Copyright Alan Whitehead & Earthschooling: No Part of this book, post, URL, or book excerpt may be shared with anyone who has not paid for these materials.
Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
HOW SHOULD STEINER HIGH SCHOOLS BE STRUCTURED?
The ideal secondary school should be single-stream, Class 8 to 12, with a maximum of thirty students per class, a total of say 125. On this ‘village’ scale, the integrity of the individual can be protected in both the social and academic areas. There should be no arbitrary grading in the school, such as that based on scholastic ability.
The years of adolescence should be happy and stimulating, years in which the students are gently guided into the world, without the stress of examinations. They should be years of genuine challenge and hope; years in which to develop a deep sense of responsibility and self-discipline. Years in which to grow strong to face a complex and at times difficult world – years to learn mobility to meet an ever-changing world, and morality to master themselves in it.
The underlying method of instruction is based on synthesis of understanding, and analysis of concept. Imaginative presentation is used to weave a magic carpet of knowledge, expressing always the highest ideals of goodness, beauty and truth.
An individual can in this way build a comprehensive world view, one based on freedom of thought and breadth of skills; s/he can approach life with true creativity. This, and a deep veneration and compassion for man and the world, are among the highest goals to which we can aspire in secondary education.
Modern Steiner schools have a 7-year primary Class 1 to 7, and a 5-year Class 8 to 12 high school. This 12-year educational program accords with yet a higher pedagogic principle – The Educational Zodiac. All organic processes evolve through a 12-fold zodiacal creation – and education, in its essence, is organic. The instruction of the supersensible ‘bodies’, Etheric and Astral, is conducted over 12 years, Class 1 to 12. As such there is a zodiacal factor, expressing through the Temperaments and Personality respectively of primary and high school.
The ‘organic’ zodiac, as opposed to the ‘spiritual’, begins with the simplest sign, Cancer. Here we have the primal sense of Touch, and in the 12-fold phylic evolution of the animal world, Cancer is represented by the Protozoa, ‘first animals’. These amoebae, bacteria and others address the business of survival almost exclusively with their sense of touch. In educational terms, this is equivalent to Class 1.
At the other end of the zodiac, is the highest sign, Gemini. In phylum terms, Gemini is the sign of Man, with its sense of Ego – or the perception of same. This Ego spirit is palpable in the 18-year-olds in Class 12 – everything about Man interests them! Indeed their very own Egos are approaching ‘like a ghost out of the sun’.
Many high school initiatives collapse because of fear – fear of the inability to provide expensive facilities. This is nonsense; creative, imaginative, well-informed teachers are the most important single element in a high school – as such, the whole thing could be conducted successfully under a Banyan Tree!
Sumner Miller did not need a science room to thrill his audiences with the miracles of physics and chemistry – he could do it on the kitchen table!
Schools are often better off learning to exploit their wider resources; why have a swimming pool when you can visit the one up the road? Why have a gymnasium when the community one stands idle four days a week? Why buy twenty computers when the local tertiary teaching facility is only five minutes’ drive away? Drive? An important factor in high school teaching is mobility – a small school bus is ideal, after all, these young adults should be going out into the world more and more. A high school need not really consist of much more than a base room for each class, and a large general-purpose work room for craft, technics, tec.
Naturally as a school grows, facilities are added as needs arise; but to begin with, the above is all that would be considered essential.
A school should be on a ‘village’ scale, where everyone knows everyone else – by their first names! Double-streaming is almost sure to cross the Rubicon to ‘organization’, with its attendant unhealthy rivalries, economic burdens, and faceless administration. If there are too many pupils, start another school nearby!
A school is an organism, a living Being; when it becomes an organization, it’s time to move on. As an organism, it has in supersensible terms, a Physical, Etheric, Astral and Ego constitution – manifesting through the Kindergarten, Primary, High School, and Staff.
Siting the high school away from the rest is a recipe for disaster as well; a little like our head having to function in a separate room from the balance of our organism. And two or more schools actually sharing one high school is a kind of academic cannibalism! The holistic school is one where all organs interact and are mutually supporting – thus the Being of the School prospers (all other things being equal). Kindys gain great benefits by seeing where they’re headed – these ‘biggies’ are heroes to them! And wonderful soul qualities are engendered in the high school students by seeing where they’ve been; qualities like protective instincts and love – yes, love. Due to an emerging sense of responsibility, they even modify their behavior (swearing and the like) in the holy presence of the little children.
A first principle of a Steiner high school education is to encourage the individual to become a citizen of the world through a balanced curriculum of academic studies, artistic activities, and practical experiences – in short, to cultivate thinking, feeling and will.
