The Rudolf Steiner Archive

4. Educational Practice Based on Spiritual Knowledge

[ 1 ] I have often taken the opportunity here to refute the prejudice that the Theosophical worldview is completely detached from practical life. On the contrary, we have often had reason to point out how Theosophy is intended to lead us deep into practical life, because it teaches us the laws of that which continually shapes life around us. Those who know only the laws of external life are familiar with only a small part of life. The vast majority of it, in fact, belongs to the hidden aspects of life—hidden from the external senses. Now, certainly in the not-too-distant future, humanity will increasingly realize that one must study the hidden worlds in order to cope with life, for a materialistic mindset would lead to a crisis in all areas—especially in the field of health as well as in the educational system, where the question arises: How are people to raise the future generation? — And not least in all social, political, and cultural matters, materialism would bring about a crisis: Life would take such a turn that one day we would no longer know how to help ourselves. To explain what I mean, I would like to say a few words about educational issues, which must be of interest to everyone, at the very least.

[ 2 ] Anyone who approaches the question of education from a materialistic standpoint will very easily arrive at the most misguided measures. For they will never consider how strictly life as a whole follows natural laws, and therefore fail to take into account that there are periods in life that have a profound impact on it. It is simply impossible to comprehend why, for example, the childhood phase—which lasts from the ages of six to eight—differs so fundamentally from the phase of adolescence, that is, the period from about the ages of seven or eight until sexual maturity. But anyone who has no idea what happens to a person during this time cannot imagine how important it is to observe these periods closely. It is by no means irrelevant whether one knows what a person is during these three epochs: the first, which lasts from ages six to eight; the second, which extends to ages fourteen or fifteen; and then again during the subsequent period, spanning the next seven to eight years. These are three stages of development in a person’s life that must be studied very closely—not only from an external perspective, but also from the standpoint of occultism, which deals with the worlds hidden from the external senses. — You know that a human being consists not only of this physical body, but also of the physical body, the etheric body—which underlies the physical body and is shaped similarly to it—and then the astral body, which appears to the clairvoyant as a cloud in which the first two bodies are embedded. Enveloped within these is the bearer of the “I.” Let us now consider these three bodies in the developing human being.

[ 3 ] If you want to form a correct understanding of this, you must realize that before the periods in which a human being can be seen externally, there is still the period before birth, when the human being lives in the mother’s womb. You must make a purely physical distinction between life before birth and the subsequent periods, and realize that a human being could not survive if born too early—if entering the outer, visible world too soon. They could not live in the outer world because their sense organs, through which they interact with the outer world, are not yet sufficiently developed. While the human being is enclosed in the mother’s womb until birth, its organs—eyes, ears, and everything it needs to live in the physical world—are developing. Before its organs are sufficiently prepared within the protective shell of another physical body, the human being cannot come into contact with the physical world. Birth is the moment when a human being is mature enough to come into contact with the environment without a protective shell. However, this is by no means yet the case with the etheric and astral bodies. They are not yet ready to come into direct contact with the environment either. A process very similar to that which takes place with the physical body before a person’s birth occurs with the etheric body during the period from birth to about the age of seven. Only then, one might say, is the etheric body born. And it is not until the age of fourteen or fifteen that the astral body is born, which can then develop a free, independent activity in relation to the external environment.

[ 4 ] You must therefore be aware that no special demands may be placed on the etheric body until the age of seven, nor on the astral body until the age of fourteen. If one were to expose a child’s etheric body to a brutal environment, it would be just as if one were to hand over a child in the fifth month of its embryonic state to the outside world, although the consequences would not manifest with the same vehemence. The same applies if you expose the astral body to the environment before the age of fourteen. You must be clear about this: By the age of seven, only the physical body has developed to the point where the environment may exert a full influence on it. Until the age of seven, the etheric body is so preoccupied with itself that one would harm it by exerting a specific influence on it. Therefore, up to this point, one should focus only on the physical body. From the seventh to the fourteenth year, the education of the etheric body may be undertaken, and only from the fifteenth year onward can one influence the astral body from the outside through education.

