Rudolf Steiner in the Waldorf School
GA 298
11 June 1921, Stuttgart
Address at the assembly at the end of the second school year
My dear children!1When he was in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner always spoke at these final assemblies, as he did at the opening assemblies. In the early years all the teachers also addressed the children. I must speak to you first of all. You have now put a year of school behind you. When you entered the classes you are in now, you were one year younger, and now you have grown one year older. This can remind you of how you are always growing older, and this in turn will bring you to the thought that someday you will have grown from being children to being adults, big people who will have to be good and capable so that they can work and really carry out what the world and other people ask of them.
Now recall how you were once very small. Remember how you all used to be very little babies who could not speak. You learned to speak and you learned many other things, and when you had already learned a lot, you came here to us to go to school. Your parents sent you here to go to school with us. Think about your parents and about how they thought about you. When you were babies, when you were very small children, your parents were concerned: “What will become of my boy? What will become of my girl? Will they grow up to be good and capable people someday, so that when I am old I will be able to have confidence in my children?” That is what your fathers and mothers said. And you know, dear children, that your parents brought you here, you who are nearest and dearest to them, so that you would grow up to be people like that. Your parents were concerned that you grow up to be good, capable people, and they brought you here to this Waldorf School because they believe that the teachers here can teach you to grow up to be good and capable people.
Remember that you must learn! Your parents brought you here and entrusted you to your dear teachers, and you must bring home a present to your parents at the end of each day and especially at the end of the year—a present that they will like a lot and that will make them say (if it is a good present), “My boy, or my girl, has learned something real.” You must realize that it is something really nice for them when you can go home at the end of the school year and say, “Father and Mother, I really tried hard to learn something good.” If you can do this, dear children, you give your parents great pleasure and take away one of their greatest worries. This is something we especially want to think about today. Let us think about being here in this school to fulfill what our parents intended when they brought us here.
After that, let us think about growing older each year, and about being grown-up people someday. Life is coming, with its pain, its destiny, and its joy, and with its work, too. Life, my dear children, will ask a lot of you. It will have very specific requirements for you. Now, dear children, there is one thing that always will give you strength, always be a sun for you, and that is being able to remember being here in school and gradually coming to love your teachers more and more. You do love your teachers very much, dont you? [“Yes!” answer the children.] Later, if you can think back to how you once learned something, to a nice day when your teacher spoke to you with love and it was a real joy for you to be in school, then you will really have a sun that shines into our life. Someday when you are really old and have gray hair, you can think back and remember learning something nice. And if you remember being in school in the right way, you will see that this gives you strength, and that something of it will last until the day you die.
There is something that makes remembering unpleasant, something that clouds our memory, and that is if we have to think, “Oh, I was such a lazy character!” It is not good later on in life if we have to think of how lazy we were. It has a very bad effect on our life if we have to remember that we did not love our teachers and that we had no love for the subject or for what was on the blackboard or for what was being said or read out loud. It is always lovely later on if we can remember working hard and loving the teacher, but it is painful when we have to say to ourselves, “I was a lazy kid. If I hadnt been so lazy, I would be a skillful person now.” Maybe it was fun to be lazy, but later on you will regret it bitterly. Similarly, if you did not pay attention, you will understand nothing of life, and then your whole life will be like a sun with a big cloud in front of it that covers the whole world with hailstones. That is what it will be like if you have to remember not loving your teachers or not loving what you were taught. Keep this in mind, and your thoughts will be good when you think about working hard and paying attention and loving.
That is why you are here. You are here to grow up to be good, strong, capable people in life, and that can happen only if you can remember your childhood as a time when you tried hard to pay attention and to love your subjects and your teachers. That is what you should feel in every lesson. When you come to school in the morning and say your morning verse, you should remember that you are here to become a good and capable person. When you go home from school, you should be thinking about how every minute in which you are not hard-working, attentive and loving is a minute wasted because you are making your parents worry. You bring the best thing home to your parents if they say when they see you coming, “I can tell by looking at my children that they are bringing something good home from school today.” Think about coming home to your parents after school. They should be able to say to themselves, “My children will grow up to be good, capable people.” I want to tell you this, dear children, because we grow a little older each school year, and we remember how we are growing older.
