Rudolf Steiner in the Waldorf School
GA 298
20 June 1922, Stuttgart
Address at the assembly at the beginning of the fourth school year
Dear children, dear boys and girls of the Waldorf School!
I am going to speak to the very little ones first. Dear children, you have not been to school at all yet, and for you things will be different now than they were before. If you look back a bit, you know that you used to get up in the morning and rub your eyes, and then you got washed and dressed and had something for breakfast. Then many of you saw how your father had to leave very early for work, and how your mother worked busily all day long. Perhaps you spent the morning playing; you could do what you wanted until lunch time. You went out in the street or in the yard or somewhere else; you could do whatever you liked. Then you had your lunch. You had already gotten hungry and tired. Your father and mother gave you your lunch, and then they had to go back to work. After that you could play again or do something else. You did not need to work yet. That is the way things went until suppertime. You had your supper, and then you went to sleep again. The next day was the same.
Now you have grown bigger, and your parents knew that it was time for you to go to school. Some of you were glad and looked forward to it. All of you will be glad to be in school, but things will be different for you. Now you cannot always run around or sit down wherever you like. Or if you are sitting with your friends, you cannot pull their ears or their hair. Now you have to come into the classroom where the desks are. It is crowded, and you have to learn something. Write that on your hearts, write it really well: You have to learn something. You have to sit at those crowded desks, and you cannot pull your friends” hair. You have to pay attention to what the teacher is saying. You have to begin to be well-behaved, to be good. But I hope you will like being good. Why do I hope that? Your parents had to work, and they had worries. You had no worries yet. Your parents had to work to make sure that you could live. If your parents hadn't worked, you would have had nothing to eat. You would have had to go hungry.
Each of you has more than just a head, you also have a heart—in here. There is something living in your heart that you don't know about yet. There is a soul living in your heart. It is something very different from your head. There is a soul living in each one of you. If your parents had not talked to this soul, but only to your ears, you would not have learned to speak. But you can speak, and speaking is something you do out of your soul. Your parents made sure that you became a human being. You will need to learn a lot more than you have already learned, and that will make you a real human being. Now you are just a bit human. You will become real human beings only by learning something—you can become a human being only if you learn how to work.
Your good teachers will teach you all this, and you should like your teachers. You can learn only if you love them. When you go into your classroom every day, think about the best way to love your teachers. If something hurts you or you are unhappy about something, then go to your teachers; think about how you love them, about how they will help you. Learn to love your teachers just as you learned to love your parents. Think about how your parents sent you to the Waldorf School. They wanted to do the very best thing for you. So do the best you can, too, by really paying attention to what your teachers are doing. That will show your parents that you love them, and they sent you to this school.
So, dear children, if you really come into your classroom in the morning with this feeling, and imagine that you need to grow up to be proper human beings, then everything will be fine, and you really will grow up to be proper human beings.
Now I would like to talk to the children who have already been in school, who have already learned how you begin to find more and more in your soul, in your inner person, and how you learn to really love your teachers more and more. This is what we have to promise ourselves again and again—to really love our teachers. Then we will be able to accomplish our very best.
Your teachers are always thinking about what they can do to teach you to grow up to be proper human beings. More and more, you must learn how to be children who work hard and pay attention, to be children who love their school. Your school is trying to teach you things that will make you good, capable human beings and good, capable workers for all the work humanity needs to have done. Here in this school, we are thinking more and more about what we need to bring to you, the students, so that you will be able to go through life in the best way. You have learned things that were all intended to teach you to be good, proper, capable human beings. If you work so hard and pay attention so well and love your teachers, your life will be different than if you are lazy and never learn to love your teachers. By taking in all that you can take in in school, you will become able to work for your fellow human beings, to be something of value to them.
The worst thing in life is for a person to lead a life that has no value for his or her fellow human beings. Then people don't want to have anything to do with you because there is no work you can do for them. What school gives us is finding a place in life that makes us able to do something for our fellow human beings, able to work for them, able to give them something of value so that they can love us for doing something for them.
People doing things for other people—that, my dear children, is what life is all about. We are constantly trying to get to the bottom of this here in the Waldorf School—how to guide children into life in the best way so that they will be able to do something for their fellow human beings, so that there can be joy in their lives and not just sorrow.
Those of you who are still in the middle grades can rely fully on your teachers. You can look up to your teachers. They are already fully involved in life. They have become people you can love, people from whom you can learn a lot. The best way to make progress is to tell yourself that you want to become like your teacher.
