Supersensible Knowledge
GA 55
24 January 1907, Berlin
VII. Education and Spiritual Science
When we discuss subjects such as that of today's lecture, we must keep before our mind's eye mankind's whole evolution. Only then can we understand the evolution of the individual, and guide the young through education. At the center of education is the school. We shall attempt to understand what is required of education on the basis of human nature and a person's evolution in general.
We see a person's being as consisting of four distinct members: physical body, ether or life body, astral body, and at the center of the being, the “I.” When an individual is born, only the physical body is ready to receive influences from the external world. Not until the time of the change of teeth is the ether body born, the astral body not until puberty is reached. The faculties of the ether body, such as memory, temperament, and so on, are, up to the change of teeth, protected by an etheric sheath, just as the physical senses of eyes and ears are protected before physical birth by the material body. The educator must during this time leave undisturbed what should develop naturally of itself.
Jean Paul expressed it by saying that no world traveller learns as much on his far-flung journeys as the little child learns from his nurse before the age of seven. Why then must we have schools for children?
What only evolves after the physical birth has taken place is in need of a protective covering just as the embryo needs the protection of the maternal body. Not until a certain stage of development is reached does the human being begin a life that is entirely new. Up to then his life is a repetition of earlier epochs. Even the embryo repeats all primordial stages of evolution up to the present. And after birth, the child repeats earlier human evolutionary epochs.
Friedrich August Wolf1Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1805) was a philologist. describes the stages through which a human being evolves from childhood onwards as follows: The first epoch, lasting up to the third year, he calls the "golden, gentle, harmonious age" corresponding to the life of today's Indian and South Sea Islander. The second epoch, up to the sixth year, reflects the Asiatic wars and their repercussions in Europe, and also the Greek heroic age, as well as the time of the North American savage. The third epoch, up to the ninth year, corresponds to the time from Homer2Homer (8th centure B.C.) was a Greek epic poet who wrote the Iliad and Odyssey. to Alexander the Great.3Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) was king of Macedonia and conqueror of the Persian Empire. The fourth epoch, up to the twelfth year, corresponds to the time of the Roman Empire. The fifth epoch, up to the fifteenth year, when the inner forces should be ennobled through religion, corresponds to the Middle Ages. The sixth epoch, up to the eighteenth year, corresponds to the Renaissance. The seventh epoch, up to the twenty-first year, corresponds to the Reformation, and in the eighth epoch, lasting up to the twenty-fourth year, a human reaches the present.
This system is on the whole a valuable spiritual foundation, but it must be widened considerably to correspond to reality. It must include the whole of a human being's evolutionary descent. A person does not stem from the animal kingdom, though certainly from beings who, in regard to physical development, were far below what human beings are today. Yet in no way did they resemble apes.
Spiritual science points back to a time when human beings inhabited Atlantis;4Atlantis is a mythical continent, said to have sunk into the sea. Plato describes it in the Timaeus and Critias, and Steiner mentions it frequently. compared with modern human beings the Atlantean's soul and spirit were differently constituted. Their consciousness could be termed somnambulistic; the intellect was undeveloped—they could neither count nor write, and logical reasoning did not exist. But they beheld many aspects of the spiritual world. The will that flowed through their limbs was immensely strong. The higher animals such as apes were degenerate descendants of the Atlanteans.
Our dream consciousness is a residue of the Atlantean's normal pictorial consciousness, which could be compared with that of a person experiencing vivid dreams during sleep. But the pictures of the Atlantean were animated, more vivid than those of today's most fertile imagination. Furthermore, an Atlantean was able to control his pictures, which were not chaotic. We see an echo of this consciousness when young children play, investing their toys with pictorial content.