Now that I have talked to the children, I would like to speak over their heads and say a few words to their parents. What unites this school’s faculty is the recognition that a divine spiritual element pervades all human activity, and that people can devote themselves to this divine spiritual element. They must do so especially when they have tasks such as those that teachers have. Our teachers always must be aware that their task consists in calling the spirit of the world down into the school, and they must live in this awareness. This awareness, ladies and gentlemen, is best established among our faculty through the relationship we need to have to the parents of the school children. This relationship should be such that we really think together with the parents, that our feelings are in harmony with theirs, and that what we try to do in the school is the same as what the parents are trying to do with their dear children in realizing their ideals. Our teachers’ philosophy hammers this into their hearts and souls every morning. By looking at the souls of the children, our teachers learn the value of the human soul and know the value of what you have given them by bringing your children here. You have given them the gift of being able to guide the spirit into human souls. It is with this deep feeling of gratitude and of good intentions that our teachers receive what is nearest and dearest to you, the children you bring to this schoolhouse. This is the source of our teachers’ efforts to give something back to you, in love and gratitude and to the best of their abilities, in the souls you then see when your children come home from school or when they leave school to make their way in life. Our teachers receive a gift from you in the form of faith in human development; they would like to give a gift in return by educating your children to be good human beings. To be able to do this, they need to be in full agreement with you. You can be certain, ladies and gentlemen, that when you as parents strive toward this agreement and express it in the right way, harmoniously and with fellowfeeling, as you did just now, our teachers then feel that they have solid ground under their feet, regardless of whatever opposition and enmity they may encounter from other directions. May our teachers seek the impulse for their activity in this harmony with our parents.
There is still a third thing I would like to say to you, my dear teachers. You are united with the spirit of a spiritual worldview. With the best forces you have rooted in you, you try to understand the souls of growing human beings and to work on these souls, not in the sense of a school promoting a single philosophy, but in the sense of permeating an entire system of education with a thoroughly spiritualized attitude. This is the best way to learn two things, my dear friends.
The first is what wells up in freedom from creative strength, from within the human being. We gradually come to recognize that we must constantly learn what is good for the children from the children themselves. We learn to recognize that only what we create in freedom, the best in us that arises from our interactions with the children, can work into the children’s souls. Our creative strength educates us, in the best sense of the word, to be able to do this, and we regard this as the best thing we can do in all of our work.
The other point is that because of our world-view we have developed a deeper connection to the idea of destiny. We work in an artistic manner on the souls of the children, but what we are working on is not like an outer work of art made of marble or wood; it is something that unites with us through destiny. When we stand in front of our children each day, trying to embody, ensoul, and enspirit them with the right insight that is present in the background, we unite with these souls for eternity as a matter of destiny. In the realm of eternity we will be met by what we have shaped during these different transformations, and by how we have done so. In a world-view such as the one we have, the teacher’s true responsibility flows out of a feeling for freedom and destiny. It is out of the spirit of this responsibility that you, my friends, spoke earlier, both to the children and over their heads to their parents. I merely wanted to sum up your words.
Once again, let us say to you, children, “Come back to school next year with the same joy in paying attention; learn to love your teachers even more than you have until now; think of how your teachers’ minds are focused day and night on having you grow up to be good, capable people. Your teachers show their love for you in their efforts to educate your souls, your spirits, and your bodies so that you will grow up to be good, capable people.” Let us impress this deeply upon ourselves as we conclude this school year, and let us begin the next school year with the appropriate strength. Resolve to work hard and pay attention, to love your subjects and your teachers. Then things will go even better than they went this year.
Ansprache Bei Der Feier Zum Abschluss Des Zweiten Schuljahres
Meine lieben Kinder! Zu euch habe ich zuerst zu sprechen. Ihr habt ein Schuljahr hinter euch. Als ihr in die Klassen, in denen ihr jetzt seid, eintratet, da wart ihr ein Jahr jünger, jetzt seid ihr ein Jahr älter geworden. Das kann euch daran erinnern, wie ihr immer älter werdet, und das wird euch darauf bringen, daß ihr einmal aus Kindern große Menschen werdet, Menschen, die in der Welt werden tüchtig sein müssen, damit sie arbeiten können, damit sie dasjenige, was die Welt und was andere Menschen von ihnen verlangen, wirklich auch ausführen können.
