Primary

From around the age of seven to about thirteen, the ‘golden years’ of childhood extend. Again, ideally, these are the years of ‘picture consciousness’, in which the wisdom of the world can be grasped through the most powerful of human emotions: respect for authority, and reverence for the great powers of the universe. The class teacher becomes a spokesperson for the mighty powers of nature, and advocate for the great deeds of humanity.

Again Nature provides the impressions or backdrop for the play of life, which is the transition from myth and legend to history, from the distant past up to the present. Imagination, which is inward, is wed to outer sense, such that science and art are one, with music being the movement of both. Without loving and understanding authority, and the spontaneous respect it commands (all children are inherently respectful, unless trained to be otherwise), this universality, which is our total purpose, is impossible. All subjects partake of this whole: English evolves the wisdom of speech and image from story to creative expression, literary appreciation, and cultural awareness; History is another branch of this great stream, which is essentially the story of humanity.

Science and Art entwined, are the other great stream, which is the macrocosm, and together with the humanities they flow into geography to give a truly sympathetic understanding of mankind and the earth. But to identify with the land is the first stage. Number and mathematics describe the rigor and order of the world, the ever changing parts of the whole, and indeed are the most important training in disciplined thought, perhaps the most needful human resource in this modern world.

All other activities – music, the arts, including drama and eurythmy, and craft, evolve and develop throughout the primary years, yet are inseparable from the universal theme: nature and Man.