The Kingdom of Childhood Lecture 1 in Essays

[Intro]

Pg 4 Quote; “Those who are truly the worst theorists are the least practical in life. A bank today is entirely composed of thoughts arising from theories. There is nothing practical in it; but people do not notice this, for they say: It must be so, that is the way practical people work. So they adapt themselves to it, and no one notices the harm that is really being done in life because it is all worked in such an unpractical way. The ‘’practical life” of today is absolutely unpractical in all its forms.”
Here, Steiner makes the essential argument that sophistry is the antithesis of empiricism. He makes the example of bankers, who must suspend reality and create sophistic new rules in order to get away with what is fundamentally stealing. Modern Monetary Theory is nothing more than a complicated way of devaluing the currency of the people while typing whatever one wishes into one’s own coffers.
The importance of being rooted in empiricism and embodied, connected sense experience is stated by Steiner to be the first and most important principle of living. Avoiding this, or clouding real sense data with sophistic abstractions, only leads one away from what is true, what is valid, and what is necessary for life.

Pg 5 Quote; “In reality the World War arose out of this unpractical thinking, but that was only an introduction. The point now at stake is that people should not remain asleep any longer, particularly in teaching and education.”
Steiner argues that the devaluing of currency is the cause of the First World War- which is an empirically correct statement. Real money cannot be inflated, and the real cost of war would all upon those waging it; in essence, no one could afford to, nor would they agree to fund, a war. This catastrophe is an example of the consequences of allowing oneself to become disconnected from reality.

Pg 12 Quote; [about children] “knowing that here is a being whose nature is of God and the spirit has descended to earth.”
In distinct contradiction to the prevailing attitude of the time that children are inherently devilish, sinful, fallen, and must be corrected, reprimanded, and beaten into virtuous behavior, Steiner asserts that children are inherently and wholly of God. He makes no mention whatever of a child’s need for correction nor of punishment, but tells the parents and the educators that it is they who must discipline themselves to better nurture the child.
The child is a spirit of God, asserts Steiner. The child requires that we receive him in reverence, adoration, and an attitude of worship.