Waldorf Education and Anthroposophy II
GA 304a
28 March 1923, Stuttgart
V. Introduction to a Eurythmy Performance of the Waldorf School Pupils
As a complement to the art of eurythmy, to which we were pleased to introduce you earlier, I will be speaking today about its pedagogical aspect. This subject has become an established and organic part of Waldorf pedagogy. When it was my task, on previous occasions, to justify including eurythmy as a compulsory subject in our curriculum, it seemed appropriate to speak of it in terms of an “ensouled and spirit-permeated form of gymnastics.” However, I wish to emphasize right from the start that this remark must in no way be taken as derogatory as far as conventional gymnastics is concerned. It arose from the lack of a gymnasium, which initially prevented us from giving gymnastics its rightful place in the curriculum, in addition to eurythmy. Now that we are fortunate enough to have a gymnasium, gymnastics also is an obligatory subject.
I do not share the view once expressed to me by a very famous contemporary physiologist, after he had heard the introduction I often make before a school eurythmy performance. I had said that eurythmy was to be presented as an ensouled and spirit-imbued form of gymnastics, to be practiced along with the more physically centered conventional gymnastics, which also had its proper place. Afterward, the famous physiologist came to me, saying: “You declared that gymnastics, the way it is practiced today, has a certain justification. But I tell you that it is sheer barbarism!” Perhaps his words are justified, if they imply that this whole subject of gymnastics ought to be reviewed, having fallen prey to the materialistic attitude of our times. This, however, would be a very different issue. The point is that gymnastics, as it is taught in our schools, deals with physical movements and efforts of the human organism, which place the human body into a position of equilibrium relative to the outside world. The aim of gymnastics is that the human body, with its system of blood circulation and its potential physical movements, find the proper relationship to an outside space, which has its own forms and internal dynamics. Gymnastics is primarily concerned with adapting internal human dynamics, the human system of movement and blood circulation, to the dynamics of outside space. Gymnastics will find its proper and justified place in the school curriculum if and when one can find, both in freestanding exercises and in those using an apparatus, the appropriate orientation into world dynamics, seen also as human dynamics, for the human being stands as microcosm within the macrocosm.
On the other hand, eurythmy as an educational subject for children is very different. Eurythmy belongs more to the inner realm of the human organization. It can be seen as furthering and enhancing what is done in gymnastics. In eurythmy, the person works more with the qualitative and inner dynamics that play between breathing and blood circulation. The person doing eurythmy is oriented toward the transformation, into externalized movements of the human organism, of what is happening between internal breathing and blood circulation. In this way, the eurythmist gains an intimate relationship of body and soul to the self, and experiences something of the inner harmony inherent in the human being. This experience, in turn, brings about greater inner stability and firmness because the essence of the ensouled and spirit-imbued movement works on the entire human being. Conventional gymnastics mainly activates the physical part of the human being and, in its own way, indirectly affects the soul and spirit of the athlete, whereas eurythmy activates the whole human being as body, soul, and, spirit. Eurythmy movements cause the human soul and spirit to flow into every physical movement. Just as speech and song embody laws inherent in one part of the human being, so eurythmy embodies laws inherent in the whole human being; similarly, eurythmy works on the young child as a matter of course just as the organic forces inherent in speech work and flow through the young child.
Children learn to speak because of the stimulation of sounds coming from outside, and the children’s innate impulse to form sounds. Experience has shown that when children are introduced to eurythmy at the right age, they feel at home in its movements, with the same natural readiness as children finding their way into speech. An essential human feature—or, as I would like to call it, the most essential human feature—is developed and widened in this way. And since all education and training should aim at getting hold of the innate human being through the pupil’s own self, we feel justified in using eurythmy as a form of ensouled and spirit-imbued gymnastics in its own right, even though it originated and was at first cultivated only as an art form within the anthroposophical movement.
