The Renewal of Education
14 lectures on Waldorf  Education by Rudolf Steiner
Forward by Eugene Schwarz

Following a lecture requested by the department of education in Basel, Switzerland, sixty members of the audience invited Rudolf Steiner to return and deliver a complete lecture course on his approach to education. The Renewal of Education lecture series is the result. Like other lectures by Steiner to public audiences, these are accessible and practical, and they provide a comprehensive overview of his ideas for renewing modern education.

This lecture course is newly translated for this series. It covers a broad range of subjects: from the threefold nature of the human being to the teacher's responsibility toward their students' future; from arts such as music and eurythmy to the problems involved in training teachers; and from zoology and botany to language, geography, and history.

Some specific areas of discussion are:

• How a child develops with the help of spiritual forces and enlightened educational practices.

• Practical solutions to problems educators face today.

• Effects of morality on real freedom.

• How the development of a child's will leads to a free, flexible ability to think.

• Lifelong effects that teachers have on children through the ways they teach in the early grades.

Anthroposophic Press
288pp; paperback
ISBN: 0 88010 455 4

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) called his spiritual philosophy 'anthroposophy', which he defined as 'the consciousness of one's humanity', and the disciplined methods of studying this he termed ‘spiritual science’.  As a highly developed clairvoyant and spiritual initiate, he spoke from his direct cognition of the spiritual world. However, he did not see his work as religious or sectarian, but rather sought to found a universal 'science of the spirit'.

His many published works (written books and lectures) - which include his research into the spiritual nature of the human being, the evolution of the world and humanity, and methods of personal development - invite readers to develop their own spiritual faculties.  He also provided indications for the renewal of many human activities, including education - both general and special - agriculture, medicine, economics, architecture, science, philosophy, religion and the arts. He wrote some 30 books and delivered over 6000 lectures across Europe, and in 1924 founded the General Anthroposophical Society which today has branches throughout the world.
 

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