The Rudolf Steiner Archive

10. Speech at the Ceremony Marking the Start of the Third School Year

[ 1 ] My dear children! First, I would like to speak to these children who are with us for the first time today and who will be gathering with their beloved teachers at the Waldorf School over the next few days.

[ 2 ] My dear children! Until now, you have spent your time in your parents’ home. You have been cared for by your loving parents. Your loving parents have cared for you wholeheartedly, and you need only think for a moment—you are already capable of thinking that much—about how your parents began caring for you every morning, how they made sure you were well-fed, that you —it is so necessary for life—that you get your breakfast and lunch, how they made sure that you also find joy in life, that you can feel how to take delight in flowers, in plants, in all that is beautiful in the world. And you, my dear children, can already think about how it always warmed your hearts when your dear parents spoke this or that kind word to you. You may not always have thought, “We must be sincerely grateful for what our dear parents do for us”—but today, as you enter school, where something truly important is taking place for you, I would like to tell you today that the more you are always grateful for all the love your parents show you—love they strive to continue giving—the better children you are, and the more you always show gratitude in receiving it.

[ 3 ] And throughout that time, your parents kept telling themselves: “Our children will one day grow up to be as great as we are. We had to learn that it was only through education that we could provide for our children; we had to learn to work!” — So you see, dear children, if you want to work, you also have to think. — We had to learn to think! —And so your parents asked themselves: Where should we send our children so that they can become capable people, so that they, too, can one day provide for themselves through work, so that they can make their way in life? That is when they decided to send you to us at the Waldorf School, because they believe that here at the Waldorf School you can learn what you need to become capable people. You should remember that your parents sent you here so that you can work one day. You cannot work without thinking. So that you know this, you should resolve: Yes, we want to work at the Waldorf School!

[ 4 ] At the Waldorf School, they have made sure that you can learn something, and they have made sure that you can also find at the Waldorf School the very things you actually wanted. It’s been the case that you’ve received this or that from your parents—a gift here or there, or a kind word—and then you’ve said, thought, or felt: “That’s really wonderful!”—Well, you see, when you go to the Waldorf School in the coming days, then perhaps, if you understand it correctly, you’ll also be able to say: “That’s really wonderful!” What a wonderful gift our parents have given us—that we get to attend the Waldorf School!

[ 5 ] You will often find that it is a wonderful gift. Because, you see, we have to care for the Waldorf school. The teachers are people who have put a lot of thought into this. They’ve made sure that the children can say, “That’s really wonderful!”—The best way for the children to feel this is when they say, “It’s wonderful at the Waldorf School,” because we’ve made sure that you have truly loving teachers. You’ll find kind teachers who truly care about you. In fact, you’ll learn the most when you truly care about your teachers. That’s what you need to focus on—making sure you truly, truly care about your teachers. Then you’ll also learn properly.

[ 6 ] That is why I urge you especially: Pay attention to how lovely everything will be that your teachers say to you. If you truly love them, then you will do what they want. Then you will learn a great deal. I believe you’ll often be able to say: “But it’s wonderful that our parents sent us to the Waldorf School!”—And when you come to our school and sit there, you’ll always be able to feel that you truly, truly love your teachers.

[ 7 ] Look, you are often tired in the evening, and you have often been tired, and then you had to go to sleep, and in the morning you wake up again. While you sleep, you see nothing, you hear nothing, and you are strengthened until morning. Other spiritual beings are awake then—you cannot understand that yet today; that is why you must go to school, so that you may learn to understand the things you do not yet understand—spiritual beings are awake there. Human beings must be able to surrender themselves to these spiritual beings; they must learn to love and revere that which they cannot see. And that is what the Waldorf School aims to give you, so that you may become good and thoughtful, hardworking, and also devout children. At the Waldorf School, you are to become devout children—children who are aware that human beings also have something within them that cannot be seen. And as I said, even if there is much of this that you have not yet understood—that is why you come to the Waldorf School—and you will learn to understand it. One must understand it; otherwise, one cannot move forward in life.

[ 8 ] Turning away from you, I address the parents who sent you here, and I thank them by name for the trust they place in the Waldorf School by sending their most precious ones to this Waldorf School. I would like to assure these parents that those who seek to embody and carry out the spirit of the Waldorf School are fully aware of the immense, immeasurable responsibility they assume when parents entrust their most precious children to them, so that these children may become capable individuals in life. It is to be hoped that the trust you now place in the Waldorf School will grow, the more you see how the Waldorf School faculty strives to achieve, in the progress and education of your children—spiritually, physically, and emotionally—what you expect, having made the important and meaningful decision to enroll your children in the Waldorf School. What has developed at the Waldorf School over the past two years offers ample reason to hope that this trust will indeed prove to be well-founded through action. It will be the actions—the actions of our Waldorf teaching staff—that will justify the trust you are placing in the school at this time by entrusting it with what is most precious to you. —If I am not yet speaking in a way that is entirely clear to our dear children, they will take this to heart, and they will return to it later.

