New Books on Curative Education 2009

Review by Joyce Reilly

The Children of the Curative Education Course. Wilhelm Uhlenhoff, Floris Books, 2008. (German, 1994). 262 pgs.

The Therapeutic Eye: How Rudolf Steiner Observed Children. Peter Selg, SteinerBooks, 2008. 88 pgs.

Karl Koenig: My Task. Autobiography and Biographies Karl Koenig, edited by Peter Selg. Floris Books, 2000. 164 pgs.

Karl Koenig’s Path into Anthroposophy: Reflections from His Diaries. Peter Selg, Floris Books, 2006, 80 pgs.

A Rosicrucian Soul: The Life Journey of Paul Marshall Allen. Russell Pooler, Lindisfarne Books, 2009. 310 pgs.

A sociology professor of mine once said that most intentional communities, be they utopian or dedicated to a specific task, last about seventy years. The Camphill movement, the most visible, enduring, and widespread manifestation of Rudolf Steiner’s curative education, is entering its seventy-first year full of vigor and promise for the future. Besides being glad to see one more social truism debunked, I am heartened by the flourishing of this work and the recent publications that explore the foundations of curative education, the life and thought of its most well-known proponent, Karl Koenig, and a glimpse at the path of one of the great personalities who is associated with both Camphill and anthroposophy, Paul Marshall Allen.

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In The Children of the Curative Education Course, Wilhelm Uhlenhoff takes us back to 1924, when Rudolf Steiner gave the curative education course. Ill and pressed for time, Steiner was extremely active in these days, and his tendency to teach with the participation of his audience was much on view here in this foundational course. This was not an open course (it was not advertised or generally announced, which was quite unusual) but a personal dialogue with people who worked directly with special children. Only three persons who were not directly involved with special children were admitted, and even the usual stenographer was not invited (notes were taken by various attendees). This was because individual children were to be brought to the lectures to meet course participants: here we can see Rudolf Steiner’s deep respect for the developing child, especially one with a heavy karmic burden to carry.

Following Steiner’s lectures, children from Ita Wegman’s Clinical Therapeutic Institute (both from Arlesheim and the Lauenstein) were brought into the room and Rudolf Steiner spoke with and about them. Steiner had a life-long connection to children with developmental challenges, as his brother Gustav, born in 1866, was both deaf and mute, and persons with all sorts of special needs appeared at the train stations his father managed. This book takes us into the lives of eighteen such children that Steiner was intimately acquainted with, including the sixteen who were a part of the curative course in 1924.

Uhlenhof devotes a chapter to each child describing his or her encounter with Rudolf Steiner, Steiner’s words about the child, and the reactions of his audience. He also includes life portraits of the children—some very short (two died in 1925) and some quite long (1996!). He also presents, when possible, personal accounts by these children as adults, and some reminiscences by their family members and friends, of this encounter with Rudolf Steiner and its significance in their lives. This is the most fascinating study I have seen of Rudolf Steiner’s impact on individual destinies, and it is presented in a most readable form, complete with photographs spanning the subjects’ life stages. This book weaves the content of the curative course, a portrait of Rudolf Steiner as a teacher and healer, and the personal accounts of the children and their families into a cogent and absorbing work.

In The Therapeutic Eye, Peter Selg titles the first chapter “A Look Deepened by Love.” This says it all: witnesses describe how Rudolf Steiner’s encounters with “difficult” children in the Waldorf School, as well as with children in the curative homes, had a quality of warmth-laden interest that cannot be imitated, only developed from deep within. It is the unsentimental definition of compassion—to enter into the experience of the other, to suffer with. This quality of loving attentiveness was evident in all of Steiner’s work concerning children. Whether he was speaking about typologies or making a more general inference or statement about children, it was always clear that his remarks came out of his direct experiencing of individuals—and in individual evaluations, the predominance of the individuality is always respected. This small book, which includes facsimiles of Ita Wegman’s handwritten notes taken at Steiner’s curative education lectures, provides an excellent glimpse into the methods Steiner used and taught, amplified by one of his most famous students and colleagues, Ita Wegman. The “therapeutic eye” can be developed from within when we choose to follow the path of love and attentiveness.

