Kingdom of Childhood Lecture 4 in Essays

“People who cannot endure being clumsy and doing things stupidly and imperfectly at first never really will be able to do them perfectly in the end out of their own inner self.”
Childhood is nothing if not a series of frustrations and failed attempts. It is especially a hindrance if the caretakers of children do not model, affirm, and praise every attempt whether successful or not.
The best parent/educators are the ones willing to look clumsy and uneducated in front of their children. They deeply know the value of putting forth the effort to learn what is not known already.

Steiner spends the majority of this Lecture giving examples of creative, inventive ways for the parent/educator to tell stories to children. He stresses that special acting lessons, a good singing voice, or oratory skills are not necessary; that it is only necessary to bring an attitude of reverence that the children will naturally become enamored with. But the fundamental skill that the parent/educator should develop is the ability to endure their own clumsiness and embarrassment.
Stories that give picture meanings for the 7 year old and that can be recalled again and again as the years go by to reveal deeper meaning and more insight for the growing child are to be favored. Biblical or mythological stories often serve these purposes quite well, but they may also be made up by the parent/educator.

Speaking of giving children ideas in quick succession- “Touch your right eye with your left hand! Tough your right eye with your right hand!” continuing through with feet, moving the trunk, hopping, etc- Steiner says;
Pg 69 Quote “So the children can learn to do all kinds of exercises in a quick alert manner. What is the result? Doing these exercises when children are eight years old will teach them how to think- to think for the rest of their lives.”
Body awareness and connection is necessary for awareness of emotional feeling and of inner experiences. These exercises help children learn that their bodies are reliable, and the feeling of joyous satisfaction in gaining intimacy and familiarity in it is internalized.

Pg 71 Quote “We thereby save the children from what can work such harm in their soul life, namely that one lesson they have to absorb what is then blotted out in the lesson immediately following. The only way to save them from this is to introduce period teaching.”
Steiner criticizes the contemporary approach of schooling in hours, or in separate classes that are denoted with loud buzzers, bells, and forcing children to hurry into an altogether new and unrelated subject. In direct contraindication to what children need, namely the gentle rhythms that allow new experiences and knowledge to impact and become integrated with the child over some time, contemporary schools aim to dissociate, disrupt natural rhythms, and all but destroy the individual so as to replace it with what the schools deem beneficial to it.
Steiner calls for what he refers to as periods or block teaching, which is the immersion in a main subject or lesson for roughly 4 weeks. This type of instruction is no doubt far less convenient for teachers in public schooling systems, as is the need of teachers to be with the same class from the first grade all the way to 8th grade. However, it is nevertheless what benefits children the most.