The Rudolf Steiner Archive

30. Spiritual-Scientific Perspectives on the Question of Education

[ 1 ] When the Theosophical Movement was founded three decades ago, its leading figures were not concerned with introducing a new doctrine that would satisfy intellectual curiosity, but rather, above all, with making spiritual insight accessible to wider circles—insight through which the important questions of practical life can be resolved with the help of spiritual knowledge. One of these questions—which illustrates how spiritual science intervenes in practical life—is also the subject of this lecture: the question of education.

[ 2 ] The question of education can only be properly addressed in the context of a deeper understanding of the human being. Through an understanding of the human being that penetrates into the human being’s supersensible nature, fundamental principles of education emerge for anyone who takes this question seriously. To this end, we must begin by examining the nature of the human being. The question of human nature provides the fundamental ideas for answering questions of education.

[ 3 ] What the human external senses can perceive is, for spiritual research, only one aspect of the human being. Human beings share this physical body, this physical being, with the rest of nature.

[ 4 ] As the second aspect of the human being, occult research perceives through the spiritual eye the etheric body, or life body. It is an organism finer than the physical body, yet structured in the same way as the physical body in all its organs and parts. However, it is perhaps better to regard it as a sum of force currents rather than as the architect of the physical body. The latter has, as it were, crystallized out of the etheric body. Just as ice forms from water through cooling, so the physical body has taken shape from the etheric body. Human beings share this etheric body, or life body, with all living beings.

[ 5 ] The third member of the human being is the astral body, the bearer of all the lower and higher psychological qualities of the human being, the bearer of pleasure and suffering, joy and pain, and all impulses of the will. This third component, which can be perceived through the development of the higher organs of perception, is shared by human beings with the entire animal kingdom. It surrounds the human being like a kind of cloud that permeates both the physical body and the etheric body. This component of the being is in constant motion and reflects everything that takes place within the human being. The term “astral body” has been contested on various grounds. But just as the physical body is connected to and dependent on the entire Earth through its physical substances, so too is the astral body related to the entire world of stars surrounding the Earth, and all the forces that essentially determine a person’s destiny and character are connected to that world.

[ 6 ] One of the more recent thinkers, Goethe, who looked deeply into the connections between nature and the spiritual human being and his relationship to the cosmos, says:

Just as on the day you were born into the world,
The sun stood in greeting to the planets,
You flourished immediately and ever onward
According to the law by which you came into being.
Thus must you be; you cannot escape yourself,
So said the Sibyls, so said the prophets;
And no time, no power can break apart
A formed shape that develops while alive.

[ 7 ] Because of its connection to the world of the stars, the third component of the human being is called the astral body.

[ 8 ] The fourth link is not shared by human beings with other creatures; it is what gives humans the power to say “I” to themselves. “I” is the mysterious word that each person can say only to themselves; in the word “I,” the soul expresses its divine spark. With the “I,” God begins to speak within the human being. In the Jewish mystery schools, the “I” was called the unpronounceable name of God, and a shiver of awe ran through the crowd when the initiate uttered the name that was unpronounceable to outsiders: Yahweh—“I am who I am.”

[ 9 ] These four elements constitute the fourfold nature of the human being. This fourfold nature is present in all human beings. It develops from childhood into adulthood, but this process occurs in a highly differentiated manner, and we must therefore consider each part of the human being separately.

[ 10 ] Everything is already determined in the embryo, but the process of development unfolds in very different ways. Human beings cannot develop without an environment; they can only thrive when surrounded by other beings and elements of the cosmos. Thus, the mother’s body must enclose the human being until it reaches a certain level of maturity. What takes place during physical birth is repeated, for in physical birth the whole human being is not yet born; rather, just as the developing human embryo is enclosed by the physical maternal organism, so too is the human being, after physical birth, surrounded by a spiritual organism that belongs to the entire spiritual world. The child is surrounded by an etheric sheath and an astral sheath and rests within them, just as the embryo rests in the womb.

[ 11 ] In the seventh year of life, around the time of tooth replacement, an etheric sheath detaches from the etheric body, just as the mother’s organism detaches from the child’s physical body during physical birth. The etheric body is set free, while beforehand a being from the same ether joins the etheric body, and currents from it pass over to the child, just as happens in the womb before physical birth. Gradually, the child is thus born a second time—this time in the etheric realm. The third member, the astral body, is still surrounded by a protective astral sheath. This astral sheath surrounds the human being until sexual maturity, around the age of fourteen or fifteen, and then withdraws. Thus, the human being is born a third time; the astral birth takes place.

