Rudolf Steiner 9781472541512, 9780826484192

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Series Editor's Preface

Education is sometimes presented as an essentially practical activity. It is, it seems, about teaching and learning, curriculum and what goes on in schools. It is about achieving certain ends, using certain methods, and these ends and methods are often prescribed for teachers, whose duty it is to deliver them with vigor and fidelity. With such a clear purpose, what is the value of theory? Recent years have seen politicians and policy-makers in different countries explicitly denying any value or need for educational theory. A clue to why this might be is offered by a remarkable comment by a British Secretary of State for Education in the 1990s: 'having any ideas about how children learn, or develop, or feel, should be seen as subversive activity' This pithy phrase captures the problem with theory: it subverts, challenges and undermines the very assumptions on which the practice of education is based. Educational theorists, then, are trouble-makers in the realm of ideas. They pose a threat to the statics quo and lead us to question the common sense presumptions of educational practices. But this is precisely what they should do because the seemingly simple language of schools and schooling hides numerous con testable concepts that in their different usages reflect fundamental disagreements about the aims, values and activities of education. Implicit within the Continuum Library of Educational Thought is an assertion that theories and theorizing are vitally important for education. By gathering together the ideas of some of the most influential, important and interesting educational thinkers, from the Ancient Greeks to contemporary scholars, the series has the ambitious task of providing an accessible yet authoritative resource for a generation of students and practitioners. Volumes within the series are written by acknowledged leaders in the field, who were selected both for their

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Series Editor's Preface

scholarship and their ability to make often complex ideas accessible to a diverse audience. It will always be possible to question the list of key thinkers that are represented in this series. Some may question the inclusion of certain thinkers; some may disagree with the exclusion of others. That is inevitably going to be the case. There is no suggestion that the list of thinkers represented within the Continuum Library of Educational Thought is in any way definitive. What is incontestable is that these thinkers have fascinating ideas about education, and that taken together, the Library can act as a powerful source of information and inspiration for those committed to the study of education. Richard Bailey Roehampton University, London

Foreword

Rudolf Steiner, his anthroposophy and Waldorf education have remained popular topics of public discourse in Germany since the early twentieth century. The foundation of private universities according to Steinerian principles (as in the German town of WittenHerdecke), the prominence of Waldorf education in politics (as in the case of Otto Schily, a member of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's cabinet) and the apparently consistent popularity of the so-called Tree Waldorf Schools' all factor into this renown. This attention has always been critical in nature; the esoteric background of the teachings, the distance, indeed the secrecy and seclusion separating the anthroposophical community from the general public have always been topics of this critical discourse (including the current accusation of an affinity to racist worldviews). But it has always been primarily Steiner's concept of education which has polarized. Heiner Ullrich's work in this context forms a part of this perennial debate. His special position, visibility and exceptional accomplishments within this area are results of his success at reinvigorating controversies long since discussed to surfeit through the introduction of an ingenious question and thoughtful argumentation. His question, 'Why are the Waldorf schools so successful?', is particularly intriguing in light of the clear discrepancy between the insightful criticism of observers representing various theoretical, philosophical and political points of view, on the one hand, and the fact, on the other hand, that Waldorf schools (alongside denominational schools) are supplied with a continuous stream of new students and now represent the most successful model for private schools in German-speaking regions. His explanation, which continues to fascinate, is predicated upon his linking of two seemingly irreconcilable arguments: in a first step,

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Ullrich identifies the putative weaknesses of Waldorf education as its decisive strengths: its esoteric form of self-justification, its largely traditional methods - including a sort of pedagogy which, despite various idiosyncrasies, is teacher-centred - as well as its highly selective recruitment and active fostering of an intimate attachment of students, parents and teachers to their school. In other words, he thus confirms the tried and true axiom according to which a good school requires a parent-teacher covenant. In a second step, he protects himself against being taken in by Waldorf educators. He does so by declaring their ability to do just this - to take in, to co-opt people - as the secret of their success, which necessarily, irrevocably and basically characterizes all successful pedagogy- from the Jesuits until the present day. Ullrich has identified the 'myth and ritual' of Waldorf pedagogy as the logical basis of its practical application beyond the binary opposition of 'correct vs false'. His analysis then led to the provocative and logically consequent suggestion that 'myth and ritual' are the fundamental principles on which all good pedagogical praxis is based. He argues against overzealous theoreticians and against the pedagogical illusion, 'good school practices' could be derived from 'correct science'. His counterargument is that schools represent their own kind of reality - a type of reality consisting of a symbiosis of each school's own goals, good arguments (among them scholarly ones), but also of a large contingent of routine procedures, practical methods and beliefs, all of which can only be tested and proven useful in their particular milieu and context (and which, of course, can benefit not only from anthroposophy). Guiding principles of any pedagogical persuasion, such as 'nature', 'development' or 'education', as well as the attitude towards children and their envisioned future do not only possess scientific reality, but they also exist primarily within the world of their pedagogical users and producers. As our modern world challenges us to found the pedagogical world on science, we tend to discredit other constructions and bases as mere 'weltanschauungen', like Steiner's worldview. We thus fail to admit that, even within the scholarly field of pedagogy, knowledge and convictions only merge into a unified whole of a specific type of school by developing their respective myth and ritual.

Foreword

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In this sense, considering Steiner, anthroposophy and Waldorf pedagogy is a worthwhile pursuit. Such a pursuit is especially useful when an insightful author such as Heiner Ullrich demonstrates to us that, when mirrored in the alien and other, we can discern how our own world is constructed. He also lets us understand what we would miss if we refused to perceive ourselves in this very mirror. Heinz-Elmar Tenorth Humboldt-Universitat, Berlin

Prologue

Perhaps no other figure in the history of education in the twentieth century has had as strong and ever-increasing pedagogical and life-reforming effect, while at the same time having received so little recognition within his field, as Rudolf Steiner. Impulses from his reforms are now found globally and are extraordinarily strong, not only in Waldorf School areas, but also in healing and therapeutic social work, psychosomatic medicine, biological-dynamic agriculture, corporate organization, fine arts, and architecture. There is perhaps no other educational reformer whose thought and influence have been so controversially judged over such a long period as those of Rudolf Steiner. The spectrum of reactions ranges from enthusiastic admiration of his genius (especially among his anthroposophical students), to polite attempts at recognition of innovative potential, right through to radical skepticism and a polemic dissecting of his fundamental ideals as pure syncretism. Those who wish to form their own opinion of Rudolf Steiner's educational philosophy must at some point take a critical look at its fundamental teachings on humans and their place in nature and society. They are recorded in his many writings and gigantic rhetorical oeuvre which consists of a countless number of speeches given in a period spanning more than two decades of travel, not only in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, but also in Scandinavia, Italy, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. The collected works of Rudolf Steiner encompass roughly 400 volumes, most of which are available only in the German. Yet not only the sheer volume of Steiner's works, but also their divergent components and their genesis made the study and adequate reception of his views on education more difficult While Steiner's early works were directed mainly at a broad and scientifically competent readership, his remaining publications open up his philosophical and life-reforming

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anthroposophical program for the general public. The greater part of his papers is by and large comprised of uncorrected and unauthorized writings from the inner circle of his theo- and anthroposophical followers. Perhaps the greatest hurdle to a scientific discussion of Rudolf Steiner's educational views is in the often foreign and seemingly esoteric, more visual than content-based terminology, which he uses for his fundamental 'extrasensory beings* in a comprehensive view of humanity. With these hurdles in mind, I feel it is easiest to access his work and influence through his intellectual biography. This method is also more attractive because Steiner had not yet begun to write his memoirs at the high point of his influence in December 1923 (cf. Steiner CW 28,1999). Due to his unexpected death in the spring of 1925, the incomplete stream of his life's memories only reaches May 1907. This autobiography of this charismatic and philosophical leader also contains obviously apologetic moments, a reflection on the often heavy criticism of his contemporaries. It stresses the internal continuity of his life, which outwardly appeared to be characterized by breaks and change. Although Steiner's memoirs remain fragmented and include some harmonizing image cultivation, 'Mein Lebensgang' must be considered the most important source of any intellectual Steiner portrait. Even the most recent standard Steiner biography (cf. Lindenberg 1997) toes the line of Steiner's view of his 'outer' life as a rise out of poverty and rejection, right through to the success of his 'inner' life as a continuous process of self-awareness, from his determination through ideas to transcendental cosmic beings and destinal chains. The ambivalence and discontinuity in Steiner's view of Nietzsche and Darwin's contemporary ideas, of Christianity and theosophy (which are always stressed by non-anthroposophs), are neither exposed in terms of their problems, nor treated in any detail here. A 'critical' biography of Rudolf Steiner which clearly accentuates for example, the ideational discontinuity between his DarwinisticGoethean and anthroposophical phases remains an urgent research desideratum. Heiner Ullrich Professor of Education Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitat, Mainz, Germany

Part One

Intellectual Biography

1. Childhood and Youth Abroad: Scholastic Success and Intellectual Curiosity Steiner was born on 25 February 1861 in the village of Kraljevec (in what is today Croatia, but at the time in Hungary), the first of three children of an Austrian railway telegraphist. He was born into a modest, uneducated environment and was baptized as a Roman Catholic. Just as little Rudolf was born, in the distant United States of America the civil war was beginning and in neighboring Italy unification had just been completed. The English throne was in the midst of its third year of political domination over India. At approximately the same time, prominent fellow citizens of the Austrian Danube monarchy were born, such as Sigmund Freud (1856), Edmund Husserl (1859) and Gustav Mahler (1860). Among his contemporaries in the broader sense were philosophers such as Henri Bergson (1859) and Benedetto Croce (1866) in Europe and John Dewey (1859) and George Herbert Mead (1863) in North America, as well as the sociological classicists Emile Durkheim (1858) and Max Weber (1864), the educational reformers Jane Addams (1860) and Maria Montessori (1870) and the Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi (1852). In contrast to most of his famous contemporaries, Rudolf Steiner did not grow up in the artistically aware, educated middle class, but rather in the rural and unpropertied lower middle class of the German-speaking diaspora. Rudolf Steiner experienced his childhood as an Austrian born abroad, as a foreigner in his village, and - because of his intellectual curiosity - as a stranger in his own family. Geographical and social unrootedness also characterize his life beyond his childhood. The eleven stages of Steiner's life, which took him via Vienna to Weimar, Berlin, Stuttgart, and finally to Dornach (Basel) in Switzerland, did not allow him to

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establish a true home. Nowhere did he set up a permanent residence, buy his own home or work in a solid middle-class profession. Neither of the marriages he entered into later in life produced any children. Steiner's love of learning and his interest in education were decisive for the road his life took. His success in school allowed him grow out of his small-town milieu and provided access to the Zeitgeist. His social ascent and career were built on his scholastic performance. His father recognized his son's talent at an early age and saw to it that he received extra instruction in addition to that offered at the elementary school. So that his son might later attend the (more prestigious) academy and become a railway engineer, his father agreed to be transferred to a train station near Wiener Neustadt (near Vienna). Achieving good grades in school, Steiner was accepted as a pupil at the non-Latin 'Oberrealschule', a type of secondary modern school, on a scholarship; his parents therefore had to pay no tuition. At 15 he began to contribute to his own sustenance by earning money through tutoring. He passed his final exams (Maturitat) with the grade 'outstanding' and thereby acquired the prerequisite for a scholarship to study at a technical post-secondary institution. Despite his scholastic success, the cultural horizon of this up-and-coming star had to this point been very limited. At home, literature, art, and religion played no role at all, and he had no access to music. At his secondary school, math, physics, and chemistry dominated at the expense of classical and modern languages. Steiner found his own way to literature and intellectual history. As a passionate autodidact, as a pupil he became acquainted with philosophical works of German Idealism (Immanuel Kant andjohann Friedrich Herbart, among others). In his later autobiography, Steiner traces his interest in philosophy and religious worldview issues to his transcendental-intellectual experiences. These began with the telepathic perception of his aunt's suicide at the age of seven (cf. Lindenberg 1997, p. 31), but this skill is not recognized by his family. From that point on, the reality of the intellectual world is as certain as the sensory world. I would have said that the objects and events seen by the senses exist in space, the space outside the human being; but a kind of soul-space exists within as the setting for spiritual beings and events.

Studies and Work as a Tutor in Vienna I could not see anything in thoughts that was like pictures we form of things; rather they were revelations of a spiritual world on the stage of the soul ... I had two mental images that, although still undefined, played an important role in my inner life even before my eighth year; I differentiated between things that are visible and things that are invisible. (Steiner CW 28, 1999, p. 23) This tension between his spiritual-emotional inner world and the sensory-material world is found thereafter in his life, work and influence, like the principal theme of a symphony.

2. Studies and Work as a Tutor in Vienna: The Basis for an Idealistic Worldview In 1879 Steiner registered with a scholarship at Vienna's technical university to study math, natural history and chemistry. He was educated in sciences and technology but was much more interested in philosophy and literature. He undertook this 'Brotstudium', (a German term for studying subjects one is not particularly interested in but which should allow one to make a living once studies are complete) with the goal of becoming a teacher at a secondary modern school. The gates to the philosophy faculty at the University of Vienna, to which he was much more attracted, remained closed to the talented young student because he did not have the necessary prerequisites of Latin and Greek. As a poor, second-class student from a rural area, Steiner only found limited access to cultural life in the metropolis of the Danube monarchy. The world of the aristocracy and industrial bourgeoisie, in which Johann Strauss was celebrating resounding triumphs with his operettas at the time, remained closed to him just as it did to members of the proletariat in the workers' suburbs. Steiner delved deeply into political issues of his time, which were strongly shaped by emerging nationalism in the multinational state of Austria. As a regular patron of concerts and operas, he partook in the outstanding events in the

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world of classical music, which at that time were dictated byJohannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner and Hugo Wolf. For his 'Brotstudium' Steiner completed a comprehensive series of lectures and was able to secure his scholarship by regularly passing his exams with the grades of 'excellent' and 'very good', thereby proving his scholarly success. However, he did not complete his studies, but rather devoted more and more time to his philosophical interests, probably in the hope of later graduating and earning his doctorate at the university's philosophy faculty. In 1883 he left the technical university without having graduated. He was now penniless, but in the period between 1884 and 1890 he earned his living as a tutor and educator in Vienna in the upper middle-class family of the Jewish cotton importer Ladislaus Specht. He was responsible for the education of four boys and was given special responsibility for the education of the youngest of them, who was impaired by hydrocephaly (an abnormal buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain). In time he was able to help the boy to such an extent that he completed his education at elementary school and regularly completed grammar school (Gymnasium) level work. The Viennese literary and worldview circles that the intellectually inquisitive young Steiner was associated with were largely shaped by backward-thinking, idealistic and national(istic)-Romantic views. Steiner, who also dabbled as a theater critic and editor for a nationalistic political paper/magazine, was therefore highly skeptical of many of his progressive contemporaries, Sigmund Freud for example, who was developing the basis of psychoanalysis in the same period in Vienna. In Steiner's last years in Vienna he had his first contact with theosophists, of whom he initially had a mixed view that even tended toward outright rejection of their ideas. During his studies and work as an educator in Vienna Steiner began to grapple with the Zeitgeist on a philosophical level and to develop his own worldview, which can be described as evolutionary-objective idealism. In order to understand the young Steiner's thought within the context of his time, his contemporary horizon shall now be briefly introduced. In simplified terms, philosophical thought in the second half of the nineteenth century in central Europe was shaped by tendencies toward materialism and scientification. Since the end of

Studies and Work as a Tutor in Vienna idealism in the wake of Hegel's death, rational metaphysics had been questioned. Among the philosophical teachers of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, right through to Freud's psychoanalysis, the accepted view was that reason was not the first and most powerful force in controlling behavior, but rather the will, in the sense of dark urges, longing and desire. This meant that it was no longer the spirit but rather the body which dictated, because it was the body which carried the will. It was no longer spiritualizing ('Vergeistigung'), but rather embodiment of the spirit ('Verleiblichung') which was man's task. Even in Karl Marx's materialistic interpretation of history it was no longer developing reason which dictated history (as it was with Hegel), but rather only the level of productive power, which can be objectively determined by the science of economics. Behavior relevant to history no longer stemmed from the individual's consciousness, but rather from the material interests of the social classes. Parallel to this dethroning of idealistic metaphysics, within the nineteenth century the relationship between philosophy and science also changed with a mutual drifting apart. Until the philosophy of idealism of Hegel and Schelling, the sciences had always been seen as a unit together with philosophy because the goal of both was the perception of truth or, more specifically, eternal world order. The sciences only came to prominence once they had been given a solid foundation through philosophy. The triumph of exact science in the nineteenth century - which was largely based on a departure from idealistic systems and a loss of interest in the question of being - marks the parting of ways for the sciences and philosophy. The increasing dynamic in the sciences after the midway point of the century was experienced by those involved as an ever-accelerating progress in insight and discovery and as an explosion in specialized knowledge, which, unlike in Goethe and Hegel's time, was no longer easy to keep track of. Philosophy only appeared possible as a theory of cognition (epistemology) or of science. An allencompassing scientific worldview was now only for dabblers and the scientific populists who wrote for them. In order to satisfy philosophical needs, which could not be met by specialized and professionallygenerated scientific knowledge, new worldviews arose. In contrast to existing religious doctrine, these had scientific requirements. The

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most popular scientific worldview of the last third of the century was Darwinism, which was based on an evolutionary principle. At the time Rudolf Steiner was studying, many of his contemporaries were convinced that it was no longer religion and philosophy, but rather science that was the thinking man's terrain. The humanizing of culture through scientific thought was considered the meaning of history, which, in turn, stemmed from the evolution of all living things. From a worldview perspective the principle of evolution was a link between science and metaphysics because it made the notion plausible - as did the earlier historical philosophy of progress - that there is development which leads 'upward.' However, this development is not guided by supernatural powers, but rather emerges empirically from the workings of nature itself. Darwin's book The Origin of Species, whose influence stretches beyond biology right through to the general consciousness, shows the universal meaning of the evolutionary principle in an instructive manner. Even though for evolutionary theorists, development is a fact of natural history and is not teleologically developed for humans, Darwinists see it as a meaningful, higher development toward a comprehensive humanity. The most successful proponent of Darwinism was the zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who taught at the University ofJena. Based on Darwin's theory of evolution and his own studies, Haeckel developed an evolutionary worldview which was closely connected with Goethe's view of nature and the monistic notion of a material and ideal substance as the basis of all life. In Haeckel's popular scientific writings, the term Monism is used to describe a free religious worldview in which modern science and religiosity of man (boiled down to its basic core) are set to bring man back to true harmony. Rudolf Steiner and many others were strongly impressed by Haeckel's Monism as a merger of science and religion, as well as by the basic idea of evolution as a higher development and as an ideal and material basis. His first philosophical notes and reflections show that he is still bound to an older, idealistic monistic thought. In this respect he goes against the Zeitgeist as an intellectual partner in discussions of German Idealists such as Fichte and Schelling. Shortly before his twentieth birthday he wrote to a friend about his fundamental philosophical intuition. 'It was the night from the 10th to the

Studies and Work as a Tutor in Vienna 11th of January in which I did not sleep for a moment. I had been occupied with some philosophical problems until a half hour before midnight and then I finally retired to bed. The previous year it had been my goal to investigate if Shelling's words were true: We all carry a secret, wonderful capability of pulling ourselves back from the changing of the times, from everything that came from external sources, to our own naked selves, and from there to see the eternal in us in the form of unchangeability. I believed and still believe I have definitely discovered that capability in myself I have suspected it for some time - the entire idealistic philosophy now stands before me in a significantly modified form. What is a sleepless night against such a discovery. (Steiner, cited in Lindenberg 2004, p. 25) In his Viennese years the mystic-religious dimension of this thought was expressed genuinely. In * Credo - The Individual and the Universe', which he writes at the age of 27, the outline of his idealistic worldview, reminiscent of neo-Platonism, is still clearly perceivable. Central statements include: The world of ideas is the original source and principle of all being. In it is endless harmony and spiritual calm ... The idea is, in itself, the clear and self-content spirit... If man awakens to his full consciousness, he feels and recognizes only himself as an individual. The craving for ideas is planted within him ... Leave aside details and follow the voice in you because only it is the Divine! ... If one acts 'in spirit' then one experiences the general workings of the world in oneself. The killing of 'selfness', that is the basis for higher living. Whoever kills selfness lives eternally... There are four spheres of human activity to which man devotes himself completely to the spirit with the killing of independent existence, science, art, religion, and loving dedication ... When one man has passed through one of the spheres and out of individuality, and has settled down into the divine life of the idea, then he has achieved that which lies within the seed of aspiration in his breast; his union with the spirit, and this is his true destiny. (Steiner GA 40 1981, p. 274 f.)

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In coming years Steiner would record the opportunity and the need for experience with the eternal world of ideas, both through the example of the nature researcher Goethe's idealistic morphology, as well as through his own epistemological writings. Terminologically he follows the Zeitgeist, but also presents his outdated philosophical mystic-pre-critical objective idealism as a 'modern worldview' which can be empirically proven through 'observation results according to the scientific method' (cf. the cover of his work The Philosophy of Freedom (CW 4) from 1894). His mathematic-scientific studies at Vienna's technical university did not provide Steiner with the necessary room for the development of his philosophical-worldview issues. This room he found in the lectures of the literature professor and folklorist Karl Julius Schroer. He had earned a reputation as a dialectologist who studied dialects and folk tales in German-speaking isolated areas in the Balkans. Schroer's great passion was Goethe and his times, however. In his lectures he focused solely on this former German classical period and took the young and easily-enthused student on a voyage into this world. Through Schroer's eyes Rudolf Steiner saw the greatness and sublimity of Goethe's time and, just like his teacher, sees his own age as one of decline. Schroer's idealistic views also played right into Steiner's attempts to find a reflexive explanation for his own spiritual experiences. Schroer is not only the academic teacher with the greatest influence on Steiner; he also became aware of the talented young student through his outstanding exam results and brilliant seminar presentations. Steiner was allowed to visit him for personal discussions more frequently. Schroer developed a plan which led to an unexpected turn in Steiner's life. At the time, Schroer was working as an editor on an edition of Goethe's plays in the monumental anthology German National Literature. He knew that the editor Joseph Kiirschner was looking for an employee for the planned five-volume edition of Goethe's works. Schroer suggested Kiirschner take on the 21-year-old Steiner for the job. After Kiirschner had agreed, Steiner started working on the project with great enthusiasm. He finished the first volume in the spring of 1833 after only five months, complete with an introduction and notes. By taking on the editorial position for Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner inwardly distanced himself from

Archivist in Weimar

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his original goal of becoming a secondary-level teacher. In light of the massive support for his work from Schroer and initial successes with publications, the philosophical autodidact and philological layman Steiner decided to set out on a scientific career, one which from the beginning carried the risk of destitution. As early as 1886 Steiner, who had earned his living as a private teacher after having left university without completing his studies, was asked to work on the most comprehensive Goethe edition, the Weimar or Sophien Edition. In 1890 he took the job. He was expected to critically edit six volumes of Goethe's morphological writings. In the summer of 1889 he traveled to Weimar for the first time, the city of the classical German writers Goethe, Schiller and Herder, in order to get to know his new place of work and tasks there.

3. Archivist in Weimar: The Philosophy of Goethean Natural Science From 1890 to 1896 Steiner did poorly paid freelance work at the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar, a small Thuringian city. In only a few years he edited Goethe's - until then unedited - scientific writings for the Sophien Edition. It was very philological work: Steiner had to compare manuscripts with various printed editions, prepare variation indices and publish writings which until then had not been published. He found the work interesting at first, but the archival tasks soon become torturous because he did not see himself as a critical philologist, but rather primarily as a philosophical guardian of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, whose idealistic nature research was diametrically opposed to contemporary experimental and quantifying science. While this was either hardly respected or already forgotten by Steiner's contemporaries, for him Goethe is \ .. the Copernicus and Kepler of the organic world' (Steiner CW 1,2000, p. 95). Goethe did indeed devote more time to his scientific writings (which are primarily interesting today from the standpoint of scientific history) than to his classical writings. One may then rightly term him a scientist who was also a writer. Even very late in life he was very interested in scientific problems: the last pages he wrote before his death in March 1832

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dealt with the biological problem of evolution and consistency of species. He conducted research in different scientificfields:color theory, geology and meteorology, botany, and zoology (morphology). In his day the sciences had not yet become the professionalized research of specialists within the scientific community. Rather, they remained part of general education. Goethe saw the gain of scientific findings primarily in an increase of self-awareness: 'Man only knows himself to the extent he knows the world which he holds in himself and it holds him. Every new object, well inspected, opens up a new organ in us* (Goethe). The condition for Goethe and his contemporaries is the belief in an inner relatedness between man and nature. In his theory of colors this principle is expressed as the kinship of light and the eye, in morphology as the building process of organic shapes, which is accomplished in mankind. Following Spinoza, nature is not only viewed as an existing world in the sense of a finished product ('natura naturata') but also as a permanent process which produces shapes ('natura naturans'). The naturalist must therefore go beyond the knowledge of laws between the products and see these as the works of a producing force which gives all things their form. The adequate route to capturing those shaping forces expressed in natural phenomena is not objective measuring and abstraction but rather the strong internal understanding, the 'participatory recognition' - 'gleichstellendes Denken' (Jonas Cohn). In light of the humbling plethora of shapes in nature, to man the basic phenomena and types, continuity and change, appear to be the measure and essence of all things. The 'sun-like' human eye recognizes colors as the 'deeds and suffering of light' in his confrontation with darkness; life within us understands other living things and man's ambitious spirit experiences enhancement within nature. The old image of man as a microcosm is the basis for Goethe's 'participatory recognition': the power man has belongs to nature and should be developed into an organ of recognition sensory perception, fantasy, exact observation and logical thinking. Goethe sees the strongest opposition to 'participatory recognition' in the 'dominant' method of mathematizing physics. Here the researcher neglects the phenomenon and controls the object of recognition, which is foreign to him or her, experimentally. In the

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historical portion of his 'theory of colors' he accuses Newton of separating himself from the investigated phenomenon in his light research, thereby eliminating the notion of a harmonious, directly perceptible correspondence between man and nature, in this case between the eye and light. Newton's 'dominant' research method strives for isolation, analytical dissection and measurability of the object - in this case, light. The experimental and quantifying science of Newton and his successors 'stretches nature to the point of torture in order to force it into a confession of what had already become fixed in it' (Goethe). While for Newton the world of phenomena only represents the subjective and delusory appearance disguising the hidden truth which can only be perceived abstractly through mathematical formulation, for Goethe the truth can only be found in the phenomenon itself through direct sensory perception. The law-like workings of nature can be viewed in 'original phenomena', which cannot be further reduced. The naturalist's task is therefore to genetically trace back all individual phenomena of a field back to the original phenomena they are based on. In his comparative morphology Goethe sees the diversity of plant life as the modification of a type through metamorphosis, in which the pure phenomenon itself is manifested in the order of progression. The goal of his genetic approach is the recognition of original shapes (such as the Urpflanze, 'the original plant') or, more specifically, unknown, anticipated ideas according to which nature works permanently ('natura naturans'). Rudolf Steiner identified strongly with Goethe's 'empirical idealism' and summed up his principle: The thought is perfectly clear: an ideal, typical form that as such has no sensory reality, realizes itself in an endless multiplicity of spatially separated and qualitatively differentiated beings all the way up to the human being. On the lower levels of organization it always realizes itself in a particular direction and develops toward it in a very pronounced way. As this typical form rises toward the human being, it gathers all the formative principles developed in a one-sided way in the lower organisms (which it distributed among various beings) into one form. This creates the possibility of such

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high perfection in the human being. Here, nature has bestowed upon one being what it dispersed among many classes and orders of animals. (Steiner CW 1, 2000, p. 27) Steiner's relationship to the words of Goethe that he edited is not typical of the obsession with detail and text faithfulness one would expect from a true philologist. Rather, he saw himself as the congenial and philosophical interpreter of Goethe's worldview within the forum of his day, which was a slave to positivism. It is in Goethe's idealistic morphology that Steiner finds empirical and naturalist-philosophical answers to questions that had moved him since his days as a student in Vienna. These questions related to the relationship between ideas and truth, as well as the position and purpose of mankind in the world. For both Goethe and Steiner, man's special mission in nature stems from the notion that in man's inner self—just as in a microcosm — all the building principles of nature work together and are expressed. Steiner often quoted the enthusiastic, almost religious sentence from Goethe from his paper on Winckelmann: 'When man's healthy nature works as a whole, when he feels he is in the world as a big, beautiful, and valuable whole, when harmonious contentment provides him with pure, unhindered delight - then the universe, if it were able to perceive itself, would exalt as having arrived at its destination and admire the peak of its own genesis and being.' (Goethe 1989, p. 98) For Steiner, the natural scientist Goethe recognizes the workings of ideas everywhere in nature's hierarchy through his productive imagination. Goethe is aware of the limitations of his perceptive power and of the distance between his unlasting spirit and the absolute, and also remains within the sensual perspective on phenomena out of reverence for the uninvestigateable. Steiner, on the other hand, always pushes beyond Kant's borders of reason to a direct intellectual perception of the world of ideas. In his early philosophical writings Steiner attempts - seemingly transferring Goethe's research method to the human world of ideas - to empirically prove the workings of ideas in man's cognitive activities through self-reflection. He is selfconfident and takes up his own philosophical position: 'Our viewpoint is idealism, because it finds the foundations of the world and ideas.

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It is realism, because it treats the ideas as concrete reality. And it is positivism, or empiricism, to the extent that it works toward the content of ideas as given rather than by a means of a priori constructs. Ours is an empirical method that penetrates to the realm, and, ultimately, finds satisfaction in ideal results' (Steiner CW1,2000, p. 117). In his first philosophical publications Steiner further differentiates his objective-idealist 'credo' (cf. above) epistemologically. Based on his pantheistic-anthropocentric metaphysics, ideas (world's base) have been poured out entirely into the world. The highest form in which they appear in reality in the universe's hierarchy is in human thought. Self-reflection's purpose is therefore - similar to Goethe's perception of natural shapes - to reassure ourselves of the ideas, to join ourselves as individuals with the world's essential being. Steiner's main philosophical work, The Philosophy of Freedom: Main Features ofa modern World View: Observation Results According to Scientific Methods, was published

in 1893 and was not noticed by the then-dominant neo-Kantianism and Historicism; there has still not been much reaction to date. Only very few copies of the first printing were sold; reviews by renowned German philosophers Eduard von Hartmann and Arthur Drews were scathing (cf. Kugler 1980, pp. 31 f.) Even at the end of his Viennese years and for the entire time he had worked in Weimar editing Goethe's scientific writings, Steiner had dreamed of an academic career, tending toward a professorship in philosophy. Over a period of several years he tried in vain to get a professorship for philosophy created for him at the technical university in Vienna. His 'Latinless' secondary school education and his mathematical-scientific studies at the polytechnic do not allow for a doctorate at a university, which was also the minimum prerequisite for a professorship. Nonetheless, in 1890 Steiner began writing a small work entitled 'The basis question of epistemology with a special focus on Fichte's Logic of science: Introduction for the understanding of the philosophising consciousness in one self which he submitted one year later as a dissertation to the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Rostock. This paper, which he published in 1892 under the title Truth and Science, is his first systematic look at his objective-idealistic philosophy, based on the analysis of cognition. The Philosophical Faculty at the University of Rostock decided to accept this paper as a

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dissertation, even though it had been written by someone external to the university, and applied to the price to release the candidate from his other duties. Steiner earned his doctorate on 23 October 1894 with 'rite', the weakest grade possible. He had obviously hoped for more than just the title. He had planned to pursue his academic career near the Goethean city of Weimar at the University ofJena, where he intended to acquire a postdoctoral qualification (the German Habilitation) in order to work as an adjacent professor. His long-standing plan to pursue a university career was now definitely over. How would his life have progressed if he had become a 'philosophiae doctor' with 'summa cum laude'? As a professor in Jena Steiner would probably not have come into contact with the Theosophic Society and it is unlikely he would have developed his own anthroposophical worldview with an international following! It is without any hope of a scholarly career or a continuation of his editing activities that in 1896 Steiner officially ended his term at the Goethe and Schiller Archive in Weimar. He summarized the results of his own research on Goethe's Naturalism in his paper 'Goethe's Worldview', which was published in 1897. Now unemployed and without any clear future prospects he attempted to find a new direction for his life. After straying about intellectually for several years he found this direction in theosophy, in Berlin, a city in which he would never feel at home. Steiner would later refer to his Berlin years as a 'hellish' experience.

4. Writer and Speaker in Berlin: The Free Spirit Converts to Theosophy Steiner ended his Weimar period by making the decision to take over the editing of the Berlin-based Magazin far Litteratur, a renowned but hardly lucrative magazine, together with playwright Otto Erich Hartleben. After moving to Berlin he began his editorial work on 1 July 1897, which was to last for three years. At the time Berlin was Europe's third largest capital after London and Paris, its population reaching roughly two million. Within only a few years the centuries-old garrison city had grown at a breathtaking pace into a large industrial city, home to companies with a global

Writer and Speaker in Berlin reputation (such as Siemens, AEG and Schering). This coincided with an influx of proletarian from rural parts of eastern Germany. Berlin-Mitte was the administrational heart of the German Empire, which, although only in existence since 1871, was already aiming for global recognition and a leading role in Europe. Berlin was the home of the Reichstag and the court of the German emperor, who was also the King of Prussia. It was home to the media, to major publishing companies, many theatres and museums. It also boasted the largest and best university in the German Empire, with impressive research productivity both in the sciences (e.g. Robert Koch, Max Planck) and humanities (e.g. Wilhelm Dilthey, Georg Simmel). While political life was strongly influenced by class-related tensions between the land-owning and educated bourgeoisie on the one hand and the proletariat on the other, in cultural areas there were marked differences between the exclusive upper-class establishment and the diverse, small subcultures of the artistic avantgarde and reform-minded Boheme. It is in these latter and for the most part modern circles of the metropolis that Rudolf Steiner submersed himself, as the editor of his small literaryjournal and as a member of the 'Dramatic Society'. He was now a regular at the beer tables of Berlin's artists' pubs, in which the zeitgeist was discussed until the wee hours of the morning. The innovative naturalistic, socially critical, impressionistic, and symbolistic schools of literature were therefore well represented in his journal. Steiner's own contributions were mostly reviews and dealt with the need to develop a modern, scientifically founded worldview such as Haeckel's Darwin-inspired Monism, which he now staunchly defended against its critics. In the early stages he rejected not only traditional Christianity (he would later contribute to its revival), but also theosophy, which was now en vogue among the upper classes. In 1897 he wrote about the theosophs with contempt in his magazine. Five years later he would become their secretary general: It is not through abstract thought, on which we westerners depend, but rather through mystical intuition, through intuition that these oriental wisdom seekers attempt to reach their goals. It would be futile if we westerners were to emulate them . . . I advise everyone who comes into contact with a theosophist to act as though

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completely converted and to attempt to hear some of the revelations that such esoterics experience - saturated with eastern wisdom - in their inner selves. One hears nothing, nothing but sayings borrowed from eastern writings without a trace of content. The internal experiences are nothing more than hypocrisy. (Steiner, in Magazin fur Litteratur 1897, p. 1066) In September of 1900 Steiner decided to close the editorial board and sell the magazine. Since the fall of 1898 Steiner had been in close and intense contact with the writerJohn Henry Mackay, the biographer of Max Stirner, the anarchistic German philosopher. Based on the ethical individualistic position taken by Steiner in his Philosophy of Freedom (1893) (cf. Steiner CW 4, 2001), Steiner sees close parallels with Stirner and Mackay's anarchistic philosophy. In an open letter published in his journal Steiner claims to be an individualistic anarchist: the individualistic anarchist wants no man to be impeded from developing the abilities or strengths that lie within him. Individuals should be able to be their true self in a completely free competitive environment. The current state has no sense of this competitive environment. It impedes the individual from developing its capabilities every step of the way. It hates the individual. . . The current states are founded on violence and authority, however. The individualistic anarchist opposes them because they suppress freedom. He wants nothing other than the free, unhindered unfolding of forces. He wants to eliminate the violence which suppresses free development . . . This is why he opposes the state, which is based on violence. (Steiner, cited in Kugler 1980, p. 171) With this declaration Steiner built a bridge to Berlin's intellectual circles, in which enthusiasm for Nietzsche had triggered a cult of the 'Ubermensch', the superman. The conservative bourgeoisie among the journal's readers was outraged by the editor's revolutionary slogans and canceled its subscriptions. In order to compensate for the ensuing loss of income (he is now also married for the first time, to the widow Anna Eunicke), Steiner taught from 1899 to 1904 at

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the socialist worker education school in Berlin, in the subjects of history, rhetoric and sciences. This work brought him into contact with Berlin's proletariat, which was acquainted with the still unfamiliar industrial production process. His popularity attests didactic and rhetorical abilities in acquainting adult pupils (who had earlier not had access to a school education) with scholarly knowledge of his time. Some time later in his memoirs Steiner would distance himself self-critically from his anarchistic turn during his Berlin years, even though he remains true to his critical political opinion of the state until his death. Later on it remains a dominant fixture in the movement for the trinity of the social organism. The turn of the twentieth century was seen by many in Germany as a move into a 'new age'. This sentiment was reflected in numerous social and cultural movements: in the revolutionary hopes of the workers' movement, in the goal of emancipation of the international women's movement, in life reform as well as in 'New Education', launched by the Swede Ellen Key through her programmatic work The Century of the Child (1900). While in the musical world 'Neue Musik' emerges following impressionism, in visual arts Art Nouveau ('Jugendstil') is gaining ground and there are hints of the upcoming expressionism, which reaches its pinnacle in Bauhaus. Rudolf Steiner also identifies the new century with the hope of a spiritual renewal of cultural life. While on the lookout for like-minded souls he joined two organizations founded in 1900: the circle of the 'Kommenden', the 'Up-and-Coming', provides a forum for young writers, artists and intellectuals, and the 'Giordano-Bruno Federation', which represents a monistic world view (in the sense of Haeckel's evolutionism). In the rounds of talks and discussions of the 'Giordano-Bruno Federation' the focus is on philosophical and worldview issues which arise for man 'after God's death' (Nietzsche) and which stem from modern scientific insight. Steiner took charge of the 'Kommenden' following the sudden death of the founder of the discussion evenings, and took part personally with two series of talks on the intellectual history. The Austrian author Stefan Zweig was also among the members of the 'Kommenden', and would later became famous. Looking back on the position and impact of Steiner at that time he writes:

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Personally he did not seem to have the leadership qualities of Herzl, but he was more seductive. There was a hypnotic power in his dark eyes, and I listened to him more attentively and more critically when I did not look at him. His face was ascetic and gaunt, marked by spiritual passion. It was very persuading, and not only to women. At the time Rudolf Steiner had not yet found his own teachings, but rather was himself still a searcher and a learner . . . It was exciting to listen to him, because his knowledge was astounding and wonderfully diverse, especially when compared to the rest of us, who had only been educated in literature. Still, when I ask myself today, if at the time I would have predicted such a mass philosophical and ethical impact from this young man, then I must, to my shame, claim I did not. I expected great scholarly things from his searching spirit, and it would not have surprised me if he had made a great biological discovery stemming from his intuitive spirit, but when, many years later I saw the great Goetheanum in Dornach . . . I was more disappointed that his influence had extended so widely into the real world and to a certain extent into banalities. (Zweig 1970, pp. 139 f.) The year 1900 does represent the start of a new future for Rudolf Steiner. After having halted editorial activities in September of the same year and putting the magazine up for sale, he stood -just as he did three years earlier in Weimar - on the verge of financial ruin. He could no longer stay afloat financially through the fees he earned from the little teaching and speaking he did and the subsequent publications resulting from these. It was at this moment that he was asked by the Deutsche Theosophische Gesellschaft, the German Theosophical Society, to speak at the library belonging to the von Brockdorff family on the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This was followed by a second talk on 'Goethe's secret revelation'. After these two appearances, the audience, which contained a broad spectrum of listeners, from wealthy, aristocratic esoterics right through to anti-bourgeois radicals, expressed interest in hearing more from Steiner. In the winter of 1900-1 Steiner gave 23 (!) talks in which he spoke about the 'mysticism at the dawn of the modern age' (cf. Steiner, CW 7, 1960) and its relationship to modern worldviews. This explicit and

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affirmative discussion of mysticism as a religious-spiritual experience, which at the same time retained the insight requirement of modern science, represented his first step into the field of anthroposophical activity. Following the positive reception of his appearances on the theosophical scene, Steiner gave more than 130 talks and course hours in 1901. His second series of talks was entitled 'Christianity as a mystical fact' (cf. Steiner, CW 8, 1986). Steiner's central thesis was as follows: Christianity is an advanced development stage of the wisdom of mysteries; the crucifix on Calvary is the pulling together of antiquity's cult of mysteries, which is now revealed to all as the faith's content Not the individual, but rather all can partake of the truth. But they can only do so in that they reject the manner in which the individual can partake. Christianity brought the mystery from the temple's darkness into the light of day. But at the same time it locked up the temple's revelations in the innermost area, the faith's content In December 1901 Rudolf Steiner was encouraged by leading members of the theosophical society to officially join and to head its German section. Steiner agreed on the condition that his friend, the Baltic aristocrat Marie von Sivers, was put in charge of administration. She would later become his second wife and an active proponent of anthroposophy. In the fall of 1902 Rudolf Steiner become Secretary General of the German Theosophical Society after having had the opportunity to meet Annie Besant, the president of the global theosophical movement, at a theosophical conference in July of that year. Theosophy literally means divine knowledge of God, man, the world, and the relationship between them. It is based on traditions of secret knowledge which have allegedly been passed on by seers and mystics from antiquity through to the present. It revolves around an extrasensory revelation which is based on direct experience and which, although originally hidden, can be achieved through prayer, meditation and study. This revelation gives insight into man's essence and purpose. There are different strands within theosophy, and these are largely linked either to Christianity or to eastern religions. Speculative longing often drove theosophy into the sphere of alchemy and astrology, but mysticism and asceticism have always been linked to it because only purified souls may partake in the higher intuition and wonder of the entire drama. A tendency toward syncretism is

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typical of theosophical thinking: throughout the world those initiated are revered as spiritual leaders, whether it be Hermes Trismegistos, Pythagoras or Plato, Jesus, Zarathustra, or Buddha. The original esoteric basis is equally peculiar: only the chosen and especially appreciated are to reach higher worlds. The 'Theosophical Society' was founded by the spiritualistically talented Russian Helena Petrowna Blatavsky in New York in 1875. This was completely outside the Christian tradition (which was decisive for the theosophists Jacob Bohme and Emanuel Swedenborg for example) . Over the rest of the nineteenth and twentieth century this organization was to play a key role in the spread of theosophical thought. This modern theosophy, which stood not only against the positivism of the age but also against Christianity, saw itself as the revitalization of old wisdom from diverse religious and esoteric traditions in the scientific age. Theosophists from this school assume that the capability of revelation of spiritual worlds is found in every human, but is lost for most through the influence of rationalism and materialism. Recent developments in humanity give reason to hope that in the future more and more people will become more 'clear-sighted'. Blavatsky's writings provide exact instructions for the path to the regaining of the capability of revelation. Meditation and the building of an ascetic and morally responsible lifestyle play a key role. The organization's headquarters moved to Adyar in India because the society had been expanding strongly in South Asia. After the move Brahmanic, Buddhist and Hinduistic elements such as reincarnation and karma were incorporated into Blatavsky's theosophical teachings. Annie Besant plays an important role in this development; after the founder's death, she was president of the World Theosophical Society from 1891 to 1933. Besant was an early convert to Brahmism and therefore revered the great Indian masters and wisdom teachers enthusiastically. She was a determined proponent of the Indian school of theosophy at the time when Rudolf Steiner took control of the Berlin chapter. The Theosophical Society was an international and inter-religious group which, sociologically speaking, was supported mainly by the aristocratic upper class and the educated middle class. In 1896 it laid down the following main goals: (1) the building of a global society without respect to race, religion, sex, or social position;

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(2) the supporting of religious studies, philosophy and sciences; (3) the researching of occult phenomena and human ability of extrasensory perception. Despite its stressing of equality principles for all humans the Theosophical Society had - much like in a pre-modern secret society - a hierarchic and elitist structure, through its creation of an internal circle with a policy of nondisclosure, as well as numerous other secret societies and orders. The 'secret teachings' of Blavatsky and Besant's writings provided Rudolf Steiner with a canonized and ideal backdrop for his series of talks as secretary general of the German branch of the Theosophical Society. The most important basic tenets of this canon shall only be addressed briefly here; in the discussion of Steiner's works they will be looked at in more detail, however. According to the principle of universal unity, God, the universe and man are the same in their being. All life is originally one with higher existence. The development of worlds takes place though, departing from and returning to the unity. The original unity released seven hierarchical levels of 'regions of being' from itself, from the highest spiritual levels to the lowest physical level; through the process of evolution they return back to the highest unity of being through an increasing process of spiritualization, in which man plays a central role. The human being can also attain the seven stages of spiritualization, but most humans are limited to the lower four: the physical, the ethereal, the astral, and the spiritual body. Man's cosmic purpose is to develop his moral and spiritual abilities which, in turn, lead him back to the highest level. The development of spiritual powers cannot be achieved in a single human lifetime; it takes place through reincarnation of the spiritual core in several consecutive lifetimes. At the moment of death only the physical body dies, while the other parts of being continue to live in extrasensory worlds and prepare for their reincarnation in a new person. According to the law of karma, man's life is not only determined by his deeds and thoughts in the here and now, but also through the chain of destinies and those in his former life. With respect to karma, current suffering and injustice can be the result of mistakes made by a spiritual being centuries ago in another body. The law of karma ensures that nothing goes without atonement. This can only be perceived by someone who in their current life is a seer or an 'insider',

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having gone through many reincarnations. The development goal of human life is - both with respect to the individual biography as well as in general - the spiritualization of all life's processes and the ascent, or, more specifically, the return to the spiritual world. After Rudolf Steiner had decided to take on the position of secretary general at the German Theosophical Society he gave his last talk at the Giordano Bruno Federation on 'Monism and Theosophy'. This talk represents his departure from his former world of free spirits and monistic religion. In this talk he attempted to place the scientific idea of evolution in a context consistent with the theosophical path to higher spiritual development. But where Steiner postulated the continuity of ideas, for most of his listeners this represented a clear break. For them his unexpected conversion to theosophy, about whose followers he had previously made disparaging comments, clearly meant he had turned his back on the project of a scientifically based worldview. The contradiction between the Darwinistic and theosophical explanations of evolution and the position on humankind in nature was particularly strong. In his autobiography, which he wrote some 20 years later, he reflects on these years and claims a continuity in his thought as a gradual expanding of his insight about man, from the Darwinistic view of an 'ascending', late evolution through to the theosophical view of a 'descending' emanation resulting directly from spiritual impurity. Of the time of this questionable swing he writes: I still saw the scientific view of evolution as presented by Darwin before my soul's vision. To me, however, this simply described the sequence of physical events in nature. Within the sequence, I recognized the activity of spiritual impulses as Goethe visualized them in his ideas of metamorphosis. Thus, I never considered the scientific sequence of evolution as presented by Haeckel to be mechanical or merely organic in principle; rather I saw that within it spirit leads organic development from the simplest to the most complex, right up to the human being. In Darwinism I saw a kind of thinking that approaches Goethe's thought, but remains behind it. All of this remained at the level of ideas I had worked out. Not until later did I work it through to imaginative insight. Then I understood that in primordial times, within the spiritual reality of the Earth, there were

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beings very different from the simple organisms. And I realized that the human spirit is older than all other living beings; to attain our present physical form, we had to separate from the world being that encompasses us and all other organisms . . . The human being was a macrocosmic being bearing the rest of the earthly world within; this then became a microcosmic being by casting off all the rest. I gained this spiritual insight only during the initial years of the new century. (Steiner CW 28, 1999, p. 263) Steiner therefore sees his pre-theosophical, scientifically oriented worldview as a necessary precursor on the road to realization, which leads to a direct view of the extrasensory spiritual world. His nascent project of an anthroposophy 'art' is a risky attempt to present statements from theosophical secret teachings, supplemented by his own views, as results of a scientific, that is to say methodogically proven and inter-subjectively verifiable epistemological process. All existing biographies of Steiner show that he succeeds in enforcing his view of his development on his devotees, which sees his movement from the position of an individual anarchist, to that of head of the German theosophists, as one continual educational process. In his memoirs he draws a line between an intellectually dynamic and unsettled external life on the one hand and a continuous 'inner' life, that begins with secret occult experiences in his childhood, continues with intimated meetings with spiritual leaders, and which only finally becomes manifest in his declaration of belief in theosophy. Within the Theosophical Society he found the audience suited to him, that wanted to hear him again, that gave him stability, and that saved him from the constant threat of poverty.

