Rudolf Steiner in the Waldorf School
GA 298
22 June 1923, Stuttgart
Issues of School and Home
Ladies and gentlemen! For a long time we have been aware of your active wish to have the issue of school and home, children and parents, discussed here at a parents’ evening.
It is not possible to say everything there is to say on this subject in one evening, but we will continue to organize evenings where these questions can be discussed so that the topic can be covered exhaustively. Today I will articulate the basic main points that the teachers and I have in mind.
In the field of education, parents evenings are often proposed, but many representatives, even outstanding ones, of today’s official school system do not think much of such parent’s evenings. Some excellent educators say that nothing comes of them except fruitless discussion. Now, different points of view are possible with regard to everything in practical life, including parents’ evenings, and there is some foundation for all of them. I will not dispute people’s right to think little of parents’ meetings from their particular point of view. We, however, as representatives of the idea of the Waldorf School, must see something of extraordinary significance in these parents’ evenings, because if these meetings can be conducted in the right way, they are connected to the conditions most necessary for the life of what we intend to bring about through the Waldorf School.
To be sure, teachers who have found their place in the social context that is prevalent today, who feel supported by state authorities, are at home and secure in this and are very often satisfied with it. There are plenty of people telling them what to do, so why take it from the parents, too? This is how they look at it.
This cannot be our point of view. We are not embedded in current societal circumstances in the same way. We have to work out of the guiding light of our understanding of human beings and of life, out of human science and human art as our pedagogical goal. As educators, we must draw what we need for our teaching on a daily basis from the inner strength of our hearts. For that we need, not recognition—I do not want to say that because an idea that derives as strongly as ours does from the challenges of the present and the future must be self-contained in the strength of its effectiveness and not count on recognition—but understanding; above all, the understanding of those on whom so much depends, of those who entrust their children to this school.
Without this understanding, we cannot carry out our work at all. This understanding must be general in nature at first. We cannot claim to be guided by a higher wisdom, derived from the acknowledged social order and hovering above our heads, and to need nothing more than awareness of this wisdom. We must gain leverage for the ideals of our school, and this happens when people see that what comes to light through the idea of the Waldorf School is very deeply rooted in the most important cultural demands of the present and the near future. Therefore, we must strive to present our intentions to our contemporaries in a clearly understandable form, in a form that can engender understanding. Above all, we count on the understanding of those who entrust their children to us, who therefore have a certain love for the Waldorf School. We count on them being able to grasp the thoughts, feelings, and will impulses that sustain us.
Thus, we would like first and foremost to establish a relationship between the school and the parents that does not rest on faith in authority. That is of no value for us. The only thing that is of value is having our intentions received with understanding, right down into the details. The only thing that is of value is the awareness that this school is taking a great risk in trying to use feeble human forces to recognize the scarcely decipherable demands of the twentieth century and to recast them in the form of an educational venture. I believe there is no single member of our faculty who is not trying to experience what we are involved in as some kind of solid footing in world history, in humanity’s evolution. This is what our teachers are trying to do in all modesty. As necessary as modesty may be, however, we must not be timid in what we are doing. We must be aware that what we are doing is significant, but also that this significance rests not in our own character but in what we acknowledge to be true. The significance of what we are doing must be looked at in the right way, not from an arbitrary or sympathetic standpoint, but from the standpoint of a will that stems from the consciousness of the times. This, above all else, is what we need from the parents.
We would like the parents of the Waldorf School children to say, “We are especially aware of our duty to educate human beings, and we would like to have our children make a contribution to humanity’s great tasks in the twentieth century. We want entrusting our children to the Waldorf School to be a social act of some consequence.” The more strongly this becomes a part of your whole attitude, the better.
We have to depend on your attitude above all else. We cannot think much of detailed guidelines on how teachers are meant to act toward the parents and vice versa. We cannot expect much from these guidelines, but we can expect a great deal from meetings between teachers and parents that take place with the right attitude, because we know that when people’s attitudes relate to their inmost being, the attitude turns into action, right down into the details of life. When an attitude takes hold of a person on a general level, then his or her individual actions become copies of the broad strokes of the attitude’s intentions. That is why it is more important for us to feel and understand the right thing in the right way than to lay down or follow specific guidelines.
I have emphasized how the different stages of life affect children, how children are different before the change of teeth than afterward, in the period between the change of teeth and puberty. Up until the change of teeth, children’s destinies actually keep them in very close contact with their parents and their home. If we are not totally caught up in the materialistic way of thinking that is flourishing at present, if we can see through to the spiritual context within human interactions and evolution, we know that the destined relationship between children and parents is much greater than our abstract age with its materialistic ideas often assumes. If, in addition to knowing what physical life provides, we know what is given to us by life in the spirit beyond the boundaries of birth and death, then we take the destined relationship between children, parents and siblings very seriously, and the way in which children come into elementary school from home, which is really incisive for all of education, acquires significance for us.
Although this first part of my remarks may be somewhat far from the thoughts of most of you parents, it still seems important to me to touch on this. Those of you who already have children with us may have younger children at home. You may have come to love the principles of the Waldorf School and want to send your younger children here too. For you, tonight’s subject of raising pre-school children will be important.
On entering school, children are true reflections of all the characters and circumstances in their parent’s home and in their environment as it has been until now. Up to the age of seven, children are almost entirely sense organ. They take in everything from their surroundings with incredible sensitivity—everything that is said, done and even thought. Hidden within this is a secret of human growth that is largely disregarded by today’s science: Expressions of soul in a child’s surroundings are transformed into the child’s organic, bodily constitution. Anyone who has acquired the educator’s fine feeling for a child’s appearance that a Waldorf teacher is meant to have will see by the shine in a new elementary school student’s eyes whether that child has been treated lovingly at home or has been treated unlovingly and subjected to outbursts of anger in his or her environment. What parents and siblings and so forth do, say, and think lives on in a child’s bodily constitution. If I wanted to, I could say a lot about how these expressions of soul can be observed in the processes of breathing and blood circulation and in the working of the child’s nervous system. Due to certain circumstances, the child’s father and mother may tend to have frequent outbursts of anger in dealing with the child. In such children, we notice what they have taken in and bound up with their inner being. It has turned into their bodily constitution; it is there in how their digestion works, how their muscles move, and even in how they can and cannot learn.
It is literally, not figuratively, possible to say that when a first-grader is entrusted to a teacher, the teacher receives a complete image of the parents’ home. In their health, temperament and ability to learn, children bring their home right into school. Our first intimate acquaintance with the home is through the child. This should become part of the attitude of those of us who have a real interest in schools such as the Waldorf School. Such things need only turn into an attitude to begin to affect our actions.
When you are clearly aware of something like this, you will do some individual things that you would otherwise not do and refrain from doing many things you would otherwise do. This is no abstract knowledge; it saturates your whole life. If this prerequisite is present, it will result in the will to bring parents and teachers together in the right way. When we know that what is important works in the depths of human nature, we pay less attention to what is actually said in words in five minutes, but much more to how it is said. When the attitude I indicated brings parents to school again and again to encounter their child’s teacher, the simple fact that parents and teachers are not strangers to each other but have seen each other before will start to bear fruit.
