Introduction and Context

 

“The Steiner Waldorf approach to educatio in the early years holds nature, the rhythm of the earth, cycles of life at its core. It is an approach to education where children play without the interference of adults, and as such the work of this particular movement in education can offer quite a different ‘Foundation Stage’ from that introduced in England and Wales in 2000” (Nutbrown, 2001).

 

·        Austrian theorist – named himself an anthroposophist and/or a Spiritual Scientist;

·        Originally member of Theosophy Society (leader for several years);

·        Theosophy (God-wisdom) a revival of Greek movement by Madame Blavatsky: non-theistic movement that believed all religions are attempts to reach the Absolute, indicating the importance of humans’ spiritual character and quest for spiritual knowledge;

·        Theosophical beliefs are an amalgamation of elements of ‘truth’ from various world religions (immortality, reincarnation, social ethics etc.) Members attempt to reach truth through spiritual ecstasy and mysticism

 

Steiner split formally from the society in 1912 (he prioritised Christian thinking in his version of theosophy) and developed his ideas of

 

·        Anthroposophy (anthorpos – Sophia) means Wisdom of Man

·        Geisteswissenschaft Spiritual science

 

·        Combination (or alchemy) of spirituality and science because ‘materialism understands nothing of matter and spiritualism nothing of the spirit’ (Steiner, 1954);

·        Attempt to ‘close the gap’ left by theology, physiology and psychology: all of which have a specific field of focus;

·        Spiritual science argues that there are no frontiers to human knowledge, although this may appear so if there are limits to our perception;

·        Aims to build bridge between visible world of nature and the invisible world of spirit.

 

 

Theory based on a kind of ‘scientific’ idea, but one which does not rely on scientific method, indeed criticises ‘materialist’ scientific methods: “we have no conception today of the actual changes which external processes of nature undergo when they enter the living human being in breathing, blood-circulation, nourishment and so on…we content ourselves with observation of the external sheaths. We are alienating ourselves from what is human.” (Steiner, 1968, pp.12-13)

 

“The conception of life underlying the method and nature of education in the Waldorf school, namely anthroposophical Spiritual Science, is built upon a knowledge which extends equally to the body, the soul and the spirit of man.” (Steiner, 1968,pp.13-14)

 

The highly abstract nature of his ideas, and their ‘foreignness’ to a rationally based culture make his writing rather obscure

 

‘[Steiner’s writing is] difficult and obscure to the point of exasperation for the casual reader’ (Childs, 1991: p. 2)

 

First Steiner Waldorf schools established 1919

First Waldorf Kindergarten opened in Stuttgart, 1926

Important contextualising information

 

·        Members of Human Nature

·        Epochs of Development

·        Temperaments

 

Proper pedagogy can only arise out of thorough knowledge of human nature, and particularly child nature

 

‘ … the whole of human life contains within it the seeds of its own future; but if we are to tell anything about this future, we must first penetrate the hidden nature of the human being.’ (Steiner, 1907/1996: p. 2)

 

Four members of human nature

·        Physical Body

·        Etheric Body (Life Body)

·        Astral Body (Sentient Body)

·        Ego

 

Human nature has four ‘members’ (aspects) which ‘unfold’ or ‘reveal’ themselves during the course of a person’s life

 

‘Life in its wholeness is like a plant. The plant contains more than what it offers to external life; it also holds a future condition within its hidden depths. One who views a newly leafing plant knows very well that eventually there will also be flowers and fruit on the leaf-bearing stem.’ (Steiner, 1907/1996: p. 2)

 

 

Physical body – in common with all of the mineral kingdom, this is a combination of substances subject to the laws of the mineral world

world (Childs 1991)

 

 

Etheric Body (life body) - what distinguishes us from inanimate minerals

The vital force that bring life to the body (in common with plants and animals) bringing about the forces of growth, reproduction etc. (Steiner doesn’t add ‘death’)

Human etheric body differs from that of plants animals in that it is organised to serve the purposes of the thinking spirit also (Childs 1991)

 

‘It is therefore the builder and shaper of the physical body, its inhabitant and its architect.’ (Steiner, 1907/1996)

 

