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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Rudolf Steiner in the Waldorf School
GA 298

21 December 1919, Stuttgart

Address at the assembly at the beginning of the third school year

Dear children! Today I will speak first to those of you who are here with us today for the first time and who will be getting together with your nice teachers over in the Waldorf School in the next few days.

My dear children! Until now, your time has been spent at home in your parents” house, and your good parents have taken care of you, taken care of you lovingly. You need only to do a little bit of thinking—you can already think enough to do that—to know how your parents began each morning by taking care of you. They made sure that your bodily needs were met, that you got the breakfast and lunch that you need so badly in order to live, and they also made sure that you could enjoy life, that you had a chance to enjoy flowers and plants and all the beautiful things there are in the world. Dear children, you can also already think about how glad your hearts were when your dear parents said something nice to you. Perhaps it did not always occur to you to be heartily thankful for what they do for you, but now that you are starting school, which is something very important for you, I would like to tell you this today: The more grateful you are for all the love your parents give you—and they are always trying to do more—and the more gratitude you show in receiving this love, the better children you are.

During all this time, your parents were realizing that their children would grow up to be big people, just like they are themselves. Once upon a time they had to realize that there was something they needed to learn in order to be able to provide for their children. They had to learn to work. And you see, if you want to work, you also have to think. They had to learn to think! And then your parents thought about where they would send their children to become good, capable people who would be able to handle their work and get on in life. Then the thought occurred to them to send you here to us in the Waldorf School, because they thought that you could learn something here about becoming good, capable people. I want you to think about how your parents sent you here so that you will be able to work someday. You cannot work without thinking. So that you will know that, I want you to promise to work in the Waldorf School.

In the Waldorf School we have made sure that you will be able to learn something, and we have also made sure that you will be able to find things you really like. From time to time you received something from your parents, a gift or a kind word, and then you said or thought or felt, “That’s really nice!” And you see, if you really understand what is going on when you go to the Waldorf School in the next few days, you may also be able to say, “That’s really nice! Going to the Waldorf School is a nice gift our parents have given us.”

You will often feel that this is a nice gift. You see, we have to take care of the Waldorf School, and the teachers are people who care a lot. They made sure that the children will be able to say, “That’s really nice!” It will be easy for you to say it's nice in the Waldorf School because we have made sure that the men and women who are going to be your teachers are really nice. You will meet good teachers who really like you. And actually, you will learn the most if you really love your teachers. This is what you have to watch out for, that you really, really love your teachers. If you do, then you will also learn well.

This is why I am telling you especially to notice the nice things your teachers will tell you. If you really love them, then you will do what they want, and then you will really learn a lot. I think you will often be able to say to yourselves, “How nice that our parents sent us to the Waldorf School!” And when you come into our school and sit in class, you will also always be able to feel that your teachers love you a whole lot.

You know that you are often tired in the evening. Often you were tired, and then you had to go to sleep, and in the morning you woke up again. While you are sleeping, you do not see anything or hear anything, but you are getting strong before morning comes. That is when other spiritual beings are awake. This is something you cannot understand yet. (That is why you have to go to school—to learn to understand things that you do not understand now.) Other spiritual beings are awake, and people must be able to give themselves up to these spiritual beings. They must learn to love and respect what they do not see. That is what the Waldorf School wants to give you, so that you will be good, thinking, hard-working children, and devout children, too. In the Waldorf School you are meant to become devout children, children who know that people also have something inside them that we cannot see. And as I said, even though you may not have understood very much of this now, that is why you are coming to the Waldorf School, where you will learn to understand it. This is something you must understand, or you will not get anywhere in life.

Now I am going to turn to your parents who have sent you here, and I am especially going to thank them for the confidence they show in the Waldorf School by sending us what is nearest and dearest to them. I would like to assure these parents that we who are trying to represent and implement the spirit of the Waldorf School are aware of the infinitely great responsibility we take on when you parents bring what is dearest to you here to become good and capable in life. Now that you have made the important and significant decision to send your children to the Waldorf School, we hope that your confidence in the school will be able to grow as you see Waldorf faculty striving to accomplish what you expect of us in educating your children in spirit, body, and soul. What has developed in the Waldorf School over the past two years gives us good reason to hope that what we do will merit your confidence. What we do, what our Waldorf faculty does, is what will confirm the confidence you now show in the school by entrusting to us what is dearest to you. Although what I have said may not be fully comprehensible to our dear children, they will find that they are able to pick it up again later.

Now that I have said this to our youngest children who are just beginning their school careers, I would like to turn to the older children who have already spent part of their time in school with us, and say a few words to them. And the first thing I would like to say to them is something I have come to love doing each time I come here, because it always gets a clear and unmistakable answer. Now that I have asked the youngest children to make sure that they start to love their teachers, I would like to ask you older children, who have been here before, whether you love your teachers. [The children answer, “Yes!”] You love your teachers because that is the way things should be. The way your teachers behave toward you will make you love them.

To the older children, I would like to say this: In your new grades, you will meet the same teachers that you had last year. You will continue with what you learned in the earlier grades. However, you should still think about what it means to move up a grade. Think about how moving up can remind us that in life we are always getting older and older. Especially today, when you are entering a new grade, you should look back a bit on the time when you were younger. You should think about all the things you now know because of what was taught to you in school, and now that you are moving up a grade you should think about needing to look into the future. The future, my dear children, is what we often try to hold in front of us in life. It is what you should hold in front of yourselves.

When you go out in the street, you see the older people around you. You see them leaving home to go to work and then coming home from work; you see them going out to do all kinds of things that need to be taken care of in life. When you go out in the street, you also see younger people who have just gotten out of school and who now have to apply what they learned in school for the first time. You see people who are older than you are and who have already learned something from life itself, who have experienced joy and sorrow in life. And if these older people speak to you, then they will tell you that they learned a lot about life through having learned real things in school. They will tell you that school prepared them to be working people and to be really human. If people take life seriously, you will almost always find that when they think back on their school days, they think, “What would I be now if I had not been nurtured by loving teachers during my school days, if I had not learned all the things that you can learn when you are young, the things that help you on in life and are a real support for you in life?” You find people walking around with gray hair, people on whom life has already left its mark, people who have matured. Most of them, when they reach the twilight of their life, think back on their own childhood whenever they see children. Now they think back to when they were sitting at their desks in school, and only now do they understand what they were able to take with them from that time. Only now do they really feel what it meant for their whole life.

Let me tell you today that if you love your teachers, if you work hard while you are sitting at your desks in school, then having been able to be in school in this way will be the greatest possible joy for you when you have grown old. The Waldorf School wants to make sure that you have something that will last you a lifetime when you think back on the school, when you apply what came to you in the Waldorf School to your life. The Waldorf School does not want to simply uplift you; it wants to let the difficulties of work, which do have to be there, alternate with joy and with what can bring you pleasure in life.

The Waldorf School wants to give this to all of you. You will see that you can take great pleasure in having done hard work, in having learned something difficult. You must not believe it when people say that school should turn everything into a pleasure. As a teacher, you cannot always arrange things so that the students learn everything as if they were playing a game. You will not find that we always turn learning into a game. There will also be times when it is hard for you, but when you see that your teachers are concerned that there also be a place for the hard things, you will be able to take pleasure in overcoming the difficulties. Then you will also be able to be glad that you are in the Waldorf School and that you can learn what you need to learn for life in this way. And those of you who have been here longer will have noticed that we are really trying with all our might to help you become people with a feeling for true human devotion, people who can look up to a spiritual, supersensible world. You will learn to understand the words “spirit” and “supersensible world” better and better as you move up from one grade to the next.

Today, then, try to think about growing older. Moving up through the grades in school shows you that people grow older. It reminds you that you need to be in school to make sure, both for your own sake and out of love for your teachers, that you pay attention and work good and hard so that you learn what you need to know for life.

Every hour of the day and night, your teachers are concerned about how to best introduce you to what you need for life. With strong will and with all the thoughts they can possibly have, they are looking for what you need. Of course this will be difficult for you, but they will make it as easy as possible. If they tried to teach it to you in the form of a game, you would not become good, capable people in life. Some things in life are difficult, but you will overcome them if you learn to overcome difficulties when you are still children.