[ 5 ] To influence a person’s physical body means to convey external impressions to the child. The physical body is shaped by these external impressions. Therefore, what has been neglected up to the age of seven can hardly be made up for later. Up to the age of seven, the physical body is at a stage where it should be shaped by external sensory impressions. If a child’s eye sees only beauty up to the age of seven, it develops in such a way that the child retains a sense of beauty throughout life. Later on, the sense of beauty can no longer be developed in the same way. What you say to the child or do for the child during the first seven years is far less important than the way you shape their environment and what the child sees and hears. Until then, the inner forces of growth must be fostered through external impressions. The child’s freely creative spirit shapes a human figure out of a piece of wood that has a few dots and lines for eyes, nose, and mouth. But if the child is given a doll that is as beautifully shaped as possible, the child has something to which it is attached; consequently, the inner spiritual power clings to what is already there and is not challenged to engage in its own activity—it is bound—and thus the creative power of the imagination is almost entirely lost for later life.

[ 6 ] This is largely true of all sensory impressions. What you yourself are in the child’s environment—what the child directly sees or hears—is what matters. The child will become a good person if it sees good people around it. It imitates the things it perceives in its surroundings. It is precisely this power of imitation—the influence of example—that must be given the highest priority. Therefore, the right approach is to demonstrate as much as possible so that the child can imitate as much as possible. In this sense, the primary emphasis must be placed on the care of the physical body during the period from the first to the seventh year. At this age, one cannot yet influence the higher bodies through educational measures—and certainly not through conscious education; rather, you influence these bodies—as long as they are still entirely absorbed in themselves—simply by being who you are. A wise person will, through their wisdom, awaken wisdom within the child itself. Furthermore, the educator must strive to be as well-integrated a person as possible in the child’s environment, to have thoughts that are as lofty and good as possible—just as the mother’s healthy body has a healthy effect on the child’s body.

[ 7 ] At the age of seven, the period begins during which you can develop the etheric body through deliberate actions. Two factors come into play here: habits and memory, which are connected to the development of the etheric body. Depending on whether a person has certain habits or retains certain things in their memory, they shape their etheric body. Therefore, one should strive to give the growing child a solid foundation for life rooted in good habits. Anyone who does something different every day and lacks a secure basis for their actions will become a person of weak character. The period from the seventh to the fourteenth year is therefore reserved for establishing a foundation of habits. The memory must also be cultivated during this time. It is therefore essential that the child acquire sound habits and a treasure trove of knowledge stored in memory. In fact, it is merely a mistake of our materialistic age to believe that children should be encouraged to form their own judgments as early as possible. On the contrary, every effort should be made to protect the child from this. During this period, the child should still acquire knowledge based on authority. The people around a child should influence the child during its second seven-year period not merely by example, but directly through instruction. It is not always through “why” and “because,” but rather by grounding everything in authority that a strong store of memories is formed. Therefore, the child must be surrounded by people on whom they can rely, whom they trust, and who awaken in the child a firm belief in their own authority. Only after this stage of life should the child be guided toward the power of judgment and independent understanding. By freeing the child from authority too early, you deprive the etheric body of the opportunity for thorough development. Therefore, it is best to provide the child in the second seven-year period not with proofs and judgments, but with examples and parables. Judgments affect only the astral body, and the astral body is not yet ready for them. One should tell the child as much as possible about great personalities. The sight of such historical figures should simply inspire the child to emulate them. The question of death and birth, too, is much better answered through example. Those who are able to draw on nature will see exactly what they can achieve through it. For example, one might show the child a caterpillar and demonstrate how it spins itself into a chrysalis and how the butterfly eventually emerges from that chrysalis—this is a wonderful example of the child’s emergence from the mother. Much can be achieved in this way by drawing analogies from nature itself.

