Practical Course for Teachers
GA 294
3 September 1919, Stuttgart
XII. How to Connect School with Practical Life
We must not close our minds to the fact that the relations of man to his surroundings are far more complicated than the part of which we are always conscious. I have attempted to make clear to you from the most various angles the nature and significance of the unconscious and subconscious soul-processes. And it is especially important in the sphere of education, and of educational method, that man should be educated in a way suited not only to his consciousness, but also to his subconsciousness, to the subconscious and unconscious forces of his soul. In this sense, if we are to be true educators and teachers, we must enter into the subtleties of human nature.
We have learnt that there are three stages of human development traceable between the losing of the first teeth and puberty (seven to nine, nine to twelve, twelve to fourteen). We must realize that particularly in the last of these stages of life the subconscious plays a great part along with consciousness—a part which is significant for the whole future life of the individual.
I should like to make the position plain to you by approaching it from another angle.
Just think how many people to-day travel in electric trains without the ghost of a notion of the real nature of locomotion by electric rail. Just think how many people to-day see even a steam-engine, a railway-engine, steam past them, without any suspicion of the physical and mechanical processes involved in the motion of the steam-engine. But think further, in what relation, in view of such ignorance, we stand as human beings to the surroundings of which we even make a convenience. We live in a world produced by human beings, moulded by human thought, of which we make use, and which we do not understand in the least. This lack of comprehension for human creation, or for the results of human thought, is of great significance for the entire complexion of the human soul and spirit. In fact, people must benumb themselves to escape the realization of influences from this source.
It must always remain a matter of great satisfaction to see people from the so-called “better classes” enter a factory and feel thoroughly ill at ease. This is because they experience, like a shaft from their subconsciousness, the realization that they make use of all that is produced in the factory, and yet, as individuals, have not the slightest intimacy with the processes taking place there. They know nothing about it. When you notice the discomfiture of an inveterate cigarette smoker going into the Waldorf-Astoria tobacco factory without any idea of the process of manufacture to provide him with a cigarette, you can at least notice the satisfaction that human nature shows of being itself worried through its ignorance. And there is at least some pleasure in seeing people who are completely ignorant of the workings of an electric railway, get in and out of it with a slight feeling of discomfort. For this feeling of discomfort is at least the first glimmering of an improvement in attitude. The worst thing is participation in a world made by human heads and hands without bothering in the least about that world.
We can only fight against this attitude if we begin our fight as early as the last stage of the elementary school course, if we simply do not let the child of fifteen or sixteen leave school without at least a few elementary notions of the most important functions of the outside world. The child must leave with a craving to know, an insatiable curiosity about everything that goes on around him, and then convert this curiosity and craving for knowledge into further knowledge. We ought, therefore, to use the separate subjects of study towards the end of the school course as a social education of the individual in the most comprehensive sense, just as we employ geography on the lines already described as in a resume. That is, we should not neglect to introduce the child, on a basis of such physical, natural-history concepts as we can command, to the workings of at least the factory systems in his neighbourhood. The child should have acquired some general idea at fifteen and sixteen of the way a soap-factory or a spinning-mill is run. The problem will be, of course, to study things as economically as possible. It is always possible, if a comprehensive process is being studied, to arrange some kind of abbreviated epitome and very primitive demonstration of complicated processes. I think that Herr Molt [General Managing Director of the Waldorf-Astoria tobacco factory and founder of the Waldorf School as a school for the children of his employees.] will agree with me when I say that one could teach the child, in an economical fashion, the entire factory process for preparing cigarettes, from beginning to end, in a few short sentences. Such shortened instructions of certain branches of industry are of the very greatest benefit to children of twelve to fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen. If people at this age were to keep a kind of notebook containing: manufacture of soap, spinning, weaving, etc., it would be an excellent thing. There would be no immediate need to teach him mechanical or chemical technology, but if the child could keep such a notebook he would derive a great deal of benefit from it. Even if he lost the notebook the residue would be there. The individual, that is, would not only retain the knowledge of these things, but, most important of all, he would feel, in going about life and in his own vocation, that he once knew these things, that he once went into them. This influences him, as a matter of fact, and gives him the assurance with which he acts and the self-possession with which the individual effects a footing for himself in life. It is very important for the individual's will-power and his capacity to make decisions. In no profession will you get people with real initiative unless their relation to the world is instinct with the consciousness that, even about things which do not fall within their province, they once acquired a certain knowledge, however elementary. Whether they have remembered it or not, they have the residue, the traces. Granted, we learn a good deal in the average school. But there, in the object lesson, which so often degenerates into platitudes, the child learns many such things, but it probably happens that he does not retain the feeling that he went into a thing with pleasure and felt himself lucky. On the contrary, he feels: I have forgotten what I learnt about that, and a good thing, too. We should never be responsible for producing this feeling in a person. When, later, we go into business and other walks of life, innumerable recollections will flicker up from our subconsciousness if we have been taught in our childhood with the care which I have described. Life to-day is exclusively specialized. This specialization is really fearful, and the excess of it in practical life is chiefly due to the fact that we begin to specialize already at school.
The gist of these remarks might well be summarized as follows: All that the child learns during his school years should ultimately and in some way be so applied that he can everywhere trace its connections with practical human life. Very many features, indeed, which are unsocial to-day could be transformed into social ones if we, at least, could have glimpsed an insight into things not immediately connected with our occupation.
For example, certain things should really be respected by the outside world which are, in fact, respected in spheres still dominated by older, better, if perhaps rather atavistic principles of teaching. In this connection I should like to refer to a very remarkable phenomenon. When we, now elderly folk, went through the senior school in Austria, we had relatively good geometry and arithmetic textbooks. They have disappeared now. A few weeks ago I ransacked all the imaginable bookshops in Vienna to get older geometry books, because I wanted to see again, with my physical eyes, what gave us young fellows such joy in Vienna-Neustadt, for instance: when we got into the first or lowest class of the senior school the lads of the second class always used to come into the corridor the first day and yell: “Fialkowski, Fialkowski! You'll have to pay up tomorrow!” That is, as pupils of the first class we took over the Fialkowski geometry books from the boys of the second class and brought the money for them the next day. I have hunted up one of these Fialkowskis again, to my great joy, because it proves that geometry books written in this older tradition are really much better than the later ones. For the modern books which have replaced them are really quite horrible. The arithmetic and geometry books are very bad. But on thinking back only a little way and taking the generations before us as our models, there were better textbooks then. They nearly all came from the school of the Austrian Benedictines. The mathematics and geometry books had been written by the Benedictines and were very good ones, because the Benedictines are a Catholic order who take a great deal of care that their members receive a good education in geometry and mathematics. The Benedictine feeling in general is that it is really ludicrous for anyone to mount a pulpit and address the people unless he is familiar with geometry and mathematics.