You will go into the new school year in the right way. You will learn many new things, and some of what comes to you will bring you new joys. Some of it will show you the greatness and glory and breadth of the things in the world into which we human beings come. You will learn that what shines down from the moon and stars, what expresses itself and reveals itself in this world that speaks to us when the plants grow green and come up out of the earth in spring, what reveals itself in deep valleys and in the shapes of mountains and in minerals—that all this challenges us to lend a hand and bring forth the best that we can. It challenges us to learn to understand something about the world so that we can work in it. What is presented to you in your new grade will help you learn to better understand the greatness and glory of this world, of the divine deeds of lofty beings. You will learn that it is inherent in the nature of human beings to take their place in this divine world as workers who are able to do something because of what they have learned. The moment will come when you look out at the world and at the hard-working people who do so much, and if you yourself are not capable and have not learned anything worthwhile, you will be forced to ask yourself, “Now that I have grown old, what am I, since I made myself useless as a child?” This moment will come. As you grow old, think about how you can avoid this moment. You certainly can avoid it. The less you reject what your teachers ask of you out of love, the bigger and stronger you will be as you take your place in life. Think about this. Think about it each morning when you go to school. Think about that moment, and by being attentive in school you will become good, capable people who have no reason to reproach themselves in life.

My dear children, today in this serious moment there is something else I need to remind you. By now you will have seen how, once people have gotten gray hair and grown tired and old, they are carried out and their bodies are buried; the end of their life has come. That is only an outer ending. When this moment comes, a person’s immortal soul rises up to the spirit of whom we all know. Just as you are now in a body, one day you will be spirit. Although people must prepare themselves for serious work in the world, they also must prepare themselves to enter the world in which they will live as spirit, just as we now live in bodies in this physical, sense-perceptible world. The body gets sick if it is damaged by the outer world or harmed by the weather, or the damage can come from inside. It is a hard destiny for some people when their bodies do not grow right, but it is a much worse destiny if people do not let their souls grow right. While you are in school, getting ready to do good and capable work, you are being guided so that you can also grow in your souls, in the spirit of humanity, so that you will become good and capable people not only in the eyes of other human beings and in the eyes of the world, but also in the eyes of God and the spiritual world. You will already have experienced this spirit in the Waldorf School. Remain in this spirit and become more and more conscious of it, the older you get.

As you advance from the beginning of the year to the end, your work and your worries increase. So think of a moment like this as something especially important, something that reminds you of how we human beings are standing in the midst of the divine world; of how you need to become strong and capable in body, soul and spirit; of how you think of your spirit, your soul and your body in your diligent striving for growth and health. This thought will help you. You will reach the point where it gives you strength each morning, so that you can prepare your deeds and your goals in the right way. Then you will be able to think about it with satisfaction in the evening. If you can say to yourselves, “I did my duty in school,” you will be able to pass over into God’s spiritual world when you sleep. Through what you experience in the Waldorf School, you must increasingly learn the meaning of the word “duty,” and how duty plays into love for your work. This is something you must learn in the Waldorf School, and through all of this you will become good and capable people.

I am saying this to those who are already in the upper grades, who are entering a more mature age, who are already closer to the life in which they will have to work independently. You more mature children must think about how what I have just said applies to you. You who are now moving up into the higher grades are allowed to do so because of a special destiny that gives you the opportunity to know more than some others can. You have seen others who are already called upon to go to work out there in the world at a young age. They were your classmates; continue to love them. Think of them and consider them your friends. Thinking about them in the right way will make life move forward. Learn not only your subjects, not only what grows and thrives in you directly, but learn to love others too. Get to know each other and learn to really love your classmates. Learn that people are there for each other, that the Spirit Creator of the world endeavors most of all to work through the love that human beings bring toward each other. It is the worst thing for a school when the students do not love each other. Try to discover something lovable in each of your fellow students; there is something lovable in every human being. Learn to carry into each of your classes the warmth that expresses itself in love. If you learn to do that, what you have acquired in this way will give you much to carry out into life.

Now I would also like to address a few words to the parents whose children have been in the Waldorf School before. You will have done some thinking about our way of working in this school. Perhaps you have already been able to see that how we work here requires a sensitivity to the great needs of civilization at the present time. The people who brought the idea of the Waldorf School into the world are burdened by the knowledge that things have come so far that we had to experience the great suffering of the beginning of the twentieth century, the great killing and the distress it brought with it. Those who observe all this with an unprejudiced view, ladies and gentlemen, know that attitudes and ways of thinking, things that live in human thoughts and human hearts, are the origin of these outer events. They know that we must work on the soul and spirit of humanity so that it can be guided out of the forces of world decline into forces of ascent. The idea of the Waldorf School was born out of the great thoughts of our times, and this responsibility stands over us as we work. We in the Waldorf School would like to imbue ourselves through and through with the idea of what it means to lay seeds in the hearts of children, seeds that must begin to grow in the next few decades for the salvation of the world.

At this point I always like to invoke the feeling of responsibility that lies in nurturing humanity’s near future. Ladies and gentlemen, it is easy to speak of great ideals in an abstract sense. It is easy to proclaim that humanity must strive for the true, the beautiful and the good. But salvation and happiness in human evolution do not come from speaking great words about utopias and distant ideals for the future, or from nice words about things that are still undefined and unclear and hovering in the misty distance. They do not come from what we say to make ourselves feel good inside. Working for salvation and happiness and a livable society lies in grasping the details of the tasks life presents us with. If we can think about ideals and ideas in the right way, then ideas become something holy for all of us. If we talk about ideals as if they were undefined, nebulous things, we are speaking in hollow and empty words, but if we do not do that, if in all our dealing with ideals we are aware that we are involved in real concrete work on them, then we contribute much more to the progress and evolution of humanity than we do through beautiful-sounding talk.

The men and women who are Waldorf teachers really want to kindle their feeling of responsibility, really want to dwell in a right understanding of the world, in this attentive listening to what the world demands. May there grow from this spirit the forces that are needed to always do the right thing at any given moment. These forces only arise when we are able to look at the whole. We live our lives with no backbone, no spiritual backbone, if we are not in a position to think and work on behalf of real ideals in this way, if we speak in indeterminate words and foggy ideals. Therefore, I would like to say a few concrete words about the forces that are present in the hearts and souls of our teachers, the forces they will use to justify the confidence you parents place in them, the forces they will use to prove that it is no blind confidence that leads you to send your children to the Waldorf School and that our efforts to nurture the next generation for the sake of the salvation and happiness of humanity are based on understanding.

In thinking like this and in acting on this thought, we are fulfilling not only some pet idea or feeling, but a mission of our times. In acting in this way, we understand what we must do so that humanity can progress from this age of great misery to different age. We understand what can come of wanting to have our young people led with understanding. We know that sensitivity in guiding these young people will carry over into a near and difficult future.

It is in this spirit that I would like to turn to my dear friends the teachers. We have worked together, made an effort together, to bring this spirit into the Waldorf School. After careful selfexamination, we can say today that in some respects we have succeeded in what we set out to do. We succeeded in developing this in a certain way so that our intentions of two years ago have become our practice of today. This will become ever more the case. As the faculty, carried by this spirit, finds its way to its tasks, the outer practice of Waldorf teaching, our outer way of acting, will be imbued more and more by this spirit. Through the fact that our faculty makes a daily effort to learn the art of bringing what is present in the Waldorf School spirit into outer life, this spirit will become ever more a reality, more fit for outer existence; it will grow and perhaps pull others along through its growing.

The important thing is for this Waldorf School spirit to be an example for people to follow. We can do but little in comparison to what humanity needs. However, it can work as a model if you make an effort to do more and more of what has met with understanding on the part of the parents. Then it will be possible to bring the Waldorf School spirit out of the Waldorf School and into the entire life of our civilization.

This is why I am thanking all of you in this moment when you, dear teachers, must set new tasks for yourselves. I thank you because I have been present to see how you have worked on yourselves and thus taken part in the progress of the good spirit here in the Waldorf School.

In this feeling of gratitude we will continue to work together, and we will attempt to understand each other more and more, so that the body of teachers becomes a unity. A school is only something whole when it is an organism out of which a unitary spirit-soul arises. This is what we promise the parents today, these are the intentions we undertake for the future, in the hope that they will become deeds in the same way that some of our earlier intentions have become deeds.

