Braving the weather in turbulent times
This article is an extended version of a short lecture by Trevor Mepham, which he gave on 22 June 2024 at the Steiner Waldorf School «Michael Hall School» in East Sussex, England.
From the vantage point of 2024, a hundred years ago seems far away. And oh, so much water has flowed under the bridge. Yet, resonance offers time a more qualitative ring, and then, what seems distant can come quite close.
In 1924, Steiner gave a lecture in Berne, in which he said, «It is essential that we develop an art of education which will lead us out of the social chaos into which we have fallen. The only way out of this chaos is to bring spirituality into the souls of human beings through education.»1
54 years later, in 1978, Russian writer and political dissident, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, gave a commencement address at Harvard University, in which he identified «hastiness and superficiality» as the «psychic disease of the 20th century»2.
Coming to the here and now, levels of social chaos, hastiness and superficiality are alive and kicking, and joined by a toxic brew of more contemporary signs and symptoms.
At the World Economic Forum in January 2023, a warning was given that the world was standing on the brink of a «polycrisis»3, a term first coined in the 1970s to describe a series of «cascading and connected crises». In the early years of this new century, James Martin wrote about the «wicked problems»4 that were gathering, to make this – the 21st century – a make-or-break century for humanity.5
What a time to be alive, to live and behold the world. And yet, the playwright Christopher Fry saw it coming some 75 years ago when, in a play to celebrate The Festival of Britain, he wrote the lines:
«Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul men ever took.»6
As for people alive today, the term ‘agency’ is often used as one way of picturing a human capacity for autonomous participation in the times and places in which we live. Yet, too often, the aim and the wish for agency and participation are crowded out by a creeping sense of bewildered apathy as we try to navigate lifeless systems in structures devoid of relationships and culture.
There is a possibility that, unbeknownst, we sail into a vortex of auto-compliance and reaction. This would be contrary to what might be called the human «purpose» – to inhabit the world fully, embedded in a nexus of love, creativity and shared becoming.
Against this backdrop, how does a child learn to be, to do, to grow and to become? How do children learn to learn?
In a lecture given in February 19237, Steiner intimated that knowledge, pervaded by love, can lead to understanding. Although, this might seem a somewhat mysterious, even mystical path to learning, it is based on two human capacities – making relationships and living by experiencing the world.
But how does a person «know» things?
Through the centuries, huge tracts have been written and complicated, erudite arguments have been had concerning this question. Goethe proposed that knowledge – living knowledge – can be cultivated by carefully observing, listening, and noticing what is before you. Allowing the «other» to speak.
Yet, how do you love knowledge – in all its aspects and manifestations?
In Steiner’s comments, a path to the love of knowledge is also indicated. By allowing knowledge to speak and express itself, by focusing one’s attention on knowledge, and by developing an interest in what is before you, a relationship can be created that is not solely one-way, or transactional, but extends beyond, into a sphere that might be described as continual learning – a learning disposition based on progressive mutuality.
So, what, then, is understanding?
As TS Elliot noted, a lot of wisdom, or understanding, can be lost in the onward march of knowledge, while knowledge itself stands in danger of being swamped by information and data.8 However, if you are able to «stand under» the beings and things of the world and bear them with a committed, open and seeking spirit, then, in an authentic, if intangible way, dynamic understanding may flourish.
There are certain social-cultural-educational tendencies that are broadly noticeable in these times, and which are antithetical to the processes and pathways highlighted above:
- incrementalism – climbing a ladder, jumping on a conveyor belt,
- compartmentalism – the language of manufacturing and the factory
- instrumental memorising – the imperative to be able to regurgitate, on demand
These trends tend to be focused on data-gathering & analysis of measurables, but there is doubt as to how such tendencies promote and enhance the human disposition for «life-long learning».
Fundamentally, education is often presented as being about more and more, younger and younger, faster and faster, and better and better. The quantifiable and the materialistic are dominant; the intangible, the unfinished and the everlasting are ignored, patronised or derided.
The Waldorf response, 105 years in, to some of our contemporary «issues» is disarmingly simple, based as it is, on profound insights and discoveries about the growing child, the developing human being and the living earth.
One way of surveying our situation in north-western Europe in 2024, is to depict the social-psychological and economic-political world as expressing the following traits: fragmentation, complexity, anxiety, ambiguity and exponentiality. This is a partial lay-out, of course, yet it is arguably the case that humans young and old feel that these currents are more than abstract; they are life-forming and have concrete repercussions on actual lives.
What, in big-picture terms, is the nature of the Waldorf response to these traits?
Fragmentation is arguably a poignant feature of a globalised world. The sense of separation and breaking up seems to be a paradoxical element of a shrinking, increasingly connected world. Although, one can expect fragmentation where a high degree of virtuality and superficiality are present. The challenge of fragmentation is countered where the educational ethos and experience are grounded in integration – integrated learning experiences – and centred on the worth and importance of relationships.
Complexity is acknowledged, but not fed to young bodies, hearts and minds. In its place, the intention is to provide nourishment for the inner life. In stirring the imagination, a hunger to eat the world arises – to find out, explore, do things, be moved, create a vessel in which thoughts can arise. The inner life is enabled to develop coherence.
Anxiety is replaced by interest. Easy to say, but easily done? Well, consider this. The moment I become interested in something, I have alighted on an antidote to anxiety. It’s almost as though the human being cannot hold interest and anxiety together at the same time. And if the interest has potential, in other words, if the interest is young and enduring, then the space for anxiety is crowded out. Time doesn’t exist either, or perhaps, it is less noticeable. Interest is fulfilling, while anxiety is depleting. Waldorf education is there to provide time and space for interest to flourish.
Ambiguity, along with paradox and contradiction, has to be accepted as part of the postmodern landscape. The attitude, or response to ambiguity is not determined, however. Bemusement, frustration and cynicism are not givens. Open-ness & curiosity are great solvents. Problem-solving, innovation and teamwork are natural allies to open-ness and curiosity and can be learnt right the way through school.
Exponentiality is about speed, acceleration, and the compression of time. When we talk about change, it’s not only that change is fast, it’s the quickening pace of change itself that is hard to grasp. Although Waldorf education is not explicitly about «slow education»9, it is certainly to do with grounding, and it’s radical, in that it pays careful attention to the roots of life and growing.
After a series of cataclysmic events, hardships and dangerous misadventures, Voltaire brings his satirical novel, Candide (1759),to a close with the main character, Candide, proclaiming, «Il faut cultiver notre jardin» – «we must go and work in the garden». This feels like a humble and powerful message for our times.
Trevor Mepham
Bibliography:
1: Steiner R. (1924 / 1968), Lecture 1, The Roots of Education, Rudolf Steiner Press, London
2: Solzhenitsyn A. (1978), A World Split Apart, commencement address, 8th June 1978, at Harvard University
3: WEF, 13 January 2023, «We’re on the brink of a 'polycrisis' – how worried should we be?»
5: Martin J. (2006), The Meaning of the 21st Century: A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future
6: From the play, A Sleep of Prisoners, by Christopher Fry (1951)
7: Steiner R., Knowledge Pervaded with the Experience of Love, Dornach, February 18, 1923, GA221
8: Elliot T. S., Choruses from the Rock (downloaded: 13 February 2020)
9: Holt M., It's Time to Start the Slow School Movement (accessed: 3 August 2024)