[ 12 ] This threefold birth shows that we must consider each component of the being separately, for in every newborn child, only the first component—the physical body—is revealed. And just as it is impossible to bring light from the outside to the child through the mother’s organism, so too should one avoid exposing the etheric body to external influences before it has been freed from the etheric sheath. Before the teeth begin to change, no influences should reach the etheric body, and before sexual maturity, none should reach the astral body. Until the age of seven, we can only have a proper educational influence on a person by acting upon the physical body. Just as the mother’s care is intimately connected with the embryo’s flourishing, so too must the inviolability and sanctity of the etheric sheath be protected if the child is to develop healthily. Until the change of teeth, only the physical body is receptive to external influences; therefore only the physical body can be educated until then, and if during this time anything from the outside is introduced to the etheric body, one commits a transgression against the child’s etheric body. In human beings, the etheric body is the bearer of everything that is enduring in them—the bearer of habits, character, conscience, memory, and temperamental dispositions. The astral body is associated with the capacity for judgment—the rational assessment of one’s surroundings. Just as the child’s external senses are meant to develop by the age of seven, so too are habits, memory, temperament, and so on developed by the age of fourteen, and then, by the age of twenty or twenty-one, critical thinking and an independent relationship with the environment.

[ 13 ] Therefore, spiritual science provides us with very specific guidelines for the education of the child during these individual stages of life. Thus, the care of the child up to the age of seven encompasses everything related to the physical body. This includes the harmonious development of the organs through stimulation of the child’s senses. The physical body is therefore the determining factor, the object of education. We take this into account by providing the child with everything that has a formative effect through the senses. Aristotle says: “Man is the most imitative of all animals.”—The child is thus an imitator; everything in the child’s life is marked by the imitation of what he or she hears and sees. At this age, rules and prohibitions have little significance. What matters most, however, is the example set; it is through this that the child’s surroundings must awaken the child’s senses. How we are is the main thing, and adults must observe their own actions down to the finest details. They must not do anything that the child is not allowed to imitate, for the child regards everything it sees as something it is permitted to do and imitate itself. For example, a well-behaved child surprised his parents by taking money from a cash box. The parents were horrified and believed the child had a tendency to steal. Upon questioning, however, it turned out that the child had simply imitated what he had seen his father and mother do every day. Up until the child’s teeth begin to fall out, upbringing is based on example and imitation. Therefore, until the child reaches the age of seven, the educator must serve as a role model in every respect. It would also be incorrect to try to instill the meaning of letters in the child until then. The child can only imitate their form, for the ability to comprehend their meaning is tied to the etheric body.

[ 14 ] During these years, when a child’s organs are developing and the foundations for good health are being laid, everything that takes place in the child’s environment in terms of moral matters is also of the utmost importance. It is by no means irrelevant whether the child sees pain and suffering or pleasure and joy around them, for joy and pleasure lay the foundation for healthy physical development. Everything around the child should exude joy and pleasure, and the educator should be mindful of evoking both—right down to the color of the clothes, the wallpaper, and the objects. In doing so, the child’s individual disposition must be carefully taken into account. A child who tends toward seriousness and quiet should see darker, bluish, and greenish colors in their surroundings, while a lively, energetic child should see yellowish and reddish colors, because this stimulates the senses’ ability to evoke the complementary color. The organs that are now developing must thereby be encouraged to cultivate their inner powers. That is why one should not give the child ready-made toys, such as building sets, dolls, and so on. Every child prefers a homemade doll made from a boot jack or an old napkin to a polished wax doll. Why is that? Because this awakens the imagination, because it sets the imagination in motion, and the inner organs begin to work for the child’s joy and delight. How lively and engaged such a child is in its play, how it immerses itself body and soul in what its imagination presents to it! And how listless and unenthusiastic the other child sits there, whose inner senses remain inactive. The child has a very healthy sense of what is good or harmful for him. He relates to the outside world in such a way that he rejects what does not agree with his physical body—for example, his stomach—and shows a desire for what benefits it. And it would be foolish to work against the healthy desires that promote development—for example, by forcing the child to eat foods that suppress its natural instincts. Any hint of asceticism is a destruction of natural health.