The human being first descended into physical bodies during Lemurian time. A person repeats that event during physical birth. At that time, having descended into a physical body, a person begins developing through soul and spirit to ever higher levels. The Lemurian and Atlantean epochs are repeated in a child's development up to the seventh year. Between the change of teeth and puberty that epoch of evolution is repeated in which great spiritual teachers have appeared among men. Buddha,5Buddha, Guatama (c. 563–483 B.C.) the founder of Buddhism. Plato,6Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher who founded the academy where Aristotle studied. Pythagoras,7Pythagorus (c. 570–c. 500 B.C.) was a Greek philosopher who founded the Pythagorean school. Hermes,8Hermes was a Greek god and messenger of the gods. He was the god of roads, commerce, invention, cunning, and theft. Identified by the Romans with Mercury. Moses,9Moses (c. 13th century B.C.) was a Hebrew lawgiver and prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt. and Zarathustra10Zarathustra (c. 6th century B.C.) was a Persian. The religion Zoroastrianism is based an his teachings. are some of the latter. In those days, the influence of the spiritual world was much greater, a fact we find preserved in heroic legends and sagas. It is therefore important that what is taught during this period of the child's life conveys the spirit of the earlier cultural epochs.
The period between the seventh and fourteenth years corresponds in the child to the time up to the twelfth century, the time when cities were founded. The main emphasis must now be on authority and community. The children should experience something of the power and glory that surrounded the early leaders. The most important issue that concerns a school is therefore the teacher. The teacher's authority must be self-evident for the children, just as what was taught by the great teachers was self-evident to the human soul. It is bad; it does great harm if the child doubts the teacher. The child's respect and reverence must be without reservation, so that the teacher's kindness and good will—which he naturally must have—seem to the child like a blessing. What is important is not pedagogical methods and principles, but the teacher's profound psychological insight. The study of psychology is the most important subject of a teacher's training. An educator should not be concerned with how the human being ought to develop, but with the reality of how the student in fact does develop.
As every age makes different demands, it is useless to lay down general rules. It is not knowledge or proficiency in pedagogical methods that matter in a teacher, but character and a certain presence that makes itself felt even before the teacher has spoken. The educator must have attained a degree of inner development, and must have become not merely learned, but inwardly transformed. The day will come when a teacher will be tested, not for knowledge or even for pedagogical principles, but for what he or she is as a human being.
For the child the school must be its life. Life should not just be portrayed; former epochs must come to life. The school must create a life of its own, not draw it from outside. What the human being will no longer be able to receive later in life he must receive at school. Pictorial and symbolic concepts must be fostered. The teacher must be deeply aware of the truth that: “Everything transient is but a semblance.” When the educator presents a subject pictorially the teacher should not be thinking that it is merely allegory. If the teacher fully participates in the life of the child, forces will flow from his or her soul to that of the child. Processes of nature must be described in rich imaginative pictures. The spiritual behind the sense-perceptible must be brought to life. Modern teaching methods fall completely in this respect, because only the external aspects are described. But a seed contains not only the future plant, it contains forces of the sun, indeed of the whole cosmos. A feeling for nature will awaken in the child when the capacity for imagery is fostered. Plants should not merely be shown and described, the child should make paintings of them; then happy human beings for whom life has meaning will emerge from their time at school.
Calculators ought not to be used; one must do sums with the children on living fingers. Vigorous spiritual forces are to be stimulated. Nature study and arithmetic train the power of thinking and memory; history the life of feeling. A sense for what is noble and beautiful awakens love for what is worthy of love. But what strengthens the will is religion; it must permeate every subject that is taught. The child will not immediately grasp everything it is capable of absorbing; this is true of everyone. Jean Paul made the remark that one should listen carefully to the truth uttered by a child, but to have it explained one must turn to its father. In our materialistic age too little is expected of memory. The child first learns; only later does it understand, and only later still will it grasp the underlying laws.
Between the seventh and fourteenth years is also the time to foster the sense for beauty. It is through this sense that we grasp symbolic meaning. But most important is that the child is not burdened with abstract concepts; what is taught should have a direct connection with life. The spirit of nature, in other words the facts themselves existing behind the sense-perceptible, must have spoken to the child; it should have a natural appreciation of things before abstract theories are introduced, which should only be done after puberty. There is no need for concern that things learnt may be forgotten once school days are over; what matters is that what is taught bears fruit and forms the character. What the child has inwardly experienced it will also retain; details may vanish but the essential, the universal, will remain and will grow.
No education can be conducted without a religious foundation; without religion a school is an illusion. Even Haeckel's Riddle of the Universe contains religion. No theory can ever replace religion, nor can a history of religion. A person who is basically of a religious disposition, who has deep conviction, will also be able to convey religion. The spirit that lives in the world also lives in humans. The teacher must feel that he or she belongs to a spiritual world-order from which a mission is received.
