Education
GA 307
15 August 1923, Ilkley
X. Physics, Chemistry, Handwork, Language, Religion
From what I have said as to the way. in which we should teach the child about Nature, about plant and animal, I think you will have realized that the aim of the Waldorf School is to adapt the curriculum exactly to the needs of the child's development at the successive stages of growth. I have already spoken of the significant turning-point occurring between the ninth and tenth years. Only now does the child begin to realize himself as an individual apart from the world. Before this age there is in his life of thought and feeling no sense of separation between himself and the phenomena of the outer world. Up to the ninth year, therefore, we must speak of plants, animals, mountains, rivers and so on in the language of fairy-tales, appealing above all to the child's fantasy. We must make him feel as if his own being were speaking 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. He learns to know 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, just 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. Until the age of eleven or twelve, the mainspring of all Nature-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 child's attention to processes going on in the outer world independently of man. Between the eleventh and twelfth years, and not until then, we may begin to teach about the minerals and rocks. The plants as they grow out of the earth are in this sense related to stone and mineral. Earlier teaching about the mineral kingdom in any other form than this injures the child's mobility of soul. That which has no relationship with man is mineral. We should only begin to deal with the mineral kingdom when the child has found his own relation to the two kingdoms 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 equally 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 spoke 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. Until then, school is not really the place for him. If we have to take a child before this age, all kinds of compromises are necessary. I will however, explain certain basic principles When the child first comes to school, we teach him in such a way that as yet he makes no distinction or separation between himself and the world at large. Between the ninth and tenth years we begin to awaken a living understanding through a knowledge of the plants, and to strengthen his will through a knowledge of the animals. In mineralogy, physics, and chemistry we can only work through the intellect, and then as a necessary counterbalance art must be introduced. (I shall be speaking more of this in tomorrow's lecture.) From 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 explained to the child before he has reached the age of eleven or twelve. If we describe simple chemical processes—combustion for instance—before this age, our descriptions must be purely pictorial and imaginative. Abstract reasoning from cause to effect should not be introduced until the child is between eleven and twelve years of age. The less we speak of causality before this time the stronger, the more vital and rich will the soul become; if, on the other hand, we are constantly speaking of causality to a younger child, dead concepts and even dead feelings will pass with a withering effect into his soul.
The aim of the Waldorf School has been on the one hand to base the whole curriculum upon the actual nature of the human being; thus we include in the curriculum all that answers to the needs of the child at each of the different life-periods. On the other hand, we strive to enable the child to take 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 work 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 know the principles of spinning and weaving, even of factory-spinning. They should also have some knowledge of elementary technical chemistry, of the preparation and manufacture of colours and the like.
During their school life children ought to acquire really practical ideas of their environment. The affairs of ordinary life often remain quite 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 injure the whole development of the soul. Think 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 quite 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.
Just think 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. At 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. Hitherto he has lived chiefly within himself, but he is now ready to understand his fellow-men and the social life of the world. Hence to concentrate before puberty on all that relates man to Nature is to act in accordance with true principles of human development, but at the age of fourteen or fifteen the children must be made acquainted 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 sixty or seventy years ago, the so-called “Social Movement” of to-day would have taken a quite different form in Europe and America. Tremendous progress has been made in technical and commercial efficiency during the last sixty or seventy years. Great progress has been made in technical skill, national trade has become world trade, and finally a world-economy has arisen from national economies. In the last sixty 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 acquaint 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.
Nevertheless at the Waldorf School we are not so narrow-minded as to look down in any way on higher classical education, for in many respects it is extremely beneficial; we prepare pupils whose parents desire it, or who desire it themselves, both for a higher classical education and for final certificates and diplomas. But we do not forget how necessary it is for our age to understand the reason that induced the Greeks, whose one purpose in education was to serve the ends of practical life, not to spend all their time learning Egyptian, a language belonging to the far past. On the other hand, we make 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 world's destiny has grown beyond man's control simply because education has not kept 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 ranks of humanity.
Our endeavour to develop the child in such a way that he may later reveal the qualities 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 child; it is given in the form I have already described in connection with other lessons. An outstanding feature of the Waldorf School, however, is that we begin to teach the child two foreign languages, French and English, directly he comes to school, at the age of six or seven. By 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 remember that the faculty of speech is rooted in the very depths of man's 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 expression within him. We must realize however that the forces of languages in the world permeate man and bring the human element to expression in quite different ways. In the case of primitive languages this is quite obvious; that it is also true of the more civilized languages often escapes recognition.
Now amongst European languages there is one that proceeds purely from the element of feeling. Although in the course of time intellectualism has tinged the element of pure feeling, feeling is nevertheless the basis of this particular language; hence the elements of intellect and will are less firmly implanted in the human being through the language itself. By a study of other languages then, the elements of will and intellect must be unfolded. Again, we have a language that emanates particularly from the element of plastic fantasy, which, so to say, pictures things in its notation of sounds. Because this is so, the child acquires an innately plastic, innately formative power as he learns to speak. Another language in civilized Europe 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 speak, it is as though they were sending back waves of the sea along the out-breathed air. The element of will is living in this language.
Other languages call forth in man to a greater extent the elements of feeling, music, or imagination. In short each different language is related to the human being in a particular way.
You 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 objectively that we can bear the whole impersonal truth of these things!
From 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 “genius of speech” 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 children; a great deal of time, moreover, is devoted to this subject.
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 quality characteristic of the first period of life, from birth to the time of the change of teeth. During these years the child is pre-eminently an imitative being. He learns his mother-tongue wholly by imitation. Without any claim whatever being made on the intellect, the child imitates the language spoken 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. His first language is acquired—if I may be allowed the expression—as a finer kind 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. Nevertheless, 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. On 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 men's thinking, 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 theorists; they get it into their heads that something or other is right, without ever having tested it in practical life. And so, especially in education and teaching, they fall with an utterly impracticable radicalism into the opposite extreme when anything has been found wrong. It has been realized that when the old method of teaching languages, especially Latin and Greek, is based entirely on grammar and rules of syntax, the lessons tend to become mechanical and abstract. And so exactly the opposite principle has been introduced simply because people cannot think consistently. They see that something is wrong and fall into the other extreme, imagining that this will put it right. The consequence is that they now work 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 knowledge the human being is left at the stage of mere consciousness and not allowed to advance to self-consciousness. Between the ninth and tenth years the child passes from the stage of consciousness to that of self-consciousness. He distinguishes himself from the world.
This is the age when we can begin gradually of course to teach the rules of grammar and syntax, for the child is now reaching a point where he thinks not only about the world, but about himself as well. To think about oneself means, so far as speech is concerned, to be able not merely to speak instinctively, but to apply rational rules in speech. It is nonsense, therefore, to teach languages without grammar of any kind. If we avoid all rules, we cannot impart to the child the requisite inner firmness for his tasks in life. But 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 know when the change occurs between the ninth and tenth years in order to lead over gradually from an instinctive acquiring of language to the rational element of grammar. This applies to the mother-tongue as well. Real injury is done to the child's soul if he is crammed with rules of grammar or syntax before this eventful moment in his life. Previously the teaching must appeal to instinct and habit through his faculty of imitation. It is the task of speech to inaugurate self-consciousness between the ninth and tenth years and generally speaking the principle of self-consciousness comes to light in grammar and syntax. This will show you why at the Waldorf School we make 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.
You see now how Waldorf School education aims, little by little, at enabling the teacher to read, not in a book 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—the most wonderful document in all the world. What he gains from this reading grows into deep enthusiasm for teaching and education. For only that which is contained in the book of the world can stimulate the all-round activity of body, soul and spirit that is necessary in the teacher. All other study, all other books and reading, should be a means of enabling the teacher ultimately to read the great book 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.
The principle of the “universal human,” which I have described in its application to the different branches of teaching, is expressed 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 Anthroposophy, to remove from the Waldorf School any criticism as to its being an “anthroposophical school.” That certainly it cannot be. New 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. But the fundamental principle of the Waldorf School education is the human being himself, not the human being as an adherent of any particular philosophy.
And 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 “universal human” education. To begin with, all religious instruction was left in the hands of the pastors of the various denominations, Catholic teaching to Catholic Priests, Protestant teaching to Protestant Priests. But a great many pupils in the Waldorf School are “dissenters,” as we say in Central Europe, that is to say they are children who would receive no religious instruction at all if this were limited to Catholic and Protestant teaching. The Waldorf School was originally founded for the children of working-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 majority of the children belonged to no religious confession. As often happens in schools in Central Europe, these children were being taught nothing in the way of religion, and so for their sake we have introduced a so-called “free religious instruction.” We make no attempt to introduce theoretical Anthroposophy into the School. Such a thing would be quite wrong. Anthroposophy has been given for grown-up people; one speaks of Anthroposophy to grown-up people, and its ideas and conceptions are therefore clothed in a form suitable for them. Simply to take 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.
Let me repeat that the religious teaching given at the Waldorf School—and a certain ritual is connected with it—is not in any sense an attempt to introduce an anthroposophical conception of the world. The ages of the children are always taken into fullest account. As a matter of fact the great majority 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 Christian in the deepest sense, parents who wish their children to be educated in a Christian way, and also according to the Waldorf School principles, send them to us. As I say, the teaching is Christian through and through, and the effect of it is that the whole School is pervaded by a deeply Christian atmosphere. Our religious instruction makes the children realize the significance of all the great Christian Festivals, of the Christmas and Easter Festivals, for instance, much more deeply than is usually the case nowadays. Also the ages of the children must always be taken 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 Divinity in the world.
