The Education of Children from the Standpoint of Theosophy

by Rudolf Steiner

Theosophy is suited by its very nature to present a practical philosophy, comprehending the whole sphere of human life. Whether or not Theosophy, or that which in our time so often passes for it, is justified in putting forth such a claim, is not the point. The point concerns rather the nature of Theosophy and what, by means of this nature, it is able to accomplish. It ought not to be a colorless theory to satisfy the mere curiosity of knowledge, nor yet a medium for those men who, out of selfishness, would like to win for themselves a higher grade of evolution. It can contribute something to the most important problems of present day Humanity, in the development of its well-being.

Of course if it acknowledges a mission of this kind it must expect to meet with all manner of opposition and doubt. Radicals, Moderates and Conservatives of all departments in life will surely raise such doubts against it. For at first it will be unable to please any one party, because its doctrines reach far beyond all party motives.

And these doctrines have their roots wholly and solely in the true understanding of life. Only he who understands life will be able to take his lessons from life itself. He will draw up no capricious schemes, for he knows that no other fundamental laws of life will prevail in the future than such as prevail in the present. Theosophy will therefore of necessity have respect for the existing state of things. Even, should it still find in what is existent, very much that might be improved, yet it will not fail to perceive in the present the germs of the future. But it knows, too, that for all things nascent there is a growth and a development. Therefore the germs for a transformation and for a future growth will appear to Theosophy in the existing state of things. It invents no schemes, it only calls them forth from what already exists. But that which is so called forth becomes in a certain sense itself a scheme, for it contains within itself the nature of evolution.

For this very reason the theosophical way of delving into the nature of man must yield the most fruitful and practical means for the solution of the vitally important questions of the present time.

It is my purpose to apply this to one such question, namely that of education. We do not intend to advance any claims or pronounce a learned dissertation, but to portray simply the child nature. From a study of the nature of the growing man, the educational standpoint here suggested will develop quite naturally. But to proceed rightly with such a study it is necessary to contemplate the hidden nature of man in general.

That which is cognised by the physical perception, that which the materialistic view of life considers to be the only important element in the nature of man, namely, his physical body, forms, according to spiritual research, only a part, a principle of human nature. This physical body is subject to the same laws of physical life, is composed of the same matter and forces, as all the rest of the so-called lifeless world. Theosophy, therefore, maintains that man possesses this physical aspect in common with the whole of the mineral kingdom. And it considers as physical body that part only in man which is able to mix, unite, to build up and to dissolve the very same materials, and after identical laws, as are also at work in the mineral world.

Now besides this physical body, Theosophy recognizes a second element in the constitution of man—namely a vital or etheric body. And that there may be no cause for the physicist to reject the term etheric body we would point out that etheric is here used in a different sense from the hypothetical ether of physics, and it must be taken to mean here that which is about to be described.

It has been considered for some time past a most unscientific proceeding to speak of an “etheric body” of this kind. At the end of the eighteenth and in the first half of the nineteenth century, it is true, it was not considered “unscientific.” It was then said that matter and force operating in a mineral could not of their own power form themselves into a living being. For this there must be an especial indwelling “force,” which was termed “vital force.” It was represented indeed that such a force operates in plants, in animals, and in human bodies, and produces the phenomena of life just as magnetic force in the magnet causes attraction. In the succeeding period of materialism this theory had been abandoned. It was then said that a living being builds itself up in the same way as a so-called lifeless being; no other forces prevail in an organism than those which are in the mineral—they only operate in a more complicated manner; they build up a more complex structure. At the present time, only the most obstinate materialists cling to this denial of the “vital force.” A number of natural philosophers have taught that one must nevertheless admit some such thing as a vital force of a life-principle.

Thus the new science approaches in a certain sense the teaching of Theosophy in regard to the vital body. Nevertheless there is a considerable difference between the two. Science today, by means of intellectual observations founded on the facts of ordinary perception, has accepted the idea of a kind of vital force. But this is not the method of a truly spiritual research, such as Theosophy aims at, and from the results of which proceed the theosophical teachings. It cannot be pointed out too often, how Theosophy on this point differs from the current science of the day. The latter considers the experience of the senses to be the basis of all knowledge, and whatever is not built upon this basis it treats as unknowable. From the impressions of the senses it draws deductions and conclusions. But anything that goes further it puts aside, as being beyond the limits of human knowledge. To Theosophy such a prospect resembles the view of a blind man who only takes into consideration those things that he can touch, and what he may infer from the touched object by reasoning, but who sets aside the statements of those who can see as being beyond the faculty of human perception. For Theosophy shows that man is capable of evolution, that through the developing of new organs he may conquer for himself new worlds. Around the blind man there is color and light, but he cannot perceive them, because he does not possess the requisite organs. Around man, so Theosophy teaches, there are many worlds, and he can observe them, if only he develops the organs necessary for the purpose.

Even as the blind man looks upon a new world as soon as he has undergone a successful operation, so can man, through the developing of higher organs, perceive worlds quite different from those which he observed at first with his ordinary senses. Now whether or not it is possible to operate on one who is bodily blind depends on the conditions of the organs; but those higher organs by which one may penetrate into the upper worlds, exist in embryo in every human being. Anyone can develop them, who has the patience, endurance and energy to make use of those methods which are described in my two books entitled “The Way of Initiation” and “Initiation and Its Results.”[1]