The Rudolf Steiner Archive

20. Speech at a Monthly Celebration

[ 1 ] My dear children, esteemed teachers, and parents, if any are present! Every year, when Easter comes, it is indeed a very special celebration for the school, for the children’s experience, and for all of human existence. This celebration is already foreshadowed by the beautiful language with which nature begins to speak to us.

[ 2 ] It is true that nature is always beautiful, and anyone with an appreciation for this beauty can find it even when, in winter, snow covers the earth—almost sadly—and the trees, stretching all the way up into the mountains. That, too, is beautiful. But it is, after all, cold on the outside. It also makes the soul quite cold and reminds us how often life chills the heart and soul.

[ 3 ] But then in the spring, as Easter approaches, the seeds and flowers sprout from the earth. March violets are a greeting from the sunlight and the spirit of the world itself. And the green reminds us of what we have to hope for from life, what we wish for from life. The color of hope, of desire, and of the joy of life is contained in the green.

[ 4 ] When we look from nature into our school of life—for the Waldorf School aims to be a school of life—then we must also say—I am speaking to you, my dear children! —this Easter celebration is, through the budding unfolding of life, a truly powerful and meaningful festival for the school, for the children and the teaching staff, and for those who, after the children and the teaching staff, are the most important part of the school: the parents. It is during the Easter season that the new children join our school.

[ 5 ] Teachers see the education of these new children as their life’s work. It is then that this beautiful emotional bond must develop between teachers and parents, who entrust their children to the teachers with confidence, and for a number of children and teachers, this Easter season marks the beginning of what will then continue throughout the years: growing close to the children they love so dearly. .

[ 6 ] But there is yet another aspect connected with the Easter season. As is now the case for many of our eighth-graders and all twelfth-graders, this is the time to say goodbye to school. This weighs heavily on the teachers’ hearts, for they have grown close to the children both emotionally and intellectually. You can see how heavy the children’s hearts become—the students who must leave school, which served as a preparatory school for life, where everything was meant to be done to show life from its hopeful side; who must leave this beautiful, bright summertime of life and enter the often quite harsh, difficult existence, where so much pain must be endured, along with some joy. Life offers much: joy, sorrow, and grief. We must rise above it all. Then, as Easter approaches—as is the case now—when we turn our gaze toward the coming Easter, we are truly reminded of how profoundly this festival touches the hearts of both students and teachers.

[ 7 ] When welcoming new students, the teacher looks toward all that is to come. He feels his role as a teacher with particular intensity when he can now look toward the children’s dear parents and must tell himself: These people are placing their trust in me for what has become the most precious thing in their lives. This is something significant, for it should find its way deeply into the hearts of the teaching staff. The children come in, joyfully anticipating what they are to become through the love of their teachers and through what humanity has brought forth.

[ 8 ] Then, once again, we must turn our attention to the farewell—to the fact that this or that student has had to leave school. Then comes another feeling—a feeling mixed with melancholy and sorrow in many ways—that triggers a particularly wistful sadness in the teacher’s heart. For the children whom one has grown to love, whom one has guided, must be sent out into the world. They must seek for themselves what one sought with them. Into this comes the satisfaction of being able to say to oneself: If you have succeeded, then you have given them the strength you wanted to give—you have given that to them. —And that also makes for a beautiful Easter; it is precisely then that saying goodbye to school becomes something beautiful for the teachers as well.

[ 9 ] One of the greatest joys for a teacher is when, often years later—after the children have gone out into the world—he hears from one or another about what has become of them in life: how they have found their place in the world, what happiness they have experienced, and how they have learned to endure pain. When messages like this come back to the school from the students—perhaps when the students are already nearly grown up and firmly established in life—these are the feelings that give the teacher particular strength, and that continue to give him vigor even long after he has served in his position at the school.

[ 10 ] And when you consider everything that comes into play at school during the Easter season, then the feeling arises—the feeling that should arise in you, my dear children and students—that should arise: What this school time means for the entire span of human life between birth and death! It is a true summertime, a sunny time of life, which Easter reminds us of in a special way, precisely because it begins in nature.

[ 11 ] Teachers tell themselves: We are fortunate to have the trust of people, such as the parents who entrust their children to us. Then the teachers will truly be able to feel this—and the way we strive to do our work is meant to foster that feeling: Over the years, parents have entrusted us with what is most precious to them; they have handed it over to us with confidence, and that will be the school’s greatest joy—that we have not only maintained this trust but have justified it; that parents see their children depart with the same sense of satisfaction, full of the hope with which they enter life; that parents welcome back their graduating children and students with just as much satisfaction as when they sent them off to school in trust. All of this comes to mind, to our hearts, especially at this time. I wanted to instill it in a few words into the hearts and minds of the students and the faculty.

[ 12 ] But when all of this is taken into account from every angle, it becomes, in children and students, exactly what is needed: devotion and love for the teaching staff, and devotion to what is learned through school. If true love reigns in the Waldorf school—between parents and teachers, children and students—then, in what love can accomplish when a person is to be guided through life by all that is beautiful and great, then this life will be able to prevail and provide the strength that a person needs.

[ 13 ] That is why I have always asked you whether you have managed to grow quite fond of your teachers. If you can grow even fonder of them, then everything will flow from this love as from a fresh spring. Then you will accomplish everything, and then the Easter season will be able to give you everything. I’d like to ask you: Do you love your teachers? [Everyone calls out: Yes!] That’s wonderful of you. Then, as you look at one another with this love you’ve developed, look toward those who are leaving the school, and resolve to follow them through life with your loving gaze: and a beautiful relationship of love and friendship will be able to develop. And the Waldorf School will be able to radiate beautifully out into life like a ray of sunshine.