You will remember that when the child first comes to school between the ages of seven and ten, we let plants, clouds, springs, and the like, speak their own language. The child's whole environment is living and articulate. From this we can readily lead on to the universal Father-Principle immanent in the world. When the rest of the teaching takes the form I have described, the child is well able to conceive that all things have a divine origin.
And so we form a link with the knowledge of Nature conveyed to the child in the form of fantasy and fairy-tales. Our aim in so doing is to awaken in him first of all a sense of gratitude for everything that happens in the world. Gratitude for what human beings do for us, and also for the gifts vouchsafed by Nature, this is what will guide religious feeling into the right path. To unfold the child's sense of gratitude is of the greatest imaginable significance. It may seem paradoxical, yet it is nevertheless profoundly true that human beings should learn to feel a certain gratitude when the weather is favourable for some undertaking or another. To be capable of gratitude to the Cosmos, even though it can only be in the life of imagination, this will deepen our whole life of feeling in a religious sense. Love for all creation must then be added to this gratitude. And 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 qualities he must learn to love. Love 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. Premature development of the sense of duty by dint of commands and injunctions will never lead to a deeply religious sense. Above all we must instil gratitude and love if we are to lay the foundations of morality and religion.
He who would educate in the sense of true Christianity must realize that before the age of nine or ten it is not possible to convey to the child's soul an understanding of what the Mystery of Golgotha brought into the world or of all that is connected with the personality and divinity of Christ Jesus. The child is exposed to great dangers if we have failed to introduce the principle of universal divinity before this age, and by ‘universal divinity’ I mean the divine Father-Principle. We must show the child how divinity is immanent in all Nature, 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 ‘universal divinity.’ In this way the basis for a right attitude to the Mystery of Golgotha 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 New Testament, or, having first stimulated a consciousness of universal divinity in the whole of Nature, if we wait until he has reached the age of nine or ten before we pass to the New Testament as such. In the latter case right preparation has been made and the Gospels will live in all their super-sensible greatness. If we teach the child too early about the New Testament it will not lay hold of his whole being, but will remain mere phraseology, just so many rigid, barren concepts. The consequent 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 Christ Jesus if before this age he has been introduced to the principle of universal Divinity 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. A 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 Mass but always adapted to the age of the child is associated with the religious teaching given at the Waldorf School.
Now 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 relinquish their own point of view. We hear a great deal of talk about a ‘universal human’ 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 task 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 task.
Anthroposophy as given to grown-up people is naturally not introduced into the Waldorf School. Rather do we regard it as our task to imbue our teaching with something for which man thirsts and longs: a realization of the Divine, of the Divine in Nature and in human history, arising from a true conception of the Mystery of Golgotha.
This end is also served when the whole teaching has the necessary quality and colouring. I have already said that the teacher must come to a point where all his work is a moral deed, where he regards the lessons themselves as a kind 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 work towards a blind rationalistic Christianity, but towards promoting a true understanding of the Christ Impulse in the evolution of mankind. Our 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 qualities of manhood. Even 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 sense; this we have tried to regard as one of the most essential tasks of Waldorf School education.
Elfter Vortrag
Man kann, wie ich glaube, gerade an der Charakteristik, die ich vom naturkundlichen, dem pflanzenkundlichen und dem tierkundlichen Unterricht gegeben habe, durchaus bemerken, wie durch das Waldorfschul-Prinzip versucht wird, den Lehrgang, den Lehrplan ganz den Entwickelungsprinzipien, den Entwickelungskräften des Kindes nach den verschiedenen Lebensaltern anzupassen.
Wir müssen uns darüber klar sein, daß das Kind zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Lebensjahre eben jenen wichtigen Lebensübergang durchmacht, den ich von verschiedenen Seiten aus charakterisiert habe. Heute möchte ich noch insbesondere bemerken, daß in diesem Lebensalter zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre das Kind eigentlich erst anfängt, sich von der Welt zu unterscheiden, daß es also vorher eigentlich in seinen Vorstellungen, in seinen Empfindungen keinen Unterschied macht zwischen den Dingen der Welt und sich selbst. Daher ist es eben nötig, über die Dinge der Welt, über Pflanzen, Tiere, über Berge und Flüsse bis zum neunten Jahre so zu sprechen, daß dieses Sprechen märchenhaft ist, daß es vorzugsweise die Phantasie anspricht; daß Pflanzen, Berge, Quellen reden, so daß dieselbe Wesensart, die das Kind in sich selber erst weiß, ihm gewissermaßen auch aus der äußeren Welt entgegentönt.
Wenn Sie dann hinblicken auf die Art und Weise, wie man nach diesem Lebenspunkte zu Pflanzenkunde und zu Tierkunde übergehen soll, so werden Sie sehen, daß es sich gerade bei dieser Art, das Pflanzenreich, das Tierreich zu betrachten, darum handelt, das Kind da richtig einzuführen, um es in ein entsprechendes Verhältnis zu den Dingen der Welt zu bringen.
Die Pflanze lernt das Kind kennen im Verhältnis zur Erde: so treten dem Kinde durchaus die Pflanzen entgegen. Die Erde wird ein lebendes Wesen, das aus sich die Pflanzen heraustreibt — nur lebendiger, nur gestaltenreicher —, wie das menschliche Haupt durch ein vitales Prinzip die Haare aus sich heraustreibt.
Dadurch ist von vornherein das Kind in dasjenige Verhältnis zur Pflanzenwelt und zur ganzen Erde gesetzt, das sein Inneres, sein Seelen- und auch sein Sinnesleibesleben fördert.
Und wenn wir dann den tierkundlichen Unterricht so geben, daß wir gewissermaßen im Menschen die Zusammenfassung der fächerartig über die Erde ausgebreiteten Tiere sehen, dann setzt sich der Mensch in das richtige Verhältnis zu den anderen, unter ihm stehenden Lebewesen.
Indem wir so den naturkundlichen Unterricht treiben bis zu einem Lebenspunkt, der zwischen dem elften und zwölften Lebensjahre liegt, haben wir es dabei durchaus damit zu tun, daß wir immer das Verhältnis des Menschen zur Welt ins Auge fassen.
Nun kommt dasjenige Lebensalter, bei dem eigentlich das Kind erst das betrachten darf, was in der Welt draußen geschieht, ohne daß es mit dem Menschen etwas zu tun hat. Daher beginnt erst zwischen dem elften und zwölften Jahre die Möglichkeit, das Mineralische, das Gesteinsmäßige im Unterricht zu lehren. Wer vorher das Gesteinsmäßige, das Mineralische anders dem Kinde beibringt, als insofern es sich anlehnt an das Pflanzliche, das aus der Erde, also aus dem Gestein herauswächst, der verdirbt ganz und gar die innere Beweglichkeit des kindlichen Seelenlebens. Was kein Verhältnis zum Menschen hat, das ist mineralisch. Mit dem sollen wir erst beginnen, nachdem das Kind selber sich in die Welt dadurch ordentlich eingelebt hat, daß es dasjenige, was ihm nähersteht, das Pflanzliche und das Tierische, in sein Vorstellen und namentlich in sein Fühlen und auch durch die Tierkunde in sein Wollen aufgenommen hat.
Und dasselbe, was vom Mineralischen gilt, gilt von den Begriffen des Physikalischen und gilt von den Begriffen des Chemischen, und es gilt auch für die sogenannten objektiven Zusammenhänge in der Geschichte und in der Geographie, für alle diejenigen Zusammenhänge, die abgesondert vom Menschen betrachtet werden müssen. Die großen historischen Zusammenhänge, die nicht so betrachtet werden können, wie ich das gestern in bezug auf den Menschen charakterisiert habe, die müssen verschoben werden im Unterricht bis in die Zeit zwischen dem elften und zwölften Lebensjahre. Erst nachher kann mit dem begonnen werden, was den Menschen zunächst eigentlich wenig angeht.
Wir sollten das Kind erst mit dem siebenten Lebensjahre, mit dem Zahnwechsel, in die Schule bekommen, vorher gehört das Kind eigentlich nicht in die Schule. Müssen wir es vorher hereinnehmen, so müssen wir natürlich allerlei Kompromisse schließen. Aber ich will hier das Prinzipielle erklären. Wenn wir das Kind in die Schule hereinbekommen, dann erteilen wir den Unterricht so, daß das Kind noch nicht die Unterscheidungen macht zwischen sich und der Welt. Wenn das Kind das charakterisierte Lebensalter zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahr erreicht, führen wir es zu demjenigen, was zum Verstand, aber zum beweglichen, zum lebendigen Verstand gehört: Pflanzenkunde; was zur Stärkung des Willens führt: Tierkunde. Mit dem eigentlichen mineralischen Unterricht, mit dem Unterricht in Physik und Chemie können wir nur auf den Intellekt wirken. Wir brauchen dann, wie ich noch morgen zu erörtern haben werde, zum Ausgleich den Kunstunterricht. Aber wir finden das Kind vom elften oder zwölften Lebensjahr ab reif dazu, dasjenige durch den Intellekt aufzufassen, was erarbeitet werden muß nach den Zusammenhängen von Ursache und Wirkung. Und das muß ja in Physik und Chemie geschehen. Diese Prozesse, die dann auch in astronomische Betrachtungen übergehen müssen, dürfen also nicht früher mit dem Kinde begonnen werden. Wenn wir vorher einfache physikalische Prozesse, wie zum Beispiel die Verbrennung oder chemische Prozesse beschreiben, dann soll das eine bloße bildhafte Beschreibung sein, dann soll das imaginative Element darinnen eine besondere Rolle spielen, nicht der Gedankenzusammenhang von Ursache und Wirkung.