The following may seem a little difficult to understand at first, but if we can recognize how, in accordance with human nature, the child incorporates into the organism what is derived from eurythmy lessons—complemented by musical and sculptural activities—one can see how all these elements affect the child’s organism, and how they all work back again upon the entire nature of the child. One sees the child’s faculty of cognition becoming more mobile and receptive through the influence of eurythmic exercises. Children develop a more active ideational life, opening with greater love toward what comes to meet them; and so, by using eurythmy in appropriate ways, the teacher has the possibility of training the children’s powers of mental imagery.
Eurythmy also works back very powerfully on the will, and especially on the most intimate traits of the human will. For instance, it is easy enough to lie with words, and there are many ways of counteracting such a weakness in children, merely by speaking to them. But in such a case one can also make profitable use of eurythmy, for if, as a eurythmist, one lets words flow directly into physical movements so that they become visible speech, it becomes very evident that the use of this medium simply cancels out the possibility of lying. The possibility of lying ceases when one begins to experience what is involved in revealing the soul through one’s physical movements. Consequently one will come to see that, with regard to the human will, truthfulness, which is of such great ethical importance, can be developed particularly well with the aid of eurythmy exercises. To sum up, one can say that eurythmy is a kind of gymnastics developed out of the domain of the human soul and that it gives back to the soul, in turn, very much indeed. This is the reality of eurythmy and its specific character. Eventually it will be regarded quite naturally as an intrinsic part of education. We have no doubt that it will happen. However, these things take their time because the public first needs to overcome built-in prejudices. There will be those who say, “Look at this handful of crazies,” but such has always been the way of the world. There once were a handful of people among whom one crazy fellow actually maintained that the Sun stood in the center of the universe and that the planets, together with the Earth, were revolving around it. Such a crazy idea was at first totally rejected, for no one of a sane mind would contemplate such nonsense. Nevertheless, during approximately the first third of the nineteenth century there was quite a following for this “crazy” idea, which Copernicus had asked to be taken as the truth. Why should one not wait patiently until something that cannot even be proved as convincingly as the Copernican system of the universe is accepted by society at large!
Eurythmy feeds back into the child’s cognitive faculties, endowing them with greater mobility, causing a keener interest and a sense of truthfulness; it feeds back into the human emotional disposition, which lives between the faculties of cognition and a person’s will capacity. It is tremendously important that the human being, with the aid of eurythmy, be able to keep hold of the self as a whole, instead of living in the dichotomy of soul and spirit on one side, and human physical existence on the other.
One could keep asking forever, “What is the relationship between body and soul?” It is downright comical to see the question coming up again and again! There have been no end of attempts to construct theoretical explanations of how the one side affects the other. But if this matter can be experienced directly—which happens when one does eurythmy—the question immediately assumes a different character. The question then becomes: How does an intrinsic unity composed of body, soul, and spirit come to work in separate ways, on the one side as soul element and on the other side as physical element? Getting hold of these interactions completely forces one to reshape the question altogether. Then, there is no need for theorizing, for everything is founded on practical experience and in accordance with reality. Some people have the opinion that anthroposophy deals with “cloud-cuckoo-land,” whereas in fact, anthroposophy aims at working directly into practical life.
Nowadays, the spirit in matter is no longer perceived; as a result, the nature of matter is no longer understood. This nature can be comprehended only by doing. This may suggest how eurythmy affects the child. One can say that, when doing eurythmy, children, through the will, gets hold of the inner harmony between the upper more spiritual side of the human being and the lower more physical side, so that will initiative is being created. And will initiative is the very thing that needs to be cultivated in today’s education. Those who observe the psychological development of our times know very well that there is a great lack of will initiative. It is badly needed in the social sphere, and the art that will bring it about os most needed in pedagogical practice.
The things I have indicated briefly, you will be able to witness for yourselves while watching the children of the Waldorf school perform eurythmy. I hope that what you see on the stage, done with youthful joy and vigor, confirms what I have tried to put into words for you.
Ansprache zur pädagogischen Eurythmie-Aufführung
Sehr verehrte Anwesende!
Zu dem Künstlerischen, das wir Ihnen durch die schon gegebenen Vorstellungen in Bezug auf Eurythmie darbieten wollten, wird heute die pädagogisch-didaktische Seite der Eurythmie kommen.