In this relationship between parents and teachers, what we need above all is for this interest in the generalities of Waldorf education to carry over to all aspects of school life, to everything that is connected to the Waldorf School through the faculty on the one hand and the parents on the other. If we know that at home there is a daily interest in what we as teachers are doing in the Waldorf School, then we can teach with a great feeling of reassurance, with a strength that gives us new incentives each day.
I do not deny the difficulty of mobilizing such interest. I am well aware that under current social conditions people have little time and energy to ask “How was it? What did you do?” when their children come home from school. I know that the children cannot expect their warm enthusiasm to elicit this question. The point is that parents should not ask this question out of a feeling of duty, but in a way that makes the children want to be asked. We should not be at all embarrassed that the children may sometimes tell us things that we ourselves have forgotten; that goes without saying and will pass unnoticed if the right enthusiasm is present on both sides. Do not underestimate this: If teachers can know that what they are doing sparks lively interest at home, if only for a few brief minutes, then they know that their work rests on a firm foundation. They can then work out of an atmosphere of soul that can have an inspiring educational effect on the children.
This is the most effective thing we can do to combat what has been termed by some of today’s outstanding educators, “the war between parents and teachers.” That is what they call it when they are speaking among themselves. This war is a subject of secret discussion among many educators. It has led to a noteworthy expression that is becoming well-known; young teachers in particular tend to use it: “We have to start by educating the parents, especially the mothers.” We here, however, have neither the ambition nor sufficient Utopian sensibilities to do that. Not that we believe that parents are not educable or refuse to be educated, but rather because we want there to be a really intimate relationship of friendship between parents and teachers, a relationship based on the matter at hand. The parents’ interest in the school can do a lot to bring this about.
While the parents’ souls have very strong effects on their child’s bodily constitution, it is only possible for teachers to work on the child’s soul through soul means. Here, in place of the imitative nature with which a child encounters his or her parents before the change of teeth begins, there appears the principle of a necessary and natural authority. This is something we must have, and teachers are especially supported in this if an interest such as I have described is present. Much of what the parents can contribute to supporting this authoritative strength, to enabling their child’s teacher to be the authority that he or she must be, can have its source in something as simple as the fact that school is taken seriously, with a certain ceremonial seriousness. A lot of sifting out goes into choosing teachers for the Waldorf School, and they are people you can have confidence in. And if you do not understand something, rather than wrinkling your nose at it right away, it is important that you trust in the great overriding principle in which you yourself believe. Then you will be supporting your child’s teacher and making use of the opportunity to bring about a relationship of trust between parents and faculty.
You know that we do not issue report cards with grades as the public schools do. Instead, we try to describe what is typical of each child and to enter into his or her individuality. First of all, if teachers sit down to formulate reports and are aware of the responsibility involved, then riddle upon riddle appears to their minds’ eye, and they weigh up every word they write down. It is a great relief to them in this process if they have actually met the child’s parents, not simply because this tells them about the hereditary circumstances, which is all materialism is concerned with today, but because it allows them to see the children’s environment, and then everything begins to appear in the right light. It is not necessary for the teachers to judge the parents themselves in any indiscrete way; they simply want to meet the parents in a friendly manner. Just as writing a letter to someone you know is different than writing to a stranger, it is also different to write the reports of students whose parents you know and those whose parents you have not met.
Secondly, the teacher should actually be able to know that such reports spark loving interest at home, and I believe that if parents would manage to write a brief response to what the teacher wrote in the report, it would be an incredible help. It would make no sense to institute this as a requirement, but it is extremely important from an educational standpoint if parents begin to feel the need to do this. Such notes are read with extreme attentiveness here in the Waldorf School. Even if they were full of mistakes, they would be much more important to us than many currently acknowledged accounts of modern culture. They would permit us to take a deep look into what we need if we are to teach, not out of abstract ideas, but out of the impulse of our times.
You must not forget that Waldorf teachers educate out of an understanding of the human being that does not come about in today’s customary ways. A powerful human understanding would flow in what the parents could communicate to the teacher in a devoted way, and I do not exaggerate at all when I say that a response to a report card would almost be more important for the teacher than the report itself is for the child.
Here too, however, I place more value on parents maintaining a lively interest in everything going on in the school than I do in this specific measure I have chosen as an example.
Thus it is my opinion that the right thing will happen in the time the children spend on vacation if the school year runs its course in the way I have indicated. We would do well to let the vacation be a vacation and not pin the children down to doing anything school-like. However, if you can make the attitude I wished for into a reality, that would mean the right kind of happiness, joy, and healthy refreshment for your child.
We are particularly dependent on an atmosphere that is steeped in this attitude, so that you realize that the Waldorf teachers are concerned about every aspect of your child, including first and foremost his or her health. We are particularly concerned about being informed in our souls of subtleties with regard to the state of health of the children who are entrusted to us. An art of education is not complete unless it extends to this degree of interest in a child. This is an area, however, in which the work we need to do will be possible only if parents and school work together in the right way. We would like to see our school met by an understanding that arises from an inner need. We would also like to see the parents turn to the school for tips on their children’s bodily well-being, diet and so forth. Above all we want to see the fundamental impulse behind our activity in the school, namely deep, inner human honesty and openness, take full effect in these details in the interaction between parents and teachers. This could lead to great results in life, and much can be done better in this regard if fathers or mothers come to the teachers and say, “My children are coming home from school tired; they get home too late. What can I work out with you to counteract that?” Working things out in this frank way can be the basis for many good things to happen.
In particular, it can help the school a lot if the parents lend their support in things in which exactitude, but not pedantry, is needed. It contributes a lot to how we can maintain order in the school and create a mood of seriousness among the children if everything about how children and parents interact in the morning makes it a matter of course that the children leave the house at the right time and therefore arrive at school at the right time, without any special commands being issued. Here, too, it is not so much the individual instances I am referring to as the consciousness that stands behind them, the attitude that school is something serious and ceremonial and that when your teacher is satisfied with your punctuality, you satisfy your parents as well. This is a moral note that the children bring from home each morning. A child’s state of mind on leaving the house in the morning is not merely a source of satisfaction or dissatisfaction to the teacher’s educated eye. Disturbing or supportive impulses find their way into the teacher’s mood, too, if the child leaves the house in one way rather than another. Such things need to become conscious. I believe it is of no small significance for the rest of your life to have heard as a small child from your father, “There are two things that need to run exactly on time, you know—the clock, and getting children to school.” Saying that now and then does not take much time, but it will have an effect on the rest of your child’s life.
We are not dependent on details, but rather on a heart-to-heart relationship between school and home. We are confident that if this real heart-to-heart relationship is present, the right thing will come of it. We long to see this attitude awakened not merely with regard to details, but in full force. Then the Waldorf School will accomplish something not only through its cultural consciousness but also through such things as we have discussed today.
We must be clear that in our times certain innovations have been necessary so that deficits in such things do not come to light too strongly. Just think of what kindergartens sometimes have to do to make up for what has been done badly at home! Our times have become such that they require surrogates for what should be experienced in the family.
What we are trying to accomplish in the Waldorf School is something that needs to be followed not only intellectually; it must also be loved. And if the parents’ attitude is steeped in this love, we will not need to raise our children in fear and in hope, which are the two worst but most used means of educating children today. The best means of educating children, however, is and always has been love, and home can be a great support for a school whose art of education is sustained by love.