If I may still say a few words to those in the highest grades, I would like to say that you are now beginning to hear something that comes from a different direction. You do not yet know exactly what it is that you are hearing, but we will call it “the seriousness of life.” When you get to be fourteen or fifteen, something of what we can call the seriousness of life is already coming toward you. It already resounds in your soul from time to time. In school you are presented with what you are supposed to learn, but when you have left school, there you stand in life. That is when your real life is supposed to begin.
What you should inscribe on your souls, especially this year, is to commit yourself to school, now more than ever. This school knows how to deal with the seriousness of life; it knows what to bring to children so that they can find their way into life’s seriousness as they grow up. When we experience suffering, we must have the strength to bear it. We are meant to acquire this strength from what we gain in school. We must have the strength to bear life’s suffering. But life also brings joys, and they are sometimes more dangerous because they make us thoughtless and dull our feelings. Here, too, school helps you learn to keep to the middle, to make your way between the joy and suffering in life.
Life today has become very complicated. Young people cannot always judge what they need in life or what will be useful to them. Your teachers are busy day and night trying to find out what life will be like ten or twenty years from now. You will need to love people in order to take your place in life in the right way. You know, my dear children, that I will never tell you at the beginning of the school year that you can learn here by playing. That is not true; it cannot be. There must be real seriousness here, so that you learn to take life seriously when it is hard to take. This seriousness will allow you enough time for human feelings. Here with us, this is supposed to go all the way up into the highest grades. You are meant to feel your way into what is really there in a human being. You must learn to understand that people have to learn by working, because if they do not, they cannot be real human beings.
It is now my pleasure to warmly welcome the teachers who have been here with you, who have already given you their love, as well as those who are working here for the first time this year. If every student knew what effort it takes on the part of the faculty, then love for your teachers would be a matter of course; it would be in the very air you breath here in the Waldorf School.
We are also trying to bring human beings into the right connection to the spiritual worlds. Our teachers have sought this connection to the spiritual world for themselves, and thus they will be able to be prophets and missionaries for you, transmitting what can only be brought into this world from the spiritual world. It is necessary for people to take this up and incorporate it into the earth as a spiritual force. Otherwise our earth would become barren. Here, through our loving and energetic work with each other, what makes a person a true human being is meant to awaken.
Now I would like to call to mind for all of you, especially the students in the upper grades, what we find out there in life. Our time in life is filled up with work, but now and then we stop working and celebrate certain festivals. At these festivals we remember what their value is for us: They give us enthusiasm. We must acquire enthusiasm in order to see beyond what each day brings. What is happening here today is meant to be a festival for you. When you enter a new school year, you who are in school and growing up should experience it as a festival that is incisive for your souls. You should tell yourselves to feel especially aware of the need to work hard and pay attention in school and to be connected to your teachers through love. You should experience something like a religious service in this and know that its forces are what illuminate and shape all of life. You should feel this to be something that is human in the highest sense of the word, as a special festival for your hearts, your souls, and your spirit.
Let us sense today what we have from being able to be in school to become real human beings. We will now begin working in school as proper, faithful human beings who love our teachers. This work is work for life. Today, with all our strength and out of the love that has been given to us, let us recall that human beings come into the world from the spirit, and let us promise to celebrate the festival of working in school, of a work that is carried by love.
If we have this awareness, we will work seriously; we will work out of love for our teachers; we will work in a way that allows what approaches us to enter our hearts. By being good students we will grow up to be good, capable people who will be the salvation of the other people in the world.