Nun erinnert euch daran, wie ihr ganz klein wart. Ihr wart alle einmal ganz kleine Babys, erinnert euch daran, die nicht haben sprechen können. Ihr habt sprechen gelernt, ihr habt manches andere gelernt. Als ihr schon manches gelernt hattet, da kamt ihr zu uns in die Schule. Eure Eltern haben euch zu uns in die Schule getan. Denkt an diese eure Eltern, sie haben an euch gedacht. Als ihr Babys wart, als ihr ganz kleine Kinder wart, da haben die Eltern sich gesorgt darüber: Was wird aus meinem Knaben, oder was wird aus meinem Mädchen werden? Werden sie einmal tüchtige Menschen werden, so daß ich selbst - so sagte der Vater, und so sagte die Mutter -, wenn ich einmal alt sein werde, mit Zuversicht hinblicken kann auf meine Kinder? - Und seht, ihr lieben Kinder, damit ihr solche Menschen werdet, haben euch eure Eltern hierhergebracht; ihr wart das Allerliebste, das eure Eltern gehabt haben. Eure Eltern haben sich gesorgt: Wird mein Kind ein tüchtiger Mensch werden? - Und weil sie geglaubt haben, daß in der Waldorfschule solche Lehrer sind, die aus den Kindern tüchtige Menschen machen können, haben euch eure Eltern hierhergebracht in diese Waldorfschule.
Denkt daran, daß ihr lernen müßt! Eure Eltern haben euch hierhergebracht, haben euch zu euren lieben Lehrern gegeben. Ihr aber müßt euren Eltern jeden Tag und namentlich am Ende eines jeden Jahres ein Geschenk nach Hause bringen, ein Geschenk, das eure Eltern so sehr lieben, wenn es ein gutes Geschenk sein wird, so daß sie sagen können: Mein Bub oder mein Mädchen hat etwas Ordentliches gelernt. - Das müßt ihr als etwas recht Schönes betrachten, wenn ihr am Ende des Schuljahres nach Hause gehen könnt und sagen könnt: Vater und Mutter, ich habe mich recht angestrengt, um etwas recht Gutes zu . lernen. - Dann, meine lieben Kinder, dann habt ihr euren Eltern eine große Sorge abgenommen und eine große Freude gemacht. Daran wollen wir heute ganz besonders denken. Wir wollen daran denken, daß wir hier als Kinder in der Schule sind, damit wir unseren Eltern dasjenige erfüllen, was sie sich vorgenommen haben, was sie vorausgesetzt haben, als sie uns hierher gebracht haben.
Dann wollen wir daran denken, daß wir mit jedem Jahre älter werden, daß wir einmal erwachsene Menschen sein werden. Und da kommt das Leben mit seinen Schmerzen, mit seinem Schicksal, mit seiner Freude, da kommt aber auch das Leben mit seiner Arbeit. Das Leben, meine lieben Kinder, wird viel von euch verlangen. Das Leben wird für euch ganz besondere Voraussetzungen haben. Nun, meine lieben Kinder, eines wird euch immer Kraft geben, eines wird euch immer Sonne geben: wenn Ihr euch erinnern könnt, wie ihr hier in der Schule wart, wie ihr eure Lehrer allmählich lieber und lieber gewonnen habt. Ihr habt doch eure Lehrer sehr lieb? [Ja! - antworten die Kinder.] Wenn ihr später zurückdenken könnt: Da habe ich etwas gelernt, da war einmal ein schöner Tag, da hat der Lehrer lieb zu mir gesprochen, dahabe ich in der Schule eine rechte Freude gehabt - da werdet ihr wirklich eine Sonne haben, die ins Leben hineinstrahlt. Wenn ihr einmal ganz alt seid und graue Haare habt, könnt ihr euch zurückerinnern, wie ihr etwas Schönes erlernt habt. Wenn ihr euch recht erinnert, wie ihr inderSchule wart, werdet ihr sehen: das gibt Kraft, davon hat man etwas bis zu seinem Tode.