Astral body (sentient body) - what distinguishes us from plants, the vehicle of emotions that are absent in creatures consisting only of physical and etheric bodies: pain, pleasure, impulse etc. Extension beyond responding physically to a sensation to reflecting on that stimulus in an inner process (Childs 1991). Cannot simply be explained in terms of matter – consists of active forces and astral body deviates in both size and shape from the physical body

 

 

Ego (the body of the ‘I’) - not shared with any other earthly creature. Body of the I is the higher soul of mankind, making humans the kings of earthly creation

Force of individualisation: that which guarantees the uniqueness of every person

 

‘Working outward from itself it [the I] has to ennoble and purify the other members of human nature’ (Steiner, 1907/1996: p. 11)

 

Task of the ego is to purify and ennoble the other three members of Man’s nature

The ‘I’ is the soul’s central core (Steiner 1910/1994: p. 61)

 

 

Reincarnation

 

‘Grave prejudice’ of modern materialist science is to try and explain the spiritual qualities of a person being by hereditary transmission from parents/ancestors.

Our physical qualities come from our parents/species – as spiritual entities we have our own shape (Childs 1991)

 

·        ‘I’ is eternal

·        Ego evolves to higher and higher stages of development through successive stages of re-embodiment

·        Life on earth is a continuation of life in spiritual worlds

 

·        ‘Growth’ and ‘development’ of the child a process of gradual incarnation: descent of the spiritual entity into the world of matter

·        Parents do not ‘create’ their offspring – they merely provide the vehicle for the spiritual being seeking re-embodiment

·        Destiny is self-created – and so most children choose the parents they are born to (Childs 1991)

 

 

We have the possibility of achieving freedom if we comprehend both dying and becoming. If we focus only on dying we would be unable to move forward

 

 

Education and Development

 

·        Educator works with the four members of the human being, which do not develop uniformly;

·        Correct foundation for teaching involves a knowledge of these laws of human nature and development.

 

 

Life Epochs

Development divided in roughly 7 year periods

 

 

 

First Epoch

·        Forces of heredity are at work only in the first epoch;

·        Physical birth liberates the child from the mother and enables to the child to interact directly with the environment;

·        Child makes no differentiation between himself and the environment, and instinctively imitates the world around him;

·        The spirit is present, but unconscious. The soul is present, but dreaming (Childs 1991);

·        Etheric body is preparing for its liberation, and until this occurs there should not be excessive call on the child’s powers of thinking/memory;

 

‘Before the change of teeth occurs, the free life-body is not yet at work in human beings.’ (Steiner, 1907/1996: p. 16)

 

·        Etheric body is working to free itself and second teeth are created by the etheric body (rather than inherited by the physical body).

 

Main task of the educator during this epoch is to ensure the harmonising of the spirit and soul within the physical body: the educator must provide an environment that is worthy of imitation

 

‘The task of the educator, declared Steiner, is to develop that part of the child’s spirit which is not yet perfect, and that part of the soul which is still less perfect. In terms of pedagogy this means the education of the will (through the limbs), and partly educating the feeling of life (through the rhythmic system). Direct education of the intellect or thinking life is virtually impossible; one cannot implant intelligence that is not there, one can only awaken those faculties already in the child, but sleeping.’ (Childs, 1991: p. 40)

 

Second Epoch

·        Etheric Body (soul and spirit) is freed from the physical body and child can begin develop its own inner nature;

·        Freeing of etheric forces means that they can be used to serve the body in a different way and become forces of mental representation: formation of concepts is now possible;

·        Child begins to differentiate self from environment and to seek an authority.

 

Third Epoch

·        Only after freeing of astral body is child able to apply his own judgement to the world

 

Fourth Epoch

·        Liberation of the ego, characterising the individuality of the person

 

 

Temperaments

Doctrine of four temperaments has Greek foundation

 

 

·        Before the age of puberty, the overriding temperament of all children is sanguine

·        Overriding temperament of the adolescent and young adult is choleric

·        Middle life is melancholic

·        Old age is phlegmatic

 

Our temperament is the result of the interpenetration of our astral body and ego (representing the ‘cosmic’ stream of soul and spirit) and of our physical and etheric bodies (representing the ‘earthly’ stream of heredity). Manner of interpenetration means that one member predominates over the other three.