Some people say that the discipline in the Waldorf School is not as good as in other schools. Time is too short to speak about this in detail now. Simply keep in mind that things have changed a lot in recent years, not only in society but also in the souls of children. We cannot apply the standards of our own youth. There is a deep gap between the young generations of today and the older ones, and when getting an educational grasp on the being of a child is at issue, we will do badly if we educate on the basis of fear of punishment and hope for good grades, but we will do well if we teach out of love. No matter what kind of wild turmoil is going on in the classrooms, if children have the right relationship to their teachers, if the children are still able to see in their teachers what they are supposed to see, then all their boisterousness will not mean what it would mean otherwise. This may be paradoxical, but it is psychologically correct. We begin to look at boisterousness in a different way: The children are getting it out of their systems so that it will not have to come out later on, which is decidedly better than the other way around. Later stages of life are based on what we foster in school, you see. If we are deeply convinced that we are educating with a whole lifetime in mind and not just for the current moment, then we also know how much we need you parents in order to move forward with the idea of the Waldorf School.
These are the points of view I wanted to present first. I want to emphasize that they contain what is most important, and that we will get very far indeed by taking hold of them honestly and thoroughly. This will also strengthen the Waldorf teacher’s sacred conviction, with which we hope you agree. We know that we will achieve our goal if the school’s intentions are understood at home and if it is made possible for us to work together intimately with the parents.
Fragen Von Schule Und Haus
Ansprache Am Elternabend
Sehr verehrte Anwesende! Die Frage von Schule und Haus, Kindern und Eltern wurde längst als eine solche betrachtet, von der der Wunsch rege war, daß sie hier an einem Elternabend genau besprochen würde.
Es ist nicht alles an einem Abend zu sagen möglich; aber wir werden solche Abende, in denen diese Frage besprochen wird, öfter veranstalten, dann wird sich das Thema erschöpfen können. Heute will ich die ersten hauptsächlichsten Gesichtspunkte, wie sie den Lehrern und mir vorschweben, vor Ihnen aussprechen.
Elternabende sind oftmals angeregt auf dem Erziehungsgebiet, aber viele Vertreter, und hervorragende Vertreter des heutigen offiziellen Schulwesens halten nicht viel von solchen Elternabenden. Und es wurde von ausgezeichneten Pädagogen gesagt, daß nichts herauskomme als ein unfruchtbares Diskutieren. Über alle Dinge des praktischen Lebens, auch über Elternabende, kann man verschiedene Ansichten haben; jede ist zu begründen. $o will ich nicht für gewisse Gesichtspunkte das Recht bestreiten, von Elternabenden nicht groß zu denken. - Wir aber als Vertreter des Waldorfschul-Gedankens müssen in diesen Elternabenden etwas außerordentlich Bedeutungsvolles sehen, denn diese Abende, wenn sie in der richtigen Weise geführt werden können, hängen doch zusammen mit den tiefsten Lebensbedingungen dessen, was wir mit der Waldorfschule wollen.
Gewiß, Lehrer, die sich hineingestellt fühlen in den heute geltenden sozialen Zusammenhang und sich getragen fühlen von den Staatsgewalten, die fühlen sich auf ihrem Boden in einer gewissen Sicherheit und sind damit sehr häufig zufrieden. Da wird ihnen ja genügend in das hineingeredet, was sie tun sollen; warum auch noch von den Eltern, denken sie.
Wir können ja diesen Standpunkt nicht haben. Wir haben ja ein solches Hereingestelltsein in die gegenwärtigen sozialen Dinge nicht. Wir müssen aus dem heraus wirken, was uns aus Menschen- und Lebenserkenntnis, aus Menschenwissenschaft und Menschenkunst als pädagogisches Ziel voranleuchtet. Wir müssen, was wir brauchen für den täglichen Unterricht, aus der inneren Kraft unseres pädagogischen Herzens herausholen. Dazu braucht man, ich will nicht sagen Anerkennung, denn eine Idee, die so sehr aus der Forderung der Zeit und Zukunft geholt ist, wie unsere, muß die Kraft ihrer Wirkung in sich tragen und nicht auf Anerkennung rechnen, was wir aber brauchen zu unserer Arbeit des täglichen Schullebens, das ist Verständnis vor allem derer, auf die es zunächst ankommt, die uns ihre Kinder in die Schule anvertrauen.
Wir können ohne dieses Verständnis überhaupt unsere Arbeit nicht leisten. Und dieses Verständnis muß zunächst allgemeiner Natur sein. Wir können nicht sagen: Eine höhere, aus der anerkannten Gesellschaftsordnung folgende Weisheit schwebt über unseren Häuptern, die wird uns führen, wir brauchen nichts anderes als das Bewußtsein davon. - Wir müssen Schlagkraft gewinnen für unsere Schulideale; Schlagkraft insofern als eingesehen werde, wie tief verwurzelt in den wichtigsten Kulturforderungen der Gegenwart und nächsten Zukunft gerade dasjenige ist, was durch den Waldorfschul-Gedanken zutage tritt. Daher müssen wir danach streben, daß das, was wir wollen, in klarer Anschauung vor die Menschen der Gegenwart tritt, die ein Verständnis dafür aufbringen können. In erster Linie ist darauf zu rechnen, daß diejenigen, die uns ihre Kinder anvertrauen, die also eine gewisse Liebe zur Waldorfschule haben, auch eindringen können in die Gedanken, Empfindungen, Willensimpulse, die uns selbst tragen.
So möchten wir vor allem dasjenige Verhältnis der Schule zur Elternschaft herstellen, das nicht beruht auf Autoritätsglauben. Das hat keinen Wert für uns. Nur das hat Wert, was uns mit Verständnis, bis ins einzelne hinein, für unser Wollen entgegenkommt; das sich bewußt ist, daß ein großes Wagnis unternommen ist mit dieser Schule, das Wagnis, mit schwachen, menschlichen Kräften die so schwer enträtselbaren Anforderungen des 20. Jahrhunderts zu erkennen und umzuprägen ins Pädagogisch-Didaktische. Ich denke, in unserer Lehrerschaft ist kein einziges Mitglied, das nicht dasjenige, in das es hineingestellt ist, empfinden will wie eine Art welthistorischen Festes innerhalb der Menschheitsentwickelung. Das will der Lehrer in aller Bescheidenheit. Aber so nötig Bescheidenheit ist, so nötig ist, daß er es nicht in Kleinmut will, sondern sich bewußt werde, welche Bedeutung, nicht gerade durch sein Wesen, aber durch das, zu dem er sich bekennt, sein Wirken habe, und daß diese Bedeutung nicht aus einer Willkür oder Sympathie, sondern aus einem aus dem Zeitbewußtsein stammenden Wollen in der richtigen Weise betrachtet werde. Das brauchen wir vor allem von den Eltern.
