Contents:

The Kingdom of Childhood by Rudolf Steiner

Translated by Helen Fox, and with a Preface by A. Harwood, we present these lectures with the kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland. From Bn , GA Find more information at Google Book Search. The need for a new Art of Education. The whole of life must be considered.

Episode 1: Lecture 1: Christ and the Human Soul by Rudolf Steiner

Process of incarnation as a stupendous task of the spirit. Fundamental changes at seven and fourteen. After birth, the bodily milk as sole nourishment. In first epoch of life child is wholly sense-organ.

Nature of child's environment and conduct of those around him of paramount importance. Detailed observation of children and its significance. In second epoch, seven to fourteen, fantasy and imagination as life-blood of all education, e. The child as integral part of his environment until nine. Teaching about nature must be based on this. How the teacher can guide the child through the critical moment of the ninth year. How to teach about plants and animals seven to fourteen. Plants must always be considered, not as specimens, but growing in the soil. The plant belongs to the earth.

This is the true picture and gives the child an inward joy. Animals must be spoken of always in connection with man. All animal qualities and physical characteristics are to be found, in some form, in man. Man as synthesis of the whole animal kingdom. Minerals should not be introduced till twelfth year.

History should first be presented in living, imaginative pictures, through legends, myths and stories. Only at eleven or twelve should any teaching be based on cause and effect, which is foreign to the young child's nature. Some thoughts on punishment, with examples. Development of imaginative qualities in the teacher. The story of the violet and the blue sky.

Discipline dependent on the right mood of soul. The teacher's own preparation for this. Seating of children according to temperament. Importance of imaginative stories which can be recalled in later school life. Drawing of diagrams, from ninth year. Completion and metamorphosis cf simple figures, to give children feeling of form and symmetry. Concentration exercises to awaken an active thinking as basis of wisdom for later life.

A Waldorf School timetable. All teaching matter must be intimately connected with life. Thus in counting, each different number should be connected with the child himself or what he sees around him. Counting and stepping in rhythm. The head looks on. Counting with fingers and toes is good also writing with the feet.

The ONE is the whole. Other numbers proceed from it. Building with bricks is against child's nature. His impulse is to proceed from whole to parts, as in medieval thinking. In real life we have first a basket of apples, a purse of coins. In teaching addition, proceed from the whole. In subtraction, start with minuend and remainder, in multiplication, with product and one factor.

Theorem of Pythagoras 11—12 years. Details given of a clear, visual proof, based on practical thinking. Theorem of Pythagoras eleven-twelve years. Details given of a clear, visual proof, based on practical thinking. This will arouse fresh wonder every time. In first seven years etheric body is an inward sculptor.

After seven, child has impulse to model and to paint. Teacher must learn anatomy by modeling the organs. Teaching of physiology nine to twelve years should be based on modeling. Between seven and fourteen astral body gradually draws into physical body, carrying the breathing by way of nerves, as playing on a lyre. Child's experience of well being like that of cows chewing the cud. Instrumental music from beginning of school life, wind or strings. Teaching of languages; up to nine through imitation, then beginnings of grammar, as little translation as possible. Vowels are expression of feeling, consonants are imitation of external processes.

Each language expresses a different conception. Compare head, Kopf, testa. The parts of speech in relation to the life after death. If language is rightly taught, out of feeling, eurythmy will develop naturally, expressing inner and outer experiences in ordered movements--"visible speech. Between seven and fourteen soul qualities are paramount. Beginnings of science teaching from twelfth year only, and connected with real phenomena of life. The problem of fatigue. Wrong conceptions of psychologists. The rhythmic system, predominant in second period, never tires.

Sums from real life, not abstractions. The kindergarten--imitation of life. Teachers' meetings, the heart of the school. Every child to be in the right class for its age. Importance of some knowledge of trades, e.

Transport Policy and Planning in Great Britain (Natural and Built Environment Series).
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Lecture Series: The Kingdom of Childhood?

Children's reports-- characterization, but no grading. Contact with the parents. The close relationship of Multiplication and Division. How to deal with both together. Transition from the concrete to the abstract in Arithmetic. Not before the ninth year. Healthiness of English weights and measures as related to real life.

Decimal system as an intellectual abstraction. Lines have no reality in drawing and painting, only boundaries. How to teach children to draw a tree in shading, speaking only of light and color.

Beyond Speciesism: Memoirs of a Zookeeper.
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Las Poesias De Otto Gotto 1 (Spanish Edition).
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Line drawing belongs only to geometry. Sport is of no educational value, but necessary as belonging to English life. Gymnastics should be taught by demonstration. Religion lessons in the Waldorf school given by Catholic priest and Protestant pastor. Plan of such teaching described, of which the fundamental aim is an understanding of Christianity. Choice of languages must be guided by the demands of English life.

