Waldorf High School and The Development of Thinking

Question: What is one of the pivotal factors to “The Development of Thinking in Adolescence?” Answer: Development of the will forces, particularly between birth and age seven, but ongoing through age fourteen and beyond. 

I recently attended the lecture by Gary Ward on “The Development of Thinking in Adolescence” put on by the Sunrise Waldorf Parent Association. This lecture spoke to the continued picture of Waldorf child development in high school but it really emphasized the work that we do as parents from birth on and how the early childhood and grades education our children are receiving at Sunrise prepare the child for the thinking life. The thinking forces are critical to adolescence because they are the forces that help young people face and answer the question, “Who am I?”

Mr. Ward presented a picture of development weaving together the picture of development presented by Rudolf Steiner and Erik Erikson’s developmental stages.

Birth to Seven: The baby leaves the mother’s womb for the womb of the family. All of the life processes, such as breathing, warming, nourishment, excretion, growth and reproduction,  and the senses of life, including sensing one’s own well-being or not, outward movement, balance and speech all involve movement and a great deal of will. According to Erikson, trust develops at this time as does autonomy, without which there is shame or doubt. Further, initiative develops between ages five and seven but if it should not, then guilt results.

Seven to Fourteen: A new birth comes to pass, the birth of the etheric or (life) body. This birth is signaled with the change of teeth and the child leaves the womb of the family to live in the womb of community. This is why Steiner saw the need for a social education.  The life processes present at birth continue but are now also developing through the feeling life. The Waldorf curriculum continues to maintain development of the will but the main lesson now is designed to develop the feeling life.  Erikson views this age as the stage of industry versus inferiority.

Fourteen to Twenty-one: The new birth is of the astral, signaled by puberty. The child leaves the womb of community and becomes individuated to the life of relationship and expression by becoming more immersed in the world. Steiner spoke of the young person at this time as “Earth mature” rather than as an adult. Having developed the will, the groundwork is laid to engage on Earth in a way which develops morality. Erikson views this time as the stage of self identity vs. role confusion.

For eons, the need to confront reality was tantamount to survival. We still need to confront reality to answer the questions of self. Children must engage in the world through physical work. Young children must be given responsibilities and pushed toward autonomy with consistency. Children in the grades must be pushed into industry by carrying a process through. Crafts and woodwork enable the objects to become the teacher. For example, in woodworking, if a student cuts too deep, then (s)he messed up and cannot argue with the piece of wood nor blame another. It is a practical learning of right and wrong.

The will forces that have been initiated since birth and developed through the grades now are applied to the thinking realm in adolescence. A student must exercise his or her will to observe, evaluate expectations, look for other places to apply the observations, and lastly, form judgments and draw conclusions. It must be accurate and true and expressed artistically, the antithesis to “whatever.” Adolescents need firm boundaries and real experience, not “edutainment” nor busyness for it’s own sake. The stories in high school are epics or heroes journeys in which the protagonist must face something with courage and overcome. These stories, coupled with a phenomenological academic enquiry and the physical challenges of outdoor education, enable the young person to ask and answer the question, “Who am I?”

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