Wir haben in dem Lehrplan der Waldorfschule organisch eingefügt diese Eurythmie. Und ich musste öfters sagen, wenn ich die Aufgabe hatte, diese Eurythmie als einen obligatorischen Lehrgegenstand in dem Lehrplan der Waldorfschule zu rechtfertigen, dass in dieser Eurythmie zu sehen ist nach dieser Seite hin eine Art beseelten und durchgeistigten Turnens. Ich betone ausdrücklich, dass damit nicht irgendetwas Abträgliches gegen das Turnen vorgebracht werden soll, dass es lediglich der Mangel eines Turnsaales war, der uns verhindert hat, in der rechten Weise das Turnen neben der Eurythmie in den Lehrplan einzufügen. Jetzt, wo wir einen Turnsaal haben, fügen wir durchaus in sachgemäßer Weise das Turnen in den Lehrplan der Schule obligatorisch ein.
Ich stehe durchaus nicht auf dem Standpunkt, auf den einmal ein sehr berühmter Physiologe der Gegenwart sich gestellt hat, als er eine solche Einleitung, wie ich sie sonst vor eurythmischen Vorstellungen halte, gehört hatte. Ich hatte gesagt in meiner Einleitung, Eurythmie sollte als durchseeltes und durchgeistigtes Turnen neben das mehr körperliche Turnen hingestellt werden und dem Turnen soll durchaus sein Recht widerfahren. Dieser berühmte Physiologe kam dann an mich heran und sagte: Sie erklären, dass das Turnen so, wie es heute betrieben wird, eine gewisse Berechtigung hätte. Ich aber sage Ihnen, dass das Turnen eine Barbarei ist. Vielleicht haben Sie einen gewissen Rest von Berechtigung, der sich darin äußern könnte, dass man auch in die Gestaltung des Turnens eingreifen müsse, da das Turnen der materialistischen Weltanschauung zum Opfer gefallen ist.
Aber das ist eine ganz andere Frage. Es handelt sich darum, dass das Turnen ja mehr, auch wenn es sachgemäß ist, zu tun hat mit denjenigen Bewegungen, mit denjenigen Anstrengungen des menschlichen Organismus, durch die sich der menschliche Körper in die Gleichgewichtslage der Welt gegenüber hineinstellt. Man hat es zu tun mit dem Suchen der Beziehung des menschlichen Zirkulations- und Bewegungssystems zum Raum und seiner inneren Formung, seiner inneren Dynamik. Die Anpassung der inneren Dynamik, des Bewegungs- und Zirkulationssystems an die des Weltraumsystems ist dasjenige, was im Turnen in Betracht kommt. Findet man sowohl in den Freiübungen wie in den Geräteübungen die richtige Hineinorientierung des Menschen in die Weltdynamik, die zu gleicher Zeit seine Dynamik ist- der Mensch steht ja im Makrokosmos als Mikrokosmos drinnen -, dann wird das Turnen seine berechtigte Gestalt gerade auch im Unterricht annehmen können.
Die Eurythmie als Kindererzichungsmittel ist aber noch etwas anderes, etwas, was sich - als in geradliniger Fortsetzung dessen, was im Turnen geschieht - mehr nach dem Inneren des menschlichen Organismus von selbst ergibt. In der Eurythmie hat man es mehr zu tun mit jener qualitativen inneren Dynamik, die sich mehr abspielt zwischen Atmungs- und Zirkulationssystem. Der Mensch ist, indem er sich leiblich in der Eurythmie betätigt, mehr daraufhin orientiert, dasjenige, was sich abspielt zwischen Atmung und Zirkulation, in die Bewegung des menschlichen Organismus überzuführen. Dadurch bekommt der Mensch gerade durch die Eurythmie ein inniges leiblich-seelisches Verhältnis zu sich selber - und er bekommt ein Erlebnis von der inneren Harmonie des ganzen menschlichen Wesens. [Ein solches Erlebnis von der inneren Harmonie des ganzen menschlichen Wesens wirkt wiederum festigend auf den ganzen Menschen zurück.
