The Waldorf school of pedagogy has found its adherents today. In many cities there are schools and kindergartens, the method of education in which is built precisely on Waldorf principles.
This system was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Austrian Rudolf Steiner. He paid special attention to the development of the emotional qualities of children, so his education system combines the spiritual, social and biological principles. That is, in the first place is the personality of the child, independent of any social constraints. The child will feel normal in a Waldorf school or kindergarten anywhere in the world.
The essence of Waldorf pedagogy is to provide the child with assistance for the harmonious disclosure of personality, which can be especially true when. The activity of teachers is aimed at maintaining all the manifested qualities of pupils, because any of these qualities can become the main one in the formation of a mature personality. Saying goodbye to childhood in Waldorf educational institutions is in no hurry. Everything should take place naturally and without forcing events.
In the first place is respect for the personality of the child, all the rest come out of this point. It is very important that children feel psychologically comfortable.
In this regard, aesthetic and various kinds of labor disciplines come to the fore in education. Creativity is welcome.
A feature of Steiner's pedagogy is the study of national culture. A lot is being done in this vein - from clothing to national traditions. The child in this case will feel like a part of something much larger than his own family. Little fears that live in a small social cell will leave him.
In order for the child to develop comprehensively, they practice an integrated approach to the study of the external environment. For example, the classrooms do not have the latest furniture and the latest achievements of science; on the contrary, they use natural materials that bring them closer to nature. And the educational institution itself is closer to nature.
Much depends on the teacher and teachers. One of the operating principles of this pedagogy is the imitation of children to the teaching staff.
Particular attention is paid to communication with parents. Here there is a very close contact since preschool. Children and parents spend holidays together, celebrate birthdays, work, etc. A separate class is a single friendly team.
How does the training take place?
Steiner did not foresee the lessons to which we are accustomed. Information in Waldorf schools is presented in blocks. During the day, children consider three blocks: labor, creative and mental and spiritual.
The entire program is designed for 11 years. Until the 8th grade, students “work” with one teacher, he is like a spiritual mentor for them. Already from the 1st grade, little Waldorf students learn two foreign languages, take an active part in the life of the school, which develops all their abilities equally. Educational material is presented in so-called "epochs", which lasts about a month. During such a period, students manage to “live through” the era under study, which has a very good effect on understanding and remembering events. A mandatory item of each academic year is the final concert at the end of the semester.
It should be noted that there is no assessment system in Waldorf pedagogy. Everything is going its own way. Children are not forced to look up to some model of correctness. Individuality should always manifest itself, and this should not be interfered with.
System Disadvantages
Unfortunately, flaws can be found everywhere. Waldorf pedagogy is no exception. So, in kindergarten, children are not taught to read and count, kids come unprepared to school. A huge role is played by the personal qualities of teachers and teachers. Considerable emphasis is placed on certain mystical forces and postulates. Those. in the modern world, this pedagogy cannot work effectively and in the way that Steiner originally wanted. It must be adapted to the educational institution where they are trying to introduce it.
Waldorf (aka Steiner) pedagogy is an alternative system of teaching children based on anthroposophy. This religious and mystical teaching was isolated from theosophy by Rudolf Steiner. The history of the Waldorf School dates back to 1919. The main feature of this educational system is that it develops the individual characteristics of each child, allows him to believe in himself and "respects childhood." Today, there are more than 1,000 such schools and more than 2,000 kindergartens in 60 countries around the world. From this article you will learn what it is - a Waldorf school and why many parents prefer to teach their children according to this system.
Anthroposophical Foundations
In Steiner's pedagogical views, anthroposophy is not the subject of teaching, but only the basis of educational methodology and its main tool. The philosopher sought to subordinate pedagogy to the needs of the development of children, and not to the requirements of the "late industrial society of achievements." These details were considered by the teacher through the prism of his anthroposophical hypotheses, mainly talking about the trinity, 4 essences of man and temperament.
