Knowledge is participation

The Goetheanum’s Study and Further Education programme encourages self-reflection and flexibility. New questions arise as a result of the Coronavirus measures and events need to be rescheduled.

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This means that each term of the academic year starting in October 2020 can be attended separately and without preconditions. The Goetheanum’s Adult Education Programme and Leadership Course will only start in 2021.

“Transformation is required in all spheres of life”

Goetheanum Anthroposophy Studies

The study courses at the Goetheanum have been adapted to the current conditions. The first term of the academic year 2020/2021 is about finding ways of actively dealing with uncertainty.

“Transformation is required in all spheres of life,” is how faculty member Constanza Kaliks describes the task we face due to the Coronavirus. Transformation, or metamorphosis, occurs as we move from something that exists towards something we don’t know yet, something that may only come into being as we approach it. How we deal with the experiences on this journey will change us and the world.

The present phase of uncertainty is challenging. The faculty’s approach is to accept and shape this situation. The first term is a response to the question as to how we can practise dealing with uncertainty in life: by having the will to develop, observe and take action. This starts with our perceptions of nature with its seasons, of other people and of cultural achievements. They enable us to connect with a reality that lies outside our own immediate sphere of influence.

Active engagement leads to transformation

Perceiving others as well as our own being – for instance by studying biographies – makes us aware of the effectiveness of our own actions. Robin Schmidt, an adult educator and lecturer on the Goetheanum study courses, knows from experience that “In the way we approach each other and the situation we learn about participation. Pursuing this actively leads to personal transformation.”

Matthias Rang, co-leader of the Natural Science Section at the Goetheanum, illustrates how the methods of Goetheanism can give us direction. In addition transformation can also be practised through artistic activities which give visible expression to impulses.

“With the digital world we learn a new language”

Goetheanum Adult Education Program

The restrictions to learning caused by the Coronavirus make us aware of the basic conditions needed for the acquisition of skills.

“Our habits in connection with learning processes and the conditions for the acquisition of skills have been seriously called into question,” says Robin Schmidt, an adult educator and lecturer on the Goetheanum’s study courses. According to Schmidt we now experience acutely how important sensory-physical presence is for the members of a learning group. Edda Nehmiz, another faculty member, adds that “If the encounter does not take place in a space that has been prepared but via digital channels, more individual responsibility is needed in order to create a personal learning space, because the lecturer has no influence on this.”

Dependent on human contact

Every medium has its own conditions. Digital spaces of communication tend to take us back to the sender-receiver model, because they limit the extent to which we perceive different sensory qualities simultaneously. According to Florian Osswald, an upper school teacher and lecturer on the Goetheanum Adult Education Program, “The social situation is central to learning – when we use the screen we mainly address the head.” He thinks that computers as a learning tool are discriminatory, because some families have little or no access, or for people with autistic spectrum disorders, for instance, who depend on direct human contact. At the same time we see how relaxed and confident young people tend to be in their approach to technology. Edda Nehmiz says, “We are in the process of learning something like a new language with the digital world. For acquiring skills it is important to speak the language best suited to what we aim to achieve in a given situation.”

“Inspiring and complementing each other”

Goetheanum Leadership Course

In addition to entrepreneurial skills, leadership of an enterprise increasingly asks for the ability to respond to external crises at various levels.

“When the world around us becomes uncertain – as is the case presently due to climate and finance issues and the Coronavirus measures – it is helpful to widen one’s horizon by exchanging with others,” says Jean-Michel Florin, one of the lecturers on the Goetheanum Leadership Course. This course helps entrepreneurs to access sources of strengths such as self-leadership based on self-reflection and methods for developing inner freedom. The knowledge and skills of experienced colleagues are another such source of strength. The participants meet their need for sharing experiences by remaining in contact between the modules. Paul Mackay, a member of the Leadership faculty, has observed that “They greatly inspire and complement each other”. He sees it as a crucial precondition for entrepreneurship that “the inspirations conveyed become a part of life so that one not only knows things but is also enabled to act in situations one is not prepared for.”

Dealing with forms of fear

The demands on leaders caused by the Corona crisis are initially the same as those imposed by other crises: “to find the possible in the midst of the impossible” (Paul Mackay). An additional requirement is the ability to address co-workers in ways that make it possible for the enterprise to “remain healthy and on track and to act confidently,” says Jean-Michel Florin. Paul Mackay explains that “Dealing with forms of fear that affect us more deeply than concerns about our place of work is a challenge.” The way to achieve this is by showing interest. “When we are interested and when we carry a question over several days through the night, a working relationship emerges that is rooted in the cause itself and in our humanity.”

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