Während beim gewöhnlichen Turnen mehr das Leibliche betätigt ist, dieses allerdings dann in das Seelisch-Geistige sehr stark hineinwirkt, ist in der Eurythmie der ganze Mensch nach Leib, Seele und Geist betätigt — das ist] das Wesentliche dieses beseelten, durchgeistigten Turnens. Überall fließt das Geistig-Seelische in das PhysischLeibliche beim eurythmischen Bewegen über. Und dadurch wiederum, weil ja diese Eurythmie eigentlich eine ebenso gesetzmäßige Äußerung des ganzen Menschen ist wie Sprache und Gesang diejenige eines Teiles der menschlichen Organisation, dadurch wirkt tatsächlich auf das Kind das Eurythmisieren, das Hineinkommen in das Eurythmisieren mit einer Selbstverständlichkeit, wie auf das kleinere Kind mit einer Selbstverständlichkeit das Hineinströmenlassen der organischen Kräfte in die Sprache wirkt.
Und man kann eben die Erfahrung machen, dass Kinder, indem sie im richtigen Lebensalter zur Eurythmie herangeführt werden, sich selber in der eurythmischen Betätigung geradeso selbstverständlich drinnen fühlen wie das ganz kleine Kind in der Erregung des Lautlichen und des lautlich zu Gestaltenden in der Sprache. Dadurch erweitert man im Wesentlichen das ganze Menschliche, ich möchte sagen das «Menschlichste im Menschen, und das berechtigt dazu — weil aller Unterricht und alle Erziehung ein Ergreifen des Menschen durch den Menschen selber sein muss -, das berechtigt dazu, die Eurythmie, die zunächst innerhalb der anthroposophischen Bewegung ausgebildet worden ist als eine Kunst, dies auch in der Form des durchseelten, durchgeistigten Turnens im Unterricht zu verwenden. Sie wirkt ja auch auf den ganzen Menschen zurück.
Das ist ja allerdings heute noch für eine äußerliche Betrachtung schwer einzusehen. Aber derjenige, der hineinschauen kann in die menschliche Natur, der namentlich durch solches Hineinschauen beobachten kann, wie sich organisch hineingliedert dasjenige, was das Kind in sich ausbildet durch den Unterricht im Eurythmischen, durch die Erziehung im Eurythmischen - dem sich angliedert diejenige im Musikalischen und Plastischen -, wer da sieht, wie sich das im Kinde heranbildet, der merkt auch, wie es wiederum zurückwirkt auf den ganzen Menschen im Kinde. Die Erkenntnisfähigkeit sieht man unter der Einwirkung der eurythmischen Übungen in der Schule beweglicher werden, empfänglicher werden. Und man wird schen, dass man - in der Erziehung muss ja so und soviel, ich möchte sagen aus dem Unterbewussten herausgeholt werden -, man wird sehen, wie die ganze Vorstellungswelt des Kindes plastischer wird und von Interesse mehr erfüllt als sonst. Das Kind entwickelt ein beweglicheres, mehr zu den Dingen in Liebe sich hinwendendes Vorstellungsleben. Sodass man im Eurythmischen die Möglichkeit hat, auf das Vorstellungsleben so zu wirken, dass die Vorstellungen so werden, dass das Kind einzugehen vermag auf dasjenige, was man ihm im Unterrichte gerade beizubringen hat.
Auf der anderen Seite wirkt das eurythmische Üben sehr stark auf den Willen zurück und zwar auf die intimsten Eigenschaften des menschlichen Willens. Man kann zwar mit Worten lügen - und das bloße Sprechen bietet zwar viele Anhaltspunkte, um die Kinder über das Lügen hinwegzubringen —, man kann aber das Eurythmische in der richtigen Weise gerade bei einem solchen kindlichen Schaden wie dem Lügen benützen. Dann macht sich das stark geltend, dass man, wenn man die Worte ausströmen lässt in die körperlichen Bewegungen, dass man eurythmisch - sichtbar sprechend - nicht lügen kann. Es hört auf die Möglichkeit zu lügen, wenn man das Gefühl bekommt, was alles dabei ist, wenn man die Seelenäußerung offenbar werden lassen muss durch das, was in den ganzen Leib hineingeht. Daher wird man sehen, dass diese Eigenschaft des menschlichen Willens, die ethisch von so großer Bedeutung ist, die Wahrhaftigkeit, sich besonders heranbilden kann aus dem richtigen eurythmischen Üben.