Es gibt etwas, das die Erinnerung nicht lieb macht, das die Erinnerung trübt, wenn wir denken müssen: Ach, da war ich ein fauler Kerl! - Das ist nicht gut im späteren Leben, wenn man daran denken muß, wie man ein fauler Kerl war, das wirkt sehr schlimm im Leben, wenn man sich daran erinnern muß, daß man nicht den Lehrer, die Lehrerin geliebt hat, daß? man nicht den Gegenstand oder das, was auf der Tafel stand, was gesagt wurde und was vorgelesen worden ist, geliebt hat. Es ist immer wunderschön, wenn man sich später erinnern kann, wie man fleißig war, wie man den Lehrer oder die Lehrerin geliebt hat. Es ist etwas Schmerzliches, wenn man sich sagen muß: Da war ich ein fauler Junge. Wenn ich nicht ein fauler Junge gewesen wäre, so wäre ich jetzt ein geschickter Mensch. - Die Faulheit hat euch vielleicht Vergnügen gemacht; später werdet ihr es bitter bereuen, wenn ihr faul gewesen seid. Ebenso werdet ihr nichts verstehen vom Leben, wenn ihr unaufmerksam gewesen seid; das ganze Leben wird euch dann sein wie eine Sonne, vor der eine gelbe Wolke steht, die alle Welt mit Hagel bedeckt. So wird das sein, wenn ihr euch erinnern müßt: Ihr habt die Lehrer nicht geliebt oder dasjenige, was euch gelehrt worden ist. Wenn ihr das bedenkt, dann wird das ein guter Gedanke sein, wenn ihr an Fleiß und Aufmerksamkeit und Liebe denkt.
Das ist dasjenige, weswegen ihr hier seid. Ihr seid hier, um tüchtige, kraftvolle Menschen im Leben zu werden; das könnt ihr nur werden, wenn ihr euch so erinnert an eure Kindheit, daß ihr euch sagen könnt: Ich habe mich angestrengt, aufmerksam zu sein und liebevoll zu sein zu meinen Lehrgegenständen und zu meinen Lehrern. - Das ist dasjenige, was ihr in jeder Stunde fühlen sollt. Wenn ihr des Morgens in die Schule hereinkommt, wenn ihr den Morgenspruch sagt, dann sollt ihr euch erinnern: Ich bin da, um ein tüchtiger Mensch zu werden. - Wenn ihr aus der Schule nach Hause geht, dann sollt ihr daran denken: Jede Minute ist verloren, in der ich nicht fleißig, aufmerksam und liebevoll gewesen bin, weil ich meinen Eltern schwere Sorge bereite. - Das Beste, was ihr euren Eltern mitbringen könnt, ist, daß eure Eltern, wenn sie euch zurückkommen sehen, sich sagen: Ich sehe es meinem Kinde an, daß es heute etwas Ordentliches aus der Schule mitbringt. - Denkt daran, daß ihr so aus der Schule zu euren Eltern nach Hause kommt, daß sie sich sagen: Das werden einmal tüchtige Menschen sein. - Das möchte ich zu euch, meine lieben Kinder, sagen, weil jedes Schuljahr uns älter macht, und wir uns erinnern, wie wir älter werden.
Nachdem ich zu den Kindern gesprochen habe, möchte ich ein kurzes Wort über die Köpfe der Kinder hinweg zu den lieben Eltern der Kinder sprechen. Dasjenige, was uns hier in der Schule als Lehrerschaft vereint, ist die Erkenntnis, daß durch alles menschliche Wirken ein GöttlichGeistiges durchgeht, daß der Mensch sich diesem Göttlich-Geistigen hingeben kann, sich besonders hingeben muß bei einer solchen Aufgabe, wie sie dem Lehrer erwächst. Unsere Lehrer müssen sich immer bewußt sein, daß ihre Aufgabe ein Herabrufen des Geistes der Welt in die Schule hinein ist, und sie müssen in diesem Bewußtsein leben. Dies Bewußtsein, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, begründet in unserer Lehrerschaft am besten jenes notwendige Verhältnis zu den Eltern der Schulkinder. Dies Verhältnis soll so sein, daß wir wirklich als Lehrer mit den Eltern recht zusammen denken, harmonisch zusammen empfinden, daß wir dasjenige in der Schule wollen, was die Eltern selbst mit ihren verkörperten Idealen, mit ihren lieben Kindern wollen. Das insbesondere hämmert unseren Lehrern