More to the point, how do you learn to do, and, what do you learn by doing?
These questions challenge us today to find and demonstrate pathways
from ‘doing to thinking’. Doing implies movement of some kind, both inner and outer.
And thinking about doing necessitates some degree of awareness of
‘movement gesture’, a largely unconscious activity.
TO MOVE OR NOT TO MOVE: HYPERACTIVITY AND LETHA
RGY
It is clear that in a society becoming ever more sedentary and where the keyboard is replacing the traditional pen, the child’s need for ‘primary engagement’, through the sense of movement and gesture, is being curtailed and undermined. Yet children and adults are involved in many daily movements, usually requiring transportation, to meet appointments and deadlines.
Instinct-led and compulsive movements are being written into daily life experience. Uncontrolled and aimless movement contrasts with the time spent in exercising at home or in the gym, to which a separate and measurable amount of time and income is dedicated.
Alongside restricted play and formalised recreational activities, moving
images in addition mask immobility and present a kind of barrier to direct engagement in purposeful activity.
The overwhelming experience is of imbalance and a fight against the
sapping or stunting of both life and soul forces.
REDRESSING IMBALANCE
Life forces tend to be restored more consciously nowadays in a variety of
ways. Walking, gardening, holidays, health treatments. Plenty of suggestions are given in the weekend newspapers and other magazines. The soul forces of thinking, feeling and willing, however, are not collectively acknowledged, let alone nurtured so as to strengthen, refine and harmonise them.
‘Will’, as shown by Steiner in ‘Theosophy’, ‘Study of Man’ & ‘Occult
Science’, is a soul force that can be active in different parts of the human being.
1 Its most important activity is in physical energies that initiate
‘movement’ in the body.
2 Further, it can bring our life of ‘feeling’ into movement and so create and kindle ‘imaginations’.
3 It can stir and activate our ‘thinking pictures’ to the point that they are no longer mere reflections, copies of the outer world.
Working ‘wilfully’ & creatively with our thinking can enable this activity to become alive and assume an individual character. In this way such great thinkers as Goethe could, for instance, move beyond the botanical point of view of the plant world and come to an experience of the Archetypal Plant.
Rudolf Steiner mentioned on a number of occasions that he attributed his
own creative thinking’ possibilities – his ability to come to a perception of the inner nature of things through the efforts of will needed in the use of his muscles during adolescence. In particular he recalled the beneficial efforts of work such as chopping and sawing wood, digging and harvesting potatoes.
‘The more we take into account that intellect develops from
the movements of the limbs, from dexterity and skills, the better it will be’’
Rudolf Steiner Basle Course 1920
However, comments made by Rudolf Steiner in 1924 during the ‘Curative
Course’ indicate that already then he perceived the lack of practical ingenuity skills. The general teaching and educational practice of the day, he maintained, reflected the general state of ‘consciousness’. Out of 800 children only a handful could be said to have a practical aptitude for work. In referring to those children, Rudolf Steiner said: ‘Living in the time of the flowering of intellectualism, the soul/Spirit or (Astral – Ego organisation) of the children can not penetrate the muscle system, it only connects to the bones. The result of this later in life is an even more dry intellectual dead thinking and a general life style of materialism.’
‘A healthy way to develop the intellect, would be as far as
possible, through the will. This we can do only by passing via the artistic to the developing of the intellect.’
Rudolf Steiner, Study of Man 1919
‘Intellect’, as one of our most noble faculties, can only incline towards this type of materialism in the absence of aesthetic sensibility and qualities of will. ‘Will’, on the other hand, inclines towards the spirit and requires anchoring and bringing into the world. Bridges have to be built between doing and thinking and from thinking to doing.
Again, already at the beginning of the century, Rudolf Steiner was
painfully aware of the growing separation of the soul forces. He made several concrete efforts to address this problem, including Waldorf education and the ideas expressed in the ‘Agricultural Course’ regarding nutrition and its potential to assist in the integration of soul forces.
WALDORF PEDAGOGY
One of his fundamental precepts is that when we engage the child in
physical, practical activity, such as handwork or craftwork, we are working on the ‘soul spirit nature’ of that child. However, when we address the ‘soul spirit nature’, for instance, in story-telling, the healthy results are to be found in the ‘bodily organism’. For the adult to form ‘sound judgments’ , to have ‘balanced thinking’, depends far more on whether a child was taught to use her/his hands and fingers in a right practical way, than as the result of doing ‘logical thinking’ exercises in later life.
Waldorf Education For Adolescence, chpt 4
Education via the senses The movement teacher works
Sedentary learning process at Ego forming via the
‘will in the limbs’
‘Knitting supports a healthy development of
thinking as it emerges in the adolescent years.’