Now that I have turned to you with these words, I would like to sum it up in a few words that may perhaps be said here, in the context of the spirit of the Waldorf School. It would of course be presumptuous to speak these words if they were intended to characterize what has happened through the Waldorf School. However, they are of significance if we speak them, not as a command or as a point we want to hammer in, but as something we say to ourselves so that the forces can become even greater, as we tried to make it happen in the two previous years. Knowing that each individual field of activity expresses in miniature what is intended to happen in the world, we say to ourselves as children, parents, and teachers trying to unite and work together so that the Waldorf School may prosper, not presumptuously, but to our own hearts—“Onward, in the true spirit of the Waldorf School ideal!”

This is the call I wanted to utter to the spirits and souls of all of you, and especially from my heart to yours, today when we are leading our students into a new school year.

Ansprache Bei Der Feier Zum Beginn Des Dritten Schuljahres

Meine lieben Kinder! Zuerst spreche ich zu diesen Kindern, die heute zum erstenmal bei uns sind und die in den nächsten Tagen drüben in der Waldorfschule sich zusammenfinden werden mit den lieben Lehrern.

Meine lieben Kinder! Ihr habt bisher eure Zeit im Elternhaus zugebracht. Ihr seid von euren lieben Eltern gepflegt worden. Eure lieben Eltern haben für euch herzlich gesorgt, und ihr braucht nur ein bißchen nachzudenken - soviel könnt ihr schon nachdenken -, wie eure Eltern angefangen haben zu sorgen für euch an jedem Morgen, wie sie gesorgt haben dafür, daß ihr euer leibliches Wohl finden könnt, daß ihr - es ist so notwendig zum Leben -, daß ihr euer Frühstück und Mittagsmahl bekommt, wie sie dafür gesorgt haben, daß ihr auch Freude am Leben habt, daß ihr spüren könnt, wie ihr euch erfreuen könnt an Blumen, an Pflanzen, an allem, was es in der Welt Schönes gibt. Und ihr, meine lieben Kinder, könnt schon daran denken, wie es euch immer so wohl ums Herz war, wenn eure lieben Eltern dieses oder jenes liebe Wort zu euch gesprochen haben. Ihr habt vielleicht nicht immer gedacht: Wir müssen für dasjenige, was da unsere lieben Eltern für uns besorgen, herzlich dankbar sein -, aber ich möchte euch heute, wo ihr die Schule betretet, wo wirklich etwas recht Wichtiges für euch vorgeht, ich möchte heute euch sagen, daß ihr um so bessere Kinder seid, je mehr ihr für alle Liebe, die euch eure Eltern tun, die sie bestrebt sind, immer weiter zu tun, je mehr ihr für alle diese Liebe immer dankbar seid, immer Dankbarkeit im Empfangen zeigt.

Und immer während dieser Zeit sagten sich eure Eltern: Unsere Kinder werden einmal so große Leute, wie wir selbst sind. Wir haben einmal lernen müssen, daß wir erst durch das Lernen haben sorgen können für die Kinder, wir haben lernen müssen zu arbeiten! - So seht ihr, liebe Kinder, wenn man arbeiten will, muß man auch denken. - Wir haben lernen müssen, zu denken! - Und da faßten eure Eltern den Gedanken, wohin schicken wir unsere Kinder, damit sie tüchtige Leute werden können, damit sie auch einmal sorgen können für Arbeit, damit sie im Leben sich forthelfen können? Da haben sie den Gedanken gefaßt, euch zu uns in die Waldorfschule zu schicken, weil sie glauben, daß ihr hier in der Waldorfschule etwas lernen könnt, um tüchtige Menschen zu werden. Ihr sollt daran denken, daß eure Eltern euch hierhergeschickt haben, damit ihr einmal arbeiten könnt. Man kann nicht, ohne zu denken, arbeiten. Damit ihr das wißt, sollt ihr euch vornehmen: Ja, wir wollen in der Waldorfschule arbeiten!

In der Waldorfschule hat man gesorgt dafür, daß ihr etwas lernen könnt, und man hat dafür gesorgt, daß ihr dasjenige, was ihr eigentlich gerne gehabt habt, auch finden könnt in der Waldorfschule. Es ist so gewesen, daß ihr das oder jenes von den Eltern bekommen habt, dies oder jenes Geschenk, oder manches liebe Wort, und da habt ihr dann gesagt oder gedacht und empfunden: Das ist aber schön! - Nun seht ihr, wenn ihr in den nächsten Tagen in die Waldorfschule geht, dann werdet ihr vielleicht, wenn ihr es recht versteht, auch sagen können: Das ist aber schön! Das ist aber ein schönes Geschenk, das unsere Eltern uns gegeben haben, daß wir in die Waldorfschule kommen!

Ihr werdet oftmals erfahren, daß es ein schönes Geschenk ist. Denn seht ihr, über die Waldorfschule haben wir uns zu sorgen. Die Lehrer sind Menschen, die haben sich viel gesorgt. Sie haben sich gesorgt, daß die Kinder sagen können: Das ist aber schön! - Am besten werden die Kinder das fühlen, daß sie sagen, das ist schön in der Waldorfschule, weil wir gesorgt haben, daß ihr recht liebe Lehrer und Lehrerinnen habt. Ihr werdet liebe Lehrer und Lehrerinnen finden, die haben euch recht lieb. Eigentlich werdet ihr am meisten lernen, wenn ihr eure Lehrer und Lehrerinnen recht lieb habt. Das ist dasjenige, worauf ihr schauen müßt, daß ihr eure Lehrer und Lehrerinnen recht, recht lieb habt. Dann kommt auch das, daß ihr ordentlich lernt.

Deshalb ermahne ich euch ganz besonders: Seht darauf, wie alles so lieb sein wird, was euere Lehrer und Lehrerinnen zu euch sagen werden. Wenn ihr sie recht lieb habt, dann werdet ihr das tun, was sie wollen. Dann werdet ihr recht viel lernen. Ich glaube, ihr werdet oftmals sagen können: Aber das ist schön, daß uns unsere Eltern in die Waldorfschule geschickt haben! - Und ihr werdet auch, wenn ihr in unsere Schule kommt und da sitzt, immer fühlen können, daß ihr eure Lehrer und Lehrerinnen recht, recht lieb habt.

Seht, ihr seid ja oftmals abends müde, und wart oftmals müde, und dann mußtet ihr euch schlafen legen, und morgens wacht ihr wieder auf. Während ihr schlaft, da seht ihr nichts, da hört ihr nichts, da werdet ihr gestärkt bis zum Morgen. Da wachen andere Geisteswesen, das könnt ihr heute noch nicht verstehen; deshalb müßt ihr in die Schule gehen, damit ihr die Dinge verstehen lernt, die ihr heute noch nicht versteht - da wachen Geisteswesen. Diesen Geisteswesen, denen muß der Mensch sich ergeben können; er muß dasjenige lieben und verehren lernen, was er nicht sieht. Und das will euch die Waldorfschule geben, damit ihr gute und denkende, arbeitsame und auch fromme Kinder werdet. Ihr sollt in der Waldorfschule fromme Kinder werden, Kinder, die sich bewußt sind, daß der Mensch auch etwas, was man nicht sieht, in seinem Inneren hat. Und wie gesagt, wenn ihr auch vieles von dem nicht verstanden habt, darum kommt ihr in die Waldorfschule, und ihr werdet das verstehen lernen. Man muß es verstehen, sonst kommt man im Leben nicht vorwärts.

Von euch wende ich mich zu den Eltern, die euch hierher geschickt haben, und danke ihnen namentlich für das Vertrauen, das sie der Waldorfschule entgegenbringen dadurch, daß sie ihr Liebstes hereinschicken in diese Waldorfschule. Ich möchte diesen Eltern die Versicherung geben, daß diejenigen, die den Geist der Waldorfschule vertreten wollen und ausführen wollen, daß diese sich bewußt sind, wie sie eine große, eine unermeßliche Verantwortung damit auf sich nehmen, daß ihnen die Eltern ihr Liebstes hereinbringen, damit dieses Liebste tüchtig wird im Leben. Es steht zu hoffen, daß dasjenige Vertrauen, das Sie jetzt der Waldorfschule entgegenbringen, größer werden kann, je mehr Sie sehen werden, wie die Waldorfschul-Lehrerschaft sich bemüht, nach dem zu trachten, in den Fortschritten und in der Ausbildung Ihrer Kinder in geistiger, leiblicher und seelischer Beziehung dasjenige zu leisten, was Sie erwarten, indem Sie sich zu dem wichtigen, bedeutungsvollen Entschluß aufgerufen haben, Ihre Kinder in die Waldorfschule hereinzubringen. Dasjenige, was sich in der Waldorfschule seit zwei Jahren herausentwickelt hat, bietet genügend Anlaß, die Hoffnung zu hegen, daß dieses Vertrauen wirklich sich wird als ein berechtigtes durch die Tat erweisen lassen. Die Taten werden es sein, die Taten unserer Waldorflehrerschaft, welche zu rechtfertigen haben das Vertrauen, welches Sie in dieser Zeit der Schule entgegenbringen, indem Sie ihr Ihr Liebstes vertrauen. - Wenn ich noch nicht ganz verständlich für unsere lieben Kinder spreche, sie werden sich das merken, sie werden das wieder aufgreifen.

