“[T]he structure of language has not been formed by human beings ... It is extremely important to learn how to feel something definite in the activity of the spirits of language." — Rudolf Steiner OH MY WORD The Waldorf Curriculum: English and History
I. We might be tempted to think that Waldorf school teachers could not manipulate English classes for any occult purposes. The students learn vocabulary, spelling, grammar, reading, and writing, and they read some good books. How can a Waldorf school pervert any of that? An absorbing pamphlet written by Anthroposophist Roy Wilkinson explains how. Crucially, bear in mind that Wilkinson was not addressing parents of Waldorf students, or people considering Waldorf schools for their children, or critics of Waldorf education. He was giving advice to Waldorf teachers. [1] Wilkinson starts the Chapter “The Origin of Language” by explaining that his remarks will be based on “indications” given by Rudolf Steiner. [2] He then quotes the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.” [3] Passing on to the story of creation in Genesis, he offers the following: “The Hebrew word translated as ‘God’ is ‘Elohim,’ and this, we understand from the experts, is a plural ... therefore, it should be read ‘Gods.’ These Elohim or Gods are high-ranking spiritual beings ... The process of creation was that from these divine beings there flowed our [sic - probably means ‘out’] a sort of speech-music. this [sic] was of a spiritual nature not perceptible to the ordinary human ear. Different beings created different tones and this outflowing eventually crystallized in matter and became manifest.” [4] This is a fairly stunning account of the creation, and it begs a few questions. Aside from Steiner, who are the “experts” Wilkinson refers to? Also, given that human beings had not yet been created (we’ll get to that in a moment), how can Wilkinson know that the “speech-music” of the Gods [sic] was “not perceptible to the ordinary human ear?” Most fundamentally, of course, we are entitled to wonder how the Biblical account of creation got transformed from a description of the work of the one and only God of the Hebrew Bible, into the operations of a plethora of speech-singing minor gods. Wilkinson is clearly bending the Bible to conform with Rudolf Steiner’s doctrines. Steiner often referred to multiple gods, as when he said to Waldorf teachers, “We should always remember that when we do something, we are actually carrying out the intentions of the gods....” [5]  Well, let’s get on to the creation of man (and presumably the first appearance of the human ear). Wilkinson writes: “The Bible also tells us that God [sic] spoke, and that he breathed into man the living soul ... The human being is the product of the creative word ... The human being can recognize and use speech because ... language has been built into his structure.” [6] OK. The physical universe was spoken into existence, and man was spoken into existence. We can use language because language has been built into us. Got it. Since all other physical objects, including all the other animals, were also spoken into existence, one might wonder why the use of language is confined to a single species. The answer, actually, is that language isn’t our sole possession — think of the famous gorilla, Koko, who has a working vocabulary (in sign language, of course) of over 1000 words. Still, we do seem to be the best users of language on the planet. We have this facility because we have voice boxes, speech centers in our brains, etc. But Wilkinson shows no interest in these. Instead, he focuses on the magical powers inherent in language, and he is apparently saddened that language became debased as humans became more and more physically incarnated. (This is a common theme in Anthroposophy: The material world is a degrading arena.) Wilkinson writes: “Originally a word was a manifestation or expression of the inner nature of the object. Thus, in speaking, man was intimately connected with the world around. In the course of evolution he has developed into a being with a self-conscious ego and, as such, he stands outside nature and divorced from it. When words are spoken therefore, he no longer experiences the being of things in them but accepts them as labels ... Further descent into physical existence is also the reason for the development of different languages.” [7] “[T]he being of things in them” is fairly opaque; I infer that Wilkinson means the essence of the objects under