Spiritual Ground of Education
GA 305
24 August 1922, Oxford
VIII. Boys and Girls at the Waldorf School
From the things I have already said it may perhaps be clear to you what all education and teaching in the Waldorf School is designed to bring about. It aims at bringing up children to be human beings strong and sound in body, free in soul and lucid in spirit. Physical health and strength, freedom of soul and clarity of spirit are things mankind will require in the future more than anything else, particularly in social life. But in order to educate and teach in this way it is necessary for the teacher to get a thorough mastery of those things I have attempted to describe.
The teacher must have a complete vision of the child organism; and it must be a vision of the organism enabling him to judge physical health. For only one who is truly a judge of physical health and can bring it into harmony with the soul can say to himself: with this child this must be done, and with that child the other.
It is an accepted opinion to-day that a doctor should have access to schools. The system of school doctors is developing widely. But, just as it not good when the different branches of instruction, the different subjects, are given to different teachers who make no contact with one another, neither is it good to place the charge of physical health in the hands of a person who is not a member of the staff, not a member of the college of teachers. The situation presents a certain difficulty, of which the following incident will give you an example.
On an occasion when we were showing visitors over the Waldorf School there was a gentleman who, in his official capacity, was an inspector of schools. I was speaking of the physical health and the physical organism of the children and what one could observe in it, and I told him about one child who has a certain disorder of the heart, and another with some other disability etc. and then the man exclaimed in astonishment: Yes, but your teachers would have to have medical knowledge for this to be of any use in the school.
Well, yes, if it is truly a necessity for healthy education that teachers should have a certain degree of medical know-ledge, why then they must have it, they must attain it. Life cannot be twisted to suit the idiosyncrasies of men, we must frame our arrangements in accordance with the demands of life. Just as we must learn something before we can do something in other spheres, so must we learn something before we can do something in education.
Thus, for instance, it is necessary for a teacher to see precisely all that is happening when a child plays, a little child. Play involves a whole complex of activities of soul: joy, sometimes also pain, sympathy, antipathy; and particularly curiosity and the desire for knowledge. A child wants to investigate the objects he plays with and see what they are made of. And when observing this free activity of the child's soul—an activity unconstrained as yet into any form of work—when observing this entirely spontaneous expression, we must look to the shades of feeling and notice whether it satisfies or does not satisfy. For if we guide the child's play so as to content him we improve his health, for we are promoting an activity which is in direct touch with his digestive system. And whether or not a man will be subject in old age to obstruction in his blood circulation and digestive system depends upon how his play is guided in childhood. There is a fine, a delicate connection between the way a child plays and the growth and development of its physical organism.
One should not say: the physical organism is a thing of little account; I am an idealist and cannot concern myself with such a low thing as the physical organism. This physical organism has been put into the world by the divine spiritual powers of the world, it is a divine creation, and we must realise that we, as educators, are called upon to co-operate in this spiritual creation. I would rather express my meaning by a concrete example than in abstract sentences.
Suppose children show an extreme form, a pathological form of what we call the melancholic disposition; or suppose you get an extreme form, a pathological form of the sanguine temperament. The teacher must know, then, where the border-line comes between what is simply physical and what is pathological. If he observes that a melancholic child is tending to become pathological,—and this is far more often the case than one would think,—he must get into touch with the child's parents and learn from them what diet the child as been having. He will then discover a connection between this diet and the child's pathological melancholy. He will probably find,—to give a concrete instance, though there might be other causes,—he will probably find that the child has been getting too little sugar in the food he is given at home. Owing to lack of sugar in the food he gets, the working of his liver is not regulated properly. For the peculiarity of the melancholic child is that a certain substance i.e. starch, (German: Starke) is formed in the liver indeed, but not formed in the right measure. This substance is also to be found in plants. All human beings form starch in the liver but it is different from plant starch—it is an animal starch which in the liver immediately becomes transformed into sugar. This transformation of animal starch into sugar is a very important part of the activity of the liver. Now, m the melancholic child this is out of order, and one must advise the mother to put more sugar into the child's food; in this way one can regulate the glycogenic activity of the liver,—as it is called. And you will see what an extraordinary effect this purely hygienic measure will have.
Now, in the sanguine child you will find precisely the opposite: most likely he is being gorged with sugar; he is given too many sweets, he is given too much sugar in his food. If he has been made voracious of sugar precisely the opposite activity will come about. The liver is an infinitely important organ, and it is an organ which resembles a sense-organ much more closely than one would imagine. For, the purpose of the liver is to perceive the whole human being from within, to comprehend him. The liver is vital to the whole human being. Hence its organisation differs from that of other organs. In other organs a certain quantum of arterial blood comes in and a certain quantum of venous blood goes out. The liver has an extra arrangement. A special vein enters the liver and supplies the liver with extra venous blood. This has the effect of making the liver into a kind of world of its own, a world apart in the human being. [Literally “Aussenwelt,”—outer world.] And it is this that enables man to perceive himself by means of the liver, to perceive, that is, what affects his organism. The liver is an extraordinarily fine barometer for sensing the kind of relation the human being has to the outer world. You will effect an extraordinary improvement in the case of a pathologically sanguine child—a flighty child, one who flits nervously from thing to thing—you will get a remarkable improvement if you advise his mother to diminish somewhat the amount of sugar she gives him.
Thus, if you are a real teacher, through what you do, not in school, but at other times, you can give the child such guidance as shall make him truly healthy, strong and active in all his physical functions. And you will notice what enormous importance this has for the development of the whole human being.
Some of the most impressive experiences we have had with the children of the Waldorf School have been with those of fifteen or sixteen years old. We began the Waldorf School with eight classes, the elementary classes, but we have added on, class by class, a ninth, tenth and now an eleventh class. These upper classes,—which are of course advanced classes, not elementary classes,—contain the children of 15 and 16 years old. And we have with these very special difficulties. Some of these difficulties are of a psychical and moral nature. I will speak of these later. But even in the physical respect one finds that man's nature tends continuously to become pathological and has to be shielded from this condition.
Among girls, in certain circumstances, you will find a slight tendency to chlorosis, to anaemia, in the whole developing organism. The blood in the girl's organism becomes poor; she becomes pale, anaemic. This is due to the fact that during these 14th, 15th and 16th years the spiritual nature is separated out from the total organism; and this spiritual nature, which formerly worked within the whole being, regulated the blood. Now the blood is left to itself. Therefore it must be rightly prepared so that its own power may accomplish this larger task. Girls are apt, then, to become pale, anaemic: and one must know that this anaemia comes about when one has failed to arouse a girl's interest in the things one has been teaching or telling her. Where attention and interest are kept alive the whole physical organism participates in the activity which is engaging the inmost self of the human being, and then anaemia does not arise in the same way.
With boys the case is opposite. The boys get a kind of neuritis, a condition in which there is too much blood in the brain. Hence during these years the brain behaves as though it were congested with blood. (Blutuberfullt.) In girls we find a lack of blood in the body: in boys a superabundance, particularly in the head,—a superabundance of white blood, which is a wrong form of venous and arterial blood. This is because the boys have been given too many sensations, they have been overstimulated, and have had to hurry from sensation to sensation without pause or proper rest. And you will see that even the troublesome behaviour and difficulties among 14, 15 and 16 year old children are characteristic of this state and are connected with the whole physical development.
When one can view the nature of man in this way, not despising what is physical and bodily, one can do a great deal for the children's health as a teacher or educator. It must be a fundamental principle that spirituality is false the moment it leads away from the material to some castle in the clouds. If one has come to despising the body, and to saying: O the body is a low thing, it must be suppressed, flouted: one will most certainly not acquire the power to educate men soundly. For, you see, you may leave the physical body out of account, and perhaps you may attain to a high state of abstraction in your spiritual nature, but it will be like a balloon in the air, flying off. A spirituality not bound to what is physical in life can give nothing to social evolution on the earth: and before one can wing one's way into the Heavens one must be prepared for the Heavens. This preparation has to take place on earth.
When men seek entry into Heaven and must pass the examination of death, it is seldom, in these materialistic days, that we find they have given a spiritual nurture to this human physical organism,—this highest creation of divine, spiritual beings upon earth.
I will speak of the psychic moral aspect in the next section, and on Eurhythmy in the section following.
If there is a great deal to do in the physical sphere apart from the educational measures taken in the school itself, the same is true for the domain of the soul, the psychic domain, and for that of the spirit. The important thing is to get the human being even while at school to be finding a right entry into life. Once more I will illustrate the aim of the Waldorf School by concrete examples rather than abstract statements.
It is found necessary at the end of a school year to take stock of the work done by a child during the year. This is generally called: a report on the child's progress and attainment in the different subjects in respect of the work set. In many countries the parents or guardians are informed whether the child has come up to standard and how—by means of figures: 1, 2, 3, 4; each number means that a child has reached a certain proficiency in a given subject. Some-times, when you are not quite sure whether 3 or 4 expresses the correct degree of attainment, you write 3 ½, and some teachers, making a fine art of calculation, have even put down 3 ¼. And I must own that I have never been able to acquire this art of expressing human faculties by such numbers.
The reports in the Waldorf School are produced in another manner. Where the body of teachers, the college of teachers, is such a unity that every child in the school is known to some extent by every teacher, it becomes possible to give an account of the child which relates to his whole nature. Thus the report we make on a child at the end of the school year resembles a little biography, it is like an apercus of the experiences one has had with the child during the year, both in school and out.
In this way the child and his parents, or guardians, have a mirror image of what the child is like at this age. And we have found at the Waldorf School that one can put quite severe censure into this mirror-like report and children accept it contentedly. Now we also write something else in the report. We combine the past with the future. We know the child, and know whether he is deficient in will, in feeling or in thought, we know whether this emotion or the other predominates in him. And in the light of this knowledge, for every single child in the Waldorf School we make a little verse, or saying. This we inscribe in his report. It is meant as a guiding line for the whole of the next year at school. The child learns this verse by heart and bears it in mind. And the verse works upon the child's will, or upon his emotions or mental peculiarities, modifying and balancing them.
Thus the report is not merely an intellectual expression of what the child has done, but it is a power in itself and continues to work until the child receives a new report. And one must indeed come to know the individuality of a child very accurately—as you will realise—if one is to give him a report of such a potent nature year by year.
You can also see from this that our task in the Waldorf School is not the founding of a school which requires exceptional external arrangements. What we hold to be of value is the pedagogy and teaching which can be introduced into any school. (We appreciate the influence of external conditions upon the education in any school). We are not revolutionaries who simply say: town schools are no use, all schools must be in the country, and such-like; we say, rather: the conditions of life produce this or that situation; we take the conditions as they are, and in every kind of school we work for the welfare of man through a pedagogy and didactics which take the given surroundings into account. Thus, working along these lines, we find we are largely able to dispense with the system of “staying put,”—the custom of keeping back a child a second year in the same class so as to make him brighter.
We have been blamed at the Waldorf School for having children in the upper classes whom the authorities think should have been kept back. We find it exceedingly difficult, if only on humane grounds, to leave children behind because our teachers are so attached to their children that many tears would be shed if this had to be done. The truth is that an inner relationship arises between children and teacher, and this is the actual cause of our being able to avoid this unhappy custom, this “staying put.” But apart from this there is no sense in this keeping of children back. For, suppose we keep back a boy or girl in a previous class: the boy or girl may be so constituted that his mind unfolds in his 11th year, we shall then be putting the child in the class for 11 year-old children one year too late. This is much more harmful than that the teacher should at some time have extra trouble with this child because it has less grasp of the subjects and must yet be taken on with the others into the next class.
