{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p005","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"Just consider superficially the actual position, in general culture, of the reading and writing which you impart to the child to-day. We read, but the art of reading has naturally developed in the course of civilization. The letter-forms which have arisen, the combination of these various letter-forms, is all a matter determined by convention. In teaching the child the present form of reading, we teach him what, apart from the place of the individual within a quite definite culture, has no significance at all for the human entity. We must be aware that other practices of our physical culture have no direct meaning for super-physical humanity, for the super-physical world at all. It is quite wrong to believe, as spiritist circles sometimes do, that spirits wrote the human writing in order to bring it into the physical world. Human writing has arisen from human activity, from human convention on the physical plane. The spirits are not in the least interested in accommodating themselves to this physical convention. Even if the intervention of the spirits is a fact, it is in the form of special translation by means of intermediary human activity; it is not a direct gesture of the spirit itself, a communication into this form of writing or reading of its living essence. The reading and writing which you teach the child are determined by convention; they have arisen within the action of the physical body.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"I. Introduction—Aphoristic remarks on Artistic Activity, Arithmetic, Reading, and Writing","site_heading":null,"date":"1919-08-21","location":null,"word_count":237,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/294/1919-08-21/p005","alignment_confidence":"medium","alignment_reason":"beads:length","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"Harry Collison","identified_edition":"RSPC1937","book_title":"Practical Course for Teachers","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA294/English/RSPC1937/19190821n01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"de","edition":"original","edition_basis":null,"is_original":true,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p005"},{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/294/1919-08-21/p005","paragraph_aligned":true}],"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1919-08-21","de_passages":[{"locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p005","url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p005"}],"bead_confidence":"medium","pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false,"length_check":{"de_words":242,"en_words":237,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"correspondence":"established","note":"English passage numbering is edition-relative, so the same number need not name the same paragraph in the German. The German original passage(s) above are the edition-invariant anchor — fetch them (lang='de') to verify wording before quoting across editions."},"paired_german":{"status":"paired","german":[{"locus":"GA 294/1919-08-21/p005","passage_number":5,"text":"Betrachten Sie nur äußerlich, wenn Sie heute dem Kinde Lesen und Schreiben beibringen, wie dieses Lesen und Schreiben eigentlich in der allgemeinen Kultur drinnensteht. Wir lesen, aber die Kunst des Lesens hat sich ja im Laufe der Kulturentwickelung herausgebildet. Die Buchstabenformen, die entstanden sind, die Verbindung der Buchstabenformen untereinander, das alles ist eine auf Konvention beruhende Sache. Indem wir dem Kinde das Lesen in der heutigen Form beibringen, bringen wir ihm etwas bei, was, sobald wir absehen von dem Aufenthalt des Menschen innerhalb einer ganz bestimmten Kultur, für die Menschenwesenheit doch gar keine Bedeutung hat. Wir müssen uns bewußt sein, daß dasjenige, was wir in unserer physischen Kultur ausüben, für die überphysische Menschheit, für die überphysische Welt überhaupt keine unmittelbare Bedeutung hat. Es ist ganz unrichtig, wenn von manchen, namentlich spiritistischen Kreisen geglaubt wird, die Geister schrieben die Menschenschrift, um sie hineinzubringen in die physische Welt. Die Schrift der Menschen ist durch die Tätigkeit, durch die Konvention der Menschen auf dem physischen Plan entstanden. Die Geister haben gar kein Interesse daran, dieser physischen Konvention sich zu fügen. Es ist, auch wenn das Hereinsprechen der Geister richtig ist, eine besondere Übersetzung durch die mediale Tätigkeit des Menschen, es ist nicht etwas, was der Geist unmittelbar selbst ausführt, indem das, was in ihm lebt, in diese Schreibe- oder Leseform hereingeführt wird. Also was Sie dem Kinde beibringen als Lesen und Schreiben, beruht auf Konvention; das ist etwas, was entstanden ist innerhalb des physischen Lebens.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"word_count":242,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/294/1919-08-21/p005"}],"english":["GA 294/1919-08-21/p005"],"method":"length","confidence":"medium","correspondence":"established","length_check":{"de_words":242,"en_words":237,"ratio":0.98,"partial":false},"pairing_state":"proposed","verified":false},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.03,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":5570,"original_word_count":5396,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"Harry Collison","identified_edition":"RSPC1937","book_title":"Practical Course for Teachers","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Publishing Co.","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA294/English/RSPC1937/19190821n01.html","evidence":"lecture_list_row","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"ok","checked_against":["GA 294/1919-08-21/p005"],"missing_from_translation":[],"present_only_in_translation":[],"bead_confidence":"medium","note":"Every load-bearing name in the German counterpart appears in this English passage. That is a check on NAMES only: a translation can keep every name and still reverse who acts on whom, change a number, or soften a claim. Read the German for anything you intend to rest an argument on."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}