Und so kann man sagen: Die Eurythmie ist ein aus der Seele herausgeholtes Turnen für das Kind, aber sie gibt der Seele wiederum unendlich viel zurück. Das ist das Wirkliche und Wesentliche, das wird schon einmal machen, dass man die Eurythmie als etwas ganz Selbstverständliches im Unterricht und in der Erziehung ansehen wird. Derjenige, der in die Dinge hineinguckt, ist ganz beruhigt, dass das so ist. Die Dinge gehen ja nicht schnell. Man kommt nur langsam über Vorurteile hinweg. Man sagt: Da sind ein paar Narren! - Nun ja, so ging cs immer. Es war ja auch eine kleine Gesellschaft, da war ja auch so ein Narr, der wollte, dass die Sonne im Mittelpunkt stehe und die Planeten mit der Erde sich um sie drehen - auf so ein narrisches Ding kann man ja nicht eingehen. Aber man hat dann etwa im ersten Drittel des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts gefunden, dass sich doch eine ziemlich große Gesellschaft in dieses närrische Ding hineingefunden hat, hineingefunden hat in dasjenige, was Kopernikus gewollt hat. Warum sollte man nicht auch warten können, bis sich das hineinstellt in die Welt, was sich nicht so leicht beweisen lässt [wie] das kopernikanische Weltensystem. So wird Eurythmie auf die Erkenntnisfähigkeit und Willensfähigkeit in der Richtung nach Beweglichkeit, Interessefähigkeit und Wahrhaftigkeit zurückwirken und auf das Gemüt, das zwischen der Erkenntnisfähigkeit und Willensfähigkeit liegt. Es kommt so unendlich viel darauf an, dass der Mensch sich eurythmisierend als Ganzes ergreift, dass er nicht den Leib auf der einen Seite und die Seele, den Geist auf der anderen Seite hat.
Da kann man lange fragen: Welche Beziehung ist zwischen Leib und Seele? Es ist so unendlich komisch, wie da oft gefragt wird. Man will oft theoretisch konstruieren, wie das eine im anderen wirkt. Wenn man es erlebt - und erlebt wird es in Eurythmie -, dann nimmt die Frage einen ganz anderen Charakter an. Dann fragt man: Wie wirkt dasjenige, was Leib-und-Seeleneinheit ist, einseitig als Seelisches und einseitig als Leibliches? Die Fragestellung wird sich ganz anders gestalten, wenn die Dinge durchgreifend eingesehen werden. Hier ist nichts Theoretisches, nichts Theoretisierendes: Alles ist praktisch und wirklichkeitsgemäß. Und das ist dasjenige, was dem, was hier geschieht, entgegensteht, dass man sagt: Die Anthroposophie will etwas sein in Wolkenkuckucksheim. Im Gegenteil: Anthroposophie will hineingreifen ins unmittelbar praktische Leben. Gerade die Materie versteht man nicht im heutigen Leben, weil man den Geist in der Materie nicht mehr wahrnehmen kann. Das ist aber das, was nur im Tun wirklich erfasst werden kann. Daher kann man schon sehen, was eigentlich aus dem Kinde dieses Eurythmische macht.