Trinity
Rudolf Steiner was sure that spirit, soul and body are united in a person. They correspond to: thought (cognitive and intellectual abilities), feeling (creative and artistic abilities) and will (practical and production abilities). The task of pedagogy, in his opinion, is not only in the development of the child's intellectual abilities, but also in his emotional maturation and volitional development.
Four Essences of Man
In addition to the physical body, Steiner describes three more human entities that cannot be directly perceived, that is, they are detected only by actions. In his opinion, in each person there is an interaction of such bodies:
- Physical.
- Essential. Responsible for vitality and growth.
- Astral. Responsible for the movement of the soul.
- Some "I". It is the immortal spiritual component of man.
Each of their entities has a specific time of birth and appears seven years after the previous one. School years fall just at the birth of two entities:
- Etheric body. It is born during the period when the child begins to change teeth, that is, at about 7 years. Prior to this, the baby received knowledge through "example and imitation." Now the basis of his training is "following and authority." During this period, mental strength, memory and figurative fantasy begin to develop.
- astral body. It is born at the beginning of puberty, that is, at about 14 years of age. Accompanied by intense emotional maturation and development of intellectual abilities (the power of persuasion, freedom of thought and abstract thinking).
Steiner views education as "promotion of development". According to this logic, at the age of 21, when the “I” is born, the process of self-development begins.
Temperaments
Steiner developed the doctrine of temperaments from the position of anthroposophy, correlating each of the human entities with a certain type of temperament:
- Melancholic - physical body.
- Phlegmatic - ethereal body.
- Sanguine is the astral body.
- Choleric - "I".
Each person has a unique mixture of temperaments, and this explains his individuality. Also, everyone has a predominant essence, which determines the predominant temperament.
It makes sense to use this concept for educational purposes in the first three years of study. For example, by organizing a neighborhood for a desk of children with the same temperament, it is possible to provide each of them with “self-satiation” and balancing of entities. Subsequently, the child matures so much that he begins to control the manifestation of his temperament himself, and it no longer makes sense to take these aspects into account in teaching.
History of the Waldorf School
Rudolf Steiner wrote his first book on education in 1907 called The Education of the Child. In 1919, the first Waldorf school was opened, based on the principles professed by scientists. The initiator of the opening of the educational institution was Emil Molt, the owner and director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette company in the German city of Stuttgart. Hence the name of the educational system, which is still used throughout the world.
The first Steiner school developed quite rapidly, and soon parallel classes began to open in it. The pedagogical principles of the new educational institution quickly gained fans in society. As a result, over the next two decades, similar schools were opened in other parts of Germany, as well as in America, Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland, Norway, Hungary and Austria. The Nazi regime did not bypass the educational sphere, and most European Waldorf schools had to close. However, after the end of the Second World War, the affected educational institutions, including the first Waldorf school in Germany, began to work again.
Steiner's pedagogy came relatively late to the CIS countries. So, in Moscow, the Waldorf school was opened only in 1992. Today, 26 educational institutions work according to this method, the geography of which is very extensive. It is noteworthy that about half of them are free, so parents do not have to worry about the cost of studying at a Waldorf school. There are also educational institutions in which only the lower grades are free. The very first Waldorf school in Moscow works on this principle.
Despite the stormy criticism, the foreign pedagogical system took root well on Russian soil. This is quite logical, because ideas consonant with Steiner's ideas can be found in many native Russian pedagogical concepts of the turn of the century and subsequent years.
Method features
Answering the question: "Waldorf school - what is it?", First of all, it is worth noting that educational institutions that profess this pedagogical system work on the principle of "not outstripping" the child's natural development. In the equipment of schools, preference is given to natural materials, as well as not fully finished toys and manuals (so that children develop their imagination).
Much attention in the educational system of Waldorf schools is given to spiritual development, not only of students, but of all participants in the educational process without exception. The educational material is divided into blocks (epochs). At all stages of training, the day is divided into three parts:
- Spiritual, with a predominance of active thinking.
