GA 308

The Methodology of Teaching and the Living Conditions of Education

Die Methodik des Lehrens und die Lebensbedingungen des Erziehens

Five public lectures, Stuttgart 8 to 11 April 1924.

These talks were given during an educational conference in 1924. They are the last public lectures given by Rudolf Steiner in Germany. According to one member of his audience, "Seventeen hundred people listened to him; the prolonged applause from this great crowd at the end of every lecture was deeply moving, while at the end of the last lecture the applause became an ovation that seemed as if it would never end." This kind of adoration was the result not only of who Steiner was as an individual but of what he accomplished as well. People had already begun to realize the potential and the promise for the future that Waldorf education held out to the children of the world.

The Essentials of Education, together with its companion book, The Roots of Education (CW 309), present a remarkable synthesis of what Waldorf education is and what it can become. The Waldorf "experiment" had matured for five years since 1919, when Steiner helped to establish the first Waldorf school. He had guided that school from its beginning, observing very closely all that happened. As a result, he was able to distill and present the essentials of Waldorf education with elegance as well as with the urgency he felt for the coming times.

Contents

The art of education based on real knowledge of the human being / The didactics of teaching and the living conditions of education / The grasping of the human being's elements through sculpture, music and language / The artistic handling of teaching for individual subjects / The moral education of the human being

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner, H. Fox (Translator): The Essentials of Education. CW 308. 4th edition. SteinerBooks 1998. ISBN978-0880104128 rsarchive.org

German

• Rudolf Steiner: Die Methodik des Lehrens und die Lebensbedingungen des Erziehens, GA 308 (1986), ISBN 3-7274-3080-X English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.