Education as an Art

Although much has been achieved in the 20th century, we have not yet learned how to educate our children correctly. We are content to fill them with intellectual knowledge which destroys their natural curiosity and produces people who orient themselves in one-sided materialistic values. A totally new approach to education was designed by Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian Philosopher and thinker. His method stems from a strong belief that man is in essence a spiritual being, and that education should seek the development of the total child. Education is an art when the teacher understands what capacities are present in the child at each stage of development and knows how to channel them in the right way. The true aim of education is not the mastery of a particular body of knowledge, but to develop free human beings who, of themselves, are able to give purpose and direction to their lives.