5. The Path to the Goetheanum: The Elaboration of Anthroposophy as Science, Religion and Art 'Doktor Steiner' tackled his new mission with immense energy and embarked on a new series of talks, which is an impressive undertaking with respect to both the topics addressed and the number of talks

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given. In these he developed theosophical teachings and expressed an opinion on questions of the time. More than 6,000 of his talks were recorded stenographically and roughly 30 monographs exist These represent a formidable testimony of his activities. For the greater part of the year he was on the road for the theosophical cause. Some years he spoke in almost 40 German-speaking cities and in some major European centres, always once for society members and once for the general public. Under his leadership, within ten years the number of members in the Theosophical or Anthroposophical Society grew from 130 to roughly 4,000 members. He could only manage his large workload with the selfless cooperation of his administrative manager Marie von Sivers, who later became his second wife. He had met her when she worked as a 'door opener' to theosophical circles at his first talks in 1900. Thanks to her education as an actor and reciter he was later able to develop additional artistic surroundings for his teachings. Their daily cooperation quickly developed into a deep friendship. Marie, the multilingual daughter of a wealthy Baltic-Russian officer, rented a small house for Steiner and his wife Anna in Berlin and then moved into the immediate vicinity. Her home becomes the headquarters of the theosophical movement, which later moved to Dornach near Basel (Switzerland) in 1914. In 1908 Marie von Sivers founded Philosophical-Theosophical Publishing, which was an instant success. Its first releases were selected talks, but later entire series of talks were published. By the beginning of World War I roughly 25 volumes had been published. Three years after the death of Steiner's first wife, Rudolf Steiner and Marie von Sivers married, on 24 December 1914 in Dornach. In the early years of his management Steiner gained an everexpanding audience as an esoteric mediator of basic theosophical tenets through his journal articles and the books Theosophy (1904), How to Know Higher Worlds (1905) and An Outline of Esoteric Science

(1910). On this topic his most instructive biographer remarks: The achievement of this age is that Steiner purified, expanded, and brought into a mentally-harnessed form the many confusing topics of occultism of the time, in which science and folly were deeply intertwined. Through his originally unintended developing

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of theosophical teachings within a massive panorama of occult truths, Steiner also exposed himself to being misunderstood: To the average citizen or scientist the entire enterprise must have seemed flaky. For the occultist with a penchant for the mystical his presentation must have seemed too rational... Only few recognized that 'Esoteric Science* was meant as a textbook for the development of new forms of thinking. (Lindenberg 2004, p. 84) Besides his attempts to make basic theosophical teachings more systematic and scientific Steiner also undertook an important addition which was to bring him into a deep conflict with the 'headquarters' of the World Theosophical Society: his view of Christianity and his interpretation of the life of Jesus. In his series of talks on the gospel according to John, Luke and Matthew between 1908 and 1910 he presented his individual Christosophy (cf. Steiner CW 13, 1997, pp. 273 ff.), which he had already sketched in Paris in 1906. Here he stated for the first time that the mystery of Calvary (Golgotha) is the central event in the earth's development. Steiner saw the New Testament's four gospels as initiation rites with varying spiritual depth. He supplemented their stories about the life of Jesus of Nazareth with his own views taken from the occult 'Akasha Chronicle', which he then introduced as the fifth gospel. For Steiner, Christ was a spiritual being found in sun rays after the separation of sun and earth. After preparations in pre-Christian religion and in the Old Testament story of Israel, the sun-god Christ appears in the human form of Jesus in order to give the human evolution its decisive spiritual impulse. According to Steiner and based on the differing genealogies of the apostles Matthew and Luke, there were two different Jesus boys before the incarnation of Christ in the body of 12-year-old Jesus, the 'Salomonic' and the 'Nathanic'. The mission of the Salomonic Jesus was to educate lower elements of being for Christ; the spiritual self of Zarathustra lived within him. The spirit of Buddha was found in the Nathanic Jesus-child. His task was to yield the higher astral and I-bodies for Christ. During the temple visit the ZarathustraSelf leaves the body of the 12-year old Salomonic Jesus-child and moves into the Nathanian. While the Salomonic Jesua-child dies, the

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Nathanian Jesus becomes the highest religious leader known to humanity through the living connection of spiritual impulses from Zarathustra and Buddha. He is now prepared to acquire the cosmic sun spirit, or, more specifically, the divine logo of Christ through his baptism in the Jordan River. This change is now reflected in his words and deed. At the crucifixion on Calvary (Golgotha) only the person Jesus of Nazareth dies, while the spirit of Christ rises again to the spiritual world. However, during the execution, Christ's blood drips onto the earth, thereby entering human evolution. The spiritual forces of the sun being stream into the earth and forge a connection with it. Through Jesus' sacrificial death the situation of all humans has been changed and improved, right down to their physical constitution. The connection between the sun and the earth has become stronger again - the development of humanity can again begin to progress upward. The 'Christ impulse' stemming from the 'mystery' of Calvary has strengthened forces of the spirit and of self-redemption in all humans. In the present (the Zeitgeist of which Steiner symbolizes through the image of the archangel Michael over the powers of darkness) the ecclesiastical path of Christianity- based on faith, the Bible and communion - is over. The level of consciousness of the exoteric faith must be replaced by that of esoteric knowledge, the Bible must be replaced by insight from global memory ('Akasha Chronic') and Holy Communion must be replaced by self-spiritualization. Theosophical or anthroposophical spiritual research in modern scientific civilizations differs from traditional religions in that the individual has - through training of his or her higher intellectual powers - the possibility of recognizing the true content of Christianity and allying him or herself with the spirit of the cosmic Christ, which is to unfold only in the distant future. Only in 1921 does Steiner found his own church, mainly together with protestant theologians who are critical of the church. Here his theosophical or anthroposophical knowledge of Jesus Christ can be applied again in a Christian cult. Annie Besant's term as head of the World Theosophical Society, which began in 1907, led to a strengthening of the Indian element in theosophy. Even though Besant initially appeared willing to recognize not only her own eastern, but also a central European

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Rosicrucian-oriented line of teaching (in part due to Steiner's strong impact on German theosophical circles), the conflict between her and Steiner was unavoidable and stemmed from their diverging evaluations of Christianity. While Besant and her followers saw the historical person Jesus as only one of many religious leaders and wisdom teachers who furthered man on his path to spirituality, for Steiner Christ represented the turning point in cosmic evolution for which all previous religions had only prepared for. This 'Christ impulse' could only take place once in the history of humanity; according to Steiner, further physical reincarnations were impossible. The definitive break between Berlin and Adyar took place in 1910, when the 15-year-old Hindu boy Jiddu Krishnamurti was proclaimed future world saviour and the reincarnation of Christ. In order to prepare for his impact, the 'Star of the East' order was created. When Steiner refused to accept members of this order in the German chapter of the Theosophical Society, Besant shut the German chapter out of the World Theosophical Society. In December 1912 Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society in Cologne, together with the vast majority of the chapter's members. He remained its leader until his death. From this point on Steiner terms the teachings he represents 'anthroposophy'. He likely borrowed the term from his Viennese philosophy teacher, the Herbartian Robert Zimmermann, to denote his form of knowledge, which goes beyond scholarship and which takes art and metaphysics into consideration. The second term represents his claim to exactness, which he applies to supersensible perception. Rudolf Steiner's further development of theosophy deals not only with a strong focus on scientific aspects and the new formulation of a view of Christianity, but rather with a stronger focus on social issues of the day, and especially the creation of new forms of art. In individual talks given between 1905 and 1907, Steiner attempted to show how his spiritual insights provided a solution for social problems. Matters addressed included the renewal and expansion of medicine, a just relationship between capital and labor, world peace, women's issues, and an overhaul of education. Steiner's practical suggestions were hardly noted at the time, however. This is also the case for his 1907 published paper 'The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science' (cf. Steiner CW 34, 1996), in which he conceptualizes the

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basis of what later becomes Waldorf pedagogy. Steiner's impulses in the fields of literature, dance and architecture had a greater direct impact These began to have impact at the fourth annual conference of European Theosophists in Munich. Until then the conferences had only been a typical scholarly affair, but the Munich event more resembled a cult-like event. Guests entered into a room with celebratory decorations, complete with stages and wall paintings, pillars and statues that resembled a spiritual temple. In addition to talks, there was also a dramaturgic side to the event thanks to recitation and music. This was especially the case through the performance of a mystical drama based on Greek theatre. The concurrence of an aesthetic, cult-like environment with spiritual activity was realized here for the first time. It contained in its core all the artistic approaches that Rudolf Steiner - together with his wife Marie von Sivers - would perfect in their work of art, the 'Goetheanum', in Dornach. The mystery dramas 'The portal of initiation', 'The testing of the soul', 'The guardians of the threshold', and 'The soul's awakening' (Steiner CW 14, 1998) marked the beginning of Steiner's artistic efforts between 1910 and 1913. These plays revolved around inner development and change, as well as the social commitment of a group of people, of living anthroposophy. In conjunction with the production of his plays and the significant impact of Marie von Sivers, in 1912 the new movement eurythmy was created, which attempted to express a combination of music and language in a visual way. Spoken language or singing are transformed back into their original movement, which, through development of the human child's vocal organs, are then concentrated into sounds and tones. According to Steiner, the emulating movements of arms, hands and feet and the framing choreographic forms could make those extrasensory movements visible that make speaking and singing possible. 'It will be shown that in his movements man really is a joining element between cosmic letters, cosmic sounds, and what we use as human sounds and letters in our literature' (Steiner, cited in Lindenberg 1997, p. 562). In the eurythmic movement forms of the human body, secrets can be shown microcosmically which are present in the macrocosmos. Rudolf Steiner composed eurythmy scores for works of literature and music. These are similar to choreographic notations for classical ballet and

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function as a basis for the development of each work. The Waldorf School he later led introduced eurythmy as an obligatory subject. Rudolf Steiner's most spectacular artistic impulse is certainly found in architecture. In Dornach, near Basel (Switzerland), the first Goetheanum was constructed with a singular, organic-spiritual form which in some respects is reminiscent of Art Nouveau. After it was destroyed by arsonists, he designed another in a completely different, more expressionistic style. He also created a number of residential and utility buildings whose architectural style still has an influence on that of Waldorf Schools today. Plans for the construction of the Goetheanum as a central stage for the mystery dramas and for higher education in esoteric science came about at the annual Munich conference. The city of Munich would not issue a building permit for such a temple-like construction, so Steiner decided to construct it on a piece of land made available to him for this purpose. On 20 September 1913 the foundations were laid. The beginning of construction marked the move of the anthroposophical movement's headquarters from Berlin to Dornach where, after war-related delays, the first Goetheanum opened in 1920. Steiner's basic architectural thought aimed to make the laws of the world visible in the building's construction. In other words, the building should represent the world in miniature form. Ideas, or the world's spiritual content, should flow into the forms and be present in the colors. Goethe, with his notion of development as metamorphosis, was made patron of the new cosmic-organic style. The forms are no longer geometric and mechanical but rather organic. The ground plan of the First Goetheanum, which was made of wood, was divided into three spheres which represented the structure of the human form (head, heart and hand). The double dome symbolized the back and forth of speaking and hearing, from revelation and recognition. Representatives of a developing humanity assembled in the spectator room under the large dome and were brought revelations from higher worlds from the stage area under the small dome. As a complete work of art, all arts must work together in the Goetheanum, where man can reveal his essence: the architectural and plastic elements reflect the physical state, the pictorial the feelings and eurythmy, and language the connection to the spiritual world. Steiner's

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motto 'building becomes man' applied to all his architecture, including the form of the second concrete Goetheanum. Steiner would not live to see its completion. This building's forms were more angular and taut, but the organic approach - the idea of development as metamorphosis - remained dominant The basic motive for the form was to make the cube - the very image of the earthly and static - move in a lively, spiritual manner. Steiner was a self-educated architect, and his style was rejected by many contemporary architects, but was also recognized by many important figures from that field. To this day, the individuality and the worldview elements of his architecture make it difficult to classify stylistically.

6. A New Era: The Wisdom Teacher's Move to Social Reform and Renewal of Education Now the charismatic founder of a worldview organization, in the last decade of his life Steiner unfolded his program, traveling and speaking throughout Europe. This program was for the spiritual renewal of life, not just in the areas of art, but also in education, politics and economics, medicine, agriculture, and Christian religion. Revolutionary feeling took hold of a defeated Germany in 1918-19. After the emperor's departure, in major cities worker and soldier groups ran the political scene for a short time. This provided Rudolf Steiner with an opportunity to realize his ideas about social issues and education, which until that point had had no impact. Since 1917, the year of the Russian Revolution and the year in which Germany's defeat becomes apparent, Steiner had been propagating a 'central European' way between the ideas of Lenin and Wilson. His idea of a threefolding of the social organism is situated between the Bolshevism of the worker and farmer organizations (Soviets) and the control of western capitalism and nation states. The social organism is divided like the natural organism. In 1919 he explained this in a public statement: The social organism is divided just as the natural organism. And just as the natural organism must conduct its thinking through its head and not through its lungs, for the social organism a division of

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systems is imperative so that none takes on the function of the other, but each must work together with the others while still maintaining its independence. Economic life can only blossom when it develops according to its own strengths and laws as an independent part of the social organism, and when it is not thrown into confusion so that it allows itself to be sucked up by another, politically active sphere of the social organism ... Because the political system must destroy the economy when it wants to overtake it, and the economic system loses its life force when it attempts to be political. A third sphere of the social organism must be added to these two, and it must develop in complete independence and out of its own life's possibilities: that of spiritual production, to which the spiritual portion of the other two spheres belongs. It must be transferred from the third sphere, which has its own law-like regulation and administration, but it is not administrated by them and cannot be influenced, other than in the manner that neighbouring organisms influence each other in a whole natural organism. (Steiner 1919, cited in Kugler 1980, p. 183) In judicial-political areas it is the idea of equality, in economic life that of fraternity and in spiritual and cultural life that of freedom, which are decisive. Steiner designs his program for a solution to the social question without the background of social philosophy or sociology; his vision of a threefold social organism is more akin to the theosophical teachings of microcosmos and macrocosmos. Although in his publications and pubic appearances he only uses these metaphorically, in front of his anthroposophical audience he gives them greater credence. As much as it is true that man's life is composed of three spheres, it must be equally true that the social organism, in which man finds himself, is also composed of three spheres if his entire human soul has its basis in this social organism. There are much deeper reasons to acknowledge that the social organism must be composed of three spheres for he who recognizes the position of man in the universe from the perspective of the arts ... (Steiner 1945, p. 25)

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In the same vein Steiner elaborates that the judicial system represents the physical body that decomposes into matter upon death. The economic sphere represents the emotional life of man; his instincts of fraternity and unity can be taken over the threshold of death into extrasensory existence, as sympathy. The cultural areas represent the spiritual self of man; his accomplishments accompany it into the next reincarnation. According to Steiner life can only * thrive' when each system unfolds according to its own laws: cultural life according to the principle of individual freedom, economic life according to social (ist) fraternity and judicial life according to democratic equality. In practice this means that the powers of the central state (as well as of parties and unions) must be strongly limited, and cooperative-associative forms of self-administration in economics, social security, education, and culture must be expanded. Steiner's public appeal in March 1919 entitled 'To the German people and the world of culture' is signed by 196 prominent figures, including the famous German writers Hermann Hesse and Georg Kaiser and philosophers like Hans Driesch and Paul Natorp. The main area of activity for the Steiner-inspired 'Federation for the threefold division of the social organism' was in south-western Germany's industrial belt surrounding Stuttgart, the capital of Wurttemberg. In the summer of 1919, Steiner and his followers attempted to win over workers and managers of mid-sized and large companies with their cooperative ideas. Steiner's initiative as a political leader followed the April unrest triggered by a general strike by socialists and communists who were in favor of a council democracy. Much like these political groups, Steiner saw staff councils as organs of equal decision rights in companies, with the help of which the contrast between capital and labor could be lessened. Steiner's 'federation' expected laborers to approve this path, and felt the entrepreneurs would accept his plan to leave private investment capital alone. Yet both sides rejected Steiner's 'third way': unions feared the loss of control over their staff councils and entrepreneurs refused to budge an inch on their established power and possessions. By August 1919 Steiner's campaign in Stuttgart had already ended. Threefolding was only well received in anthroposophical circles in the form of cooperative model institutions in the areas of pharmacy, medicine and pedagogy.

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It is in this context that the founding of the Free Waldorf School takes place as a unified lower and higher level school for children of workers at the 'Waldorf Astoria' cigar factory through its manager Emil Molt and the staff council. For some time this school, a self-administrating educational institution within the framework of a free spiritual life, and a therapeutic institute remained the only fruits of the 'threefolding period'. Molt had been a member of the Theosophic and Anthroposophical Societies since 1906. Responsibility for the planning and management of this first co-educational school for children of all scholastic ability levels in Germany was transferred to Rudolf Steiner on 23 April 1919 through a decision handed down by the staff council. Steiner now had the opportunity to elaborate and implement his ideas about education first published in 1907 in The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Scienc (CW 34, 1996). It

had met with little interest at the time of publication. When, 12 years later and in the context of threefolding, Steiner began to design a new school under the principles of 'freedom, equality and fraternity', he met with a completely different educational Zeitgeist. In the meantime diverse initiatives for progressive education ('Neue Erziehung') had sprung up within the German Empire. Their goal was a child-oriented, complete education at a school with grassroots democratic principles. The first 'New Schools' were those inspired by Cecil Reddie's 'Abbotsholme' boarding schools, in a free, natural setting ('Deutsche Landerziehungsheime'), in which pupils live together with teachers and are educated with 'head, heart and hand'. One influential concept from the reforms was the 'working school' ('Arbeitsschule') in which pupils were encouraged to take part in an active form of learning, be it through a trade, research, a project, or other form of social commitment. Important proponents of this program were Georg Kerschensteiner in Germany, John Dewey in the United States and Maria Montessori in Italy. Other important reform impulses came from the art educational movement in Germany, which was influenced by the British arts and crafts movement, among other sources. This movement stood for the furthering of free artistic expression among pupils in the areas of drawing, speaking, writing, music, and physical activity. Central demands of the politically progressive reformers were the introduction of unitary and democratically developed secular schools for all children

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('Einheitsschule') and the joint education of both sexes (coeducation). While co-education at the higher secondary level ('Gymnasium') was introduced for the first time in 1910 in the 'Landerziehungsheim' Odenwaldschule, in 1919, the turbulent first year of the German Republic, socialist teachers in Berlin and Hamburg fought hard for the democratic Einheitsschule. When Steiner made his plans for the Waldorf School, in Hamburg the revolutionary teachers' council demanded the school's self-administration through a teachers' council and the abolishing of confessional religious instruction. The Hamburg teachers earned the one-time right to run four public schools for several years with complete pedagogical autonomy and according to their concept of a child-oriented education. They refused to give the children grades or to divide them into groups according to scholastic performance. Their principles of instruction were the furthering of free artistic expression and active learning in working groups within an organically structured timetable. Instruction was supplemented by a rich assortment of activities in which games, parties and excursions play a major role. Through intense cooperation with parents, teachers at these schools (who inspired the world-famous French educational reformer Celestin Freinet) strove to develop their schools into 'communities', cells of new united forms of life within the big city. Rudolf Steiner's Free Waldorf School had striking parallels with the new culturally revolutionary 'community schools' in its central structural characteristics. Steiner hardly commented on the new school and instruction forms of his contemporary reformers. He did remark positively on Alfred Lichtwark, one of the founders of the art education movement, but a visit to one of Hermann Lietz's new boarding schools leaves a negative impression. To this day Steiner's followers stress the fundamental difference between progressive education and Waldorf Schools; the similarities are only superficial and largely coincidental (cf. Lindenberg 1981, p. 170). In the summer of 1919 Rudolf Steiner assembled a group of 12 young, anthroposophically oriented teachers for his new school, of which only one had official teaching qualifications! The Private School Law of Wurttemberg, which was in effect at the time, did not demand these as a prerequisite for the approval of a private

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school. In order to prepare his teachers for their new tasks, Steiner gave a two-week introductory course on general pedagogical, didactic and methodological issues. This course became the basis for Waldorf School pedagogy. On 7 September 1919 the Free Waldorf School was ceremonially opened for 191 children from the working class and 65 children from well-to-do anthroposophical families. In his speech on that day Rudolf Steiner apostrophized the teachers' work as deeply pastoral. He turned to the first practitioners of his anthroposophical pedagogy and asked with pathos: And is it not a holy religious duty to nurture through education the godly-spiritual in every man who is born, appears, and reveals himself? Is the service of education not a religious cult in the highest sense of the word? Should not all our most sacred human impulses that are devoted to religious feeling flow into the alter service we perform when we seek to educate the divine and spiritual in man that we find in the developing child! Living science! Living art! Living religion! That is our education, that is instruction. (Steiner, cited in lindenberg 1997, pp. 673 f.) These words provided a truly spiritual launch for Steiner's Free Waldorf School. Until the outbreak of his fatal illness he took part in roughly 70 teachers' conferences (cf. Steiner CW 300, 1998), always traveling from Dornach. Furthermore, the school's attendance quickly increased threefold. The school's reputation spread rapidly; the number of visitors and guest students increased. In 1920 Steiner was asked to develop his pedagogy for Swiss teachers. Over the next several years he taught courses in the Netherlands and England, where Waldorf Schools were later founded. Steiner's pedagogy was quickly met with interest in England. Millicent Mackenzie, Professor for pedagogy at University College in Cardiff, visited him in Dornach with a group of interested persons in 1921. In each of the following three years before his death Steiner traveled to England with the Waldorf teachers to speak in Oxford, Ilkley, Torquay, and London, and to prepare for the opening of the first Waldorf School in the English-speaking world in 1925. In his last public pedagogical course in Dornach he outlined specific training for Waldorf teachers

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with particular emphasis on the arts. He showed how future Waldorf teachers could better understand pupils' life processes (through sculptures), spiritual life (through music) and the self (through language and literature). Shortly before his death Steiner transferred the management of the Stuttgart Waldorf School to the teachers and authorized them to supervise all schools in Germany that wished to work according to anthroposophical pedagogy. Steiner thereby laid the foundation for the organizational form of collegial school management in Waldorf Schools, as well as for the creation of a federation of free Waldorf Schools, which, to this day, control the Waldorf brand name. When Rudolf Steiner - in the midst of writing his autobiography - died in Dornach from stomach cancer1 on 30 March 1925 five further schools in addition to the Stuttgart school had opened their doors: three in Germany, one in the Netherlands and one in England. Step by step, many more followed in Europe and overseas. In previous years Steiner had also designed new paths for other areas based on his anthroposophical teachings and worldview, in medicine (supplemented by the arts), pharmacy, spiritually oriented therapeutic pedagogy, biological-dynamic agriculture, and a cultish Christian community. These are still used by many, or, rather, are used by many again today. Looking back on Steiner's life his most informed biographer and deep admirer writes: Just as a powerful and melodious voice emerged from the spindly, extremely agile and - by today's standards - small body, so unfolded from the originally limited possibilities first the philosophicalesoteric, then the completely new, diverse artistic and finally the practical works. From the epistemological impulses emerged first the elementary basic forms of new architecture, fine arts, literature, and the art of movement. Later came the impulses for education and healing, the renewal of agriculture and social life, much like a magnificent tree with many branches. The fire of youthful freshness and his ever-renewable enthusiasm remained with him into old age. His entire life, right through to his last year, was characterised by recommencement (Lindenberg 1997, p. 985)

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For non-anthroposophs and more distanced observers Rudolf Steiner's life and works are perhaps best understood - modeled on the plant morphology of his idol Goethe - as a fertile growth process which is characterized by crises and metamorphoses as well as by polarity and progression.

Note 1. The hagiographic feature of all Steiner biographies to date is evident in, among other aspects, authors' attempts to make the reason for his death a mystery (cf. Lindenberg 1997, pp. 971ff.).

Part Two

Critical Exposition of Steiner's Philosophical and Educational Work

Introduction The main thrust of Steiner's work is the renewal of mystical experience in a scientific culture. He is interested in the possibility of uniting man's inner spiritual self with the godly all, which is revealed in nature and history, in a positivistic-materialistic age. The gnosis is made explicit by Steiner, first through the 'Goetheanistic', philosophical and epistemological approach, then the esoteric and irrational is stressed through a second 'anthroposophical' approach. According to this approach, the I has been placed in a state of divisiveness and estrangement from its spiritual origins but can find its way back to universal unity through recognition of the self and the world (cf. Koslowski 1988). The task of the individual is to unfold his or her intellectual perceptual powers; the community's task is the respiritualization of all areas of cultural life, including education.

7. Goetheanism: The Epistemological Early Works The young Steiner suflFered under the demystification of the world through exact science and critical philosophy. Deep within himself, however, he found the spiritual universe of times gone by. In his pretheosophic works Steiner consciously attempts to place these mystical unifying experiences in opposition to Kant's criticism. He assumes that human thought can reach beyond the perceptual borders established by Kant and achieve all that is necessary in order to 'explain

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the world'. His 'epistemological theory leads to the positive result that thinking is the essence of the world and that individual human thinking is the only manifestation of this essence' (Steiner GA 2, 1960, p. 79). Self-aware recognition leads to a 'constant living in the world's foundations'. The spiritual has emanated in the 'world organism'; his highest and most complete form of reality is found in human thought, which reveals world content and eternal ideas. In the 'intellectual worldview', man may directly experience ideas and in doing so selflessly (re)unite with the world's foundation. Sketch of Steiner's epistemological theory According to Steiner, epistemology should be unconditional, meaning it can only be based on that which does not already belong to the realm of perception. This means that a realm must be chosen which is outside but directly before perception. This first level of Steiner's world perception is the directly given, the 'pure experience' or passivity of the worldview in which thought plays no role. Steiner feels the notion that the world is a product of our perception is a 'prejudice' and should therefore not be used as a basis for epistemological reflection; it represents a preconceived qualification of the world of perception. It does not foster unhindered thought, which, applied to direct experience in reality, allows one to see it as a product of the imagination. On the level of the directly given, reality confronts us as an unstructured variety of experiences, feelings, fantasies, impressions, notions, and ideas: 'world content' stands incomplete and unstructured before us as the perception of our physical and spiritual organs. Within the directly given we also find an 'element' as experience which, as a given, is also something produced by us and which goes beyond incoherence: thought. Thought is 'a higher experience within experience', the elementwhich 'spreads light' both over itself and the rest of reality. While we experience the world in its variety and dissipation through sensory perception, thought, the second level of world perception, allows us to see the world as a harmoniously ordered fabric of ideas. The activity of thinking leads to the reunification of the directly given with notions and ideas. Usual sensory perception is only half of reality; the other half is there for our spiritual perception. In perceiving, man feels and

Goetheanism: The Epistemological Early Works senses; he thereby recoils into the 'corner of his own being', which leads to his individuation. As an individual not all of reality is accessible to him. Only in thought does he find the element which binds him with the 'general happenings of the universe'. Steiner formulates this dualism as follows: 'Because we feel ... we are individuals, because we think, we are the all-one being which penetrates everything.' Here one must differentiate between the forms of thinking which represent rationality ('Verstand') and reason ('Vernunft'). With respect to rational understanding only individual thoughts are kept and the world remains an artificial plethora which has nothing to do with the 'being of reality'. From the point of view of reason, man unites all the artificially separated members and fully perceives the unity of the world. There is only one 'unity of thought of the world', and our individual thought is nothing more than ourselves 'working our way into' this centre of thought. Our consciousness is not to think so that thoughts are produced and preserved; at the same time it is the eye which perceives ideas as working laws of the world, in order to reveal them through thoughts. Steiner feels that Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' is false: it is not my subjectivity which thinks, but rather 'lives from the grace of thought'. As a universe of ideas, thought is beyond subject and object Our spirit is the 'organ' which can watch and observe the world of ideas, just as the senses can perceive phenomena. Steiner terms this process 'intellectual view' or 'intuition9. It represents the third level of world perception. Intuition is the selfreflection of thought and takes place completely within the spiritual; it is the conscious 'experiencing' of its 'being'. Free from the empirical and the material, here ideas can be perceived as pure world laws or forces, as universalia ante res. For Steiner, ideas are notjust necessary notions of rationality which have no corresponding part in experience. Rather, they are the creative primordial images and lawmakers of all things. In their entirety they are the 'essence of the world'. For Steiner perception has no irrevocable laws: within the individual, however, there are random barriers which can be overcome through the progress from perception to thought, to the intellectual view. The essence of things is experienced within our consciousness and the intuition of ideas. Perception is therefore a 'constant moving into the world's foundation'. This has been 'poured out' into the

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'world organism'; its highest and most complete manifestation is human thought, which allows it to unfold completely. In the dialogue the 'world's essence' conducts with itself within man's consciousness, we find the science of 'the completion of creation'. If a decision is made with human thought then it is that content of the world's base itself that is expressed. The world's creator now controls the world from the inside through his complete emanation in the 'world organism'); he has transferred the task of the practical completion of the 'world process' to the self-confidently thinking human. Within human action we are therefore directly confronted with 'the unconditional acting of the original foundation' itself; the goals set by the individual through living are nothing other than the goals of the 'world foundation'. The insight that the 'laws' of one's own actions are a necessary part of the law-like progression of events in the world makes man aware of his purpose. For Steiner the entire perception process is a 'development process toward freedom'. Through his own 'moral intuition' the individual frees the idea (which is realized through actions) from the world of ideas and bases it on his own will. At the end of Philosophy of Freedom Steiner surprisingly connects his idealistic epistemological theory with the free-spirited position of ethical individualism. In the last portion of this work we find the following statement* 'Monism knows no world director who directs our actions from outside. Man ... is thrown back upon himself. It is he himself who must give content to his action . . . If an idea is to become action, man must first want it, before it can happen. Such an act of will therefore has its ground only in man himself. Man is then the ultimate determinant of his action. He is free9 (Steiner CW 4,2001, pp. 217 f.). Free moral action takes place over three steps: through the worldview of thought 'moral intuition' defines an idea for which the 'moral fantasy' develops a notion, which, in turn, is realized through the 'moral technique' under the concrete conditions of actions. The way back to mystical philosophy and neo-Platonism Rudolf Steiner begins his philosophical reflections on human perception with the assumption that they are unconditional. In a conscious allusion to the 'inductive metaphysics' developed by his philosophical

Goetheanism: The Epistemological Early Works role model Eduard von Hartmann (a student of Schopenhauer), he published his analyses The Philosophy of Freedom (1894) with the subtitle 'Some results of introspective observation following the methods of Natural Science'. At the same time, Steiner made numerous speculative statements about 'world content' and the 'world foundation' which contradicted his theoretical and empirical explanatory claims. His approach begins with the postulate of unconditionality in a seemingly 'phenomenologicaT manner with the 'directly given', and brandmarks critical doubts about the naive realism of our experience as a prejudice. Yet his claims are fraught with conditional idealistic metaphysics. Steiner rejects the notion that the world is in the imagination on the grounds that it is a presumptuous and circular condition of epistemological theory only to - apparently unconditionally and inductively 'according to scientific method' - present pantheistic ontology, cosmology, anthropology, and ethics in an even more dogmatic fashion. What he sees as 'observation results' - that 'thought is the essence of the world and that individual human thought is the only realised form of this essence' (Steiner GA 2, 1960, p. 79) is actually his non-derivable metaphysical condition or certainty of faith. One cannot come to this result inductively, yet all his statements on the spirit, the world and thought are derived from it In this respect Steiner's epistemological teachings are basically speculative deductions from dogmatic metaphysics. Steiner declares that they are the epistemology of Goethe's worldview. Others see them as the direct successors of Schelling's idealistic philosophy. In fact they are, despite undeniable similarities with both, neither one nor the other, but rather stand closer to the mystical philosophy of neo-Platonism. Both for myth and religion, the 'wonder of perception' is that in which man lays claim to his higher being, but is also that in which he becomes painfully aware of his limitations and isolation. The basic question that dominated philosophical thought for a large portion of its history is the relationship between the soul and the universe. Perception should be the bridge between these two worlds, which were originally divided, and should unite the I and the world. Being and consciousness must not be thought of as foreign powers but rather they must have their origins in a final basis of being. This highest being is the actual target of all speculation. The alienation of the

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individual from the origin of all being and the return to it on the path of observation through thought is the constant theme of philosophy and religion. The peculiar aspect of this 'gnostic' thinking is that the actual basic theme remains almost completely untouched by all historical development, especially from changes in scientific perception (cf. Cassirer 1950). Neo-Platonism - of which Plotin (AD 204-269) represents the highest achievement - developed this philosophy classically in connection with Plato. This mystical-gnostic philosophy is determined by the religious motive of self-redemption. Steiner's spiritualistic monism is carried by the same gnostic attitude towards being as Plotin's mystic-speculative philosophy by way of its basic view of the soul's sequestration from the highest level through the 'sin' of individuation, and through the goal of 'redemption' in the mystic spectacle of the original spiritual principle. What Steiner terms 'epistemology' is actually a universal interpretation of being. Not only Steiner, but also many other modern thinkers before him draw on neo-Platonism as a source. One finds his metaphysical structure plan of the world and perception e.g. Paracelsus' natural philosophy, in the mysticisminspired gnostic teachings of Jacob Bohme, in the monistic pantheism of Giordano Bruno, in the substance metaphysics of Baruch Spinoza, in the idealistic morphology of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and in the idealistic philosophy of nature and aesthetic of Schelling and Schopenhauer. Hie learning of basic neo-Platonic tenets should be seen in the context of the Zeitgeist, which in the nineteenth century reflected a dispute between Christian theology on the one hand and experimental science or, more specifically, Kant's criticism of rationality, on the other. One can understand neo-Platonism as the philosophical expression of a universal mood of spiritual life, which the German historical philosopher Wilhelm Dilthey defines as the worldview of the objective idealism type. There is no doubt that Steiner's epistemology must be classified as belonging to this basic philosophical school. Rudolf Steiner's idealism Steiner stresses that his 'epistemology provides the basis of selfunderstanding idealism in the truest sense of the word' (Steiner CW 3,

Goetheanism: The Epistemological Early Works 1993). As already explained, he assumes that thought forms the essence of the world as 'thought content' (ideas), and that thought, as the 'act of thinking' (consciousness), is that which allows this essence to come into being; it is in intellectual intuition of the ideas that man can unite selflessly with the basis of the world. Steiner does not see the I as the only direct certainty (as modern subject philosophy does), nor does he assume that the separation of reality in a world of consciousness and one of appearances is the starting point for systematic reflection. Just as in neo-Platonic metaphysics, he sees consciousness only as the world's or spirit's eye, which reveals an objectively given ideal world being. Individuality is only the peripheral locus where thoughts which flow from absolute thought materialize. It is only consistent if Steiner feels a close connection to the 'Realism of universals'. It impresses him in that it states 'that concepts and ideas belong to the real world in the same way as active forces and matter occupy space ... that concepts and ideas are not merely fantasies invented by the human mind to understand reality, but that they are connected in some way with the things themselves, even more so than matter and force' (Steiner CW 1, 2000, p. 207). For Steiner and Plotin and individual Scholastic philosophers, these ideas stemming from the primordial One or primordial images are not just general impressions or concepts (universalia post rem) but something very real; they are universalia ante rem, 'powerful, wanting beings' (Schneider), which exist alongside the real world in and for themselves before they are revealed to the senses. General concepts are hypostatized to beings which are viewed as objectively existing 'non-material things' (!), which have an absolute, higher existence above things in the world that are perceived through the senses. As inteUigibilia they function as worldview objects just as the visibilia function in the physical-material world; the latter are perceived through the senses, the former intellectually. The general concept is therefore both idea and constituting principle. It is the substance in every object which explains that it is, what it is and why it behaves in its own peculiar fashion. In this context one should be reminded that the neo-Platonic and Steinerian view of extreme realism (universalia ante rem) was overcome by the moderate Aristotelian (universalia in re) and nominalistic (universalia post rem) positions in the

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so-called dispute surrounding universals at the end of the Middle Ages. Both these views agreed that perception must have its starting point in the reality of the individual phenomenon in order to make its general statements comprehensible. The Nominalists also point out that ideas or universals are not to be thought of as real beings alongside man, because they would then be individual objects, which, in turn would contradict their purpose as general concepts. Kant's philosophy is critical of perception and views ideas only as regulative principles of scientific perception and moral behavior to which no element of experience corresponds. The basis for Steiner's realistic, essentialistic view of ideas is a mystic view which tends to abolish the separation of subject and object in the elevation of perception to 'intellectual worldview'. It also wants to directly 'observe' the absolute in ideas in order to unite with it. In contrast to Kant's non-knowledge, Steiner, treading in Plotin's footsteps, knows what the meaning of the world and the soul should be. Because Kant has rejected the notion of the soul's godly origin as a part of his critique of reason due to its unattainability for strict scientific thought, Steiner can neither appreciate nor apply Criticism and its major consequences for scientific thought. He must view Kant's 'Copernican twist' - which views consciousness only as a logical and not as an ontological fact - as the self-alienation of thought from its origin: as a neo-Platonic gnostic he clings to an ultimately religious concept of self-confidence for which the end and the resurrection of the soul remain points of orientation within philosophical speculation. Man's potential for knowledge is understood as memory of the original identity with godly knowledge. Steiner's basic speculative mystical view is also apparent in his use of the concept of intellectual worldview: 'Whoever observes thought lives during the observation directly in a spiritual, self-sustaining web of beings ... Intuition is the conscious experiencing of purely spiritual content within the purely spiritual. Only through intuition can thought's equality of being be perceived' (Steiner 1918, cited in Schneider 1982, pp. 89 f.). For Steiner, intuition or, more specifically, the intellectual worldview of thought, is identical with unio mystica; only he attempts to deny mysticism its inherent character of the super-rational and the non-verbal.

Goetheanism: The Epistemological Early Works He notes, for example, that '[e]ach page of my book is written for mysticism, which thoughtfully clings to the clearness of ideas and makes mystical sense to a spiritual sensory organ, that which operates in the same region of man's being where otherwise dark feelings exist' (Steiner GA 2,1960, p. 140 [not in new edition 1924]). Steiner's epistemology could be aptly termed 'rationalized mysticism'; it is neither mysticism in the religious sense nor is it philosophy in the sense of a scientific critique of reason. Science as a worldview For the young Steiner the object of science is the world of ideas; interest in knowledge is the experiencing of truth in the last valid unity of ideas; the most important method is intuition, that is the direct internalization of ideas as part of a worldview of thought or in nature. 'The insight gained on the path of intuition is just as scientific as that which is proven.' (ibid., p. 113). This view of 'scientia intuitive? is open neither to the modern empirical-experimental nor to the critical-historical individual sciences. These are discounted as being materialistic, spiritless and blind to ideas because they are found only on the lowest level of the 'directly given'. 'Whoever perceives the world only through reason distances himself from it. He puts artificial diversity in its unified place, a diversity that has nothing to do with the essence of reality.' (ibid., p. 70). 'All science would be nothing but the satisfaction of idle curiosity did it not strive to raise the value of existence for the personality of man.' (Steiner CW 4, 2001, p. xxx); 'true science, in the highest sense of the word, deals with objective ideas; it can be nothing but idealism' (Steiner CW 1, 2000, p. 167). For Steiner an excellent example of true science is Goethe's morphological studies of nature. Goethe perceives nature as being full of spirit He sees the different means of manifestation of the spirit in the levels of its forms. Steiner's declared belief in Goethe's idealistic view of nature is consistent Goethe's concept of science, much like his concept of ideas, is not part of the modern scientific research paradigm. In the modern age no other naturalist stands closer to the cosmic feeling of unity and Greek morphological

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thought than Goethe. For Goethe, as it was for the thinkers of antiquity, science is essentially the view of nature as a resting, eternal spiritual order. It is the scientist's task to directly observe the essential structures of the natural being in phenomena, to see the eternal in the transient There is an unbridgeable gap between Steiner's (and Goethe's) 'essential' science and research practice and the theoretical self-image of contemporary science. Modern science is no longer occupied with the holistic, worldview-based perception of an eternally resting order. Rather, it is specialized research and as such it is a more and more specialized discourse which continually revises itself. This discourse is based on objects without being bound to them naively, and therefore opens up the possibility of changing the world. One of the basic requirements for modern science is its indifference to the question of the essence; the concept of the science of unity and the possibility of a unified worldview is therefore eliminated irrevocably. In contrast to conscious, methodological self-limitation, to plurality and the principal infiniteness of modern scientific research, Rudolf Steiner and his followers continue to see the world dogmatically as a well-ordered whole, as an eternally unchangeable truth; they want to know exactly that which is not really knowable in the form of stringent science. The form of thought is neither philosophically strict, nor does it have the exactness of scientific research. Rather, it is a philosophizing worldview: a universal means of interpreting man's position in the world which cannot be revoked by the singular replaces the traditional philosophical system. At its most basic level Steiner's epistemology is intended as a critique of modern reason. Steiner is a progeny of the Romantic movement: he attempts to overcome the lack of sensual connection to reality felt in critical philosophy and empirically exact science through remythologizing the world and mankind in it. In doing this he uses the basic tenets of the old neo-Platonic ontology and as a philosophical gnostic follows their goal of the I's perfection in the wake of the mystical unification of the godly oneness of the universe. This metaphysical epistemology is the first answer to Steiner's genuinely Romantic basic question: how can the intellectual surpass itself intellectually in order to make the invisible spiritual

Anthroposophy: An Overview ofSteiner's Basic Teachings speak? As with early Romanticists, Steiner's critique of the modern is based on the reconciliation of science, religion and art - on the remythologizing of culture. His second, less philosophical-systematic and more esoteric answer is 'anthroposophical science'. The extrasensory view of forms and colors ('aura') of spiritual beings emerges from the intellectual view of thought. It is not the essential epistemology of his early works, but rather the 'esoteric science' that unfolds later which becomes the foundation of Steiner's life-reforming and pedagogical initiatives.

8. Anthroposophy: An Overview of Steiner's Basic Teachings For Steiner anthroposophy is not only (auto) biographical, but also a systematic, threefold fabric consisting of the path of knowledge, worldview and life-reform. As a path to knowledge, anthroposophy Steiner names his teachings 'esoteric science' before his rejection of theosophy - should 'lead the spiritual in man's being to the spiritual in the universe' (Steiner CW 26,1973) by expanding the normal scientific investigation of the physical world to include the (initially) invisible and extrasensory spiritual world. It intends 'to free the methods and attitudes of scientific research from their particular application to the relationships and processes of sensory facts, while preserving their way of thinking and other attributes. Spiritual science attempts to speak about non-sensory things in the same way that the natural sciences speak about sense-perceptible things' (Steiner CW 13,1997, p. 14). Steiner's first premise is 'that behind the visible world there is an invisible one, a world that is temporarily concealed, at least as far as our senses and sense-bound thinking are concerned' (ibid., p. 19). What he then perceives is not pale and shadowed but rather concrete and graphic and represents a much more intense reality than the content of sensory impressions. Phenomena are revealed to man, which he previously perhaps anticipated, but could not fully experience. In getting to know this extrasensory world after knowing only the sensory world, it becomes clear to him that all laws of nature

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that he knew before are only valid in the physical world. The laws of the extrasensory world are of another sort and may contradict those of the physical world. Steiner's second premise is that - unlike in earlier days of esoteric science - everyone can gain the ability to investigate higher worlds through the meditative training of his 'perceptory organ': 'We achieve knowledge of higher worlds by acquiring a third state in addition to sleeping and waking' (ibid., p. 281), in which all sensory impressions are turned off in a state of full consciousness. In the process of training, spiritual students depart from the paralyzed form of everyday thinking and move past the imaginative and inspirational through to the intuitive level of 'exact clairvoyance'. Once the soul has become an empty vessel, it feels a 'merging with the entire cosmos and becoming one with it, yet without losing their essential nature' (ibid., p. 372). The 'perceptory organ' is now open for the experience of the 'living logic' of the higher world and both its basic principles: the correspondence between the macrocosmos and microcosmos and the reincarnation of the spiritual. Unlike the subjective experience of a mystic spriritual scientific training of the soul aspires to objective experiences. Recognizing the truth of such experiences is a purely inward process, and yet the universal validity of these experiences is apparent for this very reason ... The important point is that it attempts to see into spiritual worlds by using means that are both possible and suitable for souls at this present stage of evolution, and that it considers the riddles of human destiny and of human existence beyond the limits of birth and death by these means. (ibid., p. 430) As an anthroposopher, Steiner wants his teaching to be as exact as modern science demands and to provide verifiable answers for everyone to the primordial spiritual questions of where man and the world have come from and where they are headed to. 'Cognition that reveals what is hidden is suited to overcoming all this hopelessness, uncertainty, and despair - everything that weakens a life and makes it incapable of performing the services required of it within the world as a whole.' (ibid., p. 25).

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9. The Path of Cognition In his writings and speeches Steiner differentiates three levels of meditation through which the path to cognition of spiritual worlds passes. These stages need not be passed through in a particular order and may also overlap. The first stage, imagination, opens up the basic entry level to experiencing the spiritual world. The second, inspiration, provides the greater context, and the third, intuition, leads to the selfless and direct experience of spiritual essence and ideas. In his preparation the spiritual student must take in experiences which he has not yet experienced through concealed worlds as messages of a more advanced spiritual researcher. 'We learn to find our way into that world naively, so to speak, in the process of learning about some of its specific facts; only after that do we abandon our unsuspecting naivete and realise that we are fully consciously acquiring for ourselves the experiences that have been communicated to us.' {ibid., p. 28). The beginner is initially a 'co-perceiver' of the extrasensory world before becoming an 'independent perceiver' through his or her training. In order to prepare his or her soul, the spiritual student should not only use devotion, attention and responsibility when interacting with people and things, but should also acquire five traits: thought control, will impulse control, composure in the face of desire and suffering, positivity in judging the world, and impartiality in life view (cf. ibid., p. 316). The spiritual student should retreat from his or her connection to daily life for up to 15 minutes a day in order to meditate. In order to receive revelations from the spiritual world and to experience them more intensely than the perception surrounding him, he or she must release their thinking, feeling and will from all usual schemata and biographical anchors. Anthroposophical meditation aspires to the process of cordoning off consciousness. This is neither conjured nor completed through physical exercises or hypnotic states but rather solely through self-reflecting ascent of thought. On the level of imagination (view of symbols, mantras and aura experience) the first step on the road to experiencing the spiritual world takes place. The spiritual student immerses him or herself in a mental image (e.g. the growth forces lurking in the grain of a plant, the stages of becoming and passing of a plant, forms of crystals, the concept of

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kindheartedness, or in certain sentences or formulas) and attempts to paint its emotional content spiritually. This form of emotional and spiritual coloring of symbols strengthens the student's sensitivity to invisible spiritual connections. 'The important point is that concentrating on the ideas or image in question forces the soul to summon up much stronger forces from its own depths than it does in ordinary life or cognition. This increases its inner liveliness. It frees itself from the body just as it does during sleep, but without falling into a state of unconsciousness. Instead, it experiences a world it did not experience before' {ibid,, p. 299). Prolonged practice leads to a change in dreaming and in waking consciousness outside meditation. The spiritual student is now more adept at transforming extrasensory experiences previously only unconsciously present in the soul - into completely conscious ones. In daily states of waking consciousness and through these new 'spiritual eyes' the student should now be able to see and perceive internally the emotional and spiritual qualities of the environment as colorful shapes and complex tones, from the worlds of minerals and plants and animals right through to people and the destinies and ideas within them. People with imaginative cognition will be able to speak of this new higher world in terms of sensations of warmth or cold, perceptions of sounds and words, and impressions of light or color, because that is how they experience it. However, they are aware that these perceptions express something different in the imaginative world than they do in the world of sense-perceptible reality. They realise that the causes underlying them are soul-spiritual rather than physicalmaterial ones. {ibid., p. 330) Within the imaginative world the spiritual student perceives movement and metamorphosis everywhere but only achieves fixed points of orientation on the level of inspiration (hears the world's word, reads the hidden script). Here the student moves from the emotional statements of beings to their spiritual interior. If one understands spiritual seeing, then inspiration can be considered spiritual hearing. The images the spiritual student is exposed to through imagination

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must be erased and he or she must focus solely on emotional-spiritual activity which has previously been used in meditation. In this state of internal silence the student can now allow him or herself to be inspired by revelations of the will of higher beings. These have been seen at the previous level as images and only from the outside. For this reason, observing the world of inspiration can only be compared to reading, and beings in this world are like the letters of the alphabet in how they affect observers. We must become familiar with these letters and decipher their interrelationships like supersensible writing. This is why spiritual science also calls cognition through inspiration 'reading the hidden script. (ibid., pp. 333 f.) Steiner compares cognition through inspiration with the reading of the hidden script that cannot yet be decoded on the imaginative level. We would not be able to understand the whole course of a human life if we were able to look at it only through imaginative cognition. If we were not able to orient ourselves within our imaginative perceptions, we would perceive how the soul-spiritual members are released from what remains behind in the physical world at death, but we would not understand the connections between what happens after a person's death and the states that precede and follow. Without cognition through inspiration, the imaginative world would remain like writing that we stare at without being able to read. (ibid., p. 335) Once inspiration has put one in a position to perceive the relationships between essences of the higher world, one reaches the level of intuition (becoming one with the macrocosm) and can now recognize this essence in one's spiritual interior. The exercises for achieving intuition require students of the spirit to extinguish from consciousness not only the images to which they devoted themselves in attaining imagination, but also the life of their own soul activity, which they contemplated in acquiring

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inspiration. Literally nothing must remain in their souls from any previously known outer or inner experiences ... the spiritual world begins to be apparent to our cognition in a form that no longer has anything in common with the characteristics of the physical world of the senses. The internal emptying is experienced by the spiritual student as more than being filled by essence, and they experience 'being one' with the highest, world-creating essence and with the entire macrocosm. Students have 'a feeling of merging with the entire cosmos and becoming one with it, yet without losing their essential nature' (ibid., p. 372). The usual self grows into a 'higher self, a spiritual co-creator, and discovers that every one of the being's members stands in relation to the rest of the world. On the level of intuition the spiritual student not only gains insight into the correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm, but also into the world's memory, in which all that has passed is recorded more reliably than it ever could be in the physical world through the documentation of natural cultural history. [A]s far as spiritual research is concerned, facts about even the most distant past have not disappeared. Once a being has achieved physical existence, the material part of it disappears after the death of its body. However, the spiritual forces that have expelled this bodily element do not 'disappear' in the same way. They leave their traces, exact reproductions of themselves, in the spiritual foundations of the world. If we are able to raise our perception from the level of the visible world to the invisible, we ultimately find ourselves face to face with something comparable to a mighty spiritual panorama that records all the bygone processes of the world. These imperishable traces of everything spiritual may be called the 'Akashic Record.' (ibid., p. 121) The spiritual researcher thereby gains insight into the course of events and a sense of cosmic evolution and his own position and mission in these events. In calling on his insight into the Akasha Record, Steiner provides comprehensive information on world evolution and the history of humankind. Among these bits of insight is the occult

Cosmology: Emanation of the Spirit and the World's Evolution knowledge of creation and the downfiall of Atlantis, and the life of Christ from the ages of 12 to 30. According to Steiner, the goal of the path to cognition of spiritual worlds is the same at all times, yet people's starting points remain different. According to Steiner, ongoing cultural development leads people to develop new forms while on the path of training. 'The path to cognition that is described here is one that is suitable for souls incarnating in the immediate present' {ibid., p. 375). The starting point for Steiner's training path is in a scientific civilization and attempts to build a bridge from this cultural plateau - in the new exoteric form of 'esoteric science' - back to the world previously known only by the few initiated in esoteric knowledge.

10. Cosmology: Emanation of the Spirit and the World's Evolution On his path of cognition to 'higher worlds' Rudolf Steiner achieved insight into the fundamental development law of the world and humanity: the universe and man have arisen from a godly-spiritual primordial earth; on the path to incarnation in seven planetary ages and reincarnation in infinite biographies the world and man reascend to the spiritual. After the original emanation of spiritual substance into world existence the earth undergoes seven stages of reincarnation in which each level farther down represents stronger material compression before the ascent upward to the purely spiritual. In the previous four reincarnations of the earth and cosmos the physical, etheric and astral bodies of man were prepared for the current four levels of the human I. In the three remaining incarnations more and more people attain a less and less material level of consciousness. Steiner describes here -with unrivalled concreteness - the seven planetary incarnations on which the seven elements of essence and states of consciousness just mentioned are developed. Each of these incarnations is separated from the next by periods of rest or, more specifically, world nights. Steiner calls the first level the Saturn level, which is associated with the element of fire or warmth. The physical body of the earth and man develop on this level. At this level man's emotional state is

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unconscious and trance-like. On the second level, the sun stage, the warmth of Saturn thickens to air and the etheric body arises with the deep-sleep consciousness of the world of plants. On the third moon level, the astral body is formed with its dream and image consciousness. The element of water emerges from the elements of warmth and air. At the beginning of the fourth stage with the element of earth, a world body separates which develops into the sun. Its 'fire-spark' leads to man's I, with its state of waking consciousness and its cognitive activities. 'Now, in the form in which we are currently evolving, human beings appeared for the first time in the fourth of the abovementioned planetary incarnations, the actual Earth itself. The essential feature of our current human makeup is that it comprises four parts, the physical body, the life body, the astral body, and the V {ibid., p. 126). As a microcosm, today's humankind encompasses the areas of being of the four previous planetary stages - the physical-mineral, the etheric-vegetative, the astral-animalistic, and the I-spiritual. The sequence of levels of these areas of being results in a theory of evolution or, more specifically, emanation: minerals, plants and animals were not present before the first human but rather emerged step-bystep in the process of world development from the primordial human being. The world of minerals is the part of the macro-anthropos that has, so to speak, become stuck on the Saturn level. Plants stem from the vegetative part of man, which remained on the sun level. The world of animals did not move past the animalistic soul of humans on the moon level. The lower areas of being did not complete the further incarnation process of the spiritual from earlier levels. The areas of nature which were 'expelled' in the process of spiritualization are closely related to and not at all foreign to mankind. In the future fifth incarnation, the Jupiter state, mineral powers are transformed into vegetative powers and disappear; through their I-activities humans promote their astral body to the 'spiritual self and achieve the extrasensory cognitive ability of imagination. In the next Venus state the plant-like or vegetative powers also disappear and through spiritualization of the etheric body man reaches the 'life spirit' state of consciousness and inspiration as a level of cognition. On the last level of planetary incarnation, in the volcano state, the astral-emotional powers are also transformed and man achieves the

Cosmology: Emanation of the Spirit and the World's Evolution spiritual being state of consciousness through the spiritualization of the physical body. On the intuition level of cognition the spiritual being is again in a blissful bond with the spiritual-godly primordial union. According to Steiner each of the seven great worlds is divided into seven 'life states', which, in turn, are divided into seven 'form states'. Steiner pays particular attention to the 'physical' form state in which the earth is currently found. He divides this form state into seven 'ages' - the Polaric, the Hyperboraic, the Lemuric, the Atlantic, the Post-Atlantic, and two undescribed ages. The Lemuric Age gets its name from the continent Lemuria, which is thought to have connected Africa with Australia via Madagascar. According to Steiner, in this age the 'Lucifer Event' takes place which is mirrored in the biblical tale of Original Sin; the spiritual moon being takes effect on the human astral body and emancipates it from the still incomplete I. It loses sight of its connection to its spiritual origins and becomes more occupied with the material. The Lucifer Event has positive and negative effects: from this point on the individual is freer in thought, feeling and desire. The physical body must now suffer sickness and death, however, and must be repeatedly reincarnated; the etheric body discovers the lie, and the astral discovers egotism. Later Steiner supplemented the Luciferic matters with the Ahrimanic, which keep man at a distance from his spiritual purpose and strives to reduce cognitive powers down to the calculation of size, number and weight The Lemuric Age ends by way of a volcanic disaster, from which only a small portion of humanity can save itself by retreating to Atlantis, the lost continent which later sinks in the Atlantic. In the Atlantic Age, memory and the languages of the seven 'sub-races' develop in those people which still live with a magical-animistic sense of images. These people are taught of their spiritual origins through oracles at seven different holy locations. The great wisdom teacher Manu stands atop the sun oracle. Before the sinking of Atlantis he and his followers move from a location near Ireland eastward and then lay the foundation for Post-Atlantic culture in India to which we still belong today. The Post-Atlantic Age begins in 7227 BC with the (first) Old Indie Cultural Age, in which the emancipated etheric and astral beings of the Atlantic oracle leaders become teachers of humanity.