discussion. (Strangely, considering the subject he has chosen, Wilkinson doesn’t write very well.) Wilkinson’s message soon becomes additionally muddled. Seen from one perspective, nothing could be more important than the study of language with all its magical properties. On the other hand, if we nowadays are merely pushing around labels, the study of language is a trivial pursuit. Wilkinson glides over this contradiction and proceeds to discuss grammar. “[I]n teaching grammar what was unconscious is brought to consciousness ... When we say ‘bring to consciousness,’ this is not to be equated with intellectual understanding.” [8] Intellectual understanding is never much prized at Waldorfs. But note the incoherence of Wilkinson’s assertions. In our time, language has become debased; yet language is built into us; even grammar is innately within our beings — and Wilkinson does not mean that our use of language reflects debasement. Just the opposite: “[L]anguage is a manifestation of the Divine, and ultimately, the study of language leads to an understanding of the Divine and man’s connection with it. In this sense, it is a religious study.” [9] How the study of mere labels can have such a marvelous effect is left unclear. But the important point is that at Waldorf, the study of language — like, in fact, the study of everything else — is intended to draw the students toward religion: specifically, toward Steiner’s religion, Anthroposophy. This is the answer to the question I began with. Waldorf teachers often bend English classes to the service of Rudolf Steiner's occult faith, Anthroposophy. Perhaps the best way to wrap this up is to cite some of the reading recommendations Wilkinson makes for various grade levels, especially the lower grades when the children are most impressionable. The Anthroposophical agenda is unmistakable. Note the prominence of the magical, mystical, and mythic. Steiner, you see, taught that myths are essentially true. “Actual facts concerning the higher Spiritual Worlds lie at the foundation of all myths.... ” [10]  Grade 1: Little or no reading. “It is a mistake to try to learn to read before learning to write.” [11] Children can play with illustrated books having moving parts. “The themes of these are fairy stories, seasons, nature.” The kids can also be exposed to “such delightful creations as ‘The Song of the Elfin Miller” ... and “The Fairies”. [12] Grade 2: “Fairy stories, legends, fables....” [13] Grade 3: “Old Testament stories, legends, stories of the saints, folk tales....” [14] Grade 4: “Norse stories [i.e., myths], scenes from ancient history ... alliterative poetry....” [15] Grade 5: “Indian, Persian, and Egyptian myths ... Greek myths ... Irish legends....” [16] After that, the reading suggestions become somewhat more conventional, although “folk legends” are specified for Grade 6 [17], for instance, and recommendations for the 11th grade include “Odysseus [sic] by Homer ... Niebelungenlied [a German epic poem derived, in part, from Norse myths] ... Sunset and Evening Star (quiet contemplation and no fear of the beyond), [and] The Higher Pantheism (relation to the divine).” [18] Sort of makes you think, doesn’t it? Look again at the reading recommendations for Grade 3, which include “stories of the saints.” Waldorfs usually claim to be nonsectarian. In how many nonsectarian schools are children asked to read “stories of the saints”? II. At the Waldorf school I attended, my classmates and I were led through an English curriculum that generally conformed to Wilkinson/Steiner’s recommendations. For example, the class history printed in our 1964 yearbook includes the following: “In the third grade we began our study of the Bible, and put on a play about Joseph’s coat of many colors ... Besides the three R’s, the fourth grade was occupied with the study of Norse myths. The high point of the year was the building of Yggdrasil, the Norse tree of life, out of paper. The fifth grade, where we learned about Greek and Egyptian myths....” [19]  Similarly, we studied THE ODYSSEY right on schedule, in the 11th grade. Our reading matter in high school contained a large dose of the mythical and even the theological. We were assigned THE DIVINE COMEDY (Dante’s description of Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven) and PARADISE LOST (Milton’s account of mankind’s Fall in the Garden of Eden). We were assigned spiritualistic essays from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s SELECTED WRITINGS and Thomas