A Deeper Understanding of the Waldorf Kindergarten

A Deeper Understanding of the Waldorf Kindergarten

Articles from the Waldorf Kindergarten Newsletter 1981 to 1992 VOLUME 2 Edited by Joan Almon

With special thanks to our European colleagues who have regularly come to North America to help us deepen our understanding of the young child.

Copyright © 1993 by the Waldorf Kindergarten Association of North America, Inc. Third Edition For permission to reprint or to order, contact: The Waldorf Kindergarten Association 1359 Alderton Lane Silver Spring, MD 20906

Reformatted with permission for posting in PDF on the Online Waldorf Library of the Research Institute for Waldorf Education June 2014

Table of Contents Section One: The Developing Child Stages of Development in Early Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Kindergarten Education with Mixed-Age Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Significance of Imitation and Example for the Development of the Will . . . . . . 15 Kindergarten Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Further Considerations about Kindergarten Readiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Section Two: Etheric Forces and the Young Child The Birth of the Etheric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Childhood Illnesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Section Three: The Young Child and the Spiritual World How Can We Find a Connection to the World of the Angels? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Continuing the Work of the Hierarchies in the Age of the Etheric Christ . . . . . . . . . 56 The Religion of the Young Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 How Can We Work with the Karma of the Young Child? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Working with the Angels, the Archangels, and the Archai . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Walking and the Incarnation of Destiny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 The Wonder of Acquiring Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Section Four: The Sistine Madonna The Sistine Madonna by Raphael: Is It Appropriate in the Kindergarten? . . . . . . . . . . 85 The Sistine Madonna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Section Five: The Education of the Teacher Working with an Assistant Who Is Striving to Become a Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Supervising a Student Teacher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

The Developing Child Stages of Development in Early Childhood Tasks and Goals for Parents and Educators

Freya Jaffke International Waldorf Kindergarten Association To be able to foster a child’s development rather than disturb or hinder it through faulty behavior, we must become familiar with and understand these stages of development. The following article is written by a seasoned kindergarten teacher who through long years of work has been able to condense her observations into a picture of the developmental stages of early childhood. Her starting-point is based on the fact that has been proven by anatomical research that a child’s body inherited from her parents does not represent a smaller form of the adult. The child’s body is being metamorphosed toward its own goal. One can clearly see that a Will, an individuality is at work here which is not identical to the body that has been inherited. Three different stages of development during the years before a child is ready for first grade—up to the seventh year—are described in Rudolf Steiner’s Soul Economy and Waldorf Education, Lecture VII (Anthroposophic Press, 1986).

thinking. A second larger area consists of the connection between the rhythm of breathing and the heartbeat, in whose subtle variations the feeling life is manifested. It is called the “Rhythmic System” and has its center in the chest area. The organs of metabolism perform their work deep in the unconscious. If their activity is injured, then the human will is weakened or even disabled. In no other area does the will impulse live more fully and with greater strength than in the movement of the limbs—the spontaneous, willful joy of movement in young children is a good example of this. Thus Steiner combines this “lower” region and calls it the “Limb-Metabolic System.” The life processes of the organism and its formation cannot be adequately explained by the chemical reactions of body substances. Expert anthropologists acknowledge the workings of formative forces. Rudolf Steiner calls them the “formative or life forces.” Their effects in the shaping of the organism and in the physiological processes are evident. However, what exactly is at work is invisible to the external eye and is revealed only through “supersensible” methods of observation, as Steiner describes in the Fourth and Fifth Lectures of Soul Economy. He describes how the formative forces are completely occupied at the beginning of human life with the forming of the organism. Then, as the organs draw nearer to their final form, these

For readers who are not familiar with Rudolf Steiner’s information regarding human development, we include a brief introduction of basic concepts necessary for an understanding. Steiner observed that the human organism is divided into three areas. Since the sense perceptions are conducted through the nerve system to the brain, Steiner calls this association of functions centered in the head the “NerveSense System.” It is the physical basis for 5

The Developing Child forces are gradually freed up from this task and metamorphose then into spirit-soul forces: those of memory, imagination, fantasy and the power of thought. They all point to a spiritual shaping and forming. Thus childhood development consists essentially in the birth and gradual unfolding of these forces.

gradually become more ordered and directed through his tireless will to be active. We see how he acquires the upright position and how he develops a relationship to the world’s equilibrium in learning to walk. We observe how from the worldwide language of babbling a young child finds his way ever more surely and with greater control to the exact sound of his regional language. We see how a much more strongly differentiated and more meaningful activity develops from the early toddling about after adults and the beginning imitation of their behavior.

If we wish to understand a child in the first seven years of life, we must look very closely at the individual steps of development. Before we do this though, let us keep in mind the whole situation of the young child at the beginning of life.

We can see through all these processes how the individuality is endeavoring to work itself into the body and to make it its own. All the impressions from the environment that meet the child also work very closely in this process of shaping the inner human being.

To begin with, three things must coincide if a birth is to happen. First the two streams of inheritance of the parents unite to give the body. A soul-spirit being, a human individuality then joins with the body. For instance, in spite of its outer completeness, this physical body still remains unfinished in many ways. The individual inner organs have not yet attained their final, differentiated forms. In the limb system, we see a lack of differentiation—chaotic, involuntary movements. In the nerve-sense system, the child is still totally open.

The impressions work in from the outside through the senses. In the young child these are digested inwardly by the core of his being, the individuality, in two ways: through the imitated behavior and in the development of the yet unfinished organs. The young child is born unprotected into its new environment. His whole body acts as a single sense organ serving in an indiscriminate way to join the outer world with the inner one. We can compare it to the eye. The eye itself does not see, it only transmits. We see through the eyes. Thus the child’s body is a sense organ for the individuality, for the spirit-soul being of the human.

The child’s task in the first six to seven years—years that are his by right for this purpose—is to take hold of his inner body and to develop its differentiation until he is ready for school. Then—when the process of forming the organs is largely finished and only growth is still taking place—his body stands prepared as a useful “instrument.” The soul-spirit individuality that had joined the physical body at birth can, after further steps of development, begin to manifest itself fully in an external way through this body without being hindered by it.

The outer impressions come into the child through the senses, while the inner activity of shaping the organs moves outwards. This working together of the outer impressions and the inner shaping manifests itself in that wonderful power of imitation with which each healthy child is born. Every observation is first

How can we observe the joining of the individuality to the body? We see how the child’s involuntary movements of kicking about 6

Freya Jaffke

Stages of Development in Early Childhood

taken in deeply, grasped by the will and then, like an echo, comes forth again in a child’s behavior.

between meaningful and foolish behavior, he brings to his own activity what he sees in his representatives of life, which is the role we take on in the process of education.

There result from this fact two significant tasks for parents and educators. The first is a gesture of protection. Wherever we are able to do so, we ought to choose carefully out of the environment the impressions that meet the child. The child is best surrounded calmly by happy family sounds of normal speaking and singing rather than those of uproar and quarreling. We also ought to protect the child from every type of technical apparatus such as radio, television, cassettes, videos, etc. In a child’s room and for cradles and walls of one, soft color is preferable because of the soothing effect to the well-meant “children’s” fabrics and wallpaper which are covered with flowers and animals. When riding in the car is necessary, let’s make sure that the child can be seated to have a view of mother rather than overstimulating the senses by exposing him to the street traffic.

The imitative behavior of the child goes through three different stages in the first six to seven years. It is subject to the forces forming the organs, which—beginning in the head area— work through the whole body right down to the tips of the toes. Although they work through the whole body, they concentrate in the first stage of life, from birth to about two and a half years of age, on the forming of the organs in the Nerve-Sense System. During this time the child acquires three of the most important human capabilities—gaining uprightness in the face of gravity, walking, and then speech, which is a prerequisite for thinking. All these capabilities the child learns exclusively through imitation. Tragic examples in history have shown that children do not acquire these human capabilities when they grow up surrounded only by animals. This shows clearly that humanity can be learned only from human beings.

The second great task consists in guiding the child step by step into life, allowing him to learn about life for his whole life. This happens chiefly by meaningfully and methodically paying attention to the capability that the child has brought with him—that of imitation—rather than by means of clever teaching.

From the Age of Crawling to the Awakening of the “I” in the Age of Independence In what way are children active in this first stage of life? As soon as they can barely crawl or propel themselves forward, they begin to explore their home environment, and it becomes unsafe. They follow Mother and want to do everything that she is doing. With the greatest enjoyment they clatter together the cooking pots, covers and spoons, put their hands into the wash water, pull out the wash and stick it in again, spreading puddles about. They bustle about with the broom dispersing the dirt rather than gathering it into the middle in a small pile; they eagerly carry things that have just been placed in a certain spot to some other spot. And all

This presupposes that when we as grownups make the effort to be good “examples” of human beings, that we will have the effect of awakening impulses in the child through our activities. For we cannot teach a child to imitate. This is a matter of the will and must be grasped by the child’s own will. We can be aware of our own behavior: how we go about our work in the home and garden, how we speak with other people, how we care for others, how we arrange and care for our environment. The child takes everything deeply into his own bodily formative processes. Without being able to discriminate 7

The Developing Child

From the Third to the Fifth Years: Fantasy and Spontaneous Play

this is done with the motto, “Johnny, too” or “Me, too!” They take great joy in moving and busying themselves as much as possible with real household items, yet without insight into the purpose and goal of the adult’s work—which, of course, progresses very slowly. Without such “willing helpers” the adult work would be done much sooner. However, this is true only from one point of view, for the parent has taken care not only of the house, garden or handwork, but at the same time she has also accomplished educational work. This should become recognized again much more in today’s educational awareness.

Let us now take a look at the second stage, the time between about the third to fifth years. The life or formative forces, which until now have been at work chiefly in the head region, concentrate in this second stage in the middle part of the body, where most importantly the rhythmical organs (heart and lungs) are located. At this time, two quite new capabilities appear in the child, which clearly give him a new relationship to his environment. These capabilities are: a childlike fantasy and memory. Here are some examples of play in children who have developed in a healthy way:

Along with their impulsive engagement with the environment, there are also moments when children linger devotedly near Mother—for example, when she is peeling apples or working with needle and thread. There are times when they busy themselves in the play area—filling up baskets and emptying them, building towers and knocking them down, singing and pushing a doll carriage. Here it is important to pay close attention to the quality of the play materials. The best objects are those found in nature or which have been only slightly shaped by hand. (Toymaking with Children, Jaffke, 1988) In his close connection with these objects, the impressions made upon the child will be natural, organic shapes, and this works to stimulate his inner organ forming processes. “Toys with dead mathematical forms alone have a desolating and killing effect upon a child’s formative forces.” (The Education of the Child, Steiner)

A four-year-old has small round pieces of real tree branches in front of him on the table and he asks me, “Do you want soda, beer or apple juice?” A four-year-old girl takes a piece of bark, lays two stones upon it and says, “I have a ship with a man at the wheel.” Then she comes to my table and asks, “I have brought you some pieces of chocolate, do you want them?” and she lays the stones in front of me. And now the bark becomes a roof for a small dwarfs house. A small bench was first a doll’s stove, lay on its side it became an animal’s feeding trough, and upside down it was first a doll’s bed, and then part of a train. These examples show that children of this age are capable of changing things in their environment, using them for different purposes in certain cases and, with the help of fantasy, making them into new things. Children see objects, perhaps remembering them only vaguely, and their imagination fills in all the other necessary details. The prerequisite is that children have already experienced such things before. If a child has never seen a ship, or only

The child passes through a first real crisis point when for the first time the feeling of “I” is awakened during the Age of Defiance. He experiences his own will more and more, but must now learn to bring it into harmony with his environment. Whereas earlier he always called out “Me, too,” now he says, “I don’t want to.”

8

Freya Jaffke

Stages of Development in Early Childhood

seen one in a picture book, he cannot bring it into his play.

From the Fifth to the Seventh Year: Pictures from the Imagination and Planned Play

A characteristic of play at this age is that it is stimulated by external causes. For this reason, it is best if the available play materials are capable of transformation by being incomplete and simple enough so that a child’s imagination, remembering the details, can transcend the available objects and fill them in. The imagination needs this type of activity in order not to become stagnant. Everything depends on the inner work.

The third big developmental step of the first seven years begins around the fifth year. The forces that have been used to form the organs are being freed more and more from the Rhythmical System and are now working in the MetabolicLimb System. The children are increasingly capable and dexterous right down to their fingertips. Many children—especially those who were able to play in a rich and creative manner—go through a second crisis in the fifth year. For the first time they experience a real boredom. They can stand before you and say, “I don’t know what to do.” It is as if their fantasy has left them and suddenly they have no more ideas. The fantasy needs a rest now and ought not to be called upon by reminding the child of yesterday’s fine play. We can help to strengthen it much more by having the child participate in our own work—for example, peeling apples, drying dishes, sweeping, baking, sewing. After a while, sometimes after only a few days, new impulses for their play arise in the child. A change has taken place. The stimulus for play no longer comes so much from external objects, but it comes now more and more from inside. This means that now the children have an inner picture, a picture from their imagination of past events and they can bring these up in their play independent of place, time or people.

As the muscles of the hand grow firm and strong in performing the work for which they are fitted, so the brain and other organs of the human physical body are guided into the right lines of development if they receive the right impression from the environment. (Education of the Child, Rudolf Steiner) It is immediately striking that the play is full of change. There are always daily events that are imitated and there are many spontaneous changes—often without any connection. The children continuously think of something new. Many adults who see this may despair and believe the children are unable to concentrate in their play. Concentration at this age level, however, lies in the continuity of play which between three and five years old is characterized in this way. To be sure, quite a bit of disorder and even chaos arise now and then from this play. But it can be called meaningful chaos for it continuously effects the children in such a way that they remain stimulated and interested. By the fifth year, this already changes on its own. Of course, after the playtime, the adult will plan sufficient time to clean up, participating herself to set an example so that it becomes an indisputable and joyful habit rather than a sporadically ordered, almost overwhelming burden which one faces alone.

Five- and six-year-old children love to crouch together talking and making plans for their play. For example, they are building an inn and folded cloths become napkins, menus and purses. A cold buffet is set up and little woolen sheep are offered as fish. One child who is selling drinks has a large log with small branches on it standing before him (it is his “real beer keg”), and he is able to fill an order for any kind of drink with it. Another time they set up a doctor’s 9

The Developing Child office with needles, stethoscopes, bandages and a waiting room where the folded cloths serve as magazines.

world suitable for imitation with adults who are active in a purposeful way, who like to do their work, and who, at the same time, accompany the children in their play in a quiet way. Creative play depends more on a calm, joyful atmosphere of work than on many clever words, suggestions for play or instructions of any kind. The children must be “lifted up” by the adults’ work, they must have a place in it in the broadest sense—even if they are not directly involved in the work. This seems like a contradiction, but it can be experienced by every mother who brings her mending basket or ironing board to the children’s room and who radiates calm and interest while working—or by every father who goes about his work in the garden, yard or cellar. The most important thing is the people who surround the child—that they make life rhythmical and ordered, that they like to work and are ready to take on a large part of the work themselves. The young child is an imitator!

Other typical themes of play are: trash truck, ambulance with a red light, school, carpentry shop, fire engine, cable-railway, telephone installation, deep sea diver and much more. Their play becomes more and more planned. This does not mean, however, that it can’t be suddenly changed in the middle if one of the children comes up with a rousing idea. Children of this age do not need fancier, more detailed play things. Play materials that can grow with them are better. Their relationship to the materials is changing. Before the fifth year an idea is stimulated by the materials. After the fifth year an imaginative idea comes first, then comes an effort to find and make something acceptable from the play materials that corresponds to the imagination. Now the fantasy, which had been so richly developed before, begins to function again.

The unspoken reward and thanks for such efforts come to the adult through children who are able to play in a fulfilling way and who are building the basis for later life in these early stages.

Nowadays it is no longer a matter of course that children can play so spontaneously and enthusiastically at their corresponding level of development. This is due less to the children than to the immense influence from all sides upon them from earliest childhood on. For example, fully detailed, technically exact toys make it difficult for children to be satisfied with such outwardly simple things as objects from nature, cloths, wooden branches, etc. A healthy child would rather be right in the middle of play than outside as an observer of perfect, technical instruments. The fascination for such toys is soon past and leaves behind an emptiness and longing for more.

In retrospect, the tasks of the educator can be discovered easily from all the above descriptions. If we look at the goals, we can summarize by saying that nothing more wonderful can happen in childhood than that a child is able to grasp completely each developmental step and pass though it in a healthy way, and that he is able to practice and gain strength during each particular challenge. When the body is completely formed and accomplishes its first change around age seven, the child may turn to his schoolwork with the same joy, strength and enthusiasm for learning that he showed earlier for play and be equal to its demands. ✣

One of our most important tasks is to arrange the space—at home and in the kindergarten—to guarantee the needs of creative play. Above all this means creating a

10

Kindergarten Education with Mixed-Age Groups Freya Jaffke In this article an example will be given of how the type of preschool education for which we aim is feasible, particularly when the children’s group is composed not only of one age group (five- and six-year-old children), but rather of three to four age groups (three-, four-, five-, and six-year-old children). To what extent the adult masters the necessary differentiations of the various age levels and satisfies the different needs of the children depends largely, to be sure, upon her imagination and inner versatility.

connection with real life. Therefore, it is the educator’s duty to include in the kindergarten plan whenever possible the necessary work of daily life. Some example’s: Housework—cooking, baking, washing, ironing, sweeping, dusting, and flower care; Toymaking and toy care—to this belong, among other things, sawing, rasping, cutting, gluing, repairs of all kinds, sewing, and mending; Garden work—digging, sowing, planting, watering, weeding, mowing, and harvesting. In addition, there are Experiences on walks, for example, encountering rubbish trucks, street workers, woodcutters, chimney-sweeps, the ironing woman, the workers in the adjacent nursery.

In such a mixed-age group, the children live together as in a large family. They learn from one another and help one another in a way that is rarely necessary or done among those of the same age. It is even quite realistic for the threeyear-olds to experience that the six-year-olds may be allowed to do things that they are not yet allowed to do; and, conversely, the three-yearolds are excused from many things that would not be tolerated with the six-year-olds.

Nevertheless, the quantity of experiences is not of primary concern, but rather that the children can experience the work as well as the attitude of the people doing the work—how they perform the various jobs one after the other and how they work hand in hand helping one another. All this will be taken by the child—not with the intellect in an evaluating, critical or reflective way, but with his entire being which is so capable of surrendering itself to experiences. In this way impulses for his own activity and practice are awakened, and, simultaneously, the forces that build up and form the body are stimulated in various ways.

If one wishes to lay a foundation for later ability in life during the preschool years, one cannot do better than to have children learn about the diversity of life. However, it is the adult’s task to choose from the fullness of life what is particularly beneficial for the different developmental levels of the children. On the other hand, she will not attempt to introduce too early certain activities (especially in the intellectual domain) so that the development does not proceed in a one-sided manner.

From these developments arise the guiding principles for the educator’s methodology in the preschool years. She herself will work together with the children in significant, necessary ways so that the children can take up the work directly and be imitative in their activity. She will not, however, teach this information about life in a scholarly fashion. The aimed-for method is comprised of a well thought-out and richly

The way a child learns from life reveals itself in his urge to participate in all activities or events in his environment, joining in immediately or carrying them out by imitating them in play. This is, however, only possible when these activities can be looked at and experienced in 11

The Developing Child endowed education of opportunities that, however, leaves quite open:

tables placed one behind the other. The threeand four-year-olds, as patient passengers, get on and off the train at the conductor’s order. Suddenly, the big children notice that the saw’s noise fits well with their railroad, and so we agree to be attentive to one another. First we go slowly, then faster, then slowly again, then a pause. With great enthusiasm the engineers look out of their window to the carpenter’s bench and follow with close attention how quickly the saw goes through the wood. Shortly before the block of wood falls off, it seems that they hold their breath and in the next moment breathe out again forcefully shouting out the station’s name with joy. The conductor urges the passengers to hurry, for he notices that the pauses made by the saw do not last very long.

1. what the respective child grasps be imitating; 2. how the child imitates the activity, according to age (from three to six years old); 3. which results will arise from the imitation in the developmental progress of the individual child. It is not necessary to have extensively prepared activity times in which the children are restrained and told now and not later, this and not that, for this long and not longer or shorter, together with these children and not alone in that corner. The imitative ability and differentiation in this respect depend upon quite definite suppositions:

Under the carpenter’s bench eager hands are gathering the sawdust and pieces of bark. Markus, four years old, takes it as feed for his horse; Gernot, four, lets it snow in the room; Tanja, five, bakes a birthday cake out of it and decorates it with fruit pits from the store. Next to the pieces of wood which are yet to be sawed, Mathias, Aurelia and Susanne, all four years old, are standing and saying, “Here you can make a bridge out of it,” and “That would be a good coffee can,” “Look, if you saw off some here, it will be a little house with a chimney,” and, “That looks like a dog.” They use some longer branches as a flute, violin and cello and move through the room playing music with them. Shortly afterwards, they carry the branches on their shoulders by twos and offer “apple juice” for sale from the buckets hanging in the middle. But the variety of possible uses for their branches is still not exhausted. They also serve as walking sticks, ski poles, and finally—furnished with a crocheted band—as bow and arrows.

1. about the way the adults shape the world to be imitated; 2. about the age of the child within the first seven years; and 3. about the individuality of the each child. In the following example of different work situations (in a group of twenty-three children from three to six years old), the explanations should become clear. Such work happens during the children’s free play time and consequently becomes an organic part of the daily and weekly rhythm of the kindergarten. The gardener gives us a freshly cut birch tree and from it we want to saw new pieces of wood for building. The five- and six-year-old boys immediately take the meter-long pieces of trunk, lay cloths underneath and push the wood like a train over the floor and under tables draped with cloths (tunnels). Other six-year-olds are again nearby, helping and competing with one another who can work up the most sweat. After a while, Jan and Markus, both six years old, begin to build a railroad through the whole room with

Georgia, three years old, is standing next to the carpenter’s bench with a doll under her arm. Delighted, she waits anew for each piece of 12

Freya Jaffke

Kindergarten with Mixed-Age Groups

wood that is sawed off to fall down or to be ably snapped up by an older child. In between she brings single blocks to Helge, six, and Michael, six, who are building in the corner with bark and big pieces of wood.

several times that she try on a pair of fur shoes in his shoemaker’s workshop. This small glimpse into a play and work situation of a mixed-age children’s group already shows how differently the individual children participate in adult work, how they act according to their age, and how many possibilities for differentiation can arise. Thereby, three very different developmental stages can be recognized, the knowledge of which is a necessary presupposition for the stimulation of the children. For playing and being purposefully active need to be relearned today by many children, especially when they come into the kindergarten for the first time at age five and have not had opportunities beforehand to play imaginatively.

After the sawing work is done, the remaining branches will be dragged outside, the carpenter’s bench pushed against the wall, the work things cleaned up, and the sawdust swept into a pile. It is now time for the breakfast preparation. There is muesli, and the apples for it must be peeled. Stephen, three, stands next to me and enjoys the long peels which may be eaten. He then goes into the playhouse and tells the other children, “We have already peeled the apples.” Cornelia and Aurelia, both four years old, would also like to peel such a long peel but barely succeed in going once around the apple. Eventually, they have finished peeling an apple all the way. Their great satisfaction lasts for several weeks. They like to imitate this activity in imaginative play, for example, by wrapping a crocheted band around a block of wood for the apple peel and letting a piece of bark be the knife. The “work” is quickly finished in this way, and the imagination has the possibility of using the same items in another way by letting the band be the shores of a lake and the bark a little ship; or the band is wrapped around a big piece of bark to become a stringed instrument—a kantalina. Jan, Michael and Antje, all six years old, notice that I peel the apple in a spiral and that in this way the peel becomes very long. They are unable to do it the same way and do not stop until all the apples are peeled.

In the first developmental stage, which is just ending for many children as they begin their kindergarten time, a large change in activity can be observed. They watch, help out, in some cases let themselves be included in a game by the older children, and for moments become absorbed in play to the extent that they forget everything about them. The activity of the four-year-olds is also defined by a large change, but now it is through their developing and often exuberant imagination. However, a prerequisite for this is a toy selection that is kept so simple that it stimulates the imagination as well as allows for transformation of the toys themselves. After the fifth year, when the child has more and more imagination and memory capability at his disposal, the spontaneous activity is organized gradually into purposeful activity. When several children of this older group are together, the play is mostly a question of a project that will be logically accomplished. This does not preclude that spontaneous ideas can arise and totally change the play situation again and again. However, the play of these older kindergarten children is usually goal-oriented and resolute.

During this whole time, Ulrike, six, was busy sewing. She has put a pin cushion, scissors, thimble and material scraps into the little basket and taken it into her “house.” She has knotted herself a little doll and, in addition, has sewn two pillows. She has allowed nothing to disturb her, not even Dietmar, five, who has requested 13

The Developing Child Difficult situations can also be overcome if, as an educator, one bears in mind how the children’s behavior is based on age, which is only briefly sketched here. This should become clear in this description of the cleanup after free play time.

adults for a job. In general, they pay very close attention to how the adult does his work and try to do it as carefully and as well. For example, they fold cloths very neatly or arrange the baskets in the building or shopping corner. They have an overview of the work sequence and its logic that they acquire through the repetition of doing it again and again during the year, and they can give a hand independent of the adults. Thus, they already fetch the broom and dustpan for sweeping when the building corner is barely finished being picked up.

During cleanup time the three- and fouryear-olds are either busy beside the adults or “thoughtlessly” busy, for they do not yet quite understand the correlation and purpose of this activity. In certain cases, with the best of intentions, they move things which have just been put away in the correct place to another place.

Such differentiations in the various age levels are represented in all activities that take place in the daily life of the children’s group. Each child can normally fulfill the developmental stages appropriate for him or her in such a group situation. The modeling effect of the children on each other in the mixed-age group is also invaluable. The concern that perhaps the five- and six-year-old children would not come into their own in a mixed-age group— that they would be hindered in their continued development—is only justified when the actual group includes more than twenty to twentythree children, and when, because of space limitations, play which requires a lot of room is not possible. After these outer considerations, however, all else depends on the inner activity with which the adult carries out her work. For this is also perceptible to the children and, therefore, is imitable and helps the children learn to evolve their own initiatives.

The four- and five-year-olds eagerly help out, but often make a game out of cleaning up and need much encouragement. When we can manage it, it suits the child well if we build a picture for him, for example: “You can now be the farm boy who is bringing all the animals back to their stalls form the pasture,” instead of the abstract order, “Now put the animals back on the shelf.” When four- and five-year-olds, for example, pick up building blocks, fold cloths or bring chairs to their places, it often happens that they do it in very creative ways stimulated by their rich imaginations. The cloths are slowly pulled over the edges of the tables or “ironed” with a small, turned-over stool as mother does it at home with the iron. The chairs will perhaps be carried on their shoulders, because they are just being brought in from the “carpenter’s,” or they are pushed in a row in front of them as a train. The building blocks will be laid, for example, on a slope to a basket after being hoisted up, because the cleaners have just become dump truck or ship loaders.

In the later life of the child, much will depend upon what type of experiences they encountered in the first six or seven years. For what is germinated in these early developmental stages must appear one way or another in a later stage. Thus, abilities and deficiencies can occur in many areas. For example, a child who has been allowed, by imitating, to absorb purposeful and understandable work from his

The five- and six-year-old children can already distance themselves from the play and accomplish independently a task requested of them. They either choose for themselves an area that they want to clean up alone or they ask the 14

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Kindergarten with Mixed-Age Groups

environment will, as an adult, have a command over such abilities on an intellectual level; as an adult, he will have at his disposal logic in his thinking. All that which a child perceives in the working adult and can practice by imitating— like consciousness, attention, order, purposeful results of work—is accompanied by intensive experience. With this, the experiences go into deeper levels which later can be stirred from the consciousness and can assist in an independent, goal-directed shaping of one’s life. A child will be able to follow the teacher’s words with greater alertness and concentration if he has had the possibility in every respect, especially in his limbs, to attain numerous skills. In this way, the child will be able to control his movements. He

can then achieve an outer calm and increase more and more of his inner activity. Of course, in addition to the capabilities, which, as indicated, are transformed, there are also some which intensify in a linear manner. The work of the adult and the transformation of the work throughout the children’s play have been depicted here. The artistic activities (eurythmy, painting, modeling, music-making), the storytelling and the outdoor play are, of course, equally important components in the total educational work. In each of these activities there could also be shown both the specific formative value of the activity and the differentiations according to age levels. ✣

The Significance of Imitation and Example for the Development of the Will Freya Jaffke This is a summary of the lecture which Freya Jqffke presented at the North American Kindergarten Conference at High Mowing School in August 1989. The summary was written from her lecture notes and may differ somewhat from the lecture as it was given.

within the human being must be at work. The whole physical body is one great sense organ for the spiritual and soul being of the child, which came from his pre-earthly existence. Now we can see two phenomena: First the child is totally a sense being, and second, the child is totally a will being. With the will and through the senses, all the impressions from the environment are grasped and taken deeply into the body where they leave their marks upon the organs. The synthesis of these two phenomena is seen in the wonderful forces of imitation, which every child brings with him as a gift from his pre-birth existence. In the pre-earthly life the human soul is living among cosmic beings, is penetrated by them and follows them. This “habit” is taken through the gate of birth into early childhood and is seen in the forces of imitation. The child’s imitation is a double process: He receives through the senses, and

Today we will talk about the development of the will, and we will see how important it is that the child has an example to imitate. We all know that the child has a great openness and is entirely a sense organ. All of his sense impressions go deeply into his body. He can’t defend himself from the sense impressions which flood into him. But a sense organ is only an instrument which can be used by someone. The eye itself, for example, does not see. Someone must look through the eye to see. The eye is only an instrument for seeing. In order to see, the will 15

The Developing Child grasps and imitates with the will. Rudolf Steiner describes the development of the will in The Education of the Child (pg. 41) in this way:

Everything which the child does is done without reflection or consideration. He does it out of imitation and habit. The quality of example will determine how habits develop and in the same way children will experience their limits. If the adult laughs only when a child, for example, dumps spinach from his plate onto the table, or pulls on the tablecloth or the cord of the iron, then the child learns bad habits and develops an unhealthy orientation for his will. Instead of laughing and running after the child, the adult should think ahead. The adult should use his imagination or fantasy to divert the child from those activities which are inappropriate. The adult should be consequent and follow through to establish limits. This means that the adult has to be a representative of everything for the child, so that the child has a clear orientation and a sense of reality. It is important that the child is always surrounded by meaningful will activities as long as he is unable to guide himself.

