Sophia Institute online Waldorf Certificate Program
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The Sophia Institute was founded in 2000 when a group of parents and teachers requested a foundation course in Anthroposophy and Waldorf Education in Viroqua, Wisconsin (USA). Conrad Rehbach, a certified Waldorf teacher with many years of teaching experience in Waldorf grade school teaching, Waldorf High School teaching and therapeutic work in the Camphill Movement, founded the Sophia Institute Foundation Courses in Anthroposophy and the Arts. Within a year's time the first group of students graduated from the course. Over the years a diverse faculty has contributed to the growth of the programs including Waldorf Teacher Certificate Programs, Foundation Courses Programs, Introductory Courses and Summer Intensives Courses, which became successful programs attracting students from a near and far, and preparing them for Waldorf teaching and/or deepening their understanding of Waldorf pedagogy and Anthroposophy.
The Sophia Institute and especially the Foundation Courses in Anthroposophy were originally developed primarily with an eye towards those individuals who want to become Waldorf grades teachers. Over the years of offering and teaching these courses, we encountered a wide variety of interests, and many of the students were early childhood or Kindergarten teachers, parents of students in the Waldorf schools, grades teachers, high school teachers, people interested in bio-dynamic farming, administrators, fundraisers, development coordinators, etc. All had a deep interest in learning more or deepening their understanding of Anthroposophy. As we believe in and practice a collaborative learning style, where the group of students, together with their teachers forms a temporary learning community, the contributions that each individual brings to the learning community is an integral part of the learning experience, and determines the course’s direction. The Sophia Institute Courses and the other activities of the Sophia Institute have been influenced and shaped by this process of collaboration. Another inspiration to the creation and practice of the Sophia Institute and its work has been given by Tamara Slayton (1950 – 2003), Waldorf educator, author, and workshop leader. We were fortunate to learn from Tamara, and regard her as one of our guides in this work of bringing about temporary collaborative learning communities, that strive towards the experience of spiritual insights in a participatory and inclusive learning style both in adult education and in teaching children. The Sophia Institute courses are designed to meet the needs of those individuals who want to develop their artistic abilities, and acquaint themselves with, or deepen their understanding of the basic world-view of Anthroposophy brought by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). The achievements inspired by Anthroposophy can be seen today throughout the modern world. It is attracting those people who wish to work out of new impulses in the fields of agriculture, the arts, education, curative education, social therapy, natural sciences, and medicine.
The Foundation Courses and Waldorf Certificate Program are similar to the Foundation Courses and Waldorf Certificate Programs offered by the other Waldorf Teacher Training Centers in the USA and Canada and prepare students to teach in Waldorf Schools, Waldorf Kindergarten and Pre-Schools, and Waldorf High Schools. Our graduates receive a certificate and have found work in Waldorf schools or other Anthroposophical organizations. Foundation Studies students have also transferred successfully into other teacher training programs and have received full credit for the courses taken at Sophia Institute. The completed Foundation Courses (or equivalent) are required for enrollment in most Waldorf Teacher Training programs. Foundation Studies in Anthroposophy and the Arts, while providing a background for those wishing to become teachers in Waldorf Schools, also offers the same opportunity to others who are interested in learning more about how they may work in the world, guided by a foundation in Anthroposophy. In the Foundation Studies Courses broad themes of the essential nature of the human being and human development are taken up on many different levels. |
Recommended Reading List
Please find the recommended reading list for the Foundation Studies and the Waldorf Program (Semester 1 and 2) here.
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Tasks and Assignments for Lesson FS 1.1.
One of the mysteries that we all encounter in our lives, even though we might not always be aware of it, is indeed our own biography. In our day to day life, we might pay little attention to this mystery, and only if dramatic events enter our life and cause us to stop and reflect, we may become aware of underlying currents or tendencies that reveal themselves to us upon examining our life.
