The Rudolf Steiner Archive

8. The Education of the Child from the Perspective of Spiritual Science

[ 1 ] It has often been emphasized here on other occasions that what is called spiritual science—or, in more recent times, theosophy—is by no means merely a collection of theories floating far removed from the world, and that theosophy does not seek merely to satisfy curiosity about higher worlds. Theosophy is not meant to be anything detached from the world or alien to it. If it is to fulfill its task, its mission, it must draw the forces and impulses for its work from the higher worlds, and its work—toward its goal and mission—must be carried out under the authority of these forces. Only then can it contribute to the further development and salvation of humanity. Knowledge of the higher worlds would be quite futile if one did not seek to put it to practical use or apply it to life. For no one can understand life who does not know the deeper forces that underlie it. These forces do not lie on the surface; they are hidden in the depths. Just as iron, when viewed from the outside as a substance, does not at first reveal that it contains electricity—which only becomes apparent through friction—and just as these forces lie dormant within iron and must first be drawn out of it, so too must we know that there are higher forces, spiritual beings, working behind the sensory world. If we were to work for the advancement of humanity without knowing these hidden realities, our work could only be superficial. Fruitful work is possible only when we explore the deeper forces and beings.

[ 2 ] Of course, we must also recognize the goals of our work. What is the purpose of human labor? The future! Yet nothing lies in the bosom of the future that is not already present in the here and now. Let’s look at the plant. It bears no flowers yet, no fruit. It will produce them only in the future. Yet the forces for these flowers, for this fruit, already lie dormant within the plant. What will take place in the future is already preformed within it in an invisible way. And it is only because humans generally remember how similar plants have borne flowers and fruit that they can say this plant will bloom in this way and not another, and bear fruit in this way and not another. But if humans could look into the innermost being of the plant, they would be able to see the forces at work within it that will produce precisely those flowers and that fruit.

[ 3 ] There is something that lies dormant in the future, something we cannot know and whose development we cannot foresee, and that is the body of humanity. What will one day exist in the physical world already lies dormant within humanity today, just as the flower and the fruit already lie dormant within the plant. If we are not capable of delving into what lies dormant today in the bosom of humanity, we cannot become masters of the forces that will unfold only in the future. Whoever wishes to contribute to the development of humanity thereby acts upon something that has not yet come into being, and whoever wishes to achieve this must descend beneath the surface. The theosophical worldview must take on this task and carry it out in practice.

[ 4 ] In no other area is the eminently practical nature of the theosophical worldview more evident than in the field of child-rearing. In the child, we have before us every day, so to speak, the riddle that lies hidden in the future. And every day we must solve that riddle anew. For a seven-year-old child is not the same child he or she was at age six, and a fourteen- or sixteen-year-old is not the same as a twelve-year-old. Only when we are in harmony with the deep forces at work behind the scenes—only then can we address the numerous questions in the field of education that are so pressing for humanity today. True guidance in all these matters will be possible only when the theosophical perspective comes to dominate people’s minds.

[ 5 ] Today we want to take a closer look at the mission that Theosophy has in modern culture with regard to educational issues. To do this, we need to understand the entire structure of human nature. We know that, from the perspective of spiritual science, the human being is a complex entity. To the observer who looks more deeply, the physical body is only one part of the human being. This physical body contains the very same substances that are also present in the external natural world. In the human body, these substances are united in a highly complex interplay. Natural science tells us: When we look at a machine, we see in it the action of the substances of which it is composed; but when we look at a living being, we see not merely a structure of inanimate substances, but a body permeated by life, which regulates the physical forces and calls them to life.

