Permission to be a child
It is our children that bring forces of renewal into the development of humanity. Childhood is more than a preliminary stage of adulthood and needs special care and protection.
The Forces of Imitation develop Self-Confidence
Children of pre-school age learn through imitation. Manifold experiences of human activities (housework, needle-work, crafts), mythical experiences (fairy-tales, stories and puppetry) and meetings with nature (animals, plants, stones, fire) together provide a treasury of unschooled primary experience. The imitation of these strengthens the trust in the surroundings and the world. The confirmation and affirmation of these later brings increased self-confidence.
Orientation from Authority
During the early school years, intellectual content and thought reflection are brought to the child gently. Cultural abilities, such as writing, reading and number-work are introduced in an imaginative soulful way, so that the child can integrate them into his or her feeling life. Only when the child has learned to connect with the earth with all its senses can it then let go of its childlike unreflexive soul attachments to its perceptions without fear. The child experiences inner soul security through orientation by the authority of grown-ups and through the constant personal relationship between them.
To develop ones own judgment one needs time.
From the 4th class on, the pupils begin to free themselves from their unconscious bond with grown-ups. Later on puberty can mean the reversal of all values. One can only come to one’s own judgment when one has looked at the subject from all sides.
We are happy to wait, encourage and then to promote independent judgment in a very precise way, in that we don’t impose ready made-models and terminology on the pupils, but provoke them towards exact perceptions and original thinking.
Translated by Britta Edwards