The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Educational Practice Based on Spiritual Knowledge

[ 1 ] I have often taken the opportunity here to refute the prejudice that the theosophical worldview is completely removed from practical life. On the contrary, we have often had reason to point out how theosophy should lead us deeply into practical life, because it teaches us the laws of what constantly shapes life around us. Those who know only the laws of outer life are familiar with only a small part of life. The vast majority of life belongs to the hidden things of life, hidden from the outer senses. Now, in the not too distant future, humanity will certainly realize more and more that it is necessary to study the hidden worlds in order to cope with life, because the materialistic attitude would lead to a crisis in all areas, especially in the field of health and in the education system, where the question arises: How should people educate the future generation? — And last but not least, materialism would bring about a crisis in all social, political, and cultural issues: life would develop in such a way that one day we would no longer know how to help ourselves. To explain what I mean, I would like to say a few words about educational issues, which must be of interest to everyone.

[ 2 ] Anyone who approaches the question of education from a materialistic point of view will very easily arrive at the most misguided measures. For they will never consider how strictly law-governed the whole of life is, and therefore they will not take into account that there are periods of time that have a profound impact on life. It is simply impossible to imagine why, for example, the period of childhood, which lasts from the age of six to eight, is so fundamentally different from that of adolescence, i.e., the period from around the age of seven or eight to sexual maturity. But if you have no idea what happens to people during this time, you cannot imagine how important it is to observe these periods closely. It is not irrelevant to know what human beings are during these three epochs: the first, which lasts until the age of six to eight; the second, which lasts until the age of fourteen or fifteen; and then again in the following period, which lasts for the next seven to eight years. These are three stages in human life that must be studied very carefully, not only in the outer sense, but also from the point of view of occultism, which deals with worlds hidden from the outer senses. — You know that human beings do not consist only of this physical body, but of the physical body, the etheric body, which underlies the physical body and is similar in form to it, and then the astral body, which appears to the clairvoyant as a cloud in which the first two bodies are embedded. Enveloped in these, we have the bearer of the I. Let us consider these three bodies in relation to the developing human being.

[ 3 ] If you want to form a correct idea of this, you must realize that before the periods of time in which the human being can be seen externally, there is still the period before birth, when the human being lives in the mother's body. You must make a purely physical distinction between life before birth and the subsequent periods, and realize that the human being could not live if it were born too early, if it entered the outer visible world too early. It could not live in the outer world because its sense organs, with which it communicates with the outer world, are not yet sufficiently developed. While humans are enclosed in the womb until birth, their organs — eyes, ears, and everything they need to live in the physical world — are developed. Before their organs are sufficiently prepared within the protective shell of another physical body, humans cannot come into contact with the physical world. Birth is the moment when the human being is mature enough to come into contact with the environment without a protective shell. However, the same is far from being the case with the etheric body and astral body. They are not yet ready to come into direct contact with the environment. A process very similar to that which takes place with the physical body before the birth of the human being takes place with the etheric body in the period from birth to about the age of seven. Only then, one might say, is the etheric body born. And only at the age of fourteen to fifteen is the astral body born, which can then develop a free, independent activity in relation to the environment.

[ 4 ] You must therefore be aware that no special demands may be made on the etheric body until the age of seven, and on the astral body until the age of fourteen. Exposing a child's etheric body to a brutal environment would be like handing a child over to the outside world in the fifth month of its embryonic state, although it would not manifest itself with the same vehemence. The same applies if you expose the astral body to the environment before the age of fourteen. You must be clear about this: until the age of seven, only the physical body is sufficiently developed for the environment to exert a full influence on it. Until the age of seven, the etheric body is so preoccupied with itself that it would be damaged if it were subjected to any particular influence. Until this point, therefore, only the physical body should be influenced. From the age of seven to fourteen, the education of the etheric body may be taken in hand, and only from the age of fifteen onwards can the astral body be influenced from outside through education.

[ 5 ] Influencing the physical body of a human being means imparting external impressions to the child. The physical body is formed through external impressions. Therefore, what has been neglected up to the age of seven can hardly be made up for later. Up to the age of seven, the physical body is at a stage where it should be developed through external sensory impressions. If the child's eye sees only beauty up to the age of seven, it will develop in such a way that it will retain a sense of beauty throughout its life. Later on, the sense of beauty can no longer be developed in the same way. What you say or do to the child in the first seven years is much less important than the way you shape its environment and what the child sees and hears. Until then, the inner forces of growth must be stimulated by external impressions. The child's freely creative spirit forms a human figure from a piece of wood with a few dots and lines for eyes, nose, and mouth. But if the child is given a doll that is as beautifully shaped as possible, it has something to which it is attached; therefore, the inner spiritual power adheres to what is already there and is not challenged to become active on its own – it is bound – and thus the creative power of imagination is almost completely lost for later life.