Ursache und Wirkung in ihrer Beziehung soll das Kind im Grunde genommen erst kennenlernen von einem Zeitpunkte an, der zwischen dem elften und zwölften Jahre liegt. Und je weniger man über die sogenannte Kausalität vorher zu dem Kinde spricht, desto besser ist es, desto stärker, desto kräftiger und auch desto inniger wird der Mensch in bezug auf seine Seele, während er vertrocknet in bezug auf seine Seele, tote Begriffe und sogar tote Gefühle in sich aufnimmt, wenn wir mit der Kausalität vor diesem Lebensalter an den Menschen herankommen.
Nun haben wir auf der einen Seite im Waldorfschul-Prinzip durchaus das Ziel, aus dem Menschen heraus den Lehrplan selbst zu schaffen. Sie sehen, wir beachten genau die Lebensepochen, setzen dasjenige in den Klassenunterricht für irgendein Lebensalter, was sich vom Menschen selber ablesen läßt. Auf der anderen Seite haben wir aber auch gar sehr das Ziel, daß der Mensch durch die Schulzeit in der rechten Weise in das soziale Leben hineingesetzt wird, daß er überhaupt in der richtigen Weise in die Welt hineinversetzt werde. Das erreicht man dadurch, daß man nun, wenn das Kind das vierzehnte, fünfzehnte Lebensjahr erreicht, gerade diesen physikalischen, den chemischen Unterricht in einen praktischen Unterricht überführt.
Daher haben wir in den Lehrplan unserer Waldorfschule für diese Lebensjahre solche Dinge aufgenommen, die durchaus den Menschen verständnisvoll in das praktische Leben hineinstellen: Spinnerei, Weberei, mit der Erlernung der entsprechenden Handgriffe. Der Schüler soll wissen, wie gesponnen wird, auch fabrikmäßig gesponnen wird, wie gewebt wird. Er soll die Anfangsgründe auch der chemischen Technologie kennenlernen, Farbenbereitung und dergleichen.
Er soll ferner durchaus einen praktischen Begriff bekommen von dem, was uns fortwährend im Leben umgibt und das heute noch für viele Menschen, weil die Schule nicht die Möglichkeit findet, im rechten Momente überzugehen von dem Menschlichen zu dem Lebensmäßigen und Weltgemäßen, etwas ganz Unbegreifliches, Unfaßbares ist. Für gewisse'Dinge des Lebens geht das nicht, ohne daß der Mensch Schaden leidet an seiner ganzen seelischen Entwickelung.
Man denke nur daran, daß ja der Mensch organisch außerordentlich empfindlich ist, wenn, sagen wir, irgendein Stoff in der Luft ist, den er nicht assimilieren kann, den er nicht in sich aufnehmen kann, wenn irgend etwas, das ihm nicht gemäß ist, in der Luft ist.
Nun, im sozialen Leben, im Leben der Welt verhält es sich allerdings anders. Da müssen wir mancherlei Dinge erleben, die uns vielleicht weniger gemäß sind; aber sie werden uns gemäß, wenn wir ein Verhältnis zu ihnen dadurch gewinnen, daß wir im rechten Lebensalter in der richtigen Weise in sie eingeführt werden.
Denken Sie doch, wie viele Leute heute einen Straßenbahnwagen besteigen, ohne zu wissen, wie so etwas in Bewegung gesetzt wird, wie der Mechanismus ist. Ja, es gibt Menschen, die sehen jeden Tag die Eisenbahn an sich vorbeifahren und haben keine Ahnung davon, wie der Mechanismus einer Lokomotive ist. Das heißt aber, der Mensch steht da in der Welt und ist umgeben von lauter Dingen, die aus menschlichem Geiste kommen, die menschlicher Geist geschaffen hat, aber er nimmt nicht teil an diesem menschlichen Geiste.
Damit ist überhaupt der Anfang gemacht mit dem unsozialen Leben, wenn wir dasjenige, was menschlicher Geist geschaffen hat, in unserer Umgebung sein lassen, ohne ein entsprechendes, wenigstens allgemeines Verständnis davon zu haben.
Und so wollen wir im Waldorfschul-Prinzip gerade um das vierzehnte, fünfzehnte Lebensjahr herum den Unterricht einströmen lassen in das Lehren und auch in das Handhaben von durchaus lebenspraktischen Dingen. Und das ist ja zu gleicher Zeit dasjenige Lebensalter, in dem der Mensch durch die Geschlechtsreife durchgeht. Diese Geschlechtsreife wird heute außerordentlich einseitig betrachtet. In Wahrheit bedeutet sie, daß der Mensch überhaupt für die Welt aufgeschlossen wird. Während er bis dahin mehr in sich selber lebte, wird er für die Welt aufgeschlossen, wird veranlagt dazu, für die Dinge der Welt Verständnis zu gewinnen, für den anderen Menschen und für die Dinge der Welt. Daher kommen wir durchaus der menschlichen Natur entgegen, wenn wir vorher den Blick auf dasjenige gewendet haben, was den Menschen mit der Natur verbindet.
Nun beginnen wir aber ganz energisch im vierzehnten, fünfzehnten Jahre den Schüler und die Schülerin zu verbinden mit dem, was menschlicher Geist im weitesten Umfange geschaffen hat. Dadurch stellen wir den Menschen verständnisvoll in das soziale Leben hinein.
Meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, hätte man ein solches Schulprinzip vor vielleicht sechzig oder siebzig Jahren ins Auge gefaßt, so hätte dasjenige, was man heute soziale Bewegung nennt, eine ganz andere Gestalt im modernen Europa und Amerika bekommen, als es hat. In einer ungeheuren Weise ist die technische Befähigung der Menschheit, die kommerzielle Befähigung der Menschheit gewachsen. Was haben wir alles durchgemacht in den letzten sechzig bis siebzig Jahren! Wir haben die großen technischen Fortschritte durchgemacht, wir haben den Übergang durchgemacht vom Volkshandel zum Welthandel, und wir haben zuletzt den Übergang durchgemacht von Volkswirtschaft zur Weltwirtschaft.
Die äußeren sozialen Verhältnisse sind völlig andere geworden, als sie vor sechzig bis siebzig Jahren waren. Unseren Unterricht aber haben wir so geführt, als ob das alles nicht geschehen wäre. Wir haben es immer versäumt, gerade in dem richtigen Lebensalter, in dem vierzehnten, fünfzehnten Jahre, die Kinder einzuführen in die lebenspraktischen Dinge.
Wir wollen durchaus im Waldorfschul-Prinzip nicht Banausen sein und etwa die in vieler Beziehung ja wohltätige Gymnasialerziehung ganz beseitigen; wir bereiten unsere Schüler, deren Eltern dies wünschen, oder die es selbst haben wollen, auch für die Gymnasiallaufbahn, für die Gymnasial-Abgangsprüfung vor. Aber wir übersehen nicht, daß unsere Zeit ein Verständnis für die heutige Gegenwart fordert. Während die Griechen, die mit all ihrer Bildung dem Leben dienen wollten, ganz gewiß nicht ägyptisch gelernt haben, also etwas, was längst der Vergangenheit angehört hat, führen wir tatsächlich unsere Jungen — und heute machen es die Mädchen nach - ein in eine Welt, die gar nicht die Welt der Gegenwart ist. Kein Wunder, daß die Menschen in der Welt der Gegenwart so wenig zu leben verstehen.
Das Schicksal der Welt ist den Menschen über den Kopf gewachsen, gerade deshalb, weil der Unterricht den Anschluß an die sozialen Umgestaltungen nicht entwickelt hat. Wir wollen im Waldorfschul-Prinzip gerade das befolgen, daß wir die Möglichkeit finden, den Menschen als Menschen voll zu entwickeln, und den Menschen in die Menschheit richtig hineinzustellen.
Vor allen Dingen versuchen wir im Waldorfschul-Prinzip den Menschen so auszubilden, daß er in der rechten Art dasjenige zur Offenbarung bringt, was im ganzen Menschen veranlagt ist, und auf der anderen Seite dasjenige, was ihn richtig in die Welt hineinstellt. Das soll vor allen Dingen angestrebt werden durch die Art und Weise, wie wir in unseren Lehrplan den Sprachunterricht aufnehmen.
Selbstverständlich wird der Unterricht in der Muttersprache in der Art, wie ich es bei den anderen Unterrichtsgegenständen geschildert habe, dem Lebensalter angemessen erteilt; aber das Besondere der Waldorfschule liegt darinnen, daß wir sogleich beginnen, wenn das Kind in die Schule hereinkommt, also im sechsten, siebenten Lebensjahre, mit dem Unterricht in zwei fremden Sprachen, im Französischen und im Englischen.
Dadurch versuchen wir den Kindern für die Zukunft in der Tat dasjenige mitzugeben, was der Mensch für diese Zukunft immer mehr und mehr brauchen wird. Beim Sprachenunterricht muß man ja, wenn man ihn recht menschlich erfassen will, vor allen Dingen berücksichtigen, daß die Sprache sich tief einwurzelt in das ganze menschliche Wesen. Die Sprache, die der Mensch als seine Muttersprache aufnimmt, wurzelt sich ganz tief ein in das Atmungssystem, in das Zirkulationssystem, in den Bau des Gefäßsystems, so daß der Mensch nicht nur nach Geist und Seele, sondern nach Geist und Seele und Körper hingenommen wird von der Art und Weise, wie sich seine Muttersprache in ihm auslebt. Aber wir müssen uns durchaus klar darüber sein, daß die verschiedenen Sprachen in der Welt - bei den primitiven Sprachen ist das ja anschaulich genug, bei den zivilisierten Sprachen verbirgt es sich oftmals, aber es ist doch da - in einer ganz anderen Art den Menschen durchdringen und das Menschliche offenbaren.
