Taikura Rudolf Steiner School

Class Four: “Who I Am, Where I Am”

The children turning ten experience a veiling of the connection with the spiritual world; they stand truly on the earth and are learning to walk in its ways. Experiencing themselves as separate from their surroundings, self‑consciousness becomes stronger and the soul life becomes more inward. There grows a soul‑wish to know and love the world consciously, yet this will be tested: is it justified that I revere this occurrence; that person; this phenomena? The children must be protected from becoming disappointed, or cynical about the world, as now the faint beginnings of consequential behaviour stir to consciousness: “If I do this, then that might happen.”

The task:

To lead the students to discover themselves in time and place, and to an appreciation of the wonder of their world and how they arrived in it; to allow them an experience of consequences through story and to strengthen their social awareness.

The Norse Myths are full of wonderful personalities and stories that children of this age can relate to. Of paramount importance is the figure of Loki, who grows from naive mischief-maker to bearer of conscious ill‑will and who eventually brings about the battle of Ragnarok, which marks the final departure of the Gods from the immediate sphere of human‑kind.

Other lessons which support this year’s soul-wish to know themselves in time and place include 'The Magic of Numbers' which allows the children to experience the wonder and mystery of number puzzles and games; 'Local Geography' and "Local History' places them in time and space and gives a background to this. ‘Fractions’ in Maths and 'The Tenses' in English grammar allow them to investigate further their contribution in time and space.