There is a saying that a person's character is formed partly by study and partly by life. But school and education should not be something apart from life. Rather should it be said that a person's character will be rightly formed when study is also life.
Schulfragen vom Standpunkt der Geisteswissenschaft
Es handelt sich im heutigen Vortrag um Dinge, die unmittelbar verwirklicht werden können. Aber wir wollen bei dieser Betrachtung stets die ganze Menschheitsentwicklung vor Augen haben, dann werden wir auch die Einzelentwicklung des jungen Menschen verstehen und sie leiten können. Mitten hinein in die Erziehung stellt sich dieSchule mit ihren Anforderungen. Aus dem Wesen des Menschen und aus der Menschheitsentwicklung heraus wollen wir sie zu fassen suchen. Vier Leibesglieder unterscheiden wir zunächst am Menschen: physischer Leib, Äther- oder Lebensleib, astralischer Leib und das Ich, der Mittelpunkt des Menschen. Aber mit der physischen Geburt werden noch nicht alle vier Glieder für äußere Einwirkungen frei. Mit der physischen Geburt wird nur der physische Leib frei; zur Zeit des Zahnwechsels wird der Ätherleib geboren, zur Zeit der Geschlechtsreife der Astralleib. Wie Augen und Ohren vor der physischen Geburt unter der schützenden Mutterhülle, so werden Gedächtnis, Temperament und so weiter, die am Ätherleib haften, vor dem Zahnwechsel unter der schützenden Hülle des Äthers entwickelt. Jean Paul sagt: Ein Weltreisender, der alle Länder durchquert, lernt auf allen seinen Reisen nicht soviel, wie das Kind bis zum siebenten Jahre von seiner Amme. — Der Erzieher muß Freiheit geben dem, was sich durch die Naturkräfte selbst entwickelt.
Wozu brauchen wir denn überhaupt bei der Erziehung des Kindes eine Schule? Was nach der physischen Geburt heranwächst, bedarf einer schützenden Hülle, ähnlich wie der Keim im Mutterleibe. Denn erst an einem bestimmten Punkte tritt der Mensch in ein neues Leben. Bevor er an diesen Punkt kommt, ist sein Leben eine Wiederholung früherer Lebensepochen. Auch der Keim macht ja eine Wiederholung aller Stadien der Entwicklung von Urzeiten her durch. So wiederholt das Kind nach der Geburt frühere Menschheitsepochen. Friedrich August Wolf charakterisierte die Stufen des Menschen von der Kindheit an folgendermaßen. Erste Epoche: das goldene mildharmonische Alter vom ersten bis zum dritten Jahre. Es entspricht dem Leben der heutigen Indianer und Südseeinsulaner. Zweite Epoche: sie spiegelt wider die Kämpfe in Asien, deren Widerschläge und Wirkungen in Europa, die Heroenzeit der Griechen; weiter hinaus die Zeit der nordamerikanischen Wilden, und im einzelnen Kinde die Lebensepoche bis zum sechsten Jahre. Dritte Epoche: sie entspricht der Griechenzeit von Homer an bis zu Alexander dem Großen, reicht im einzelnen Kinde bis zum neunten Jahre. Vierte Epoche: Römerzeit, reicht bis zum zwölften Jahre. Fünfte Epoche: Mittelalter, reicht bis zum fünfzehnten Jahre; die Religion soll hier die Kraftnatur adeln. Sechste Epoche: Renaissance, bis zum achtzehnten Jahre. Siebente Epoche: Reformationszeit, bis zum einundzwanzigsten Jahre. Achte Epoche: reicht bis zum vierundzwanzigsten Jahre, in ihr erhebt sich der Mensch zur Gegenwart. Dieses Schema entspricht einer guten, geistig wertvollen Grundlage, nur dürfen wir es nicht so eng auffassen. Wir müssen die ganze Abstammung des Menschen mit in Betracht ziehen. Der Mensch stammt nicht vom niederen Tiere. Zwar stammt er von Wesen, die physisch weit hinter den heute lebenden Menschen zurückstanden, aber doch dem Affen ganz und gar nicht ähnlich waren. Die Geisteswissenschaft weist hin auf die Zeiten, wo der Mensch die Atlantis bewohnte.
Der Geist und die Seele der Atlantier waren anders geartet als bei den heutigen Menschen. Sie hatten nicht ein sogenanntes Verstandesbewußtsein. Sie konnten nicht schreiben und rechnen. Ihr Bewußtsein war gewissermaßen somnambul. Viele Dinge der geistigen Welten konnten sie durchschauen. Ihr Bewußtsein war ähnlich dem eines schlafenden Menschen mit lebhaften Träumen. Aber die Bilder, die in ihrem Bewußtsein aufstiegen, waren nicht chaotisch, sondern geregelt und lebendig. Damals war auch der Wille noch mächtig, auf die Glieder einzuwirken. Degenerierte Nachkommen von ihnen sind die heutigen höheren Säugetiere, namentlich die Affen. Das gewöhnliche atlantische Bewußtsein war ein Bilderbewußtsein. Unser Traumbewußtsein ist ein Rest davon. Die kühnste Phantasie von heute ist in ihren Bildern nur ein schwacher Abglanz dieser Bilderwelt der Atlantier. Und der Artlantier beherrschte die Bilder. Logik, Vernunftgesetze gab es damals nicht. Im willkürlichen Spiel der Kinder haben wir einen Abglanz davon, im kindlichen Spiel klingt die bildliche Anschauung weiter. Leben quoll dem Atlantier aus allen Dingen wie heute dem Kind aus dem Spielzeug.
In der lemurischen Zeit stieg der Mensch zum ersten Mal in den physischen Leib hinab. Das wird heute bei der physischen Geburt wiederholt. Damals stieg der Mensch in den Leib hinab und entwickelte ihn seelisch-geistig immer höher. Die lemurische und atlantische Epoche wiederholt der Mensch bis zum siebenten Jahre.
Vom Zahnwechsel bis zur Geschlechtsreife wird die Entwicklungsepoche wiederholt, in der große geistige Lehrer in der Menschheit auftraten. Die letzten von diesen waren Buddha, Plato, Pythagoras, Hermes, Moses, Zarathustra und so weiter. Damals wirkte die geistige Welt noch mehr in die Menschheit hinein. In den Heroensagen wird uns dies bewahrt. Jener Geist der alten Kulturepochen muß daher dem Schulunterricht in diesen Jahren zugrunde liegen.
Bis zum zwölften Jahrhundert, dem Zeitalter der Städtegründung, haben wir die Epoche, die dem siebenten bis vierzehnten Jahre des Kindes entspricht. Da konnte nur vom Prinzip der Gemeinsamkeit und Autorität die Rede sein. Etwas von der Macht und dem Glanz der großen Führer muß vorhanden sein in diesen Jahren für die Kinder. Die Lehrerfrage ist deshalb in der ganzen Schulangelegenheit die wichtigste. Eine selbstverständliche Autorität muß der Lehrer den Kindern sein; so wie die Gewalt dessen, was die großen Lehrer zu sagen hatten, von selbst einfloß in die Menschenseelen. Schlimm ist es, wenn das Kind zweifelt an seinem Lehrer. Das schadet sehr. Die Verehrung, die das Kind dem Lehrer zollt, muß die denkbar größte sein. Dies muß so weit gehen, daß das Wohlwollen, das der Lehrer gibt — und es ist selbstverständlich, daß er es gibt —, dem Kinde wie ein Geschenk erscheint. Auf die methodisch-pädagogischen Grundsätze kommt es nicht an, sondern darauf, daß der Lehrer Psychologie im höchsten Sinne kennt.Seelenstudium ist das wichtigste Element der Lehrerbildung. Nicht wie die Seele entwickelt werden soll, soll man wissen, sondern man muß sehen, wie der Mensch sich wirklich entwikkelt.