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The next two books, the first written by Karl Koenig and edited by Peter Selg, and the second, Selg’s own reflective work, can be seen as a whole. Peter Selg, a youth psychiatrist educated and working in anthroposophical clinics in both Germany and Switzerland, has given us a gift in his portrait of Karl Koenig. In Karl Koenig: My Task, Selg presents Koenig’s own reflections on his life as well as the impressions of two of Koenig’s close colleagues in the Camphill movement, Anke Weihs and HansHeinrich Engel. In just over forty pages, Koenig takes us from his childhood to the decision to answer the call to start the first Camphill house in Scotland. Koenig’s matter-of-fact style cannot hide the extraordinary drama of his life in Austria near the end of Steiner’s life during the rise of the National Socialist Party; his ultimate escape is a riveting story.

In Selg’s own account of Koenig’s life some details are filled in, and Koenig comes to life as a fascinating being, a courageous, challenging individual always balancing extremes of circumstance, always taking a definite stand, unafraid to initiate and ready to admit fault and begin again. Anke Weihs shares the story of her first encounter with Koenig, and her portrait is frank and clear. Dr. Engel portrays Koenig more from a professional standpoint, both as a student of medicine and as a physician. Knowing the profound impact that Dr. Koenig has had on so many thousands of lives, it is easy to forgive the sometimes lionizing, larger-than-life depictions—and indeed, “lion” was a word often heard in connection with Dr. Koenig!

In Karl Koenig’s Path into Anthroposophy, Selg reflects on Koenig’s diaries and depicts the course his subject took through melancholia and depression into an inner path of work and spiritual investigation. He goes on to describe how Koenig’s study and inner work led directly into the spiritual nature of the Camphill movement, and shows how Koenig’s watchword, “knowing and supporting the children,” led to the further development of the movement’s inner life even beyond his own life, which was comparatively short. Both books are aided by facsimiles of Koenig’s diary pages and photographs from his life, and are lively, accessible, and thought provoking.

In Russell Pooler’s book about the life of Paul Allen, we are taken into another sphere entirely. A Rosicrucian Soul: The Life Journey of Paul Marshall Allen, begins with the eloquent words of Allen himself, both in a foreword to an unfinished autobiographical work and in a most moving letter to his son Morven upon his twenty-first birthday. In the foreword mentioned above, Allen encourages us to look at the little turning points in life as expressions of the secret life of the soul and of the heart’s journey to attain meaning in this life. In his letter to Morven he describes his family’s path as early American settlers, as Quakers, and as upright and seeking souls. This is a wonderful beginning to the tale of an extraordinary life.

Paul Allen left the bosom of his family to study literature and art, both at American universities of the highest rank and in European cities, and returned to the United States as a teacher. After a rather mysterious account of the dissolution of his first family (a wife and two children), we get to know Paul in his relationship to the great actor and acting teacher, Michael Chekhov. From Allen’s question—“Who is Rudolf Steiner? —a world unfolds. We then begin the journey with Paul Allen, from meeting his wife Joan and her own especially gifted path and her interesting and impactful family; to his life as the “first American-born anthroposophical lecturer”; to his long relationship with the Camphill communities. We meet the towering personalities of the Camphill movement and the Anthroposophical Society, and experience Paul’s deep connection to the folk souls of Guatemala, Norway, and Celtic spiritual centers. Throughout the narrative, studded with photos, we get to know his family, and both his loving and challenging relationships. It becomes clear that this was a man of towering erudition. His Rosicrucian path of human connection within freedom unfolds through many stories and personal accounts. We are led through his triumphs and weaknesses to his last days, and read the moving tributes written after his death. There is a section on the impact of his life since his death, and a very helpful biographical timeline. The book ends with words of Paul Allen, the consummate “Human Being,” reflecting on what mattered most in his journey filled with study and beauty and inspiration. This is a beautiful book, a portrait of a life that seemed to contain many lives. It tells both a story of anthroposophy in America and the story of this one man of genius. It is an uplifting book, carrying the reader out into the panorama of a life lived through the span of the twentieth century—and also inward, to a life lived of and through the spirit. It is hard to imagine achieving an understanding of anthroposophy or Camphill—especially in America—without including the remarkable story of Paul Marshall Allen.

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These five books are a very readable and illustrative introduction to Rudolf Steiner’s Curative Education; to the cornerstone personalities that shaped it (Steiner and Koenig); and to the life path of one who took up this work in a refreshingly unique way (Paul Allen).

I recommend these works not only for anyone involved in education, but for anyone who wishes to study human biography from the standpoint of meeting meaning; you will be gripped, inspired, and uplifted.