- Mental, involving learning music and eurythmic dances.
- Creative and practical, during which children solve creative problems: draw, sculpt, carve wood crafts, sew, and so on.
Teachers can subordinate the rhythm of the day to the subject, the block of which is currently being studied. For example, when studying a mathematical block, children may be asked to see mathematical patterns in dances and drawings. All educational material is presented for reasons of correspondence between the development of the child and the development of the historical society. For example, in the sixth grade, when students form an idea of statehood and justice, they are introduced to the history of the Roman Empire, and in a year, puberty will begin, with the history of the Middle Ages, when masculinity and femininity were pronounced (knights and ladies, respectively) . At the same time, students participate in thematic events that are subordinate to a particular historical period, and sometimes even visit the same cities, the former glory of which they learned from teachers.
"Soul economy"
The main method of Steiner's pedagogy is the so-called mental economy. It perfectly illustrates the essence of the Waldorf schools. According to this method, in the process of learning, the child develops the activity that he is able to comprehend at this stage of development without internal resistance. So, in the period from the change of teeth to the onset of puberty, children develop memory and imaginative thinking, appealing to their feelings, and not to the intellect. In the lower grades, through active games and needlework, students are trained in fine and general motor skills, as well as individual and group coordination, which is important for both intellectual and social development. After the schoolchild reaches puberty, teachers begin to work with his abstract thinking.
Rational memory training
Based on the fact that the formation of concepts begins naturally from the age of 12, until this age, the Waldorf school of Steiner rejects the methods of "observational learning". Instead, they are offered "learning accompanied by the senses." Thanks to the connection of feelings, which become a support for the student's memory, he remembers information more easily. Modern psychologists confirm that emotional memory is one of the most durable. The main task of the teacher in this direction is to cope with the indifferent attitude of students to the material being studied.
Interest as a means of mobilization
The student is interested in what is consonant with the processes of his internal development at a particular moment in time. So, up to 9 years old, children like active games, imitation and listening to fairy tales. In simple words, they are emotionally still in the preschool period, where "the world is kind." In addition, younger students feel the need for vivid images, creative imagination and rhythm, which is most acutely felt in the period from 9 to 12 years old. During the Rubicon, the child begins to separate himself from the outside world and be interested in things "as they really are." This means that it is time to introduce more realistic subjects into training.
"Contemplative" and "active" subjects
Excess mental activity is bad for the health of children. To solve this problem, Waldorf schools introduced subjects on which children engage in physical activity. In addition, “contemplative” subjects are used, on which the teacher seeks to awaken the child’s imagination, set his feelings in motion, and not just quickly interpret the topic of the lesson. The main goal is to include children's interest as a positive emotion.
rhythmic routine
In the Waldorf school there is a strictly defined rhythm of the day. During the school day, there is a smooth transition to physical activity from mental. Instead of morning exercises, students are offered a rhythmic part lasting about 20 minutes. It is followed by the first, he is the main lesson. It can be mathematics, geography, physics, native language and other complex subjects. In the second lesson there is a rhythmic repetition. The second usually come such lessons: music, gymnastics, painting, eurythmy and others. In the afternoon, students are engaged in practical activities: manual labor, gardening, all kinds of crafts and other items that require physical activity.
"Epoch"
Speaking about the features of the Waldorf school, it is important to mention that the presentation of the material in it is carried out in large periods, which are called "epochs" here. Each of the "epochs" lasts approximately 3-4 weeks. This distribution of material allows the child to get used to it. The student does not need to constantly expend energy on getting into and out of a new topic. At the end of the “epoch”, the child feels a surge of strength due to the opportunity to sum up his achievements.