Und so kann man sagen, dass durch dieses Ergreifen der inneren Harmonie zwischen dem oberen - dem mehr geistigen - und dem unteren, mehr leiblichen Mensch, wie das Kind praktisch wollend erfasst im Eurythmisieren, wie dadurch namentlich Willensinitiative geschaffen wird. Und das ist etwas, was wir heute vor allen Dingen heranziehen müssen. Wer die Seelengeschichte der Gegenwart beobachten kann, weiß, dass es an Willensinitiative fehlt. Die brauchen wir als etwas, was dem sozialen Leben eingefügt werden muss. Und die Kunst, zur Willensinitiative zu führen, die ist es, die wir vor allen Dingen in der Erziehungspraxis nötig haben. Das, was ich mit ein paar Worten andeuten wollte, werden Sie in der eurythmischen Betätigung von Waldorfschulkindern selber anschauen können. Und ich hoffe, dass womöglich in alle Gemüter dasjenige, was sich nun hier vor Ihnen in kindlicher Lust, in kindlicher Freude, in kindlicher Munterkeit abspielt, eine Bestätigung sein kann dessen, was ich eben vor Sie mit Worten hingestellt habe.
Address on the educational eurythmy performance
Dear guests!
In addition to the artistic aspects of eurythmy that we have already presented to you, today we will focus on the educational and didactic aspects of eurythmy.
We have organically integrated eurythmy into the Waldorf school curriculum. And when I had to justify eurythmy as a compulsory subject in the Waldorf school curriculum, I often had to say that eurythmy can be seen as a kind of animated and spiritualized gymnastics. I would like to emphasize that this is not meant to be a criticism of gymnastics, but that it was simply the lack of a gymnasium that prevented us from incorporating gymnastics into the curriculum in the right way alongside eurythmy. Now that we have a gymnasium, we are incorporating gymnastics into the school curriculum in an appropriate manner as a compulsory subject.
I do not at all share the view once expressed by a very famous contemporary physiologist when he heard an introduction such as I usually give before eurythmy performances. In my introduction, I had said that eurythmy should be placed alongside more physical gymnastics as a soulful and spiritual form of exercise, and that gymnastics should certainly be given its due. This famous physiologist then approached me and said: You explain that gymnastics, as it is practiced today, has a certain justification. But I tell you that gymnastics is barbaric. Perhaps you have a certain residual justification, which could be expressed in the fact that one must also intervene in the design of gymnastics, since gymnastics has fallen victim to the materialistic worldview.
But that is a completely different question. The point is that gymnastics, even if it is appropriate, has more to do with those movements, those efforts of the human organism, through which the human body places itself in a position of equilibrium with the world. It has to do with seeking the relationship of the human circulatory and motor systems to space and its inner formation, its inner dynamics. The adaptation of the inner dynamics, the motor and circulatory systems to those of the world space system is what is taken into consideration in gymnastics. If, in both free exercises and apparatus exercises, we find the right orientation of the human being into the dynamics of the world, which are at the same time his own dynamics – for the human being stands in the macrocosm as a microcosm – then gymnastics will be able to take on its rightful form, especially in teaching.
Eurythmy as a means of educating children is, however, something else, something that – as a direct continuation of what happens in gymnastics – arises more naturally from within the human organism. In eurythmy, one is more concerned with the qualitative inner dynamics that take place between the respiratory and circulatory systems. By engaging physically in eurythmy, people become more oriented toward transferring what takes place between breathing and circulation into the movement of the human organism. Through eurythmy, people develop an intimate physical and spiritual relationship with themselves and experience the inner harmony of the whole human being. Such an experience of the inner harmony of the whole human being has a strengthening effect on the whole person.
Whereas in ordinary gymnastics it is more the physical that is exercised, which then has a very strong effect on the soul and spirit, in eurythmy the whole human being is exercised in body, soul, and spirit — that is] the essence of this soulful, spiritual gymnastics. In eurythmic movement, the spiritual and soul aspects flow into the physical and bodily aspects everywhere. And because eurythmy is actually an expression of the whole human being, just as speech and singing are expressions of part of the human organism, eurythmy has an effect on the child, who enters into eurythmy with the same naturalness with which the younger child allows the organic forces to flow into speech.
And one can experience that children, when introduced to eurythmy at the right age, feel just as natural in eurythmic activity as the very young child feels in the excitement of sound and of shaping sound in language. In this way, one essentially expands the whole human being, I would say the "most human in the human being, and that justifies — because all teaching and all education must be a grasping of the human being by the human being itself — that justifies using eurythmy, which was initially developed within the anthroposophical movement as an art, in the form of soul-filled, spirit-filled gymnastics in the classroom. It also has an effect on the whole human being.
