ÿþ<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name="Author" content="Robert Mays, Sune Nordwall and others"> <meta name="Description" content="Waldorf teachers informing the public about the basis, philosophy and practice of Waldorf education."> <meta name="KeyWords" content="Waldorf, Waldorf education, education, K-12, school, Waldorf school, Waldorf schools, charter schools, Steiner, Rudolf Steiner, anthroposophy, Anthroposophy, church and state"> <title>Waldorf answers - The heart in our life and our bodies</title> </head> <body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FDE9B3" link="#0000FF" vlink="#551A8B" alink="#0000FF" background="bg.gif"> <center><a NAME="top"></a><img SRC="space.gif" height=10 width=10></center> <center><table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=20 WIDTH="725" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" > <tr> <td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="150"><img SRC="space.gif" VSPACE=5 height=10 width=10> <table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="100" BACKGROUND="bgh.gif" > <tr ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=CENTER> <td HEIGHT="110"> <center><a href="index.htm"><img SRC="WA-logo.gif" BORDER=0 height=45 width=105></a></center> </td> </tr> </table> <center><img SRC="space20.gif" height=20 width=20></center> <center><table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="120" > <tr> <td> <center><a href="index.htm"><img SRC="Home.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Waldorf.htm"><img SRC="Waldorf.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="RudolfSteiner.htm"><img SRC="RudolfSteiner.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Anthroposophy.htm"><img SRC="Anthroposophy.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="PublicWaldorf.htm"><img SRC="PublicWaldorf.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="WaldorfFAQ.htm"><img SRC="Questions.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="WaldorfComments.htm"><img SRC="Comments.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Myths.htm"><img SRC="Myths.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Studies.htm"><img SRC="Studies.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="Resources.htm"><img SRC="Resources.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center><a href="More.htm"><img SRC="More.jpg" VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 height=28 width=120></a></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> </tr> </table></center> <center><table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 WIDTH="120" HEIGHT="100%" > <tr ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=BOTTOM> <td ALIGN=CENTER VALIGN=BOTTOM></td> </tr> <tr VALIGN=BOTTOM> <td></td> </tr> </table></center> </td> <td VALIGN=TOP> <center><img SRC="space.gif" VSPACE=5 height=10 width=10></center> <center><table BORDER CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=15 WIDTH="525" HEIGHT="100" BACKGROUND="bgh.gif" > <tr> <td VALIGN=CENTER HEIGHT="110"><font size=+3>The nature and role of the heart in man</font></td> </tr> </table></center> <center><img SRC="space20.gif" height=20 width=20></center> <table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=8 WIDTH="480" > <tr> <td><font face="Verdana">The heart in different ways is relevant to the lives of most people. For Waldorf teachers and parents, how the heart is portrayed in the Waldorf school is also important.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">One of the arguments that at times is used to demonstrate the "non-scientific" nature of science teaching at Waldorf schools is the teacher's description of the origin, development and function of the heart in the body and life of the human being.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Some Waldorf teachers are said to teach that "the heart is not a pump". If this were the <b><i>only</i></b> thing that was taught about the heart, it would constitute a simplified misunderstanding of the question "What is the heart?" Such a statement alone is both bad science and also a&nbsp; misunderstanding of the insights one can develop out of anthroposophy on the issue.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">In Waldorf education the description and discussion of the heart takes place during main lesson blocks on human physiology in middle school and later in Grade 10 physiology.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">The general concept of the heart, since the days of Harvey, is that it basically constitutes a pump, with the primary function to pump blood through the circulatory system of humans and other organisms.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Waldorf education tries to develop a richer, more balanced picture of the heart, when discussing it, in a way that also makes the heart understandable in a unified way, not only as an organ of the body, but also as an organ of the soul.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Before developing into an embryo, the human egg is polarized into a <b><i>vegetative</i></b> pole and an "<b><i>animal</i></b>" pole. The polarization of the egg constitutes the basis for the later polarization of the human embryo into the development of <b><i>nutritional</i></b> <b><i>organs</i></b> out of the vegetative pole of the egg, and the organs of the <b><i>nervous system</i></b> out of the "animal" pole of the egg.