This ideal of unity, inspiring the human soul, must pervade our teaching. In every vocation something of the whole world must be alive. In every vocation there must exist something of its very opposite, things which we believe are almost inapplicable to that vocation. People must be interested in more or less the opposite extreme of their own work. But they will only feel the desire to do this if they are taught as I have described.
It was, of course, just at the time in which materialism reached its final expansion, in the last third of the nineteenth century, and penetrated so deeply into our educational method, that specialization came to be considered very important. Do not imagine that the effect is to make the child idealistic if you avoid showing him in his last years at the school the relation of subjects of school study to practical life. Do not imagine that the child will be more idealistic later in life if, at this time, you let him write essays on all kinds of sentimentalism about the world, on the gentleness of the lamb, on the fierceness of the lion, and so on, on the omnipresence of God in nature. You do not make the child idealistic in this way. You will do far more, in fact, to cultivate idealism itself in the child if you do not approach it so directly, so crudely. What is the real reason why people have become so irreligious lately? Simply because preaching has been far, far too sentimental and abstract. That is why people have become so irreligious—because the Church has respected the divine commandments so little. For instance, there is, after all, a commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” If people respect this and do not say “Jesus Christ” after every fifth sentence, or speak of “divine Providence,” accusations are immediately levelled against them by the so-called Church-minded people, by those who would be happiest hearing “Jesus Christ” and “God” in every sentence. The reverent surrender to the presence of the divine Immanence, which hesitates to be for ever saying “Lord, Lord,” is sometimes considered an irreligious attitude. And if human teaching is pervaded by this modest divine activity, not just a sentimental lip-service, you hear people say on all sides, because they have been wrongly educated: “Ah yes, he ought to speak far more than he does about Christianity.” This attitude, even in teaching, must be clearly kept in mind, and what the child learns at thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen must be given less of a sentimental turn; on the contrary, it must be directed into the channel of practical life. In fact, no child ought really to reach the age of fifteen without being led from arithmetic to a knowledge of the rules of at least the simplest forms of book-keeping. And in this way the principles of grammar and language-teaching should be applied instead of that form of essay which represents human mind by introducing phrases.
Yes, indeed, this “sort” of essay which children have to write between thirteen and sixteen, is often employed as a sort of improved edition of the mentality arising when men gather round their beer in the evening or women have their chitter-chatter at tea-time. Far more attention should be given to applying language teaching to the essay of a business type, to the business letter. And no child should pass the age of fifteen without taking a course of writing specimen practical business letters. Do not say that he can learn this later. Certainly, by overcoming great difficulties, he can learn it later, but the point is: not without overcoming these difficulties. You do the child a great kindness if you teach him to apply his grammar knowledge, his language knowledge, to essays of a business nature, to business letters. In our day there should really be no single individual who has not learnt to write a decent business letter. Certainly he may not have to apply this knowledge in later life, but there should not be one single individual who has not been at one time trained to write a respectable business letter. If the child has become satiated with sentimental idealism from thirteen to fifteen, he will later experience a revulsion from idealism and become a materialist. If, at this early age, he is introduced to the practical side of life, he will also retain a healthy relation to the ideal needs of the soul. But these will just be extinguished by senseless indulgence in them in early youth.
This is extremely important, and in this connection even certain externals, such as the division of subjects, might be of great significance. We shall have to make compromises, as you know, with regard to religious instruction, which will have the disadvantage that the religious element will not come in close connection with the other subjects. But even to-day, if the religious parties would make the same compromises from their side, much might be achieved by the close association of religious instruction with other subjects. If, for example, the teacher in religious instruction condescended now and then to take up some other aspect of study; if, for instance, he were to explain to the child, as an incidental part of his religious teaching, and connected with it, the steam-engine or something of a quite worldly nature, something having to do with astronomy, etc., the simple fact that the teacher of religion is doing this would make an extraordinary impression on the consciousness of the growing children. I am mentioning this extreme case because in the other subjects things must be noticed which unfortunately cannot in our case be observed in the course of religious instruction. We must not have to think, like pedants: Now teach geography, now history, and don't care two pins for anything else. No, we must remember, when explaining to the child that the word “sofa” came from the East during the Crusades, to find room for some explanation of the manufacture of sofas as part of the history teaching. Then we proceed to other more Western fashions of furniture and extract something quite new from the so-called “subject.” This will be a tremendous boon to the growing child, particularly from the point of view of method, for the reason that the transition from one subject to another, the association of one fact with another, has the most beneficent influence imaginable on the development of the spirit, the soul, and even the body. For one can say: A child to whose joy, in the middle of a history lesson, the teacher suddenly begins to talk about the manufacture of sofas, and perhaps from that goes on to discuss designs of Oriental carpets, all so that the child really has a survey of the whole topic, will have a better digestion than a child who simply has a geometry lesson after a French lesson. It will be healthier for the body, too. In this way we can organize the lessons inwardly according to the principles of hygiene. In these days, as it is, most people have all kinds of digestive troubles, bodily indispositions, which come about very often from our unnatural methods of teaching, because we cannot adjust our teaching to the demands of life. The most badly organized in this respect, of course, are (in Germany) the High Schools for Girls (höhere Töchterschulen). And if someone were to study some day, from the point of view of the history of civilization, the connection between women's illnesses and the educational methods used in the Girls' High Schools, it would form quite an interesting chapter. People's thoughts must be directed to things of this kind simply so that, when aware of much that has grown up recently, healthier conditions may be brought about. Above all, people must know that the human being is a complex being, and that the faculties which it is desired to cultivate in him must often be prepared beforehand.
If you want children to gather round you so that you can convey to them in profoundly religious feeling the glory of the divine powers in the world, and you do it with children who come just anyhow from anywhere, you will see that what you say goes in at one ear and out at the other without touching their feelings. But if, after the children have written business letters in the morning, you have them back again in the afternoon and try to regain what was in their subconsciousness while writing the business letters and you then try to instil religious ideas into them, you will be successful, for you yourself will then have created an atmosphere which craves for its antithesis. Seriously, I am not making these proposals to you from the point of view of abstract didactic method, but because they are of enormous importance for life. I should like to know who has not discovered in the world outside how much unnecessary work is done. Business people will always agree if you say: “Take a person employed in some business; he is told to write a business letter to some branch connected with the firm or to people who are to take a matter in hand. He writes a letter; an answer is received. Then another letter has to be written and another answer received, and so on. It is particularly in business life a very deep-seated evil that time is wasted in this way.” The fact simply is, that by this means public life is carried on with colossal extravagance. It is noticeable, too. For if, with nothing but ordinary sound human intelligence and common sense to your credit, you get hold of a modern duplicating book and carbon-copy belonging to a business, you literally endure agonies. And this is not in any way because you feel disinclined to show sympathy for the jargon of words or dislike the interests represented there, but you experience agonies of exasperation that things are written down as un-practically as possible, when the copy-book in question could be reduced to at least a quarter of its size. And this is simply and solely because the last year of elementary school teaching is not suitably organized. For the loss during this year cannot be made good in later life without almost invincible difficulties. You cannot even repair in the continuation schools (Fortbildungsschule) the omissions of this period because the powers which develop in it become choked as with sand and are no longer active later on. You have to reckon with these powers if you wish to be certain that a person will not just superficially concoct a letter with half his mind on it, but that he will have his mind on the work and will draw up a letter with discretion and foresight.