Ansprache Bei Der Feier Zum Beginn Des Vierten Schuljahres
Meine lieben Kinder, liebe Schüler und Schülerinnen der Waldorfschule! Zuerst rede ich zu den ganz Kleinen. Meine lieben Kinder, die bisher gar nicht in einer Schule waren, für euch wird es jetzt anders, als es bisher war. Seht ihr, wenn ihr jetzt ein bißchen zurückschaut, so könnt ihr wissen, ihr seid morgens aufgestanden und habt die Augen ausgerieben, und dann habt ihr euch gewaschen, angezogen, und dann habt ihr etwas zum Frühstück bekommen. Und dann habt ihr gesehen, wie bei vielen schon ganz früh der Vater fortgehen mußte zur Arbeit, wie die Mutter den ganzen Tag arbeiten und schaffen mußte. Dann habt ihr euren Vormittag vielleicht so zugebracht, daß ihr gespielt habt. Ihr konntet machen, was ihr wolltet bis zum Mittag. Ihr lieft hinaus auf die Straße oder in den Garten oder sonst wohin. Da konntet ihr machen, was ihr wolltet. Dann bekamt ihr eurer Mittagessen. Da wart ihr schon hungrig geworden, müde geworden. Da gab euch euer Vater und eure Mutter, die gaben euch euer Mittagessen. Dann mußten sie wieder arbeiten gehen. Ihr konntet wiederum spielen oder etwas anderes tun. Ihr brauchtet noch nicht zu arbeiten. So ging es bis zum Abendmahl. Da kriegtet ihr euer Essen. Nachher konntet ihr wieder schlafen. Am nächsten Tag war es wieder so.
Jetzt seid ihr größer geworden. Da mußten sich eure Eltern sagen: Jetzt muß der Bub in die Schule! - Mancher hat sich gefreut. Ihr werdet euch alle über die Schule freuen. Aber anders wird es doch. Ihr könnt jetzt nicht immer bloß herumlaufen oder euch hinsetzen, wo ihr wollt. Oder wenn ihr mit dem Kameraden sitzt, könnt ihr ihn nicht immer beim Ohr zupfen, beim Haar zupfen. Ihr müßt jetzt jeden Morgen ins Schulzimmer hinein. Da sind die Bänke. Da ist es enger; da müßt ihr etwas lernen. Daß ihr etwas lernen müßt, das müßt ihr recht gut in euer Herz schreiben. Ihr müßt euch in die engen Bänke hineinsetzen. Ihr könnt nicht immer die Kameraden zupfen. Da müßt ihr achtgeben, was der Lehrer sagt. Da müßt ihr anfangen, artig zu sein, brav zu sein. Aber ich hoffe, ihr werdet gerne brav sein. Warum ist es so? Eure Eltern mußten arbeiten. Die hatten Sorgen. Ihr hattet noch keine Sorgen. Die Eltern mußten arbeiten, die Eltern mußten sorgen, damit ihr leben könnt. Wenn die Eltern nicht gearbeitet hätten, da hättet ihr nichts zu essen, da hättet ihr verhungern müssen.
Ihr habt ja nicht nur euren Kopf, ihr habt auch - da drinnen - ein Herz. Im Herzen da drinnen wohnt etwas, das wißt ihr jetzt noch nicht, im Herzen wohnt eine Seele. Das ist etwas ganz anderes als der Kopf. In jedem von euch wohnt eine Seele. Wenn eure Eltern nicht auch zu dieser Seele gesprochen hätten, sondern nur zu euren Ohren, da hättet ihr nicht sprechen gelernt. Ihr könnt sprechen; sprechen tut man aus der Seele heraus. Eure Eltern haben sich gesorgt, daß ihr Menschen werdet. Zu dem, was ihr gelernt habt, werdet ihr viel dazulernen müssen. Dadurch werdet ihr rechte Menschen. Jetzt seid ihr erst ein bißchen etwas vom Menschen. Ihr werdet erst dadurch Menschen, daß ihr etwas lernt. Mensch kann man nur werden, wenn man arbeiten lernt.
Das alles wird euch ein lieber Lehrer oder eine liebe Lehrerin beibringen. Die sollt ihr auch gern haben. Nur wenn ihr sie lieb habt, dann könnt ihr etwas lernen. Da geht ihr jeden Tag in die Klasse hinein und denkt nach, wie ihr am besten euren Lehrer oder eure Lehrerin liebt. Wenn euch etwas weh tut, wenn ihr über etwas nicht zufrieden seid, dann geht ihr zum Lehrer oder zur Lehrerin. Ihr denkt euch, die habe ich recht lieb, die werden mir helfen. Lernt den Lehrer, die Lehrerin lieben, wie ihr gelernt habt, die Eltern lieb zu haben. Denkt daran, daß eure Eltern euch in die Waldorfschule geschickt haben. Eure Eltern wollten für euch das Allerbeste tun. Tut wiederum das Allerbeste, indem ihr recht achtgebt auf dasjenige, was die Lehrer tun. Dadurch zeigt euren Eltern, daß ihr eure Eltern lieb habt! Die haben euch in die Schule geschickt.
