Report from November 2022 Meeting
The International Forum/Hague Circle gathered November 17-20, 2022, with 36 participants from 28 countries. The weekend focused on themes of the World Teachers’ Conference; study and reflection with class lessons from the School of Spiritual Science; perspectives on the global situation and reports from members of various nations; and understanding the continued work of the Hague Circle.
Leading Thoughts on the Theme of the World Teachers’ Conference
Philipp Reubke and Constanza Kaliks (Pedagogical Section leadership) and Tomáš Zdražil (Freie Hochschule Stuttgart and Head, Ticino Center for Health and Education) each gave a talk on themes arising from the 2023 World Teachers’ Conference.
Philipp contrasted the imbalance in the range of temperatures around the planet (global warming) with illness in the human being where slight fluctuations in temperature lead to “changes in breathing, blood circulation and mental experience.” When balance is present in the biosphere, life is guaranteed; when balance is present in human beings through healthy blood circulation, the presence of the ego is enabled. He then pointed to causes of imbalance in human beings: 1) a lack of empathy; 2) an inability to conceive and understand organic totality in our thinking so that we only see parts; and 3) consumption: greed and blindness to the consequences of one’s own actions. Both Rudolf Steiner and contemporary French philosopher Corinne Pelluchon connected a lack of empathy with life lived in a machine-dominated world. German psychiatrist and philosopher Thomas Fuchs (who will speak at the 2023 World Teachers’ Conference) describes a certain form of weak thinking as the reason for the inability to think about organic life. Overconsumption is where we seek comfort and live in hiddenism. French author Christian Bobin names the fear of self-knowledge as the reason for blindness to one’s own egoism. Phillipp then pointed to how education can create skills to help overcome these weaknesses. He noted that modern technology is not the cause of the imbalance, but rather, the human inability to use technology appropriately. Citing a lecture Steiner gave on 25th November 1917 (GA 178), Phillipp pointed out that the “merging of man and machine” should not be opposed. Rather, it takes spiritual knowledge and insight to be able to use technology appropriately and to have the strength to withstand the temptations that the development of technology brings. For this to happen, human communities need a certain independence of thinking and awareness for technology, which can only be achieved through cooperation and community building. To help children and young people to step up in the world, we must demonstrate the strength to work together well.
Constanza Kaliks reflected on the themes of the 2023 World Teachers’ Conference: “affirming the world, nurturing the inner life, trusting in the world and human process.” She reminded us that Steiner, in the Oxford Course, noted that we educate for today, and for the children of today. The soul is the field of activity and mediation, and nourishing the soul is a “fundamental task of childcare and education.” Constanza called on
teachers to be mediators of the world. An essential curriculum, combined with close attention to child and adolescent development, provides a vehicle for the journey towards the realization of moral-spiritual values. Incarnating souls express a wish to belong to the world with these gestures: I want to be here; I want to see and be seen; I want to be recognized. A sense of belonging grows when capacities for love, beauty, and responsibility are nurtured. Constanza then went on to cite Hannah Arendt in a lecture given in Bremen in 1959 entitled, “The Crisis in Education.” Arendt noted that teacher authority was being diminished and that the role of the teacher was being downgraded to that of facilitator — rather than being a person who would strive to know and understand the world. Constanza concluded, “The risk of googling one’s way through life is that real knowledge disappears from view, and children and young people are left to swim in a world where the teacher dispenses with the work, and the responsibility of mediating the world through knowledge is also dispensed. We need to rescue the memory that society as a whole has responsibility for education, and the teacher is called upon to be both a qualified mediator of knowledge and a responding, responsible figure.”
Tomáš began his talk by observing that the global population was 4 billion people when he was born in 1973. Now, nearly 50 years later, the global population has doubled, reaching an estimated 8 billion. By 2050, the global population is projected to rise to 10 billion. We live in the midst of a syndemic — a situation in which two or more interrelated biological factors work together to make a disease or health crisis worse. Relationships between the health of the earth, human and animal health, nutrition, and education form a vital nexus. Tomáš sees three things that have contributed to the crisis: 1) The failure of agriculture, and by association, nutrition. Modern methods of food production have contributed to the climate crisis. Most illnesses are human made since they are connected to lifestyle choices. There are many differences between countries, but one can see how overeating and malnourishment, coupled with lack of movement have created the conditions for many of the illnesses of our time. The second is a failure in education. One of our educational tasks is to develop healthy, life-enhancing habits which promote preventative medicine. In Lecture 12 of the Foundations Course, Steiner describes the human being as an entire ecosystem, a symbiosis between minerals, plants, and animals. The physical body enables transformation activity, and in doing this we remain human. Finally, Tomáš notes that back in 1919, neither biodynamic agriculture or anthroposophical medicine had been introduced to the world. Now, this deteriorating situation includes a third of birds of prey that are in danger of extinction, 60-80% reduction in species of invertebrates, and 200 species of animals and plants are thought to disappear on a daily basis. Meat consumption has increased threefold in the last 30 years, and in 2021-22, 300 million tons of meat were consumed on the planet.