Und jedes Zeitalter stellt andere Forderungen an den Menschen, so daß allgemein gültige Schemen wertlos sind. Zum Lehrer gehört nicht Wissen und Beherrschen der Methoden der Pädagogik, sondern ein bestimmter Charakter, eine Gesinnung, die schon wirkt, ehe der Lehrer gesprochen hat. Er muß, bis zu einem gewissen Grade, eine innere Entwicklung durchgemacht haben, er muß nicht nur gelernt, er muß sich innerlich verwandelt haben. Man wird einst beim Examen nicht das Wissen, ja nicht einmal die pädagogischen Grundsätze, sondern das Sein prüfen. Leben muß die Schule für das Kind sein. Sie soll nicht nur das Leben abbilden, sie soll das Leben sein, denn sie soll eine frühere Lebensepoche lebendig machen. Die Schule soll ein eigenes Leben erzeugen; nicht soll das äußere Leben hineinfließen. Was der Mensch später nicht mehr hat, soll er hier in der Schule haben. Bildliche, gleichnisartige Vorstellungen sollen in reicher Weise erweckt werden. «Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis»: von diesem Satz muß der Lehrer voll überzeugt sein. Er darf nicht denken, wenn er bildlich redet: das ist nur ein Gleichnis. Wenn er voll mitlebt mit dem Kinde, dann geht aus seiner Seele Kraft in die des Kindes über. Ins Bild, in den Reichtum der Imagination, muß man die Naturvorgänge kleiden. Erschaffen muß man, was hinter dem Sinnlichen ist. Unser heutiger Anschauungsunterricht ist darum ganz verfehlt, da er nur aufs Außere hinweist. Das Samenkorn hat nicht nur die Pflanze in sich, sondern auch die Sonnenkraft, ja den ganzen Kosmos. Auferwecken muß man die gleichnisartigen Kräfte, damit das Kind sich in die Natur einlebt. Nicht an der Rechenmaschine, sondern an den lebendigen Fingern muß man mit dem Kinde rechnen. Die lebendige Geisteskraft muß angeregt werden. Man muß dem Kinde nicht nur die Pflanze zeigen und beschreiben, sondern sie vom Kinde malen lassen. Dann werden frohe Menschen aus der Schule hervorgehen, die dem Leben einen Sinn abgewinnen. Rechnen und Naturkunde schult die Denkkraft, das Gedächtnis und die Erinnerung. Geschichte schult die Gefühlskräfte. Fühlen mit allem Großen und Schönen entwickelt Liebe zu dem, was geliebt sein muß. Der Wille aber wird nur ausgebildet durch die religiöse Anschauung. Die muß alles durchdringen. Jean Paul sagt: Horchet wie richtig ein Kind spricht und fraget dann seinen Vater, er soll es erklären. — Das Kind kann nicht alles verstehen, was es tatsächlich kann. Und so ist es auch bei allen Menschen. Nur unsere materielle Zeit will dem Gedächtnis so wenig zumuten. Zuerst lernt das Kind, später versteht es das Gelernte, und noch später lernt es die Gesetze kennen.
Zwischen dem siebenten und vierzehnten Jahre muß auch der Schönheitssinn entwickelt werden. Er ist es, der uns auch die symbolische Auffassung der Dinge vermittelt. Vor allem soll aber Leben dem Kinde werden und möglichst wenig abstrakte Ideen. Die sollen erst nach der Geschlechtsreife kommen. Dann soll es erst die Theorien lernen, wenn es schon sinnvoll in die Dinge eingedrungen ist. Der Geist der Natur soll zuvor gesprochen haben, die Tatsachen selbst, die ja hinter dem Sinnlichen liegen. Man muß nicht fürchten, daß nach der Schulzeit alles vergessen werde. Es kommt nur darauf an, daß es Früchte trägt, daß der Geist geformt wird. Nur das bleibt, was der Mensch gefühlt und empfunden hat. Das Einzelne geht, das Allgemeine bleibt und wächst. Nie aber kann ein Unterricht ohne religiöse Grundlage geführt werden. Eine religionslose Schule ist einfach eine Illusion. Auch in Haeckels Welträtsel steht ja eine Religion. Wer Religion bekämpft, tut es entweder von einem hohen Standpunkt aus, wie Schiller sagt «aus Religion», oder von einem sehr tiefen Standpunkt aus. Aber nie kann eine Theorie eine Religion ersetzen. Religionsgeschichte kann das nie ersetzen. Wer in einer tief religiösen Grundstimmung ist, der kann auch Religion geben. Der Geist, der in der Welt lebt, lebt auch im Menschen. Man muß fühlen, daß man in einer geistigen Weltordnung steht, von der man seine Mission empfängt. Es gibt ein Wort: «Ein Blick ins Buch, und zwei ins Leben, das muß die Form dem Geiste geben.» Aber die Schule muß unmittelbares Leben sein; das Buch selbst muß Leben sein, muß erfreuen wie das Leben selbst. So können wir den Spruch so formen:
Ein Blick ins Buch, der wie ein Blick ins Leben,
Der kann die rechte Form dem Geiste geben.