The point in the first stage, when the child comes to school until he is nine, is that we should be well grounded in human nature and that we should educate and teach entirely from that point of view; from thirteen to fifteen the point in drawing up the time-table is that as teachers and instructors we should be rooted in life, that we should have an interest in and a sympathy for life. I had to say all this to you before going on to the ideal time-table, to compare it with time-tables which will concern your teaching as well, because, of course, we are surrounded on all sides by the outside world and its organization.
Zwölfter Vortrag
Man darf sich nicht der Tatsache verschließen, daß die Beziehungen des Menschen zu der Umgebung viel kompliziertere sind, als das Gebiet umfaßt, dessen wir uns immer bewußt sind. Von den verschiedensten Gesichtspunkten aus habe ich Ihnen ja das Wesen und die Bedeutung der unbewußten und unterbewußten Seelenwirkungen klarzumachen versucht. Und insbesondere auf dem Gebiete des Pädagogischen, des Didaktischen hat es eine große Bedeutung, daß der Mensch so erzogen werde, wie es nicht nur seinem Bewußtsein, sondern auch seinem Unterbewußtsein, seinen unterbewußten und unbewußten Seelenkräften entspricht. Da muß man schon, wenn man wirklicher Erzieher und Unterrichter sein will, auf die Feinheiten des Menschenwesens eingehen.
Wir haben die drei Stufen der menschlichen Entwickelung kennengelernt, die sich geltendmachen zwischen dem Zahnwechsel und der Geschlechtsreife und die insbesondere in die Volksschulzeit und in den Anfang der Mittelschulzeit hineinfallen. Wir müssen uns nur klar sein, daß insbesondere in der letzten dieser Lebensepochen das Unterbewußte neben dem Bewußten eine große Rolle spielt, eine Rolle, die eine Bedeutung für das ganze künftige Menschenleben hat.
Ich möchte, indem ich die Sache von einer andern Seite her betrachte, Ihnen klarmachen, was da zugrunde liegt.
Denken Sie nur, wie viele Menschen heute mit elektrischen Eisenbahnen fahren, die keinen blauen Dunst davon haben, worauf die Fortbewegung der elektrischen Eisenbahn eigentlich beruht. Denken Sie sich, wie viele Menschen heute selbst nur die Dampfmaschine in der Form der Lokomotive an sich vorübersausen sehen, ohne eine Ahnung davon zu haben, wie sich die physikalische und mechanische Wirkung abspielt, die zum Fortbewegen der Dampfmaschine führt. Bedenken Sie doch, wie wir eigentlich durch ein solches Nichtwissen als Menschen zu unserer Umgebung, derer wir uns sogar bedienen, stehen. Wir leben in einer Welt drinnen, die von Menschen hervorgebracht ist, die nach menschlichen Gedanken geformt ist, die wir benützen und von der wir nichts verstehen. Diese Tatsache, daß wir von etwas, was vom Menschen geformt ist, was im Grunde genommen das Ergebnis menschlicher Gedanken ist, nichts verstehen, das hat für die gesamte menschliche Seelen- und Geistesstimmung eine große Bedeutung. Die Menschen müssen sich nur eigentlich betäuben, damit sie die Wirkungen, die von dieser Seite her stammen, nicht wahrnehmen.
Man kann es immer mit einer großen Befriedigung sehen, wenn Menschen aus den - ja, wie soll man es nennen, damit man nicht verletzt —, aus den besseren Ständen in eine Fabrik hineingehen und sich recht unbehaglich fühlen. Das kommt daher, weil sie das Gefühl aus ihrem Unterbewußtsein heraufschießen fühlen und empfinden: sie benützen alles das, was in dieser Fabrik erzeugt wird, und sie haben eigentlich als Menschen nicht die geringste Beziehung zu dem, was in dieser Fabrik vorgeht. Sie wissen nichts davon. Wenn man schon das Unbehagen wahrnimmt - um etwas Bekanntes zu nehmen -, wenn der, der ein echter Zigarettenraucher ist, der in die Waldorf-AstoriaZigarettenfabrik geht und keine Ahnung hat, was da geschieht, damit er diese Zigaretten kriegt, so ist man schon erfreut darüber, daß der Mensch wenigstens noch wahrnehmen kann dieses sein Nichtwissen von der aus Menschengedanken hervorgehenden Umgebung, in der er lebt und deren Erzeugnisse er benützt. Und wenn Menschen, die nichts von dem Betrieb der elektrischen Bahn verstehen, immer mit einem kleinen Unbehagen in die Elektrische einsteigen und wieder aus ihr aussteigen, dann ist man schon froh. Denn dieses Spüren des Unbehagens, das ist schon der erste Anfang einer Besserung auf diesem Gebiet. Das Schlimmste ist das Miterleben der von Menschen gemachten Welt, ohne daß man sich kümmert um diese Welt.