Using a diary or journal, or at least to reflect from time to time on our life, is an important practice in becoming more conscious of our biography. In this first lesson, we try to turn to our life’s story in a particular way, trying to detect patterns and gain insights into our biography by looking at it through the lens of the seven year periods. While during the first three seven year periods obvious and significant changes occur at the transition from one into the next, as the change of teeth around age seven, and the entry into grade school at that time, or the onset of puberty around age fourteen, later in life we might not be so aware of these transitions, and we might need to make extra efforts in order to become conscious of these changes in ourselves and in our biography. Consider your biography and the 7 year rhythm drawing on your own experience and study. The main recommended study material is the book “Phases” by Bernard Lievegoed in which Lievegood states: “The human biography is a symphony which each individual personally composes." While each person's path in life is a unique and individual 'work of art', the human being meets certain milestones - from the period of adolescence to old age - which are universal in nature. Regardless of background, critical outer and inner stages must be passed through. "Phases" describes each period of life - adolescence, the twenties, thirties, forties, etc. - and looks at the inner qualities and challenges that arise at each stage. The author argues that the various biological and psychological explanations of the human being are incomplete. If the inner self, the ego, of each individual is recognized and acknowledged, then the peculiarities of one's particular life-path and its challenges take on new meaning. Bernard Lievegoed - psychiatrist, educator and anthroposophist - brought half a century of clinical practice, studious observation and personal insight into the writing of the book "Phases." His overview of the course of human life and professional career, of male-female relationships, and the sometimes misleading picture of the human being presented by the various psychological schools of thought, has made this book essential reading for all those interested in attaining an insight into the mysteries of life. In Anthroposophical parlance we find the life phases structuerd and depicted in the following way. For those already familiar with some of the concepts and ideas of Anthroposophy, this division and description of the life phases will be easily recognized, for those less familiar with these concepts, it may serve as a guide that can be referred back to in later lessons when this theme will again be looked at and deepened: 0 - 7 Childhood/physical body/willing 7 - 14 Grades school/childhood/etheric body/feeling 14 - 21 High school/college/etc./adolescence/astral body/thinking 21 - 28 Sentient soul age 28 - 35 Intellectual soul age 35 - 42 Consciousness soul age 42 - 49 Spirit self age/transformed astral body 49 - 56 Life spirit age/transformed etheric body 56 - 63 Spirit man age/transformed physical body 63 - Old age/wisdom Specific tasks and assignments: Please concern yourself for a period of time with your own background, motivation, and career choices. Describe - like you would do in a group of like minded students that are all interested in Anthroposophy - your own path in life up to this present moment with special attention towards questions and experiences that led you to an interest in Anthroposophy and spiritual/philosophical questions. Please structure your description in such a way that you try to describe each 7 year period of your life (0 to 7, 7 to 14, 14 - 21, etc) separately, as if forming a unit in itself, within your biography. At the end of the description of each 7 year period, try to state a motto that sounds true for your life experience during this period, and compose a poem that tries to express your feelings and significance about this period. Recommended reading:
"Phases. The Spiritual Rhythms of Adult Life" by Bernard Lievegood "Biographical Work. The Anthoposophical Basis" by Gudrun Burkhard "Taking Charge: Your Life Patterns and Their Meaning" by Gudrun Burkhard |
Guidelines/Example for Biography in 7 Year Periods
Biography in 7 year phases for … (name)
0 - 7 Childhood/physical body/willing Summary: … (For instance: I was born on a farm in the Midwest into a farming family and I experienced the joys and struggles of this kind of life in close connection to nature and its wisdom until age 5 when my family moved to Chicago where (lucky me) I landed up in Ms. Annie's Waldorf kindergarten … ) (Year) Birth/Location/Date/Circumstances (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (For instance: My brother was born … ) (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (For instance: We moved to the city … ) (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: (For instance … growing up on a farm on the prairies I felt free and loved nature … or my backyard was my paradise … Poem: … I see my father at my side / the sky is so blue, far and wide / my mother is a great cook / the prairie is my lesson book … (simple rhyme, 8 syllables per line) 7 - 14 Grades school/childhood/etheric body/feeling Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 14 - 21 High school/college/etc./adolescence/astral body/thinking Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 21 - 28 Sentient soul age Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 28 - 35 Intellectual soul age Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 35 - 42 Consciousness soul age Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 42 - 49 Spirit self age/transformed astral body Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 49 - 56 Life spirit age/transformed etheric body Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 56 - 63 Spirit man age/transformed physical body Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … 63 - old age/wisdom Summary: ... (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events … (Year) Events ... Motto: ... Poem: … |
Study Material/Biography Studies
0 - 7 Childhood/Physical Body/Willing “The most important thing we can give the growing person for his path through life is a sense of assurance, trust and security- the feeling of being welcome in this world of people through which he receives love and warmth. Assurance and trust come from a rhythmic life and from consistency in the child’s encounters; security comes from the warm love of his surroundings.” -Bernard Lievegoed