 

Characteristics of temperaments refer to adults only

Choleric        Ego predominates

Sanguine      Astral predominates

Phlegmatic   Etheric predominates

Melancholic Physical predominates

 

 

Temperaments in the classroom

Cholerics and Phelgmatics should be kept apart by grouping the sanguines and melancholics between them

 

Melancholic

Attention not easily aroused,

 

 

 

Sanguine

Attention easily aroused,

Little strength of perseverance

 

 

 

Teacher’s own temperament and role

 

Role of the teacher: to develop sympathy, fellow-feeling and understanding of the soul of the child. Such impressions arise spontaneously, from  the depths of the soul, and should not be suppressed. “The soul of the teacher.. must confront the soul of the child in a…conscious way in order to be able to unfold it, and also to be able to experience what is essential if the right attitude, the right artistry of education and the right sympathy with the soul of the child are to be here.” (Steiner, 1968, p.15)

Very marked contrast with the assessment demanded by modern EY principles and practice. Steiner opposes a knowledge of the child based on her abilities at a definite point or age: “we ask about his powers of development, how they are functioning at a definite age… The knowledge of man however, that is here meant, is not only concerned with this single given moment of experience, but with the whole of man’s earthly life.” (Steiner, 1968, p.16)

This is because of the Karmic effect of the teacher, “What I, as a teacher, do with the child in the Elementary School age penetrates right down to his physical, psychic and spiritual human nature.” (Steiner, 1968, p.16)

The temperament of the teacher is of crucial importance and should be recognised and acknowledged for the effect it has on the child:

“Take a child who is still at a tender age, before the Elementary School age. He is then a wholly unified being. The three members of man’s nature, body soul and spirit, separate from each other only in later life, between birth and change of teeth, which is a very significant point in the evolution of the human being, there lies a period in which the child is, as it were, wholly a sense organ” (Steiner, 1968, p.18)

“The whole life of the child before the change of teeth is…of the nature of soul, a soul life founded in sense perception. All inner experience is to the child a soul perception, and especially is this so in the case of what proceeds from the human beings around him. If we move slowly in the environment of the child and thereby reveal the lethargy of our soul and spititual nature, or if we storn around and reveal aggressiveness, all this is taken in by the child with almost the same intensity as the outer impressions are received by the sense organs.”

It is quite difficult to grasp Steiner’s meaning here – but it is centrally important to his understanding of EY education. The child as sense organ is penetrated deeply by all sense impressions which are experienced throughout the whole body .

In the young child, spirit, body and soul are as yet undifferentiated, so the whole child is effected by its environement in profound ways. “The soul perception of the child is very, very near to the whole of the metabolic system, and the two work closely together. Only later, with the change opf teeth, does the soul nature begin to separate from the metabolic processes. Very psychical; stimulus passes over into the circulation, the breath, the digestion. Body, soul and spirit are still a unity. This is why every stimuluys from the environment passes right down into the child’s bodily nature.” (Steiner, 1968., p.19) The temperament of the teacher then profoundly effects the child’s nature, bringing about medical conditions such as nervous disorders in that child in adulthood. Steiner catalogues the various ills which befall adults who in early life encountered the choleric or phegmatic teacher who gave way to his temprament.

Concerning the first period of life (from birth to the change of teeth), Steiner asserts, “When we know of the mutual relationship existing between the teacher and the child, as I have shown it in regard to the tempraments, we realise that in this first life period, what we have learnt is of the very least importance so far as the teaching and education of the child is concerned. What is of the very greatest importance is what kind of men we are, what impressions the child received through us, whether he can imitate us.” (Steiner, 1968, p.24)

Steiner praises the ‘elemental, primitive’ education to be found in ‘ancient oriental regions’, an immitative education without teaching where the educator was not ‘the oriental “pedagogue”’ but the ‘oriental “data” (Sanscrit: the giver, the bestower)’ . This ‘instinctive’ mode is what matters before the cjanging of teath. It is only in the second phase that ‘teaching’ actually begins to matter.

