Forwarder -- Shearwater The Mullumbimby Steiner School
Ph (02) 6684 3223
Mullumbimby, NSW
  • Home
  • About
    • Origin and Foundation>
      • A Few Words from Rudolf Steiner
      • Eurythmy
      • Learning Program
      • Steiner's Spiritual Science
      • The Arts and Steiner Education
    • Shearwater Steiner School>
      • A bit of history and geography
      • A special community
      • Structure of the School Community
    • Our Vision
    • Why Shearwater?>
      • Why Is Our School Special
      • Why Steiner Education Works
      • A Centre of Learning
    • Working at Shearwater
  • Education
    • Under Seven>
      • Caring for the under seven
      • Play and Craft Group
      • Pre-School
      • Kindergarten
    • Primary School>
      • Welcome
      • Curriculum
      • Learning Program Class 1
      • Learning Program Class 2
      • Learning Program Class 3
      • Learning Program Class 4
      • Learning Program Class 5
      • Learning Program Class 6
      • More about Music in Primary
      • Assessment
    • Middle School>
      • Welcome
      • Learning Program for Class 7
      • The Learning Program for Class 8
      • The Learning Program for Class 9
      • The Learning Program for Class 10
      • Year 9 & 10 Middle Lesson Electives
    • High School>
      • Welcome
      • Choosing your Future
      • Option 1: HSC with UAI
      • Option 2: HSC
      • Option 3: Shearwater Certificate
      • YR 11 and 12 Courses offered
    • Private Tuition
    • Overseas Student Program
  • Media
    • Photos
    • Student Work>
      • Films
  • Information
    • School announcments
    • School News
    • Calendar
    • Teaching and Support Staff 2013
    • The School Year
    • The School Day
    • Fees
    • Communication
    • Annual Report
  • Community
    • Community Notice Board
    • Support Us, please
    • Shearwater Parents & Friends
    • Shearwater Scholarships
    • Where are they now?
  • Events
    • Mariachi Film Festival
    • Shearwater Wearable Arts
    • Shear Theatrix
  • Links
  • Contact
    • School contact details
    • Enrolments
    • Enrolment Procedure
    • Permission Forms
  • Portal
    • Library

The Importance of Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science

Picture
The philosophy of Steiner Education is based on Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science,also known as Anthroposophy, which literally means “the wisdom of man” (Anthropos: man, Sophia: wisdom).
The Basis of Steiner Education lies in a deepened exploration of human development, with a particular focus on the formative years. The processes of development in the child – physical, soul and spiritual – reflect and indicate the processes and content of worldly instruction appropriate to the child’s inner needs.
In the first seven years of life, the incarnating forces stream from the head into the body and limbs and there meet the resistance of gravity. The whole basis of our Under Seven care program is based on providing the child with activities – such as finger-knitting, sewing, hammering, felting and imaginative Eurythmy play – which help the child to bring greater consciousness into his fingers, hands and feet.
We would deem it inappropriate at that stage, and damaging to the child, to introduce then intellectual or abstract concepts, such as reading, since these activities would interfere with the important incarnating processes at work in the child.
The second dentition (usually in the years 7 to 13) signals a change in the child’s development, which allows true education and instruction to commence. During this 7-year cycle (the Primary School years), the arts and artistic activities best reflect the developmental needs of the children. Music, poetry, movement, modelling and carving, painting and craft are rhythmic activities which act as intermediaries in the education of the child’s rhythmic circulation, movement and metabolism. Stability, form, punctuality and regularity add to a recipe for healthy development that will hold good for the children throughout their lives.
With the advent of puberty and osteo-muscular development, comes the capacity to think abstractly, logically and rationally. It is then, in Middle School that the more traditional academic subjects such as Euclidean geometry physics (mechanics, light theory, heat) chemistry, earth sciences, philosophy and serious gymnastics and sport can be healthily pursued.
Finally, in High School, the students are gradually prepared to meet the demands of the outside world and to find their place within it.


© Shearwater The Mullumbimby Steiner School 2013
✕