This phase of our life is usually the most unconscious but at the same time the most determining period for our later life. Attitudes and character traits, habits and patterns are being formed. Modern psychology agrees that the first years of our life determine much of our development as adults, with the first three years being of singular importance. Karl König, the founder of the Camphill Movement, states in his book "The The First Three Years of The Child: Walking, Speaking, Thinking" the following: that we all go through basic and archetypal steps in our development as little children. Typically at the end of our first year we learn how to become upright and to walk, at the end of the second year he learn to speak and finally on the basis of the language we have learned we start to think. This development is accompanied typically by the first time the child uses the word "I" for itself and often our memory reaches back to approximately this point in time. Rudolf Steiner describes in "Theosophy" the following: "In the course of his development as a child, there comes a moment in the life of a man when for the first time he feels himself to be an independent being distinct from all the rest of the world. For sensitive natures, it is a significant experience. The poet, Jean Paul, says in his autobiography, “I shall never forget the event that took place within me, hitherto narrated to no one and of which I can give place and time, when I stood present at the birth of my self-consciousness. As a small child I stood one morning at the door of the house looking towards the wood-pile on my left, when suddenly the inner vision, I am an I, came upon me like a flash of lightning from heaven and has remained shining ever since. In that moment my ego had seen itself for the first time and forever. Any deception of memory is hardly to be conceived as possible here, for no narrations by outsiders could have introduced additions to an occurrence that took place in the holy of holies of a human being, and of which the novelty alone gave permanence to such everyday surroundings.” It is known that little children say of themselves, 'Charles is good.' 'Mary wants to have this.' One feels it is to be right that they speak of themselves as if of others because they have not yet become conscious of their independent existence, and the consciousness of the self is not yet born in them. Through self-consciousness man describes himself as an independent being separate from all others, as 'I.' In his 'I' he brings together all that he experiences as a being with body and soul. Body and soul are the carriers of the ego or 'I,' and in them it acts. Just as the physical body has its center in the brain, so has the soul its center in the ego. Man is aroused to sensations by impacts from without; feelings manifest themselves as effects of the outer world; the will relates itself to the outside world, realizing itself in external actions. The 'I' as the particular and essential being of man remains quite invisible. With excellent judgment, therefore, does Jean Paul call a man's recognition of his ego an 'occurrence taking place only in the veiled holy of holies of a human being,' for with his 'I' man is quite alone. This 'I' is the very man himself. That justifies him in regarding his ego as his true being. He may, therefore, describe his body and his soul as the sheaths or veils within which he lives, and he may describe them as bodily conditions through which he acts. In the course of his evolution he learns to regard these tools ever more as instruments of service to his ego. The little word 'I' is a name which differs from all others. Anyone who reflects in an appropriate manner on the nature of this name will find that in so doing an avenue opens itself to the understanding of the human being in the deeper sense. Any other name can be applied to its corresponding object by all men in the same way. Anybody can call a table, table, or a chair, chair. This is not so with the name 'I.' No one can use it in referring to another person. Each one can call only himself 'I.' Never can the name 'I' reach my ears from outside when it refers to me. Only from within, only through itself, can the soul refer to itself as 'I.' When man therefore says 'I' to himself, something begins to speak in him that has to do with none of the worlds from which the sheaths so far mentioned are taken. The 'I' becomes increasingly the ruler of body and soul." These archetypal steps of development, uprightness and walking, speaking and thinking, and the moment when we for the first time use the word "I" for ourselves determine much of our later development. In a sense we can read in these developmental steps and in how and when we accomplish them our personality in all its facets and potential. Reflecting back on this time in our life is essential in trying to gain an understanding of ourselves and our biography. 7 - 14 Grades School/Childhood/Etheric Body/Feeling“Childish fantasy lays the foundations for creativity in the social life and career of later years ... The child must be convinced that the world is full of joy and beauty.” -Bernard Lievegoed
Traditionally children were admitted to 1st grade at age seven around the time of the change of teeth. We are now in a phase were we learn about the world and also how to function as a social being in connection with others. School and teachers become important guides in our life. During this phase - especially compared to the first seven year period - we enter now a time of increased seclusion. We turn more towards ourselves, we explore the qualities of our own mind in thinking, feeling and willing. We do this with the power of fantasy. We now live in our own garden surrounded by a high wall: Inside we find ourselves and we build a world of our own in which we can do everything that we cannot yet do in the real world outside. Now if we have been unable to fantasize and daydream for whatever reason during this phase of our life the result might be more often than not that in later life we lack spontaneity and develop social difficulties. What helps most during this time of development is artistically minded teaching, creative play and story-telling. Ideally we experience during this phase that the world is full of joy and full of beauty, Beauty in this context has a different meaning for us in comparison to the adults in our life who might not see the beauty of a little insect or a pebble that has been found at the bank of a river. Clearly this period is ruled by feelings! And we need to be able to exercise our feelings. Our development in this cycle is very much influenced by education - for good or ill. An education that takes into account the need for emotional exercise (like for instance Waldorf Education) helps us to promote a healthy emotional balance between the self and the world. We do become during this second seven year cycle more self-conscious, more centered and more analytical. Especially the amazing mental expansion usually occurring around the twelfth year should be noted. Often we experience this change and maturing such that we are able to deal with