By a right application of the fundamental educational principles, during the first seven years of childhood, the foundation is laid for the development of a strong and healthy Will. For a strong and healthy will must have its support in the well-developed forms of the physical body. We know that all the organs of the young child are relatively unshaped. They do not yet have the physical form which one sees in the organs of the adult, and the rhythm of each organ is not yet developed. We must ask ourselves, “How does the forming of the organs take place and how will they develop their rhythm and their rhythmical working together?” A seemingly different, but related, question is, “How will it happen that the will of the child becomes purposeful and orderly?” Both happen primarily through the influences from the world outside the child, especially through all the rhythmical events during the day or week which appear repeatedly at the same time.

The first real crisis occurs when the child experiences his own will for the first time. Then he begins to use the word “I” for himself and the word “no” to others. At the same time he experiences a conflict between his growing will and the will of those around him. His own will can show itself only in relation to the will of the others in his environment. The child has to slowly learn to bring his will into a harmonious relationship with the will of those around him. Here again we can see how wonderful and healthy are good habits and rhythms in the child’s environment, especially during these years. They help to overcome many difficult situations.

Now let us look at the period of the first three years of life. There we can see that the child has many possibilities to use and exercise his will forces, though of course this happens unconsciously. What a great activity of will is involved when a young child comes slowly into the upright and acquires the ability to walk! Then he follows his mother through the house “working” with her, doing some laundry, cleaning the floor, packing and unpacking her grocery basket. The more the mother does her work in good order and without being hectic, the more the child’s will is guided into a strong direction. In this way, the child no longer moves chaotically with his hands and feet as he did as a newborn.

During this first period of early childhood, the will of the child is engaged through a strong connection to his mother’s activities. Now in the second period between the third and fifth years of age, the will becomes more and more connected to the awakening imagination and 16

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The Significance of Imitation

begins to work within the child’s fantasy. During this period, his fantasy needs the inspiration of the objects in his environment. For example, the child sees a piece of bark and a few stones and takes it to be a boat with people. He sees a doll and starts to feed it. He sees a little bench and uses it as a mailbox. The will within the child’s fantasy is able to transform things, and the child no longer needs only actual (realistic) objects in his play. But the object has to be simple enough to allow space for this creative activity. The objects in the child’s environment spark the fantasy. The child feels great joy and freedom through creating new things which for him are real. An example of how children transform items from their environment into play materials is the following: The mother has prepared a large package, and she puts the leftover piece of string over the back of a chair. The child ties a wooden spoon to one end, pulls at the other end and plays crane.

We are all familiar with our difficult and inharmonious children who are not able to play but like to disturb the others. We also have those children who don’t do anything, but just stand around looking at the others. They seem to be apathetic. These children have to experience, for a shorter or longer time, the meaningful work of an adult as well as the strong rhythm and the warm atmosphere of the kindergarten. Around the fifth year, a second crisis is to be seen, mostly in the children who until now were always busy and knew just what to do. What is happening now? The fantasy apparently disappears; the will seems to be paralyzed. Children may say, “I don’t know what to do today,” or “I’m bored.” A big inner change is taking place. At this time it is important that we not appeal to the fantasy forces for they now need a quiet time. We shouldn’t say, “Yesterday you built up such a beautiful landscape, do it again.” Instead, let them do real things, such as making and sewing a little book for their dolls with drawings, sewing a little book out of felt for needles, or sanding a letter opener which you have just carved.

Between three and five we can see that the child’s fantasy and the child’s faculty of memory appear at the same time. Only things or events can be remembered which have been seen before. How does a child remember? How does fantasy which is the bringing together of a memory picture and an object actually occur? And then, how does the child carry this fantasy into his creative play? The answer is through his will forces. Without the will forces nothing will happen. If the will forces are chaotic, nothing meaningful happens in the child’s play. Thus we see how important it is to care for the right development of the will.

It is important that all these activities have a strong connection to the adult’s work. It is still the period of imitation, but we can more and more use words in guiding the child to an activity. We can ask them to come and help us in our work, but not with questions! If we want them to help in the kitchen with cooking and baking we should say, “Come, give me a hand,” rather than “Will you give me a hand?” After a short time of such working, new impulses will arise, impulses for the child’s play.

A healthy and harmonious child always has new ideas to bring to the same materials or the same play. She is always active, always busy with her will. For example, the little bench which was the mailbox now becomes the manger for the animals, a bed for the doll, a stove, or many other things.

At this new stage of development, around the fifth year, there arises within the child a picture or mental image of what she wants to do. Now the will forces have to join or enter into the mental image. That needs much effort. The child is still in the kindergarten, and the play materials 17

The Developing Child have not changed. When plans arise in the mental image such as the hairdresser’s shop, an ambulance, a fishing boat or restaurant, then the child needs much well-trained fantasy, trained during the years before. And the child needs patience, enthusiasm and staying power. These are all faculties in which the will works strongly.

people must have a snack.” Florian replies, “Yes, and then they will pack everything and go to another town. Oh, yes, this could be my circuswagon. It always has a round roof, doesn’t it?” The object he points to has previously been a “cage” and stood beneath the table where I was working. He builds up his “wagon,” then looks out of his little window at me and says, “Oh, I am already close to the border! Now I am going to drive into another country and there will be a large amount of snow, and there one needs a snow plow.” Then he fixes a little wooden dust pan to the front of his wagon as a snow plow. In the back he builds up something for spreading salt. He uses little benches with small holes on the top for carrying. He stacks them one on top of the other and through the holes he throws chestnuts with great joy.

Before five the stimulus for play comes from the outside. A child sees a curved stick and says, “Now I am a chimney sweeper.” After five the child says, “I would like to be a chimney sweeper, and I need a broom with a long handle.” He looks for something similar, sees feathers, puts them together, attaches a long, curved ribbon and is happy. Before five, the will activity works with all that which stimulates the fantasy from the outside. After five the will forces have to make an inner effort. The will now joins together with the mental image and joins also together with the well-trained fantasy. Thus the child creates new objects which appear in his mental image without an outer stimulus.

On the next day, Florian again builds up a wagon, but this time without snow plow or salt machine. When he is finished he says, “Now it is a locomotive.” Then he builds up two more wagons behind. Other children want to play with him but do not really know what to do. I say, “One wagon could be for my luggage, and some porters could come to get my suitcases, for I have to travel. The other wagon can be the dining room, for I would like to eat something during my journey.” A great “busyness” arose among the children. Some of them carry all my cases (big logs) to the train. Others set up the tables in the dining car. I am given a menu out of folded cloths and have to choose and to order. Then they bring wonderful dishes and set my table. I am totally integrated into the play of the children, although I am still sitting at my work table. They do not mind at all that I am not sitting with them in the dining car, as I do sometimes.

At this point in the children’s development we may think that they must do strong physical work such as sawing, nailing and hammering. They may do such work, but we shouldn’t forget that the will forces have to be exercised not only within the muscles, but at this particular period of life, they also have to grow strong within the inner being of the child. They are needed within the mental image. Here are two examples of play situations which show you how we can help children during their play, as of course, children do need help sometimes. Florian, age 6 years, 4 months, plays that he is a circus director. He dresses many children as different animals with various cloths. He tells them what to do and where to stay. All of them are happy and follow his lead for a period of time. When he has no more ideas and some “animals” have already left, I tell him, “The circus is now finished and all the circus

I think we are lucky to have some children every year who are able to play in such a fulfilled way. They stimulate the others. Another example 18

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The Significance of Imitation

is Simon, age 6, who has built a camping place underneath a table. After he is finished, nothing more happens. Then I say, “In a camping place, there is always a fireplace where people cook their meals.” “Oh yes, may we get some sticks?” I reply, “Yes, take three.” They attach the sticks together to make three legs. With red and yellow cloths, they make a fire underneath. A little basket is fixed in the middle of the sticks. It is the cooking pot. They ask for two more sticks, put them between two chairs, put big cloths over them and make tents. Within the tents they have woolen carpets and cushions. These activities last until cleanup time. Then the boys are a little disappointed because “they haven’t played yet.”

itself into the atmosphere of activity around him, which is created by the adult. The child is totally free to choose his own work. They may be involved in the work of the adults whenever possible. Another prerequisite for the children’s play is that the adult cares not only for a rhythmical arrangement of the day, but also for the rhythm of the year in regard to his own working activities. Without being a pedant he can repeatedly do some specific task at certain times. For example, in my kindergarten, in the autumn I am mainly making things for the Christmas Bazaar. After Christmas, there is a period when I do embroidery, and after Easter I do wood carving. I do these activities nearly every day for several weeks, and do not do a different activity every day. The one exception is painting day.

The question is: What can the adult do to help strengthen the will forces such as they appear in these play situations? If indeed, as Rudolf Steiner says, it is from the outside that the impressions on the organs come about, and also the well developed forms of the organs are the best support for the will, then in the environment there must be order in manifold ways, rhythm, good habits and love. To come to an appropriate order around the children, the adult has to think ahead. Then her gestures will become calm and purposeful and well thought through. She will not run about fetching things, because she has forgotten this or that. Also, to think ahead helps heal the bad manifestations of the will of the child. For example, if a child slams the door, we shouldn’t say, “You shouldn’t do that.” Rather, with our full consciousness we should be with the child in the situation in a consequent way. Thus, when he is approaching the door, we follow his actions in our mind.

Each day during the free play time, I proceed with my work. I have not created “projects” for the children to do, but I do make certain that enough materials (mostly remnants from my own work) are there for the children to use. All my scraps from cutting fabric or paper, woodcarving or sawing I put into the children’s baskets. The children may freely take what they need from there. They create a variety of things. Some attempt to do what I have done, others have their own ideas. In November, for example, when I glue together the painted and oiled lanterns for the children and then make transparencies for the Christmas Bazaar, for at least two weeks every day (except painting day) the big table is set up with scissors, glue and the children’s baskets with colored paper. Gold paper pieces are also at hand. Some children make small lanterns and transparencies, others make crowns or other small toys for their dolls, which they then take home with them.

The adult also has to be well engaged in his own work before the children arrive. The mother is already busy when the children awaken in the morning. When the children arrive in the kindergarten in the morning, the adults are already busy there. The will of the child nestles

While some children come many days to work at the “glue table,” others might not come at all at this time but will come later in the year 19

The Developing Child when I have a time for sewing aprons for the kindergarten or embroidering table covers. Then in the children’s baskets there are pretty colored threads for sewing. Fabric scraps which are left after cutting are also placed in the children’s baskets for free use.

To guide the children in their play we have to always think of the differentiated steps in their development. Now I would like to talk a little more about the last period between five and seven years of age. After age five, a transition takes place from what the child wants to do to what the child should do. This does not mean that we give the children orders or commands which just come into our mind. Rather, out of the strong connection built up with the adult during the preceding years, the children now want to do what they should do. But even though we may use more words and appeal to the mental images of these older kindergarten children, even if we tell them what they can do and how they can do it, even if we inspire their forces of patience, even then: imitation is still the main thing!

When I carve small bowls, spoons, candle holders, etc., there are always small pieces of wood left over with which the children build or which they wax. Carving knives are naturally not put into the children’s hands, but sometimes they take pointed sticks and “carve” with them outside on rotting stumps. In this way the work of the adult is always purposeful and useful for the life of the kindergarten. The children take part in it in a variety of ways, or they play around the teacher who is at work. They are always aware of the work and take a warm and loving interest in it.

Until now the children have unconsciously noticed that the adult has done what was needed in the kindergarten, what she had to do in order to finish her daily work, to care for the environment, prepare for the festivals, etc. The children have noticed that the adult hasn’t always done what she would like to do but rather what she needs to do. This attitude can also be imitated by the children after age five. How? The children observe, for example, that the adult takes a long time for her work. Either she makes many things of the same project such as for festivals or for the Bazaar, or she needs a long time to make only one thing such as with carving or embroidery. Children see the perseverance, the patience and care which the adult brings to her work. They are interested in the process from day to day. They see also that the adult does things which are uncomfortable for her to do, but that she tries to overcome this. For example it may not come naturally to her to sew with a thimble, but she always uses the thimble nevertheless.

In all of this work, there exist the prerequisites of orderliness, rhythm and good habits. They belong to the “right physical environment” in which the children may receive order and strength in their will forces because they are imitative beings. Imitating is will activity! You cannot teach imitation. It has to be done with one’s own will. Will activity is very individual, and it is united with the ego. We can observe this in the different ways children imitate. Everyone has the same example in front of them in the kindergarten, but their reactions are quite different. Some immediately start to imitate or to play nearby, taking in the atmosphere of the working activity, while others don’t get the impulse at all. Within imitation there is great freedom. If we are willing to work on ourselves, then we need to also work on the prerequisites described above. Then every child will find for his will development what he himself needs and what he is unconsciously seeking.

Another aid to getting children to do what they should do or how they should do it is to talk about specific people, how they behave 20

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The Significance of Imitation

in their profession, what they would do in a certain situation. Between 5 and 7, they do not have to have the physical presence of someone working in front of them; they can also build up a picture inwardly by hearing about the person. For example, I may talk about the master of embroidery who taught me to embroider, or about a tailor who would never sew without a thimble, or about the servant called Ludwig whom I got to know when I went to a conference one day (see “The Story of Ludwig” at the end of this article).

they like to do them. For example, they can go as a messenger to another class or get the broom and dustpan, or they may be asked to help dry the dishes. We should never ask for the child’s help by questioning the child. Try to know what the specific child is able to do and what he would like to do, and sometimes what he needs to do! It may happen that a child rejects doing what he is asked to do, but some others then come and ask, “May I do it?” Children of this age are able to understand our instructions. They can transform the mental image which arises through words into their own activity. In their earlier years we had to divert children from the things that they shouldn’t do. Now they need clearly defined limits and clear directions such as “We don’t shoot,” or “I don’t like this.” It must be said in such a way that the children still feel the love of the adult and feel his conviction as a loving and loved authority.

During the second half of the school year before they go into first grade, we may request the oldest children to do a specific task. Then they have the possibility to strengthen their will forces by pursuing a certain goal. I always offer these oldest children the possibility of making their own very simple, knotted dolls. Rudolf Steiner says that a self-made “Bajazzo,” knotted out of an old rag and with ink spots for eyes, is able to awaken the genius within the child.

Everything which I have tried to point out here has been said while bearing in mind the words that Rudolf Steiner spoke in a lecture in Dornach on April 19, 1923. (Lecture 5 of The Child’s Changing Consciousness and Waldorf Education, pg. 116)

We start by embroidering the doll’s blanket after Christmas. Then we tease the wool by hand to form the doll’s head and knot the hands, using a pink flannel cloth for the doll. The children make their own eye spots using a colored pencil. After that they start sewing the hair and some clothes for the doll. Some children have a great many by the end of the year. Some only one! From the moment the doll is finished, it is integrated into the children’s play. One often sees a difference here between boys and girls. The girls feed their dolls and play with them in a variety of ways, and sew them many, many clothes. The boys put them in the cars they build and take them for rides or use them for patients in their ambulances. Over the weekends the children take them home, so that they can be cared for during the weekends as well.

…before the second dentition [the child lived mainly] in the region of the will, which … was intimately connected with the child’s imitating its surroundings. But what at that time entered the child’s being quite physically also contained moral and spiritual forces that became firmly established in the child’s organism. This means that the will of the child can be developed and become strong through good habits, consequences, and limits set by the adult as his example. When the child enters first grade, the will has to be trained more and more consciously.

Around age 6, the children may also follow instructions. They are asked to do things and 21

The Developing Child Now children have to follow a task given by the teacher for a period of time such as watering the flowers, dusting the window sill, or cleaning the blackboard for a week. The child has to remember every day and has to do it, even if he doesn’t want to. He has to overcome himself. During the kindergarten years it is too early to insist on repeated tasks for particular children.

With the most sensitive feeling, we have to guide the children from the way of imitation to loving authority. This is a great art! I would be glad if what I have said here helps you to appreciate more fully how great the significance of example is for the child’s imitation and for the development of the will. ✣

The Story of Ludwig the Servant Ludwig was a real servant in the home of an elderly lady. We stayed in her home during a weekend conference. At breakfast time when things ran out, Ludwig was there to bring more food, but he always waited at the threshold of the room, and the old woman brought it from there to our table. In the kindergarten I gave a nice verbal description of Ludwig to the children. After that I asked a six-year-old boy to bring the cups from the tray to everyone’s place. He looked over all the cups, chose one out of the middle and put it at his own place, very satisfied for he thought that it was the fullest one. Then he looked at me, by chance, and I said, “Ludwig wouldn’t have done that; he always serves the others and takes the last one himself.” “Really?” asked the boy. “Really,” I answered. Then he took the cup, put it at another place, served all the others and took the last one himself.

22

Readiness for Entering the Nursery/Kindergarten The following two articles speak to a question which troubles many kindergarten teachers: At what point is a child ready to enter a nursery class or a mixed-age kindergarten?

Kindergarten Readiness Dr. Elisabeth Jacobi, Stuttgart The question of whether there is a time of “kindergarten readiness” has become an urgent question in Europe only in the last few years. Not long ago, in our experience, a child rarely came into the kindergarten before the end of her fourth year. There was no room. With the decline of the birthrate, however, an increasing number of kindergarten spaces became available, and younger children entered to fill them. The kindergartens want to fill their places, and the mothers are glad to be able to bring their children into the kindergarten early. Thus, the age of the children who come into the kindergarten is now lowered to such a point that it is necessary to become clear about what constitutes kindergarten readiness in a child.

other children. This is achieved at about four years of age. At this age, the remaining speech development is often already complete, but not always. Children who cannot yet pronounce g–k–ch sounds have difficulties in their will development; while children who have difficulty pronouncing s–sch–st are behind in their intellectual development in certain cases. When one considers the independence of the children, much depends upon the parents’ home Whether a child can dress himself, whether he is clean, whether he can use the toilet independently are, to be sure, essential for the kindergartner, but these factors alone do not determine if the child has reached kindergarten readiness.

We want to disregard external necessities for bringing children into the kindergarten early— whether it be that the mother must go to work or that the atmosphere in the home is such that one would like to remove the child as soon as possible. The central question remains before us: How do I recognize whether a child is really ready for kindergarten?

One must pay attention to the mental and physical stamina of the child. Can a child last four hours (the time of the normal kindergarten in Germany) without actually needing a nap? Is the child so susceptible that he would catch every sniffle in the kindergarten and become sick? Is the child already far enough along to handle the childhood diseases, or would it mean a premature exposure in certain cases? The child should already have developed a beginning sense of time. She must also have already overcome the first phase of defiance which still belongs to the I-discovery. And she must be able to tolerate other children, in particular, many other children.

In his speech, today’s child often says “I” as early as two years old. In the etheric body, the child’s head becomes independent around the age of two and a half, and he begins to think. But the I-experience still does not fully happen today until the child is three years old. Only after this step has been fully accomplished does the child slowly begin to make verbal contact with 23

The Developing Child A young child plays by himself, runs to the others, watches, perhaps takes something away and continues to play alone again even when many other children are in the room. The child is very imitative, but the imitation appears mostly from hours to days later rather than right away. Only when a child can imitate spontaneously and can play with other children, do I consider him ready for the kindergarten.

and a “plucked, featherless little bird” stands before us. This can happen even if the child visits the kindergarten on an hourly basis, and the torn covering cannot be repaired simply by removing the child from the kindergarten. This unveiling of the protective covering occurs naturally between three and a half and four years old. Only then is the child really ready for the kindergarten. Whenever we cause this process to advance prematurely, we are doing something similar to the early learning of reading.

The painting and drawing depend again very strongly on how the child has been introduced to them at home. Recognizing kindergarten readiness is little agreed upon in this area unless one knows exactly the rules of how the development of a child is mirrored in the “language of drawing.” (See the following article which refers to Michaela Strauss’ book, Understanding Children’s Drawings.) But it is important for the kindergarten child to recognize danger. The child needs this ability, among other things, for the kindergarten walk. Also, a kindergarten child should generally already be able to go for a walk uninterruptedly—without stopping at every little stone. A child should be able to refrain from fighting with another child as well.

Of course, a protected, veiled child brings a great deal of heavenly forces and warmth of soul to the kindergarten teachers. This leads to the latter expressing quite a special affection for the very young ones. But this is an area that naturally weaves itself between parent and child and, in particular, between mother and child. No one else ought to interfere directly with this. It is emphasized here once again that this is spoken from a physician’s point of view, and that the social and social-pedagogical duties toward emergencies and families in stress have not been addressed. So the question of kindergarten readiness is to be examined very earnestly each time. Neither commercial nor emotional points of view ought to play a role here, and, in itself, that the child is being urged into kindergarten should not be a decisive factor. This article is meant to sharpen the perception of the problem from the point of view of our study of man. The teacher shares especially in the responsibility for the child’s health in the first seven years. ✣

When one examines the kindergarten child as a physician, one experiences a certain inner independence or even boldness in the child, and one has the impression that, yes, this child is in his place. A three-year-old or a younger child has almost a protective covering over himself which preserves him in his world. If one brings such a child into the kindergarten, then this covering rips open in about three weeks

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Further Considerations about Kindergarten Readiness Joan Almon In talking with kindergarten teachers from all parts of North America, it has become clear that many schools are wrestling with the question of what age children ought to be when they enter our nurseries or kindergartens. Some schools have resolved the question by allowing young threes to enter into a nursery class where they are separate from the fours and fives, while others integrate them into a mixed-age group.

ability to visualize or conceptualize (the German word vorstellen is used, which lacks a good English translation) can be directly reached through the word. The child is therefore ready to follow directions within the group. In the experience of these two physicians, these signs are seen at the earliest around age 3½. If they do not appear by age 4, then it may be helpful to speak with the child’s pediatrician about this.

In the book Kinder Sprechstunde (Urachhaus, 1984), Drs. Michaela Glöckler and Wolfgang Gobel, look at many aspects of the young child’s development as well as many types of childhood diseases. It is our hope that this most valuable book will be printed in English soon, but in the meantime we summarize here some of their thoughts on when a child is “ripe” for entering kindergarten.

Some years ago, when Margret Meyerkort was offering a course at Acorn Hill, we consulted with her about kindergarten readiness. She discussed many of the same considerations offered above by Drs. Jacobi, Glöckler and Gobel, and added a few more. Her list included the following: 1) Today the child often says “I” at the age of 2, but the real experience of “I” is later. The I-consciousness seems to begin early because the child is brought into thinking earlier than before. We need to discern now between the child’s saying “I” and really meaning it, for only when it is truly there is the child able to reach others through speech rather than by hitting.

One consideration is that the child should literally be prepared to take some steps away from the home and mother. The child is ready to enter kindergarten when he has already walked away from his home once and found his way back or when he wants to go to a friend’s home nearby on his own. For most children these tendencies are so pronounced that one day, to the horror of those present, the child has “disappeared.” Then the child returns and tells where he has been. As long as the child is still attached to the mother’s apron strings, this time of independence has not yet come. In such cases, if the child is over 3½ or 4, the mother must examine herself to see if her behavior is holding the child back from achieving this important independence.

2) The child needs a certain amount of independence from the parent. He should be able to do a certain amount of dressing and undressing on his own. He needs to be toilettrained and independent of the breast. 3) The child needs to show a certain amount of physiological and psychological stamina. The child should: • be able to stay awake for 4 hours without needing a nap; • not be so delicate that he catches every little cold in school;

A second milestone of readiness appears when the child can listen to stories from beginning to end. This shows that the child’s 25

The Developing Child • be sufficiently developed that he can manage childhood diseases and does not get convulsions with high fevers; • be past the first stubborn period of the “terrible twos” which belongs to the period of ego-seeking; • have developed the first feeling for time because the ego is there; • be able to take a good walk without stopping for every little stone or puddle.

drawing the child now tries very hard to make a circle and ‘close it’, ‘join it up’… . A little girl is sitting up at the table completely engrossed in drawing circles all over the page. It is her third birthday, and in answer to the question: ‘What is your name?’ the answer comes pat: ‘I? My name is “I”!’ This flash of ego-consciousness is documented in the child’s drawing by the form of the circle.” (page 24) Michaela Strauss also describes the more linear form of crayon movement which the one- and two-year-old will also do. By age three this has generally evolved into a clear cross. She gives an example of David, who just turned three and preferred drawing with a hard pencil, letting “a mass of lines of the finest filigree arise on the paper, without, however, achieving the cross corresponding to his age. (page 27) Then the family take David and his younger brother to stay with friends who have five children. They are all older than David. David, the eldest up till now, the ‘big’ brother, cannot cope at the outset with his new role of ‘little one’. So he escapes into illness, has a high temperature and lets himself be spoiled. Three days later he gets up and is well. As though to demonstrate that he can now master the new situation, he takes a thick, colored crayon and, for the first time, he draws, one after another, on several sheets of paper, a large perpendicular cross that fills a whole page.”

4) Until 2½ or 3 the child plays by himself. After that he begins to play with others and can imitate activities at the time they are occurring. 5) The child should show the first possibilities of recognizing dangers and thus of not running into the street or pond. He or she should show the first possibility of defending himself rather than crying. This is an indication that the ego is there to ward off difficulties. All of the above considerations point to a picture of the child who follows an archetypal pattern of development—speaking around age 2 and thinking around age 3, accompanied by a real statement of “I,” also around age 3. This is preceded by the difficult stage of the terrible twos when the child is creating a distance between himself and the world around him through the use of “no.” It is only after this new I-awareness has had time to settle into the child that he or she seems ready to reach out to the broader world of the kindergarten. One can see the stages of development portrayed in the child’s drawings. In her book Understanding Children’s Drawings, Michaela Strauss shows the circular movements drawn by the child under age 3. It is around age 3 that the circular movement develops into a circle with a clear inside and outside. She describes the process in this way: “In his

Next the child, after the third year, begins to bring the circle and the cross together and continues to do so in a wide variety of ways “until the fifth year and beyond.” The child will put a point or a cross into the middle of the circle, describing a new stage of self-development. “He uses these to show his relation to inner and outer space, and he puts a point or a cross in the center of 26

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the inner space to represent himself. In both these symbols he illustrates for the first time his experience of the ego and of the world about him. The point and the cross within a circle represent the ‘I-form’. ” (page 29)

verses in that language in the kindergarten. In other words, a little bit goes a long way. With the 2-year-old who is precociously saying “I,” the same may be true. Parents and educators may easily be mistaking this as a true ego-conscious experience and begin creating an educational experience for the child which is not yet appropriate. Even when the “I” is more fully established at age 3, the above indications point to the child needing another 6–12 months in order to be inwardly ready to take steps out into the world.

Michaela Strauss gives a picture of the next and perhaps final stage in terms of kindergarten readiness: “Towards the fourth year a new orientation is on its way. The point and the crossing having crystallized as I-symbols, this concentration now gradually begins to loosen. The paths of movement lead from inside outwards. To begin with they radiate out from the center as far as the periphery of the circle and remain within this boundary; this soon becomes more free, however, and groping feelers reach out beyond.” (page 30)

What then are the possibilities for the child before the age of 3½ or 4? Many children stay at home with their mothers until this age, with perhaps a morning or two a week when mother and child may visit another family or host a family. This puts little strain on the child who, at the same time, has a social experience with another child of its age. There are also many families where the mother needs to work, or feels she cannot be at home so much with her young child, or feels the child is especially hungry for social contact. Some of the alternatives being explored in Waldorf settings for younger children are home-based play groups or day care centers, ranging in size from 3 or 4 children to 6 or 8. We have also heard of some play groups where the mothers are present with the young children, making toys while the children play, and learning songs, verses and stories along with their children. In such a program mothers can also receive much help with their basic questions about parenting a young child.

The remarks by Drs. Jacobi, Glöckler and Gobel, as well as Margret Meyerkort and Michaela Strauss all seem to point towards children not being inwardly ready for nursery or mixed-age kindergarten until between 3½ and 4. We are then left with the question of why is the trend developing in American education, including in Waldorf kindergartens, towards bringing the young 3s or, in some cases, even 2½-year-olds into school programs? Perhaps the situation is comparable to why American education has brought academic studies to children age 5 and younger. On one level the children seem ready. The 5-year-old is often asking about how to write, read or do arithmetic. The parent or educator can easily mistake this as a sign of true readiness for the more labored instruction that goes on in teaching academics, whereas in my experience most 5-year-olds are content to learn to write and read a few words, just enough to feel “grown up.” Now they can announce that they can read or write, just as they announce to their parents that they can speak German after they have done one or two

As Waldorf educators in North America we are just beginning to explore these questions of kindergarten readiness, and we recognize a certain urgency as more and more mothers of children under 3 are going back to work or are seeking a nursery program for children. ✣

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Etheric Forces and the Young Child The Birth of the Etheric

The Transformation of Growth Forces into Thinking Forces Dr. Michaela Glöckler, Goetheanum Dornach, Switzerland Spring Valley, NY, February 1989 In anthroposophical medicine, we have a situation similar to one that exists in the Waldorf kindergarten. Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman gave many indications which are very helpful. But they have to be worked out again, year after year, so that a more and more detailed understanding can arise as to why a particular substance is correct. It is the same in the Waldorf kindergarten. One can paint a room pink, hang a Sistine Madonna, have a basket of cloths, wood pieces, etc., learn a few stories and songs and feel this is a Waldorf kindergarten. However, one must keep going to understand the “why” of what one is doing, to try to differentiate and to develop the work further.

research towards an understanding of the etheric forces in the child. It is possible to prove and work with the special quality of the etheric forces.