 

Teachers must strive after self-knowledge and work to suppress any extremes of temperament while they are with their pupils (Childs, 1991: p. 62)

 

 

Appropriate Early Years Pedagogy

 

·        Infant children are messengers from the spirit world (Childs, 1991: p. 67);

·        Feelings of deep reverence on the part of the teacher should accompany this descent into the physical world (Steiner, 1944: p. 15);

·        Child in first epoch is a sense-organ: he surrenders himself to the environment, and everything makes an impression upon him;

·        Kindergarten years the most important period of education;

·        Child must develop slowly into the world;

·        Teacher as enthusiastic mediator and protector;

·        Every opportunity should be taken to instil in the child feelings of gratitude to the higher worlds;

·        Children should be encouraged to develop sense of awe and wonder.

 

Two ways in which children in the first epoch enter into relationship with their environment

·        Imitation

·        Example

 

‘ … as the muscles of the hand grow firm and strong through doing the work for which they are suited so the brain is guided into the correct course of development if it receives the proper impressions from the environment.’ (Steiner, 1996: p. 19)

 

Young children imitate everything in their environment (physical, social and spiritual) and their actions form their physical organs.

 

Children able to learn so readily through imitation because they experience the world with complete openness, proceeding from the basic assumption that the world is good. Therefore teachers must always act in ways that are worthy of imitation (Petrash, 2000)

 

‘The children who live in [..] an atmosphere of love and warmth, who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element. One should thus strictly guard against anything being done in the children’s presence that they should not imitate.’ (Steiner, 1907/1996: p. 22)

 

The world should be regarded as a work of art – to attain real knowledge of the world the intellect must marry scientific understanding with artistic experience

 

Waldorf Kindergarten (Petrash 2000)

·        Part kitchen, part playroom

·        Restful colours, simple furniture, toys/play structures usually wooden

·        Primary duty to provide suitable opportunities for child to imitate

 

·        Use of rhythm and repetition to ‘aid healthy development’ (Oldfield, 2001)

·        Teachers intentionally work in the presence of children

·        Important tasks are assigned a day in the week

 

‘Work’  for children should be restricted to imitating adults’ ordinary activities

Task of all schools gradually to lead the child over from play to work, and the basis of this should be the imitation of the real work that adults do (Steiner, 1988)

Toys and educational resources are inappropriate

 

Life in a Day in Kindergarten

‘A Steiner Waldorf Kindergarten is like an extended family. The day and its activities have a regular rhythm and structure from the children’s arrival until their departure. There is a balance between the daily work that needs to be done, caring for the house, baking bread, doing the washing and so on as well as handicrafts, such as simple weaving, carving, embroidery and sewing. There is sweeping to be done, leaves gathered up outside and even a little garden to attend. The of course there are the festivals to celebrate, stories to be told, songs to be sung and games to be played. Last and by no means least, there is time for creative play both indoors and outdoors.’ (Clouder and Rawson, 2003: pp. 41-2)

 

Formal education starts at the change of the teeth. What is significant about the change of teeth? For Steiner “The teeth represent something that is developing in thr whole human organism… There is a shooting-forth into form, the human soul-being is working at the second bodily nature… An inner, unconscious, plastic moulding process is actually going on. This can only be influenced from outside by allowing the child to imitate what we ourselves do. Anything I do, any movement I make with my own hand, when perceived by the child, passes over into its soul-building processes, and this hand movement of mine  give srise to an unconscious plastic activity that shoots up into the form.” (Steiner, 1968, pp.52-3)

  

 

Childs, G. (1991) Steiner Education in Theory and Practice: a guide to Rudolph Steiner’s educational principles Edinburgh: Floris Press

Clouder, C. and Rawson, M. (2003) Waldorf Education Edinburgh: Floris Press

Nutbrown, C. (2001) ‘Preface’ in Oldfield, L., Free to Learn: Introducing Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education, Stroud: Hawthorn Press

Oldfield, L. (2001) Free to Learn: Introducing Steiner Waldorf Early Childhood Education Stroud : Hawthorn Press

Petrash, J. (2000) Understanding Waldorf Education: teaching from the inside out USA: Gryphon Press

Steiner, R. [1926] (1968) The Essentials of Education, London: Rudolf Steiner Press

Steiner, R. [1907](1996) The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science:  The Education of the Child and Early Lectures on Education Gt. Barrington MA: Anthroposphic Press

Steiner, R. (1996) The Education of the Child and Early Lectures on Education Hudson NY: Anthroposophic Press