The Child's Metamorphosing Consciousness

"What do we have to do so that education can have a heart again?" This is the question that recurs throughout Steiner's lecture cycle of 1923. Above all, we need to learn to see all of human life as an interconnected whole, from the child's "pre-academic" struggles to learn to walk, talk, and think, to illnesses in later years that can be traced back to educational malpractice. Human nature consists of multiple triads: body, soul, and spirit; intellect, heart, and will; and nervous and sensory system, rhythmic system, and metabolic and limb system. We experience three additional "births" beyond that of the physical body: the birth of the etheric at the change of teeth, the birth of the astral at puberty, and the birth of the ego at the traditional age of majority, 21. And of course the cycle offers many wise insights for educators from imaginative play to the teaching of reading, music, the importance of handwork and more. Also included is an extraordinary introduction to a eurythmy performance.