INJUNCTION NOT TO TEACH ANTHROPOSOPHY
As the founder of Waldorf education, Rudolf Steiner was very clear to Waldorf teachers about the injunction not to teach the content of anthroposophy to children, at all times to be aware that their pupils are innately free human beings, and at all times to work in such a way that their teaching does not infringe upon the personal spiritual freedom of the pupils:
"You must realize that the Waldorf School or any other school which might spring from the anthroposophical movement, would never wish to teach its pupils anthroposophy in the form in which it exists today. This I should consider the very worst thing one could do. For anthroposophy in its present form is a subject for grownups and, as one can see from the color of their hair, often for quite mature adults! Consequently it is presented through its literature or by word of mouth in a form appropriate only to the adult.
"I should consider any passing on to pupils of content taken from my "Theosophy" or from my book "Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment" as the very worst misuse possible ... Anthroposophy itself is not to be taught in a Waldorf School. What matters is that its teaching should not become mere theoretical knowledge, or a world outlook based on certain ideas, but it should become a way of life, involving the entire human being. If then a teacher who is an anthroposophist enters school, he must have so worked upon himself that he has become a many-sided and skillful person, someone who has developed the art of education. And it is this latter achievement which is important, but never a wish to bring anthroposophical content to pupils."

[Steiner, Rudolf: Soul Economy in Waldorf Education, pp. 127-128]

"As mentioned before, it is not at all our aim to teach an ideology in a Waldorf School, though such a thought might easily occur to people upon hearing that the anthroposophists have founded a new school. Our aim is to carry insights gained through knowledge of anthroposophy right into actual teaching." 

(pp. 129-130) 

"The teacher is called upon to carry into his lessons the utmost respect for soul and spirit. Without it, he will succeed as little as if he were lacking an even fundamental artistic and scientific background. Therefore the first prerequisite of a Waldorf teacher is to have reverence for the soul and spiritual potential which each child brings with it into the world.

"When confronted with the child, the teacher must be imbued with the awareness that he is dealing with an innately free human being. With this attitude he will be able to work out educational principles and methods which will safeguard the child's inborn freedom so that in later life, when a pupil looks back upon his school days, he will not find any infringement upon his personal freedom, not even in the aftereffects of his education." 

(p. 206)


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