Wir möchten schon, daß die Eltern der Waldorfschulkinder sich sagen: Ich fühle die erzieherische Menschenpflicht in ganz. besonderer Weise, und ich möchte, daß gerade durch meine Kinder etwas beigetragen werde zu den großen Aufgaben der Menschheit im 20. Jahrhundert. Ich möchte, daß das Anvertrauen meiner Kinder der Waldorfschule tatsächlich eine soziale Tat großen Stiles sei. — Je intensiver dies in die ganze Gesinnung aufgenommen werden kann, desto besser.
Uns muß es vor allen Dingen auf Gesinnung ankommen. Wir können nicht viel halten von Anweisungen im einzelnen, daß die Lehrer sich so oder so zu den Eltern verhalten sollen und umgekehrt. Wir können uns von solchen Einzelanweisungen nicht sonderlich viel versprechen, aber sehr viel davon, wenn die Lehrerschaft und Elternschaft sich gegenüberstehen in den richtigen Gesinnungen. Denn wir wissen, wenn mit dem innersten Wesen des Menschen die Gesinnung zusammenhängt, dann wird Gesinnung Tat, gerade in den Einzelheiten des Lebens. Wenn Gesinnung im großen den Menschen ergreift, werden seine einzelnen Taten zu Abbildern dessen, was die Gesinnung mit einem großen Zuge will. Daher handelt es sich für uns mehr darum, das Richtige in der richtigen Weise zu empfinden und zu verstehen, als einzelne Anweisungen zu geben und zu bekommen.
Wie oft habe ich betont, wie die verschiedenen Lebensepochen auf das Kind wirken, wie das Kind etwas anderes ist bis zum Zahnwechsel und wieder etwas anderes bis zur Geschlechtsreife. Bis zum Zahnwechsel ist das Kind eigentlich durch das Schicksal in einem ganz innigen Kontakt mit dem Elternhause. Wer nicht ganz aufgeht in der in der Gegenwart blühenden materialistischen Denkweise, sondern den geistigen Zusammenhang im menschlichen Zusammenleben und in der Entwickelung durchschaut, der weiß, daß der schicksalsmäßige Zusammenhang zwischen Kindern und Eltern viel größer ist, als unsere abstrakte Zeit in ihren materialistischen Vorstellungen oft annimmt. Wenn man hinzu weiß zu dem, was uns das physische Leben gibt, das, was uns das geistige Leben außer den Grenzen von Geburt und Tod gibt, dann nimmt man schon den schicksalsmäßigen Zusammenhang zwischen den Kindern und den Eltern und Geschwistern ganz ernst, und dann wird einem von Bedeutung die ganze wirklich für alle Erziehung einschneidende Art, wie wir das Kind in die Volksschule aus dem Elternhaus hereinbekommen.
Wenn auch vielleicht dieser erste Teil meiner Betrachtungen für die meisten Eltern etwas ferner liegt, scheint es mir doch wichtig, auch dies zu berühren. Es können ja bei denjenigen Eltern, die schon Kinder hier haben, noch jüngere Geschwister zu Hause sein, und die Eltern können das Waldorfschul-Prinzip liebgewonnen haben und auch die jüngeren Kinder bringen wollen. Für diese ist auch das Thema über Erziehung vor dem Schulalter wichtig.
Wir bekommen das Kind in die Schule herein in der Art, daß es ein wirkliches Abbild ist aller Verhältnisse und Charaktere im Elternhaus und in seiner bisherigen Umgebung. Das Kind vom ersten bis siebenten Jahr ist fast ganz Sinnesorgan; mit ungeheurer Empfindungsfähigkeit nimmt es alles aus der Umgebung auf, was dort gesagt, getan, ja gedacht wird. Und da verbirgt sich ein Menschen-Wachstumsgeheimnis, das von der heutigen Wissenschaft wenig berücksichtigt wird: die seelischen Äußerungen der kindlichen Umgebung werden organische Leibesbeschaffenheit beim Kinde. Wer sich feinen pädagogischen Takt angeeignet hat für das Aussehen des Kindes, den der Waldorfschullehrer haben soll, der sieht im Glanz des kindlichen Auges, wenn es die Volkssschule betritt, ob das Kind liebevoll von seiner Umgebung behandelt wurde, oder ob es unter Zornesausbrüchen unlieb behandelt worden ist. Was Eltern, Geschwister und so weiter tun, sagen, denken, lebt in der Körperbeschaffenheit des Kindes, und viel könnte ich sagen, wenn ich sagen wollte, wie diese seelischen Äußerungen in dem Verlauf der Atmung, des Blutumlaufes, der Wirkung des Nervensystems beim Kind zu beobachten sind. Es kann ja sein, Vater und Mutter sind in der Lage, mit häufigen Zornesausbrüchen das Kind zu behandeln. Bei diesen Kindern merkt man, was sie so aufgenommen und mit ihrem inneren Wesen verbunden haben, wie das zur Körperbeschaffenheit wird in der Art der Verdauung, der Muskelbewegung, auch in der Art, wie sie auffassen und nicht auffassen können.
Ich darf mich - nicht bildhaft, sondern eigentlich - so ausdrücken, daß der Lehrer mit der ersten Klasse in dem Kinde überliefert bekommt ein Bild des ganzen Elternhauses; in der Gesundheit, im Temperament, im Fassungsvermögen, in der moralischen Anlage trägt das Kind das Elternhaus in die Schule hinein. Und wir machen in der Schule zunächst durch das Kind sehr intim Bekanntschaft mit dem Elternhause. Das sollte in die Gesinnung derer einziehen, die ein wirkliches Interesse für eine Schule wie die Waldorfschule haben. Solche Dinge brauchen nur Gesinnung zu werden, dann wirken sie auf das Handeln.
Wenn man klar so etwas weiß, wird man manches einzelne tun, was man sonst unterläßt, und vieles unterlassen, was man sonst tut. Das ist kein abstraktes Wissen; es durchtränkt das ganze Leben. Wenn das die Voraussetzung ist, dann wird schon jener Wille entstehen, der in richtiger Weise Eltern und Lehrer zusammenführt. Denn da, wo man weiß, daß in die Tiefe der Menschennatur das wirkt, worauf es ankommt, gibt man weniger auf das, wizsmit Worten in fünf Minuten ausgesprochen ist, aber viel mehr auf die Art und Weise, wie es ausgesprochen wird. Wenn die Gesinnung, die ich andeutete, die Eltern unserer Kinder immer wieder in die Schule hineintreibt, um dem entsprechenden Lehrer gegenüberzustehen, dann wird das, rein dadurch, daß Eltern und Lehrer sich nicht fremd sind, sondern sich gesehen haben, zu einer fruchtbaren Tatsache werden.
Was wir vor allem brauchen bei diesem Verhältnis von Eltern und Lehrern, das ist, daß jenes Interesse für das Allgemeine der Waldorfschul-Pädagogik sich überträgt auf das ganze Leben innerhalb der Schule, auf alles, was mit der Waldorfschule zusammenhängt, mit der Lehrerschaft einerseits und der Elternschaft andererseits. Wir können in der Waldorfschule mit großer Beruhigung, mit einer Kraft, die uns täglich neuen Antrieb verleiht, unterrichten, wenn wir wissen: in den Elternhäusern ist für das, was der Lehrer in der Schule tut, ein tägliches Interesse vorhanden.