RS: Man Hieroglyph of the Universe –1920
In the Curative course, 5th Lecture there is further support and evidence of how ‘will begets intelligence’
A picture of Four fold Man and its differentiation within the b
ody and head
PAST FUTURE 1. Physical body outside - Ego inside 2. Ego outside - Physical body inside
Evolutionary development :
Physical Body - Life body- sentient body - Ego
Saturn Sun Moon Earth
Picture 1 shows general path of evolution from Saturn >Sun>Moon> Earth
The physical body is depicted as the oldest, the wisest member with the Ego depicted as the youngest and least developed member.
Picture 2. Here we have something that belongs to the 'Will Sphere' and consequently points to the future.
TRANSFORMATION AND METAMORPHOSIS WITH THE BO
DY AND HEAD 1. Head, a formed structure. Ego within small and undeveloped. Task of educator is to awaken the Ego here.
2. In the Limbs the Ego spirit is
spread out , is very large spread over the surface of the body
As movement orientated teachers we
are Ego forming via the limbs , working through the limbs rhythmically- the Craft Gesture. Kinetic education helps to develop the brain and develop the as yet undeveloped Ego principle within the head
Today, some 80 years on since the ‘Study of Man’ lectures,
neurophysiological research supports what Rudolf Steiner put forward about movement and the development of the human being. Such research has reached the general public in works such as Frank R Wilson’s ‘The Hand, How its use shapes the brain, language and human culture’ (New York, Pantheon Books, 1998) and the abstract, ‘The Real Meaning of Hands On Education’ Rudolf Steiner Research Bulletin 1999.
This abstract, by Professor Matti Bergstrom, was found in an Ikea
catalogue a few years ago:
‘The brain discovers what the fingers explore. The density of nerve endings in our fingertips is enormous. Their discrimination is almost as good as that of our eyes. If we don't use our fingers, if in childhood and youth we become 'finger-blind', this rich network of nerves is impoverished-- which represents a huge loss to the brain and thwarts the individual's all - around development. Such damage may be likened to blindness itself. Perhaps worse, while a blind person may simply not be able to find this or that object, the finger-blind cannot understand its inner meaning and value.
If we neglect to develop and train our children's fingers and the creative form- building capacities of their hand muscles, then we neglect to develop their understanding of the unity of things; we thwart their aesthetic and creative powers.
Those who shaped our age-old traditions always understood this. But today Western civilisation, an information-obsessed society that overvalues science and undervalues true worth, has forgotten it all. We are ' value- damaged.'
The philosophy of our upbringing is science-centred and our schools are
programmed toward that end. . . These schools have no time for the creative potential of the nimble fingers and hand and that arrests the all-round development of our children--and of the whole community’
HINKING ABOUT DOING : ORIGINS OF MOVEMENT
Given that anthropologists are offering widely different interpretations
about brain development, the origins of language and the early use of tools, (for example, see ‘The Perception of Environment’ by Tim Ingold, 2000) it is worth examining our standpoint today on the origins of movement from the vantage point of Rudolf Steiner’s research. In Riddles of Humanity 2nd Sept 1916, Rudolf Steiner when speaking on the origins of movement and speech explained that the human being was originally designed not to be a speaking creature, but rather to express him/her self through movement. What was originally intended changed – gesture became transformed into speech movement and other movements. ( After Dr Peter Engel September 1916)
The human being shares the ability to move with animals, but whereas animals learn the movements they require more or less at birth - the human being needs several years’ practice to develop all the movements required to enable him/her to walk in an upright position.
The new-born infant expresses a multitude of movements, of which
he/she is not yet master. Control comes from above to below - eyes to legs and feet. Movement at first takes hold of the child, from the outside as it were, and limb movements are only gradually mastered.
The primal reflexes are developed by imitation towards individualized
mastery of movement patterns. Attaining uprightness and making those first tentative steps are, however, only the beginning. The expression of movement in the child leads on to other faculties in the realm of the soul. Crawling, walking and all manner of bodily movements lay the foundation for the acquisition of many finer skills: speech and, ultimately, thinking processes are realized as a result of the internalisation of outer movement habits.
LONG-TERM BENEFITS OF ACQUIRED MOVEMENT SKILLS
ARCHETYPAL WORK GESTURE
The movements entered into in precision sequences, such as handwork and
craft activities, are, similarly, more than training in motor skills; in the practice of work movements, which would be better described collectively as ‘work gesture’, the will of the pupil and student of the craft are made subject to a greater governing order. It is in the very nature of this process that the character of the gesture works inwards to foster the unfolding and harmonious development of cognition, aesthetic sensibility and practical know-how.