Nachdem ich dies zu unseren jüngsten Kindern, die erst ihre junge Lebensbahn, Lebensschulbahn beginnen, gesprochen habe, wende ich mich mit einigen Worten zu unseren älteren Kindern, die schon ihre Schulzeit zum Teil bei uns verbracht haben. Und diese möchte ich zuerst mit dem Wort ansprechen, das mir namentlich, wenn ich hierhergekommen bin, liebgeworden ist dadurch, daß es eine unmißverständliche und eindeutige Antwort gefunden hat. Ich möchte nun, nachdem ich zu den jüngsten Kindern gesagt habe, sie möchten sorgen, ihre Lehrer lieb zu bekommen, unsere älteren Kinder, die schon da waren, fragen: Habt ihr sie lieb?, daß die Älteren es sagen, die schon wissen, wie es ist in der Waldorfschule. [Die Kinder antworten: Ja!] Ihr habt eure Lehrer lieb, weil das so recht ist, weil die Lehrer sich so zu euch verhalten werden, daß ihr sie lieb haben werdet.

Zu den älteren Kindern möchte ich dieses sagen: Ihr werdet ja dieselben Lehrer und Lehrerinnen finden in der neuen Klasse, die ihr in der alten Klasse gehabt habt. Ihr werdet fortsetzen, was ihr gelernt habt in den früheren Klassen, und ihr sollt dennoch denken, was es bedeutet, in eine neue Klasse aufzusteigen. Ihr sollt bedenken, daß uns jedes solche Aufsteigen erinnern kann, wie wir im Leben immer älter und älter werden. Gerade an dem heutigen Tage, wo ihr eine neue Schulklasse betretet, sollt ihr ein wenig zurückblicken auf die Zeit, wo ihr Jünger wart: Ihr sollt bedenken, was ihr alles heute wißt durch dasjenige, was in der Schule euch gebracht worden ist, und sollt denken, indem ihr um eine Klasse aufsteigt, daß ihr da auch in die Zukunft sehen müßt, und die Zukunft, meine lieben Kinder, das ist dasjenige, was wir uns oft vorhalten wollen im Leben, was ihr euch vorhalten sollt im Leben.

Wenn ihr hinausgeht auf die Straße, da seht ihr, wie die alten Leute um euch herum sind, wie die alten Leute von dem Haus zur Arbeit gehen, wie sie von der Arbeit nach Hause gehen, wie sie zu allerlei Dingen gehen, die im Leben besorgt werden müssen. Wenn ihr hinausgeht auf die Straße, da seht ihr jüngere Leute, solche, die aus der Schule gekommen sind und zum erstenmal dasjenige anzuwenden haben, was sie in der Schule gelernt haben. Ihr seht noch ältere Leute, die schon vom Leben auch etwas gelernt haben, die im Leben Leid und Freud erfahren haben. Und wenn ihr dann angesprochen werdet in der einen oder anderen Weise von älteren Leuten, dann werden sie sagen: Wir haben vom Leben viel gelernt dadurch, daß wir in der Schule etwas Ordentliches gelernt haben, daß wir in der Schule vorbereitet worden sind zu eigentlich Arbeitenden, zur eigentlichen Menschheit vorbereitet worden sind. - Ihr werdet kaum einen Menschen, der ernsthaftig das Leben auffaßt, finden, der nicht zurückdenkt an seine Schulzeit so, daß er sich sagt: Was wäre ich, ohne daß ich in der Schulzeit von der liebenden Lehrerschaft gepflegt worden bin, damit ich dasjenige aufnehme, was man aufnehmen kann, wenn man jung ist, was einem weiterhilft im Leben, was einem eine starke Stütze im Leben ist. - Ihr findet Leute, die mit grauen Haaren herumgehen, die schon gedrückt sind von dem Leben und reifer geworden sind, die meistens, wenn sie am Lebensabend angekommen sind, dann, wenn sie Kinder sehen, zurückdenken an die eigene Kindheit, zurückdenken, wie sie auf der Schulbank gesessen sind, und jetzt erst einsehen und recht empfinden, was es war durch ihr ganzes Leben hindurch, was sie von der Schulbank ins Leben mitgebracht haben.

Es kann heute gesagt werden, wenn ihr eure Lehrer lieb habt, wenn ihr fleißig gewesen seid, während ihr auf der Schulbank gesessen habt, dann werdet ihr, wenn ihr alt geworden seid, die allergrößte Freude haben, daß ihr in dieser Weise in der Schule wart. Die Waldorfschule möchte dafür sorgen, daß ihr das ganze Leben etwas habt, wenn ihr an sie zurückdenkt, daß ihr etwas habt, wenn ihr dasjenige anwendet im Leben, was in der Waldorfschule an euch herangekommen ist. Die Waldorfschule möchte euch nicht bloß erbauen, die Waldorfschule möchte abwechseln lassen die Schwere der Arbeit, die schon da sein muß, mit Freude und dem, was euch im Leben Freude bringen kann.

Die Waldorfschule möchte dies euch allen geben. Ihr werdet sehen, daß man die größte Freude haben kann, wenn man etwas Schweres gearbeitet hat, wenn man etwas Schweres gelernt hat. Ihr müßt nicht glauben, daß das durchaus richtig ist, wenn die Leute sagen, die Schule soll alles nur zur Freude machen. Man kann nicht immer als Lehrer es so einrichten, daß die Schüler alles nur wie im Spiele lernen. Ihr werdet das Lernen nicht bloß zu einem Spiel gemacht finden. Ihr werdet es auch schwer haben; aber wenn ihr seht, wie eure Lehrer dafür sorgen, daß auch das Schwere herankommt, da werdet ihr euch freuen können auch darüber, wie ihr die Schwierigkeiten überwindet. Ihr werdet euch dann auch freuen können, daß ihr in der Waldorfschule seid, daß ihr in der Weise aufnehmen könnt, was ihr aufnehmen müßt für das Leben. Und diejenigen, die länger da sind, werden gemerkt haben, daß wirklich mit aller Kraft angestrebt wird, daß die, die hier durch die Waldorfschule gehen, auch zu Menschen gemacht werden, die Sinn haben für wirklich echte menschliche Frömmigkeit, für ein Hinaufschauen zur geistigen, übersinnlichen Welt. Ihr werdet das Wort Geist und übersinnliche Welt immer mehr verstehen lernen, je mehr ihr so aufrückt von der einen Klasse zur anderen.

Also versucht einmal so recht am heutigen Tage zu denken, wie die Menschen älter werden, wie euch das, daß ihr selbst aufsteigt, äußerlich offenbart, wie der Mensch älter wird; wie es euch daran erinnert, daß ihr so in der Schule stehen müßt, daß ihr deshalb um eurer selbst willen, aus der Liebe zu eurer Lehrerschaft heraus, auf Aufmerksamkeit und schönen Fleiß merkt, daß ihr euch erarbeitet, was ihr für das Leben braucht.

Eure Lehrer machen es sich zur Sorge in jeder Stunde des Tages und der Nacht, wie sie dasjenige am besten an euch heranbringen, was ihr für das Leben braucht. Sie suchen mit allen Gedanken, die sie nur haben können, mit einem starken Willen suchen sie, wonach euch Bedürfnis ist, was schwer sein muß, trotzdem so leicht als möglich zu machen. Würden sie es euch im Spiele beibringen wollen, dann würdet ihr nicht tüchtige Leute für das Leben werden. Im Leben ist manches schwer, aber ihr werdet es überwinden, wenn ihr als Kind schon lernt, Schwierigkeiten zu überwinden.