[ 6 ] An earlier science referred to this living quality as the “life force.” Yet today’s materialistic science claims that there is no such thing as a “life force”—that matter develops life within itself. Nevertheless, in recent times, there has already been a return from this standpoint. It has become clear that this theory does not take us very far, and that we must still account for a kind of life force in order to explain living beings. Yet even in this sense, as understood by modern natural sciences, the theosophical perspective does not align when it speaks of the second member of the human being—the etheric or life body. It does not engage in mere theorizing; it does not speculate; rather, its path is to develop higher perception within the human being itself. Just as other entities in the world exist for a human being only if that person possesses the organs to perceive them, just as a person perceives light and color only when he possesses the eye to do so, just as he perceives sounds only when he possesses the ear to do so, so too are the higher entities present to a person only when he has developed within himself the faculties to perceive them through the training that has often been discussed here.

[ 7 ] If there were a person who had no eyes but instead possessed organs capable of perceiving, for example, electricity—if such a person could see the forces at work that kindle the light here in this hall, that play back and forth outside in the telegraph lines—how very different the world would appear to such a person! With every new sense organ, new worlds open up to a person, and within them lie dormant the sense organs that make the higher worlds perceptible to them. They can be developed. No one can rightly claim that such worlds cannot exist. It would be just as if he were to say, “There are no higher worlds because I cannot see them”; it would be the same as if a blind person were to say of color, “It does not exist because I cannot perceive it.”

[ 8 ] But once a person has developed through spiritual training, the etheric body becomes a reality for them; they can then see it. In size, it is almost as large as the physical body. People often imagine the etheric body as consisting of a finer substance, a kind of mist, but this does not correspond to reality. Rather, it consists of spiritual forces and currents that interact.

[ 9 ] The third member, the astral body, differs from the etheric body in that, while the forces of growth, reproduction, and so on are at work in the latter, the very nature of the astral body is that it feels and possesses consciousness. The astral body is the bearer of pleasure and pain, of desires and passions.

[ 10 ] Beyond these three members lies what makes human beings the crown of earthly creation: the self-aware “I,” the center of the human being, the innermost force within the human person. Thus, when we have a fully developed human being before us, we have a four-part being before us.

[ 11 ] However, one can only truly act as an educator if one correctly understands this structure of the human being; if one knows that it does not play the same role in a newborn child as it does in a child of seven or fourteen; if one knows that the development of these aspects varies at each stage of a young person’s life. Only when one knows all this can one solve the riddle that the child presents to us day after day. And we come to understand all this best when we assume that we can see how a human being lives before birth.

[ 12 ] Before the child’s birth, we have enclosed the child’s physical body, surrounded by the mother’s body. Nothing can reach the child without passing through the mother’s body. No ray of light, no external influences, reaches the child directly. It rests enclosed within another body; one physical body rests within another. Birth consists in the shedding of the physical maternal envelope. At this moment, however, from the perspective of spiritual science, not the whole human being is born, but only the physical body. The second birth takes place gradually, not in a single moment like the physical birth; it essentially occurs when the child loses its baby teeth. At this point, something similar to what happens at physical birth occurs in the spiritual realm.

[ 13 ] Up until the age of seven, the child is surrounded by an etheric shell, just as it was surrounded by a physical shell—the womb—before physical birth. And so one could say: up until the age of seven, the child is surrounded by an etheric mother. Just as one cannot reach the child before physical birth except through the mother’s body, so too can one not reach the child’s actual etheric body before the age of seven. And just as, before physical birth, if one wishes to care for the child, one must care for the mother, so too, in order to care for and develop the child’s etheric body, one must, until the age of seven, keep away everything that could harm it and provide it with everything that can promote its development. In the seventh year, the etheric sheath is pushed back, and the human etheric body is born, much like the physical body is born during physical birth.

[ 14 ] And later, a third birth takes place: the birth of the astral body. When a person has shed his etheric body by the age of seven, his astral body is not yet fully developed; to the spiritual seer’s eye, he is still surrounded by an outer astral sheath. They remain enveloped in this sheath until sexual maturity; then it, too, is shed: the human being’s actual astral body is born.

