Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

66
Steiner On Reading
The Effects of Reading and Listening to Stories
We must now be quite clear about the processes taking place during reading. The activity of reading
is initially spiritual and then continues into the physical body. It is especially the activities that are of a
cognitive, mental/spiritual nature that considerably tax the delicate parts of the physical organization. You
can picture, physiologically, the deeper parts of the brain, the white matter. The white matter is the actual,
the more perfectly organized part of the brain. It is organized toward the more functional tasks, whereas the
gray matter at the surface - which is especially well developed in humans - provides the brain’s nourishment.
The gray matter has remained behind, in a very early stage of evolution. In regard to evolution, it is the
deeper part of the brain that is more perfect.
If we teach a child to observe well, as in reading, we greatly tax the gray matter, engendering a very
delicate metabolic process. And this delicate metabolic process then spreads throughout the organism. It is
especially when we believe ourselves to be occupying the children mentally and spiritually that we affect
their physical organism most strongly. The observation and comprehension during the reading of and
listening to stories engender metabolic processes that tax the children to an inordinately strong degree. We
could call what is happening the impression of the spiritual into the physical. A kind of incorporation of
what we observe and comprehend during a story is necessary. Something akin to a physical phantom must
develop and then impart itself into the whole organism. The organism is filled with delicate salt deposits.
Not coarsely, of course. A salt phantom is imparted into the whole organism, and the necessity arises to
dissolve it again through the metabolism.
This process takes place when the children read or listen to stories. When we believe ourselves to be
occupying the mind and spirit in our lessons, we really evoke metabolic processes. And this must be considered.
We cannot do anything else but to see to it that our stories and reading material are faultless in two
respects. First, the children must be interested in the subject. Genuine interest is connected with a delicate
feeling of pleasure that must always be present. That feeling expresses itself physically in very subtle glandular
secretions that absorb the salt deposits caused during reading and listening. We must endeavor never to
bore the children. Lack of interest, boredom, leads to all sorts of metabolic problems. This is especially the
case with girls. Migraine-like conditions are the result of a one-sided stuffing of material that must be
learned without pleasure. The children are then filled with tiny spikes that do not get dissolved. They tend
toward developing such spikes. Yes—we must be aware of these problems.
Second, immediately connected with the metabolic problems arising from boredom is the unhappy
situation that does not allow us enough time for everything we ought to do. We should really see to it that
the currently available readers which can drive you up the wall—are not used. The books I have seen in the
classrooms are really quite awful.
We must not forget that we are preparing the children’s physical constitutions for the rest of their
lives. If we make them read the trivial stuff contained in most readers we affect their delicate organs accordingly.
The children will turn into philistines rather than into complete human beings. We must know that
the reading material we give our children strongly affects their development. The results are unavoidable in
later life.
I really would like to ask you to compile your own anthologies, including the classics and other
worthwhile authors, and to refrain from using the available books. This additional effort is necessary. We
must do something. It is, after all, the task of the Waldorf school to use methods different from those
practiced elsewhere. What matters is that in reading or storytelling, and also in the presentation of the
natural sciences, we take great care not to harm the children in these two ways. Education for Adolescents
(63-64)