The special class (Hilfsklasse) is only for the most backward children of all. We have only one special class into which we have to take the weak, or backward children of all the other classes. We have not had enough money for a number of “helping” classes; but this one class has an exceptionally gifted teacher, Dr. Schubert. As for him, well, when the question of founding a special class arose, one could say with axiomatic certainty: You are the one to take this special class. He has a special gift for it. He is able to make something of the pathological conditions of the children. He handles each child quite individually, so much so that he is happiest when he has the children sitting around a table with him, instead of in separate benches. The backward children, those who have a feebleness of mind, or some other deficiency, receive a treatment here which enables them after a while to rejoin their classes.
Naturally this is a matter of time; but we only transfer children to this class on rare occasions; and whenever I attempt to transfer a child from a class into this supplementary class, finding it necessary, I have first of all to fight the matter out with the teacher of the class who does not want to give the child up. And often it is a wonderful thing to see the deep relationship which has grown up between individual teachers and individual children. This means that the education and teaching truly reach the children's inner life.
You see it is all a question of developing a method, for we are realistic, we are not nebulous mystics; so that, although we have had to make compromises with ordinary life, our method yet makes it possible really to bring out a child's individual disposition;—at least we have had many good results in these first few years.
Since, under present conditions, we have had to make compromises, it has not been possible to give religious instruction to many of the children. But we can give the children a moral training. We start, in the teaching of morality, from the feeling of gratitude. Gratitude is a definite moral experience in relation to our fellow men. Sentiments and notions which do not spring from gratitude will lead at most to abstract precepts as regards morality. But everything can come from gratitude. Thus, from gratitude we develop the capacity for love and the feeling for duty. And in this way morality leads on to religion. But outer circumstances have prevented our figuring among those who would take the kingdom of heaven by storm,—thus we have given over the instruction in Catholicism into the hands of the Catholic community. And they send to us in the school a priest of their own faith. Thus the Catholic children are taught by the Catholic priest and the Evangelical (protestant) children by the evangelical pastor. The Waldorf School is not a school for a philosophy of life, but a method of education. It was found, however, that a certain number of children were non-conformist and would get no religious instruction under this arrangement. But, as a result of the spirit which came into the Waldorf School, certain parents who would otherwise not have sent their children to any religion lesson requested us to carry the teaching of morality on into the sphere of religion. It thus became necessary for us to give a special religious instruction from the standpoint of Anthroposophy. We do not even in these Anthroposophical religion lessons teach Anthroposophy, rather we endeavour to find those symbols and parables in nature which lead towards religion. And we endeavour to bring the Gospel to the children in the manner in which it must be comprehended by a spiritual understanding of religion, etc. If anyone thinks the Waldorf School is a school for Anthroposophy it shows he has no understanding either of Waldorf School pedagogy or of Anthroposophy.
As regards Anthroposophy, how is it commonly under-stood? When people talk of Anthroposophy they think it means something sectarian, because at most they have looked up the meaning of the word in the dictionary. To proceed in this way with regard to Anthroposophy is as if on hearing the words: ‘Max Muller of Oxford,’ a man were to say to himself: ‘What sort of a man can he have been? A miller who bought corn and carted the corn to his mill and ground it into flour and delivered it to the baker.’ A person giving such an account of what the name of Miller conveyed to him would not say much to the point about Max Muller, would he? But the way people talk of Anthroposophy is just like this, it is just like this way of talking about Max Muller, for they spin their opinion of Anthroposophy out of the literal meaning of the word. And they take it to be some kind of backwoods' sect; whereas it is merely that everything must have some name.
Anthroposophy grows truly out of all the sciences, and out of life and it was in no need of a name. But since in this terrestrial world men must have names for things, since a thing must have some name, it is called Anthroposophy. But just as you cannot deduce the scholar from the name Max Muller, neither can you conclude that because we give Anthroposophical religious instruction in the school, Anthroposophy is introduced in the way the other religious instruction is introduced from outside,—as though it were a competing sect.
No, indeed, I mean no offence in saying this, but others have taken us to task about it. The Anthroposophical instruction in religion is increasing: more and snore children come to it. And some children, even, have run away from the other religious instruction and come over to the Anthroposophical religion lessons. Thus it is quite understandable that people should say: What bad people these Anthroposophists are! They lead the children astray so that they abandon the catholic and evangelical (protestant) religion lessons and want to have their religious instruction there. We do all we can to restrain the children from coming, because it is extraordinarily difficult for us to find religion teachers in our own sphere. But, in spite of the fact that we have never arranged for this instruction except in response to requests from parents and the unconscious requests of the children themselves,—to my great distress, I might almost say:—the demand for this Anthroposophical religious instruction increases more and more. And now thanks to this Anthroposophical religious instruction the school has a wholly Christian character.
You can feel from the whole mood and being of the Waldorf School how a Christian character pervades all the teaching, how religion is alive there;—and this in spite of the fact that we never set out to proselytise in the Waldorf School or to connect it with any church movement or congregational sect. I have again and again to repeat: the Waldorf School principle is not a principle which founds a school to promote a particular philosophy of life,—it founds a school to embody certain educational methods. Its aims are to be achieved by methodical means, by a method based on knowledge of man. And its aim is to make of children human beings sound in body, free in soul, clear in spirit.
Let me now say a few words on the significance of Eurhythmy teaching and the educational value of eurhythmy for the child. In illustration of what I have to say I should like to use these figures made in the Dornach studio. They are artistic representations of the real content of eurhythmy. The immediate object of these figures is to help in the appreciation of artistic eurhythmy. But I shall be able to make use of them to explain some things in educational eurhythmy. Now, eurhythmy is essentially a visible speech, it is not miming, not pantomime, neither is it an art of dance. When a person sings or speaks he produces activity and movement in certain organs; this same movement which is inherent m the larynx and other speech organs is capable of being continued and manifested throughout the human being. In the speech organs the movements are arrested and repressed. For instance, an activity of the larynx which would issue in this movement (A)—where the wings of the larynx open outward—is submerged in status nascendi and transformed into a movement into which the meaning of speech can be put,—and into a movement which can pass out into the air and be heard. Here you have the original movement of A (ah), the inner, and essentially human movement—as we might call it—
This is the movement which comes from the whole man when he breaks forth in A (ah). Thus there goes to every utterance in speech and song a movement which is arrested in status nascendi. But it seeks issue in forms of movement made by the whole human being. These are the forms of utterance in movements, and they can be discovered.
Just as there are different forms of the larynx and other organs for A (ah), I (ee), L, M, so are there also corresponding movements and forms of movement. These forms of movement are therefore those expressions of will which otherwise are provided in the expressions of thought and will of speech and song. The thought element, the abstract part of thought in speech is here removed and all that is to be expressed is transposed into the movement. Hence eurhythmy is an art of movement, in every sense of the word. Just as you can hear the A so can you see it, just as you can hear the I so can you see it.
In these figures the form of the wood is intended to express the movement. The figures are made on a three colour principle. The fundamental colour here is the one which expresses the form of the movement. But just as feeling pervades the tones of speech, so feeling enters into the movement. We do not merely speak a sound, we colour it by feeling. We can also do this in eurhythmy. In this way a strong unconscious momentum plays into the eurhythmy. If the performer, the eurhythmist, can bring this feeling into his movements in an artistic way the onlookers will be affected by it as they watch the movements.
It should be borne in mind, moreover, that the veil which is worn serves to enhance the expression of feeling, it accompanies and moves to the feeling. This was brought out in the performance over there (Tr: e.g. at Keble College). And you see here (Tr: i.e. in the figures) the second colour—which comes mainly on the veils—represents the feeling nuance in the movement. Thus you have a first, fundamental colour expressing the movement itself, a second colour over it mainly falling on the veil, which expresses the nuance of feeling. But the eurhythmy performer must have the inner power to impart the feeling to his movement: just as it makes a difference whether I say to a person: Come to me (commandingly), or: Come to me (in friendly request). This is the nuance of feeling, gradation of feeling. What I say is different if I say: Come to me! (1) or: Come to me (2). In the same way this second colour, here expressed as blue on a foundation of green, which then continues over into the veil (Tr.: where it can show as pure blue),—this represents the feeling nuance in the language of eurhythmy.
And the third thing that is brought out is character, a strong element of will. This can only be introduced into eurhythmy when the performer is able to experience his own movements as he makes them and express them strongly in himself. The way a performer holds his head as he does eurhythmy makes a great difference to his appearance. Whether, for instance, he keeps the muscles on the left of the head taut, and those on the right slack—as is expressed here by means of the third colour. (Showing figure) You see here the muscles on the left of the head are somewhat tense, those on the right relaxed. You will observe how the third colour always indicates this here. Here you see the left side is contracted, and down over the mouth here; here (in another figure) the forehead is contracted, the muscles of the forehead are contracted. This, you see, sets the tone of the whole inner character,—this that rays out from this slight contracting: for this slight contraction sends rays throughout the organism. Thus the art of eurhythmy is really composed of the movement, expressed in the fundamental colour; of the feeling nuance, expressed by the second colour, and of this element of will;—indeed the element of the whole art is will, but will is here emphasised in a special way.
Where the object is to exhibit the features of eurhythmy those parts only of the human being are selected which are characteristic of eurhythmy. If we had figures here with beautifully painted noses and eyes and beautiful mouths, they might be charming paintings; but for eurhythmy that is not the point; what you see painted, modelled or carved here is solely what belongs to the art of eurhythmy in the human being doing eurhythmy.
A human being performing eurhythmy has no need to make a special face. That does not matter. Naturally, it goes without saying, a normal and sound eurhythmist would not make a disagreeable face when making a kindly movement, but this would be the same in speaking. No art of facial expression independent of eurhythmic expression is aimed at: For instance, a performer can make the A movement by turning the axels of his eyes outwards. That is allowable, that is eurhythmic. But it would not do if someone were to make special oeilades (“Kinkerlitchen,” we call them) as is done in miming; these oeilades, which are often in special demand in miming, would here be a grimace. In eurhythmy everything must be eurhythmic.
Thus we have here a form of art which shows only that part of man which is eurhythmy, all else is left out; and thus we get an artistic impression. For each art can only express what it has to express through its own particular medium. A statue cannot be made to speak; thus you must bring out the expression of soul you want through the shaping of the mouth and the whole face. Thus it would have been no good in this case, either, to have painted human beings naturalistically; what had to be painted was an expression of the immediately eurhythmic.
Naturally, when I speak of veils this does not mean that one can change the veil with every letter; but one comes to find, by trying out different feeling nuances for a poem, and entering into the mood of the poem,—that a whole poem has an A mood, or a B mood. Then one can carry out the whole poem rightly in one veil. The same holds good of the colour. Here for every letter I have put the veil form, colour, etc. which go together. There must be a certain fundamental key in a poem. This tone is given by the colour of the veil, and in general by the whole colour combination; and this has to be retained throughout the poem,—otherwise the ladies would have to be continually changing veils, constantly throwing off the veils, putting on other dresses,—and things would be even more complicated than they are already and people would say they understood even less But actually if one once has the fundamental key one can maintain it throughout the whole poem, making the changes from one letter to another, from one syllable to another from one mood to another by means of the movements.
Now since my aim to-day is a pedagogic one, I have here set out these figures in the order in which children learn the sounds. And the first sound the children learn, when they are quite young, is the sound A. And they continue in this order, approximately,—for naturally where children are concerned many digressions occur,—but on the whole the children get to know the vowels in this order: A, E, I, 0, U, the normal order. And then, when the children have to practice the visible speech of eurhythmy, when they come to do it in this same order, it is for them like a resurrection of what they felt when they first learned the sounds of speech as little children,—a resurrection, a rebirth at another stage. In this language of eurhythmy the child experiences what he had experienced earlier. It affirms the power of the word in the child through the medium of the whole being.