Ihr werdet in der richtigen Weise ins neue Schuljahr eintreten. Ihr werdet manches Neue lernen, es wird manches, das an euch heranrtritt, euch neue Freude machen. Manches wird euch zeigen, wie groß, wie herrlich, wie umfassend alles dasjenige ist, was in der Welt ist, in die die Menschen hineingestellt werden. Ihr werdet lernen, daß das, was da herunterglänzt von Mond und Sternen, was sich äußert und offenbart, diese Welt, die zu uns spricht, wenn die Pflanzen im Frühling aus der . Erde heraus grünen, in den tiefen Tälern, in den Formen der Berge und in den Gesteinen, daß es uns auffordert, Hand anzulegen, um das Möglichste hervorzubringen. Das alles fordert uns auf, daß wir von der Welt etwas verstehen lernen, um in ihr zu arbeiten. Ihr werdet durch das, was in der neuen Klasse gebracht wird, um so besser verstehen lernen, wie herrlich, wie groß diese Welt ist, diese göttlichen Taten von hohen Wesenheiten; ihr werdet verstehen lernen, daß es im Wesen des Menschen liegt, daß er sich hineinstellt in diese Gotteswelt, daß er sich hineinstellt arbeitend in diese Gotteswelt, so wie er arbeiten kann, wenn er etwas gelernt hat. Es wird der Augenblick kommen, wo man hinausschaut auf die Welt, auf die fleißigen Leute, die so viel arbeiten, und wenn man selbst nicht tüchtig ist, und man selbst nichts Ordentliches gelernt hat, wo man sich sagen muß: Was bin ich, wenn ich alt geworden bin, wenn ich als Kind mich unnütz gemacht habe? - Dieser Augenblick kommt. Denkt daran, indem ihr alt werdet, daß ihr diesen Augenblick durchaus vermeiden könnt. Denkt daran, daß ihr um so größer im Leben dastehen werdet, je weniger ihr dasjenige abweist, was eure Lehrer in Liebe zu euch von euch wollen, von euch verlangen. Denkt daran an jedem Morgen, wenn ihr zur Schule geht, denkt an diesen Augenblick, und ihr werdet dadurch, daß ihr aufmerksame Schüler seid, einmal tüchtige Menschen werden und euch nichts im Leben vorzuwerfen haben.

Und, meine lieben Kinder, heute in diesem ernsten Augenblick muß an noch etwas anderes erinnert werden. Ihr werdet gesehen haben des öfteren schon, wie, nachdem der Mensch seine grauen Haare bekommen hat, nachdem er die Müdigkeit bekommen hat, nachdem das Alter an ihn herangetreten ist, wie er hinausgetragen wird, wie sein Leib versenkt wird, wie das Lebensende herankommt. Das ist nur ein äußeres Ende. Wenn dieser Moment an den Menschen herankommt, dann steigt seine unsterbliche Seele zu dem Geiste empor, den wir alle kennen. Wie ihr jetzt leiblich seid, so werdet ihr einmal Geist sein. Auch dazu, obwohl der Mensch sich vorbereiten soll zur ernsten Weltarbeit, auch dazu muß sich der Mensch vorbereiten, daß er hineindringen kann in diese Welt, in der er sein muß als Geist, ebenso wie er hier in dieser physisch-sinnlichen Welt als Leib ist. Der Leib wird krank, wenn er irgendwelchen Schaden von der Außenwelt erleidet, wenn die Witterung ihm Schaden zufügt, wenn ein Schaden aus seinem Inneren aufsteigt. Wenn der Leib nicht heranwachsen kann, das mag für manchen ein böses Schicksal sein. Ein viel böseres Schicksal ist es, wenn der Mensch seine Seele nicht richtig wachsen läßt. Während ihr in der Schule vorbereitet werdet für ein tüchtiges Arbeiten, wird immer mehr hingeleitet in dasjenige, was ihr aufnehmt, das, daß ihr auch in der Seele im Geiste der Menschheit wachsen könnt; daß ihr nicht nur vor den Menschen und der Welt tüchtige Leute werdet, daß ihr tüchtige Leute werdet vor Gott und der geistigen Welt. Dieser Geist, ihr werdet ihn schon erlebt haben in der Waldorfschule, in diesem Geist sollt ihr bleiben, immer mehr sollt ihr euch bewußt werden dieses Geistes, je älter ihr werdet.

Wenn ihr von dem Jahresanfang zu dem Ende aufsteigt, wächst eure Arbeit damit, die Sorgen werden damit größer. Deshalb betrachtet einen solchen Moment als etwas besonders Wichtiges, etwas, was euch erinnert, wie der Mensch in der Gotteswelt darinnensteht, wie ihr tüchtig werden müßt an Leib, Seele und Geist, wie ihr in diesem tüchtigen Streben nach Wachstum und Gesundheit eures Geistes, eurer Seele und eures Leibes gedenkt. Denn dieser Gedanke wird euch helfen. Ihr werdet es dazu bringen, daß er an jedem Morgen euch Kraft gibt, damit ihr in der richtigen Weise eure Taten und Ziele zubereitet. Dann werdet ihr am Abend mit Befriedigung daran denken. Ihr werdet schlafend hinübergehen können in Gottes Geisteswelt, wenn ihr euch sagen könnt: Ich habe meine Pflicht in der Schule getan. - Immer mehr müßt ihr lernen durch dasjenige, was ihr in der Waldorfschule erlebt, was das Wort «Pflicht» auch heißt, wie die Pflicht hineinspielt in die Liebe zur Arbeit. Das müßt ihr in der Waldorfschule schon lernen. Durch das alles werdet ihr tüchtige Menschen.

Das sage ich zu denen, die schon in höheren Klassen sind, die schon in ein reiferes Alter eintreten, die schon näher dem Leben stehen, in dem sie selbständig wirken müssen. Ihr, meine reiferen Kinder, ihr müßt daran denken, daß das euch betrifft, was ich jetzt ausgesprochen habe. Gerade diejenigen, die in die höheren Klassen aufsteigen dürfen, sie dürfen aufsteigen durch ein besonderes Schicksal, das ihnen gewährt, mehr zu wissen, als manche andere noch wissen können. Und die in die höheren Klassen aufgestiegen sind, haben sehen können diejenigen, welche jetzt schon in jugendlichem Alter dazu berufen sind, draußen in der Welt zu arbeiten. Ihr habt mit ihnen auf der Schulbank gesessen, behaltet sie lieb. Betrachtet sie als eure Freunde und Freundinnen, denkt an sie! Dadurch, daß ihr in der rechten Weise an sie denkt, wird das Leben vorwärtsgebracht. Lernt nicht nur Unterrichtsgegenstände, nicht nur etwas, was unmittelbar in euch wächst und gedeiht, lernt die anderen lieben, lernt einander kennen, lernt euch einander als Schüler recht lieben. Lernt, daß die Menschen füreinander da sind, daß der Geist-Schöpfer der Welt am meisten bestrebt ist, durch das zu wirken, was die Menschen gegenseitig an Liebe einander entgegenbringen. Am schlimmsten steht es in der Schule, wenn die Schüler sich nicht lieb haben. Versucht aber, in jedem eurer Mitschüler etwas Liebes herauszufinden - in jedem Menschen ist etwas, was man lieben kann -, lernt in jede Klasse jene Wärme hineinzutragen, die sich durch Liebe ausspricht. Wenn ihr das lernt, dann werdet ihr durch das, was ihr euch auf diese Art angeeignet habt, vieles hinaustragen in das Leben.

Nun möchte ich mich mit einigen Worten auch an die Eltern wenden, die ihre Kinder schon in der Waldorfschule gehabt haben. Sie werden manches nachgedacht haben über die Art, wie in der Schule gearbeitet wird. Sie werden vielleicht schon sehen können, daß in der Waldorfschule so gearbeitet wird, daß man ein Herz hat für die großen Zivilisationsbedürfnisse der Gegenwart. Gelastet hat auf den Menschen, die die Waldorfschul-Idee in die Welt gesetzt haben, dasjenige, was so weit geführt hat, daß wir das große Unglück vom Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts erlebt haben, das große Morden und das Elend, das damit verbunden ist. Und derjenige, der das alles mit unbefangenem Sinn betrachtet, meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, der weiß, wie die Gesinnung, wie die Denkungsart, wie das, was in der Menschen Gedanken und Herzen lebt, der Ursprung ist von dem, was äußerlich geschehen ist; er weiß, wie an Seele und Geist der Menschheit gearbeitet werden muß, damit sie zu Aufsteigekräften aus den Weltniedergangskräften übergeführt werden. Aus den großen Zeitgedanken ist der Waldorfschul-Gedanke geboren, und unter dieser Verantwortlichkeit wird gewirkt. Man möchte ganz und gar sich durchdringen in der Waldorfschule mit dem Gedanken, was es heißt, in die kindlichen Herzen das zu legen, was in den nächsten Jahrzehnten herauskommen muß zum Heile der Welt.