Diesen Dingen können wir nur entgegenarbeiten, wenn wir mit diesem Entgegenarbeiten schon auf der letzten Stufe des Volksschulunterrichts beginnen, wenn wir wirklich das Kind im 15., 16. Jahr nicht aus der Schule herauslassen, ohne daß es wenigstens von den wichtigsten Lebensverrichtungen einige elementare Begriffe hat. So daß es die Sehnsucht bekommt, dann bei jeder Gelegenheit neugierig, wißbegierig zu sein auf dasjenige, was in seiner Umgebung vorgeht und dann aus dieser Neugierde und Wißbegierde heraus seine Kenntnisse weiter entwickelt. Wir sollten daher die einzelnen Unterrichtsgegenstände gegen das Ende der Schulzeit hin in umfassendem Sinne so verwenden zu einer sozialen Bildung des Menschen, wie wir die einzelnen Dinge in der Geographie nach dem Muster dessen verwenden, was ich im letzten Vortrag zu einer Art Gesamtaufbau des geographischen Wesens angeführt habe. Das heißt, wir sollten nicht unterlassen, aus den physikalischen naturgeschichtlichen Begriffen heraus, die wir gewonnen haben, das Kind in den Gang wenigstens ihm naheliegender Betriebssysteme einzuführen. Das Kind sollte im allgemeinen mit dem 15. und 16. Jahr einen Begriff bekommen haben von dem, was in einer Seifenfabrik oder in einer Spinnerei vor sich geht. Es wird sich natürlich darum handeln, daß wir die Dinge so ökonomisch wie möglich treiben. Es läßt sich überall aus einem umfassenden Betriebe heraus etwas Zusammenfassendes gestalten, was dasjenige, was sich kompliziert abspielt, in sehr primitiver Art zusammenfaßt. Ich glaube, Herr Molt wird mir recht geben, wenn ich behaupte, daß man schon dem Kinde, wenn man ökonomisch vorginge, den ganzen Fabrikationsprozeß der Zigarettenbereitung, sogar vom Anfang bis zum Ende, in einige kurze Sätze zusammengefaßt, die nur aus dem übrigen Unterrichtsstoff heraus begreiflich gemacht werden müßten, beibringen könnte. Solch ein Beibringen gewisser Zusammenfassungen von Betriebszweigen, das ist für den kindlichen Menschen im 13., 14., 15., 16. Jahr eine allergrößte Wohltat. Wenn der Mensch sich in diesen Jahren so eine Art Heft anlegen würde, worinnen stehen würde: Seifenfabrikation, Zigarettenfabrikation, Spinnereien, Webereien und so weiter, so wäre das sehr gut. Man brauchte ihm ja nicht gleich eine mechanische oder chemische Technologie in weitem Umfange beizubringen, aber wenn das Kind sich ein solches Heft anlegen könnte, dann würde es sehr viel von diesem Heft haben. Selbst wenn das Heft verlorenginge, es bleibt ja das Residuum. Der Mensch würde nämlich nicht nur das davon haben, daß er dann diese Dinge weiß, sondern das Wichtigste ist, daß er fühlt, indem er durch das Leben und durch seinen Beruf geht: er hat diese Dinge einmal gewußt; er hat sie einmal durchgenommen. Das wirkt nämlich auf die Sicherheit seines Handelns. Das wirkt auf die Sicherheit, mit der der Mensch sich in die Welt hineinstellt. Das ist sehr wichtig für die Willens- und Entschlußfähigkeit des Menschen. Sie werden in keinem Beruf Menschen mit tüchtiger Initiative haben können, wenn diese Menschen nicht so in der Welt drinnenstehen, daß sie auch von dem, was nicht zu ihrem Beruf gehört, das Gefühl haben: sie haben sich einmal ein, wenn auch primitives Wissen davon angeeignet. Mögen sie das vergessen haben, das Residuum, der Überrest davon ist ihnen geblieben. Allerdings, wir lernen ja auch viel in der Schule. Und in dem Anschauungsunterricht, der so oft in Plattheiten ausartet, da wird dem Schüler ja auch so etwas beigebracht, aber man kann es erleben, daß dann später gar nicht das Gefühl vorhanden ist: Das habe ich durchgemacht, und es war mein Glück, daß ich es durchgemacht habe -, sondern es ist das Gefühl vorhanden: Das habe ich Gott sei Dank vergessen, und es ist gut, daß ich es vergessen habe, was ich da gelernt habe. - Dieses Gefühl sollten wir niemals im Menschen hervorrufen. Unzählige Dinge werden aus dem Unterbewußtsein heraufschießen, wenn wir in unserer Kindheit so unterrichtet worden sind, daß das beobachtet worden ist, was ich eben gesagt habe, wenn wir später hineingehen in einen Betrieb und dergleichen. Heute ist im Leben alles spezialisiert. Dieses Spezialisieren ist eigentlich furchtbar. Und es ist hauptsächlich im Leben so viel spezialisiert, weil wir schon im Unterricht anfangen zu spezialisieren.
Was da ausgeführt worden ist, das könnte man zusammenfassen in den Worten: Es soll alles dasjenige, was das Kind lernt im Laufe seiner Schuljahre, zuletzt irgendwie so verbreitert werden, daß es überall die Fäden hineinzieht ins praktische Menschenleben. Dadurch würden ja sehr, sehr viele Dinge, die heute unsozial sind, zu sozialen gemacht werden können, daß wenigstens bei uns angeschlagen würde die Einsicht in dasjenige, was in der späteren Zeit nicht unmittelbar zu unserem Berufe gehören soll.
So sollte zum Beispiel eigentlich auch das von der äußeren Welt heute gut beobachtet werden, was in Lebenszweigen beachtet wird, die noch auf älteren, guten, wenn auch vielleicht noch atavistischen Unterrichtseinsichten fußen. Ich möchte da immer auf eine sehr bemerkenswerte Erscheinung hinweisen. Als wir, die jetzt schon alten Leute, in Österreich in die Mittelschule gekommen sind, haben wir verhältnismäßig gute geometrische und arithmetische Lehrbücher gehabt. Sie sind jetzt verschwunden. Ich habe mich vor ein paar Jahren in Wien in allen möglichen Antiquariaten herumgetrieben, um ältere geometrische Bücher zu bekommen, weil ich doch das wiederum einmal vor den physischen Augen haben wollte, was wir Jungen zum Beispiel in Wiener Neustadt zu unserer Freude erlebt haben: Wenn wir in die erste Klasse der Mittelschule gekommen sind, kamen am ersten Tag immer die Schüler der zweiten Klasse zu uns auf den Gang und schrien: Fialkowskiy, Fialkowskiy, morgen muß er bezahlt werden! — Das heißt, wir nahmen als Schüler der ersten Klasse das Geometriebuch von Fialkowskiy von den Schülern der zweiten Klasse und brachten ihnen am nächsten Tage das Geld. Solch einen «Fialkowskiy» habe ich wiederum aufgetrieben, und er hat mich sehr erfreut, weil er zeigt, daß man in dieser älteren Tradition eigentlich viel besser Geometriebücher für die Schulen schreiben konnte als später. Denn die heutigen Bücher, die zum Ersatz gekommen sind, die sind eigentlich schon ganz greulich. Gerade auf dem Gebiete des arithmetischen, des geometrischen Unterrichts ist es schlimm. — Aber wenn man noch ein klein wenig zurückdenkt und die Generationen nimmt, die vor uns waren und die wir noch vor uns gehabt haben, dann gab es damals noch bessere Lehrbücher. Die waren fast alle hervorgegangen aus der Schule der österreichischen Benediktiner. Es waren die Benediktiner, welche die mathematischen und die geometrischen Bücher geschrieben haben, und die waren sehr gut, weil die Benediktiner derjenige katholische Orden sind, der sehr darauf sieht, daß seine Mitglieder einen guten geometrischen und mathematischen Unterricht haben. Es ist im allgemeinen Benediktinergesinnung, daß es eigentlich ein Unsinn ist, wenn einer auf die Kanzel steigt und zum Volke redet, ohne daß er die Geometrie und Mathematik kennt.
Dieses Einheitsideal, das die menschliche Seele erfüllt, das muß den Unterricht durchpulsen. Es muß etwas von der gesamten Welt in jedem Berufe leben. Und insbesondere von den Gegensätzen des Berufes, von dem, was man in seinem Berufe glaubt fast gar nicht anwenden zu können, muß etwas drinnenstecken. Man muß sich mit dem beschäftigen, was gleichsam das Entgegengesetzte des eigenen Berufes ist. Dazu wird man aber nur die Sehnsucht erhalten, wenn man so unterrichtet wird, wie ich es jetzt angedeutet habe.