The vehicle for this two-way process is what I call ‘work gesture’, and is particularly evident in the movements of a well practised craftsperson. When acquired, these movements play upon the soul of the human being, giving a beat in the sphere of ‘will’, rhythm in the sphere of heart and ‘feelings’, and a melody in the ‘thinking’ human being. This is the effect of the ‘being of movement’ and its resonance within the soul of the human being.
Each craft has its own symphony of working gestures, but as important to the acquisition of the actual skills, such as hammering/planing, is the realisation of the point of rest and of the complementary gesture. The arm hammers, whereas the body moves away freely, it is free of this movement. This degree of separation cannot be achieved by an animal. The whole body of the woodpecker pecks, it follows the pecking limb, its entire body can but peck.
In the human being this is supposed to be different, in that humans have
been given the potential for ‘free’ movement. The point around which any set of working and complementary gestures moves is the centre, the space of the human Ego. ‘I’ hammer, not ‘it’ hammers.
How, then, are ‘work gestures’ acquired? Is it fundamentally a process of
enhanced imitation?
Apprenticeship, for example, whether traditional or modern, entails the
schooling of the will. This can still be considered the first step in the process of gaining the work gesture, and is chiefly directed to the will. Playing a musical instrument also follows this schooling process.
At first the student has to learn the movement until it becomes habit, unconsciously absorbed by the ether body. The sense of ‘freedom of movement’ comes at the point where the almost archetypally given movement form has in-formed, in its truest sense, his/her own habit. In ‘entering an order’ the self-discipline is met by the collective wisdom of that life practice.
Rhythm is another key element in all craft movement and musical
practice. What is the right rhythm? Is this more than enhanced imitation? Listen to the beating of the blacksmith, there are secondary taps. An established sense of rhythm merges the archetype with the individual interpretation.
Lastly, although our limbs execute the movements, through which will activity acts to transform ‘raw’ material, the form that emerges comes from somewhere else. The realm of the idea holds that form. Yet the realisation of the idea lies in the rhythmic ‘time container’ fashioned by the limbs and whole body.
However, in his lecture of 1922, now published as ‘The Human Heart’,
Rudolf Steiner describes movement gesture from a very different perspective, one which could almost be called the karma of movement.
Our deeds, all our actions, outer movements are inscribed he says in ‘traces’ into the astral body. As well as these movements, what I have accomplished and my ‘intentionality’ are also inscribed there. This individually inscribed astral body streams towards the etheric heart and is received by it shortly after puberty. Our ‘cosmic treasure trove’, the ‘etheric heart’ now receives our own individually fashioned treasure, a moment of immense significance for all adolescents. All these movement gestures, transformed and held by the etheric heart, are then at death given over to the cosmos, sown as seeds for our further karma. Capacities of ‘will’ work into the future; ‘thinking’ stems from the past.
'THE DESCENT INTO MATTER' - an introduction to work
Where, today, can young people find the opportunity to learn work gesture?
Encountering the material world occasions many different processes. In
our overly sanitised society, children need to be led and introduced to very basic materials and processes. Adolescents need a challenge that helps equip them ultimately with essential skills to manage the practical affairs of life and to develop a moral sense of responsibility for their environment, both natural and human. Using whole body movement and finer motor skill in particular provides a route to ‘grounding’ oneself. Yet what was for the younger child ‘learning through play’ must now become transformed into ‘learning whilst working.’
In an educational context, craft work still has much to offer in developing
skill, work gesture and a knowledge of materials. The following is a suggestion for a Craft Curriculum with an integrated approach to environmental projects. Materials are sourced from the three kingdoms of nature – animal, plant and mineral.
This ‘Descent into Matter’ developed by Aonghus Gordon also refers to
the matching of raw materials to a child’s stage of development as the child itself ‘solidifies’ into its adult form. Thus the soft tactile experience of the wool in the earliest years is followed by green woody materials in the middle school years, culminating in the shaping of more resistant substances such as seasoned wood and metal in the senior years.
Living and Learning with nature
The objective in developing an integrated environmental and craft
programme is ultimately to foster a sense for place and of one’s place in the locality. If the programme is indeed working,(1) young people have the opportunity to discover real values along with many practical and social skills. Values that have a bearing on the response to others’ needs and the sustainable use of materials. Working with the hands in a creative and responsible manner is essentially a human capacity and therefore capable of reflecting humanity in essence.
Bernard Graves - February 2002
for The Hiram Trust
(1) Wendy Titman, director of Learning Through Landscape — a national
organisation that works in the mainstream sector, cites schools that have actively transformed their traditional tarmac surfaces into imaginative recreational and educational landscapes and noticed a marked improvement in both the emotional well-being of the children and in their educational achievements.