ihre Weltanschauung jeden Morgen ins Herz und in die Seele hinein. Unsere Lehrer lernen, indem sie auf die Seelen der Kinder hinsehen, den Wert der Menschenseele am Kinde erkennen. Daher wissen sie es, was Ihr ihnen gebracht habt, indem Ihr Eure Kinder gebracht habt und damit die Gabe ins Schulhaus getragen habt, um den Geist in Menschenseelen einführen zu können. In diesem tiefen, dankbaren, wohlwollenden Gefühl empfangen unsere Lehrer dasjenige, was Ihr als Euer Liebstes ins Schulhaus hineinbringt. Daraus entspringt das Bestreben dieser Lehrer, in Dankbarkeit und Liebe Euch nach ihren Kräften zurückzugeben, was Ihr selbst gegeben habt, in den Seelen, die Ihr wiederum schaut, wenn Eure Kinder zu Euch nach Hause kommen, oder wenn sie ins Leben hinaus entlassen werden sollen. In diesem menschlichen Entwickelungsglauben empfangen unsere Lehrer eine Gabe von Euch. Eine Gegengabe möchten sie geben, indem sie Eure Kinder zu guten Menschen machen. Dazu bedarf es des vollen Einverständnisses mit Euch. Daher können die verehrten Anwesenden überzeugt sein, daß, wenn Sie als Eltern nach diesem Einverständnis streben, wenn Sie es in der rechten Weise harmonisch zusammenfühlend zum Ausdruck bringen, wie es jüngst geschehen ist, daß dann unsere Lehrer fühlen - was auch sonst wirken möge an Gegnerschaft und Feindseligkeit: sie haben sicheren Boden unter den Füßen. In diesem Einklang mit den Eltern mögen die Lehrer den Impuls des Wirkens suchen.
Ein drittes Wort möchte ich an Euch, meine lieben Lehrer, richten. Ihr seid vereinigt mit dem Geist einer Geistesweltanschauung. Ihr versucht nach den besten Kräften, die in Euch wurzeln, im Sinne nicht einer Weltanschauungsschule, im Sinne der Durchdringung alles Erziehungswesens mit einer durchgeistigten Gesinnung, die Seelen der werdenden Menschen zu erkennen, an diesen Seelen der werdenden Menschen zu arbeiten. Dabei lernt man am besten zwei Dinge kennen, meine lieben Freunde und Freundinnen.
Das erste ist dasjenige, was in menschlicher Freiheit aus der schöpferischen Kraft, aus dem Inneren herausquillt. Wir lernen allmählich erkennen, wie wir selbst fortwährend von den Kindern lernen müssen, was ihnen frommt. Wir lernen erkennen, daß nur dasjenige, was wir aus der Freiheit erschaffen, was als unser Bestes ersteht im Umgange mit den Kindern, hineinwirkt in die Seele des Kindes. Unsere Schöpferkraft kann uns im besten Sinne des Wortes selbst dazu heranentwickeln; das betrachten wir als unser Bestes in unserer ganzen Arbeit.
Der andere Punkt ist der, daß wir gerade aus unserer Weltanschauung heraus eine tiefere Beziehung zur Schicksalsidee gebildet haben. Wir arbeiten künstlerisch an den Seelen der Kinder. Das, woran wir künstlerisch arbeiten, ist nicht so wie das äußere Kunstwerk in Marmor oder Holz, es ist etwas, was sich schicksalsmäßig mit uns verbindet. Wenn wir so am Tage vor unseren Kindern stehen, wenn wir ihnen dasjenige einzuverleiben, einzuseelen, einzugeistigen versuchen, was als rechte Einsicht im Hintergrunde dasteht, verbinden wir uns für eine Ewigkeit schicksalsmäßig mit diesen Seelen, so daß uns im Reiche der Ewigkeit an dem, was wir gebildet haben in den verschiedenen Metamorphosen, die Art, wie wir es gemacht haben, entgegentreten wird. Aus dem Freiheits- und Schicksalsgefühl quillt in einer Weltauffassung, wie wir sie hier haben, die wahre Lehrerverantwortlichkeit. Aus dem Geiste dieser Lehrerverantwortlichkeit heraus haben unsere Freunde und Freundinnen gesprochen vorhin; sie haben zu den Kindern gesprochen und über die Köpfe der Kinder hinweg zu den Eltern. Ich wollte diesen Worten nur einen zusammenfassenden Ausdruck verleihen.
