The Rudolf Steiner Archive

7. Drama Related to Education

[ 1 ] Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to the esteemed Committee for “New Ideals in Education” for inviting me to deliver these two lectures here at this Shakespeare Festival. It is truly more than just a superficial connection that I will be speaking in German at the Shakespeare Festival about the relationship between drama and education. For Shakespeare, the playwright, was first and foremost—through his drama—a great educator of a figure who, in turn, has immense significance for the entire history of humanity. Thus, the question of the relationship between drama and education is, in a sense, a historical fact, given that Shakespeare, the playwright, was Goethe’s educator. Goethe drew from Shakespeare—as anyone who has studied his biography not merely superficially but deeply and spiritually will know—not merely the outward aspects of the dramatic characters and their portrayals; Goethe truly extracted from Shakespeare the entire spirit, which he internalized during his youth as an educational spirit. Goethe names three great educators who served as his guides: Shakespeare, Linnaeus, the botanist, and Spinoza, the philosopher. Linnaeus became his guide because Goethe, from an early age, emerged as an opponent of Linnaeus’s view of nature. From Spinoza, the philosopher, Goethe could learn nothing other than the outward mode of expression—the language of philosophy. Goethe had to learn the inner necessity of nature and the cosmos from something other than philosophy; he had to learn it from Italian art. What he first had to learn from Spinoza is what then became his artistic conception. Shakespeare, however, is the figure to whom Goethe remained faithful, even with regard to the inner configuration of his mind, when he had shifted in his own dramatic art toward a more classical style. Thus, in essence, Shakespeare accompanied Goethe’s soul as the great educator, as the great guide, throughout his entire life.

[ 2 ] One can closely associate this Goethean spirit with the Shakespearean spirit. For Goethe described in a deeply personal way how he allowed the Shakespearean spirit to influence him. It was Goethe’s way of grasping Shakespeare—not by wanting to see Shakespeare’s plays performed on stage before him, but by sitting with his eyes closed, listening as Shakespeare was spoken to him, not in solemn declamation but in quiet recitation. In a sense, rising above the sphere of mere ordinary intellectual life, Goethe sought to absorb the spirit of Shakespeare by immersing himself in his full humanity. And it is from the spirit of Goethe that we, in turn, wish to work in Dornach. The School of Spiritual Science in Dornach, which has its roots in the anthroposophical movement, was given the name Goetheanum not by my own will, but—and this should be emphasized here—largely through the will of English friends, because Goethe’s spirit is to be cultivated in Dornach. In Dornach, the spiritual orientation is cultivated that has in turn led to a particular conception of humanity’s new educational ideals. We were able to put these new educational ideals for humanity into practice at the school that was founded in Stuttgart as a Waldorf School—in a sense, as a “seed school” of the Dornach School of Spiritual Science, the Goetheanum. Because there was a great urge in Germany after the war to realize Spiritual Science, Mr. Molt succeeded in founding this school. It then fell to me to develop the pedagogy, the didactics, and so on. What was to be cultivated there is not merely an anthroposophical or any other worldview, but above all the kind of pedagogy and didactics that can flow from a deeper spiritual understanding of the human being. And so please allow me to begin today by saying a few words about the kind of understanding of human nature that is applied in the education we have in mind here. This understanding of human nature flows from the anthroposophical-scientific work carried out in Dornach.

[ 3 ] I know there are still so many people in the world today who believe that in Dornach, all sorts of illusions and fantasies are instilled in people, that Dornach cultivates a nebulous mysticism, and so on. None of that is true. However, anyone who wishes to evaluate the methods of Dornach must be prepared to accept that what is cultivated in Dornach is a new direction in human spiritual life—a direction that one might describe with a single word, a word that, admittedly, still strikes fear into the hearts of many people today, the same fear that, fundamentally, everything supernatural instills in people today. Nevertheless, I would like to state it plainly. The word that describes the Dornach method is: exact clairvoyance. This is not the kind of clairvoyance one usually has in mind when using these words. What we mean by this is not something pathologically drawn from the depths of the human psyche, but rather it is practiced in a conscientious manner, as only an exact science can be pursued in terms of its mode of thinking. This is a form of clairvoyance that places the same demands on the soul—if it can be attained—as becoming a mathematician or a natural scientist; a form of clairvoyance that we consciously apply in ordinary human life, a form of clairvoyance that draws forth genuine powers of insight from the human soul, enabling the individual not only to perceive what has defined humanity’s experience of the outer world for the past three to four centuries, but also that which, as the spiritual-supernatural, underlies the entire cosmos, all beings of the cosmos, and, in particular, human nature itself. By acquiring this precise clairvoyance in a strictly methodical manner, a person is able to recognize what is experienced between birth and death as the spiritual-supernatural. When we are born as children, we are, after all, only seemingly a physical organism. This physical organism is, in truth—something modern science denies, but which can be established as a certainty through this exact clairvoyance—permeated by a supersensible organism, which is an organism of forces. In my writings, I have called it the “organism of formative forces,” which consists solely of a configuration of forces that work internally. This is the first supersensible reality that can truly be perceived through this precise clairvoyance. It has nothing to do with the old, unscientific concept of life force or vital force. This is something that can certainly enter the realm of supersensible perception, just as colors and sounds enter the realm of sensory sight and hearing. But it is only the first stage of supersensible knowledge, attained by seeing oneself as a supersensible human being—as one is between birth and death—beyond the fact that one is a physical organism. A further stage yields a supersensible human being who, however, exists in his true essence only before the human being descends from a spiritual world through birth to unite with a physical body. This is the supersensible organism within the human being which, when the physical body and the aforementioned body of formative forces disintegrate upon death, passes back into the spiritual world.