Today our theme is the etheric in the child, and this has much to do with thinking. We can think constructively and this is healthy; we can think with our healing and regenerative thoughts, for the life of thought in the older child and adult is the same as the growth forces which we see in the young child. These growth forces are transformed into thinking forces.

The etheric forces are building up the body during pregnancy and after birth up to the age of 21. We are unconscious of their work in our physical body. As they are freed from their work on the physical body, however, they become active in the life of thought, and we can become conscious of them. For example, when the life processes or etheric forces are at work in the liver we are unconscious of them, but the way we bring thoughts together rests in the upper, conscious realm. That realm we can look at quite well.

For the moment this can be taken as a picture of the etheric forces and how they work: Realm of thoughts

Biological life

If someone has knowledge, he can open the way for others to higher knowledge. Even if you’re not an initiate, you will be able to find which results of spiritual research fit into life’s reality. Rudolf Steiner said again and again, “Do not simply believe something—prove it!” In this talk, we will look at the results of spiritual

Conscious self

Subconsciousness

It takes time to build up the nerve and sense organs, and this process continues until age 9. The eye, for example is not ripe until around age 29

Etheric Forces and the Young 8. Perspective is not developed until that time. A 9-year-old can pour accurately into a cup from a pitcher because he can judge how far to hold them from his body. A preschooler can not do this for she has not yet developed perspective.

the development takes place primarily between 7 and 14. In the case of the metabolic system its development culminates between 14 and 21. Therefore in the grades, from ages 7–14, the teacher reaches the children through speech by means of which their feeling is reached. Speech stimulates sympathy and antipathy and this stimulates the ripening of the rhythmic organs, the heart and the lungs.

If the eye is abused at a young age by watching television, which is two-dimensional, or through other means, then the organ is damaged. Some things can be repaired, but the basic organ cannot be changed. Until the 16th year, the heart, circulation and lungs are developing. Children should not be trained for athletics until the rhythmic system is developed around age 16. Until the 22nd year, the bones are developing. There is a ripening of the hormonal and metabolic system. Thus throughout the first 18 or 22 years the body develops not as a whole but organ by organ, system by system.

The above diagram may seem confusing, because we usually speak of the young child in the first seven years as working with the willmetabolic system. This is true, but while we say that the first seven years are the will period, we also say that the young child is a sense organ. The nervous system develops through physical movement. Ordinary medicine understands this and prescribes gymnastics for stimulating the nervous system of brain-damaged children. Until age 9, children should move and be active as much as possible in order to develop their thinking. The 11–12-year-old does not want to move so much. The kindergarten teacher relies upon movement in order to teach the young child, and it is movement which helps the child to develop the nerve-sense system. Movement is the best education for stimulating the brain.

As we look at the development of the three systems of the physical body, the metabolic, the rhythmic, and the nerve-sense systems, we see that all three are affected by the three deeds which the child experiences in the first three years: 1) The upright process and the walking which comes at the end of the first year stimulates the development of the nerve-sense system. 2) Speech development at the end of the second year helps the breathing and rhythmic system.

At birth the physical body is born, but it is only at age 3 that the body is used as an instrument for the “I.” At age 7 the etheric body is born, but it takes 2 or 3 years for the etheric to become an instrument. At age 14 the astral body is born, but only around age 16 or 17 does one have command over one’s feelings. Likewise at age 21 the ego is born, but only around age

3) And the thinking process of the third year helps develop the metabolic-limb system. As children play at this time, their hands and feet become more skillful and they are learning to build and rebuild. From one point of view it is the nervous system which is developing in the first seven years, and in the case of the rhythmic system, 30

Michaela Glöckler

The Birth of the Etheric 40 + In getting older, the spiritual forces may increase more and more while the physical forces may decline.

23 does one begin to take life seriously. It always takes a few years after the birth of a body for it to begin functioning with a sense of mastery. Let us look at the development of the adolescent. From age 14 on, the young person is developing thoughts which are free of sense pictures. From 16 on, the teenager can become very idealistic. He no longer needs teachers to tell him facts and to ask him to believe. He becomes his own master. If the organs of will have ripened, then this ripening of thought processes takes place around age 16. There develops an ability to judge and weigh, and this ability arises out of the grown-up metabolic forces.

Dr. Raymond Moody’s books on near-death experiences show that when one is near death, one experiences tremendous clarity of thought. Death is the moment of purest clarity and awareness. What about the etheric forces in the life of the kindergarten child? Life wisdom is contained in the etheric. One should not imagine the etheric as a pleasant cloud, all rosy and hazy. The etheric is the body of wisdom and truth. The etheric forces are engaged in building up the body. Lies destroy the wisdom and life of the human being and hurt the etheric. All that is untrue harms the young child. Therefore we must build an environment based on truth and integrity for the child.

If you look at the ripened thoughts of adults, you will see that the adult needs the possibility of self guidance in thought life; the adult “walks” in his thinking. He also needs “feeling” in his thought life. He must consider, for example, whether a thought is a pleasant or unpleasant one. And he needs pictures in his thought life. This can now become pure thinking activity, and the adult can find the laws of how things run. All that came before now fits together step by step, and in these ways the different systems, the metabolic, the rhythmic, and the nerve-sense help each other to develop.

The kindergarten morning should be viewed as an organism, like a body, in which all the organs fit together. One part of the morning should smoothly fit together with another. This fits with the way the etheric forces work.

When we look at the long term development of the human being from birth to age 60, we see the following patterns. The body is undergoing intensive growth in the first 20 years. Then come 20 years of relative stability in the body, and from 40 to 60, the bodily forces begin to decline and the body grows weaker and weaker.

Our etheric forces arise from the spiritual world. They come out of the relations of spiritual beings in that higher world. Imagine two angels with a certain relationship to each other. This is a tremendously active process, and out of this come our etheric forces. Therefore with our thoughts, we can touch all beings of the world. We know when someone is thinking negatively of us, for we are etherically touched. Imagine if higher beings are thinking—what a powerful force is released. This is all reflected in our thoughts. We reflect this higher wisdom; we do not carry it within us. We reflect it, and this is our first relationship with higher knowledge.

0–20 The life of thoughts increases year after year as the physical forces are freed for thinking. 20–40 A time of equilibrium during which one does not realize so strongly one’s changes and growth. 31

Etheric Forces and the Young The child experiences us as examples, and he experiences that we have etheric relationships. If the child feels in our gestures that we care for the physical world, she responds to that. We reveal our relationships through our daily activities. We create such a morning for the children. We take all things in earnest—with joy or sorrow. If we wash the dishes and wish we were outside, then the child feels that our actions are untrue and that there is something schizophrenic happening. If we like our work and feel it is useful, then the child feels this and responds to it.

who speak too much or at the wrong times. This is the same disturbance, but from two different sides. Such children should be brought into tranquility. They should listen to good spoken verses. We should teach parents to take the child on the lap so they can listen to clear, well-spoken verses. Our own character and will impulses give qualities of a specialized nature to our movements. Through our will we bring an impulse into our movements; through our soul we bring a quality; and through our spirit we bring meaning. In this true relationship of all things in the world, the child builds up a healthy well-formed organism—an organization of wisdom. Then there is an independence for new steps to be taken in adulthood and an interest in all things that exist in the world. Both are necessary.

The etheric body must keep regenerating. For example, every day with our bowel movements we lose 200 gm (6–7 ounces) of cell substance which must be replaced. There are many, many cells which die each day, and the etheric body must keep regenerating new cells for us. It cannot refuse to do so. Likewise, we cannot say, “Today I won’t clean up.” We repeat again and again that which is necessary in order to help the etheric body to do its work.

The following were questions posed to Dr. Glöcker during the Conference. Answers should not be taken as a rule or recipe. We need to develop courage to learn from our experiences and not just quote authorities. We need to be open to what can work through us and not “fall in love with our own fixed ideas.”

Art is a means of regenerating. An artist works again and again on his art and always sees ways to do it better. It is an expression of inner forces. We need to do our own artistic activity every day. We cannot simply “eat” the creativity of others. Through creative fantasy, every human deed can be transformed and made more beautiful. This is a process of self training. To work with young children we must become small, humorous artists.

One of the questions pertained to the relationship of fantasy to imagination. The etheric forces work on the physical body. They gradually become free and become thinking forces. On the way they pass the realm of feelings, of inner soul forces, and take on the quality of fantasy. (Rudolf Steiner: “Fantasy is growth force projected into the soul realm.”) As it comes more towards the brain and the thinking forces, the fantasy becomes more frozen, for then it is a dying process. We look at a person, and it is an etheric process which makes an impression through the eye on our etheric body. This is how we remember our

Our movements should have a creative, purposeful quality. They should not just be mechanical. As kindergarten teachers we should study eurythmy as much as possible, for we need more than just the outer form of gesture. Eurythmy movements are permeated with life forces. Children whose speech process is disturbed need exercise. This is also the case with children

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impressions. It is a dying process. The pictures become fixed and must die so there is room for something new. These dying thoughts help us to arrange ourselves in the world, but they are not a help to the inner life. For our spiritual possibilities, we need to keep the power of fantasy alive. Otherwise, one’s whole being will be affected by the dying process. This is why fairy tales are important. In fairy tales, there are fantasy pictures. They are taken as seeds into our unconscious life which arise later as thoughts of the inner life.

training should be in play form such as through verses, singing, and speaking—not too fast and clearly. Most of these children do not need any additional professional help at the preschool age. What about problems of masturbation in young children? This is a problem of the environment. If the child is not interested in its surrounding, then the child will take interest in the physical body. One should do something in hopes that it will interest the child. A way of healing is to engage the child in becoming active in the surroundings.

Regarding the development of the child’s organism, one can look into physiology books and learn about the development of each organ, for each has its own growth curve. We then need to put this together with the facts of spiritual development.

Could you speak about the warmth forces and warm clothing, and in particular about children who resist wearing warm clothing? We see more and more children with weak constitutions, and we can help them with clothing. In particular, they need many layers in the trunk area (chest, stomach and back) for that is the area of the inner organs, which need the most warmth. When the trunk is warm enough, then the hands and feet will also receive enough circulation. The limbs are always cooler than the middle realm (28° C compared to 37°C.) Some children do resist warm clothing. Perhaps the clothing is made of synthetic fibers. It is very uncomfortable to be warm in synthetic clothing. Also, in about 70% of the cases, the child may be resisting as a form of provocation!

The most important fact about the education of the child in the first 9 or 10 years is that movement stimulates the nerve-sense system. Every skilled movement stimulates the brain, because the brain is “exercised.” It has to notice all the movements and activities. It is not the “intelligent speech” of the adults which stimulates the child’s brain, but the child’s own activity. We should work with parents to help them understand this. The “intelligence of the body” is the basis for the “intelligence of the brain.”

What about children from single parent homes? One hears about special concerns for children, especially boys, who live with a mother in a single parent home, but usually such children find their own male figures in life, possibly an uncle, grandfather or neighbor. One can place them with a male teacher, but they may not accept the male as a special role model.

Another question pertained to speech problems in young children. It is important that we love speech and that our words are spoken like living beings. They must have sense, but they are not just information carriers. Children who stutter can often overcome this problem later in life if they are motivated to do so. When a three-year-old stutters, the problem in most cases (about 95%) will pass away by itself. Take time and listen, but don’t ask the child to repeat. Before school age, all speech

Mixed-age groups can be a help for such children, as well as all children, for they can function like a family. The younger children look up to the older ones to see where they are going 33

Etheric Forces and the Young in their own development, while the older ones look back to see where they have come from. The teacher needs to differentiate between the different ages and create an artistic flow. The assistant can be brought into this process as well. The group integrated by age is best for the child.

of the person. Most of the senses, especially the higher ones, are not engaged. Thus television has a disintegrative effect on children rather than helping to bring about integration. In the area of diet we see the problems of children who consume sugar in significant amounts. Sugar is easily digested in the digestive tract. It takes no energy to do so. One does not even need a stomach to digest sugar, whereas if one has to make sugar out of more complex foods such as bread, then it takes huge amounts of energy to digest it. It takes work to create the sugar. Eating sugar is rather like the drug process. There is one little injection and then a whole experience, a whole story begins. It is done so easily and with so little effort.

Parents should be helped to keep at least five minutes of awareness each day for each of their children. Likewise, in the kindergarten, a teacher should have a personal moment with each child once or twice a week. Many children today need healing work with a doctor or a curative eurythmist. In anthroposophy we have the knowledge of how to help children, but we do not have enough personnel. As teachers we must broaden our knowledge, but we mustn’t try to substitute for another profession. We need to work together cooperatively. If one does not have an anthroposophic doctor in one’s own community, then it is possible to have a relationship with a doctor from another community. That allows one to call him or her and describe a symptom that’s been discovered in a child and seek advice. In this way we are building up a new social fabric, which is so necessary here.

We also see many sleep disorders in people today. People have trouble digesting their life experiences and this leads to sleep problems. Then they use sleeping drugs. Thus they are half asleep in the daytime and half asleep at night. Anthroposophy arose in this century to help us understand every problem of our times. Without these problems, we would not be able to find our way to freedom. We would not need anthroposophy. These problems are related to the development of freedom and in this sense are a gift. And we must remember that pursuing freedom without some error is not possible.

How do we help children meet the many problems which they face in our modern times? As we build up an awareness of our times, some people paint very dark pictures indeed. Of course there are many problems. We can see the problems of modern foods coupled with ecological problems and how they are resulting in allergies in children. We can see that children sit far too much and are not engaged in their will enough. We know that children should see the world at many different distances and that when they sit in front of the television they are taking it in from only one distance. We see many other problems which television brings to children. For example, children see only the outer aspect of the person on TV, not the ego

We must come to appreciate, even to love the dark areas of life, for the new possibilities which arise from them. In this way we can develop these Christian and human aspects. We should not say, “Waldorf education forbids television.” Rather, it is an effort to understand at what age it is a healthy impulse and at what age it is not. After age 16, watching television is not a problem for the body and soul. Regarding vaccinations, know what possibilities of development do not take place with vaccination. When parents learn about 34

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this, they are often sad and want to find a way to overcome the limitations of vaccination. Then the body can be stimulated from the spiritual side, from the life of thought and the world of fairy tales. The etheric works on the body from the inside and through the stimulating factors of the outside.

are afraid of the ability of others, and we fear our own self. We can overcome the obstacle of fear by developing interest in others. From this interest love arises. Sympathy is not love, though many think it is, for sympathy changes too easily. In the thinking realm, no culture has had so much of the lie as ours has. It begins with the automatic question of “How are you?” when one has no interest in the answer, and the lie goes on from there into advertising and many other realms of life which are based upon the lie. The healing for the lie is to love the truth.

When we look at the most dangerous aspects of our time, we see important hindrances arising in our will, in our emotional life and in our thoughts. In the realm of will, modern human beings have become very inactive, and when we are inactive we begin to mock and even hate those who are active. The healing antidote to this is our own activity. In the realm of feeling, we hide jealousy and even hate under a banner of criticism, and we have become a society of critics. All of this arises from a fear impulse. We

We must aim for the path of activity, of interest and love, and of truth. This is a path which leads us toward freedom, and this is the path of Christianity. In a kindergarten atmosphere that is permeated with the teacher’s striving in these areas, the children can develop their individuality and thereby find the strength to overcome the difficulties of the times. ✣

Will

Emotional feelings

Thoughts

Activity

Fear

Lie

Inactivity

Love interest

Truth

The conditions of our modern life

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Etheric Forces and the Young

Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy Understanding the Dream Consciousness of the Young Child The following is a summary of three lectures given by Dr. Michaela Glöckler, pediatrician and head of the Medical Section of the Goetheanum. The notes were recorded by Nancy Foster and Joan Almon and have been reviewed by Dr. Glöckler.

not conscious of it. Nobody would say, “I am a living being; I am alive.” It is the same with our thoughts. We do not focus on our thoughts, although we are proud of our intelligence. In Philosophy of Freedom, Rudolf Steiner describes thinking as the unconscious activity in our inner life. In this regard, the quality of life and of our thoughts is the same. They are of the same unconscious nature.

The Metamorphosis of Growth Forces into Forces of Fantasy and Imagination This weekend we will look at two aspects of the developing etheric—the quality of the growth forces and the artistic forces. There is also a third aspect which focuses on how these forces and qualities are raised into the consciousness of the child. To be conscious of these early growth forces, it is a help to go back in time to our own childhood and find the mood with which we viewed the world, its colors, smells, light, etc. What are our most beloved memories? Do they pertain to light and shadow, to the quality of early morning or of evening? Do they pertain to dreams? In dreams themselves there is a big difference between the dreams of children and those of youngsters in puberty. If you can remember back to your own childhood, it is a help towards meeting the children in the kindergarten.

Last year at this conference we spent a lot of time looking at this common nature. (See “The Birth of the Etheric” by Dr. Glöcker.) Let us bring a few points back to consciousness. Regarding life, it is characterized by the fact that all the parts fit together into a whole. One cannot understand an isolated function of an organism or the working of a single isolated organ. It derives meaning only in relation to the whole. Life is a power of integration. An animal’s stomach sitting on a dissecting table is not alive and can only reveal the secrets of its physical form. It is only when it is functioning within the animal that we can fully understand its living nature. We can say that the whole is much more than the sum of its many parts. If one part is disturbed, then the whole is disturbed.

When we look into the realm of life and the realm of thoughts, we see one aspect of both which is totally similar and the same. It is that mere is a pure selflessness involved with both. What is life? We see living organisms such as plants growing, creatures crawling, jumping and leaping. We see human beings, ourselves, alive. If we ask the plant, “Who are you?” it would say, “I am a Cornell cherry. “ If I ask Susan, “Who are you?” she would say, “I am Susan.” We experience life, but we do not focus on it. We are

It is the same when we look at our thoughts. There is a weaving together of concepts, words and descriptions to form a picture. If we look at a plant, for instance, we focus on the petals, the colors, the leaves, etc. The way they all come together makes the plant. It is the same with our thoughts. We cannot think one thought alone. If we think “small,” for instance, we must think of something yet smaller and something bigger. 36

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Otherwise “small” has no meaning. We must see the relationships. In this way thoughts, too, do not live in isolation. They are part of a whole. The forces of life and thought are the unobserved selfless forces which are at work within us.

In the second part of life, from 20 to 40, there is a change towards a selfless attitude in which we think more of others and encourage others. One sees mothers or teachers or those in official life who begin around age 40 or 50 to look outwardly at others. They become more At last year’s conference, we had a diagram objective and make good advisors. Others of the growth and decline of physical forces. remain more egotistic, and this can develop destructively and can even become pathological. They are not growing old Consolidation of activity in a natural way, for the older person has the possibility of giving away, of Etheric forces retreat: Physical growth doing without. This attitude is an inner lack of regeneration in physical body dynamic of how the person thinks. The older person can forget self and think of others. From the etheric point of view, things are The etheric helps bring a balance between very different than from the physical. Between the individual and the society as well as between 40 and 60 years of age, the physical forces are the parts of the cosmos. For example, there is more and more on their own, while the etheric a deep relationship between the plant and the forces retreat. They are not available for the sun though they are far away from each other. vitality and regeneration of the physical body. The plant is like an organ of the sun and earth Where do the etheric forces go as they retreat together. This is like the mystery of life. All from the physical in the older human being? the plants and animals and earth together are They transform themselves into thoughts. an organism. We, too, are part of this living whole, and when we breathe in and out, we are participating in all that is around us. Spiritual life grows

Our thoughts, too, can connect with things very far away, like the plant relating to the sun. We can think of how the farthest stars behave. We can think of the hierarchies and of how they built up the cosmos. We can think of the laws of mathematics and of higher sciences. Our thoughts can penetrate all.

Physical decline

During her early years, the child is thinking with her growth forces. The whole way the child thinks is connected with growing up. In this first part of life, the etheric forces serve us by building up a healthy body. In this there is a natural egoism, as we put our etheric forces to use for ourselves. We focus on our own needs, and that is natural in this first stage of life which lasts until age 20.

There is a moment, at around age three when the child says “I” to himself. Then the life of thought comes along. There was a three-year-old boy named Simeon who could not yet say “I.” One of his aunts said, “Oh, he can’t pronounce ‘s’ properly. If he could, he would be able to say ‘I’. ” Simeon heard this and grew angry and said, “Why does she say that? Simeon can say ‘I’. ” 37

Etheric Forces and the Young After this he did not say “I” again until three weeks later when he painted a fiery picture, and someone asked who had painted it. He replied, “I did. I, I.” After this he again forgot to say “I.” Over the next three weeks it came and went. He displayed a tender awakening of the “I.” This is a word which cannot be learned. Even if he says, “Simeon can say ‘I’, ” he is not realizing it. He is only repeating it. It requires an awakening, a tender awakening of listening to the sounds of the soul, which lives more and more inside the being. It requires realizing the reality, and then one day, the thought is there.

We can see the etheric forces in life totally focusing on our constitution. In a good natured sense they are egotistic. The immune system is the purest expression of the Ego-activity on the etheric level. (It represents our “biological Individuality.”) The etheric forces serve our ego so the ego can be built up. It fights against the outside world to keep outside substances such as wrong blood or allergens from entering. The immune system is fighting off the world to serve the ego, to strengthen it. The lemniscate is the picture of the etheric going through the midpoint of transformation and moving towards the outside. It goes around again and reenters the inside. The center or crossing point of the lemniscate is the point of metamorphosis. The growth forces go through that point and turn into something totally different, that is, they metamorphose into thinking forces. The growth forces which turned inward are now thinking forces which turn outward.

Thoughts stand in relation to others and take meaning from others. They are important in relation to others. There are situations in which a piece of chalk is of great worth, worth more than thousands of dollars, because in a particular context it is so necessary. We can never say that one of us or one of our thoughts is more important than another. Each has importance in relationship to the others. In a child, the physical body is growing, and nearly all the life forces are directed inward for the growth and regeneration of the physical. Very little is freed for thinking and that occurs only gradually in the early years. Around age 6 or 7, more of the life forces are freed and then thinking activity can begin. In the older person we have the opposite picture. There is very little that is directed towards rebuilding the physical and most of the forces are available to be engaged in spiritual activity.

The life of thoughts makes sense only when it is turned outward in understanding the world, when it is oriented towards the outside. If we think too much of self, we become ill. There is a mystery of how to keep the physical body healthy, which has to do with the life of thought. If during the day, our thoughts go out into the world, then they may return to us at night and help us build up our bodies. Normally we regenerate ourselves at night. However, if we think too much of ourselves during the day,

Etheric forces working in the physical

The etheric is freed for thinking Child

Middle Years

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directing our thoughts too much in on ourselves, then during sleep these thoughts can have a destructive effect on our physical body.

the planet Mars were to come and look at the Last Supper, he would intuitively understand the path of human earthly development. Art can speak of the deepest qualities of inner development, and this painting has particularly captured this. Although Leonardo was an engineer and was also well versed in medicine, he wrote a book to introduce painters to the art of painting. There is a passage in it on how the painter can control himself to become more and more an artist and less and less a beginning painter. The difference he points to is that the inexperienced painter always reproduces himself in his paintings; the more experienced painter is able to bring the being of the world into art.

We all contain great wisdom within us, the wisdom of Study of Man. We have to bring this to clarity in our thinking life. A conference such as this with its lectures, discussions and workshops, gives us an opportunity to bring our thoughts from the unconscious realm into the conscious realm. Together we can take a step forward.

Soul Development and Artistic Activity We have just heard such lovely singing, and it is a reminder that we all have music within us. We each have two octaves in us and singers have three octaves. This is the music within us, but other art forms also live within us. We have the possibility of doing form drawing and other activities which bring into us the forms of the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world. They bring into us human forms as well as the forms of astronomy and the abstract forms. A whole world of form lives within us.

The beginning painter is allowing the soul to express itself and what the soul is accustomed to is building up the body. In the body, the soul is reproducing itself. This is what it is used to doing, and it continues to do so in the activity of painting. It is natural, then, that the inexperienced painter gives expression to this and, in a sense, reproduces himself on canvas. In a therapeutic situation, one sees the ill person reproducing himself in painting. It can be helpful to let him do this a time or two for diagnostic purposes. But to allow it to go on is unhealthy, for it can reinforce the illness.

We also have speech with its many facets. What can we express in words? We can use language to express our feelings. Through listening, we can come to the musical quality of language and we can enter into another person’s feelings. We can also control the will through language. Teachers know this. They can utter one word and there is silence in the room.

The experienced artist moves beyond this wish to reproduce himself. He wants to bring the being of the world, of God, of nature into art. The experienced artist wants to reach this being and allow it to enter his art. Leonardo could reach the being of Christ and reveal it, its language, its inmost content, through his art. That is why a person from another planet could understand so much about human development on earth by gazing upon the Last Supper. To paint in such a way requires a sacrifice, a movement away from self expression and towards the expression of something higher. Such painting is a prayer to God to be allowed to

To create in the worlds of music, form and speech is a most important part of our inner life, our soul activity. Where does it come from and what are its relationships to the physical body? How are physical activities and soul activities related? Leonardo da Vinci is well known as the painter of The Last Supper. Rudolf Steiner often speaks of this painting and says if someone from 39

Etheric Forces and the Young bring something higher into the world through art.

blood in my body, this would be an illusion. Immediately it begins to deteriorate or break down. After two hours the whole blood constitution is altered. Yet it is a physical substance and each piece can be analyzed. All factions of the blood can be separated, and you can distinguish different substances. Physical research does this all the time. But the secret of life is synthesis. Rudolf Steiner discovered this great secret of life, that life is integrative and synthesizing. All parts relate to one another. They are working to create a whole.

Which laws live in the arts? If we look at the genetic pattern of a fruit fly and see how the genes are distributed, we see that the genes are scattered about. The eye genes are spread throughout the whole chromosome, for example. It is like a home in which the mother has been gone for four weeks. She returns to find things spread all over the house, and she has to restore order to it. In building up and regenerating the eye, someone needs to say, “These are genes which I do need, and these are the genes I do not need.” We do not use all of our genes. Some are blocked. Fever or illness may release some of them. We ask how this special order can arise. This can’t be answered just by looking at how the genes are distributed, for it can’t be seen. The genetic pattern doesn’t work just by itself. It needs hormonal activity to work and enough water in the cell to work. Yet what brings genetic activity into the cells? Water is necessary, and enzymes and hormones. You are looking at a circular system, and to ask what triggers it is like asking what comes first, the chicken or the egg. The enzymes are needed to stimulate genetic activity, but you need the genetic activity to first build up the enzymes. There is an interdependence here, and that is a characteristic of life.

Laws of composition are integratively at work within us. The whole body is a composition itself. All of the arts live within us but in slightly different ways. Music does not live in us in the same way as do painting or modeling. If you model or paint, you do not try to leave spaces between the colors or the forms. But one does leave spaces in music. Music lives in discontinuity, in the spaces or intervals between the notes. There is something living between the notes. That is an important aspect of music, and, in addition, music lives in time rather than in space. Also, music lives in the tension between two partners. We take the string of the monochord which is drawn taut and divide it into intervals. Without the tension there could be no musical sound. Music lives in harmony and disharmony, tension and release of tension.

Life began with this whole activity; life arose from life. There was no hen or egg in the beginning. They were all together, for life is complex. It is a living system and does not arise from one little element or part. Physical laws deal with physical aspects; physical science pulls things apart. There are different laws which deal with the integrated whole, the composition. Rudolf Steiner says integration-activity comes out of the artistic realm.

Where do we find something similar in the human being’s constitution? Where do we find the spaces and the ability to make proportions as we do in music? In regard to spaces, consider the hand with its fingers spread apart. There is nothing between the fingers, and for this reason we can be so active with our hands. In the embryo, the hand begins by being filled in with a weblike substance. Then the fingers emerge and the webbing retracts. There is a free space and the “music” enters. If this does not occur, then we must do surgery to free the fingers.

If I pull some blood out of my veins, for example, and think this is the same as the 40

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When we look for proportion in the human body, we can begin with the interval of the fifth. In the fifth, there is a beautiful proportion of 2:3. We see this in the physiology of the human being as well. On the right side of the chest the lung has three parts, while on the left only two. There is a breathing mood in the body itself of 2:3. In music, this is known as the fifth. We could look at other mathematical relationships in the body, for the whole body could be expressed in numbers—two eyes, two ears, etc. The whole nerve-sense system can be described in 1:2 relationships.

Tomorrow we will see it again. As adults we might think, now we know the play, wouldn’t it be nice to have it a little different, to see different variations of it tomorrow. We might counteract this tendency by telling ourselves that it is good to repeat things and take this on as an exercise. But for a young child this is altogether different. The child knows it and knows it not. It knows it in repetition, and this continues until abstract memory is established. Abstract memory begins between the ages of 6 and 8. In each birth, we experience that a force is freed to live in a new world. When the astral body is born around age 14, the world of feeling is born and can function in the astral world. Around 21 the ego is born. This is the world of inner being, and we can now meet as inner being to inner being. Before this birth we could meet the astral, etheric or physical being of another. Now we can know one another at a deeper level. We can come to the center of the being and make contact there.

Another mathematical example from the body is the angle of the heart. The middle axis of the heart lies at an angle to the central axis of the body. On average, the angle the two make is 23½ degrees. This is the same angle as the earth to the sun on the ecliptic. There is no one detail of the body which is not full of sense and order and integrated into the laws of numbers, proportions and music. The world of music lies throughout our body.

If we ask ourselves which forces deliver these birth moments of the soul, then we see that each body is revealing itself in its own realm. All gestures of the soul express their intentions in the body. The body reveals all our feelings, thoughts and will. They all fit together into the laws of composition, and these are the same as the laws of art. We need years to study the laws of music, to realize that the laws of music are the laws of the astral body and of a very complicated emotional life. Likewise we can study the laws of speech and comprehend the laws of the ego, the laws of painting and the laws of the etheric, and the laws of modeling and the laws of the physical.

Now let us consider the growth of the human being in the first 21 years.

birth of etheric

birth of astral

birth of ego

Every seven years during this period we experience the birth of a body. What does this mean? What are these bodies for? The physical birth means the physical body is free to live in the physical world itself. The body moves and lives independently in the physical world. The birth of the etheric means the etheric is free in the etheric world. We see this moment of birth when the child starts to live in abstract memory. Before the independent life of the etheric, abstract memory is not possible. Last night we saw the marionette play of “Little Twig.”

