SIGNATURE OF SEVENTH CLASS
Calligraphy – Class 7 – Main Lesson
Class 7 is the final year of primary in many Steiner schools. This was not always so, in the “Mutter Schule’ in Stuttgart, the first Waldorf School, that created (at first almost exclusively) for the children of the factory workers in the Waldorf cigarette factory, the ‘primary’ grades went from Class 1 to 8.
This is because virtually all working-class children were expected to leave school at 14 – end of Class 8. They then took apprenticeships or equivalent (such as only a year or so earlier these 15-year-olds providing cannon fodder on the Western Front!). The 8-year primary was a fundamental part of the German education framework.
The problem for the Waldorf School came when anthroposophists, mainly middle-class folk, sent their children to the new school. This required a re-think, extending the institution into a full secondary school to Class 12. This was to meet the parents expectations for their more privileged offspring for a higher education of some kind.
These latter students were however in the minority, and by the time they became a force in their own right, requiring a restructuring according to the verities of child development rather than the central education system, Rudolf Steiner had sadly passed on. This somewhat unnatural 8-year primary form however became set in concrete, no-one having the temerity to change that which The Doctor had ordained. The * years primary continued for the next 50 years, in spite of the evidence suggesting a change.
That is until your author, having lived with the perennial puzzle of Class 8s being ‘the worst class in the school’ questioned the practice at source. His own State education erred in the other direction, with the primary being 6 years only. He knew this to be wrong, considering Steiner’s writings on the relevance of puberty in the primary equation.
12-13-year-olds look so immature, cowering in the high school quadrangle – and they feel it! Yet the common picture of the Class 8 teacher in Steiner schools struggling with his/her gangling 14-15-year-olds, often mistakenly treating them as children (pupils), rather than adolescents (students) was equally absurd. He found out that although the 1 to 8 primary was practiced in Stuttgart under Steiner’s governance from 1919 to 1924, there was no statement actually justifying it.
Your author also found that virtually every other utterance or writing of Steiner described the developing human being in general, and the child in particular, as passing through 7 Year stages of psychic and physical growth. This is based on the 7 astrological planets.
How often do we read – 0 to 7 change of teeth; 7 to 14 puberty (7 to 14 is 7 years, not 8, with the emphasis being on ‘to’ not ‘including’. The 7-year class teacher period was first initiated as official policy by your author with his own class (1972 – ’78) in Lorien Novalis School.
This was deemed so successful, and so patently in harmony with the 7-fold reality that is the unfolding individual – especially by teachers who had endured the old system – that it was formalized as official policy. Many other school in Australia have since followed suite, with a solemn 7-year commitment being asked – nay required – and usually gladly given by prospective Class 1 teachers.
These same folk might otherwise shy away from the more formidable 8-year run. Even towards the end of Class 7, teachers often comment that the children are – ‘drawing away from me’. They become weary of the natural class teacher ‘mother henning’, anxious rather to experience the full flush of puberty in Class 8 with new faces, especially in the form of a high school Class Guardian. So what’s all this got to do with this first Class 7 main lesson on Writing Styles and Calligraphy? Well, not much really, I just thought it’d mention it that’s all! Speaking of the planets, in the 7-year unfolding from Class 1 to 7, these 13-year-olds have, in etheric as well as physical term, ‘grown down’ (to use a Steiner term) to the level of the genitalia; this includes their lower limb extensions.
These nether realms of course are the ‘region’ of the Moon in astrological understanding. The organ of the Moon is, ironically, the brain – at the other end of the body! The brain experiences a powerful conceptual apotheosis at 14. In planetary development, the youngest, the 7-year-olds in the 7-year etheric development phase, relate to the most remote principle, brooding Saturn. Each year the child draws closer to the earth, until by 13 s/he is at the Moon, with its pubescent implications. This Moon year can indeed be regarded as a vestibule to adolescence and sexual maturity. Again one might ask what this has to do with this Language main lesson; and again I have to admit, very little really!
So down to business: in the ‘civilizations’ re-enactment experienced by the child through primary, beginning with Ancient Atlantis in Class 1, the 13-year-olds have, following their sojourn in Rome in Class 6, arrived at the so-called Dark Ages of early Christianity and Islam. In spiritual terms, this was really a ‘bright ages’, a better nomination being perhaps The Age of Chivalry. The high point of the era came with Charlemagne, the archetypal Christian king. He established wonderful Scriptoria throughout the Holy Roman Empire. His Master was Alcuin, an anagram of ‘uncial’ (meaning inch!), the formal term for the capital Roman alphabet, now we’re getting close to our subject!
