In Defense of Steiner and Waldorf Education

From THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN, (1909, 1910, 1916)Page 12 - 13"...in its fundamental nature, the anthroposophical movement . . . must cast aside the division into races. It must seek to unite people of all races and nations, and to bridge the divisions and differences between various groups of people. The old point of view of race has a physical character, but what will prevail in the future will have a more spiritual character."

COMMENT: Rudolf Steiner, speaking about the Theosophical concept of root-races and sub-races, rejects those concepts.

Page 13

"...every movement has its childhood illnesses, so to speak. Consequently, in the beginning of the Theosophical movement the earth was divided into 7 periods of time, one for each of the 7 root races, and each of these root races was divided into 7 sub-races. However, we must get beyond the illnesses of childhood and understand clearly that the concept of race has ceased to have any meaning in our time."

From SECRETS OF THE THRESHOLD, (1913)COMMENT: On the ability to learn from all people.Page 67"Attention must be given not only to one's own opinion, not only to what one thinks oneself and can recognize as correct through one's own powers, but respect must be felt for that which has resulted through the civilisations and the efforts in wisdom made by the different races in the course of historical development."

From THE FESTIVAL BOOK ON EASTER, Dornach, Switzerland, April 2, 1920

Page 28 - 29

"When Paul appeared with his interpretation of Christianity there was a fundamental break with the principle whereby human knowledge was determined by the blood, the principle that had prevailed -- and necessarily so -- in earlier times. For Paul was the first to declare that neither blood nor identity of race, nor any factor, by which human knowledge had been determined in pre-Christian times, could remain, but that man himself must establish his relation to knowledge through inner initiative; that there must be a community of those whom he designated as Christians, a community to which man allies himself in spirit and soul, into which he is not placed by his blood, but of which he himself elects to be a member."

From the FESTIVAL BOOK ON ASCENSION/PENTECOST, Hamburg, Germany, Whitsunday, 1910Page 24"Our bodily nature has actually a double function to fulfil: it makes us a human being, but it also makes us members of this or that people, this or that race or family. In the ancient times which preceded Christianity, little as yet was experienced of what can be called world-wide humanity, of that feeling of human fellowship which in ever greater measure has lived in human hearts only since Christianity was proclaimed, and which says to us: Thou art fellow-man with all the human beings of the earth! On the other hand, that feeling was all the stronger which makes each man a member of a particular people or tribe."

Page 24-25

"It used to be that one felt oneself to be a member of his folk, and nothing more. The further you go back into antiquity, the more intense this feeling was. Now, in racism, one feels that other people are members of a race or tribe, and nothing more."

From THE AKASHIC CHRONICLE (1904)

". . . the beginnings of what we now call 'race' arose. This 'characteristic of race' was retained throughout the times of development in Atlantis, in the fourth main epoch, and onwards into our own times of the fifth epoch. However, at the end of this fifth epoch the word 'race' will once more lose all meaning. The humanity of the future will be organized into groupings which one will be unable to call 'races'. Conventional Theosophical literature has caused much confusion in this respect. . . In it world development is portrayed as if 'races' were to perpetuate themselves in the same way throughout the eternal cycles of the earth. This is absolutely not the case. Even everything worthy of the name 'race' comes into being and also passes away."