Ich verkenne nicht, wie schwierig die Betätigung eines solchen Interesses ist. Ich weiß gut, wie innerhalb unserer sozialen Verhältnisse die Menschen wenig Zeit und Kraft haben, wenn das Kind aus der Schule kommt, so das Kind zu fragen: Wie war es heute? Was hast du getan? daß das Kind mit warmem Eifer gar nicht erwarten kann, daß diese Fragen gestellt werden. Es kommt nicht darauf an, daß die Eltern aus Pflichtgefühl diese Frage stellen, sondern so, daß das Kind gefragt sein will. Genieren wir uns dabei gar nicht, daß etwa das Kind manches Mal uns etwas sagen könnte, was wir selber vergessen haben, das ist selbstverständlich; das wird man gar nicht bemerken, wenn auf beiden Seiten der richtige Enthusiasmus vorhanden ist. Und unterschätzen Sie nicht, wenn der Lehrer wissen kann, das, was er tut, gibt dem Elternhause, wenn auch nur für kurze Minuten, das regste Interesse, dann weiß er seine Arbeit gut begründet, dann arbeitet er aus einer seelischen Atmosphäre heraus, die anfeuernd, erzieherisch und unterrichtend auf das Kind wirkt.
Dadurch kann gerade am wirksamsten das bekämpft werden, was von heute hervorragenden Pädagogen ausgesprochen wird. Wenn diese untereinander sind, dann sprechen sie von dem «Krieg zwischen Eltern und Lehrer». Dieser Krieg ist etwas, was so ein geheimes Diskussionsthema bei vielen Pädagogen bildet. Dieser Krieg hat ja zu einem merkwürdigen Wort geführt, das schon bekannt ist, besonders jüngere Lehrer haben es ausgesprochen: Wir müssen die Erziehung bei den Eltern, insbesondere bei den Müttern anfangen. - Wir haben dazu weder den Ehrgeiz noch genügend utopistischen Sinn. Nicht weil wir glauben, die Eltern sind nicht erziehbar, oder wollen nicht erzogen werden, sondern wir wünschen, daß zwischen Elternschaft und Lehrerschaft ein wirklich inniges freundschaftliches Verhältnis besteht, das auf der Sache begründet ist. Dazu kann viel getan werden durch das Interesse der Eltern der Schule gegenüber.
Während gerade die Eltern durch ihr Seelisches auf die leibliche Beschaffenheit des Kindes so stark wirken, hat der Lehrer nur die Möglichkeit, seelisch auf Seelisches zu wirken. Da tritt dann an die Stelle jenes nachahmenden Wesens, das das Kind bis zum Zahnwechsel den Eltern entgegenbringt, das Prinzip der notwendigen, ja selbstverständlichen Autorität. Diese müssen wir haben; darin wird der Lehrer ganz besonders unterstützt, wenn ein so charakterisiertes Interesse vorhanden ist. Schon aus der Tatsache, daß die Schule mit einem gewissen feierlichen Ernst genommen wird, fließt viel von dem, was die Eltern zum Tragen dieser autoritativen Kraft beitragen können, daß der Lehrer die Autorität sein kann, die er sein muß. Wer in der Waldorfschule Lehrer wird, ist schon vielfach gesiebt; und man darf schon zu ihm Vertrauen haben. Und wenn man etwas nicht versteht, so rümpfe man nicht gleich die Nase, sondern man vertraue auf das große, umfassende Prinzip, an das man selbst glaubt, dann wird man den Lehrer unterstützen und jede Gelegenheit benützen, die einen innigen Kontakt zwischen Elternschaft und Lehrerschaft herbeiführen kann.
Sie wissen, wir geben nicht solche Zeugnisse mit den üblichen Noten wie an öffentlichen Schulen. Wir versuchen, das Kind zu charakterisieren, auf die Individualität einzugehen, Erstens: Sitzt ein Lehrer über der Gestaltung der Zeugnisse und ist sich seiner Verantwortung bewußt, so tritt ihm Rätsel über Rätsel vor das seelische Auge, und er wägt jedes Wort, das er prägen soll. Eine große Erleichterung ist es ihm dabei, wenn er den Eltern gegenübergestanden hat, nicht wegen der Vererbungsverhältnisse, um die sich heute allein der Materialismus kümmert, sondern er sieht die Umgebung, und alles erscheint dann erst im rechten Lichte. Dabei hat man nicht nötig, in indiskreter Weise die Eltern selbst zu beurteilen, sondern er will eben in freundschaftlicher Weise sich den Eltern gegenüberstellen. Wie ich einen Brief an Bekannte und Unbekannte anders schreibe, so auch die Zeugnisse über Schüler mit bekannten und unbekannten Eltern.
Zweitens sollte der Lehrer eigentlich sicher sein, daß ein liebevolles Interesse im Elternhause ruhen würde auf solchen Zeugnissen, und ich glaube, wenn die Eltern fertig brächten, eine kleine Antwort zu schreiben auf das, was der Lehrer im Zeugnis beschrieben hat, daß das ungeheuer helfen würde. Wird das als Regel eingeführt, so hat es keine Bedeutung; wird es Bedürfnis von den Eltern aus, so ist es pädagogisch ungeheuer wichtig. Solche Schriftstücke werden gewiß mit außerordentlicher Aufmerksamkeit in unserer Waldorfschule gelesen werden; sie wären uns viel wichtiger, selbst wenn sie mit noch so vielen Fehlern geschrieben wären, als manche heute anerkannte Kulturschilderung der Gegenwart. Man würde dabei tief in das hineinschauen, was man braucht, wenn man nicht Lehrer ist aus abstrakten Ideen, sondern aus dem Zeitimpuls heraus.
Sie müssen nicht vergessen: Der Waldorfschullehrer erzieht aus einer Menschenkenntnis heraus, die nicht auf dem heute üblichen Wege zustande kommt. Aber aus dem, was in hingebungsvoller Weise Eltern dem Lehrer mitteilen könnten, würde starke Menschenerkenntnis fließen, und ich übertreibe gar nicht, wenn ich sage, fast noch wichtiger als für das Kind das Zeugnis wäre für den Lehrer das Gegenzeugnis. Aber auch hierbei lege ich nicht den größten Wert auf die einzelne Maßregel, die ich gerade nehme, sondern auf das Erhalten des regen Interesses für alles, was in der Schule vor sich geht.
Und so meine ich, daß sich von selbst für die Zeit, die zugebracht wird vom Kind in den Ferien, das Richtige ergeben wird, wenn das Schuljahr in der Weise verläuft, wie ich andeutete. Wir werden ja sehr gut tun, wenn wir die Ferien Ferien sein lassen, nicht das Kind anhalten, irgend etwas Schulmäßiges zu treiben; aber wenn diejenige Gesinnung sich auslebt, die ich wünschte, so wird das in der richtigen Weise Frohsinn, Freude und Erfrischung der Gesundheit für das Kind bedeuten.