Also, liebe Kinder, wenn ihr so recht mit einem solchen Gefühl morgens in die Klasse hineinkommt und euch vorstellt, da müssen wir ordentliche Menschen werden, dann wird es richtig sein. Da werdet ihr ordentliche Menschen.
Jetzt möchte ich zu den Kindern sprechen, welche schon in der Schule waren, welche schon kennengelernt haben, wie man anfängt, immer mehr in seiner Seele, in seinem inneren Menschen zu finden, und wie man immer mehr lernt und dazu hinkommt, die Lehrer und Lehrerinnen recht lieb zu haben. Das ist das, was wir immer wiederum und wiederum uns vornehmen müssen, die Lehrer recht lieb zu haben. Dann werden wir das Allerbeste gewinnen können.
Die Lehrer denken immer nach: Wie können wir es machen, damit wir die Kinder zu ordentlichen Menschen machen. - Ihr müßt immer mehr und mehr lernen, fleißige und aufmerksame Kinder zu sein; Kinder zu sein, welche die Schule lieb haben. Die Schule gibt sich Mühe, dasjenige in euch hineinzutragen, was euch zu tüchtigen Menschen und tüchtigen Mitarbeitern an aller Arbeit, die die Menschheit braucht, machen kann. Hier in dieser Schule wird immer mehr darüber nachgedacht, was man an den Menschen heranbringen muß, an den Schüler, damit er am besten durchs Leben kommt. Ihr habt Dinge gelernt, die alle darauf hinausgingen, euch zu ordentlichen, tüchtigen Menschen zu machen. Wenn ihr so fleißig und aufmerksam seid und eure Lehrer liebt, dann wird das Leben für euch anders, als wenn ihr faul seid und niemals gelernt habt, eure Lehrer zu lieben. Dadurch, daß ihr gerade das in euch aufnehmt, was in der Schule aufgenommen werden kann, werdet ihr so, daß ihr für eure Mitmenschen arbeiten könnt, daß ihr euren Mitmenschen etwas Wertvolles sein könnt.
Das ist das Furchtbarste im Leben, wenn man als Mensch durch ein Leben geht, das keinen Wert hat für seine Mitmenschen. Dann kommen die Menschen und wollen nichts wissen von einem, weil man für sie nichts arbeiten kann. Das ist dasjenige, was uns die Schule bringt, daß wir so im Leben darinstehen, daß wir für unsere Mitmenschen schaffen und arbeiten können, so daß unsere Mitmenschen etwas Wertvolles von uns haben, daß sie uns lieben können, weil wir für sie etwas leisten.
Daß der Mensch für den anderen Menschen etwas leisten kann, darauf, meine lieben Kinder, beruht das ganze Leben. Das ist dasjenige, was in der Waldorfschule immerfort durchdacht wird, wie man am besten die Kinder und Schüler hineinführen kann ins Leben, damit sie für ihre Mitmenschen etwas leisten können, daß man Freude haben kann am Leben und nicht bloß Leid.
Diejenigen, die noch in den mittleren Klassen sind, die können sich ganz auf ihre Lehrerschaft verlassen, die können ganz hinschauen auf ihre Lehrerschaft. Die Lehrer stehen schon darin im Leben. Die Lehrer sind Menschen geworden, die man liebhaben kann, von denen man viel lernen kann. Man kann am allerbesten vorwärtskommen, wenn man sich sagt: Ich will so werden wie der Lehrer.
Und wenn ich noch ein paar Worte zu denjenigen reden darf, die in den allerletzten Klassen sind, möchte ich sagen: An euch tritt jetzt etwas heran, was aus einem anderen Tone klingt. Ihr wißt es noch nicht ganz genau, was daraus klingt. Das ist das, was man nennen wird: den Ernst des Lebens. Wenn man ins vierzehnte, fünfzehnte Jahr hereinkommt, da leuchtet schon etwas das herein, was man nennen kann den Ernst des Lebens. Das, was manchmal so in eure Seele schallt, das ist schon der Ernst des Lebens. In der Schule wird das herangebracht, was man in ihr lernen soll. Wenn man dann aber die Schule verlassen hat, dann steht man da und soll eigentlich erst dann ein wirkliches Leben beginnen.