Es ist ja gerade in der Zeit, in welcher der Materialismus sich ganz ausgebreitet hat, im letzten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts, dieser Materialismus auch in die Didaktik in so hohem Grade eingedrungen, daß man die Spezialisierung für sehr wichtig hielt. Glauben Sie nicht, daß es idealistisch auf das Kind wirkt, wenn Sie es vermeiden, ihm den Unterrichtsstoff in seiner Beziehung auf das praktische Leben zu zeigen in den letzten Jahren seines Volksschullebens, in den ersten Jahren seines Mittelschullebens. Glauben Sie nicht, daß das Kind für das spätere Leben idealistischer wird, wenn Sie es in diesen Jahren Aufsätze machen lassen über allerlei sentimentalisches Weltempfinden, über die Gutmütigkeit des Lammes, über die Wildheit des Löwen und dergleichen, über die gottdurchwirkte Natur. Sie wirken nicht dadurch idealistisch auf das Kind. Sie wirken tatsächlich viel besser für die Pflege auch des Idealismus in dem Kinde, wenn Sie nicht so direkt, so brutal direkt auf diesen Idealismus losgehen. Wodurch sind denn eigentlich die Menschen in der neueren Zeit so irreligiös geworden? Einfach aus dem Grunde, weil viel zu sentimental und abstrakt gepredigt wird. Deshalb sind die Menschen so irreligiös geworden, weil die Kirche so wenig die göttlichen Gebote beachtet. Zum Beispiel gibt es doch ein Gebot: «Du sollst den Namen des Herrn, deines Gottes, nicht eitel aussprechen.» Wenn man das beobachtet und nicht nach jedem fünften Satz den Namen Jesus Christus nennt, oder von göttlicher Weltordnung spricht, dann bekommt man gleich Vorwürfe von seiten der sogenannten kirchlich gesinnten Menschen, von denen, die am liebsten hören möchten, daß man in jedem Satz Jesus Christus und Gott sagt. Jenes scheue Durchsetztseinlassen von göttlichem Innesein, das sogar vermeidet Herr, Herr! immer auf den Lippen zu führen, das wird heute gerade in kirchlich gesinnten Kreisen nicht als religiöse Gesinnung angesehen. Und wenn dann das, was an die Menschheit herangebracht wird, von diesem scheuwirksamen Göttlichen durchsetzt wird, das man nicht sentimental auf den Lippen trägt, dann hört man heute, durch eine falsche Erziehung bewirkt, von allen Seiten: Ja, der sollte viel mehr vom Christentum und dergleichen sprechen. — Das, was ich hier andeute, muß auch schon durchaus im Unterricht berücksichtigt werden, indem man dasjenige weniger ins Sentimentale zerrt, was vom Kinde gerade im 13., 14., 15. Lebensjahre gelernt wird, sondern indem man das, was vom Kinde gelernt wird, mehr in die Linie des praktischen Lebens hineinführt. So sollte im Grunde genommen kein Kind das 15. Jahr erreichen, ohne daß ihm der Rechenunterricht in die Kenntnisse der Regeln wenigstens der einfachsten Buchführungsformen übergeführt worden ist. Und so sollten die Grundsätze der Grammatik und der Sprachlehre in diesen Jahren weniger in jene Aufsatzform eingeführt werden, die gewissermaßen das menschliche Innenleben überall wie durchspült von Gerstenschleimsaft darstellt - denn das sind meistens die Aufsätze, die man die Kinder pflegen läßt in diesem 13. bis 16. Jahre, so als besseren Aufguß von dem, was beim Dämmerschoppen und in den Kaffeeklatschgesellschaften als Geist herrscht -, es sollte vielmehr darauf gesehen werden, daß die Sprachlehre einläuft in den geschäftlichen Aufsatz, in den Geschäftsbrief. Und kein Kind sollte das 15. Jahr überschritten haben, ohne durchgegangen zu sein durch das Stadium, Musterbeispiele von praktischen Geschäftsbriefen geschrieben zu haben. Sagen Sie nicht, das kann das Kind ja auch später noch lernen. Gewiß, unter Überwindung von furchtbaren Hindernissen kann man es auch später lernen, aber eben nur unter dieser Überwindung von Hindernissen. Sie erweisen dem Kinde eine große Wohltat, wenn Sie es lehren, seine grammatischen Kenntnisse, seine Sprachkenntnisse in geschäftliche Aufsätze, in Geschäftsbriefe einfließen zu lassen. In unserer Zeit sollte es eigentlich keinen Menschen geben, der nicht einen ordentlichen Geschäftsbrief einmal schreiben gelernt hat. Gewiß, er wird es vielleicht im späteren Leben nicht anzuwenden brauchen, aber es sollte doch keinen Menschen geben, der nicht einmal dazu angehalten worden ist, einen ordentlichen Geschäftsbrief zu schreiben. Hat man das Kind vorzugsweise mit sentimentalem Idealismus übersättigt im 13. bis 15. Jahr, so wird ihm später der Idealismus zum Ekel, und es wird ein materialistischer Mensch. Führt man das Kind in diesen Jahren schon in die Praxis des Lebens ein, dann behält das Kind auch ein gesundes Verhältnis zu den idealistischen Bedürfnissen der Seele, die nur dann ausgelöscht werden können, wenn man ihnen in früher Jugend auf eine unsinnige Weise frönt.