Ich möchte hier immer aufrufen das Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl, das darin liegt, für diese nächste Zukunft der Menschheit zu sorgen. Meine sehr verehrten Anwesenden, es ist leicht, im abstrakten Sinne von großen Idealen zu sprechen. Es ist leicht zu deklamieren, wie die Menschheit dem Wahren, Schönen und Guten zustreben muß. Aber nicht davon kommt das Heil und Glück der menschlichen Entwickelung, daß wir in großen Worten von fernsten Zukunftsidealen und Utopien sprechen und schöne Worte machen über dasjenige, was in nebelhafter Ferne noch schwebt, unbestimmt und unklar, was wir aussprechen, damit wir eine Wollust in der Seele fühlen. - Darin liegt das Wirken zum Heil und zum Glück und zur Lebensfähigkeit im sozialen Leben, daß wir ganz im einzelnen die Aufgaben angreifen, die uns das Leben stellt. Wenn wir richtig denken können über Ideale, über Ideen, dann sind Ideen jedem heilig. Wenn wir von Idealen nicht sprechen wie von unbestimmten, nebulosen Dingen - das ist mit hohlen, mit leeren Worten gesprochen -, wenn wir mit Idealen so herumwandeln werden, indem wir uns bewußt sind, daß wir in der ganz konkreten Arbeit an diesen Idealen arbeiten, dann trägt man viel mehr als durch schönes Gerede gerade zum Fortschritt und zur Entwickelung der Menschheit bei.

In dieser richtigen Welterkenntnis, in diesem aufmerksamen Erlauschen desjenigen, was die Welt fordert, in dem liegt das, worin die Waldorfschul-Lehrer und -Lehrerinnen so recht ihr Verantwortlichkeitsgefühl entfachen möchten, in dem sie leben möchten. Aus diesem Geiste heraus möchte ich, daß Kräfte erwachsen, immer im einzelnen Moment das Richtige zu tun. Es werden die Kräfte, im einzelnen Moment das Richtige zu tun, nur erwachsen, wenn man auf das Ganze zu sehen vermag. Man ist im Leben knochenlos, geistig knochenlos, wenn man nicht in der Lage ist, in dieser Weise an die wirklichen Ideale zu denken und zu arbeiten, wenn man in unbestimmten Worten, in nebelhaften Idealen spricht. So möchte ich mit einigen konkreten Worten sprechen von den Kräften, die in den Herzen und Seelen unserer Lehrer sind, mit denen sie rechtfertigen wollen das Vertrauen, das die Eltern ihnen entgegenbringen, mit denen sie beweisen können, daß es nicht ein blindes Vertrauen ist, sein Kind in die Waldorfschule zu schicken, daß es auf Verständnis beruht, wenn wir versuchen, für die nächste Generation zum Heile und zum Glück der Menschheit zu sorgen.

Wir erfüllen immer mehr, indem wir so denken und nach diesen Gedanken handeln, nicht bloß eine Lieblingsidee, ein Lieblingsgefühl, wir vollführen heute eine Zeitaufgabe; wir verstehen, indem wir so handeln, dasjenige, was wir tun müssen, damit die Menschheit aus dem großen Elendszeitalter zu einem anderen Zeitalter vorrückt. Wir verstehen dasjenige, was werden kann, wenn wir verständnisvoll unsere Jugend leiten lassen wollen, daß Herz und Sinn für solche Leitung der Jugend in die nächste harte Zukunft hineinragt.

Aus diesem Geiste heraus möchte ich mich an die lieben Freunde, die Lehrer, wenden. Wir haben zusammengearbeitet, wir haben uns bemüht, diesen Geist in die Waldorfschule hineinzutragen. Wir dürfen uns heute mit aller Selbstprüfung sagen: es ist einiges gelungen, dasjenige, was wir uns vorsetzten, in einer gewissen Weise auszubilden, so daß der Vorsatz von vor zwei Jahren schon zur Handhabung geworden ist. Er wird es noch mehr werden; indem sich die Lehrerschaft, getragen von diesem Geiste, hineinfinden wird in ihre Aufgaben, wird immer mehr und mehr die äußere Handhabung des Waldorfschul-Unterrichts und die Handlungsweise durchdrungen werden von diesem Geiste. Es wird dann dadurch, daß unsere Lehrerschaft selbst mit jedem Tage sich bemüht, die Kunst kennenzulernen, wie man dasjenige, was im Waldorfschul-Geist liegt, ins äußere Leben hineinbringt, es wird dadurch dieser Waldorfschul-Geist immer mehr wirklich werden und zum äußeren Dasein immer mehr gedeihen und wird wachsen und wird vielleicht noch durch sein Wachsen auch andere mit sich ziehen.

Das ist das Wichtige, daß dieser Waldorfschul-Geist Vorbild ist, daß man ihm nachfolgt. Wir können nur wenig tun; es ist wenig im Vergleich zu dem, was die Menschheit bedarf. Es kann vorbildlich wirken, wenn immer mehr dasjenige getan wird, wenn Sie sich bemühen, das zu tun, was auch das Verständnis der Elternschaft gefunden hat. Dann wird sich der Waldorfschul-Geist von der Waldorfschule in unser ganzes Zivilisationsleben hineinbringen lassen.

Dafür sage ich Euch in diesem Augenblick, wo unsere lieben Lehrer neue Aufgaben sich stellen müssen, ich sage allen Dank. Ich sage Ihnen Dank, weil ich mit angesehen habe, wie Sie an sich selbst gearbeitet haben und sich damit beteiligt haben an dem Fortschritt des guten Geistes in der Waldorfschule.

In diesem Dankgefühl werden wir weiter zusammenarbeiten, und wir werden versuchen, daß jeder einzelne immer mehr den anderen versteht, so daß der Lehrkörper ein Ganzes wird. Eine Schule ist nur dann etwas, was vollständig ist, wenn es ein Organismus ist, aus dem eine einheitliche Geist-Seele herauswächst. Solches versprechen wir heute den Eltern, solches werden wir uns vornehmen als Vorsatz für die Zukunft, und wir hoffen, daß es zur Tat werden wird, wie schon einiges zur Tat geworden ist.

Nachdem ich mich mit diesen Worten an Euch alle gewendet habe, möchte ich dasjenige zusammenfassen in ein paar Worte, die vielleicht hier ausgesprochen werden dürfen, weil sie sozusagen umrahmt sind von dem Geiste der Waldorfschule, die selbstverständlich eine Anmaßung werden, wenn sie ausgesprochen würden, um zu charakterisieren, was durch die Waldorfschule geschehen ist, die aber eine Bedeutung haben, wenn wir sie nicht aussprechen wie einen Befehl oder wie etwas, was man einhämmern will, sondern die wir uns selbst sagen, uns selbst, damit die Kräfte noch größer werden, wie wir es versuchten in den verflossenen zwei Jahren. Indem wir wissen, wie sich in einem einzelnen Arbeitsfelde im Kleinen dasjenige ausdrückt, was in der Welt geschehen will, sagen wir, nicht anmaßend, sagen zu uns selbst, die wir vereint als Kinder, als Eltern, als Lehrer für das Gedeihen der Waldorfschule zusammenwirken wollen, sagen wir zu unseren Herzen:

Vorwärts im rechten Geiste der Waldorfschul-Idee!

Das ist es, was ich den Geistern, den Seelen und namentlich den Herzen aller zurufen möchte, aus dem Herzen heraus, an dem heutigen Tage, wo wir unsere Schüler zu einem neuen Schuljahr führen.

Address at the celebration marking the beginning of the third school year

My dear children! First, I would like to address those children who are with us for the first time today and who will be joining their beloved teachers at the Waldorf School in the coming days.

