"A tumultuous situation arises in the relationship between the adolescent...and the world. This tumultuous situation is necessary, and as teachers, we need to have it in mind during the years leading up to it. Overly sensitive teachers might get the idea that it would be better to spare young people this upheaval. However, in so doing, they would make themselves the worst enemy of youth." --Rudolf Steiner Adolescence is the period during which we first sense, as human beings, our responsibility for earthly existence, and, inevitably, it is a time of turbulent transition and inner turmoil. During the first two seven-year periods of life, our soul, spiritual being gradually incarnates. With puberty, it takes hold of our whole being and turns outward to befriend the Earth and the forces of life and death. Steiner calls this profound inner transformation "a grand metamorphosis." As parents and teachers and as individuals who still bear its fruits and wounds, we all know the contours of the upheaval. However, educational and parenting practices too often ignore it, unaware that the great changes in our children call for equally great changes in us. To remedy this, Dr.
Peter Selg proposes, "Use Rudolf Steiner's work to highlight the fundamental structure of the crisis of adolescence and the pedagogical challenges that emerge as a result." As a psychiatrist who has worked intensively with adolescents in crisis, and who carries a deep existential and thorough scholarly knowledge of Steiner's teachings, Dr. Selg highlights the radical nature of Steiner's approach, which demands that teachers and parents change as their children change. Drawing on Steiner's practical admonitions during lectures and teacher's meetings, Selg reminds us that the ideal of Waldorf teachers is "to educate by behaving in such a manner that, through their behavior, children can educate themselves." This is especially true once children reach sexual maturity, when teachers must not teach young people so much as welcome them as independent, equal individuals, able to transform the gift of sympathies and antipathies into a new moral orientation out of their own essential nature. Teachers must therefore be able to speak directly and authentically about the world.
Abstractions and generalities have no place in the dialog; young people want to know the real causes of things and want to be addressed as equals. Selg also points out that teachers must be aware of the growing difference between the sexes and the way each carries a different secret life inwardly. Steiner's indications provide a timeless method of meeting students in the right way. The detailed spiritual-scientific indications in this book help parents and teachers to become well equipped with deeper understanding for the challenge of adolescence. The appendix includes speeches by a graduate of the first Waldorf school and one of the first teachers, as well as a letter by Dr. Ita Wegman, each of which reveals an intimate reflection on the life of the Waldorf school during its earliest years and an earnest hope for the future growth of this approach to education. "In a way, a teacher has to be a prophet...dealing with what will live in the future generation, not in the present." Dr. Selg also provides copious notes that offer practical wisdom and many avenues for readers to take up their own research.
This volume is a translation from German of Eine grandiose Metamorphose: Zur geisteswissenschaftlichen Anthropologie und Padagogik des Jugendalters.
Author Biography:
Peter Selg studied medicine in Witten-Herdecke, Zurich, and Berlin and, until 2000, worked as the head physician of the juvenile psychiatry department of Herdecke Hospital in Germany. Dr. Selg is director of the Ita Wegman Institute for Basic Research into Anthroposophy (Arlesheim, Switzerland), professor of medicine at the Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences (Germany), and co-leader of the General Anthroposophical Section at the Goetheanum. He is the author of numerous books on Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, medical ethics, and the development of culture and consciousness. Rudolf Grosse (1905-1994) was born in Hegau, Germany. He was a Waldorf teacher and board member of the General Anthroposophical Society, as well as head of the section for the spiritual striving of young people and the pedagogical section at the Goetheanum. Eugen Kolisko (1893-1939) was an Austrian-German physician and educator who was born in Vienna. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, and in 1917 became a lecturer of medical chemistry. Kolisko was introduced to Anthroposophy by his classmate Walter Johannes Stein and in 1914 began to attended lectures given by Rudolf Steiner. He became a member of the Anthroposophical Society, and in 1920 was invited as an instructor to the new Waldorf School at Stuttgart established by Emil Molt. Kolisko specialized in preventative medicine, and at the Waldorf school he worked with teachers to create a curriculum focused on the spiritual and physical development of the students. He was instrumental in developing artistic therapies such as anthroposophic music therapy and eurythmy. During the 1930s, he left the Waldorf school in Stuttgart owing to the political situation in Germany, moving to England in 1936, where he established a private educational institute. Kolisko died of cardiac failure near London on November 29, 1939. Eugen Kolisko was the author of several written works in both German and English. Dr. Ita Wegman (1876-1943) was born in the Dutch East Indies. She trained in gymnastics and massage and later in medicine.. She became a close student of Rudolf Steiner, who encouraged her to acquire a medical degree. She later founded the Institute of Clinical Medicine in Arlesheim, Switzerland, where she developed a medical practice based on principles of spiritual science. She was made leader of the Medical Section of the Anthroposophical Society in 1923 and, during her last years, devoted herself to work in the clinic, where she died. Margot M. Saar has a university degree in Applied Linguistics and Translating. She also studied Waldorf Education in Germany and Philosophy of Mind in the UK. She taught in Steiner Schools in Britain for 20 years and is an experienced translator and interpreter in specialty fields (education, medicine, philosophy, anthroposophy, homeopathy, anthroposophic medicine, general science). Margot has translated numerous books for SteinerBooks, including Peter Selg's 7-volume biography of Rudolf Steiner.
