front i Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 Introduction i WALDORF EDUCATION AND ANTHROPOSOPHY 1 front ii Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 ii Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 [XIII] FOUNDATIONS OF WALDORF EDUCATION front iii Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 Introduction iii RUDOLF STEINER Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 Nine Public Lectures FEBRUARY 23,1921 – SEPTEMBER 16,1922 Anthroposophic Press front iv Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 iv Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 The publisher wishes to acknowledge the inspiration and support of Connie and Robert Dulaney ❖❖❖ Introduction © René Querido 1995 Text © Anthroposophic Press 1995 This volume is a translation of Erziehungs- und Unterrichtsmethoden auf anthro- posophischer Grundlage, which is vol. 304 of the Complete Centenary Edition of the works of Rudolf Steiner, published by Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland, 1979. Published by Anthroposophic Press RR 4, Box 94 A-1, Hudson, N.Y. 12534 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Steiner, Rudolf, 1861–1925. [Erziehungs- und Unterrichtsmethoden auf anthroposophischer Grundlage. English] Waldorf education and anthroposophy 1 : nine public lectures, February 23, 1921–September 16, 1922 / Rudolf Steiner. p. cm. — (Foundations of Waldorf education : 13) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-88010-387-6 (pbk.) 1. Waldorf method of education. 2. Anthroposophy. I. Title. II. Series. LB1029. W34S7213 1995 371.3'9—dc20 95-21005 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, except for brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles. Printed in the United States of America front v Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 Introduction v Contents Introduction by René Querido vii 1. Anthroposophical Spiritual Science and the Great Questions of our Present Civilization (Spiritual Science and Waldorf Education I) The Hague, February 23, 1921 ................................................ 1 2. Education and Practical Life from the Perspective of Spiritual Science (Spiritual Science and Waldorf Education II) The Hague, February 27, 1921 .............................................. 32 3. Knowledge of Health and Illness in Education Dornach, September 26, 1921 ............................................... 67 4. The Fundamentals of Waldorf Education Aarau, November 11, 1921 ................................................... 97 5. Educational Methods Based on Anthroposophy Part I Christiania (Oslo), November 23, 1921 ............................... 144 6. Educational Methods based on Anthroposophy Part II Christiania (Oslo), November 24, 1921 .............................. 173 7. Education and Drama Stratford-on-Avon, April 19, 1922 ..................................... 203 front vi Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 vi Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 8. Shakespeare and the New Ideals Stratford-on-Avon, April 23, 1922 ..................................... 217 9. Synopsis of a Lecture from the “French Course” Dornach, September 16, 1922 ............................................. 233 Bibliography 239 Index 245 front vii Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 Introduction vii Introduction This book contains a collection of public lectures given in 1921–1922 by Rudolf Steiner on educational and social ques- tions. It is presented here for the first time in English and con- tains a number of surprising jewels not found anywhere else. The year 1921 proved to be a most eventful time in the life of the anthroposophical movement. The First World War had ended and conditions were stabilizing, though in middle Europe many social problems still remained. Rudolf Steiner had spent most of the war years in Dornach, Switzerland, and although he had given a number of lectures in Switzerland and Germany, it had not been possible for him to visit other countries. One of his first extensive journeys abroad took him to the Netherlands for a two-and-a-half-week lecture tour. In addition to lectures to members, he gave a number of presentations to a wider public. The first of these lectures, given in the Hague, deals directly with the Guardian of the Threshold, the spiritual being who separates our ordinary consciousness from our spiritual con- sciousness. Without any introduction, Rudolf Steiner embarks upon basic questions regarding the materialistic age we live in and the dawning of a new, supersensible consciousness. His remarks are full of telling examples and analogies. The task of spiritual science is to help modern humanity, strongly affected by scientific training, to cross the threshold into a supersensible dimension by fully conscious means. Steiner argues persuasively front viii Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 viii Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 that these considerations are of vital importance for understand- ing the pedagogical needs of our time. The second lecture deals more specifically with the urgent need to recognize the developmental stages of the child, addressing the question of a curriculum that meets the needs of children. It emphasizes Steiner’s high regard for the results of scientific research and the achievements of medical science. Spiritual science does not seek to diminish the contributions of prevailing materialistic views but rather to add a further dimension to them so that the human being can again be understood to consist of body, soul, and spirit. The two public lectures given in Switzerland on September 26 and November 11 provide us with a vivid picture of how Rudolf Steiner dealt with a public hardly conversant with the new ideals of education. Any reader—from layperson to parent to teacher—can gain an enormous amount from these presen- tations, for Rudolf Steiner also discusses what is meant by healthy and unhealthy attitudes toward the growing child. The words of Goethe are quoted: “Consider the what, but pay even more attention to the how.” Steiner shows little interest for rigid educational principles and methods, but urges instead that the teacher practice an art of education based on insight into the nature of the growing child. He recommends that all teachers study Schiller’s central work, Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, stating that they would gain considerably from doing so. Again and again, the three phases of the devel- opment of the child—imitation, authority, and freedom—are dealt with in an inspiring manner. The single public lectures on education were given in Oslo, during a visit Steiner made to Scandinavia. An interesting theme, which Steiner spoke of in earlier lectures to members of the Anthroposophical Society, emerges here. In order to edu- cate children rightly, we should discover the element of front ix Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 Introduction ix “unbornness.” Steiner coined this term to express that we should form a relationship with what the human being experi- ences in the spiritual world before birth. For thousands of years humanity has been concerned with “immortality.” Now, in the new age of light, the concept of “unbornness” should be added, so that we develop a devotional understanding of what children bring with them. Of the twelve trips abroad that Rudolf Steiner made during the year 1922, special reference should be made to his stay in England from April 14–25. Well-known educators, such as Professor Millicent Mackenzie, at that time Professor of Educa- tion at University College, Cardiff, Wales, were active members of the committee that promoted the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave in Oxford in August 1922.1 Professor Mackenzie had attended the Christmas course for teachers at the Goetheanum in 1921,2 and had been so impressed that, after the Oxford lec- tures, she invited Rudolf Steiner to lecture on education in connection with the Shakespeare festival in Stratford-on-Avon. As a result of these presentations, Professor Mackenzie and Principal L.P. Jacks, then head of Manchester College, spon- sored what proved to be a breakthrough for the Waldorf impulse in England. The festival at Stratford-on-Avon, which was to prove so fruitful, began on April 18 with lectures by some distinguished representatives of British intellectual life, dealing with Shakes- peare’s work. The conference, arranged by the committee work- ing for “New Ideals in Education,” was set at the very center of this festivity. The two lectures Steiner gave in Stratford appear in this collection. In addition to studying these texts, it may be 1. Published as The Spiritual Ground of Education (London: Anthroposophi- cal Publishing Co., 1947) (GA305 in the Collected Works). 2. Published as Soul Economy and Waldorf Education. (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1986) (GA303 in the Collected Works). front x Thu Aug 31 10:20:50 1995 x Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy 1 of interest to hear what Steiner himself later reported about this Shakespeare festival: In this connection I was permitted to state my anthropo- sophical point of view regarding Shakespeare, education, and the requirements of the spiritual life today. One of the ways in which the educational power of Shakespeare’s art is involved in the history of human evolution is through the influence that Shakespeare’s art exerted upon Goethe. The question must be asked: Upon what does this tremendous influence rest? When I ask myself this question, I am confronted by a fact in supersensible experience. Anyone who is in a posi- tion to devote himself livingly to Shakespeare’s dramas and then carry this experience into that world which spreads out before ‘exact