Let us consider the laws of the ego. If a child is crying and moving around a great deal, and we cannot find any reason, then we have the feeling that the child is moving without ego forces in a hyperkinetic way. When the child 41

Etheric Forces and the Young is really present, he acts in a different way. Likewise, if we drink too much alcohol, the ego withdraws and we have too little balance, for the ego power is the power of balance. Then we stumble about. When the ego is present, we can say “I am” and this can be the dominating force in us. We can send “I am” and “I will” into every thought. Then we do only what we want, what we have directed ourselves to do. We identify with all that we do. That is typical of this kind of ego power.

The adolescent’s growth is discontinuous, not harmonious. It begins with the feet and moves upward. The poor 11-year-old has such large feet. One has the feeling in looking at an adolescent that every part is growing for itself. It is as if each part is a separate tone and we are unable to see the whole composition. All the tones are not yet there. The beard grows in patches, not all at once. The breasts mature unevenly, often growing one at a time. It is as if a conductor of an orchestra is calling forth one instrument after another. At the end, they are all called forth and playing together. The growth looks funny if we don’t see the musical process at work.

The art of speech represents this most beautifully, for it integrates the musical and sculptural laws. All of the physical laws are there, and we see them at work in the way we model our consonants with tongue, teeth, etc. The laws of the astral are there in the music of the language. Every language has its own music. The vowels live purely in this music, and you therefore cannot model vowels. They won’t sound forth. Speech brings music and modeling into harmony. In speech, we bring the astral and the physical bodies together. The integrative power of the ego is the power of the word. After 21, when the ego is there, we can consciously speak and say, “Yes, I want this,” or “No, I don’t want that.” Until the time of maturity, we cannot consciously speak in this way.

These phenomena are not typical of the preschool years. The first period of growth is a very harmonious one. During the first nine years there is a holiness present in the growth. The young child’s physical development is normally harmonious, but their emotional life, their thinking and their will still need our care and attention. These are qualities not yet born in the child. Surrounding the child there is an embryonic atmosphere. With which eyes am I allowed to behold this? To look at the unborn forces of the human being is like looking into the uterus of the soul. We must represent the ego forces of the child so that the growth is harmonious and good. We are part of the caring, ripening activity.

Between 14 and 21, between puberty and maturity, the body changes considerably. During these years the body finds a whole new harmony. In adolescence around 15 or 16, there is still a great deal of disharmony. The teenager looks at himself and has the feeling, “All the adults in the world look harmonious, only I don’t.” He looks at his thin chest and can’t imagine how it will ever look normal. Then comes the last stretching of the chest, first crosswise and then from front to back. In adolescence there are so many changes, but they do not all happen at once. They follow one another, giving the adolescent an awkward, unfinished look.

Consider our own soul activity in terms of music when we meet another person. If it is a person we like, we experience a major mood within us. We feel, “Oh, good, here comes a person who makes me happy.” If another comes towards us, we may feel unhealthy, tense and drawn in. Why do we feel this dissonance? If I bring myself into a new position in relation to this person, then a new tone will arise, a tone which may bring the dissonance into harmony. Every tone needs two partners who function 42

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Title Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy

like the two fixed ends of the monochord. Without them there can be no tone. Never put the consequences of disharmony on the other person, laying guilt upon him. You are a partner, and the tension exists between the two of you, even as it exists between the two ends of the monochord.

a pure delight for children. These things exist in the life of the young child. All else is still in development. The young child experiences events differently than we do. As mature adults we take things into our soul life. The young child cannot do this yet. If the young child has a problem or is shocked, he will often wet himself, the experience “runs out,” whereas we hold the experience in. If the child feels joy, he begins to jump up and down. The whole body wants to participate in the joyous experience. We don’t usually display our joy with the whole body, except at a football game when we jump up and down. Then we can experience the game like a child. But usually if something fills us with joy, we smile or laugh. That is like a small jump.

In the marionette play, “Little Twig,” we had a beautiful composition of moving pictures, speech and music. If it is told with the mood of drama, then isolated emotions would awaken. That is not possible for the young child, for at this age, these developments of the inner life are still unborn. We do not want to awaken them. Young children need harmonious interactions.

The Developing Consciousness of the Child

Consider sense perception and how it relates to the soul realm. When we read the biographies of great people such as Proust and consider their experiences of childhood, we can see what intense sense impressions they had as children. A child experiences the atmosphere of a festival or vacation in a most intensive way. At age 30, Dr. Glöckler returned to a beloved vacation spot of her childhood. She tried not to be sad, but her experience as an adult was so much paler than what she remembered from her childhood. The house was so small, the stall for the animals not at all special. Even the flowers in the meadow, and the sky and water seemed rather “normal” and not of that glory which the child’s memory put on it.

In the beginning of the conference, we thought back to our infancy and childhood. What were our thoughts and actions? Dr. Glöckler remembers feeling awake in all parts of her soul life as a child. She felt sorrow, hurt and delight. The young child already has an ego and emotions but not in the developed form which was described in yesterday’s lecture. Around age 20, the ego is born and can stand freely in the world. But all the forces already exist in an unripened stage earlier in life. When we try to form a picture of what is present and ready to be freely used in the young child, then we see that the child is totally there and present in the physical body and is fully awake in the senses. These can be used and developed in early childhood. Imitation is present at a young age and speaks to the senses. Activity is important in these years because the physical body likes to move and be active. It likes to be skillful and adapt to the world. The children delight in being active from morning to evening. When they are being active, every hindrance hurts them. To do what they like is

In childhood, the life of thoughts and the life of the senses are still a unity. They are not yet divided. Therefore the experience of the senses is very intense. It is also why children can imitate and can understand immediately what is going on. They intuitively know when something is wrong. They can intuitively understand their sense experiences in the moment that they are occurring. As adults, we need to understand 43

Etheric Forces and the Young by thinking about the experience afterwards. Later, when abstract memory awakens, the child will be able to separate sense impressions from thinking. This is an important step, for in order to learn something, sense perceptions have to be separate from thinking.

that the etheric body be born. This does not happen until age seven, but it takes a few more years for the freed etheric to be well established. After seven, the astral and ego can begin to come to the pure astral realm in sleep. Then the thought life can switch off during sleep.

The child’s perceptions of the world are very different from those of the adult, for he sees thought life woven around and within his surroundings. He looks at a dark corner, for example, and sees the shadows move. He experiences the inner meaning of darkness. Something jumps out of the darkness, and the child is frightened. He runs to his mother who turns on the light and says there is nothing there. The child is often not understood at a deeper level, but he is consoled that the mother is strong enough to bring light into the darkness. The child has both these experiences; he is misunderstood and consoled at the same time.

The child’s consciousness occurs in stages. Around three, a new self-consciousness begins as the child experiences herself as an “I” separate from others. At nine, there is a crisis in the development as the child senses her “I” at a deeper level. A self-sensitivity exists, and the child feels “I am alone, I am a personality.” Before that she felt part of her surroundings, with a growing self-consciousness but still part of her surroundings. Between eight and ten, she feels more fully apart. She feels separate from her mother and father and secretly thinks that this is not her true mother and father. Perhaps she asks, “Are you sure I am your child? You didn’t mix me up with another at birth?”

We need to realize that every thought is a living reality for the child. She sees the flower and experiences the inner reality of the flower; she sees the being of the flower. The child experiences not only the outlook but also the inlook, the inner being or “I Am” of the object perceived. The child is not awake like the adult is. She cannot separate the inner from the outer and think about the one or the other. She is neither fully awake, nor is she asleep. Her consciousness is in between, like a dream. Yet within that consciousness she is alert to the world and takes everything in.

Now the sleep life changes, and the nightmares of the young child stop. The child begins to sleep more deeply. During these first nine years, the child awakens at night with fears and visions because the astral and ego are still so close. The child is half wakeful at night and dreams in the elemental world. As adults we move through this realm quickly, and if we are tired enough we are not disturbed by it. The young child cannot sleep properly, but she also can’t awaken properly. She is in between. An awakened person can identify what things are good for him out of an awakened process of knowing the thing itself. A dreamy adult can intuit what is good and not good but can’t explain it. The astral and ego are too closely bound to the physical and etheric in such a person. It takes courage to be awake as an adult, to develop an independent personality. Many people are fearful and don’t want an awakened adult consciousness.

Let us try to understand waking and sleeping more fully. What happens in sleep in the adult? The astral and ego leave the physical and etheric bodies behind and live in the realm of the Cosmos. The child with her unripened soul life does not sleep properly in this way. The astral and ego are too involved in the physical and etheric. To sleep in such a way that the astral and ego are free of the physical and etheric requires 44

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The dream consciousness of the child is easily misunderstood. A parent may say, my child is interested in all the world, technology, nature, etc. He is so “awake” to the world, he is not at all dreamy. But the young child does live deeply into the world around him. He lives through the senses and experiences all the qualities of the world. He is not awake to think abstractly about the world as the adult is, but he is actively taking in the world through the senses coupled with thinking. In the night time, he is more awake than we are. In the daytime he is more asleep than we.

conscious unconscious

where the unconscious becomes conscious

The child lives in the realm of pictures and wisdom, but he is mixed up totally with sense perception. In one stick he sees the whole world. With the stick and a piece of yarn, he can be a fisherman, a priest or so many other things. He works with the world of growth forces which are gradually being freed and reappear in the soul, first as fantasy forces and later as imagination and then as thinking forces.

How can we help the child during this stage? Rudolf Steiner says that before age nine the most important thing is to help children to properly sleep. Since the children are more awake than we are in the night, it can be a help to some children to have a night light on. This gives a certain day aspect at night so they don’t feel too alone in sleepy awakeness.

All living things have a spiritual component. The elemental beings are the spiritual fundamentals of things. These are thought realities. In all living things there are also destructive forces. The dead is inborn in every living being; every cell contains within it an aspect of death. We might consider this to be a “bad” being, a destructive being, but we need destruction so that new life can be born. If nothing died, nothing could be born. A balance occurs between life-giving forces and death-giving forces. Only the human being is capable of going out of balance between these two polarities. Through our ego we need to live in a balanced way, keeping life and death in harmony.

The child is also helped to sleep at night if he has been helped to awaken properly in the day. This occurs through the purposeful activities which the adult does in the child’s presence during the day. The child needs to experience clarity and purposeful direction in the day time. Then it experiences proper calm at night. There is a constant process of transforming the unconscious into the conscious. In the unconscious there is much wisdom. An awake adult can discriminate the conscious part of thought life through learning, but can’t experience spontaneously the unconscious part of thoughts. The dreamy adult gets an intuition and spontaneously realizes something.

When the child learns to walk in the first year, she finds her first ego balance. In speech in the second year, she finds her social balance. In thought in the third year, she finds her spiritual balance. In finding her ego or “I,” she finds this spiritual balance, this balance in thought.

The child experiences wisdom but not in an awake way. It can’t judge, analyze or prove things. Instead, it has a capacity for fantasy which is nothing other than experiencing a small part of this wisdom which is freed from the growth forces and is available as fantasy.

The whole development of the ego is part of a huge process of finding balance. If we continue to live more and more out of balance as we do today, with no balance between spiritual and 45

Etheric Forces and the Young physical activity, then it will not be possible for the earth and the human being to endure much longer. There is no god we can make responsible for this balance. We must look to ourselves for this.

forces. These destructive forces are always there in nature, working in the processes of digestion, for example. They appear in the child with as much reality as an outer experience of the senses. They create a specific type of dream consciousness for the child.

There are many spiritual trainings which try to reactivate an old stage of dream consciousness which we had as children. It is not difficult to move in this direction, for it lives in all of us. It is beautiful to be a child, and it is understandable that many adults prefer this and want to be more like children and not fully adult-like. As adults we can achieve a new stage of awakeness and need not turn to methods which reactivate the dream stage of childhood. Turning to drugs, alcohol, reliance on a guru or utilizing certain spiritual techniques leads us backwards rather than forwards.

In our times, the child’s dream consciousness is strongly touched by the destructive forces, and fear arises. There is a very strong element of fear in children today. The child lives in the world of technology today, and every technological event is based on destruction. Electricity, for example, is created out of the earth’s destruction. To remove oil or gas from the earth is always a process of destruction, even when we use it to construct something. We must always look to the balance of energy. If we use windmills, do we have a positive balance or a negative balance of destruction? Or if we sit in a room lit by a 100-watt light and do nothing, then perhaps it would be better to do nothing in the dark. Of course, we must use the forces of technology if it is for constructive purposes. If we use the washing machine, this uses much energy which is destructive, but we can balance this by doing something worthwhile with the freed time. Finding this balance for the destructive elements of technology is one of the moral problems of our time. When the imbalance towards destructiveness is too great, then fear arises, a fear of the elemental beings of destruction. This happens when there is not a balance of constructive beings, and children are very sensitive to this imbalance. It makes them fearful.

We can give children a beautiful security of dream consciousness and gently guide them towards awakeness. We need not push them out too quickly, but guide them out. If they have not fully experienced the dream consciousness of early childhood, then as adults they turn back and seek this lost paradise. They seek the dream experience through drugs, for instance. We all had something similar to a drug experience in childhood when colors, pictures, etc., were so vivid and we could fully live within them. Now we can find it in new ways as awakened persons. Rudolf Steiner describes fantasy in this way: “The soul is able to withdraw a certain energy for other purposes, and this is the power of fantasy: the natural power of growth metamorphosed into a soul force.” (Understanding Young Children, page 75) Dr. Glöckler has tried to explain this process in this lecture and in the other lectures this weekend. For the child in the dream consciousness of fantasy, life is like being in a theater in which good thoughts appear like good elemental beings and bad thoughts appear as well because of the work of the destructive

During the last 20 years, for the first time in mankind, we are experiencing sleep problems in children under age seven. There is a coldness present in the children. Sometimes it is physical and can be corrected, but often it exists in the awareness of destruction which brings fear to the children. Often they want to come into the 46

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Forces of Growth and Forces of Fantasy

parents’ bed during the first nine years, and this can even be a help to the child. This can be a little cure, but the child should not be exposed to adult sexual activity, for this is too great an experience for them and can lead to other problems. ✣

The real help which the children need is for the family to find the correct balance between constructive and destructive forces in the home. It is also of help for the religious life to arise in the home which can bring balance to all processes which seem senseless if not understood in the light of inner understanding. ✣

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Childhood Illnesses Dr. Christa van Tellingen Raphael Association, Fair Oaks, California These are notes of a talk given to northern California kindergarten teachers in fall 1985. The notes were sent to us by Sally Smith of Sonoma Valley, California, and were reviewed and revised by Dr. Christa.

help create this bridge between the physicaletheric and the soul-spiritual.

Dr. Christa opened her talk with the question, “Why do human beings get childhood diseases and not the animals?” She compared a chimpanzee baby with a human baby. Animals develop in keeping with their group soul, whereas humans bring their own unique development with them. Illnesses in animals lead to death, whereas illnesses occur in humans so that development can happen. She mentioned that domestic animals sometimes might take on an illness for their master.

1. Warmth. It is not only a state of being, it permeates all other components of the bridge. Warmth is the vehicle of the ego working into the physical; it is a tool for the ego. It forms the warmth organism in our bodies.

The “bridge” which unites the physicaletheric and the soul-spiritual has four components:

2. Air or Gas. It can be used by the astral body to work into the physical realm. Air is outside our body but comes to us through the blood system. It penetrates us completely and we breathe it out again. It carries the soul into the body, and forms the air organism.

Kindergarten teachers can benefit from studying the subject of incarnation—how man as “microcosm” comes down and takes hold of his body. The body is not always in the right condition for the soul to take hold of it. We can see how the ego battles with the forces of the body to make it its own. In 1922 Rudolf Steiner gave what’s called the Bridge lectures—“The Bridge between the Universal Spirituality and the Physical Constitution of Man.” These lectures deal with the bridge between the physicaletheric and the soul-spiritual. Childhood diseases

3. Fluid Organism. There is no life without water. The etheric or life body lives within this organism. 4. Crystalline mineral. The physical body can find its expression in the crystalline mineral element, also in the formation of kidney stones, deposits in joints, etc. It brings form into our bodies in the teeth and bones. The macrocosmic man expresses himself in the hereditary body through this “bridge” 47

Etheric Forces and the Young that unites the supersensible bodies (ego, astral body, etheric body and physical body) with the physical material in warmth, air, water and minerals. Where the bridge does not function “right,” childhood illnesses help to transform the forces of the “bridge” so that the inherited physical body can be transformed.

animal kingdom to man. Allergies are also taking the place of childhood diseases. Kindergarten teachers can help to build the “bridge” for children who aren’t benefiting from childhood diseases by recommending warm clothes, simple diet, daily rhythm in life, outdoor activities and enough sleep—in short warmth, air, water and mineral in a balance specific for the child at that moment.

Fever is an expression of the ego organization working into the physical body to make it its own. Redness of the skin is a physical expression of the ego.

The Health of the Kindergarten Teacher

Whooping cough is a way to help the airy organism fit into the body. It is a disease of the astral body fitting into the airy organism.

As we work with children whose etheric bodies are as yet “unborn,” our own etheric forces can become less personal. We are more open to the cosmos, more connected to the spiritual world. If we are not conscious of this, our etheric body gets dispersed into our surroundings and we lose that part of our etheric. We have to build our forces into something we can offer to our surroundings in a “eurythmic sense,” without losing ourselves in the process of giving. It is important that we work with our own daily rhythm (rhythm is a property of the etheric body) and that we dress warmly. Warmth allows us to stay in ourselves more easily and to transform etheric forces through our own activity.

Mumps is an expression of the watery forces being transformed. In rubella the lymph nodes swell up (watery organism). With mumps there is a swelling of the salivary glands. With these the ether body modifies its home in the fluid organism of our bodies. In measles we see fever and redness with the watery transformation. Chickenpox is a disease where the physical forces become transformed (temporary scarring). We can ask the question, “What is a child gaining when he or she gets a particular disease?” Rudolf Steiner tells us that smallpox, for example, is easy to obtain by people who had trouble loving others in their last lifetime. Disease is a healing process for what was not accomplished previously.

Grains are important for activating the digestive system and for giving warmth. Dr. Christa recommended raw grain as in muesli, as well as cooked grains, raw vegetables, and soups. Avoid “cold” foods—cucumbers, beans, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant.

Dr. Christa noted that it seems that children who are immunized against childhood diseases get more ear infections. In this way they develop the fever they need. In the future more diseases will come from the plant kingdom and the

Teachers who are constantly giving of themselves all day need to learn to say “no.” This takes ego. ✣

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The Young Child and the Spiritual World How Can We Find a Connection to the World of the Angels? Dr. Helmut von Kügelgen In the introduction last night we heard of the many changes which have taken place in Waldorf education. The wind of change is also blowing in Eastern Europe. It is called “Perestroika,” the restructuring. George F. Kennan has spoken of Perestroika and its founder Gorbachev in this way: “This is an age of change and Gorbachev has made himself its angel and its instrument.”

Kennan has the words, too. Does he actually believe in angels? Probably not. In the New Testament, the angel appears to the shepherds. In doing so he opens the door to a new level of consciousness. The angel says “Do not fear,” for it is a shock to behold an angel and to have this door opened, but it is a good shock. The intent is not to destroy but to open the soul and heart (Imagination), and to enable one to hear (Inspiration). Now the will of the spiritual world can work in your will (Intuition). We know that accidents can come into our lives and shock us in this way.

Gorbachev has brought the greatest changes imaginable in Russia and in Eastern Europe, but what is meant here by “angel?” And what is the spirit of this time?

A scientist has recently written that if you take a frog from its pond and put it in a pan of hot water it will jump out. But if you put it in a pan of cold water and heat it slowly, the frog will sit there in the water until it has boiled to death. The frog’s senses are such that it can distinguish large temperature changes but not gradual ones. There has been no need in its evolution to distinguish small temperature changes. Today, the scientist continued, the human race is like the frog in the pan. Man is not really paying attention to the fact that he is gradually destroying life on the planet. We are destroying the living world in the Amazon region, for example, but are not noticing what we are doing.

Rudolf Steiner had 23 people before him when he started the lectures known as the Study of Man. These are a preparation for the educational work of this age, for this epoch. He began with personal remarks which have not been included in the English translation of the lectures. He said that now, at the very beginning of this preparatory work, it behooves us to make contact with the spiritual powers, through whose power and at whose mandate each one of us has to work. We must ask them to stand behind us as we seek to work out of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. What does it mean to find contact with the spiritual powers? This is the theme of our conference. Rudolf Steiner spoke of these powers, of the angels, the archangels and the archai, the third hierarchy. True, we have these words, we know their names. But George

Likewise we live in the world of the spiritual hierarchies, but we are not aware of them. They live in us, but we are not sensitive enough to perceive them. How can we contact the spiritual 50

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powers who are with us in normal life? Rudolf Steiner has said we have to contact them if we are to take up this new task of educating for our times. How can we perceive the connection?

speak of the grandmother having gone home where she can now look down upon us. There is a feeling of love when we remember the person and this gives us the Imagination of the beloved person. We feel we are in the spiritual world; it is near to us and not far away. It is the home we never lose. Feelings of reverence and awe are important when we speak of a person who is dead. Then the children can live with these feelings as a reality.

We can look back and reflect and see that there is guidance in our life. Where there is guidance, there is a guide. We then get the first feeling of a guardian angel in our life. It doesn’t just come of itself. We must do something to discover it.

The other feeling which is most important in building a bridge to the angels in the spiritual world is thankfulness. Rudolf Steiner did not say that we must bring the children to say thank you, but rather that as adults we must learn to feel grateful for life. We must feel thankful to live in this world, to have this work, to have our destiny, even the difficult parts. Life brings pain and things not easy to endure. But when you love your task of educating children, your work will be full of thanksgiving. It is necessary that out of this thankfulness we come to love truth and be as true as we can be. This is one of the most important things for the teacher. Real truth is in the spiritual world, and the striving towards truth is a striving towards the spiritual world.

With children it is easy to speak of a guardian angel. They still live at another level of consciousness where they can experience the hierarchies. Recently he received a letter from a former kindergarten teacher who is now a mother of three young children. The oldest one was 4 or 5, the second child was 3 and the baby, Frieder, was 8 months old. One morning the eldest child came into the mother’s bed and said that during the night he had seen a most wonderful angel. “Oh, you’ve seen your angel,” said the mother. “No, not my angel. I was in the arms of my angel. It was your angel I saw.” The child was silent, then paused and said, “There we are all of the same height, you and I and little Frieder.” The mother dared not answer. Children have such experiences, but often they cannot find those with ears to listen. This mother could listen.

There is another way we help children to keep their contact with the spiritual world and that is to bring them rightly into the world of sleep at night. We draw near to the archangels at night, but it is the content of our speech that brings us into contact with the archangels. The little children cannot do this by themselves. The verse or prayer that we say with them or for them at night helps lead the child to the archangels.

When the adult is striving to find spiritual contact, this forms a bridge for children. It helps them to preserve their own contact with the spiritual world. The light of God the Father comes through the angel to the child. This nearest hierarchy is a bridge that allows us to go deeper and deeper into higher worlds.

As adults we can do a review of the day before going to sleep. As we look back over the day, or even over longer periods of time, we begin to discover the guidance which took place in our lives. Every day we can consider: What did I do? Could I feel a guiding force?

Both we and the children have other close ties with beings in the spiritual world, that is with those who have recently died. It may be a grandparent or a friend. This is not always sad, and we must not look melancholic when we speak of death. Death can be celebrated. We can 51

The Young Child and the Spiritual World Rudolf Steiner has said that in these modern times since the beginning of the age of the consciousness soul in the 15th century, it is necessary not only to look back with our angel but to look forward, to prepare the next stage. For example, if tomorrow we have an appointment at noon with a mother about a difficulty with the child, then we look ahead to this appointment on the night before with our angel. We do not then think, “What did my angel tell me; what ideas did my angel give me?” It is not for this that we think ahead with our angel, but to carry this mood into our meeting, the mood of living together with our angel at night. We must still struggle and think on our own, but if we live in this mood, we will find the right way. We can bring through the night into the day, the mood that always, the angels are with us. With this picture before us then, suddenly the frog is aware that there is heat and he must jump. There is a spiritual reality in our thoughts, and we can bring this spiritual reality into our deeds.

bound to the things which surround him. As maturity comes, thinking changes as does the sequence of thinking, feeling and doing. As adults we normally think first, then feel and then do. Sometimes we are like children and act first and then think, “What have I done?” We are faced with the tasks of this generation, for we must be contemporary. We are part of this time period. In this way, as we perform deeds, we have contact with the spirit of our time, the archai. When we speak, we have contact with the spirit of the people of a community, with the archangels who work with communities of people. When we think, we come into contact with our own angel. We also come into community with the whole of mankind. We bring thoughts into the whole of language. Thus through thought we make contact with our angel. Through speech we make contact with the archangels.

The greatest mysteries of how we interact with the angels, the archangels and the archai, arise in relationship with how we walk, talk and think. When we walk we use muscles; we move, we incarnate into the carne, the flesh. Our karma enters into our body. The child experiences this in the first year of life as he begins to move and to walk.

Through activity we make contact with the archai, the spirits of our time. Rudolf Steiner once described the task of anthroposophy as that of bringing together communities that they may work to be a chalice for the higher beings of the spiritual world. In Switzerland, when the first Waldorf school was three years old, Rudolf Steiner said that people didn’t understand what was meant by the free spiritual life. Every one thinks it means each rooster stands on his own dung heap and calls cock-a-doodle-do. That is not free spiritual life. In a school there are teachers who work together through the college. Perhaps one teacher has a more pronounced part, another a less pronounced part. But they are working together for the spirit of the school. They work together to bring this spirit to work in the world through the deeds of the everyday life of the school.

To speak is to engage in a finer movement. This is the beginning of the whole life of art. How are the words produced—out of love? out of anger? In speaking, spiritual content or concepts are in our words. The spiritual world, the world of beings, of concepts, does not come out of our heads—the world which surrounds us is the spiritual world as well as the world of matter. When thinking we open ourselves to the spiritual world. For the child, thinking is first 52

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To understand a school, a gathering of teachers, we should consider the picture of Pentecost, the gathering of souls so connected to the Christ and His Resurrection. This was a community fulfilled in a higher being. That is the task of anthroposophists.

hierarchies, with our own angel behind us, with the archangels forming a chalice of courage, and with the archai bringing a drop of light into that chalice. In this way we too can work individually with the third hierarchy. Every evening before doing our own meditation we can think: “The angels, archangels and archai will help me to do the work I must do.” In the morning after our meditation, we can think again, “The beings of the third hierarchy will help me.” In this way we form the contact with angels, archangels and archai. That is the answer which Rudolf Steiner gave to the theme of this conference.

In the beginning of this talk, man was likened to the frog, not a very nice image. But we need to see that we are surrounded by the spiritual world, not just at the moment when the angel speaks and opens the door, but in ail the gradual ways in which we experience the spiritual world. When we think, when we feel, when we do, then we are experiencing the spiritual world and its beings. In all that we call self-education, we experience sensitive steps toward the beings of the third hierarchy.

DISCUSSION In the discussion time, Dr. von Kügelgen gave us a picture of his own background with Waldorf education. He started as a Waldorf teacher in 1946 and took four classes through as a class teacher. In 1969 the first Waldorf School was 50 years old and a new era was beginning in which the young child was under serious attack through early academics. Together with 24 kindergartens, he helped found the International Waldorf Kindergarten Association. In the early 1970s, the kindergartens joined together in Germany to fight against early academics. In 1975 he graduated his last class and took up the task of working on behalf of the young child. He helped found the kindergarten seminar in Stuttgart and already in 1971 traveled to the United States. In 1975 he came again to support the opening of the kindergarten training program at the Waldorf Institute.

In his lecture “Awakening to Community” on December 13, 1923, Rudolf Steiner described the path of anthroposophy. For the adult it begins with thinking, with cognition, with what the head can grasp. Then art is called forward to enliven the thoughts and concepts. It ends with a religious deepening, with a warmth that reassures the heart. Thus it begins with what the head can grasp, takes on all the life and color of the artistic experience, and ends in a warmth that suffuses and reassures the heart so that man can feel that the spirit is his true home. The present world rejects this approach and as a result anthroposophy has its enemies, Rudolf Steiner said. Now we arrive again at the beginning of this talk and the Study of Man. Rudolf Steiner spoke of the need for contacts with spiritual powers on whose behalf and at whose mandate each one of us works. He gave the Teachers’ Imagination, the meditation which connects the college of teachers with the angels, the archangels, and the archai.

When did Rudolf Steiner give the Teachers’ Imagination? What is its background? In 1919 Rudolf Steiner gave the Study of Man course. He gave thanks to the spirits who gave Emil Molt the idea of founding the first Waldorf School. (Molt was the director of the Waldorf Astoria cigarette factory when Rudolf Steiner was asked to speak there about the threefold social order.

Rudolf Steiner said to the teachers, do not forget how we work together with the 53

The Young Child and the Spiritual World it? Yes, there are evil beings who try to guide mankind. On the one side we have Ahriman, the cold force of hardening. On the other side we have Lucifer, full of fire and light, intoxicating and ecstatic. It is like the cross of Golgotha between the other two crosses. We need to learn to make the distinctions between them, for there exists the possibility of error and temptation. We must learn in freedom to make distinctions. We have the burden of freedom and we must learn to distinguish.

When the workers became interested in Steiner’s ideas about education, Molt helped finance a school for the children of the workers.) In his last words Herbert Hahn, one of the original Waldorf teachers who had already given lectures to the factory workers, repeated: “Don’t forget that Waldorf education comes from the threefold social movement.” Out of this movement Emil Molt had the idea, we must have a Waldorf school. Already in 1907 in The Education of the Child, Rudolf Steiner planted the seeds for such an education when he said that when spiritual science is asked, it will be possible to give a full school education. He waited to be asked, and Molt asked him.