[ 15 ] The educator must know all of this. He must understand the physical, etheric, and astral births of the human being, for the various stages of education are structured accordingly. He must know that just as it would be nonsensical to try to reach the physical child within the mother’s womb, it is also nonsensical to try, through education up to the age of seven, to reach something that pertains to the etheric body, or up to sexual maturity, something that pertains to the astral body. The human limbs are bearers of very special soul forces. The physical body is the bearer of the physical sense organs; the etheric body is, first and foremost, the bearer of the forces of growth and reproduction. But that is not all, for all these different bodies are shaped from within by the human “I.” This works from within. And so the human bodies stand in a special relationship to the soul forces. Thus, the etheric body is the bearer of memory, of all enduring habits and inclinations, and of temperament.

[ 16 ] We find intellectual concepts, images of external objects, and so on in the astral body. But when the image is at the same time a symbol, a parable; when it rises to artistic imagination; when it becomes productive in the soul—then its vehicle is the etheric body. That which we call judgment, criticism, and intellectual activity is connected to the astral body.

[ 17 ] If we know all this, we will be able to apply it as these aspects emerge in the course of the child’s development. If we know that the etheric body is enclosed until the age of seven, we also know that until then we must not interfere with the qualities of this etheric body. Only when it is set free through the second birth may we influence it through education. There is a saying that can shed light on this and should serve as a guiding principle for the education of the child up to the age of seven. Aristotle expresses this idea when he says: “Man is the imitator of animals.” Imitation is what comes naturally to the child up to the age of seven. The child must see what it is to learn; it must see and hear it. What is to influence the child must be present in its surroundings. Nothing should be taught to it overnight; rather, one should demonstrate and model for it what it is to imitate.

[ 18 ] Role models and imitation—these are the two magic words for a child up to the age of seven. It doesn’t matter what lessons you teach them or what principles you hold; what matters is only what you do in the child’s presence. That alone is what counts. Example is what truly has an effect. What the child is to learn must be placed within the physical world. One should, if possible, avoid allowing the child to internalize anything that it is not supposed to imitate. A thousand good lessons are of no use to a child at this age; the child should imitate what it experiences with its physical body in the physical world. A short story will show you just how far this imitation can go. A five-year-old child, who had been well-behaved up to that point, suddenly took money from the parents’ cash box. The parents were utterly dismayed. So the child had stolen—and, in fact, had given the money to another child. The parents could not understand how their child could have come to steal. — The explanation is simple. The child had seen the parents take money from the cash box and simply imitated them.

[ 19 ] From this we can see just how far we must go to avoid anything we do not want the child to imitate, even if it is permitted for adults. Anyone who observes children closely will see that they trace letterforms—like symbols—without understanding their meaning. The meaning of what is written can only be conveyed to the child once the etheric body has been born; however, the child can imitate the written forms even before that. One should begin teaching a child to write by first having the child trace the shapes of the letters. Later, one can then explain to the child what it is already capable of doing.

[ 20 ] Today, far too much emphasis is placed on the idea that the mind should be involved in everything a child is taught. Instead, we should ensure that the child’s entire environment is arranged in such a way that the external forces surrounding the child have a stimulating and life-affirming effect on its etheric body. — In this context, we recall Goethe’s words: “The eye is formed by light for light.” An animal forced to live in dark caves gradually loses its sight; it becomes blind. Light has a creative and formative effect on the eye. The forces of nature are organ-forming; they develop the organs. When a human is born, he or she is not yet fully formed. Every ray of light continues to have a formative effect on the eye. And so, too, whatever is present in the child’s environment can act upon the child in a way that either awakens life or stunts it.

[ 21 ] Here, spiritual science sheds light on even the smallest details. For example, it matters whether red or blue colors are present in a child’s surroundings. A child who is lively—perhaps even nervous—is by no means suited to the same color as a child who is calm or even apathetic. For the latter, blue is the right color; for the former, red. Thus, even clothing can have a beneficial or stifling effect on the child. In this way, the influence extends all the way to the brain and the heart, these instruments of the soul. It depends in part on the child’s environment whether these organs wither away or mature into vitality, whether they develop slowly and sluggishly, or whether they are awakened to an active life.