Das ist außerordentlich wichtig, und in dieser Beziehung wären sogar gewisse Äußerlichkeiten in der Gliederung des Unterrichts von einer großen Bedeutung. Wir werden ja mit Bezug auf die Unterweisung im Religionsunterricht Kompromisse schließen müssen, das wissen Sie. Dadurch wird in unseren übrigen Unterricht dasjenige nicht hereinfließen können, was einmal den Unterricht als religiöses Element wird durchseelen können. Daß wir solche Kompromisse schließen müssen, rührt ja davon her, daß eben die Religionsgesellschaften sich heute in einer kulturfeindlichen Weise zur Welt stellen. Aber es könnte heute schon, wenn die Religionsgesellschaften ebenso von sich aus Kompromisse mit uns schließen würden, von seiten dieses in den übrigen Unterricht hineingepferchten Religionsunterrichts manches geleistet werden. Wenn zum Beispiel der Religionslehrer sich herbeiließe, ab und zu etwas herauszugreifen aus dem Gebiete des andern Unterrichts, wenn er zum Beispiel, eingestreut in den Religionsunterricht, dem Kinde die Dampfmaschine erklären würde, indem er an irgend etwas anknüpfte, etwas Astronomisches oder irgend etwas ganz Weltliches und dergleichen, so würde einfach die Tatsache, daß das der Religionslehrer tut, eine ungeheure Bedeutung für das Bewußtsein der heranwachsenden Kinder haben. Ich sage Ihnen diesen extremen Fall aus dem Grunde, weil im übrigen Unterricht dasjenige wird beachtet werden müssen, was ja auf dem eben gekennzeichneten Gebiete wenig beachtet werden kann, Wir werden nicht pedantisch daran denken dürfen: Jetzt lehrst du Geographie, jetzt Geschichte und kümmerst dich gar nicht um alles andere. — Nein, wir werden schauen, wenn wir dem Kinde erklären, daß das Wort Sofa während der Kreuzzüge aus dem Orient gekommen ist, daß wir dann etwas über den Fabrikationsprozeß des Sofas überhaupt im geschichtlichen Unterricht einfügen. Wir werden dann zu andern Möbeln übergehen, die abendländischer sind, werden also aus dem sogenannten Lehrgegenstand etwas ganz anderes herausgreifen. Das wird namentlich methodisch-didaktisch von ungeheurer Wohltat für das heranwachsende Kind sein aus dem Grunde, weil das Übergehen von einem zum andern, so daß das eine aber mit dem andern zusammenhängt, das Allerwohltätigste für die Entwickelung des Geistes und der Seele und sogar des Leibes ist. Denn man kann sagen: Ein Kind, dem im Geschichtsunterricht zu seiner Freude plötzlich von der Fabrikation des Sofas erzählt wird und von da ausgehend vielleicht gesprochen wird von orientalischen Teppichmustern, aber alles das so, daß das Kind wirklich einen Überblick hat, das verdaut besser als ein Kind, das einfach nach der französischen Stunde eine Geometriestunde bekommt. Es wird auch leiblich gesünder sein. Wir können so den Unterricht innerlich hygienisch gut gestalten. Jetzt haben ja ohnehin die meisten Menschen allerlei Verdauungsstörungen, Störungen des Leibes, die vielfach von unserem unnatürlichen Unterrichten herrühren, weil wir uns mit unserem Unterrichten nicht anpassen können dem, was das Leben fordert. Am schlimmsten sind ja die höheren Töchterschulen eingerichtet in dieser Hinsicht. Und wenn einmal jemand kulturhistorisch den Zusammenhang der Frauenkrankheiten mit der Didaktik des höheren Töchterschulwesens studieren wird, dann wird das ein ganz interessantes Kapitel werden. Man muß nur heute die Gedanken auf so etwas lenken, damit durch das Vermeiden von vielem, was gerade in der letzten Epoche heraufgekommen ist, Gesundung auf diesem Gebiete eintritt. Vor allen Dingen muß man wissen, daß der Mensch ein kompliziertes Wesen ist, und daß dasjenige, was man in ihm pflegen will, vielfach erst vorbereitet werden muß.
Wollen Sie Kinder mit Interesse um sich scharen, um ihnen, religiös durchdrungen, von der Herrlichkeit der göttlichen Kräfte in der Welt zu sprechen, dann werden Sie, wenn Sie dies einfach zu Kindern tun, die von da oder dort ungewählt herkommen, so sprechen, daß es bei einem Ohr herein-, beim andern herausgeht und gar nicht ans Gefühl dringt. Wenn Sie Kinder, nachdem sie vormittags einen Geschäftsbrief geschrieben haben, nachmittags mit dem, was durch den Geschäftsbrief in dem Unterbewußtsein entstanden ist, wieder bekommen und ihnen religiöse Begriffe beibringen wollen, dann werden Sie Glück dabei haben, denn Sie haben dann selbst diejenige Stimmung erzeugt, die ihren Gegenpol haben will. Wahrhaftig nicht aus irgendeinem abstrakten didaktischen Gesichtspunkte werden solche Dinge vor Sie hingetragen, sondern weil sie von ungeheurer Wichtigkeit sind für das Leben. Ich möchte wissen, wer heute im Leben draußen es nicht erfahren hat, wie viele unnötige Arbeit geleistet wird. Geschäftsleute werden einem heute immer wieder recht geben, wenn man sagt: Da ist einer in irgendeinem Geschäft angestellt; man beauftragt ihn, einen Geschäftsbrief zu schreiben zu irgendeiner verwandten Branche oder zu Leuten, die die Sache vertreiben sollen. Er schreibt einen Brief, es kommt ein Brief zurück; dann muß man wieder einen andern Brief schreiben, es kommt wieder einer zurück und so fort. Das ist gerade im Geschäftsleben heute sehr eingerissen, daß auf diese Weise Zeit vergeudet wird. Es ist durchaus so, daß auf diese Weise ungeheuer unökonomisch in unserem öffentlichen Leben verfahren wird. Das kann man auch fühlen. Denn wenn man heute einfach mit gewöhnlichem gesundem Menschenverstand in einem Geschäft ein Kopierbuch in die Hand nimmt, so steht man wirklich Qualen aus. Nicht etwa deshalb, weil man abgeneigt ist, die Redeformen und Interessen, die darinnen spielen, etwa sympathisch zu finden, sondern man empfindet Qualen, weil die Dinge so unpraktisch wie möglich niedergeschrieben sind, weil eigentlich dieses Kopierbuch mindestens auf ein Viertel reduziert werden könnte, Und das rührt lediglich davon her, daß der Unterricht im letzten Volksschuljahr nicht in der entsprechenden Weise eingerichtet ist. Denn das kann einfach nicht ohne fast unüberwindliche Schwierigkeiten für die späteren Lebensalter nachgeholt werden. Sie können nicht einmal in der Fortbildungsschule nachholen, was in dieser Zeit versäumt worden ist, weil eben die Kräfte, die sich da entwickeln, versanden und später nicht mehr so vorhanden sind. Mit diesen Kräften hat man zu rechnen, wenn man bei jemand darauf zählen will, daß er nicht nur äußerlich mit halben Gedanken einen Brief zusammenschustert, sondern daß er bei der Sache ist und mit Umsicht und Übersicht einen solchen Brief formuliert.
Kommt es bei der ersten Epoche, wenn das Kind zur Schule kommt, bis zum 9. Jahr vorzüglich darauf an, daß wir drinnenstecken in der Menschennatur und ganz aus dieser heraus erziehen und unterrichten, so kommt es vom 13. bis 15. Jahr für die Gestaltung des Lehrplans darauf an, daß wir als Lehrende und Unterrichtende im Leben stecken, daß wir Interesse und Sympathie haben mit dem Leben, daß wir aus dem Leben heraus unterrichten. Das alles mußte ich Ihnen sagen, bevor ich Ihnen dann den Ideallehrplan zusammenstellen und zum Vergleichen dieses Ideallehrplanes mit den Lehrplänen übergehen werde, die in Ihren Unterricht auch hineinspielen werden, weil wir ja überall umgeben sind von der äußeren Welt und ihrer Gestaltung.
