Rudolf Steiner's philosophy of freedom as a basis for spiritual education?

Abstract

The spiritual well-being of children is often thought to be an important goal and outcome of education. Such spiritual well-being is also implicitly assumed by the Human Rights Act, which includes the right to 'freedom of thought, conscience and religion' [Article 18]. I argue that such freedom requires an education that fosters development of spiritual freedom. What spirituality means to people can be determined through empirical research. However, the nature of actual spiritual freedom itself can be understood and experienced only through a phenomenology of one's own thinking. Steiner offered such an approach. As an extension of Goethe's earlier holistic scientific method, Steiner showed that in thinking we have hold of a corner of the world process in which we, as human beings, play a crucial part in its coming into being. Steiner's philosophy of freedom leads logically to spirituality, through intuitive thinking and forms the basis of Steiner- Waldorf education, which has the