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The world, which belongs to the senses, appears to those clairvoyant persons as the illusory of 'Maya', behind which 'Brahman', the godly origin, is found. The (second) Old Persian Cultural Age (5067-2907 BC) is characterized by the tension between Ahriman (the world) and Ormuzd (light). Man's natural clairvoyant capability deteriorates to the same extent that man has a relationship to nature. They attempt to control the earth and to conquer its treasures through nature and with the help of their magical knowledge. Zarathustra acts as the greatest driving spiritual force against Luciferic tendencies. In the (third) Egyptian-Chaldaic Age (2907-747 BC) the I develops the 'soul of perception'. The striving for perception of the spiritual laws behind natural things leads to the creation of the sciences, especially geometry and astronomy, as well as technical developments founded thereupon. Hermes is the spiritual leader of mankind in this age; he teaches that man - when he acts according to the intention of the spiritual world - can be united with higher powers after death, especially with the sun being Osiris. Steiner describes the (fourth) Greek-Latin cultural age (747 BC-1413 AD) as that of the 'soul of reason'. Now mankind attempts to shape the sensory world so that the spiritual is expressed in its full form within the physical. This creative process of the human I is expressed particularly clearly in philosophy, art and in the political and judicial thought of antiquity. Among philosophers the secrets of the initiated assume the form of ideas and concepts. The old oracle is revived in new forms in the cult of mysteries and culminates in the mystery of Calvary - the central event of the earth's state. For Steiner, Christ, who is incarnated in Jesus, is first and foremost not a historical personality but a cosmic being. When the sun and the earth separate at the start of the Hyperboraic Age, 'Christ' is also separated from the earth and becomes the 'leading sun being' that from that moment on accompanies the development of mankind, all the while hidden in the sun's rays. After the Lucifer Event in the Lemuric Age the 'Christ Impulse' emanates from the sun, aiding in strengthening the human body and spirit It is in the sun oracles of the initiated, in the wisdom teachings of Buddha and Zarathustra, and in the promises of the Old Testament that he reveals himself to mankind before Jesus of Nazareth appears on the earth. The cosmic sun being Christ is united with the earth's spirit through his blood, which flows

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into the earth at the crucifixion at Calvary. This 'central event' represents a fundamental change in man's state because it means that the I can once again - against all the Luciferic and Ahrimanic influence develop in a spiritual way and can lose the fear of death. Christ's love, which enters the earth though Jesus' blood, strengthens the physical constitution of all mankind and frees its soul from the 'objective' guilt which had been heaped upon mankind until that point. Christ, the ieading sun being' reveals himself to mankind in the fourth PostAtlantic Cultural Age in the form ofJesus of Nazareth; in the fifth he is an etheric form, in the sixth an astral body, and in the seventh as a cosmic I. For this some will have developed their higher cognitive powers, for example through anthroposophy. Since 1413 mankind has been living in the fifth cultural age, the goal of which has been the development of a *soul of consciousness', for example the full development of the Fs cognitive and moral powers. People have reached the highest degree of rationality, individuality and freedom achieved to date, but at the same time Luciferic powers have led them into deepest materialism. The Ahrimanic influence means that modern man is succumbing to the intellectual decay of his cognition. He now sees his main mission as the scientific measuring of the world and in the technical control of nature and society. By using anthroposophy as preparation for the next cultural era mankind can expand its materialistically and egotistically limited view of the world through extrasensory perception, in particular through Christ's historical mission. They can reacquire knowledge of spiritual worlds on a scientific basis, knowledge which in earlier times had been 'manifest secrets' for the initiated. Anthroposophical science is on the cusp between two ages because it carries the coming into the present.

11. Anthropology: Man's Fourfold Architecture From the perspective of Steiner's esoteric science, man is not part of the physical world, but rather a 'citizen of two worlds', the sensory and the spiritual. More specifically, on each step on the road to cognition the spiritual researcher reaches a new level of being. 'Of all the elements supersensible knowledge includes in this, the physical body is

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the only one that is accessible to our senses and our sense-based intellect' (ibid,, p. 30). Through the training of 'perceptory organs' for the higher spiritual worlds one also reaches the three higher beings - the etheric, the astral and the spiritual body of man. These three 'upper' bodies, which continue to spiritualize, are characterized by a particular 'aura' which surround the form of the physical body in three oval mist patches. The innermost of these is that of the etheric body as a 'light image' in the color of a peach blossom; the middle aura is that of the astral body. It surrounds the physical body in a mixture of red and violet, expressing man's emotional world. The outermost aura of the I-body flickers in a shade of blue and reveals the flame that the spirit in man represents (cf. Steiner CW 9, 1994). In numerous writings and speeches Steiner presents the results of his esoteric science as a long description of man's four bodies. This description connects these with the four stages of being or, more specifically, cosmic forces at work in a long string of analogies. In the physical body, which can only be perceived through the senses, man is connected with the outside world. He is comprised of anorganic-mineral material, to which he decomposes after death; he is subject to the laws of the physical-material world. The lowest part of the human being can be seen with the naked eye and can be researched scientifically through size, number and weight It represents the 'steadfast' element in mankind. The primordial phenomenon of the physical body is crystal; as a form, the dimension of space represents it through its stiff definiteness and separateness; it stands in a corresponding relationship to death. The focus of the physical body is in the skeleton (and in the skull in particular), which is completely subject to mechanical laws. Abstract, conceptual thought is 'cold and clear' and has a close relationship to the stable world of the body and its space. Should the physical body outweigh the other bodies, then sclerosis, arthrosis, thrombosis, and fibrosis may result The chemical element which corresponds to the physical body is carbon. On the level of imagination the esoteric researcher has access to the innermost of the three extrasensory 'wrappers', that of the etheric body. Thanks to its functional and forming powers it is the 'architect' of the physical body. For plants and animals it is only a guarantor of

Anthropology: Man's Fourfold Architecture nutrition, growth and reproduction, but for man it is also a carrier of constant spiritual factors: habits of memory, of temperament and of character in general. Over the course of man's development especially in the seventh year - a portion of the etheric growth power is transformed into the basic power of thought. The etheric body belongs to the plant area of nature; it represents the 'fluid' in man through its tendency toward constant movement and change. The primordial phenomenon of the plastic-organic etheric body is the drop of water. The principle of power and creation corresponds to it. It has a close relationship to life. Physically the etheric body is manifest in bodily fluids (blood, lymph, liquor); its area of focus is the heart Emotionally it is represented by rhythm and spiritually through the visual and the fantastic. Should the etheric body outweigh the other bodies then edemas, chicken pox, effusions, ascites, etc. may result. The etheric body's corresponding chemical element is oxygen. On the level of inspiration the spiritual researcher finds the astral or sentiment body. In the extrasensory aura, the middle cover envelops both the underlying layers with its light. The astral body, which man shares with animals, carries light, movable feelings of desire, pain, instincts, and passion. It belongs to the natural area of the animalistic; with its lightness, inconceivability and elasticity it represents the 'airy, gas-shaped' element in man and has a close relationship to desire. The original phenomenon of the astral body is the empty air bubble as the primordial image for all that is emotional and musical. It represents the dimension of time. Physically the astral body is manifest in the breathing process; its focus is in the lung. The method of perception associated with the astral body is mainly music and spoken language. Should the astral body outweigh the other bodies, tympani may result (e.g. borborygmi, flatus, aerophagy). The chemical element most closely associated with the astral body is nitrogen. The I-body is in the outer envelope of the aura. As a 'blue nonbody' it is only visible to those who have trained their 'spiritual organs' right up to intuition, the highest level of cognition. The I-body carries human confidence, its individuality and morality; within it a beam of the eternal spirit shines as the immortal part of man. Through its activities the human I can purify the three other beings - the astral

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body to the 'spiritual self, the etheric to the 'life spirit' and the physical to the 'spiritual man' (cf. Steiner CW 34, 1996, pp. 12 ff.) - and thereby move up gradually in the world to the spiritual spheres or 'hierarchies'. In the ordering of world levels the I-body represents the uniqueness of the human species. It represents the 'warmth' of man in the Hike spiritual 'fire', and existential morality. The original phenomenon of the I-body is the ray of light, as a form it is a spiritual being. The special constructional principle of the I-body is accessible from another perspective: although minerals, plants, animals, and mankind are all three-dimensional space bodies, they are governed by different structural principles: the construction of crystal expresses a one-dimensional joint placement of points; the construction of plants is two-dimensional through the relationship between the vertical (stem) and the horizontal (leaf). In the construction of animals the surface rises to the horizontally placed, three-dimensional empty space, and in man's architecture the vertical and horizontal are joined within the three-dimensional. Man completes three things through his I: he takes hold of gravity and pushes downward to earth with his legs; he takes on light and lifts his head toward the heavens, and he balances both areas in the middle region of his chest and arms by moving upright and acting in freedom on earth. Physically the I-body operates in its own warmth; its area of focus is in blood circulation. The means of world perception associated with the I-body are morality and love. Should the I-body outweigh the other bodies in an unnatural manner, then fever and inflammations may result. The chemical element most closely related to the I-body is hydrogen. At any given point of the day the etheric and physical-material aspects of man are competing for growth. The astral-emotional and etheric-lively compete for waking and consciousness. The I-spiritual competes with the astral-emotional for prudence and memory. The etheric body is weakened through the consciousness activity of higher beings, while the physical body deteriorates. During sleep both can recover because the astral and I-bodies retreat from the human being one step at a time. Once the I has retreated, the astral body remains among both the other beings for a time, which causes dream activity when falling asleep and awakening. Should the person fall into a dreamless deep sleep, the astral body and the I have returned to

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the extrasensory spiritual world, in the harmony of which they regain emotional and spiritual strength for their reincarnation the next day. For Steiner, death is 'sleep's brother' because through it the upper beings also retreat from the body, but - and herein lies the difference from sleep - in death not only the I and astral bodies depart from man, but also the etheric or growth body. This results in the body's decomposition. Steiner described the process following death in detail: once the body has decomposed, within several days the (spiritual) human is once again put through the complete panorama of his or her earthly life (cf. paraphysical research on the 'life film'). After this the etheric body decomposes. This disintegration takes place over a period of decades, during which spiritual individuality reaches the unsupported moral self-knowledge as in 'purgatory'. Only after this point does the spiritual being - purified from the memory process - retreat to his extraterrestrial 'home' until its next incarnation (cf. Steiner CW 13,1997, pp. 72 ff). Through its being together with the highest spiritual being it strengthens itself with new ideas before deciding on a new incarnation. It then regains its being, clothes it in the substance of the astral world through a new astral body, thus resulting in unconsciousness. The new individuality constructs an etheric body from the world ether and chooses parents, which give it a new physical body through biological conception.

12. Man's Functional Threefold Structure In addition to the cosmological four levels of the human being, which stem from theosophic thought, Rudolf Steiner also postulates 3. functional three-foldedness of the human organism which is reminiscent of Plato's philosophical teachings. Riddles of the Soul (cf. Steiner CW 21, 1996) was first published in 1917 and divides the human not substantially according to 'bodies' or elementary qualities, but rather functionally according to the three basic philosophical functions: thinking, feeling and wanting. He localizes these in three different body regions and physiological processes. Steiner sees thought and desire as the 'major and minor' powers of being through which that of feeling can be brought into balance.

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Unlike the fourfold fabric he had previously preferred - in the tradition of numeric symbols 'four' is the number of completeness the number three allows for the synthesis of opposing forces and therefore a more dynamic vision of the organism and its soul. Steiner differentiates between an 'upper' nerve-sense pole (thought), which he localizes to the head region, and a 'lower' metabolism-extremities pole (desire) in the bodily extremities of the arms and legs. There is tension between these poles, and between them one also finds the rhythmic breathing and circulation systems. These are located in the middle of the body, in the chest area, and provide the harmonizing balance. Only our perception and imagination, life in images and thought, are founded on the senses and nerves which are centred within the brain. The opposite pole is the metabolism-member system, in which the will is active together with drives, desires and instincts. Rhythmic processes, especially circulation and breathing, mediate between these poles, as feeling does between the imagination and the will. Together these form the rhythmic system in the organs of the chest area. Through inhalation and exhalation of the lungs and the tightening and relaxation of the heart a balance between the calmer tendency of the mind and the movement tendency of the digestion and movement organs is achieved. Just as he did with his fourfold structure of the human being, for the threefold structure Steiner postulates correspondences for each of the three psychophysical functional areas: emotionally thought is more on the side of antipathy because that which we tend to separate ourselves from is that which we observe in thought. Desire, on the other hand, tends more toward the side of sympathy, because in wanting we dive into the material. Thought would harden us and desire would burn us up were it not for the heart's middle ground between the two poles which again and again brings about a balance. In the 'upper' human of the nerve-sense system (thought), centripetal forces of decay and death, of rejection, antipathy and egotism hold sway. They provide the awake state of consciousness and tend toward a hardening of substance and excarnation. In the 'lower' man of the metabolism-member system (will) centrifugal powers of construction, life extension, affirmation, sympathy, and commitment are at the helm; they put the body into a

Man's Functional Threefold Structure state of sleep and are responsible for incarnation. They tend toward the volitilization of substance. Here the powers reign that overcome the separation of here and there, of I and non-I. In the 'middle' area of man of the rhythmic system (feeling), balance comes about through the changing of opposing directions of force. The dream state is in control; it represents the tendency toward change and liquidation of substance. In man's three philosophical forces different time experiences dominate: for thought it is memory of the past, for desire it is the future and for feeling it is the fixation on the present. These three functional areas also result in a threefold relationship between man and the environment: through nerves and the senses the environment is perceived in the immaterial form of perception content. Through the breathing process fine, gas-form parts of the environment are taken up. Because all humans occupying the same space breathe the same air, this leads to an emotional and social basic experience. Through the metabolic system the relationship to the environment becomes more material because the organism receives raw materials through its food; man enters into a controlling relationship with the environment. The three main human areas of culture science, religion and art - all therefore reflect this threefold relationship, which works in a controlling and ordering principle for man and the world. There is also a correspondence between man's threefold structure and the social organism (cf. Chapter 1): legal and political spheres of the state are connected to man's body and are therefore completely 'earthly'. Economic life is related to emotions; man takes its 'brotherly impulses' with it over the threshold of death. The cultural area is connected to the time before and after the birth of the human spirit The threefold concept is also an attempt at making an exact understanding of human development possible. The direction of incarnation is from top to bottom, from the spiritual in the skull (thought), which is far from earth, to the very earthy, emotional and bodily areas of breathing and eating, of feeling and wanting. The direction of excarnation or spiritualization is from bottom to top. It is in the stream of the will that man begins to take his destiny into his own hands. Bodily growth has its areas of focus in (and in this order) the organic plastic of the head, in the musical rhythms of breathing and

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circulation, and finally in the mechanical growth of the extremities. Emotional development begins with the dreamlike fantasies of the playing child and leads through the child's feats of memory and reason and the emotionally charged pubescence through to the responsible will of a mature adult whose further educational processes may be termed 'spiritual development'. For Steiner, the human organism's threefold structure is the key to solving the riddle of body-spirit problems in medicine and education. Because man's three areas of bodily functions are also found in the field of opposing forces, every healthy person must strive to achieve a state of balance between the principles of life and death, of construction and decay, of sleeping and waking. The living and the spiritual wrestle constantly within the body to find the balance in the middle ground, a balance which is constantly threatened. Should this state of balance be upset by, for example, either constructive or destructive tendencies gaining the upper hand, illness may be the result. If the nerve-sensory process outweighs too much, sclerosis, or hardening illnesses may result. If the metabolic-member organization outweighs in an uncontrolled manner, then inflammatory illnesses may arise from the tendency to softening and disintegration. Sclerosis and inflammation are constantly within man as are polar sicknesses, but in the healthy organism they are kept in check by the balancing forces of the rhythmic heart-circulation system. The physician and educator must look at the symptoms 'holistically' in order to find out where within the organism the opposing forces are not under control and in which direction processes must be either strengthened or weakened. Finally, it should be asked if or in what manner the anthroposophical functional threefold structure of man may be applied to the substantial fourfold structure of man's being. According to Steiner, on the one hand the I-body 'in the strict sense' is tied to the nervesensory system, the astral body to the rhythmic systems and the etheric body to the metabolic-member system, while the physical body provides the material basis for all of these. Such attempts at connecting the two are rare within Steiner's works and among his followers. The general impression is that each schema has its own focus within anthroposophical teachings and that the connection of 'four' with 'three' leads to systematic incoherencies.

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13. Biography as Reincarnation and Destinal Chain ('Karma') In Steiner's cosmogony both man and the universe emerge from the primordial base, the one-and-all spiritual earth; they are reincarnated in different planetary world ages and in an infinite number of biographies beforefinallyreturning to pure spiritual existence. A spiritual 'core' therefore exists in every human being, a core which descended from the spiritual worlds before birth in order to connect with the bodily-emotional 'wrapping'. In death this spiritual core departs again, only to reincarnate in its next terrestrial life. In the next reincarnation the soul experiences - as in Buddha's wisdom the destinal chain through karma. This means it receives the reward or punishment from the previous life. In Steiner's anthroposophy the Law of Reincarnation and Karma results in a complete transformation of the understanding of death and birth, and of historical and social experience. What one once saw as 'coincidental' life experiences are actually a complex fabric of unpaid 'debts' and relationships from earlier existence. Two forms of evolution are joined in every person, a biological reproductive form and a spiritual hereditary form. The physical reproduces according to hereditary and biological laws; the spiritual repeats itself and through metamorphosis changes its form step by step to a more complete form. The spiritual I of man is not comprised of a single biography; it stems from an original and purely spiritual being which has been incarnated in numerous human lives in intervals over a period of roughly 1,000 years (cf. Steiner CW 13, 1997, pp. 404 ff.). In between these lives it has returned, again and again, to the extrasensory world. The spiritual being in man therefore lives in a rhythm of centripedal incarnation and centrifugal excarnation. Earthly existence represents the middle portion of a track's curve which comes from the immortal and sojourns in the mortal before returning to the immortal. Steiner's view of the higher spiritual I's pilgrimage through repeated incarnations as well as the notion of a chain of lives have deep consequences for the way in which human's experience their existence. If one views a life as a relatively short period from birth to death and sees the past and future as an infinite extension of spiritual existence, then life loses its quality and

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weight of uniqueness and is viewed instead only as a developmental stage. This changes attitudes toward birth and death. Individual life situations are no longer viewed in and for themselves, but are rather seen in connection with a plethora of pre-natal pasts and post-death futures. This gives them a completely different meaning. The individual's self-confidence must relate to its I which it carries with it from the distant past. In the limited time of its life it takes on a task which it only accomplishes in the distant future. The experience of life in the group also takes on new meaning. Small children, seemingly inexperienced and helpless, appear to their parents or caregivers as an age-old being with unknown abilities. In important meetings we are confronted with the effects of relationships and connections from earlier lives about which we can only be informed through an esoterically expanded worldview. Every time we see a coincidence, it could actually be necessary effects from unpaid 'accounts' from an earlier terrestrial life. Much in the way the spiritual in man is subject to the law of reincarnation, the emotional is subject to the law of the self-made destinal chain. This means that even after death man retains his life experiences as the result of his actions and that he brings them into a new incarnation as character traits. All a person's traits must therefore be seen as the result of numerous previous spiritual and emotional lives and everything that a person does today is later the reason for the constitution in which its spiritual I of a later life is incarnated. The entire destinal web of a person - from its physical constitution right through to its family and position in society - must, strictly speaking, be considered a necessary 'karmic' result of a previous terrestrial existence. From an ethical perspective 'karma' represents the law of cosmic equalization: for every bit of suffering that a person inflicts on another person and in doing so on the world, he must compensate for this either in this current or a following incarnation. For Steiner, karma does not represent unchangeable destiny because at any moment one may begin to work on cosmic equalization and change one's own destiny by spiritually investigating the context of one's biography. According to Steiner's view of karma, sickness, disability, and personal suffering should be seen as opportunities open to people in order to compensate for guilt and to develop themselves to a

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higher level. Luck and success are also the fruits of earlier effort. Nothing can happen to an individual in his or her current life for which the conditions were not created in a previous life. Karma explains why the 'good' must often suffer while the 'evil' succeed. Even if one cannot retract the effects of destiny from earlier lives, one can at least work toward accepting these and toward a better future. In contrast to its Indian origins, Steiner's karma is more evolutionary-optimistic and rationalist. The Indian wisdom teachings of the Upanishads take a fatalistic view of karma in which the vicious circle of reincarnations can only be stopped through meditation in order to reach Nirvana, the location of bliss beyond birth and death.

14. The Four Temperaments Steiner's anthropology of a fourfold structure of man differentiates from the perspective of personality psychology through his doctrine of the four temperaments. Through these he contradicts the empirical psychology of his time while referring to old European tradition. Steiner postulates that the distinct character traits of a person may be captured in one of the Galenic temperament types of late antiquity melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguine or choleric. Steiner differentiates these four temperaments on a psychological level according to the degree of excitability from (an external source) and according to the strength of the (internal) effect highest excitability and strength = choleric, lowest excitability and strength = phlegmatic, high excitability and weak effect = sanguine, low excitability and high effect = melancholic. For Steiner, each of the four temperaments represents a complete psychophysical type; this means that even the composition of the physical form allows one to recognize the type of physical excitability. Steiner explains the emergence of a certain temperament through the relationship among four cosmic forces of being (physical, etheric, astral, spiritual) at the time of the I's reincarnation into a new physical form. In three speeches given in 1908 and 1909 he attempts to explain 'the secret of the temperaments' through anthroposophical spiritual knowledge. He assumes the basic laws of reincarnation and karma in seeing man's temperament as

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a combination of that which 'descends' from the spiritual world as the fruit of earlier lives and the hereditary line, in which man is shaped by his physical ancestors to a great degree. Temperament stands between that which the individual contributes and that which stems from a line of inheritance. In the unification of both streams one stream colors the other. Much as the colors blue and yellow combine to make green, both streams within man combine to form that which we call temperament' (Steiner 1908-9 (1980), pp. 16 f.). The four different types of temperament arise because within the incarnation process the four cosmic bodies stand in a relationship to one another. For the melancholy temperament it is the physical body which dominates the other three, for the phlegmatic temperament it is the etheric body. For the sanguine temperament it is the astral body and for the choleric temperament it is the I which is dominant For the melancholy the physical body leads to a somatic strengthening of the limbs. For the phlegmatic the dominance of the etheric body effects the gland system. For the sanguine the astral body dominates the nervous system and for the choleric the I-body dominates blood circulation. For Steiner this cosmic and somatic localization of the four temperaments results in the unique psychological profile of the temperament types and the form of their physical constitution, as exemplified in his writings on the melancholy temperament: For the melancholy we have seen that the physical body, the densest part of the human being, holds sway over the other parts ... The internal person cannot undertake anything against his physical system; he feels internal barriers ... What man cannot overcome is what causes pain and suffering; they ensure that man cannot observe the world without bias. This inward view forms a spring of grief; this is experienced by man as pain and dullness, as a gloomy disposition ... Certain thoughts and feelings begin to become permanent; man starts to muse and become a melancholic. (ibid., pp. 24 f.) As to the physical form of a melancholy, Steiner has this to say: Look at the melancholy, the way his head usually hangs forward; he does not have the strength to straighten his neck. The hanging neck

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shows that the inner forces may not unfold freely anywhere, may not hold the head upright. The eyes look downward; the eyes are clouded. This is not the black gleaming of the choleric's eye. This unique gaze reveals that the physical instrument poses a problem for him. Even though his gait is stable and consistent it is neither the choleric's gait nor his stable appearance, but rather a certain kind of trudging. (ibid., pp. 28 f.)

Steiner, praising the psychophysical parallelism, feels that the dominance of the etheric leads to the comfortable, voluble, but shaky gait, the matt and pale gaze. For cholerics the I's activity leads to arrested growth in a small, stout form and to the stable gaze and determined gait. The sanguine is slim and lithe as an expression of the 'fleeting and fluid astral body*. Their gait is more skipping and jumping and they have expressive features and a frolicsome gaze. Based on this fourfold scheme Steiner drafts - as was the case for man's four beings or 'bodies' - a chain of 'cosmic' distinct correspondences for each of the four temperaments. They are based on the psychological traits of a temperament, physiognomy, the 'home' within the body, and predisr position to illness. These even include the affinity of a temperament to a certain element, one of the four primary colors, a season, an age, etc. These analogies based on the number 'four' go beyond the psychophysical characteristics sketched above. For example, for the choleric temperament both the strength of excitability from external sources and their internal effects are greatest; the dominance of the I-body is revealed in the physiognomy, in its stout build and small, muscular form as well as in its energetic walk; the 'home' of the choleric temperament in the body is the metabolic system and blood circulation. Predisposition to particular illnesses can lead to scarlet fever during childhood and later to manic states of consciousness. The choleric temperament is closely related to the element of fire, the color red, the sun's warmth in summer and it can unfold its personality best during the turbulent time of adolescence. Temperament is a constitutive given for every person. Every person must acknowledge and respect it. At the same time temperament also carries a danger of one-sidedness, which results in the task of

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cultivating and harmonizing one's own emotional constitution. Just as he presents the cosmos as a unity of four elements or seasons, Steiner also sees the healthy and free person as a harmonious personality which has been able to reduce the 'lopsidedness' of its own temperament in interplay with the other three. He feels that an important aspect of education is striking a balance between karma and genetic disposition, between the 'weight' of man's four bodies or the areas of bodily organization, and between character traits in the different life stages. Should it come to a lasting 'lopsidedness' of one temperament, this would represent a disturbance of forces which can lead to illness.

15. Ages and the Development of the Human Person For Steiner the development of the human person is represented in the unfolding and transformation of each of the four beings, each taking place over a seven-year period. Steiner terms these 'births', in which the physical, etheric and astral bodies leave their protective 'envelope' one after another and appear in the world. Even as human beings are surrounded by the physical envelope of the mother-body until the moment of birth, so until the time of the change of teeth - until approximately the seventh year - they are surrounded by etheric and astral envelopes. It is only during the change of teeth that the etheric envelope liberates the etheric body. And an astral envelope remains until puberty when the astral or sentient body also becomes free on all sides, even as the physical body becomes free at physical birth and the etheric body at the change of teeth. (Steiner CW 34, 1996, p. 15) When the child is born, the 'mineral' physical body, which the mother body had, protects it The 'vegetative', etheric body is born when the teeth fall out, once it has completed the internal organic growth in its first seven years. The birth or 'freeing' of the 'animalistic' astral body, which had previously built up drives and passions within man, takes

Ages and the Development of the Human Person place once sexual maturity has been achieved at the end of the second seven-year period. Finally, at the end of adolescence, the birth of the spiritual I takes place, which had previously established intellectual and social competence for the coming of age within the young person. Once the cosmic forces of the four 'bodies' have successively driven the young person's developmental process in a seven-year rhythm they are then 'free' after the their birth and can be used pedagogically in further educational processes for their sensory-motoric, figurative, cognitive, and moral capabilities. In the first seven-year period the 'body's wisdom' or, more specifically, the external senses unfold. For Steiner, the small child is an imitator. It 'acquires' the world through its sensory organs by subconsciously imitating. 'If true forms developed, true forces would grow; if misshapen forms were developed, misshapen forms would grow. We can never repair what we have neglected in the first seven years' (ibid., p. 18) .Just as every seven-year period is divided into life cycles, so the first is divided further into three phases in which wanting, feeling and finally thinking develop, in that order. In the first phase the child conquers external space through its upright walk and cultural space through its developing speech and pictographic thought. In the second phase the power of fantasy allows it to experience its social world through symbol and role playing. In the third phase it develops the ability to interact with other children when playing structured games with rules. In the second seven-year period the 'wisdom of the soul', meaning the development of the internal senses such as memory and sympathetic fantasy, is in the foreground. Once the permanent teeth have developed the etheric growth forces retreat from the organs and become constructive forces within the soul. 'The etheric body will unfold its forces if a well-ordered imagination is allowed to take guidance from the inner meaning it discovers for itself in pictures and allegories - whether seen in real life or communicated to the mind. It is not abstract concepts that work in the right way on the growing etheric body, but rather what is seen and perceived - indeed, not with external senses, but with the mind's eye' (ibid., p. 23). Steiner sees the child at this stage as an 'artist' who is constructing an internal world of images. It is able to remember knowledge independent of

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experience and can use it creatively. In the first sub-phase of the second seven-year period it eagerly takes in everything it is presented with in its familiar, lively images. Once it has intensively felt the uniqueness of its own I in its ninth year, it begins to ask deeper questions on the why and how of the world. It relinquishes its animalistic worldview in favor of a realistic one and expands its factual interest in exploring its environment. After its twelfth year it is interested in factual matters which do not necessarily have anything to do with its own self. In the third seven-year period the 'wisdom of the thought', the ability to think abstractly and make judgements develops. 'At the age of puberty the astral body is first born. Henceforth the astral body in its development is open to the outside world. Therefore, we can now approach the child only from the outside, with everything that opens up the world of abstract ideas, the faculty of judgement, and independent thought' (ibid., p. 37). The adolescent, who now has the ability to reproduce and who now has a passion for members of the opposite sex, is a 'desirer and judger'. Accelerated growth of the limbs, which affects first the arms and legs and then the torso, leads to a loss of lightness of movement so characteristic of late childhood. The body's growth and sexual maturity are a reason to develop an individual attitude and a strong will, thus expressing independence. Old relationships are questioned and new ones are tested. The depths and loneliness of the emotional world are experienced. Thought also breaks free from the concrete and now moves freely in the area of the possible, the hypothetical and abstraction. The adolescent is now able to question things and values critically and to make an argumentative judgement. There are also three sub-phases within the third sevenyear period. The first is pubescence, meaning that physical growth and sexual maturity are in the foreground. This triggers desire and the search for the opposite sex. In the middle sub-phase a maturing of the young person within his own emotional framework takes place, meaning his emotions become more finely differentiated. In the third phase a need for a meaning behind one's actions emerges, a desire to decide independently what to do with one's life and to play an active role in the world. The 'birth of the I', the highest being of man, marks entry into the fourth seven-year period. Here the individual reaches 'destinal

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maturity' and has fully come of age. The Fs will, which emerged from the inside during the second growth phase of adolescence, now takes hold of the person freely and from an external position, and makes the person the master of his or her own destiny. If the I works on the gradual spiritualization of its 'subordinated beings', then in the later seven-year periods it may penetrate the development stages of the emotional, rational and conscious soul (cf. above) before finally reaching the highest individual development stage of the 'spiritual self, the 'spiritual man'. From one seven-year period to the next the individual may grow into a more and more intensive connection to and overview of the world. Due to the strict seven-year rhythm, repeated 'births', and the notion of the four bodies and the changing of their inner forces, Steiner's teachings are scarcely compatible with stages of development psychology found around 1900. His 'cosmicspiritual' division of life ages connected with the number 'seven' is much more reminiscent of those thought and order forms found in antiquity or the middle ages. This was also the case with his 'four* temperaments. In the former case he builds on the mythology-based hebdomadal teachings of the early Greeks. We shall return to this in more detail in a later section.

16. The Concept of Education With respect to education Rudolf Steiner always remained an autodidact both theoretically and practically. It is well known that he earned a living for years in Vienna and Berlin as an 'educating day laborer' in his activities as a house teacher, and as a teacher at a higher girls' school and at a workers' education facility. Steiner unfolds his pedagogical views not so much through the written as he does through the spoken word, meaning mainly in his later speeches at papers presented at conferences before an audience that was tuned into his worldview. Here we can discern three chronological and thematic phases. Before the turn of the century Steiner was still looking for his worldview 'home' in smaller papers such as in the educational controversy surrounding the replacing of the humanistic-philological tradition at schools through realistic-scientific education. In this phase

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he pleads for the modernization and secularization of educational content in higher schools through 'ideas of the scientific worldview, which we have gained as a replacement of the religious beliefs we have overcome' (Steiner GA 31,1989, pp. 232 ff.). Between 1906 and 1909 Steiner developed his basic tenets on education and teaching in a series of talks before his theosophic audience. It is the period in which the neo-Rousseauist 'pioneers' of progressive education in Europe and the USA had just founded the first models for their 'new school': Hermann Lietz and his 'Deutsche Landerfichungs-heime', Edmond Demolins and his 'Ecoles des Roches' following Cecil Reddie's 'New School of Abbotsholme', John Dewey's 'Laboratory School' at the University of Chicago, Bertold Otto's 'home teacher School' in Berlin, and Maria Montessori's 'Casa dei bambini' in Rome. Steiner's naturalistic beginnings make his basic tenets seem neo-Rousseauist atfirstglance: 'From the nature of the growing and evolving human being, the proper viewpoint for education will, as it were, result spontaneously' (Steiner CW 34, 1996, p. 4). But in contrast to the paths taken by contemporaries such as Dewey and Montessori, by founding their new education on the empirical ideas of child psychology, Steiner presets a plan for education taken entirely from cosmic-spiritual anthropology: 'If we want to perceive the nature of the evolving human being, we must begin by considering hidden human nature as such' (ibid.). For the theosoph Steiner man is a microcosm; all powers and ideas are at work in his being. These are manifest in the areas of being of world order and in levels of nature. As already established in the previous section, Steiner sees the child and adolescent's development as a process of growth and metamorphoses in which, level by level, the mineral, vegetative, animalistic-emotional and intellectual 'powers of being' unfold. According to Steiner, the change in the external being of the child and adolescent, which takes place in a seven-year rhythm, manifests the internal 'births' and metamorphoses. Here the inner powers, their 'births' and metamorphoses are manifest. Steiner holds that each of the first seven-year periods demands a different form of the pedagogical relationship: the physical body of the pupil is controlled and developed further by the educator's life body. This means that in the first seven-year period the educator is the 'model', in the

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second the child's 'authority' or leader, and in the third period the 'specialist'. In the first seven-year period the 'school-mature' child unfolds his or her external senses through imitative learning. It is therefore decisive that a suitable material and moral environment be created for the 'freed' powers of the physical body. Care should be taken to ensure that nothing takes place in the child's presence which should not be imitated. 'Toys with dead mathematical forms alone have a desolating and killing effect on the formative forces of children; on the other hand whatever kindles the imagination of living things works in the proper way . . . Everything comes into consideration, from the color of the room and the various objects that are generally around the child, to the color of the clothes they wear' (ibid., pp. 20 f.). The motto of the child's meeting with the world in the first seven-year period is: The world is good. The environment should therefore also be a model. The educator's cheerful demeanor, healthy nutrition and clothing, melodious songs, simple rhythmic dances and free playing are named as important elements of pre-school education. All technically pre-made objects and early didactic materials are strictly scorned. In the second seven-year period the 'school-mature' child develops his or her inner world of imagination. The powers of the etheric body which are now free for learning, are worked on through pictures and examples - that is, through a child's carefullyguided imagination . . . Whatever is filled with deep meaning that works through the pictures and allegories is proper for these years . . . As imitation and example were, as it were, the magic words for education in thefirstyears of childhood, for the years of this second period, the magic words are discipleship and authority. What children see directly in their educators with inner perception must, for them, become authority - not authority compelled by force, but authority that they accept naturally without question. Through this they will build up their conscience, habits, and inclinations. They will bring their temperament along an ordered path. They will look at things of the world through its eyes, as it were. (ibid., p. 24)

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The educator's personal authority - in the Waldorf School this is represented by the teacher - is to be complemented in the classroom through spiritual 'role models' from culture and history which may have an effect on the children's fantasy and imaginations through their symbolism and allegory. The strongest impulses can come from religious tales because these may be envisioned through man's position within the world as a whole. The motto of the child's meeting with the world for the second seven-year period is: The world is beautiful. The educator's focus should therefore be aesthetic experiencing and shaping, on the artistic-plastic and musical and linguistic rhythms. At the beginning of the third seven-year period the powers of the astral body are free and provide the ability of the 'earth mature' adolescent to recognize on a formal-abstract level and to make logicalrational decisions. The motto of the meeting with the world in this stage is: The world is true. Through the development of his or her scientific thought the adolescent may make true and independent decisions. 'Human beings are not in a position to judge until they have collected material for judgement and comparison in their inner life' (ibid., p. 37). For this the adolescent no longer needs to follow a personal authority, but rather to enter into a discourse with an expert who helps with acquiring systematic knowledge on a subject, with the critical checking of the validity of statements and the argumentation of their own position. In three talks given between 1908 and 1909 Rudolf Steiner attempted to explain the 'secret of temperaments' and to draft the outline of education based on anthroposophical spiritual knowledge. 'It must namely be interesting for man, how he can manage temperaments even in the childhood . . . The guiding and leading of temperaments is an immensely important task in life' (Steiner 1980, pp. 29 f.). Based on theosophic notions of reincarnation and karma (the law of destiny), Steiner sees temperament - the core of man's essence - as a connection between that which 'descends' from the spiritual world as the fruit from previous lives and the line of inheritance in which man has a strong similarity to the shape of his physical ancestors. The four temperament types arise because, in the process of connection and of offsetting man's four beings, each enters into a relationship with another (cf. in more detail above).

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With respect to temperament, the task of education or of selfeducation is to find a moderate balance between karma and genetic disposition, between the 'weights' of man's four parts of being and between corresponding areas of bodily organization. One-sided, surplus weight of temperament would work in man as a 'deranged mixture offerees, as sickness'. The Steinerian education of temperament is focused on the second seven-year period of the 'freed etheric body' (or in the first eight school-years of the Waldorf School). Its goal is to confront the child with a 'mirror' of its own temperament and in doing so to trigger complementary temperaments. This is reminiscent of the homeopathic principle 'similia similibus curantur' of the medical doctor Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). Steiner assumes the principle that one 'should always expect what is present and not that which is not present' (ibid., p. 31). He pleas for a conscious and explicit addressing of the child's temperament instead of simply trying to balance it artificially. Steiner summarizes using the following maxims for temperament: 'The sanguine should be able to develop love and attachment to a personality; the choleric should be able to develop appreciation and respect for the achievements of a personality; the melancholy should be able to develop heart that is sympathetic for the other destiny; the phlegmatic should be confronted with the advantages of the interests of others' (ibid., p 39). As a 'scholar' Steiner defends himself against the 'realists' who believe that one should, for example, attempt to cheer up or distract a child with a melancholy temperament 'Most important of all we should show the melancholy child the extent to which man is capable of suflfering. We should let the child experience justified pain, justified suffering, especially in its external life so that it learns that there are things that can cause it pain. That is the central matter' {ibid., p. 36). According to Steiner, a confrontation with one's own temperament leads to the development of complementary forces that leads to a harmonization. If - as we shall see later - children in a Waldorf School class are put next to others who have a similar temperament, then they are each confronted with the peculiarities of their own temperament For the child it is an externalized confrontation with him or herself in the image of their classmates. Through this - and through the teacher's presentation of content for each of the four temperament types - temperamental

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tendencies are not eliminated but rather intensified toward a complementary harmonization. As a teacher in a Waldorf School, in order to not work against the child's temperament but rather to address and harmonize it, one must practise the expression of all four temperaments and retreat from one's own temperament for a time. According to Steiner, if one allows one's own temperament to dominate when interacting with children, this can have - completely irrespective of educational measures - serious consequences for the child's physical state of health later in life. The child's temperament can only be successfully reared by someone who has fostered harmony of temperaments within himself through consistent self-education that can include artistic activity. To summarize: in his speeches between 1906 and 1909 Steiner from his new microcosmic perspective - understands man's education platonically as a strictly upward series of steps: first the external senses are developed through imitation. Then graphic fantasy develops the internal senses. Independent thought develops reason and self-reflection leads to universal ideas. For Steiner, man's education is microcosmically not only an ascending process through the unfolding of natural forces. From the perspective of the teaching of reincarnation it is a parallel process in which one first descends through the soul's reincarnation. Within the descending movement the timelessspiritual I takes hold of its new body and forms it - again in the hebdomadic rhythm - from the head through the heart to the hand. When the third seven-year period begins the spiritual I has taken hold of the entire body, from the head to the feet. At this point the spiritualization of the soul and world of thought can begin, thereby reascending. The central tasks of a 'scholarly' education based on the child are the developmental care and strengthening of the person's physical, psychological and intellectual 'growth' and the harmonizing balance of the individual one-sidedness of temperament and constitution. Steiner's (spiritual-) naturalistic understanding of education is neither ethically nor empirically-psychologically sound. It is deduced from anthroposophical teachings on man and as such is not so much based on scientific concepts and discourse as it is on metaphor and pragmatics.

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Within the context of the notion of the microcosm, education supports growth and the balancing out of lopsidedness. The educator is like a gardener and healer. The proximity to the teachings of reincarnation results in a notion of education as an aid in incarnation and spiritual development. The educator becomes the child's priest and spiritual leader.

17. The Free Waldorf School Steiner's speeches on 'Child Education from the Perspective of Esoteric Science' and 'The Secret of Temperaments' went largely unnoticed. A decade later, a dispute surrounding a new democratic social order in the wake of defeat in the war and the end of the empire took place in Germany. It is only at this time that Rudolf Steiner in the context of his 'social threefold movement' (cf. Chapter 1) - is exposed to the greater public in Stuttgart as a school administrator and educational reformer. The first Free Waldorf School is founded in 1919, the German year of revolution, as a co-educative 'unified primary and secondary school. In the history of German education it is the first unified or comprehensive school for children and adolescents from all social classes. From an educational policy perspective, the school's opening must be seen as a revolutionary act At the time of its founding more than 90 per cent of pupils are only enrolled in the 'Volksschule', which goes to the seventh or eighth grade. A maximum of 2 per cent of boys and girls are enrolled in the 'Gymnasium', the higher secondary school and receive their 'Abitur', which allows them to study. The school founded by the cigar maker Emil Molt and directed by Rudolf Steiner opens its doors to boys and girls both from working-class and wealthy backgrounds. Here they may undertake a unified educational path from the first to twelfth grades which can lead to the 'Abitur' and to further education at a post-secondary institution. In this school all children have the same right to the development of their personality, irrespective of their sex, social background and the demands of the state or economy. 'Currently the main point is that the school must be anchored in a free spiritual context. What is taught should be drawn from the cognition of the developing person

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and his individual traits. True anthropology should be the basis of all education and teaching. It should not be asked what man needs to know for the current social order. Rather: what is man capable of and what can be developed within him? It will then be possible to infuse the current social order with new strength from the emerging generation' (Steiner GA 24, 1982, p. 84). These words from the opening days of the Waldorf School show that goals, content, methods, and forms from his 'unified elementary and secondary school' are not based on the pragmatic qualification, reproduction and selection demands of an industrialized, competition-oriented nation, but are rather anthropological and based on the 'cognition' of the developing person. This is also the case with other contemporary educational reformers such as Maria Montessori. The main reform impulses at the time of the school's founding are comprehensive personality development, equality of all social classes and the sexes, and the notion of school autonomy. As imposing and groundbreaking as Waldorf education is, at the time of its inception it is not the only such movement in Germany. Before Rudolf Steiner, co-education for both sexes had been introduced into secondary education in Germany by Paul Geheeb through the founding of the Landerziehungsheim Odenwaldschule in 1910. After Germany's capitulation in November 1918 laborers and soldiers took control of government in major German centres from Hamburg to Munich. They demanded - in conjunction with the earlier demands of the German Teacher's Association - the introduction of a unified school, self-administration by teaching staff, and the introduction of experimental schools, in which the ideas of educational reformers could be tested. From Easter 1919, teachers in four state-run elementary schools and one secondary school in Hamburg could teach in complete bureaucratic independence with grassrootsdemocratic principles and according to their own ideas of educational reform. Much as in the Waldorf School, their goal was to change their schools into 'life communities' through a rich program of school activity and through active participation by parents (cf. Rodler 1987). Demands for the introduction of the unified school were also the focus of the reform program of the political left at the Reichsschul

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Konferent of 1920. Historically the notion of a unified school was first propagated by Comenius ('Omnes omnia omnino') in the seventeenth century and has been an important issue for teaching stafif in times of political turmoil, in which - as in the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany - political activity for radical reforms was conducted by great portions of the population. In Germany the Waldorf School was the only unified school for decades. The elimination of the three-tier school system of Gymnasium, Realschule and Volksschule (cf. above) was no longer possible after the School Act of 1920. Yet Emil Molt and Rudolf Steiner were able to achieve this goal with almost no resistance, thanks in part to favorable school laws of the time in the state known at that time as Wurttemberg. The organizational form of Waldorf Schools and the principles of their educational work have hardly changed since the founding of the first Waldorf School in 1919. In the wake of their global expansion differences have developed, however, with respect to the length of schooling, the recognition of diplomas and financing from state sources. The following fundamental principles are still valid today: 1. Free Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner Schools are legally and financially autonomous schools with a particular pedagogical view, in which teachers and parents cooperate. Waldorf Schools are typically run by a school association and financially directed by an elected manager. The schools are partially financed through school fees from parents. Instead of a principle the school is run collegially. All educational matters are settled in a 'republican' manner in weekly teacher conferences which are usually held on Thursday afternoons. An elected, non-permanent internal management team prepares and coordinates these. 2. Waldorf Schools are co-educational comprehensive schools in which pupils receive no grades and may not fail a grade. They are placed in stable, performance-heterogeneous classes with children born in the same year from the first to the twelfth grade, meaning for their entire schooling. This allows unusually close contact to develop between pupils, parents and teachers of a class. Instead of issuing report cards with grades, the Waldorf teachers prepare

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annual reports on what has been learned and on characteristics of the pupil. The curriculum, schedule and structure of classes are primarily determined by the level of a child's or adolescent's development, based on all areas of his personality ('head, heart and hand'). Waldorf School pupils use no subject-specific textbooks; instead they keep track of subjects and exercises from class in handwritten and individually prepared 'epoch' scribblers. The many facets of a child's personality should be developed through a balanced distribution of cognitive, musical-artistic, handiwork-practical, and social subjects in class and in the school's life. The high prestige of musical and artistic subjects (every pupil should play a musical instrument) and handiwork-practical activities (everything from knitting and bookbinding right through to metalwork), as well as the numerous projects (from the landscaping of the school to helping in agriculture, to social work and working in an industrial company) should lead to learning processes among pupils which go beyond that which normal schoolwork would provide. Starting from the first grade two foreign languages are taught, for example English and French or Russian in Germany, German and French in Great Britain, or German and Japanese in Australia. In the first years foreign language instruction is based on play and imitation; later pupils systematically learn syntax and vocabulary. A further special aspect of Waldorf Schools is the newly-created subject of eurythmy (cf. Chapter 1). In many countries Waldorf Schools also include religious instruction, either in ecclesiasticalconfessional or in a free form which is oriented toward Steiner's Christology. Waldorf Schools consider themselves schools in the Christian spirit. Classes are divided into a two-hour period mornings for 'main instruction' (block periods), in which the traditional subjects are taught (such as mathematics, mother tongue/literature, history, sciences) and one-hour sessions for 'special subjects' such as foreign languages, arts and trades, and religion. The subjects are taught in 'epochs' once or twice a year, in which instruction is held daily for a period of between three and four weeks.

A School in the Spirit ofAnthroposophy ? 7. In the first eight school-years daily classes in all main subjects ('epochs') are conducted by the class teacher. He or she is considered not only a teacher, but also an educator who accompanies and leads the pupils of the class in their development for eight years. Monthly meetings with parents ('parent evenings') and visits to the pupils' homes are intended to foster a particularly strong bond to pupils and their families. At the end of each school year the teacher must judge the pupil's progress and characterize personality in the report. The necessary qualification for teachers at Waldorf Schools is specific Waldorf School training. In some countries - especially in central and Western Europe - seminars and post-secondary institutions have been created for this training.

18. A School in the Spirit of Anthroposophy? The organizational peculiarities of the Waldorf School as well as principles and forms of its educational practices can only be understood in the context of Rudolf Steiner's worldview. They should be viewed neither in terms of chronological proximity to the founding of other schools based on educational reforms nor in light of their structural similarities to pedagogical principles of Herbartianism (cf. Chapter 3). Officially the Waldorf School sees itself as having a special pedagogical approach instead of being a worldview school in which pupils are taught a religious or scientific doctrine. Even though a large proportion of staff follow Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, anthroposophy itself is not taught as a subject in school. Steiner himself insisted upon this point in speeches to parents, teachers and pupils: Have no fear that we intend to turn this into a worldview school so as to instruct the children in anthroposophy or other dogmas ... Rather, we intend to develop a pedagogical art out of that which is anthroposophy. The how of instruction is what we want to gain from our spiritual knowledge. We do not wish to ram into our children that which we think but rather we believe that esoteric sciences differs from other disciplines in that they fill out the whole person and make him able in all areas ... We intend to pay attention to the

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how and not to the what The what stems from social necessity. It is what man must know and be capable of if he is to act in an able manner in his time. But the 'how' of teaching children is something which stems from founded, deep, and thorough human knowledge. This should be at work in our Waldorf School. (Steiner GA 298,1958, p. 64) In the following sections we intend to present in more detail the extent to which anthroposophy is realized as the 'how' at Waldorf Schools. Leadership through the class teacher - The pedagogical relationship Unlike the other genuinely reforming educational concepts of Berthold Otto, Paul Geheeb, or John Dewey, in Waldorf education the teacher is not the Socratic learning companion or 'senior partner' who is only there to answer the child's call: 'Help me to do it myselfdon't help me more than that!' (Montessori). In the period between the beginning of the school career and puberty, children in Waldorf Schools are accompanied by a 'guiding personality' who is to harmonize the child's temperament and demand interest in many areas through clear instruction designed to encourage the child's imagination. These tasks for the ioved authority' (Steiner) are to be fulfilled by the class teacher. According to Waldorf pedagogy the teacher builds a 'spiritual-etheric envelope' around the child, whose imaginational powers are, to a certain extent, emancipated when he or she begins attending school. This 'envelope' is not only formed because the teacher is responsible for so many subjects, but also because the child's entire worldview is to be shaped through him or her. The class teacher wants to be a 'universal spirit' and not a specialist. He or she therefore usually teaches the pupils in 'his' or 'her' class from the first to eighth grade in nearly all subjects with the exception of foreign languages and arts and trades/handiwork. The three to four-week instruction 'epochs' are based on fundamental knowledge and skills in the subjects of the first language, mathematics, arts, and other general subjects, as well as history, biology, geography, physics, and chemistry. The daily two hours of main or 'epoch' instruction should

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not only allow pupils to concentrate but also allow the teacher to develop an especially close relationship with the pupils. It is the class teacher's duty to visit each and every pupil in their homes, to provide a portrait of them once during their school career in the pedagogical part of the teachers' conference, and to judge the pupil comprehensively at the end of every year in the learning and development report, which replaces the report card until well into the secondary level. At most Waldorf Schools the class teacher period ends abruptly at the end of the eighth school year. Pupils have then moved into the development stage of adolescence, with its peculiar emotional emancipation and cognitive decentralization processes. In order to match their more independent social and world experience and judgement, the specialist teacher principle is used. There is a stronger orientation towards the classic school subjects. At this stage the teacher - in sharp contrast to his or her earlier influence from personal authority - is to take on a more subdued role in instruction and leave the process of judgement more and more to the pupils themselves. One of the teacher's central tasks in the second seven-year period is temperament education (cf. section above). In order to identify the temperament of the pupil, the focus is mainly on studying their characteristic gestures while taking their physical traits into consideration, for example when they enter the classroom in the morning or while painting pictures. The child's temperament then becomes the guiding principle of many instructional measures. Class teachers in many Waldorf Schools place their pupils into one of four groups based on temperament; according to Steiner the phlegmatic and choleric should be on the periphery, while the melancholy and sanguine should take their place between the first two groups. The temperaments are also 'treated' in instruction in that teachers address, in rotation, each group with a corresponding impulse: when the letters of the alphabet are introduced in the first grade, the letter 'k' is presented in a manner befitting the choleric temperament; when doing math the phlegmatic are encouraged to add, the sanguine to multiply, etc. When making music the melancholy are given string instruments while the sanguine receive a wind instrument; their temperaments are taken into consideration when choosing stories so as to awaken

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their moral forces. The goal of temperament education is to bring the child's emotional constitution into a state of balance, thereby preventing illness stemming from a one-sidedness of temperament. In keeping with Steiner, the teachers primarily follow the 'homeopathic' principle of similarity ('similia similibus curantur'): he assumes, for example, that the grouping of children together with those of a similar temperament does not strengthen but rather 'reduces' and 'cripples' the temperament. In a similar fashion, the explicit addressing of a pupil's temperament in class also leads to moderation of specific character tendencies (cf. Ullrich 1991, pp. 145 ff.). Another main task of the class teacher is to instruct according to the principle of the role model in order to cultivate the 'freed' etheric forces. In the previous seven-year period the child had developed the external senses mainly through imitation while playing. The child was 'a complete sensory organ and sculptor' (Steiner): the motto of the child's confrontation with the world in pre-school was: the world is so good that it should be imitated. In the second seven-year period, through his or her authority the class teacher stimulates the graphicartistic internal senses: graphic understanding, memory and fantasy. The child is 'listener and musician' (Steiner). The didactic motto is: The world is beautiful.

