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Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

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come to realize that memory and c<strong>on</strong>sciousness has not remained static. As<br />

they becoming c<strong>on</strong>scious of their own biography through childhood and<br />

adolescence, they begin to realize that each of them is a microcosm of<br />

humanity’s evoluti<strong>on</strong> of c<strong>on</strong>sciousness; their own journey provides reference<br />

points <strong>for</strong> the larger journey. When young people begin to perceive<br />

that evoluti<strong>on</strong> is a movement and that humans are an active part in the<br />

movement and, moreover, can direct the movement through choice, they<br />

begin to be filled with purpose and hope. Feldenkrais states that <strong>on</strong>ly with<br />

having a third choice does a pers<strong>on</strong> begin to be human. I’m saying that in<br />

today’s polarized world, Movement is a third choice: to move between poles<br />

and find points of health and balance is the challenge be<strong>for</strong>e us. This is<br />

where my idea of the Christ comes in. I live with Rembrandt’s picture, The<br />

Little Children Being Brought to Jesus (“The 100 Guilder Print”) where<br />

the arrogant stand to the right and the wounded are bowed down to the<br />

left. In the center is the Christ. This fluctuati<strong>on</strong> between arrogance and<br />

wound in some <strong>for</strong>m or another seems to be the realm of the astral body.<br />

The center, the life giving, etheric Christ is not a static pole but a potential,<br />

a movement of putting <strong>on</strong>eself in balance. Teaching is not about the in<strong>for</strong>mati<strong>on</strong>,<br />

the static, the poles, but about the movement. I try to find literature<br />

that allows the students to experience the poles, but also move the<br />

balance. Steiner’s Representative of Man c<strong>on</strong>tains a similar polar experience.<br />

I always try to remember the little Humor Being up there in the<br />

corner. That’s important too, especially when working with adolescents. I<br />

try to pick gentle movements in literature that deal with the pain that the<br />

students find in the world today, working with it in such a way as to move<br />

through it with the potential of finding a healing balance. The essence of<br />

the Christ is love, and love is that which trans<strong>for</strong>ms. Maybe we can say that<br />

if students are truly experiencing the light of thinking, the Christ is there.<br />

If we take the human being out of anything that we’re studying, the<br />

result is painful <strong>for</strong> students. The questi<strong>on</strong> is: how can we move to recognize<br />

our participati<strong>on</strong> in the world? We know that our c<strong>on</strong>sciousness cannot<br />

allow a participati<strong>on</strong> like that of people of l<strong>on</strong>g ago. Our participati<strong>on</strong><br />

must be a renewed participati<strong>on</strong>, in fact, a c<strong>on</strong>stantly renewed participati<strong>on</strong>.<br />

How can we develop thinking as a flow <strong>for</strong>m, move it another way,<br />

revitalize it, put the life back into it? One idea that pains students today is<br />

the hypothesis of chance. Barfield talks about the ir<strong>on</strong>y of chance as hypothesis.<br />

Free floating in our culture is the idea that organisms are eliminated<br />

or trans<strong>for</strong>med due to external factors <strong>on</strong>ly. The envir<strong>on</strong>ment determines<br />

what flourishes or dies but there is no higher c<strong>on</strong>sciousness or purpose<br />

behind it. It’s a materialistic structure to propose that things die out if<br />

they’re in the wr<strong>on</strong>g place at the wr<strong>on</strong>g time. My thinking does not come<br />

by “chance”; my thinking is active and moves, and I can experience it while<br />

I’m doing it. This ability to think about what I am thinking leads me to the<br />

understanding that I have the potential to be free. Even though I teach<br />

<strong>English</strong> and History, I hope that many of my students will go into science<br />

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