School Issues from the Perspective of Spiritual Science
Today's lecture deals with things that can be realized immediately. But in this consideration, we want to keep the whole development of humanity in mind, then we will also be able to understand and guide the individual development of young people. The school, with its demands, stands at the center of education. We want to try to understand it from the nature of the human being and from the development of humanity. We first distinguish four parts of the human being: the physical body, the etheric or life body, the astral body, and the I, the center of the human being. But with physical birth, not all four parts are yet free for external influences. With physical birth, only the physical body becomes free; at the time of tooth replacement, the etheric body is born, and at the time of sexual maturity, the astral body. Just as the eyes and ears are protected by the mother's womb before physical birth, so memory, temperament, and so on, which are attached to the etheric body, are developed under the protective cover of the ether before tooth replacement. Jean Paul says: A world traveler who crosses all countries does not learn as much on all his travels as a child learns from its nurse until the age of seven. — The educator must give freedom to what develops through the forces of nature itself.
Why do we need a school at all in the education of children? What grows after physical birth needs a protective shell, similar to the germ in the womb. For it is only at a certain point that the human being enters a new life. Before reaching this point, his life is a repetition of earlier epochs of life. The germ also repeats all stages of development from primeval times. Thus, after birth, the child repeats earlier epochs of humanity. Friedrich August Wolf characterized the stages of human development from childhood as follows. First epoch: the golden, mildly harmonious age from the first to the third year. It corresponds to the life of today's Native Americans and South Sea Islanders. Second epoch: it reflects the struggles in Asia, their repercussions and effects in Europe, the heroic age of the Greeks; further afield, the era of the North American savages, and in individual children, the period of life up to the age of six. Third epoch: corresponds to the Greek era from Homer to Alexander the Great, extending to the age of nine in individual children. Fourth epoch: Roman era, extending to the age of twelve. Fifth epoch: the Middle Ages, extending to the age of fifteen; religion should ennoble the power of nature here. Sixth epoch: the Renaissance, up to the age of eighteen. Seventh epoch: the Reformation, up to the age of twenty-one. Eighth epoch: extends to the age of twenty-four, in which man rises to the present. This scheme corresponds to a good, spiritually valuable foundation, but we must not take it too narrowly. We must take into account the entire ancestry of man. Man does not descend from lower animals. He does descend from beings who were physically far behind the humans living today, but who were not at all similar to apes. Spiritual Science points to the times when man inhabited Atlantis.
The spirit and soul of the Atlanteans were different in nature from those of today's humans. They did not have what we call intellectual consciousness. They could not write or calculate. Their consciousness was, in a sense, somnambulistic. They could see through many things in the spiritual worlds. Their consciousness was similar to that of a sleeping person with vivid dreams. But the images that arose in their consciousness were not chaotic, but orderly and vivid. At that time, the will was still powerful enough to influence the limbs. Their degenerate descendants are today's higher mammals, namely the apes. The ordinary Atlantean consciousness was an image consciousness. Our dream consciousness is a remnant of this. The boldest imagination of today is only a faint reflection of this world of images of the Atlanteans. And the Atlanteans mastered images. Logic and the laws of reason did not exist at that time. We see a reflection of this in the arbitrary play of children; in childlike play, the pictorial view continues to resonate. Life flowed from all things to the Atlanteans, just as it flows from toys to children today.
In the Lemurian epoch, human beings descended into the physical body for the first time. This is repeated today in physical birth. At that time, human beings descended into the body and developed it spiritually and mentally to ever higher levels. Human beings repeat the Lemurian and Atlantean epochs until the age of seven.