more intellectual material from then onward. Geometry and geography, history and the understanding and relating to time take on new meaning and our sense for cause and effect gives us the key to understanding and relating to science. Rudolf Steiner points out much of what is happening during this phase and how education has to address the growing child's needs. In particular he describes in "Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy" the following: "With the change of teeth, when the etheric body lays aside its outer etheric envelope, there begins the time when the etheric body can be worked upon by education from without. We must be quite clear what it is that can work upon the etheric body from without, The formation and growth of the etheric body means the moulding and developing of the inclinations and habits, of the conscience, the character, the memory and temperament. The etheric body is worked upon through pictures and examples — i.e. by carefully guiding the imagination of the child. As before the age of seven we have to give the child the actual physical pattern for him to copy, so between the time of the change of teeth and puberty we must bring into his environment things with the right inner meaning and value. For it is from the inner meaning and value of things that the growing child will now take guidance. Whatever is fraught with a deep meaning that works through pictures and allegories, is the right thing for these years. The etheric body will unfold its forces if the 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 conceptions that work in the right way on the growing etheric body, but rather what is seen and perceived — not indeed with the outward senses, but with the eye of the mind. This seeing and perceiving is the right means of education for these years. For this reason it matters above all that the boy and girl should have as their teachers persons who can awaken in them, as they see and watch them, the right intellectual and moral powers. As for the first years of childhood Imitation and Example were, so to say, the magic words for education, so for the years of this second period the magic words are Discipleship and Authority. What the child sees directly in his educators, with inner perception, must become for him authority — not an authority compelled by force, but one that he accepts naturally without question. By it he will build up his conscience, habits and inclinations; by it he will bring his temperament into an ordered path. He will look out upon the things of the world as it were through its eyes. Those beautiful words of the poet, ‘Every man must choose his hero, in whose footsteps he will tread as he carves out his path to the heights of Olympus,’ have especial meaning for this time of life. Veneration and reverence are forces whereby the etheric body grows in the right way. If it was impossible during these years to look up to another person with unbounded reverence, one will have to suffer for the loss throughout the whole of one's later life. Where reverence is lacking, the living forces of the etheric body are stunted in their growth. Picture to yourself how such an incident as the following works upon the character of a child. A boy of eight years old hears tell of someone who is truly worthy of honour and respect. All that he hears of him inspires in the boy a holy awe. The day draws near when for the first time he will be able to see him. With trembling hand he lifts the latch of the door behind which will appear before his sight the person he reveres. The beautiful feelings such an experience calls forth are among the lasting treasures of life. Happy is he who, not only in the solemn moments of life but continually, is able to look up to his teachers and educators as to his natural and unquestioned authorities. Beside these living authorities, who as it were embody for the child intellectual and moral strength, there should also be those he can only apprehend with the mind and spirit, who likewise become for him authorities. The outstanding figures of history, stories of the lives of great men and women: let these determine the conscience and the direction of the mind. Abstract moral maxims are not yet to be used; they can only begin to have a helpful influence, when at the age of puberty the astral body liberates itself from its astral mother-envelope. In the history lesson especially, the teacher should lead his teaching in the direction thus indicated. When telling stories of all kinds to little children before the change of teeth, our aim cannot be more than to awaken delight and vivacity and a happy enjoyment of the story. But after the change of teeth, we have in addition something else to bear in mind in choosing our material for stories; and that is, that we are placing before the boy or girl pictures of life that will arouse a spirit of emulation in the soul. The fact should not be overlooked that bad habits may be completely overcome by drawing attention to appropriate instances that shock or repel the child. Reprimands give at best but little help in the matter of habits and inclinations. If, however, we show the living picture of a man who has given way to a similar bad habit, and let the child see where such an inclination actually leads, this will work upon the young imagination and go a long way towards the uprooting of the habit. The fact must always be remembered: it is not abstract ideas that have an influence on the developing etheric body, but living pictures that are seen and comprehended inwardly. The suggestion that has just been made certainly needs to be carried out with great tact, so that the effect may not be reversed and turn out the very opposite of what was intended. In the telling of stories everything depends upon the art of telling. Narration by word of mouth cannot, therefore, simply be replaced by reading. In another connection too, the presentation of living pictures, or as we might say of symbols, to the mind, is important for the period between the change of teeth and puberty. It is essential that the secrets of Nature, the laws of life, be taught to the boy or girl, not in dry intellectual concepts, but as far as possible in symbols. Parables of the spiritual connections of things should be brought before the soul of the child in such a manner that behind the parables he divines and feels, rather than grasps intellectually, the underlying law in all existence. ‘All that is passing is but a parable,’ must be the maxim guiding all our education in this period. It is of vast importance for the child that he should receive the secrets of Nature in parables, before they are brought before his soul in the form of ‘natural laws’ and the like. An example may serve to make this clear. Let us imagine that we want to tell a child of the immortality of the soul, of the coming forth of