Worauf es uns aber besonders ankommt, das ist eine in solche Gesinnung eingetauchte Atmosphäre, daß Sie die Erkenntnis haben: Der Waldorfschullehrer kümmert sich um das ganze Kind, vor allem auch um die Gesundheit. Und was wir uns besonders angelegen sein lassen, das ist, daß wir im Inneren unserer Seele unterrichtet sind auch über die feineren Gesundheitszustände der Kinder, die uns anvertraut sind. Eine pädagogische Kunst ist nicht vollständig, wenn sie nicht bis zu diesem Interesse am Kinde geht. Aber gerade über dieses Gebiet wird die nötige Arbeit nur möglich sein, wenn Eltern und Schule entsprechend zusammenwirken. Da möchte man schon, daß ein aus innerem Bedürfnis stammendes Verständnis der Schule entgegenkomme, daß auch mancher Wink über das leibliche Wohl, über Diät und so weiter, von den Eltern bei unserer Waldorfschule gesucht werde. Namentlich wünschen wir, daß in solchen Dingen im Verkehr zwischen Eltern und Lehrern das voll ausgelebt werde, was der Grundimpuls unseres Wirkens ist in der Schule: Menschliche tiefinnerste Ehrlichkeit und Offenheit. Daraus könnte viel werden im Leben, und vieles kann gebessert werden, wenn Vater oder Mutter zum Lehrer kommt und sagt: Mein Kind kommt ermüdet zurück, es kommt zu spät; was kann ich mit Ihnen zusammen tun, um dem entgegenzuwirken? - In diesem ehrlichen Zusammenwirken kann viel Gutes begründet werden.
Besonders aber kann der Schule viel geholfen werden, wenn in den Dingen, in denen Genauigkeit, nicht Pedanterie ist, von den Eltern die Schule sehr unterstützt würde. Es trägt sehr viel bei zu der Art und Weise, wie man in der Schule die Zucht gestalten kann, wie man den Ernst der Kinder herbeiführt, wenn durch die ganze Art und Weise, wie am Morgen der Verkehr zwischen Eltern und Kindern ist, ohne besonderen Befehl herbeigeführt wird, daß wie mit Selbstverständlichkeit das Kind zur rechten Zeit das Haus verläßt und damit zur rechten Zeit in der Schule ist. Ich meine auch hier nicht so sehr die einzelne Tatsache, sondern mehr das Bewußtsein, das dahinter steht; ich meine die Auffassung, daß die Schule etwas Ernstes und Feierliches ist und daß man die Eltern befriedigt, wenn man die Lehrer befriedigt in dieser Pünktlichkeit. Das ist ein moralischer Brief, den das Kind jeden Morgen aus dem Elternhaus in die Schule bringt. Dem feineren Blick des Lehrers ist es nicht nur befriedigend oder unbefriedigend, wie das Kind das Haus verlassen hat, sondern es drängen sich hinein in seine eigene Stimmung störende oder fördernde Impulse, je nachdem das Kind in der einen oder anderen Weise das Elternhaus verläßt. Solche Dinge müssen ins Bewußtsein kommen. Ich glaube, man hat nicht wenig für das ganze Leben, wenn man so etwas als kleines Kind vom Vater gehört hat: Sieh mal, zwei Dinge müssen ganz genau gehen: die Uhr und das Kind in die Schule. - Das ein paarmal gesagt, kostet nicht viel Zeit und wirkt für das ganze Leben.
Es kommt uns nicht auf Einzelheiten an, sondern auf das Herzensverhältnis zwischen Schule und Haus. Wir haben schon das Vertrauen, daß bei einem solchen rechten Herzensverhältnis auch das Rechte herauskommt. Das möchten wir so sehr herbeisehnen, daß diese Gesinnung nicht nur in Einzelheiten, sondern mit der ganzen Kraft erweckt werde. Die Waldorfschule wird nicht nur durch ihr Kulturbewußtsein etwas erreichen, sondern durch solche Dinge, wie wir sie heute besprochen haben.
Wir müssen uns ja klar sein, daß manches sogar in unserer Zeit erfunden werden mußte, damit die Mängel, die in solchen Dingen liegen, nicht zu stark zutage treten. Was müssen manchmal die Kindergärten gutmachen, was vom Elternhause schlecht gemacht wurde! Unsere Zeit ist nun einmal so geworden, daß sie Surrogate braucht für das, was in der Familie erlebt werden sollte.
Nicht nur mit dem Intellekt muß verfolgt werden, was wir mit der Waldorfschule wollen, sondern auch geliebt werden muß es. Und ist die Gesinnung der Eltern in solche Liebe getaucht, so werden wir nicht nötig haben, unsere Kinder zu erziehen in der Furcht und in der Hoffnung, den zwei heute zwar gebräuchlichsten, aber schlechtesten Erziehungsmitteln. Das beste Erziehungsmittel aber ist und bleibt die Liebe, und in einer von Liebe getragenen Erziehungskunst kann das Haus die Schule stark unterstützen.
Es gibt Leute, die sagen, in der Waldorfschule sei die Disziplin nicht so gut wie in anderen Schulen. Ausführlich darüber zu sprechen, ist die Zeit zu kurz. Aber bedenken Sie, daß nicht nur in sozialen Dingen, sondern auch in den Kinderseelen die letzten Jahre viel geändert haben. Wir können nicht die Maßstäbe unserer Jugend anlegen. Es ist eine tiefe Kluft zwischen der jetzigen jungen Generation und den Älteren, und wenn es sich darum handelt, erzieherisch das Wesen des Kindes zu erfassen, so wird man mit der Furcht vor Strafen und der Hoffnung auf Zeugnisse schlecht erziehen, mit der Liebe aber gut. Mag noch so sehr das wilde Getümmel toben in den Klassen, wenn das richtige Verhältnis da ist zum Lehrer, wenn er so dasteht, daß das Kind dennoch in ihm das sieht, was es sehen soll, dann wird das Toben eine ganz andere Bedeutung haben als sonst. Vielleicht ist das paradox, aber es ist psychologisch richtig. Man bekommt auch über das Toben eine andere Anschauung; denn es tobt sich da manches heraus, was sich dann im späteren Leben nicht mehr heraustobt, und das ist entschieden besser als umgekehrt. Die späteren Lebensalter bauen sich ja auf dem auf, was wir in der Schule heranerziehen. Gerade wenn man davon tief durchdrungen ist, daß man für das ganze Leben, nicht für den Augenblick zu erziehen hat, dann weiß man auch, wie stark man die Eltern braucht, um mit dem Waldorfschul-Gedanken weiter zu kommen.
Diese Gesichtspunkte wollte ich zunächst geben, aber doch betonen, daß darin das Allernötigste liegt, und daß uns die ehrliche und gründliche Erfassung dieser Gesichtspunkte recht, recht weit bringe und die Überzeugung stärke, die für die Waldorfschullehrer heilig ist, und für die wir Verständigung wünschen. Wir wissen: Wir erreichen unser Ziel, wenn dasjenige, was in der Schule gewollt wird, in den Elternhäusern verstanden wird, und wenn uns ermöglicht wird, intim zusammenzuwirken mit den Elternhäusern!
Questions about school and home
Address at the parents' evening
Dear attendees! The question of school and home, children and parents has long been considered one that people were keen to discuss in detail here at a parents' evening.
It is not possible to say everything in one evening, but we will organize more evenings to discuss this issue so that the topic can be exhausted. Today, I would like to present to you the main points that the teachers and I have in mind.