Das ist dasjenige, was ihr ganz besonders in diesem Jahr in eure Seele schreiben sollt, daß ihr euch erst recht an die Schule haltet. Die Schule weiß, was es mit diesem Ernst des Lebens zu tun hat, und was man an die Kinder heranbringen muß, damit sie in den Ernst des Lebens hereinkommen können. Wir müssen dann, wenn wir ein Leid erfahren haben, die Kraft haben, es zu ertragen. Diese Kraft sollen wir auch durch das, was wir in der Schule erworben haben, erringen. Wir müssen die Kraft haben, das Leid des Lebens zu ertragen. Das Leben bringt auch Freuden. Die sind manchmal noch gefährlicher. Die Freuden machen uns gedankenlos, empfindungsstumpf. Und auch da gibt euch die Schule das, daß ihr wiederum lernt, die rechte Mitte einzuhalten, hindurchzustreben zwischen Leid und Freud des Lebens.
Das Leben ist heute ein recht kompliziertes geworden. Da kann der junge Mensch manchmal nicht ermessen, was ihm für das Leben notwendig ist und nützlich sein wird. Der Lehrer beschäftigt sich Tag und Nacht damit, herauszubekommen, wie es im Leben sein wird, wenn nach der jetzigen Zeit zehn, zwanzig Jahre vergangen sein werden. Ihr werdet Menschenliebe brauchen, um euch richtig ins Leben hereinzustellen. Seht ihr, meine lieben Kinder, ich werde euch niemals am Anfang des Schuljahres sagen, ihr könnt hier spielend lernen. Das ist nicht wahr, das kann nicht sein. Das, was es hier geben muß, das ist wirklicher Ernst, daß man lernt, wenn das Leben schwer zu nehmen ist, es auch schwer zu nehmen. Der Ernst wird euch Zeit lassen, menschlich zu empfinden. Das soll bei uns in die höchsten Klassen hinauf gehen. Ihr sollt euch hineinfühlen in dasjenige, was im Menschen wirklich ist. Ihr müßt verstehen lernen, daß der Mensch arbeitend lernen muß, weil er ohne dieses arbeitende Lernen doch kein wirklicher Mensch sein kann.
Jetzt habe ich auch meinerseits herzliche Grüße zu sagen denjenigen Lehrern und Lehrerinnen, die schon bei euch waren, die schon ihre Liebe angewendet haben. Ich habe herzlich zu begrüßen diejenigen, die in diesem Schuljahr ihre Arbeit zum erstenmal in Anwendung bringen werden. Wenn jeder einzelne Schüler wissen würde, welche Mühe notwendig ist von seiten der Lehrerschaft, dann würde es etwas Selbstverständliches sein, daß Liebe zu den Lehrern die Luft der Waldorfschule wird.
Wir wollen den Menschen auch in die richtige Verbindung bringen mit der geistigen Welt. Unsere Lehrer haben für sich diese Verbindung mit der geistigen Welt gesucht. Sie werden so euch sein können Propheten, Missionare zur Überbringung dessen, was erst aus der geistigen Welt in diese Erde hineingeholt werden kann, was aber notwendig ist, daß Menschen es ergreifen und als geistige Kraft in die Erde hineinfügen. Sonst würde unsere Erde veröden. Hier soll aus liebevollem, energischem Zusammenwirken das erwachen, was eben den Menschen zum wahren Menschen macht.
Jetzt möchte ich euch allen ins Gedächtnis rufen, insbesondere den Schülern der höheren Klassen, das, was man im Leben draußen findet. Im Leben draußen ist die Zeit ausgefüllt mit Arbeit, aber ab und zu findet sich, daß man doch von der Arbeit weggeht und gewisse Feste feiert, und bei diesen Festen erinnert man sich des Wertes dieser Feste für den Menschen; sie geben ihm den Schwung. Der Mensch muß sich in den Enthussasmus hineinleben, damit er hinaussieht über dasjenige, was der Alltag bringt. Das, was heute sich vollzieht, das soll für euch ein Fest sein. Diejenigen, die in der Schule sind als werdende Menschen, die sollen es als ein ganz besonders in die Seele einschneidendes Fest empfinden, wenn sie in ein neues Schuljahr hineinrücken. Sie sollen sich sagen: Wir wollen jetzt ganz besonders empfinden, wie wir in der Schule aufmerksam und fleißig sein sollen, wie wir in Liebe mit unseren Lehrern verbunden sein sollen. Wir sollen da empfinden etwas wie eine Art Gottesdienst. Wir wollen empfinden, daß es die Kräfte dessen sind, die das ganze Leben erleuchten und bilden. Wir wollen empfinden, daß es etwas im höchsten Sinne Menschliches ist. Wir wollen das als ein besonderes Fest unseres Herzens, unserer Seele, unseres Geistes empfinden.
Wir wollen empfinden heute, was wir haben daran, daß wir in der Schule zu Menschen werden können. Jetzt werden wir als ordentliche, treue, als die Lehrer liebende Menschen die Arbeit in der Schule beginnen, die die Arbeit für das Leben ist. Wir wollen uns heute mit der ganzen Kraft vornehmen, aus dieser uns geschenkten Liebe heraus, daß der Mensch ein vom Geist in die Erde getragenes Wesen ist, daß wir das Fest feiern einer von Liebe getragenen Schularbeit.
Wenn wir das Bewußtsein haben, wir arbeiten ernst, wir arbeiten in Liebe zu unseren Lehrern, wir arbeiten so, daß dasjenige, was an uns herantritt, auch in unsere Herzen hereingeht, dann werden wir auch dadurch, daß wir richtige Schüler sind, gute, tüchtige und den übrigen Menschen zum Heile gereichende Menschen in der Welt werden.
Speech at the ceremony marking the start of the fourth school year
My dear children, dear students of the Waldorf School! First, I would like to address the very youngest among you. My dear children, who have not been to school before, things will now be different for you than they have been up to now. If you look back a little, you can see that you got up in the morning, rubbed your eyes, washed, got dressed, and then had something for breakfast. And then you saw how, for many of you, your father had to leave very early for work, how your mother had to work and toil all day long. Then you might have spent your morning playing. You could do whatever you wanted until noon. You ran out into the street or into the garden or wherever. There you could do whatever you wanted. Then you got your lunch. By then you were already hungry and tired. Your father and mother gave you your lunch. Then they had to go back to work. You could play again or do something else. You didn't have to work yet. It went on like that until supper. Then you got your food. Afterwards you could go back to sleep. The next day it was the same again.
Now you have grown bigger. Your parents had to say to themselves: Now the boy has to go to school! Some of you were happy about that. You will all be happy about school. But things will be different. You can't just run around or sit down wherever you want anymore. Or when you sit with your friends, you can't always pull their ears or hair. Now you have to go into the classroom every morning. There are desks there. It's cramped; you have to learn something there. You have to take it to heart that you have to learn something. You have to sit down at the cramped desks. You can't always pull your friends' ears. You have to pay attention to what the teacher says. You have to start being well-behaved, being good. But I hope you will be happy to be good. Why is that? Your parents had to work. They had worries. You didn't have any worries yet. Your parents had to work, your parents had to worry so that you could live. If your parents hadn't worked, you would have had nothing to eat, you would have starved.
You don't just have your head, you also have a heart inside you. Something lives in that heart, something you don't know about yet: a soul. It's something completely different from your head. A soul lives in each of you. If your parents hadn't also spoken to this soul, but only to your ears, you wouldn't have learned to speak. You can speak; speaking comes from the soul. Your parents were concerned that you would become human beings. You will have to learn a lot more than what you have already learned. This will make you real human beings. Right now, you are only a little bit human. You only become human by learning something. You can only become human if you learn to work.
A kind teacher will teach you all this. You should also love them. Only if you love them can you learn something. Every day you go into class and think about how you can best love your teacher. If something hurts you, if you are not happy about something, then you go to the teacher. You think to yourself, I love them very much, they will help me. Learn to love your teacher as you have learned to love your parents. Remember that your parents sent you to the Waldorf school. Your parents wanted to do the very best for you. Do the very best in return by paying close attention to what your teachers do. This will show your parents that you love them! They sent you to school.
So, dear children, if you come into class in the morning with this feeling and form a mental image of having to become decent people, then it will be right. You will become decent people.Now I would like to speak to the children who have already been to school, who have already learned how to find more and more in their souls, in their inner beings, and how to learn more and more and come to love their teachers. That is what we must always strive to do, to love our teachers. Then we will be able to achieve the very best.
Teachers are always thinking: How can we make the children into decent people? You must learn more and more to be diligent and attentive children; to be children who love school. The school strives to instill in you what can make you capable people and capable workers in all the work that humanity needs. Here in this school, more and more thought is given to what must be brought to people, to students, so that they can get through life in the best possible way. You have learned things that all aimed at making you decent, capable people. If you are diligent and attentive and love your teachers, then life will be different for you than if you are lazy and have never learned to love your teachers. By absorbing what can be absorbed at school, you will become capable of working for your fellow human beings and of being of value to them.
