When Healing Becomes Educating, Vol. 6 - Waldorf Research Institute

spoke about sport in general rather than football in particular. In England,
he was asked about hockey, cricket and so on. 1 His reply took account of
the fact that sport played a considerable role in England and that in order
not to estrange the children from the world there was nothing wrong with
introducing them to the “popular fashion” of the time. “It is wrong to
imagine that sport is tremendously valuable for development. It is not all
that important for development... But it is not a good idea to resist
something that is, perhaps, rather commonplace in itself by adopting equally
commonplace means of resistance.”
During the lead-up to the opening of the first Waldorf School a good
deal was said about physical exercise—also in its relation to physiology
and the rhythm of sleeping and waking. 2 Physical movement should be
meaningful: “When does the human being move in a meaningless way? The
human being moves in a meaningless way when he does so in a manner
dictated solely by the body.”
Gymnastics gives the body its placing within the external laws of nature,
while eurythmy permits it to move in accordance with the shaping power
of words. Healthy physical movement comes about when we allow for an
alternation between movements of the limbs directed to the outside world
and movements directed inwards. One-sided physical movement is not
compatible with the purpose of the human body. It is contrary to its purpose
and meaning. “Exaggerated sporting activity is practical Darwinism.” Its
aim is to conquer, suppress, eliminate those who are weaker. This is another
way of expressing the ancient philosopher’s statement that the human being
becomes an animal when deprived of meaningful thinking.
On 25 December 1921, Steiner spoke about sport to teachers in Basel. 3
He said that religion was no longer strong enough today to reach right
down into the physical body in education. The power of religion had been
reduced by the various religious beliefs: “It is no longer a strong power …
It no longer works right down into the physical body... Instinctive feelings
in this regard have led to modern humanity being brought into something
else, something instinctively sought after, something that has entered into
modern civiliza tion in a way that is actually not really understood. I am
referring to every thing connected with sport.” People seek to achieve in an
external way what religion has lost in strength. “But in the future it [sport]
will come to take up a different position in human beings, whereas today it
is a substitute for religion. Such things appear paradoxical when expressed
in words. Truth itself appears paradoxical today because we have entered
unawares into so much that now belongs to modern civilization.”
55