[ 8 ] It is equally important to instill in children not moral principles, but moral parables. This is clearly illustrated by some of Pythagoras’ sayings. Instead of declaring: “When you want to undertake anything, you should not concern yourself with things whose failure you can foresee from the outset!” — Pythagoras said succinctly: “Do not strike the fire with a sword!” — This is a particularly good example of that. And for the lesson: “You should not meddle in matters for which you are not yet ready!” — he applied the saying: “Abstain from beans!” — This had a moral application in addition to the purely physical one. In ancient Greece, when a decision had to be made about something, people would distribute black and white beans and then count how many beans of each color were cast. Elections were also conducted in this manner. In this sense, instead of saying, “You are not yet ready to get involved in public affairs!”—Pythagoras simply said: “Abstain from the beans!”

[ 9 ] In this way, she appeals to the creative power of the imagination, rather than to the power of reason. The more she makes use of imagery, the greater the impact on the child. There was therefore nothing more beautiful that Goethe’s mother could do than to tell her son beautiful moral stories. She never lectured him on morality. Sometimes she couldn’t finish her story; then he would make up the ending himself.

[ 10 ] It is particularly detrimental to the developing human being if, before the age of fourteen, he is pressured to criticize and rely on his own judgment, causing him to lose the beneficial influence of the authorities around him. It is very harmful for him if there are no role models he can look up to. The etheric body withers, grows weak, and languishes if it cannot climb upward by clinging to great examples. And it is especially harmful when the child adopts his own creed prematurely and seeks to judge the world. He is not ready for this until his astral body has freely unfolded. The more one can protect them from judging and criticizing prematurely, the better it is for them. The educator therefore acts wisely when they strive to make reality comprehensible through the events themselves before the astral body is liberated, and do not urge the young person to adopt a fixed creed, as is increasingly the case in materialistic education. The chaos among religious creeds would quickly disappear if this were observed. The power of judgment and the intellect should be brought into play as late as possible—only when the sense of the individual awakens with the emergence of the astral body. Before that, a person should not choose the individual; rather, it should be a given whom they believe in. But in the years to come, the individual will find its strongest expression in the relationship between the two sexes, when one individual feels drawn to the other.

[ 11 ] As you can see: if one studies the three bodies of the human being correctly, one indeed gains the most practical foundation for the proper education and development of the human being. Spiritual science is therefore not something impractical, nor something floating in the clouds, but rather something that provides us with the best guidance for engaging with life.

[ 12 ] That is precisely what makes today’s deeper engagement with the humanities so necessary, because otherwise people would find themselves at a dead end. People today criticize the past because children were not called upon at an early age to decide matters concerning God and the world. But that was simply a very healthy instinct. Today, we must strive to achieve this more and more consciously. The instinctive understanding of the past has disappeared, and with it a certain sense of security regarding individual aspects of life. Yet the human race must not suddenly be brought to ruin|?]. If, in the fields of education, medicine, law, and so on, one had radically followed the principles of materialism, then our human order would likely have fallen apart long ago. But it was not possible to destroy everything: a part of the past has remained [?]. Because materialism would inevitably lead people into a dead end, the spiritual science movement is necessary.

[ 13 ] Teachers who truly still have a sense of the child’s soul simply suffocate under the school’s rigid formalism and regulations, which are a caricature of what should actually be there and which stem from the superstition that one is dealing only with the physical body. Not even religious faith can protect against this. Rather, what matters is that people develop a sense for the spiritual—for that which truly transcends the sensory life. That is why those who adhere to external formulas regarding educational principles will not be able to find the right path. They cling to traditional church dogma but want nothing to do with the development of the spirit. This is what we must address above all else. What is needed today must come from spiritual realms. For what materialism has brought about is only capable of making people sick in their physical bodies and their higher bodies. A severe crisis would be inevitable if a spiritual deepening of humanity were not to take hold. There are many things that point directly to the important decisions taking place within humanity today. One must look at things from within; external forms do not matter. The longing for and inclination toward the spirit cannot be extinguished in human beings. For some of those who harbor such a longing, spiritualism has provided an outlet. There, people seek to prove the existence of the spirit in a material way. It is now noteworthy how the Catholic Church, which should really be concerned only with the spiritual, is responding to this: every outward act here is a reflection of something spiritual. But it is strange what has happened precisely now—namely, that within church circles someone is seeking outward proof of the spiritual. A book has now been published by Lapponi, the Pope’s personal physician, in which he actively advocates for spiritualism. This is so peculiar because the people this publication is aimed at are obviously no longer spiritually minded; they need tangible proof of the existence of a spiritual world. It is certainly worth pondering when the Pope’s personal physician advocates for spiritualism. There is a longing for the spiritual world, but no understanding of the Church’s own teaching on the spiritual world.

