How unimportant is all that the teacher says or does not say and how important what he himself is

Let us say, the child wants to walk, has the will to walk, but cannot. This can become a pathological condition, can become quite conspicuous; it may even happen that at last the child comes to be described as “incapable of learning to walk”. But we will suppose that the condition shows itself in only a slight degree. So long as the teacher meets the situation with any kind of bias, so long as it can arouse in him irritation or excitement — so long will he remain incapable of making any real progress with the child. 

Not until the point has been reached where such a phenomenon becomes an objective picture and can be taken with a certain calm and composure as an objective picture for which nothing but compassion is felt — not until then is the necessary mood of soul present in the astral body of the teacher. Once this has come about, the teacher is there by the side of the child in a true relation and will do all else that is needful more or less rightly. For you have no idea how unimportant is all that the teacher says or does not say on the surface, and how important what he himself is, as teacher.

Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 317 – Curative Education: Lecture 2 – Dornach, 26th June 1924

Advertisement

Relaxation through effort/About sleeping and thinking

We all know that working on a difficult calculation has a different effect on our thinking than reading a novel. We notice that we get tired when our thinking demands an effort from us. This can be easily understood, since it provides us with a means to falling asleep more easily. It must, however, not be images that particularly irritate us, nor must it be thoughts that give us cause to worry; it must however be thoughts that we find difficult. This can be experienced by everyone: we fall asleep relatively easily when we fill ourselves with thoughts that awaken  a feeling of duty in us.

Source (German): Rudolf Steiner – GA 143 – Erfahrungen des Übersinnlichen/Die drei Wege der Seele zu Christus – Winterthur, January 14, 1912 (page 31)

Translated bij Nesta Carsten-Krüger

Previously posted on January 8, 2014