Harmonization
In the learning process, teachers try to achieve a balance between the will, feeling and thinking of each of their wards. Each of these spiritual abilities of the child manifests itself at a certain stage of its development. So, in elementary school, attention is paid mainly to the will, in the middle school - to feelings, and in the senior school - to thinking. Along with the harmonization of spiritual life, the principle of harmonization of social life operates in the Waldorf school. A healthy social environment is of great importance for the student. Personality develops freely only when it is not suppressed by the environment.
Individual approach
Thanks to an individual approach to each of the pupils, the latter have the opportunity to fully open up. The non-judgmental system of education and the lack of competitive moments allow weak children to feel complete. As a measure of achievement, a comparison of the current success of the child with the past is used. This allows each student to get "soft motivation" and feel successful, without towering over their classmates.
Cooperative activity
A friendly class also contributes to the mental comfort of children. The unification of students is carried out during the rhythmic part of the day. Consistency of actions, for example, during a dance, is achieved only through the mutual attention of classmates. To teach children to act together, respect each other and strive for well-coordinated work allows staging joint performances. An important factor here is the authority of the teacher, who serves as a meaningful role model for the child and provides him with a sense of security. At the same time, the teacher tries to organize learning activities in such a way that children become independent and are not afraid to move to the senior level.
Criticism
We already know what it is - the Waldorf school. Now let's get acquainted with the opinion of her opponents. Critics of the Waldorf school complain that such educational institutions were originally intended for the social adaptation of children. There is an opinion that the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria financed the creation of the first Steiner school in order to educate qualified personnel for himself.
Criticizing Waldorf pedagogy, many pay attention to the fact that it is entirely based on the principles of R. Steiner, many of which are of an occult nature. The adherents of the anthroposophical movement themselves deny the alleged existence of Steiner's personality cult. They believe that the current period of human development (since 1990) is an era of pluralism and identity issues identical to it.
The Russian Orthodox Church also accuses Waldorf pedagogy of being anti-Christian and ideologically linked to the occult.
Famous graduates
Contrary to the popular belief that the Waldorf school is a place that creates "hothouse conditions" for students and does not provide their social adaptation, practice shows that graduates of such educational institutions successfully receive higher education and settle in life. At the same time, many of them achieve greater success than graduates of ordinary schools.
Let's name a few famous personalities who graduated from the Waldorf school:
- Nobel Prize winner Thomas Christian Südhof.
- Famous writer Michael Ende.
- Actresses Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Aniston.
- Actor Rutger Hauer.
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
- Car designer Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.
- Directed by Mathieu Seiler.
- Actor, director and producer John Paulson and many others.
Advantages and disadvantages
Based on the existing reviews of the Waldorf school, we note its main advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages:
- In the first grade, the emphasis is mainly on the development of the child's personality. In educational institutions of this type, children are nothing more than the center of the universe. Each of the students has the right to express their opinion, and the teacher tries to support them as much as possible in the implementation of any thoughts / desires / ideas.
- As a rule, in Waldorf schools literally from the first grades, the study of two foreign languages begins.
- Great attention is paid to creativity. Children not only learn to draw and sing, but also learn the basics of playing musical instruments, dancing, comprehending theatrical art and eurythmy (the art of the artistic movement, developed by Rudolf Steiner).
- As surprising as it may sound, there are no homework assignments in the Waldorf school.
- Holidays (New Year, Christmas, March 8 and many others) are celebrated in Steiner educational institutions on a special scale. Children prepare skits, learn poems and songs, and also make gifts for each other. A special holiday here is a birthday. Instead of the usual distribution of sweets, Waldorf schools arrange real celebrations. Classmates prepare poems for the birthday boy, give him gifts and cards.
- Everyone is the same at school. The spirit of rivalry, envy and malice are cut in the bud here. Due to the fact that there is no division into leaders and losers in the class, it becomes one close-knit team.
As the reviews show, the Waldorf school also has disadvantages:
- Transferring a student to a simple school is difficult. And the point here is not so much the need for the child to adapt to a different educational system, but organizational issues. A banal example: a child who has never been graded should be evaluated according to the generally accepted system.