[ 14 ] This is how materialism creeps into religions, which, at their core, should not be materialistic at all. That is why you can see how significant a movement is that appeals to the true recognition of the spirit within human beings—a movement that does not, however, take an ascetic or detached stance toward life, but rather makes the practical significance of this spiritual aspect all the more comprehensible at every moment.

[ 15 ] But now we shouldn’t ask: How can I quickly develop all kinds of occult powers within myself? — or: How can I shut myself off so as to avoid coming into contact with reality? — Anyone who asks such questions is an egoist and nothing more than a spiritual gourmet. If one merely wants to enjoy everything that pleases one spiritually, one is behaving only slightly more sophisticatedly than someone who begins indulging in gourmet delights at breakfast. Those whose physical palate has been spoiled sometimes arrive at the most refined spiritual delicacies. A theosophist in the true sense is one who strives to understand life and serve it, and parents are theosophically minded when they see their task as fostering their child’s development at every step the child takes. Don’t say: “How can we do that in this day and age?”—Here, too, one must realize: what matters is to consciously hold fast to the fact that the soul is eternal. People are willing to believe in an eternal life, into which they would like to enter as soon as possible after their death. But for those who are truly convinced that the soul is eternal, the period from the age of two to eighty represents a difference of only seventy-eight years—and what is that compared to eternity? Then one believes in the eternity of existence, and one must also feel this and have patience. We must accustom ourselves to working in the service of all humanity. It therefore does not matter at all whether we can actually apply what we learn right away; rather, above all, we must always strive to apply it, and eventually everyone will find some small area in which to do so. But if everyone just sits around criticizing, nothing will ever get done. It is better to do just a little bit and not complain that we cannot apply what we have learned, rather than do nothing at all. That is what we should engrave upon our souls as a practical law. Our lives will change all on their own if we immerse ourselves in theosophy in this way, and without even realizing it, a person reshapes the world when he or she becomes a theosophist. The most important thing—and the wisest thing we can do—is first to grasp the essence of spiritual science and then to live by it as intensely as possible. Then we bring it into our lives; the rest will take shape on its own. A mother or a teacher who is a theosophist will, quite naturally, act differently than someone who has no idea about it. Anyone who understands what kind of being a human is will also instinctively observe the diverse stages of development in a growing person. Above all, genuine theosophical immersion would put an end to the hypocrisy whereby those in positions of authority first engage in all manner of nonsense and then enter the nursery with deadly serious principles. This stems precisely from the fact that people have no faith in the spirit.

[ 16 ] Thus we have once again gained insight into the fact that spiritual science is an integral part of practical life, and that it is one of the most absurd prejudices when opponents claim that it distracts from life. In truth, it leads right into life. Today, any respectable, narrow-minded bourgeois still feels superior when he can talk about theosophy, but a time will come when people will judge things differently. One day, people will realize where true joy in life lies. The future will come when people will say: Those were the great reactionaries who clung to a current of thought that could never lead into the future, who wanted nothing to do with the great practice of life, which heralds new spiritual insights for humanity, such as those given to us through the theosophical worldview, insights that are to take root within us and become ever more practical through the theosophical spirit that has been kindled and is actively at work within us.