Here, scholarship in general, and writing in particular, was cultivated; especially with the creation of the ever-so-sensible lower-case script. This advanced writing consciousness is also flowering in the souls of their modern equivalents, 13-year-olds; so a whole 3-week main lesson exploring writing styles, were the classroom is transformed into a Scriptorium, is warmly embraced.
Every kind of writing implement should be begged, borrowed or bought, from old inkwells to new technically sophisticated pens – from goose quills to books on modern typefaces – from ranks of colored inks to shelves groaning with beautiful writing papers. Firstly the students should be reminded of their own writing history: in Class 1 they learned to write the capital letter alphabet – in their ‘letter year’; here they used stick crayons. In Class 2 – their ‘word year’ (the various ‘years’ are detailed in my three companion volumes to this, Genii of Language, Logios—– Spirit of the Word and Grammatikos – Grammatika), the smaller lower-case texts were better expressed with think colored pencils. In Class 3, sensitivity was enhanced by a stint with medium-tipped colored felt-tipped pens.
Class 4 children were given a boxed set of colored fountain pens; one barrel with 6 attachable heads of different – lovely – colors. The greater co-ordination of 10-year-olds made it appropriate to introduce flowing ink. In Class 5, fountain pens again, but this time no-nonsense blue or black; much more suitable to express the more conceptual content presented in this year.
Class 6 had, again blue or black, fine-tipped felt pens, and even tube-ink Rapidograph pens. With these they hone their now individualistic writing styles. The original manuscript (‘handwriting’) of this article is right ow being written by an ‘Arline’ 0.4 black felt-tipped pen!
With Class 7, the children write with their favorite writing implement; expressing their pre-pubescent personality with a personalized pen. The Calligraphy lesson is to make them aware of the range available, and of each type’s advantages and shortcomings. An architect I know has a kind of signature writing, using only a brown Rapidograph; his epistles are recognizable anywhere.
This writing individualism is an expression of language in general, and writing in particular, being an ‘ego’ activity. The architect expressed a uniqueness of Being in his unlikely choice of color and line (these elegant pens give a very fine and responsive line, favored by artists).
Of the 4 main lesson streams of Language, Maths, Social Science and Science, the first express primarily the ego (the other 3, astral, etheric and physical respectively). The 3 strands of Language, Writing, Expression and Reading, draw on the cultural forces of will, feeling and thought in the same order.
So this Writing Styles unit is ego/will; it requires first and foremost a will activity to even pick up a pen – let alone write a long and difficult article like this with it! The form of the article expressed feeling, the contentthinking.
In a practical sense, a whole range of writing styles should be explored by the class; like writing with different kinds of brushes – sign writers do this. One style that has emerged over the years from brush writing is the script, common in advertising and display work! Why not visit a sign writer’s studio in this unit?
The children also play around with Chinese characters – but watch out that of the 49,000 separate characters, you don’t choose the word ‘talkative’ to write – it has 64 brush strokes! A ‘voluble’ character indeed! ‘Character’ itself is an ego-language word.
The Chinese is not an alphabet as such, more an illimitable collection of symbols for ideas, rather than sounds. There are, of the thousands of languages on earth, only 64 alphabets. One, the Rotokas of Bouganville, having only 11 characters. Cambodian has the most with 72.
While on Asian writing, some scroll work should be done; most ancient forms, whether Hebrew or Chinese, were on scrolls rather than pages – they display nicely too. In general however, writing styles should only be deeply explored in the Age of Chivalry and beyond; the children have no doubt enjoyed learning about the ancient forms, like cuneiform and hieroglyphics, in earlier years.
So a familiarity with the major styles that have evolved from the mother script, Roman-Carolingian, should be made. These include these old stand-bys: Times; Gothic; Old English; Copperplate; Univers and so on. All these are, in alphabet form, readily accessible through type books, and can be the basis of attractive and informative wall displays for the class Scriptorium.
An excellent homework project is for each child to design their own individualized typeface, in capitals, lowercase and even numerals; one which may be used on their personalized Ex Libris stickers!
The Ex Libris stickers is an enjoyable, practical exercise; these can be printed on the school’s photocopier. Nice too is the realization for children that they are not confined to letter styles which other people have invented; this can be, as well as creative, quite empowering. As can experimenting with a wide range of calligraphy pens and nibs – on a wide range of papers and cards! How lovely some beautiful verse looks written in dark blue ink on light blue stock – or white on black – or gold on rice paper – or sienna on sepia…!
The nominal role of the number 13 (the children are in their 13th year) is the ‘number of the future’; how well this harmonizes with Class 7’s stage in the Educational Zodiac (starting with Class 1 in Cancer – ‘initiative’!), that of Capricorn. This, according to Rudolf Steiner, has the quality – a cultural dispensation – of ‘putting through into the world’. There is no more beautiful or efficacious way of performing this ‘evangelism’, than calligraphy – the Desiderata being a classic example.