Noch einmal sei es euch Kindern gesagt: Kommt mit derselben Liebe und mit derselben Lust zur Aufmerksamkeit im nächsten Schuljahr in die Schule hinein; lernt noch mehr, als ihr es bis jetzt getan habt, eure Lehrer lieben; denkt daran, daß das Sinnen eurer Lehrer Tag und Nacht darauf gerichtet ist, euch zu tüchtigen Menschen zu machen. Eure Lehrer lieben euch, indem sie dadurch, daß sie eure Seelen, eure Geister, eure Leiber bilden, euch zu tüchtigen Menschen machen. Das wollen wir uns recht tief einprägen, indem wir aus diesem Schuljahr hinausgehen. Wir wollen mit der entsprechenden Kraft das nächste Schuljahr recht gut beginnen. Nehmt es euch vor: Ich will fleißig und aufmerksam sein, ich will liebevoll zu den Gegenständen und zu den Lehrern und Lehrerinnen werden. - Es wird gehen, es wird noch besser gehen, als es dieses Jahr gegangen ist.
Speech at the ceremony marking the end of the second school year
My dear children! I must speak to you first. You have completed another school year. When you entered the classes you are now in, you were a year younger; now you are a year older. This can remind you of how you are growing older, and it will make you realize that one day you will grow from children into adults, people who will have to be capable in the world so that they can work, so that they can truly do what the world and other people demand of them.
Now remember how small you were. You were all once very small babies, remember, who could not speak. You learned to speak, you learned many other things. When you had already learned many things, you came to our school. Your parents sent you to our school. Think of your parents; they thought of you. When you were babies, when you were very small children, your parents worried about what would become of their boy or girl. Would they grow up to be capable people, so that I myself—as the father said, and as the mother said—could look at my children with confidence when I grew old? And see, dear children, so that you can become such people, your parents brought you here; you were the most precious thing your parents had. Your parents worried: Will my child become a capable person? And because they believed that the Waldorf School has teachers who can turn children into capable people, your parents brought you here to this Waldorf School.
Remember that you must learn! Your parents brought you here and entrusted you to your dear teachers. But you must bring your parents a gift home every day, and especially at the end of each year, a gift that your parents will love so much, if it is a good gift, that they can say: My boy or my girl has learned something worthwhile. You must consider it a very good thing when you can go home at the end of the school year and say: Father and mother, I have worked hard to learn something really good. Then, my dear children, you will have relieved your parents of a great worry and given them great joy. Let us think about this in particular today. Let us remember that we are here as children in school so that we can fulfill what our parents have planned for us, what they expected when they brought us here.
Then let us remember that we are getting older every year, that we will one day be adults. And then life will come with its pains, its fate, its joys, but also with its work. Life, my dear children, will demand a lot from you. Life will have very special requirements for you. Well, my dear children, one thing will always give you strength, one thing will always give you sunshine: if you can remember how you were here at school, how you gradually grew to love your teachers more and more. You love your teachers very much, don't you? [Yes! - the children answer.] When you can look back later and say: I learned something there, there was a beautiful day, the teacher spoke kindly to me, I had real joy at school - then you will truly have sunshine that shines into your life. When you are very old and have gray hair, you will be able to remember how you learned something beautiful. If you remember correctly how you were at school, you will see: that gives you strength, and you will benefit from it until you die.
There is something that does not make memories dear, that clouds memories, when we have to think: Oh, I was such a lazy guy! - That's not good in later life, when you have to think about how lazy you were. It has a very bad effect on your life when you have to remember that you didn't love your teacher, that you didn't love the subject or what was written on the blackboard, what was said and what was read aloud. It's always wonderful when you can remember later how hard-working you were, how much you loved your teacher. It's painful when you have to say to yourself: I was a lazy boy. If I hadn't been a lazy boy, I would be a skilled person now. - Laziness may have given you pleasure; later you will bitterly regret it if you have been lazy. Likewise, you will understand nothing of life if you have been inattentive; then your whole life will be like a sun with a yellow cloud in front of it, covering the whole world with hail. That is how it will be when you have to remember: you did not love your teachers or what you were taught. When you think about this, it will be a good thought if you think about diligence and attentiveness and love.