Then the children learn the consonants in this order: M.B.P.D.T.L.N;—there should also be an NG here, as in sing, it has not yet been made—; then F.H.G.S.R. R, that mysterious letter, which properly has three forms in human speech, is the last one for children to do perfectly. There is a lip R, a palatal R, and an R spoken right at the back (Tr: a gutteral R).
Thus, what the child learns in speech in a part of his organism, in his speaking or singing organism, can be carried over into the whole being and developed into a visible speech.
If there should be a sufficient interest for this expressive art we could make more figures; for instance Joy, Sorrow, Antipathy, Sympathy and other things which are all part of eurhythmy, not the grammar only, but rhetoric, too, comes into its own in eurhythmy. We could make figures for all these. Then people would see how this spiritual-psychic activity, which not only influences the functions of man's physical body but develops both his spiritual-psychic and his organic bodily nature, has a very definite value both in education and as an art.
As to these eurhythmy figures, they also serve in the study of eurhythmy as a help to the student's memory—for do not suppose that eurhythmy is so easy that it can be learned in a few hours,—eurhythmy must be thoroughly studied; these figures then are useful to students for practising eurhythmy and for going more deeply into their art. You can see there is a very great deal in the forms themselves, though they are quite simply carved and painted.
I wished to-day to speak of the art of eurhythmy in so far as it forms part of the educational principle of the Waldorf School.
Über Physische und Moralische Erziehung
Es wird vielleicht aus den Darstellungen, die ich mir bisher zu geben erlaubt habe, klar geworden sein, worauf alles Erziehen und Unterrichten in der Waldorfschule hinstreben soll. Es soll darnach streben, aus Menschenkindern physisch gesunde und starke Menschen zumachen, seelisch freie Menschen zu machen und geistig klare Menschen zu machen. Physische Gesundheit und Stärke, seelische Freiheit und geistige Klarheit machen dasjenige aus, was die Menschheit in der zukünftigen Entwickelung auch in sozialer Beziehung gerade am meisten brauchen wird. Um aber in dieser Weise zu erziehen und zu unterrichten, ist es nötig, daß für den Erzieher durchaus das erreicht ist, was ich nun auch in diesen Darstellungen versucht habe klarzulegen.
Eine völlige Durchsichtigkeit des kindlichen Organismus muß der Lehrer haben, namentlich auch eine solche Durchsichtigkeit des menschlichen Organismus, welche den Lehrer befähigt, die physische Gesundheit zu beurteilen. Denn dann, wenn man in die Lage kommt, wirklich die physische Gesundheit zu beurteilen und sie in Einklang bringen kann mit dem Seelischen, dann nur ist man in der Lage, sich auch zu sagen: mit dem einen Kind ist dasjenige, mit dem anderen Kind ein anderes zu tun.
Man hat heute vielfach die Meinung, daß in die Schule hineinkommen müsse der Arzt. Man möchte geradezu das System des Schularztes immer weiter ausbilden. Aber geradeso wie es nicht gut ist, wenn man die verschiedenen Zweige, die verschiedenen Gegenstände des Unterrichtswesens an verschiedene Lehrer, die keinen Zusammenhang haben, abgibt, ebensowenig ist es förderlich für die Erziehung, wenn man die physische Gesundheit an jemanden übergibt, der nicht im ganzen Lehrkörper, im ganzen Lehrerkollegium drinnensteht. Es ist allerdings damit eine Schwierigkeit verknüpft. Die Schwierigkeit möchte ich Ihnen beispielsweise zum Ausdruck bringen.
Während einer Führung in der Waldorfschule besuchte einmal jemand, der sonst Schulinspektor ist, unsere Waldorfschule, und ich sprach von demjenigen, was zu beobachten ist auch in bezug auf die physische Gesundheit, die physische Organisation der Kinder, sprach ihm von dem einen Kinde, bei dem irgendwie ein Fehler am Herzen ist, von einem anderen Kinde, bei dem dort ein Fehler liegt und so weiter, und da sagte der Mann ganz erstaunt: Ja, da müßten ja die Lehrer medizinische Kenntnis haben, wenn das in der Schule überhaupt eine Geltung haben soll!
Ja, wenn es eben nötig ist zu einer heilsamen Erziehung, daß die Lehrer bis zu einem gewissen Grade gute medizinische Kenntnisse haben, so müssen sie sie eben haben, dann müssen sie sie eben erreichen. Man kann nicht das Leben nach den Schrullen der Menschen formen, sondern man muß die Einrichtungen unter den Menschen nach den Anforderungen des Lebens bilden. Geradeso wie man sonst etwas lernen muß, um etwas zu können, so muß man auch als Erzieher etwas lernen, um etwas zu können.
So ist es notwendig für den Erzieher, daß er sich eine genaue Einsicht verschafft, namentlich für das ganz kleine Kind, in den Zusammenhang desjenigen, was das Kind auslebt im Spielen. Im Spiel lebt ein ganzer Komplex von Seelenbetätigungen, Freude, zuweilen auch Schmerz, Sympathie, Antipathie; namentlich auch liegt im Spiel Neugierde, Wißbegierde. Das Kind will die Spielgegenstände genau untersuchen, sehen, was drinnen ist. Und was da seelisch in einer ganz freien Betätigung, noch nicht hineingezwungen in die Form der menschlichen Arbeit, was da seelisch aus dem Kinde herauskommt, daran muß man beobachten können, wie es aus dem Gefühl kommt, wie es befriedigt oder nicht. Denn wenn man das Spiel des Kindes so leitet, daß das Kind eine gewisse Befriedigung hat am Spiel, so fördert man namentlich diejenige Tätigkeit in gesundheitlicher Beziehung, die sich an das Verdauungssystem des Menschen anschließt. Und wie man das Spiel leitet, so ist im spätesten Lebensalter noch der Mensch in bezug auf seine Blutzirkulation, in bezug auf seine Verdauungstätigkeit mehr oder weniger Hemmungen oder Nichthemmungen ausgesetzt. Da ist ein feiner intimer Zusammenhang zwischen dem, wie das Kind spielt und dem, was aus dem physischen Organismus des Menschen wird.
Man darf nicht sagen: der physische Organismus, das ist was Geringes; ich bin ein Idealist; da hat man nichts zu tun mit diesem niederen physischen Organismus. Dieser physische Organismus ist von den göttlich-geistigen Mächten der Welt in die Welt hereingestellt, ist göttliche Schöpfung, und man muß sich bewußt sein dessen, daß man an seiner göttlichen Schöpfung gerade als Erzieher mitzuarbeiten hat. Ich möchte weniger in allgemeinen abstrakten Sätzen sprechen, als in einem konktreten Beispiel.
Nehmen Sie einmal an, dasjenige tritt in einer, ich möchte sagen, etwas pathologischen Weise auf bei Kindern, was man eine melancholische Anlage nennen könnte, oder das tritt in einer pathologischen Weise auf, was man eine sanguinische Anlage nennen kann. Der Lehrer muß nun wissen können, wo die Grenze ist zwischen dem noch bloß Physischen und dem Pathologischen. Merkt er — das ist viel häufiger der Fall, als man denkt in solchen Dingen -, daß bei einem melancholischen Kinde die Sache ins Pathologische übergeht, wird er eine Verbindung mit den Eltern suchen, und er wird versuchen, sich erzählen zu lassen, wie das Kind im Hause ernährt wird. Er wird dann einen Zusammenhang zwischen dieser Ernährung und der pathologischen Melancholie finden. Denn wahrscheinlich — es könnten auch andere Ursachen sein, aber ich führe ja nur ein Beispiel an, um konkret zu sprechen -, wahrscheinlich wird er entdecken, daß einem solchen Kinde im Hause zu wenig zuckerreiche Nahrung gegeben wird. Dadurch, daß zu wenig Zucker in der Nahrung gegeben wird, wird die Lebertätigkeit nicht in der richtigen Weise reguliert. Denn bei diesem melancholischen Kinde liegt die Eigentümlichkeit vor, daß ein gewisser Stoff, der sonst in den Pflanzen gebildet wird - wir nennen es im Deutschen Stärke -, zwar in der Leber gebildet wird, aber doch nicht in Ordnung ist. Bei jedem Menschen wird in der Leber Stärke gebildet, aber solche Stärke, die nicht Pflanzenstärke ist wie die andere, sondern animalische Stärke, die gleich in der Leber umgewandelt wird in Zucker. Diese Tätigkeit ist ein sehr wichtiger Bestandteil der Lebertätigkeit, die Verwandlung der animalischen Stärke in Zucker. Und das ist beim melancholischen Kinde nicht in der Ordnung, und man muß nun der Mutter raten, dem Kinde mehr Zucker in die Nahrung hineinzugeben, dann wirkt man regulierend auf die - wie man das nennt — Glycogentätigkeit der Leber, und man wird sehen, daß durch diese rein hygienische Maßregel außerordentlich viel erreicht werden kann. Es muß eben die Erziehung auf den ganzen Menschen ausgedehnt werden.
Oder beim sanguinischen Kinde wird man gerade das Gegenteil finden. Das wird sehr häufig zu einem Zuckerschlecker gemacht. Man gibt ihm viel Bonbons. Man gibt ihm zu viel Zucker in die Nahrung. Wenn es zu einem Zuckerschlecker gemacht wird, kommt gerade die entgegengesetzte Tätigkeit zustande. Die Leber ist überhaupt ein unendlich wichtiges Organ, aber ein Organ, das viel ähnlicher ist den Sinnesorganen, als man denkt. Die Leber ist nämlich da, um den ganzen Menschen innerlich wahrzunehmen, innerlich aufzufassen. Die Leber hat eine Sensitivität für den ganzen Menschen. Daher ist sie auch anders organisiert als andere Organe. In andere Organe geht ein gewisses Quantum von Arterienblut hinein und Venenblut heraus. Die Leber hat eine Extraanordnung. Es geht eine besondere Vene in die Leber hinein, die die Leber mit besonderem Venenblut versorgt. Das bewirkt, daß die Leber gerade im Menschen drinnen eine Art Außenwelt ist. Daher ist der Mensch durch die Leber befähigt, sich wahrzunehmen, aber das wahrzunehmen, was auf seinen Organismus wirkt. Die Leber ist ein außerordentlich feines Barometer für die Art und Weise, wie der Mensch der Außenwelt gegenübersteht. Wenn man der Mutter den Rat gibt, ein wenig den Zucker zu entziehen dem pathologisch sanguinischen Kinde, das flatterhaft ist, das nervös herumflattert von Eindruck zu Eindruck, kann man außerordentlich Günstiges bewirken.
Und so kann man durch dasjenige, was da nicht im Unterricht und in der Erziehung geschieht, sondern zwischendurch, wenn man ein ordentlicher Erzieher ist, das Kind in der richtigen Weise leiten, so daß es wirklich gesund und stark und kräftig in seiner physischen Beschaffenheit wird. Und man wird bemerken, wie das gerade von außerordentlich großer Bedeutung ist für die Gesamtentwickelung des Menschen.