Carlyle’s ON HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP. I still have my copies of these books, in which I dutifully underlined passages honoring Jesus and praising “Christianism.” In addition, we were encouraged to read disguised Christian parables by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who were members of a coterie now known as the Oxford Christians. [20] I remember Tolkien’s books being sold in our school lobby at Christmastime. That’s where I got my copies — after buying them, I reread THE LORD OF THE RINGS once a year until I graduated. We also studied literature with no immediately apparent connection to spiritualism. But a closer examination suggests that at least some of these works do contain, in muted form, ideas consistent with Anthroposophy. For example, we were assigned Willa Cather’s MY ANTONIA, which deals with Manifest Destiny as enacted by a pair of Christian families: The forces of destiny want such white people to take possession of the North American continent, and religious faith helps the families overcome their difficulties. Destiny or karma is a central Anthroposophical concept, and Steiner’s elevation of whites above other races is one of his most appalling tenets. (See my essay “Steiner’s Racism” on this Web site.) The speaker at my class’s eighth grade graduation, Sylvester M. Morley, wrote a pamphlet in which he echoes Steiner’s argument that American “Indians” are less evolved than whites. [21] I think it was in our freshman or sophomore year in high school that we studied CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, the story of a remorseless, apparently irredeemable murderer. Yet the novel ends in a passage to which no Anthroposophist could object: The murderer clutches a New Testament while the author projects for him “a new story, the story of the gradual rebirth of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his gradual passing from one world to another ....” [22] Rebirth, in the form of reincarnation and spiritual evolution, is a basic Anthroposophical doctrine. For example, Steiner said that “people live repeated earthly lives” [23], and one of his followers has correctly written “Evolution is the great theme ... of Steiner’s life work. It is, however, an evolution that goes far beyond anything dreamed of today in biology or geology.” [24] (See my essay “Evolution, Anyone?” on this Web site.)  “Passing from one world to another” is a phrase that suits Anthroposophical dogma particularly well. The phrase may seem innocuous if it is interpreted to mean that we can move from one “world” (one form of consciousness or grace) to another while living, or that we will go to another world after we die. But Steiner took matters farther and more literally. He taught that we previously lived in or on Saturn, the Sun, and the Moon. We now live on the Earth, as perhaps I don't need to point out. In the future, we will pass to additional worlds: Jupiter, Venus, and Vulcan. (Yes, Vulcan.) I know it sounds incredible, but Steiner insisted on this outline of humanity’s past and future. To quote another of his supporters: “I wouldn’t be surprised is the last few pages [describing Steiner’s planetary scheme of evolution] have taxed some readers’ capacity for giving Steiner the benefit of the doubt and left them wondering who could possibly believe this science fiction story. Yet this cosmic history is the backbone of Steiner’s work.” [25] (For more on these matters, see my essay "Everything" and the essays that follow it.) I do not mean, of course, that any of the authors we read in our English classes were Anthroposophists — Cather, Dostoyevsky, and the others would have been shocked by such a suggestion. And I certainly do not mean that we students knew enough about Anthroposophy to realize that a sentence at the end of a Dostoyevsky novel might have a special resonance for Anthroposophists. (Hey! This line is sort of like Steiner’s doctrine about planetary evolution!) No, nothing like that. But Waldorf schools have a long history of promoting Anthroposophy by stealth. Steiner himself cautioned Waldorf teachers not to reveal too much about their beliefs. But he also made plain his intention for Waldorf schools to promote Anthroposophy. [26] This is usually accomplished by indirection, by the quiet planting of seeds in students’ minds. Thus, in the English curriculum, a receptivity to Anthroposophy is subtly fostered through the frequent, repeated use of myths, legends, fables, spiritualistic fiction, and devout poetry. The ultimate effect is to create a mental climate in which occultism in general, and Anthroposophy in particular, may flower. So our teachers selected reading matter that was, in varying degrees, congruous with Anthroposophical positions — and yet, because the literature we read consisted largely of recognized literary classics, no one had definite cause to complain.
