The Rudolf Steiner Archive

An Educational Event in Bern

[ 1 ] It is with great satisfaction that I look back on the event that took place in Bern from April 13 to 17 at the request of Bernese teachers. Together with several teachers from the Stuttgart Waldorf School, I was able to work in the spirit of the educational art that has emerged from anthroposophical knowledge of human beings. My topic was: “Anthroposophical education and its prerequisites.” On the evening of Sunday, April 13, Miss Emma Ramser opened the events, which took place in the Grand Council Hall, with warm words that beautifully highlighted the tasks that arise from the art of education from the perspective of anthroposophy. The warmth that emanated from these words was a wonderful start to the work of the following days.

[ 2 ] It was a dear thought to me to be able to discuss the foundations of our educational endeavors at the place where I had often been allowed to speak about anthroposophy over a long series of years. And the executive committees of the Anthroposophical Society and the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland can be satisfied with the success of what they intended to achieve with this event. We owe this to the great efforts of our friends in Bern.

[ 3 ] It was my aim in the lectures I was allowed to give to show how the child's being itself sets tasks for education and teaching in the first three stages of its development. On such occasions, it must be emphasized again and again that it is far from the intention of the representatives of anthroposophy to introduce anthroposophy into schools as a creed. It can only be a matter of making the knowledge of the human being that can be gained through anthroposophy a prerequisite for methodology and didactics. Any sectarian activity is completely excluded. Only what is universally human is taken into consideration. Whatever the context of a school, the way in which education and teaching are organized can bring out the foundation on which we build. The question is simply: How does the human being develop in the first stages of life, and what can we learn from the nature of this development itself for the organization of education and teaching? In this reading, inspired by the anthroposophical spirit, a pedagogy develops that can become not only an intellectual guideline for the teacher and educator, but also the spiritual lifeblood of their entire being, so that their whole being is able to live itself out in their educational work. The pedagogical insight developed through a clear view of human nature becomes the child-loving devotion of the educator's mind, the appropriate guidance of the educator's will. In the way that anthroposophical education revives the enthusiasm of the educator in the soul of the educator, so that in a completely natural way the knowledge of education becomes a skill that is carried by love in action: therein lies what is sought. And an educational art that intends to work in this direction must have the courage to represent its foundations in a country where Pestalozzi did so much good for the education of human beings. The enthusiastic participation of the audience is proof that what is intended, even if only by a small circle, is met with genuine understanding. The fact that non-teachers also attended the event shows how the matter is perceived as something that meets a general human need. And the members of the Anthroposophical Society, who were so gratifyingly present, have shown what can come of the endeavors that arise from anthroposophy when they are supported by the devoted love of our membership.

[ 4 ] On Monday afternoon, a “demonstration of educational eurythmy” was given by the students of the Goetheanum training school at the Schänzli Theater. The purpose of this performance was to demonstrate how eurythmy can be used as an educational tool by revealing a movement art that draws on the whole human being. The audience's reception of the performance was one of undivided joy.

[ 5 ] On Tuesday, Dr. v. Heydebrand spoke about the “education of younger children” in her manner characterized by thorough insight and noble love for children. This teacher at the Waldorf School has gained a wealth of experience through several years of educating and teaching older children; she then exchanged her work with them for that with children who had just started school. This has given her a keen eye for observing what is necessary for educators. What can be gained in this way was expressed in a compelling way in her presentation.

[ 6 ] Dr. Stein from the Stuttgart Waldorf School spoke in his hearty manner about the place of history in human existence and cultural life. His intention was to show how the perspective of the impulses of historical life can give pedagogy its promising power.

[ 7 ] To my great regret, other commitments prevented me from attending Dr. v. Baravalles' lecture on “Invigorating Forces for Elementary Science Teaching.”

[ 8 ] The event concluded with a lecture by Dr. Kolisko from the Waldorf School on “Pedagogy and Medicine.” In a prudent and appropriate manner, Dr. Kolisko attempted to show how the treatment of children in physical terms can be guided when knowledge of human beings is applied to the body, soul, and spirit at the same time. He explained how such treatment can be integrated into the art of education from a medical point of view.

[ 9 ] The discussions held between the lectures gave a satisfying impression that a well-oriented understanding of the participants created the intellectual atmosphere in which this event took place.

Further Leading Thoughts issued from the Goetheanum for the Anthroposophical Society

[ 39 ] 29. In the evolved Imaginative Knowledge there works what lives as soul and spirit in the inner life of man, fashioning the physical body in its life, and unfolding man's existence in the physical world on this bodily foundation. Over against the physical body, whose substances are renewed again and again in the process of metabolism, we here come to the inner nature of man, unfolding itself continuously from birth (or conception) until death. Over against the physical Space-body, we come to a Time-body.

[ 40 ] 30. In the Inspired Knowledge there lives, in picture-form, what man experiences in a spiritual environment in the time between death and a new birth. What Man is in his own Being and in relation to cosmic worlds—without the physical and etheric bodies by means of which he undergoes his earthly life—is here made visible.

[ 41 ] 31. In the Intuitive Knowledge there comes to consciousness the working-over of former earthly lives into the present. In the further course of evolution these former lives have been divested of their erstwhile connections with the physical world. They have become the purely spiritual kernel of man's being, and, as such, are working in his present life. In this way, they too are an object of Knowledge—of that Knowledge which results with the further unfolding of the Imaginative and Inspired.