[ 4 ] By elevating to the realm of vision that which is otherwise grasped merely intellectually, exact clairvoyance unites science and religion with regard to the supersensible human being. On the other hand, however, it can also inspire the artistic. For the way in which this supersensible body—the body of formative forces—works within the human being between birth and death cannot be subsumed under the ordinary laws of nature that we know from the external world; this must be grasped artistically. Only those who elevate the knowledge customary today to a clairvoyant, artistic contemplation of the world can comprehend how the human being organizes itself from birth to death out of those forces that it brings with it to Earth and takes back with it into the supersensible world. But the one who works with human beings as an educator or as an artist must enter into a connection with them; must work on what the supersensible-creative principle itself is.

[ 5 ] One can create external works of art from the imagination. As an educator or teacher, however, one can only become an artist if one knows how to connect with the artistic world itself. The anthroposophical research method aims to provide the answer to this question, which serves as the foundation for pedagogy. Suppose a sculptor were working on a figure; once finished, the figure would walk away; we can understand that the artist expects his creation to remain as it is. In the same way, we humans—as parents and educators—work with the child, who, however, continues to live, grow, and develop ever higher. Once an educator has completed his work with the child, he finds himself in a situation where his “work of art” continues to develop. Philosophy is not enough here; only the pedagogical-didactic method applies: exact clairvoyance. I would like to summarize in a single image how one must act, how one must educate within this artistic education, which is ultimately the great principle of our educational method. Just as one must be aware that a child’s arms, head, and legs grow and continue to develop, and that the entire organism unfolds, so too must one be clear that the child before us is merely a seed. What is instilled in the child—what the child has gained through education—must continue to grow with the child throughout life.

[ 6 ] Waldorf education, as it is intended to be practiced based on the principles of the Goetheanum, instills in the child that which can continue to grow and flourish within a person from birth into old age. Some people possess a truly wonderful power in old age; they need only use the timbre of their voice, develop the inner quality of their speech, and it has a blessing effect. Why, we ask ourselves, are certain people able to extend their hand in such a way that it is truly a blessing? Our pedagogy now asserts that only those people can do this who learned to pray in their childhood, who learned to look up in the right way toward another being. So that one can summarize it formulaically: Every child who has truly learned to fold their hands is capable, in old age, of extending their hand to bless. - This is how the power to bless a child develops with age. I will now explain how we intend to find the proper pedagogy and didactics.

