A very important task

But how exactly should we approach this task? The question arose as to whether the idea of the threefold social order should be taught in the upper grades at Waldorf schools. I believe it absolutely should, insofar as it can lead to a better—because deeper—understanding of the dynamics of our world. In my experience, it is possible to use Rudolf Steiner’s ideas on the threefold social order to highlight and clarify certain connections that may seem incomprehensible at first. For example, how does the current structure of the monetary system affect our consumption and the distribution of the world’s wealth—and what does this system have to do with environmental issues or the state of the education system? Which has a greater influence on the course of the world: how and where we earn our money, or how and where we spend it—and what do the possible answers mean for our relationship to money itself? To what extent is our pursuit of self-interest an indispensable driving force behind all collective economic activity, and what does that have to do with the decline of, for example, the GDR? A sufficiently in-depth exploration of such questions can significantly help students experience and understand the world and society as spaces that can be shaped in nuanced ways.

However, viewing the threefold social order as a system whose implementation would undoubtedly improve the world strikes me as just as rigid and inflexible as many other political programs. But if we view Steiner’s ideas as a blueprint for how a modern society actually «works», they can help us gain an ever-better understanding of the otherwise arbitrarily complex and manifold interdependencies between our economic activities, individual interests, cultural development, the planet’s natural foundations, and political dynamics. In this sense, the idea of the threefold social order can be incorporated very fruitfully into a twelfth-grade class during the final geography unit.

However, this requires a continuous effort to make our thinking, feeling, and willing dynamic, nuanced, critical, precise, imaginative, effective, and—yes—idealistic. To the extent that we succeed in doing this for ourselves, working with and on the ideas of the threefold social order will have a revitalizing effect on our educational work, our schools, and our students.