Everything that is said and done should be beautiful, be it the manner in which the teacher speaks or how he writes on the chalkboard ... The teacher faces the problem that he sees that which is not beautiful in the world. His task and exercise will be to see and stress the beautiful in everything. Then later the child - in a metamorphosis of this endeavor - will develop a heartfelt interest in the world. In not presenting content in concepts but rather clearly and graphically we mean the rule: Put everything in pictures. The source, the river... even the physical and chemical laws of attraction and repulsion and prosaic life can become images if the teacher characterises them in a graphic manner. (Padagogische Sektion 1997, pp. 38 f.) The preferred didactic place for graphic presentation is the teacher's daily narrative at the end of main instruction. Over the course of

A School in the Spirit of Anthroposophy ? the first eight school-years pupils - in the sense of a repeating of human levels of consciousness from myth to rationality - are led in the order from fairy tales, legends and fables through to actual history and biography right through to the founders of our scientific civilization. The increasing realism of the story should also be in tune with both the child's developmental steps within the second seven-year period: the awakening of an I-consciousness around the ninth year, and causal-conceptual thinking in the twelfth year of life. In the following third seven-year period abstract-conceptual knowledge and the ability to judge emerge independently. The motto of scientifically oriented specialized instruction is now: The world is true (cf. above). The teacher's third main objective which stems from the first two is the individualized preparation of school reports. The neo-Rousseauist notion of educational reform puts the focus of schools squarely on the free development of the child's or adolescent's emotional and spiritual forces through independent learning, cooperation and artistic experience. Such a program leaves no room for a traditional report card. Rudolf Steiner's contemporaries - for example, Berthold Otto and Hugo Gaudig in Germany - replace the traditional report card in their reform schools through an individual report on each child's characteristics and learning development. In his Jena-plan^school Peter Petersen structured his in a school-internal 'objective' portion and a school-external subjective portion. The weaknesses associated with this type of report - the diffuse judgement spectrum, lack of comparability, psychological amateurism, the ambiguity of wording and tendency toward stereotypes - have all already been criticized (cf. Ullrich 1991, pp. 60 ff.). In his speech at Oxford on 22 August 1922 Rudolf Steiner, after having attacked the 'art of expressing human abilities in numbers', elaborates on the practices of his now well-established Stuttgart school: Report cards are handled differently at the Waldorf School. Especially when teaching staff is a single unit so that every child in the school is known by every teacher to a certain extent, then it is possible to form an opinion on the child as a whole based on the whole of his being. The reports that we issue at the end of each school year

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therefore look more like an autobiography or apercu and report on the experiences one had with the child over the course of the year both inside and outside the classroom. The child, the parents and the responsible authorities then have a mirror image before them of how the child is at this particular age. And in the Waldorf School we have also found that if one scolds bitterly in this mirroring report then the children are satisfied with this. And then we also write something else in the report We unite the past with the future. We know the child, and whether he lacks in will, emotion, or thought We know whether this or that emotion dominates. Based on this we formulate a central saying for each individual child at the Waldorf School and write this in the report. This is a guideline for the next school year. The child internalises this saying so that it must always think of it And this core saying generally has a balancing, controlling effect on the will or the child's disposition. The report therefore expresses intellectually not only that which the child has achieved, but it also has a power in itself which functions until the child receives the next report. But based on this you see the great extent to which one must delve into the child's individuality, in order to release him with such an effective report.' (Steiner GA 305,1956, pp. 150 f.) To this day the report card practice reported by Steiner has remained largely unchanged in Waldorf Schools: today in the first eight school years the report generally consists of all the pupil's characteristics as reported by the class teacher and then only short reports of a few lines from the specialist teachers for English, French, music, eurythmy, handicrafts/gardening, etc. as well as for religion. The class teacher's portion consists of an 'objective' portion that can be read by parents as a letter or report, and of a more 'subjective' portion which is directed at the child and is intended to motivate. The larger 'objective' portion is directed at parents or other third parties. It is divided into characteristics and the learning report With respect to characteristics the class teacher does not measure the pupil based on a given norm or against the performance of his fellow pupils. Rather, he provides information on the pupil's personality and

A School in the Spirit ofAnthroposophy ? development and sketches his 'being'. This usually takes place from the perspective of anthroposophical knowledge of man, especially in the teachings of the four temperaments and of development in sevenyear stages which, in turn, are each divided into three phases. The other half of the objective (or parent) portion is a type of learning report, a look back at the learning progress and success of the pupils in different areas and epochs of the main instruction. The teacher first attempts to mention those facts which allow praise of the pupil; only then - looking toward the coming school year - pointing out the pupil's mistakes and shortcomings, which can only be eliminated or improved through effort or extra help. In the 'subjective' portion of the report the class teacher addresses the pupil directly in a short letter. The end of the report - in some Waldorf Schools the beginning - is then the saying that the class teacher has either coined especially for the pupil or selected from a collection of sayings published by Waldorf teachers. The child's 'own' saying is to be recited before the class at the beginning of the main instruction, on the day of the week the child was born. In this way the child is to grow with the saying. The linguistic form of the saying, especially its meter, should contribute in a 'homeopathic' fashion to the harmonization of the pupil's personality. According to Rudolf Steiner the teacher should take the child's temperament into consideration when choosing the metrical foot The sanguine one should begin with light, dancing syllables and then move into a more peaceful mode of stressed syllables. Anapest and iambus should mainly be used. The less mobile and internally peaceful phlegmatic can be stirred into movement with the dactylic meter when reciting the saying (cf. Muller 1977, p. 22). The normative character and aesthetic ambition, the framework of the Waldorf report is broader than that of a descriptive learning report based on development The explicit goal of capturing the pupil's 'essence' to bring it - in part through the linguistic form of the saying - onto the right path of personality development means the class teacher also intends to be a 'guiding personality' and 'educational artist'just as in his or her instruction. The following report was handwritten for Franziska (anonymous) at the end of the third grade at a Waldorf School in Germany.

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Free Waldorf School A Unified elementary and secondary school This Report is gjwen to Franziska B., born on May 23, XX in C. For the 3rd grade in the school year 2000/2001 Franziska is one of the last pupils to enter the classroom in the morning. She greets her teacher xvith an open, expectant look and takes her place modestly within the class community. Franziska is particularly interested in the daily riddle. When she raises her finger, then at least one pupil has solved the riddle. She is our riddle queen. Franziska has changed a great deal over the course of this school year. Her temperament made her go through the Rubicon on a low and she was searching at the beginning of the school year. Her new haircut strengthened her self-confidence and she now stands much more stably on her own two feet. Franziska knows exactly what she wants and yet she is still loving and attentive when interacting with the classmates. She is a valued companion. Franziska takes part wholeheartedly in the daily and rhythmic sayings. She can carry a rhythm. It is completely silent in the classroom when she recites her report saying. The others know that she speaks very quietly. Franziska's fine-limbed build is also evident in the form drawings. Her forms are harmonious and have thin walls. In the second epoch they are much more powerful and clear. Her sense ofspace has developed in a healthy manner. In mathematics Franziska made progress this school year. She has simple multiplication down pat and is feared9 as one of the fastest in our oral and written exercises. In the fourth grade Franziska will learn to keep her math exercise scribbler in a careful and neat mannerfrom beginning to end. In -written and spoken language Franziska is one of the best in her class. She reads practised and unfamiliar texts fluently and almost without error. Her certainly sometimes allows her to become too fast, thereby neglecting her expressive capabilities. She copies from the chalkboard without error. In short andfree essays she works very hard and has shown that she has good spelling. In practical-handicraft epochs Franziska participates with interest and supports instruction through her clarity. She picks potatoes avidly, wove a nice basket, and really helped in construction.

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Franziska has a very good feelfor water. She paints intensely with watercolors and always produces some of the most beautiful pictures. It will be a pedagogical challenge in her future development to transform her inner forces more into life forces and self-assertion. For Franziska: Everything comes about and is fulfilled, You just have to learn to wait for it, And fortune favours you, Granting years and fields in abundance. Then one day you sense, The corn i ripened scent, And you're roused to carry the crop Into the deep granaries.

(Christian Morgenstern [translation by David Wilfred Wolf]) In this report the class teacher attempts to fully meet Steiner's demand of creating a 'mirror image' of the child which shows an understanding of the person as a whole. A 'connection between past and future' is made through the 'short biography' of the school year. The teacher describes not only the state of class learning processes of the academically capable and popular pupil Franziska. Almost half of the 'objective' portion of the report consists of a 'mirror image' of her personality and a 'diagnosis' of her development in light of anthroposophical age and temperament teachings. Within the second sevenyear period Franziska has passed through the 'Rubicon' of the tenth year of life 'on a low' (i.e. a new level of individuation) and has gained in self-confidence. She now 'stands much more stably on her own two feet' within the world. This stark change toward the external has had a harmonizing effect on her presumably melancholy temperament, as expressed by the teacher in his references to her 'fine-limbed build' and her 'sensitivity'. As the guiding personality the teacher sees his special 'pedagogical challenge' in attempting 'to transform her inner forces more into life forces and self-assertion'. This comprehensive educational program is expressed in the choice of report saying in the 'subjective' portion of the report in which the teacher addresses Franziska directly. This is to accompany Franziska over the entire next

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school year and have a balancing effect on her further development The poem chosen is by the German author and Steiner contemporary Christian Morgenstern. It is probably chosen to motivate Franziska to be more patient and relaxed in her learning rather than be controlled by her ambition. She should be more self-confident in the knowledge that her talents will unfold on their own. This Waldorf report represents more than a diagnostic and positive judgement of a pupil; it is also a document of a harmonious and for Franziska probably also productive - relationship between teacher and pupil. It would have to be complemented by others in order to show the opportunities and risks of such a consciously close pedagogical relationship between a teacher and 'his' or 'her' pupils. It is reasonable to assume that the special affective proximity from this long-term relationship and the high level of personality diagnosis involved leads not only to empathy and deep understanding, but also to a high degree of tension and subconscious rejection. In general the strong focus on the long-term mentor-type relationship, which extends far beyond scholastic content and judgement, can also lead to the teacher being in over their head. The role-model and universal demands on the teacher are even stronger in an age that is characterized by an increase in the pluralizing of values and life choices as well as the specialization of knowledge. The question remains as to what extent independent Waldorf teacher education adequately prepares teachers for this pedagogically and didactically complex task. Genetic, organic, rhythmic - The curriculum

One thing all founders of educational reform schools have in common is having faced criticism of the amount of subjects taught and their distance from traditional schools. This criticism is countered with demands for a curriculum that is oriented toward the pupil's development and their experiences in the world. Curricula are not to be 'logically' based in the system of scientific disciplines. Rather, they should spring 'genetically' from the earliest forms of the child's meeting with the world. John Dewey, for example, assumes that 'the true center of correlation on the school subjects is not science, nor

A School in the Spirit ofAnthroposophy ? literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child's own social activities' (Dewey [1897] 1965, p. 25). In his 'Laboratory School' instruction begins with 'primary' manual tasks and children's forms of community that are based on the meeting of basic needs such as food, lodging and clothing. These are found at the beginning of cultural development. The child's school career leads in a spiral from concrete, problem-solving daily activity up toward abstract, scientific research - from the pre-reflexive primary fields of experience ('kitchen', 'dining room', 'textile industries', 'shop') up the steps of reading and writing ('library') right through to the reflexive and secondary experiential areas of the arts and sciences ('art', 'music', 'laboratories', 'museum'). The Waldorf curriculum is also genetic, that is it 'is not conceived on the subjects themselves, but rather on the child and his needs . . . It is not the content itself which is the main essence of Waldorf curriculum, but rather the spiritual forces that result from having dealt with the content' (Padagogische Sektion 1997, p. 15). While John Dewey, a philosopher of pragmatism, sees school curriculum as having developed from children's 'primitive' social forms of action, Rudolf Steiner and his anthroposophical-leaning teachers see only 'the developing nature of man and its laws . . . First these determine what the child should learn at each age level. Based on the essence of the maturing person it is determined what is appropriate for this essence at every age level' (Heydebrand 1978, p. 11). For Waldorf teachers this means that the development rhythm within the second seven-year period results in the defining aspect for curriculum structure. From the seventh to tenth years the child still lives in a 'fairy-tale' age, in a naive connection to the concrete environment This means that animals, plants and objects in fairy tales, fables and legends should speak to the child personally. They should be 'experienced'. At the age of roughly 10 years the child is confronted with the world of objects after it has irrevocably passed through the 'Rubicon' (Steiner) to the I-consciousness. The morphological 'understanding' of natural history begins, which moves 'down' from plastic experience in the form of man to the graphic capturing of forms among plants and animals. From the twelfth year on - at which point causal thinking emerges - 'explanatory' instruction begins which leads the adolescent into geology, physics, chemistry, and the elementary laws of nature.

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The Waldorf curriculum is not intended to be a mechanical aggregate for different series of content that stand in relation to the child's development. Rather, the long-term organic structuring of content through the teacher is to ensure 'that the child does not experience individual areas of knowledge as separate, but as a wonderfully ordered, unified cosmos' {ibid,, p. 13). This 'ordered cosmos' of learning should be provided for by a curriculum whose content is structured vertically according to levels of human culture and horizontally around age-specific tales that the teachers tell or read together with pupils in daily main instruction. The culture-level curriculum should synchronize the child's age level historically and genetically with that of humankind. It tracks the magical-animistic through the mythical-religious right through to the rational-scientific worldviews and thereby the history of our cultural circle's consciousness, before finally confronting pupils with the challenges of the present. At every level a certain narrative content is the tree trunk for the branches of content for that school year. After the 'ascent' from fairy tales, fables and legends, stories from the Old Testament, Germanic god and hero sagas, Greek and Roman mythology, right through to biographies from the Middle Ages and the Reformation and Classicism; the same 'organic order of steps' is also found in other cultural and scientific epochs and subjects of the Waldorf curriculum, just as it is in handicrafts and other works. Here needlework is taught in the first four school-years (first knitting, then crocheting and sewing). Starting in the fifth grade this is complemented by woodworking (first carving, then rasping and planning). From the ninth grade on this is expanded to include handicrafts such as basket weaving and bookbinding as well as technical-industrial activities with metal devices (smithy and metalwork). In the Waldorf School's 'holistic' educational program musicalartistic and handiwork-practical subjects have always had a stronger position than in normal schools. For a harmonious development of the pupil's individuality the Waldorf educator feels it is necessary to address not only the world of thoughts, which are located in the serve-sensory system ('head'), but also the emotional world within the heart-circulation system ('heart'). The will should also be cultivated in the 'member-metabolic system' ('hand'). In order to develop and

A School in the Spirit ofAnthroposophy ? strengthen the hand curriculum or practical learning so neglected in the verbal tradition of general schools, the Waldorf Schools have now blazed new trails that go well beyond the founding impulses from Steiner. One particularly noteworthy example is the launching of a double qualification combining the general and vocational upper secondary with a workshop and pre-school at individual Waldorf Schools in Germany (cf. Rist and Schneider 1977). Another similar initiative is the cooperation between a Waldorf School and seven diverse independent trade businesses in which the pupils on the ninth and tenth grades work one day per school week as a means of gaining vocational experience without accompaniment from their teacher, thereby coming a step closer to independently choosing an occupation (cf. Brater and Munz 2000). Finally, we should also mention a new Swiss upper secondary mode: instruction in the eleventh and twelfth grades only takes place for three whole days per week; on both the other days the pupils work individually as interns at different companies and institutions (cf. Brater 2000). It is initially tempting to see the Waldorf curriculum concept exemplified in language, history and natural science topics in the main body of instruction - as the original work of Rudolf Steiner. It is actually the analogous and even literal continuation of curriculum ideas of the Herbartians, especially Tuiskon Ziller, from the last third of the nineteenth century (cf. above). Ziller created - based on Herbart's ideas of a pedagogical curriculum - the concept of a cultural-level curriculum through the connection of the phylogenetic with ontogenetic development in the sense of recapitulation teaching: for the sake of moral-religious educational goals, for each level of instruction, for each school grade one conviction is to be the main focus around which all other peripheral content is placed and from which all connecting strands stem. This unites and binds different portions of the childhood thought processes. However, the choice and the progress of the focus point are to be set up so as to meet two demands: they must reflect the child's spirit's development and apperception levels, which must follow one another according to psychological laws. They must also represent the cultural development of humanity in all its main periods which are relevant for the current cultural level.

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From the perspective of educational history, the cultural-level curriculum cannot be separated from the concept of 'conviction instruction'. The genetic correlation of school subjects according to a dogma of cultural levels and the organic focus of content on a hegemony of fixed basic topics means that the freedom of individual reflection can develop into a forced, homogenous conviction. John Dewey objects to the unjustified idealization of the cultural-level curriculum of his Herbartian colleagues. He claimed that it resulted in an overweighting and elevation of literary and historical content over those experiences which children have on their own in their environment It is not only the curriculum which should form the 'wonderfully ordered and unified cosmos' (Heydebrand) in the Waldorf pedagogical program, but rather the entire educational reality of the school. The practice at Waldorf Schools is therefore Whythmkized' not only with respect to content but also in its spatial, chronological and social dimensions. The 'organic' architecture of the Steinerian 'Goetheanum' represents the special world of the Waldorf School with its anthropomorphic threefold division of man into head, heart and hand. The conscious avoidance of right angles and 'metamorphosing' construction is intended to provide pupils with space for learning and living. Pupils and teachers enter the festive and expansive reception hall and meet up under one roof as one community. The school community meets regularly in the ballroom according to the rhythm of the season. The school's architecture should, in its entirety, be tailored to the needs of education with respect to proportion, acoustics, color, graphic motifs, light, and point of compass, for example the wall colors and the motifs of the murals should change 'according to age level' from year to year. According to Steiner the colors are to change from the first to eighth years from across the spectrum from red to yellow, green, blue and then to violet. The graphic motifs in the classroom are also schematically oriented toward the order of narrative content of the Waldorf curriculum. In the first eight years the pupils' seating order is often structured based on the four temperament types. The chronological dimension of education is also structured 'rhythmically' through number symbolism. The external framework of the school career is divided into specific seven-year development periods

A School in the Spirit ofAnthroposophy ? through 'births', that is metamorphoses of the forces of man's being. These are manifested - as with Hippocrate - when baby teeth fall out or when puberty begins. In contrast to Steiner's role model Comenius however, Waldorf educators divide each seven-year period rhythmically into periods of two and a third years each, in which first the will, then feelings and finally thought dominates. Over the course of the year, the beginning of each of the four seasons is celebrated and accentuated much like in the Christian calendar year: Christmas plays, Easter or spring's beginning, summer festival, St Michael. The rhythms that correspond to the month result from the structuring of content in main instruction into epochs and through the so-called monthly celebrations in which pupils present results of their instruction before the entire school in the ballroom. The weekly rhythm results from the weekly recitation of the report card saying. At the elementary level children must recite before the class the saying chosen for them by their teacher at the beginning of class on the day of the week of their birth; painting was always conducted on Saturdays; the teacher conference is on Thursday afternoons. The rhythm of each day arises from the order of subjects: first the traditional, then the artistic and finally the more technical and trade-oriented. The same rhythm should also be present in the teacher's main instruction itself: after the greeting of every pupil with a handshake and the recitation of the report sayings, the group recites a poem or sings a song together. This is followed by the introduction of new material or the practising of previous material. The period is ended either with play, more singing, or listening to the teacher tell a story. Generally each period is structured 'rhythmically' so that it begins with the will, then feelings, and then finally the children's thought is addressed through the 'calm ending'. Finally, the pupil's social environment should also be structured rhythmically. It is divided into a close area with the relationship to the class teacher and a more distant zone including contact with other specialized teachers. The class teacher accompanies pupils on a daily basis like an emotional leader through all eight years of schooling. The basic form of instruction is graphic characterization, often moral storytelling and mimicry of images by the pupils, especially in the epoch scribblers. The change to the upper secondary level takes

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place at the beginning of the third seven-year period and also means an abrupt change from the class teacher to the specialized teacher principle, from person and image to object and concept. The abruptness of this change in the Waldorf School makes that particular school grade a type of rite of passage for the pupil's personality and represents a clear break in the pupil's biography. Heterogeneous and epochal - Instruction structure The educational culture at Waldorf Schools differs profoundly from that of normal state-run schools through the single fact that pupils may not fail a grade, do not receive report card grades, and do not use textbooks until well into the upper secondary level. Instruction in most subjects is not continuous but rather epochal, that is only held compactly in block periods for several weeks of the school year. Waldorf education believes programmatically in age-appropriate support rather than performance-based selection. The pupils in a class should therefore be part of a stable 'social organism' from the first to the twelfth grade, within which each individual shall be supported according to their abilities. We therefore find neither the repeating of grades by weak pupils nor special classes at a higher level for gifted pupils as found in integrated schools. The evaluation of performance is based first and foremost on an individual yardstick for learning progress and not on a comparison of achievements with classmates or with externally imposed educational standards. As in other classical educational reform schools (cf. above), the giving of grades in class and in report cards is not found until well into the upper secondary level. These are replaced by annual reports on learning and pupil characteristics. One important result from this practice, which is designed for advancement and integration, is a high level of personal stability but also heterogeneous achievement among Waldorf pupils. Dealing with this high level of disparity between scholastic achievement levels confronts Waldorf teachers - and pupils - with special demands in the classroom. In Waldorf Schools teachers do not use textbooks as they would in regular schools because these allegedly extract knowledge artificially from direct experience and alienate it for didactic-methodological purposes before systematizing it with fixed images with the claim

A School in the Spirit of Anthroposophy ? of universal validity. Instead of textbooks Waldorf teachers usually use lively speeches, demonstrations and experiments. That which is written artistically on the chalkboard is copied by the pupils by hand into their handwritten and illustrated scribblers. For each new instruction epoch, that is every three to four weeks, a new, unlined scribbler is created in which everything that pertains to the topic is written and illustrated when the teacher so requests. The epoch scribblers are the basis for controling; their careful editing is to be controlled regularly by teachers. Daily morning instruction is structured 'rhythmically' into the following order: first main instruction, then exercises in individual periods, followed by instruction in the practical-handiwork epochs. The regular order of instruction forms should allow 'head, heart and hand' to be addressed when learning. In epoch instruction, for three to four weeks every morning one subject is taught for one and three quarter hours without a break. In traditional 'main subjects', the entire curriculum of one school year is covered in two epochs. In the 'minor subjects', for example physics, the curriculum is covered in only one three-week epoch. Epoch instruction is designed to allow pupils to learn in a greater degree of depth and in a more lasting manner: In main instruction epochs the pupils may establish a close connection with a particular topic without being distracted by other subjects. They can look at it calmly from all angles and delve into it in detail. Instead of only being acquainted with the topic or only having a basic understanding thereof, they are more likely to develop a real interest in the subject; feelings and sensibilities are more involved. While the schedule with numerous different subjects leads to encyclopaedic knowledge, the epochs lead to intellectual dedication ... The necessity of treating the entire curriculum within a few weeks of the school year leads to an 'economy of instruction', as Rudolf Steiner termed it He meant the careful selection and structuring of content, a perspectivised, intellectual order that puts non-essential information in the background, thereby making essential information representative ... In this sense epoch instruction is only possible as exemplary instruction. (Rauthe 1961, pp. 341 ff.)

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Epoch and main instruction (block periods) should be structured into a three-part rhythm just like the rest of the school day. It begins with an artistic activity for the entire class that includes the joint reciting of the morning saying. In the second phase the topic of instruction is introduced and studied before being summarized in the final phase. For Waldorf educators their didactic plan of 'rhythmic instruction' includes a break, a period of resting, sleeping and forgetting: It is methodologically important that on the day a new topic is introduced there be no attempt to complete instruction on that topic. The goal of the first phase is to become well acquainted with the topic. Working out laws and reaching a judgement on the topic only takes place on the following day. This way the pupil has time to distance himself from the topic. He can formulate questions calmly. Main instruction on the next day begins with harmless repetition that re-establishes the picture painted on the previous day. Then the actual discussion takes place, and a judgement is reached in a cooperative effort. (Lindenberg 1975, p. 61) Non-anthroposophs find the idea of 'metamorphosing' effects from the break difficult to grasp. They counter that pupils have forgotten most of what they've learned during the long break until the next block period in the following school year. 'The long break between epochs in which that which has been learned reposes, allows pupils to return to new material with renewed interest and heightened attention. Those abilities which have been acquired in the past have become more founded during the break (cf. Rauthe 1961, p. 344). The greatest thematic challenges for Waldorf educators in epochal instruction lie in the selection and structuring of a fruitful main idea. The organizational challenge is responsible time management, which first appears to be plentiful but is actually barely adequate. In many subjects there is only one epoch per school year, for example physics, even if it is taught every morning for three weeks. The following break lasts approximately 11 months. It is no wonder if an enthusiastic physics teacher attempts to pack as much content as possible into three weeks.

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'Goetheanistic' learning methods Neo-Rousseauist educational thought is characterized not only by its criticism of the sheer amount of content and internal lack of connection between curriculum content at state schools, but also by its protest against an early specialization and abstraction of learning, against the 'quixotic objectivism' and the meaningless concept of 'school knowledge'. Teaching should be 'holistic' and the pupil should be the focus. Children's and adolescents' specific forms of experience and understanding should be taken into consideration just as the world of objects from their previous experiences. Thorough learning is successful especially when a new topic is 'rooted' in the pupil's personal and scholastic biography and contributes to the understanding of a larger framework. Waldorf educators also want to teach pupils to understand natural phenomena and culture through experience. As the basis for world knowledge, sensory perception and internal emotions of the pupil should be taken just as seriously as explanations of concepts. The focus is not on reproducible, subject-neutral learning results, but rather on the process of understanding through the 'connection' to the world. The child's original physiognomic-imaginative view of nature should not be completely discarded on the path to exact-abstract thought, but should rather be 'kept changed' in a phenomenological natural history. Based on these phenomena the pupils should develop thinking and productive imaginative forces. They gradually become aware of nature's profundity which they had not noticed before. The pupils should develop thought and imaginative forces through which part of nature's essence, its vitality and creative power are expressed. This should lead to a new close relationship with nature. The phenomenological method leads to linguistic expression of the direct physical-sensual perception of a natural phenomenon. Aesthetic perception and the delving into its form qualities are important sources for the construction of a 'living concept' of the natural phenomenon. In natural history instruction at Waldorf Schools the goal is not scientific knowledge. It is just as much about the emotional empathy and artistic recreation as it is about worldview and existential issues: 'The goal of an extended phenomenology is progress through to man, or, more precisely: to a reflection on and order of how man

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stands in the world' (Buck and Mackensen 1994, p. 147). Phenomenological natural history is not only the observation and description of natural phenomena. It also attempts to 'understand' nature. It is here that the universal context of human perception reveals its position within the whole through human language. For Waldorf educators Goethe's view of nature provides the model for this understanding of nature: it is well known that Goethe assumed that the diverse 'outer' shapes of nature manifest diverse 'inner' processes of creation whose original images can be tapped through clear thought. In botany, zoology and physics (optics) Goethe was able to impressively relay the results of his - at the time highly disputed natural research. Through their 'Goetheanism' Waldorf educators take up less these results than his worldview as the foundation of his idealistic morphology and the methods of intuitive form capturing. For science instruction, especially for lower secondary areas, this represents a conscious retreat from the quantitative-experimental ('materialistic') research method of modern science and its models. Ernst-Michael Kranich formulates the idealistic counter-program as follows: The young person takes an active part in the creation and construction processes of nature. His fantasy-driven thoughts clue into what remains externally invisible. That which at first is mysterious and dark becomes intellectually transparent. Something from the essence of things - the plant, tree, etc. - becomes visible. The young person's consciousness is expanded and deepens from the appearance of the image's essence. An image of this type is termed 'imago'. In Goethe's sense natural history is the path from the sensory appearance to imaginative understanding of nature. (Kranich 1999, p. 1210) Following in Goethe's footsteps, pupils are to observe natural phenomena as 'natura naturata'. Based on their forms the pupils should tap into the spiritual and creative forces of 'natura naturans' behind them. We will now illustrate the Waldorf program's central 'Goetheanistic methods' and their conditions using two scientific epochs as examples.

A School in the Spirit of Anthroposophy ? In biology instruction for the fifth and sixth grades pupils are to become better acquainted with the diversity of forms in the world of plants, especially flowers. For this purpose they are introduced to a type of physiognomic plant observation, which builds on the assumption that different flowers make a different type of aesthetic impression on man. The emotions triggered by plants - and especially flowers - stem from their 'expression' which is communicated in their form. In other words: the same emotional movement that the human observer experiences within his or her soul is also expressed in the plant's form. Plant forms should therefore be seen as emotional manifestations which arise both in the 'earth's soul' and in the pupil's soul. Pupils may see a plant's form as the expression of a particular emotional sign because they experience it too. If one sees how the crocus' desire becomes a short-lived image, then the surprise in the anemone, the desire in the iris, religiousness in the bellflower, etc. right through to sorrow in the meadow saffron (naked lady), one sees the course of a year in the world of plants as a type of facial expression. An emotional image appears alongside or after other similar images. In man's face one gets to know the expression of his soul... In nature's 'facial expression' the emotional being is revealed ... [TJhrough plant life one becomes acquainted with the comprehensive emotional being. (Kranich 1995, pp. 134 f.) For the Waldorf teacher plant life is the earth's emotional world. The earth consists not only of physical and chemical processes from its 'mineral-physical' and 'vegetative-etheric body'; it also has an 'emotional-astral' being that corresponds closely to that of man. The central metaphysical prerequisite for 'plant-emotional studies' in the fifth and sixth grades is: a spiritual-emotional component lives in nature which man can perceive because, as a microcosmos, he carries the world within himself. He recognizes the earth's soul in plant life which is very closely related to his soul. It is easy to see that the basis for and results of this botany at the Waldorf School are not provided direcdy from Goethean natural history. The Waldorf teacher adds a spiritual dimension to the

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Goethean view of nature that stems solely from Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy. Phenomenological chemistry instruction takes place in a similar manner in the seventh grade. This focus here is on three primordial phenomena or basic material processes: fire (burning), lime (solidification) and metal (melting). In studying these, the use of abstract chemical formulas and models is consciously avoided. Much like with the alchemists, instruction begins with the sensory-graphic experience of fire, the process of decomposition and metamorphosis, with which man can consciously change the sequence of natural processes. Pupils collect different types of wood, bark, roots, and leaves - materials from all sorts of plants - and burn them one after the other on a large metal plate in the chemistry classroom. Differences in the types of burning, in the size and color of flame, are observed. Pupils should experience how fire distorts materials, how the remains glow as they fly about, how the gases spread through the air, and how the wooden parts carbonize and turn into formless ashes. Two directions, two 'essential gestures' of fire are marked: the flame rising and its transition to smoke and the ashes that become heavy and fall. For Waldorf educators this leads to the question of how it is possible that wood, on the one hand, dissolves into light and warmth and into dull ashes on the other. It is not difficult to get children to realize that both return to their origins and back to the area they stem from. The wood of the living plant can only be formed in that the roots absorb water and salt from the earth and because the leaves absorb sunlight which they then condense into plant matter (cf. Julius 1978, pp. 21 £). It is clear that in this case the Waldorf educator consciously avoids the usual perspective of a chemist, who would focus on analyzing the reacting substances; instead he wants to ask 'primordially' and see the 'whole'. That means: the chemical processes are seen and understood only against the background of the world as a whole. If the Waldorf teacher presents fire as a part of the world as a whole, then the child should learn to see the world as a whole as with a mirror. The world above, and especially the sun, is related to that which stems from fire. The world below, ashes from the fire, have descended from the world's great flame. The child should now seek phenomena which present him or her with the same things that live in fire. Fire should

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thereby become the key to much of which takes place in the world (cf. ibid., p. 23). Plants, buds and leaves strive upwardjust as the beams and light of fire do. Roots, just like ashes, remain heavy and earthbound. Man is like a an upside-down plant: the heating processes take place mainly in the member-metabolism area, the hardening process comparable to that of ashes is found in the head, the nerves and the senses. The flame therefore appears in man only in the opposite direction. Phenomenological chemistry instruction of this type is not designed to teach pupils how to conduct exact, experimental analysis of substances and their characteristics; rather, it stresses - as did the cosmic plant-emotional teachings sketched above - the universal harmony and relatedness of being between natural processes and man. 'Goetheanistic' chemistry instruction at Waldorf Schools leads pupils back to the metaphysical worldview of alchemy. While modern chemists analyze substances and their structure in quantitative-exact experiments, the alchemist is mainly taken up with questions of origins, growth, destruction, and metamorphosis of substances, with the birth and wedding, with suffering and death, and with resurrection and redemption of the spiritual which is captive in the material. The alchemist seeks - as did the anthroposopher Steiner - the sense behind the whole in a means that exact-experimental science neither can nor does aspire to. Alchemy was not only Goethe's secret great love. It is also an important aspect in the thought of Steiner's followers. The alchemistic tradition is also used in their critique of science and the technological-industrial age, which they reject as being 'materialistic', 'rationalistic' and 'mechanistic'. Alchemy, and in particular Paracelsus' teaching of the three basic substances or fundamental processes of the world (tria principia) remains the basis of chemistry instruction to this day. The first epoch begins with fire, the sulphur principle; this is followed by lime/calcium and the primordial acid that stems from it; last we have the mercurial element: in the eighth grade the melting process of the seven (!) planetary metals is taught. This introduction to alchemistic teaching with the three cosmic primordial substances with fire, burning and wood was also conceived thus by Paracelsus. He provides us with directions for the first chemistry epoch in Waldorf Schools. In its alchemy fire is already the means of remetamorphosing things into basic substances and is therefore

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the key to man's original understanding of man and the world. The use of alchemy in chemistry instruction at the Waldorf School is not primarily a result perspective of the discipline's history. The alchemy of three principles, four elements and seven metals is not taught as a pre-stage to exact chemical science, but rather as a model for a spiritual expanding of phenomenological chemistry. It should present the world of substances - beyond materialistic experimental analysis - for the modern consciousness so that from it the spiritual foundations of all material things can be experienced. It is neither the chemist nor the substance phenomenologist who speaks in this instruction, but rather the anthroposopher. He determines here not only the 'how' but also the 'what' of instruction. 'Goetheanistic', alchemy-based chemistry instruction at Waldorf Schools has, as did the Goetheanistic flora teachings - an unmistakeable spiritual dimension that is formed only from the basis of the anthroposophical worldview. To this day Waldorf educators stress - as Steiner himself did (cf. above) - that they do not intend to make a worldview institution out of their school that would teach anthroposophical content. Anthroposophy is allegedly only a basis for their understanding of man and for their educational methods. If this method is what is meant by 'Goetheanistic', then one must say that it not only takes a 'holistic' approach to emotional forces or a 'phenomenological' approach to natural phenomena, but also transmits spiritual views which stem directly from the anthroposophical worldview. Waldorf Schools are therefore - and especially in the class teacher phase of elementary and lower secondary levels - not only inspired by anthroposophy on anthropological and methodical levels, but also on a content level. Collegial self-administration in a unified spirit The school's organization 'Because his peers are also free, the developing person should be able to develop himself freely through the power of the educator and teacher, who is independent of the state and of business' (Steiner 1975, p. 30). According to Steiner's argumentation, in order for pupils to be taught and educated freely, their teachers must also operate in

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a school according to pedagogical principles which they feel are correct, without direction from a school principal or supervisory board. Waldorf Schools therefore have no principal and are only legally subject to a school supervisory board. Teachers run 'their' school according to a collegial constitution. They meet at weekly conferences which are divided into an educational, administrative and internal management conference and decide together in all matters such as new personnel, salary, the firing of individual teachers, increases in monthly school allowance, or the use of parents as laborers in renovations or other construction matters. This self-administration requires a high level of cooperational ability and also contains high conflict potential because, unlike at conventional schools, there are hardly any norms or precedents. Even though numerous empirical studies have proven the meaning of directorial management and a supervisory board for the educational culture and instruction effectiveness for a school, Waldorf educators cling undaunted to the Steinerian notion of a 'teacher republic'. The corresponding notion of autonomy is not only (as it was with Steiner's contemporary educational reformers) educationally or politically motivated, but rather stems from the teachings of anthroposophy. The starting point and the basis for the Waldorf School movement is Steiner's comprehensive social concept, the notion of man's threefold structure (cf. Chapter 1). In legal and political areas the idea of equality, in economic life that of fraternity, and in spiritual and cultural areas (to which the school belongs) the idea of freedom, are to be decisive. Steiner formulates his reform program only superficially in the radically democratic spirit of the French Revolution. The ultimate reason for his threefold impulses stems from anthroposophy with its basic principles of the microcosm and reincarnation of the soul: the political and legal area represents the physical body that decomposes into material again after death. Economic life represents man's emotional astral body, whose fraternal solidarity can go beyond death into the extrasensory world; cultural life represents man's spiritual I; his avid activity in this area has positive effects in the next incarnation. The idea of autonomy and its realization through collegial self-administration is motivated neither by educational reform nor grassroots democratic or politically pluralistic principles, nor by economic or functional

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convictions. Rather, it is metaphysically founded in Rudolf Steiner's worldview. The school's freedom is a pedagogical requirement for free education of the young generation; in the cosmic-humanistic view of anthroposophy it is needed for the freeing of the 'higher' human spirit from the chains of 'lower' political and economic aims. In conclusion one can claim that the widely held view by the public at large that the Free Waldorf Schools have a particular reform and child-oriented slant does not grasp the whole picture. The Waldorf School is - in particular in the class teacher years - a school with a unified spirit, the spirit of anthroposophy. This is true with respect to pedagogical principles and forms, from anthropology right through to the forming of the teaching relationship, from the curriculum through to the organization of individual instruction periods, to learning methods and school organization. It differs from other reform schools through its high degree of 'spiritualization' or ritualization in all areas of school culture. Educational affairs should in a conscious contrast to the demythologization and pluralization tendencies of the modern age - be provided with a unified cult-like (i.e. aesthetic), moral and religious foundation. With respect to the extent of worldview unification of school culture, to date the Free Waldorf School stands alone among the new schools of the twentieth century.

19. The Waldorf Pre-School and the Anthroposophical Curative Education Today almost every Waldorf School has a pre-school. Most of the newly founded Waldorf Schools are initiated by parents whose children attended a Waldorf pre-school. Historically the Waldorf School did not emerge from a pre-school but rather the pre-school emerged as an optional appendage after the school was in existence. Over Easter 1926 - one year after Steiner's death - Elisabeth von Grunelius (1895-1985) began working as an educator in the first Waldorf preschool, integrated into the Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Together with the original Waldorf teachers (Herbert Hahn, among others) she developed the practices of anthroposophical pre-school education

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based on a Steinerian view of man, also inspired by the pre-school tradition that stemmed from educational principles of the German Romantic movement She was from a middle-class family and joined up with Rudolf Steiner during the construction of the Goetheanum. Before working at the Stuttgart school she had received intensive social-educational training, for example at the renowned TestalozziFrobel-House' in Berlin. After fleeing from Nazi Germany in the 1940s, she later founded the first Waldorf pre-school in the USA and the first one in France after her later return to Europe. She is considered the 'primordial pre-school teacher' of Waldorf preschools, but to this day her work remains in the shadow of Rudolf Steiner, who never explicitly applied his ideas to pre-school education.

The transformation of the Frobelian 'kindergarten' through the spirit of anthroposophy For Waldorf educators the goal of pre-school is not preparation for later scholastic demands such as reading, writing, calculating and researching. Very much in the tradition of its founder Friedrich Frobel, the pre-school (German Kindergarten means 'child's garden') should truly be the garden of Eden given back to children, a place in which they can play happily and freely under the watch of caring adults. Here children should find the conditions that support their development. The basic tenets in pre-school education stem from the anthroposophical view of the 'child's nature', which in the first seven-year period - in line with the ascending line of the educational process - sees the senses unfold, thereby - in line with the descending movement of reincarnation - living in this early stage in close connection with the higher spiritual world. For Steiner the child in the period before losing its baby teeth is, on the one hand, a 'whole sensory organ'. The senses are imitators: the eye in pictures, the ear in sounds, the nose in smells, etc. The child takes an active part in its direct environment through imitation. It is therefore educationally desirable to give the child as many opportunities as possible to imitate meaningful activities which are perceived through the senses. For pre-school teachers this means that they have to both live up to

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the fact that they are role models and provide the children with a wide variety of activities which cultivate the senses and train the will. One the other hand, for Steiner, children in their early years have a much closer connection to the spiritual world than they do later when the incarnation process up to 'earth maturity' is complete and the connection to pre-birth existence has been cut oflf completely. The Waldorf educator therefore sees the child as the 'messenger from a higher world' (Herbert Hahn), in whose fantasy and creative play a spiritual message is relayed. In the three phases of the first seven-year period the spiritual I, which is descending from the higher worlds, takes hold of the physical body and helps the child to stand upright and in acquiring languages. It later aids in imaginative fiction and role playing before it receives a closer connection to reality in planned constructional play. To the Waldorf pre-school educator, the child is not an incomplete person, but rather an imaginative, religious being that is closer to spiritual reality and can therefore lead adults to reflection and reverence. The Romantic image of the godly child through which adults may become young again inspired not only Frobel and Montessori in their pedagogical teachings, but also the anthroposophical reasoning for early education. The dual view of the 'child's nature' results in four pedagogical guidelines for Waldorf pre-school practice with imitation and rhythm on the one hand and playing and religious education on the other: 1. Imitation and role model. What the female pre-school teacher does and how she does it should be a model for the child and worth imitating. The pre-school therefore resembles a pre-modern household in which the female pre-school teacher cooks, bakes, washes, irons, sews, and cleans just as the mother would in a large family. In one corner there is a weaving loom and cotton. In another there is a workbench with a hammer, screws and small tools. In the garden one finds a rake, a hoe and a wheelbarrow. Every morning the children enter a pedagogical space in which they are drawn to objects and activities and are encouraged to take part. In the Waldorf pre-school the tasks of tradesmen and farmers which have disappeared from everyday life in the urban world are to be learned and practised in order provide them with primary sensory experiences.

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The direct experiencing of such tasks, which follow one another in a meaningful order and which lead to concrete results, is thought to be a crucial prerequisite for the acquisition (in a later developmental phase) of logical thought and problem solving. 2. Rhythm and repetition. For Waldorf educators a rhythmic lifestyle is the guarantee for healthy development. The 'cosmic' rhythms of the day, week, month, and seasons therefore determine the pedagogical schedule. The child as 'sensory organ' is still completely dependent upon direct space of experience and is provided with an 'organic', rhythmic, well-ordered and repetitive daily routine of activities which correspond to two sets of inhalation and exhalation. Every child is to experience the pre-school morning in two large breaths between which they enjoy a joint breakfast. The first major inhalation phase in which the child may more or less pursue its own drives is the free playing time with joint cleaning up and the washroom visit. Then there is a brief exhalation phase during the 'morning circle' or rhythmic games and breakfast. A second inhalation phase encompasses free playing in the garden or a short excursion, before the second chair circle with fairy tales, puppets or music wraps up the day with the next exhalation phase. For those children who remain for the afternoon, this is followed by the joint lunch and midday nap, followed by another phase for free playing until the parents come and pick the children up. The day's rhythm is framed by that of the week and the seasons. The weekly rhythm results from the daily repetition of artistic endeavors (painting, eurythmy, kneading, etc.) and a type of biologicaldynamic breakfast preparation. The year's rhythm is experienced through birthday parties, the seasonal changes in plants and fruits on the season table, and through the intensive preparation for the joint celebrations of the Christian holidays. 3. Religious education. Annual celebrations should not only make the children acquainted with nature's rhythms, but also with the world of Christian religion, that is with the biblical content and with the actions of saints. At Easter, St John's day, St Michael's day, and Christmas, dramatic plays are presented that clearly demonstrate the content of the Holy Scriptures and legends so that children can identify them with their own experiences and actions.

