The Rudolf Steiner Archive

17. Speech at a Monthly Celebration

[ 1 ] My dear children, students! It’s always a pleasure for me to visit you at school. As I was coming here today, something strange occurred to me:

[ 2 ] Once upon a time, there were two children who went for a walk on Sunday. As they were walking home, each child had a bouquet of flowers. One child said, “My bouquet is so beautiful!” The other said, “My bouquet is beautiful!” — Each one liked only their own bouquet. But one child really didn’t like the other’s bouquet at all. You see, one child’s bouquet contained beautiful flowers full of sweet nectar, but it also had ordinary grass, even some wild wheat, and even thistles. The other child had only sweet flowers in it—nothing but sweet flowers—and so the child with the sweet flowers said to the other: “You know, I don’t like your bouquet, the one with all sorts of things in it!” But the other child didn’t like the bouquet with only sweet flowers in it either.

[ 3 ] What do you think, dear children, how the story continues? Now look, my dear children: the child with the bouquet of ears of wheat and thistles told the other child something. Listen to what he told him: “Once, I also went for a walk on Sunday, and out in the open air I fell asleep and had a dream.” But what did I dream? Listen: I was lying in a meadow—so the child said—and then big animals and little animals came along, and they were talking to each other. There was a very strange, very, very small, tiny little creature and a big animal. The tiny one was a bee, and the big one was a calf. And the calf and the bee were talking to each other. The bee said: “Oh, calf, you don’t understand anything about plants, but I—I understand everything. I know which plants are sweet, and I suck the honey out of them. I then bring that honey to people, and people love honey so much. And if I didn’t fly to all those beautiful flowers with their lovely scent, there would be no honey for people.” - Then the calf said: “You know, I couldn’t live on just the sweet-smelling flowers that you like so much.” All those flowers you fly past without a care—I have to eat them, and if I didn’t eat them, there would be no milk in the world. But without milk, people couldn’t feed themselves, and then there would be no need for honey either, because there wouldn’t be any people left to enjoy it!

[ 4 ] This is how the two children talked to each other. And then the child who had the bouquet of sweet flowers realized that there was something to learn. The other child, after all, had already learned the right thing through his dream. The child with the sweet-smelling flowers realized that there aren’t only sweet-smelling flowers; he understood that there must be all kinds of different flowers that work together, and now the child learned to love the bouquet that contained all sorts of plants. And the child who had been sleeping and dreaming was able to say: “Yes, the calf said it: There are these kinds of flowers and those kinds of flowers, but all flowers are needed, and that is why a bouquet that includes all kinds of plants is much more valuable and delightful than one that contains only sweet flowers!”

[ 5 ] Well, my dear children, when you go to school, it’s like taking a walk on a beautiful Sunday, and you should take the very best from school with you into life. And if you can take a bouquet of flowers with you into life—made up of everything your dear teachers have taught you—you will find the greatest joy in that bouquet. But all the flowers must be in it—not just the sweet ones! You must learn that sometimes you also take in things that aren’t exactly sweet. If you study earnestly and diligently, you’ll realize that in your later life you’ll be able to bring not just a bouquet of sweet flowers, but a bouquet filled with all the vitality on which your life depends. Think about this, my dear children: every time your teachers ask something difficult of you, obey them lovingly. From school, you’ll receive the most beautiful bouquet for life, and you’ll enjoy it most when it contains all the different plants of life. Every memory of your school days will give you strength for life. For when human beings reach adulthood, they gain the most beautiful strengths for their lives if they can take such a bouquet with them from school. These are life forces that last until death and even beyond death.

[ 6 ] And now I turn to the parents. I would like to assure you—as I always try to do on such occasions—that I am well aware of your complete trust in me. Let us truly strive to fill the bouquet for your children with all the plants that are suitable and necessary for a healthy and diligent—but also fulfilling—life on earth.

[ 7 ] But to you, my dear teachers, I am deeply grateful that you go to such great lengths to put together the right bouquet for our children, one that will serve them well throughout their lives and into old age.

[ 8 ] That is why I expect you, my dear children, to show your teachers everything they deserve for putting in so much effort on your behalf and working for you with such dedication—namely, gratitude and love!

[ 9 ] And I would like to say one more thing to you: I have been told that, in addition to being hardworking, you can also be noisy. I remember hearing you make noise myself on occasion.

[ 10 ] And now I actually want you to make some noise and shout so loudly that this hall echoes with your words: “We love our teachers.”

[ 11 ] [All the children shouted enthusiastically, as loud as they could: “Yes, we love our teachers!”]