Does our nightly meditation as teachers help the children into the arms of their angels? Yes, and even if you think of persons who have died you are helping to build the contact to the spiritual world. We can ask that our love may be united with the love of Christ; or we may help a person who has died to give aid in bringing a child in sleep into the arms of its angel. On the next day the children may come to you in another mood as if you were together in the night.

Is the Archangel Michael a spirit of time? Yes. He has been an archangel and he is now ascending to the realm of the archai, the spirits of time. His old name was Archangel Michael. Now it is better to speak of Michael, for he is no longer an archangel. How do spiritual beings guide us? They whisper inwardly. We need to have a receptive inner mood and be prepared to hear them. Then we have ideas and inspirations. We see a child playing in a corner. Suddenly he bounds up and goes elsewhere. Where did his new idea come from? We experience that we sit and think about a child with a difficulty. How to help him? An idea comes. Ideas are not simply the perspiration of our brain, something our brain excretes. Thoughts are in the world and we have the mental ability to be aware of them.

Are there children who cannot find their angels? Rudolf Steiner said that children are in the arms of their angels until the child begins to think in a materialistic way. When the child is young, the angel is more active in finding the child. As we grow older, the angel recedes in order to leave the person free. If the person does not try to make contact, the angel withdraws more and more. This is the dark side of freedom. What is the spirit of the community? In the Teachers’ Imagination we speak of the circle of the archangels forming a chalice. This is a verse worked with by colleges of teachers and in a college the members come out of different communities; they have different languages or come from different social communities, yet they are striving to work with the spirit of the school. We can speak of the spirit of a class, or of a school, or of a conference such as this one, and this spirit comes about as we work together.

There are many concepts such as what is beautiful and what is ugly. We learn by looking at the world, by seeing what lies behind and within the things of the world. We need to cultivate fantasy in the young child, for it sheds light on all. How do we know who is guiding us? Might it be a harmful being? How can we recognize

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Connection to the World of the Angels Why do we suffer so often from physical illnesses in our striving upwards? Consider the plant. As it grows up towards the light, its upper leaves are the thinnest and most delicate while its lower leaves, nearest the earth, are the largest and most solid. Likewise, as we grow upwards towards the sun and the spirit, our physical body may grow weaker. It is important to have the right relationship with the spirit and with our own karma. Gratitude is an important quality in this relationship to joy and delight. We have to develop gratitude because we never merit joy and delight; they are always the grace of the gods. But when pain and suffering come, we will know that this belongs to our karma; we merit it. Pain and suffering will help us to progress. We must not flow away into the spiritual world in a Luciferic way. We must find the middle way, standing on the earth while striving upward and with thankfulness for the grace of joy and delight.

Then we arouse the interest of the spiritual world and they say, “There is good work. Let us go and help there.” How much can we say to children about spiritual beings? This is a question of tact. We can speak out of our inner conviction and tell, for example, a birthday story. But it must be real. We must know about the spiritual world and the angels who dwell there. We mustn’t talk about it because we’re “supposed to.” In relationship to the last question, what about our speaking of elemental beings? They too are real and we must find our relationship to them. Our thoughts are also little beings which live in the nature processes. This is a very large question, however, and cannot be dealt with adequately now. Bronja Zahlingen spoke of finding Marjorie Spock’s book Fairy Worlds and Workers very useful for those wishing to understand the elemental beings more fully.

Johanna-Veronika Picht added to this that we must also sort out the essential from the nonessential. We must not get burned out, especially by doing things which are nonessential. Decide where to spend your strength and your thoughts.

You spoke of looking forward in a meditative sense. How do I do this? One aspect of this question is very practical. We get up in the morning, eat our breakfast, enter our kindergarten and prepare for the day. We can also think ahead for the next day by communicating in the evening with the hierarchies and again in the morning. Then it is possible for our angel to add new ideas, so that we can do the right thing in the moment, or do something other than we had prepared if necessary.

What about thinking about children before we go to sleep? Freya Jaffke spoke to this question and said each person must find his/her own way with this. The picturing of the children should not take too long, though one can then spend more time on a difficult child. For example, one can review a problematic moment with the child, make it “present” within one, picturing the “gesture” of the moment. How did the moment arise? What led up to it? What happened during the moment and what came afterwards? Also find a good moment that happened with the child. Make this picture “big” before your mind’s eye. Thus two objective pictures stand before you without any wishes. Then you can feel a real connection to the child.

What if one is working alone and does not have colleagues or a college of teachers? You are part of the whole kindergarten movement so you are not alone in this work. It is important that we all feel we are working together for the pedagogy of the future. Then we can experience the chalice referred to in the Teachers’ Imagination. 55

The Young Child and the Spiritual World You may do this picturing several nights in a row. Maybe one picture will increase or decrease; or both may merge into equal strength. Then daily work will grow easier, for you are not ✣

fighting the one aspect. But be careful not to neglect the “good” children. Look at all of the children, and occasionally dwell on one or two who do not have difficulties. ✣

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Continuing the Work of the Hierarchies in the Age of the Etheric Christ Werner Glas In the movie Short Circuit, a robot is struck by lightning and is greatly changed. He displays wonder and awe and imitates a butterfly flying across a meadow. A scientist decides the robot has become human. This mistaking machines for humans is symptomatic of our times and began with the robot in Star Wars. It is a sign that our sense of ego is blunted. We cannot distinguish between that which is truly human and that which is not. We must learn to find the human element so that we can better communicate with the parents, not only about problems, but also about their solutions. It is not enough to look for symptoms of materialism, we need to also look for symptoms of hope.

When we look at a medieval book such as Parzival, we should not consider it a linear story, but rather a circular one with 16 segments. At the end we return to the beginning. Then perhaps the opening paragraph is quite different than it seemed when we started. The same process is true of this conference. We can go back to the beginning and start again and it will seem different than it did five days ago. We have seen great variety in our speakers and in their approaches to working with the young child. An imp might enter and say, “Oh, see, we can do whatever we want in the kindergarten. Just see how differently these teachers all do it!” But their differences have grown out of their meditative work, their work with the Study of Man. Such inner work gives one the right to be original and different. We must sharpen our responsibility to work out of the central impulse of anthroposophy. We need to work with a willingness to serve and protect the young child, to further his right to survive as a spiritual being. It is not easy to be born into the present time. Until 1879 we were only experiencing the preparatory stage of materialism, its embryonic period. Now the real period of materialism is beginning and will be with us for two to three hundred years.

On March 15, 1906, in Berlin, Rudolf Steiner offered this distinction between individuality and personality: Today one easily exchanges the concept of Individuality and Personality. The Individuality is the eternal, that which carries through from earth life to earth life. Personality is that which the human being within one life brings towards all that forms him in development. If we wish to study the Individuality, we must look to the very basis of the human soul; if we wish to study the Personality, we must see how the essential kernel of the human being comes 56

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Continuing the Work of the Hierarchies

to expression. The kernel of being, the essential essence, is born into a people, into a profession.

For the angel, the “I” of the human is what the physical body is for the individual. Our walking, talking and thinking are the lowest members of the angel’s being. In the angel, all of the other hierarchies are reflected. Through the angel they all work into our “I.” We seek ways to work more closely with the angels.

That all is decided by the inner being—that is personalized by the inner being. When a human being is at a lower stage of development, one will notice little of his inner work. His mode of expression is taken from his folk. Those who are more evolved will find a way of expression, and gestures, which come from their inner life. The more the inner life of the human being can work on the outer, the more the human being develops. One could say in this way the Individuality comes to expression in the Personality.

Werner gave an example of recently going on a whale watching expedition. This has become a very popular activity in America. During this summer 200,000 people went whale watching. There are fleets of boats which go out, and the guides know the whales individually. Seeing these whales awakens a sympathy in one. It “rings a bell” in the unconscious realm of the soul, in a place where memories of Atlantis lie. For some people seeing the whales changed their dream life in the following days and affected them in positive ways. To get in touch with these realms of one’s own soul life can give new possibilities for working with the angels.

The one who has a distinct character through gesture, through his physiognomy, even the way he works on the environment, is a marked Personality. Does this Personality element become lost at the point of death for subsequent development? No, that is not so. Christianity knows quite exactly that this is not the case.

Rudolf Steiner spoke of the differences between imagination and fantasy. They are not the same. At the end of Study of Man, he gives a three line verse which begins “Imbue thyself with the power of fantasy.” It does not say with the power of imagination. The depth of that difference becomes apparent in the following quotation taken from lecture 8, volume 3 of Anthroposophy as Cosmosophy. In the lecture entitled “The Human Being in the World of the Hierarchies,” given on October 22, 1921, he says:

That which is understood as the resurrection of the body is nothing other than the maintenance of the Personality in all subsequent incarnations. That which has been gained by the human being as a person, that “personhood,” is embodied in the Individuality, and for that reason is carried on into following incarnations.

The human being has a singular, an individual relationship to his Angel. That relationship expresses itself in two ways. It expresses itself in inner experience when the human being allows himself to go beyond himself, to go outside himself from within … [I]n ordinary life, however, as this is an intimate matter, something Luciferic easily mixes into the process. Nevertheless, the human being can go beyond himself as a

If we have made something of our body which has its own special character, then the forces which work to bring this about will resurrect. As much as we have worked on ourselves, as much as we have made of ourselves, is not lost for us. Where is the unique kernel of our being carried? It is carried in the realm of the angels.

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The Young Child and the Spiritual World soul experience and, to a certain extent, experience something objective in fantasy. In many ways fantasy is very creative, but individually creative, like language. And, basically, the activity of fantasy is the basis of language.

differentiates between play in the first seven years and between ages 7 and 14. The fruits of the first play only appear in the twenties when the ego is born deeply into the human being. “The force that is applied in the child’s play reappears in the 21st or 22nd year in man as the intellect, now independently collecting its experience in life.” (Understanding Young Children, page 70) The early effects of fantasy and play appear again in the 30s when the consciousness soul becomes active.

Just as people frequently experience only something abstract in language, just as the genius of language, which is an Archangel, can not always spread his wings, so the Luciferic weaving in fantasy obstructs the perception and makes fantasy fantastic. In actuality an Angel slips through the life of the individual while he lives in fantasy.

This transformation of play and fantasy forces comprise a remarkable set of concepts which at first seem very simple, but which in actuality are not simple at all. We have to work with these ideas. In 1819 Goethe wrote the following in an article entitled “Sight from a Subjective Point of View”:

When an individual lives in fantasy, the angels enter the life of the individual. The same force which shapes the brain in the first years later enters the human being as fantasy. This is really the working of the angels in human life.

I have the gift that when I shut my eyes and lower my head and think of a flower in the center of my organ of seeing, the image does not remain in its first form for a moment; rather does the form fall apart. From its innermost aspect new flowers develop, also with green leaves. These are not natural flowers but fantasy flowers—like the forms of rosettes created by a sculptor. It was impossible to fix the fountain-like creation in a static position. The process lasted as long as I wanted it to last. It did not fade nor did it intensify.

When a child observes the world, he becomes the world. This is the same process we experience between death and rebirth. In Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman speaks of the child going forth every day, and everything which the child beholds becomes part of him. There was a child went forth everyday And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became; And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day, Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

Christopher Frye offers a similar picture in “The Lady’s Not for Burning” when he refers to seeds and says, “I hold in my hand a generation of roses.” The seed is the involution, the future flower the evolution; one is the contraction, the other is the expansion. Here we have karmic situation and karmic response. But not everything in life is the result of karmic necessity. Rudolf Steiner says, “Create out of the nothing.” This pertains to the power of fantasy, this pertains to the shaping of the future.

This is the same process as the merging of spirits in the spiritual world. We do not “meet” a spiritual being; we become the spiritual being, we merge with it. We then carry this capacity for merging into our incarnation on earth and experience it during early childhood. During the Basel course on May 10, 1920, Rudolf Steiner made reference to play. He

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The model for our physical body was begun on Ancient Saturn, but it must also be reworked. Added to it has been the model of the etheric body of the Christ. Rudolf Steiner said that between the 12th and 15th centuries, the model of the astral body of Jesus also became available for a number of incarnating human souls such as Francis of Assisi.

Inasmuch as we stimulate the forces of fantasy in the young child, later, when the consciousness soul develops, this step becomes possible. Rudolf Steiner has said that joy in the first seven years is the basis for the consciousness soul. The forces of fantasy can transform one and enable one to overcome egotism. When Rudolf Steiner gave the Teachers’ Imagination, he gave the image of the chalice of courage. It is Michael who brings to us the courage which we need to overcome the materialism of the age.

Now there is a renewal of all that which carries the “I.” Christianity has reached the point where it can go from the ordinary “I,” the walking, talking, thinking “I,” to the Pauline “I,” where we can say, “Not I but the Christ in me.” ✣

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The Religion of the Young Child Elisabeth Moore-Haas From the North American Kindergarten Conference, August 1989 Elisabeth said she asked some American early childhood students what earliest memories they had of childhood. One student reported having seen a dog lying dead under an outside staircase. The boy was not supposed to see it, but he went out and saw the dog. Later the dog was gone. The child crept under the staircase, then lay down and imitated the dog in death. He felt, “Oh, this is good.” He was about three years old. It felt natural to him to experience the gesture of the dog.

On another occasion a boy brought an apple for his snack, but did not eat it. Instead he was spinning it slowly around staring at it. At last she asked him, “Will you eat your apple now?” He looked anxiously at her and said, “I can’t. It has vitamins inside it.” In these examples, the first child lived in the religion of the young child, but not the other two. It was the first who lived deeply into imitation, into the being of another. When speaking about the incarnating ego of the child, Rudolf Steiner described the process in this way:

Another example was also given of children living in imitation. At one time in Switzerland, there were many Italian construction workers. Some of the children in her kindergarten would imitate them in play. A new child entered the kindergarten and after a time came to Elisabeth in tears: “I can’t play with them! I don’t understand what they are saying. They speak Italian.”

Out of the spiritual worlds—on spiritual wings, as it were—there comes man’s ego. Observing first the child in the early years of his life—how he develops, how step by step from inner depths the physiognomy emerges—to the surface of the body, how the child acquires more and more control 59

The Young Child and the Spiritual World over his organism—we see in this process essentially the incorporation of the ego…. The organizing principle in the physical body emerges with the change of teeth, becomes emancipated at this time, and in the main constitutes the intelligence. (Balance in Teaching, Sept. 22, 1920, or Understanding Young Children, page 51)

chosen or an inner commitment. The moment you expect the child to do something for you, however, he may rebel and misbehave. From this we can learn how to meet the child’s true needs. There should be no expectations in regard to young children. An example: A teacher prepared a festival and did everything very well, but the children acted up and did not behave the way she wanted them to, because they felt pressed by her expectations. What is needed is a nonintentional approach towards the child.

We hear a lot about the “dreamy” child. What does this mean? It is not that the child is daydreaming. Rather it is a state of consciousness such as grown-ups have when they are dreaming during sleep. The child’s astral forces and ego are expanded. The ego is “observing the child.” It is not yet incarnated or incorporated into the body.

This is true for working with our colleagues, too, for example, regarding how they paint with their children or whether or not they use plant dyes. It is best not to have such expectations. In this sense give up on the other. Let them be. Then one can work freely with the other. We need to be in a state of sympathy with the children or with our colleagues. Then we can create something in the social realm. There is never only “one way.” There are as many ways as there are kindergarten teachers! We can’t copy one another. We can digest what we see and hear and then come to our own way, which may turn out quite similar, but we have worked it through ourselves. Rudolf Steiner visited a school with parallel classes where the two teachers did things very differently. That’s how it should be, he said. Each one must do it differently.

When the very young child draws, he is sometimes amazed to see lines on the paper. He doesn’t connect his movement with what is appearing on the paper. Only gradually does the child connect his actions with the outcomes. A very young baby looks at us but looks above us. It does not make eye contact with us at first. The infant gives itself up to the atmosphere around it. We experience this, for example, in the lovely special aroma of a young baby. If we don’t rush the baby down to earth, then it can live in this atmosphere and gradually enter the more earthly realm.

To decide what is right, you have to look at your particular situation. With young children you cannot try many different ways to do something. Out of intuition you must choose one that you think will fit this situation. For example, there was a kindergarten in Switzerland where all the children arrived by school bus at the same time. On the bus were older children, and when the kindergarten children entered their kindergarten room they were unable to play or imitate at first. They were too agitated. The teacher therefore decided to begin each day with a little table play. The children would enter

Then comes a stage around age three when the child says, “No, I don’t want to.” She has discovered something new, the possibility for “antipathy.” In general the child until age 7 lives in the forces of sympathy and is at one with the world. But at times antipathy enters, though in a non-moral way, for it is a standing back, a way of looking at the world around one—similar to what happens later in life in reflecting or thinking. True motivation arises out of sympathy. For a grown-up person, it may be a duty we have

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a darkened room, a candle was lit and the little play was performed. This worked for this class. It takes a true intuition to find the right solution to such a problem. Not just anything will do.

The word “religion” comes from the Latin religio, which means “to reconnect.” Rudolf Steiner says the religious mood of the young child is meant in a bodily, physical way, unlike the religious experience of an adult. All that lives in the child’s environment influences the child’s circulation, breathing, etc. The child is at one with the world, giving itself over to its environment, and that is the “religion of the child.” Therefore, we need to prepare the environment so that the children are able to give themselves up to it. All that we think or feel or do affects the child. If all of this is done in a healthy way, then the young child does not need “religion” per se. The child is already there in religion.

For the child, being able to play requires being in a state of sympathy. As adults we stand back from a beautiful sight and admire it. But the child has to enter right in and touch the thing. Elisabeth remembers as a third grader going to the mountains with her parents. They raved about the far-off snowy peaks, but she was only interested in seeing the flowers, the bees and the stones, the things nearby which she could embrace. She didn’t even see the mountains. In adults, however, if this force of sympathy becomes too great, it can be a problem. A best selling book, Women Who Love Too Much, describes one aspect of this problem.

But, of course, the child becomes more distant from the environment, and rhythm becomes necessary to enable the child to live into the environment. Where there’s life, there is rhythm. Rhythm serves as a bridge between the heavenly and the physical. For the child, rhythm in life can lead him towards the healthy dream consciousness, which expresses itself often in liveliness (not hyperactivity), in creative play rather than in a dull brooding.

Being in sympathy means being able to take in everything that is moving, that has a gesture. This is the realm where imitation lives. It matters what living images are rendered to the children. When we do a harvest circle with the children, for example, we try to show the child what the farmer actually does. Is this really what the child needs? Is this not a “hidden teaching,” especially if you go out and look at the farmers doing it and try to duplicate their gestures. This is a materialistic approach to education. We should look instead to the inner gesture of the activity. What really lives in the process? For example, in milling there is the archetypal gesture of two surfaces grinding against each other, which we can show by the palms moving round and round each other in a mill-like gesture without touching. There is a similarity to the eurythmy gesture for “M,” for that is the inner essence of the gesture. In this way we do not make the gestures too physical such as would occur if we would show a turning handle of a hand mill. The child lives in the inner gesture. We don’t want to force the child’s ego in. We would like to create the right conditions for it to incorporate itself.

What about the mood of the fifth? It is different from what is called pentatonic music. Some people mistakenly think it is a “spaced out” music. Rudolf Steiner describes it very clearly. It is a type of music which helps a child to incarnate gently. With such music, as well as inner gestures, a healthy environment, and a sound rhythm, we create an oasis for children where they feel at home and which will help them “love to incarnate.” Such an experience serves as a healthy, homeopathic dose to balance some of the awakening influences of our time. Doing curative eurythmy for only three minutes a day can bring about healing in an adult. Then imagine what strengthening and healing can occur in a healthy kindergarten day of four hours. 61

The Young Child and the Spiritual World Rudolf Steiner also said that children should enjoy life and take pleasure in it. This is not the time to be ascetic. If as a young child, a person has nothing which belongs to him, not even love, how can he be a giving person in adulthood? There is a natural egotism in childhood which is appropriate.

united with the spiritual world, being at one. After eating the apple, we humans entered a much more materialistic state of consciousness. We could no longer see the human being veiled in the colors of the astral body. But the child still feels at home with clothes which are a picture of the spiritual, rather than pants or jeans which point to the physical, namely to the form of the skeleton. There are teachers who may wear jeans or pants out on the street and then change to more appropriate clothes for the early childhood surroundings. We need to dress in such a way that the child feels comfortable and “at home” with our clothing.

When we intellectualize and give explanations, we are cutting off the child’s “religion.” Then the child is awakened earlier and perhaps afraid, such as the little boy with the apple who could not eat it because he was thinking of the vitamins it contained (for him probably a kind of ghost). The situation of the little boy who could not play with his classmates for he thought they were speaking Italian is similar. The child could not “dive in.”

We affect the children in so many ways. Our morality and our thoughts permeate even the child’s sheaths. Rudolf Steiner said that children could behave like little demons. How to drive these demons out? By behaving in an appropriate way in the child’s environment. Steiner said that we should make the same impression on the child as his own arm makes. We should be like an extension of his own body. Then we are not imposing ourselves on him or forcing something. “Education throughout life is selfeducation.” (Rudolf Steiner)

As teachers we must be careful that we do not use the children as a substitute for something we are missing, and we should not want their love. We should be happiest when the children are completely absorbed in their play. Then they are deeply content. In imitation, the child takes in the quality of everything we do. She absorbs our ambitions, our intentions, our quiet enthusiasm. Rudolf Steiner says we should be “actively thinking” when we are with children—this allows children to be in a dream consciousness. It is not we who are to be dreaming; we are to be active in our thinking. The more we as grown-ups achieve wakeful consciousness, the more the children can have a dream consciousness.

In a lecture on the self-education of the human being in the light of spiritual science given in Berlin on March 14, 1912 (not translated into English), Rudolf Steiner said the following: If we speak of an extended self in each of us through which we can enter into other individualities (in sympathy or in sharing joy, for example), then, with the developing child we can also begin to speak of something else which is present beyond that which we usually consider as educators and which develops out of the ordinary consciousness, namely the presence of a higher being which is present outside the child’s usual self and which is already at work

All of this calls for a certain selflessness on the part of the adult. In addition to an appropriate atmosphere in the early childhood room and in our carrying of ourselves, the “religion of the young child” can also be helped by the clothing we wear. The image that mankind was once in paradise is equal to the “religion of the young child.” It means being

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on the child. Where can we find that which is already actively working on the child as a higher self, as a higher entity which belongs to the child but does not enter the child’s consciousness? It may seem peculiar but it is nevertheless correct that the entity is active in the child during rational well-guided play.

a more personal principle than the playful tapping around with the living, moving element which is not grasped conceptually but is simply observed in its full activity. The less thought-through and predetermined this, which a game or toy reveals, is, the better; because it then becomes possible for something higher, which cannot be forced into human consciousness, to enter, because the child is exploring and is not relating to life in a rational, intellectual way. And then we can see how the child is already being educated by something that transcends the personal.

We can only create an environment which facilitates the play of the child. What is actually achieved through play, is essentially accomplished through the self-initiated activity of the child, through everything which cannot be regulated by us through strict rules. Indeed, this is the essential aspect, the educational aspect of play, that we cease with our rules, with our pedagogical artistry and educational techniques, and give the child over to his own forces. For what does the child do when we give him over to his own forces? The child then explores, by playing with physical objects, whether this or that works through his own activity. He brings his own will into activity, into movement. And through the manner in which these physical objects behave under the influence of his will, it comes about that the child educates himself through life itself, even if this takes place playfully in a completely different manner than through the influence of a personality or a pedagogical principle.

The higher self of the child can come in if we can provide the appropriate environment. This is education towards freedom. Then within the morning we can offer a little ritual in a homeopathic dose such as a verse of Rudolf Steiner’s. These special moments might create an atmosphere into which the hierarchies may waken.

QUESTIONS Could you say more about religion in our time and in the future? Also, is it still appropriate to do a shepherd’s play with the children? Is it right to have the Sistine Madonna in the kindergarten? Sometimes we find ourselves doing things in the kindergarten which seem very religious, and we must realize that we are doing these things for ourselves, as adults. We are reminding ourselves of the background of the festivals and their religious content. At such times we are not doing things with the children’s needs in mind. Between the ages of 7 and 14 children live in the world of feeling and “religion” is more appropriate to them. But the first seven years are a time of doing. Sometimes our kindergartens appear overly Christian in a sectarian way. We

It is therefore of the greatest importance that we interfere as little as possible in the play of the child. Thus if we give the child a toy with which he can, through pulling strings or in some other way, receive the illusion of the movements of the human beings or of objects, whether through a movable picture book or some other toy, we educate the child better through such play than if we were to give him building blocks. Too much rational activity is intermingled, and this belongs to 63

The Young Child and the Spiritual World also must consider what lives in the culture where the school is located.

childhood whenever we can, the verse works in a different realm. We should look cheerfully at the children while saying the verse. Our eyes should not be closed in a mood of inwardness. That is not appropriate with young children. If one finds that the snack verse becomes too “routine” for the children, one may occasionally speak a verse by Rudolf Steiner which is generally more appropriate for adults.

Rudolf Steiner has said that in the future we will be connected to the spiritual world, but, unlike the child, we will be connected consciously. Then we will not feel the need for “re-ligio,” for reconnecting, for we will already be connected. We haven’t reached this stage yet, however. Young people are sensitive to the “exclusive” aspect of religion and wish to open to all. Rudolf Steiner has said that each religion is an aspect of the whole. When we study religion more deeply, we can see that true Christianity is not restricted to one place or one people, and it is, in its essence, a non-denominational and all-inclusive religion. The Christ being is of a cosmic, universal nature. When we have this in mind we can say that Christianity has a central place in Waldorf education, but not in a narrow sectarian sense.

In preparing for a festival, study a festival lecture very carefully. When you are carrying the festival inwardly, you do not have to do so much outwardly with the children. For example, at Michaelmas time, Elisabeth liked to do a modest marionette play of St. George and the dragon which included Michael. For her, Michaelmas was a more inwardly rich festival than Christmas. It is our inner work that prepares this. If it lives in the teacher, the festival may become more elaborate. It won’t hurt the children as long as you don’t explain.

We don’t yet have true freedom of religion, though younger people are straining towards this.

Could you say more about active thinking? Learn to observe how imitation works, how it lives in the quality of movement. When the teacher acts, the child takes in the quality, the morality of how the person moves. It does not necessarily happen that the children do the same thing that the teacher does, but rather that the quality of the teacher’s activity is brought by the children into what they do. The quality of our thinking, striving towards the spiritual will express itself in the finest ways of our demeanor.

Regarding the Sistine Madonna, we must realize that we do not hang this painting in the kindergarten for religious reasons. We should study what Rudolf Steiner has said about Raphael and about this painting. We need to understand what it says about incarnation, about the soul carrying the spirit into incarnation. It is important, however, that we treat the painting with modesty. It should not give the impression of an altar or a shrine. It does not need to be draped with cloth. Its presence should not be exaggerated, and it should not carry a quality of sentimentality. This would be as inappropriate as saying a verse sentimentally with young children.

For the adult, being Michaelic means being conscious, being awake. But for the young child, awakeness is not appropriate. For children to grow properly into awakeness, they must first sleep properly. But children benefit from our awakeness. Rudolf Steiner has said that if we work towards the Knowledge of Higher Worlds, for instance, that is life force for the children.

When we say a verse or a prayer with the children, we might not use gestures. As much as we otherwise try to include movement in early

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The child’s etheric realm is attacked by the media. Since Waldorf education keeps children “soft,” they are more damaged by the media than children who are not in Waldorf schools. We take on a heavy karma if we don’t get our courage up to take a stand about TV. But we must do this not out of dogmatism; we have to do our homework and study about the effects of TV on children. There are many books on this subject by non-anthroposophic authors, which we ought to study in order to include scientific research and speak the “language of our time.”

do not need to say, “This little dwarf needs to go to bed now” at cleanup time. We hand the child a log to put away, but don’t watch to be sure that he does it, for that would be too intentional. The word “cleanup” is taboo. It is so abused at home that it has a bad connotation for the children. Could you say more about the mood of the fifth? There is more music in the mood of the fifth becoming available. A Swiss woman, Helga Oberländer, has helped to create four seasonal books of mood of the fifth songs. Young children do not need the personal, more inward soul mood of minor or major music. Mood of the fifth music strives to live in the middle, not going strongly towards major or minor. It does not just go up and down the pentatonic scale. It always “dissolves” into the fifth. ✣

Is discipline too awakening? It all depends upon how it is done. We must act on the child’s behalf. When they are “acting up” they are not always “tuning their instruments” (the physical body) in a healthy way. Children are often already damaged and they need healing. We accomplish this, however, through deeds rather than through words. We

How Can We Work with the Karma of the Young Child? Margret Meyerkort Revised for the second edition by Margret Meyerkort The title of this morning’s lecture is in the form of a question. The subject is new to me and so I can only be tentative.

1. To remind ourselves of what karma is. 2. To look at the karma of becoming an earthly human being.

I understand that it was Steiner’s innermost intention to awaken contemporary people to a Western and modern point of view of karma. Therefore it is my intention, indeed my hope—in spite of the mood of questioning—to further our own interest in the mystery of karma, or much more, the majesty of karma. I propose to go in four steps:

3. To look at the karma of being modern. 4. To look at personal karma. What is karma? Karma is the realization of my prenatal resolutions made in the presence and with the help of creator beings. These resolutions shape my outer appearance, my color, my movements, the language which I speak, the people I meet, my profession, my race, my country, etc. 65

The Young Child and the Spiritual World Here is a story from life. Jack had a student friend Ann. Jack knew Ann’s older sister Jill. She lived by herself and preferred the company of people who were in their forties. Jack had seen her once or twice at a students’ gathering. Then came a New Year’s Eve Party and Jack asked Jill if she would go with him. She was undecided because she had agreed to go out with Peter. Then Peter rang and was lukewarm about going out at all this evening. “Okay, Peter, don’t bother to fetch me,” said Jill and went out with Jack. The party was boring and together with some friends they went to another party. This one spilled over the large apartment. In the course of the evening Jack passed through a dark corridor and there on a sofa lay Jill. He sat down by her. Later on they kissed. After an hour he took Jill to her bus and he walked home. He wondered what this experienced woman had felt, what was in store for him next time they met. But she realized that her life had taken a decisive turn and she would never like to be without him. A few years later they married and Jill became a dependent partner, who was reluctant to stand on her own two feet.