Es gibt innerhalb der europäischen Sprachen eine, die geht ganz und gar aus dem Gefühlselemente hervor, hat im Laufe der Zeit sehr stark den Charakter der Intellektualisierung des Gefühlselementes angenommen, aber sie geht aus dem Gefühlselemente hervor, so daß das intellektuelle Element und das Willenselement bei dieser Sprache weniger dem Menschen durch die Sprache schon eingepflanzt werden. Da müssen dann diese anderen Glieder der menschlichen Wesenheit durch das Erlernen anderer Sprachen entwickelt werden.
So haben wir eine Sprache, die ganz besonders herausentwickelt ist aus dem Elemente der plastischen Phantasie, die sozusagen die Dinge in der Lautbildung hinmalt. Dadurch kommt das Kind in eine natürliche, plastisch-bildnerische Kraft im Sprachenlernen hinein.
Eine andere Sprache haben wir innerhalb des zivilisierten Europa, welche vorzugsweise auf das Willenselement hin gerichtet ist; eine Sprache, der man es förmlich anhört in ihrem Tonfall, in ihrer Vokalisierung und Konsonantengestaltung, daß sie ganz auf das Willenselement gerichtet ist, daß der Mensch fortwährend, indem er spricht, sich so verhält, als ob er mit der ausgestoßenen Luft Meereswellen zurückschlagen möchte. Da lebt das Willenselement in der Sprache. — Andere Sprachen sind da, die mehr so aus dem Menschen herauskommen, daß das Gefühlsmäßig-Musikalisch-Phantasiemäßige im Menschen in Anspruch genommen wird. Jede Sprache hat einen besonderen Bezug zum Menschen.
Nun werden Sie sagen, ich sollte für die einzelnen Sprachen, die ich charakterisiert habe, die Namen nennen. Das werde ich mich wohl hüten; denn wir sind heute nicht so weit, daß wir mit derjenigen Objektivität in der zivilisierten Welt uns gegenüberstehen, um ein solches ganz Objektives zu vertragen.
Was ich aber in bezug auf die Charakteristik der Sprachen gesagt habe, macht eben durchaus nötig — wenn wir dem Menschen heute eine rein menschliche, nicht eine spezialisiert menschliche, volksmäßige Bildung und Entwickelung geben wollen -, daß wir tatsächlich in bezug auf das Sprachliche dasjenige, was aus dem Sprachgenius heraus von der einen Sprache her über die menschliche Natur kommt, durch die andere Sprache ausgleichen.
Das hat eben in rein pädagogisch-didaktischer Beziehung die Veranlassung dazu gegeben, daß wir für die kleinsten Kinder in der Waldorfschule schon mit drei Sprachen beginnen; und wir erteilen den Sprachunterricht sogar in einem recht ausgiebigen Maße.
Nun ist es sehr gut, so früh mit dem Sprachunterricht in fremden Sprachen zu beginnen, weil ja bis zu jenem Zeitpunkte, der zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre im menschlichen Leben liegt, das Kind in das schulmäßige Alter herein noch etwas von dem mitträgt, was ich als besonders charakteristisch für das erste Lebensalter des Menschen von der Geburt bis zum Zahnwechsel dargestellt habe. Da ist der Mensch vorzugsweise ein nachahmendes Wesen. Die Muttersprache lernt der Mensch ja ganz und gar nach dem Prinzip der Nachahmung. Ohne daß der Intellekt stark in Anspruch genommen wird, lernt das Kind innerlich dasjenige nachbilden, was es als Sprache hört. Und das Kind hört zugleich mit dem äußerlich Lautlichen, mit dem Tonmäßigen der Sprache durchaus das innerlich-seelisch-musikalische Element der Sprache. Und die erste Sprache, die sich das Kind aneignet, eignet es sich an als — wenn ich mich so ausdrücken darf feinere Gewohnheit. Es geht alles tief in den ganzen Menschen hinein.
Dann, wenn das Kind mit dem Zahnwechsel in die Schule hereinkommt, sprechen wir auch mit dem Sprachunterricht schon mehr zu dem bloß Seelischen, nicht mehr so stark zu dem Körperlichen. Aber das Kind bringt uns immerhin noch bis zum neunten, zehnten Jahre genügend phantasievolle Imitationsfähigkeit in die Schule herein, so daß wir den Unterricht in der Sprache in der Art lenken können, daß die Sprache von dem ganzen Menschen aufgenommen wird, nicht etwa bloß von den seelisch-geistigen Kräften.
Daher ist es von so ungeheuer tiefgreifender Wichtigkeit, sich ja nicht entgehen zu lassen für den Unterricht in fremden Sprachen das erste, zweite, dritte Volksschuljahr. Nur aus einem didaktisch-pädagogisch-humanen Prinzip heraus ist es also in der Waldorfschule eingeführt worden, den Unterricht in den fremden Sprachen mit dem Eintritte des Kindes in die Elementarschule zu beginnen.
Ich brauche nicht zu erwähnen, daß dieser Unterricht nun gerade im eminentesten Sinne wiederum den Lebensaltern angepaßt wird. In unserer Zeit ist man ja in bezug auf alle Wirklichkeit stark in ein Denkchaos hineingekommen. Man bildet sich ein, man stehe tief in der Wirklichkeit darinnen, weil man materialistisch geworden ist; aber man ist eigentlich in unserer Zeit viel theoretischer. Die stärksten Praktiker, das heißt diejenigen, die sich dafür halten, sind eigentlich in unserer Zeit Theoretiker im eminentesten Sinne. Sie bilden sich ein, irgend etwas sei richtig — nicht ist es so, daß sie dasjenige, was sie aufgenommen haben als das Richtige, auch wirklich aus der Lebenspraxis heraus gestaltet hätten. Und so ist namentlich in pädagogisch-didaktischen Fragen, wenn man auf der einen Seite gesehen hat, wie irgend etwas nicht richtig ist, dann ein unmöglicher Radikalismus nach dem anderen Extrem aufgetaucht.
So haben die Leute gesehen, daß die vorangegangene Zeit den Sprachunterricht ganz und gar, namentlich im Lateinischen und Griechischen, auf die Grammatik, auf die Sprachregeln aufgebaut hat, und daß dieses den Unterricht veräußerlichte, mechanisierte. Nun ist wiederum das entgegengesetzte Prinzip gekommen, nur weil man nicht konsequent auf die Sachen hinsehen kann. Und wenn man bemerkt, daß das Unheil da ist, dann fällt man ins andere Extrem, weil man glaubt, dadurch das Unheil vermeiden zu können. Und so ist das Prinzip entstanden, überhaupt gar nicht mehr irgend etwas Grammatikalisches zu lehren.
Das ist wiederum unsinnig. Denn das hieße auf einem speziellen Gebiete wiederum nichts Geringeres als: man soll den Menschen nur beim Bewußtsein lassen, nicht zum Selbstbewußtsein kommen lassen. Der Mensch kommt eben zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre vom Bewußtsein zum Selbstbewußtsein. Er unterscheidet sich von der Welt.
Da ist ja auch der Zeitpunkt, wo man - allerdings in leiser Weise — zu grammatikalischen, zu syntaktischen Regeln übergehen kann; denn da kommt der Mensch dazu, nicht nur über die Welt zu denken, sondern über sich selber etwas nachzudenken. Das Nachdenken über sich selbst, das bedeutet bei der Sprache, nicht bloß instinktiv zu sprechen, sondern die Sprache in Regeln vernünftiger Art bringen zu können. Also wiederum: ganz ohne Grammatik zu lernen ist für die Sprache ein Unding. Man bringt dem Menschen nicht jene innere Festigkeit bei, die er braucht fürs Leben, wenn man von aller Regel absieht.
Was aber vor allen Dingen dabei berücksichtigt werden muß, das ist, daß eben erst in jenem Lebenselemente zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre der Mensch dazu kommt, aus dem bloßen Bewußtsein zum Selbstbewußtsein hin zu wollen, daß daher jeder grammatische Unterricht vorher ein Unding ist.
Man muß diesen Übergang zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Lebensjahr finden, um nun auch den ganz und gar nur instinktiv aus der Sache herausgegriffenen Sprachunterricht vernünftig leise in den grammatischen Unterricht überzuführen.
Auch für die Muttersprache muß das so sein. Man verdirbt das Seelenleben des Kindes vollständig, wenn man grammatische oder syntaktische Regeln vor diesem wichtigen Lebensmomente in das Kind hineinpfropft. Bis dahin soll in instinktiv gewohnheitsmäßiger Weise gesprochen werden, wie es einzig und allein durch Nachahmung geschieht. Das Selbstbewußtsein soll das Sprechen einleiten — und in der Regel tritt immer das Selbstbewußtsein mit der Grammatik und Syntax auf — zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre. Wenn Sie das berücksichtigen, werden Sie sehen, wie man gerade im WaldorfschulPrinzip die zwei oder drei Jahre vor diesem Lebensmomente benützt, um den Sprachunterricht in die richtige Lebensepoche nach der Entwickelung der Menschen hineinzustellen. Und so sehen Sie Stück für Stück, daß die Waldorfschul-Pädagogik den Lehrer lesen lehren will, aber nicht in einem Buche, nicht in einem pädagogischen System, sondern im Menschen.