the soul from the body. The way to do this is to use a comparison, such for example as the comparison of the butterfly coming forth from the chrysalis. As the butterfly soars up from the chrysalis, so after death the soul of man from the house of the body. No man will rightly grasp the fact in intellectual concepts, who has not first received it in such a picture. By such a parable, we speak not merely to the intellect but to the feeling of the child, to all his soul. A child who has experienced this, will approach the subject with an altogether different mood of soul, when later it is taught him in the form of intellectual concepts. It is indeed a very serious matter for any man, if he was not first enabled to approach the problems of existence with his feeling. Thus it is essential that the educator have at his disposal parables for all the laws of Nature and secrets of the World. Here we have an excellent opportunity to observe with what effect the spiritual knowledge of Anthroposophy must work in life and practice. When the teacher comes before a class of children, armed with parables he has ‘made up’ out of an intellectual materialistic mode of thought, he will as a rule make little impression upon them. For he has first to puzzle out the parables for himself with all his intellectual cleverness. Parables to which one has first had to condescend have no convincing effect on those who listen to them. For when one speaks in parable and picture, it is not only what is spoken and shown that works upon the hearer, but a fine spiritual stream passes from the one to the other, from him who gives to him who receives. If he who tells has not himself the warm feeling of belief in his parable, he will make no impression on the other. For real effectiveness, it is essential to believe in one's parables as in absolute realities. And this can only be when one's thought is alive with spiritual knowledge. Take for instance the parable of which we have been speaking. The true student of Anthroposophy need not torment himself to think it out. For him it is reality. In the coming forth of the butterfly from the chrysalis he sees at work on a lower level of being the very same process that is repeated, on a higher level and at a higher stage of development, in the coming forth of the soul from the body. He believes in it with his whole might; and this belief streams as it were unseen from speaker to hearer, carrying conviction. Life flows freely, unhindered, back and forth from teacher to pupil. But for this it is necessary that the teacher draw from the full fountain of spiritual knowledge. His words and all that comes from him must receive feeling, warmth and colour from a truly anthroposophic way of thought. A wonderful prospect is thus opened out over the whole field of education. If it will but let itself be enriched from the well of life that Anthroposophy contains, education will itself be filled with life and understanding. There will no longer be that groping which is now so prevalent. All art and practice of education that is not continually receiving fresh nourishment from such roots as these is dry and dead. The spiritual knowledge of Anthroposophy has for all the secrets of the world appropriate parables — pictures taken from the very being of the things, pictures not first made by man, but laid by the forces of the world within the things themselves in the very act of their creation. Therefore this spiritual knowledge must form the living basis for the whole art of education. A force of the soul on which particular value must be set during this period of man's development, is memory. The development of the memory is bound up with the moulding of the etheric body. Since the latter takes place in such a way that the etheric body becomes liberated between the change of teeth and puberty, so too this is the tune for a conscious attention from without to the growth and cultivation of the memory. If what is due to the human being at this time has been neglected, his memory will ever after have less value than it might otherwise have had. It is not possible later to make up for what has been left undone. In this connection many mistakes may be made by an intellectual materialistic way of thought. An art of education based on such a way of thought easily arrives at a condemnation of what is mastered merely by memory. It will often set itself untiringly and emphatically against the mere training of the memory, and will employ the subtlest methods to ensure that the boy or girl commits nothing to memory that he does not intellectually understand. Yes, and after all, how much has really been gained by such intellectual understanding? A materialistic way of thought is so easily led to believe that any further penetration into things, beyond the intellectual concepts that are as it were extracted from them, simply does not exist; and only with great difficulty will it fight its way through to the perception that the other forces of the soul are at least as necessary as the intellect, if we are to gain a comprehension of things. It is no mere figure of speech to say that man can understand with his feeling, his sentiment, his inner disposition, as well as with his intellect. Intellectual concepts are only one of the means we have to understand the things of this world, and it is only to the materialistic thinker that they appear as the sole means. Of course there are many who do not consider themselves materialists, who yet regard an intellectual conception of things as the only kind of understanding. Such people profess perhaps an idealistic or even a spiritual outlook. But in their soul they relate themselves to it in a materialistic way. For the intellect is in effect the instrument of the soul for understanding what is material. We have already alluded to Jean Paul's excellent book on education; and a passage from it, bearing on this subject of the deeper foundations of the understanding, may well be quoted here. Jean Paul's book contains, indeed, many a golden word on education, and deserves far more attention than it receives. It is of greater value for the teacher than many of the educational works that are held in highest regard to-day. The passage runs as follows: — ‘Have no fear of going beyond the childish understanding, even in whole sentences. Your expression and the tone of your voice, aided by the child's intuitive eagerness to understand, will light up half the meaning, and with it in course of time the other half. It is with children as with the Chinese and people of refinement; the tone is half the language. Remember, the child learns to understand his own language before ever he learns to speak it, just as we do with Greek or any other foreign language. Trust to time and the connections of things to unravel the meaning. A child of five understands the words “yet,” “even,” “of