[ 22 ] Education must ensure that what serves as a barometer of inner well-being—desire and joy—is taken into account. These are not present for no reason; they should not be suppressed, especially not in childhood. They should not be suppressed, but rather refined. For example, the body’s need for a certain food is manifested by a desire for it. In this way, the body signals that it needs that food for its well-being. Everything that brings joy and arouses interest has an organ-forming effect. The organs are thereby enlivened and regulated.

[ 23 ] But when a child becomes bored, something is stifled, and this has a numbing effect on its organs; and that is very bad. For whatever is not developed by the age of seven is lost forever. The entire direction, the tendency toward growth, is already established by then. One might try—or rather, one had better not try—to test the truth of these claims of spiritual science by, for example, feeding one child a great many eggs and another very few. The latter child will display remarkably healthy instincts regarding what his body needs for nourishment; the former, on the other hand, will not. For an excessive amount of protein extinguishes healthy nutritional instincts.

[ 24 ] In the seventh year, then, the child’s etheric body is born. The body that is the bearer of habits, temperament, and memory becomes free. All these qualities must be nurtured during the period leading up to puberty. This is the stage during which one approaches the child with the material of learning. During this time, it is not only what exists in the physical world that applies. Imitation is the magic word until the age of seven; there is now also a guiding principle for the period from the change of teeth to puberty, namely: emulation and authority. Just as the child previously imitated, so must it now—to use a phrase of Goethe’s—choose its hero and follow that hero’s path all the way up to Olympus. If one expounds the most beautiful moral principles or sharp judgments before the child, one will find that such teachings mean nothing to the child. If, however, one places a personality of authority within the child’s environment, then it has an effect. It is not moral principles, but embodied morality that one should give to the child. A child’s soul and conscience are not developed through mere teachings, but rather by the child telling itself, when faced with such a figure: “What she does is right.” And the child learns to look up to such a figure with reverence.

[ 25 ] There is nothing more beneficial for later life than the reverence cultivated in childhood, nothing more fruitful for one’s entire life. When a child hears someone say, “This is a person whom everyone looks up to with reverence,” and then sees that person for the first time and feels a shiver of reverence run through his own heart, that is a wonderful foundation for upbringing. Reverence and authority—these words must take on meaning if one is to have a solid foundation for upbringing.

[ 26 ] A child can only truly follow principles if it has first seen them embodied in a person before it. Only then do the principles become second nature—or rather, become part of the etheric body. They remain in the memory. Whatever is neglected during this time remains neglected for the rest of one’s life. To train their memory, children must also absorb a great deal of material; they can then process it with their own judgment later on; for now, they must first practice using their memory. Later, they must have material with which to form judgments. It is harmful for the developing human being to be called upon to exercise critical judgment too early. First, the child must get to know the world, must learn from great historical examples, and must develop a sense of awe. One must continually present to the child, in words and pictures, the achievements of great personalities. The child’s visual imagination must be nurtured during this time.

[ 27 ] In this regard, the current materialistic way of thinking is seriously flawed. We must compare two things here. Up to the age of seven, only the physical organs develop; thereafter, character and temperament take shape; and we have seen how education can either awaken life or stifle it. A child who is healthy in body and soul will always prefer a toy that he or she has created himself or herself to any ready-made object, no matter how beautiful or elaborate. His or her rag doll, with eyes, a nose, and a mouth created by ink blots, will be a more beloved toy than even the most beautiful store-bought doll. Why? Because when the child looks at its beloved rag doll, it must do something—it must use its imagination and creativity to complete what it sees before it. The imagination must work; otherwise, it withers away.