How more lasting it is to place a significant ‘thought into the world’ with an artistically penned piece that with this word processor! As the adage goes; no great novel or poem has ever been written on a computer. So it matters What we write with our 13-year-olds, as well as how we write it. The most therapeutic exercise (for those with a modicum of literary ability at least) is to actually write one’s problems out – to externalize them.
Writing demands rationalism, and it is just this factor which give power to the language arts. The Sense of Word is ascribed to Aries, as such, the Ram is that which inspires language teaching; language being one of the 12 Zodiacal Subject. Of the 12 Philosophical Standpoints given to the world by Dr. Steiner (Doctor of ‘Philosophy’), that of Idealism is the Aries view. With this kind of radical philosophy, it’s a wonder they didn’t strip him of his doctorate!
Our language heritage is Ancient Greek, an Aries civilization, one whose lofty world mission was to incarnate the Rational soul into human culture. It is this rationalism which provides writing therapy, with its stability and clarity. Our troubles can remain in a confused state until we write them down – or out! Until we rationalize them.
So 13-year-olds should be encouraged to express aspects of life in general, or Their life in particular, as content for this lesson. Naturally there should also be some chronicling of the taught material in the main lesson books as well, about the evolution of writing styles, methods and so forth. Another excellent activity is to teach our young literati how to keep a diary. This begins on the first day of the unit; maybe written in the main lesson book – maybe in a Moroccan-bound journal!
Essences, like brevity, significance and discretion (who knows who might stumble upon your very private diary!?) are taught. A diary entry describing in tedious detail what you had for dinner, or what show you watched on TV, is a waste of time – better to watch another TV show! It is useless not only for your own edification, but for future generations, including your biographer!
A diary which expresses how you feel about important things, like world events, relationships, yourself, is the stuff of good – even therapeutic – diary writing. Show the students examples of diaries from the history of literature; such as Robert Falcon Scott’s, written – as a log – on his ill-fated journey to the South Pole. No more poignant words have ever been written that Titus Oate’s simple statement, in a vain effort to save his companions, as he stepped out into the blizzard to his death – “I’m going outside, and I might be some time.” Or the Dutch-Jewish girl Anne Frank’s diary, written while hiding in a loft from the dreaded Gestapo. How these 13-year-olds can empathize with someone their own age – especially in this heroic and tragic context.
The children should also be encouraged to practice and define their signature; who knows what important documents they might have to sign in the near future? Maybe they could write their first will – serious! – in stylish calligraphy. After all, even a 13-year-old cares who gets his/her bike if the unthinkable happens! This is also an excellent exercise in time consciousness; one which again helps separate the significant form the trivial. Letter writing is also part of the lesson content in this stimulating unit; how lovely to receive a missive in gold ink on violet paper – with a many-colored illuminated capital and border. To show that letters don’t have to be long, quote the one written by Victor Hugo to his publisher re. delays in bringing out a new edition of one of his books – “?” is all it said. The return letter was even briefer – “!”.
Or tell them another amusing literary anecdote (children love these), a letter to the editor of a national daily which read – “Dear Sire, I remain yours faithfully, T.P. O’Brien.” Nice to know T.P. was faithful! The class should also be made aware that a person’s written vocabulary is much large than his spoken. That’s why it’s good to address problems, grievances and issue with written statement.
One says on paper what one wants to say, and how one wants to say it. Even so, the most literate people in English still only (only?!) have a vocabulary of 40,000 words or so – from a well-spring of 800,000. Many of these are of course technical, and hence almost never used by the layman…! Er, layperson – make that 800,001!
In a lesson on using mapping pens, the finest of writing instruments, the children might be impressed with the comparison with the world’s largest writing, a 183 meter word bulldozed out of the saltbush on the Nullabor Plain – Readymix… Ugh!!
This unit incidentally is one of the class teacher’s last chance to modify bad writing habits in the children. Take care that their posture, grip, light, eye focus, proximity to the blackboard and so on are conductive to health in writing. The pupils – soon to be students – might even play about with the ‘rustic’ lettering so beloved of Steiner institutions (not this one!), found in books, letterheads, school signs, etc. Fortunately we can’t blame the poor Doctor for these, ranging from the freely artistic to…well to be charitable, less than sophisticated. Most of the contemporary letter fonts. Many of the rustics sin against the very foundations of lettering design, including spacing, form, weight, proportion, entasis, et al.
So if the negative conclusion of this piece on the Writing Styles and Calligraphy main lesson hasn’t prompted you to hurl the book into the fire, have a look at the next article.
Leave a Reply