- The training lasts 12 years. In ordinary schools, a student can go from grade 9 to college or stay until grade 11 and go to university.
- There is no emphasis on the exact sciences, so many of the graduates of the Waldorf school become humanities.
- Most Steiner schools are private, and therefore paid.
- Some parents consider the atmosphere that reigns in private Waldorf schools to be too idealized, so they are afraid that it will tear their child away from reality.
Any human education is nothing but the art of assisting nature's striving for its own development. I. Pestalozzi
Steiner Rudolph (1861-1925) - German philosopher and teacher, author of the school system, which received the name Waldorf from the name of the local factory "Waldorf-Astoria", in which the school was organized.
R. Steiner embodied in his school the philosophical doctrine developed by him - anthroposophy, according to which the development of the ability to know leads a person to perfection. Anthroposophy combines elements of subjective idealism (reality as a self-manifestation of the spirit), Goethe's objective idealism, and Christianity.
So, in Waldorf pedagogy, a child is a spiritual being, having, in addition to a physical body, also a soul - a divine principle.
The child - God's part comes to Earth with a specific mission. To release the soul of the child, to let this mission come true is the main task of the school.
Waldorf pedagogy is one of the varieties of the embodiment of the ideas of "free education" and "humanistic pedagogy". It can be characterized as a system of self-knowledge and self-development of an individual in partnership with a teacher, in the dual unity of sensory and supersensory experience of the spirit, soul and body.
Classification parameters
By application level: general pedagogical.
On a philosophical basis: anthroposophical.
According to the main factor of development: biogenic.
According to the concept of assimilation: associative-reflex + gestalt.
By orientation to personal structures: ZUN + COURT + SEN + SDP.
By the nature of the content: training + education, religious, general education, humanistic.
By type of management: tutor system + small group system
By organizational form: alternative, club + academy, individual + group, differentiation.
Approach to the child: personality-oriented with informal leadership of the teacher.
According to the prevailing method: game + dialogue + creativity.
Target Orientations
- Education is designed to form a holistic personality:
Aspiring to the maximum realization of their capabilities (self-realization, self-actualization);
open to new experiences;
Capable of making informed and responsible choices in a variety of life situations.
Not so much knowledge as ability (COURT + SEN + ZUN + SDP).
Development of self-determination, individual responsibility for one's actions (SUM).
Conceptual Provisions
Natural conformity: development occurs according to a predetermined, genetically determined program, goes ahead of learning and determines it; spontaneity of free development of natural inclinations; "Based on the child", the creation of the most favorable conditions for revealing the natural abilities of the child.
Free education and training. All without coercion, without violence: spiritual and bodily.
Freedom as a means of education.
Education and training adapt to the child, not he to them.
In the process of learning, the child himself goes through, comprehends all stages of human development. Therefore, there is no need to truncate "childhood", to intellectualize development ahead of time.
Education is inseparable from education: all education is at the same time the education of certain personality traits.
Ecology of health, cult of health.
The cult of creativity, creative personality, the development of individuality by means of art.
Imitation as a means of learning.
The combination of European and Eastern cultures: the teachings of Christ and the idea of personality as a combination of the physical body and the ethereal, astral.
The unity of the development of the mind, heart and hand.
School for everyone.
Common life of teachers and students.
Content Features
Harmonious combination of intellectual, aesthetic and practical-labor aspects of education.
Wide additional education (museums, theater, etc.).
Intersubject communications.
Compulsory subjects of art: painting, eurythmy (the art of expressive movements) and the image of forms (complex patterns, graphics), music (playing the flute).