Wir haben bei den Knaben und Mädchen der Waldorfschule gerade die allerintensivste Erfahrung gemacht in dem Alter, in dem sie 15, 16 Jahre alt waren. Wir haben zuerst die Waldorfschule mit 8 Elementarklassen gehabt, aber dann immer eine Klasse rückwärts daraufgestülpt, also eine 9., 10. Klasse, dann kommt eine 11. Klasse. Diese Klassen, diese höchsten, die also nicht mehr Elementarklassen sind, sondern Fortschrittsklassen, die haben nun die Knaben und Mädchen eben in diesem fünfzehn-, sechzehnjährigen Alter. Da gibt es ganz besondere Schwierigkeiten. Diese Schwierigkeiten sind zuweilen auch physisch-moralisch. Von denen werde ich nachher sprechen. Aber auch in physischer Beziehung merkt man, wie die menschliche Natur fortwährend nach dem Pathologischen hinneigt und vor dem Pathologischen geschützt werden muß.
Bei den Mädchen sieht man ganz leise unter Umständen die Gesamtentwickelung nach der Chlorose, nach der Anämie gehen. Das Mädchen wird blutarm, wie man sagt, im Organismus, bleichsüchtig, anämisch. Das rührt wirklich davon her, daß in diesem 14., 15., 16. Jahre das Geistige herausgesondert wird aus der gesamten menschlichen Organisation; und dieses Geistige, das früher im ganzen Menschen drinnen wirkte, das regulierte das Blut. Jetzt ist das Blut sich selber überlassen. Da muß es ordentlich vorbereitet sein, damit es aus seiner eigenen Kraft heraus das Weitere besorgt. Bei den Mädchen tritt das ein, daß sie blutarm, bleichsüchtig werden, und man muß wissen, daß diese Bleichsucht dann kommt, wenn man nicht genügend Interesse erweckt hat mit den Anregungen, die man den Mädchen vorher gegeben hat. Wenn man die Aufmerksamkeit, das Interesse wach erhält, dann ist auch der ganze physische Organismus in der Tätigkeit, die durch das Menschenwesen selbst gefordert wird, und dann wird die Bleichsucht nicht in derselben Weise eintreten.
Bei den Knaben ist das Gegenteil der Fall. Bei den Knaben kommt eine Art Neuritis zustande, eine Art von zu viel Venenblut im Gehirn haben. Dadurch funktioniert gerade in diesen Jahren das Gehirn so, als ob es blutüberfüllt wäre. Bei den Mädchen hat man es mit Blutarmut im Leibe, im Körper zu tun, bei den Knaben mit einer Art Blutüberfüllung, leiser Blutüberfüllung, namentlich mit einer Art unrichtigem Arterien- und Venenblut, namentlich im Kopfe zu tun. Das rührt davon her, daß man die Knaben mit Eindrücken überreizt hat, Eindrücke so an die Knaben herangebracht hat, daß sie von Eindruck zu Eindruck eilen mußten und nicht zur Ruhe kommen konnten. Und man wird sehen, wie die Unarten bei den Vierzehn-, Fünfzehn-, Sechzehnjährigen eben durchaus so auftreten und im Zusammenhange stehen mit der ganzen physischen Entwickelung.
Wenn man so, das Physische nicht verachtend, hinschaut auf das Wesen des Menschen, dann kann man in der Lenkung des Gesundheitswesens gerade außerordentlich viel als Lehrer, als Erzieher erreichen. Der Grundsatz muß der sein: Spiritualität ist in jedem Augenblicke dann falsch, wenn sie vom Materiellen in ein abstraktes Wolkenkuckucksheim führen soll. Wenn man zum Verachten des Physischen kommt, wenn man dazu kommt, zu sagen: Ach was, der Körper, das ist die niedere Natur, das muß unterdrückt, muß unberücksichtigt werden -, dann kommt man ganz gewiß nicht dazu, den Menschen heilsam zu erziehen. Denn sehen Sie, wenn Sie die physische Natur unberücksichtigt lassen beim Menschen, dann können Sie ja vielleicht sein Geistiges zu einer hohen Abstraktion bringen, aber es ist dann wie ein Luftballon, der davonfliegt. Von dem Geistigen, das nicht gehalten wird vom Physischen im Leben, hat die soziale Entwickelung auf der Erde zunächst nichts. Man muß auch für den Himmel vorbereitet sein, wenn man in den Himmel stark hineinfliegen will. Diese Vorbereitung muß auf der Erde geschehen.
Es ist allerdings für die heutige materialistische Zeit wenig beobachtbar, daß die Menschen, indem sie in den Himmel kommen wollen, das Examen abzulegen haben beim Tode, daß sie hier auf der Erde dasjenige, was als göttlich-geistiges Geschöpf auf die Erde gestellt ist, als Höchstes, der menschliche physische Organismus, daß sie das auch geistgemäß gepflegt haben. Von dem mehr Physisch-Moralischen will ich nun in der nächsten Serie sprechen und in der dritten dann über die Eurythmie.
So wie außerordentlich vieles gewissermaßen zwischen den Maßnahmen, die man in der Schule selber trifft in bezug auf die Erziehung, auf dem physischen Gebiete liegen muß, so auch im Seelischen, so auch im Physischen und im Geiste. Es handelt sich vor allem darum, daß man schon während der Schulzeit beginnt, den Menschen richtig in das Leben hineinzustellen. Ich möchte wiederum dasjenige, was innerhalb des Waldorfschul-Prinzipes angestrebt wird, an Beispielen konkret erläutern, nicht in abstrakten Sätzen.
Man hat es ja nötig, dasjenige, was man mit dem Kinde in einem Schuljahre erarbeitet, festzustellen, wenn das Schuljahr abgeschlossen ist. Man nennt das heute: Zeugnis darüber ausstellen, ob und inwiefern das Kind das Lehrziel erreicht hat. In manchen Ländern wird die Art und Weise, wie das Lehrziel von dem Kinde erreicht worden ist in einem Jahre oder manchmal sogar in Zwischenpausen, den Eltern und den für das Kind verantwortlichen Menschen so mitgeteilt, daß man Zahlen aufgestellt hat: 1, 2, 3, 4; jede Zahl bedeutet, daß das Kind in bezug auf gewisse Gegenstände eine gewisse Fähigkeit erlangt hat. Manchmal, wenn man nicht weiß, ob eine 3 oder eine 4 das richtige Maß ausdrückt, wie das Kind diese Fähigkeit erreicht hat, so schreibt man 3¼ und manche Lehrer haben es gar zu der großen Kalkulationskunst gebracht, 31/4 zu schreiben. Ich gestehe Ihnen, daß ich diese Kunst, in solchen Zahlen die menschlichen Fähigkeiten auszudrücken, mir nie aneignen konnte.
Das Zeugniswesen in der Waldorfschule wird in einer anderen Weise gehandhabt. Gerade wenn der Lehrkörper, das Lehrerkollegium eine solche Einheit ist, daß jedes Kind in der Schule von jedem Lehrer in einem gewissen Sinne gekannt ist, dann ist es auch möglich, aus dem Ganzen des Kindes heraus ein Urteil über das Kind abzugeben. Daher sieht ein Zeugnis, das wir am Ende eines Schuljahres dem Kinde ausstellen, so wie eine kleine Biographie aus, wie Aperçus aus, über die Erfahrungen, die man mit dem Kinde in und außer der Klasse während des Jahres gemacht hat.
Das Kind hat dann, und die Eltern, die verantwortlichen Vormünder haben vor sich ein Spiegelbild desjenigen, wie das Kind in diesem Lebensalter ist. Und wir haben sogar in der Waldorfschule die Erfahrung gemacht, daß man herben Tadel in dieses Spiegelzeugnis hineinschreiben kann, die Kinder nehmen das mit Zufriedenheit auf. Und dann schreiben wir in das Zeugnis noch etwas anderes hinein. Wir verbinden Vergangenheit mit Zukunft. Wir kennen das Kind, wissen, ob es in der Willenstätigkeit, im Gefühlsleben, in der Denkaktivität fehlt, wissen, ob die oder jene Emotionen prädominieren. Darnach formen wir für jede einzelne Kindesindividualität in der Waldorfschule einen Kernspruch. Den schreiben wir in das Zeugnis hinein. Der soll eine Richtschnur für das ganze nächste Schuljahr sein. Das Kind nimmt diesen Kernspruch so auf, daß es immer daran denken muß. Und dieser Kernspruch hat dann die Eigenschaft, auf den Willen oder auf die Affekte oder Gemütseigenschaften in entsprechender Weise ausgleichend, kontrollierend einzuwirken.
So hat das Zeugnis nicht nur einen intellektuellen Ausdruck dafür, was das Kind geleistet hat, sondern es hat eine Kraft in sich, es wirkt, bis das Kind wiederum ein neues Zeugnis bekommt. Aber gerade daraus können Sie entnehmen, wie genau man eindringen muß in die kindliche Individualität, um bis zu einem gewissen Grade das Kind mit einem solchen tatkräftigen Zeugnisse zu entlassen.
Sie sehen daraus zugleich, daß es uns in der Waldorfschule nicht darauf ankommt, eine Schule zu begründen, die ganz besondere äußere Einrichtungen braucht. Wir legen allen Wert auf dasjenige in der Pädagogik und Didaktik, was aus den Lebensverhältnissen heraus heute jedem Schulwesen eingeimpft werden kann. Wir sind nicht Revolutionäre, die einfach sagen: Stadtschulen taugen nichts, man muß alle Schulen hinausverlegen auf das Land und dergleichen, sondern wir sagen: das Leben aus seinen Verhältnissen heraus gibt dies oder jenes; wir nehmen die Verhältnisse, wie sie sind, und bringen in jede Art von Schulwesen dasjenige hinein, was aus diesen Verhältnissen heraus in richtiger pädagogisch-didaktischer Weise zum Menschenheile wirken kann.
Dadurch kommen wir auch in die Lage, möglichst wenig Gebrauch von dem machen zu müssen, was man sonst im Leben nennt «sitzen bleiben», daß das Kind in der Klasse, in der es ein Jahr war, noch ein Jahr verweilen muß, damit es darinnen noch gescheiter wird. Man hat uns sogar in der Waldorfschule getadelt, weil wir in den höheren Klassen solche Kinder haben, von denen die äußeren Schulbehörden meinten, sie hätten sitzen bleiben müssen. Bei uns ist es außerordentlich schwierig, schon aus gewissen menschlichen Gründen, dieses Sitzenbleiben durchzuführen, weil unsere Lehrer so sehr an den Kindern hängen, daß manche Tränen vergießen würden, wenn sie ein Kind zurücklassen müßten. Es ist so, daß tatsächlich ein inniger Kontakt zwischen den Kindern und dem Lehrer hervorgerufen wird, und dadurch wird tatsächlich auch dieses ominöse Sitzenbleiben vermieden. Man kann ohnedies nichts Vernünftiges mit diesem Sitzenbleiben anfangen. Denn nehmen wir an, wir lassen einen Jungen oder ein Mädchen mit 9 Jahren sitzen in einer vorhergehenden Klasse; das Mädchen oder der Knabe ist aber so veranlagt, daß ihm, wie man sagt, der Knopf im 11. Jahre aufgeht, dann bringen wir das Kind in dieKlasse des 11. Jahres um ein Jahr zu spät. Das ist ein viel größerer Schaden, als wenn der Lehrer mit diesem Kinde einmal Mühe gehabt hat, indem es schwächer sich in die Gegenstände eingelebt hat und es in der nächsten Klasse doch mitnehmen muß.
Nur für die allerschwächsten Schüler haben wir eine Hilfsklasse eingerichtet. Wir haben nur eine Hilfsklasse, in der wir die schwachen Schüler aller übrigen Klassen haben müssen, weil wir zu einer großen Anzahl von Hilfsklassen kein Geld haben. Wir haben eine Hilfsklasse, allerdings mit einer ausgezeichneten Lehrkraft, Dr. Schubert. Von dem konnte man sagen, als es sich darum handelte, eine Hilfsklasse einzurichten: es ist mit axiomatischer Sicherheit zu sagen, Sie müssen diese Hilfsklasse leiten. Das liegt in seinen Anlagen. Er kann aus dem Pathologischen der Kinder etwas herausbekommen. Er behandelt jedes Kind ganz individuell bis zu dem Grade, daß er es am liebsten hat, wenn er die Kinder nun nicht in einzelne Bänke zu sitzen bekommt, sondern um einen runden Tisch herum zu sitzen bekommt. Die schwachen Kinder, die entweder im Kopfe schwach sind, oder irgendwie zurückgeblieben sind, die werden dann so behandelt, daß sie nach einiger Zeit wiederum mit ihrem Jahrgang mitgehen können. Das kann natürlich nur langsam erreicht werden. Aber auch mit diesem Versetzen in die Hilfsklasse sind wir außerordentlich sparsam, und wenn ich versuchen will, einer Notwendigkeit zufolge irgendein Kind aus einer Klasse in die Hilfsklasse zu versetzen, so muß ich gewöhnlich erst den Kampf mit dem Lehrer der Klasse ausfechten, weil er das Kind nicht hergeben will. Manchmal ist das gerade in außerordentlich wunderbarer Weise hervortretend, wie zusammenwachsen können die Lehrerindividualitäten mit den Schülerindividualitäten. Damit erreicht man wirklich dieses, daß Unterricht und Erziehung etwas Innerliches werden bei den Kindern.
Sie sehen, es beruht alles bei uns auf der Ausbildung der Methodik, weil wir realistisch und nicht nebulose Mystiker sind. Wenn wir auch mit dem anderen Leben eben Kompromisse schließen müssen, so bringen wir es doch durch die Methodik dazu, dasjenige, was in den Kindern individuell veranlagt ist, wirklich aus ihnen herauszuholen; wenigstens für die paar Jahre, die wir wirken konnten, hat sich ja manches Gute gezeigt.
Uns ist allerdings, weil wir die Kompromisse schließen müssen, zum Beispiel für viele Kinder der Religionsunterricht nicht ermöglicht. Wir können das Kind durch das Moralische führen. Das Moralische bringen wir dem Kinde dadurch nahe, daß wir es vor allen Dingen aus der Dankbarkeit heraus erwachsen lassen. Die Dankbarkeit ist das konkrete Erleben dem Menschen gegenüber im Moralischen. Was im Menschengemüte nicht von der Dankbarkeit ausgehen kann, bringt es in der Moralität auch höchstens zu abstrakten Grundsätzen. Aber aus der Dankbarkeit entwickelt sich alles heraus. Und wir entwickeln dann die Liebefähigkeit der Menschen und die Pflichtfähigkeit aus der Dankbarkeit heraus. Dadurch führt man das Moralische zum religiösen Leben. Aber es machten die äußeren Verhältnisse notwendig, daß wir nicht als Himmelstürmer auftraten, daß wir also den katholischen Unterricht in die Hände der katholischen Religionsgemeinde gaben. Die schickt uns in die Schule ihren Vertrauensmann. Und wir lassen die katholischen Kinder von dem katholischen Pfarrer, die evangelischen Kinder von dem evangelischen Pfarrer unterrichten. Es ist die Waldorfschule keine Weltanschauungsschule, sondern eine Methodenschule.
Es hat sich nur herausgestellt, daß eine Anzahl von Kindern Dissidentenkinder waren, die gar keinen Religionsunterricht auf diese Weise bekommen würden. Aber durch den ganzen Geist, der in die Waldorfschule hereinzog, entstand gerade bei denjenigen Eltern, die sonst ihre Kinder in keinen Religionsunterricht geschickt hätten, das Bedürfnis, daß das Moralische ins Religiöse übergeführt wurde. So waren wir genötigt, einen besonderen Religionsunterricht zu geben vom anthroposophischen Gesichtspunkte aus. Das ist nicht, um Anthroposophie in die Schule hineinzutragen. Selbst im anthroposophischen Religionsunterricht lehren wir den kleinen Kindern nicht Anthroposophie, sondern wir versuchen in der Natur diejenigen Symbole und Gleichnisse zu finden, die nach dem Religiösen hinleiten. Wir versuchen das Evangelium in der Weise, wie man es verstehen muß aus einer spirituellen Erfassung der Religion, dem Kinde beizubringen und so weiter. Wer meint, daß es uns mit der Waldorfschule um eine Anthroposophenschule zu tun ist, der versteht weder die Waldorfschul-Pädagogik, noch versteht er die Anthroposophie.
Aber Anthroposophie, wie wird sie denn sehr häufig verstanden? Wenn die Menschen von Anthroposophie reden, dann denken sie sich darunter irgend etwas Sektiererisches, weil sie höchstens noch im Lexikon nachschauen, was wörtlich Anthroposophie bedeutet. Es ist ungefähr so, wie heute von der Welt Anthroposophie aufgenommen wird, wie ich es durch einen Vergleich ausdrücken kann. Nehmen Sie an, jemand hört: Max Müller aus Oxford — was kann das für ein Mensch gewesen sein? Ein Müller, ja, der kaufte Korn, und dann brachte er das Korn in die Mühle, und dann mahlte er aus dem Korn Mehl und das lieferte er dann an den Bäcker. Sehen Sie, ich glaube nicht, daß die Menschen, die nach dem Namen Müller so viel von Max Müller in Oxford erzählen würden, daß die sehr viel Treffendes über ihn erzählen würden! So ungefähr ist es, wenn heute die Leute über Anthroposophie reden, geradeso wie wenn sie so über Max Müller reden würden, denn sie schälen sich aus dem Wortverhältnis dasjenige heraus, was Anthroposophie nach ihrer Meinung ist. Sie sehen in ihr so eine Sekte vom Hinterland; während eben jedes Ding einen Namen haben muß,
Anthroposophie ist dasjenige, was wirklich aus allen Wissenschaften und aus dem Leben herauswächst und gar keinen Namen brauchte; aber nun, weil schon einmal die Menschen Namen haben müssen in dieser irdischen Welt, weil das Ding schon einen Namen haben muß, heißt es Anthroposophie. Aber ebensowenig wie das Wesen des Gelehrten aus seinem Namen Max Müller folgt, ebensowenig folgt etwas aus dem Namen «Anthroposophie» für die Sache. So ist es, indem wir hineintragen in die Schule anthroposophischen Religionsunterricht, daß wir uns ebenso hinstellen neben die anderen Religionsunterrichte als etwas, was sich hineinfügt, wie das bei den anderen Religionsunterrichten der Fall ist.
Nun, wirklich, ich meine es nicht böse, aber andere haben es uns zum Bösen ausgelegt. Der anthroposophische Religionsunterricht, der vergrößert sich; immer mehr Kinder kommen dazu. Und es sind sogar schon Kinder von den anderen fortgelaufen, sind zu dem anthroposophischen Religionsunterricht herübergekommen. Es ist doch dann ganz verständlich, daß die Leute sagen: Was sind die Anthroposophen für schlechte Menschen! Sogar die Kinder verführen sie, daß sie aus dem evangelischen oder katholischen Religionsunterricht fortlaufen und dort Religionsunterricht haben wollen. - Wir tun alles, um die Kinder womöglich davon abzuhalten, denn es ist außerordentlich schwierig, gerade auf unserem Gebiete Religionslehrer zu finden. Aber trotzdem wir niemals versucht haben, diese Sache auf etwas anderes hin als auf die Anforderungen der Eltern und der unbewußten Anforderungen der Kinder selbst einzurichten, breitet sich, ich möchte sagen, zu meinem Jammer das Bedürfnis nach diesem anthroposophischen Religionsunterricht immer mehr und mehr aus. Und da handelt es sich wirklich darum, daß durch diesen anthroposophischen Religionsunterricht die Waldorfschule einen durch und durch christlichen Charakter bekommen hat.
Sie werden das fühlen aus dem ganzen Auswirken des Milieus in der Waldorfschule, daß über allem Unterricht ein christlicher Charakter liegt, daß also tatsächlich religiöses Leben in der Waldorfschule waltet, trotzdem wir vom Anfange an es nicht darauf angelegt haben, aus der Waldorfschule irgend etwas zu machen, was mit Konfessionellem etwas zu tun hat. Ich muß es wiederholt und wiederholt sagen: das Waldorfschul-Prinzip ist nicht ein Prinzip, das eine Weltanschauungsschule machen will, sondern eine Methodenschule. Was erreicht werden soll durch eine Methode, die auf Menschenerkenntnis beruht, ist dasjenige, daß man aus Kindern physisch gesunde und kräftige, seelisch freie und geistig klare Menschen macht.
Gestatten Sie, daß ich noch ein paar Worte spreche über die Bedeutung des eurythmischen Unterrichts und der Erziehung, welche für das Kind gerade aus dem Eurythmieunterricht hervorgehen kann. Ich möchte das erläutern an den Figuren, die im Atelier in Dornach gemacht worden sind, und die in einer gewissen künstlerischen Weise darstellen sollen dasjenige, was eigentlich der Inhalt des Eurythmischen ist. Zunächst sind diese Figuren allerdings mehr bestimmt, eine Grundlage zu geben für die künstlerische Anschauung der Eurythmie. Ich werde aber auch in der Lage sein, in bezug auf das Pädagogisch-Didaktische gerade aus diesen Figuren heraus einzelnes vor Ihnen klarzumachen. Es handelt sich darum, daß ja die Eurythmie wirklich eine sichtbare Sprache ist, keine mimische Äußerung, keine pantomimische Äußerung und auch keine gewöhnliche Tanzkunst. Geradeso wie der Mensch partielle Organe in Regsamkeit, in Tätigkeit bringt, wenn er singt oder wenn er spricht, so kann man auch den ganzen Menschen in diejenigen Bewegungen bringen, die eigentlich der Kehlkopf und seine Nachbarorgane ausüben wollen. Aber sie kommen nicht dazu, sie unterdrücken sie gleich, und da werden die anderen Bewegungen, die dann so verlaufen, daß sich dasjenige, was eigentlich im Kehlkopf, sagen wir, diese Bewegung werden will, so daß sich die Kehlkopfflügel nach außen öffnen: A, das wird im Moment des Entstehens, im Status nascendi untergraben, wird in eine solche Bewegung verwandelt, in die der Gedankeninhalt der Sprache hineinversetzt werden kann, und in eine Bewegung, die dann in die Luft übergehen kann und gehört werden kann. Die zugrundeliegende Bewegung, die eigentlich innermenschliche Bewegung, sagen wir das A, Sie haben sie hier (die Figur wird gezeigt). Das will der ganze Mensch machen, wenn er in A ausbricht. Und so kann man jede Äußerung des Gesanges und der Sprache in der Bewegung, die eigentlich der ganze Mensch ausführen will, aber im Status nascendi aufhält, sichtbar machen. So kann man zu jeder solchen Bewegungsform kommen.
Geradeso wie es Formungen gibt des Kehlkopfes und der anderen Sprachorgane für A, I,L, M, so gibt es die entsprechenden Bewegungen, Bewegungsformen. Diese Bewegungsformen, sie sind daher diejenige Offenbarung des Willens, für die sonst die Offenbarungen des Gedankens und des Willens, im Sprechen und Singen bestehen. Das Gedankliche, das rein abstrakte Gedankliche, das in der Sprache ist, wird hier herausgenommen, und alles, was sich aussprechen will, in die Bewegung selbst hineinversetzt; so daß die Eurythmie im weitesten Sinne eine Bewegungskunst ist. Genau ebenso wie Sie das A hören können, können Sie das A anschauen, wie Sie das I hören können, können Sie das I anschauen.
Nun ist in diesen Figuren das angestrebt, daß in der plastischen Gestaltung des Holzes die Bewegung vor allen Dingen festgehalten ist. Die Figuren sind nach einem Dreifarbenprinzip gebildet. Es ist die Grundfarbe da, die eigentlich überall die Bewegungsform zum Ausdruck bringen soll. Aber wie in unsere Lautsprache das Gefühl hineinströmt, so kann das Gefühl auch hinunterströmen in die Bewegung. Denn wir sprechen ja nicht nur einen Laut, sondern wir geben dem Laute eine Gefühlsfärbung. Das können wir auch in der Eurythmie. Und da wirkt ein stark unterbewußtes Moment in die Eurythmie hinein. Wenn der Akteur, der Darsteller imstande ist, dieses Gefühl künstlerisch in seine Bewegungen hineinzulegen, dann wird man dieses Gefühl auch mitfühlen, wenn man die eurythmischen Bewegungen sieht. Hier ist noch das in Betracht gezogen, daß der Schleier, der getragen wird, diesen Gefühlen folgen soll. So daß also dasjenige, was hier (bei den Figuren) als zweite Farbe vorzugsweise auf den Schleier verwendet ist, darstellt die Gefühlsnuance für die Bewegung. Sie haben also eine erste Grundfarbe, die drückt die Bewegung selber aus, eine zweite daraufgesetzte Farbe, die vorzugsweise im Schleier zum Ausdrucke kommt, die drückt die Gefühlsnuance aus. Aber der eurythmische Akteur muß die innere Kraft haben, dieses Gefühl in die Bewegung hineinzulegen, so wie es einen Unterschied macht, ob ich zu jemandem sage: Komm zu mir! — befehlend — oder: Komm zu mir! - freundlich auffordernd. Das ist die Gefühlsnuance. So stellt dasjenige, was hier in der zweiten Farbe zum Ausdrucke kommt, und was dann in den Schleier hinein fortgesetzt wird, die Gefühlsnuance der eurythmischen Sprache dar.
Und das dritte bringt Charakter, das starke Willenselement hinein. Das kommt nur dadurch in die Eurythmie hinein, daß der eurythmische Akteur in der Lage ist, mitzuempfinden seine Bewegungen und daß er sie in sich selbst ausdrückt. Der Kopf eines eurythmisierenden Akteurs sieht ganz anders aus, ob er die Muskeln im linken Haupte etwas spannt und im rechten etwas schlaff läßt, wie es zum Beispiel hier angedeutet ist durch die dritte Farbe. Sie können das beobachten, immer die dritte Farbe zeigt das Willensmäßige an. Hier zum Beispiel wird an der linken Seite etwas gespannt, und hier über den Mund hinüber; hier (bei einer anderen Figur) wird die Stirne etwas gespannt, die Muskeln der Stirne etwas gespannt. Das gibt dann — ausstrahlend von dieser leisen Spannung, denn das strahlt in den ganzen Organismus aus, was da leise gespannt wird —, das gibt dem Ganzen einen innerlichen Charakter. Und aus dieser Bewegung, die durch die Grundfarbe ausgedrückt ist, aus der Gefühlsnuance, die durch die zweite Farbe ausgedrückt wird, und aus diesem Willenselemente — das ganze Element ist Willenselement, aber da wird der Wille noch besonders daraufgesetzt —, aus dem setzt sich die eigentliche eurythmische Kunst zusammen.
Will man daher irgend etwas eurythmisch festhalten, so muß man aus dem Menschen heraussondern dasjenige, was bloß eurythmisch ist. Würden hier Figuren stehen mit schön gemalten Nasen und Augen und schönem Mund, das könnten ja schöne Malereien sein; aber bei der Eurythmie handelt es sich nicht darum, hier ist nur das gemalt und gebildet, was das Eurythmische am eurythmisierenden Menschen ist.
Der eurythmisierende Mensch ist so, daß es bei ihm auf das spezielle Gesicht nicht ankommt. Es kommt nicht darauf an. Es ist natürlich so, daß von selbst bei einem gesunden Eurythmisierenden nicht zu einer freudigen Bewegung ein griesgrämiges Gesicht gemacht wird, aber das ist ja sonst auch, wenn man spricht, der Fall. Aber eine Physiognomie des Gesichtes, die nicht eurythmisch ist, die wird nicht angestrebt. Zum Beispiel: es kann einer eine A-Bewegung dadurch machen, daß er die Augenachse nach außen hält. Das ist eurythmisch, das geht. Aber es geht nicht, daß irgendeiner, so wie es in der mimischen Kunst ist, besondere Kinkerlitzchen - so sagt man im Deutschen — mit den Augen macht, und das sieht aus wie eine Grimasse, was man oftmals verlangt als einen besonderen mimischen Ausdruck des Gesichtes. Es muß am Eurythmisierenden alles eurythmisch sein.
Daher wurde hier einmal in einer Art Expressionskunst dasjenige aus dem Menschen herausgeholt, was nur Eurythmie ist, alles andere weggelassen, und man bekommt eigentlich auf diese Weise nur einen künstlerischen Ausdruck. Denn es ist ja in aller Kunst so, daß man nur mit gewissen Kunstmitteln dasjenige zum Ausdrucke bringt, was eben eine Kunst darstellen kann. Sie können eine Statue nicht sprechen lassen; Sie müssen also in der Formung des Mundes, des ganzen Gesichtes dasjenige ausdrücken, was Sie als seelischen Ausdruck haben wollen. So nützt es auch nichts, hier naturalistische Menschen zu malen, sondern das zu malen, was unmittelbar als Eurythmisches herauskommt.
Nun ist es natürlich, daß wenn ich hier vom Schleier spreche, man nicht nach jedem Laut den Schleier wechseln kann; aber man findet allmählich heraus, daß wenn man einmal in diese Gefühlsnuance, in diese Stimmung sich hineinversetzt für ein Gedicht, dann hat ein ganzes Gedicht eine A-Stimmung oder eine B-Stimmung. Dann kann man für das ganze Gedicht in irgendeiner Schleierfarbe die Sache zurechtmachen.
Ebenso ist es mit der Farbgestaltung. Hier habe ich für jeden einzelnen Laut Schleier, Form, Farbenzusammenstellung und so weiter dargestellt. Man muß bei einem Gedicht gewissermaßen die Grundnote haben. Diese Grundnote gibt dann die Schleierfarbe, überhaupt die ganze Zusammenstellung, die man durch das Gedicht festhalten muß, sonst müßten sich die Damen die Schleier fortwährend wechseln, fortwährend Schleier abwerfen, andere Schleier anziehen, und die Sache würde noch komplizierter werden als sie schon ist, und die Leute würden sagen, sie verstehen sie noch weniger. Aber es ist durchaus so: hat man einmal die Lautstimmung, kann man sie auch durch ein ganzes Gedicht festhaltend und nur durch dieBewegungen variierend den Übergang von einem Laut zum anderen, einer Silbe zur anderen, von einer Stimmung zu der anderen und so weiter machen.
Nun, ich habe, da ich heute pädagogisch-didaktische Zwecke habe, hier die Eurythmiefiguren so aufgestellt, daß Sie sie in der Reihenfolge sehen, wir das Kind die Laute lernt. Das Kind lernt von klein auf die Laute so, daß der erste Laut im wesentlichen derjenige ist, der als A tönt. In dieser Reihenfolge fortgeschritten, ungefähr natürlich, es gibt alle möglichen Abweichungen bei Kindern, aber in dieser Reihenfolge ungefähr: A,E,O, U, I, werden die Vokale durchschnittlich normal angeeignet von dem Kinde. Wenn man in dieser Weise wiederum diese sichtbare Sprache der Eurythmie von dem Kinde ausüben läßt, dann ist es wie eine Auferstehung desjenigen, was das Kind erlebt hat beim Lautelernen als ganz kleines Kind, wie eine Resurektion, wie eine Auferstehung auf einer anderen Stufe. Das Kind erlebt noch einmal das, was es früher erlebt hat, in dieser eurythmischen Sprache. Und es ist das eine Befestigung desjenigen, was in dem Worte lieg, durch die Mittel des ganzen Menschen.
Dann, bei den Konsonanten ist es so, daß die Kinder lernen M, B, P, D, T, L, N; da würde noch ein NG sein müssen, wie zum Beispiel in gingen, das ist noch nicht gebildet; dann F, H, G, S, R. R, dieser geheimnisvolle Buchstabe, der eigentlich drei Formen in der menschlichen Sprache hat, wird in Vollkommenheit erst zuletzt von den Kindern ausgeführt. Es gibt ein Lippen-R, ein Zungen-R, und ein R, das ganz rückwärts gesprochen wird.
So also kann man dasjenige, was das Kind in der Sprache in einem Partialorganismus, im Sprachorganismus und im Gesangsorganismus lernt, das kann man auf den ganzen Menschen übertragen, zur sichtbaren Sprache ausbilden.
Wir werden dann, wenn einiges Interesse vorhanden sein sollte für solch eine expressionistische Kunst, auch weiteres ausbilden können, wie zum Beispiel Freude, Traurigkeit, wie Antipathie, Sympathie und anderes, was ja alles in Eurythmie darzustellen ist. Nicht nur die Grammatik, sondern auch die Rhetorik kommt in der Eurythmie zurecht. Wir werden das alles ausbilden können. Dann wird man sehen, wie tatsächlich auch dieses geistig-seelische Turnen, das nicht nur in den physischen Menschen physiologisch hineinwirkt, sondern geistig-seelisch und leiblich-körperlich den Menschen bildet, in der Tat auf der einen Seite seinen pädagogisch-didaktischen Wert, auf der anderen Seite seinen künstlerischen Wert haben kann.
Nun, gestatten Sie, daß ich nur in Parenthese eben hinzufüge, daß diese Figuren von dem Eurythmielernenden nach dem Eurythmieunterricht zum memorieren dienen können. Denn man soll nur ja nicht glauben, daß Eurythmie etwas so Leichtes ist, daß man es in ein paar Stunden sich beibringen kann. Eurythmie muß wirklich gründlich erlernt werden; aber zum Wiederholen können solche Eurythmiefiguren auch für diejenigen dienen, die eurythmische Kunst suchen, zu dem Weiter-sich-Hineinvertiefen. Man wird schon sehen, daß in den Formen selber, die hier verhältnismäßig einfach geschnitzt und bemalt sind, sehr viel liegt.
Das ist dasjenige, was ich heute sagen wollte über die eurythmische Kunst, namentlich insofern sie sich einfügen kann in das pädagogischdidaktische Prinzip, wie wir es in der Waldorfschule zu pflegen suchen.
On Physical and Moral Education
It may have become clear from the descriptions I have given so far what all education and teaching in Waldorf schools should strive for. It should strive to turn human children into physically healthy and strong human beings, to make them spiritually free and mentally clear. Physical health and strength, spiritual freedom, and mental clarity are precisely what humanity will need most in its future development, including in social relationships. However, in order to educate and teach in this way, it is necessary for the educator to have achieved what I have attempted to clarify in these descriptions.
The teacher must have complete transparency of the child's organism, namely a transparency of the human organism that enables the teacher to assess physical health. For only when one is able to truly assess physical health and bring it into harmony with the soul can one say to oneself: with one child one must do one thing, with another child another.