III. The rationale behind English classes and history classes are closely interlinked at Waldorf schools. Here is a brief synopsis of the Waldorf history curriculum, provided by Steiner follower Roy Wilkinson in his booklet, TEACHING HISTORY: “From [ages] six to nine there is no [study of] history proper. Single stories can be told with historical background, but there should be no attempt at sequence. At the age of nine or ten, the [study of] history is still interwoven with the period we call ‘study of home surroundings.’ This is a geographical-historical study of the immediate environment. It should provide an experience of how the particular locality has grown in time — the changes that have taken place and the reasons, insofar as they can be understood. This period will provide the opportunity of presenting many historical as well as geographical concepts. “In the next year the study branches out into definite subjects, of which history is one. It is at this stage (age eleven) that the contents of this booklet become relevant. The child now has an awareness of time, but no logical faculty. Pictures in the mind are still the most potent form of educational material, and since history has its beginnings in mythology, the mythologies provide what is needed. The oriental (not China or Japan) mythologies and civilizations, plus Greece and Rome, will take us through age eleven to the turning point of twelve. The age of twelve brings a marked development of the bony system, and a feeling of independence. The material civilization of the Romans and their insistence on law fit this age of the child. It is worth repeating that, in general, up to the age of twelve, complete pictures or biographies or descriptions of characteristic events will be most effective. As with other subjects, what the child loves in these years, he will understand later... “At the ages of thirteen and fourteen comes the beginning of conceptual thinking. The great change marked by the Reformation and the beginnings of modern natural science parallel in history this human development. After fourteen, one can begin to deal with reasons, causes, effects and historical motives of this most important period and proceed up to modern times.” [27] Several characteristics of Waldorf schooling arise in these paragraphs. I deal with these matters at various essays at this Web site, so for now I’ll simply list a few. If you want to dig into any of this further, please consult the Table of Contents or Index for the site. Notice that Wilkinson encourages a parochial consciousness in young students. He also says that children don’t develop a sense of time or an ability to think sensibly until at least age eleven. Odd racial/national judgments are passed (no myths from China or Japan, indeed no study of those nations’ civilizations). Strange physiological/psychological tenets crop up (the “bony system” develops a lot around age twelve, feeding a sense of independence). Wilkinson accepts Steiner’s claim that thinking is largely a pictorial process (related to imagination and the production of intuited images in the mind). Conceptual thinking doesn’t even begin until about age thirteen, so “reasons, causes, effects and historical motives” shouldn’t be presented until age fourteen or so. (I discuss some of these propositions in my essay "Thinking Cap".) Waldorf schools in general try to impede the maturation of their students. “[I]n a Waldorf school, therefore, one of the tasks of the teachers is to keep the children young.” [28] This is most marked in the lower grades, but it persist to some degree throughout the curriculum. The schools especially want to keep children from learning to think for themselves. The English and history curriculums are designed with these goals in mind.  