The Value of Art

Children’s development naturally grows through different stages. New abilities and interests seemingly emerge from nowhere. Where do they come from? How do they suddenly appear? Through the attentive study of children over many years we can know their path of development; we can predict what new possibilities are available to them. And from this deep understanding, hard-won from our conscientious observations and study over many years, as well as the incredibly profound insights of Rudolf Steiner, we’re enabled to provide the right environment and the most helpful experiences to support them to develop as well as possible.

One of the many gifts that Rudolf Steiner’s insights have given us is the acknowledgement of the inner life we all experience and which is also in transformation. Naturally, children’s inner life goes through a particular path of growth; a trajectory that is common to us all. Just as a flowering plant develops from seed to seedling to budding, blossoming and fruiting, our life path goes through such sequential stages. We can see from our study of children (and indeed adults) that their outer life is a reflection, an expression of their inner consciousness, their soul life. And we can “see” their consciousness changing over time. With a developing inner life new abilities and interests appear.

Insight into our soul lives reveals three forces in development: thinking, feeling and willing. Our inner (soul) life is always involved in one or more of these three activities. Developmental study shows us that in children, the focus of growth of these soul forces occurs at different times. In the kindergarten years, willing is the focus. The children learn to move and through movement and imaginative play, develop their organs through a period of tremendous bodily growth. In the Primary School, added to movement, is the focus on imagination and the development of the realm of feeling. In High School the children are now ready for making judgements and abstract thinking. In addition to willing and feeling, it is the time to explore the realm of thought.

It is in the realm of feeling that the Arts play such an important role. While it is a crucial part of development in Primary School its value is immense for the rest of our lives. Art calls for skill, form and style. Its practice educates right feeling and right judgement. Apart from the sense of beauty and aesthetics which immediately effect and develop our feelings, exploration of the Arts enables us to develop deeper insights into the world around us.

To educate through art is to awaken humanity to our nobler attributes, to quicken our faculties for a higher perception of the world we live in, so that we may come to know ourselves as the beings who give meaning to creation.

Francis Edmunds, founder of Emerson College, U.K.

It is through Art that we’re able to discern the wholeness of things. A Greek temple or a Gothic cathedral is more than a pile of masonry organised for a specific purpose.  A piece of music is more than a collection of notes. Indeed, a seed is far more than just what we see with our senses. It contains within it the future plant. The practice of Art enables us to be aware much more than what we are given with our senses. Through Art we can develop new ways of perceiving ourselves and the world. Practice of the Arts leads humans to self-discovery – make us something more than we were.

In Steiner Schools we see the Arts as an essential part of being human. All the Arts are cultivated. All the students become artists, sculptors, musicians, woodworkers, textile workers, craftspeople and aesthetically developed individuals whose feeling lives are powerfully enriched with carefully chosen experiences through their schooling. And none of this development diminishes the value of the Sciences. In fact, their scientific studies are deepened and enriched by their artistic and creative insights.