Today, there is a widespread opinion that doctors should be brought into schools. There is a desire to further develop the system of school doctors. But just as it is not good to assign the various branches and subjects of education to different teachers who have no connection with each other, it is equally detrimental to education to entrust physical health to someone who is not part of the entire teaching staff, the entire faculty. However, there is a difficulty associated with this. I would like to illustrate this difficulty to you with an example.
During a tour of the Waldorf school, someone who is otherwise a school inspector visited our Waldorf school, and I spoke to him about what can be observed in relation to the physical health and physical organization of the children. I told him about one child who has some kind of heart defect, another child who has a defect there, and so on, and the man said in amazement: Yes, the teachers would have to have medical knowledge if that were to be of any value in school!
Yes, if it is necessary for a healthy education that teachers have a certain degree of good medical knowledge, then they must have it, and they must acquire it. You cannot shape life according to people's whims, but you must shape institutions among people according to the demands of life. Just as you have to learn something else in order to be able to do something, so too as an educator you have to learn something in order to be able to do something.
It is therefore necessary for the educator to gain a precise understanding, especially for the very young child, of the context of what the child experiences in play. Play involves a whole complex of soul activities, joy, sometimes also pain, sympathy, antipathy; in particular, play also involves curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. The child wants to examine the play objects closely, to see what is inside them. And what emerges from the child's soul in a completely free activity, not yet forced into the form of human work, what emerges from the child's soul, must be observed to see how it comes from feeling, how it satisfies or does not satisfy. For if one guides the child's play in such a way that the child derives a certain satisfaction from it, one promotes, in particular, the activity that is connected with the human digestive system in terms of health. And depending on how play is guided, even in old age, the human being is still more or less subject to inhibitions or non-inhibitions in relation to their blood circulation and digestive activity. There is a subtle, intimate connection between how the child plays and what becomes of the human physical organism.
One must not say: the physical organism is something insignificant; I am an idealist; one has nothing to do with this lowly physical organism. This physical organism has been placed in the world by the divine spiritual powers of the world; it is a divine creation, and we must be aware that, as educators, we have a duty to cooperate in this divine creation. I would like to speak less in general abstract terms and more in concrete examples.
Suppose that what could be called a melancholic disposition occurs in children in a somewhat pathological way, or that what could be called a sanguine disposition occurs in a pathological way. The teacher must now be able to know where the boundary lies between what is merely physical and what is pathological. If he notices — and this is much more common than one might think in such cases — that in a melancholic child the situation is becoming pathological, he will seek contact with the parents and try to find out how the child is being fed at home. He will then find a connection between this diet and the pathological melancholy. For it is likely — there could also be other causes, but I am only giving one example to speak concretely — that he will discover that such a child is not being given enough sugar-rich food at home. Because too little sugar is given in the diet, liver activity is not regulated in the right way. For this melancholic child has the peculiarity that a certain substance, which is otherwise formed in plants — we call it starch in German — is formed in the liver, but is not in order. Starch is produced in the liver of every human being, but this starch is not plant starch like the other kind, but animal starch, which is converted into sugar in the liver. This activity is a very important part of liver function, the conversion of animal starch into sugar. And this is not normal in melancholic children, and one must now advise the mother to add more sugar to the child's food, then one has a regulating effect on what is called the glycogen activity of the liver, and one will see that an extraordinary amount can be achieved through this purely hygienic measure. Education must be extended to the whole person.
Or in the case of the sanguine child, one will find just the opposite. This child is very often made into a sugar lover. He is given lots of candy. Too much sugar is added to his food. When he is made into a sugar lover, the opposite effect occurs. The liver is an infinitely important organ, but one that is much more similar to the sensory organs than one might think. The liver is there to perceive and comprehend the whole human being internally. The liver has a sensitivity for the whole human being. That is why it is organized differently from other organs. A certain amount of arterial blood enters other organs and venous blood leaves them. The liver has an extra arrangement. A special vein enters the liver, supplying it with special venous blood. This means that the liver is a kind of external world within the human being. The liver therefore enables the human being to perceive themselves, but to perceive what is affecting their organism. The liver is an extraordinarily sensitive barometer for the way in which humans relate to the outside world. If you advise the mother to reduce the sugar intake of her pathologically sanguine child, who is flighty and flits nervously from one impression to the next, you can achieve extremely favorable results.
And so, through what happens not in the classroom and in education, but in between, if you are a proper educator, you can guide the child in the right way so that it becomes truly healthy, strong, and vigorous in its physical constitution. And you will notice how this is of extraordinary importance for the overall development of the human being.
We have had the most intense experience with the boys and girls at the Waldorf School at the age of 15 or 16. We first had the Waldorf School with eight elementary classes, but then we added a class behind each one, so a ninth, tenth, and then an eleventh class. These classes, the highest ones, which are no longer elementary classes but advanced classes, are now attended by boys and girls at the age of fifteen or sixteen. There are very special difficulties here. These difficulties are sometimes also physical and moral. I will talk about them later. But even in physical terms, one notices how human nature constantly tends toward the pathological and must be protected from the pathological.
In girls, one can sometimes see the overall development quietly progressing toward chlorosis and anemia. The girl becomes anemic, as they say, in her organism, pale, anemic. This really stems from the fact that in these 14th, 15th, 16th years, the spiritual is separated from the entire human organization; and this spiritual, which previously worked within the whole human being, regulated the blood. Now the blood is left to its own devices. It must be properly prepared so that it can take care of itself from its own strength. Girls become anaemic and pale, and it is important to know that this paleness occurs when the stimuli given to girls beforehand have not aroused sufficient interest. If attention and interest are kept alive, then the whole physical organism is active in the way required by the human being itself, and then anaemia will not occur in the same way.
The opposite is true for boys. Boys develop a kind of neuritis, a kind of excess venous blood in the brain. As a result, during these years, the brain functions as if it were overfilled with blood. In girls, we are dealing with anemia in the body, while in boys we are dealing with a kind of overfilling of blood, a slight overfilling of blood, namely with a kind of incorrect arterial and venous blood, especially in the head. This stems from the fact that boys have been overstimulated with impressions, impressions that have been presented to them in such a way that they had to rush from one impression to the next and could not find peace. And we will see how bad behavior in fourteen-, fifteen-, and sixteen-year-olds occurs in this way and is related to their overall physical development.
If one looks at the nature of human beings without despising the physical, then one can achieve an extraordinary amount as a teacher or educator in the management of health care. The principle must be this: spirituality is wrong at any moment when it is supposed to lead from the material to an abstract cloud cuckoo land. If one comes to despise the physical, if one comes to say: Oh, the body, that is the lower nature, it must be suppressed, it must be disregarded — then one will certainly not be able to educate people in a healing way. For you see, if you disregard the physical nature of human beings, you may be able to raise their spiritual nature to a high level of abstraction, but then it is like a balloon that flies away. Social development on earth initially has nothing to do with the spiritual that is not held in place by the physical in life. One must also be prepared for heaven if one wants to fly strongly into heaven. This preparation must take place on earth.
However, in today's materialistic age, it is hardly observable that people, in order to reach heaven, must pass an exam at death, that they must have cared for what is placed on earth as a divine-spiritual creature, the human physical organism, as the highest good, in accordance with the spirit. I will now speak about the more physical-moral aspects in the next series and then about eurythmy in the third.
Just as an extraordinary amount must lie, so to speak, between the measures taken in the school itself with regard to education in the physical realm, so too must it lie in the soul, in the physical, and in the spirit. The main thing is to begin placing people correctly in life already during their school years. I would like to explain what is sought within the Waldorf school principle using concrete examples, not abstract sentences.
It is necessary to assess what has been achieved with the child during a school year when the school year is over. Today, this is called issuing a report card on whether and to what extent the child has achieved the learning objectives. In some countries, the way in which the child has achieved the learning objective in a year, or sometimes even in interim breaks, is communicated to the parents and those responsible for the child by means of numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4; each number means that the child has acquired a certain ability in relation to certain subjects. Sometimes, when it is not clear whether a 3 or a 4 is the right measure of how well the child has achieved this ability, a 3¼ is written, and some teachers have even mastered the great art of calculation to the point of writing 31/4. I confess that I have never been able to master this art of expressing human abilities in such numbers.
Report cards are handled differently at Waldorf schools. When the teaching staff is so unified that every child in the school is known by every teacher in a certain sense, it is also possible to make an assessment of the child based on the child as a whole. That is why the report card we give the child at the end of the school year looks like a short biography, like aperçus of the experiences we have had with the child in and outside the classroom during the year.
The child then has, and the parents, the responsible guardians, have before them a reflection of what the child is like at this age. And we have even found in Waldorf schools that you can write harsh criticism in this mirror report card, and the children accept it with satisfaction. And then we write something else in the report card. We connect the past with the future. We know the child, we know whether they are lacking in willpower, emotional life, or thinking activity, we know whether certain emotions predominate. Based on this, we form a core statement for each individual child at the Waldorf school. We write this into the report card. It is intended to be a guideline for the entire next school year. The child takes this core statement to heart in such a way that they always have to think about it. And this core statement then has the property of balancing and controlling the will, the emotions, or the character traits in an appropriate way.
Thus, the report card is not only an intellectual expression of what the child has achieved, but it also has a power of its own that continues to work until the child receives a new report card. But from this you can see how precisely one must penetrate the child's individuality in order to, to a certain extent, dismiss the child with such an energetic report card.
You can also see from this that it is not important to us at Waldorf schools to establish a school that requires very special external facilities. We place all our emphasis on those aspects of pedagogy and didactics that can be instilled in every school system today based on living conditions. We are not revolutionaries who simply say: city schools are no good, all schools must be moved to the countryside and so on. Instead, we say: life in its circumstances gives us this or that; we take circumstances as they are and bring into every type of school system that which can work for the good of humanity in a correct pedagogical and didactic way.
This also puts us in a position where we have to make as little use as possible of what is otherwise called “repeating a year,” where the child has to stay in the class they were in for another year in order to become smarter. We have even been criticized at the Waldorf School because we have children in the higher grades who, according to the external school authorities, should have had to repeat the year. For us, it is extremely difficult to implement this repeating of the year, for certain human reasons, because our teachers are so attached to the children that some would shed tears if they had to leave a child behind. The fact is that a close bond is formed between the children and the teacher, and this actually prevents this ominous repeating of a year. In any case, there is no point in repeating a year. For let us suppose we leave a boy or girl aged 9 in a previous class; but the girl or boy is predisposed to, as they say, “come into their own” at age 11, then we are putting the child into the 11th grade a year too late. This is much more damaging than if the teacher had to work hard with this child once, because they were slower to get used to the subjects, and then had to take them along to the next grade anyway.
We have set up a remedial class only for the weakest pupils. We have only one remedial class, in which we have to have the weak pupils from all the other classes, because we do not have the money for a large number of remedial classes. We have one remedial class, but with an excellent teacher, Dr. Schubert. When it came to setting up a remedial class, one could say: it is axiomatically certain that you must lead this remedial class. It is in his nature. He can get something out of the children's pathological conditions. He treats each child individually to such an extent that he prefers to have the children sit around a round table rather than at individual desks. The weak children, who are either mentally weak or somehow retarded, are then treated in such a way that after a while they can catch up with their peers. Of course, this can only be achieved slowly. But even with this transfer to the remedial class, we are extremely sparing, and if I want to try to transfer a child from one class to the remedial class out of necessity, I usually first have to fight with the teacher of the class because he does not want to give up the child. Sometimes it is extraordinarily wonderful to see how the individuality of the teachers and the individuality of the pupils can grow together. This really achieves the goal of making teaching and education something internal for the children.