Twelfth Lecture
We must not ignore the fact that human relationships with their environment are much more complicated than the area we are always aware of. From a wide variety of perspectives, I have tried to explain to you the nature and significance of unconscious and subconscious soul influences. And especially in the field of education and teaching, it is very important that human beings are educated in a way that corresponds not only to their consciousness but also to their subconscious, their subconscious and unconscious soul forces. If you want to be a real educator and teacher, you have to respond to the subtleties of the human being.
We have learned about the three stages of human development that occur between the change of teeth and sexual maturity, and which fall particularly into the elementary school years and the beginning of middle school. We must be clear that, especially in the last of these stages of life, the subconscious plays a major role alongside the conscious, a role that has significance for the whole of a person's future life.
I would like to look at the matter from another angle to make clear to you what lies at the heart of it.
Just think how many people today ride on electric trains without having the faintest idea of what actually makes an electric train run. Just think how many people today see only the steam engine in the form of the locomotive rushing past them, without having any idea how the physical and mechanical effects that cause the steam engine to move actually work. Consider how such ignorance affects our relationship as human beings to our environment, which we even make use of. We live in a world created by humans, shaped by human thought, which we use and yet understand nothing about. This fact – that we understand nothing about something created by humans, which is essentially the result of human thought – has great significance for the entire human soul and spirit. People actually have to numb themselves so that they do not perceive the effects that come from this side.
It is always very satisfying to see people from the—well, how should one put it so as not to cause offense—from the better classes enter a factory and feel quite uncomfortable. This is because they feel and sense the feeling rising up from their subconscious: they use everything that is produced in this factory, and as human beings they actually have not the slightest connection with what goes on in this factory. They know nothing about it. If you perceive the discomfort — to take something familiar — when a genuine cigarette smoker goes into the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory and has no idea what happens there to produce these cigarettes, then one is already pleased that the person can at least still perceive his ignorance of the environment in which he lives and whose products he uses, an environment that has its origins in human thought. And when people who know nothing about how electric trains work always get on and off them with a slight feeling of unease, then one is already glad. For this feeling of unease is already the first step toward improvement in this area. The worst thing is to witness the world created by human beings without caring about this world.
We can only counteract these things if we begin to counteract them at the last stage of elementary school education, if we really do not let children leave school at the age of 15 or 16 without at least some basic understanding of the most important tasks of life. So that they develop a longing to be curious and eager to learn about what is going on around them at every opportunity, and then develop their knowledge further out of this curiosity and eagerness to learn. Towards the end of their school years, we should therefore use the individual subjects in a comprehensive sense for the social education of the individual, in the same way that we use the individual elements of geography according to the model I presented in my last lecture as a kind of overall structure of geographical essence. This means that we should not fail to introduce the child to at least the operating systems that are familiar to him, based on the physical and natural history concepts we have acquired. By the age of 15 or 16, children should generally have an idea of what goes on in a soap factory or a spinning mill. Of course, it will be a matter of doing things as economically as possible. From any large-scale operation, it is possible to create a summary that summarizes the complex processes in a very primitive way. I believe Mr. Molt will agree with me when I say that, if we proceed economically, we could teach children the entire cigarette manufacturing process, from start to finish, in a few short sentences that would only need to be explained in the context of the rest of the curriculum. Teaching children aged 13, 14, 15, and 16 certain summaries of branches of industry is extremely beneficial. If people were to create a kind of notebook during these years, containing information on soap manufacturing, cigarette manufacturing, spinning mills, weaving mills, and so on, that would be very beneficial. There would be no need to teach them mechanical or chemical technology in great detail right away, but if children could create such a notebook, they would benefit greatly from it. Even if the notebook were lost, the residue would remain. People would not only benefit from knowing these things, but more importantly, they would feel, as they go through life and their careers, that they once knew these things; they once went through them. This has an effect on the confidence with which they act. It has an effect on the confidence with which people present themselves to the world. This is very important for a person's willpower and decisiveness. You will not be able to have people with effective initiative in any profession if these people do not stand in the world in such a way that they also have the feeling, even about things that do not belong to their profession, that they have once acquired knowledge of them, even if it is primitive knowledge. They may have forgotten it, but the residue, the remnant of it, has remained with them. Of course, we also learn a lot at school. And in the visual lessons, which so often degenerate into platitudes, the student is also taught something like this, but one can experience that later on there is no feeling of: I went through that, and it was my good fortune that I went through it – instead, there is the feeling: Thank God I've forgotten that, and it's good that I've forgotten what I learned there. We should never evoke this feeling in people. Countless things will spring up from the subconscious if we were taught in our childhood in such a way that what I have just said was observed, when we later enter a company or similar. Today, everything in life is specialized. This specialization is actually terrible. And it is mainly because we start specializing in school that life is so specialized.
What has been said here could be summarized in the words: Everything that children learn during their school years should ultimately be broadened in such a way that it draws connections to practical human life. This would make it possible to transform many things that are currently antisocial into social ones, so that at least we would gain insight into what will not be directly relevant to our profession in later life.
For example, the outside world should also observe what is being taught in areas of life that are still based on older, good, though perhaps still atavistic, teaching insights. I would always like to point out a very remarkable phenomenon here. When we, who are now already old people, went to middle school in Austria, we had relatively good geometry and arithmetic textbooks. They have now disappeared. A few years ago, I scoured all kinds of antique bookshops in Vienna to find older geometry books, because I wanted to see with my own eyes what we boys in Wiener Neustadt, for example, had experienced to our delight: When we entered the first grade of middle school, on the first day the second-grade students always came to us in the hallway and shouted: Fialkowskiy, Fialkowskiy, tomorrow he must be paid! — That is, as first-grade students, we took Fialkowskiy's geometry book from the second-grade students and brought them the money the next day. I found another “Fialkowskiy” like this, and it made me very happy because it shows that in this older tradition, it was actually much easier to write geometry books for schools than it was later on. Because the books that have replaced them today are actually quite awful. It is particularly bad in the field of arithmetic and geometry teaching. — But if you think back a little and consider the generations that came before us and those that came after us, there were even better textbooks back then. Almost all of them came from the Austrian Benedictine school. It was the Benedictines who wrote the mathematics and geometry books, and they were very good because the Benedictines are the Catholic order that takes great care to ensure that its members receive a good education in geometry and mathematics. It is generally the Benedictine belief that it is actually nonsense for someone to climb into the pulpit and speak to the people without knowing geometry and mathematics.
This ideal of unity, which fills the human soul, must permeate teaching. Something of the whole world must live in every profession. And in particular, there must be something of the contrasts of the profession, of what one believes one can hardly apply in one's profession. One must concern oneself with what is, as it were, the opposite of one's own profession. But one will only acquire the desire to do so if one is taught in the way I have just indicated.