The second principle is that of committing to the world, a person who has something to contribute – the employment sphere. It is regarded as essential that young people leaving school are employable, or can earn a living in some way; a living however that can be justified as enhancing the spiritual, cultural and physical welfare of mankind. One which embraces an allegiance to the work ethic, with all its social implications.
One of the most important goals a school has for its awkward adolescents is the development of social skills. The inner yearning in every person to become truly human is a powerful force. The fulfillment of this yearning can be realized when emphasis is placed on the spirit of co-operation. The students are encouraged to continually compete against their own previous efforts, and to co-operate with and assist others in the group situation. To achieve this, there are of course no exams, yet there is lots of testing. The healthy soul does not welcome being ‘examined’, but loves testing. Competition is a counter-productive social phenomenon.
Considerable liberties are extended to the high school students to support these constructive social dynamics, especially in the recreation times; like access to kitchen facilities; common rooms; pool perhaps; the local village; specialist work areas like music or craft rooms; and phone. The emphasis is on developing a sense of responsibility and a sophisticated level of exchange.
An observer of a Class 7 group of 13-year-old children who have been erroneously placed in high school, can hardly be blind to the fact that they are sadly immature, both psychologically ad in stature – in relation to their surroundings of course.
Because of this, many of these children find entry into secondary school a harrowing experience – one with the potential to negatively color their whole attitude to his important phase of their learning path. Conversely, if the student enters high school in the 15th year, Class 9!, a year of subconscious expectations of a more mature approach to study has been wasted.
Nature indicates the time for the primary/high school change in so many ways; but it is the unseen spiritual development which is most important. Its particular puberty occurs at 14 whether or not the body has been subject to precocious development, or the opposite, has had a hormonal hold-back; we always consider the spiritual contingencies first.
What of discipline? An authoritarian control imposed upon students cannot be maintained when the wielder is absent Self-discipline, that which come from within, does not break out in vandalism and other ills.
The Steiner schools are not ‘progressive’ schools (they are however highly progressive in the literal sense) – students do not do as they like. Self-discipline takes time to learn, like any other faculty. Some have it from their first day I high school, others learn it throughout the subsequent five years – alas a few never do!
One key to good discipline is work. (Many other keys are dealt with in my book ‘The Great Discipline Debate’.) Adolescents actually love work – as long as they feel they are achieving and not failing; as long as there is no coercion; as long as it stimulates the imagination, and does not tire through dry, dead concepts. Work can be, and should be, fun. Although there are times when co-operation is provided through a sense of duty alone, the student actually despising the task at hand – this is character-building at its best! A class that is deeply involved in work, whether it be academic, artistic, or artistic, will not tolerate a miscreant – applying their own unsubtle social pressures to curb him if he is demolishing the work atmosphere.
Good discipline is maintained when the student has the conviction that he is special – that he has a unique contribution to make. (Sorry about the ‘he’ convention, it’s just so much easier.) If the teacher helps find this oft-hidden jewel, the student’s behavior will improve – having new confidence and self-esteem. Co-operation is gained, not through fear, but through the student’s respect for the work, the teacher, the school – and not least, himself.
Time is of the Cosmos, expressing in the ordering of the path of sun and planets, of the seasons, and of the annual dance of the fixed stars. Reflecting these great time cycles is the so-called ‘biological clock’ in Man. If the numerology of human affairs synchronies with the Great clock, then we can function at potential. If however our ordering of the day, week, or season spits into the ever-wise winds of natural time, then chaos, anxiety and conflict will inevitably arise.
The Russian Empire was built on such an error, with the dramatic result we all saw as the Iron curtain fell on the 2nd millennium. In the spirit of change-for-its-own-sake, the fathers of the Revolution made the eminently sensible 7-day week, one of five day – work four, have one off.
The 5-fold ordering has no reflection in the time-organization of the human being, resulting in an enduring feeling of dis-ease – in the entire population! A disease manifesting as inefficiency, unpunctuality, low productivity, and a host of other less visible ills. Even God conformed to the divine cycle, making the world in six days – and resting on the 7th!
When structuring this year, term, week, and even day of a school, we try to accord with this heavenly numerology. The base number from which all others are derived is 360, the number of the Physical Body – almost every time-division in Man, and hence our schools, should be a factor of this magical number. 360 is the ‘occult’ year.
Let’s start with the first division, the number of terms in the year; three or four are both factors of 360, and hence relate to a higher reality – a four term year even accords with the seasons.
Ideally there should be 36 teaching weeks in the year, containing 12 x 3-week units. In any given term of a four-term year there are nine units of teaching – three of each Main Lessons, Middles, and Blocks – 4 x 9 is 36 teaching units per year, an important factor of 360.
