Children’s Destinies: The Three Directions of Human Development. Vol. 1

Authorized translation of Seelenpflege-bediirftige Kinder Band I, published by the Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1976. Originally translated by Madge Childs and edited by Henry Williams, M.D. and Gerald F. Karnow, M.D.

INTRODUCTION: The following presentations are based mainly on a school doctor’s experiences at the Waldorf School in Ulm, Germany, and at the Rudolf Steiner School in Basel, Switzerland. The observations and insights come from the medical care of handicapped children, first at the Waldorf School in Ulm and later in institutions for retarded children, “children needing soul care,” in West Switzerland. These two areas of work complement each other. What was seen and experienced in the institutions in bold, graphic images sharpened the eyes for barely perceptible deviations of the same kind in school chil-dren. What was used in the schools as a remedy for a certain type of child had to be adapted for its extreme manifestations in the institutions.

The reports on individual children included here were written as they arose in the practical work. For reasons of discretion, personal details have occasionally been modified, but never to the extent that the understanding of the problem involved was affected.

Along with the descriptions of the psychological conditions, the corporeal appearances have also been included, since, in these, the spiritual form materializing within the physical is seen most clearly.

The reports contain the contributions and observations of the teachers and educators as they were given in discussions and conferences. Medical-pedagogical thoughts provide a fruitful exchange: from the pedagogical report to the doctor an image can be formed that can be the inspiration for a therapeutic idea, while for the teacher, insight into the medical connections can offer new pedagogical possibilities. Just to-day the medical complement is needed most urgently by the teacher, since increasing numbers of children are coming to school with the most varied health disorders, posing new pedagogical problems and difficulties. Until now, these prob-lems were held to be a matter for curative education, and naturally and rightly so. The connecting link between the thoughts of the educator and those of the doctor is Rudolf Steiner’s knowledge of man.

This book intends to present viewpoints without striving to be a finished work. In the series of the types of children described, an inner connection is visible in some. Others seem to stand alone. However, the guiding idea behind the whole presentation will be seen in the final chapter, “The Human Organization in the Directions of Space,” becoming visible as the result of the preceding chapters.

It was hoped that this kind of presentation might be a stimulant toward the understanding of the nature of the child and a step toward solving the mystery that approaches us in each individual child. For this, it must reckon on the inner activity of the reader. It gives no prescription in the real sense of the word.

Open access: Anthromed Library gratefully acknowledges permission to share this booklet by Mercury Press and SteinerBooks, 2023.