[ 9 ] Having spoken these words to our youngest children, who are just beginning their young journey through life and their school years, I would now like to address a few words to our older children, who have already spent part of their school years with us. And I would like to address them first with the word that has become particularly dear to me since I came here, because it has received an unambiguous and clear response. Now that I have told the youngest children to make sure they come to love their teachers, I would like to ask our older children, who have already been here: “Do you love them?”—so that the older children, who already know what it’s like at the Waldorf School, can say so. [The children answer: “Yes!”] You love your teachers because that is the right thing to do, because the teachers will treat you in such a way that you will love them.

[ 10 ] To the older children, I would like to say this: You will, after all, have the same teachers in your new class as you did in your old one. You will continue what you learned in your previous grades, and yet you should reflect on what it means to move up to a new grade. You should keep in mind that each such step up can remind us of how we are getting older and older in life. Especially today, as you enter a new grade, you should look back a little on the time when you were younger students: You should reflect on all that you know today because of what you have been taught in school, and as you move up a grade, you should realize that you must also look toward the future—and the future, my dear children, is what we often want to keep in mind in life, what you should keep in mind in life.

[ 11 ] When you go out onto the street, you’ll see the older people around you—how they walk from home to work, how they walk home from work, and how they go about all the things that need to be taken care of in life. When you go out onto the street, you’ll see younger people—those who have just come out of school and are applying what they’ve learned there for the first time. You’ll see even older people who have already learned a thing or two from life, who have experienced both suffering and joy. And when older people speak to you in one way or another, they’ll say: We’ve learned a great deal from life because we learned proper things in school, because we were prepared in school to become true workers, to become true human beings. - You’ll hardly find a person who takes life seriously who doesn’t look back on their school days and say to themselves: “What would I be without having been nurtured during my school years by caring teachers, so that I could absorb what one can absorb when young—what helps you in life, what serves as a strong foundation in life?” - You’ll find people with gray hair who are already weighed down by life and have grown more mature; most of them, when they reach their twilight years, think back—when they see children—to their own childhood, recalling how they sat at their school desks, and only now realize and truly appreciate what it was that, throughout their entire lives, they carried with them from the school desk into life.

[ 12 ] Today we can say that if you love your teachers and if you have worked hard while sitting in school, then when you grow old, you will derive the greatest joy from having been in school in this way. The Waldorf School wants to ensure that you have something to look back on throughout your entire life, that you have something when you apply in life what you have received at the Waldorf School. The Waldorf School does not merely want to inspire you; it wants to balance the seriousness of work—which is a necessary part of life—with joy and with whatever else can bring you joy in life.

[ 13 ] The Waldorf School wants to give this to all of you. You will see that one can experience the greatest joy after working hard on something, after learning something difficult. You must not believe that it is entirely correct when people say that school should make everything just for fun. As a teacher, you can’t always arrange things so that students learn everything as if it were a game. You won’t find that learning is made into nothing but a game. You’ll also face challenges; but when you see how your teachers ensure that even the difficult material is addressed, you’ll be able to take joy in overcoming those difficulties as well. You will then also be able to take joy in the fact that you are at the Waldorf School, that you can absorb in this way what you need to absorb for life. And those of you who have been here longer will have noticed that every effort is truly made to ensure that those who pass through the Waldorf School here are also shaped into people who have a sense of genuine human piety, of looking upward toward the spiritual, supersensible world. The more you advance from one grade to the next, the more you will come to understand the words “spirit” and “super-sensible world.”

[ 14 ] So try to really think about this today: how people grow older, how your own growth outwardly reveals to you how a person grows older; how it reminds you that you must conduct yourselves properly in school, so that—for your own sake and out of love for your teachers—you pay attention and work diligently to acquire what you need for life.

[ 15 ] Your teachers devote every hour of the day and night to figuring out how best to teach you what you need for life. With all the thought they can muster and with strong determination, they seek to make what you need—even if it must be difficult—as easy as possible. If they were to try to teach you through play, you would not become capable people in life. Many things in life are difficult, but you will overcome them if you learn to overcome difficulties even as a child.