[ 6 ] This is largely the case with all impressions of the sensory world. What you yourself are in the child's environment, what the child immediately sees or hears, is what matters. It will become a good person if it sees good people around it. It imitates the things it perceives around it. It is precisely the power of imitation, the effect of example, that must be given the greatest value. Therefore, the right thing to do is to demonstrate as much as possible so that the child can imitate as much as possible. In this sense, the main emphasis must be placed on caring for the physical body in the period from the first to the seventh year. At this age, it is not yet possible to influence the higher bodies through educational measures, certainly not through conscious education; instead, you influence these bodies, while they are still completely preoccupied with themselves, through what you are. A wise person will, through their wisdom, bring wisdom to bear in the child itself. Furthermore, the educator must strive to be as complete a person as possible in the child's environment, to have the highest and best thoughts possible — just as a healthy mother's body has a healthy effect on the child's body.

[ 7 ] At the age of seven, the time begins when you can educate the etheric body through deliberate measures. Two things come into consideration here: habits and memory, which are related to the development of the etheric body. Depending on whether a person has this or that habit or takes this or that into their memory, they form their etheric body. Therefore, one should try to give the growing human being a solid foundation for life, rooted in good habits. Those who do something different every day and do not have a secure basis for their actions will become people of no character. Developing a foundation of habits is therefore reserved for the period from the seventh to the fourteenth year. Memory must also be influenced during this time. It is therefore necessary for the child to acquire sound habits and a wealth of knowledge stored in their memory. In fact, it is a mistake of our materialistic age to believe that children should be encouraged to form their own judgments as early as possible. On the contrary, every effort should be made to protect children from this. During this period, children should still learn things through authority. The people around a child should influence the child in its second seven-year period not only by example, but directly through instruction. Strong memories are formed not always by asking “why” and “because,” but by building everything on authority. Therefore, the child must be surrounded by people on whom it can rely, whom it trusts, and who awaken in the child a firm belief in their own authority. Only after this stage of life should the child be guided toward judgment and independent knowledge. By prematurely freeing the child from authority, you deprive the etheric body of the opportunity for thorough training. It is therefore best to teach children in the second seven-year period not with evidence and judgments, but with examples and parables. Judgments only affect the astral body, and this is not yet ready for them. Children should be told as much as possible about great personalities. The view of such historical figures should simply have the effect on the child that it emulates these figures. The question of death and birth is also much better answered by example. Those who are able to draw on nature will see what they can achieve with it. For example, show the child a caterpillar and how it spins itself into a cocoon and how the butterfly finally emerges from this cocoon — this is a wonderful example of the child's emergence from the mother. Much can be achieved by borrowing comparisons from nature itself.

[ 8 ] It is equally important to impress upon the child not moral principles, but moral parables. This is clearly illustrated by some of Pythagoras' sayings. Instead of declaiming: If you want to do anything, you should not concern yourself with things whose failure you can foresee from the outset! — Pythagoras said succinctly: Do not strike the fire with a sword! — This is a particularly good example of this. And for the instruction: “You should not meddle in things for which you are not yet ready!” — he used the phrase: “Refrain from beans!” — This had a moral application in addition to the purely physical one. In ancient Greece, when people wanted to decide something, they distributed black and white beans and then counted how many beans of each color had been given. Elections were also held in this way. In this sense, Pythagoras said, instead of: You are not yet mature enough to interfere in public affairs! — simply: Abstain from beans!

[ 9 ] In this way, the creative power of the imagination is appealed to, rather than the power of the intellect. The more you use imagery, the more you influence the child. There was nothing better Goethe's mother could do than tell her son beautiful moral stories. She never preached to him. Sometimes she didn't finish her story; then he made up the ending himself.

[ 10 ] It is particularly detrimental for the developing human being if, before the age of fourteen, he is urged to criticize, to rely on his own judgment, if he loses the benevolent power of the authorities around him. It is very bad for him if there are no personalities he can look up to. The etheric body withers, becomes weak and sickly if it cannot climb up to great examples. And then it is particularly bad if they acquire their own creed before their time and want to judge the world. They are only ready for this when their astral body has developed freely. The more one can protect him from premature judgment and criticism, the better it is for him. The educator therefore acts wisely when he tries to make reality understandable through events themselves before the astral body is freed, and does not call on young people to make a fixed confession, as is increasingly the case in materialistic education. The chaos among creeds would quickly disappear if this were taken into account. Judgment and reason should be brought into play as late as possible, only when the sense of individuality awakens with the emergence of the astral body. Before that, the individual should not decide for the individual; it should be a given whom they believe in. But in the years to come, the individual will find its strongest expression in the relationship between the two sexes, when one individual feels attracted to the other.

[ 11 ] So you see: if one studies the three bodies of the human being correctly, one indeed obtains the most practical basis for the proper education and development of the human being. Spiritual science is therefore not something impractical, something floating in the clouds, but something that gives us the best guidance for intervening in life.