[ 28 ] There is a world of difference between allowing a child to develop in such a way that he or she assembles artificial structures from individual parts, and having something living before him or her. A time will come when people will no longer worship the building set. Truly, the occultist should not become sentimental, yet here lies a point where he is tempted to do so. He sees the materialistic way of thinking developing in tender, childlike adolescents and knows that it stems from the fact that, in their upbringing, they have assembled a lifeless whole from dead, separate objects. Just as building blocks result in something lifeless, so too does the materialistic worldview lead to a lifeless development of the world. The materialist’s brain is stunted; it cannot be guided toward the living, nor can it be directed toward it.

[ 29 ] That is why we should give the child something alive, so that its brain may be awakened to life. Give it the simple toys found at a country fair—where, for example, two figures set the blacksmith’s hammer in motion—or a picture book in which figures attached to strings can move. That is much better; that is alive. This is far more beneficial for the child than if it were to assemble lifeless objects from lifeless forms. There, the child sees life; there, it seeks the cause of the movement. This shapes the child’s soul forces. — All the pain in the world weighs upon the soul of the spiritual researcher when he must witness how the wrong things are being introduced into the child’s environment. The spiritual researcher sees the forces in the organs of developing human beings wither away and knows: they are permanently withered.

[ 30 ] In the period following a child’s tooth change, that which the etheric body carries begins to develop: a lasting pattern of habits. If one wishes to foster calm, security, simplicity, and straightforwardness in the child, a person who possesses these character traits must walk before the child as a living being until the child is between fourteen and sixteen years old. The child must learn to form these qualities by observing this person and acquiring them through imitation. The etheric body, however, is also the vessel of all artistic powers. One must be clear about what artistic material should be presented to the child during this period. If the child’s taste is corrupted during this time by poor-quality pictures and the like, it will remain corrupted. From the age of seven onward, the child is also receptive to comparison. In this regard, the greatest lack of understanding prevails in our time. For example, people search for the meaning behind children’s songs. Meaning is supposed to underlie everything. But children’s songs, such as “Fly, little beetle, fly! … Your mother is in Pommerland”—that is, in Children’s Land—are not meant to have any meaning at all; they are partly symbolic, and partly intended simply to sound pleasant.

[ 31 ] The point is that, beginning in the seventh year, sound and color are transformed from the sensory to the meaningful. Our materialistic age is not exactly suited for this. It is not inclined to make itself understood through symbolism. If, for example, one wishes to present the emergence of the butterfly from the chrysalis as a symbol of the soul’s emergence from the body, one must oneself believe in such a parable as a reality. Who truly does that anymore today? One might say to oneself, somewhat pityingly, that the child, with its still undeveloped intellect, cannot yet grasp what I mean, so I will explain it to the child symbolically. But when one delves into the spirit of things, such a parable becomes a profound mystery; it is a deeply mysterious process. Then what the chrysalis and the butterfly reveal to us on a lower level is the very same process that repeats itself on a higher level as the emergence of the soul from the body.

[ 32 ] When one realizes this, when one feels it vividly, when one takes this process not merely as a comparison but as a figurative expression of a higher truth, then the power of this idea flows into the child’s soul. Everywhere, in everything, the educator should see a parable of the eternal and pour the power of this parable into the child’s soul. Only then will he be able to work fruitfully. And this is not merely the domain of someone particularly gifted or chosen for the task; rather, every educator can work in this way, every educator can convey these things from soul to soul, and can thus awaken productive life in the child’s etheric body.

[ 33 ] With the onset of puberty, the final veil is then lifted. Only now has the time come for the child when critical thinking and discernment awaken; only now can abstract teachings be imparted—not before. And it is wrong to guide a person toward forming their own judgments earlier than this time. It is essential during the period between the ages of seven and fourteen that religious concepts be brought to life. Religious education must be just as integral to this period as the proper physical environment was to the preceding one. The child should not merely hear about what lies in the worlds beyond; rather, faith should be instilled in the child as something self-evident.