[ 7 ] People’s lives give rise to many illusions. The strongest illusions, however, can be concocted through the tasks of the educational system. One can establish educational ideals that are wonderfully compelling and speak to the heart; one can even persuade people with them at first; but in the actual practice of education and teaching, what really matters is something entirely different from the ability—whether based on intellect or perhaps even a good heart—to know what one wants to make of a person. Let us imagine, for example, that a teacher or educator of very average abilities—not everyone can be a genius—is tasked with raising a child who will later become a genius. You will be able to impart very little of what you have conceived as an ideal. The educational method, however, that is based on precise clairvoyance sees through to the spiritual essence within the child; and this educational method knows that there is an individual being within human nature for whom, as a teacher or educator, one must prepare the way. This innermost individuality actually always educates itself; it educates itself through what it perceives in its surroundings, what it absorbs with sympathy through life, through the situations of existence into which it is placed. The educator or teacher can influence this only indirectly: by shaping the child’s physical and psychological makeup in such a way that, later in life, the child will encounter as few obstacles and inhibitions as possible—arising from their own physicality, temperament, and emotions—due to the nature of their upbringing. Such an education, however, can only be achieved if one truly observes how the inner soul-being works within the outer physical being, especially during childhood. For when a child is born into the world, its inner physical nature is organized in such a way that, in its earliest years—as paradoxical as it may seem—it is essentially a kind of sensory organism, right up until the change of teeth, around the age of seven. It is, in essence, a vast sensory organism. It takes in impressions from the outside world only in the way the senses take them in—impressions arising from the actions, but also from the thoughts and feelings of the educators. The child, while being fully absorbed in its surroundings, is at the same time a being that is actively shaping its entire human being. It is wonderful to witness this inner mystery of the human being’s own formative power during the first seven years of life—as I said, though only approximately—until the teeth begin to fall out. Because the child actively shapes what it sees and hears, it is entirely an imitative being; it imitates everything that is done. Everything else we say is, in essence, an illusion as a principle of education. —The way we speak—whether we admonish the child or not—and what we do, all of this is absorbed into the child’s inner being; that is its educational power. We merely delude ourselves into believing that, even at this age, the child is receptive to “admonitions,” “commands,” and the like. The child must be fully attuned to the fact that, in its presence, one should think only of what one wants the child to absorb during these years.

[ 8 ] This changes the moment the child gets its second set of teeth, around the age of seven—without getting too pedantic about the exact timing. At that point, something spiritual begins to take shape within the child, affecting not only the nerves and sensory organs but also the lungs, heart, and circulatory system—the entire inner rhythm of the organism. This is psychologically connected to the child’s emotional life and imagination. If we say that up to the age of seven the child is an inner sculptor, then up to the age of fourteen—until puberty—the child is an inner musician.

[ 9 ] Now is the time to influence the child most effectively—not with abstract concepts, but simply by being aware that the child is a being who, through rhythms, wants to work through his or her body in a musical way. If we find that we are meeting this rhythm, this musical need of the child, then we are educating correctly during this period. That is why the entire education from the age of seven to fourteen must be structured in such a way that the artistic lies at the foundation of what is initially present in a plastic form. Above all, reading and writing must be taught in the right way—not merely through abstract instruction, but so that every letter arises from an artistic sensibility during the child’s first attempts at writing and reading. The child is immediately introduced to music lessons. These are expanded into what is now a rhythm of the entire organism: eurythmy. Through this, the movements of the air and so on—through which sound arises—are transferred into the whole body and incorporated into its own movements; and thus the entire body becomes a moving speech organism. And we see how children take in this eurythmy just as even the very young child takes in spoken language: with inner satisfaction. And so an artistic element underlies all instruction and all education of the child, from the change of teeth to sexual maturity. That which can be taught to the child with regard to art itself is also artistic. The child begins, first and foremost, by having absorbed a sense of form, and then develops a sense for lyric art through music. These abilities must, in turn, be discerned in each child’s individual nature with regard to the ages I have mentioned. Something epic then emerges in the child—earlier in one, later in another—and it can be observed at a very specific moment, around the age of twelve. Just as sexual maturity begins to approach, the child becomes receptive to the dramatic. Then the need for the dramatic awakens in the child, and this becomes evident when one can observe their development. This does not preclude the teacher from possessing the dramatic element within themselves; one cannot cultivate eurythmy, lyric poetry, and epic poetry unless one possesses this distinctive dramatic element in one’s entire being as a teacher and educator. But during the stage of life I have described, the child does not demand drama. This is the time when we do not yet place any emphasis on teaching natural science, abstract concepts, or intellectualism. We ruin a person’s entire life if we teach the child these abstract concepts too early in life. Everything must be built on art and rhythm before the age of twelve. When we then move on to history—insofar as it is governed by laws—and in a certain sense introduce intellectualism into school instruction, the child then demands the opposite pole: the dramatic element. At the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, we witnessed how one day some boys, who were about thirteen or fourteen years old, came and said: “We’ve just read Shakespeare’s *Julius Caesar*, and we want to perform it.” —While we were focused on developing intellectuality, the children’s youthful nature, arising entirely from their very being, demanded drama of its own accord, since we had been able to present the right content in the right way to the children through education and instruction. The children said quite naturally that they were delighted that the boys had performed *Julius Caesar*, and it interested them more than a performance at the theater. And the fact that it was precisely in Shakespeare that this inner dramatic urge was awakened in our boys at the Waldorf School does not surprise me at all, for if a personality such as Goethe can learn the drama inherent in Shakespeare, it then finds its way into the child’s mind and becomes a powerful driving force within it.