Tomáš then raised the question about whether we are doing enough with regards to plants, animals, and nutrition in our schools and in our curriculum. How do we develop the capacity to have an “atmospheric consciousness,” understanding how the biosphere that unites the earth is largely produced by plants and that plants lie at the heart of the fundamental life processes of breathing and digesting? Tomáš brought suggestions about how we could expand our education to include more of a sense of plants, animals, nutrition, and movement. Decisive action is called for in the areas of education, medicine, and agriculture, with the development and sharing of examples of best practice in all three fields.
Study and Reflection from Class Lessons
In two presentations over the weekend, Constanza Kaliks reflected on the twin themes of the seventh lesson of the esoteric lesson course, and the second teacher’s meditation. Reference was made to the Oxford Course (August 1922, GA 305) and the teacher’s task to represent the world for the student, bridging the outer, manifest world and the inner world of qualities. The class lessons are a process for building the whole “I,” and “represent the knowledge that the human being is a being of earth, (or nature) and spirit. In particular, Steiner
calls on teachers in the Oxford Course to “act together with the Spirit.” Constanza explained that the pathway to the Spirit lies through the middle, through the soul, and showed how in the second Teachers’ Meditation, the inward looking is directed outwards. Concurrently, the interplay of intensification and extension of the soul forces of willing, feeling, and thinking is reflected in the seventh esoteric lesson.
Perspectives on the Global Situation
In order to perceive and understand the challenges of Waldorf Education today, in the large group we heard from colleagues in Russia, Finland, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Argentina, Italy, Hungary, Ireland, UK, Germany, and the USA. Intense political, social, economic, and cultural dynamics are affecting many schools and school associations. A few examples are highlighted here.
A representative from Russia gave an update. A new education law goes into effect in September 2023, and a unified curriculum will be enforced across all state schools. It is unclear what impact this will have on Waldorf schools Many teachers attempt to establish a place (at school) where outside worries do not enter. Teachers
seek to fill their classrooms with tenderness and warmth, to try and guard the children. The meditative life provides an alternative to the forces of darkness.
We received written communication from Zhang Li and Zewu, colleagues in China where the Waldorf school organizations have been judged illegal and there have been serious criticisms and attacks from a former parent that have been quite far-reaching. Overall, the number of Waldorf kindergartens in China has decreased by 20% and the number of children by 30%. Waldorf kindergarten teacher trainees have also decreased by 50%. About 60 inspired schools continue to survive and operate.
Chi Hong Wang reported that in Taiwan there are 20 schools today, with eight of them K-12. With world affairs, there is a feeling of threat in Taiwan. The population is receiving military training and refreshers now. As one of the most open and free democratic societies in the world, with a very lively social media and news culture, Waldorf education and anthroposophy are seen as expressions and signifiers of freedom, with a love of clear, independent thinking. The question that hangs in the air for Taiwan is: Can we continue to be members of the global village?”
Regarding Germany, Michael Zech teaches at Kassel and described some of the intercultural interactions taking place there. Michael’s wife is Ukrainian and has worked at the school for 15 years. Still, colleagues treat her as though she is Russian. In each class at Kassel there are pupils from Russian Waldorf schools, ashamed to speak Russian. There are also 33 students from Ukraine attending the school. They are received more sympathetically by their peers. Stefan Grosse reported that there are 250 schools in Germany and 90,000 pupils. State funding accounts for 90% of all funding. A major issue is that the annual need of 600 teachers is not being met, resulting in 65% of teachers not being Waldorf trained. The Corona crisis contributed to a further crisis in the schools. There is an uptick of criticism about Waldorf education and anthroposophy that has been featured in the German media. A delegates’ conference has been convened to name the criticisms and allegations and will convene again early 2023. Stefan concluded: “In a nutshell, the German movement is going through a post-pandemic schism. Given the distorted and out-of-date reception of Steiner’s work (a guru), including Waldorf education (a sect), a dialogue with wider society is essential. The Waldorf movement is open and public. Therefore, it cannot hide away, or retreat to a private enclosure.”
