Celebrating A Significant Anniversary
May 2 2023
84 Years ago, Edinburgh Steiner School was founded with eight kindergarteners from Scotland, including the first child to be enrolled in the school, above, named Denis Wight. We now have over 300 pupils enrolled from many parts of the world. What we share is the Waldorf approach to education.
Edinburgh Steiner School was founded on 2nd May, 1939 by Pelham Moffat, Inez Arnold and Helen St John with just eight kindergarteners from Scotland. In the year we mark the anniversary with a very significant number, our school roll is over 300 and growing.
The early twentieth century philosopher and originator of Steiner Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner, conceived of a theory of human development based upon seven year cycles, and linked those cycles to astrology.
The number 84 is of course 12 x 7: twelve being the number of zodiac signs and 7 the number of planets. Steiner believed human beings have an intimate connection to cosmic beings, who in turn are related to planets and stars.
Eurythmy has been taught in Waldorf schools since the first one was established in 1919 in Stuttgart. ‘Visible speech’ is the most accurate and pliant definition of eurythmy as it manifests in connection with language; where the consonants are attributed to the Zodiacs and the vowels to the planets. All that human beings convey audibly when they speak – sense, feeling, syntax, rhythm, the sounds of vowels and consonants – they can also make visible through eurythmy.
Whilst this connection to the cosmos is considered important, Steiner rejected the notion that stars and planets determine our lives and behaviour – do not control human destiny. His astrosophy tells of reincarnation and karma and the human power to affect one’s own destiny. Twelve constellations, twelve senses, twelve apostles, seven planets, seven-fold human being, seven incarnations of the earth, seven years life cycles.
It is difficult to prepare an unfamiliar reader for the content of Dr. Steiner’s observations, with much of his work considered esoteric by parents and carers of enrolled children. In respect to his philosophy that informed Waldorf education, Dr Iddo Oberski’s next Waldorf Reading Group, held fortnightly online on 10th May, looks at Lecture 2 from The Essentials of Education.
The aim of the Waldorf Reading Group is to engage with the ideas underlying Steiner Waldorf education through an exploration of Steiner’s insights and their application. We will jointly read the text and then discuss, comment, and question with the aim to further our understanding.
Lecture 2, and the other four lectures, can be read here.
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Celebrating A Significant Anniversary
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