Cradle of a Healthy Life

Everything the children experience in [early childhood] literally forms their physical being—as well as their social and psychical being—for the rest of life. Our intention and responsibility as educators is to connect what the children have brought from the past with lawful activities to form and guide their future. —From Nancy Blanning’s summary of Dr. Karnow’s 2009 WECAN conference lectures, “Developing the Eyes to See” Our task as Waldorf educators today is to help children take hold of their bodies in a way that will permit them to serve as instruments of the free individuality. In this we can work with the anthroposophic physician, who seeks to guide what has become diseased or malformed back into the stream of healthy development, by actively engaging with Rudolf Steiner’s picture of the human being in body, soul, and spirit. This volume collects the valuable contributions of two medical doctors to recent WECAN conferences on the east and west coasts. The fundamental importance of early childhood for the health of the individual throughout life is presented with deep and compassionate understanding from the physician’s perspective. Key developmental stages and milestones are described afresh, and a path indicated that can help caregivers to “read” in the physiology of the child what he or she needs for growth into a free adult.