These can be introduced at an early age. Direct method in language teaching. Closing words by Dr.

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Steiner on the seriousness of this first attempt to found a school in England. Paperback , pages. Published July 1st by Steiner Books first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Kingdom of Childhood , please sign up. Be the first to ask a question about The Kingdom of Childhood. Lists with This Book. Feb 23, Roslyn rated it it was ok.

This is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. I really wanted to like Waldorf. Instead, I think it is one of the greatest evils done to children in this day and age. Many Waldorf ideas have made it out into Standard American Parenting practices and are to blame for many of the problems in parenting today, not to mention the problem with kids, teens and adults who suffer from such insane self-esteem problems.

But first, let's talk about what's good: I totally agree t This is one of the most depressing books I have ever read.

The Kingdom of Childhood by Rudolf Steiner

I totally agree that how we relate to children and with each other and with ourselves should involve more awareness of our whole person and our emotional selves. Totally agree all people who work with children need to observe more. Totally agree children should learn things that apply to real life. Totally agree there should be shoemakers and papermakers at every school. Totally agree that only the most heroic people should work with children. Totally agree that one should put their relationship first, always first, with another person.

Totally agree that teachers should be autonomous--well But there would be that option for parents to choose from. And now what sucks a lot about Waldorf: Steiner gives lip service to authenticity but actually wants teachers to be inauthentic. He wants them to be actors. Actors who can manipulate children into feeling in certain "right" ways. Waldorf education uses song and dance to "get children to do, learn and be" but that is exactly what is wrong with every other form of education. Just because you are manipulating with song and dance does not make it any less a manipulation.

He gives lip service, like everyone else, to allowing children to be who they are, but then goes on to describe all the "lessons", all the things they will have to do with their day whether they want to or not. His ideas about age-appropraiteness of different learnings are laughable if they weren't so depressing. Have you ever met a baby? I have never met even a newborn who wasn't working its ass off to understand the world. Not to mention the most curious people on the planet--toddlers. And the worst of the worst, the reason I want to travel back in time and smack this man silly: The child has fantasy, and this fantasy is what we must engage It is important to speak of everything around the children--plants, animals and even stones--in a way that all these things talk to each other, that they act among themselves like human beings, that they tell each other things, that they love and hate each other I feel so angry at this man.

The Kingdom of Childhood

And all the innocent people who have not studied this subject as much as I have and go around destroying their children with good intentions. The problem is that Steiner, like most people, have never met or studied real children. They only meet and study the messes parents create. Children who are 7 are confused and retarded about reality because their parents destroy their ability to understand reality when they were first trying to understand it--back when they were 2. Yes, they often revert to fantasy because they assume they are too stupid to understand reality.

The fantasy world was a world created for children by the Victorians who didn't want their kids to know about real life. In the history of the world, in cultures all around the world, children are extremely competent and rational beings. Children do not "demand" we turn everything into fantasy for them unless we first make them morons who think they are unfit to understand reality.

Children don't want to be that. Children want to be competent at life. And that is exactly why we have had so many generations of insecure, miserable automatons who don't have the self-esteem in their own ability to understand reality so they just become sheep and do what they are told. NEVER lie to children. That is how you destroy your relationship with them and their self-esteem.

His ideas about not teaching kids to read until they are much older are retarded.

Because they think letters are demonic? My two-year-old is obsessed with reading and can sound out almost the entire alphabet and not because I have ever asked him to but because he sees me reading and asking me about it. Reading and writing are not suited to humans until they are 11 or 12?

How about whenever the kid wants? How about there are not rules and when the kid is interested he IS suited. Yes, let us again deny reality to children.

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Child's experience of well being like that of cows chewing the cud. Be the first to ask a question about The Kingdom of Childhood. How about whenever the kid wants? The parts of speech in relation to the life after death. Process of incarnation as a stupendous task of the spirit. Every child to be in the right class for its age.

Let us teach them to disown all non-positive feelings so they turn to escapism everything they feel something they are not supposed to ever feel. Jul 14, Roger Buck added it. How Rudolf Steiner loved the child. So much so that he said we should building dozens of new Waldorf schools every years.

By now there should be thousands and thousands of them across the planet. We see that the Anthroposophical movement which he hoped would be helping millions by now is like a damp squib compared to his hopes. Faced by this ascending cold as steel dehumanised society, what does one do.

My answer involves what Steiner says here: