The Class 2 child is like a butterfly that has emerged from a chrysalis and is about to take its maiden flight. The etheric (life) forces that were previously bound up in the building of the physical body (as shown in the final stage of the pushing through of the molar teeth) are now available to facilitate learning through rhythm, memory and imagination. Class 2 children still retain the innocence of the young child. Their imaginations are fed with rich archetypal images and they live in the feeling realm, which rises and falls on waves of sympathy and antipathy.

In Class 1, the children experienced the world as a paradisal whole. In Class 2, they become aware of the duality of human nature, observing saintliness and mischievousness in themselves and others. The Class 2 child is not very far removed from their connection to the spiritual world and can still delight in its mysteries. Legends of the saints appeal to the children’s moral sense of what is right, good and magical. Fables, on the other hand, provide an external view of our animal nature when pitted one against the other. Our foibles are played out in the fables and the children can reflect on them without judgement upon themselves. This allows them the space to exercise their own will and the possibility that their actions be guided by their own saintly selves.

This term, we have delved into the fable stories where we are met with these mischievous personalities. Through a reenactment of these stories on the next day, the children get to playfully experience this both within themselves and seeing it within the other. Next term, the children will experience the soulful polarity of this and hear the saintly stories where Good and True are the guiding light forward.