Echoing the words of the Buddha, the Enlightened One, who said with a depth of meaning hardly understood in these modern times, “The wise harm no one”, stands the Austrian thinker Rudolph Steiner, a giant among men.  Born on February 27, 1861 in the former Yugoslavia, Steiner was a true blue genius, who was also phenomenally educated and an articulate philosopher. He wrote over forty books and delivered not less than six thousand lectures in the course of birthing Anthroposophy, the headwaters for multi faceted applications in the fields of education, medicine, architecture, agriculture, the performing arts and music, therapy and community life.

Steiner lived and worked at the height of those times when the established norm of experiencing matter as devoid of spirit, was leading to a view of spirit as fanciful and finally as altogether unreal. Today this view lies at the heart of contemporary science and technology and is confirmed daily; reinforced by its predominance in all walks of life and most areas of thought.

An important man in European cultural life, Steiner was for many years the head of the Theosophical Society in Germany, who had in 1913 founded the spiritual and cultural movement called Anthroposophy – “Knowledge of the true nature of the human being.” In essence he proposed that individual and social life be based on the reality of the spirit inherent in the individual human being and in the universe as a whole. His teachings had a large, sophisticated and international following.

Let’s rewind now to spring 1919, a few months after the end of World War 1 and in Germany, despair and disorder reigns. While people are concerned about the moral, social and economic disintegration, Emile Molt, director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, has an idea to do something about it. He approaches Rudolf Steiner to design a school that will educate children to become free, responsible and active human beings, able to create a just and peaceful society.

Steiner accepted Molt’s invitation and in 1919 the Free Waldorf School opened with 175 students, most of them children of workers in Molt’s factory.

It was a radical school for that time.

Free of government control, it educated all children in the same way, whether they were destined for university or the factory workshop. The school emphasised art, music and handcrafts as much as reading, writing and arithmetic. Steiner summarised the school’s task: “Accept the children in reverence; educate them with love; and send them forth in freedom.”

Not surprisingly, Waldorf education spread rapidly. Soon there were schools in other parts of Germany, England, Holland, Switzerland and America.

To appreciate Waldorf education as it is practiced at the kindergarten, elementary and high school level, one must understand Steiner’s view of the nature and development of the human being. According to Steiner, there are three major human functions – willing, feeling and thinking that evolve consecutively every seven years.

Three stages

Willing is manifested in physical movement and activity and is centered in the arms and legs. (Witness a baby as he wills his tiny arms and legs in the exploration of his environment.) Feeling is manifested in imagination, in sympathy and antipathy and the range of human emotions. It is centered in the organs that function in a rhythmical way – the heart and lungs. Thinking involves the use and management of concepts and abstractions and is centered in the brain and nervous system.

Willing

Steiner held that from birth the human being develops these functions in a predictable, universal pattern. During the first seven years of life, children are beings of will and movement, completely open to their immediate environment which they explore using only their five senses. Till about the age of three, children remain very instinctive in their behaviour, reflecting the “vital force” which gives direction to their growth both inside and outside. This instinctive willing creates, among others, the familiar milestones of turning, sitting, crawling and walking. Under responsible supervision, it is absolutely essential they have freedom to indulge the ‘natural state of instinct’. This is the time when the body is building itself up from within — sculpting bones, musculature, organs etc. Mirroring this internal process, children are constantly discovering and examining and play takes the form of building…… for example, sandcastles.

Preschool children are imitators; they want to do what others do. Hence they internalise and then manifest as their own, the speech, movements and even moods of those around them, making it necessary for those in their environment to be worthy of imitation! Reflecting the rhythms seen in nature, like seasons, tides and planetary movements, children too thrive with rhythm, repeating an activity till they are satisfied before moving on to the next thing. When this naturally inborn order of discovery, rhythm and repetition are broken, the child becomes dispersed and later has trouble being focused.

Feeling stage

The change of teeth signifies the next stage of life. Between the ages of seven and fourteen, big changes take place in the child’s needs as external influences grow more powerful and become internalised. This is also the phase during which they seek “a beloved authority” – someone to emulate.

This is also called the feeling stage and the creating stage. Since they are primarily beings of feeling, aesthetic sensitivity, imagination and artistic creativity are vital to their optimal wellbeing. Hence art, music, hand work and crafts are crucial for balanced development. Steiner held that these activities built critical foundations in the nervous system and brain which allowed for a fuller development of the child’s later intellectual capacities. (His view has been corroborated by current brain research which shows that brain centres involved in manual dexterity are interconnected with those involved in higher-order thinking like analysis, synthesis etc)

Thinking
Puberty signals the next distinctive stage; in the next seven years the child comes into its “I being”. The stages of willing and feeling have not only orchestrated the advent of puberty; it has also laid the framework for the “I being’s” expression of his inner freedom….. of ideas, thought and speech. Thus a young human being comes into his own.  As new faculties emerge, the thinking function develops and dominates. The adolescent becomes able to think abstractly, analyse, conceptualise and be highly critical. At this stage of development too, education must appeal to and nurture the special capacities that are emerging.

It would be short sighted to view Waldorf education as only a “method” of teaching, thus removing the jewel from the setting in Anthroposophy which defines it. In truth, when understood within the context of the philosophy which is its fountainhead, we see it as a “transformative, social impulse with far reaching implications.” In Steiner’s own words, “Anything that makes an impression on the child, anything that causes the soul’s response, continues in the blood circulation and digestion, becoming part of the foundation of health in later years. Due to the imitative nature of the child, whenever we educate the spirit and soul of the child, we also educate the body and physical nature of the child. This is the wonderful metamorphosis – that whatever approaches children, touching their spirit and soul, become their physical, organic organisation and their predisposition to health or illness in later life.”  