That is why you are here. You are here to become capable, powerful people in life; you can only become that if you remember your childhood in such a way that you can say to yourselves: I have tried hard to be attentive and loving toward my subjects and my teachers. That is what you should feel in every lesson. When you come into school in the morning, when you say the morning verse, you should remember: I am here to become a capable person. When you go home from school, you should remember: Every minute I have not been diligent, attentive, and loving is lost, because I am causing my parents great concern. The best thing you can bring your parents is that when they see you come home, they say to themselves: I can see that my child is bringing something worthwhile home from school today. - Remember to come home from school to your parents in such a way that they say to themselves: These will be capable people one day. - I would like to say this to you, my dear children, because every school year makes us older, and we remember how we are growing older.
After speaking to the children, I would like to say a few words over the heads of the children to their dear parents. What unites us here at school as teachers is the realization that a divine spirit pervades all human activity, that human beings can devote themselves to this divine spirit, and that they must devote themselves to it especially in a task such as that which falls to the teacher. Our teachers must always be aware that their task is to bring the spirit of the world into the school, and they must live with this awareness. This awareness, dear friends, is the best foundation for the necessary relationship between our teaching staff and the parents of the schoolchildren. This relationship should be such that we as teachers truly think and feel in harmony with the parents, that we want in school what the parents themselves want with their embodied ideals and their beloved children. This, in particular, hammers our teachers' worldview into their hearts and souls every morning. By looking into the souls of the children, our teachers learn to recognize the value of the human soul in the child. Therefore, they know what you have brought them by bringing your children and thus carrying the gift into the schoolhouse in order to be able to introduce the spirit into human souls. With this deep, grateful, benevolent feeling, our teachers receive what you bring into the schoolhouse as your most precious gift. This gives rise to these teachers' desire to give back to you, in gratitude and love, what you yourselves have given, in the souls that you see again when your children come home to you or when they are released into life. In this belief in human development, our teachers receive a gift from you. They would like to give a gift in return by making your children good people. This requires your full agreement. Therefore, those present here today can be convinced that if you as parents strive for this agreement, if you express it in the right way, harmoniously and with a sense of togetherness, as has recently been the case, then our teachers will feel that, whatever opposition and hostility may arise, they have solid ground beneath their feet. In this harmony with the parents, the teachers may seek the impulse for their work.
I would like to address a third word to you, my dear teachers. You are united by the spirit of a spiritual worldview. You try to the best of your ability, rooted in yourselves, not in the sense of a worldview school, but in the sense of permeating all education with a spiritual attitude, to recognize the souls of the developing human beings and to work on these souls of the developing human beings. In doing so, you learn two things best, my dear friends.
The first is that which springs forth from human freedom, from creative power, from within. We gradually learn to recognize how we ourselves must continually learn from children what is good for them. We learn to recognize that only what we create out of freedom, what arises as our best in our dealings with children, has an effect on the soul of the child. Our creative power can develop us in the best sense of the word; we consider this to be our best in all our work.
The other point is that, precisely because of our worldview, we have formed a deeper relationship with the idea of destiny. We work artistically on the souls of children. What we work on artistically is not like the external work of art in marble or wood; it is something that connects us to destiny. When we stand before our children in this way, when we try to instill in them, to imbue them with, to inspire them with what stands as true insight in the background, we connect ourselves for eternity with these souls through destiny, so that in the realm of eternity we will be confronted with what we have formed in the various metamorphoses, the way we have done it. From the feeling of freedom and destiny springs, in a world view such as we have here, true teacher responsibility. It was in the spirit of this teacher responsibility that our friends spoke earlier; they spoke to the children and, over the children's heads, to the parents. I wanted only to give these words a summary expression.
Once again, let it be said to you children: Come to school next year with the same love and the same desire to pay attention; learn to love your teachers even more than you have done so far; remember that your teachers' thoughts are focused day and night on making you capable human beings. Your teachers love you by forming your souls, your spirits, your bodies, and thus making you capable human beings. Let us engrave this deeply in our minds as we leave this school year behind. Let us start the next school year well, with the appropriate energy. Make a resolution: I will be diligent and attentive, I will be loving toward the subjects and the teachers. It will work, it will work even better than it did this year.