When Education Belongs

Education must arise from a real knowledge of the human being, not from external methods. —study from The Study of Man

Where does education come from? In my years of studying, I came across a thought that helped me answer this question more clearly. Steiner spoke about how each small community carries its own impulse—something that grows from within the lives of the people, from their language, their land, and the festivals they share together. He spoke of how each collective carries something that must unfold from within (rather than being artificially shaped from the outside).

This suggests that culture is not something we apply to education. It is something we belong to. And when we begin to look at it this way, something shifts.

In our education, modern language, modern culture, and even our modern identity seems to be laid out—expected (or even imposed). But what happens when education arises from the culture of the community it serves, the land it shares, the language it knows, and the festival each family relates to the most (rather than brought in from the outside expectations)?

Steiner spoke of how something introduced without understanding can interrupt the natural education of the human being.

From his words my questions grew:

What if the teacher was rooted in the life of the community—the stories of the people and the rhythms of the land—rather than being guided primarily from a large scale expectation?

​What if the children came to know and recognize their own voice in education—rather than being told where their place was (or should be)?

What if learning from each other was the real work to be done—where ideas move, grow, and take shape?

I try to imagine education living in such a space.

When I think back on my own training, I notice something I didn't have words for at the time. There was a kind of learning that felt alive between people. We shared ideas. We wrote in our own words and read each other's thinking. Education felt like something that we were building together.

​And something in me responded to that.

Education looks different when it grows from within a small community of people. Sure, it can continue to move outward—toward something already formed (expected). Or it can begin to move inward—toward something that is becoming. And when it moves inward, it gathers the life of the people around it.

As educators, we stand in an important place. We shape lives and communities.

Perhaps this is why Steiner spoke of education as something that belongs to the people, where the life of the community meets the unfolding life of the child and their real life peers. Because when the child meets this reality, understanding becomes real.

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AND

Watch education support this local community here.

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Read from other blog post below.

From Imitation to Illumination

When the Invisible Becomes Visible

From Thread to Thought