Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

college of teachers was formed here in North America among the Iroquoisbefore Rudolf Steiner was even born! Actually, many aspects of a future wayof working between people lie in the spirit of the invisible Native Americansin our midst. For example, since the Iroquois had no “little devils” onpaper (i.e., no written language), the art of speech or oratory was speciallydeveloped at meetings and discussions. One practice was that when a personrose to speak, he or she had to start by stating the original question and summarizingthe previous speeches before giving his or her own contributionto the discussion. A valuable discipline! Even practiced only inwardly, thistoday is essential for creating form and unity in group work.Another aspect of Native American culture is a concern for “what”one spoke out of, for the source of one’s thought. When the psychologistCarl Jung went to New Mexico, he talked with a Pueblo chief who said thatwhite people were all mad. When Jung asked why, the chief explained thatthe whites said they thought with their heads. “What do you think with?”asked Jung. The chief replied, “We think here,” indicating his heart.The sense of brotherhood is strong in Native American culture.Another element is the striving for unanimity in meetings and debates. Allthis stands behind the natural tendency in North America to open to publicdiscussion all matters, including the personal, a tendency that can astonishthe European newcomer.I experienced this open, discursive mood when teaching a course tothe eleventh grade in the Detroit Waldorf School. After giving a presentation,I was plied with questions the next day. I soon realized that I had to changemy lesson plan and allow things to grow in different directions. The moodwas: “You’ve talked. Now we talk!”All this has to do with how Waldorf education will develop in NorthAmerica. A balance should be kept between feelings on the one hand andthe “thinking heart” on the other. These two are not the same. When theheart thinks, it lives in clarity and perceptiveness, as well as in somethingdeeply human. Clarity of thinking is our modern heritage today as muchas our life of personal feeling is. We should not get lost in endless discussions.We must also let those who have had an experience of somethinghave their say and live with that for a while, even for weeks and months.If we do revise the curriculum for our particular needs concerningculture and character, we should be careful not to throw out the baby withthe bathwater. For example, the Norse myths are there for a universal, nota racial, reason. Replacing them would require as much insight into humanevolution as Steiner had when he put these particular myths into thecurriculum in the first place. Yet replace them we can, and should, if it is276