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Newsletter 32: Sunday 10 August 2025Anthroposophy in Hawkes Bay
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Cultural Realm |
Political Realm |
Economic Realm |
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Personal: introspection |
Meeting face-to-face |
Working side-by-side |
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Learning; self-development, knowledge, skills. talents |
Agreements; contracts. Rights - obligations |
Creating commodities for others, not for self |
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Freedom, independence |
Equality, fairness |
Community, cooperation |
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Individual, personal |
Small groups with boundaries |
The whole world without boundaries |
If we look around us, can we see examples of principles being applied in the wrong place causing distractions and thus reducing the effectiveness of what is being done. Here is one example:
What happens when we bring Equality into the Cultural Realm, for example, in education. Do we expect everyone to be the same (equal) as a result of their education? Well, let’s make all children sit the same exam and measure them by some external standards. And while you at it, get someone who has never met the child to set the exam! Nothing personal or individual here.
On the other hand, what if a teacher gets to know a child, and “reads” by introspection what the child needs by way of experience to develop its faculties and talents, and teacher and child mutually set tasks for the child to achieve?
So where does Equality belong? It belongs to the Right of every child to an equal opportunity for a quality education -- which may be expressed by financial support.
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A key component of the Cultural Realm is the activity of education. The task of education [based on Latin ‘e’ or ‘ex’ = 'out of' or 'forth'; and ‘ducere’ = 'to lead' or 'guide'] is to support, particularly in the first couple decades of life, the incarnation of the human Ego into its bodies [physical, etheric, astral] inherited as a gift from its parents. The incarnation process involves adapting one’s bodies to better suit the spiritual intentions of one’s Ego or Self. The role of teachers is to sympathetically observe their pupils and ‘read’ [with the help of the knowledge of human development derived through spiritual science] their individual evolving situation and create opportunities and activities for the pupils to engage with the world around them – to open the eyes (and indeed all senses) of the pupils to their environment. In this process they engage the pupil's soul processes of thinking, feeling and willing, which leads to them acquiring
- spiritual and scientific knowledge,
- an ability to express oneself artistically, and
- to develop manual and other skills and talents.
So how do exams get into this process?
When parents enrol a child in a school, they sign a contract with the school which will specify the rights and obligations of each party. No doubt part of this will be based on a school brochure describing the educational process the school promises. This will presumably include the school’s intention to offer senior students an opportunity in certain classes to test their educational achievement. For this, the school will have contracted with a testing service provider, such as NZQA for NCEA [National Certificate of Educational Achievement], the CAIE [Cambridge Assessment of International Education] or IB [International Baccalaureate]. This, as a service, falls into the Economic Realm. Parents, student and teachers need to be free to assess if sitting such an exam will be educationally beneficial for the student.
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Some goals of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Art of Education’ are:
- to enable young people to go into the world with a sense of their own destiny.
- to be awake to what comes to meet them (their destiny) with a capacity to respond effectively and appropriately.
- to evolve, able freely to give shape, direction and purpose to their own lives in the world (not to fill slots created by past society for its perpetuity).
The structure of Rudolf Steiner’s education is threefold:
- First seven years: Home and Early Childhood;
Receive the child with reverence. - Second seven years: Primary;
Educate the child in love. - Third seven years: Secondary,
Send the child forth in freedom.
Each stage develops capacities useful in social life
- EARLY CHILDHOOD:
The attitude of the kindergartener leads the children towards a reverence for all creation and an experience that the world is good (of god). This childhood experience of reverence and freedom-to-play transforms, in later life, into a reverent respect for the freedom of each individual human spirit, which is the basis for an INDEPENDENT CULTURAL LIFE in adult society. - PRIMARY:
When it is a matter of discipline, developing a pictorial understanding of the consequences of one's actions, remorse for hurt feelings and the desire to do better is used in gentle guidance rather than more forceful intimidation, discrimination, sarcasm or negative comparison.
For instance, if there has been a transgression, a story picturing a similar situation can be told where the feelings of the victim are graphically depicted and a healing process is worked through.
This maintenance of human dignity in personal relations lays a foundation for the feeling of equality of opportunity or consideration between human souls, which is the basis for a HEALTHY RIGHTS LIFE in adult society. - SECONDARY:
level in the High School, students continue their studies in all subject areas, balancing the academic with artistic and practical activities.
The emphasis now is on seeking the truth, true knowledge - knowledge of one-self and knowledge of the world.
From an awareness of the true needs of the world and of one's own capacities arise the call of vocation and a love of the human ideals of freedom, equality and community.
A COMPASSIONATE WORLD ECONOMY in adult society will grow when our work (production) focuses in a brotherly-sisterly way on meeting the needs of others rather than merely satisfying ourselves.
RB
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Interesting books relating to Social structure.
Posted: Sat 09 Aug 2025
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