[ 16 ] You will begin the new school year in the right way. You will learn many new things, and many of the things that come your way will bring you new joy. Many things will show you how vast, how magnificent, and how all-encompassing everything is in the world into which human beings are placed. You will learn that what shines down from the moon and the stars, what manifests and reveals itself—this world that speaks to us when plants sprout from the earth in spring, in the deep valleys, in the shapes of the mountains, and in the rocks—calls upon us to roll up our sleeves and bring forth the best we can. All of this calls upon us to learn to understand something of the world so that we may work within it. Through what is taught in the new class, you will come to understand all the better how magnificent, how vast this world is—these divine deeds of exalted beings; you will come to understand that it lies in the very nature of human beings to place themselves within this divine world, to place themselves within this divine world through their work, just as they are able to work once they have learned something. The moment will come when you look out at the world, at the hardworking people who labor so much, and if you yourself are not capable, and you yourself have not learned anything worthwhile, you will have to ask yourself: What will I be when I grow old, if I made myself useless as a child?—That moment will come. Remember, as you grow older, that you can certainly avoid this moment. Remember that the less you reject what your teachers—out of love for you—want from you and demand of you, the greater your standing in life will be. Remember this every morning when you go to school; think of this moment, and by being attentive students, you will one day become capable people and have nothing to reproach yourselves for in life.

[ 17 ] And, my dear children, today, at this solemn moment, there is something else we must remember. You have surely seen many times how, after a person has grown gray hair, after fatigue has set in, after old age has overtaken him, he is carried out, his body is laid to rest, and the end of life approaches. That is only an outward end. When this moment comes for a person, his immortal soul ascends to the Spirit whom we all know. Just as you are physical beings now, so will you one day be spirits. Even as a person should prepare for serious work in the world, so too must they prepare to enter that world where they must exist as a spirit, just as they exist here in this physical, sensory world as a body. The body becomes ill when it suffers harm from the outside world, when the weather causes it harm, or when harm arises from within. If the body cannot grow properly, that may be a cruel fate for some. A far crueler fate is when a person does not allow their soul to grow properly. While you are being prepared at school for capable work, you are increasingly guided toward what you take in—so that you may also grow in your soul within the spirit of humanity; so that you may become capable people not only before others and the world, but also before God and the spiritual world. You have already experienced this spirit at the Waldorf School; you should remain in this spirit, and as you grow older, you should become increasingly aware of it.

[ 18 ] As you progress from the beginning of the year to its end, your work increases, and your worries grow along with it. Therefore, regard such a moment as something particularly important—something that reminds you of how a human being stands within God’s world, how you must become strong in body, soul, and spirit, and how you remember this diligent striving for the growth and health of your spirit, your soul, and your body. For this thought will help you. You will ensure that it gives you strength every morning so that you may prepare your actions and goals in the right way. Then, in the evening, you will look back on it with satisfaction. You will be able to slip into God’s spiritual world as you sleep if you can say to yourselves: I have fulfilled my duty at school. - Through your experiences at the Waldorf School, you must learn more and more what the word “duty” truly means, and how duty is intertwined with a love of work. You must learn this at the Waldorf School. Through all of this, you will become capable people.

[ 19 ] I say this to those who are already in the higher classes, who are already entering a more mature age, who are already closer to the life in which they must act independently. You, my more mature children, must remember that what I have just said applies to you. It is precisely those who are permitted to advance to the higher grades—they are allowed to advance by a special destiny that grants them the ability to know more than many others can yet know. And those who have advanced to the higher grades have been able to see those who, even at a young age, are already called to work out in the world. You sat next to them in class; hold them dear. Consider them your friends, and think of them! By thinking of them in the right way, you help life move forward. Do not merely study academic subjects, do not merely focus on what grows and flourishes within you directly—learn to love others, get to know one another, and truly love one another as students. Learn that people are there for one another, that the Spirit-Creator of the world strives above all to work through the love that people show one another. The worst situation in school is when students do not love one another. But try to find something lovable in each of your classmates—there is something in every person that can be loved—and learn to bring into every classroom that warmth which is expressed through love. When you learn this, you will carry much of what you have acquired in this way out into life.

[ 20 ] Now I would also like to say a few words to the parents whose children have already attended a Waldorf school. You have no doubt given some thought to the way work is carried out at the school. You may already be able to see that the Waldorf school operates in a way that is attuned to the great needs of contemporary civilization. Weighing heavily on the minds of those who brought the Waldorf school idea into the world was the very situation that led to the great tragedy of the early 20th century—the mass slaughter and the misery associated with it. And anyone who views all of this with an unbiased mind, my esteemed audience, knows how the attitude, the way of thinking, and what lives in people’s thoughts and hearts are the source of what has happened externally; they know how the soul and spirit of humanity must be worked upon so that they may be transformed from the forces of world decline into forces of ascent. The idea of the Waldorf School was born out of the great ideas of our time, and it is under this responsibility that we work. In the Waldorf School, one wishes to be thoroughly imbued with the idea of what it means to plant in children’s hearts what must emerge in the coming decades for the healing of the world.