It was precisely at a time when materialism had become widespread, in the last third of the 19th century, that this materialism also penetrated teaching to such a degree that specialization was considered very important. Do not believe that it has an idealistic effect on the child if you avoid showing them the relationship between the subject matter and practical life in the last years of their elementary school life and the first years of their middle school life. Do not believe that the child will become more idealistic for later life if you have them write essays during these years about all kinds of sentimental worldviews, about the good nature of the lamb, about the ferocity of the lion and the like, about nature permeated by God. You are not having an idealistic effect on the child by doing this. You will actually have a much better effect on the cultivation of idealism in the child if you do not attack this idealism so directly, so brutally directly. Why have people in recent times become so irreligious? Simply because preaching is far too sentimental and abstract. People have become so irreligious because the church pays so little attention to the divine commandments. For example, there is a commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” If you observe this and do not mention the name of Jesus Christ after every fifth sentence, or speak of the divine world order, then you immediately receive reproaches from so-called church-minded people, from those who would like to hear Jesus Christ and God mentioned in every sentence. That shy acceptance of divine inner being, which even avoids always having Lord, Lord! on one's lips, is not regarded as religious sentiment today, especially in church-minded circles. And when what is brought to humanity is permeated by this shyly effective divine, which is not sentimentally carried on the lips, then today, as a result of false education, one hears from all sides: Yes, he should speak much more about Christianity and the like. What I am suggesting here must also be taken into account in teaching, by dragging less of what is learned by children at the ages of 13, 14, and 15 into the realm of sentimentality, but rather by introducing what is learned by children more into the realm of practical life. Basically, no child should reach the age of 15 without having been taught arithmetic in the form of at least the simplest forms of bookkeeping. And so, during these years, the principles of grammar and language teaching should be introduced less in the form of essays, which, in a sense, represent the inner life of human beings as if it were permeated with barley juice – for these are mostly the essays that children are encouraged to write between the ages of 13 and 16. years, as a better infusion of what prevails in the twilight hours and in coffee klatches – rather, care should be taken to ensure that language teaching finds its way into business essays and business letters. And no child should have passed the age of 15 without having gone through the stage of writing model examples of practical business letters. Don't say that the child can learn this later. Certainly, by overcoming terrible obstacles, one can learn it later, but only by overcoming these obstacles. You will be doing the child a great favor if you teach them to incorporate their grammatical knowledge and language skills into business essays and letters. In this day and age, there should be no one who has not learned to write a proper business letter. Of course, they may not need to use it later in life, but there should be no one who has not been encouraged to write a proper business letter at least once. If the child is oversaturated with sentimental idealism between the ages of 13 and 15, they will later become disgusted with idealism and become a materialistic person. If children are introduced to the practicalities of life during these years, they will retain a healthy relationship with the idealistic needs of the soul, which can only be extinguished if they are indulged in an unreasonable manner in early youth.
This is extremely important, and in this regard, even certain external aspects of the structure of teaching would be of great significance. We will have to make compromises with regard to religious instruction, as you know. As a result, what once imbued teaching with a religious element will not be able to flow into our other teaching. The fact that we have to make such compromises stems from the fact that religious societies today take a culturally hostile stance toward the world. But if religious societies were to make compromises with us of their own accord, much could already be achieved today in the religious instruction that is crammed into the rest of the curriculum. If, for example, the religious education teacher were to take the liberty of to pick out something from time to time from the field of other subjects, if, for example, he were to explain the steam engine to the children, interspersed with religious instruction, by linking it to something else, something astronomical or something completely secular and the like, then the mere fact that the religious education teacher does this would have an enormous significance for the consciousness of the growing children. I am telling you this extreme case for the reason that in other lessons, attention will have to be paid to what can hardly be paid attention to in the area just mentioned. We must not think pedantically: now you are teaching geography, now history, and you don't care about anything else. No, when we explain to the child that the word “sofa” came from the Orient during the Crusades, we will then include something about the manufacturing process of the sofa in general in our history lessons. We will then move on to other pieces of furniture that are more Western, thus picking out something completely different from the so-called subject matter. This will be of enormous benefit to the growing child, particularly in terms of methodology and didactics, because moving from one thing to another, so that one thing is connected to the other, is most beneficial for the development of the mind and soul and even the body. For one can say: a child who, to his delight, is suddenly told about the manufacture of sofas in history class and, starting from there, perhaps hears about oriental carpet patterns, but all in such a way that the child really has an overview, will digest this better than a child who simply has a geometry lesson after French class. He will also be physically healthier. In this way, we can make teaching hygienically good for the inner self. Nowadays, most people suffer from all kinds of digestive disorders and physical disorders, which in many cases stem from our unnatural teaching methods, because we are unable to adapt our teaching to the demands of life. The worst offenders in this regard are the higher girls' schools. And if someone were to study the cultural-historical connection between women's diseases and the didactics of higher girls' education, it would make for a very interesting chapter. We need only direct our thoughts to such things today so that, by avoiding much of what has arisen in the last epoch, healing may come about in this area. Above all, we must know that human beings are complex creatures and that what we want to cultivate in them often needs to be prepared in advance.
If you want to gather children around you with interest in order to speak to them, imbued with religion, about the glory of the divine powers in the world, then if you simply do this to children who come from here and there unselected, you will speak in such a way that it goes in one ear and out the other and does not touch their feelings at all. If, after they have written a business letter in the morning, you meet the children again in the afternoon with what has arisen in their subconscious as a result of the business letter and want to teach them religious concepts, then you will be successful, because you yourself have created the mood that needs its opposite pole. Truly, such things are not brought before you from some abstract didactic point of view, but because they are of tremendous importance for life. I would like to know who in life today has not experienced how much unnecessary work is done. Business people today will agree with you when you say: There is someone employed in some business; he is asked to write a business letter to some related industry or to people who are supposed to distribute the product. He writes a letter, a letter comes back; then he has to write another letter, another letter comes back, and so on. This is very common in business today, that time is wasted in this way. It is certainly true that this is an extremely uneconomical way of doing things in our public life. You can feel it too. Because if you simply pick up a copy book in a store today with common sense, you really suffer. Not because one is averse to finding the forms of speech and interests that play a role in it appealing, but because one feels torment because things are written down in the most impractical way possible, because this copybook could actually be reduced to at least a quarter of its size. And this is solely due to the fact that teaching in the last year of elementary school is not organized in the appropriate manner. This is because it simply cannot be made up for later in life without almost insurmountable difficulties. You cannot even make up for what has been missed during this time in further education, because the skills that develop during this period are lost and are no longer available later on. These abilities must be taken into account if we want to be able to count on someone not only to cobble together a letter with half-baked ideas, but to be on the ball and formulate such a letter with care and foresight.
If, in the first epoch, when the child starts school, up to the age of 9, it is extremely important that we are immersed in human nature and educate and teach entirely from this perspective, then from the ages of 13 to 15, it is important for the design of the curriculum that we as teachers and educators are involved in life, that we have an interest in and sympathy for life, that we teach from life. I had to tell you all this before I could put together the ideal curriculum and compare it with the curricula that will also play a role in your teaching, because we are surrounded everywhere by the outside world and its structure.