"Teachers still go on, weary and not a little disillusioned, in some small corner of themselves cherishing a battered ideal, dreaming at times of an experimental school where they may become artists again. And when they can they crowd to hear of such a place, as now they crowd to Oxford to hear what Dr Steiner thinks of spiritual values in education and social life…. Whoever heard of applicants for a teacher post being asked first of all of their opinion of the soul? Yet this is just the question Dr Steiner seems to put to his teachers. An uninterested visitor may well mistake details of his meaning, and convey a wrong impression; yet even at the risk of misapprehension or doubt, its value to education should not be passed over in silence… You may not believe in reincarnation. You may dispute the existence of the spiritual body, scoff at the connection between metabolism and the will, or mistake the new art of ‘visible speech’, eurythmy, for dancing. You may, of course, deny the immortal element in man; in that case you will care for none of these things. But if you admit it, you must face the consequences as Dr Steiner faces them, honestly. Call him a dreamer, occultists, clairvoyant, even crank, but do not doubt his consistency and ability. You know how worried you have been lately about the state of Europe. If you cannot go to Oxford or to Dornoch in Switzerland, you might perhaps call at the Board of Education or any other government office, and ask what provision they are making for the souls of the people."
An extract from an article in The Nation – responding to a lecture series by Rudolf Steiner given in Oxford, England 1922
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