SEANZ OVERVIEW
Te Toi o te Mātauranga |
The Art of Education
Rudolf Steiner referred to three golden rules of the art of education, rules which must imbue the teacher’s whole attitude and the impulse of their work. These three rules were not envisaged as theory but to be embraced by the teacher’s whole being:
• reverent gratitude toward the world for the child we contemplate every day, for every child presents a problem given us by divine worlds
• gratitude to the universe and love for what we have to do with a child
• respect for the child’s freedom, which we must not endanger, since it is this freedom to which we must direct our teaching efforts, so that the child may one day stand at our side in freedom in the world.
(Steiner, 2004, p. 57)
It was … out of a profound instinct that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were held to be the greatest
ideals of human striving. Yet they have faded away into shadowy words, and it is only our present
age that can bestow concrete reality upon them
(Steiner, 1986, p. 3)
The question of human values and how these are nurtured is at the heart of the Steiner Waldorf curriculum. They can be expressed as virtues or as moral qualities and are critical to the development of character. Values give us our moral compass. It is through values that we experience spiritual wellbeing and find our place to stand with certainty in the world.
At the highest level values are a representation of what it means to be human. Values can also be expressed in the social, cultural and aesthetic realms. Values permeate every aspect of the way human beings meet and interact and it is incumbent on the teacher to model appropriate values and imbue their teaching and development of classroom culture with an understanding of values.
In Steiner Waldorf schools we work actively with the Platonic foundations of humanity as a central guiding motif for each of the seven-year phases. They are not exclusive to these periods in the life of the developing child but find their deepest resonance within these phases.
The young child up until the age of seven needs to experience that the world is essentially good. The adults that surround them need to affirm this experience through living in gratitude and with reverence and devotion to their tasks.
For the child between the ages of seven and fourteen the teacher will cultivate a disposition of openness and wonder to the beauty of the world and a sense of reverence which allows the inherent beauty and goodness of things to be recognised. Fundamentally this is about seeing beyond the material value of things to the spirit that stands behind them.
For the adolescent on the journey from fourteen to twenty-one, the quest for truth, the discernment of truth and the integrity to stand for truth is of paramount importance. This also requires courage and conscience.
These values should be evident in the school’s philosophy, structures, curriculum, classrooms and relationships. Teachers work actively to model and instil a disposition of wonder, reverence and gratitude that will accompany all teaching and learning.
The reverence of the young child for the natural world and for the spirit in nature manifests as responsibility for the environment in the adolescent.
Reverence for the human spirit transforms into conscience and compassion for humanity.
From wonder springs a disposition of openness and interest, healthy enquiry and lifelong learning.
Gratitude leads to the will to be of service to the world.
These values are embedded in and stand alongside all those articulated in the New Zealand National
Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007, pp. 8-9).
Each school community will develop these further and find expression for them in their local charters and curriculum documents.