[ 15 ] Around the age of seven, as the teeth gradually begin to fall out, the sheaths of the etheric body begin to dissolve, and now the educator must provide everything that shapes the etheric body—everything that has a developmental effect on it. But the educator must still be careful not to place too much emphasis on developing reason and intellect. During this period, between the child’s seventh and twelfth years, the focus is primarily on authority, faith, trust, and reverence. It is important for the child’s entire future development that they have experienced as many moments as possible like the following: The child looks up to a revered person with a certain sacred awe; deep within, the child feels a sense of reverence that forbids any thought of criticism or opposition toward that person. Then one day, standing before the door of this revered person, the child feels a sacred awe at the thought of turning the doorknob and entering the room, which is a sanctuary to the child. These moments of reverence are sources of strength for later life, and it is of immense importance that the educator himself be an authority figure for the child. The people who surround the child—those he sees and hears—must be his ideals. From history and literature, every child should choose a hero whom he looks up to with admiration and reverence. It is entirely wrong for a materialistic worldview to oppose authority and disregard the feeling of devotion and reverence. It is important that memory be developed during this period. And this is best achieved initially in a purely mechanical way. One should not rely on a calculator; rather, numbers, poems, and so on should be memorized, thereby developing the memory.

[ 16 ] In the old days, children were raised very sensibly in this regard. The good old children’s songs and lullabies, in which the focus was not on intellectual meaning but on evoking an immediate feeling, seem meaningless today, now that an understanding of them has been lost. Yet a deeper meaning is hidden within them. When singing to children, the emphasis was on consonance and harmony for the child’s ear—hence the often nonsensical rhymes. Anyone who, between the ages of seven and fourteen, has not acquired a solid foundation of character, memory, and so on in the etheric body has been poorly educated. The path to proper education in this second period of life is authority. What the child intuits as the innermost nature of the person who is an authority figure to them shapes their conscience, their character, and even their temperament, becoming a lasting disposition within them. During these years, parables and symbols—indeed, everything that makes the world comprehensible through parables—also have a formative effect on the etheric body. Hence the blessing of fairy-tale books during this time and the portrayal of great personalities and heroes in legends and history.

[ 17 ] Physical education is also important, as it instills in children a sense of strength, health, and zest for life, and thus plays just as formative a role in their development as pleasure and joy. But physical education has major shortcomings, especially at this time. The physical education teacher should not view his students through the eyes of an anatomist, but rather reflect on which physical movements can instill in the soul a sense of increased strength and give the child a sense of enjoyment in their physicality. The teacher must intuitively put himself in the child’s place and design each exercise so that it fosters a sense of growing strength.

[ 18 ] Every work of art exerts a profound influence even on our etheric and astral bodies. Therefore, genuine, true art must permeate the etheric body. Good vocal and instrumental music, for example, is of great importance, and a child’s eyes should see much beauty around them.

[ 19 ] But nothing can replace religious instruction. Images of the supersensible are deeply imprinted on the etheric body. The child should not learn to criticize or judge a creed, but must be given images of the infinite. All religious concepts must become visual images; parables have a powerful effect on the etheric body. The greatest care must be taken to ensure that education springs from the living.

[ 20 ] These days, a child’s mind is too preoccupied with death. During the first seven years of life, for example, interactive picture books can help counteract this. Everything should be action, activity, and life—that is what enlivens the mind and stirs the soul. That is why one should not let the child build with construction sets or play with ready-made objects; the child must learn to bring the living out of the inanimate.

[ 21 ] Much of a child’s developing brain atrophies when the child is occupied with lifeless activities such as braiding and the like. As a result, entire areas of potential remain undeveloped. Inanimate toys also do not foster a belief in the living. Therefore, there is a deep connection between the upbringing of children and the lack of faith in our age.

[ 22 ] At puberty, the astral sheaths fall away. As an awareness of the opposite sex emerges, so does the capacity for personal judgment. From that point on, one can appeal to the “yes” and “no,” to critical reasoning. It is only from the age of twelve onward that the capacity for judgment begins to develop, but this process takes quite some time. Critics aged nineteen or twenty cannot possibly form a truly accurate judgment. It is extremely important who serves as a teacher to young people at this age, in order to channel their thirst for knowledge and their drive for freedom in the right direction.

[ 23 ] These principles arise from spiritual research and are of the utmost importance for the healthy development of the human race. Through them, theosophy can practically intervene in the most important processes of human life. Thus, this spiritual worldview endows the educator with a wealth of insights, just as the mystery of the growing human being requires. Spiritual science should not only convince and teach; it should act, intervene, and engage in practical life. It should prove its worth; it should flow into every action and bring about a healthy life in both physical and spiritual terms. Theosophy is not only a true truth but also a healthy one. We can best serve humanity and provide it with social and other strengths when we draw these very strengths out of the developing human being. The developing human being is one of life’s greatest mysteries, and the true educator must be a solver of mysteries in the practical upbringing of the developing human being.