Just as flowers, vegetables and trees need certain conditions to develop well, so do children. Just as it makes little sense to artificially force plants to produce flowers and fruit that are not inherent in their nature, it makes just as little sense to teach young children something through educational programs.

After all, they want to learn and try out so much on their own initiative, and they manage to do so if the adults have created the right conditions. «Kindergarten» – this name for pre-school facilities, first introduced by Friedrich Froebel in 1840, is a good expression for the special nature of the child in the first six to seven years of life. The gardener waters, enriches and loosens the soil; the early childhood educator creates a play space, structures play time, and sets an example through their work, their language, their inner attitude. Each creates a favourable environment for free development and activity.

Self-education is also like working in the garden and kindergarten. Little or nothing can be achieved through coercion and rules. Everything depends on me wanting certain qualities and abilities so strongly that I actually develop them. Here too, certain conditions are helpful, others are a hindrance – haven’t we all experienced this?

Harmful:

Stress, illness, fanaticism, conflict situations, complaining about others, exaggerated self-centeredness, as well as obliviousness, pride and greed....

Helpful:

Paying attention to our own health, not hardening ourself in conflicts, wanting to change ourselves rather than others, taking our own thoughts and feelings as seriously as our external actions, not imposing our own points of view on others, not forgetting our own points of view and intentions, being true to ourselves and taking an interest in the world at the same time, being grateful and loving.

Are these helpful conditions for self-education not precisely the qualities of an ideal kindergarten teacher, mother, father, or nursery teacher? Aren't these also the qualities that we want to promote through Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner education in the first years of life?

At least that is what IASWECE Council members and some co-workers of the Pedagogical   thought. We therefore suggest that in preparation for the conference «100 years of Waldorf kindergarten and early childhood,» we read the chapter «Conditions of Esoteric Training» from the book «Knowledge of Higher Worlds» (GA 10), in which these qualities are described. 

We would be pleased if you would also address these questions in your kindergarten or study group and then contribute your insights and suggestions to the conference.

For the Preparation group

Philipp Reubke (Switzerland/France), Michal Resheff (Israel), Jaqueline Walter Baumgartner (Switzerland), Lourdes Tormes (Spain)