course,” “just”; but now try to give an explanation of them — not to the child, but to his father! In the one word “of course” there lurks a little philosopher! If the eight-year-old child, with his developed speech, is understood by the child of three, why do you want to narrow down your language to the little one's childish prattle? Always speak to the child some years ahead — do not the men of genius speak to us centuries ahead in books? Talk to the one-year-old as if he were two, to the two-year-old as if he were six, for the difference in development diminishes in inverse ratio with the age. We are far too prone to credit the teachers with everything the children learn. We should remember that the child we have to educate bears half his world within him all there and ready taught, namely the spiritual half, including, for example, the moral and metaphysical ideas. For this very reason language, equipped as it is with material images alone, cannot give the spiritual archetypes; all it can do is to illumine them. The very brightness and decision of children should give us brightness and decision when we speak to them. We can learn from their speech as well as teach them through our own. Their word-building is bold, yet remarkably accurate! For instance, I have heard the following expressions used by three- or four-year-old children: — “the barreler” (for the maker of barrels) — “the sky-mouse” (for the bat) — “I am the seeing-through man” (standing behind the telescope) — “I'd like to be a ginger-bread-eater” — “he joked me down from the chair” — “See how one o'clock it is!” ...’ Our quotation refers, it is true, to a different subject from that with which we are immediately concerned; but what Jean Paul says about speech has its value in the present connection also. Here too there is an understanding which precedes the intellectual comprehension. The little child receives the structure of language into the living organism of his soul, and does not require the laws of language-formation in intellectual concepts for the process. Similarly the older boy and girl must learn for the cultivation of the memory much that they are not to master with their intellectual understanding until later years. Those things are afterwards best grasped in concepts, which have first been learned simply from memory in this period of life, even as the rules of language are best learned in a language one is already able to speak. So much talk against ‘unintelligent learning by heart’ is simply materialistic prejudice. The child need only, for instance, learn the essential rules of multiplication in a few given examples — and for these no apparatus is necessary; the fingers are much better for the purpose than any apparatus, — then he is ready to set to and memorize the whole multiplication table. Proceeding in this way, we shall be acting with due regard to the nature of the growing child. We shall, however, be offending against his nature, if at the time when the development of the memory is the important thing we are making too great a call upon the intellect." |
Thomas Cole: The Voyage of Life - Childhood (1842)
14 - 21 High school/College/etc./Adolescence/Astral Body/Thinking “ ... goodness, beauty and truth ... (are) ... the foundations of humanity. In youth they must be given the chance to unfold in order later to grow into morality, creativity and wisdom.” -Bernard Lievegoed
This 3rd 7 year phase which includes puberty and adolescence then usually provides the great breakthrough to reality and the wider world. Leaving the protective child-world the young person finds himself or herself faced with a reality and so-called world of the adult that is more often perceived as unfriendly, foreign and sometimes even dangerous and hostile. Loneliness, the sense of being understood by no one, but also a tendency towards hero worship sets in. Finding the right (or in some cases any) attitude towards the world becomes one of the tasks for the young person to accomplish and much depends on being able to arrive at such an arrangement with the outer world that does not inhibit the growing and now more conscious inner world and inner development. Ideologies, a picture of the world, religious striving and political striving are often tried on like a pair of shoes and the young person makes some steps in these new shoes only to discard them for different ones ... or we may say, the young persons tries out these shoes for a little dance, sometimes appearing awkward and at other times right in their element, but it is only a trying out, not to be taken too serious ... The main questions that arise during this phase are: - Where do I stand in the world? - What is the world really like? - What forces are at play in it? - What is the balance of power? - What do I mean in the world? The new ego experience during this time leads us to turn more inwards and to our own experiences. In asking ourselves what we mean in the world and for the world, we then turn our attention more to the outside again, but in uncertainty. We experience the conflict and contradiction of things and events being at the same time absolute and yet temporary. Much of our experience has the quality of being provisional and in the moment. Often unexpected turns enter our biography during this time which may be outer or inner events. An unusual situation might lift us out of our rut or on a whim we make a change that has far reaching consequences without us being aware of this at the time. Rudolf Steiner states the following concerning education for this period of life in "The Education of the Child in the Light of Anthroposophy." "With the age of puberty the astral body is first born. Henceforth the astral body in its development is open to the outside world. Only now, therefore, can we approach the child from without with all that opens up the world of abstract ideas, the faculty of judgement and independent thought. It has already been pointed out, how up to this time these faculties of soul should be developing — free from outer influence — within the environment provided by the education proper to the earlier years, even as the eyes and ears develop, free from outer influence, within the organism of the mother. With puberty the time has arrived when the human being is ripe for the formation of his own judgements about the things he has already learned. Nothing more harmful can be done to a child than to awaken too early his independent judgement. Man is not in a position to judge until he has collected in his inner life material for judgement and comparison. If he forms his own conclusions before doing so, his conclusions will lack foundation. Educational mistakes of this kind are the cause of all narrow onesidedness in life, all barren creeds that take their stand on a few scraps of knowledge and are ready on this basis to condemn