Steiner’s Recommendations to Teachers

In the following list the author summarizes some of Steiner’s recommendations to teachers:-

• Not to underestimate the strength of the human subconscious to strive to do things better. (Steiner1996:86)
• Observe and accommodate the uniqueness of the individual child.(Steiner,1982:32)
• Aspires to provide an aesthetically pleasing and joyful (Steiner1996:157-8) environment:-
• living in beauty, that powerfully awakens the child’s creative imagination (Steiner,1996a:46)
• cognitive activity that occurs in thinking, feeling and willing. (Steiner1996:106-7)

‘…….  Feeling lies in the middle between thinking and willing, so that feeling connects with thinking in one direction and willing in the other.’ (Steiner1996:99) ….‘for the subjective human soul to be convinced of the correctness of a judgment, feeling must develop.’ (Steiner1996:101)

• Acknowledges the importance of repetitive activity Steiner suggests that ‘repetitive activity’…. ‘allowing the child to do something today, tomorrow and the next day’ has an influence on the child’s willing and feeling.  The child’s devotion to repetition developments unconsciously and cultivates his feelings, ‘conscious repetition cultivates the will impulse because through it (repetition) the power of decision increases. Modern people have been trained for one time experiences……..cultivation of the will is based in unconscious repetition.’….. (Steiner1996:92-93) The physical expression of ‘…thinking and willing……flow together in cognitive or reflective activity.’ (Steiner1996:79&97)
• Encourage discovery of the ‘beautiful laws of nature’(Steiner1996a:66) and associated perceptions of the divine source –the flower opening, lambs playing in the fields, the dawn chorus of birds song, the infinity of movement in the flowing stream.
• Acknowledge the importance of ‘observing things as we experience them’(Steiner1996:78) – (cognitive activity illuminated with thinking. (Steiner1996:99)
• An ‘unpretentious’(Steiner1996:43)disposition. A balanced engagement with a sense of immediacy and patience, freedom and necessity. (Steiner,1988:63) ‘….the most important things in teaching and education are those that are imponderable.’ (Steiner,1982:12)
• Teach by example as an apprentice to her own celebration of beauty and creative expression, problem solving and divergent thinking, curiosity and discovery, and openly engaging her personality and spiritual qualities.
• Connect an ‘artistic element’ with every aspect of teaching in order to awaken unconsciously inspired imagination which is experienced as pictures/images and feelings related to artistic creativity. ‘What people receive through artistic activity always gives them joy’ (Steiner1996:93) and in their innocent and soulful state of being, children subconsciously assume ‘that the world is beautiful.’ (Steiner1996:157)
• Create an environment supportive of discovery and creativity that supports the child’s natural and unconventional styles and approaches to learning, often without a notable end-product.
• Provide a supportive environment based on observation of the children’s chosen activities, interests and ideas, imaginations and dreams.
• Create an environment of discovery, supporting the processes of play within learning rather than the success of production. Encourage ‘will’ based activity that is motivated by ‘pure sense-free thinking’ (Steiner1996:68) i.e. independent of the external stimulus, and gives rise to levels of comprehension fundamental to human intellectual activity motivated by the will.
• Embrace ‘the life of the soul’ and acknowledge that ‘the human being is not simply an observer of the world.’ (Steiner1996:77) The subtle influence between the human soul and the ‘will’ transforms desires into motives with a strong inner incentive and subsequent intellectual development of comprehension and consciousness. (Steiner1996:86)
• Meet the child’s requests for adult participation from a genuine disposition and desire to share without presenting solutions and/or superior skills that disempower the child’s direct (conscious) or indirect (subconscious) motives, desires and learning processes.
• Acknowledge ‘that an inner spiritual relationship exists between the teacher and the children.’ (Steiner1996:44)
• Establish ‘Balance in Teaching’(Steiner,1982) as an art that ‘must be invented at every moment’.(Steiner,1982:32) Teachers should be more than ’simply educators’ and have a ‘living interest’ …….’enthusiasm and devotion to everything happening today’ (Steiner, 1996:31)

‘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 teaching and education there is a curious interweaving of two different elements, the musical, tonal element in the world that we hear, and the pictorial in the world that we see.’ (Steiner, 1982: 32)

Conclusion

The author proposes that children’s creative activity is illustrated by the quality of creativity within the adults engagement with a sense of movement and balance within the individual child/ren and the social and cultural context of the relationships:-

Creativity is like the wind:

– The affects can be seen and felt.
– It can be channelled to create a physical influence, e.g. the flying kite or the wind turbine.
Yet, in itself it remains an undefinable representation of creative freedom.
The art of learning is as colourful and as unique as each individual adult and child, and the moment by moment unfolding of each new opportunity.
Supportive adult practice may need to include an ability to spot ‘the emergent beginnings’ of creativity (Bruce,2004:135) within play and learning and respond creatively with uniquely appropriate support and encouragement.
If creativity is an open ended exploration that invites us to move on – expand into new perspectives and boldly embrace new opportunities, any conclusion would be detrimental to the very nature of the subject ‘CREATIVITY’.

The demonstration described below may in some way illustrating the nature of  creativity and commonly associated aspects of consequences, entertainment and primitive responses to strong stimulus:-

The balloon represents the environment, the air in the balloon represents the abstract creative element, and the balloon’s responses represent the  visible relationship with creativity.

Creativity is like the air we breathe, it is fundamental to our state of living as humans, it is abundant in every aspect of our environment and yet it has no tangible form.  Just as it can be caught in a balloon, creativity can be expressed through the results of creative activity although it cannot in itself be held or seen, it can only be felt within a spiritual context and like the wind its presence, and its influence upon our environment and our own individual disposition can be appreciated.

Embrace contrast at the outermost points of our reality with an overall feeling for the harmony at the centre.

There is more power in creativity than any form of control, and more creativity in love than in any form of personal interaction. Every person in every situation needs to apply their own creativity to peaceful solutions with the same power and determination as a mother would protect her young child. Only when we empower ourselves and our children to develop their true powers of creativity will the distress in our world be beaten forever. The question is not ‘Can we resolve every challenging situation with creatively peaceful solutions?’ but  ‘How to resolve every challenging situation with creatively peaceful solutions?’

So the pendulum has swung
A new dimension has begun,
Free from adversity
Bathed in sweet synchronicity.
Where every freedom has the flavour of goodness
And every moment has the fragrance of sweetness.
Positive ways forward are now present and highly favoured
If we work to change the environment not the behaviour.
The true potency of love can offer peaceful alternatives.
All we need to do is learn to see them and use them from the heart.
If this is our wish so it will be,

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