Parent-teacher conferences are often stimulating in the field of education, but many representatives, and outstanding representatives, of today's official school system do not think much of such conferences. And it has been said by excellent educators that nothing comes of them but fruitless discussion. One can have different views on all matters of practical life, including parent-teacher conferences; each view can be justified. I do not wish to dispute the right of certain points of view to think little of parents' evenings. However, as representatives of the Waldorf school concept, we must see something extremely significant in these parents' evenings, because these evenings, if they can be conducted in the right way, are connected with the deepest conditions of life of what we want to achieve with the Waldorf school.
Certainly, teachers who feel that they are part of today's social context and are supported by the state authorities feel a certain security in their position and are very often satisfied with it. They are told enough about what they should do; why should they also be told by the parents, they think.
We cannot take this position. We are not so integrated into current social affairs. We must work from what shines forth as our pedagogical goal from our knowledge of human beings and life, from human science and human art. We must draw what we need for our daily teaching from the inner strength of our pedagogical heart. To do this, we need—I don't want to say recognition, because an idea that is so much in tune with the demands of the present and the future as ours is must carry the power of its effect within itself and not count on recognition—but what we need for our work in everyday school life is understanding, above all from those who matter most, those who entrust their children to our school.
Without this understanding, we cannot do our work at all. And this understanding must first be of a general nature. We cannot say: a higher wisdom, derived from the recognized social order, hovers above our heads and will guide us; we need nothing more than the awareness of this. We must gain clout for our school ideals; clout insofar as it is recognized how deeply rooted in the most important cultural demands of the present and the near future is precisely that which is revealed by the Waldorf school concept. Therefore, we must strive to ensure that what we want is presented in a clear vision to the people of the present who can understand it. First and foremost, we must expect that those who entrust their children to us, who therefore have a certain love for the Waldorf school, will also be able to penetrate the thoughts, feelings, and impulses of will that carry us ourselves.
Above all, we want to establish a relationship between the school and the parents that is not based on belief in authority. That has no value for us. The only thing that has value is what meets us with understanding, down to the last detail, for what we want to achieve; what is aware that a great risk is being taken with this school, the risk of recognizing the difficult-to-understand demands of the 20th century with weak human powers and transforming them into pedagogical and didactic principles. I think there is not a single member of our teaching staff who does not want to feel that what they are involved in is a kind of world-historical celebration within the development of humanity. That is what the teacher wants, in all modesty. But as necessary as modesty is, it is equally necessary that he does not want it out of timidity, but that he becomes aware of the significance of his work, not precisely through his nature, but through what he professes, and that this significance is viewed in the right way, not out of arbitrariness or sympathy, but out of a will that stems from an awareness of the times. We need this above all from the parents.
We would like the parents of Waldorf school children to say to themselves: I feel a special educational duty as a human being, and I would like my children in particular to contribute to the great tasks facing humanity in the 20th century. I would like the entrusting of my children to the Waldorf school to be a social act of great significance. The more intensely this can be incorporated into the whole attitude, the better.
Above all, we must focus on attitude. We do not think much of detailed instructions that teachers should behave in a certain way toward parents and vice versa. We cannot expect much from such individual instructions, but we can expect a great deal if teachers and parents face each other with the right attitudes. For we know that when attitude is connected with the innermost being of the human being, then attitude becomes action, precisely in the details of life. When attitude takes hold of a person on a large scale, their individual actions become reflections of what the attitude wants to achieve on a large scale. Therefore, for us it is more a matter of feeling and understanding what is right in the right way than of giving and receiving individual instructions.
How often have I emphasized how the different stages of life affect the child, how the child is different until the change of teeth and again different until sexual maturity. Until they lose their baby teeth, children are actually in very close contact with their parents' home through fate. Anyone who is not completely absorbed in the materialistic way of thinking that is flourishing at present, but who sees through the spiritual connection in human coexistence and development, knows that the fateful connection between children and parents is much greater than our abstract time often assumes in its materialistic mental images. If we add to what physical life gives us that which spiritual life gives us beyond the boundaries of birth and death, then we take the fateful connection between children and their parents and siblings very seriously, and then we realize the significance of the way in which we bring the child from the parental home into elementary school, which is truly decisive for all education.Although this first part of my reflections may be somewhat distant for most parents, I still think it is important to touch on this. Parents who already have children here may have younger siblings at home, and they may have grown fond of the Waldorf school principle and want to bring their younger children too. For them, the topic of education before school age is also important.
We welcome the child into the school in such a way that it is a true reflection of all the circumstances and characters in the parental home and in its previous environment. From the first to the seventh year, the child is almost entirely sensory organ; with tremendous sensitivity, it absorbs everything from its environment that is said, done, and even thought. And there lies a secret of human growth that is little considered by today's science: the emotional expressions of the child's environment become part of the child's organic physical constitution. Those who have acquired a fine pedagogical sensitivity to the appearance of the child, which Waldorf school teachers should have, can see in the sparkle of the child's eyes when they enter elementary school whether the child has been treated lovingly by those around them or whether they have been treated unkindly with outbursts of anger. What parents, siblings, and so on do, say, and think lives on in the child's physical constitution, and I could say a great deal if I wanted to describe how these emotional expressions can be observed in the child's breathing, blood circulation, and nervous system. It may well be that the father and mother are in a position to treat the child with frequent outbursts of anger. In these children, one notices what they have absorbed and connected with their inner being, how this becomes part of their physical constitution in the way they digest, in their muscle movements, and also in the way they are able to comprehend and not comprehend.
I may express myself – not figuratively, but literally – in such a way that the teacher, with the first grade, receives a picture of the entire parental home in the child; in terms of health, temperament, comprehension, and moral disposition, the child brings the parental home into the school. And we, at school, first become very intimately acquainted with the parental home through the child. This should be taken to heart by those who have a genuine interest in a school like the Waldorf School. Such things only need to become part of our mindset, then they will influence our actions.
When you know something like this clearly, you will do some things that you would otherwise refrain from doing, and refrain from doing many things that you would otherwise do. This is not abstract knowledge; it permeates our whole life. If this is the prerequisite, then the will to bring parents and teachers together in the right way will arise. For when we know that what matters has an effect on the depths of human nature, we pay less attention to what is said in five minutes than to the way in which it is said. If the attitude I have indicated drives the parents of our children back to school again and again to meet the relevant teacher, then this will become a fruitful reality, simply because parents and teachers are not strangers to each other, but have seen each other.
What we need above all in this relationship between parents and teachers is for that interest in the general principles of Waldorf education to be transferred to the whole life within the school, to everything connected with the Waldorf school, with the teaching staff on the one hand and the parents on the other. We can teach in Waldorf schools with great peace of mind, with a strength that gives us new impetus every day, when we know that there is daily interest in the parents' homes for what the teacher does at school.
I do not underestimate how difficult it is to maintain such an interest. I am well aware that in our social circumstances, people have little time and energy when their children come home from school to ask them: How was your day? What did you do? That children cannot wait with warm eagerness for these questions to be asked. It is not important that parents ask these questions out of a sense of duty, but rather that the child wants to be asked. Let us not be embarrassed that the child might sometimes tell us something that we ourselves have forgotten; that is only natural. It will not be noticed if there is genuine enthusiasm on both sides. And do not underestimate the fact that if the teacher knows that what he is doing arouses the keenest interest in the parental home, even if only for a few minutes, then he knows that his work is well founded, then he works from a spiritual atmosphere that has an encouraging, educational, and instructive effect on the child.
