Threads of Human Life

52 Weeks of Steiner – Week 8 (This is part of a weekly serial started on Michaelmas 2023. To see the other entries, please see the post linked HERE and scroll down to the bottom for individual links)

Every single thing children learn during the course of their schooling should in the end be presented so broadly that threads may everywhere be found linking it with practical human life. Very, very many things that are now antisocial in the world would be made social if we could at least touch upon an insight into matters that later need not have any direct bearing on our own work in life.”

Rudolf Steiner
Practical Advice to Teachers – Lecture 12

After my post on Wednesday (HERE), I’ve returned to this lecture numerous times. It paints such a clear picture of the impulse behind Steiner inspired education. I always find this whole compilation of lectures so helpful when I’m in the midst of planning.

Just before this quote, Steiner discusses how much of our human lives have become specialized and he says the main reason why so much of life is specialized is because we start to specialize in the way we teach in schools. I’d say that is definitely still relevant today, and I believe that it is especially relevant in today’s schools and how we look at education.

Many students are encouraged to choose a profession, often by the end of grade eight here in Ontario, Canada. They are then counselled to choose only those subjects that support the specific vocation so they have the credits needed to get into the post secondary program of their choice. What this creates is many children who are given a very narrow education so they can continue to focus on that specific field in post secondary.

This makes me wonder, are we doing our children any favours? I understand it is all in regards to planning for success but is creating such a narrow range of experiences healthy for our children? Is it actually creating success?

Steiner uses the production of cigarettes as his example of the generalized knowledge discussed in his quote. He discusses how the process for making cigarettes is lengthy, but can be simply explained to students so they have an idea of the process. He encourages teachers to have students keep notebook filled with these simple explanations so they can refer back to it, but assures them even if the books are lost, this information will stay with the children for a long time and they will carry with them through the years a sense of knowing about the world around them.

When we teach in a specialized manner, we shorten the threads connecting knowledge with human life. We run the risk of isolating subjects from one another. I believe that antisocial and social in the quote above are used to describe connectedness and specialization. Knowledge that is antisocial is so specialized that it is disconnected from those threads of practical human life. It removes from the picture the connectedness of everything around us. Knowledge can be made “social” by bringing a connection to humanity and practical life. It doesn’t matter if this knowledge will be helpful in their work life, what matters is they are continuing to build an understanding of the workings of human life on earth.

I think about this lecture a lot when planning. Some of the questions I carry while I plan are:

• What is the purpose of bringing this to the children? (sometimes it is just for the experience of knowing!)
• Have we touched on this topic before? When and at what depth?
• How does this connect with what is to come? How does it connect to every day life?
• Am I presenting the information in a way that brings concepts together or am I creating a specialization?

Essentially, when we plan we should look for threads. There are some topics that come totally threadbare, so to speak. Topics that really don’t have much, if any, connection to previous experience or lessons. So it is then our job to seek a way to connect that topic to the threads already created. And to remember: we are not teaching a thesis, but presenting an idea they can take hold of and make their own.

What are some ways you can generalize your lessons to limit specialization?

Until next time,
Marina