The Whole Child

52 Weeks of Steiner – Week 19  (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)

Look at the child from behind… some walk by planting the whole foot on the ground, other’s trip along on their toes; there can be every kind of differentiation between these two extremes. Yes indeed, to educate a child one must know precisely how he or she walks.

Children who tread on their heels show in this small physical characteristic that they were very firmly planted in life in their earlier incarnation, and were interested in everything in their former earth life. In such a case, you have to draw as much as possible out of the child, for there are many things hidden away in children who walk strongly on their heels.

On the other hand, the children who trip along, who scarcely use their heels in walking, have gone through their former earth life in a superficial way. You will not be able to get much out of these children, but when you are with them, you must make a point of doing a great many things yourself that they can copy.

Rudolf Steiner, 191924
The Kingdom of Childhood, Lecture 2

I am continually brought back to the lecture series, The Kingdom of Childhood. It was my first experience with Steiner and anthroposophy and this series has a habit of popping up in my life. The first paragraph of this quote I recently read in the book “Waldorf School: Kindergarten and Early Grades published by Mercury Press. It is a compilation of articles from the “Education as an Art” Bulletin of the Waldorf School of North America from between 1940-1978, and it is a veritable treasure trove of wisdom and insight.

But back to the quote.

I think one of the things that drew me to Steiner’s indications is his focus on the whole child from head to toe, inside and out. A modern look child development has us often looking at what they aren’t doing against a checklist of what they should be doing. A look at child development through the eyes of anthroposophy has us looking at what the child IS doing. Full stop. How are they moving? How are they expressing themselves? What is their health like? How is their sleep? How do they respond to outside stimulus? How do they respond to touch/sound/taste/movement?

I see Steiner’s indications as the foundation for a supportive education, rather than one that builds from a deficit. It is an education that seeks to understand the child, not one that everyone travels through life at approximately the same speed and under the same process.

There are so many aspects of human development that unfold uniquely, from physically moving around space and time, through rhythmic processes within the body, to soul development and temperament, all the way to how a child perceives their own inner voice. When we look at the WHOLE child, it is absolutely impossible to fit them into a checklist. Steiner gives advice on many of the basic observations you might see from a child and how one might approach it. But above all, he calls on the teacher to creatively work with the children and not to just default to what he says must be done.

In my experience, we most often think of doing this type of observation when children are young, but it is equally important to observe adolescents. Their actions are telling us just as much as a seven or nine year old child, and we must continue looking for signs to support the unfolding teenager.

I think this has been why The Kingdom of Childhood has come up frequently for me these last few weeks. As a reminder that I should not put all my focus on the academic education and goals of my children, which is where we parents often go as we are preparing for post secondary life. Our focus still needs to be on the whole unfolding of the child, and observing their fourfold nature of body, life, soul and spirit. That is the only way we can truly reach them.

Until next time,
Marina