My dear children! Until now, you have spent your time in your parents' home. You have been cared for by your dear parents. Your dear parents have taken good care of you, and you only need to think a little – you are already capable of thinking that much – about how your parents began to care for you every morning, how they made sure that you could find physical well-being, that you - it is so necessary for life - that you get your breakfast and lunch, how they made sure that you also have joy in life, that you can feel how you can enjoy flowers, plants, everything that is beautiful in the world. And you, my dear children, can already think of how your hearts were always so full of joy when your dear parents spoke this or that kind word to you. You may not always have thought: We must be sincerely grateful for what our dear parents do for us—but today, as you enter school, where something really important for you is happening, I would like to tell you today that the more you are grateful for all the love your parents show you, which they strive to continue to do, the better children you are, the more you are always grateful for all this love, always showing gratitude in receiving it.

And throughout this time, your parents said to themselves: Our children will one day be as great as we are. We had to learn that it was only through learning that we could provide for our children; we had to learn to work! So you see, dear children, if you want to work, you also have to think. We had to learn to think! - And then your parents thought, where can we send our children so that they can become capable people, so that they too can provide for themselves, so that they can help themselves in life? Then they decided to send you to us at the Waldorf School, because they believe that here at the Waldorf School you can learn something that will help you become capable people. You should remember that your parents sent you here so that you can work one day. You cannot work without thinking. So that you know this, you should resolve: Yes, we want to work at the Waldorf school!

At the Waldorf school, care has been taken to ensure that you can learn something, and care has been taken to ensure that you can find what you actually wanted at the Waldorf school. It has been the case that you have received this or that from your parents, this or that gift, or many kind words, and then you have said or thought and felt: That's wonderful! Now, when you go to the Waldorf school in the next few days, if you understand it correctly, you will perhaps also be able to say: That's wonderful! What a wonderful gift our parents have given us by sending us to the Waldorf school!

You will often experience that it is a wonderful gift. You see, we have to take care of the Waldorf school. The teachers are people who have taken great care. They have taken care that the children can say: How beautiful! The children will feel this best when they say that it is beautiful in the Waldorf school because we have taken care that you have really loving teachers. You will find loving teachers who love you very much. Actually, you will learn the most when you love your teachers very much. That is what you must look out for, that you love your teachers very, very much. Then you will also learn properly.

That is why I urge you in particular: see how lovely everything your teachers say to you will be. If you love them, you will do what they want. Then you will learn a great deal. I believe you will often be able to say: How wonderful that our parents sent us to the Waldorf School! And when you come to our school and sit there, you will always feel that you love your teachers very, very much.

You see, you are often tired in the evening, and you were often tired, and then you had to go to bed, and in the morning you wake up again. While you sleep, you see nothing, you hear nothing, you are strengthened until morning. Other spiritual beings are awake, which you cannot yet understand today; that is why you must go to school, so that you can learn to understand the things you do not yet understand today – spiritual beings are awake. Human beings must be able to surrender to these spiritual beings; they must learn to love and revere what they cannot see. And that is what the Waldorf school wants to give you, so that you may become good and thoughtful, hard-working, and also pious children. In the Waldorf school, you should become pious children, children who are aware that human beings also have something within them that cannot be seen. And as I said, even if you have not understood much of this, that is why you are coming to the Waldorf school, and you will learn to understand it. You have to understand it, otherwise you will not get ahead in life.

From you, I turn to the parents who sent you here, and I thank them in particular for the trust they place in the Waldorf School by sending their dearest children to this Waldorf School. I would like to assure these parents that those who want to represent and implement the spirit of the Waldorf school are aware of the great, immeasurable responsibility they take on when parents bring their most precious possessions to them so that these precious possessions can become capable in life. It is to be hoped that the trust you now place in the Waldorf school can grow the more you see how the Waldorf school teachers strive to achieve what you expect in terms of your children's progress and education in spiritual, physical, and emotional terms, having taken the important and significant decision to send your children to the Waldorf school. What has developed at the Waldorf School over the past two years gives us sufficient reason to hope that this trust will indeed prove to be justified by our actions. It will be the actions of our Waldorf teachers that will justify the trust you have placed in the school during this time by entrusting it with your most precious possessions. - If I am not yet speaking in a way that is completely understandable to our dear children, they will remember it and take it up again.

Having said this to our youngest children, who are just beginning their young lives and their school careers, I would like to say a few words to our older children, who have already spent part of their school years with us. And I would like to address them first with the words that have become dear to me, especially since I came here, because they have found an unmistakable and clear answer. Now that I have told the youngest children that they should take care to love their teachers, I would like to ask our older children, who have already been here: Do you love them? Let the older ones say it, those who already know what it is like at the Waldorf School. [The children answer: Yes!] You love your teachers because it is right to do so, because the teachers will treat you in such a way that you will love them.

To the older children I would like to say this: You will find the same teachers in the new class that you had in the old class. You will continue what you have learned in the previous classes, and yet you should think about what it means to move up to a new class. You should remember that each such advancement can remind us of how we are getting older and older in life. Especially on this day, when you are entering a new school class, you should look back a little on the time when you were younger: You should consider all that you know today thanks to what you have been taught at school, and as you move up a grade, you should think that you must also look to the future, and the future, my dear children, is what we often want to keep in mind in life, what you should keep in mind in life.

When you go out onto the street, you see how the old people around you are, how the old people go from home to work, how they go home from work, how they go about all kinds of things that need to be done in life. When you go out onto the street, you see younger people, those who have come out of school and are applying what they have learned in school for the first time. You will see even older people who have already learned something from life, who have experienced suffering and joy in life. And when older people speak to you in one way or another, they will say: We have learned a lot from life by learning something proper at school, by being prepared at school to become real workers, to become real human beings. You will hardly find anyone who takes life seriously who does not think back on their school days and say to themselves: What would I be without the loving teachers who nurtured me during my school days, so that I could absorb what one can absorb when one is young, what helps one in life, what is a strong support in life. - You will find people with gray hair, who are already weighed down by life and have matured, who, when they reach the twilight of their lives, usually think back to their own childhood when they see children, think back to how they sat at their school desks, and only now realize and truly appreciate what it was that they brought with them from their school days throughout their entire lives.

Today we can say that if you love your teachers, if you were diligent while you sat at your school desks, then when you grow old you will have the greatest joy in having been at school in this way. The Waldorf school wants to ensure that you have something for your whole life when you think back on it, that you have something when you apply in life what you have learned at the Waldorf school. The Waldorf school does not want to merely edify you; the Waldorf school wants to alternate the hard work that must be done with joy and with what can bring you joy in life.

The Waldorf school wants to give you all this. You will see that you can have the greatest joy when you have worked hard, when you have learned something difficult. You must not believe that it is entirely right when people say that school should be all about having fun. As a teacher, you cannot always arrange things so that the students learn everything as if it were a game. You will not find that learning is merely a game. You will also have difficulties; but when you see how your teachers ensure that the difficult things are also addressed, you will be able to rejoice in how you overcome the difficulties. You will then also be able to rejoice that you are at the Waldorf School, that you can absorb in this way what you need to absorb for life. And those who have been there longer will have noticed that every effort is made to ensure that those who attend the Waldorf school become people who have a sense of genuine human piety, of looking up to the spiritual, supersensible world. You will learn to understand the words “spirit” and “super-sensible world” more and more as you move up from one grade to the next.

So try to think today about how people grow older, how your own ascension reveals outwardly how people grow older; how it reminds you that you must stand in school, that you must therefore, for your own sake, out of love for your teachers, pay attention and work hard, that you must earn what you need for life.

Your teachers worry every hour of the day and night about how best to teach you what you need for life. They search with all the thoughts they can muster, with a strong will, to find what you need, what must be difficult, yet make it as easy as possible. If they wanted to teach you through play, you would not become capable people in life. Some things in life are difficult, but you will overcome them if you learn to overcome difficulties as a child.