After our birth we are formed and transformed from two sides. One is that karmic forces work out of the cosmos into human existence as such and into our uniquely individual incarnation. Equally, we are formed by the empathetic effects which parents and teachers have on us and the empathetic effects the whole physical surroundings have on us. Here is another story: After World War II, a young Hungarian woman escaped to the West. She married and had a little boy. Three years later the young mother died of cancer. The father was desperate with grief. “Why? How can I go on? What for?” John was four years old when father and son traveled by car through the country. “Look, Daddy, What’s that?” “That’s a pine tree.” “There’s another pine tree.” “No, that’s a beech tree.” “Why, Daddy?” “The wind has different names. In one country the wind is called Maria, in another Mistral. And so the trees have different names— oak tree, beech tree, pine tree.”

What do such stories show us? Jack and Jill took steps independently of each other and with entirely different motivations. A number of other people were involved in the final outcome. Peter was not keen to go out. The first party was boring. The second party provided the darkened room. Jill felt tired. None of the participants had the slightest idea that they helped to shape the future of two people, not even the people involved. Jack and Jill could say that karma works gently, and yet sometimes there is an unbelievable push. Karma weaves without the participants’ discernment. It is imperceptibly active and we have to cope in such a situation. I repeat—this is the reality of karma—suddenly I am in an unforeseen situation and now I have to cope.

Silence. And then John said, “And John and Daddy and all people have one name.” “And what is that?” “Jesus.” What spoke through the child? Was it a cosmic force which is common in all human beings to live, grow, and develop? Or did the child, through the empathetic interweaving with his physical surroundings react in this way to the father’s sorrow? My second point is that we all go through a karmic process of a human incarnation where

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cosmic and earthly forces interweave. We all, I believe, are sensitive to our physical body. We appreciate its beauty and sensitivity, its strength and versatility. But many of us also agree that in our age we experience an assault on this instrument of our physical existence.

all mankind is that when we incarnate, each time we breathe in “The Signature of the Gods,” we listen to the “Name of Man” as it has been laid into our structure. The karmic potential is to develop and to make sound forth anew the “Name of Man”—the bearer of freedom.

In his book, An Outline of Occult Science, Rudolf Steiner describes how during the incarnation of the Earth called “Old Saturn,” the physical body of the human being was laid down. It was shaped in such a way that it could be the vehicle for perceiving the Earth and for bearing the Ego. Later, in a lecture given in 1908, Steiner calls this structural system with its bones, muscles and nerves, and this physiological system with breath, blood, glands and metabolism “The Name of Man.”

To the teachers of the first Waldorf School, Steiner said, “It is your task to continue the work of the creator beings.” With regard to our present consideration this means that it is the task of the human community to see to it that the structural system of which we spoke can be a faithful image of the plan, of the love, and of the work of the divinities. Then, later on, the personal karma of the human being can enter this physical organization. Now, each time the human being incarnates, she does so into a time situation of her particular environment, into a specific age. So she finds then and there a given situation. What is this today? Among many things we have today are trampolines and skating boards for young children and bouncers for babies. Do these gadgets allow the young child to find her equilibrium in space or do they disturb the postural system and thereby interfere with the karma of the child?

Let us look at the “Name of Man” from the point of view of the structural system. What was it that was laid into it? Functions like the lifting of the head, the lifting of the trunk, crawling, the upright position, walking. At first it is a struggle to gain physical equilibrium, to acquire a free and freed orientation. Gradually the human being learns to control his movements and attain a balanced position between heaven and earth. This struggle for the upright position in space is at the same time the beginning of an endeavor which lasts a lifetime.

If they interfere we may ask ourselves, has the child the opportunity to develop a steady walk, a sturdy walk through mud, across brooks and pebbles, through snow, across ice? Do we offer our little ones opportunities to refine bodily movements by climbing, falling, jumping over puddles, crouching under fences? Do we offer opportunities to refine arm movements, hand movements and finger movements in sweeping and shoe polishing, in sewing and tying a bow? These and many more fine motor skill movements build the physical body for a balanced position in space—and in turn build the foundation for the development of language.

It is of help to consider first the peculiar relationship in the human being of his legs and feet to that of his arms and hands. The feet continue to serve the movement of the body in space, while arms and hands are liberated from this function and are there to serve the inner life of the human being. They afford the possibility for the soul to find its equilibrium. Thus, we may say: “What was laid into the upright position of the human being was freedom.” This is the karmic potential with which we are born. In other words what is common to 67

The Young Child and the Spiritual World Let us take a brief look at the development of language. Again, the creator beings have laid a seed into the human being—the possibility to communicate through language, the possibility to speak. In this karma we share. More than that, for the actual acquisition of language we all need the community of human speakers. This means that if language is really to come about on earth, we each require a social component. In this need of the child and this response of the adult, human beings the world over share.

child as I try and remove their obstacles. If I make the needs of the parent and child my own, the potential of communicating through language gently unfold. I have already touched upon one feature of my third point. But “the karma of being modern” is much greater. In as much as a soul incarnates into an age, she tries to unite herself with the meaning of the age, the spirit of that age, so that she may live out of the forces of that particular Time Spirit. Thereby she may grow, serve, and develop her fellow human beings and the Earth. “To be modern” poses then the following question: How can a soul within the ongoing stream of time intuit the intentions of creator beings, and how can she, within the ongoing stream of time, give shape and form to the intention of creator beings?

How does this look in our modern age? Do we encounter attacks in this realm too? What happens when babies are laid on their tummies and there is no communication between child and adult? What kind of language is it which the child hears by way of technical devices? Is it blunted? Is it dead? Surely, it is absolutely and totally impersonal. How can we realize the potential of language, how can we continue this “Signature of Creator Beings?” There are many ways. One is that we as teachers must step up our work with the parents.

The first part of the question is directed to the world of the spirit and the second part of the question is directed towards the physical world. Steiner shows us that in 1879 mankind entered a new age. It is the age which proceeds under the guidance of the creator being Michael. As students of Steiner’s we may ask, why might a soul choose to incarnate into this century in the western world? What might a soul wish to develop, indeed need to develop in this Michaelic Age?

Here is another story. Recently a therapist working with a school told a parent and teacher, that, “Tom should never have been admitted into this kindergarten because of his speech difficulties.” Maybe! But another consideration would have been, creator beings interweave gently with our karma, and in as much as we are co-workers of creator beings does it not behoove us to develop a sensitive (or respectful) manner of working? Can we not step up our work so that it helps us to recognize both—karma as a fact and also the manner of karmic activity? In other words, it is one thing to tell a parent that statistics have shown that the crop of today’s speech difficulties is no longer hereditary but is due to human beings themselves who no longer speak to their offspring. But it is an entirely different thing to interweave with this particular parent and to empathize with this particular

Steiner tells us that one of the faculties which each of us can acquire under the guidance of Michael is self-reliance. It is to grow into an autonomous personality, a person who can take responsibility for her actions herself. Our forefathers were dependent on what the church said, on the laws which the chieftain set, on the code of behavior which the family or nation prescribed. In those times the human being lived without any question within the

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blood community: “Uphold the name of the family, continue the profession of the father or be an outcast.”

But to be a parent and teacher of the young child, in a Michaelic or Gabrielic or whatever age, means to set boundaries for the child. Boundaries give safety, security, assurance, confidence—all of which the young child needs above all else.

To some extent this was still so with the adults in Steiner’s time because they had incarnated before 1879, i.e., into a Gabrielic Age. This meant that these people largely lived by rules of behavior, and this in turn meant that they gave their own children an authoritarian education. I remember the stories my own parents, born in 1898 and 1903, i.e., into a Michaelic Age, told us children—stories of enormous tensions in their homes, tensions between themselves as children of a Michaelic Age and their parents, souls of a Gabrielic Age. Through these tensions a strengthening of the soul forces occurred. Of course, the opposite could also occur, a crushing of the personality, and often it did occur.

Yet, the quality of the boundary which we set in this Michaelic Age has to be different from the quality of the boundary set in a Gabrielic Age. Today the setting of boundaries has to come out of the individual consciousness of each adult and no longer from tradition, not from the guidelines of a particular group of people. This is difficult. Is it not easier for us either to give Sam a free rein and let him be his own master, or to sit on him? Instead, to be truly modern adults means that we learn to discriminate what our priorities are and so decide for the children.

And how is this today? We are in the situation that the little ones we have in the kindergarten are the third or fourth generation of souls who were born in the Age of Michael. Their parents and their grandparents already incarnated with this longing to grow selfreliant. Is this why we adults since the middle of this century have become increasingly antiauthoritarian in our approach to children? Maybe. What is definite for me is that a society which is anti-authoritarian has sapped the children’s strength.

Of course this is a challenge, in that I, the teacher make blunder after blunder. But firstly I have Steiner’s insights to help me— and he repeatedly stresses the importance of a rhythmical life, a rhythmical education—and secondly, I sooner or later begin to feel that the other side of this challenge of self-reliance is joy—the joy of autonomy, the joy of carrying responsibility. One more word about the kind of boundary the young child is looking for in this, his chosen age of incarnation. It is that he needs boundaries which gradually widen, boundaries which can be supportive but not restrictive.

How is that possible? Ours is a permissive society—“Take out of the icebox what you want,” or in answer to Sally’s “I’m not going to bed,” “Okay, then.”—a society in which we adults constantly cave in when the child whimpers, “I want ballet lessons,” or “I’m not going to paint.” This disallows the child to meet the realities of existence; it disallows the child to relate to his surroundings. Instead, the child dissipates his forces.

So, what does it mean for the young child to live his karma of being modern? What does it mean to be a member of the Michaelic Age as a young child? It means in the first place to find and develop courage and confidence in himself. It means to find and develop confidence in people and human existence, to find and develop courage for the future. Both are born 69

The Young Child and the Spiritual World out of boundaries consciously set by parents and teachers. If a child was shaped and formed in some such way by parents and teachers, then in adulthood she is likely to have the strength and skills—physical, social and moral strength and skills—to shape and form life on her own responsibility.

the parents did not shape and form their lives consciously? The mother says, “What, I am housebound? I never expected that.” The father says, “What, I have to be up in the night? I never expected that.” And is the following another form of immaturity of the parent, when the child can never do anything right, when the parents always appear to be dissatisfied? There seems to be a conflict, the conflict of what the parents want the child to be and what the child in reality is. And what if this goes further and the parent does not approve of the child’s destiny?

Before I come to the question of the personal karma of the young child, I want to turn to the parent. Again a story: A young woman was in the fifth month of expecting her second child. “This is a very different pregnancy. It is all fiery. The other one was watery.” And the little one was born on Midsummer Day.

A conversation might help, when I, a friend of the family, try and lift the parent out of experiencing a screaming child. I try and release the mother from experiencing defiance, and again defiance. I shall try to interest her in her early experience: How did you feel when Richard smiled at you for the first time? Then I might try to go back to still earlier experiences: How did you come to the name of the child? What did you experience during pregnancy, what thoughts did you have? Gently, we try to recognize the intimacy of the soul to soul in pregnancy. This re-cognition aims at a kind of listening.

This and other stories can convey to us that there is a relationship between mother and child during pregnancy. Steiner describes the following: When the Ego is in the spiritworld and is face to face with creator beings, the Ego also decides who are to be the parents. Then the parents descend. Later the spiritchild sees the parents and is reminded of the three-way decision and conception takes place. Steiner describes—and modern psychology and embryology give concrete examples— how during embryonic life the mother is in communication with the incarnating soul. She perceives something of the child, e.g., the name: “It’s going to be Robert.” Steiner speaks of a spirit bonding which takes place. Still later, but before birth, the spirit-child has a preview of his life and the mother shares in it. When I read the autobiography of Gerald Moore, the pianist and accompanist of all the great singers of his time, I wondered why his mother had given him a certain push into his career. Had there arisen and lived in her a broad outline of the child’s destiny?

I have come to the last point: The personal karma. Two stories: Marie was four years old when she came into the kindergarten. From the first day she showed intense fear of the very mention of lighting a candle. The teacher ascertained from the parents that the child had never experienced a fire and that she had always been healthy. She had a noticeably milky-white and velvety skin and showed a remarkable walk in that she neither dragged her feet upon the ground nor walked on her toes only. There seemed to be a certain balance between gravity and levity in posture and movements. She was loved by children and adults and provided a focus in the room wherever she happened to be. Both parents had not learned a second language

That the mother intuits the child’s karma can arouse positive or negative feelings in her. What if they are negative? Can it be that during the years preceding the arrival of the child 70

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and not been outside England. But when this first child was born they said, “We want her to have a French name.” And so the little one was named Marie.

I suggest the two statements are compatible because I must not interfere with the will of the child, must not break his will, as so often happened in the last century. It behooves me to recognize the karmic intentions of the child. Once I have recognized them, I can consciously work for karma. Then the teacher becomes a person who removes obstacles, and who creates opportunities so that the karmic intentions of the child can come out to the fullest degree.

It took teachers with the help of the parents over four year to transform Marie’s crying and running away at the sight of the smallest flame into weeping, whimpering, turning her head, and, on into looking at the candle, smiling. Today Marie is an actress. She chose a profession which asks of the person to enflame other personalities, to kindle and enliven other lives.

Let me summarize a few guidelines and practices. I like to call them the disciplines of those adults who are intent on helping the child out of his past and into his future:

Rachel was four years old when she came into the kindergarten. She was the third child in her family and came from a sheltered home in the country. Her eyes were set wide apart. In the kindergarten Rachel watched other children play, or she built herself a house out of two play stands and hung cloths over them, and then walked away, again to watch other children in their activity. After about two weeks teacher and parent noticed Rachel move her eyes and head in an unusual way. The family doctor diagnosed petit mal. We agreed on a pedagogical therapy— singing and music around and with the child, and also interesting her in an indirect way in the house she had built during playtime.

1. That we be observant of bodily features 2. That we be observant of developmental features 3. That we be observant of psychological peculiarities 4. We do well to study Steiner’s karma lectures 5. We do well to become aware of human history, to gauge the state of a soul like Marie’s. I often wondered whether this excessive fear of fire was not a subconscious memory of her death in a former incarnation.

By the time Rachel left school at the age of 18, she was an accomplished viola player who got into the Royal College of Music in London. Today she is working as a music therapist.

And so to conclude: In education parent and teacher are encouraged to make themselves sensitive to karmic differences and to karmic needs. Thereby we will be able to fulfill two tasks:

At this point I want to remind us of another suggestion of Steiner’s. In fact for me it is an admonition, and that is: “Do not interfere with the will of the child.” Why? Because in his will, in his unconscious, lies his karma and because in karma freedom must reign.

1. We open the way for the young child to become fully capable within the limits of her/his karma. 2. We endeavor to educate human beings who are capable of fulfilling the plan of creator beings, capable of answering the expectancy of Michael. ✣

Is the formerly mentioned statement of Steiner’s, “The teacher continues the work of the creator beings,” compatible with this statement, “Do not interfere with the will of the child”? 71

The Young Child and the Spiritual World The following are summaries of three lectures given at the 1991 International Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers conference in Dornach.

Working with the Angels, the Archangels, and the Archai Dr. Helmut von Kügelgen angels, pouring their thoughts into mankind, or it can be the help of those human souls who are now in the spiritual world but wish to help us and work with us.

Dr. von Kügelgen spoke on the human being’s relationship to the hierarchies at a conference in Dornach. He referred to the study material for the conference, a wonderful lecture about how the archai, archangels and angels interact with human beings through our walking, talking and thinking. The lecture is entitled “The Waking of the Human Soul and the Forming of Destiny,” and was given by Rudolf Steiner in Prague on April 28, 1923.

The spiritual world is always there around us, and we can work more consciously if we note the transition as we move from the earthly world to the spiritual world and vice versa. Thus at night we can say as we enter sleep, “Now I am entering the spiritual world,” and in the morning as we awaken, we can say, “Now I am entering the earthly world.”

In the first three years of life, before the child is so engrossed in material life, she has a close relationship with the angels. At night, while asleep, the children meet their angels. They dream of them or have other experiences of them. As we grow up, the qualities of our childhood mature and develop in us and can evolve as imagination, inspiration and intuition. We too, can relate to the angels. It generally happens in our sleep, for it is such a remarkable experience that we might be filled with fear were these contacts to happen in our waking life. Hence, in the Bible, when Gabriel visits Mary, he begins by saying “Fear not …”

We can also connect with the angelic world during the moment before we walk into our classroom. There can be a moment of absolute silence before entering into our work. Our hearts can quicken, and we can say a prayer. For a moment one can think of the angels, or of a friend who is now in the spiritual world. Then one goes with a renewed strength into one’s work. In working with the spiritual world, it is important to work in a rhythm, and particularly the rhythms of seven are a great help. For example, one can work with the rhythm of seven days or seven years or even seven minutes. Seven months, however, would not be a true rhythm. We are not yet so far along that we can observe ourselves over a period of seven lifetimes and work with that rhythm. In rhythms of seven a new strength appears. We can work with meditations in seven day rhythms such as with the Foundation Stone Meditation. Rudolf Steiner gave the Foundation Stone Meditation

In our waking state we can work in such a way that our relationship to the spiritual world is strengthened, both to the angels and to the human souls who have died and are living in the world of the spirit. This relationship can manifest in our daily life in various ways. For example, in the German language, when one receives a sudden idea one says it is eingefallen, it has “fallen in.” But what has fallen in and from where has it fallen? This can be the work of the 72

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as a whole but then showed how one can work with it in seven-day rhythms. In this way one connects with it more fully. If one is trying to work with a number of verses or meditations, such as the Foundation Stone, the Soul Calendar and a verse for the dead, one can put them into rhythms of seven. Thus, the verse for the dead could be said each Saturday, rather than each day.

prerequisite for finding our connection to the spiritual hierarchies. Rudolf Steiner went on to say that we mustn’t overload ourselves with the rational thoughts of the intellectual soul era which is now past. We need to open up to the thoughts of the consciousness soul, recognizing the living spirit in each of us, recognizing our connection with the hierarchies of the spiritual world. When these thoughts are taken up by us with inner strength, they can help us in our work with the parents and in helping lead the children rightly into their new lives on earth. In this context we must realize that it is not our task to educate out of state regulations, nor are we a “program” or simply a method. In the highest sense we work in accordance with the angels, the archangels and the archai. It is these beings of the third hierarchy who employ us, who give us our work. They work with us as individuals, and they work with us as a faculty. Their presence is acknowledged in the Teachers’ Imagination used by the College of Teachers in a school.

When we work with these rhythms of seven, the angels take notice of us. If, for example, we have a sudden impulse to act, we can take time and wait seven minutes before acting. We may then feel that seven minutes is a very long time, indeed. But in this quiet pause something happens. Waiting these seven minutes gives the angels a chance to notice us, to let something “fall into” us. In this way we make time for the angels to enter into our lives, and they wait for us to do this. It is not magnificent revelations from the angels which appear to us in this time, but that the angels see us in this time. They can perceive us only when we are prepared for this to happen and give it time.

As Waldorf educators we work with these beings of the third hierarchy—the angels, the archangels and the archai—but all humanity has a new opportunity to work with them. Since the fifteenth century we have been in the age of the consciousness soul. It is an age which will last over 2000 years, but Rudolf Steiner indicated that the 20th century was an especially important time for humanity to lift up its awareness to the spiritual and begin again to work consciously with the beings of the heavenly world. One way to do this is to include the angels in our planning for the next day. In the evening we can not only review what has happened during that day, we can preview what is to come next for us. We can have a conversation with our angel. Rudolf Steiner said the angel would then grow interested in what is coming. In the morning we should pay

In 1919 Rudolf Steiner said that our century is particularly important during the age of the consciousness soul. It is a time when our consciousness can open up to the realms of nature and to the higher hierarchies. All of this can happen in quite a new way. It happens now that the angels no longer take an interest in the form of man as they did in the past. How can we bring the angel something in which he can take an interest? In this time of the consciousness soul, we must consciously work on ourselves so that the angels can take an interest in us again. We need to realize that every child, every colleague, every parent is more than just a physical being. Every one contains a spiritual being, as well, which brings something with it from previous earth lives. Recognizing the spiritual nature of other human beings is a 73

The Young Child and the Spiritual World attention to what has been said to us during the night. It does not matter if we have forgotten what was said during the night, however, for the angel won’t have forgotten it. When we need the insight given, it returns to us at the right moment. The angel leaves us free, but works to help us, for example, to really understand one another when in a conversation. Later our thoughts may be filled with loving forces which awoke in this conversation. This, too, is the work of the angel.

for they guide the work of whole groups. They guide the development of language, and the spirit of a people is reflected in its language. They also guide the development of language in each individual. Thus it is important to pay attention to speech, so that it is true and beautiful. Our speech can be a fine work of art. In the word lies the archetypal creativity. Rudolf Steiner was always very careful about how he spoke, even in his everyday exchanges. It is especially important how we speak with young children, for they are finding their way into language. We speak to them in whole sentences, and in the good, fine way of fairy tale language. Speech itself can give courage, for it connects us with the archangels, the spirits of time.

A good exercise for preparing for this inner work is to work on control of thinking so that the mind does not jump all around. Rudolf Steiner describes this exercise in several of his books. Such self control in the realm of thinking helps us to receive insights from the angels. We may then suddenly experience that the angelic beings give us the courage to do something which we would not otherwise have had the strength to do.

We can work with the beings of the third hierarchy in so many different ways. As Waldorf teachers we work with the Teachers’ Imagination which refers to the angels, the archangels and the archai. As individuals we can make space for the relationship with the third hierarchy to develop. At night, for a few seconds before sleep, we can think: “The angels, archangels and archai want to help me in my daily work.” In the morning we can think of these beings again and remind ourselves that they want to help us if only we are open to receiving their help. In this way we find the courage for our work. ✣

As teachers it is a help if we study the biographies of individuals. In knowing the life of another, one begins to see how the angels worked into a human being’s destiny, often in most remarkable ways. When we study the destinies of a nation or a people, we can see the working of the archangels,

Walking and the Incarnation of Destiny Joan Almon In this lecture on walking, Joan Almon began by describing what it is like to watch a young toddler who is just beginning to walk. One’s heart is warmed at the sight. The legs are spread wide, the gait rolls a bit as the child seeks balance. There’s many a bump as the child falls down and rises again to its feet. We may also feel a sense of wonder, for there are great mysteries hidden in this seemingly simple deed.

If we look into the far past of mankind’s development and ask at what point did the human being stand upright and walk, then Rudolf Steiner points us to ancient Lemuria. Before this, mankind moved in the horizontal position like the animal kingdom does today. It required the incarnation of the ego in the earth stage of development for human beings to stand upright. This was a great moment in evolution 74

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when mankind was ready to stand upright and walk. Its implications for the destiny of the human being were so great that it drew the attention of Ahriman and Lucifer, who wished to interfere with this important step in human development. They would have loved to have entered in at this moment, pulling mankind so far down into the physical earthly nature, that perhaps there would have been no full uprightness; or, in Lucifer’s case, lifting mankind above the earth so that our feet would not fully touch the earth, our being not fully embrace earthly incarnation. These were the two great dangers which faced mankind as walking began. Rudolf Steiner says in his lecture entitled The Pre-Earthly Deeds of the Christ that a similar threat arose from Ahriman and Lucifer when mankind learned to speak in the early days of Atlantis and when humanity learned to think in the late days of Atlantis. Three great moments in evolution and three great dangers. Steiner goes on to say that each time the Christ Being came to the aid of humanity. The same Being, who later appeared in the body of Jesus, now intervened on behalf of mankind but from the spiritual heights, holding Ahriman and Lucifer at bay, so that mankind could walk, could talk and could think.

the first year, we see a fascinating pattern of development emerge. Emmi Pikler, a physician who had a baby center in Hungary, did intensive observation of children learning to walk and wrote on this subject. Her books have not been translated into English yet. She observed that children all follow a basic pattern of movement which eventually leads them towards crawling, standing upright, walking, climbing, etc. The young child should not be rushed or hindered in the mastery of these movements. Another active observer of the young child was Joan Salter, an anthroposophical nurse in Australia who founded the Gabriel Baby Centre, a type of well-baby clinic. In her book, The Incarnating Child, she describes certain archetypal gestures she has observed in children’s movement in the first year. From early on, when the infant is on its back asleep, its little arms stretch up on either side of its head, looking like the first two little leaves which spring from the stem of a sprouting plant. If the child is ill, the little arms drop to the side like the leaves of an ailing plant. One could say this is the plant stage in human movement. A next stage in movement is the fish stage when the child lies on its tummy and lifts its legs. Often the feet are together looking like a fish tail. In a next stage the child lifts the legs but also the upper chest and arms, so that it looks like it is going to fly. This is the bird stage. In the reptile stage, the child squirms across the floor on its belly, and in the four-legged quadruped stage, it rises on all fours and begins to crawl. At last comes the human stage, when the child pulls itself up onto two legs and begins to walk. It has worked its way through the kingdoms of nature into the human stage. In her book, Joan Salter also likens these stages to the great geological periods of the earth.

This protection by the Christ Being is reenacted in the life of every individual. In the first three years while the child masters walking, talking and thinking the spiritual world gathers around in protection. Ahriman and Lucifer are held at bay. Thus when we see a young child take her first steps we are right in feeling a sense of joy and wonder, for there are great mysteries which stand behind the outwardly simple deed of walking. Turning our sights away from the spiritual history of mankind to the children before us, we can see a series of stages. When we watch the child gain mastery of her physical body in

A third picture emerges from Karl König’s book, The First Three Years, where he speaks 75

The Young Child and the Spiritual World of certain instincts in the infant for crawling, standing upright and walking. These instincts exist and can be activated by touching the feet in certain ways. In this regard the infant resembles the animal kingdom, for the newborn animals have strong instincts for standing up and walking. Many can do it in the first hours after birth. In the human being, however, a different process takes place. We do not master walking out of instinct like the animals. We lose these instincts by the time we are several months old and then go through a process of learning to walk. We are helped by the spiritual world in the form of the archai who help us to walk. We are helped by human beings through our gift of imitating their capacity to walk. And we are helped by the growing strength of the ego within which wants to get up and walk, leaving the realm of the animals behind.

young age. The week before she had shown no interest in tying bows at all. When the mother was asked how this had come about, she laughed and described Ivana’s weekend. For two days she pretended she was going to a birthday party and folded up every bit of paper she could find in the house. From her mother’s yarn basket she cut strings for wrapping up her “birthday packages.” Again and again and again she tied bows, making a total of perhaps 60 or 70 such packages. It would have been terrible to have “assigned” her such a task, but out of the spirit of play and the power of her own will forces she took it on for herself, bringing forth a skill which was ready to be born. As a next stage of development of the will forces, a picture was given of a six-year-old boy who built himself a car in the kindergarten and now was trying to find a way to steer it. The car was made of two stumps which had been turned on their sides with a wide board lying across them. If he straddled the board and pushed with his feet he could make the car roll a bit, but he could not steer it this way. On this particular day he wanted to find a way to steer it and spent 45 minutes trying to tie a rope onto the stumps and onto the board in such a way as to connect the two and maneuver it. Again and again he tried it, first one way and then another. At last he gave up, and with a shrug dropped his rope and went off to play with a friend. One felt he had learned as much from a seeming failure as he would have from a success. One day he would realize that an axle and a drive shaft are needed for this step, which a simple rope could not accomplish. In the meantime, he had fully directed his will to the task and seemed not at all frustrated by his inability to make it work.

The deed of walking has many aspects, and each has implications for our whole life. To begin with, walking requires the activation of our will which is so closely related to our limbs. The development of will is of special interest to the kindergarten teacher and can be illustrated with a series of examples. A six-month-old named Gordon was observed over a period of a month as he tried to turn from his back to his stomach. Again and again and again he worked at this until at last he accomplished it. He never showed signs of frustration and seemed undaunted by the hundreds of times he failed to turn over. He kept trying until at last he succeeded, and then began to work on the next type of movement. A similar focus of will was seen in a fourand-a-half year old girl named Ivana. She came to kindergarten one Monday and announced that she could tie a bow. She demonstrated it with great ease and skill. Her teacher wondered how she had come to learn this complicated task which is usually not mastered at such a

The same boy, not long after this, at a point when he was showing strong signs of first grade readiness, had the following conversation with his teacher: She was churning butter and was 76

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at the point of paddling the butter to separate off the butter milk. He was watching her and noted that although the cream had been white when it entered the churn, the butter was now yellow. “Why?” he asked. The teacher told him she did not know but had always wondered about this change in color. Simply wondering was not enough for him. He seemed to gather up his will forces and direct them towards his thinking. One could almost feel the wheels of thought going around. He stood by the teacher for several moments with a look of deep concentration on his face. He then brightened up and announced, “I know why. You see, the cream came from a cow and the cow ate grass and the grass was green. Green is made up of blue and yellow, and that is where the yellow came from.” Having concluded this he went off to his next activity, leaving his teacher in amazement.

of directed, focused will in the thinking. Thus, in this way, will evolves from the earliest movements of infancy through the play of childhood and takes its place in adult activity in human thought. Another aspect of walking is the upright nature of the human being. We tend to take this for granted, but it is a very significant step which carries us out of the instinctual, animal realm and into the human sphere. Yet many children display a strong wish to remain in the animal sphere in their kindergarten play. What should one do for such a child? Some teachers forbid all forms of animal play in the kindergarten in order to help the children play out human roles. Others allow all forms of animal play but often complain of how wild the kindergarten becomes and of how one feels the mood has sunken in an unpleasant way. One way was described in which the children may play animal roles, but only domesticated animals, those who live in relationship to human beings such as cats and dogs or farm animals. “Wild animals are for outside,” but outside the children usually forget about them and do not engage in animal play. When one allows animal play, then one needs to observe the children who are drawn to it in order to decide if it is a healthy stage of play or whether a child is stuck in animal play and needs help to emerge from it into human play. Two examples were given.