A large role is assigned to labor education. Features of the content by class - learning "by era":
Preschool period: walk, talk, think;
I: prototypes and fairy tales; from image to letter; singing, eurythmy; knitting;
II: miracles and legends; letter; arithmetic; flute, drawing, manual labor;
III: creation of the world and the Old Testament; sheet music, shape drawing, crochet;
IV: gap between the general and the particular; fractions; European myths; ornament, canon, embroidery;
V: harmony and antiquity, Greece; decimals, orchestra, woodwork;
VI: Middle Ages, the struggle between good and evil; Rome; physics, percentages, geometry, planing;
VII: space and the Renaissance; algebra, poetry, sewing;
VIII: revolutions, 19th century; economics, chemistry, composers, work with metal;
IX: ecology, technological progress and morality, art history, carpentry;
X: politics, history, society, physics, dramaturgy, ceramics;
XI: society, literature, music, sculpture, bookbinding;
XII: cultural history, improvisation in all areas.
Features of the technique
- A pedagogy of relationships, not demands.
Immersion method, "epochal" technique.
Education without textbooks, without rigid programs (didactic materials, additional literature).
Individualization (taking into account the progress of the individual in development).
Lack of division into classroom and extracurricular activities.
The student is brought to the discovery of the personal significance of ZUN and, on this motivational basis, masters the content of subjects (areas).
Collective cognitive creativity in the classroom.
Teaching independence and self-control.
Lots of play (study should be fun).
Denial mark.
Student position.
The child is at the center of the pedagogical system.
The right to choose everything: from the form of the lesson to its plan.
The child's right to make mistakes.
Freedom of choice.
The right to free creative search.
Responsible relationship with the team.
The position of the teacher.
The activity of the teacher is a priority, the teacher leads the children for 8 years in all subjects.
The teacher is a senior friend.
With children to the subject, and not with the subject to the children.
Not to give knowledge, but to let children live in the classroom; joint spiritual life of student and teacher.
Waiting for the maturation of the forces laid down by nature.
Do not tell the child "no", "no".
Do not make comments (lack of highlighting weak and strong).
Don't give bad marks.
Do not leave for the second year.
Accept the child as he is (all children are talented). R. Steiner's position on religious education: free Christian education, which is outside the general routine of the school, is conducted as private education within its framework.
Very important aspects of Waldorf pedagogy are attention to the health of children, teacher-parental self-government.
Notes. Modern analogues of "Free Pedagogy".
The Center for Waldorf Pedagogy has been created and is operating in Russia.
Moscow Free Waldorf School(supervisor A. A. Pinsky) works without the usual director, head teacher, and other usual administrative attributes of a mass school. All affairs are managed by an elected board of children, teachers and parents.
Work is not divided into classroom and extracurricular. These species are very closely intertwined. After the main lesson, painting, music, needlework, English and German are taught (since the first grade at the same time), as well as disciplines specific to the Waldorf school - eurythmy (the art of expressive movements) and the image of forms - drawing complex patterns, graphics.
The program provides for the agricultural cycle, the construction of a wooden house (at the level of a large model). It's in the elementary grades. And in the seniors - work with metal. All children also master needlework - learn to sew, embroider.
School of Leo Tolstoy. L. N. Tolstoy put into practice the idea of "free education" in the Yasnaya Polyana school organized by him for peasant children. If we imagine the "school of L. N. Tolstoy" as a technology, then we can note its maximalist concept:
Education, as the deliberate formation of people according to known patterns, unproductive, illegal, impossible;
" upbringing corrupts rather than corrects people;
The more spoiled a child is, the less he needs to be educated, the more freedom he needs.
In the last period of his life, Leo Tolstoy went to the other extreme - pedagogical moralism with a religious tinge.
.Rudolf Steiner (1861 - 1925) is without a doubt one of the most interesting and amazing spiritual phenomena of our century: he is the editor and publisher of Goethe's natural scientific works, the full significance of which was discovered by him for the first time and made fruitful for culture; author of significant works in the field of philosophy and theory of science; as the founder of anthroposophy, he made an attempt to create methods for studying the spiritual side of the world and man; they were given significant impulses in architecture, theatrical art, a new art of movement was created - eurythmy; the farming method he founded is a pioneer of ecological agriculture, and ideas in the field of social life are the basis for the activities of many institutions, consulting firms and banks; and, finally, it is impossible not to mention the curative pedagogy and medicine inspired by him. However, his name was most famous due to the wide spread of pedagogical institutions - primarily kindergartens and schools - working on the basis of the pedagogy he created. Teaching and learning are, perhaps, the main motive of his whole life.