You will enter the new school year in the right way. You will learn many new things, and many things that come your way will bring you new joy. Many things will show you how great, how wonderful, how comprehensive everything is in the world into which human beings are placed. You will learn that what shines down from the moon and stars, what manifests and reveals itself, this world that speaks to us when the plants sprout from the earth in spring, in the deep valleys, in the shapes of the mountains and in the rocks, calls on us to lend a hand to bring forth the greatest possible. All this calls upon us to learn to understand something of the world in order to work in it. Through what is taught in the new class, you will learn to understand all the better how wonderful, how great this world is, these divine deeds of high beings; you will learn to understand that it is in the nature of man to place himself in this world of God, to place himself working in this world of God, as he can work when he has learned something. The moment will come when you look out at the world, at the hard-working people who work so much, and if you yourself are not capable, and you yourself have not learned anything proper, you will have to say to yourself: What am I when I have grown old, when I have made myself useless as a child? That moment will come. As you grow old, remember that you can avoid this moment altogether. Remember that the less you reject what your teachers, out of love for you, want from you and demand of you, the greater you will be in life. Think of this every morning when you go to school, think of this moment, and by being attentive students, you will one day become capable people and will have nothing to reproach yourselves for in life.

And, my dear children, today, in this solemn moment, something else must be remembered. You will have seen many times how, after a person has grown gray, after they have become tired, after old age has approached them, how they are carried away, how their body is buried, how the end of life approaches. That is only an outward end. When this moment comes to a person, his immortal soul ascends to the spirit that we all know. Just as you are now physical beings, so will you one day be spirits. Even though human beings must prepare themselves for serious work in the world, they must also prepare themselves to enter this world, where they must exist as spirits, just as they exist here in this physical, sensory world as bodies. The body becomes ill when it suffers damage from the outside world, when the weather harms it, when damage arises from within. If the body cannot grow, this may be a bad fate for some. A much worse fate is when human beings do not allow their souls to grow properly. While you are being prepared at school for efficient work, you are increasingly being guided toward what you take in, so that you can also grow in your soul in the spirit of humanity; so that you become efficient people not only before people and the world, but also before God and the spiritual world. You will already have experienced this spirit in the Waldorf school, and you should remain in this spirit. The older you get, the more aware you should become of this spirit.

As you ascend from the beginning of the year to the end, your work grows with it, and your worries become greater. Therefore, consider such a moment as something particularly important, something that reminds you how human beings stand in the world of God, how you must become capable in body, soul, and spirit, how you remember in this capable striving for growth and health of your spirit, your soul, and your body. For this thought will help you. You will make it give you strength every morning so that you can prepare your deeds and goals in the right way. Then you will think of it with satisfaction in the evening. You will be able to pass into God's spiritual world in sleep when you can say to yourself: I have done my duty at school. Through what you experience in the Waldorf school, you must learn more and more what the word “duty” means, how duty plays into the love of work. You must learn this in the Waldorf school. Through all this you will become capable people.

I say this to those who are already in the higher grades, who are already entering a more mature age, who are already closer to life, in which they must act independently. You, my more mature children, must remember that what I have just said applies to you. It is precisely those who are allowed to advance to the higher grades who are allowed to advance through a special destiny that grants them more knowledge than many others can yet know. And those who have advanced to the higher grades have been able to see those who are already called upon at a young age to work out in the world. You have sat with them at school, so keep them dear to your hearts. Consider them your friends, think of them! By thinking of them in the right way, you will advance life. Do not just learn the subjects taught in class, do not just learn what grows and flourishes within you, learn to love others, get to know each other, learn to love each other as students. Learn that people are there for each other, that the spirit creator of the world is most eager to work through the love that people show each other. The worst situation in school is when the students do not love each other. But try to find something lovable in each of your classmates – there is something in every person that can be loved – learn to bring into every class the warmth that is expressed through love. If you learn this, then you will carry much of what you have acquired in this way out into life.

Now I would like to say a few words to the parents who have already had their children at Waldorf schools. You will have thought a lot about the way the school works. You may already be able to see that Waldorf schools work in such a way that they have a heart for the great needs of civilization today. The people who brought the Waldorf school idea into the world were burdened by what led to the great misfortune we experienced at the beginning of the 20th century, the great murder and the misery associated with it. And anyone who looks at all this with an unbiased mind, my dear friends, knows how the attitude, the way of thinking, what lives in people's thoughts and hearts, is the origin of what has happened externally; they know how the soul and spirit of humanity must be worked on so that they can be transformed from forces of world decline into forces of ascent. The Waldorf school concept was born out of the great ideas of the time, and it is under this responsibility that we work. In Waldorf schools, we want to thoroughly permeate ourselves with the idea of what it means to place in children's hearts what must emerge in the coming decades for the good of the world.

I would like to appeal here to the sense of responsibility that lies in caring for the immediate future of humanity. My dear friends, it is easy to speak of great ideals in an abstract sense. It is easy to declaim how humanity must strive for truth, beauty, and goodness. But the salvation and happiness of human development does not come from speaking in grand words about distant future ideals and utopias and making beautiful speeches about what still hovers in a foggy distance, undefined and unclear, what we express so that we feel a sense of pleasure in our souls. The work for salvation and happiness and viability in social life lies in tackling the tasks that life sets us in every detail. If we can think correctly about ideals, about ideas, then ideas are sacred to everyone. If we do not speak of ideals as vague, nebulous things – that is, with hollow, empty words – if we walk around with ideals, aware that we are working on these ideals in very concrete ways, then we contribute much more to the progress and development of humanity than through fine words alone.

It is in this correct understanding of the world, in this attentive listening to what the world demands, that Waldorf school teachers want to ignite their sense of responsibility and live their lives. Out of this spirit, I want forces to grow that will always do the right thing in each individual moment. The strength to do the right thing in each individual moment will only grow if one is able to see the whole picture. One is spineless in life, spiritually spineless, if one is not able to think and work in this way toward real ideals, if one speaks in vague words and nebulous ideals. So I would like to speak in concrete terms about the strengths that lie in the hearts and souls of our teachers, with which they want to justify the trust that parents place in them, with which they can prove that sending their children to Waldorf school is not a blind leap of faith, but based on understanding, as we try to ensure the well-being and happiness of the next generation and of humanity as a whole.

By thinking in this way and acting on these thoughts, we are fulfilling more and more than just a favorite idea or a favorite feeling; we are accomplishing a task for our time. By acting in this way, we understand what we must do so that humanity can move from this great age of misery to another age. We understand what can become if we want to guide our youth with understanding, that our hearts and minds reach into the next difficult future with such guidance for young people.

In this spirit, I would like to address my dear friends, the teachers. We have worked together, we have endeavored to bring this spirit into the Waldorf school. Today, with all self-examination, we can say to ourselves: we have succeeded in a certain way in developing what we set out to do, so that the intention of two years ago has already become practice. It will become even more so; as the teaching staff, carried by this spirit, finds its way into its tasks, the external practice of Waldorf school teaching and the way of acting will be increasingly permeated by this spirit. As our teachers themselves strive every day to learn the art of bringing the spirit of Waldorf education into external life, this spirit will become more and more real and will flourish and grow in the external world, and perhaps its growth will also draw others along with it.

The important thing is that this Waldorf school spirit is an example to be followed. We can do only a little; it is little in comparison to what humanity needs. It can have an exemplary effect if more and more is done, if you strive to do what has also found the understanding of parents. Then the Waldorf school spirit will be brought from the Waldorf school into our entire civilized life.

For this, I say to you at this moment, when our dear teachers have to face new tasks, I say thank you to everyone. I thank you because I have seen how you have worked on yourselves and thus contributed to the progress of the good spirit in the Waldorf school.

With this feeling of gratitude, we will continue to work together, and we will try to ensure that each individual understands the others more and more, so that the teaching staff becomes a whole. A school is only complete when it is an organism from which a unified spirit-soul emerges. This is what we promise parents today, this is what we will set ourselves as a goal for the future, and we hope that it will become a reality, as some things have already become a reality.

Having addressed you all with these words, I would like to summarize what I have said in a few words that may perhaps be spoken here because they are, so to speak, framed by the spirit of the Waldorf school, which would of course be presumptuous if they were spoken to characterize what has been achieved through the Waldorf school, but which have meaning if we do not speak them as a command or as something we want to hammer home, but rather say them to ourselves, so that our strength may grow even greater, as we have tried to do over the past two years. Knowing how what wants to happen in the world is expressed on a small scale in a single field of work, we say, without presumption, to ourselves, who want to work together as children, as parents, as teachers for the flourishing of the Waldorf school, we say to our hearts:

Forward in the true spirit of the Waldorf school idea!

This is what I would like to call out to the spirits, the souls, and especially the hearts of all, from the bottom of my heart, on this day when we lead our students into a new school year.