Steiner called the periods dominated by various human civilizations “cultural epochs.” [32] He said that humanity makes spiritual evolutionary progress as it moves from cultural epoch to cultural epoch — that is, from the influence of one sign to the zodiac to the next. Thus, ancient Greeks, living under a new sign, were actually more evolved than ancient Egyptians, for instance. [33] The progress achieved by mankind over the course of history manifests itself primarily in new, higher stages of spiritual consciousness. “One of the most stimulating aspects of history is a study of the qualitative differences of various cultures. This kind of history reveals that man undergoes a development of consciousness ... he unfolds different nuances of his soul in different epochs.” [34] The pageant of history, as conceived in Waldorf education, is a chronicle not just of astrological influences but also of human reincarnation. People return to Earth over and over, passing through progressive stages of spiritual evolution. Steiner also taught that children recapitulate, in their earthly lives, the spiritual evolution of humanity. Therefore, at Waldorf schools, teaching kids history means chaperoning them through their own evolution. This is the limited sense in which Waldorf teachers aim to help children to mature. Young children are meant to remain young for as long as possible, but gradually emphasis shifts to a form of spiritual maturation. In the words of a history teacher of mine at the Waldorf School of Adelphi University, “There’s a proper time and method for particular subjects to be taught. The child recapitulates the cultural epochs of humankind.” [35] At Waldorf schools, the study of history — like the study of virtually all subjects — is not rational or scientific. It is certainly not rooted in objective fact. It is covert spiritual initiation. Artwork created by Waldorf students often depicts scenes from mythology, fairy tales, folk tales, or plain fantasy. Here are two colored-pencil examples. (Young students at the schools are often allowed to use only large crayons and wide paintbrushes. Colored pencils are usually not introduced until later.) Here is a wet-on-wet watercolor painting by a Waldorf student: Also by a Waldorf student:
Yggdrasil. [J. C. Cooper, AN ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TRADITIONAL SYMBOLS (Thames and Hudson, 1978), p. 197.] Norse mythology holds a special place in the Waldorf curriculum. For an exploration of these myths, please see my essay "The Gods". ◊◊◊◊ Math is math, even in Waldorf schools, so I haven't written a separate essay about math education. But you shouldn't doubt that numbers have strange meanings, according to Steiner. Please see "Magic Numbers". — Roger Rawlings ENDNOTES [1] Roy Wilkinson, TEACHING ENGLISH (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1976, reprinted 1997.) [2] THE HOLY BIBLE, New Testament, John 1:1. [3] TEACHING ENGLISH, p. 2. [4] Ibid., p. 2. [5] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 55. [6] TEACHING ENGLISH, p. 3. [7] Ibid., pp. 3-4. [8] Ibid., p. 5. [9] Ibid., p 6. [10] Rudolf Steiner, UNIVERSE EARTH AND MAN IN THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO EGYPTIAN MYTHS AND MODERN CIVILIZATION (Kessinger Publishing, 2003), p. 94. The word “myth” is often taken to mean falsehood or fantasy. There’s good reason for this. At least some myths are little more than entertainments, dramatic tales of heroes and villains, earthly and celestial. They are not unlike comic book plots. Combing through these, interpreting them in elaborate ways, in a search for information about reality is obviously a fool’s errand. On the other hand, various myths may convey certain forms of truth, as scholars such as Edith Hamilton and Joseph Campbell have shown. But these truths are emotional, moral, psychological — they are reflections of innate human dispositions and capacities, our yearnings, dreams, and subconscious natures. They are not expositions of external cosmological realities — they are not presentations “actual facts” about the universe. Steiner taught that myths are pictorial representations, created by clairvoyant seers. All mythologies, he said, are true; and all myths told by indigenous people are true: All of them are true: “All mythologies — Greek, Roman, Germanic, and all the myths of indigenous peoples — are only pictorial, symbolic representations of supersensible truths." [Rudolf Steiner, SPIRITUALISM, MADAME BLAVATSKY, AND THEOSOPHY (Anthroposophic Press, 2001), p. 61.] This sweeping generalization is breathtaking, but Steiner went event further, arguing that all fairy tales are also true. Read on. [11] TEACHING ENGLISH, p. 20. [12] Ibid., p. 21. I reported, above, that Steiner claimed that essentially all myths are true, at the symbolic