1. Childhood and school years
Steiner was born in 1861 in Austria-Hungary, the son of a simple railway employee. His father was first a telegraph operator, and then the head of a small station. So Steiner, already a child, gets acquainted with the innovations of the then technology - telegraph, telephone, railway station device. On the other hand, his childhood passes in a picturesque natural environment, which the boy empathizes with all the strength of his childish soul. This contrast between natural and technical, which has become one of the main problems of modern mankind, begins to excite the boy from childhood.
Taking care of the future of his son, the father seeks to give him a good education. He sees in his son a future railway engineer and therefore sends him not to a gymnasium, but to a real school. However, the material resources of the family were very limited. Little Rudolph, realizing this, tried to study very diligently: good students were exempted from paying tuition fees. But, apart from such external motives, the characteristic feature of the young Steiner was that he was keenly and deeply interested in the subjects taught at school and studied a lot himself. So he independently, according to a book taken from a teacher, studies geometry with inspiration, then masters differential and integral calculus much earlier than his peers; at the age of fourteen he gets himself Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and diligently studies it, and then other philosophical books; along with the program of the real school, he independently takes the course of the gymnasium, mastering Greek and Latin; history and literature become another hobby of a teenager and a young man. In this variety of interests, one can already see the seeds of the future concept of the Waldorf school, which combines in its curriculum the gymnasium, the humanities and the real school, focused on the natural sciences and mathematics.
We can learn about the importance of school and education in Steiner's life from his autobiography. Description of life in the family occupy a relatively small place. But with what love Steiner remembers his teachers! He describes in detail the methods and content of teaching and gives vivid portraits of those people who influenced him during his school days, as well as during his studies at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna. In this, again, one cannot fail to see another principle underlying the pedagogy of Waldorf kindergartens and schools: emphasizing the role of the personality of the educator and teacher, his human qualities: it is not _methods_ and _technologies_ that are decisive in the matter of education and upbringing, but the person himself, capable of breathe a living spirit and soul into the material taught.
Another important motive of the school years, which played a huge role in Steiner's later life, is helping those who are lagging behind. From about the age of fourteen, he begins to study with the students of his school, giving them auxiliary lessons, _to add at least a little to what my parents spent on my education from their meager income_. He writes: _I owe a great deal to these studies. Presenting the perceived material to others, in a certain sense I awakened to it_. This active teaching for the transformation of the perceived material and teaching to other students who had difficulties in assimilation were the first concrete exercises in didactic art, and, moreover, a living school of psychology. _On my students I got acquainted with the difficulties of human spiritual development_. And again, we meet this motive later in the pedagogy he founded: the encouragement of the spirit of mutual help and support, which is the opposite of the selection and selection of the especially gifted: if I have the ability and something turns out well and I help the weak, then my abilities not only do not disappear but get the opportunity to develop in a different capacity - social responsibility. The consequence of this approach is the development of social abilities of understanding other people and orientation of actions to another, which is one of the most valued qualities of a person in modern society. - Steiner continued to engage in this private teaching activity for many years, which we will mention later.