In diesem wunderbarsten Dokument der Welt, im Menschen, soll der Waldorflehrer lesen lernen. Dasjenige, was ihm diese Lektüre gibt, geht über in allen Enthusiasmus für Unterrichten und Erziehen. Was wirklich so gelesen werden kann, daß es unmittelbar den Menschen nach Leib, Seele und Geist zur allseitigen Tätigkeit aufruft, wie allein man sie als Lehrer braucht, das ist allein im Buche der Welt enthalten. Und alles andere Lernen, alle anderen Bücher, alle anderen Lektüren sollen gerade dem Pädagogen die Möglichkeit geben, in dem großen Buche der Welt zu lesen. Kann er das, dann wird er ein Unterrichtender mit dem nötigen Enthusiasmus, und aus dem Enthusiasmus allein kann diejenige Kraft, die Stärke des Impulses hervorgehen, welche eine Schulklasse beleben kann.
Dieses Allgemein-Menschliche im Unterrichts- und Erziehungswesen, das ich für die verschiedensten Unterrichtszweige charakterisieren mußte, das muß sich im Waldorfschul-Prinzip besonders dadurch ausleben, daß diese Waldorfschule nach keiner Richtung hin eine Schule der religiösen oder philosophischen Überzeugung oder eine Schule einer bestimmten Weltanschauung ist. Und nach dieser Richtung war es ja natürlich notwendig, gerade für ein Schulwesen, das sich aus der Anthroposophie heraus entwickelt hat, darauf hinzuarbeiten, daß nun ja diese Waldorfschule weit, weit davon entfernt sei, etwa eine Anthroposophenschule zu werden oder eine anthroposophische Schule zu sein. Das darf sie ganz gewiß nicht sein. Man möchte sagen: jeden Tag aufs neue strebt man wieder danach, nun ja nicht irgendwie durch den Übereifer eines Lehrers, oder durch die ehrliche Überzeugung, die ja selbstverständlich bei den Waldorfschullehrern für die Anthroposophie vorhanden ist, da sie Anthroposophen sind, irgendwie in eine anthroposophische Einseitigkeit zu verfallen. Der Mensch, nicht der Mensch einer bestimmten Weltanschauung, muß in didaktisch-pädagogischer Beziehung einzig und allein für das Waldorfschul-Prinzip in Frage kommen.
Damit war es geboten, den Religionsgesellschaften gegenüber, ich möchte sagen, eben ein durch die Zeit gefordertes Kompromiß einzugehen, gar nicht auf etwas anderes zunächst zu sehen für die Schüler, als auf das Methodische einer allgemein-menschlichen Erziehung. Der Religionsunterricht wurde zunächst den Religionslehrern ihrer Konfession übergeben. Und so wird der katholische Religionsunterricht in der Waldorfschule von dem katholischen Priester, der evangelische Religionsunterricht von dem evangelischen Pfarrer erteilt.
Aber es gibt eine ganze Menge von Schülern in der Waldorfschule, die, wie man in Mitteleuropa sagt, eben Dissidentenkinder sind, die einfach keinen Religionsunterricht nehmen würden, wenn eben nur katholischer und evangelischer Religionsunterricht da wäre. Dadurch, daß sich die Waldorfschule zunächst aus dem Proletarierstande herausgebildet hat — sie war die Schule eines Industrieunternehmens, sie ist das heute längst nicht mehr, sie ist eine Schule für alle Klassen geworden -, waren anfangs namentlich überwiegend konfessionslose Kinder da. Diese Kinder hätten nun, wie es ja in sehr vielen Schulen Mitteleuropas der Fall ist, gar keinen Religionsunterricht gehabt. So haben wir gerade für diese Kinder, die sonst gar keinen Reliigionsunterricht gehabt hätten, einen sogenannten freien Religionsunterricht eingeführt.
Dieser freie Religionsunterricht, der ist auch nicht darauf abgestellt, theoretische Anthroposophie in die Waldorfschule hineinzutragen. Das würde ganz falsch sein. Die anthroposophische Überzeugung ist bis heute für Erwachsene ausgebildet, und man spricht ja über Anthroposophie zu Erwachsenen. Man kleidet daher alle Begriffe, alle Empfindungen in dasjenige, was für Erwachsene gut ist. Dasjenige, was in unserer anthroposophischen Literatur für Erwachsene bestimmt ist, einfach zu nehmen und es nun in die Schule hineinzutragen, hieße gerade dem Pädagogisch-Didaktischen im Waldorfschul-Prinzip schnurstracks zuwiderhandeln. Da handelt es sich darum, für diejenigen Kinder, die uns übergeben werden, freiwillig übergeben werden zum freien religiösen Unterricht, nun auch im strengsten Sinne des Wortes wiederum das religiöse Element, und was ihnen als Religionsunterricht zu geben ist, abzulesen von ihrem Lebensalter.
So darf man auch nicht unter dem freien Religionsunterricht der Waldorfschule, der sogar mit einem entsprechenden Kultus verbunden ist, sich etwas vorstellen wie eine in die Schule hineingetragene anthroposophische Weltanschauung. Man wird gerade sehen, daß in diesem freien Religionsunterricht überall dem Lebensalter des Kindes in ausgiebigstem Maße Rechnung getragen wird. Wir können nichts dafür, daß dieser freie Religionsunterricht in der Waldorfschule von den meisten Kindern besucht wird, trotzdem wir es uns zur strengen Regel machen, nur auf Wunsch der Eltern das Kind zu diesem freien Religionsunterricht zuzulassen. Allein es spielt ja dabei doch das pädagogisch-didaktische Element eine außerordentliche Rolle, und da unser freier Religionsunterricht wiederum im strengsten Sinne ein christlicher ist, so schicken diejenigen Eltern, die ihre Kinder christlich erzogen, aber nach dem Schulprinzip, nach der Pädagogik und Didaktik der Waldorfschule unterrichtet und erzogen wissen wollen, uns eben ihre Kinder in den freien Religionsunterricht, der ein durch und durch christlicher ist, der sogar so christlich wirkt, daß die ganze Schule in eine Atmosphäre von Christlichkeit getaucht ist. Feste, Weihnachtsfest, Osterfest, werden bei uns von den Kindern aus dem freien christlichen Religionsunterricht heraus mit einer ganz anderen Innigkeit empfunden, als das sonst bei diesen Festen heute der Fall ist.
Nun handelt es sich darum, daß gerade im Religionsunterricht das Lebensalter des Kindes berücksichtigt werden muß. Gerade da ist es von großem Schaden, wenn irgend etwas zu früh an das Kind herangetragen wird. Deshalb ist unser freier Religionsunterricht so eingerichtet, daß das Kind zunächst zur Erfassung des Allgemein-Göttlichen in der Welt kommt.
Sie erinnern sich, wir unterrichten das Kind zunächst, wenn es in die Schule hereinkommt zwischen dem siebenten und neunten oder zehnten Jahre so, daß wir die Pflanzen sprechen lassen, die Wolken sprechen lassen, die Quellen sprechen lassen. Die ganze Umgebung des Menschenkindes ist belebt. Da läßt sich nun leicht der Unterricht hinführen zu dem die Welt durchlebenden, allgemeinen göttlichen Vaterprinzip. Daß alles seinen Ursprung in einem Göttlichen hat, das läßt sich für das Kind, gerade wenn man den übrigen Unterricht so führt, wie ich es geschildert habe, in einer vorzüglichen Weise hinstellen.
Und so knüpfen wir an dasjenige an, was das Kind weiß, wissen lernt auf märchenhafte Weise, auf phantasiemäßige Weise über die Natur. An das knüpfen wir an, um das Kind zunächst gegenüber allem, was in der Welt geschieht, zu einer gewissen Dankbarkeit zu führen. Dankbarkeit gegenüber allem, was Menschen uns tun, aber gegenüber allem auch, was uns die Natur gewährt, das ist dasjenige, was das religiöse Empfinden auf den richtigen Weg bringt. Überhaupt ist die Erziehung zur Dankbarkeit etwas unendlich Wichtiges und Bedeutungsvolles.
Der Mensch sollte sich dazu entwickeln, wirklich auch ein gewisses Dankesgefühl zu haben, wenn - vielleicht klingt das sogar paradox, und dennoch ist es tief wahr — zur rechten Zeit, wo er dies oder jenes zu tun hat, ihm das geeignete Wetter zuteil wird. Gegenüber dem All, dem Kosmos Dankbarkeit entwickeln zu können, wenn das auch, ich möchte sagen, in einem imaginativen Welterleben nur geschehen kann, das ist dasjenige, was unsere ganze Weltempfindung religiös vertiefen kann.
Zu dieser Dankbarkeit brauchen wir dann die Liebe gegenüber allem. Und wir können wiederum leicht, wenn wir das Kind also bis gegen das neunte, zehnte Jahr hinführen, wie es angedeutet worden ist, in all dem Belebten, das wir dem Kind hinstellen, zugleich etwas für das Kind offenbaren, was das Kind liebgewinnen muß. Liebe zu jeder Blume, Liebe zu jedem Baum, Liebe zu Sonnenschein und Regen, das ist dasjenige, was das Weltempfinden wiederum religiös vertiefen kann.
Wenn wir Dankbarkeit und Liebe in dem Kinde vor dem zehnten Jahre entwickeln, dann können wir auch in der richtigen Weise dasjJenige entwickeln, was wir die Pflicht nennen. Die Pflicht durch Gebote zu früh entwickeln, führt zu keiner religiösen Innigkeit. Wir müssen vor allen Dingen in dem Kinde Dankbarkeit und Liebe entwickeln, dann entfalten wir das Kind sowohl ethisch-moralisch in der richtigen Weise wie auch religiös.
Wer im tiefsten Sinne des Wortes das Kind im christlichen Sinne erziehen will, der hat nötig, darauf zu sehen, daß dasjenige, was sich vor die Welt in dem Mysterium von Golgatha hinstellt, in alledem, was an die Persönlichkeit und Gotteswesenhaftigkeit des Christus Jesus geknüpft ist, sich vor dem neunten und zehnten Jahre nicht in der richtigen Weise vor die kindliche Seele hinstellen läßt. Großen Gefahren setzt man das Kind aus, wenn man es nicht vor diesem Lebensmomente in das allgemein Göttliche einführt, ich möchte sagen: in das göttliche Vaterprinzip; ihm zeigt, wie in allem in der Natur das Göttliche lebt, wie in aller Menschenentwickelung das Göttliche lebt, wie überall, wo wir hinschauen, in den Steinen, aber auch in dem Herzen des anderen Menschen, in jeder Tat, die der andere Mensch dem Kinde tut, überall das Göttliche lebt. Dieses allgemein Göttliche, das müssen wir in Dankbarkeit empfinden, in Liebe das Kind fühlen lehren durch die selbstverständliche Autorität des Lehrers. Dann bereiten wir uns vor, zu diesem Mysterium von Golgatha gerade zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Jahre die richtige Stellung bekommen zu können.
Da ist es so unendlich wichtig, das Menschenwesen auch hinsichtlich seiner zeitlichen Entwickelung verstehen zu lernen. Versuchen Sie es nur einmal, sich den Unterschied klarzumachen, der besteht, wenn man dem Kinde irgend etwas vom Neuen Testament beibringen will im siebenten und achten Lebensjahre, oder —- nachdem man zunächst aus jedem Naturwesen das Gottesbewußtsein im allgemeinen hat anregen wollen — mit diesem Neuen Testament kommt zwischen dem neunten und zehnten Lebensjahre, um es nachher erst als solches dem Kinde zu entwickeln. Da ist es in der richtigen Weise vorbereitet, da lebt es sich in das ganz überweltlich Große hinein, das im Evangelium enthalten ist. Bringen Sie es ihm vorher bei, dann bleibt es Wort, dann bleibt es starrer nüchterner Begriff, dann ergreift es nicht den ganzen Menschen, dann laufen Sie Gefahr, daß das Religiöse im Kinde verhärtet, und der Mensch es als verhärtetes Element durch das Leben trägt, nicht in Lebendigkeit als etwas sein ganzes Weltempfinden Durchsetzendes. Man bereitet das Kind im schönsten Maße vor, die Glorie des Christus Jesus in sich aufzunehmen vom neunten, zehnten Jahre an, wenn man es vorher in die allgemeine Göttlichkeit der ganzen Welt hineinführt.
Und das strebt gerade der nun auch auf das rein Menschliche gebaute Religionsunterricht an, den wir als freien christlichen Religionsunterricht in der Waldorfschule erteilen für diejenigen Kinder, deren Eltern dies wünschen, die eigentlich immer mehr werden gegenüber den anderen, und den wir auch in einen gewissen Kultus gekleidet haben. Sonntäglich findet für diese Kinder, die diesem freien Religionsunterricht beiwohnen, eine Kultushandlung statt. Wenn diese Kinder aus der Schule entlassen werden, wird diese Kultushandlung metamorphosiert. Auch eine Kultushandlung, die sogar dem Meßopfer sehr ähnlich ist, aber durchaus dem entsprechenden Lebensalter angemessen ist, ist verbunden mit diesem auf den freien Religionsunterricht gestützten religiösen Leben in der Waldorfschule.
Es war besonders schwierig, dasjenige in das religiöse Element hineinzubringen, was wir in der Waldorfschule ausbilden wollen: das rein menschliche Entwickelungsprinzip. Denn in bezug auf das Religiöse sind ja heute die Menschen noch am wenigsten geneigt, von ihrem Speziellen abzugehen. Man redet vielfach von einem allgemeinmenschlich Religiösen. Das aber ist doch bei dem einzelnen Menschen so gefärbt, wie seine Spezial-Religionsgemeinschaft es ihm färbt. Wenn wir die Aufgabe der Menschheit in die Zukunft hinein richtig verstehen, so wird dieser Aufgabe schon auch im rechten Maße gedient durch diesen freien religiösen Unterricht, mit dem wir in der Waldorfschule eigentlich erst begonnen haben.
Anthroposophie, so wie diese für Erwachsene heute vorgetragen wird, wird ganz gewiß nicht in die Waldorfschule hineingetragen; dagegen dasjenige, wonach der Mensch lechzt: das Ergreifen des Göttlichen — des Göttlichen in der Natur, des Göttlichen in der Menschheitsgeschichte — durch das richtige Einstellen auf das Mysterium von Golgatha. Das ist es, was im rechten Sinne hineinzutragen auch in den Unterricht wir als unsere Aufgabe betrachten.
Damit erreichen wir es aber auch, daß wir dem ganzen Unterricht dasjenige Kolorit geben können, das er braucht. Ich habe schon gesagt, der Lehrer muß eigentlich dazu kommen, daß alles Unterrichten für ihn eine sittliche, eine religiöse Tat werde, daß er sozusagen in dem Unterrichten selber eine Art Gottesdienst sehe.
Das können wir nur erreichen, wenn wir imstande sind, für diejenigen Menschen, die es heute schon wollen, auch das religiös-sittliche Element in der richtigen Weise in die Schule hineinzustellen. Das haben wir eben, so weit das schon heute gegenüber den sozialen Verhältnissen geht, in bezug auf den Religionsunterricht in der Waldorfschule versucht. Wir haben ganz gewiß damit nicht irgendwie nach einem blind rationalistischen Christentum hinarbeiten wollen, sondern gerade nach dem richtigen Erfassen des Christus-Impulses in der ganzen Erdenentwickelung der Menschheit. Wir haben nichts anderes gewollt damit, als dasjenige dem Menschen zu geben, was er dann noch braucht, wenn er. durch allen anderen Unterricht ein ganzer Mensch geworden ist.
Denn, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, man kann durch allen anderen Unterricht schon ein ganzer Mensch geworden sein — etwas braucht man dann noch, wenn man auch schon sonst ein ganzer Mensch geworden ist, um diesen ganzen Menschen wiederum in einer allseitigen Weise so in die Welt hineinzustellen, daß er seinem ihm eingeborenen Wesen gemäß in dieser Welt drinnen steht: die religiöse Vertiefung. Den ganzen Menschen erziehen, diesen als ganzen Menschen erzogenen Menschen religiös zu vertiefen, das haben wir als eine der bedeutsamsten Aufgaben des Waldorfschul-Prinzipes zu erfassen gesucht.
Eleventh Lecture
I believe that the characteristics I have described of natural history, botany, and zoology lessons clearly show how the Waldorf school principle attempts to adapt the course of study and the curriculum entirely to the developmental principles and forces of the child according to the different stages of life.
We must be clear that between the ages of nine and ten, the child undergoes the important transition in life that I have described from various angles. Today I would like to point out in particular that at this age, between nine and ten, the child actually begins to distinguish itself from the world, that before this age it does not really make any distinction in its ideas and feelings between the things of the world and itself. That is why it is necessary to talk about the things of the world, about plants, animals, mountains, and rivers, in such a way that this talk is fairy-tale-like, that it appeals primarily to the imagination; that plants, mountains, and springs speak, so that the same nature that the child first knows within itself also echoes back to it, as it were, from the outside world.
If you then look at the way in which one should move on to botany and zoology after this stage of life, you will see that this way of looking at the plant kingdom and the animal kingdom is precisely about introducing the child to it in the right way, in order to bring it into a corresponding relationship with the things of the world.
The child learns about plants in relation to the earth: this is how plants appear to the child. The earth becomes a living being that sprouts plants from itself — only more alive, more rich in form — just as the human head sprouts hair from itself through a vital principle.
This places the child from the outset in a relationship with the plant world and the whole earth that promotes its inner life, its soul life, and also its sensory life.
And when we then teach zoology in such a way that we see, as it were, in human beings the synthesis of the animals spread out across the earth like a fan, then human beings establish the right relationship to the other living beings below them.
By teaching natural history in this way up to a point in life between the ages of eleven and twelve, we are always taking into account the relationship of the human being to the world.
Now comes the age at which the child is actually allowed to observe what is happening in the outside world without it having anything to do with human beings. Therefore, it is only between the ages of eleven and twelve that it becomes possible to teach about minerals and rocks in the classroom. Anyone who teaches children about rocks and minerals in a way that is not based on plants, which grow out of the earth, i.e., out of rocks, completely destroys the inner mobility of the child's soul life. Anything that has no relation to human beings is mineral. We should only begin with this after the child has properly settled into the world by incorporating into their imagination, and especially into their feelings and also, through zoology, into their will, that which is closer to them, namely plants and animals.
And the same thing that applies to minerals also applies to the concepts of physics and chemistry, and it also applies to the so-called objective connections in history and geography, to all those connections that must be considered separately from human beings. The great historical connections that cannot be viewed in the way I characterized yesterday in relation to the human being must be postponed in teaching until the period between the ages of eleven and twelve. Only then can we begin with what is of little concern to the human being at first.
We should only send children to school at the age of seven, when they are losing their baby teeth; before that, children do not really belong in school. If we have to admit them earlier, we naturally have to make all kinds of compromises. But I want to explain the principle here. When we admit children to school, we teach them in such a way that they do not yet make distinctions between themselves and the world. When the child reaches the characteristic age between nine and ten, we lead them to what belongs to the mind, but to the flexible, living mind: botany; what leads to the strengthening of the will: zoology. With the actual mineral lessons, with the lessons in physics and chemistry, we can only influence the intellect. As I will discuss tomorrow, we then need art lessons to balance this out. But from the age of eleven or twelve, we find that the child is mature enough to grasp through the intellect what needs to be worked out according to the connections between cause and effect. And this must be done in physics and chemistry. These processes, which must then also be transferred to astronomical observations, must not be introduced to the child any earlier. If we describe simple physical processes, such as combustion or chemical processes, beforehand, then this should be a mere pictorial description, in which the imaginative element plays a special role, not the conceptual connection between cause and effect.
The child should basically only learn about cause and effect in their relationship from a point in time between the ages of eleven and twelve. And the less we talk to children about so-called causality before that age, the better it is, because the stronger, more powerful, and also more intimate the human being becomes in relation to their soul, whereas if we approach people with causality before this age, they become dried up in relation to their soul, absorbing dead concepts and even dead feelings.
Now, on the one hand, in the Waldorf school principle, we definitely have the goal of creating the curriculum ourselves from the human being. You see, we pay close attention to the stages of life and put into the classroom teaching for any age what can be gleaned from the human being itself. On the other hand, however, we also have the goal of ensuring that people are introduced to social life in the right way during their school years, that they are introduced to the world in the right way. This is achieved by transforming the physical and chemical lessons into practical lessons when the child reaches the age of fourteen or fifteen.
That is why we have included in the curriculum of our Waldorf school for these years of life things that give people a thorough understanding of practical life: spinning, weaving, and learning the corresponding hand movements. The student should know how to spin, including factory spinning, and how to weave. They should also learn the basics of chemical technology, color preparation, and the like.
They should also gain a practical understanding of what constantly surrounds us in life and which is still incomprehensible and inconceivable to many people today because schools do not find the opportunity to make the transition from the human to the practical and worldly at the right moment. For certain things in life, this is not possible without the individual suffering damage to their entire spiritual development.
Just think about how organically sensitive humans are when, for example, there is a substance in the air that they cannot assimilate, that they cannot absorb, when there is something in the air that is not suitable for them.
Now, in social life, in the life of the world, things are different, of course. There we have to experience many things that may be less suitable for us, but they become suitable when we gain a relationship with them by being introduced to them in the right way at the right age.
Just think how many people today board a tram without knowing how it is set in motion, how the mechanism works. Yes, there are people who see trains passing by every day and have no idea how a locomotive works. But that means that people stand there in the world and are surrounded by things that come from the human spirit, that the human spirit has created, but they do not participate in this human spirit.
This is the beginning of an antisocial life, when we allow what the human spirit has created to be in our environment without having a corresponding, at least general, understanding of it.
And so, in the Waldorf school principle, we want to allow teaching to flow into the teaching and also into the handling of thoroughly practical things around the age of fourteen or fifteen. And this is also the age at which human beings go through puberty. Today, puberty is viewed in an extremely one-sided way. In truth, it means that the human being becomes open to the world. Whereas until then they lived more within themselves, they become open to the world, predisposed to gain an understanding of the things of the world, of other people, and of the things of the world. Therefore, we are entirely in tune with human nature when we have previously turned our attention to that which connects human beings with nature.
Now, however, in the fourteenth and fifteenth years, we begin to connect the pupils very energetically with what the human spirit has created in the broadest sense. In this way, we place the human being in social life with understanding.
Ladies and gentlemen, if such a school principle had been envisaged perhaps sixty or seventy years ago, what we now call the social movement would have taken a very different form in modern Europe and America than it has. The technical capabilities of humanity, the commercial capabilities of humanity, have grown enormously. What have we gone through in the last sixty to seventy years! We have gone through great technical advances, we have gone through the transition from national trade to world trade, and we have finally gone through the transition from national economy to global economy.
External social conditions have become completely different from what they were sixty to seventy years ago. But we have conducted our teaching as if none of this had happened. We have always failed to introduce children to practical life skills at the right age, namely fourteen or fifteen.
We certainly do not want to be philistines in the Waldorf school principle and completely eliminate the in many ways beneficial grammar school education; we also prepare our students, whose parents wish this or who want it themselves, for the grammar school career and for the grammar school leaving examination. But we do not overlook the fact that our time demands an understanding of the present day. While the Greeks, who wanted to use all their education to serve life, certainly did not study Egyptian, something that has long since become a thing of the past, we are actually introducing our boys — and today girls are following suit — to a world that is not the world of the present. No wonder that people in today's world know so little about how to live.
The fate of the world is beyond people's comprehension, precisely because education has not developed a connection to social change. In the Waldorf school principle, we want to follow precisely that, so that we find the possibility to develop people fully as human beings and to place people correctly within humanity.
Above all, in the Waldorf school principle, we try to educate people in such a way that they reveal in the right way what is inherent in the whole human being and, on the other hand, what places them correctly in the world. This should be strived for above all through the way in which we incorporate language teaching into our curriculum.
Of course, instruction in the mother tongue is given in a manner appropriate to the age of the child, as I have described for the other subjects; but what is special about the Waldorf school is that we begin teaching two foreign languages, French and English, as soon as the child enters school, i.e., at the age of six or seven.
In this way, we try to give children what they will increasingly need for the future. When teaching languages, if we want to understand them in a truly human way, we must first and foremost take into account that language is deeply rooted in the whole human being. The language that a person absorbs as their mother tongue is deeply rooted in the respiratory system, the circulatory system, and the structure of the vascular system, so that a person is influenced not only in spirit and soul, but also in spirit, soul, and body by the way in which their mother tongue is expressed within them. But we must be very clear that the different languages in the world—this is obvious enough in primitive languages, but in civilized languages it is often hidden, yet it is still there—permeate human beings in a completely different way and reveal what is human.
There is one language among the European languages that arises entirely from the emotional element and, over time, has taken on the character of intellectualizing the emotional element, but it arises from the emotional element, so that the intellectual element and the volitional element are less implanted in people through this language. These other aspects of human nature must then be developed through the learning of other languages.
Thus we have a language that is particularly developed from the element of plastic imagination, which, so to speak, paints things in sound formation. This gives the child a natural, plastic-creative power in language learning.
We have another language within civilized Europe that is primarily directed toward the element of will; a language in which one can literally hear in its intonation, in its vocalization and consonant formation, that it is entirely directed toward the element of will, that the person, while speaking, constantly behaves as if he or she wanted to repel sea waves with the air expelled. The element of will lives in the language. — There are other languages that come more from within the person, appealing to the emotional, musical, and imaginative aspects of the person. Every language has a special relationship to the person.
Now you will say that I should name the individual languages I have characterized. I will refrain from doing so, for we are not yet at the point in the civilized world where we can face each other with the objectivity required to tolerate such a completely objective assessment.
However, what I have said about the characteristics of languages makes it absolutely necessary—if we want to give people today a purely human, not a specialized human, folk education and development—that we actually balance out, in relation to language, what comes from human nature through the genius of one language with the other language.
This is precisely what has prompted us, from a purely pedagogical and didactic point of view, to start teaching three languages to the youngest children in Waldorf schools; and we even teach languages to a considerable extent.
It is very good to start teaching foreign languages at such an early age, because up to the point between the ages of nine and ten in human life, the child still carries with it something of what I have described as particularly characteristic of the first stage of human life, from birth to the change of teeth. At this stage, the human being is primarily an imitative being. Human beings learn their mother tongue entirely according to the principle of imitation. Without making heavy use of the intellect, the child learns to reproduce internally what it hears as language. And at the same time as the external sounds, the tones of language, the child also hears the internal, soulful, musical element of language. And the first language that the child acquires, it acquires as — if I may express it this way — a finer habit. It all goes deep into the whole person.
Then, when the child enters school with the change of teeth, we also speak more to the purely spiritual in language teaching, and no longer so strongly to the physical. But the child still brings enough imaginative imitation skills to school until the age of nine or ten, so that we can direct language teaching in such a way that the language is absorbed by the whole person, not just by the soul and spirit.
That is why it is so incredibly important not to miss out on the first, second, and third years of elementary school for foreign language instruction. It is therefore only on the basis of a didactic, pedagogical, and humane principle that Waldorf schools have introduced foreign language instruction when children enter elementary school.
I need not mention that this teaching is now, in the most eminent sense, adapted to the different stages of life. In our time, we have fallen into a state of mental chaos with regard to all reality. We imagine that we are deeply rooted in reality because we have become materialistic, but in fact we are much more theoretical in our time. The strongest practitioners, that is, those who consider themselves to be such, are actually theorists in the most eminent sense in our time. They imagine that something is right — it is not the case that they have actually shaped what they have accepted as right out of practical experience. And so, particularly in pedagogical and didactic questions, when people have seen on the one hand that something is not right, then one impossible radicalism after another has emerged.
People have seen that in the past, language teaching, especially in Latin and Greek, was based entirely on grammar and language rules, and that this made teaching externalized and mechanized. Now the opposite principle has emerged, simply because people are unable to look at things consistently. And when they notice that disaster has struck, they fall into the other extreme, because they believe that this will enable them to avoid disaster. And so the principle has emerged that nothing grammatical should be taught at all.
This is again nonsensical. For in a specific area, this would mean nothing less than: people should only be allowed to remain conscious, not allowed to become self-conscious. Between the ages of nine and ten, people move from consciousness to self-consciousness. They distinguish themselves from the world.
This is also the time when one can move on to grammatical and syntactical rules, albeit in a gentle manner, because this is when people begin to think not only about the world, but also about themselves. Reflecting on oneself means, in terms of language, not just speaking instinctively, but being able to bring language into reasonable rules. So again, learning without any grammar at all is absurd for language. You cannot teach people the inner strength they need for life if you disregard all rules.
But what must be taken into account above all is that it is only in that element of life between the ages of nine and ten that people come to want to move from mere consciousness to self-consciousness, and that therefore any grammatical instruction before that is absurd.
