As early as 1884, while tutoring a boy with special needs, Steiner began a lifelong interest in applying spiritual knowledge to the practical aspects of life. Steiner originally published the essay at the core of this book in 1907. It represents his earliest ideas on education, in which he lays out the soul spiritual processes of human development, describing the need to understand how the being of a child develops through successive “births,” beginning with the physical body’s entry into earthly life, and culminating in the emergence of the I-being with adulthood. Also included here are several early lectures on education (1906–1911). Contents: “The Education of the Child in the Light of Spiritual Science,” essay; “Teaching from a Foundation of Spiritual Insight,” Berlin, May 14, 1906; “Education in the Light of Spiritual Science,” Cologne, December 1, 1906; “Education and Spiritual Science,” Berlin, January 24, 1907; “Interests, Talent, and Educating Children,” Nuremberg, November 14, 1910; and “Interests, Talent, and Education,” Berlin, January 12, 1911.