Her amazement grew even deeper some time later when she repeated this story to a group of parents and one, who had milked many cows, said, “He’s absolutely right. In the summer when the cows eat grass, the butter from their cream is yellow, while in winter when they eat hay, the butter turns white. This occurs because the grass contains carotene, the same substance which makes carrots orange.” Many old-fashioned farmers’ wives added natural yellow coloring to their winter butter to give it a bright, summery look. One finds a description of this process in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books.

In one, a five-year-old was described who had a very strong stubborn streak in her. She was unusually independent and at times uncooperative. Because of this, it was difficult to fully relate to her in the kindergarten. She became ill with whooping cough and was home for a month. When she returned she seemed to have outgrown her extreme stubbornness. She was in a sweeter place, though physically a bit weak and vulnerable. Around this time she began to take animal roles in a farm play which

When this story was told to a Waldorf high school mathematics teacher, he remarked that it is this same force of will in the thinking which is so necessary for a student to do well in math. One sees how some students have great difficulties penetrating a problem with their will forces, while others apply their will with great success. Doing well in math is not only a question of native ability. It is also a question 77

The Young Child and the Spiritual World the children repeated over a period of time. She was usually a sheep or a cow and liked to be near people who would care for her. When this phase ended she rose to her feet again and began to show much more care towards others. The sweet side of her nature began to emerge more and more, and her fierce independence and stubbornness, which had often alienated other children, was tempered by good will and concern for others. In her case, playing animal seemed to have been a temporary backward step which did her much good.

has access to his hands, he leaves the world of the creature and joins forces with the world of the creator. A whole new element begins to enter the human soul. For some children this transition seems difficult. They enter the kindergarten and look as if they do not know what to do with their hands, which seem to dangle lifelessly at their sides. Or they use their hands to behave in animal-like ways, pinching like a crab, scratching like a cat, hitting like a bear. Their hands need to be brought up into the human realm of creation. All kindergarten children need to see the healthy work which human hands can do, but such children may need extra help to interest their hands in creative, human activity. It is not only the creative work of painting, drawing or modeling which is necessary for the children, but the daily work of table setting, dish washing, handwork, etc., which helps children more fully experience the realm of being human.

In another case, however, a boy who was always nervous and tense tended to play animal roles nearly all the time. His animals tended not to live closely with human beings, but were often alone and sometimes rather wild. Out of himself he rarely stayed on his feet in a human role for the whole of play time. In this case it seemed he was “caught” in the horizontal and needed help to come more fully up into the vertical. The teacher chose to intervene and would frequently take him by the hand when he wanted to engage in animal play and bring him to a work activity or help him build a human house for himself. Gradually he spent less and less time as an animal and also became a much more harmonious child. He was the child who, two years later, gave the wonderful explanation about the yellow butter. In his case, helping him move away from animal play towards human play seemed to have been a helpful and necessary step.

When our hands are freed, when they can be lifted up high, something of the Divine enters into us. An element of God the Creator becomes awake in our being. In the Oberufer Christmas plays at the end of the Paradise Play, this is said beautifully when the Devil’s chains fall from Adam and Eve, and Adam is free to raise up his arms. Then God speaks and says: See now, this Adam such wealth has won Like to a God he is become, Knowledge he has of evil and good, He can lift up his hand on high, Whereby he liveth eternally.”

Another aspect of walking is the freeing of the hands. Once the child stands erect, he no longer needs his hands for movement. What does this signify for the human being? We speak of animals or other lowly beings as “creatures,” something less than human. Someone using the full capacities of being human is a “creator.” Similar sounding words but with such different meanings. When the child stands upright and

This beautiful passage also points to another aspect of human uprightness and walking, that of knowing good and evil. We can call this the area of human morality and can consider what is meant when we say a person is upright. The children look to us for guidance in the human, moral realm as well as in the other realms discussed, and each teacher must think 78

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through how to bring this realm to life in the kindergarten. We do not preach or moralize with young children, but yet a moral tone needs to be established so that the children can live together in peace.

poet Byron. Byron, too, was born with a club foot. In a previous incarnation these two men had known each other and had set out on a great spiritual mission together. They were not successful in this mission, and although Rudolf Steiner does not spell out the picture in detail, one gets the feeling that the cut-off mission of the past mirrors itself in the physical condition of the next incarnation.

Another aspect of walking pertains to the destiny of the individual. In the lecture studied for this conference, The Waking of the Human Soul and the Forming of Destiny, Rudolf Steiner says, “The primary measure of destiny is expressed in the learning to walk.” (page 11) How are we to understand this? It might first seem to us that all children walk the same in the beginning, but on closer observation of children one sees significant differences in the early steps of a child. As kindergarten teachers we do not have many opportunities to observe this phase of development, but those who work with children in the first three years may note these differences and develop a sense of their significance.

Can such pictures speak to us as kindergarten teachers who are trying to help the children meet their own karmic situations? Most of us do not have these insights into their past lives, but we do have opportunities to help the children with meeting their destiny in the present. Often one gets the feeling that a child’s way is blocked, that something stands in the way of his moving forward to meet his destiny. One wants to help, but how? The young child in the first seven years lives so strongly in the realm of movement that often it is through movement that the blockage can be removed or at least minimized. When the child shows a greater difficulty, curative eurythmy can be a great help in removing hindrances from a child’s path. In simpler cases, the activities which arise in the kindergarten can clear the way. A few examples were given.

In his lectures on Karmic Relationships, Rudolf Steiner gives another picture of the importance of walking to karma. Often he traces a person’s past life by noting how they walk in this lifetime. In this regard he speaks of his own geometry teacher, a man who had a profound impact on Rudolf Steiner when he was a student. He describes the man as he knew him in this lifetime, a man who was a great geometrician but whose thinking did not go beyond the bounds of geometry into mathematics as a whole. Even within geometry, he was not open to the many changes which were then taking place in that field. One gets the impression that his thinking was narrowly circumscribed, but within those limits his thinking was profound. Then Rudolf Steiner speaks of how this man was incarnated with a club foot. He often thought of his teacher and of the significance of his physical condition and then began to understand a past life which his teacher had shared with the individuality who later became the English

A little girl, age 5, was described as being very sweet and very good, but perhaps too good. Of such children Rudolf Steiner said, be careful, for the spirit does not flow strongly enough in them. She participated in the kindergarten but not with the enthusiasm and joy that one expects from a healthy child. At times she would sit alone and look quite sad and heavy-hearted. Towards the end of winter there was a large snowstorm, and when the school’s parking lot was plowed a large mound of snow was pushed to the end of the lot. When all the snow from the playground had melted, the children were allowed to play on this mound. She wanted to 79

The Young Child and the Spiritual World play there with the other children, but had great difficulty walking on the snow which was very uneven. She was encouraged to persist, however, and every day for a week she struggled across the snow, backwards and forwards, until at last she could walk across it with ease. She had found a new form of balance in her walking and in herself as well, for after this she was a much more enthusiastic participant in the kindergarten.

ancient past mankind lived very closely with the gods. In Atlantis, the realm of the gods was the reality for mankind, even as today mankind is at home with the plants and animals. At that time the physical world was hazy and unclear to mankind, but the spiritual world was very clear. Gradually, mankind’s consciousness descended away from the heavenly and towards the earthly. At the time of Egypt, for example, the thrust of spiritual life was to bring consciousness down to earth. One feels this in the Egyptian temples where one enters first into an open air courtyard, then an enclosed courtyard, then into one room after another, each growing smaller in size. One has the sense of penetrating inward to the center and being brought down. What a difference this is in contrast to entering a Gothic cathedral. The whole thrust of the cathedral is upward and the human spirit rises with it. In the Egyptian temple, mankind’s spirit was still in the process of incarnating, whereas after the time of the Christ, the direction of the human spirit is upwards again.

In another case some boys between six and seven years old were growing disenchanted with the kindergarten. They were at a difficult stage of first grade readiness and seemed blocked in finding a new relationship to the kindergarten. On a rainy day the teacher set up a “circus” for them with a high-wire act, consisting of an 8"-wide board suspended between two tables. She suggested they walk across it, thinking that as they were first grade ready they should have sufficient balance for such a task. They were afraid, however, and did not trust themselves to do it, but she offered her hand, which they held onto with all their might. After a few crossings they began to realize they could do it and held her hand much more loosely. Then they crossed without holding on. They began to grow very confident and started to hop across, to walk with their eyes closed, to walk across backwards, etc. After this day of play, it was as if an inner blockage had been removed from them, and they showed fresh enthusiasm for all the kindergarten had to offer them.

Now we are on the journey up, and Rudolf Steiner says much progress will be made in this age of the consciousness soul, a 2000-year period which began in the 15th century. In particular, he says that this, the 20th century, will be a critical time for mankind’s journey. At this time we begin to separate ourselves from the dense consciousness of the physical and turn our attention upwards. The etheric body of the modern human begins to loosen itself from the dense physical and with it the consciousness begins to loosen. This is not an easy process for all human beings. Some are so attached to the physical that they cling too hard and are fearful of moving towards the spiritual. One result of this is the growth of pathological fears suffered by so many modern human beings. It is important that modern human beings find their way along this new path towards the spirit. “If he [mankind] has lost consciousness of the

A final aspect of walking which was included in the lecture pertained to the question of the future destiny of mankind. In which direction is mankind walking? Who will guide our steps along the path of the future? Reference was made to a lecture by Rudolf Steiner entitled Easter: The Mystery of the Future (April 13, 1908). In this lecture Rudolf Steiner describes the spiritual path of mankind in this way: In the 80

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spiritual world, has come to believe that life in the physical body and things to be seen in the physical world are the only realities, then for all ages of time he must dangle, as it were, in midair. He will have lost his bearings in the spiritual world and will have no ground under his feet. He will be threatened, in this condition, with what is known as the ‘spiritual death’… That is the death in the spiritual world. It is the doom which threatens men if, before passing again into the spiritual worlds, they fail to bring with them any consciousness of those worlds.” (The Festivals and Their Meaning, pages 210–211)

Fortunately we have not been abandoned on this journey. Just as the Christ Being came to mankind’s aid when he first learned to walk and was threatened by the presence of Ahriman and Lucifer, just as His presence on the earth marked a new direction for mankind, just as His working with the hierarchies aids every child as he learns to walk anew, so too He is prepared to help us walk along this new path towards the spirit. Of the Christ’s new task Rudolf Steiner says, He will not only be Comforter, but the One Who goes before us. In the future His Being will permeate all knowledge, all art, all life. His presence lights our path into the future. ✣

The Wonder of Acquiring Speech Dr. Michaela Glöckler What do walking, talking and thinking have in common? They are not laid into us in a fixed manner as some things which are genetically determined. Rather, they arise from within the child through the process of imitation. They can develop only if certain activities happen which involve the child.

speech center through imitation, but this child was no longer sensitive to the development of the center through imitation. Instead, language developed in another part of the brain, on the right side, and it could not fully develop there. She developed language in the way that a very young child develops it—everything is nice or not nice, yes or no. This 13-year-old spoke in this same way, beginning a sentence with “yes” or “no” and then giving a simple identification of what she liked or didn’t like.

An example was given of a 13 year old girl who, out of criminal neglect, never learned to speak. She was kept in an imprisoned state and grew up mute. Then she was discovered at age 13, and her overall intelligence was less than that of a two year old. In the next two years she learned a great deal. She developed speech, but it was an unusual form of speech. If she wanted to say, “I don’t like the color on the walls,” she would express it by saying, “No—wall color.” Her speech developed in two-word sentences. She was right handed, but her speech center was on the right side, rather than the left. This is quite unusual, for in 97% of people, the speech center, known as the Broca center, is on the left side of the brain. Normally the child learns to use this

Different aspects of speech develop in different parts of the brain. For example, the first language, the mother tongue, develops in one part of the brain, but subsequent languages develop in another part. An example was given of a woman who had learned a German dialect as her mother tongue. Later she learned to speak “high German.” After an accident which affected the brain, she lost her use of the high German, but her use of dialect remained, for that part of the brain had not been injured. In other cases of brain injury, one might be able to understand language, but not be able to speak it. 81

The Young Child and the Spiritual World The title of this lecture is the wonder of speech, and it is a good word, for there is a strong element of wonder which arises when we consider speech and its development. Acquiring speech is not an inherited process but a process of learning. What are the preconditions for a child to learn speech? This is a complicated question, for there are many fundamental elements of speech, all of which need to develop. Consonants and vowels, for instance, have different qualities. The vowel element expresses how we feel, while the consonants are more directly related to the outer sense world. Every syllable contains both elements, so that each syllable builds a bridge from self to the world.

Beginning with the second year of life, the child experiences a continual development of speech. All parts of the mouth contribute to the development of speech, and if one part is adversely affected it can affect the form of the speech to a greater or lesser extent. Dr. Glöckler used herself as an example and said that a crown which was put on one of her teeth affects the way she forms the sound s. Speech develops in the child while the mouth itself is developing. Approximately one fourth of kindergarten-aged children have speech difficulties, but most will outgrow them by themselves. By adolescence only 1–2% of them will still have problems. In most children, the problems disappear by age 5 or 6. Others will stop having problems with the change in teeth, so that by age 8 or 9 most will no longer have difficulty in speech.

Rudolf Steiner said that the astral body is the carrier of the feeling for speech. But also to speak and understand speech we need the capacity for thought and the functioning of the ego. It is not a simple matter. Physical parts of the body are also necessary for the formation of speech. The timbre or quality of the speech is related to the air flowing through the larynx, which is a very complicated organ in its own right. It contains a great many small muscles, as many muscles as one finds in the rest of the body. The larynx is like a little person, a miniature of the whole human being in movement. At the physical level one also needs to take into account the form of the mouth with its palate, teeth and tongue. Books were recommended to help understand this picture, and one is by Wolfgang Schad and is entitled Erziehung ist Kunst. It has not yet been translated into English. When we look at the shape of the mouth, we realize how closely related it is to the capacity for speech. The ape cannot speak, for instance, for its mouth is not formed for speech. The ape’s mouth juts forward as it develops, whereas the human mouth grows backwards as the second teeth and molars come in. The front of the mouth of a young child and of an adult are more or less the same in form.

Wolfgang Schad gives a picture of language differences on the African continent in contrast to China. In Africa, from Tunisia to Capetown, one finds about 700 different languages in use. This does not count dialects which are also abundant. In contrast, in the whole huge land of China there is only one language present. Also, China has had a written language from its earliest times, whereas Africa did not initially develop a written language. In Africa, the spoken word has great importance. It is full of magic. In China the written language is of great importance, and the written language is the same throughout the country. About 4000 characters are used in the written language of Chinese newspapers. More characters exist, but at the newspaper level 4000 suffice for expression. People all over China can read the same newspaper and understand it. Even though they may pronounce the characters differently, they read them and understand them in the same way. The Chinese language is based on pictures, and the characters have remained much the same over time. There has been diversity 82

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and change in the language, but there is enough continuity that texts which are thousands of years old can still be easily read. In the German language, in contrast, texts written in the old German of the Middle Ages can no longer be read except by scholars. Each continent has its own qualities of soul life and these are reflected in its language development. In China, we see a land unified by language in which the old forms can continue to live into the present. Thinking and speaking are closely aligned in China, whereas in Africa speaking and movement are more closely aligned. On the African continent with its 700 languages, social relations are of great importance. The basic quality of love has developed strongly there, as well as the social feeling for others. All of this flows out of the astral body very strongly in Africa. It is part of the picture of Africa, whereas China has a contrasting picture.

again in language. We must work to find sense in language in order to help the students. It is important for the children to meet an adult who speaks with an Ego consciousness. There are ways to work on language which help raise human speech to cosmic speech. For example, we can work on our relationship with the everyday words of the language and learn to love them, to set them free. The poor words which are used every day are no longer shining. We can love them and give them color. Then they laugh again. Speech is our friend. If we feel depressed we can take a poem, even a very simple one, and work it through word for word. We can speak the words in different ways, with strength or gentleness, for instance. We can hear how funny they sound when they are spoken with a quality not true to the word. It is difficult to capture and express inner qualities in words.

In the development of the child, we see language unfolding in different ways during the various stages of the child’s growth. Between 7 and 14, children love to play with language. They make jokes and play with words. This is a time when language is extremely important. Rudolf Steiner gave many indications about language to the class teachers. Dr. Glöckler feels that about 70% of discipline problems in the elementary grades can be met through more awareness of language. In contrast about 70% of kindergarten discipline problems can be met through greater awareness of movement. It is so important that we speak well to the children. We should “clean” our speech organ like we clean our teeth each morning so that we can speak rightly to the children of different ages.

Speech lives very deeply within us and is related to our own “I” or Ego. In Paradise, Adam was asked to name all the creatures. The memory of paradise lives on in our speech. Finding the self within is related to this process of giving names. Part of the mystery of the I is that it comes to birth and incarnation through a series of identifications. In early childhood we identify with an activity such as dish washing and take it into ourselves through imitation. In the elementary grades we identify with the world in the soul realm through love. In adolescence we identify at the thought level through interest. Through these three realms of interest, the I comes into incarnation. Working through these realms the “I” goes beyond physical nature and comes to discover its spiritual nature.

The teenager experiences a different aspect of language. They are looking for meaning, and sometimes feel meaning has gone. This can be a crisis for the individual. Eurythmy is of great help to them in finding meaning

In the word there is tremendous creative power which can be alive in us. The whole of world creation is in us and can be awakened more fully in us when we work on the word. The word became darkened through the fall 83

The Young Child and the Spiritual World of mankind, but we can bring new thinking and will to the realm of speech. It is our task as teachers to bring new qualities to speech so that a new consciousness can shine through. This is a great help to children as they seek to find their

own Ego. If we reactivate the archetypal Adam within us, he who had the power to name things, then this newfound power of speech works creatively on the children. Loving language should be today’s motto. ✣

Verse for the Beginning of Teaching the Ancient Languages To him who understands the sense of speech The world ensheathes itself in a picture. To him who hears the speech of soul The world reveals itself as a being. He who experiences the speech of the spirit Receives the world with the strength of wisdom. He who is able to love speech Is given its own power. So I will turn my heart and senses To the spirit and soul of the world. And in love, I will find myself For the first time through it. – Rudolf Steiner

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The Sistine Madonna The Sistine Madonna by Raphael: Is It Appropriate in the Kindergarten? René Querido This article is a revised version of the content presented in a talk to Waldorf kindergarten teachers during the Western Regional Teachers Conference in February 1989, held at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, California.

For the past 250 years or so it has had as its home the National Gallery in Dresden, now in East Germany, a once beautiful city struck by a tragic destiny at the end of World War II when thousands upon thousands of its inhabitants were killed in a senseless bombing raid. The painting survived the many vicissitudes of wars, revolutions and insurrections from the 18th century onwards and counts among its admirers such various and distinguished personalities as Goethe, Novalis and Dostoyevsky.

Of the countless masterpieces of Renaissance painting perhaps none occupies such a remarkable position as the Sistine Madonna by Raphael. It embodies in a superb manner great contrasts: the painting is both magnificent and intimate in character, heavenly and earthly in mood, sacred and secular in portraying the mysteries of motherhood and the eternal feminine.

Today one approaches the original canvas, measuring some eight or nine feet in height (for the figures are life size), from the end of a long gallery. The experience as one slowly moves toward the Madonna is indeed truly overwhelming, for as one draws near, one senses that the central figure carrying the child gently strides towards the beholder like some supersensible revelation. With the green curtains on either side drawn, we seem to cross a threshold into a heavenly realm where, against a background of numberless angelic faces, and supported by billowing clouds, the mystery of motherhood and of Mary with the child is revealed. The central female figure combines a serene, divine countenance with great earthly beauty. Raphael may well have been inspired by one of his many beautiful models, but here he transformed the experience into a heavenly countenance. The child is remarkably awake

Raphael (1483–1520), who was born on one Good Friday and died on another at the early age of 37, is said to have painted the Sistine Madonna a few years before his death. It therefore belongs to the artist’s later period. Although it served as an altarpiece for a number of years, the original intention for it may have been a very different one. Executed on canvas rather than on a wooden panel as was the custom, it may have been painted expressly to be carried in processions through the crowded streets of Rome at high festivals of the Virgin Mary. This would also suggest that it was meant, in spite of its magnificence and considerable size, to be a work of art for the people at large and not simply for the clergy or nobility.

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The Sistine Madonna and knowing for one so young, as if aware of the thorny road that he is destined to tread on the earth.

conflict to bring about peace. He did so by renouncing power. Widely admired for his magnanimity and benevolence, he was canonized shortly after his death and was regarded with special veneration, together with Saint Laurentius, by many generations right up to the Renaissance.

Too little attention has been given to the two saints that flank the central figure. They form an intrinsic part of the composition as indeed do the two winged cherubic beings at the foot of the painting who peek at the events above with a quiet, somewhat mischievous, childlike curiosity.

These two biographical vignettes will help us to understand Raphael’s wise choice in portraying just these particular saints on either side of Mary and the Child. They represent archetypes: Sixtus of power transformed into peace, Barbara of the sacrifice of beauty into spiritual love—both inspired by the eternal feminine that had borne the child. Indeed, if then we view the central figure also as a divine archetype made manifest on earth in all her glory, beauty and inner serene strength, this masterpiece is lifted out of any one-sided, dogmatic interpretation. It is not merely a Christian painting in the narrow sense of the word. It can appeal strongly and intimately to men and women of any religious persuasion— Christians, Hebrews, Buddhists alike—if it is seen as representing an ideal of conscious yet eternal motherhood carrying the child, awakening from innocence to strong deeds of love. Such representations are also found in other cultures: in Isis and the child Horus, in Kwan Yiu or the Canon of the Orient.

Saint Sixtus II, a magnificent old man clad in golden papal robes, is seen on our left looking up in deep reverence and conscious recognition at the mother and child. His right arm and hand point outward to the beholder while his left hand rests with a warm, sympathetic gesture on his heart. In strong contrast we have on our right a portrayal of the young, beautiful Saint Barbara whose head is turned with lowered gaze towards us, her hands folded in devotion across her breast. The historical background of these two figures will give further meaning to the total composition. Both Saint Barbara (235–313) and Sixtus II (Pope: 257–258) lived in Italy during the third century A.D. when the original Christ impulse in its fullness had not yet been impeded by church dogma and state approval.

Let us now deal with the question: Should a reproduction of the Sistine Madonna necessarily be displayed in our kindergartens, and if so, why?

Barbara, renowned for her beauty, was locked up in a tower by her father who feared that she had become a Christian. She maintained her faith and suffered horrible torture which as a consequence left her disfigured for life. Her father ordered her killed, but legend tells us that as the execution was to be accomplished he was struck by lightning. Saint Barbara lived into her late seventies and was known for her loving, caring deeds for the poor and ailing.

In 1911 Rudolf Steiner gave indications to Dr. Peipers in Munich that a healing influence proceeds from contemplating again and again a series of Madonnas in reproduction arranged in the form of a pentagram. The series of 15 pictures, mostly Madonnas by Raphael (there is one by Donatello and one by Michelangelo), opens with the Sistine Madonna,

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whose composition itself is clearly based on the pentagram, and culminates in Raphael’s Transfiguration, his last and unfinished painting.

pointed out that only under these conditions could certain supersensible beings participate in the earthly happening. He also indicated that from now onwards, occult teachings should never again be severed from the artistic impulse.

Astonishingly powerful healing can be accomplished even by meditating upon these pictures in black and white reproductions, as was the case in Steiner’s time when he gave the indication to Dr. Peipers for his patients. (Today the series is readily available in colored postcards.)

Later, in 1913–14, in the whole complex construction of the first Goetheanum and its arrangements of inner and outer spaces, pillars with carved capitals, engraved colored windows, and painted cupolas, the same theme appears in a more comprehensive and powerful way. Space, color, and form can exert a direct, beneficent healing influence and are able to awaken, under certain circumstances, dominant spiritual powers in the beholder.

How are we to understand this process? In our circles we are familiar with the soul strengthening that can be received by meditating regularly on a verse or mantra. Such words—and Rudolf Steiner has provided us with hundreds of verses for particular occasions—contain through their content, sound, cadence and composition a seed power that seeks to awaken new faculties in the soul. For the teacher this is of special significance, for such inner activity regularly practiced in the stillness of the soul makes us more able to cope with our task of caring for and educating children.

In the light of the above, we need to tread a balanced path between over-sentimentality and cold abstraction in determining the role of the Sistine Madonna in the kindergarten. To exclude this masterpiece altogether seems foolish. If parents object to its presence on religious grounds, we should attempt to educate them to a wider viewpoint. By the way, I am not suggesting that some of the above considerations should be thrown at the heads of inquiring parents. Each kindergarten teacher has to use her (his) tact and discretion in what to say or not say. What matters is that one has come to an inner conviction oneself over a period of time and speaks to the hearts and minds of the parents out of a depth of personal experience.

What is perhaps less familiar is the use of the Yantra, as it is know in the East: a picture, a scroll of calligraphy (as particularly practiced by the Japanese), or a statue, which through its mere presence in a hall, a place of worship, or a private room endows the space with an uplifting mood. Without using this terminology, Rudolf Steiner practiced the use of signs and symbols in a similar manner for the first time at the Munich Conference of 1907. There he indicated that the walls of the Hall where the Rosicrucian Conference was to take place were to be draped from top to floor with curtains of bright vermilion. It was also on this occasion that the occult signs and seals, together with models of the pillars of Joachim and Boaz from the Temple of Solomon, were first displayed. Rudolf Steiner

Equally, it is inappropriate to build an altar draped with colored veils around the Sistine Madonna. A shrine-like display with candles will justifiably create uneasiness in many parents, even among those who are genuinely interested in the new mysteries revealed through anthroposophy. Our task therefore is a difficult one: to learn to appreciate that this superb masterpiece combines a serene, sober mood with divine revelation and is utterly devoid of sentimentality. Can we therefore accord the 87

The Sistine Madonna Sistine Madonna a special place in the room in a simple, straightforward manner, bearing in mind that the children’s attention need not be drawn to it? It acts in a healing, peaceful manner through its very presence.

full reproduction in a large print (considering the size of the original) rather than making do with a detail of the painting. This is especially so because the flanking figures express through gesture and mood the qualities of peace and love. The cherubic figures at the foot of the painting contribute a delightful quality of childlike innocence. ✣

A final word: It may be helpful to consider whether it would not be preferable to display the

The Sistine Madonna A Symbol of the Eternal Spirituality in People Why did Rudolf Steiner give mothers-tobe the advice to look often upon Raphael’s painting of the Sistine Madonna? In many contexts, he mentions this painting which is also found in many Waldorf kindergartens. Some of these comments help one to understand this advice.

and surrounded by clouds which, as if of their own accord, become similar to human forms. One of the clouds, as if solidified, resembles the child of the Madonna. As she appears there, she brings forth in us quite special feelings about which we might well say that, when these feelings pass through our soul, we could forget all the legendary ideas out of which the picture of the Madonna has grown, and we could forget all Christian traditions which tell us about the Madonna. I would like to put forward this opinion about what we can experience in the presence of this Madonna—not to characterize it in a dry manner but rather to characterize it in the most heartfelt way possible. Whoever considers the development of humankind from the point of view of spiritual science, comes to the conclusion that the human being existed before the beings of the animal, plant, and even mineral realms existed. The painting of the Madonna with the child is the symbol of the eternal spirituality in people which comes certainly to the earth from beyond. Yet, this painting, through parted clouds, has everything that can only arise or proceed from the earthly.” (Rudolf Steiner, 1-30-1913)

If one were to try, while contemplating this painting, to describe and express in words what he is seeing, observing, feeling and understanding, he will surely find the answer. With this in mind, the following quotations are meant to deepen and make conscious that experience. – Dr. Helmut von Kügelen “Let us now allow one of Raphael’s paintings to make an impression upon us. It is the Sistine Madonna, which is located nearby in Dresden and which probably each one of us knows from the numerous copies which have been spread throughout the whole world. It stands before us as one of the most splendid, most noble artworks of human development. The mother appears to us with the child, floating on the air, down from the clouds which surround the earth, floating out of the undefined—one might even say out of the spiritual, super-sensible world. She is clothed

“…And Raphael has, in a wonderfully delicate and pure way, revealed this mystery by 88

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The Sistine Madonna

showing how, out of the spiritual heads of the little angels, the Madonna, the human being, takes shape and brings forth anew the blossom of Jesus of Nazareth who is to receive the Christseed. The entire evolution of humankind is wonderfully contained in this painting of the Madonna!” (Rudolf Steiner, 12-22-1908)

are not for us alone but rather through which we are working together on the entire structure of the world. Through our feelings, we serve the higher beings who are shaping the world. And if we believe, while viewing the Sistine Madonna, that we are gratifying the feeling which arises in us, it is a fact that a real process, a real event is taking place. If such feelings were not present, those beings who are supposed to be working on the structure of future conditions and incarnations on earth would not have the strength that they need for their work. Our feelings are as necessary for the structure of the houses which the gods are building in the world as are bricks for the construction of a person’s house. And what we know about our feelings is once again only a part. We know what a joy it is for us to stand before the Sistine Madonna. But what happens there is a part of the whole world, and it is quite immaterial how we consciously approach it.” (Rudolf Steiner, 7-6-1915)

“One can see in the Sistine Madonna that a great cosmic mystery is being impressed upon human hearts, and one will be able to build upon this in the future. When humanity will have come to the type of non-denominational, broad and encompassing Christianity which Spiritual Science already represents today, one will be able to continue building up this wonderful mystery that has influenced human minds just as the Sistine Madonna has done. Often it has been proven to me that when a person looks into the eyes of children, he can know that something looks out from the children’s eyes which did not enter their being during birth, something which shines out of the depths of human souls. If one looks at the children in Raphael’s Madonna painting, one sees the same elements of that which is divine, secret and beyond the human in their eyes as are still in the eyes of a child shortly after birth. One can observe this in all Raphael’s paintings of children with one single exception. One of the children in his paintings cannot be interpreted in this way, and it is the Baby Jesus of the Sistine Madonna. Upon looking into the eyes of this child, one realizes that there is already more to him than is possible in a human being. Raphael has made this difference that in this single child of the Sistine Madonna something is living which from the outset is experienced as purely spiritual and Christ-like.”