level. Steiner made the same claim for all fairy tales: "Fairy tales are ... the final remains of ancient clairvoyance ... What was seen in a dream was told as a story ... All fairy tales in existence are thus the remnants of the original clairvoyance." [Rudolf Steiner, ON THE MYSTERY DRAMAS (Rudolf Steiner Press, 1983), p. 93.] [13] Ibid., p. 22. [14] Ibid., p. 25. [15] Ibid., p. 29. [16] Ibid., p. 30. [17] Ibid., p. 35. [18] Ibid., p. 44. [19] 1964 PINNACLE, The Waldorf School of Adelphi University (Inter-Collegiate Press, 1964). [20] See R. J. Reilly, ROMANTIC RELIGION (Lindisfarne Press, 2006). Lewis’s Christianity lies near the surface of his fiction; Tolkien’s is more hidden. For analyses of the Christian message in Tolkien’s books, see Ralph C. Woods, THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TOLKIEN (Westminster John Knox Press, 2003) and Kurt D. Bruner & Jim Ware, FINDING GOD IN THE LORD OF THE RINGS (SaltRiver, 2001). Tolkien’s enthralling Christian mythology, which does not immediately appear to be Christian, would have obvious appeal to a Christian school that wanted to appear nonsectarian. For an examination of Tolkien’s and Lewis’s trilogies, please see "Light and Dark" on this Web site. [21] Sylvester M. Morley, AMERICAN INDIANS AND OUR WAY OF LIFE (The Myrin Institute Inc. , 1961). On p. 18, Morley says “The white man has been swept along in the tide of evolution....” The “red man” has not, he says. [22] Fyodor Dostoyevsky, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (Penguin Books, 1951), p. 559. [23] Rudolf Steiner, FACULTY MEETINGS WITH RUDOLF STEINER (Anthroposophic Press, 1998), p. 46. [24] Rudolf Steiner, AN OUTLINE OF ESOTERIC SCIENCE (Anthroposophic Press, 1997), p. xii, introduction by Clopper Almon. [25] Gary Lachman, RUDOLF STEINER (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2007), p. 147. Almon and Lachman are correct in calling evolution both the great theme and the backbone of Steiner’s doctrines. [26] I go into this at some length in other essays on this Web site. At this point, it may be sufficient to offer this quotation: “One of the most important facts about the background of the Waldorf School is that we were in a position to make the anthroposophical movement a relatively large one. The anthroposophical movement has become a large one.” [Rudolf Steiner, RUDOLF STEINER IN THE WALDORF SCHOOL (Anthroposophic Press, 1996), p.156.] [27] Roy Wilkinson, TEACHING HISTORY: The Ancient Civilizations; India; Persia; Egypt and Babylonia; The Fourth Cultural Epoch: Greece and Rome (Rudolf Steiner College Press, 1992), pp. 5-6. [28] A.C. Harwood, PORTRAIT OF A WALDORF SCHOOL (The Myrin Institute Inc., 1956), pp. 15-16. [29] Werner Glas, THE WALDORF SCHOOL APPROACH TO HISTORY (Anthroposophic Press, 1963), p. 37. [30] Ibid., p. 37. [31] For Christians, this treatment of Christ is virtually sacrilege. Christians should realize how unorthodox Steiner’s view of Christ was — and how unorthodox that view remains today in many Waldorf schools. Steiner said that Christ was a Sun being. See my essays “Everything” and "Was He Christian?". [32] I discuss this, also, in “Everything”. [33] The cultural differences between peoples reflect different stages of spiritual development, according to Steiner. This doctrine is related to Steiner’s racist teachings. See, e.g., my essays “Steiner’s Racism” and “Rankings”. [34] Werner Glas, THE WALDORF SCHOOL APPROACH TO HISTORY — excerpted in Laurens van der Post, INTUITION, INTELLECT, AND THE RACIAL QUESTION (Myrin Institute, 1964), p. 29. An aside of minor relevance: Laurens van der Post, author of INTUITION, INTELLECT, AND THE RACIAL QUESTION, is typical of spiritual fellow travelers embraced by Anthroposophists. Van der Post gained fame in the 1960s as an “advocate” of the African Bushmen. His patronizing attitude toward those blacks passed for racial enlightenment. J. D. F. Jones, authorized biographer of van der Post, learned to his shock that van der Post knew little of the Bushmen and was, in general, a fraud. [J. D. F. Jones, TELLER OF MANY TALES: The Lives of Laurens van der Post (Carroll & Graf, 2001).] Van der Post was celebrated at the Waldorf school I attended. The Myrin Institute, publisher of INTUITION, INTELLECT, AND THE RACIAL QUESTION, was closely associated with the school. (See my essay “Unenlightened.”) Van der Post preyed on the credulity of sincere spiritual seekers, much as Steiner did. [35] Peter Curran, quoted in TAMARACK TALK, Nov. 21, 2006. |