ideas experienced and proved by man often through long ages. In order to be ripe for thought, one must have learned to be full of respect for what others have thought. There is no healthy thought which has not been preceded by a healthy feeling for the truth, a feeling for the truth supported by faith in authorities accepted naturally. Were this principle observed in education, there would no longer be so many people, who, imagining too soon that they are ripe for judgement, spoil their own power to receive openly and without bias the all-round impressions of life. Every judgement that is not built on a sufficient foundation of gathered knowledge and experience of soul throws a stumbling-block in the way of him who forms it. For having once pronounced a judgement concerning a matter, we are ever after influenced by this judgement. We no longer receive a new experience as we should have done, had we not already formed a judgement connected with it. The thought must take living hold in the child's mind, that he has first to learn and then to judge. What the intellect has to say concerning any matter, should only be said when all the other faculties of the soul have spoken. Before that time the intellect has only an intermediary part to play: its business is to grasp what takes place and is experienced in feeling, to receive it exactly as it is, not letting the unripe judgement come in at once and take possession. For this reason, up to the age of puberty the child should be spared all theories about things; the main consideration is that he should simply meet the experiences of life, receiving them into his soul. Certainly he can be told what different men have thought about this and that, but one must avoid his associating himself through a too early exercise of judgement with the one view or the other. Thus the opinions of men he should also receive with the feeling power of the soul. He should be able, without jumping to a decision or taking sides with this or that person, to listen to all, saying to himself: ‘This man said this, and that man that.’ The cultivation of such a mind in a boy or girl certainly demands the exercise of great tact from teachers and educators; but tact is just what anthroposophical thought can give." Thomas Cole: The Voyage of Life - Youth (1842)
21 - 28 Sentient Soul Age For many people this age period - from age 21 through age 28 - is at the same time tumultuous as well has highly satisfying - especially in retrospect.
The birth of the ego at or around age 21 is sometimes a quiet event, and for other people a sort of trial, perhaps accompanied by an accident, often including a brush with death either as a personal experience or via an event affecting someone close - perhaps a good friend. Many people describe this birth of the ego as a sort of awakening: "Everything looked different now!" might be the predominant feeling and thought after this trial has been suffered. Others again experience it more as becoming free, "unshackled" for the first time in their life. Before the birth of the ego event we experience the first lunar node. Often we drastically change environments, leave home, almost in a way of becoming conscious that for the next phase of our life we need to be in a different environment, perhaps in a large, unknown city, a foreign country, or a seemingly more desolate place than where we were before. Age 21 through 28 - the age of the sentient soul - is really about experiencing the world through the senses. Everything seems to be measured in this way: how does it feel, how do these sense impressions affect and change me? For some people this can be also a deeply inward experience, for some one of excesses that almost destroy us. But we do bounce back at this age! Later on in life, this is a different matter, and woe to the ones who feel they were left out of experiencing their youth during this time and now try to catch up with bodies that are not in the same shape and resilience any more. In earlier times this phase was known as the journeyman years, when we moved through stages of learning, often with different masters. In today's world we are more often in a situation were a lot has to be learned without so much outer instruction and guidance - for some this is a hindrance, for others a welcome challenge. The steps we take on our career path are accompanied by developing a rich and strong inner and emotional life, over time resulting in our specific character and outlook on life. 28 - 35 Intellectual Soul AgeThe period from ages 28 through 35 is in a way the middle of our life or looked upon from a more spiritual perspective the middle of our life is the deepest point of earthly incarnation. Crossing this threshold we do experience often tremendous change and difficulties but also a new certainty: we are now on our way back to the spiritual world, our true home. The expedition that leads us to traverse the "valley of sorrows" has reached the point where we cross through the middle and do find ourselves more than halfway across the vast distance we have to cover.
This halfway point is often marked by change and crisis, perhaps deepest despair. During these years and especially so at the beginning of this phase we do experience (more or less consciously) the following: Our guardian angel who up to this point was always there at our side and helped us "make it somehow," no matter what the circumstances, this guardian angel no takes as it where a step back and we find ourselves now more and more, and perhaps dramatically so, at our own devices. We realize or are forced to realize that we now have to get organized, have to apply our knowledge and skills, or take some bad falls. We might find great joy in this new found responsibility and charge forward with confidence and zest for achievements. Leo Tolstoy completed his great and voluminous novels "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina" during this time of his life accomplishing perhaps the two greatest works of literature of all times. Not many years later he declared that all his achievements had been an idle waste of time and underwent a deep existential crisis. In a certain sense we need to go through a death experience during this period in that we need to encounter the depths of our soul, perhaps the depths of despair, and find ourselves anew, reborn. Goethe put it this way: If we do not have this: To die and to become, We are but a gloomy guest On this dark earth. 35 - 42 Consciousness Soul AgeThe Consciousness Soul age can be a highly fulfilling or deeply disappointing period in our life. Seldom will you find a person who sails through this territory effortlessly and smoothly. During this time we are essentially too conscious and either experience our accomplishments as if finally all has come to full daylight and is for the main part positive or the opposite.
