New Thoughts after a long break

I have been doing a lot of reading of Steiner lately, and have been really enjoying it. It also has been a lot of information to digest thoughtfully, so I have really waited before I put out my thoughts on it. My impression lately is that Waldorf education is much deeper than I had been aware, and I love the depth. Concepts like the integration of willing, feeling, and thinking into the curriculum is a very detailed and in-depth theory of Steiner's. It really makes sense to educate holistically, and what is interesting, is that there is more to it than just what we would be aware of at the surface. Constantly, Steiner empahsized that we must work form a picture of our true humanity. What is the meaning of our unique creation and development? From the answer to this, we can truly educate.

Steiner's concepts about the origin of willing, thinking and feeling are based on a spiritual view of the human being. The power of thinking emerges from life before birth, and the power of willing flows forward into life after death. The interaction of the two, here in this life develops the feeling life. Additionally, children, Steiner says, have willing and feeling intertwined, whereas the mature adult has feeling connected with thinking. You can see this in action in the young child who moves forward with desire to touch, to take in, to embrace what is in front of them. They are compelled, as if fitted with little internal motors that continually move forward! Ask a mom of a newly mobile toddler; the motion is perpetual and healthily and happily so!

What is enriching about these concepts is the image they evoke of this continum of forces that move through us. These forces are unique to us as humans in that we have the power to work with them unlike the animal world which operates from willing and feeling. Here too, you can get a glimpse of why it is important to work to separate these two elements and connect feeling to thinking as we mature. This is in essence one of the factors that allows humans freedom, a concept Steiner empahsizes tremendously.

So, that is a little bit of what I have been reading and thinking about. The questions that Steiner asks in his lectures are very intriguing and unique, and are a real shift from many other theories. I find the questions and the answers very enriching and satisfying, even if I just entertain them as possibilities.

What about you?