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Together with songs, sayings and prayers which accompany joint points of orientation, the fairy tales told by the pre-school teachers over a period of one week represent the second major component of religious education. According to Waldorf educators the fairy tales stem from a period of man's early years, in which mankind was more closely connected to extrasensory beings through a cult of mysteries. In their development children go through the same states of consciousness of early mankind, and experience through the fairy tales the direct spiritual worldview of the powers of good and evil that are at work behind all things. The fairy tale speaks in images of man's provenance, his ordeals and probations, his enchantment, transformation and redemption. For the child, who still has his original faith in religion as well as a rich fantasy world, fairy tales can provide 'answers to all things' (Kugelgen 1991, p. 67). 4. Fantasy playing. In the different forms of child's play - from the sensory-motor exercises to symbolic role playing right through to planned construction games - the anthroposophical educator is convinced of the spiritual force which, step-by-step, becomes more strongly united with the body. The encouraging of play through the providing of development appropriate toys represents an important incarnation aid for the child's spiritual being (cf. Hahn 1929). Because spiritual forces in the child first pass through the head ('nervous-sensory system'), then the heart ('rhythmic system') and then finally the hand ('metabolic-member system'), the external form of toys must correspond to the internal development processes. At the beginning we find the head-like ball and the doll, then the stuffed animals, before finally materials from animate and inanimate nature (such as pieces of wood, fir cones, pebble stones, and sand) function as toys. When playing the child should - first internally then externally - acquire the activities of adults (such as gardening, baking, building, and handicrafts), and should do so creatively in a manner that allows expression of both the imagination and allows imitation. In order to encourage imaginative play, they should be surrounded by as few 'completed' objects as possible. Therefore, in addition to useful household objects (such as benches, pails, brooms, pots, cloths, blankets, and clothespins), in

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the Waldorf pre-school one also finds numerous untreated natural materials, many colorful, handmade cloths and the consciously primitive textile Waldorf puppets. All mechanically produced, technical, or electronic toys - be it Lego blocks or computer games - are strictly banned from the pre-school because they hinder the imagination and paralyze the etheric forces being built up in the child's body. According to Waldorf educators, if a five-year-old child plays with standardized Lego building blocks, the imagination will be robbed of the room to break out of a preconceived schema. Furthermore, the sense of balances is damaged by the 'lie' of the material because at the point at which wooden building blocks would collapse for static reasons, the Lego blocks remain standing and falsify sensory perception. Anthroposophical pre-school education specialists are also decidedly opposed to the apparently unstoppable intrusion of television and computer games into the child's world. They are convinced that television prevents children from taking an active interest in their real environment and from developing their own imagination. While listening to a story, children create their own inner images, but this imaginative activity is hindered through the hectic and aggressive images of television. Their need to communicate with adults about the stories they have heard is also diminished. Waldorf educators believe that television should only play a role in educational processes in the second seven-year period, when the development of the will and feelings has been concluded. These culturally critical impulses against the increasing role of media during childhood and the speeding up of child learning process is communicated to parents over and over again through information evenings at the pre-school or through individual home visits. This intensive educational work often conducted in conjunction with the neighbouring Waldorf School - gives the Waldorf pre-school the function of a cultural centre that goes far beyond the pre-school's actual educational purpose. Looking back now at the presented conception and practices of the Waldorf pre-school one may conclude that the central focus on free playing, the notion of the warm, motherly environment, and the focus on the child's own right to autonomy are in line with the

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Frobelian tradition; the main differences lie in the focus on rhythms and ritotalization of daily activities, in the consciously archaic toys and in the explicit implementation of religious education. Basic tenets of anthroposophical curative pedagogy

Today's global offerings in anthroposophical curative pedagogy comprise a broad spectrum of various institutions. These stretch from integrative pre-schools through schools for children with learning difficulties and in need of emotional care, integrative Waldorf Schools, and homes for children and youths right through to workshops and living communities for adults with disabilities. The origins of anthroposophical curative pedagogy are found in May 1924, when three young men, Siegfried Pickert, Franz Loffler and Albrecht Strohschein, all inspired and enthused by Steiner's teachings, founded the Haus Lauenstein in Jena (Thuringia), a home for five children with developmental disabilities. They were inexperienced in dealing with handicapped children, and their daily experiences with them led the three men to Rudolf Steiner, months before the founding of the school, to ask him for advice and help during a course for doctors in Dornach. On 18 June 1924, Steiner visited Lauenstein and examined the children there and provided detailed orders on how to treat them. Directly after this he gave 12 speeches on his 'curative education course' as he had promised the three founders in Jena - in the period between 25 June and 7 July 1925 in Dornach, before an audience of 21 selected doctors and educators. To this day these speeches form the foundation of anthroposophical curative pedagogy. The practice comes from two different streams, one scholastic and the other medical. In the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart, which opened in 1919, those children with learning disabilities or who were lagging behind in their development were placed in a special class formed by the educator Karl Schubert. In 1923 in Arlesheim near Dornach the doctor Ita Wegman admitted children with developmental problems to her clinical-therapeutic institute after being approached by their parents. Lauenstein represented the amalgamation of these two streams. To this day, not only educators but also therapists and doctors are on staff at anthroposophical homes. The integrative approach of teaching

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children with different intellectual, physical and socially based special needs also remains unique to this day. Due to the double integrative profile the Therapeutic and Educational Institute for Children with Special Needs Lauenstein' has a special place in the curative pedagogy of the 1920s. Within only a few short years the initiative spread throughout Germany and led to the founding of further pedagogical homes in Switzerland, England, Netherlands, Finland, and Iceland. By the early 1960s there were 111 institutions for children with special needs spread over 12 countries. The small seed planted in Germany had grown into a global movement with international character. The introduction of the German term 'seelenpflegebediirfiig' (literally 'emotionally in need of care') as the leitmotif of anthroposophical curative pedagogy signalized the intention to overcome the terms 'mentally disabled' or 'psychologically disturbed' and expressed a positive view towards their clientele. The term 'mentally disabled/handicapped' directly contradicted Rudolf Steiner's view according to which the mental core of man can never be ill or disturbed. Disabilities are only seen as deficiencies in man's physical layer that resultfromstrong lopsidedness in the development of the constitution. The mental core of a handicapped child is just as intact as that of any other person. The anthroposophical explanation of handicap goes beyond the normal scientific view and takes man's hidden, higher layers of being as well as the process of reincarnation and the effects of karma into account. For Steiner and his followers the handicap represents - generally speaking - a failed incarnation process of 'higher man', who descends from the spiritual world into the inherited physical organization of 'lower man'. The I and the astral body cannot properly 'delve into' the lopsidedly 'hardened' physical-etheric organism (cf. Steiner GA317,1990, sixth speech). According to Steiner, this problem stems from 'karmic conditions', emotional-spiritual destinal connections to an earlier earthly life. The life situation as a person with a handicap is only one phase in a chain of 'healthy' incarnations that have been and will be experienced. In every incarnation the path that was cleared in the previous life is continued and the effects of actions are dealt with. At the same time tracks for the further destinal path are laid. It is therefore possible that a spiritual I has not been fully incarnated in an epileptic child but had been a genius in previous

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lives. The therapist who cares for the emotional life of this mentally handicapped child helps the child thereby to balance the disturbed balance between the upper and lower being members and therefore also improves the chances for the spiritual I to have a harmonious incarnation in the next existence. As a helper the therapist allows the child to make the most of its currently very limited development potential. For Steiner the therapist should know that their work 'is about a deep intervention in karmic activities that otherwise would take place between death and the next life. When bringing up lesser children it is such that that, which one does, is meddling in the work of the gods that would have taken place later' (ibid., pp. 40 f.). Through interdisciplinary talks with colleagues in weekly child discussions and conferences and the meditative training path the therapist should come closer to the child's baffling essence, that is mirrored in this physical and emotional constitution, the spirit's means of expression, and in the biography. With this basis the therapist is to make pedagogical and therapeutic decisions that are appropriate for the child's particular destiny. The act of healing is understood here not so much in the medical sense of helping to lessen or erase an organic sickness but rather as the triggering and strengthening of emotional processes that take place in different time dimensions: as pleasure in the present, as physical and spiritual metamorphosis in later life phases, and as more mature educational processes in future life on earth. The focus of the therapist is on the building of will in future earthly life and the strengthening of I forces in order to help the young person in balancing the one-sidedness that triggered the illness. Pedagogical, artistic and medical-dietetic measures all play a role here. The practice of anthroposophical curative pedagogy is - just like education at the Waldorf School and pre-school - characterized by the 'organic' organization of space in an environment that protectively envelopes a child with special emotional needs. One of its central advantages is the 'organic' life rhythm of inhalation and exhalation - from the seasonal right through to the daily routine - and of activity and rest which should provide the handicapped child with a firm internal foothold. The central social basis of curative pedagogy practice that should also provide a stable orientation is the long-term pedagogical relationship

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between the disabled child and the role model class teacher. Instruction in schools for these children follows organizational, curricular and methodological principles of Waldorf Education (cf. above). In order to strengthen the children's emotional forces it should also be more lively and elementary with respect to content by giving the children the opportunity to learn through imitation, primordial depiction and emotional identification. The teacher is to act as a role model in emotional mobility and should move before the class with strong mimicry and gestures. At the same time the teacher should give the pupils ample opportunity to take part in myriad ways (cf. Neukater-Piewek 1989). The problem of adequate support for young persons with special needs in the children's home and school has been addressed by the anthroposophical curative pedagogy in a historically new and specific means of the life or village communities. The impulse for these does not stem from Rudolf Steiner himself but rather from his religiously active and socialist follower Karl Konig (1902-63). Due to his emigration from Germany the project was first realized in the Scottish village Camphill (near Aberdeen). From 1928 to 1935, Konig, a Jewish doctor from a Viennese family, had worked at an anthroposophical home for children with special needs in Germany. Due to the militant antiSemitic Nuremberg race laws he moved to Vienna. From there he then fled before National Socialist troops marched in and launched onto an odyssey that eventually brought him to Scotland. Together with otherJewish anthroposophs Konig founded a multi-confessional Christian, spiritual community in Camphill in 1939, dedicated to curative pedagogical work with children and adults. He was deeply dedicated to the original Christian notion of a brotherly community that, inspired by Christ, dedicates their lives to those in need. He blazed trails not only with respect to curative pedagogy but also economically, for example in his attempt to separate the individual's making of a living from his actual achievement. The Camphill movement therefore combined three different impulses: curative educational work with handicapped children and youths within the context of a shared home, the leading of a life comprehensively modeled on the Christian spirit, and the associative or, more specifically, socialist economy (cf. Konig 1991). On the request of many parents on behalf of their

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now grown-up children, Konig founded the first village community in 1953 where handicapped and non-handicapped adults lived together in Botton Village, England. In contrast to curative educational work, the adult's handicap should not be the focus but rather what he can contribute to the community's success. The handicapped and nonhandicapped work together in the village in the production of agricultural and handmade goods and in the creation of a rich cultural life. Even if current developments in curative education in Europe now programmatically tend toward more open and individualized forms of integration (e. g. 'community care'), the Camphill-based anthroposophical 'socio-therapeutic' impulse of village communities deserves respect. Even if one does not share Steiner's view of man, the activation and social integration of persons with special needs is based on a principle of respect for their individuality and should be granted recognition.

Part Three

The Reception and Influence of Steiner's Works

Introduction Research on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy remains amorphous and dissatisfactory. Reasons for this predicament include:first,the textual characteristics of Steiner's oeuvre; second, the primarily apologetic traits of anthroposophical works linked to his oeuvre; and, third, the hitherto mostly polemical nature of critical discourse on Steiner's thinking. Steiner's oeuvre in its entirety has only been published in German. The contents of his works are so multifarious and their breadth is so hard to grasp that Steiner's writings seemingly resist a comprehensive overview or assessment Additionally, Steiner's language, intellectual outlook and methods of argumentation must strike many readers as strange. The esoteric features of his works also appear to prevent a scientific study of them. This problem is rather exacerbated by the number of anthroposophical writings referring to Steiner's oeuvre, writings which no longer stem onlyfromGerman-speaking followers but also from what has evolved into the international circle of his adherents. Here one seldom encounters interpretations based on a systematic approach but rather attempts at thematically focused paraphrases and at explanatory ways of structuring Steiner's thoughts in a manner which confirms the respective author's affirmative reading. In some cases studies seem to lack any degree of objective distance to Steiner's world; such discourse necessarily strikes the reader as merely a gesture of respect before an intellectual leader. One extensive group of general characterizations mostly deals with Rudolf Steiner's biography

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or adapts a biographical approach to his writings (cf. in particular Kugler 1980; Lindenberg 1997). The fundamental problem in these anthroposophical biographies lies in their uncritical use of Steiner's autobiography. By closely and uncritically following his autobiography, these authors fail to take into account breaks and reorientations in the course of Steiner's life. An unfounded impression of continuity and uniformity in his life's work is the result. A second group within anthroposophical Steiner reception consists of studies which introduce selected writings by Steiner in light of specific thematic concerns. Introductions to Steiner's works focus on topics such as his understanding of man, nature, Christ, or epistemology. In addition to these general depictions of anthroposophy, which are mostly limited to paraphrases of Steiner's writings, one also finds studies describing the various fields in which members of the anthroposophical community are active - fields as diverse as pedagogy, medicine and agriculture. Parallel to characterizing anthroposophical activities within individual fields, these studies convey a sense of the anthroposophical worldview upon which their specific activities are founded. Similar to previously mentioned works, these studies as well are largely products of their authors' veneration of Steiner, even though in some cases they do independently apply his ideas to current needs within particular fields. The third group of general studies of Steiner written by anthroposophists consists of occasional attempts at characterizing his epistemological, anthropological, or ethical concepts not only through close reading, but also within the larger context of the theories and insights of current 'conventional' research within a particular discipline (cf. especially the studies by Schneider 1982 and Rittelmeyerl990). Certainly the almost unavoidable divide between uncritical followers and polemical critics of anthroposophy has been a key factor in its unusually difficult reception. Both parties suffer from detrimental degrees of emotional involvement and partisanship. This remarkable phenomenon has existed continuously since Steiner's time. Thus a detached and impartial scientific investigation of anthroposophy seems almost impossible. Steiner's ideas polarize; they provoke both impassioned identification and rigorous rejection. Perhaps such strong reactions result from the fact that Steiner's thoughts

Anthroposophy as a Philosophy Without Boundaries deal not simply with a specific theory relating to human beings or social conduct, but rather with answers to the most fundamental questions about the meaning of life. This polarization in the reception of anthroposophy between the work of 'Steiner hagiographers' and that of so-called 'critical studies' began in German-speaking regions during Steiner's later years and has continued to this day (cf. the overview of early critics in Ullrich 1991, pp. 204ff.). Among German critics who have dealt with Steiner are such luminary philosophers as Theodor W. Adorno and Ernst Bloch, as well as leading Protestant philosophers of the likes of Friedrich Gogarten and Paul Tillich. Nonetheless only a small number of studies can be viewed as attempts at critical research on anthroposophy which adhere to adequate scholarly standards. To illustrate these critical trends, three various branches of reception shall be introduced and characterized. Each branch of the reception of anthroposophical ideas represents a still current method: systematic philosophical criticism of the basic tenets of the worldview propagated by Steiner, analysis according to the scientific method of Steiner's manner of thought, and the contemplation of central concerns of his worldview within the larger context of the history of ideas.

20. Anthroposophy as a Philosophy Without Boundaries Representatives of a branch of philosophy adhering to Kant's criticism of epistemology (cf. among others Schneider 1992 and Prange 2000) who have studied the premises of Steiner's thought have come to the conclusion that a fundamental psychology-based misreading of Kant's postulated epistemological boundaries led Steiner to a precritical, naively realistic position in the justification of his own theory of knowledge (cf. Chapter 2). By transfiguring the thought process into the supposedly objective mirror of being, Steiner affords the individual - without providing philosophical proof - an ultimately unlimited capability for acquiring knowledge with which the intellect can comprehend history-transcending truths or timeless ideas. Steiner discounts the critical question of the correlation between human imperfection and the limits of cognition; these limits lie both

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in factors relating to actual knowledge acquisition through sense perception and in categories of rationality. He further disregards the historical dimension of human understanding of self. Kant arrives at the convincing conclusion of the impossibility of scientific proof for the existence of God by way of analyzing of the premises of human knowledge. In contrast, Steiner's premise - that thought is fundamentally capable of recognizing the absolute in the form of recognizing the essence of phenomena - leads to the conclusion that human understanding must be of a divine nature. Acceptance of this metaphysical stance, which cannot be proven by rational means, is a prerequisite for a view of Steiner's outlook which sees no fundamental contradiction to philosophical reflection in his thinking and embraces his humanistic method of education and its resulting insights into higher worlds. If, however, one retains the principle of critical philosophy - that is, the impossibility within human understanding of inter-subjective, rational ontological proof of God or an absolute being - then aspects of anthropology, cosmology and ethics informed by Steiner's theory of knowledge will appear highly questionable. An epistemology without boundaries leads to an analogous notion of human existence. This notion can already be observed in Steiner's dualistic concept of human nature in which the individual's limited physical nature houses an immortal, infinitely intellectual and spiritual essence. His concept leaves no room for the idea of a historically unique person who exists in order to achieve self-determination in liberty and to seek solidarity with the other. Steiner develops the ethics of anthroposophy in his early writings by using the term 'ethical individualism'; this concept envisions a self-aware individual human being that searches for the source of his or her morality purely by pondering and establishing a link to the totality of the world. In Steiner's main works one finds the ethics of a human being who is committed or subject to karma; having attained the highest level of knowledge, this being merges with the grand scheme of things, that is with cosmic evolution. Steiner's belief in ideality and divinity as revealed by individuality has a profound influence not only on his thinking regarding epistemology and anthropology but also on his ethical views. This influence manifests itself in different ways both in his early and in his main writings. It is only on the

Anthroposophy as a Philosophy Without Boundaries basis of the metaphysical prerequisite of the oneness of individual nature and ideality that the individual can follow his or her moral intuition and thereby behave according to the timeless order of the world of ideas. This cannot, however, be understood in a strict sense as 'moral' behavior emanating from the free will of the individual; rather this behavior is that of an individual whose will necessarily coincides with the observed world of ideas. Steiner's concept of liberty represents, strictly speaking, a state of determination based upon the world of ideas; it must be added, however, that ideally this determination should prove to be neither a 'must' nor a 'shall' but rather an inherent desire for this general state. Thus with his 'ethical individualism' the early Steiner delivers a naturalistic doctrine of behavior, not a system of ethics which - as, for instance, Kant does with the categorical imperative - assists in providing an autonomous model for principles of moral behavior. The merging of individuality and ideality unveils neither the concrete human subject with its limited freedom nor the 'other' as my 'counterpart' that challenges me to behave morally (or in other words, to regard my behavior from a moral perspective). In his later writings Steiner attempts to reformulate the concepts of freedom and responsibility on the basis of theosophical teachings on reincarnation and fate (i.e. karma). Viewed in the light of these teachings, the moral behavior of an individual is no longer dependent on his or her current existence. Instead it appears predetermined through his or her preceding lives on earth. Steiner's thinking rests upon the assumption that a human being is, at birth, a composite entity made up of an eternal spiritual being and a finite physical body and that death consequently represents the end only of the latter. Death proves to be no true barrier for the immaterial ego; it rather represents merely a break in its learning process which is continued in subsequent incarnations. According to the 'law of fate' (karma), the deeds of one physical life do, in turn, influence the conduct of the immaterial self in a future existence. Two factors infringe upon the possibility of human freedom. On the one hand, the fate of previous earthly lives determines the conditions of one's current existence; the individual need only follow a pre-existing blueprint for life. On the other hand, a human being is already defined at birth for him- or herself as an ego that, stemming from infinite time, carries

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an innate yet latent past and future. Steiner sees man as residing in two phases of time, in the accessible but limited lifetime and in the for him - inaccessible and eternal meta-time between reincarnations. The defining moment of the historical dimension and the uniqueness of existence, both concepts for which finiteness is a defining factor, become illimitable or cease to exist. If formative processes in the development of the self occur not in the human world but rather beyond it, then the individual is, during his or her earthly lifespan, precisely not master of his time and himself. And according to the law of fate, the consequences of actions taken in one lifetime manifest themselves not within that lifetime but rather in a, to him, yet incomprehensible future life. Strictly speaking the individual has no opportunity to exercise his or her free will in the here and now, as his ties to past and future karma preclude any direct repercussions from his actions for his person in its current state. The individual is 'free' only in the sense that he or she has acquired insight into this larger context of the world of existence into which he or she is bound. The only option is behaving in accordance with this grand design and, perhaps, to be aware of it. If an individual behaves with an understanding for the laws of fate, then he or she cannot be viewed as responsible for the possible intentions or goals of their behavior. The concept of liberty based on a fatal chain of events implies the liberty to accept given laws rather than the freedom to create such laws independently. The choice between conscious fulfillment of preordained laws of the grand scheme and passive acquiescence to them negates the difference between freedom and necessity. It seems that within the context of this meta-individual causal nexus moral self-determination is not possible. And the other, viewed from an interpersonal standpoint, fails in an existential sense to become a person and instead merely plays a functional role within the plan of my fate. With regard to the ideas of reincarnation and karma, Steiner's later thought offers neither an acceptable concept of freedom nor an independent vision of moral behavior. As already in his early work, Steiner later defines the individual without placing a true limit on his or her ability to perceive and comprehend knowledge, without limiting his or her existence, and without setting clear boundaries for his or her freedom (cf. Schneider 1992, pp. 33 f.).

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The critical reception of anthroposophy within the context of academic philosophy, as outlined above, has a long history. It commences with the disapproving reviews of Steiner's central early work, The Philosophy of Freedom, by the German philosophers Eduard von Hartmann and Arthur Drews. Representatives of a strictly systematic philosophy in the tradition of Kant have continued to echo this criticism of Steiner's thought. Scholars of the natural philosophy and the history of the natural sciences have shown greater understanding and occasionally even enthusiastic acceptance for some of Steiner's individual teachings (cf. Bohme 1989, pp. 96 ff.), for example in the case of his Goetheanism; similarly, religious thinkers have taken an interest in Steiner's advocation of mysticism (cf. Koslowski 1988). These issues will be dealt with in more detail at a later point

21. Anthroposophy as the Return of Mythical Thought Within Science Discourse on the scientific nature of anthroposophy, in particular the examination of its underlying thought processes, constitutes a second branch of critical thought on anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner regularly reiterated his conviction that his insights regarding the metaphysical world meet scientific criteria. He predicated this conviction on his claim that his method is as strictly objective as those used in the natural sciences. Yet an in-depth scientific-historical analysis of the theories of development and of temperament (i.e. the four humours) shows these main pillars in Steiner's pedagogical anthropology to be conceptually and empirically untenable according to current scientific standards (cf. Ullrich 1991 in the following discussion). Rudolf Steiner did not formulate his theory of development in connection with contemporary child and adolescent psychology; he rather roots his concept of seven-year periods between an ascending order of spiritual 'births' or metamorphoses in the archaic concept of phases of life. This concept was prevalent in European-Mediterranean culture prior to the establishment of scientific practices in anthropology. The number seven held a special place in Greco-Roman antiquity and in

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early European culture as a mythically and religiously meaningful number symbolic of the stages of life. In an effort to expand scientific anthropological research along spiritual lines, Steiner makes a connection here with the prescientific concept of various stages within one lifetime. This concept does not describe the development of the individual's soul; instead it intends to prescribe it. Steiner's sevenyear theory of spiritual development is a psychological anachronism and as such not constructively debatable within the context of modern empiric-scientific developmental psychology. Even the superficial similarity of the theory's gradual nature with the ideas of thinkers of the likes of Jean Piaget or Erik H. Erikson does not fundamentally alter this verdict. Thus, strictly speaking, the anthroposophical theory of development cannot be deemed the result of authentic and new research; a great deal of evidence indicates that Steiner found and adapted the concept of seven-year developmental phases from the The Esoteric Science of Helena Blavatsky, Steiner's theosophical predecessor. Similarly Steiner's concept of the four temperaments or humours melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguine and choleric - does not represent a new kind of psychology nor characterology. Again he departs from contemporary scientific psychology, takes recourse to the quadrivial scheme of ancient (or antique) Hippocratic anthropology and attempts to interpret it from a theosophical perspective. His thorough interpretation attempt consists of a description of numerous spiritual-cosmic affinities of being between temperament and bodily form, dominant corporeal region, illness disposition, antidote, favorite color, season, period of life, national character, etc. Steiner did not develop the psychological characterizations of the temperaments and the maxims for their 'treatment' himself. He mostly adopted them, with only slight modifications, from popular contemporary self-help literature, in particular from the writings of the German minister Bernhard Hellwig (cf. ibid., pp. 171 ff.). Regarding conceptual clarity and descriptive differentiation, Steiner's concept of the four cosmic temperaments is less successful than the Romantically speculative theory of soul as presented by someone of the likes of Carl Gustav Cams. The field of empirically exact differential psychology has thoroughly demonstrated the diagnostic riskiness and lacking validity of such a

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psychophysical universal typology. Following such a typology, most observers would have to categorize nine out of ten individuals as mixed types. The research community has for this reason long since rejected the traditional theory of the four temperaments. Further, modern neuropsychological research, which of late has refocused attention on constitution and temperament, continues to avoid typological simplifications and generalizations. Steiner's followers nevertheless continue to advocate the early European concept of the seven-year period and the HippocraticGalenical scheme of the four temperaments, claiming that these concepts enrich 'traditional' specialized research on the human being with 'humanities-based', holistic-intuitive insight. With this approach they transcend neither abstract conceptual thinking nor the empiricquantitative method of gathering knowledge inherent in science of the modern age. Instead they revert to the pictorially analogizing thought processes of mythology and thereby propagate a type of antiquated knowledge long since rejected by the scientific community. A cursory review of Steiner's modes of thought shows that the idea of architectonic stratification or gradation and the principle of reciprocal correspondence dominate major parts of his cosmological and anthropological system. Steiner therefore postulates causal connections in cases in which conceptual similarities only seemingly exist. He unabashedly makes a presupposition out of what would actually first have to be proven. The structure of his analogies favors the ancient idea of the microcosm: as everything in the order of the universe has its correlate and as every being harbors a likeness to cosmic processes, the temperament and development of a human being, for instance, can - according to Steiner - only be truly understood through recognizing and comprehending the reflection of the workings of the comprehensive macrocosm in man. The key to this possible interpretation lies in number symbolism, in the ancient sacral scheme of the numbers three, four and seven. This number symbolism fulfills two functions for Steiner. It lends his thought a veneer of scientific calculability; at the same time its adherence to the tradition of holy numbers also contributes an aura of secrecy. Another argumentative technique helping to establish the manifold correlations based on number symbolism within Steiner's work is the stratification or

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gradation of the four 'essences' as well as of the three segments of an organism. This stratification or gradation results from the materialization of the immaterial and is a part of both the tradition of theosophy and of speculative natural philosophy as well as of the tradition of Platonic psychology. Such materialization has no place in modern scientific thought; such classifications can serve, at best, as tentative ideas for further discussion. Steiner in fact presents his claims in a manner which leads to their complete unassailability. 'True understanding* is shifted by Steiner into the transcendental realm and made dependent upon following the path of meditative training. Indeed he deems his claims to be eternal truths. The results of his 'occult science' are, on account of their character as a cosmologic and anthropological system, meant to be of fundamental importance for all individual areas of scientific endeavor. Like the related eternal wisdom of esotericism, Steiner's results remain valid once and for all. His followers continue to tolerate neither doubt nor open criticism. These qualities inherent in the humanistic field of anthroposophy have little to do with the standards of modern science. A well-meaning critic might view Steiner's fundamental concept of science as a part of a pre-modern, AristotelianThomistic concept in which the hallmark of scientific knowledge was the conviction of its perfection, its universality and its truth. Perfection defines something eternal, unending and necessary which is self-evident. Universality applies to something which is valid in all contexts, always and everywhere. Truth is predicated upon accordance with the essential laws of creation. In contrast, the rejection of any such claim of absolute truth is a defining element in the modern concept of the natural, cultural and social sciences. The reason is that such a claim sets a specific conviction found at a certain point in time above reproach and thereby hinders further thinking and the increase of knowledge. The defining new element in science and philosophy of the modern period lies precisely in the liberation of thought from the confines of absolute metaphysical systems. Each single scientific insight is a component in a progressive research process which indefinitely continues to be further specialized. From the perspective of contemporary ideas about the nature of science, the ideological prerequisites and methods of attaining

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knowledge in the anthroposophical branch of the humanities can largely be viewed as pre-scientific (cf. Bachelard 1984). In fact one finds all of the indicators of pre-scientific thought mentioned by Gaston Bachelard in the type of the 'humanities' propagated by Rudolf Steiner: (1) calming oneself in light of the imagery and simplicity of the first glance; (2) a desire for general knowledge (universality); (3) a desire for unity and completeness; and (4) materialization of the immaterial. The pre-scientific thinker is a naive realist; be he an anthroposophist, an alchemist, or an astrologer, he believes in a universal context causally linking even the most disparate things. In this manner the pre-scientific thinker attempts to explain all phenomena through a system of generalized meta-insights which transcend concrete individual experiences. This process is actually accompanied by the law of the path of least resistance and by the claim of eternal certainty. In contrast, the scientific thinker - whom Bachelard predominately recognizes as the driving force in the development of research in the modern natural sciences - is willing to accept the sort of mental asceticism which banishes personal intuition and pet concepts and instead favors a 'coupure epistemologique', that is, a system of abstract models and quantifiable methods, thereby making a radical break with received knowledge. Viewed from this perspective, the anthroposophical form of humanistic thought which, especially through its 'living, mutable terms' and its 'meta-logic' of images, proposes to enrich and extend the deductive thought processes of modern scientific research on nature and man represents a regression in the history and philosophy of science to a pre-scientific level of thought. A systematic analysis according to Ernst Cassirer's neo-Kantian philosophy of symbolic forms sheds more light on the peculiar structure of anthroposophical thought. Cassirer upholds that not only science and mythology but also language, religion and art each contain independent and differing structures related to the comprehension and shaping of the world (cf. Cassirer 1955). What we think of as reality is that which we find in the totality of worlds of imagery articulated by these symbolic forms. Myth is a form of consciousness which stands for a particular method of synthesis of the manifold, of organizing the world. In the following, I would thus like to compare the concept

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of myth with the logic of the anthroposophical method of acquiring knowledge. In my opinion the central forms of thought and attitude of mythical consciousness ofifer the most useful key to understanding the anthroposophical worldview. 1. The mythical concept ofcausality. Scientific thinking works toward the identification of a causal connection within a more complex set of circumstances by stressing a particular factor as a prerequisite; in myth the presupposition of an existing causal nexus applies to every possible simultaneity and proximity among things. Mythical and anthroposophical thought processes both evince a sort of hypertrophic instinct for causal explanation. Fundamental to both schools of thought are the interdependent convictions that everything happens for a reason and that, therefore, anything can potentially generate every single thing, since all things - regardless of chronological and spatial considerations - can potentially come in contact with one another. Whereas scientific inquiry looks in an evermore precise manner into the 'how' of developments according to natural laws, mythical and anthroposophical thought searches for the 'what', the 'whence' and the 'wither' and also demands to perceive them in a fully material fashion. The observation that a particular material characteristic of one thing may also be found to exist in or to have moved into other things thus explains every aspect of the particular effect of one thing on another. 2. The mythical concept of substance. Mythological and anthroposophical thought rely on the same forces which can be grasped in complete, objective definitiveness and which are at work everywhere in the world and in the individual. The law of metamorphosis allows these forces to operate in all areas of being. Whereas the concept of energy in the natural sciences describes a dynamic relationship of interdependence, mythology and anthroposophy contrarily envision energy as something which has been materialized or turned into a substance and which is 'cosmically' in effect everywhere. In the latter systems equality and similarity do not simply function as concepts expressing relationships; rather they are to be understood as the effect of a true form of energy which manages

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to express itself in various forms in all areas of existence. Each similarity or equality between two phenomena indicates that the same energy is active within both. As a result, a virtually unlimited number of possible analogies seems to be possible and necessary. 3. The mythical concept of space. In contrast to the abstractness and homogeneity of geometrical concepts of space, mythical insights provide a both concrete and figurative ground plan of the world. In this plan, cosmic energies surface in various forms which are linked through their essential relatedness. Typical for mythical thought and also apparent in the anthroposophical outlook are the correspondences among cosmic energies, seasons, the various ages of man, temperaments, bodily organs, developmental stages, colors, etc. In the 'structural space' of mythology, totality does not arise genetically from its elements, but this space is rather characterized by a static relationship of inherent existence. Each part replicates the structure of the whole entity. This aspect is also dominated by the doctrine of substantial identity, a concept expressed spatially in the idea of the unity of micro- and macrocosm. Myth and anthroposophy alike use this correspondence between the individual and the world as a point of departure and thus derive from the analogy between two things the identity of their essence or origin. The concrete mythical divisions of space are often based on the seven parts of the world or of the planets or on the four cardinal points. The mythical experience of space is founded upon the opposition of light and darkness; the triumph of light is the origin of the cosmos. The concepts of anthroposophical cosmology are intimately compatible with this concept 4. The mythical concept of time. The idea of regular continuity and succession found in mathematical, physical and historical concepts of time is foreign to myth, which rather divides the continuum of time into individual phases according to the 'natural' profile of life; the 'rhythms' of biological existence and development manifest themselves in these phases or time-gestalts. The mythical 'sense of phases' (Cassirer) does not comprehend such periods of time as a simple, uniform and purely extensive row - as the anthroposophist does with the periods in life, the seasons, the lunar phases, etc.; rather it attributes to each phase a qualitative peculiarity and a

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characteristic effectiveness. This difference explains the idea of 'crisis', of 'metamorphosis', or of new 'birth' occurring between two important epochs in life. 5. The mythical concept of number. For myth and anthroposophy the number is not merely an ordinal number or one representing a particular function which can, within a particular universal numerical system, be applied to every possible content; it is rather a number representing a particular thing and structure emerging from a particular quantifiable phenomenon and remaining tethered to how the phenomenon is viewed. At the same time, each number has its own particular nature and its own special 'energy'. Whenever two quantities appear to be 'of the same number', that is in cases in which they are identical section for section, this possibility of assignment is 'explained' through an objective union based on their shared mythical nature, whereas otherwise the resulting knowledge depicts the two quantities as merely related on the level of ideal thought. All inherent qualities of the same number become, despite otherwise apparent outward differences, mythically speaking the same. For it is one being which simply covers and hides itself in various guises. One is reminded here of the cosmic rows of correspondence built upon the number four and the doctrine of life's phases based on the number seven in Steiner's anthroposophical anthropology. Like the adherents of mythology, Steiner, too, grasps in every particular quantity of four the universal 'essence of energy' of the cosmic quadruplet And Steiner, too, organizes the course of world affairs and of individual life according to the 'holy' number seven which derives originally from the natural sequence of lunar phases: in the tradition of mythical thought the number 'seven' has developed the farthest-reaching set of relations. The structural numbers of myth and anthroposophy entangle the individual physically, mentally and spiritually with the course of cosmic events in order to bring him or her into harmony with all manifestations of the world. 6. The mythical concept of the self. Contrasting with the scientific view of the soul as an indescribable entity, in myth and anthroposophy the notion of the split soul prevails. In mythical thought one individual can thus house disparate coexisting souls; in Steiner's writings one

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finds the terms 'bodies' or 'entities of being'. The same partitioning process occurs in diachronic and synchronic lifetimes: each new phase of life inaugurates a new self. 7. The mythical concept of existence. By virtue of mythical belief in the uninterrupted oneness and continualness of life, human existence has no limits in time and space. These circumstances form the basis of belief in life after death, in the transmigration of the soul, in the reincarnation of the spirit as well as in fate and vengeance. Thus in both Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy and in the anthropology of Waldorf teachers we today find the old and familiar visage of myth. But unlike the originally orally narrated myths, the anthroposophical worldview consists of a synthesis of heterogeneous mythical interpretations of the world, a reflexive myth ofthe second degree as itwere. The paradox of anthroposophy is that it claims to be science-based although it indeed consummates a return to myth. For its characteristic object of inquiry is neither the natural nor the cultural but rather the metaphysical mental world; its method is neither the controlled experiment nor the analysis of texts but rather the meditative immersion into the inner world of the individual; its logic is not one of concepts and models but rather one of images and analogies. The anthroposophical method of discovery does not represent a furtherance of scientific endeavor but rather, in the final analysis, its transcendence. Viewed from the vantage point of the history of ideas, the type of the 'humanities' propagated by Rudolf Steiner appears to be an attempt at the rehabilitation of mythical forms of thought and life within a civilization which has become both secular and determined by science.

22. Anthroposophy - A Modernized Form of Gnosis In his 'secret science' Steiner attempts to follow in the footsteps of the Romantics when he tries to transgress understanding intellectually in order to again give a voice to the 'meta-conscious, the intrinsic, the cosmic'. If the assessment is correct that this gnostic desire for myth forms the central concern of anthroposophy, then it means that

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fundamentally different forms of thought with differing epistemic goals surface in the controversy between 'standard-practice science' and Steiner's brand of humanistic thought. The clarification of any possible resulting difficulties in comprehension and of any misunderstandings is aided by recourse to the systematic distinction between three types of knowledge with individually distinct epistemic goals a distinction which was introduced by the German philosopher Max Scheler (cf. Scheler 1960, pp. 13 ff.). On the lowest level of his hierarchy is 'knowledge related to governing or performance' ('Herrschaftswissen'). This knowledge is involved in controling and changing the outer and inner nature; it continually increases in the form of specialized, exact research; it forms the basis of manifold technical and technological innovations and of the conception and evaluation of societal reforms. On the second hierarchical level one finds phenomenology-based and philosophically reflexive 'acquired knowledge' ('Bildungswissen') through which the individual can develop him- or herself by participating in the diverse offerings of his or her natural and cultural surroundings. Scheler sees 'knowledge of salvation or redemption' ('Heilswissen') as the highest hierarchical level. Through this knowledge the innermost part of a being may, in an attitude of absolute existentialism, strive to reach the foundation of all things and of the creation of the world in order to arrive at a sense of peace with itself or to find redemption from inherent antagonisms. This knowledge of salvation can only be one of the origin, meaning and goal of existence as it is, for instance, expressed in the metaphysical ways of thinking found in gnosis and mysticism. Anthroposophy addresses a general human desire for deeper understanding of the 'whence', the 'wither' and the 'why' of our life. The fulfillment of such a desire promises to reveal the meaning of one's own existence. Here the path to knowledge is also a path to salvation, the knowledge gained that of salvation. This object of inquiry must be clearly distinguished from the heuristic methods of the natural sciences. In the latter one looks for causes of existing phenomena and processes in order to technically control and change these according to one's own knowledge of governance and performance. The anthroposophical interest in deeper knowledge has a substantially further reach and inquires especially into that

Anthroposophy - A Modernized Form of Gnosis which lies beyond the purview of scientific, rational questions. This interest seeks insights into mysteries which lie beyond the material world and which cannot and must not ever be examined by the natural sciences or cultural studies, inasmuch as these branches of research strive to present universally applicable and objective findings. The anthroposophist seeks transcendent knowledge or rather knowledge of a transcendent world with which he or she wishes to come into contact It is not merely a question of knowing and understanding; the anthroposophical thinker seeks an answer to the basic questions of existence as posed by the gnostic Clement of Alexandria: 'Who are we and what have we become? Whence have we come and where shall we end up? Where are we going and from what are we redeemed? What is the meaning of our birth and of our rebirth?' Anthroposophy stands in the tradition of gnosis and distinguishes itself from science and philosophy in that it seeks a type of knowledge which is not merely objective but also knowledge of salvation. The knowledge acquired through gnosis promises the seeker not only the key to the world and his or her inner self; it also presents itself as the method by which one may emancipate or even rescue oneself from the limitations and burdens of this world. Knowledge of the totality that is, of creation, of the path of humanity and of one's own soul within humanity - is already true salvation. In contrast to scientific research and critical philosophical discourse, the anthroposophical process of gaining knowledge is a perspective which, in the sense of completing an existential act, is trained upon feeling oneness with and becoming one with manifestations and values of the spiritual world. In this sense the anthroposophical process of gaining knowledge resembles mysticism, which seeks an understanding of unity and totality and which, in contrast to systematic philosophical thought, places more emphasis on the actual experience of unification with the divine or the spiritual. Philosophy and religion converge in mysticism through the experience of unity and totality. As do mysticism and gnosis, anthroposophy differs from the objectivity of the positivistic sciences through the conviction that true knowledge of the human self cannot be external, but that such knowledge instead strikes an emotional chord and causes change within the innermost sanctum of an individual. In anthroposophical gnosis this sort of knowledge

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is predicated upon the certainty of belief in the interlinked natures of the human and the cosmic spirits, much as Christian gnosis and mysticism advance an essential relatedness between the soul and God. We understand gnosis in general as a way of thinking in which knowledge of the universe and knowledge of man are interlinked in the idea of a dynamic-genetic world process; this process is regulated by three factors: creation or relinquishment, fall or disintegration, and salvation or return; the same factors also comprise the stages in the developmental process of a human being (cf. Koslowski 1988). The fundamental axiom of anthroposophy is the estrangement of man in his current state from the spiritual world as well as his addiction to the obscure powers of materialism and to an impassively calculating rationality. The tragic and also culpable doom of the contemporary individual lies in his or her blindness to the transparency of things and also to his or her own transparency in light of the spirit which reigns throughout the cosmos. With his views on higher worlds Steiner shows his spiritual pupils the path to spiritual reunification. He thus automatically also provides a basic feature of a system of ethics aimed at a life lived in spiritual fulfillment as well as in harmony with oneself and with the cosmos. For treading this path, it is important to know the symbolic meaning of Jesus Christ as the mediator of those spiritual powers which, exclusively, offer man salvation from his bondage to Ahrimanian and Luciferian powers. In this sense Christ is not viewed as a unique historical personage, but rather as the chosen carrier of a spiritual substance who, at the gravest point of downfall, catalyzes and fulfills the process of the reunification of humanity and spirit. Anthroposophy is, like all forms of gnosis, metaphysics endowed with dynamic action and narrative power; it augments the gnostic scheme of origin, fall and salvation with elements of philosophical speculation, traditional mythology and historical accounts. As both a modernized and newly interpreted form of gnosis (cf. Harbsmeier 1957) and as a simultaneously cognitive and faith-based approach to concepts of the totality of reality, anthroposophy transcends the limits of thought set by modern philosophy. Gnosis represents a dangerous manner of thought because there is no other form of coming to terms with the world in which the greatest insights and the greatest misconceptions regarding God, nature and man exist in such close

Anthroposophy - A Modernized Form of Gnosis proximity. The step from truth to misconception is nowhere so small and so momentous as in gnosis (cf. Koslowski 1998, p. 378). As it claims to be the path to the reunification of man with the spiritual, anthroposophy pushes towards cultic consummation - not only within the sphere of Christianity. Rudolf Steiner developed an all-embracing 'cult of spiritualization' based upon his insights into the spiritual world. This cult involves fields as disparate as dance, architecture, economics, medicine, agriculture, and education and sets down a mandatory model of 'spiritually appropriate' conduct for each area. Christian theology in particular stresses the relatedness of anthroposophy to the over two millennia old tradition of gnosis. In this context, questions concerning the commonalities and the irreconcilable differences between Steiner's teachings and the central interpretations of Christianity have been posed (cf. Grom 1989). Representatives of Roman-Catholic and Protestant denominations currently often view anthroposophy as a confederate force in their efforts at overcoming a materialistic concept of human existence and at promoting unconditional acceptance of the idea that life is God-given and that one should live a spiritually oriented way of life. They also share with Steiner's followers the conviction that regular meditation can enrich an ethics- and religion-based concept of life and society. At the same time most Christians are likely to see a doctrinal narrowness in Steiner's concept of knowledge and its results, a narrowness which results in disregarding the absolute position of God as the Creator, personal responsibility of the finite individual, and the singularity of the holy manifestation in Jesus Christ as documented in the Bible. In summary: the reception of anthroposophy has continued since Steiner's days and remains highly controversial. The nature and extent of criticism and appreciation depend largely on the individual disciplinary point of view. We have shown by way of example that the representatives of academic philosophy mainly stress the shortcomings within the epistemological and ethical reasoning of anthroposophy. Analyses from the standpoint of the history and philosophy of science on the other hand point towards the obvious affinities between the anthroposophical worldview and forms of pre-scientific, particularly mythical thought. Finally studies of religious philosophy

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and theology draw attention to the intimate relationship between Steiner's anthroposophy and mysticism, in particular the mystical tradition of gnosticism.

23. The Free Waldorf School: A School of Classic Progressive Education? Outside his circle of followers, Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy has either been met with reserve and a general lack of acceptance or has instigated criticism or even controversy; in contrast, the Free Waldorf School inspired by Steiner has not stirred comparable discussion or controversy. The reception of Steiner's pedagogy has occurred to this day - parallel to the evolving anthroposophical school movement in a sequence of thematically different phases which have also represented various positions. These phases are now to be depicted with special attention to developments in Germany, the country of origin of Steiner's pedagogy. The first expert visitors to the 'mother' school in Stuttgart were positively impressed with its praxis, although they rejected Rudolf Steiner's teachings. It is with this point of view that as early as 1923 two leading German reform pedagogues, who both belonged to the socialist-oriented Bund Entschiedener Schulreformer (Confederation of Convinced School Reformers), established the sympathetic and openminded basic view which has, for many interested individuals, continued to characterize the reception of the Waldorf School in pedagogical discourse since this first phase (cf. Ullrich 1991, pp. 213 ff.). Fritz Karsen depicts the Waldorf School in his overview of German 'experimental schools of the present' and describes his internship in the school in Stuttgart. Here he notes that, despite profound theoretical explanations, classroom instruction did have certain shortcomings. But as a visitor from the outside he was directly touched by the 'uniform, warm, and cheerful mood' which seems to pulsate throughout the entire school and through each individual student and teacher. Karl Wilker locates the origin of the impressive learning environment in the faculty's shared ethos. He finds the central element of the school not in anthroposophy but in the personal involvement of the faculty members. Representatives of the local educational authorities

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describe the pedagogical benefits of the first Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart in the years 1926 and 1928 in a similar fashion. They observe that the faculty members form a tight-knit community pervaded by a grand and inspiring concept directing both personal conduct and diurnal pedagogical work and describe this as one of the greatest advantages of the school. They also recognize the position and role of the class teacher as an important factor within the effectiveness of the system because the class teacher teaches, throughout a period of eight years, all important subject matter from a uniform perspective. Thus contemporaries interested in pedagogical reforms view the 'mother* school in Stuttgart as an 'experimental school' in which child-centred and community-building 'New Education' is realized, although this very view contradicts the school's conception of itself. And also those interested in the Waldorf School today, be they pedagogically enthusiastic parents, educational scholars, or politicians responsible for education, generally tend to view this school form first and foremost as a representative of internationally recognized models of applied classic reform pedagogy. By way of historical contextualization and of conceptual contrasting of the Waldorf school with other school models of pedagogical reform, we now want to look more closely at the question of whether and, if applicable, to what extent this 'classic' pattern of reception does analytical justice to the Waldorf school. Within the larger context of the history of schools one will first recognize a close similarity to the school type designated as 'school of communal life' ('Lebensgemeinschaftschule'). This school form developed in Germany simultaneously with the Waldorf School in experimental schools in Hamburg in the 1920s; a synthesis of both types evolved into the so-called 'Jena-Plan' school of Peter Petersen (1884-1952) and into the 'Ecole moderne' of Celestin Freinet (18961966). The affinities between Waldorf educators and other contemporary reformist pedagogues exist not only within the realm of school organization and instruction, but also in thought on formal education and personal development Maria Montessori, whose first 'school of work' ('Arbeitsschule') opened its doors in Switzerland before the First World War, also regards the true teacher and parent-like educator as a kind of gardener, caretaker, or therapist responsible for a

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child's spiritual potential, as an artist or priest in the service of an individual in the process of developing a human identity. As in the case of Steiner, Montessori's use of metaphors from organology evinces the view that all types of education and rearing must support and cultivate the growth of each child's personality in accordance with each phase of his or her development The metaphor of the artist does not only allude to the plastic, shaping powers of the sculptor; it also recalls the art of healing found in the therapist The conjuring image of sacerdotal dignity, in other words, of education as a religious office for the child, imparts the claim to a cosmic and historically universal innovativeness based on a type of education which is in accordance with the human requirements and needs of the individual. Metaphors related to allowing organic growth, to healing and to religious service which will benefit the 'sacred' child do not only play a role for Steiner and Montessori; they are also proclaimed by others who promote neoRousseauesque 'child-emanating education' and a 'school for nascent humanity'. We shall now proceed to compare the Free Waldorf School with the current internationally most prevalent traditional schools of Progressive Education (or 'Reformpadagogik' or 'Education Nouvelle') coming from the same historical phase; in particular we will look at the organizational structure, the culture of learning and the design of pedagogical relations in the Free Waldorf School and in the Montessori school (since 1910), in the 'Jena-Plan' school which was founded in 1924 at the University in Jena, and in the 'Ecole moderne' of Freinet which began to evolve in southern France in the same year. Once the shared traits of these various reform-based school environments have been identified, a closer look at features specific to the Waldorf School will follow: 1. A small autonomous school community instead of a large-scale bureau-

cratic teaching facility. Waldorf Schools usually comprise only one class per grade, and they are conducted in the name of a nonprofit organization to which most of the students' parents belong first and foremost because they pay tuition for the children. Such organizations employ teachers in a manner which permits them to terminate a teacher's contract. The teachers make decisions on

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educational matters in weekly conferences according to Steiner's anthropological guidelines; they run the school in a manner of collegial self-government. Monthly parent-teacher evenings, occasional house calls by the class teachers as well as variegated school activities and numerous workshops encourage strong parental involvement and identification with the school. In this sense the Free Waldorf Schools are similar to the Montessori schools, because the latter also expect - no matter how the school is funded and run - an extraordinary amount of parental involvement in the school's unique form of instruction and in school-related communal activities; furthermore, the Montessori schools expect their teachers' personal acceptance of the fundamental concepts of the Montessori concept of education. The 'Jena-Plan' school founded at roughly the same time by Peter Petersen also sees itself explicidy as a 'family school* in which parental involvement, even in instruction, is facilitated and encouraged. The school system of the 'Ecole moderne' in the tradition of Celestin Freinet represents a comparably tight-knit communal interweaving of school and family: educators in the Freinet tradition do view the classroom within a Freinet school or a mainstream school environment primarily as an autonomous cooperative of pupils whose daily learning takes place without the immediate involvement of their parents; at the same time, parental identification with the educational norms and forms of Freinet pedagogy are indispensable for the success of the independent learning processes of the children in the classroom. 2. A school living room instead of an anonymous space for instructing the

class. Waldorf Schools provide a classroom designed specifically for each grade. The color scheme, selected images and a table with seasonal fruits andflowersgive the students a home in accordance with his or her stage of development The wall coloring progresses from first through eighth grade through the color spectrum from red via yellow, green, and blue to violet The images presented in the classroom are coordinated with the sequence of subject matter in the reading assignments of the curriculum. This sort of approach to establishing a child-focused environment for learning and living - one speaks of a 'prepared environment' - is also of fundamental importance in the Montessori system of education.

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This system provides, for instance, rugs intended for learning while lying down, low shelves with working materials, desks for groups, reading and computer corners, and a small kitchen; the learning environment in the Montessori school even integrates the hallways and galleries. Similarly, in the 'Jena-Plan' school the classroom is transformed into the 'holistic' experiential space of a school living room, a learning environment which the pupils design and decorate with pictures, books, tools, plants, and aquariums. Learning does not take place while sitting in sequential rows of school desks from which each individual egotistically focuses her or his attention on the teacher 'up front'. Students organized into groups of desks can instead develop a communal sense of mutual responsibility. Finally the Freinet classroom is to be understood both as a school living-room and a prepared learning environment. Groups of desks are surrounded by several project areas ('ateliers') which are pragmatically equipped with devices (with, for instance, a printing press or a computer), tools and other supplies which facilitate work in areas such as graphic design, observation and experimentation, woodworking and metalworking, as well as homemaking, artistic and musical endeavors, and even archival work with texts and documents. The pupils carry the responsibility for the care and maintenance of the ateliers according to a system of'offices'. 3. A heterogeneous learning group instead of a class aimed at homoge-

neous performance expectations. Waldorf Schools continue to group students strictly according to their calendrical principles. They have, however, discontinued the practice of repeating a year. The Waldorf schools, thefirstco-educational comprehensive schools in Germany, guide their students' learning in a communal manner from the first through the twelfth grade according to a specific Waldorf curriculum without, however, formally differentiating among them according to their performance levels. These schools do offer their students the option of earning governmentally sanctioned school diplomas (for instance the 'Abitur') after the completion of the Waldorf course of study. Every morning, Montessori school pupils work in groups comprising students of various grades (for instance, first to third or fourth to sixth grade) during the

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two-hour period of 'free work.' This is regarded as the actual 'Montessori study period', and it is aimed at encouraging learning from and with one another. The remaining morning hours see single-subject instruction in groups divided, in the traditional manner, according to grades. The possibilities for individual learning with differing objectives provided by the period of 'free work' have long offered opportunities to integrate children with learning disabilities. The classroom uniting pupils of one grade does not exist in the 'Jeanplan-Schule'. Here the constitutive social unit of students from grades one through six or from grades one through ten consists of cohorts each of which includes students of two or three age-groups. The student progresses from a first phase as 'apprentice' to a second phase as 'journeyman' and then to the phase as 'master craftsman'. A second organizational principle derives from the performance evaluation which occurs in the modular courses of instruction. The 'Jena-Plan' school thus rejects the concept of grades based on age-groups in two respects: the cohorts intentionally combine pupils of various ages; and within individual courses learners of similar performance levels are grouped. The Freinet schools have also rejected the idea of age-group-defined grades and the practice of making children repeat a year; the social unit of shared learning mixes ages and seeks to ally pupils flexibly according to their current interests. 4. An organically organized weekly work schedule instead of the disjunc-

tive hour-by-hour plan. In Waldorf Schools the standard school day begins with two-hour units in epoch instruction (i.e. instruction focusing on a number of selected subject areas for a defined block period within the school year). The class teacher conducts the lessons in all the traditional main subjects of school instruction from the first through the eighth year. After the generally cognitively oriented core instruction the day continues with artistic subjects, foreign languages and religious education; the morning concludes with instruction in practical handicrafts. The organizing principle behind this plan is the idea of 'holistic' learning which involves the head, the heart and the hands. In addition, each lesson is to be conceived in a manner which appeals to three areas of mental activity: a rhythmic section shall stimulate the will; a middle

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section is to address emotions; and a calming concluding section should aim at encouraging concentrated thought in the pupil. A normal school day in a Montessori school is also marked by regular alternation between 'free work' and single-subject instruction. Here every day commences for the students with a roughly two-hour-long phase of independent multi-subject study in groups consisting of pupils of various ages. Single-subject instruction guided by the teacher follows. The Freinet classroom operates without a timetable in the traditional sense. Each student organizes his or her daily learning objectives according to her or his own plan for the week. Each student drafts this plan for the week at the beginning of each school week with the help of the teacher and in light of a plan for the school year. The school week concludes with a review of the individual plans for that week: the work accomplished by all members of the classroom is presented to the class and jointly assessed. Each weekday starts with the morning circle, a sort of general discussion touching on all aspects of classroom activity; afterward phases of individual work and group instruction alternate; at the end of each week the classroom council convenes and thus provides a forum in which students can discuss problems that have been identified as such during the week by way of a wall newspaper. 5. Away from receptive subject-based learning according to one cadence and toward productive self-determined work in interdisciplinary areas of expe-

rience. The primary method of instruction in the Waldorf School continues to rest upon the concept of teacher-centred instruction, albeit without recourse to textbooks. Instead of such books, students keep journals on various topics in which, subject for subject, the student notates the most important matters and ideas; the 'most important matters and ideas' are made available to him or her as such by the teacher who works according to the 'Goetheanistic' method. The Waldorf School is clearly a place of practical in the sense of handicrafts - and artistic and communal learning. In addition to numerous extracurricular internships, individual annual projects and group theatre projects are of special importance for various age groups. The regularly occurring 'monthly school festivities' offer the pupils a chance to demonstrate what

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they have learned. In contrast to the situation in the Waldorf School, the pupils' 'free work' with various kinds of autodidactic learning material in a so-called 'prepared environment' is the focus of Montessori education. In this system each pupil makes his or her own decisions about what, with whom, and when he or she will learn. The Montessori learning material is designed in a way which facilitates independent learning; the point is to isolate for each individual pupil a particular challenge so that he or she can concentrate on surmounting this particular problem. The experiences of success and failure become all the more immediate for the learner. The tasks derived from the selected learning material can be repeated indefinitely. Standardized materials are provided for elementary education (including 'cultural competence', mathematics and the area referred to as general knowledge or 'cosmic education'). On the secondary level, teachers of different subjects often need to gather and design such materials. The 'Jena-Plan' school replaces the traditional learning environment in which the teacher lectures from the front of a classroom with teaching methods which rely on group work. In the latter context, the teacher assumes the role of a facilitator or assistant, advising and accompanying the learning process which students working in groups at appropriate tables have designed on their own for a selected interdisciplinary or project-oriented theme. Standard weekly or monthly festivities afford these groups the opportunity to present their results to the larger school community. Traditional single-subject instruction focusing on the teacher only occurs in the 'Jena-Plan' school in courses in which, for instance, 'cultural competence' or foreign languages are practised. The Freinet schools have also rejected the textbook. The idea is that schools should instead revert to the 'natural method' of knowledge acquisition ('pour la vie par la vie par le travail') and therefore encourage free expression by 'giving the children the chance to speak'. In a synthesis of simultaneous multi-subject teaching (as in the German tradition of 'Gesamtunterricht') and hands-on teaching (as in the German 'Arbeitsschule'), the pupils' cooperative work on independently conceived projects ('centres d'interet') forms the backbone of the Freinet school or classroom.

