21. Memorandum about Friedrich August Wolf

In relation to the facts developed in the essay on “The Education of the Child from the Point of View of Spiritual Science”, it may be interesting to learn about the tentative attempts of a man who, more than a hundred years ago, sought without the aid of spiritual science to form an idea of the different stages of life of the growing human being. We are referring to the philologist Friedrich August Wolf, who was famous in Goethe's day. His attempt to describe the “developmental stages of the male individual” seems somewhat grotesque. However, he also showed that a mind that seeks to understand the nature of education must feel the need to solve the relevant questions not with general phrases, as is so often the case in educational science, but rather, as he must proceed, to survey the nature of the various stages of life in detail. The need for spiritual science to replace arbitrary classifications and fantastic ideas in this field with insights that are based in reality is clearly demonstrated by this well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed attempt by Friedrich August Wolf. It reads:

1. Golden, mildly harmonious age. The childhood of American Indians and South Sea Islanders from the first to the third year; undivided childhood.

2. Asian struggle. State of the North American and other savages. Heroic age of the Greeks. - First physical exercises, formation of concepts. Boyhood up to the age of six.

3. Greek period from Homer to Alexander. Not yet reflective, but inventive and poetic. — Youth until about the age of nine.

4. Roman period. Transition to the so-called awkward age (but this is ennobled by the Roman period). — Until about the age of twelve.

5. Middle Ages. The age of chivalry, physical growth. Up to the age of fifteen. To be ennobled by religion, spiritual love, chivalry, respect for the female sex, bold, enthusiastic undertakings.

6. Reawakening of the arts and sciences with a reflective, critical spirit. At the grammar school. Intellectual wrestling school, ennobled by the study of the ancients, but with later practice of the spirit of invention and discovery, of interpretation, criticism – from the lower to the higher – in the heart through the finer knightly age of the minnesingers and Petrarchian love. Further period of discovery. – Until the eighteenth year.

7. Reformation and systematic learning, ennobled by noble freedom, warmest awakening up to the sacrifice for truth and justice. University time. - Up to the twenty-first year.

8. Education for the present time. Period for practical experiments in the affairs of life. Defense of the noble. Striving to rise above the time. — Until the age of twenty-four.

9. Elevation above time. Until the thirtieth year.

10. Now the perfect man appears and acts, great as a god.

The starting point is the idea that the individual human being will soon once again go through the stages that the whole of humanity has gone through up to his age. Apart from the fact that Friedrich August Wolf seems to have less in mind the “human being” as such than the “philologist”, his essay is full of errors of observation with regard to human development. The tools for real observation in this field can only be provided by spiritual science.