Having undergone the trials of the middle of our life - our midlife crisis - we are now either in a better place or less so: it all depends on what decisions we made during our mid-thirties. The second lunar node - which we also experience during this period - brings another round of changes, for good or for worse. At the threshold of the second lunar node we are faced with an awakening to the question: Is our social environment right for us and our development? If not - we might have to bring about a change, and this change might have drastic consequences and might bring about a cathartic crisis of its own. Having developed ourselves we are now able to become more of a conscious observer of the world and of ourselves. We should be able to attain a certain detachment and objectivity not previously known to us. This can be a very freeing experience leading to a much more positive outlook on life than what we were able to muster in this respect hitherto. Thomas Cole: The Voyage of Life - Manhood (1842)
42 - 49 Spirit Self Age/Transformed Astral BodyDuring the Spirit Self Age our task is to work on the transformation of our astral body, and in a certain sense this period is a reflection or a counter experience of the Astral Body Age from 14 - 21.
We experience at the same time new creativity but also a decline in vitality. While in the Sentient Soul Age our main focus was the outer world and our testing and experiencing this outer world, and also shaping it, we are now asked to do the same, but inwardly. Our soul needs to worked on, and this work needs to happen with a consciousness which we did not have available up to now, but is becoming more and more available during this time. In this cycle from forty-two until forty-nine a major change usually takes place. It is as if one takes all of one’s life experience up till this age and begins to digest it, and extract from it new ideals and a new direction in life. There is often tremendous unrest in this period and that following it. The unlived aspects of life cry out to be recognized and allowed. The desire to make a mark in life if it has not already been achieved presses for action here. Also, the emotional age and the maturing of love may at last show signs of an unconditional love. If this is not appearing in small degree, it might be one is still locked in earlier ages. Strangely, many of us maintain the emotional age of a child right into mature years, feeling all the fear of abandonment, jealousy and possessiveness of our childhood. Many divorces and new directions appear around this period. In these years we move from old stereotypical roles with a new found confidence in our individuality. We are prepared to please our self, rather than society and gain a real understanding of our uniqueness, accompanied by a sense of urgency to express our true self before it gets too late. 49 - 56 Life Spirit Age/Transformed Etheric BodyThe Life Spirit Age is - similar to the Spirit Self Age - again a reflection of an earlier period in our life, namely the period of 7 - 14. The task at hand is the transformation of the etheric body.
At the end of this period we face during the transition to the next period the third lunar node. The third lunar node presents us with the question: Have we found our right spiritual environment. And similar to previous lunar nodes changes might need to happen or might need to be willed into being. In this cycle from forty-nine to fifty-six, the physical changes might bring about a mental or spiritual climax. The decline of physical prowess and vitality, forces the person to direct their attention inwards more frequently. Any problems of our personality, such as maladjustment and our repressions, will undoubtedly become more urgent in these years. This reacts upon one’s social life and professional life alike. The problem is that we have to learn to live with ourselves in a new way. We slowly have to adapt to our new-old body, and habits of long-standing do not die easily. This is when we take an inventory of our life. It’s a time of spiritual questioning and review of our life purpose. If we haven’t successfully understood who we are by this stage and achieved our goals, then depression, moodiness and turmoil will plague both our waking life and our dreams. 56 - 63 Spirit Man Age/Transformed Physical BodyPhase of transformation of the physical. During this phase the quality of resignation, of unfulfilled ambitions and unrealized hopes indicates the level of our maturity. Resignation can sharpen our sense of self-recognition, or it can turn us sour and disappointed as we move into and through this time of being in a more contemplative phase of life which prepares us for what is ultimately to come namely our transformation and eventual departure from the physical plane. The great challenge at this age is to become truly introspective with a genuine evaluation of the past, of our life so far.
63 Old Age/Wisdom
Reflection on all of life and fulfillment in old age. In a certain way we may experience a conclusion and a release from the remorseless drive of our destiny as we experience this phase of our existence often as a blessing, a grace, perhaps an opportunity to complete the tapestry of our destiny and are able to pass on what has been important to us to those who follow.
Thomas Cole: The Voyage of Life - Old Age (1842)
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