The most terrible thing in life is when a person goes through life without being of any value to their fellow human beings. Then people come and want nothing to do with you because you cannot do any work for them. That is what school teaches us, that we can stand in life in such a way that we can create and work for our fellow human beings, so that our fellow human beings have something valuable from us, so that they can love us because we do something for them.
That human beings can do something for other human beings, my dear children, is what the whole of life is based on. This is what is constantly being thought through at Waldorf schools: how best to introduce children and students to life so that they can do something for their fellow human beings, so that they can enjoy life and not just suffer.
Those who are still in the middle grades can rely completely on their teachers; they can look up to their teachers. The teachers are already living that life. The teachers have become people you can love, from whom you can learn a lot. The best way to move forward is to say to yourself: I want to become like my teacher.
And if I may say a few words to those who are in the very last grades, I would like to say: Something is approaching you now that sounds different. You don't yet know exactly what it sounds like. It is what one might call the seriousness of life. When you enter your fourteenth or fifteenth year, something shines in that can be called the seriousness of life. What sometimes echoes in your soul is already the seriousness of life. At school, you are taught what you are supposed to learn there. But when you leave school, you stand there and are supposed to begin real life.
This is what you should engrave in your soul, especially this year, that you should stick to school all the more. School knows what this seriousness of life is all about and what children need to learn in order to be able to enter into the seriousness of life. When we experience suffering, we must have the strength to endure it. We should also gain this strength through what we have learned at school. We must have the strength to endure the suffering of life. Life also brings joys. These are sometimes even more dangerous. Joys make us thoughtless and insensitive. And here, too, school gives you the ability to learn to maintain the right balance, to strive between the suffering and joy of life.
Life today has become quite complicated. Young people sometimes cannot assess what will be necessary and useful for them in life. Teachers work day and night to figure out what life will be like ten or twenty years from now. You will need love for humanity in order to find your place in life. You see, my dear children, I will never tell you at the beginning of the school year that you can learn here through play. That is not true, that cannot be. What must exist here is real seriousness, so that when life is difficult to take, you learn to take it seriously. Seriousness will give you time to feel humanly. This should continue with us up to the highest grades. You should empathize with what is real in human beings. You must learn to understand that human beings must learn by working, because without this working learning they cannot be real human beings.Now I, too, would like to extend my warm greetings to those teachers who have already been with you, who have already applied their love. I warmly welcome those who will be applying their work for the first time this school year. If every single student knew how much effort is required on the part of the teaching staff, then it would be natural for love for the teachers to become the air of the Waldorf school.
We also want to bring people into the right connection with the spiritual world. Our teachers have sought this connection with the spiritual world for themselves. In this way, they can be prophets and missionaries to you, bringing what can only be brought from the spiritual world into this earth, but which is necessary for people to grasp and incorporate into the earth as spiritual power. Otherwise, our earth would become desolate. Here, through loving, energetic cooperation, that which makes human beings truly human should awaken.
Now I would like to remind you all, especially the students in the higher grades, of what one finds in life outside. In life outside, time is filled with work, but now and then one finds that one does indeed leave work behind and celebrate certain festivals, and at these festivals one remembers the value of these festivals for human beings; they give them momentum. Human beings must live themselves into enthusiasm so that they can look beyond what everyday life brings. What is happening today should be a celebration for you. Those who are in school as developing human beings should feel it as a particularly soul-stirring celebration when they enter a new school year. They should say to themselves: We now want to feel in a very special way how we should be attentive and diligent in school, how we should be connected to our teachers in love. We should feel something like a kind of worship service. We want to feel that these are the forces that illuminate and shape our whole life. We want to feel that it is something human in the highest sense. We want to feel this as a special celebration of our heart, our soul, our spirit.
Today we want to feel what we have in being able to become human beings at school. Now, as orderly, faithful people who love our teachers, we will begin our work in school, which is the work for life. Today, with all our strength, we want to resolve, out of this love that has been given to us, that human beings are beings carried by the spirit into the earth, that we celebrate the festival of school work carried by love.
If we are conscious that we are working seriously, that we are working in love for our teachers, that we are working in such a way that what comes to us also enters our hearts, then by being good students we will also become good, capable people in the world who are a blessing to others.