness, the blindness, the assumptions… This was the world after World War I; this was the cold midnight experienced by millions of people. In the final three lectures of this cycle… what streamed forth was the truth that living, conscious Love, that Christ as Strength, as living Principle itself is available to every human being on Earth, and that it is the deepest personal misfortune when we fail to experience the presence of this living, conscious Love in our lives. “Teachers… need to bring the children a way of finding Christ as an Impulse in the course of their lives, that is, of finding their own rebirth.”11 10 Die Erziehungsfrage als soziale Frage; Die spirituellen, kultur-geschichtlichen und sozialen Hintergründe der Waldorfschul-Pädagogik (GA 296).