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The group project room with its integrated ateliers as well as the project file cabinets, the programs of study, the library, the printing facility, and the computer provide the prerequisite learning tools for this approach to learning. The printing of independently conceived and drafted texts for the class newspaper and for correspondence with a partner is traditionally the most important group activity in class. Various types of field trips to and investigations of areas of learning outside the school grounds are also part of the 'natural method' of investigative learning. 6. A motivating report on individual learning progress instead of the competitive ranking of the graded report card. It is generally known that

Waldorf Schools are comprehensive schools in which the pupils jointly progress from the first through the twelfth grade as members of the same class without receiving grades and without having to repeat any year. In place of official grade reports, each student receives an annual written report; the report does not describe an individual's performance in comparison to other students' performance, but it intends to characterize and judge individual learning processes. Through the eighth grade, the class teacher is supposed to analyze not only performance in individual subjects but also the 'whole' of the student's personality and her or his development (e.g. constitution, temperament, position in the class). The traditional system of grading is equally foreign to Montessori pedagogy because here the individual learning process and its development plays an even greater role as a benchmark for assessing performance. For this reason, most Montessori elementary schools offer verbal report cards instead of grades. In some cases, all forms of written evaluation are replaced by obligatory biannual learning progress conferences with students and their parents. The 'Jena-Plan' schools reject grades as, for instance, grades cause the student's motivation for learning to focus not on the subject being studied but rather on the teacher. Here regular pedagogical reviews during class time as well as a learning report once or twice per school year, which may also include a personal letter from the teacher to each student, replace the traditional report card. Already Petersen had suggested differentiating between an objective characteristic description for the parents and a subjective one

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for the pupil. Finally the Freinet teachers also reject the traditional grading system because of its hierarchical ranking of performance levels and because of its inherent requirement of selection; they look instead for specific forms of individualized feedback and critiquing of learning performance. In elementary education, such efforts range from prizes for individual performance granted by a classroom collective (e.g. for the best piece of creative writing) to the employment of a system of portfolios documenting the achievement of particular learning goals ('brevets') and to regular written reports to parents on the respective student's performance. On the secondary level, such alternatives to traditional grading can only be upheld in experimental classrooms. 7. A permanent multi-subject class teacher (tutor) instead of alternating

single-subject instructors. In the Free Waldorf Schools a teacher trained in the Waldorf educational method traditionally accompanies 'his' or 'her' pupils continuously from the first through to the eighth year of school. This teacher is responsible for the two hours of daily 'core instruction' including most of the classic school subjects with the exception of foreign languages, religious instruction and practical instruction in the fine arts. In accordance with the ideas of this educational system, the Waldorf teacher views herself or himself as an authority responsible for being a role model of personal development and for providing the young people entrusted to her of him with consistent support. The pedagogical relationship is thus one of strong continuity and comprehensive closeness; its structure is explicitly hierarchical and asymmetrical. The consistent shift to single-subject teachers in the ninth year of instruction spells the end of the close connection between pupil and class teacher and, for the student, the beginning of a period of independent responsibility for dealing with the demands of each subject The teachers working in the Montessori tradition are to avoid all forms of strongly one-sided instruction in order to encourage the students to work as independently as possible. The 'prepared environment' in itself is viewed as an important, albeit impersonal instructor; and the students who have succeeded in understanding the subject matter are held to be better teachers of their fellow students than their official instructor. Despite this duty to be

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unobtrusive, the teacher nevertheless remains in charge of the methodological organization and interpersonal environment in the classroom. The teacher is responsible for maintaining learning materials and devices and for helping the students to use them properly, for generally supporting the students in their learning activities, as well as for observing, documenting and judging their learning processes. In this system the pedagogical relationship is founded both upon iove' and, to an even larger extent, upon 'humility' in face of the capabilities of each child; the relationship between pupil and teacher appears - at least in the context of the 'free work* - to be more symmetrically structured. In 'Jena-Plan' schools, the teacher only functions as an expert on matters of effective learning and time management in specific courses. Within the context of group instruction for each cohort, the teacher views him- or herself as a 'team player' in two respects: as the 'best buddy' she or he is responsible for preserving the 'rules of the game' and for being the central source of knowledge as well as the consultant in matters of methodology; the teacher becomes a 'leader' by her or his good example in the abstract and practical senses by the ability to pose meaningful questions and by eloquence. Petersen's concept of pupils as 'a confederation of independent learners who, of their own free will, choose to rally around their leader' merges the traditionally asymmetrical relation between followers and a leader with symmetrical relations among friends. The Freinet program encourages the teacher to afford the pupils the greatest possible amount of codetermination and shared responsibility. The students are simultaneously co-authors of their learning processes and enfranchised participants in a democratic classroom. Within their classroom council the students make independent decisions regarding the classroom rules on social interaction; the teacher represents merely one vote in this council, although he or she does additionally carry the responsibility for the execution of such decisions. Also during classroom instruction the teacher is viewed as the 'maitre-camarade', as the responsible facilitator, accompanist, advisor, and adjudicator of the students' cooperative learning activities within the context of their annual, monthly and weekly academic plans. The teacher is not only a tutor within the

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cooperative of his or her students, she or he is simultaneously a member of a teachers' cooperative organized according to the same pedagogical and political concepts which Freinet stipulated for the classroom and which are intended to encourage learning from one another within the profession of teaching. This comparison with other models of classic reform pedagogy shows that - prima facie - the learning environment in the Free Waldorf School is characterized by similar organizational, pedagogical, didactic, and methodological approaches. At the same time, however, one does recognize elements of more traditional schools which the Waldorf approach preserves: the age-group-based grades, the stronger focus on teacher-centred instruction and the class teacher's authoritative position in the classroom. The predominant view of the Free Waldorf School as a childoriented 'school of communal life' ('Lebensgemeinschaftschule') rooted in the tradition of New Education fails to recognize these rather rigid and seemingly 'old-fashioned' traits, traits which already manifest themselves in Rudolf Steiner's thinking regarding contemporary German school reformers. Steiner's most knowledgeable biographer put it thusly: Rudolf Steiner said little about the contemporary Progressive Education movement His speeches fail to mention the names of Georg Kerschensteiner, Berthold Otto, or Maria Montessori; and it is not clear whether he was familiar with their writings. He does mention the Jena pedagogues Theodor Vogt and Wilhelm Rein as well as, in praise, the organizer of a series of conferences on art education (the 'Kunsterziehungstagungen'), Alfred Lichtwark. A visit to Haubinda afforded him the opportunity to familiarize himself with a rurally situated boarding school ('Landerziehungsheim') as designed by Lietz; his impression was, however, hardly favorable. One is indeed curious as to why Steiner did not ally himself with the leading figures in the pedagogical reform movement ... In developing the pedagogical approach of the Waldorf School Steiner was specifically not interested in methodology in a practical or theoretical

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sense. He rather sought a method which was to be based upon a sort of universal understanding of the human character. (Lindenberg 1997, p. 691) This explains why, regarding issues of school pedagogy within the conceptualization of the Waldorf School, contemporary school reformers remain unimportant His positive references to the university instructors Rein and Vogt, on the other hand, imply a traditional orientation in pedagogical matters. This educational conservatism reaches back to Steiner's university years in Vienna: namely to Herbartianism. The lectures given by the philosopher Robert Zimmermann (1824—98), which Steiner highly appreciated as a young man, introduced him not only to psychology but also to the then exceptionally popular systematic pedagogy of Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776—1841), Kant's idealistic successor at Konigsberg University. Rather than representing contemporary reform pedagogy, Steiner is a student of Herbartianism in his pedagogical thought. Herbartianism was a dominant movement among teachers in Germany and Austria in the second half of the nineteenth century - a movement which even interested John Dewey in distant Chicago. From Austrian Herbartianism Steiner adopted his ideas concerning a curriculum in accordance with child development, his concept of the class teacher, and his specific approach to lesson plans (cf. Prange 2000, p. 55). Both Herbart's and Steiner's pedagogical theories envision instruction which simultaneously enlightens and builds character; topics and methods of instruction are expected to inspire an ethical outlook within the pupil and a specific type of morality in the entire class. Crucial and exemplary topics for the students are derived from a curriculum based on the idea of gradual cultural development; in this curriculum, the phase of childhood development is related to a specific phase in the history of the development of human culture. The 'concentration' or interweaving of topical matter is intended to effect a unity of conviction and intention among the various topics and subjects taught simultaneously in various areas of instruction. One method of achieving this state of unity consists of creating a core idea around which the demands of individual fields may be grouped; phases of instruction in selected subject areas in which,

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over an extended period, the same theme or subject is dealt with on a daily basis offers another method of achieving this same goal; such unity of conviction and intention can also be achieved by employing the same 'class teacher' in all the subjects in which this sort of unified attitude is promulgated. It is already one of Herbart's central ideas that not only the subject matter but also the form of instruction should have a didactic effect on the learner. With this goal in mind, Herbart devised his theory of the articulation of instruction, that is of the teacher's schematic and artistic presentation of subject matter, which was still practised most prominently during the early years of the Waldorf School by Wilhelm Rein at the University in Jena. The core assumption behind Herbart's concept is the conviction that instruction should be designed in a manner which imitates a child's process of learning: thus, for example, new ideas should first be absorbed, then set in relation to familiar concepts; thereafter the most important aspects are stressed and, finally, applied to a task. With regard to the methodological structure of Waldorf instruction, Steiner also adheres to the principle of articulation or of the didactic scheme; however, Steiner modifies this scheme according to his outlook on the ways in which children and adolescents learn. On the whole the Waldorf School derives its curriculum based on gradual cultural development, its concept of a class teacher, its employment of epoch instruction and its instructional methodology from the Herbartian method. Aspects which have since the early twentieth century struck many as being — in comparison with standard school praxis — indicative of innovations promoted by New Educationists, are instead a legacy of nineteenth-century didactics and school pedagogy as developed by Herbart The execution of this approach is, however, not without its prerequisites. Nevertheless, the application of the doctrine of the didactic effects of both the form and the contents of instruction requires a firm understanding of the ways in which pupils learn during classroom instruction, a sense of the developmental level of each learner, and concrete notions about the course of universal human history, which serves as the inspiration for topics of instruction geared towards forming attitudes. Without an appropriate concept of humanity, both the concept of gradual

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cultural development and the concept of instructional levels which are analogous to levels of cultural development have no basis. Anthroposophy offers such a comprehensive view of the universe and of man; this doctrine in turn serves as the point of departure from which Steiner fleshes out the Herbartian concepts in specific and new ways in the Waldorf system of pedagogy.

24. Between Prohibition and Continuation as Experimental State School: The Ambivalent Interest of the NSDAP in Waldorf School Practice The first Waldorf School, founded in Stuttgart in 1919, grew at a rapid pace. The original number of 256 students doubled after the first two years; and by the end of 1926, the school had more than 1,000 pupils. By that time, a number of 'Rudolf-Steiner-Schulen' had been founded, largely in Germany, according to the Stuttgart model: this occurred at first in Cologne and the Swiss town of Dornach in 1921, the following year in Hamburg and Essen, thereafter in Hannover (1927), Berlin (1928), Dresden (1929), in the city then known as Breslau (1930), in Kassel (1930), and in Hamburg-Altona (1931). The anthroposophical school movement took root in England in 1922 when the boarding school King's Langley began to evolve into a Free Waldorf School under the aegis of, among others, Rudolf Steiner. In 1925 'The New School' opened its doors in London, moving a decade later to Sussex under the new name of Michael Hall School. A third English Waldorf School opened in 1927 in Wynstones in the county of Gloucestershire. Additional Waldorf schools, these not under the immediate auspices of Rudolf Steiner, were founded in Germany, Switzerland (Basel, 1926; Zurich, 1927), the Netherlands (The Hague, 1923; Amsterdam and Zeist, 1933), Norway (Oslo, 1926; Bergen, 1930), in Hungary (Budapest, 1926), in Austria (Vienna, 1929), in the United States (NewYork, 1929), in Sweden (Stockholm, 1931), and in Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1934). In Germany, the country whence the movement originated, eight Free Waldorf Schools with roughly 2,500 students were in operation

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when the National Socialists came to power in 1933; infighting had previously led to closing the schools in Cologne and Essen. Whereas the socialist, democratic and cosmopolitan reform schools which had been founded during the 14 fledgling years of the first German democracy were immediately outlawed and disbanded by the totalitarian and racist regime of the National Socialists, the Free Waldorf Schools were initially tolerated. Only after a prolonged struggle for institutional survival lasting into the war year of 1941 were they, too, forced to disband themselves (for the following discussion, cf. Leschinsky 1983, Werner 1999). The Anthroposophical Society was banned by the National Socialists in November of 1935, as it was said to fall into the category of an organization belonging to 'the international Free Masonry and occultism scene'; in March 1936 the party merely prohibited that Waldorf Schools, like all other private elementary schools, accept new students. The ensuing crisis did not, however, in and of itself already sound the death knell of these schools; Waldorf Schools developed differently in the aftermath of the 1936 prohibition. Four of them closed their doors before the beginning of the war — in some cases because they were forced by responsible regulatory agencies to do so and in other cases because they wanted to evade the legally mandatory teachers' oath of allegiance to Adolph Hitler and of adherence to a racist educational plan. The other four Waldorf Schools chose a different path by requesting permission to continue operation as state experimental schools. Indirectly protected by the staff of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess - known laconically as 'Department Hess' - their requests were granted. After visits by an official commission of representatives of various ministries and organizations of the Hitler regime, the complete continuation of three of these four schools as state-run experimental schools based on Nazi ideology and with politically 'reliable' directors was guaranteed. The expert opinions regarding anthroposophy and Waldorf Schools drafted by Aldred Baeumler, the Berlin philosophy professor and head ideologue in questions of pedagogy for the NSDAP, were crucial for the materialization of this astonishing marriage of convenience between Waldorf educators and National Socialists. In his 1937 report on Waldorf schools, Baeumler states that - in line with

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the Nazi outlook (!) -Waldorf schools represented the first successful attempt at overcoming Enlightenment intellectualism in the German school system. In our opinion the Waldorf schools represent a peculiar attempt worthy of our attention, an attempt which is a unique phenomenon within the entire recent history of schooling ... With respect to methodology we must recognize in Steiner's curriculum the first fullfledged non-intellectualized educational system. This curriculum truly breaks with the doctrine of simply educating the head and of influencing the will via the intellect. It integrates into the old educational system not only physical education or the fine or applied arts; it rather creates a new point of departure. The curriculum and praxis of Waldorf Schools are not conceived and implemented in a scholarly but rather in an artistic spirit. The point of departure is a sort of learning by doing that is both physical and spiritual. The rhythm of the vital entity which constitutes every human being is not hampered by a too quickly developing intellect but rather nurtured through exercises. Each child finds ample opportunities for developing that part of his or her personality in which emotions and imagination play a role ... The fundamental idea is that doing and examining are always prerequisites of understanding... Because of the great benefits of Waldorf education, the possibility of developing state-run experimental schools based on a modified version of the Waldorf curriculum must be considered. The establishment of such experimental schools - an apt designation would be Goethe schools - would only be possible with the assistance of experienced teachers of the old Waldorf Schools. One may assume that in such a case the Waldorf teachers would be divided into two groups ... Those Waldorf teachers who are unable to adopt the Nazi view of history would probably look for positions at a Rudolf Steiner school abroad. But the remaining teachers, i.e., those who would be able to wholeheartedly accept the historical oudook of National Socialism, could be accepted into our fold as compatriots in the struggle for the creation of a new German school. (Baeumler, cit. in Leschinsky 1983, pp. 282 f.)

The Importance of Waldorf Pedagogy for State Schools This rather strange interest of a leading Nazi thinker in Waldorf pedagogy, an interest which was indeed responsible for the temporarily continued operation of a number of Steiner schools in Germany, resulted from various factors. It was the product of a supposedly shared anti-modern stance against the 'rationalistic attitude' of the 'liberalist industrial age' and against the critical 'intellectualism' of scientific society. Despite Baeumler's positive attitude toward the Waldorf Schools, which is deeply rooted in an anti-modern outlook, the remaining schools were forced - by eventually unbearable repressive measures imposed by various institutions of the Nazi regime - to disband, seemingly on their own initiative. The last German Waldorf School, located in Dresden, remained in operation as an experimental school until the summer of 1941. Prior to its closure a number of parents and teachers had moved from elsewhere in Germany to this school which at closure had a student body of 400. Rudolf Hess's escape to England on 10 May 1941 led, several weeks later, to the ultimate demise of this school. The support through Hess's ministry which had long protected the Waldorf Schools and allowed their transformation into experimental state schools became unfathomable. In the wake of the closure of the school in Dresden, some teachers were even imprisoned, mostly on account of their work within the anthroposophical movement.

25. The Importance of Waldorf Pedagogy for State Schools At first, after the World War II, the reopening of Waldorf Schools and the establishment of new ones attracted little attention in pedagogical circles. The few scholarly investigations dealing with questions of pedagogy repeated and further qualified the established views on reform pedagogy. This generally positive third phase of scholarly reflection was characterized by praise for the pedagogical benefits of the Waldorf School and skepticism with regard to the intellectual dogma found in the worldview upon which the Waldorf School is based. The clearly laudable strengths of the Waldorf Schools include: encouraging the act of composing oneself; cultivating artistic interests and

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practical skills to educational ends; intensive phases of instruction in selected subjects; the self-governance of each school faculty; the personal relationship between the school and the parents; and, inherent in all of these approaches, genuine affection for each child and a high standard of pedagogical ethics. One notices here that in comparison to praise for the Waldorf School as voiced in the 1920s, now pedagogical benefits are added which earlier on were considered characteristic of the schools of New Education, such as the Jena-Plan schools. This third phase of reception includes the growing concern over the impression that Waldorf instructors — motivated by the desire for a clear and unified pedagogical approach — resemble 'a secluded sectarian group' which is 'interested more in pledging allegiance to its leader* than 'in participating in a forum of public discussion* (Scheuerl). In his extensive 1955 study, Heinz Kloss examines the role which Waldorf Schools could play in the process of redesigning the West German state school system. He comes to the conclusion that the Waldorf movement is to be viewed as a 'third player' in addition to the standard state schools and the schools of the pedagogical reform move-

ment. When explaining this particular role, Kloss only considers the benefits of the Waldorf Schools. He intentionally presents a sort of idealized picture which, somewhat one-sidedly, highlights the specific values of Waldorf pedagogy; he thus focuses exclusively on its 'outward appearance' rather than its 'inner' theoretical premises. He discovers the unique strengths of Waldorf pedagogy in its artistic and religious contextualization of instruction and school life. It is not

simply the fact that the number of artistic subjects and activities is above average; artistic concerns 'rhythmically' permeate the entire process of instruction and education. And the Waldorf School in particular succeeds in imparting the most elemental religious experiences of a bygone mythical phase of human cultural development upon children during the first years of their instruction. Kloss contrasts his view of reform pedagogy as 'pedagogy centred on everyday experience' with his reading of Waldorf pedagogy as 'pedagogy of a world horizon' which situates the pupil within a comprehensive, cosmic and universal historical context. In the classroom, this comprehensive horizon of thought is not provided, according to Kloss, by

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the anthroposophical worldview but rather by a 'Goethean worldxriew'. The latter worldview is incomparably better qualified for merging into the Christian and idealistic traditions of European culture than the conclusions based upon a materialistic worldview (cf. Kloss 1955, p. 102). In 1968, Helmut Schrey essayed a similarly 'pragmatic' explanation. In his monograph on the subject, he simply asked whether some of the consequences of Steiner's thought and teachings are, regarding their pedagogical contents, useful as regulative measures within the state school system as well. This way of thinking about the Waldorf School is predicated upon Schrey fs conviction that something may indeed qualify as effective and meaningful in pedagogical practice which in a theoretical sense is judged to be of a dubious nature. Thus his main concern

is a 'sort of translation of Steiner's pedagogical teachings into a nonanthroposophical context' {ibid., p. 8). The three most important pedagogical guidelines which Schrey believes state school teachers should adopt from the Waldorf Schools deal with the nature of the teacher-student relationship, the organization ofsubject matter a n d the gradation of the overall course of instruction. Schrey sees the Waldorf teacher

in his or her interaction with each child as the centre of an orderly and fathomable cosmos. This cosmos can be meaningfully organized according to spatial and chronological concepts as well as according to levels of reality. As a result, this cosmos can be reconstructed in a meaningful manner during the learning process. Accordingly, at the level of curriculum planning, all areas of subject instruction are oriented toward a uniform and overarching conceptual framework which is itself based upon the central narratives of the subjects taught in phases of intensive instruction each of which focuses on one field. The selection of these texts is in turn based upon a concept of development which, according to Schrey, relates in numerous ways to the teachings rooted in developmental steps found in scientific psychology. State-school teachers can thus learn from their dialogue with Waldorf pedagogy, for instance, that classroom instruction must not simply be dictated by the demands of the individual subjects. At the same time, Schrey suggests to Waldorf pedagogues that they reconsider - in accordance with current praxis - their categorical rejection of textbooks and media.

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26. Waldorf Schools: The Dubious Character of Their Fundamentals and the Prerequisites of Their Success With his 1959 dissertation, Siegfried Oppolzer is the first person to have dealt thoroughly and in an objective manner tempered by consideration for the history of ideas with the fundamental theoretical concepts of Waldorf pedagogy, in particular with the relationship between epistemic process, anthropology and the concept of education as found in Steiner's writings. Oppolzer's study succeeds in documenting the interdependence of anthropology and pedagogy in Steiner's central writings and in his collected lectures. Working historically and hermeneutically, he views this interdependence both in terms of the time period in which Steiner formulated his ideas and with respect to the larger history of ideas; Oppolzer thereby attempts to steer clear of both apologetic and critical reactions to Steiner. He consciously leaves for others the task of answering questions regarding the philosophical and scientific validity of anthroposophical anthropology and regarding the current value of Steiner's pedagogical approach. Oppolzer delineates two differing types of knowledge in Steiner's thinking: thephenomenobgical and the theosophicaL The first type of knowledge takes Goethe's 'physiognomic method' as its point of departure. Remaining within the realm of sense perception and predicated upon the premise of the original unity of 'inside' and 'outside', of being and appearance,... it arrives at a phenomenological approach to man. Theosophical-anthroposophical epistemology does not formally reject the ontological epistemological position of 'objective idealism' and does, at least theoretically, possess the concept of 'intuition' as a means of creating coherence; all the same, here the world of ideas does become a divine world filled with spiritual entities or 'hierarchies' ... This method of gaining knowledge leads to statements about the essence of man which transcend traditional concepts of scientific method, which lack - with respect to their derivation - general applicability and the necessity of replicability, and which therefore fail to offer grounds for controlled testing. (Oppolzer 1959, pp. 55 f.)

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In its central concepts of 'nature', 'development' and 'individuality', Rudolf Steiner's anthropology is also bereft of uniform traits. Prominent in this 'sundry collection' are the influence of Romantic natural philosophy with its organology-based understanding of the concepts of nature and development as well as the theosophical influence with its spiritual understanding of the concept of individuality. One the one hand, man is - in accordance with gnostic and theosophical tradition included as the lowest link within a divine spiritual hierarchy which itself is undergoing a process of cosmic ascension; on the other hand, man is viewed, with reference to Romantic natural philosophy, as the highest synthesis in a pyramidal natural order. In this 'syncretistic system' the human being seems to be an exhaustively 'defined' organism. Oppolzer comes to this conclusion on account of the inflexible schematism found in innumerable outlines in Steiner's anthropology. Steiner's twofold approach to human nature also leads to his bipartite view of the goal of education: in one sense he understands it organologically as the universal development of potential; in another sense he regards it spiritually as a path upwards into the spiritual realm. In the first case Waldorf pedagogy follows in the footsteps of the neohumanistic educational tradition; in the latter case it takes a stance, based upon religious traditions and the critique of civilization, against the 'materialism' of our age. According to the organological sense, Waldorf teachers view themselves as 'artistic personalities' responsible for setting an example according to which their pupils may develop their potential universally and 'rhythmically' (i.e. in tune with their individual stages of development); in the spiritual sense they see themselves as 'guidance councillors for the soul' who enkindle in their pupils a 'spiritual worldview' by demonstrating fervent devotion to their priestly duties. Oppolzer concludes his thoroughly and judiciously wrought study of the theoretical underpinnings of Waldorf pedagogy with the sobering and, in the final analysis, disparaging assertion: 'The final result of this study is the conclusion that Steiner fails to contribute new thought to the history of pedagogy and education' (ibid., p. 163, my emphasis). Within the field of educational studies, a fourth phase of even more intense critical response to Waldorf pedagogy runs parallel to the establishment of an unprecedented number of new Waldorf Schools

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in Germany during the 1970s and 1980s. This phase continues into the present The controversial reactions to Waldorf pedagogy of earlier commentators are echoed, elaborated and recast the sympathy with the praxis of the Waldorf School shown by representatives of reform pedagogy, the systematic criticism of its ideological premises and the reconstruction of its pedagogical doctrine with reference to the history of ideas. A closer look at three studies from this period shall illustrate this state of critical reception. Personally familiar with the Hibernia-Schule in the town of Herne (a Waldorf School with both general and vocational oriented offerings for pupils in the final phase of study), Werner Spies (1985) arrives at an almost unconditionally positive characterization of the Free Waldorf School as demonstrating a 'meaningful praxis' which offers a 'pedagogical alternative' to the standard school. With his focus on praxis and his lack of concern for its basis in certain ideas, Spies implicitly follows in the footsteps of Karsen and Schrey with their Progressive Education standpoint He pinpoints as fundamental aspects of the Waldorf School's alternative educational approach the educational axiom of developing a student's potential and the methodological concepts of constancy, activity, sense perceptions, connectivity, and social responsibility. Spies' concept of developing one's potential implies the selection of instructional materials which encourage learning with head, heart and hand; constancy means ritually organizing the daily schedule and subsuming instructional processes into meaningful blocks of intensively studying selected subjects; activity is realized in a rich offering of practical and creative projects; learning through sense perceptions describes the cultivation of all human senses in class and in school life in general by way of artistic and artisan endeavors, horticulture and exploration of the physical, tangible world; and, finally, connectivity indicates that the program of education in the Waldorf School is to be oriented toward the past and future of both the individual pupil and of society at large. Spies perceives the cardinal justification for the educational efficacy of the 'alternative educational approach' of the Waldorf School in the fact that the school system reconstructs orders and contexts which are endangered in the surreal vortex of our public life.

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Klaus Prange's monograph offers an exhaustive treatment from the standpoint of ideological criticism. In particular he criticizes the scientific dogmatism and the claim to universal validity in Steiner's anthroposophical worldview, and he unmasks the Waldorf School as an institution in which 'anthroposophical indoctrination' (cf. Prange 2000) occurs. Prange begins his discussion by drawing attention to the numerous inherent contradictions found within Steiner's intellectual development which his biographers have thus far disregarded. He then attempts to dismantle the anthroposophical claim to originality by describing the numerous pre-existing ideas in Steiner's writings which Steiner presented as his own. In this context, he singles out the 'stratum psychology' which, as is also the case with Steiner's teaching regarding world epochs, is to be found in Helena Blavatsky's theosophical writings. In particular, Prange identifies among the putative innovations which Steiner claims as developments of Waldorf pedagogy several unacknowledged adoptions of ideas from other sources. In the field of school pedagogy, Prange concludes, Steiner is very much a student of Austrian Herbartianism. Without ever acknowledging his sources and borrowings, Steiner culls from Herbartianism the principle of a curriculum in accordance with stages of cultural development, the phase concept of instruction and also the class teacher idea. And Steiner's conviction that, based on a supreme educational goal, all aspects of school learning are to be incorporated into a uniform outlook - in the organization of the school, in its instructional methods and in the selection and sequence of instructional matter is to be found among the ideas of Gustav Adolf Lindner (1828-87), who probably inspired Steiner. On account of these connections Waldorf pedagogy should be viewed, with regard to its design and its formal understanding of rearing and instruction, as a variation of Herbartian thought, although this runs counter to the Waldorf selfimage of representing an original and new sort of praxis. The fundamental ideas shaping instruction in the area of personal conviction, however, arise not from ethics and psychology but exclusively from anthroposophy. Prange rejects the notion that in the Waldorf School the subject matter and learning itself derive from each individual child; whereas they are formed as a result of the outlook on the child, this view is itself anthroposophical, even in minutiae like the

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manner of presenting legends or biographies, minerals or flowers, animals or stories in class. Thus, Prange perceives deception tactics in the Waldorf pedagogues' official claim that in Waldorf Schools anthroposophy is not taught as a subject but that it merely provides a basis for its method. In fact, 'the Waldorf school imbues its pupils -with an anthroposophical outlook which is all the more lasting in that it is not * taught' directly and in any controllable way but rather more or less instilled. The curriculum regulates what the students learn, and the anthroposophical worldview governs the curriculum' (ibid,, p. 117). The teacher's position of authority in the classroom is central here. Prange finds almost no other current school form which is as forcedly teacher-oriented as is the Waldorf School. In light of Klaus Prange's rigorous criticism of anti-modern and syncretistic elements in Steiner's teachings and of the indoctrination according to Steiner's worldview practised in Waldorf Schools - problems also identified by other writers on the basis of Waldorfpedagogy it is indeed remarkable that he nevertheless cannot but attest to the fact that Waldorf school practice contains 'reminiscences of conventional and forgotten truths which pedagogical thought and praxis cannot simply dismiss without suffering disadvantages' (ibid,, p. 156). In particular he draws attention to the emphasis on learning through imitation during the early school-years, the dire necessity of 'cultivating sensorial and aesthetic learning', the respect for historical and developmental views in the curriculum, and the faculty's conscious acceptance of pedagogical responsibility. My analysis of the anthroposophical underpinnings of Waldorf pedagogy (1991), particularly of the teachings dealing with concepts of development and temperament as well as of Steiner's patterns of thought, avoids an ideologically judgemental approach and instead seeks to arrive at a reconstruction within the history of ideas. One central result of this study is a description of the fundamental internal contradiction found within anthroposophy: that is, its claim of furthering scientific insights whereas it, in fact, lags behind such insights. The fallacy of their claim is rooted in the fact that Waldorf pedagogues continue to buttress their notion of their furtherance of standard anthropological research through the application of 'humanistic', holistically conceived knowledge while, among other things, they

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have continued until today to adhere to the antiquated old-European concept of seven-year developmental periods and the HippocraticGalenical scheme of the four temperaments. They thereby transcend in no measure the conceptual, abstract manner of thinking and the empirical, quantitative form of knowledge characteristic of modern humanities; instead they regress into a pre-scientific, iconographically oriented mythical sort of thought (see above). The rather sobering findings of Prange and I - based on examinations of the fundamental concepts within Waldorf pedagogy from the perspectives of the history of ideas and epistemology - consequently stand in stark contrast to the amazing fact that within German-speaking Europe the Free Waldorf Schools represent the most popular and fastest-growing type of private school with a unique pedagogical style. Because of this contradiction I dedicate the second part of my study to the search for explanations of this seemingly paradoxical situation - explanations as to why a doctrine of dubious scientific credibility has been unusually effective and successful in the practical areas of child development, schooling and instruction. I see the main reasons for the wide acceptance of Rudolf Steiner Schools in their legal status as 'private schools', in their mental structure as 'parochial schools' based on a unified approach, and in the excessive pedagogical role assumed by the individual Waldorf class teacher. 1. The Waldorf School as a 'private school9. The pedagogical success of

the Waldorf School can probably not be explained as primarily resulting from the effect of anthroposophical educational praxis. Instead, an ensemble of factors involved in socialization and educational measures which affect Waldorf pupils is important. If one were to formulate a simplified ideal, one might characterize the social milieu of the average Waldorf pupil as follows: an intact nuclear family situated in the academically oriented upper middle class with a strong traditional desire for education, with an aboveaverage level of personal involvement in school matters (including financial participation in the form of tuition and donations) in a school which, despite generally large class sizes, qualifies as small, familiar and tight-knit with a pedagogically homogeneous faculty.

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Even Waldorf pedagogues themselves have struggled to grasp the absorption of the original 'proletarian' school model by academically oriented social milieus within the upper middle class which has lead to a socially one-sided situation. The main cause of this development probably lies in the 'contrastive' socio-political and pedagogical goals set by insular private schools enveloped by a system of standard state schools. Wherever 'reform-minded schools' have been founded in the spirit of a radical call to arms against the practice of selection and against the 'middle-class bias' within the state-school system, one finds, after only a few years of instruction, a clear social bias in favor of those children whose families belong to the pedagogically ambitious liberal middle-class milieu, that is, in favor of those children who have traditionally been the most successful ones in school. This social stratum seems to find in such alternative institutions the sort of social cohesion which organizations such as the church, trade unions and - on account of increased mobility the local community can no longer provide. It is simply the case that - because of the modern conditions of a school system which, among other things, influences social status affiliations - specific fiinctions of social differentiation and selection are assigned to private alternative institutions such as the Free Waldorf Schools, even if such schools, programmatically speaking, do not seek this role. Although the Waldorf Schools represent a special school type which is formally open to all, this school form in fact only reaches those who are already receptive to the Waldorf idea. On account of the implicit selection processes - which results from this specific sort of social resonance - alternative private schools are, from the start, probably not confronted with many of the problems which naturally arise as a result of the goals set by a 'standard state school for everyone'. The latter carry the burden of simultaneously trying to work effectively with groups of pupils from highly diverse backgrounds and capabilities; instead of wrestling with this problem, alternative private schools generally have the opportunity to provide breathing room for individual differences and patterns of development which resulted from a more homogeneous context of attitudes and lifestyles. Another factor which is usually lacking

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in the standard state school is the presence of additional possibilities for identification and motivation on the part of students and teachers; these options already stem from the independent school choice or the decision in favor of an extraordinary school environment. The idea - frequently voiced in pedagogically active camps that the Free Waldorf School could function as a model for reforming the state-school system loses plausibility on account of the social appropriation described here. The 'self-institutionalization' of the Waldorf School as an independent school does not only lead to the pedagogically praiseworthy result of increased autonomy; it also carries with it the danger of becoming a haven of special interests. The latter is the case as school membership integrates parents and students alike into a community of shared values which demands things of its members, encourages them and gives them advice, but which is also empowered to expel a member (by annulment of the school contract) who refuses to integrate him- or herself. This community strengthens its exclusive character even more through its subscription to the mysterious aspects of Steiner's teachings as well as through its tenacious adherence to the recondite ostentation embedded within the architecture and to the rituals of the school routine. The Waldorf School facilitates learning in comparison to the traditional state school by relieving the immediate pressure exerted by selection based on tests and grades; this helps weaker students in particular. The children seem to develop without any severe problems because, first, closer contact between teachers and parents keeps the children in the parents' field of vision for a longer period of time and, secondly, because shared educational norms temporarily limit the 'polyvalent pluralism' of their social environment In this context school can indeed function, as it did into the nineteenth century, as an extension of the parental home, as a primary group, although school has by and large become an institution with a secondary purpose. 2. The Waldorf School as a School Born of a Unified Spirit (a 'holy order

school9). Various other fundamentally important requirements for the practical efficacy of the Waldorf School have already been indicated: the 'unified cosmos' of the Waldorf curriculum and the instructors' solidarity rooted in a shared worldview. The instructors

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programmatically and unconditionally affirm this uniformity which is to be found in various guises: in the guidance provided by the inner self, in the pedagogical impulse, in the seamless pedagogical plan of instruction in which one thing merges with another, in which all things are spiritually congruous, complement one another through an architectural sort of providence, and form a harmonious whole. This structure and inner coherence offers the primary explanation why the school spirit is capable of influencing youngsters so strongly. The maturing pupil is not confused by the fractured nature of the basic concepts comprising a worldview prevailing today. A student entering a Waldorf school in first grade can attend the school without any disruptions within the pedagogical-spiritual guidance she or he will receive through twelfth grade (which is in Germany the penultimate grade) or until she or he will attend a university. Although they intend to teach anthroposophy neither as a subject of instruction nor as a universal worldview but only as a methodological principle, Waldorf Schools nevertheless view themselves as educational institutions dedicated to curriculum instruction and life learning, both of which are grounded in a homogeneous spirit. The fact that most Waldorf teachers (and without exception the class teachers) are required to complete additional teacher training based on anthroposophical principles confirms this circumstance. That Waldorf School parents have de facto no say in pedagogical matters further cements this unanimity of worldview. Teachers participating in weekly teachers' conferences make decisions on such questions according to the principle of unanimity. Parents only have a say regarding questions of 'general interest* dealt with in other school committees. One should also regard the Waldorf School as an arena of activity which has, more than other educational reform movements, accomplished deep inroads into general public awareness; in the same context, it must be recognized as a community of uniformly anthroposophyoriented people whose multifarious initiatives represent their attempt to achieve a comprehensive reform of life, thus branching out from education via medicine, art, religion, architecture, and economics to agriculture.

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Informal respects and viewed from the standpoint of the history of schools and education, Waldorf Schools show numerous similarities to Jesuit schools during the age of absolutism; these similarities are to be found in the uniformity of instructional method, in the authoritarian watch over the education perceived as an integral whole, in the introverted nature of the schools' organization, in the missionary, pastoral self-conception of the faculty, and in the uniform moulding influence of school life. If one chooses to temporarily disregard their glaring differences of content (the great emphasis placed on competition, the very specific selection of pupils, the strict discipline and the dignified public image), one will recognize that the most important formal elements contributing to the success of Jesuit schools are present in Waldorf Schools: (a) the power of the faculty arises from a grand humanistic idea. The members of the faculty view themselves as disciples called upon to save civilization in a manner compatible with a 'world spirit'. This view explains their readiness to invest an extraordinary amount of energy in their work; (b) Within their close-knit community their efforts are securely coordinated and guided in great detail according to the nexus of their worldview; in other words, to them a perfect truth exists, and this explains their calm, confident and persistent method; (c) The plans and method of instruction are so conclusively systematized that, in general, teachers all over the world proceed along the same path. On account of these obvious parallels, it appears justified to attribute a large part of the effectiveness of the Waldorf Schools to their characteristics as 'parochial schools'. 3. The pedagogicaUy excessive role of the Waldorf class teacher. Almost sin-

gular among extant school types is the great emphasis on the role of specific personal relations in Waldorf Schools. This focus has its programmatic roots in Steiner's teachings regarding child development and is most apparent in the cardinal importance of the class teacher who leads 'his or her' class for eight years. The teacher-pupil relationship is consciously structured asymmetrically: The teacher needs to possess a 'strong personality' capable of serving as a role model and of instructing the students in a convincingly authoritative manner; as a 'moral subject' the teacher

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must enthusiastically maintain her or his convictions in front of all students and the entire public and articulate his or her intellectual stance. Despite its inherent tendency to lead to a situation in which the individual instructor pushes her- or himself beyond her or his limit, this pedagogically excessive view of the role of the Waldorf School teacher must nevertheless be judged one of the basic factors behind the practical success of Waldorf pedagogy. This is so because one may assume that one seldom finds a Waldorf class teacher who evinces the sort of self-restraint which would limit his or her efforts to the realm of subject matter or who demonstrates a workaday mentality, traits which teachers in German state schools are often said to have. Compared to state-school teachers, their Waldorf School counterparts do without various financial benefits; the weekly conferences and the responsibilities associated with self-management require a comparably higher degree of personal involvement, especially in newly established Waldorf Schools. At Waldorf Schools and other private schools one also finds a different type of teacher more often than elsewhere, that is, a * teacher with a biography'. Because private schools are able to independently select their employees, they attract teachers who perhaps spent a few years at sea, who worked as actors or as scientists in the industrial sector, who lived abroad, or who are perhaps themselves even foreigners who grew up in foreign countries. They might have had multifarious experiences which they, at some point, decided to make a factor within their work as pedagogues. This type of teacher also seems to play a special role within the Waldorf Schools and to be one reason for the increasing popularity of these schools. The responsibilities of the class teacher - of the 'soul' of the Waldorf School - are now only remotely comparable with those of a teacher in a state school; the Waldorf teacher no longer views him- or herself as an expert in two or three fields, but rather as an 'all-around' teacher. The core curriculum covered by the teacher includes German, history, mythology, general knowledge, geography and geology, biology, mineralogy, algebra, geometry, astronomy, physics, chemistry and nutrition, among others. In addition the teacher is supposed to develop an exact 'anthropological

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portrait' of each pupil. In order to cope with this broad range of duties, a Waldorf School teacher generally takes a one-year supplemental course of study or a four-year basic teacher preparation program. The focus in these programs on autodidactic methods and hands-on effectiveness separates them fundamentally from the teacher training programs currently found at research-oriented institutions of higher learning. The theoretical education and practical work of the Waldorf teacher still adhere to the simple pattern of dogma and handicraft which was typical of the teacher training programs for primary school teachers prior to their redesign according to higher principles of scientific thought. The word dogma refers to the idealistic encouragement of particular views and a sense of community in line with the anthroposophical worldview; handicraft describes the rigid forms of instructional method which are passed on to the prospective teachers according to traditions common in the training of master craftsmen. Contributing to the practical effectiveness of Waldorf teacher training are also external factors such as the immediacy of contacts, the personal exchange of ideas and experiences, and the general state of consensus as well as the shared ethics among those involved in the programs. These factors, as shown above, continue to play a role in the subsequent day-to-day work of the Waldorf teacher.

27. Learning from the Waldorf Schools - A New Dialogue and its Themes In the early 1990s, education scholars' reflections on Waldorf pedagogy struck out in a new direction and thereby revitalized the discourse on this subject. In Germany, leading Waldorf pedagogues and sympathizing educational scholars interested in school reform founded a research group for jointly conducting 'necessary discussions'. Members of the educational studies community have since then been confronted with several essay collections, each with a specific focus, documenting this ongoing discussion (cf. Bohnsack and Kranich 1990, Buck and Kranich 1995, as well as Bohnsack and Leber 1996). These collections show that educational thought has

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progressed from a phase of global reflection and generally sweeping opinions on Waldorf Schools to a new phase of examination and appreciation of individual elements of their pedagogical concepts, especially those elements which are of current interest regarding the further development of state schools. The educational scholars participating in this discussion agree that their task is not primarily to examine the scientific veracity of the anthroposophical theory of Waldorf teachers or of their concept of education. Instead they are interested in examining - according to scientific standards of method and documentation - the application and effectiveness of Waldorf pedagogy and in assessing the potential contribution of Waldorf pedagogy to solving current and systemic problems. Indeed, the positive qualities of the Waldorf School tend to convince enlightened non-anthroposophical individuals to entrust this school with their children - even if they regard Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy as confusing or strange, and even if they disapprove of some of the school's traits. 1. School autonomy. The first thing that fascinates a person examining Waldorf Schools is the consequential realization of school autonomy, particularly with regard to administrative (legal and financial) and pedagogical aspects. Among independent private schools, Waldorf Schools appear in many countries to be leading in making the most of constitutionally guaranteed rights of selfgovernance. Because of their independent educational makeup, Waldorf Schools differ greatly from most standard schools with state-accredited certificates and degrees in matters of curriculum, instructional methods and evaluative procedures. State-run education departments merely require Waldorf Schools to have educational offerings equal in quality to those of state schools; they do not require offerings of the same nature. As 'freelance' or 'freely practising' employees of the organization which holds the legal responsibility for a school, Waldorf teachers work in the context of a faculty-run school government and are not controlled by a hierarchically organized education department; they work, so to speak, as co-entrepreneurs or professional partners at the school. Compared with their state-school colleagues, Waldorf teachers have greater pedagogical freedom allowing them to design their

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learning environment and instruction according to each child's needs. Independent, additional and continuing teacher training is therefore necessary in order to prepare prospective Waldorf teachers for these rather different responsibilities. The development of an individualized school profile is also assisted by the greater administrative and financial independence of the Waldorf Schools. Experience shows that schools which succeed at developing such an individualized Culture' achieve a more balanced social climate; interaction both with and among pupils is more effective; students achieve performance expectations more easily; and they identify more strongly with their school. Because of their conscious decision in favor of the Waldorf School and because of their tuition investment, parents also have a legitimate vested interest in maintaining a high level of instruction in the school. Their willingness to participate in school activities and their desire to be a part of the school's development is greater in a school which they have chosen and which they actively support. 2. School architecture. The architecture of Waldorf Schools quite obviously plays an influential role in further developing Waldorf School culture. Thinking along the lines of Waldorf pedagogues, Christian Rittelmeyer assumes that school buildings exercise a suggestive influence upon pupils and teachers; he views school buildings as capable of establishing an amicable, repressive, or distant relationship with their occupants. In his empiricalphenomenological studies, Rittelmeyer investigates how individuals experience various types of school buildings. He pays particular attention to the buildings' influence upon the observer's sense of balance and individual movement, as well as upon circulation, breathing and digestion. Laboratory tests lead him to suggest that building design and color are somo-aesthetic, i.e. that an architectural environment can influence the vital processes of our bodies: the 'emotionally affective qualities' of building design probably have their origins in such corporeal processes. This causality gains further support from studies of the initial eye movements when subjects are confronted with pictures of schools as well as from results culled, with the assistance of semantic polarity profiles, from opinions regarding the facades of school buildings as described in

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writing by students. These results indicate the existence of three primary emotional responses: 'warmth', 'multifarious stimulation' and 'non-restrictive form and color'. Based on their experience of school facilities, pupils feel a sense of the degree of appreciation which society expresses for them within the school walls and a sense of the projected image of their education. According to Rittelmeyer, Waldorf School architecture extends our understanding of the school building as a didactic space perceived and experienced both in a sensorimotor and in a rhetorical fashion. This is so because, according to the Goethean theory of metamorphosis, Waldorf architecture does not permit monotony in window facades and strictly forbids cubical room forms, additive sequences of connected building units, serial facade designs and strong symmetries in general. Architectural stasis is thus confronted with continuous development. Data from questionnaires suggest that students generally experience a sense of invigorating abundance and liveliness in such a progressive architectural environment. This reciprocal harmonization of organically merging architectural forms, this lively 'dialogue' - instead of the incoherent collection of architectural elements one finds in many school facilities - is responsible for the qualitative characteristic of 'warmth/softness' of architectural forms (cf. Rittelmeyer 1994). 3. Practical learning. Educational scholars have focused a great deal of attention on the diverse educational offerings of the Free Waldorf Schools, in particular in the area of practical learning. Waldorf School pedagogy doubtlessly incorporates the most differentiated concept of practical learning in the field of secondary schools. Practical learning begins with building games for small children, continues with less complicated handicrafts and gardening, and leads toward more sophisticated craftsmanship for adolescents. This practical approach is closely allied with artistic activities including painting, drawing, making music, recitation, and eurhythmies. The hands-on, practical activities are, in conjunction with acquiring knowledge about the world through rhetoricalintellectual and artistic-expressive means, meaningful tools for personal development, especially for young people today from whose everyday environment such first-hand practical experiences have

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been vanishing. Practical learning offers a unique opportunity to gain self-esteem and a sense of reality; in such activities not the teacher but rather the instructional material teaches the young learner - and as inanimate objects they confront the learner with limitations and challenges which must be overcome. The Waldorf 'curriculum of the hand' can check tendencies towards learning without using one's senses and towards 'the loss of reality in cerebral learning' (Rumpf); the over-proportional emphasis of the word- and scientism-based aspects of school instruction and learning have indeed become increasingly prevalent approaches in traditional schools. Those Waldorf Schools offering an innovative organizational model for their upper-level classes aimed at furthering the integration of general and vocational-oriented education play a notable role in the efforts of strengthening a pedagogical culture of practical learning. Such programs currently exist in Germany at the Hibernia School in Herne and at the Rudolf Steiner Schools in Kassel, Nuremberg, and in the western district of Munich (to name only a few), and in Switzerland at, for instance, the Rudolf Steiner School inJura-Sudfuss. In order to provide each pupil with both a university-qualifying high-school diploma and a professional qualification of some sort, the school offerings integrate various sites of learning: the classrooms and the ateliers of the standard Waldorf School tradition, additional workshops on the school premises, as well as the facilities of local employers. The 12-year course of practical instruction is divided into four phases: the first level (first through to sixth grade) approaches practical learning largely on the basis of each child's imagination, thus nurturing the learner's manual dexterity through diverse artistic handicrafts. In the seventh and eighth grades, students learn - within general instruction regarding practical work - fundamental techniques of craftsmanship. During the ninth and tenth grades this instruction is focused on individual traditional fields such as horticulture, home economics, surveying, the art of spinning, weaving, book binding, copper smithery and the craft of a smith in general, carpentry, locksmithing (which in the German tradition of the 'Schlosser' may also include the work of the fitter, the toolmaker, the millwright, and the metalworker), and the work of the

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electrician. Once a student has selected a particular trade for more extensive instruction at the end of the tenth year, a fourth phase of practical instruction begins (grades eleven and twelve) which focuses on training either in the area of metals, wood, electrotechnology, textiles, or social work; an accredited examination concludes this phase of instruction. This practical education comprises half of the school day; during the other half, intellectually talented pupils participate in traditional instruction which prepares them for qualifying for university studies. Members of the general population interested in questions of education take particular note of the Waldorf Schools with special offerings in their upper-level classes aimed at furthering the integration of general and careeroriented education (cf. Edding 1985), not only on account of these schools' efforts at stressing practical learning, but also because they offer broader opportunities for cultivating individual talents. 4. Genetic teaching. Genetic didactics as found in the Waldorf Schools are highly motivating, especially in natural sciences block instruction. Such instruction in this subject area is not conceived according to the contents of the disciplines of physics, chemistry and biology; instead the cognitive and affective aspects of the pupils' development and their individual age-group-oriented perspectives on nature dictate the instructional approach. Traditional instruction in the natural sciences often encounters substantial resistance because it disregards the student's experience with or in nature and because it generates alienation from natural processes. Traditional science instruction tends to 'cleave' learners, disengages them from their holistic connection from the world around them, and saps their natural interest in natural phenomena. If the educational goal is one of depth and breadth of individual experience and of learning through self-discovery, then connections and contexts need to be presented such that they can be experienced. Teachers can make 'roothold' understanding possible by creating current awareness of tangible reality and by encouraging the application of various approaches to perceiving and reflecting upon things. Indeed one finds numerous ways of carefully and exhaustively examining natural phenomena - of reflecting upon them, of 'wresting control' over the nature of their existence in a

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cognitive sense, that is, of completely understanding them - that certainly do not require the complete or even partial repression of one's own imagination, which the richness of natural phenomena naturally kindles. The naive explanatory patterns of learners confronted with new things and their first attempts at achieving understanding are of critical importance, as foils for precise thinking, for approaching phenomena strictly from the perspective of the respective discipline, and for applying abstract explanatory models. Waldorf educators call the monopoly of experimental, abstract and quantifying epistemology into question. Armed with their Goetheanism-based educational art, they attempt to rehabilitate other, namely practical, everyday, 'physiognomic-emblematic' forms of knowledge of nature, in order to assure the learner's grounding in her or his world. Complementary views are supposed to shed light upon the complexity of man's natural experience; natural sciences instruction grounded in tangible reality should enhance its efficacy as general education 5. De-specialized knowledge. Another point of convergence between education scholars and Waldorf educators is shared criticism of the increase in scientism within teacher training and the shared corollary search for other forms of knowledge more appropriate for teaching and educating in schools. The specialized, subject-neutral methods used at universities for passing on scientific knowledge to future school teachers can much too easily lead to the 'vanishing of reality': in a highly specialized instructional system focused on experts and concrete results, the subject - whose own awe and reflection begat scholarship and science in the first place no longer finds a place. As the amount of specialized knowledge increases, the connection to reality, the individual's connection to the subject matter, disappears. Participants in this discourse within education reform seek to eradicate such sciolism by redefining the character of scholarship and imparting this newly defined character upon teacher instruction. Two basic concepts characterize their vision: this new scholarship equally emphasizes both cognitive understanding of sensory-symbolic phenomena in the world and the results of feelings of awe and initial reflection which arise with the awareness of the irregularities and conundrums which

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surround us. Forms of knowledge which are intimately linked to phenomena and the subject are, on account of this special connection between learner and res, more likely to foster meaningful education through and with science and scholarship than the orientation toward the 'cutting edge' of specialized research can do. Of seminal importance to Waldorf education and to Waldorf-inspired teacher education is the anthroposophical search for those forms of knowledge which do not prematurely loosen the connection to reality but rather strengthen and deepen it for the sake of developing an individual's personality. 6. Sociability education. The final and least debated chapter in the discourse between established educational thought and Waldorf pedagogues is the one regarding social learning, that is school instruction in social skills. New forms of social apathy, increasing aggressiveness and discrimination against foreigners also challenge general schools to examine and develop teacher-student relations. This re-evaluation process touches upon matters such as the understanding that teachers have of their role, the position of pupils in class and alternatives to formal authority, informal cooperation, or consistent self-regulation. Waldorf educators hold that pre-pubescent pupils require a teacher with the type of personality that can help them 'find their way'; they further believe that a universal class teacher is undoubtedly necessary and capable of fulfilling this role as a 'natural authority' and a 'role model'. According to Waldorf educators, sound personal development is only possible for someone who can establish relationships on the basis of consistency and dependability. Only a child that has had the experience of being able to identify with a grown-up role model will be capable of making independent decisions as an adult. Before the adolescent process of detachment and emancipation sets in, it is therefore critical that children have the opportunity also within the context of their school experience to share an intimate bond with a person of special significance. Waldorf pedagogy has succeeded in convincing a number of educational scholars of two things: of the fact that during a particular phase of child development virtues such as dedication, openness and the power of love with regard to various aspects of the world (such as human beings, inanimate

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objects, nature) can be, so to speak, inculcated and vitalized; and of the way in which this strength of dedication, this fundamental openness for reality itself remains a function of the vertical path of success, of successful identification with and dedication to an authority figure who can enrich the lives of others. According to a fundamental insight of psychoanalysis, human beings require the previous experience of secure relations in order not to fear foreign things, in order to willingly and sensitively accept them, and in order to avoid making feigned and emptyjudgements later in life. Psychoanalytical research has, however, also shown - and reminding Waldorf educators of this insight is important - that a positive authority-based relationship always includes an element of ambivalence. By attempting to show the proper way into the world of culture, the Waldorf class teacher necessarily runs the risk of limiting, through the use of gentle coercion, 'his' or 'her' pupils' enthusiasm for inquiry and their ability to judge, that is, their claim to autonomy. The driving force in classroom instruction should not be the autocracy of the teacher urging compliance with his or her demands but rather the authority of the subject matter itself, an authority which encourages independent thought and explanatory discussion of all involved. Whereas dialogue between Waldorf educators and educational scholars has been fruitful in the areas of school autonomy, school architecture, practical approaches to learning, the art of teaching genetically, and teacher training, it has, in the area of social learning, uncovered fundamental differences and led to new critical questions regarding Waldorf pedagogy. These differences and unanswered questions arise from splitting the dialectic of the social process of education into an irreversible series of consecutive events and into its normative application to supposedly invariable age-groups. Furthermore, it remains dubious that social education as practised in Waldorf Schools fails to afford the students as a group a stronger participatory role in and shared responsibility for instructional learning processes from the start The initially productive dialogue degenerates in this case to a seemingly insurmountable controversy because the underlying worldviews themselves inadvertently become topics of discussion. At

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this point at the latest even those educational scholars most open to the ideas of Waldorf pedagogy are confronted with the crucial question: how do you stand on Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy? Reviewing our history of the reception of Waldorf pedagogy in the pedagogically interested general public and in educational science, one arrives at the conclusion that this reception has been so far entirely text based rather than empirical. The results of analyses which, admittedly, have grown more specific thus remain highly dependent upon the chosen point of departure. One side begins with a critical examination of the fundamental worldview of Waldorf pedagogy which they find disconcerting; these studies thus often lose the impartiality required to recognize the real educational situation within Waldorf Schools. Researchers at the other end of the spectrum let themselves be impressed by the 'alternative' pedagogical practice of a particular Waldorf School, then assume that the same features apply to Waldorf Schools in general, and neglect - nolens volens - the worldviewderived convictions of the faculty members that shape each school. This even occurs when such researchers engage in pedagogical dialogue with such teachers. It is consequently quite justified to say that these two basic movements within the discourse of educational scholarship have existed as long as the Waldorf Schools. For this reason, one can assert that most persons who have been involved in the reception of Waldorf pedagogy have for the longest time been rotating in a predetermined circular rut and that only a few of them have, by way of unconventional forms of reflection, reached a spiral path on which they have been able to generate genuinely new insights.

Part Four

The Relevance of Steiner/Waldorf Schools Today

28. The Global Success of Rudolf Steiner's Pedagogy Today one finds Free Waldorf Schools as well as related pre-school and therapeutic pedagogy institutions on all five continents. Alongside Montessori, the anthroposophical school movement is considered the most successful reform initiative from the classical New Education or Progressive Education period in the first third of the twentieth century. This was not always the case. Rudolf Steiner schools developed very late from an outsider position to become a leader in the education reform movement (cf. Ullrich 1995). On an international level, this outsider position which was held for decades was expressed in the fact that the global association New Education Fellowship did not even take note of Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy for nearly the first 50 years after its founding in 1921. Waldorf educators were neither members of the Fellowship, nor did they take part in the numerous conferences. If one regards the Fellowship as the educational conscience of New Education on a global level, then one must wonder why this organization, which was consciously open to a myriad of educational reform paths, ignored Rudolf Steiner schools and their pedagogy for so long. Only on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the first Free Waldorf School in Stuttgart in September 1969 did the New Education Fellowship unite with the Waldorf School movement in Germany. Upon invitation from the Association of Free Waldorf Schools, representatives of Montessori pedagogy and Jena Plan schools discussed with Steiner's followers reform schools of the Fellowship as a model for the schools of tomorrow (ibid., pp. 32 f.). In the spring of 1970 the Rudolf Steiner Schools were finally admitted

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Table 1 Number of Free Waldorf Schools (source: Association of Free Waldorf Schools 1/2006)

Germany Switzerland Netherlands Great Britain Sweden Europe

USA Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa Worldwide

1951

1971

1981

1991

2005

24 4 7 6 1 47 5 0 0 0 0 53

32 8 8 6 3 74 10 2 1 1 3 95

72 24 41 16 10 207 23 5 8 4 4 259

134 33 85

191 36 92 30 41 639 121 17 31 9 18 894

26 22 298 67 10 17 4 6 524

as members of the German-speaking chapter of the Fellowship. This late acceptance helps Waldorf Schools in finding greater resonance for their special pedagogical character on the pedagogical and educational scene. This is largely due to the fact that at that moment a wave of Waldorf School foundings was taking place in the Federal Republic of Germany which has continued until today and which has also moved to central Europe, the rest of the English-speaking world and all other areas of the globe. The process is documented in the figures of Table 1 which track the school movement's spread in selected European and non-European countries. The number of Free Waldorf pre-schools has jumped almost in parallel to the number of Waldorf Schools, as shown in Table 2. It should be noted that the opening ofWaldorf pre-schools often follows the opening of a Waldorf School. Recent figures for the number of therapeutic pedagogy and social therapeutic institutions (schools, homes, village communities, etc.) for selected countries and the world are presented in Table 3 in order to complete the overview of the expansion of Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy.

The Global Success of Rudolf Steiner's Pedagogy Table 2 Number of Free Waldorf pre-schools in 2005 (source: Internationale Vereinigung der Waldorfkindergarten 2/2006) 2005 Germany Switzerland Netherlands Great Britain Sweden Europe

USA

Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa Worldwide

525 74 73 45 66

1179 60 9 27 21 21

1431

There are many reasons for the astonishingly strong but relatively late expansion of Rudolf Steiner Schools, Waldorf pre-schools and therapeutic pedagogy institutions. One is increased interest in an educationally oriented social environment in highly developed societies at child-oriented schools. Another is more openness in many countries and states for private or free schools and the correspondingly stronger legal and material support. A further reason for the greater acceptance of Waldorf Schools could be that the school model has been proven and that former Waldorf School pupils prefer to send their children to a Waldorf School. A convincing explanation for the current relevance, acceptance and success of Waldorf Schools can only be achieved through empirical studies. In order to provide first and provisional answers to these questions, existing empirical studies on Waldorf Schools will now be presented in this chapter. These stem first and foremost from Germany, but are becoming more frequent in Great Britain, North America and Scandinavia.

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Table 3 Number of institutions for persons with disabilities in the areas of anthroposophical curative pedagogy and social therapy (source: Konferenz fur Heilpadagogik und Sozialtherapie 2/2006) 2005 Germany Switzerland Netherlands Great Britain Sweden Europe USA

Canada Australia New Zealand South Africa Worldwide

167 53 59 58 47 521 25 5 3 4 5 593

Although we have a great deal of information on the organization of Waldorf Schools and the individual areas of their educational programs, we know very little about the daily implementation of principles, about the actual behavior of Waldorf teachers and about specific learning processes at Waldorf Schools. We also know very little about the paths taken by Waldorf pupils once they have left the school. To date empirical studies on Waldorf Schools have been neglected within the context of comprehensive international school and education research. However, within the past several years, some telling investigations have been conducted and published, while several more are slated for publication. The available research can be divided into evaluation, graduate and school culture studies.

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29. How Successful are Waldorf Schools? Evaluation Studies In their recently published study of Rudolf Steiner Schools in England, Woods et al (2005, pp. 28 ff. and 144 ff.) provide a highly informative overview of results from those (mostly small-scale) studies on Waldorf Schools in the Anglophone regions between 1992 and 2004. 1. The studies give a positive impression of the effects of Waldorf Schools on learning motivation, academic performance and socialemotional development of pupils. Waldorf pupils had relatively good results in a comparative study and are noted for their creative and social capabilities. These results should be viewed with great caution, however; they stem from methodologically weak studies which work with very small and non-representative samples. They were also conducted in very different national and cultural contexts. Quantitative studies which systematically compare the performance of Waldorf pupils with standard public schools as well as detailed qualitative studies on Waldorf School learning culture remain rare. 2. Explorative studies, despite their unstable basis, relay the impression that learning at Waldorf Schools is supported by the pupilteacher relationships, the majority of which are considered positive. On the other hand, there are individual cases of Waldorf teachers who are either in over their head or simply overburdened. This reflects, among other aspects, parents' high expectations, and participation in collegial self-administration. 3. The few studies available on Waldorf Schools see the rhythms and rituals in learning as a particularly salient and important trait on the one hand, and the use of symbols and ceremonial acts in school life on the other. A high degree of personal attention for pupils as a member of the class and the entire school community is considered to be characteristic of Waldorf Schools. 4. Questions as to the place of Waldorf Schools within social space, the extent of their exclusivity and how they deal with differences between the sexes or with children in ethnic or religious minorities have been posed but remain to be investigated. The question

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as to the transfer of elements of Waldorf Schools to conventional schools or the development of Waldorf Schools through the adaptation of conventional school structures is also in need of investigation. In their recently published study, Steiner Schools in England (2005), Philip Woods, Martin Ashley and Glenys Woods intend to contribute to a better understanding of the Waldorf pedagogy's achievements and also to jointly enrich both Steiner and conventional schools. Within nine months they conducted comprehensive fieldwork on the 'good practice' conditions at Waldorf Schools with respect to curriculum, achievement controls, educational relationships, special support, educational philosophy, school management, and teacher professionalism. The study begins with expert interviews with representatives of Waldorf pedagogy in England. From these interviews stem the most important points for the 83 questions in a comprehensive questionnaire which required roughly three hours tofillout. This was done by guest studen ts of the research team at 21 of the 23 English Waldorf Schools. This central quantitative data source was complemented by a short questionnaire on the relationship between Waldorf and conventional schools, which was filled out by 184 Waldorf teachers (respondent rate: 46 per cent). The qualitative portion of the study consisted of the analysis of central written documents from the participating Waldorf Schools (such as websites, pupil reports and letters of complaint) and of case studies based on the observation of instruction over a period of one to two days, followed by discussions with teaching staff on seven contrastively selected schools. The case studies consist of a programmatic portion in which the Waldorf teachers' notions of 'good practice' are highlighted, and an empirical portion, in which the brief case vignettes provide an impression of the teaching and learning processes that were witnessed. The most important of the researchers' findings from observation are as follows: 1. The curriculum of Waldorf Schools, which from a global perspective is structurally unified, is characterized by the placing of particular importance on the learning of foreign languages. This is abetted by the international composition of teaching staff. Instruction in the natural sciences takes place over the course of many years in a

How Successful are Waldorf Schools? - Evaluation Studies graphic manner and incorporates the pupils' own creative abilities. Handiwork and practical activities, musical-artistic education, and the orientation toward the religious world of Christianity are all prominent fixtures of Waldorf Schools. The standardized national tests are viewed by Waldorf educators as incompatible with their curriculum and as superfluous for their instruction. Nevertheless, many Waldorf pupils do take these tests successfully, largely out of fear for their later scholastic achievement, but only after having taken special preparation courses. The measurement and judgement of scholastic achievement does not play a major role, but is practised in an unconventional manner, for example through the controlling of the epoch scribblers or portfolios, through discussions about the pupil in teacher conferences, and through the verbal learning reports at the end of the school year. 2. As far as practical pedagogy is concerned, Waldorf Schools are mainly characterized by a strong orientation toward the pupils' development, and through a high degree of focus on the teacher in instruction. Electronic media play almost no role. There is a particularly close relationship between the pupils and 'their' teacher, an authority figure who instructs them daily in all subjects from the time they are 6 until they are 14 years old. From the sixth grade onward, tensions increase between pupils and the class teachers. At the same time, in those Waldorf classes observed from this agegroup, more discipline and learning motivation was found than in comparable conventional schools. One problematic result of the class teacher's central position is the low prestige of the specialized teachers among pupils. In other words, Waldorf Schools have a teacher hierarchy, that is three different types of teachers. These are (in an order of decreasing influence): the all-round class teacher, the class teacher who gives specialized instruction in another class and the specialist teacher. One consistent indicator of 'good practice' in the Waldorf Schools visited was the outstanding role of order and rhythm in instruction and in school life from the macro level of the seasons and monthly structure right down to the micro level of phases and results of action in the instructional period. In the block periods of main instruction, for example, there is a regular switch among physical-rhythmic, imaginative and cognitive activities and the teaching-learning process

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follows the schema of telling (introduction of something new), remembering (the presenting of what has been understood), processing (silent work with exercises), and keeping (writing that which is elementary in the epoch scribbler). 3. The educational philosophy found at the Waldorf Schools studied is almost wholly geared toward the anthropology and pedagogical principles of Rudolf Steiner. In most Waldorf Schools the majority of teaching staff sees themselves as anthroposophs even if they prefer not to label themselves as such. Class teachers are expected to have a particularly intensive relationship to anthroposophy, but remaining staff also deal regularly with Steiner's views at the weekly conferences as a way of 'deepening' their educational work. Waldorf Schools are different from denominational schools in that they do not propagate a worldview which attempts to turn children into Rudolf Steiner followers; at the same time religious instruction is an important part in and has a closer connection to the rest of the Waldorf curriculum through its spirituality. The utmost goal of Waldorf Schools is the raising of children into freedom but not through freedom, rather through a long-term authoritative connection from which the children are released relatively late. A sign of 'good practice' in Steiner Schools is the strongly disciplined, teacher-centred instruction until the end of the eighth school year. This is designed to prepare the pupils step-by-step for more independence at the upper secondary level. 4. Collegial school management is a further central aspect of Waldorf pedagogy. The advantages of a lack of hierarchy lie in the stronger feeling of responsibility for one's 'own' school, in the joint discussion and treatment of difficulties with the children, and that staff are easily motivated to undertake further training. The main problems with this form of school management are the time-consuming and ineffective decision making, unfair delegation of responsibility with an overburdening of some individuals, as well as internal power struggles among teaching staff behind the scenes. Many Waldorf Schools attempt to overcome these weaknesses through the introduction of a non-permanent management committee or through the hiring of a head manager. English Waldorf Schools receive no monetary support from the state and are financed largely through tuition and parent donations. They must manage

How Successful are Waldorf Schools ? - Evaluation Studies to balance the wish to open the schools to children from all social classes with the necessity of bringing parents on board who can pay for the long-term. Parents of children at Waldorf Schools support * their' school not onlyfinancially,but also intellectually and practically through their identification with the educational culture. The latter includes helping with school construction right through to participation in field trips and events. Waldorf teaching staff also make a substantial contribution through the payroll, which is much lower than at comparable public schools. The majority of teachers have had special training at a seminar for Waldorf teachers; very few are also qualified for teaching at public schools. Woods et al. (2005) close their explorative study with a series of recommendations as to how Waldorf Schools and public schools may learn from one another. While conventional schools in England could learn from Waldorf Schools with respect to more institutional flexibility and a greater openness for different educational paths, Waldorf Schools could take a lesson from public schools in effective school management, modern forms of instruction and for the documentation and control of learning achievement. Because of their impressive forms of 'good practice', the research group feels that Waldorf Schools should consider becoming part of the state-school system as an alternative educational route therein. Almost simultaneously to the release of the English study, a Swedish research group led by Bo Dahlin released the results of a threeyear 'Swedish Waldorf School Evaluation Project' (cf. Dahlin 2005; Dahein 2005). One particular strength of this purely quantitative questionnaire study lies in the comparability of social environment, learning results and educational motivation of Swedish Waldorf pupils with those at public schools. With respect to the social background of Waldorf pupils, the questionnaire was sent to the homes of 851 Waldorf pupils. Approximately 60 per cent of the families responded. It was found that Waldorf parents in Sweden represent a fairly homogenous social group. Nine-tenths of the parents spoke Swedish as their first language; they generally had a good education and middle-range incomes. They worked mainly in 'soft', that is social and care-giving professions. Their political sympathies were more on the ecologically oriented left of the spectrum. Their worldview was

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mainly spiritual or religious, which allowed them to feel more solidarity with the socially-weak in Swedish society. The high degree of social homogeneity among parents led to a - programmatically unwanted type of social and cultural segregation within Swedish society. In contrast to parents from other private schools, this process of distinction among Waldorf parents was due less to economical or social capital than to the choice of a particular educational culture (for 70 per cent of respondents). With respect to results in national scholastic achievement tests in Swedish, mathematics and English at the end of the ninth grade, a comparison between 493 Waldorf pupils and 21,208 public school pupils revealed that a greater portion of Waldorf pupils did not meet the standards, especially in mathematics. Waldorf educators put this down to their pupils' lack of experience with this type of achievement testing and that some of the subject matters tested were studied later in the 12-year Waldorf plan than at public schools. Based on answers from an additional questionnaire, the researchers concluded that the 196 Waldorf pupils asked felt more at home in their school than the 5,941 pupils asked at conventional schools. The Waldorf pupils had a more positive view of their scholastic achievements and a greater interest in the subjects they were questioned on. At the same time they felt less capable of meeting demands in standardized tests for these three subjects. Waldorf pupils from the same school year had much more positive results with respect to social competence. Two questionnaires for groups of 325 and 196 Waldorf pupils respectively, and for 407 and 5,941 pupils at public schools showed that Waldorf pupils met the objectives of democratic education to a greater degree. They developed more openness and tolerance toward social outsiders - with the exception of criminals, racists and Nazis, against which they stood firmly. In total the answers led to the conclusion that Waldorf pupils are more active, responsible and democratic than state-school pupils. To what extent this reflects content, methods and educational relationships at the school or the result of specific cultural expectations from the values of their parents cannot be determined based on the data available. Although Waldorf pupils only posted mediocre results in scholastic achievement tests in the ninth grade, the majority of them (58 per cent) later went on to post-secondary education. This result stems

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from the results of a questionnaire sent to 871 former Waldorf pupils as part of the Swedish study (60 per cent respondent rate). Former Waldorf pupils were found in all faculties at universities; they studied their chosen subjects more out of personal interest than out of consideration for their usefulness in a later career. Most of them felt they were better prepared for further studies than pupils at public schools. With only few exceptions (6 per cent), they felt that the Waldorf schools gave them self-confidence, an independent and critical view of scientific knowledge, and the willingness to keep on learning for the rest of their lives. A small study of American and Canadian Waldorf pupils by Baldwin, Gerwin and Mitchell (2005) produced similar results. Their study showed that former Waldorf pupils were admitted to the entire spectrum of North American post-secondary institutions, to elite universities and to the less renowned colleges. Both the Swedish and North American studies made the astonishing finding that a considerable percentage of Waldorf pupils (between 22 per cent and 48 per cent) do not begin with their studies immediately following their school graduation, but rather take a one-year moratorium before beginning their studies. One suspects that at the Waldorf Schools pupils develop a different view of time in the educational sense than at conventional schools.

30. What Do Waldorf Pupils Do After Graduation and How Do They See Their School in Retrospect? - Alumni Studies Data from the Swedish and North American studies does cover the further education of Waldorf pupils after graduation, but only registers their post-secondary education. The first quantitative study which reports not only on success at school and in post-secondary institutions but also on the biographies of former Waldorfpupils, was conducted in Germany more than two decades ago by the Association of Free Waldorf Schools. The study is based on the 1,460 questionnaires (63 per cent respondent rate) filled out by pupils who began their school careers at the Waldorf School in 1946/7 (cf. Leber 1981). The study also documents that academic families and freelance workers

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or entrepreneurs are overrepresented in the social backgrounds of the pupils. Almost half the respondents (41 per cent) are from upper middle-class families. Compared with other pupils who began school in the same year, three to four times as many Waldorf pupils received their Abitur, which qualifies them for university admission; among male Waldorf graduates, nearly half received a post-secondary degree. With respect to their later careers, former Waldorf pupils preferred pedagogical-social, medical, literary, musical, or other artistic endeavors. Mathematic, scientific, technical, and politicaladministrative areas were underrepresented. Compared with other pupils, the Waldorf graduates showed higher geographic and social mobility; with respect to their fathers' careers, the downwardly mobile (42 per cent) were better represented than the upwardly mobile (25 per cent). In their free time Waldorf pupils read more and show more interest in art, making music and handicrafts, as well as a higher motivation for further training. In light of the expansion of Waldorf Schools since the study and the corresponding changes in their use, however, these very interesting results need to be retested. To a certain degree this has already taken place in a study on Swiss Waldorf Schools that was conducted by questioning former pupils (cf. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rudolf Steiner Schulen 1999). Of 13 Waldorf Schools, 1,430 former pupils who graduated between 1990 and 1996 were sent a questionnaire. Of these, 566 were filled out and sent back, which represents a 40 per cent respondent rate. Those asked were not chosen representatively but rather ad hoc. The average age of respondents was 23.5 years. The parents of these former pupils have a high degree of education compared with the Swiss population as a whole. This is particularly the case for the mothers, who are mainly active in social, artistic and teaching professions. Among parents, 18 per cent had attended a Rudolf Steiner School themselves. Among the respondents, 31 per cent left the Waldorf School before the end of the twelfth grade. This is mainly due to a change in educational goals; roughly one third left due to conflicts or general malaise. Compared with the general population, former Waldorf pupils are more likely to work in teaching, health and artistic professions, as well as in agriculture and home economics. The fields of industry, trades, commerce, and administration were clearly

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underrepresented. A comparison with respect to the level of education revealed a slight underrepresentation at the university level. Most former Waldorf pupils express a very high degree of satisfaction with their choice of career and development therein. They see their job market opportunities as at least as good if not better than for public school pupils. This, they feel, reflects not so much more favorable external conditions, but rather their own strengths. They are of the opinion that the following qualifications are 'stronger' among them: independence, team capability, the ability to think in terms of the greater picture, and creative problem solving. They feel least secure with respect to foreign language ability and decision making. They feel that the Waldorf School supported all these qualifications, especially creativity. Apparently they see this competence as a central component of the Waldorf School, which they felt was good preparation for life (52 per cent 'yes', 27 per cent 'more or less'). Swiss former Waldorf pupils felt their foreign language competence received the least support Unfortunately the study does not provide any comparable data for pupils at public schools. When respondents were asked what they would improve with respect to the transition into the working world or to higher education, one third stated they would like to see more pressure on academic performance in the last two schoolyears (e.g. through the giving of grades and the adaptation of public school curricula) and a stronger intellectual and real connection to the outside world. According to the study's authors, these suggestions 'should not simply be interpreted as a general criticism of the school's format... The conclusion is that there are obviously problems in the transition to the achievement system and the difference in worldview at public schools. In retrospect many former pupils would have liked to have been better prepared' {ibid., p. 32). If and to what extent this transitional problem is found for Waldorf Schools in other countries, where (unlike in Switzerland) pupils may take their final exams directly within their school, remains to be investigated. Results from a new and methodologically complex study of former pupils conducted by Heiner Barz, Dirk Randoll et al (2007) on generations of graduates of German Waldorf Schools have been published

recently. The study's goal is to gain insight into the long-term effects of Waldorf school attendance both on a broad basis and with respect

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to different content areas. These results are then compared with the programmatic intentions of Waldorf education. In the qualitative portion of the study problem-centred interviews and group discussions with eight partners from three different age groups were conducted. The (171) topics, categories and aspects identified therein were then incorporated into a questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire respondents also had the opportunity to make additional comments. Of the 3,500 questionnaires sent out, 1,127 were filled out and returned (32.2 per cent respondent rate). The total sample was composed of pupils from three different school generations (1939-42; 1945-54; 1967-74) so as to represent the different economic, socio-cultural and family conditions and different stages of the Waldorf movement in Germany. The 'hardest' data for a comparison with the general population is provided in a study on the career development of former Waldorf pupils

(cf. Bonhoeffer and Brater 2007). Not only the career choices of former pupils were recorded, but also those of their parents, thereby enabling the analysis on the socio-structural connections between background and career choice. Furthermore, former pupils were asked about the professions they were trained for and those in which they actually worked, about their position with their field of work and on the field itself. The question of where Waldorf pupils end up is the measure of success of Waldorf education within society, an evaluation of their achievement potential based on their careers. The analysis of parents' careers showed that German Waldorf pupils are generally rooted in the upper, academically educated middle class. According to the microcensus from 2004, the number of academics in the German population was roughly 12 per cent Among Waldorf pupils, more than 40 per cent of fathers belong to this group. Nearly one-fifth of Waldorf parents - with an increasing tendency in the younger generations - were teachers (of all grades and in all school types); among fathers, the teachers were followed by engineers, merchants, entrepreneurs and organizers, in that order. The teacher parents taught mainly at conventional schools. Their decisions to send their child to a Waldorf School probably stemmed from their knowledge of education and their own problematic experiences at conventional schools. The high percentage of children from teacher homes means that Waldorf Schools are dealing with a clientele that, as a

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competent 'internal public', has high expectations with respect to education and the child's development, but which can also support the work of Waldorf teaching staff in numerous ways. Not unlike their parents, the largest professional group among former Waldorf pupils is that of teachers at 14.6 per cent Engineers are in second place with 9.8 per cent, much like the Waldorf fathers. Health professions (8.6 per cent) and doctors and pharmacists (7.7 per cent) are also well represented, almost identical to the results for fathers and mothers. The number of former pupils involved in the humanities and natural sciences is three times as high as with the fathers (9.5 per cent), while the number of artists (7.2 per cent) is twice as high. The number of merchants is much lower, however. Compared with the general population, the number of teachers is almost five times as high among former Waldorf pupils, and the number of engineers is almost four times as high. The difference is even greater for those in the humanities and natural sciences, for doctors, pharmacists and artists. In total, former Waldorf pupils are four times more likely to complete a post-secondary degree, and are more likely to take on an academic, artistic, medical-therapeutic, or a social or care-giving profession. For Waldorf pupils, careers in the office or as merchants are underrepresented, which indicates that career choice is made more independently of economic considerations. When one compares data for the difference between the career the pupils are trained for and the one in which they are active, then the representation of commerce and economic professions increases, especially for the relatively large group (10.9 per cent) of entrepreneurs, managers and organizers. It is also noteworthy that 2.7 per cent of all respondents were jobless at the time the questionnaire was filled out, while at the same time the total German unemployment rate was around 12 per cent. With respect to potential satisfaction with their careers, former Waldorf pupils are often less interested in extrinsic benefits such as leisure, prestige and chances for promotion than they are in the potential for their own personal development within their work. Bonhoeffer and Brater (2007) see the following as the most important results of their study: (1) the Waldorf School is, as it always has been, not a school for all children, rather primarily for children from the academically educated, upper middle class, which habitually reproduces itself here; (2) the prejudice that Waldorf Schools

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only produce artists or reality-shy dreamers appears to be refuted in light of the broad spectrum of demanding professions pursued by former Waldorf pupils; (3) Waldorf Schools have an astonishingly high educational efficiency; despite not practising selection and differentiating according to academic performance, they enable their pupils to be successful in the professional world; former Waldorf pupils apparently stand their ground relatively well even within a difficult job market; (4) Waldorf Schools are suited to an educationally competent group of parents who pay attention to the educational quality of their school; this conclusion is reached based on the extraordinarily high percentage of teacher families who entrust their children to Waldorf schools. The choice of school implies a critical judgement of the educational quality of conventional state schools. Dirk Randoll's study (2007) on the attitudes of former Waldorfpupils toward their school provides further individual results, namely that the number of parents who attended Waldorf Schools has more than quadrupled between the oldest and the youngest age group. The percentage of former Waldorf pupils who describe their relationship to anthroposophy as 'practising/active' has fallen within the three decades, from 17 per cent to 7.2 per cent On the other hand, the high percentage of former Waldorf pupils indifferent to or critical of Steiner's teachings has increased from 53.4 per cent to 61.4 per cent. An average of 87.6 per cent of respondents are still in favor of the epoch instructional form and the eight-year class teacher principle; even if 58.7 per cent of respondents feel that Waldorf Schools place too little importance on achievement and more than half feel that Waldorf Schools are not open to new educational developments (52.2 per cent - even 64 per cent among the youngest generation), 62.8 per cent of respondents still feel that Waldorf Schools are the best schools they know of. Looking back at their time at Waldorf Schools, the greater portion of graduates (more than 80 per cent) feel they belong in the Waldorf School; there they feel at home and well cared for. A similarly high percentage of them would - if they were to choose today - attend the Waldorf School again. Roughly half of all respondents (45.7 per cent) would send their children to a Waldorf School or intend to do this in the future. An even higher percentage (58.7 per cent) feel that they

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have used elements of Waldorf education in raising their own children. The vast majority (84.1 per cent) feel the content of Waldorf instruction has a purpose and that own ideas may be realized therein (73.5 per cent); 70.3 per cent see the annual essays in the eighth and twelfth grades as a special opportunity to support independent learning and working. More than half see the lack of importance of scientific subjects, politics and sports as critical aspects of Waldorf education; 38 per cent used private additional tutoring during their school careers. In retrospect Waldorf teachers were judged positively both in terms of the educational relationship and in the instruction as such: more than 82 per cent of respondents feel that their teacher took them seriously and respected them; for more than 75 per cent they were a competent learning partner who was interested in their pupils. For only 64.1 per cent they were well trained didactically and in methodological terms. For 60.8 per cent Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy played hardly any role in instruction and in school life; only 15.8 per cent (19 per cent among the younger generation) stated they felt pushed into anthroposophy at school. With respect to the influence ofthe WaldorfSchool on theirpersonal devel-

opment, most respondents felt that the school had a positive influence on the development on their creative abilities (87.8 per cent), and also felt the school helped improve their self-esteem and their ability to assert their own opinions (75.3 per cent). 64 per cent felt the school strengthened their self-confidence and the development of a meaningful perspective on life (58.6 per cent). Influence from the school was thought to be lower with respect to demands on academic performance (53.6 per cent), in stress situations (53.4 per cent), in the development of health consciousness (44.4 per cent) or in interest for spiritual topics (30.7 per cent). The youngest age group in particular expressed that the Waldorf School is not a place to learn theoretical knowledge (difference between influence on respondents and meaningfulness to them: 47.4 per cent) and to develop an interest in scientific thought (difference between influence and meaningfulness: 22.8 per cent). With respect to methodological capabilities and independent learning, foreign language ability, athletic performance, career choices and dealing with societal problems, many found that there is a significant gap between that which they learned at the

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Waldorf School and the knowledge they require. Independent of age, more than 70 per cent of respondents felt the school had a very favorable and personally very important influence on their ability to empathize with and accommodate those who are weaker, for the taking over of responsibility for others, for fairness and tolerance, and for cooperation. Former Waldorf pupils claimed their school had an unfavorable effect on the development of their ability to deal with competitive situations (difference between influence and meaningfulness among youngest generation: 46.3 per cent). With respect to this finding Randoll notes: 'For this answer it was again clearly expressed that the Waldorf School apparently places too little stress on the achievement aspect or, more specifically, on the practising of strategies in competitive situations . . . Certainly acquiring fairness and tolerance and the ability to take others into consideration would not suffer through more emphasis on scholastic achievement' {ibid,, p. 205). Based on the free comments from open questions about their time at Waldorf Schools, the researchers found the following positive and negative aspects of Waldorf School attendance: the education received at the school is considered comprehensive, holistic and especially musical-artistic and handicraft-oriented. In this context certain forms of instruction (e.g. epoch instruction) and activities (such as plays, annual essays, school orchestras, foreign languages) received special emphasis. Critical remarks focused on insufficient specialized training and low achievement demands. Due to the lack of selection and pressure to achieve, many find the school's climate especially positive; they stress the feeling of security and warmth and the respectful relations with one another, in which the many festivals, events and the architectural aspects of the school play a role. Many took a negative view of the dogmatic and unworldly view at the school and the eight-year exposure to the class teacher, which strengthened feelings of isolation. Many saw the close bond of the class over many years as a particularly positive aspect, but there were critics of it as well, in the sense that they found it difficult to come into contact with their peers outside the school environment. All in all one may claim that the respondents produced more positive than negative statements; the positive memories of their time at Waldorf Schools clearly dominate.

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Among the reasons parents decide in favor of the Waldorf School, the

knowledge of Waldorf pedagogy appears to be the most important (43.6 per cent). Another important factor is dissatisfaction with the conventional school system (18.2 per cent) and a fear that one's own child will not be adequately supported. For 10.6 per cent of parents, the Waldorf School was their first choice because they were active followers of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy; 7.8 per cent of respondents stress that Waldorf School attendance is already a family tradition. On the whole one gains the impression that German Waldorf Schools are dealing with parents who have actively looked at their pedagogy and view of man. They have therefore made a conscious choice for the Waldorf School as the alternative to the conventional school system. When asked what characterizes former Waldorf School pupils have when

compared with others who did not attend a Rudolf Steiner School, respondents named the following qualities: they see themselves as more open, interested, creative, independent, tolerant, and confident. However, they do feel inferior with respect to achievement, the ability to assert themselves, exactness, and self-discipline. They see the advantages of their education in their ability to think in terms of the big picture, their greater musical and artistic abilities, as well as their practical and handiwork interests. Compared with non-Steiner pupils they see knowledge deficits in mathematics and sciences, in foreign languages, and in effective learning strategies. Former Waldorf pupils feel that they have more empathy and take more interest and are more active in social issues, but also tend to see themselves as outsiders or outcasts. On the whole the respondents see more advantages than disadvantages in Waldorf School attendance. The strength of the former pupil study conducted by Barz, Randoll and others lies in the high degree of difference with which they examined the graduates' attitudes toward their school and the effect on their biographies. The central weakness of the study is - with the exception of the career choices - there is no way to compare the former Waldorf pupils' statements with those of pupils at conventional schools. One of the first noteworthy studies on the effects of a Waldorf School on former pupils 'through educational biographies' was conducted by Luzius Gessler as a dissertation (cf. Gessler 1998). This study is comprised of two parts: in 1981 a preliminary study was conducted

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based on roughly 100 returned questionnaires from former Waldorf pupils between the ages of 25 and 30. In additional interviews, former pupils were asked about their educational biographies, their lifestyles and their feelings about the time of their attendance of the Hibernia School. The Hibernia School is a 'reform Waldorf School' in western Germany, in which training in a trade or for a technical or social work career may be undergone parallel to the general school curriculum. Those interviewed saw their Waldorf School phase as important and valuable, in which many qualities and values were demanded which later became important. They saw the conditions for this in the personal atmosphere and the feeling of being taken seriously and directly addressed by the teacher, as well as in the myriad motivations to learn with a balance between theoretical learning and actual creative output in the artistic and handiwork subjects. Hibernia School attendance improved their self-confidence and self-assurance through the self-reliant responsibility demanded at the school and the many public speaking exercises required, as well as the handiwork and practical experience in internships. They did not criticize the grand concept of the tested pedagogy. What they did want was a strengthening of the pupils' say in administration, more open sex education, fewer hierarchies within teaching staff, and a greater opening of the school toward the socio-cultural environment. The main study was conducted in 1983 through the educational biographies of and interviews with seven pupils from the same graduating year. The evaluation included class biographies, epoch scribblers, workshop reports, and report characteristics. This study confirms the results of the preliminary study. Gessler sees the decisive conditions for the success of this double-qualification as follows: (1) from an external perspective the school is comprised of several learning locations; (2) the texture of the curriculum connects topics from different subjects with one another in a meaningful manner; (3) the schedule is divided up rhythmically into sections of learning in depth with exercises without splitting into isolated short periods; (4) the teaching staffs joint ethos stems from the weekly conferences; (5) education is founded on practical, hands-on work; (6) the conscious switch of learning between thinking, speaking and acting and (7) the securing of playrooms for artistic endeavors (cf. ibid,, pp. 279 ff.).

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With respect to the validity and verifiability of this methodologically weak study, one must be principally very cautious. Gessler studied a highly specific population in a very atypical Waldorf School and questioned them in an undistanced manner. The Hibernia School has as only very few Waldorf Schools do - a double qualification program at the upper secondary level. Due to the school's geographic location in the Ruhr area most pupils have a working-class background. Gessler's interview partners were former pupils from the founding years of the institution who had a particular interest in retaining contact with the school. Those questioned from the graduating class with a double qualification represented the group of the most successful pupils. A more representative portrait of the school's educational effectiveness must incorporate other educational biographies (indifferent pupils and those who quit school). The pupil interviews, which were programmed through guidelines that were handed out, took place in the school environment and most were conducted by a school teacher and recorded after the fact. The exact wording in the interviews was neither recorded technically not was it stenographed. Rather, Gessler incorporated it freely into the educational biographies. The statements made by the interviewees cannot be scrutinized (not even excerpts) and are not available for an alternative interpretation. Gessler's own interpretation of the interviews and the analysis of factors in educational success of his interviewees is not undertaken with the professionalism, caution and distance of a social scientist but rather with the 'reflexion engagee' of a programmatic educational expert who identifies all too much with the school that is the object of his study. On the other hand, Till-Sebastian Idel's study on the relevant structural characteristics of Waldorf School culture is a fundamentally sound

research contribution characterized by the reflexive distance of a social scientist. The study is entitled Waldorf Schools as Spheres of Biographical Experience (2007). Using the stringent logic of qualitative research, Idel takes his data from narrative biographical interviews with 14 former Waldorf pupils and from their earlier verbal reports. From this theoretical sample a maximum of three contrasting cases are chosen. The structures of these cases are then analyzed comparatively using the structural-hermeneutic method. Idel's

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theoretical point of reference is the concept of a school-biographical relationship of recognition between the symbolic order of biography and individual school culture. The central question is what balances of recognition arise between the pupil him- or herself (with his or her primary habitus in the family) and the order found at school, which predisposes a space of recognition. What possibilities for the pupil arise within the school space which would allow him or her to transform him- or herself while supporting development? Those cases reconstructed by Idel represent three different relationships between biography and school culture: harmonious and developmentally productive, discrepant and suffering, and ambivalent and inconsistent. In his theoretical analysis of the biographical reconstructions, Idel sees Waldorf Schools as pedagogically unbounded reform school cultures which are critical of modernity and are characterized by (1) the scholarization of the family (2) the familiarization or communityforming aspect of the school (3) the demand for a personal, holistic forming of the pupil (4) the emotionalizing proximity to the pupils, and (5) the insistence on a pre-scientific didactic holistic approach. Beyond these three cases and by taking the entire corpus of 14 pupils into consideration, Idel determines - with thesis-like emphasis - the following opportunities and risks for Waldorf School socialization. 1. A significant condition for the successful, identity-supporting recognition of the pupil himself is the ability of the child and his family to access the Waldorf educational world. Their educational myth is centred on a romantic childhood ideal, a high-culture spiritual asceticism, an upper middle-class curriculum, and a lifereforming, anti-materialistic point of view. There is a dismissive distance toward the postmodern childhood and youth culture; the early child orientation toward autonomy and the expressive unfolding of youth culture life paths within the school space lead to high conflict potential. 2. The successful relationship opens up the opportunity for comprehensive socialization and biographical support and stimulation right through to the post-scholastic biography, especially in the form of contacts in the anthroposophical context and environment in life-reform circles. The demand for holistic forming - in

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the case of problematic school-biographical relationships - also entails the danger of identity damage to the pupil, who is always exposed as a whole person. The proximity between family and school can be experienced as an unholy alliance and be problematic for the pupil. On the other hand, psychological and social problems stemming from the child's transition from the family to the school can be lessened when pupils can be independently released. Despite intermittent periods of fluctuation, the 12-year integrated Waldorf School career means that the class community has an extraordinary stability. With respect to biographical experience this is represented by social continuity. On the one hand this provides more distanced or problematic pupils with the opportunity of successive and stabilizing integration. On the other hand it can be problematic if pupils are shunned by their peers for a long period of time. The Waldorf-specific, eight-year class teacher-pupil relationship, which demands an extraordinary pedagogical love from teachers, can provide support and be a sturdy working relationship built on trust for pupils with behavioral problems. The educator's strong position of authority does not allow for symmetry in the social recognition relationship, and only allows few participation opportunities in evaluation and decisions pertaining to the class. The relationship can also be experienced by pupils as being overpowering, which can lead to pupils distancing themselves. The Waldorf culture of achievement appears to serve as an example of tendencies of the educational reformer neutralization of achievement potential. The educators are oriented toward a compensatory furthering of weaker pupils, while at the same time little differentiation among pupils takes place. The flipside of this is that the educational demands of stronger pupils are put on the backburner. These pupils are often quickly pigeon-holed as 'nerds', where they are stigmatized not only by their peers but also by the teacher. In a positive light, the instructional culture's lack of stress on achievement prohibits an exaggerated fixation on scholastic performance while opening up room for informal learning and educational processes outside the classroom (e.g. through

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extra-curricular activities such as plays, internships, annual essays, among many others). Idel concludes his study with the untested and risky claim that 'Waldorf Schools are characterised by a relatively strong habitual selectivity and (the mirror image) by a relatively limited habitual tolerance' (ibid.).

31. How Do Teachers and Pupils View the Waldorf School? - Attitude Studies Based on evaluation studies we now know more about scholastic achievement of Waldorf pupils, and studies on graduates now paint a more exact and complex picture of Waldorf pupils' educational biographies and the effect this type of school has had on their lives' development. Very little research has been conducted on the dayto-day workings of the Waldorf School, on the interaction between teachers and pupils and their guiding principles. In a qualitative study, Heiner Barz examined the relevant orientation of Waldorf teachers, in order 'to gain empirical insight into Waldorf pupils' reality' (cf. Barz 1994). In 1988 he conducted three-hour structured interviews with teachers from two different Waldorf Schools - both with class and specialized teachers. In the interviews the teachers were asked about their motives in career choice, methodological principles, subjective educational concepts, their relationship to anthroposophy and to Rudolf Steiner. They also filled out a semantic differential on a comparison of Waldorf and conventional schools. The interviews were recorded but not transcribed. After a process of 'qualitative depth exploration', the answers were depersonalized, classified according to common answers and summarized in 25 thematically different text graphics ('Basic orientation of Waldorf teachers'). Barz sees his most important findings as follows: 'In addition to the known genetic method and exemplary learning principles as well as the Goethean symbolism so important for day-to-day operations ... a high level of self-criticism was apparent Furthermore, there were discrepancies between the official self-presentation and actual, relevant cognition. Finally, an exaggerated work ethic ('workaholism') and latent aggression were found to be the dangers of a fundamentalist view of anthroposophy

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(Barz 1994, p. 265). 'Militaristic' educational metaphors which were expressed repeatedly over the course of the interviews are interpreted by Barz as an 'underlying psychodynamic' of Waldorf educators. He sees a risky connection between the 'physical and desire enmity' of those Waldorf teachers interviewed, their 'para-religious achievement devoutness', their attempts to compensate for 'libidinous deficits' through close relationships to pupils (overprotection), and their 'latent pedagogical militancy' that is revealed in their educational images. The study from Heiner Barz does not really provide any insight into the day-to-day teaching and educational practice of Waldorf teachers. Rather, it provides a broad, impressionistic overview over all the possible judgements of prejudices of Waldorf teachers within the restrictions of their school operations. For Barz the 'typical Waldorf teacher' remains abstract and biographically empty through the globalizing and simplified interpretation. The teacher's self-image and professional perspectives are discussed in more journalistic-polemic language than in social-scientific terms. In order to gain more exact information on what actually motivates or determines the pedagogical actions of Waldorf teachers, Barz would have had to conduct interviews not on Waldorf pedagogy in general, but rather on the (joint) experience of educational practices at an actual Waldorf School. Several years ago Dirk Randoll published the results from a quantitative-comparative questionnaire survey of graduates of conventional advanced high schools (Gymnasien) and at upper secondary Free Waldorf Schools. The survey contained roughly 200 questions on the way the school was perceived (cf. Randoll 1999). The focus of interest was the pupils' subjective view of their school, that is their opinions, judgements and attitudes toward learning culture and social climate. A total of 761 graduates of the 1993/4 school year from 19 traditional academic upper secondary schools (Gymnasien) in western German federal states took part, as well as 371 Waldorf pupils from eight schools in the same states who were in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth grades in the 1996/7 school year. Both samples were statistically not representative but rather had a random character. The survey was conducted by teaching staff in each of the schools.

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Judgements of school populations on their schools differ in a variety of means 'significantly' from one another. The Waldorf pupils have a stronger identification with their school, feel they have more intense relationships with their fellow pupils, experience a stronger community-like bond and receive more support. They feel the content of instruction at their school is more interesting and is also more relevant to real life and their later careers. They are significantly more likely to reject a learning culture which stresses competition and grades, and in this respect feel they are subjected only to a limited degree of peer pressure at their school. However, they do take significantly more tutoring in order to keep up in school (!). On the whole they feel their school offers them more opportunities to develop their self-image, to have a say and fair conflict resolution. Waldorf pupils say their teachers have a 'significantly' higher rate of positive influence on personality development than conventional schools' pupils, especially when it comes to independent use of knowledge and responsible social action. They ascribe their teachers greater didactic-specialized abilities, empathy, patience, and the willingness to criticize themselves when dealing with the socio-emotional problems of pupils. With respect to their peers they stress 'significandy' more often that these take on partial responsibility in instruction, that in learning they are not guided primarily by performance and competitive pressure, that they usually do not see the teacher as the enemy, and that they also say what they really mean in instruction. Based on these results - and on additional information from discussions with pupils, teachers and parents of the participating schools Randoll comes to the broad conclusion that conventional schools release their pupils into the real world 'with much knowledge, but with little experience, with high expectations but little orientation, free but not self-reliant and with no connection to the greater community' (Randoll 1999, p. 338). Based on judgements by pupils, the Free Waldorf School and its staff, on the other hand, come much closer to the goal of comprehensive personality education. Among the significant differences between the pupils' views, Randoll sees the tendency for 'Waldorf teachers to give their pupils much more freedom for selfdevelopment, to make their own decisions and determine their own paths than teachers at conventional schools' (ibid., p. 341). Randoll

How Do Teachers and Pupils View the Waldorf School? therefore sees the Free Waldorf School as the only institution with the practical conditions for the realization of an educational concept what is geared to the 'bio-psycho-social development' of pupils to a new cosmic-spiritual individuality. In the chapters which surround his empirical results, Randoll is clearly seen to be a proponent of such a modernity-critical pedagogy of the period directly following German reunification. The central methodological weakness of Randoll's study is the broad comparison of non-representative samples and the subsequent unreliable test of significance, the use of the questionnaire through teachers from the same schools who are personally affected, and the superficiality of questioning on extra tutoring - the only striking negative aspect for Waldorf Schools. The main merit of this study lies in the productive irritation of widespread one-dimensional, negative cliches about Waldorf Schools. The survey results clearly demonstrate the high level of identification Waldorf pupils have with their school as well as their positive relationship with teaching staff and their peers. They also express the extraordinary extent to which Waldorf Schools programmatically different from conventional high schools - represent communities in which pupils, teachers (and parents) feel strongly that they belong. At the same time Randoll's study leaves readers with a number of unanswered questions. For example, is the social 'isolation' of Waldorf Schools so strong, and its worldview 'homogeneity' so deep, that the pupils are unable to be critical of it? Or do they feel personally recognized by teaching staff within the social and content dimension of their school day to the extent that they cannot imagine a school better than the Waldorf School? Randoll's empirical data do not lead to more depth: they only reflect the more or less positive judgements of Waldorf pupils about their schools but do not provide any empirical data explaining how these judgements arise. The one-dimensionality of these and other studies leads to a need for more complex analyses and further empirical studies on Waldorf Schools. Results from the studies presented here thus far are deficient with respect to their possible interpretation because they allow no conclusions on day-to-day learning and school cultures of Waldorf Schools, especially on the quality of teacher-pupil interaction and the decisive interpretation patterns and structures. In order

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to develop stronger explanations, school research should be looking at the social reality of Waldorf Schools not only - as is the case to date on a single, but rather on several levels at the same time: (1) on the programmatic level, for example that of the official Waldorf pedagogical concept of the teacher-pupil relationship; (2) on the level of collective and individual orientation patterns for day-to-day dealings at a specific Waldorf School; (3) of actual interaction processes and behavior structures in instructions; (4) on the level of collective and individual views of pupils of their teachers, especially their class teachers. Data for the empirical reconstruction of teacher-pupil relationships at a Waldorf School could take on the form of official statements and comments by staff, Waldorf 'report cards' - especially the characterization of pupils by class teachers (verbal reports) - interviews with teachers and pupils, as well as notes made in instruction.

32. Class Teacher-Pupil Relationships at Waldorf Schools - A Current Research Contribution In recent childhood and adolescence studies it is often noted that adolescents now demand independence and self-reliance for themselves at an earlier age. Life forms of adults are questioned more and children force their parents to justify their actions more often. Adults as 'role models' appear to fade more and more into the background compared with idols present in the media. Relationships between adults and adolescents are becoming more open, stronger and more evenly balanced; cultures of negotiation are developing between children and adults. In the context of these empirical tendencies we find more broadly formulated theses on ongoing cultural modernization, on the deformalizing of social relationships, and a loss of the school's aura. From this perspective, the adult's authority and in particular that of the teacher appear to be either shattered, in question, or in the process of disappearing. However, the notion of the ongoing erosion of the transmission of the pedagogical generation relationship is also doubted, from development and socialization theoretical perspectives. The decisive role of model adults in the step-like

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development of a sense of authority and mutual acceptance in the course of childhood and adolescence is noted. These diverging views make it necessary to empirically test the hypothesis of the deterioration of the pedagogical authority of teachers. In this context Waldorf Schools have a particularly interesting position because they assume the indispensability of a close and lasting personal teacher-pupil relationship for the pupils' personality development and stress the necessity of a hierarchically structured generational relationship characterized by authority and love. Today the system of a single class teacher from the first to eighth school-years is found almost exclusively in Waldorf Schools. In light of the socialscientific diagnoses on structural change of awakening and the erosion of personal role models, the desire to be a 'guiding authority' for pupils must also come under increasing pressure. Our research project on class teacher and pupil relationships at Waldorf Schools (on the following cf. Grasshoff, Hoeblich, Stelmaszyk and Ullrich 2006; Helsper, Ullrich et al 2007) is based on the question as to whether the pedagogical space at Waldorf Schools is affected by these changes. We wanted to investigate whether and to what extent a reform school whose pedagogy is aimed directly against the dominant developmental tendency within society still manages to generate a traditional teacher-pupil relationship with a particular personal quality. It also looks at the extent to which such close, emotional proximity and an asymmetry-based pedagogical relationship leads to problems for young adolescent pupils today. In order to gain access to a field of research that is as broad as possible and to take the perspective of the participants as authentically as possible into account, we chose a qualitative research approach. The teacher-pupil relationships were documented on numerous levels of content and interaction in order to facilitate intermediations and contrasts. The documentation took place at three Waldorf Schools with clearly contrasting educational cultures: one was a traditional school which had been founded 25 years earlier, another was a new, internally and externally developing school in western Germany, while yet another had been reopened in eastern Germany after reunification and was comparatively young. At each of the three Waldorf Schools, an ethnographic observation phase was followed by the videotaping of the class teacher's main

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instruction for one week. Career autobiographical interviews were conducted with teachers, and scholastic biography interviews were conducted with four selected eighth grade pupils from each school. For these pupils the verbal reports from the seventh grade were documented and finally a group discussion with selected teachers and representatives on the class teacher principle was conducted. The instructional protocols, especially instructional sequences in which the teacher interacts with the selected pupils, were hermeneutically reconstructed as well as the verbal reports, in order to reveal the latent relations of the structure of the teacher to each pupil. At the same time we attempted to analyze sequentially the case study problem based on the opening passages of the teacher and pupil interviews. For each of the eighth grade classes we investigated, we now had at least three reconstructions of maximal contrasting 'corner cases' which could be interpreted as a harmonious, antagonistic and ambivalent teacherpupil relationship. Based on these findings we can sketch - broadly stated - 'successful' and 'failed' case studies. This is accompanied by a discussion of the productivity and risks of the eight-year teacherpupil relationship that lasts from mid-childhood through early adolescence. Mrs Weber1: Motherly caregiver for needy children Mrs Weber is the only child of four in a farmer's family to attend the Gymnasium, from which she successfully graduates with her Abitur (i.e. high-school diploma/baccalaureate), thereby qualifying her for university entrance. She wants to become a teacher of biology and religion. This desire arises when she is 12, when her father dies suddenly and the family is then confronted with an enormous burden. Frau Weber's further education is now subject to high expectations, which she obviously fulfills. She completes her teacher training as fast as possible for elementary and secondary, non-academic schools ('Grund- und Hauptschule') and, following the completion of her teacher training, takes a position as an elementary school teacher. She takes a 12-year leave of absence in order to dedicate herself to the raising of her three children. Through a group for nursing mothers and her general practitioner, her interest in Waldorf pedagogical practice is awakened. She decides to send her children to a Waldorf

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School. Shortly before the end of her leave of absence she takes two years of training to become qualified as a Waldorf teacher and is later 'called' to the school of her children where she teaches a class from the first to the eighth grade for the first time. Mrs Weber paints: a picture of a straightforward and ambitious teacher biography, as that which is seen as the one and only possibility, namely the embracing of the teaching profession as the fulfillment of one's calling ('It was my profession of choice'). 2 Mrs Weber builds her career on the affective affinity to pupils and in her work speaks of equal influence in addition to the parents' efforts in raising their kids. Her self-image as the class teacher is revealed in the statement: 'Well, the most important thing for me is that one helps in raising the children together with the parents, and it is very important that one loves the children. That's half the battle.' Martin was born in East Germany one year before the Berlin Wall fell. Since then he has moved to several towns and due to the end of his parents' relationship has also experienced his father's departure, the divorce, his mother's remarriage and has also taken on a new surname. Because he took part in his parents' marital problems at too young an age (especially in being used as an emotional crutch by his mother), Martin is in over his head emotionally. He receives neither enough space for the childish unfolding of his personality, nor for the separation from the mother-child dyad. Even before he enters school his crisis potential unfolds and corners him into increasing social isolation. In this context the normality of Waldorf pre-schools and Waldorf Schools represents a stabilizing factor that can fulfill a compensatory function in raising a child. In the classroom Martin sits in the front row alone at a table. He enjoys this special position and often makes humorous comments, and is given a bit of freedom to play the fool. That he occasionally interrupts instruction is tolerated to a certain degree by Mrs Weber. At times this is objected to ostentatiously (*You say something, otherwise I won'task you'). Martin enjoys a relatively exclusive relationship with Mrs Weber. She gives him the sort of attention that affords him greater space to present his individuality. Nevertheless, in the interest of equal treatment of all pupils, he must also play by the institution's rules. Martin's verbal report, in which Mrs Weber attempts to characterize him, begins with the following sentence: 'Once again, the seventh

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grade was experienced by Martin with his good-natured easygoingness. Nothing makes him lose his cool: neither the turbulence in the boys' group nor particular events in class upset him.' In this resourceoriented description - as in the entire report text - the pedagogically tactful addressing of Martin's crisis-ridden personal development and its successful 'pedagogical treatment' are documented on the basis of a relationship founded on sympathy and acceptance. Martin's statements about his class teacher are similarly positive and respectful, but clearly set boundaries when it comes to his space and the extent of her affection: 'Well, I think Frau Weber is a very nice lady, sometimes a bit too nice. It's nice for us; sometimes we can take advantage of that and sometimes we can't. I think that sometimes she talks a bit much about her private life.' On the whole, the relationship between Mrs Weber and Martin based on deep biographical parallels (early loss of the father coupled with strong emotional demands from the mother) and a close emotional bond - shows how scholastic therapy of family-based deficits works. In the environment of his 'school mother' Mrs Weber, Martin can be a carefree child again and can test his early adolescent identity development, while at home his mother is his emotional partner and he is involved in adult conflicts. By shaping the relationship as familial and caring, Mrs Weber contributes to the relationship her need for recognition in her 'calling' and becoming a significant person for Martin. It is noteworthy that both parties take an interest in repeatedly establishing limits on their special closeness and emotionally charged relationship: while Martin attempts to take tactical advantage of Mrs Weber's affection and resists her intrusiveness, in class Mrs Weber makes it clear to him that he must play by the rules in the same way the others do. Until she was enrolled at the Waldorf School, Anna was an only child; then her sister was born and she felt responsible for her upbringing. Compared with her peers, she is therefore independent and responsible at a very early age. In class Anna clearly stands out in that the class teacher often criticizes her and uses her contributions as a basis for discussion. Otherwise Anna is active mainly in the background of instruction, which points to her strong solid status within the peer group. Anna's report begins with the following statement: 'In the seventh grade Anna needed my alert attention and in

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some cases needed to be addressed personally in order to participate consistently. She was often distracted by her unbounded chattiness and liveliness. In written work, however, Anna was persistent and indefatigable.' With these words Anna is characterized by her class teacher as a difficult and problematic pupil whose problems stem from a lack of self-control. When it comes to Anna's actual academic achievement, however, the teacher's diagnosis is less dramatic or even positive. In the interview she claims that Anna has difficulties in some subjects because she overestimates her capabilities. The relationship with Anna was completely different in the first school years: 'Until the third grade she was always on my lap, held my hand every day; in winter she was under my coat like a little chick. She really loved me and I really care for her.' This initially close relationship between Anna and Mrs Weber, which provided support in scholastic areas, is now in crisis. Anna's early adolescent subject construction is mainly formed through relationships with her peers. The extent to which the formerly shy pupil Anna is now gaining in profile within her peer group and thereby capping the relationship to her teacher disappoints the caring 'class mother's' need for proximity. Anna's autonomy demands and her resistance in instruction (which stems from her peer orientation) endanger Mrs Weber's explicit educational and authoritarian demands. This friction has spread from the level of the relationship to that of instruction, and leads Mrs Weber to reject Anna's behavior in class. This becomes clear in a scene in biology class in which Anna against the expectations of the teacher - brings instruction constructively forward. Even though Anna's answer is correct, the teacher sees it as false. Labeling Anna a difficult pupil leads to a lack of recognition of her actual achievement While the class teacher appears to be no longer able to adequately take in Anna's participation in instruction and cannot respond to her efforts, Anna registers clearly the dramatic worsening of her relationship with Mrs Weber: 'At the moment I don't get along with her at all. Whenever something happens, she gives me shit right away and just complains.' Because of her teacher's injustices and stubbornness, Anna has now all but given up: she is happy that the eighth grade and the time with Mrs Weber will be ending soon. The relationship between Mrs Weber and Anna changes from initially harmonious to increasingly dissonant In the early school years

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there is a strong correspondence between Anna's shyness and need for protection and the loving, caring attention provided by the class teacher. This meeting of souls slips out of kilter when Anna enters early adolescence. The extent to which the pupil, backed by her peers, tests her newfound self-image in confrontations with the teacher, leads to less and less recognition. Anna has long since grown out of her role as the sweet child, and in retrospect the class teacher sees this developmental process as the loss of her lovable childishness. Where Anna feels a gain in self-confidence, Mrs Weber sees a learning motivation deficit. Mr Kriiger: The theatre director and the class ensemble Mr Kriiger became a teacher at a Waldorf School more or less by chance and after several detours. ('Somehow it was the place where I felt at home, where I was needed. So I became a teacher.') During his school career, which he characterizes through memories of a close community in a boarding school and boy scout groups, Mr Kriiger completed training to qualify himself as a set decorator before he motivated by the esoteric world, and social reform impulses from Rudolf Steiner - began studying art at an anthroposophical postsecondary institution. At the same time he completed his qualification as a Waldorf teacher. During an internship in self-administration at an anthroposophical institution, he responds to a call for help from a Waldorf School which is under construction. He says he is prepared to substitute for a pregnant teacher for a couple of months. He then stays at this educational institution. In addition to his duties as a class teacher he is able to pursue his artistic interests, especially through class theatre productions and in his work for school organization for the further development of the school. Persephone is the oldest of five siblings from which three now attend the same Waldorf School. Her parents are active in different groups at the school. Persephone's youngest brother is a close friend of her class teacher and has already stayed overnight at the Kriiger home. Since her earliest childhood Persephone has been motorically and cognitively gifted and describes herself as a gifted pupil who is selfconfident in her participation in the Waldorf School. That she can

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also tend toward the extravagant is attested by the fact that she stuck out her tongue when Mr Kruger welcomed her into the new class with a handshake. She then proceeded to refuse to be photographed for the class picture. Her chronic neurodermititis casts a temporary shadow over her scholastic success story. In the classroom Persephone is not a pupil who is noticeable right away. At the same time, however, she plays an important role in the success of instruction. Mr Kruger chooses frontal instruction and poses questions so as to develop a discussion. This type of instruction can only succeed if it is supported by at least one pupil. Persephone fulfills exactly this role. Mr Kruger can depend on her participation in difficult situations. He critically rejects her occasional arrogance so as to bring her back into the collective fold of the class. Despite her prominent status - she also plays the lead in the eighth grade play - she is not a 'nerd' and appears to be well integrated into the peer group. Mr Kruger's verbal reports are very schematic. With respect to Persephone ('is usually happy in class and is very avid') he stresses her 'quick perceptive faculty'. Only in the interview does he make more discerning statements about the development of this 'extraordinarily positive child', whom he characterizes as 'completely beaming'. The relationship between Mr Kruger and Persephone appears to be less strongly determined by personal proximity and emotion. In instruction it functions pragmatically as a 'working alliance' between the class teacher and his didactic assistant. Mr Kruger's sympathy for Persephone stems not from caring dedication, rather from the aesthetic pleasure in the brilliance and extravagance of his leading player on the main stage of instruction. Persephone, on the other hand, takes pleasure in seeing her self-image mirrored outside her family environment by Mr Kruger and by being integrated in the class community. Sebastian stands out based on his physical and habitual 'developmental head-start': he is physically much bigger than the teacher. In his behavior as an adolescent or young adult he sets himself apart from some of his still seemingly 'childish' peers. Sebastian lives together with his parents and his brother, who is two years older and also attends the Waldorf School. The family lives a half hour's drive away from the school in a more rural area. His father works as a freelance expert in the insurance industry and is supported by his wife, who

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mainly looks after the household and the family. In the interview it becomes clear that Sebastian's self-construction is characterized by the drawing of a clear line between school and home. In his free-time he plays tennis in a men's team, is active in a soccer club and also plays computer games and goes out with older adolescents in the village where he lives. Even though he is only 14 years old, in his leisure and cultural activities Sebastian already behaves like a young adult His school-external self contrasts sharply with his daily experience as an eighth grade Waldorf pupil. He characterizes his career at the school as being a continuous downhill movement and, on the whole, he sees his school career as a failure. In the classroom Sebastian sits in the fourth and last row all alone on the periphery. An empty seat isolates him from his classmates. During instruction he attempts to make contact with his friends who are not in 'whispering ear-shot' by writing short notes. He hardly takes part in official instruction. He spends the instructional hours in a sleepy posture, draws, or is occupied with other activities. Almost all attempts by Mr Kruger to bring Sebastian back into class activities result in conflict. Sebastian demonstratively refuses to cooperate with any form of forced participation. His verbal report from the end of the seventh grade begins with the following statements: This schoolyear Sebastian was often very pale and nervous. It was not always easy for him to follow instruction and he missed out on important content Sometimes he needs to be expressly addressed in order for him to participate adequately. This behavior in the classroom was sometimes so distracting that he was also told so expressly by his classmates.' In this entirely deficit-oriented characterization, Sebastian is presented as a somatic and psychologically limited pupil, who, despite his potential, is currently limited in his learning and who distracts the class to the extent that the class teacher sees the need to implement special measures. Interestingly, this general opinion is not backed up by the evaluation of his actual achievement; both in language sciences and in the mathematic-scientific epochs, Sebastian met expectations without any trouble. By accrediting him with pathological characteristics and by stressing the need for 'special treatment', Sebastian is labeled as a problematic pupil and is singled out negatively from the class collective. Looking back, Mr Kruger stressed that in the first school-years Sebastian had participated calmly and well. From the third grade on

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his strong need for physical movement became apparent So that he wouldn't fall off his chair the legs were strengthened by the teacher with ski runners. From Mr Kruger's perspective, Sebastian's further development is characterized by good achievement and a corresponding arrogance toward his classmates on the one hand, as well as by an 'internal, motoric restlessness that has become almost pathological symptoms' on the other. Unlike the class teacher's stigmatizing view, Sebastian sees the reason for the difficulties in the relationship as a result of the teacher's lack of willingness to recognize his own private sphere as an adolescent: 'There are some things that aren't his business, things we talk about. Maybe he thinks a couple of things affect him, which from my perspective are none of his business, and so we fight.' For Sebastian, the drawing of a clearer line in the pedagogical relationship and the recognition of own space for development for adolescent peers are the essentials that Mr Kruger does not address in his holistic self-image as a Waldorf class teacher. Sebastian summarizes his expectations soberly and clearly: 'Mr Kruger is okay. As a teacher he should teach me something so that I learn something, but in my free-time I have my own friends; he doesn't have to get involved anymore.' The relationship between Mr Kruger and Sebastian is an example of a pedagogical relationship that after eight years has become very tense due to discrepant behavior formation and which is just waiting to be ended. Sebastian's leisure and peer orientation toward athletic and medial pursuits in addition to his focus on the achievement aspect of school learning conflicts with the holistic, community-oriented educational concept and with the musical-artistic focus of his class teacher, who, as far as his professional socialization is concerned, is more of an artist than an educator. While Mr Kruger sees the root of the relationship's problems in an 'undesirable development' on Sebastian's part, Sebastian criticizes Kruger's pedagogical claim to omnipotence that prevents him from unfolding his autonomy. Mr Friedrich: The leader of mankind and his disciple Mr Friedrich was born in the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) into a Catholic household which was critical of the regime. In school he received his Abitur (i.e. high-school diploma)

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but was also trained as a construction worker. He later studied construction engineering. Since his youth he has been interested in philosophical issues, and this led him to Rudolf Steiner's writings and the anthroposophical movement. After German reunification, in addition to work, he gets involved in an initiative for the founding of a Waldorf School before he - on the advice of a West German Waldorf educator - decides to become a Waldorf teacher. After his training as a class teacher he takes on a class in a reopened eastern German Waldorf School. At the time of our study, this class is now in the eighth grade. Mr Friedrich sees the Waldorf School as an educational locus where the anthroposophical worldview can be lived; he sees himself as a role model teacher for spiritual life practices. ('I will definitely remain a teacher for people, because I, as I already stated, have the impulse needed to enthuse people about ideas and that one can change something.') He therefore sees himself within the Waldorf School more as an awakener for the world of ideas of anthroposophy than as a someone who accompanies the children of his class in their development. As a 'people teacher' he seeks primarily the form of the pedagogical relationship in which he can - transcending the institutional framework of instruction - devote his entire person to his 'disciples'. After his family moved to eastern Germany,/ono5 failed at three conventional elementary schools. The Waldorf School is the first school for him in which the intellectually gifted boy no longer sees himself as an outsider or a failure. At the same time, however, he stands out among his peers in that he does not take part in the youth-culture behavior of his classmates and through his more tactful gestures of a 'philosopher'. Because he is the only pupil in class who consistently pays attention, he is the most reliable partner for the teacher in instruction, especially when things become turbulent and threaten to slip beyond the teacher's control. Even though Jonas behaves in a conformist manner, he does not openly take the teacher's side; he sees his role in instruction as that of a 'silent participant'. The place and time where the relationship between the two is best experienced is not in instruction but rather during the break and the moments directly after school has ended. During these 'wonderful discussions' the exchange of ideas can unfold freely, for example on Jonas's

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outstanding eighth grade essay about the theoretical basis for Rudolf Steiner's eurythmy. This essay goes far beyond the eighth-grade level both with respect to length and to its intellectually ambitious content. At the school-wide presentation of this work Mr Friedrich even embraces his 'spiritual student' Jonas, which certainly both pleases and confuses him. The verbal report from the seventh grade opens with the statement: 'It is a true pleasure to experience you as a pupil.' One may definitely interpret this as a type of platonic declaration of love by Mr Friedrich to his philosophical discussion partner Jonas. On this level of an I-you relationship one finds other statements which pertain to the 'ingenious' contributions with which Jonas has far surpassed scholastic expectations. The report reveals the dual nature of their relationship - private and professional - in that Jonas is praised not only as a young philosophical genius, but also soberly as a good to mediocre pupil who still has areas in which he must improve. The relationship between Mr Friedrich and Jonas goes beyond the normal roles of teacher and pupil. This stems primarily from their joint desire for philosophical reflection on metaphysical and religious questions and their compatible idealistic views. Because of his introverted intellectuality, which is problematic in terms of his scholastic biography, Jonas finds the highest form of recognition in his teacher. For Mr Friedrich, the dialogue with this pupil allows him to make clear the central ideas of his worldview while allowing him to fulfill his mission as a teacher of humanity. Jonas is his star pupil because his philosophical attitude, which is very atypical for his age, means he wants to and can understand all that which moves his spiritual leader. For the fatherly mentor the relationship to Jonas represents not only the fulfillment of his pedagogical ambition, but also the latent possibility that his authority could be jeopardized. The extent to which Jonas has easily taken on the behavior which his teacher represents for him, means he no longer needs him and can separate himself from him in the upcoming school-year. In this respect Jonas states: 'Now we're going separate ways and it has to be that way. One has to be critical, after all.' The teacher's philosophical attitude and his self-image as a leader of humanity are very questionable with respect to his relationship

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with his pupil Lydia, however. Her early adolescent provocations break through his reserve. Her playful testing of limits represents a challenge to Mr Friedrich's sovereignty, which he must fight for and prove again and again in confrontation with Lydia. Unlike Jonas, she criticizes him openly and questions his perfection and authority. Her challenging of teacher authority does not stem from distance or apathy for Mr Friedrich, but rather from her wish for recognition of her own person and her striving for autonomy. Through her opposition to Mr Friedrich's asymmetrical vision of a teacher-pupil relationship, Lydia can increase her independence. Discussion A central finding of the case reconstructions above is that Waldorf Schools - through their special pedagogical orientation and through the social space and atmosphere offered - provide a platform on which long-term teacher-pupil relationships can be intensely experienced in a manner that transcends conventional role expectations at schools. Those class teachers we investigated act not only as organizational representatives or educational professionals, but also become significant others for some of their charges. The pedagogically delimited self-image of these teachers is strongly connected to each of their professional paths. The paths of Mrs Weber and Mr Friedrich are deeply rooted in their biographies and follow inner development In the former case it is the unfolding of a pedagogical impetus; in the latter it is the realization of a spiritual calling. Only for Mr Kruger is the path less consistent and characterized more by coincidence; still, he sees them as 'the callings of destiny' which need to be heeded. Each of the three teachers has a different type of 'pedagogical love' for their favorite pupil. While Mrs Weber's relationship to problem-child Martin is characterized by caring motherliness, that of Mr Friedrich to Jonas is carried by a platonic-idealistic desire for awakening. Mr Kruger's particular sympathy for his youthful protagonist Persephone stems mainly from deep aesthetic pleasure in her easy scholastic role playing as the star of the class ensemble. For the pupils as well, a special biographical background is also a pre-requisite for a harmonious relationship with the class teacher as

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well as for their choice of the Waldorf School - albeit in hindsight. For Martin the school is his actual home in the face of his turbulent geographic mobility and his disintegrating family relationships. For Persephone it is the social space in which her family's anthroposophyinspired life form finds its continuation. After having failed at numerous conventional schools, for Jonas it is the only remaining palatable space for learning and living. The close pedagogical relationship between Waldorf class teachers and their 'prominent' pupils provides not only opportunities but also risks. In each of the harmonious relationships the teacher opens up a productive space for the development of emotional, cognitive and social recognition to a behaviorally affine and biographically related pupil - such as Mrs Weber for Martin. The support given therein can help compensate for deficits in the family, while the special artistic and intellectual challenges can also trigger new development impulses. However, as the relationships have a tendency to be more intimate and go beyond the classroom with respect to time, these can subconsciously be instrumentalized by teachers for the fulfillment of their personal ambitions and need for proximity. This can lead to a hindering of the separation process of adolescence. If the pupil is not given the opportunity to distance himor herself as well, then the exclusive relationship to the class teacher is bought with a loss of autonomy - not to mention the stigmatization and potential isolation from his or her peers. The flip side of the class teacher's 'pedagogical love' that allows for a harmonious relationship with a habitually 'congruent' pupil, is that tense relationships develop with pupils that stand diametrically opposed to the teacher's behavior. This is the case, for example, between Mrs Weber and Anna thanks to the latter's early adolescent distancing and striving for autonomy, or between Mr Friedrich and Lydia due to her hedonistic youth culture orientation and desire for provocation. The highest level of tension was found in the relationship between Mr Kruger and Sebastian. His early adolescent distancing and athletic and media-oriented leisurely pursuits go against not only Mr Kruger's self-image but also against the life-reforming orientation of the Waldorf School environment. While for Martin the eight-year relationship with Mrs Weber led to a stabilization of his personal development and a rooting in the class community, for Sebastian the relationship with Mr Kruger represents

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an increasing disregard of his identity construction. This has led to him being labeled a problem-pupil and to his (self-) exclusion from class participation. One important reason for these discrepant paths for the relationships lies in the different pupil attitudes toward the concept of authority of the teacher: Martin finds no difficulty in his tactically designed - acceptance of Mrs Weber's caring, while at the same time remaining in a pedagogical dyad within the class as her 'child'. Sebastian, on the other hand, collides with the stubborn (theatre director) Mr Kruger because he self-confidently declines to play the part in the class ensemble that has been chosen for him. In all the relationships presented here it is partially about how the pupils deal with the unlimited power of their class teacher. Even if the eightyear relationship provides opportunities and risks for pupils to different extents, Waldorf Schools should - especially in light of the documented negative cases - seriously reconsider whether or not the time period for the class teacher should be more limited. At a few Waldorf Schools a new iower secondary' model has been implemented in which the class teacher is replaced after the sixth grade, with specialized teachers then becoming more prominent. I feel that this is a modern and pedagogically more productive compromise. It takes findings from school and youth research into consideration which show that after the sixth grade changes in learning motivation take place and a stronger orientation toward extra-curricular interests and the culture of peers takes hold.

Notes 1. Names have been anonymized. 2. All spontaneous verbal statements by our informants are not provided in phonetic transcription, but rather are quoted in a readerfriendly, orthographically 'tidied' version.

Epilogue

Rudolf Steiner's pedagogical reform impulses only unfolded their impressive global influence following his death: over the course of the twentieth century his Free Waldorf School has developed from an outsider to a leader in the international movement for New Education. At the same time, Waldorf pedagogy has also spread both conceptionally and geographically over much of the globe in areas of curative pedagogy and social therapy (schools for children with special needs, 'Camphiir village communities, etc.), as well as in pre-school education (Free Waldorf pre-schools or kindergartens). In many countries Rudolf-Steiner Schools are already permanent social fixtures; in some European states they have become the alternative to public or confessional schools. Within the broad spectrum of Waldorf Schools, most adhere to the traditional model of the original Stuttgart school in a more or less unchanged form. Some innovative Waldorf educators have also developed Steiner's prototype further with respect to structure, curriculum and methodology by integrating new and unconventional paths to vocational training, or by integrating disabled and non-disabled pupils, or by better including the socially disadvantaged children of migrants.1 Over the past several decades there have been numerous attempts by individual teachers or entire school staffs to transfer Waldorf Schools into the public school system. This has long been the case in Switzerland but is a recent development in Germany. Since the fall of the Iron Curtain it is also the case in Eastern Europe, especially in Romania (cf. Buddemeier and Schneider 2005). Even if these attempts remain to be evaluated, one can conclude that they - despite a high degree of personal dedication and a strong organizational rooting - have not had a lasting effect anywhere on the reform and development of public schools. The educational discourse on Waldorf School pedagogy and its foundations has long been controversial and one-sided. The reaction

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to the educational reform concept stresses (with the exception of the worldview prerequisites) the 'meaningful practice' of a holistic education tailored to the needs of the child. The ideology-critical discourse subjects in particular Steiner's occult 'Neo-Mythology' to radical philosophical criticism and warns of the danger of indoctrination in instruction, but does this without taking a closer look at the everyday reality of Waldorf Schools. Two new developments are reasons why this position has not grown stronger: (1) For roughly the past decade, in German-speaking countries Waldorf educators have sought out a dialogue with educational experts, and (2) the international empirical research on Waldorf Schools has intensified. The specific aspects of Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy which remain relevantfor the educationally interested public at large are the realization of school autonomy, the plethora of forms of practical learning, the genetic respectively goetheanistic approach in natural science instruction, and the intensive forming of social relationships through the class teacher principle. Those empirical studies conducted thus far document, for example, on the one hand a high degree of satisfaction and identification of Waldorf pupils with their school and their high level of pedagogical effectiveness that is reflected in the successful professional integration of former Waldorf pupils. On the other hand the studies document the strong 'middle-class bias' of Waldorf parents and the extraordinarily strong behavioral selectivity of the school culture, especially among its protagonists, the class teachers. Because the scientific discourse on Waldorf Schools has become more intense, the otherness of Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy has become clearer but its fruitfulness has also been shown to be even stronger.

Notes 1. Examples of Waldorf schools for the integration of general and vocational training are the Hibernia school in Herne (Germany) and the Regional Upper Secondary School JurasudfuB in Solothurn (Switzerland); new paths toward the integration of disabled pupils are found, for example in the Windrather Talschule in Velbert (Germany); an intercultural Waldorf school for socially disadvantaged pupils from more than ten nations was founded several years ago in Mannheim-Neckarstadt (Germany).

Bibliography

A. Works by Rudolf Steiner Collected Works ('Gesamtausgabe') CW 1 (2000), Nature's Open Secret: Introduction to Goethe's Scientific Writings. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press. GA 2 (1960), Orundlinien einerErkenntnistheorie der Goetheschen Weltanschauung. Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. CW 3 (1993), Truth and Science. Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press. CW 4 (2001), The Philosophy of Freedom: The Basis for a Modern World Conception. Some results of introspective observation following the methods of Natural Science. Sussex: Rudolf Steiner Press. CW 7 (1960), Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age. Blauvelt, NY: Rudolf Steiner Publications. CW 8 (1986), Christianity as Mystical Fact. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press. CW 9 (1994), Theosophy. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press. CW 13 (1997), An Outline of Esoteric Science. Gt Barrington, MA Anthroposophic Press. CW 14 (1998), Four Mystery Dramas (new edn). London: Rudolf Steiner Press. CW 21 (1996), Riddles of the Soul. Spring Valley, NY: Mercury Press. GA 24 (1982), Aufsdtze iiber die Dreigliederung des sozialen Organismus und zur Zeitlage (1915-1921). Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. CW 26 (1973), Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts. London: Rudolf Steiner Press. CW 28 (1999), Autobiography: Chapters in the Course of My Life: 18611907. Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press.

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Bibliography

GA31 (1989), GesammeUeAufsdtzezurKuUur-undZeitgeschichte(18871901) (3rd edn). Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. CW 34 (1996), The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science. Gt. Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press. GA 40 (1981), 'Credo', in Wahrspruchworte (5th edn). Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag, pp. 274-5. GA298 (1958), Ansprachenfur die Kinder, Eltern undLehrer(1919-1924). Stuttgart: Freies Geistesleben. CW 300 (1998), Faculty Meetings vnth Rudolf Steiner, 2 vols. Gt. Barrington, MA* Anthroposophic Press. GA 305 (1956), Die seeHsch-geistigen Grundkrdfie der Erziehungskunst. Vortragszyklus gehalten in Oxford vom 16.-29. August 1922. Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung. [Engl. (2004), The Spiritual Grounds ofEducation. Gt Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press.] GA 317 (1990), Heilpddagogischer Kurs. Zxvolf Vortrdge, gehalten in Dornach vom 25. Juni bis 7. Juli 1924. Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. [Engl.. (1998), Education for Special Needs: the Curative Education Course. London: Rudolf Steiner Press.] Miscellaneous Publications (1945), Der innere Aspekt des sozialen Rdtsels - Die soziale Frage als Wendepunkt der Menschheitsentwicklung (1919) (Marie Steiner, ed.). Dornach: Rudolf Steiner Verlag. (1975), Aspekte der Waldorfpddagogik: Beitrdge zur anthroposophischen Erziehungspraxis. Munchen: Kindler. (1980), Das Geheimnis der Temperamente (1908/1909). Basel: Zbinden Verlag.

B. Other Works and Articles Arbeitsgemeinschaft Rudolf Steiner Schulen in der Schweiz (1999), Was tun ehemalige Steinerschillerlnnen? Umfrage unter ehemaligen Schillerinnen und Schiilern von Rudolf Steiner Schulen. Zurich: Bureau fur Bildungsfragen. Bachelard, Gaston (1984), The New Scientific Spirit. Boston, MA Beacon Press.

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C. Electronic Resources Rudolf Steiner

www.rudolf-steiner.com www.steinerarchiv.info Electronic access to the complete text of Steiner's Collected Works (in German). www.rsarchive.org Summaries of Steiner's books and chronological listing of his lectures. www.rudolfsteinerweb.com Comprehensive index to Steiner's work in English or German.

Anthroposophy

www.goetheanum.org Comprehensive information about the Goetheanum, anthroposophy, Anthroposophical Society, School of Spiritual Sciences, specially Pedagogical Section. www.anthromedia.net Basic information and specialist dossiers on anthroposophy and its cultural and social initiatives, e.g. Waldorf education.

Waldorf Schools

www.waldorfschule.info Bund der Freien Waldorfechulen (Worldwide Association of Waldorf Schools): complete worldwide directory of Waldorf Schools and teacher training centers for Waldorf ecucation. www.steinerwaldorf.org.uk Steiner Waldorf Schools Fellowship (SWSF), represents 31 Steiner Schools, 56 early-years settings and 6 Steiner teacher-training centers in the UK and Ireland; school directory. www.awsna.org Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA): directory of Waldorf Schools, etc. in Canada, USA and Mexico.

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Waldorf Pre-schools

www.waldorfkindergarten.de Internationale Vereinigung der Waldorfkindergarten resp (International Association of Waldorf Preschools): directory of 1,500 early years centers in 60 countries. www.waldorfearlychildhood.org Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN): directory of Waldorf kindergartens and training centres in North America. Waldorf Curative Education

www.khsdornach.org Council for Curative Education and Social Therapy: complete directory of curative education centres and list of teacher centers in 40 countries. www.camphill.org Camphill Association of North America: Directory of Camphill Communities worldwide.

D. Basic Concepts in Steinerian Thought 1 (Glossary) The seven ages represent a particular level of Steiner's concept of planetary development: seven planetary ages (q.v.) are divided into seven life states (q.v.). These are, in turn, each divided into seven form states (q.v.). Steiner then subdivides the earth's current form state, the physical form state, into seven ages: the Polaric

AGES, THE SEVEN:

(q.v.), the Hyperboraic (q.v.), theLemurk (q.v.), the Atlantic (q.v.), the

Post-Atlantic (q.v.), and two further, unnamed ages. Each age is characterized in comparison with the previous one as being denser in nature. ANTHROPOSOPHY, ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SCIENCE: Steiner's concept of anthroposophical science can be viewed as an attempt at opening up new vistas of knowledge for the intellect which transcend the concrete into the world of the spiritual. Anthroposophy entails specific concepts of knowledge, worldview and life-reform. The first premise

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of Steiner's anthroposophy is that an invisible world remains hidden from our senses behind the visible one; the laws of the physical world do not apply in this extrasensory world. His second premise is that meditation can allow human beings to perceive this normally hidden, extrasensory world. The term 'anthroposophy', consisting of the Greek words anthropos (man) and sophia (knowledge), predates Steiner. The General Anthroposophical Society (Ger. Allgemeine Anthroposophische GeseUschafi) is housed in a concrete building

designed by Steiner, the Goetheanum, in Dornach in Switzerland. Practitioners of anthroposophy contend that anthroposophical science is

not a religion. ASTRAL: See man's four bodies.

The fourth of Steiner's seven ages (q.v.), its name remembers the role played by the later lost continent of Atlantis at the end of the preceding Lemuric age (q.v.): a volcanic disaster eradicates most of humanity except for that small portion of the population which succeeds in reaching Atlantis. Here memory and the languages of the seven sub-races develop. Seven oracles at seven different holy locations offer these peoples insight into their spiritual origins. Before the sinking of Atlantis, the great wisdom teacher Manu, who stands atop the sun oracle, moves with his followers from a location near what is today Ireland to the east. There they lay the foundation for the post-Atlantic (q.v.) culture in India. BASE, THE PRIMORDIAL: This is the origin of man and universe alike. BEINGS, THE FOUR: See man's four bodies. BIRTHS, THE FOUR: Steiner understands human development as the sequential unfolding (i.e. development) of each of man's four bodies (q.v.) over the course of four seven-year phases which he terms births. The physical body develops during roughly the first seven years of life. In the second seven-year period, the etheric body (see man's four bodies) surfaces. In the third seven-year period, during puberty, the astral body (see man's four bodies) unveils itself. Finally, during the fourth seven-year period (between the twenty-first and twenty-eighth year, thel-body (see man's four bodies) surfaces. Similar to Steiner's other multi-level temporal subdivisions, Steiner offers more detailed accounts of the development within each of these four phases or births as well as further information on the nature

ATLANTIC AGE, THE:

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of additional seven-year phases. This concept forms a premise of Steiner's ideas on education. BODIES, MAN'S FOUR: Through a serious of analogies between man and principles of cosmic organization, Steiner arrives at a four-fold view of the human being which describes her or him as a citizen of both sensory and spiritual worlds: 1) Man has a physical body, a body which is subject to and understandable in terms of the physical-material world; 2) Man also has an etheric body which is extrasensory in nature and the regulator of both physical growth and cognitive and emotional factors such as memory, temperament and character. Bodily fluids and motions and thus the heart symbolize this intangible body. The term 'etheric' is meant to stress the non-material nature of this body; 3) The equally intangible astral body, which man shares with more sophisticated animals, endows man with the light, moveable feelings of desire, pain, instinct, and passion. Gases are associated with this body, thus the lungs and the breathing process, as well as, through further analogy, music and spoken language represent the astral body. The term 'astral' stresses the analogy between this body and planets in contrast to stars; 4) The I-body is furthest removed from the physical body; it knows no gender, for instance. Steiner views man's three extrasensory bodies as wrappers which concentrically enclose the physical body in the order in which they have been presented here. The I-body carries sophisticated human traits such as confidence, individuality and morality and thereby the immortal part of man. Only those who have reached the final destination on the path of cognition (q.v.), namely intuition, are capable of perceiving the I-body. Steiner presents convictions about the interrelatedness of these jour bodies and views various human ailments as the result of particular imbalances among them. His explanations also offer more complex seven-part and nine-part concepts of man. BODY, THE ASTRAL: See man's four bodies. BODY, THE ETHERIC: See man's four bodies. BODY, THE PHYSICAL: See man's four bodies. COGNITION, THE PATH OF: Steiner envisions a three-step meditative process which leads the inclined person to awareness of the extrasensory world (see anthroposophy). 1) The stage of imagination describes

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a most basic extension of awareness to the spiritual world. 2) The stage of inspiration involves expanding the context of one's spiritual awareness; Steiner understands inspiration as spiritual listening. 3) The stage of intuition characterizes the achievement of a selfless and direct experiencing of spiritual essence and ideas. Before embarking on this path of cognition, however, the participant must prepare her- or himself through the acquisition of five specific traits: thought control, will impulse control, composure in the face of desire and suffering, positivism in judging the world, and impartiality of life view. In a concrete sense, the person wishing to commune with the extrasensory world should set 15 minutes a day for meditation. CORE, THE SPIRITUAL: This dimension of man, which forms the most non-physical of man's four bodies (q.v.), thel-body (q.v.), is passed on from one reincarnation to the next COSMIC FORCES OF BEING, THE FOUR: See four-part human makeup. CULTURAL AGES, THE SEVEN: This seven-part chronological scheme represents one level of Steiner's compartmentalized understanding of history, all history is broken up into seven planetary ages (q.v.). Each of these is itself divided into seven life states (q.v.); each of the seven life states is, in turn, divided into seven form states (q.v.). Steiner furthermore divides the earth's current form state into yet another seven ages (q.v.). And Steiner, once again, divides one of these seven ages, the post-Atlantic age (q.v.), into seven cultural ages which reflect

known developments in the history of human civilization. The first cultural age, the Old Indie Cultural Age, began in 7227 BC. The second cultural age, the Old Persian Cultural Age, stretched from 5067 to 2907 BC. The third cultural age, the Egyptian-Chaldaic Age, lasted from 2907 to 747 BC. The fourth cultural age, the Greek-Latin cultural age, occurred between 747 BC and 1413 AD. Mankind now finds itself in the fifth cultural age. Steiner associates each age with particular aspects in the development of humanity. DEVELOPMENT LAW OF THE WORLD AND HUMANITY, THE FUNDAMENTAL: The

universe and man have arisen from a godly-spiritual primordial earth. World and man alike go down a path of incarnation which brings them back to the spiritual, the world in the form of seven planetary ages, man in the form of infinite biographies.

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See the law of reincarnation and karma. ETHERIC: See man's four bodies. FORM STATES, THE SEVEN: Steiner divides each of the seven life states (q.v.) into sevenform states. Steiner further divides the earth's current form state, the physical form state, into seven ages (q.v.). HUMAN MAKEUP, THE FOUR-PART: See man's four bodies. HYPERBORAIC AGE, THE: This is the second of Steiner's seven ages (q.v.). During this age the earth, which during the previous Polaric age (q.v.) consisted merely of (immaterial) ether, begins to materialize, first into air and later into a water-like substance. The sun is formed of earthen ether during this age. The Lemuric age (q.v.) follows the Hyperboraic age.

EQUALIZATION, THE LAW OF COSMIC:

I, THE: In contrast to widespread contemporary views, Steiner's / is a 'mirror' in which the highest level of ideas can see itself. See man's four bodies. See man's four bodies. IMAGINATION: See the path of cognition. INSPIRATION: See the path of cognition. INTUITION: See the path of cognition. KARMA: See the law of reincarnation and karma. I-BODY, THE:

The third of Steiner's seven ages (q.v.), the name of which recalls the continent of Lemuria, is thought to have connected Africa with Australia via Madagascar. Steiner asserts that this age bears witness to the Lucifer event, which recalls the biblical tale of the Fall of Man (Original Sin). This event effects numerous specific developments in man, a heightened interest in things material and a development of individual identity among them. The moon (q.v.) develops from the earth during this age. Material changes brought about by the expulsion of the matter which becomes the moon lead to development of the human being. Man now walks upright on the earth, thinks and speaks, and becomes a gender-specific being.

LEMURIC AGE, THE:

The Atlantic age (q.v.) follows the Lemuric age. LIFE STATES, THE SEVEN: Steiner divides each of the seven planetary ages (q.v.) into seven life states. These are divided further still into seven form states (q.v.) respectively. LUCIFER EVENT, THE: See the Lemuric age.

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Glossary

See the Atlantic age. See the Lemuric age and also see the path to incarnation in seven planetary ages. PHASES, THE SEVEN-YEAR: See the four births. MANU:

MOON:

PLANETARY AGES, THE PATH TO INCARNATION IN SEVEN; THE SEVEN PLAN-

Following the initial emanation of spiritual substance into the world, seven planetary ages or incarnations occur. In this process, earth first becomes increasingly material and then increasingly spiritual in nature. Each planetary age is separated from the others by a period of rest known as a world night. Steiner gave each planetary incarnation or age a specific name: 1) The Saturn level, which is associated with the element of fire or warmth: during this age the earth (or, in analogy, man) develops in a physical sense. It is a physical-mineral age; 2) The sun stage: air forms; and the resulting so-called ethericbody (see man's four bodies) is vegetative in nature and thus gives rise to the world of plants, which Steiner views as a sort of deep-sleep consciousness; 3) The moon stage: the so-called astral body (see man's four bodies) forms, giving rise to water. Steiner views this as an animalistic state of dream and image consciousness; 4) The earth stage: the earth is the element of this stage during which a so-called world body separates and becomes the sun. The fire-spark emanating from the sun effects the development of man's /, which possesses waking consciousness and cognitive activities. Man is currently in this planetary age. In other words, the earth we know represents the fourth planetary age. Steiner's understanding of the four-part nature of the human being reflects these four planetary ages (see thefour-part human makeup). Three planetary ages are yet to come; 5) The Jupiter state: In this age mineral powers will disappear by becoming vegetative. By focusing on their I-activities, humans will transform their astral body (see man's four bodies) into the spiritual self and thereby achieve the extrasensory cognitive ability of imagination; 6) The Venus state: the vegetative powers now disappear; the etheric body (see man's four bodies) spiritualizes; man reaches the life spirit state of consciousness and inspiration; 7) The volcano state: the astral-emotional powers undergo a transformation which leads man to the state of consciousness characteristic of a ETARY INCARNATIONS:

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257

spiritual being. Only in this seventh and final planetary age will man reach the end of the path of cognition (q.v.). Each of these seven planetary ages is itself divided into seven life states (q.v.); each of the seven life states is, in turn, divided into seven form states (q.v.). Steiner furthermore divides the earth's current form state (q.v.) into yet another seven ages (q.v.). POLARIC AGE, THE: This is the first of Steiner's seven ages (q.v.). During this age the earth consists exclusively of (immaterial) ether (see man's four bodies). This non-physical substance is itself encased by a non-material atmosphere in a manner akin to Steiner's concept of the astral body (see man's four bodies). The Hyperboraic age (q.v.) follows thePolaric age. POST-ATLANTIC AGE, THE: This is the fifth of Steiner's seven ages (q.v.). It commences in 7227 BC with what is otherwise known as the (first) Old Indie Cultural Age. This age is further subdivided into seven cultural ages (q.v.) which parallel known developments in the history of human civilization. Steiner observes a trend during this age towards the development of immaterial human traits which evolve through man's observation of the physical world. REAUSTIC, ESSENTIALISTIC VIEW OF IDEAS, THE BASIS OF STEINER'S: Steiner's understanding of ideas presupposes a mystic view which rejects the separation of subject and object. In this view, intuition plays a central role and is not subordinate to empiricism. REINCARNATION AND KARMA, THE LAW OF: Steiner subscribed to the idea that an individual's spirit is passed on from one physical being to the next through reincarnation. In Steiner's version, the I-body (see man's four bodies), the spiritual essence of a human being, will have been incarnated in a series of human lives over a period of roughly 1,000 years. Earthly lives are separated from one another by extrasensory sojourns, or world nights (see the path to incarnation in seven planetary ages). Steiner sees each particular human condition as a function of the larger development of a particular spirit or I-body (see man's four bodies). This is demonstrated in, for instance, his law of cosmic equalization, according to which individuals guilty of inflicting suffering upon others will - either in the further course of a current physical existence or in a later incarnation - experience

258

Glossary

an equal amount of compensatory suffering. The Indian term karma refers to self-determined human fate. SUN: See the Atlantic age, the Hyperboraic age, as well as the path to incarnation in seven planetary ages.

Allied with his concept of man's four bodies (q.v.) is Steiner's employment of the Galenic

TEMPERAMENTS, THE DOCTRINE OF THE FOUR:

temperament types of late antiquity: melancholic, phlegmatic, san-

guine, and choleric. Each temperament represents not simply a personality, but a specific psychophysical type. Two variables, the degree of excitability (shown by the subject in reaction to external factors) and the strength of effect (of the subject upon external factors) define each temperament. The melancholic temperament is low in excitability and high in effect. The phlegmatic temperament is lowest in excitability and lowest in strength. The sanguine temperament is high in excitability and weak in effect The choleric temperament is highest in excitability and highest in strength. Steiner recognizes parallels between man's four bodies (q.v.) and the four temperaments.

A domination of the physical body (see man's four bodies) characterizes the melancholic temperament. A strong etheric body (see man's four bodies) characterizes the phlegmatic temperament. In the case of the sanguine temperament, it is the astral body (see man's four bodies) which

predominates. The I-body (see man's four bodies) dominates blood circulation in the case of the choleric temperament.

Independent of his concept of man's four bodies (q.v.), Steiner also promulgated a tripartite understanding of the human organism which he predicates upon the three basic emotional functions of thinking,

THREE-FOLDEDNESS OF THE HUMAN ORGANISM, THE FUNCTIONAL:

feeling and wanting. He identifies an upper nerve-sense-pole (represent-

ing thought) in the head region (including the nervous system), a lower metabolism-extremities-pole in the arms and legs (representing

desire), and a third mediating area (representing feeling) located in the rhythmic breathing and circulatory systems which harmonizes the tension between the two aforementioned poles. Steiner furthermore associates each of these three basic emotional functions with a particular sort of time experience: in the area of thought, memory of the past is crucial. In the area of desire, it is the future which is key. In the feeling area, the sense for the

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259

present dominates. This concept is of particular importance in anthroposophical (q.v.) medicine and pedagogy. WORLD NIGHTS: See the path to incarnation in seven planetary ages. WORLD ORGANISM: The

origin whence the spiritual has emanated. Steiner structures his epistemological theory into three levels. The first level is that of the directly given, i.e. that which is beyond the realm of thought. The second level is that of thought. On this level we can view the world as a collection of ideas. The third level is that of the intellectual view or intuition. Here the emphasis is on spiritual perception of being as opposed to empiricism.

WORLD PERCEPTION, THREE LEVELS OF:

Note 1. The information presented here is drawn mostly from the main text of this book. Some elements of some definitions are expanded according to Baumann, Adolf (1991), Worterbtich der Anthroposophie: Grundlagen, Begriffe, Einbliche. Munich: mvg-Verlag.

Index

ages, seven ages of the world, 55-7, 251,255-7 life ages, hebdomadal scheme, 72-5,128,133-4,252 anarchism, 16-17,23 Anthroposophical Society, 24, 27, 155,250 authority, in education, 77-8, 86-8,178-9, 208-9 autobiography, 2, 22,122 autodidact,2,9, 76 Besant, Annie, 19-21,26-7 basis phenomenon ("urphanomen"), 10-13,48, 106-8,176-7 bodies of Man, 55, 59-63, 66, 70-4,109,117,252-3, Camphill, 119-20 Christianity, 19, 25-27, 84,113, 119,138-9,159,187 class teacher, 85-100, 141, 146, 149,153,163,169-70,178, 187-8,203, 210-24 cosmogony, 55

editor, 4, 8,14-18 epistemology, 14, 40-9,123-4, 160 epoch instruction, 86,101,145, 154,196 eurythmy, 28-30,84,91 evaluation (of Waldorf schools), 185-204 evolution of cosmos, 55-9 extrasensory world, 4&-51, 67, 109,251,253-4 Freinet, Celestin, 34,141-51 gnosis, 39,135-9 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 43-8,104-7,160,173, 204 Goethe's worldview, 12,14, 43, 159 Goetheanistic, 39,103-8,127, 176, 223 Goetheanum, 18, 28-30, 98, 111, 252 Haeckel, Ernst, 6,15,17, 22 Herbartianism, 85,152-4,163

Darwinism, 6, 22 Jena-Plan school, 141-50,181 Dewey, John, 33, 76, 86, 94-5, 98 idealism, 2,4-6,8,11,12, doctorate, 13-14 44-9,160

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Index

idealistic morphology, 8-12, 37, 44,104 Jesus Christ, 20, 25-7, 55, 58-9, 122,138-9 Kant, Immanuel, 2,12, 39, 44-6, 123-7 karma, 20-1, 67-9, 72, 78-9,117, 124-6, 257 meditation, 19-20,51-3,139, 251, 254 metamorphosis, 11,22,29-30, 52,67,88,106-7,118,132, 134,173 microcosm, 10-12,23,28,31,50, 58, 76, 80-1,105,109,129 monism, 6,15, 22, 42-4 Montessori, Maria, 11,33,76,82, 86,112,141-51,181 mystery drama, 28-9 mysticism, 7,15,18-9, 39, 42-8, 127,136-40, 257 myth (mythical thought), 43-4, 49, 75, 89, 96,127-35,138-9, 202, 223 National Socialist (Nazi), 119, 155-7 neo-Platonism, 7, 42-4 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 5, 16-18 path of cognition, 20-2,27,47, 49, 51-5,136,138-9, 253-4

Progressive Education (New Education), 17,33-4,76, 140-2,151,158,181, 222 reincarnation, 20-2, 27, 32, 50, 55,63,67-9,78,81,109,111, 117,125-6,135,254-5, 257 report card, 83, 87-90, 99-100, 148, 208 Sivers, Marie von, 19,24,28 spiritual world, 3, 20-9, 49-60, 67,70,78,111-12,137-9, 253 teacher-pupil-relationships, 169, 203, 207-21 temperament (four temperaments), 61,69-72, 78-81, 86-93,127-9,164-5, 257-8 theosophy, 14-15,19-27, 49, 130 Theosophical Society, 18-27 threefold structure (of social organism), 17, 30-2, 65,109, 258 tutor, 2,4 Waldorf school graduates (former pupils), 192-201 Waldorf teachers, 100-1,149, 159,161,170-2,185-9,197, 204-6