The single day, with this 3-fold division, also reflects the cosmic imperative; for instance in Main Lessons, three weeks each of four subjects is 12 weeks – a full content cycle! And there are three of these cycles a year – 3 x 12 = 36 weeks, comprising 12 Main Lessons per year.
The single day divisions have even wider application (1 is the number of the Ego, as in 1 day), again harmonizing with the stars. The day has seven natural divisions: breakfast; Main Lesson; morning tea; Middle Lesson; lunch; block Lesson; dinner. Even the workplace recognizes this 7-fold Etheric ordering of the day.
Within this, the time allocations fall naturally into factors of 360; the Main Lesson is two hours (120 minutes); morning tea 30 minutes; Middles 90 minutes; lunch one hour – not more or less, unless you want soul-disheveled students in the afternoon!; Block Lesson 90 minutes. All factors of 360!
These time frames are not a prison, but a guideline to soul and body health throughout the year. They do not have to be rigidly adhered to – say the school bus leaves at 3:15 rather than 3:30, we must adapt to a 75 rather than 90-minute Block Lesson. Live provides all kinds of extenuating circumstances to obstruct the most perfect plans of mice and men – and the Cosmos!
Sport is one such obstacle – representing none of the four ‘bodies’ – Ego, Astral, etc. – rather corporeality itself, Man as Matter. As such it is the 13th lesson strand (in Numerology, the number of the future).
Sport is ministered to – and barracked by! – the Hosts of the Dark Prince himself, Ahriman. Because we are matter-bound, we cannot exist physically without this ‘support’. If material only, as in sport, that support is both necessary and welcome – if materialism enters the soul, becoming a cultural force, then this sclerotic trespass is dangerous.
We keep Ahriman in his rightful place with an intelligent weekly sport or ‘adventure’ program – big on co-operation, small on competition. But some level of competition we must have; it is hard to play a game of tennis without a competitive element. Rivalry is the supersensible counterpart of materialism, and as our mentor once wryly observed ‘Competitive sport is applied Darwinism.’ A comprehensive outline on high school sport is found in my book Touch the Earth – Gently.
As the 13th subject, sport in high school is not part of the 360 Cosmic Canon, as all other of the 12 broad subject areas most surely are.
Ah, that number again, yes, the Great Spirit of the Constellations speaks to Man through 12 cultural (subject) streams; each one under the auspices of its very own zodiacal sign. At school these streams are perceived by, and express through, the 12 Senses. They are active at both primary and high school levels, but the full educational fruition occurs in high school – the period of sentient (Astral) Body unfoldment.
This puts paid to the blinkered view often expressed that ‘Steiner schools are okay for primary, but they’re not really needed when it comes to the nitty-gritty of high school.’ – oh how they’re needed!
These 12-fold Senses learning experiences further deepen to variously re-appear in adult life as the 12 Zodiacal Qualities. These Qualities are those whereby we break out of the prison of our birth-sign dispositions, and relate to the Zodiac on a more conscious, independent level. The Senses take in (body) – the Qualities give out (Spirit).
The first four of the Divine Twelve Subjects are those which form the basis of Main Lessons, right through from Class 1 to 12 – language, Maths, Social Science, Science. Beginning with Aries, the timeless starting-block for the ‘Spiritual’ Zodiac, we have Language – the Sense of Word; proceeding clockwise with the path of the sun, we find Maths in Taurus – Sense of Thought. The Social Sciences live in the House of Man, Gemini – Sense of Ego. Social Science is of course the Study of Man.
And then Science in Cancer, with the Sense of Touch – the study of the tangible world! The following eight are variously scattered through Middle and Block lessons.
Leo used to be the sign of Recreation, in both the obvious and arcane meanings of the word. Here we rejoice in the Sense of Life. But a higher element, a subject which enriches life as no other has been added, Eurythmy.
Virgo inspires the Dance curriculum through the 12 years with its Sense of Movement; as does Libra, Dramatic Arts – the Sense of Balance.
Scorpio provides the ‘nitty-gritty’ for a Technics education, with the Sense of Smell; and its close kin, Taste, is that contained in the Practical stream of Sagittarius (agriculture, kitchen culture et al).
Capricorn, Sense of sight, illuminates the Visual Arts; Aquarius with Warmth as the pre-eminent Sense, enriches the Craft syllabus. Finally Pisces, the Sense of Hearing – Music of course. These 12 embrace all subjects taught in a Steiner school – Sport excepted. Further elucidation on this complex study is militated against by space restraints. Enough to say perhaps that The Twelve provide golden keys for lesson-preparation – keys that open golden doors, the point of entry to the high realities of the manifold and manifest magic we teach.
“Now which is your better side? Hmm, you don’t seem to have one.”
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