You see, for us everything is based on the training of methodology, because we are realistic and not nebulous mystics. Even if we have to make compromises with the other life, we use methodology to really bring out what is individually predisposed in the children; at least for the few years that we have been able to work, many good things have come to light.
However, because we have to make compromises, religious instruction is not possible for many children, for example. We can guide the child through morality. We teach the child morality by allowing it to grow up, above all, out of gratitude. Gratitude is the concrete experience of morality towards other people. What cannot arise from gratitude in the human mind can, at best, lead to abstract principles in morality. But everything develops out of gratitude. And we then develop people's capacity for love and their sense of duty out of gratitude. In this way, morality is led to religious life. But external circumstances made it necessary for us not to appear as skyrockets, so we placed Catholic instruction in the hands of the Catholic religious community. They send their representative to our school. And we have the Catholic children taught by the Catholic priest and the Protestant children by the Protestant pastor. The Waldorf school is not a school based on a particular worldview, but a school based on a particular method.
It just turned out that a number of children were dissident children who would not receive any religious instruction in this way. But the whole spirit that came into the Waldorf school created a need among those parents who would otherwise not have sent their children to religious instruction to transfer morality into religion. So we were compelled to give special religious instruction from an anthroposophical point of view. This is not to bring anthroposophy into the school. Even in anthroposophical religious instruction, we do not teach anthroposophy to small children, but try to find symbols and parables in nature that lead to the religious. We try to teach the Gospel to children in the way it must be understood from a spiritual understanding of religion, and so on. Anyone who thinks that Waldorf schools are anthroposophical schools understands neither Waldorf education nor anthroposophy.
But how is anthroposophy very often understood? When people talk about anthroposophy, they think of something sectarian, because at most they look up the literal meaning of anthroposophy in the dictionary. It is roughly how anthroposophy is perceived by the world today, as I can express it by way of comparison. Suppose someone hears: Max Müller from Oxford — what kind of person might that have been? A Müller, yes, he bought grain, and then he took the grain to the mill, and then he ground the grain into flour and delivered it to the baker. You see, I don't think that people who hear the name Müller would say much about Max Müller in Oxford, that they would say anything very accurate about him! That's roughly how it is when people talk about anthroposophy today, just as if they were talking about Max Müller, because they extract from the word association what they think anthroposophy is. They see it as a kind of sect from the hinterland, whereas every thing must have a name.
Anthroposophy is something that really grows out of all the sciences and out of life and did not need a name at all; but now, because people must have names in this earthly world, because the thing must have a name, it is called anthroposophy. But just as little as the essence of the scholar follows from his name Max Müller, just as little does anything follow from the name “anthroposophy” for the matter. So it is that when we bring anthroposophical religious education into the school, we stand alongside the other religious teachings as something that fits in, as is the case with the other religious teachings.
Well, really, I don't mean it in a bad way, but others have interpreted it as bad. Anthroposophical religious education is growing; more and more children are joining. And some children have even run away from the others and come over to anthroposophical religious education. It is quite understandable that people say: What bad people the anthroposophists are! They even tempt the children to run away from Protestant or Catholic religious education and want to have religious education there. We do everything we can to prevent the children from doing this, because it is extremely difficult to find religious education teachers in our area. But even though we have never tried to base this on anything other than the demands of the parents and the unconscious demands of the children themselves, the need for this anthroposophical religious education is, I would say, to my regret, spreading more and more. And the fact is that this anthroposophical religious education has given the Waldorf school a thoroughly Christian character.
You will sense from the whole atmosphere in the Waldorf school that there is a Christian character to all the teaching, that religious life actually prevails in the Waldorf school, even though from the beginning we did not set out to make the Waldorf school anything to do with any particular denomination. I must say it again and again: the Waldorf school principle is not a principle that seeks to create a school based on a particular worldview, but rather a school based on a particular method. What is to be achieved through a method based on knowledge of the human being is to make children physically healthy and strong, emotionally free, and mentally clear.
Allow me to say a few words about the significance of eurythmy lessons and the education that can result for the child from eurythmy lessons. I would like to explain this using the figures that were made in the studio in Dornach, which are intended to represent in a certain artistic way what eurythmy actually is. First of all, however, these figures are intended to provide a basis for the artistic perception of eurythmy. But I will also be able to explain certain things to you in relation to pedagogy and didactics, based on these figures. The point is that eurythmy is truly a visible language, not a mimetic expression, not a pantomimic expression, and not ordinary dance art either. Just as a person brings partial organs into activity when singing or speaking, so too can the whole person be brought into those movements that the larynx and its neighboring organs actually want to perform. But they do not get to do so; they suppress them immediately, and then the other movements take place in such a way that what actually wants to become, let us say, this movement in the larynx, so that the laryngeal wings open outwards: A, this is undermined at the moment of its emergence, in the status nascendi, and is transformed into a movement into which the content of thought in language can be transferred, and into a movement that can then pass into the air and be heard. The underlying movement, the inner human movement, let's say A, you have it here (the figure is shown). That is what the whole person wants to do when he bursts out in A. And so one can make visible every utterance of song and speech in the movement that the whole person actually wants to perform, but which is held back in the status nascendi. In this way, one can arrive at every such form of movement.
Just as there are formations of the larynx and other speech organs for A, I, L, M, so there are corresponding movements, forms of movement. These forms of movement are therefore the revelation of the will, for which the revelations of thought and will otherwise exist in speech and singing. The intellectual, the purely abstract intellectual, which is in language, is taken out here, and everything that wants to be expressed is transferred into the movement itself, so that eurythmy is, in the broadest sense, an art of movement. Just as you can hear the A, you can see the A; just as you can hear the I, you can see the I.
Now, the aim in these figures is that the movement is captured above all in the plastic design of the wood. The figures are formed according to a three-color principle. There is the basic color, which is actually supposed to express the form of movement everywhere. But just as feeling flows into our spoken language, so too can feeling flow down into movement. For we do not merely utter a sound, we also give the sound a feeling tone. We can do this in eurythmy as well. And here a strong subconscious moment comes into play in eurythmy. If the actor, the performer, is able to artistically incorporate this feeling into his movements, then one will also feel this feeling when one sees the eurythmic movements. Here, it is also taken into consideration that the veil that is worn should follow these feelings. So what is used here (in the figures) as a second color, preferably on the veil, represents the emotional nuance for the movement. So you have a first basic color that expresses the movement itself, and a second color superimposed on it, which is expressed preferably in the veil and expresses the emotional nuance. But the eurythmic actor must have the inner strength to put this feeling into the movement, just as it makes a difference whether I say to someone: Come to me! — commanding — or: Come to me! — inviting in a friendly manner. That is the emotional nuance. So what is expressed here in the second color, and which is then continued in the veil, represents the emotional nuance of eurythmic language.
And the third brings in character, the strong element of will. This only comes into eurythmy because the eurythmic actor is able to empathize with his movements and express them within himself. The head of a eurythmic performer looks completely different depending on whether they tense the muscles on the left side of their head and leave the right side somewhat relaxed, as is indicated here, for example, by the third color. You can observe this: the third color always indicates the will. Here, for example, the left side is slightly tense, and here across the mouth; here (in another figure) the forehead is slightly tense, the muscles of the forehead slightly tense. This then gives — radiating from this gentle tension, because what is gently tense radiates throughout the whole organism — this gives the whole an inner character. And from this movement, which is expressed by the basic color, from the emotional nuance, which is expressed by the second color, and from this element of will — the whole element is an element of will, but here the will is particularly emphasized —, the actual art of eurythmy is composed.
If one therefore wants to capture something eurythmically, one must extract from the human being that which is purely eurythmic. If there were figures here with beautifully painted noses and eyes and beautiful mouths, they could be beautiful paintings; but eurythmy is not about that; here, only what is eurythmic in the eurythmic person is painted and formed.
The eurythmic person is such that their specific face is not important. It does not matter. Of course, a healthy eurythmist will not automatically make a grumpy face when performing a joyful movement, but that is also the case when speaking. However, a physiognomy of the face that is not eurythmic is not sought after. For example, someone can make an A movement by keeping the axis of their eyes facing outwards. That is eurythmic, that works. But it is not acceptable for anyone, as is the case in the art of mimicry, to make special little movements with their eyes, which look like grimaces, as is often required as a special facial expression. Everything about the eurythmist must be eurythmic.
Therefore, in a kind of expressive art, what is purely eurythmy was brought out of the human being, everything else was left out, and in this way one actually obtains only an artistic expression. For it is the case in all art that only with certain artistic means can one express what art can represent. You cannot make a statue speak; you must therefore express what you want to convey as a soul expression in the shaping of the mouth, of the whole face. So it is of no use to paint naturalistic people here, but rather to paint what immediately comes out as eurythmic.
Now, of course, when I speak of the veil here, one cannot change the veil after every sound; but one gradually discovers that once one has put oneself into this emotional nuance, into this mood for a poem, then the whole poem has an A mood or a B mood. Then you can arrange the whole poem in any veil color.
It is the same with the color scheme. Here I have presented veils, shapes, color combinations, and so on for each individual sound. In a poem, you have to have a basic note, so to speak. This basic note then determines the veil color, the entire composition that you have to maintain throughout the poem, otherwise the ladies would have to constantly change their veils, constantly throw off veils, put on other veils, and things would become even more complicated than they already are, and people would say they understand them even less. But it is certainly true that once you have the sound mood, you can maintain it throughout an entire poem, varying only the movements, the transition from one sound to another, from one syllable to another, from one mood to another, and so on.
Now, since I have pedagogical and didactic purposes today, I have arranged the eurythmy figures here so that you can see them in the order in which the child learns the sounds. From an early age, the child learns the sounds in such a way that the first sound is essentially the one that sounds like A. Progressing in this order, approximately of course, as there are all kinds of variations among children, but in this order approximately: A, E, O, U, I, the vowels are acquired by the child on average. When children are allowed to practice this visible language of eurythmy in this way, it is like a resurrection of what they experienced when learning sounds as very young children, like a resurrection on another level. The child experiences once again what it experienced earlier in this eurythmic language. And it is a consolidation of what lies in the word, through the means of the whole human being.
Then, with the consonants, the children learn M, B, P, D, T, L, N; there should also be an NG, as in gingen, for example, which has not yet been formed; then F, H, G, S, R. R, this mysterious letter, which actually has three forms in human speech, is only performed perfectly by the children at the end. There is a lip R, a tongue R, and an R that is pronounced completely backwards.
So what the child learns in language in a partial organism, in the speech organism and in the singing organism, can be transferred to the whole human being and developed into visible language.
If there is some interest in such an expressionist art, we will then be able to develop further aspects, such as joy, sadness, antipathy, sympathy, and other things that can be expressed in eurythmy. Not only grammar, but also rhetoric finds its place in eurythmy. We will be able to train all of this. Then we will see how this spiritual-soul gymnastics, which not only has a physiological effect on the physical human being, but also shapes the human being spiritually, soulfully, and physically, can indeed have its pedagogical-didactic value on the one hand and its artistic value on the other.
Now, allow me to add in parentheses that these figures can be used by eurythmy students to memorize after eurythmy lessons. For one should not believe that eurythmy is something so easy that it can be taught in a few hours. Eurythmy really has to be learned thoroughly; but such eurythmy figures can also serve as a means of repetition for those who seek eurythmic art, for further deepening. One will see that there is a great deal in the forms themselves, which are relatively simply carved and painted here.
That is what I wanted to say today about eurythmic art, particularly insofar as it can be integrated into the pedagogical-didactic principle that we seek to cultivate in the Waldorf school.