[ 12 ] This is precisely what makes today's spiritual scientific deepening so necessary, because otherwise people would end up in a dead end. People today criticize the past because children were not called upon at an early age to decide about God and the world. But that was only a very healthy instinct. Today, we must achieve this again more and more consciously. The instinctive recognition of the past has disappeared, and with it a certain certainty about individual things in life. But now the human race must not suddenly be destroyed. If the principles of materialism had been followed radically in the fields of education, medicine, law, and so on, our human order would probably have collapsed long ago. But it was not possible to destroy everything: part of the past has remained. Because materialism would inevitably lead people into a dead end, the spiritual science movement is necessary.

[ 13 ] Teachers who still have a real feeling for the child's soul are simply suffocated by school schematism and regulations that are a caricature of what should really be there and that have been born out of the superstition that one is only dealing with the physical body. Even religious faith does not protect against this. What is important is that people develop a sense for the spiritual, for that which truly transcends the sensory life. That is why people who adhere to external formulas in their educational principles will not be able to find the right approach. They cling to traditional church dogma, but want nothing to do with the development of the spirit. This is what we are primarily concerned with. What is needed today must come from spiritual worlds. For what materialism has produced is only capable of making people sick in their physical bodies and higher bodies. A serious crisis would be inevitable if a spiritual deepening of humanity did not take hold. There are many things that point to the important decisions that are being made within our humanity today. One must look at things inwardly; outward forms are not what matter. The longing and inclination toward the spirit cannot be killed in human beings. Spiritism appealed to some of the people who have such a longing. It seeks to prove the spirit in a material way. It is remarkable how the Catholic Church, which should really only be concerned with spiritual matters, responds to this: every external action here is a reflection of something spiritual. But it is strange what has happened just now: namely, that someone in church circles is looking for external proof of the spiritual. A book by Lapponi, the Pope's personal physician, has now been published in which he openly advocates spiritualism. This is so strange because the people this publication is aimed at are obviously no longer spiritually minded; they need tangible proof of the existence of a spiritual world. It is worth reflecting on the fact that the Pope's personal physician advocates spiritualism. There is a longing for the spiritual world, but no understanding of one's own teaching about the spiritual world.

[ 14 ] Thus materialism creeps into religions that should not be materialistic at all. Therefore, you can see how significant a movement is that appeals to the real knowledge of the spirit in human beings, which, however, does not take an ascetic and alien view of life, but rather makes the practical significance of this spiritual aspect even more comprehensible at every moment.

[ 15 ] But now we should not ask: How can I quickly develop all kinds of occult powers within myself? Or: How can I cocoon myself so as not to come into contact with reality? Anyone who asks such questions is an egoist and nothing more than a spiritual gourmet. If you only want to enjoy everything that pleases you spiritually, you are only behaving in a slightly more sophisticated way than someone else who starts gourmet tasting at breakfast. Those whose physical taste is spoiled sometimes come up with the most sophisticated spiritual dishes. A true theosophist is someone who strives to understand life and serve life, and parents who see it as their task to support their child in its development at every step it takes are theosophically minded. Do not say: How can we do that in our time? - Here again, one must know that it is important to consciously hold fast to the fact that the soul is eternal. Human beings are ready to believe in an eternal life into which they would like to enter as soon as possible after their death. But for those who are truly convinced that the soul is eternal, the time from the age of two to eighty is only a difference of seventy-eight years, and what is that compared to eternity? Then one believes in the eternity of existence, and one must also feel this and have patience. We must accustom ourselves to working in the service of all humanity. It therefore does not matter at all whether we can really apply what we learn right away; rather, we must always strive to apply it, and everyone will eventually find some small field in which to do so. But if everyone just criticizes, nothing will ever come of it. It is better to do a little and not complain that we cannot apply what we have learned than to do nothing at all. This is what we should engrave in our souls as a practical law. Our lives will change all by themselves if we work our way into spiritual science in this way, and without even noticing it, people will transform the world when they become theosophists. The main thing and the wisest thing we can do is to first grasp spiritual science in its essence and then live according to it as intensively as possible. Then we introduce it into our lives; the rest will take care of itself. A mother or a teacher who is a theosophist will automatically act differently than someone who has no idea about it. Those who know what a human being is will also instinctively observe the different ways in which human beings develop. Above all, genuine theosophical study would put an end to the hypocrisy of the great and powerful doing all sorts of nonsense and then entering the nursery with deadly serious principles. This is precisely because people have no faith in the spirit.

[ 16 ] Thus we have gained further insight into the fact that spiritual science is something that belongs to the practice of life, and that it is one of the most nonsensical prejudices when opponents say that it distracts from life. In truth, it leads into life. Today, every respectable bourgeois still feels superior when they can talk about theosophy, but a time will come when people will judge differently. One day, people will realize where true joy in life lies. The future will come when people will say: These were the great reactionaries who clung to a current of thought that could not possibly lead into the future, who wanted nothing to do with the great practice of life that heralds new insights of the spirit, as given to us through the theosophical worldview, insights that will become firmly established in us and increasingly practical through the kindled and living theosophical attitude within us.