This is the most effective way to combat what today's outstanding educators are saying. When they are among themselves, they talk about the “war between parents and teachers.” This war is something that is a secret topic of discussion among many educators. This war has led to a strange phrase that is already well known, especially among younger teachers: We must begin education with the parents, especially the mothers. We have neither the ambition nor the utopian spirit to do so. Not because we believe that parents cannot be educated or do not want to be educated, but because we want there to be a truly close and friendly relationship between parents and teachers, based on facts. Much can be done to achieve this through the interest of parents in the school.
While parents have a strong influence on the physical constitution of their children through their emotional state, teachers can only influence the emotional state of their students. The imitative nature that children display towards their parents until they lose their baby teeth is then replaced by the principle of necessary, even self-evident authority. We must have this; the teacher is particularly supported in this when such an interest is present. The very fact that the school is taken with a certain solemn seriousness contributes greatly to the parents' ability to exert this authoritative power, so that the teacher can be the authority that he must be. Those who become teachers at Waldorf schools have already been screened many times over, and one can already have confidence in them. And if one does not understand something, one should not immediately turn up one's nose, but rather trust in the great, comprehensive principle in which one believes oneself, then one will support the teacher and use every opportunity that can bring about a close contact between parents and teachers.
You know that we do not give report cards with the usual grades as in public schools. We try to characterize the child and respond to their individuality. First, when a teacher sits down to write a report card and is aware of their responsibility, they are faced with puzzle after puzzle in their mind's eye, and they weigh every word they are about to write. It is a great relief for him when he has met the parents, not because of hereditary circumstances, which today are only of concern to materialism, but because he sees the environment, and everything then appears in the right light. There is no need to judge the parents themselves in an indiscreet manner, but rather he wants to approach the parents in a friendly manner. Just as I write letters to acquaintances and strangers differently, so too do I write reports about students with known and unknown parents.
Secondly, the teacher should be sure that such reports would be received with loving interest in the parental home, and I believe that if the parents were able to write a short reply to what the teacher has described in the report, that would be enormously helpful. If this is introduced as a rule, it has no significance; if it becomes a need for the parents, it is enormously important from an educational point of view. Such documents will certainly be read with extraordinary attention in our Waldorf school; even if they were written with many mistakes, they would be much more important to us than some of the currently recognized cultural descriptions of the present. One would look deeply into what one needs when one is not a teacher of abstract ideas, but of the impulse of the times.You must not forget: Waldorf school teachers educate based on a knowledge of human nature that is not acquired in the usual way today. But from what parents could devotedly communicate to the teacher, a strong knowledge of human nature would flow, and I am not exaggerating when I say that the counter-report card would be almost more important to the teacher than the report card is to the child. But here, too, I do not attach the greatest importance to the individual measure I am taking, but to maintaining a lively interest in everything that goes on at school.
And so I believe that the right thing will happen naturally for the time the child spends on vacation if the school year proceeds in the manner I have indicated. We would do very well to let the holidays be holidays and not encourage the child to do anything school-related; but if the attitude I would like to see is lived out, it will mean cheerfulness, joy, and refreshment of health for the child in the right way.
What is particularly important to us, however, is an atmosphere imbued with such an attitude that you realize: the Waldorf school teacher cares for the whole child, especially their health. And what we take particular care to ensure is that we are also educated in the finer aspects of the health of the children entrusted to us. An educational art is not complete if it does not extend to this interest in the child. But it is precisely in this area that the necessary work will only be possible if parents and school work together accordingly. We would like to see an understanding of the school that comes from an inner need, so that parents also seek advice from our Waldorf school on physical well-being, diet, and so on. In particular, we hope that in such matters, the fundamental impulse of our work at the school will be fully realized in the interaction between parents and teachers: deep human honesty and openness. Much could come of this in life, and much can be improved if a father or mother comes to the teacher and says: My child comes home tired and late; what can we do together to counteract this? Much good can be achieved through this honest cooperation.
In particular, the school can be greatly helped if parents support the school in matters where precision is required, not pedantry. It contributes greatly to the way in which discipline can be established in school, how the children's seriousness can be brought about, if, through the whole manner in which parents and children interact in the morning, without any special instructions, it is brought about that the child leaves the house at the right time as a matter of course and is thus at school at the right time. I am not referring so much to the individual fact, but more to the awareness behind it; I mean the view that school is something serious and solemn and that parents are satisfied when teachers are satisfied with this punctuality. This is a moral letter that the child brings to school every morning from their parents' home. The teacher's keen eye is not only satisfied or dissatisfied with how the child left the house, but also with the disturbing or encouraging impulses that intrude into his own mood, depending on whether the child leaves the parental home in one way or another. Such things must be brought to consciousness. I believe that hearing something like this from one's father as a small child is invaluable for one's whole life: Look, two things have to be absolutely precise: the clock and the child going to school. Saying this a few times doesn't take much time and has an effect that lasts a lifetime.
We already have confidence that with such a right relationship of the heart, the right thing will come out. We would like to long for this so much that this attitude is awakened not only in details, but with all our strength. The Waldorf school will achieve something not only through its cultural awareness, but through things such as those we have discussed today.
We must be clear that some things even had to be invented in our time so that the shortcomings that lie in such things do not become too apparent. How much do kindergartens sometimes have to make up for what has been done badly in the parental home! Our time has simply become such that it needs surrogates for what should be experienced in the family.
What we want to achieve with the Waldorf school must not only be pursued with the intellect, but must also be loved. And if the parents' attitude is imbued with such love, we will not need to educate our children in fear and hope, the two most common but worst means of education today. The best means of education is and remains love, and in an art of education based on love, the home can strongly support the school.
There are people who say that discipline in Waldorf schools is not as good as in other schools. There is not enough time to discuss this in detail. But consider that not only in social matters, but also in children's souls, much has changed in recent years. We cannot apply the standards of our youth. There is a deep divide between the current young generation and their elders, and when it comes to understanding the nature of the child in terms of education, fear of punishment and hope for good grades will result in poor education, but love will result in good education. No matter how wild the turmoil in the classroom, if the right relationship with the teacher exists, if he stands there in such a way that the child still sees in him what he is supposed to see, then the turmoil will have a completely different meaning than usual. Perhaps this is paradoxical, but it is psychologically correct. One also gains a different perspective on the commotion, because some things are worked out there that will not be worked out later in life, and that is definitely better than the opposite. Later stages of life are built on what we teach in school. When you are deeply convinced that you have to educate for the whole of life, not just for the moment, then you also know how much you need parents in order to advance the Waldorf school idea.
I wanted to start by presenting these points of view, but I would like to emphasize that they contain the most essential elements and that an honest and thorough understanding of these points of view will take us a long way and strengthen the conviction that is sacred to Waldorf teachers and for which we seek understanding. We know that we will achieve our goal when what is desired in school is understood in the parents' homes and when we are able to work closely with the parents' homes!