Supersensible Physiology in Education
STUTTGART — SEPTEMBER 21, 1920
IT is essential in life to have the relationships with our surroundings in proper order. We can eat and digest suitable foods furnished by the outside world, but we would be poorly nourished if we ate food already partially digested by other people. The important point is that when we receive things from outside us in a definite form, they acquire value for our life because we need to work on them. It is the same at higher levels too, for example, in the art of education. Here the important thing is to know first what we should learn and then, in the light of what we have learned, what we ourselves must actually invent in handling our class. If one studies education as a science consisting of all sorts of principles and formulas, it means about the same thing in terms of education as choosing to eat partially digested foods. But if we undertake a study of the child, of the true nature of the human being, and learn to understand children in this way, we take into ourselves the equivalent of what nature offers us as nourishment. And in the practice of teaching there will awaken in us, out of this knowledge of human nature, the art of education in a quite individual form. In reality the teacher must invent this art every moment. That is the point I wished to make as an introduction to today’s talk. Balance in Teaching - Ch 3
IT is essential in life to have the relationships with our surroundings in proper order. We can eat and digest suitable foods furnished by the outside world, but we would be poorly nourished if we ate food already partially digested by other people. The important point is that when we receive things from outside us in a definite form, they acquire value for our life because we need to work on them. It is the same at higher levels too, for example, in the art of education. Here the important thing is to know first what we should learn and then, in the light of what we have learned, what we ourselves must actually invent in handling our class. If one studies education as a science consisting of all sorts of principles and formulas, it means about the same thing in terms of education as choosing to eat partially digested foods. But if we undertake a study of the child, of the true nature of the human being, and learn to understand children in this way, we take into ourselves the equivalent of what nature offers us as nourishment. And in the practice of teaching there will awaken in us, out of this knowledge of human nature, the art of education in a quite individual form. In reality the teacher must invent this art every moment. That is the point I wished to make as an introduction to today’s talk. Balance in Teaching - Ch 3
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