“…And if you look at the wonderful painting called the Mater Gloriosa who is receiving Faust’s soul, there you have the counterpart to that to which Raphael alludes in his most famous painting, the Sistine Madonna, where the Virgin Mother is bringing the soul down here; at the end of Faust, we see how the Virgin Mother bears the soul upward—it is the soul’s birth upon death.” (Rudolf Steiner, 1-17-1915) “Thus I had always gazed in amazement upon the holy Sistine Madonna by Raphael, which I already knew earlier from copper engravings and copies, due to the worldencompassing look of the child and the deeply felt virginal countenance and being of the mother of this divine child. You see here represented with the world’s greatest masterly strokes Child and God and Mother and Virgin all at the same time in divine radiance. This

“Since we are people with feelings, we are also creatures, beings of the Hierarchies, and we also operate where the Hierarchies operate. We work in this weaving, we perform deeds which 89

The Sistine Madonna painting alone is a world, a very full artistic world, and it alone would have sufficed to make

its creator immortal even if he had painted nothing else.” (Dresden, 8-16-1813) ✣

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The Education of the Teacher Working with an Assistant Who Is Striving to Become a Teacher Freya Jaffke From notes taken by Margret Meyerkort at the Hannover Kindergarten Conference, Spring 1986.

There is a twofold need: first, to apply that which one received during the training, and second, to enter into and adapt to a new situation. The “new” will fully hit the young teacher when in the second year she has her own group—she will have to let go of that which she learned from her “master teacher.” And so, she attends conferences and has conversations to test and grope her way forward. She realizes: “That which I have learned so far is not enough for me. Where can I find what I need?” During this first year after the training course, the new teacher is at sea. This is particularly so with regard to the festivals.

In Germany the kindergarten trainee spends one year as an assistant, then two years in a kindergarten seminar, and a final year again as an assistant. This final year is a concentrated year of practical learning and training. It could be considered an apprenticeship. As kindergarten teachers we have to be responsible for giving guidance and direction, as well as meeting the demands, challenges and expectations of the assistant. In other words, we are still offering them a training during this fourth year. This means, in the first place, that we are able to offer them insights and information which we learn each and every day from our studies of the anthroposophical picture of the human being. The assistant has a right to expect that the one who trains him or her is able to look at her/his own shortcomings and review her/his own life.

The first encounter and conversation between assistant and kindergarten teacher marks the first efforts to work together. During the coming year, all the subsequent preparations for festivals, snack time, etc., continue this important process of working together. During this first conversation between teacher and assistant, one discusses and exchanges dates— anthroposophical conferences, conferences on Waldorf education, parents’ workshops, teachers’ meetings, study groups, and artistic and handwork courses.

To take on a group of children the year after a training seminar is for many students too great a burden. Instead, the student wants, and needs, to learn to apply the course work, to integrate methods for a group of children, to meet and involve herself in the work with the parents, to continue her own studies. This is the need from her own point of view. From the point of view of the children, of parents and colleagues, and of anthroposophy, she must grow more aware of her intentions and grow accountable for them.

We may discuss with her the dress and demeanor of the teacher—because as pedagogues of the 0–7-year-old child we aim at being in the first place a mother, e.g., to wear a skirt rather than pants, to wear a hat outdoors, to wear an apron indoors, and in the garden 91

The Education of the Teacher a different apron, to place a mat under a vase to protect the table, to change from outdoor shoes into indoor shoes, etc. All of this is done not to be finicky but so that the young child is received and taken into the world with care and protection. To carry this out, the assistant needs to know where all the different objects of the kindergarten live and how the routines of the kindergarten are carried out.

to eventually take responsibility for a group of children herself and many are the steps on the way. Furthermore, we all know that the life in the kindergarten is so rich and manifold that one can easily forget something. It has proven helpful to make notes of the procedure of painting, for example, or of circle time, of daily or weekly cleaning or of the larger spring cleaning, of festivals, songs and poems, content and procedure of a parent meeting, of workshops. Such practices give security and enable the assistant to grow more and more confident in her own ability. Naturally, one may have an assistant who writes a couple of sentences, or even nothing at all, but more often than not they write pages.

In the beginning, the assistant may have to be corrected in order to protect the children, e.g., when the assistant does not clear the table properly, she knows that the teacher corrects her, not out of fancy or whim, but because the young child is used to order, sameness, repetition, and security in each and every little way of the daily life. If the assistant puts three plates here, three plates there, the young child feels “pulled out” of his dream consciousness, of being naturally “at one” with the environment. While the one or the other child, without any word from the teacher, may join the assistant in the washing up, the other children may get ready for the garden. The procedure at the sink is always the same, and each item is always put in the same place. The children all want to do the same thing at the same time and want to do it again and again. This is how the young child wants to work, act and live. While learning the routines of the kindergarten, the assistant has a right not to have anything suddenly thrown at her, and at the same time a right to be corrected and to carry on an activity in the right way. Now it may happen that the assistant is unable to carry out the sequence of events straightaway and a word of correction is necessary. This is important, because she has to, and wants to, learn.

The next step is that the assistant carries out one or another activity in its required stages together with a small group of children. Because there are different ages in the kindergarten, she will experience different ways of behavior among the 4-year-olds, the 5s and the 6s, and it is helpful to differentiate and clarify such matters in conversations. Even though she may not ask questions at the time, she may wake up to such questions when she herself is a kindergarten “mother.” What matters most is that the teacher learns to be mother, the heartbeat of the kindergarten. The teacher does that which a mother does: She cares for everything, e.g., she cleans and polishes and mends the toys, furniture, etc. She makes new equipment. Her attitude and starting point is: “How do I carry out my work in such a way that the children have room in it, can develop in it, are held by it,” rather than: “Tomorrow is kindergarten, what shall I do with them?” or, “Well, I am a mother who has help in the house, so I can sit with my children at the table and do some cutting out and gluing and drawing.” But Rudolf Steiner advised us to have ordinary, daily-life situations in the kindergarten.

What is it that eventually makes the children accept and respect an adult? They have a basic need for security and in as much as the assistant radiates certainty and security, the children will look up to her. The aim of the assistant is 92

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Obviously not all children do what the mother, the teacher, does at one time such as baking or painting. Nor will all children be around her during other activities. But the work, the activity, is faithfully carried through each day and each week and each season, and each child in the room experiences it and learns something from it. Into this situation the assistant has to grow. This is what she has to learn.

A. Yes, and no. What is of the greatest importance, what comes first, is that the assistant learns the preparation of the snack, the cooking of the snack, which is an activity so basic to the life of the kindergarten. Also, from a practical point of view, should the teacher be sick and the assistant have to take over, this is the one activity which must take place.

Q. How do you help the assistant learn how to do the activities such as prepare and cook the snack? Do you show her in the course of the morning when the children are in the room or during your meeting with her after school? The latter is difficult because she cannot actually see and experience the process.

Then there are methods. During the first term we focus on puppet shows, during the second term, rhythmical circle activities and third term, telling of fairy tales. Also, we meet every day for review and preview, to discuss which of us will work so that life proceeds more smoothly, who does the cloakroom, the bathroom, etc. Also, during the assistant’s first term, because she has to learn continuously how to do new things with the children, such as helping them at the cubbies, she experiences firstly her own boundaries and limitations, and secondly the children’s limits so that they do not become chaotic. Both experiences can lead to questions.

A. Some people see, hear and are straightaway able to carry out an activity. They see immediately, for example, how the children should change from indoor shoes into outdoor shoes. If the child has put the shoes on the wrong feet, they see how to simply act (not necessarily talking to the child) and change the shoes over. This asks of the adult a good measure of consciousness, precision, and width of perception. If an assistant has difficulties with this, it is better to stagger her into the different activities, because the first concern is for the child and how to secure and protect him. For example, with painting, the assistant may take down a few notes and make herself an outline during our preview. During the morning, she tries to be as conscious as possible while the children participate in the preparations semiconsciously, from out of their dream consciousness. Halfway through the year the assistant should be able to carry the process right through.

Q. If the assistant does not come with questions? A. Some things have to be corrected straightaway so that there is no danger to the children, and some corrections can come later. But if the children are not dressed properly for an activity such as going outside to the garden, this can be a problem. For example, the young child needs to be protected from certain sun rays, also from the “width” of a summer sky, and so they all have sun hats which they wear outdoors in the garden. Or, for example, if the process of washing up is not in a good sequence, then correct straightaway in a clear but gentle manner.

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The Education of the Teacher Q. How can one correct the superficial, trivial tone and speedy behavior the assistant may show to the child?

Q. Regarding clothing, some assistants say that since mothers wear trousers today, why shouldn’t the assistants or teachers wear them?

A. This is very difficult because it is a question of changing the personality. Children are looking for the “I,” not the astrality of laughter, laughter, laughter. There are some assistants who are amused about the child’s pranks, who are unable to create a certain distance. This inability can be one of a lack of Ego presence.

A. What does the history of human clothing show? The essence of clothing is that it is a wrapping up, a protection from the surroundings, from nature. Which differentiated aspects of existence do I teach the young child when I wear clothing which encloses in a wholeness or when I wear trousers which differentiates the parts of the body and makes them more physical? Also, is there a difference in my attitude to myself, to life, in my behavior vis-à-vis my environment, when I wear jeans or trousers for a sport or during an outing, or when I wear a skirt? Often the clothing, the physical gestures, the gait and outer behavior of a person are the reflection of aspects of the life of soul. Furthermore, with my dress I put myself into a social context. There is a certain air, dynamic, or attitude which emanates from me. This varies from one social situation to another, and through clothing I can say: These are my intentions and priorities, that which I wish to foster. (Of course, if the assistant is truly unhappy with the stance of a teacher, she is free to find herself a kindergarten which better suits her.)

Q. Is it too much to take a student teacher, or assistant during the first year after one’s training? A. In most cases, it is too much. The young or newly fledged teacher feels more certain of herself, more secure with the children when she can work one year by herself. She wants to apply what she has learned, and try out what she saw during her practice teaching, and this is right and good. Q. How many students, or assistants can one have at any one time? A. Once we were five adults in the room. This was too many. But it did work out with four: assistant, myself, student teacher, and for a few days a visitor. They were all able to report and to discuss with each other what they experienced in each of their different kindergarten experiences.

Q. Do you wear trousers when working in the garden? A. Occasionally. The garden work which requires trousers I do in the afternoons after the children have gone home. Of course, the adults wear trousers when we go tobogganing, and we wear a skirt at parents’ meetings and on home visits. Many adults no longer experience a difference between clothing for the indoor life and the outdoor life but rather “It is all one, everything is the same,” and so the children are not used to different clothing for different occasions. To foster this is part of the kindergarten teacher’s task.

When I have a student teacher at the same time as an assistant, it may sometimes be possible for the assistant to guide and instruct a student under my more distant care and supervision. They may discuss matters together, the assistant showing the student around and together they may enjoy this trust and responsibility.

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Q. How do the teacher and assistant divide up the daily work of the kindergarten?

noon, when the children have gone home the student will first look around in the room to take “hold” of where things are and review what has happened in the course of the morning. She will then, for about a quarter of an hour write down some notes. During this time, I often sort out my desk and finish some letters. A couple of children may play and wait to be picked up or fold and seal my letters. When the assistant has finished her writing, she will either ask if anything else has to be done and go if there is not, or wait until all children have gone before she asks any questions.

A. With division of labor. My point of view is that the work in the kindergarten has to be done just as it has to be done in the home. All activities are the same in the face of “need,” e.g., today I may do the washing up, tomorrow she may do it. We share out the work which has to be accomplished in this or that way; all the activities are of equal value. It can be rhythmically divided up on a weekly basis rather than daily so that teacher and assistant can take turns cleaning up the kitchen area, taking children to the bathroom, etc.

Q. Do you review her work with the student or assistant every afternoon?

In this way the children may live as if half asleep, submerged in a homey atmosphere in which all activities, all events, all procedures, are natural, obvious, usual and customary. Therefore, the children join in whatever goes on, firstly as a matter of course and secondly because quite simply, things have to be done, they are life itself. It will then not be necessary to divide the group of children into subgroups for different activities, nor to give them tasks, nor to praise the children. Together, as children and adults, we find each other within a particular life situation, and together we learn how to live. Life has to go on, to be developed, work has to be done and the children have the opportunity to integrate themselves into the physical experience.

A. Yes, for the first two weeks. After that I leave her free unless there is a special situation to discuss such as in creative play, or a special event such as the preparation of a festival. The student or assistant may occasionally have her own child in the kindergarten. It is pedagogically easier when her child is in another group. While the student and I have the morning verse, the child must wait in the lobby or hall. Q. Can you say more about the teacher’s clothing?

A. At teachers’ meetings the student is present because she has to learn. But when the kindergarten group leaders meet, the student or assistant is not present. She understands that these meetings take place. We always communicate with one another.

A. For the male kindergarten teacher a tunic is best, rather like a short Eurythmy dress. He too wears an apron when he works, with two large pockets. It is helpful for the further development of the child and adult when the child during these early years does not experience the details and differentiation of everything physical, but as yet that which is fundamentally protective and enveloping. For that reason I never wear a sleeveless dress or sleeveless blouse in the kindergarten.

Every morning, when we meet for the verse we have time to exchange a few words. At

We adults in the kindergarten wear aprons throughout the morning, and when we work in

Q. How frequently do you meet with the assistant?

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The Education of the Teacher the garden we wear a garden apron. This gives a picture of protection, of being surrounded and enveloped.

to his own resources. He needs help to overcome this, and it is very important that we offer the child something at such a time. It is not only a question of successfully diverting the child’s attention but of “giving” him new possibilities, in other words, creatively guiding and “educating” the child.

Q. How do you help the assistant work on the relationship between child and adult? A. Let us look at some examples: (1) I have to settle a quarrel or (2) I have a brief word with a child as I pass him or (3) two children come to me and complain, the one about the other, and so I say “Was it you?” “No.” “Was it you?” “No.” “Aren’t we lucky nobody did it!” and the two children leave with a smile, and we are friends. Such things as these examples the assistant has to hear. She also has to learn to divert a child’s attention or to beckon a child to her because a minute later there will be a quarrel.

Visitors and students may not interfere in the play of the children by saying, “Why don’t you do so and so?” or “If you do this, then… .” But when the children draw the adult into their play, e.g., ask him to move a puppet, to tell the story for the puppet show, or offer the adult a “cup of tea” in their playhouse, then this is different. The young child learns through wonder, and so I use a large saw, or a bow saw, for sawing firewood or wood for whittling. The children see it and then may imitate me with small saws or they take what they observed into their play and imaginatively transform it. In other words, they play with two pieces of wood of which one is a “saw.” It is the same with cooking and many other domestic and maintenance activities I carry out in the kindergarten. Sometimes a child might say, “Mummy lets me have a knife.” The teacher may reply, “And in the kindergarten we do it this way.” I try not to separate the child from life. As he identifies himself with watching, “wondering,” the child lives with me, is integrated into life.

She has to learn to transform a situation such as playing engines. With the playing of engines there can be first a certain rigidity of limbs, muscles, and larynx that may be harmful, and secondly this play can be unproductive, even harmful for the soul of the child when the child becomes “stuck.” For example, he builds with tables and planks and chairs, sits on it and begins, “Rrrrrrrrr.” But the adult needs to have ideas as to how this situation can be transformed into a human, social process, such as a taxi, an ambulance—to perhaps offer small pieces of bark for the tickets on the train. Now a golden rule: Whenever the adult “takes” something from a child, he needs to “give” something to the child in return. When an adult thinks he needs to say “stop it,” or “don’t do that,” then he is prohibiting, suppressing or disallowing a movement of action and will. It may be quite necessary to stop the activity, but the adult needs to realize he or she is intercepting a process of relating and connecting. As a result, the young child experiences a sudden disconnection, a type of loneliness and is pushed back upon himself, on

Q. Some assistants praise the children for their good deeds. Could you comment on this? A. The child in the first seven years does not yet need praise from the adult. It does, however, need help to experience gratitude. This help can be given in an indirect way when the adult serves as an example. For instance, every Saturday one of my kindergarten mothers takes the dirty laundry home. My inner experience of gratitude, (more than feeling) my words of gratitude, work upon the child. When I 96

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directly praise and bring gratitude into the child’s consciousness, the child can experience a separation and can also experience evaluation which is in part discrimination and judgment. For the young child, continuous transformation and creativity are the natural mode of behavior and awareness. When the child is well on the way with the change of teeth, i.e., from grade one onwards, he is led more and more towards comparison and conceptualization, and therefore the teacher will now put the child’s drawings and paintings on the wall and his beeswax models on the table, and together the child and teacher will look at the results. But in the kindergarten, teacher and child are happy together when they have finished a job, when everything is beautiful, when, for example, the piece of cheesecloth which is always white and has only one function, to cover the buttered bread for snack, is returned to its proper place where it “lives.” This joy, which radiates out from a deed accomplished, the children take with them into their play corner and into their activities. Of course, when a child brings something to school, the teacher will say “thank you,” but there is no need to praise the deed.

beyond the animal stage, for there is now verticality, language, and the “I.” Therefore, the question to be asked is: Has the child become “caught” in wanting to be an animal? Some children want to play animals day after day. Then we look to see if the pussy is alone or if it wishes to be caressed, warmed, and held. Then let us find a human being to shelter it from harm. Or has the dog been abandoned and wants a guide, a master? The animal is transformed through its relationship with the human master. Sometimes the child is playing an animal part but as if in a singing game or as if acting out a fairy tale. The child has slipped into the movement and behavior of an animal but will in a minute slip out of it, again. But if the child is stuck in the animal form, how can we get “the donkey’s skin” off again through transformation? Circus play, too, allows itself to be transformed. The seal may have a ball on its nose, the same child may be the dog which jumps over a stick or the circus performer who holds the stick. Then there is transformation.

When a child wants something at snack time, I often say “please” for him but do not have the child especially repeat it. The main thing is that “please” and “thank you” have been pronounced. By the time the child is 5½, he should say the words of his own accord. If he does not, and appears to be sloppy and unformed, then this can be due to lack of form and support from the adults in his surroundings and can lead to insecurity. The child will find it difficult to stand straight and strong in the world and vis-à-vis his environment. Q. What do we do when the children want to play animals?

A. She works on this step by step, and week by week. She may begin by observing a few children and accurately observe only that small group. She does so during her work and sees what does Jack need, what does Jill need. She perceives and takes hold of a particular group of children. In addition she wants to allow something to stream from her so that the children are playing happily, that the children feel her warmth, enthusiasm and interest when she cleans up, for instance, so that they join in with equal interest and enthusiasm. Some assistants do not have this joy naturally and will need to be helped without pulling the children out of their dream consciousness.

A. There are different aspects of animal play. After the age of three, the child has grown

The teacher of the young child wants to be a second in advance of the child at each and every

Q. How can the assistant learn to have the whole room in her consciousness?

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The Education of the Teacher Q. How do you help the assistant learn stories, songs and verses?

moment. She has to see and hear in advance, to think in advance, e.g., I know there are puddles in the garden and therefore today boots will be worn. I see that cows have crossed and dirtied our path and therefore I lead the children down another path.

A. The student needs to learn songs, rhymes, and stories by heart regularly so that she has a good amount of material at her disposal at the end of the year. Just as a Waldorf kindergarten teacher does not stand in front of the children with a piece of paper in her hand on which is written the nativity play, neither does she have the fairy tale open in front of her. If she would read the stories, her relationship to the children would be dulled and weakened. She could not connect herself to them so instinctively or watch them so well. The parent is not always able to learn stories by heart and therefore my priority, my advice for parents, is that the parents should read a story to the child with the same words every day, rather than that the child does not have any fairy tales at home at all. The kindergarten children have a story or puppet play every week (six schooldays in Germany), about 15 in a year. It is good when a student or assistant sees and hears how I struggle to learn a fairy tale. Students may also tell a fairy tale. Rudolf Steiner is quite clear—young children need true fairy tales rather than little stories, though occasional nature stories may certainly be told.

The assistant needs to learn how to bring children together as a group, how to conduct, nourish and develop a group. How does she prepare herself? She prepares herself for her work by learning to love everything during her year as an assistant, every gesture, all our ways, all our objects such as our knot dolls, described by Rudolf Steiner in The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy. It is up to the kindergarten teacher and the assistant to develop a love for these dolls—let the children make them in the mornings, wrap them up, care for them. They may hold the dolls on their laps during the telling of the fairy tale, put them to bed and eventually, of course, give them a bath after undoing the knots. Later, after ironing the piece of cloth they may help to re-knot the doll and make the eyes with a blue pencil. Some Steiner kindergarten teachers have the children, sometimes each child every morning, knot a doll, “their” doll. I can very well see the value of that. My children often wrap their dolls up and put them in a corner, under a pillow and expect to find them there the following day. I have nine or ten such dolls and a child may, of course, make himself more.

Q. Could you speak on any other aspects of the assistant’s work and behavior? A. At the interview I discuss with the student or assistant when and where she may take notes for the Training Course. In the second week of the second term, she may prepare and carry through everything pertaining to the snack. Some people are able to do that already at the end of the first term. Once the children have gone home, I discuss with the assistant the way she has carried out her activities. It is my intention to help the student or assistant to learn to see and to act, to help the children slowly grow more independent, for example, by saying,

Q. How is it best to prepare the children for a student or visitor? A. Only we, the adults, need to know the day before or in the morning. The children do not need to know that a student is coming, nor is there any formal introduction of the visitor to the children. Rudolf Steiner said, “The child has to and is able to adapt.” A prerequisite is that the work has been prepared the previous day so that one is ready for the visitor. 98

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“Slip your arm into the sleeve,” instead of using words which for the young child are meaningless such as, “You are a big boy now, you can do that for yourself.” Furthermore, the student has to learn to fit and order herself into situations, to be tidy. This is necessary because order has to do with “gesture” and the young child as a creature of will responds to and learns through gesture. Thus the chest of drawers is tidy, and the basket is in the same place. An ordered world, an ordering of existence, protects the child and gives him security. Once, after cleaning the shelves an assistant had put one shelf with its contents a little lower. A four-year-old boy came to me and said, “We don’t have any headbands today!”

early time in the practical work of the training, there is no point in reviewing the manner of her work. The teacher cannot expect that the student will already have acquired a method of working. But it is important that the student remembers each day to carry out her given tasks, that she does them with care, that she grows aware of a certain logic in working, that she becomes conscious of her own movements and gestures, e.g., where she puts down an object. At the end of the year a goodbye present for the student—a small book or puppet—could be given and then we perhaps have a conversation, “Do you think you have learned something during this year?” “Yes, I realize that I have to be more caring, more tidy, that the process of my work has to be consistent, to be logical, that I have to clear away before I go on to the next activity.” In other words, it has proved helpful to raise into consciousness that which has taken place. ✣

To begin with, in the first week or two of the practicum, the student needs, quite simply, to learn and live together with the children and teacher. She may do some practical activities such as dusting while I water the plants. At this

Supervising a Student Teacher Nancy Foster, Acorn Hill Children’s Center Recognizing the great need for trained kindergarten teachers, ideally with some classroom experience, the faculty of Acorn Hill has been grateful for the work of the Waldorf Institute in Spring Valley as well as the other Waldorf teacher training programs around the country. Since we wish to support their efforts to fill this need, and would like to help by providing some experience in a classroom for the students, we have accepted several student teachers over the past years. We thought it might be helpful to other schools, some of which might in the future have the opportunity to accept a student teacher, if we shared some of our thoughts about student teaching—both the idea and the practicality.

We would, in turn, be glad to hear from other schools in this regard. In one way, of course, it is a sacrifice to accept a student teacher. Our ideal is to provide an intimate, secure, and consistent environment for the children, a place in which they can be allowed to experience the dream consciousness of healthy early childhood. Introducing a student teacher into the classroom is clearly an “awakening” experience for the children. In addition, supervising a practicum inevitably requires extra time and energy on the part of the kindergarten teacher. Are these sacrifices justified? We feel that they are. We have found 99

The Education of the Teacher that if the practicum is handled carefully, the children soon adjust to the new adult in the classroom and, with the teacher’s support, are able to continue their work and play as before. The teacher experiences perhaps unexpected benefits through the necessity of becoming conscious of many things which need to be discussed with the student teacher. This can be a healthy form of awakening! Above all, we feel that the benefits to the Waldorf kindergarten movement outweigh the extra effort involved in working with a student teacher.

Week IV: The student takes on the responsibility for circle time and story time. At circle time, the usual morning song and verse (“candle time”) have been learned by the student and remain as before; the student teacher introduces new songs, finger plays, or singing games. For story time the student learns and presents a fairy tale, which is told six to eight times during the two weeks, and a “little” story which is told a few times during this period. Week V: Continuing to carry out circle and story time, the student also takes responsibility for each day’s rhythm, and takes the teacher’s role in most circumstances, although the teacher is always present in the classroom. The teacher takes the role of assistant, in effect.

The kindergarten practicum is usually five weeks long. The following is an outline of how these five weeks might be structured for the student teacher: Week I: The student observes in the class. As with other observers, we ask that the student be busy with some kind of handwork (sewing, knitting, etc.), both because it is good for the children to see adults productively active, and because it makes the observation less obtrusive. During the first week the student may also observe in other kindergarten classes in the school, but most of the time should be spent in the class where the practicum will take place.

The Waldorf Institute requires that the supervising teacher have at least three years of teaching experience, or that such a teacher must be the one to sign the required evaluations. There are several evaluation forms which must be filled out, discussed with the student, and returned to the Institute at specified times. A few notes of explanation of our procedures might be worthwhile: The supervising teacher meets with the student at least once each week to discuss plans, discuss particular children or incidents in the class, and evaluate the student’s experiences.

Week II: The student begins to take part in the class, joining in at circle time and helping the teacher at appropriate times. More interaction with the children begins to take place in an informal, low-key way. No “announcement” is made to the children concerning the student teacher’s role; the children simply experience him or her as a new presence in the room and become used to this person in a natural way.

The supervising teacher helps the student in planning, and discusses with him/her what activities, songs, stories, etc., are suitable for the particular class and age group. The supervising teacher may help the student in gathering materials needed for projects and advises him/ her about practical details.

Week III: The student takes on responsibility for preparing and carrying out a craft project with the children. This project may last for several days and may carry over to the next week(s) depending on its complexity and the age level of the class.

If there is an assistant teacher in the class, his/her role remains as it usually is during the first weeks of the practicum. We have found that the extra pair of hands in the room can be

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Supervising a Student Teacher

a great help! During the later weeks, however, as the student teacher takes on more responsibility, it may be a good opportunity for the assistant to visit and observe other classes in the school.

may last for the first year or more of teaching. Gradually the growing teacher begins to develop a “feel” for what seems right about the work in the classroom. During this stage there begins a groping toward a personal teaching style.

Recognizing that the children’s need for security and continuity must be kept foremost, the supervising teacher never leaves the children without her presence and support. While details must be worked out between the particular teacher and student, it is made clear that ultimate responsibility for the children remains with the teacher. While this does not provide the student teacher with the experience of having his/her own class, neither would this experience be provided if the teacher were to leave the room and turn the class over to the student as a sort of “substitute teacher.” This would be unfair to both children and student teacher. There is, in fact, no way for a practicum to provide the experience of beginning the year with a group of children, creating one’s own atmosphere and rhythm, and building the relationship between children and teacher.

If serious study of Waldorf pedagogy and anthroposophy have continued beyond the teacher training period, as they should, the student teacher will then enter the stage in which an active thinking life can unite with experience to light up within the willing and feeling of the teacher. Now that the joys and struggles of teaching are being experienced, the fruits of study ripen in the realm of action. The student teacher begins to have a basis for making pedagogical decisions. The teacher must seek the balance, the interweaving, of thinking, feeling and willing. It is a privilege to participate in a student teacher’s beginning on the path toward this goal. And, after all, is this not a goal of every inwardly striving human being? Rudolf Steiner’s verse, “Ecce Homo,” provides a beautiful inspiration:

Nevertheless, the practicum is an important step on the way to becoming a kindergarten teacher. The student needs to experience a kindergarten class, taking part in its rhythm, its activities, its turmoil and peace, and, equally important, the student needs a model to imitate. That is perhaps the primary role of the supervising teacher—to provide such a model. Through imitating this model in conscious ways and sometimes not-so-conscious ways, the student forms a basis in the will life for beginning to be a teacher. The stage of imitation—the “early childhood” of teaching!— ✣

In the Heart – the loom of Feeling; In the Head – the light of Thinking; In the Limbs – the strength of Will Weaving of radiant Light, Strength of the Weaving, Light of the surging Strength: Lo, this is Man!

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Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the contributors to this publication, whose names are included with their articles and the publishers who allowed us to translate and publish the following articles:

work; Nicola Main for illustrations; and Bob Roberson and Clopper Almon for technical assistance on the computer. We acknowledge with gratitude the indications of Rudolf Steiner which are the basis of Waldorf education’s philosophy and pedagogy. Since 1919, when the first Waldorf school was created, Steiner’s insights into childhood and education have been taken up and further developed by Waldorf schools which now number about 600 in over 30 countries. The Anthroposophical Society, founded by Rudolf Steiner to cultivate the free spiritual life of the human being, strives to deepen the work of Waldorf education and other activities through its ongoing research and study. The center of the Society is in Dornach, Switzerland, at the Goetheanum which is pictured below.

Von der Wurde des Kindes and Erziehungskunst for the following: “Stages of Development in Early Childhood” “Kindergarten Readiness” “Sistine Madonna: A Symbol of the Eternal Spiritual in People” We thank Paula Lane-DeLorme, who translated the articles listed above; Carol Petrash for her editorial work; Lydia Roberson for editorial work and compilation of this volume; Bella Schauman and Jerilyn Ray-Shelley for work on past Newsletters; Leslie Bailey for art

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