From the change of teeth to sexual maturity, the epoch of development is repeated in which great spiritual teachers appeared in humanity. The last of these were Buddha, Plato, Pythagoras, Hermes, Moses, Zarathustra, and so on. At that time, the spiritual world still had a greater influence on humanity. This is preserved for us in the heroic legends. The spirit of the ancient cultural epochs must therefore form the basis of school teaching during these years.
Up to the twelfth century, the age of city founding, we have the epoch corresponding to the seventh to fourteenth years of the child. At that time, there could only be talk of the principle of community and authority. Something of the power and splendor of the great leaders must be present for children during these years. The question of teachers is therefore the most important in the whole school matter. The teacher must be a natural authority for the children, just as the power of what the great teachers had to say flowed naturally into the souls of human beings. It is bad when the child doubts his teacher. That is very harmful. The reverence that the child shows the teacher must be the greatest conceivable. This must go so far that the goodwill that the teacher gives — and it goes without saying that he gives it — appears to the child as a gift. It is not the methodological and pedagogical principles that matter, but rather that the teacher knows psychology in the highest sense. The study of the soul is the most important element of teacher training. One should not know how the soul should be developed, but rather one must see how the human being actually develops.
And every age places different demands on people, so that generally valid schemes are worthless. A teacher does not need to know and master pedagogical methods, but rather a certain character, a mindset that is already effective before the teacher has spoken. To a certain extent, they must have undergone an inner development; they must not only have learned, but also undergone an inner transformation. One day, exams will test not knowledge, not even pedagogical principles, but being. School must be life for the child. It should not only reflect life, it should be life, because it should bring an earlier era of life to life. School should create its own life; external life should not flow into it. What people no longer have later in life should be available to them here at school. Pictorial, parable-like mental images should be awakened in a rich manner. “Everything transitory is only a parable”: the teacher must be fully convinced of this statement. When speaking figuratively, they must not think: this is only a parable. When they fully empathize with the child, power flows from their soul into that of the child. Natural processes must be clothed in images, in the richness of the imagination. What lies behind the sensory must be created. Our current visual teaching is therefore completely misguided, as it only points to the external. The seed contains not only the plant, but also the power of the sun, indeed the entire cosmos. We must awaken the parable-like powers so that the child can become attuned to nature. We must teach the child arithmetic not with a calculator, but with living fingers. The living power of the mind must be stimulated. We must not only show and describe the plant to the child, but let the child paint it. Then happy people will emerge from school who derive meaning from life. Arithmetic and natural history train the power of thought, memory, and recollection. History trains the powers of feeling. Feeling with all that is great and beautiful develops love for what must be loved. But the will is only trained through religious insight. That must permeate everything. Jean Paul says: Listen to how correctly a child speaks and then ask his father to explain it. — The child cannot understand everything it is actually capable of. And so it is with all people. Only our materialistic age wants to demand so little of our memory. First the child learns, later it understands what it has learned, and still later it learns the laws.
Between the ages of seven and fourteen, the sense of beauty must also be developed. It is this sense that also conveys to us the symbolic understanding of things. Above all, however, life should become real to the child and abstract ideas should be kept to a minimum. These should only come after puberty. Only then should the child learn theories, when it has already gained a meaningful understanding of things. The spirit of nature should have spoken first, the facts themselves, which lie behind the sensory. There is no need to fear that everything will be forgotten after school. The only thing that matters is that it bears fruit, that the spirit is formed. Only what a person has felt and experienced remains. The individual disappears, the universal remains and grows. But teaching can never be conducted without a religious foundation. A school without religion is simply an illusion. Even Haeckel's world puzzle contains a religion. Those who fight against religion do so either from a high standpoint, as Schiller says, “from religion,” or from a very low standpoint. But a theory can never replace religion. The history of religion can never replace it. Those who have a deeply religious disposition can also teach religion. The spirit that lives in the world also lives in human beings. One must feel that one stands in a spiritual world order from which one receives one's mission. There is a saying: “One glance at the book and two at life must give form to the spirit.” But school must be immediate life; the book itself must be life, must delight like life itself. So we can formulate the saying as follows:
A glance into the book, like a glance into life,
Can give the spirit the right form.