And, finally, it is impossible not to mention one more important aspect of the boy's inner life, in which one can see the seeds of the future anthroposophy. In his autobiography, Steiner describes how, at about the age of seven, he experiences the awakening of his powers of spiritual vision. Before his inner gaze, the other side of the world, hidden from the sensual gaze, begins to unfold: _I distinguished objects and beings that _see_ and which _ do not see__. The boy, however, was far from simply naively accepting this gift of his. He seeks to comprehend it, carefully watching so as not to fall into illusions or daydreaming. Mathematics helps him in this: “I wanted to find reasons to say to myself that the experience of the spiritual world is just as little an illusion as the experience of the world of the senses. In geometry one can know something that the soul itself experiences through its own power. This idea made it possible to speak about the spiritual world as well as about the sensual one... - Descriptions of the experiences of the spiritual world in childhood can be found in the biographies of many people, for example, our compatriot, an outstanding figure of Russian culture, Fr. Pavel Florensky. Steiner's difference was that his spiritual experience with the time does not recede into the background, as happens with Florensky. This experience is also not of a spontaneous nature uncontrolled by consciousness, as is the case with many mystics, whose experience often has little to do with the realities of a particular life. Steiner's spiritual experience allows him to understand more deeply and more fully the phenomena and processes of the surrounding world of nature and the lives of people with whom he has to face. This is what gives him the opportunity to act much more fruitfully and successfully in everyday affairs. The position: the spiritual should serve life, is, perhaps, the main nerve of the _science of the spirit_ or anthroposophy that he later created. In the meantime, for many years, Steiner says nothing about this: spiritual fruit takes a long time to ripen.
2. Vienna, Weimar, Berlin
In the autumn of 1879, Steiner entered the Technische Hochschule in Vienna. The main subjects of study are mathematics, natural history, chemistry. There he meets the outstanding researcher of Goethe, Faust's commentator - Professor Karl Julius Schroer, whose lectures on the history of literature make a deep impression on the young student. Regardless of Schroer, who was mainly engaged in Goethe's literary work, Steiner got acquainted with Goethe's teaching on color and independently began to study optics. He shows his first manuscripts to Schroer and expresses the idea that in Goethe's approach to the phenomena of light and colors there are still hidden possibilities for science. This work leads Schroer to recommend the 22-year-old student to the publisher Kürschner, who was planning an academic edition of the _German National Literature_ - a monumental series spanning more than 200 volumes - as editor and commentator of Goethe's corpus of natural science writings. Such a proposal could not but surprise the publisher. However, after some hesitation, Kurshner agrees to accept the offer, but with the condition of Schroer's guarantee, which he willingly provides. Steiner sets to work with enthusiasm and in a short time achieves amazing success. His comments and introductory essays on Goethe's scientific works are highly appreciated by specialists. Steiner devoted a total of about fifteen years to this activity of working on the scientific heritage of Goethe, as well as Goethe's aesthetics.
In 1884, also on the recommendation of Schroer, Steiner became a home teacher in the family of the Viennese merchant Ladislav Specht. Among the four sons with whom Steiner was supposed to work, there was one that caused particular concern to the parents. A ten-year-old boy was considered physically and mentally ill. He suffered from hydrocephalus. The slightest mental stress caused him headaches, pallor and behavioral disturbances. The family doctor of the Specht family, the famous Viennese doctor Breuer, Freud's teacher, expressed doubts about the child's ability to develop. Steiner, on the other hand, was convinced that great spiritual abilities were hidden in the child and that the whole point was only to bring the spiritual-soul into a correct, healthy connection with the bodily. The family believed Steiner and the boy was entirely given to him for upbringing. This educational task has been a rich source of learning for me. Thanks to the practice of teaching, which I had to apply, an understanding of the connection between the spiritual-soul and body in a person was opened to me. Here I went through a genuine school of physiology and psychology. I realized that education and teaching should become an art based on true knowledge of a person. I had to carefully adhere to the principle of economy. For a lesson lasting half an hour, I often had to prepare for two hours in order to arrange the material taught in such a way that in the shortest possible time and with the least possible strain on the student's strength to achieve the maximum possible productivity. It was necessary to carefully consider the sequence of disciplines taught, to determine the entire regimen of the boy's day. Within two years, my student was able to catch up on what he had missed at school, and then successfully pass the matriculation exam_. He later went to university and became a doctor.