One must find this transition between the ages of nine and ten in order to sensibly and quietly transition from language instruction that is based entirely on instinct to grammatical instruction.
This must also be the case for the mother tongue. You completely spoil the child's soul life if you graft grammatical or syntactical rules into the child before this important moment in life. Until then, speech should be instinctive and habitual, as it is solely through imitation. Self-awareness should initiate speech — and as a rule, self-awareness always occurs with grammar and syntax — between the ages of nine and ten. If you take this into account, you will see how the Waldorf school principle uses the two or three years before this moment in life to place language teaching in the right stage of life according to human development. And so you see, piece by piece, that Waldorf education wants to teach the teacher to read, but not in a book, not in an educational system, but in human beings.
The Waldorf teacher should learn to read in this most wonderful document in the world, in the human being. What this reading gives him is transferred into enthusiasm for teaching and educating. What can really be read in such a way that it immediately calls upon the human being, body, soul, and spirit, to all-round activity, as only a teacher needs, is contained solely in the book of the world. And all other learning, all other books, all other reading should give the educator the opportunity to read the great book of the world. If he can do this, he will become a teacher with the necessary enthusiasm, and from this enthusiasm alone can spring the power, the strength of impulse that can enliven a school class.
This universal human aspect of teaching and education, which I had to characterize for the most diverse branches of teaching, must be lived out in the Waldorf school principle, particularly in that this Waldorf school is not a school of religious or philosophical conviction or a school of a particular worldview in any direction. And in this direction, it was of course necessary, especially for a school system that developed out of anthroposophy, to work toward ensuring that this Waldorf school would be far, far removed from becoming an anthroposophical school or being an anthroposophical school. It certainly must not be that. One might say: every day anew, one strives not to fall into anthroposophical one-sidedness, either through the overzealousness of a teacher or through the honest conviction that Waldorf school teachers naturally have for anthroposophy, since they are anthroposophists. The human being, not the human being of a particular worldview, must be the sole consideration in didactic-pedagogical terms for the Waldorf school principle.
This made it necessary to enter into a compromise with the religious communities, one that was, I would say, demanded by the times, and to focus initially on nothing else for the students but the methodology of a general human education. Religious instruction was initially handed over to the religious teachers of their respective denominations. And so Catholic religious instruction in Waldorf schools is given by Catholic priests, and Protestant religious instruction by Protestant pastors.
But there are quite a few students in Waldorf schools who, as they say in Central Europe, are dissident children who simply would not take religious education if only Catholic and Protestant religious education were available. Because Waldorf schools initially developed out of the proletariat—they were the schools of industrial companies, which they are no longer today, having become schools for all classes—at first they were attended mainly by children of no religious denomination. These children would not have had any religious instruction at all, as is the case in many schools in Central Europe. So we introduced so-called free religious education especially for these children, who would otherwise have had no religious education at all.
This free religious education is not intended to introduce theoretical anthroposophy into the Waldorf school. That would be completely wrong. Anthroposophical conviction has been developed for adults to this day, and anthroposophy is discussed with adults. Therefore, all concepts and feelings are clothed in what is good for adults. To simply take what is intended for adults in our anthroposophical literature and introduce it into the school would be to act in direct contradiction to the pedagogical and didactic principles of Waldorf education. It is a matter of voluntarily providing the children who are entrusted to us with free religious instruction, now also in the strictest sense of the word, the religious element, and what is to be given to them as religious instruction, depending on their age.
Thus, one should not imagine that the free religious instruction at Waldorf schools, which is even associated with a corresponding cult, is something like an anthroposophical worldview brought into the school. One will see that in this free religious instruction, the age of the child is taken into account to the fullest extent everywhere. We cannot help it that most children attend this free religious education at Waldorf schools, even though we make it a strict rule to admit children to this free religious education only at the request of their parents. However, the pedagogical and didactic element plays an extraordinary role here, and since our free religious education is, in the strictest sense, Christian, those parents who want their children to be raised as Christians but want their children to be taught and educated according to the school principle, according to the pedagogy and didactics of the Waldorf school, send their children to the free religious instruction, which is thoroughly Christian, so Christian in fact that the whole school is immersed in an atmosphere of Christianity. Holidays such as Christmas and Easter are experienced by the children in our free Christian religious education classes with a depth of feeling that is quite different from what is usually the case with these holidays today.
Now, it is important to take the child's age into account, especially in religious education. It is particularly harmful if anything is presented to the child too early. That is why our free religious education is structured in such a way that the child first comes to understand the universal divine in the world.
You will remember that when children first enter school between the ages of seven and nine or ten, we teach them by letting the plants speak, the clouds speak, and the springs speak. The whole environment of the human child is animated. This makes it easy to lead the lesson to the universal divine Father principle that permeates the world. The fact that everything has its origin in the divine can be presented to the child in an excellent way, especially if the rest of the teaching is conducted as I have described.
And so we build on what the child knows, learns in a fairy-tale-like way, in an imaginative way about nature. We build on this in order to lead the child to a certain gratitude for everything that happens in the world. Gratitude for everything that people do for us, but also for everything that nature gives us, is what puts religious feeling on the right path. In general, teaching gratitude is something infinitely important and meaningful.
Human beings should develop a certain feeling of gratitude when – perhaps this sounds paradoxical, and yet it is deeply true – at the right time, when they have to do this or that, they are blessed with suitable weather. Being able to develop gratitude toward the universe, toward the cosmos, even if, I would say, this can only happen in an imaginative experience of the world, is what can deepen our entire sense of the world in a religious way.
For this gratitude, we then need love for everything. And we can easily, if we guide the child up to the age of nine or ten, as has been suggested, reveal something to the child in all the living things we present to them that the child must learn to love. Love for every flower, love for every tree, love for sunshine and rain—that is what can deepen the child's perception of the world in a religious way.
If we develop gratitude and love in the child before the age of ten, then we can also develop in the right way what we call duty. Developing duty too early through commandments does not lead to religious intimacy. Above all, we must develop gratitude and love in the child, then we will develop the child both ethically and morally in the right way, as well as religiously.
Anyone who wants to educate children in the Christian sense in the deepest sense of the word must ensure that what is presented to the world in the mystery of Golgotha, in everything connected with the personality and divinity of Christ Jesus, is not presented to the child's soul in the right way before the age of nine or ten. Great dangers are exposed to the child if it is not introduced to the general divine, I would say: to the divine father principle, before this moment in life; showing them how the divine lives in everything in nature, how the divine lives in all human development, how everywhere we look, in stones, but also in the hearts of other people, in every deed that other people do for the child, the divine lives everywhere. We must feel this universal divine with gratitude and teach the child to feel it with love through the natural authority of the teacher. Then we prepare ourselves to be able to take the right position on this mystery of Golgotha between the ages of nine and ten.
It is so infinitely important to learn to understand the human being in terms of its temporal development. Just try to understand the difference between teaching a child something from the New Testament at the age of seven or eight, or — after first trying to awaken a general awareness of God in every natural being — introducing the New Testament between the ages of nine and ten, in order to develop it in the child as such. Then the child is properly prepared, then it lives into the completely supernatural greatness contained in the Gospel. If you teach it to them beforehand, it remains just words, a rigid, sober concept; it does not grasp the whole person, and you run the risk of hardening the religious element in the child, so that they carry it through life as a hardened element rather than as something that permeates their entire worldview with liveliness. One prepares the child in the most beautiful way to take in the glory of Christ Jesus from the age of nine or ten, if one introduces them beforehand to the general divinity of the whole world.
And this is precisely what religious education based on purely human values strives for, which we offer as free Christian religious education in Waldorf schools for those children whose parents so desire, who are actually becoming more and more numerous compared to the others, and which we have also clothed in a certain cult. Every Sunday, a cult ceremony takes place for these children who attend this free religious education. When these children leave school, this ritual is transformed. A ritual that is very similar to the sacrifice of the Mass, but entirely appropriate to their age, is also connected with this religious life based on free religious education in Waldorf schools.
It was particularly difficult to incorporate into the religious element what we want to teach in the Waldorf school: the purely human principle of development. For when it comes to religion, people today are still least inclined to depart from their own particular beliefs. There is much talk of a general human religiosity. But this is colored in each individual by his or her particular religious community. If we understand the task of humanity in the future correctly, then this task is already being served to the right degree by this free religious instruction, which we have actually only just begun in Waldorf schools.
Anthroposophy, as it is presented to adults today, is certainly not brought into the Waldorf school; on the other hand, what human beings long for is to grasp the divine — the divine in nature, the divine in human history — through the right attunement to the mystery of Golgotha. This is what we consider to be our task, to bring into the classroom in the right sense.
In this way, we also achieve the goal of giving the entire classroom the color it needs. I have already said that the teacher must actually come to the point where all teaching becomes a moral, religious act for him, that he sees, so to speak, a kind of worship in the teaching itself.
We can only achieve this if we are able to introduce the religious and moral element into the school in the right way for those people who already want it today. We have already attempted to do this, as far as social conditions allow, with regard to religious education in Waldorf schools. We certainly did not want to work toward some kind of blindly rationalistic Christianity, but rather toward a correct understanding of the Christ impulse in the entire earthly development of humanity. We wanted nothing more than to give people what they still need when they have become whole human beings through all other instruction.
For, ladies and gentlemen, one can already have become a whole human being through all other teaching — but even if one has already become a whole human being, one still needs something else in order to place this whole human being in the world in such a way that he stands in this world in accordance with his innate nature: religious deepening. Educating the whole person, deepening the religious understanding of this whole person, is what we have sought to grasp as one of the most important tasks of the Waldorf school principle.