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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…
WHY BECOME A STEINER HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER?
The teachers garnered from the 1920s Steiner community to launch the first school, that most important educational initiative in history, were not teachers at all. They had done their ‘teacher training’ in the university of life, even the high school teachers! In fact when one particular pedagogue was under discussion, Steiner had to grudgingly admit that the fellow was competent in interpreting an ‘Education of the Spirit’ in spite of having formal qualifications! These, he would regularly state, usually made a person, due to the intellectuality of university to harden thinking, patently unfitted to teach the young.
In considering an applicant for high school teaching, we first read the person’s physiognomy; this can reveal aspects of former lives, especially the last. The body (deeds, achievements, failures even) becomes the head in the next (this) life. It can be important to know where someone’s coming from – even that far back!
Important also is the general life path, or biography, of the would-be teacher; the main criterion for those who teach and influence adolescents is worldliness. Teachers are clearly unprepared who are hurled straight into the bear pit of high school, having been institutionalized all their lives – school, college, school! One may have received an honors degree in economics, but can’t run a household. The better prepared economics teacher is the one who might have built and sold a couple of successful businesses; or who has for years survived in that other bear – or should that be baboon? – pit, the Stock Exchange. Again, all other things being equal.
There is no single recipe for success in high school teaching, but having knocked around, worked in the world, traveled, achieved things, at least there is a greater chance of earning the respect of the adolescent. After all, this is the teacher whose task it is to prepare our vulnerable youth for the world – how can this be done if the teacher has never really been in it? The student instinctively senses this reality.
The very last thing we consider in employing new staff, and with suspicion at best, is the bits of paper – the formal qualifications. The vest teachers are often those who come to the profession fresh, with no intellectual programming from training college or university – ‘Prove yourself in life, then do your teacher training.’ Is a useful maxim.
However the aspiring teacher must have become competent in some field or other – most people have advanced skills in several areas, all of which can be put to the service of the school. This skill-bass is necessary to create role models of life for the students. Of course specialization can be liberally interpreted – a person does not need to have a master’s degree in geological science to teach geology to say Class 8; but some knowledge or experience is necessary. Perhaps the teacher has been an avid rock collector, or has read widely on the subject. This knowledge is added to another important ingredient for success in teaching – Enthusiasm. Students can actually see the love-of-subject shining from the eyes of the teacher – or not! Enthusiasm often comes about through discovery of new knowledge, a seeming contradiction to the clued-up specialist who’s supposed to know it all!
Life’s a contradiction nay? Another nourishing ingredient in the Student-Interest Pie is Imagination. How often are young people bored crazy by highly specialized but unimaginative pontifications, on every subject from porcine anatomy to the history of lace-making? And this in spite of the greatest minds of the last 200 years harping to a hard-of-hearing world that imagination is one of the highest of human faculties. People like Napoleon; Goethe; Einstein; Steiner; that zany T.V. science teacher Sumner Miller – and last, and definitely least, your author!
Indeed specialization can sometimes backfire; the last-mentioned Imagination Advocate is a professional lettering artist; he conducted a 3-week unit on graphic art, including lettering, with a Year 10 class.
He did this without referring to his ‘inner’ notes, his recourse to imagination. Why should he? He knew the subject backwards anyway. The lesson was a bomb, with the students displaying the level of learning ennui he’d only heard of in other schools! A lassitude missing from an impromptu unit he taught his Class 11 on heat physics – where every concept was new – to him at least! All three, imagination, enthusiasm and experience – relating to thinking, feeling and will respectively – are vital for good high school teaching.
THE CLASS GUARDIAN
The transformation from primary pupil to high school student is a dramatic one, occurring as it does between ages 13 and 14. The end of Class 7 signifies the completion of primary education and the oh-so-special relationship with the Class Teacher.
A Steiner high school rightly begins in Class 8, the year the students turn 14; the Class then comes under the care of a Class Guardian. S/he makes the public commitment to remain with the group for the next 5 years, up to the end of Class 12. Failure to fulfil this sacred trust without very good reason (like having a baby, one of the few excuses I can think of) is a betrayal of Steiner Education, of the students, the school, and finally of the teacher.
This new and wonderful relationship with the adult is formed when everything is changing for the incipient adolescent, especially changes of a bodily and soul nature. In essence, at about 14, a new Being stands before us. ‘Guardian’ is an apt term, all other things being equal, the main role is one of pastoral care rather than teacher. Of course the Guardian may teach his/her class, and usually does, but the emphasis has shifted to specialist teachers rather than the universality of the primary teacher. This pastoral car takes many forms, including mentor; friend; psychiatrist; counselor; entertainment and excursion manager; disciplinarian; careers advisor; arbitrator; defender; protector; parent liaison; and janitor even!
And what if the student dislikes his Guardian? If there is a personality conflict, appropriate for personality-unfolding high school students, it is incumbent on the adult to find a solution, often with the help of a senior colleague. The teacher is the professional; the young adolescent simply does not have the maturity to rise above the turmoil of his feelings. The reality though, is that most students have great respect for, and trust in, their Class Guardians – love even, dare I say! They become, over the five years, firm friends, helped of course by the use of first names for student and teacher. This strengthens rather than weakens the teacher’s inherent authority.
This, preferably youngish, friend in need and deed, represents a pillar of support and guidance for each individual in the class – re-enforcing security and happiness – the best possible platforms upon which to build confidence and metal stability in adulthood.
The Guardian’s task is to create within the Class, social harmony, happiness, and a sense of unity and loyalty. These are long-term goals, and the advantage of the 5 years is obvious. The betrayal of the principles outlined in this book can make this a horror stretch, if indeed the teacher can survive at all. On the other hand, performed well, a Class Guardianship is an unequaled opportunity for personal development, a chance to relive one’s teenage years consciously, and to have a terrific amount of fun!
If a Class Guardian betrays the sacred commitment to stay with the students for 5 years, say by leaving for less than dire reasons, the class often collapses, and individual students can suffer terribly. Suffering in the form of a loss of confidence in people, which can dog them for life. They can become cynical – destructive even, as con anyone who has been the victim of treachery. The Guardian was their main role-model of the adult world; moral weakness, folly, and lack of resolve is a poor model indeed! It’s even worse if the school dismisses the Class Guardian for less than reprehensible reasons. Why not try to help instead?
But worst of all, a spiritual being has been betrayed. When a country, a school, a family, or a class is created – an incarnation has taken place to achieve a specific task – a Guardian Angel of one stature or another sacrifices its own progress to minister to the new community. This Class Being, in the case of high school, one of the Hosts of Uriel, attends every lesson, grieves with every tragedy, suffers with every hardship, and rejoices with every triumph. It guides the destiny of the class, arranging for the best of all possible worlds in which the group can realize its God-given mission.
We as teachers harness this spiritual ally, by at first recognizing its existence, and then teaching through it, as it hovers like a sounding rainbow over students, teacher and activity.
If the, in this case lady, teacher leaves because of the arrival of a baby, even the Class Being is glad, quickly adapting to the next teacher – smoothing the path. The arrival of a new being on earth should never be a cause for regret, even if the students (ostensibly lose their much-loved teacher. If the Guardian departs for the wrong reasons, so does the Being, unable as it is, to endure this spiritual defection.
One of the Class Guardian’s tasks is to provide and maintain a base room for the students; a comfortable, ergonomically designed, intelligent space where much of the learning takes place. A good idea for one of the 3-week technics units in Class 8 is for the students to design and build their own desks, those which will last right through the 5 years – and who not chairs as well?
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