Teacher’s temperament

It would be remiss not to touch upon the extraordinary and in fact, unique importance of the teacher’s temperament in Waldorf education. Teachers come with very specific temperaments: choleric, sanguine, melancholic or phlegmatic. How does a teacher’s temperament affect the child, just by being what it is?

Choleric

Choleric expressions are those of anger and vehemence. A choleric adult may have such an effect that the child always approaches authority figures in fear, whereas another child may only experience a sense of pressure as opposed to fear.  Steiner says, “Children absorb impressions from all the people around them with the same intensity that sensory organs receive impressions from the environment…..responding reflexively to every impression in the environment…. the soul and spirit work in the body and directly influence the circulatory and digestive processes.” The result of choleric interactions is seeds that get planted deep within the foundations of the child’s being, which bear fruit in the adult of forty five or fifty. If we could only verify the reason this or that person suffers from arthritis, or why another has all kinds of metabolic disorders, poor digestion or gout, there would be only one answer: many of these things can be attributed to the violent temperament of a teacher or authority figure who dealt with the child at an early age.

Sanguine

The sanguine temperament is at the other end of the choleric spectrum and takes mistakes much too lightly, unable to sustain attention on the child long enough even when it is necessary.  Many cases of insufficient vitality and zest for life can be traced to an undisciplined sanguine temperament that the child encountered in the critical years. Without self-knowledge, an authority figure important to the child can cause this suppression of vitality, dampening the zest for life and weakening the will that wells up from the child’s essential being. 

Melancholic
Melancholic temperaments in teachers or authority figures have the effect of breaking the child’s

spirit, dampening the “feeling life”, causing the child to suppress soul impulses. Instead of expressing them, the child retreats within. Invariably this leads to breathing and circulatory problems later in life.

 “Teachers should not educate with only childhood in mind”, Steiner exhorts.  Observing the profound connection between teacher and child, the issue invariably arises: “I was born with this temperament; I can’t help myself.” Steiner’s rebuttal is appropriate: “First of all this is untrue; if it was true, the human race would have died out long ago due to wrong education.”

Phlegmatic

The phlegmatic or unemotional temperament “asphyxiates” the child’s soul. It makes the teacher unable to engage what flows out of the child and fails to meet it with enough impressions and influences.

The child absorbs and metabolises this disinterest to reappear later in life as illness of the nervous system. A materialistic worldview by definition turns away from the human being. In the teacher it develops a monstrous indifference toward the emerging needs of the child being educated. 

As it is vital for teachers to be observers of the true nature of the human being, to be “awake” and “aware” of the world around them, in order to properly educate the child, the curriculum too is vital.
In the Waldorf School it is designed to “respond” to the changing consciousness of the child.  Teachers employ artistry and flexibility as opposed to a database, to facilitate a “creative encounter” which is possible only when the teacher is fully attentive.

As a parent myself, I have often wondered about the end result of conventional education in India, with its emphasis on early learning; its one pointed goal of passing exams and getting good jobs.

Without much encouragement for the development of real knowledge and independent, creative thinking, this system for the most part, unknowingly moulds selfish and ambitious consumers rather than caring, engaged world citizens. Waldorf education offers us an opportunity to see that education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.

Information on a scheduled conference on Anthroposophy in January 2008 titled, The International Postgraduate Medical Training (IPMT), can be found on the website: www.amsindiachapter,com.

This conference covers ground breaking topics in the field of medicine and education.

On January 12, 2008, at the JRC Hall, United Theological College, Millers Road, a workshop is being offered on Eurythmy. Led by Peter Glasby of the Mt Baker Waldorf School in Australia, accompanied by Director Jo-anne Sarre of Conference of the Birds, Eurythmist Jan Baker Finch, Musician William Keyte and graduated Year 12 students of Mt Baker Waldorf School. The presentation will explore how the educational ideal of “educating towards freedom” is put into practice in the Waldorf School. During the presentation there will be song and movement as well as lecture content and contributions from the students.  

Eurythmy
One of the hallmarks of the Waldorf curriculum is Eurythmy. It is a system of rhythmical body movements performed to a recitation of verse, prose or music. It reveals to the eye what language and music brings to the ear, exposing inner soul experiences. It has a range of therapeutic and curative applications and is employed to great effect in a Waldorf curriculum.

Fortunately for us in Bangalore, we have a fantastic opportunity to experience the best in eurythmy. As part of an international conference on Anthroposophy scheduled to take place from January 17 to 24, a group of Waldorf students are travelling to India from Mt Baker Waldorf School in Australia to present a classical program called The Conference of the Birds. The students have been saving to pay their own airfare, and are putting on this one and a half hour show in seven cities in India. Tickets are on sale at supermarkets for Rs 300 and 100. Donor tickets are also available.


ANTHROPOSOPHY

Anthroposophy - Greek –anthropos (human) and sophia (wisdom) can accurately be called a spiritual science. Its impulse is to nurture the life of the soul, both in the individual and in human society. As such, it is an effort to develop natural scientific and also spiritual scientific research drawing on the European idealistic philosophy of Aristotle, Plato and Thomas Aquinas.