[ 10 ] I would like to conclude with this today, as it is getting late, and I would like to take the liberty of saying a few more things on Sunday about new educational ideals. What I had to say in this short time about art and drama may serve as a contribution to the work being carried out by this highly esteemed educational society. When one considers, on the one hand, the world-historical figure of Shakespeare and, on the other, the great task of education, one must bear in mind that we have a great need for many ideals in life. The most important ideals, however, will undoubtedly be the ideals of education.

[ 11 ] Rudolf Steiner's notes on the lecture in Stratford on April 19, 1922

[ 12 ] 1. It is an art of education that is based on anthroposophy. This is distinct from other contemporary worldviews.

[ 13 ] 2. Is based on perception that is developed.

[ 14 ] Education: Free individuality should not be hindered. We should equip people with a physical constitution they can make use of. — The soul will develop if we treat it with true humanity; the spirit will find its way into the spiritual world; but the body needs education.

[ 15 ] Ages 0–7: The human being develops from the head onward; he is entirely a sensory being and a sculptor.

[ 16 ] Children under 7 years of age—infants: they sleep a lot because their entire body is a sensory organ—and every sensory organ sleeps in terms of perception. — The senses are awake when a person sleeps—in them lie the secrets of the world; in the chest organs lie the secrets of the solar system.

[ 17 ] The senses are not intended for perception, but for the formation of the organism.

[ 18 ] Ages 7–14: The human being develops from his respiratory and circulatory systems; he is entirely a listener and a musician.

[ 19 ] Learning to write—not too early—then reading. Math—as analysis.

[ 20 ] Ages 9–10: A turning point—one can begin to discuss the outside world as the outside world—but describing it brings one’s developmental tendencies into harmony with oneself.

[ 21 ] In children, the mind has an immeasurably great influence on the body.

[ 22 ] Ages 14–21: The human being becomes a creature of imagination and a judge. — From the age of 12 onward, they can grow into the dramatic element. — This will then become something that stays with them for their entire life. — Before that, a split in the personality is not good.

[ 23 ] 1. The question of “Drama and Education” was first raised historically in the context of Goethe’s relationship to Shakespeare.

[ 24 ] The question of the relationship between drama and education can be answered by asking: What drew Goethe to Shakespeare?

[ 25 ] 2. Goethe names three teachers: Linnaeus, Spinoza, and Shakespeare. — From the very beginning, he opposed the first two. He remained loyal to Shakespeare, even though he came to adopt a different style of dramatic writing.

[ 26 ] 3. What attracted him to Shakespeare was what in Shakespeare’s work defies rational logic. Anyone who tries to explain a Shakespearean drama logically is in the same position as someone who tries to explain a dream logically.

[ 27 ] 4. When should this element be incorporated into education?

[ 28 ] 5. The Waldorf School is based on an artistic approach. But the teacher and educator, as an artist, is in a different position than other artists. He does not have a material before him that he can shape; he has people before him.

[ 29 ] 6. The Waldorf school method is based on anthroposophy. Precise clairvoyance. Exercises for thought and will. Through this, one comes to understand: the child—a sensory organ and sculptor, then a musician and listener

[ 30 ] 7. Drama: the traditional Aristotelian definition:

[ 31 ] Fear—Compassion in the Face of Tragedy. Man stands before a higher power.

[ 32 ] Satisfaction — Schadenfreude. The human being faces the subordinate.

[ 33 ] 8. In school, drama should not occur until puberty.

[ 34 ] But all teaching should take the dramatic element into account. — What is dramatic is that which eludes the intellect — and therefore serves as a counterbalance to the use of the intellect.

[ 35 ] Poetry gives power to emotion.
Epic literature shapes thought

[ 36 ] Thus, the child's words are made intimate through poetry—they are made worldly through epic poetry.

[ 37 ] Tragedy evokes mixed feelings: fear and pity.
Comedy evokes self-amusement and schadenfreude.

[ 38 ] Comedy: a person draws closer to the spiritual aspect within themselves.
Tragedy: a person draws closer to the physical aspect within themselves.

[ 39 ] Tasso, *Iphigenia*: these are solutions to artistic questions.
*Faust*: that is the problem of humanity.

[ 40 ] Shakespeare’s characters are created by a theater practitioner—one who is in close contact with the audience. —
Goethe studies “humanity in man.”
Shakespeare embodies a certain kind of dream.

[ 41 ] Shakespeare’s inability to rely on the stage’s physical setting for support. This is what makes the characters so interesting. —
Goethe almost makes dreaming a prerequisite for enjoying Shakespeare. —

[ 42 ] People will always look for logic in Shakespeare’s plays; but they are guided not by logic, but by imagery.