The reports were bookended by Nana Goebel and Christof Weichert. Nana Goebel initiated the discussion with a recent interview given by Nouriel Roubini, a Turkish-born Iranian-American economics professor who pointed to two significant dates in 2022: the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24th February and the unfoldment of American containment policy in relation to China (7th October). [Roubini’s book is here.] Nana also pointed
to 9/11 in 2001 as a significant turning point, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Arab Spring following in its wake. The 2010s saw waves of nationalism and populism, and today there is a string of leaders and regimes around the world that are authoritarian and reactionary. Nana then described that over the last hundred years, scientific materialism has percolated from the thinking into feeling and will. She notes that three generations of educational policy have been influenced by the scientific materialism movement; one its guiding ideas is that the physical human being is the outcome of chemical processes. Profound social and political questions erupt in a period of exponential change and the opportunity to return to more human speed during the pandemic appears to be spurned. The influence of digital media has become pervasive and we are increasingly conditioned by external forces. In a post-truth age, lying becomes normal, national borders become sharper, and hatred of others grows. In spiritual terms, we are now beyond the realm of the gods.
The theme of the World Teachers’ Conference 2023 is “the Body and the I.” The next step is the realm of morality — moral action. How can we help children and young people to learn and develop the capacities for moral actions? How do we nurture the courage and resources for moral action, in children, young people, in schools and in the wider world. This is a doorway through which the gods can be fed now.
Toward the end of the meeting, Christof Weichert spoke about a crisis in nature and a crisis in education. What are our tasks in the Michael Age? To learn to think independently, to develop the capacity to think outside of sense perception, and to work to foster anthroposophy. Christof pointed to Steiner’s lecture series, The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness (GA 177) where Steiner warns that the human being will come to be regarded as a complex machine. Christof advises that this series of lectures are to be read and understood in a realistic, flowing, imaginative manner. To present this material in a nominalistic manner — as factual truth — would lead to a disaster in the public domain. There is a danger that we take Steiner’s pictures as point-blank reality. The ahrimanic treatment of anthroposophical ideas turns them into concrete — hard and fixed — and can become dogma. On the other hand, imaginative ideas and pictures can fly away and return as strange, quasi-religious, anthroposophical lifestyles. This is another form of hardening — Luciferic-style. Meanwhile, Michael is dependent on human beings and what they can do with this immense thinking power. This is an unbelievably dramatic moment. Between the 15th century up to 1879 — the time of Michael — a great number of souls were educated and prepared to take hold of intelligence and use it for the earth and the cosmos. Those souls are now on earth, finding each other in warmth and friendship. Humanity must wrestle to win this intelligence for the world and for education. Constanza added that we are working not just for Waldorf education, but for all children, everywhere. These decades will witness a massive increase in illiteracy, as a generation of children miss out on school and learning. A lost generation leads to an impoverished civilization. Constanza reminded us that we are here for all.
Future Development and Tasks of the Hague Circle
Discussions were held about the shape and activity of the Hague Circle as we move further into the century, and as the movement expands in a time of global crises and complexities. The areas and concrete tasks of the Hague Circle were summarized as follows:
In addition to this discussion, two projects of the Pedagogical Section were featured. Phillipp presented a draft of teacher education guidelines for teacher education programs located in a country where there is no national association. The Pedagogical Section has asked the Hague Circle to sign off on this work and comments were collected. In principle, members agreed with the spirit of the document.
In one evening session, Ioana Viscrianu, a colleague from the office of the Pedagogical Section, made a presentation about research activities of the Section. It was emphasized that the primary task of the Pedagogical Section is to conduct research into the education and life of our times. Research is both centralized and associative. The recent colloquium on interculturality held in September was given as an example of associative work. A more centralized example is the Health & Resilience Project which was presented by Ioana. This multinational project will attempt to answer the following research question: Which educational elements contribute to a person’s inner strength — strength of soul? It is anticipated that the research will lead to a number of practical outcomes.
New and Departing Members
Several long-term members of the Hague Circle were announced as departing from the Circle including James Pewtherer (USA), Douglas Gerwin (USA), Gabor Kulcsar (Hungary), Ellen Koettker (Norway), and Jeppe Flummer (Denmark). The warm intelligence of these members will certainly be missed as they made many valuable contributions to the Hague Circle. New members were invited to join, including Carly Sheard (Australia), William Bester (South Africa), Elard Pijnaken (Holland), and Linda Williams (USA).
For more information, the website of the International Forum/Hague Circle features a history of the Circle, as well as a list (and photographs) of its current members.
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Williams
© 2023 |The Pedagogical Section Council of North America