Admittedly, this is still difficult to see from an external perspective today. But those who can look into human nature, who can observe, through such insight, how what the child develops within itself through eurythmy lessons, through eurythmy education — to which is added that which is developed in music and sculpture — who sees how this develops in the child, also notices how it in turn has an effect on the whole human being in the child. Under the influence of eurythmy exercises at school, one can see that the child's ability to understand becomes more flexible and receptive. And one will see that – in education, so much must be brought out of the subconscious, I would say – one will see how the child's entire world of imagination becomes more vivid and filled with more interest than usual. The child develops a more flexible imagination that is more loving towards things. So that in eurythmy one has the opportunity to influence the imagination in such a way that the ideas become such that the child is able to respond to what one is teaching him or her in class.
On the other hand, eurythmic practice has a very strong effect on the will, specifically on the most intimate qualities of the human will. It is possible to lie with words – and mere speech offers many clues to help children overcome lying – but eurythmy can be used in the right way to address a childhood problem such as lying. Then it becomes very clear that when you let the words flow into physical movements, when you speak eurythmically – visibly – you cannot lie. The possibility of lying ceases when one feels what is involved in having to reveal one's soul through what enters the whole body. Therefore, one will see that this quality of the human will, which is of such great ethical importance, truthfulness, can be developed especially through the right eurythmic practice.
And so one can say: Eurythmy is gymnastics for the child that comes from the soul, but it gives back infinitely much to the soul in return. That is the real and essential thing, and it will ensure that eurythmy will be seen as something quite natural in teaching and education. Those who look into things are quite reassured that this is so. Things don't happen quickly. It takes time to overcome prejudices. People say: There are a few fools! – Well, it's always been that way. It was a small society, and there was a fool who wanted the sun to be at the center and the planets and the earth to revolve around it – you can't go along with such a foolish idea. But then, in the first third of the nineteenth century, it was discovered that a fairly large society had come to accept this foolish idea, had come to accept what Copernicus wanted. Why shouldn't we also be able to wait until something that is not so easy to prove [as] the Copernican world system becomes established in the world? In this way, eurythmy will have an effect on the faculty of cognition and the faculty of will in the direction of mobility, interest, and truthfulness, and on the mind, which lies between the faculty of cognition and the faculty of will. It is so infinitely important that the human being grasps himself as a whole through eurythmy, that he does not have the body on one side and the soul and spirit on the other.
One can ask for a long time: What is the relationship between body and soul? It is so infinitely strange how this is often asked. People often want to construct a theory of how one affects the other. When one experiences it – and it is experienced in eurythmy – then the question takes on a completely different character. Then one asks: How does that which is the unity of body and soul act, on the one hand as soul and on the other as body? The question will take on a completely different form when things are thoroughly understood. There is nothing theoretical here, nothing theoretical: everything is practical and realistic. And that is what stands in the way of what is happening here, when people say: Anthroposophy wants to be something in cloud cuckoo land. On the contrary: anthroposophy wants to intervene in immediate practical life. It is precisely matter that is not understood in today's life because people can no longer perceive the spirit in matter. But that is what can only be truly grasped in action. Therefore, one can already see what actually makes this eurythmy out of the child.
And so we can say that through this grasping of the inner harmony between the upper – the more spiritual – and the lower, more physical human being, as the child practically grasps in eurythmy, willpower is created. And that is something we need to draw on above all else today. Anyone who can observe the spiritual history of the present knows that there is a lack of initiative of will. We need this as something that must be incorporated into social life. And the art of leading to initiative of will is what we need above all in educational practice. What I have tried to indicate in a few words, you will be able to see for yourselves in the eurythmic activities of Waldorf school children. And I hope that what is now taking place here before you in childlike delight, childlike joy, and childlike liveliness may be a confirmation in everyone's minds of what I have just presented to you in words.