[ 21 ] I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the sense of responsibility that comes with caring for humanity’s immediate future. Ladies and gentlemen, it is easy to speak in abstract terms about grand ideals. It is easy to declaim about how humanity must strive toward the true, the beautiful, and the good. But the salvation and happiness of human development do not come from speaking in grand terms about the most distant future ideals and utopias, nor from uttering fine words about that which still hovers in a misty distance—indefinite and unclear—which we express merely to feel a sense of pleasure in our souls. - The work that leads to salvation, happiness, and vitality in social life lies in our tackling, in every detail, the tasks that life presents to us. If we can think correctly about ideals and ideas, then ideas are sacred to everyone. If we do not speak of ideals as vague, nebulous things—which amounts to speaking with hollow, empty words—but instead walk through life with ideals, conscious that we are engaged in very concrete work toward these ideals, then we contribute far more to the progress and development of humanity than we do through mere fine talk.

[ 22 ] In this true understanding of the world, in this attentive listening to what the world demands—this is where Waldorf school teachers wish to truly kindle their sense of responsibility, and this is what they wish to live by. Out of this spirit, I would like to see the development of the strength to do what is right in each individual moment. The strength to do what is right in each individual moment will only develop if one is able to look at the whole. One is spineless in life—spiritually spineless—if one is unable to think and work toward true ideals in this way, if one speaks in vague terms and of nebulous ideals. So I would like to speak in concrete terms about the strengths that lie in the hearts and souls of our teachers—strengths with which they seek to justify the trust that parents place in them, and with which they can prove that sending a child to a Waldorf school is not a matter of blind trust, but is based on understanding as we strive to ensure the well-being and happiness of humanity for the next generation.

[ 23 ] By thinking this way and acting on these thoughts, we are accomplishing more and more—not merely a favorite idea or a favorite feeling; today we are fulfilling a task of our time. By acting in this way, we understand what we must do so that humanity may move forward from this great age of misery into a new era. We understand what can come to be if we wish to guide our youth with wisdom—that our hearts and minds extend into the difficult future ahead as we guide them.

[ 24 ] In this spirit, I would like to address my dear friends, the teachers. We have worked together; we have strived to bring this spirit into the Waldorf School. Today, with all due self-reflection, we can say: we have succeeded to some extent in bringing about what we set out to do, so that the intention we had two years ago has already become a reality. It will become even more so; as the teaching staff, sustained by this spirit, finds its way into its tasks, the outward practice of Waldorf school instruction and the way we act will be increasingly permeated by this spirit. As our teaching staff strives day by day to master the art of bringing what lies at the heart of the Waldorf spirit into outward life, this Waldorf spirit will become ever more real, flourish ever more in the outer world, grow, and perhaps, through its growth, draw others along with it.

[ 25 ] What is important is that this Waldorf school spirit serves as a model, that people follow it. We can do very little; it is little compared to what humanity needs. It can serve as an example if more and more of this is done, if you strive to do what has also found the understanding of parents. Then the spirit of the Waldorf school will be able to spread from the Waldorf school into the whole of our civilized life.

[ 26 ] For this, I would like to express my gratitude to all of you at this moment, when our dear teachers must take on new challenges. I thank you because I have witnessed how you have worked on yourselves and thereby contributed to the advancement of the spirit of goodness in the Waldorf School.

[ 27 ] With this spirit of gratitude, we will continue to work together, and we will strive to ensure that each individual understands the others more and more, so that the teaching staff becomes a unified whole. A school is only complete when it is an organism from which a unified spirit-soul emerges. This is what we promise the parents today; this is what we resolve to do in the future, and we hope that it will become a reality, just as some of it has already become a reality.

[ 28 ] Having addressed all of you with these words, I would like to summarize this in a few words that may perhaps be spoken here because they are, so to speak, framed by the spirit of the Waldorf School—words that would, of course, be presumptuous if they were spoken to characterize what has come about through the Waldorf School; yet they have meaning if we do not utter them as a command or as something we wish to hammer home, but rather say them to ourselves, so that the forces may grow even greater, as we have sought to do over the past two years. By recognizing how what is meant to happen in the world is expressed on a small scale within a single area of work, we say—not presumptuously—to ourselves, who wish to work together as children, parents, and teachers for the flourishing of the Waldorf School:

[ 29 ] Forward in the true spirit of the Waldorf school ideal!

[ 30 ] This is what I would like to call out to the spirits, the souls, and especially the hearts of everyone, from the bottom of my heart, on this day when we are guiding our students into a new school year.