[ 34 ] Nothing, however, is worse than when a person is called upon to judge before the astral body has awakened. First, he must learn to revere; then he may judge. First, he must possess a vast store of memorized knowledge before he can penetrate it with his intellect. But to call upon them to judge and profess before they can discern is the greatest corruption. First, they must be imbued with a sense of authority; only then may one appeal to their power of judgment. This power simply does not exist beforehand; it is not yet developed. It develops only in the years before and after puberty. It is therefore absurd when eighteen-year-olds step forward and offer their judgments, or even write thick books in which they seek to overturn what has been created over millennia. In this regard, spiritual science has the potential to bring about many changes. Through proper education, the power of judgment can be properly cultivated and guided.

[ 35 ] Both in general and in specific detail, it should be shown how one can become a true educator through a deeper understanding of the development of the individual aspects of the human being. If someone says that one cannot know anything about this, then the response must be: Try educating people in this way, in accordance with these three births, and you will find proof of the theosophical truths in life and in practice. It is not a matter of formulating theories or principles, but [rather] of putting them into practice from head to hand. Principles are good if they prove beneficial in life; if, when applied in life, they demonstrate a positive influence on culture. Whatever promotes culture and awakens life is true. When teachings relating to the supersensible are applied, one will receive proof of their truth. One will recognize that Theosophy is something eminently practical, that it is not alien to life or distant from it, but rather full of joy for life and life-awakening, that it gives people strength and security. And what could be more important than this in the education of a child? Education should bring down into the visible, the sensory realm, what lies hidden in the supersensible. Therein lies the key to what takes place during a person’s childhood. The full significance of the question of education becomes clear when we realize that every human being is a mystery that we, as educators, must solve by truly delving into their inner being.

[ 36 ] Q&A

Question: A rebellious spirit in children?

[ 37 ] Answer: The best way to counter and eradicate this spirit of contradiction is to allow the child to achieve what it seeks through this spirit, so that the child experiences that what it has achieved is wrong and that it harms itself in the process. Prohibitions, lectures, and the like achieve little in this regard; rather, they usually only incite even more defiance. Children learn best through their own experience.

Question: How can we explain the influence of colors on children?

[ 38 ] Answer: Consider the following example: If you look at a white surface with red squares on it and, after a while, look away at an empty white surface, you will find that the squares you previously saw as red now appear green to your eyes on the empty white surface. The red that you were looking at has been transformed into green within you. Green is now a soothing, calming color. Even an overly lively, nervous child who has a lot of red in their environment transforms this red within themselves into the soothing, calming green.

Question: A rebellious spirit in children?

[ 39 ] Answer: It is so harmful to young people because it leads to spiritual impoverishment in later years. People then lack understanding of certain things. One can only judge what one has experienced oneself. Judgment formed too early shuts out the full breadth of life’s reality. Life becomes impoverished; for only those who know can judge. Hence, too, the writers of our time, who become impoverished so quickly.

Question: The issue of sex: Should we educate children?

[ 40 ] Answer: In response to the question—now so frequently raised in discussions—of whether one should explain sexual processes to children, people often say: “I do not want to, and must not, tell the child a lie.” — Well, one should not tell a child a lie; one should tell them the whole truth—but a truth that lies in an entirely different realm than the banal description of the physical processes of conception and birth. Our ancestors did not tell their children lies either when they said to them: “Your mother is in Pomerania; fly, little beetle, fly!” Pomerania is the land of childhood, the homeland of the soul. There is also a spiritual aspect to “flying.” People back then simply knew more than people do today; they understood the spiritual processes that take place from the moment of the child’s physical birth; they knew that these processes are more important, that birth is not merely a physical act. And in this spirit, we should also speak to children today when they begin to ask about the origin of humanity. We should tell them, in the most beautiful poetic images, about the soul that descends for birth; we should fill their souls with images full of spiritual beauty and purity, holiness, and reverence. We cannot reach high enough, nor can we be poetic enough in planting these images deep within their souls. And when the time comes when, with sexual maturity, the physical processes of conception and birth become clear to them, these will appear to the children simply as what they are—as the less essential aspects. Their soul, filled with lofty, sacred, and awe-inspiring ideas and images, will regard the birth of the body as a secondary matter.