The living human being and the living planet

Biology with Michael Holdrege (US)

We will consider ways in which the material under discussion can be addressed so that it becomes a process of creative inquiry rather than mere knowledge intake.

In middle school the students’ bodies are going through remarkable changes and become a significant point of interest and sometimes dismay for them.  The biology curriculum turns its focus toward the human being in grades 7,8.9 & 10.

In the 10th grade our task is to exercise a dynamic kind of thinking that can provide the basis for the formation of more complex and multifaceted judgments.  The flowing dynamic found in our internal organs—in particular the heart and circulation—provides excellent material for overcoming the too simplistic and mechanistic views of the human being that are common today.

11^th graders have moved beyond the quick, reflexive judgments of their early teen years and are now able to ponder things from a larger perspective. A central question that speaks to them is the relationship of the parts to the whole, of the whole to the parts.

We will discuss the 12^th grade zoology block, where the student’s practice a form of comparative morphology in regard to central animal phyla. The relationship of each group to their natural habitat is explored and how this relates to their sensory organization, to their limbs and teeth, as well as to their diet and other salient characteristics of each group.

In the end, we are attempting to nurture discernment and sound judgment in the students that goes past mere one-sided impressions of things and situations and leads to nuanced judgments about their properties, relationships, and the context in which they are embedded.

Michael Holdrege taught at the Rudolf Steiner School in Vienna, Austria for seven years, followed by an additional seven years as faculty and board member at the Institute for Goethean Studies in Vienna. In 1994 he returned to Waldorf teaching and taught life sciences, economics and math at the Chicago Waldorf School until 2019. He currently teaches at the Waldorf Teacher Institute in Chicago and at the Waldorf High School Teacher Education Program in Wilton, NH.