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">This development takes place via a further differentiation and development of three layers of the germ: an endoderm, a mesoderm and an ectoderm.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Out of the <b><i>endoderm of the germ</i></b>, the primitive gut and the main part of the <b><i>digestive organs</i></b> of the human will develop. Out of the <b><i>ectoderm of the germ</i></b>, the <b><i>receptors</i></b> and the <b><i>nervous</i></b> system will develop.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Out of the <b><i>mesoderm of the germ</i></b>, situated between the ectoderm and the endoderm, a <b><i>mesenchyme</i></b> will develop into the main part of the <b><i>circulatory</i></b> system of the fully grown organism.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">In the fully developed fetus and later in the fully developed human, this process constitutes the origin and basis for what from a systematic biological perspective can be observed as:&nbsp;</font> <br><font face="Verdana">- our basic <b><i>digestive and metabolic system</i></b>,&nbsp;</font> <br><font face="Verdana">- our basic <b><i>rhythmic circulatory/respiratory system</i></b> and&nbsp;</font> <br><font face="Verdana">- our basic <b><i>sense/nervous system</i></b>.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">The muscular system and the digestive metabolic system stand out as the primary biological basis for our "<b>will</b>". The polar organ systems to the limb-metabolic system, namely, the sense and nervous systems stand out as the primary biological basis for our "<b><i>thinking</i></b>". And the respiratory and circulatory system together constitute a basic rhythmical system, that stands out as the basic biological foundation for our life of <b><i>feelings</i></b>.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">From this general systematic, biological human perspective, the heart stands out as the primary organ mediating in a rhythmical way between what is "above" in the human, that is, the sense and nervous system, and what is "below" in the human, that is, our digestive system, with its different organs.&nbsp;</font> <p><font face="Verdana">The intermediary nature of the heart can also be observed in the structure of its muscular tissue, which constitutes an intermediary form between the <b><i>striated</i></b> structure of those muscles that we use and can steer <b><i>consciously</i></b>, and the non-striated, <b><i>smooth</i></b> character of the muscles that we normally can't steer, constituting the muscles of the digestive system, functioning <b><i>outside our consciousness</i></b>. This intermediate position points to our half-conscious, dreamy relation to the processes and function of the heart.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">The respiratory system in a similar way stands out as the basic organ for mediating in a rhythmical way between what is "inside" of the body, and what is "outside" of the body.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">While the increasingly <i>mechanistic</i> thinking, starting before the industrial revolution, has led to a stress on picturing the heart as a "<b><i>pump</i></b>", a systematic, more closely <i>biological</i> perspective on the heart points to it more as a <b><i>rhythmical regulatory organ</i></b> in relation to the flow of the blood, than as a "pump".</font> <p><font face="Verdana">Study of the development of circulation in the embryo of mammals also confirms this. It shows that blood circulation develops <i>before</i> the full development of the heart. The heart develops not primarily as a "pump" "pushing" blood through the developing circulatory system, but more as a node in the circulatory system, itself developing out of the rhythmical movement of the blood, as an expression and stabilizer of the rhythmical movement of the blood through the circulatory system.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">These facts point to the markedly non-biological one-sidedness of the picture and understanding of the heart as a mechanical "pump".&nbsp;</font> <p><font face="Verdana">What is taught in Waldorf education depicts the heart more in its rhythmical, regulatory function out of the biological perspective of the three basic organ systems of the human being, based on an embryological understanding of human development.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">The picture presented by the Waldorf teacher points more to the mutuality of the movement of the blood and the function of the heart in this movement, with the heart acting more as a regulator and rhythmical and rhythmicizing stabilizer of the blood than as a "pump".</font> <p><font face="Verdana">While the statement "the heart is not a pump" may stand out as an oversimplification of the understanding of the heart from a systems biological perspective, from an embryological perspective such a statement stands out as more true to reality than the opposite simplification "the heart is merely a pump". Both perspectives point to our still incomplete understanding of the heart, not only as a biological organ, but also an organ of the soul and spirit of the human being.</font> <p><font face="Verdana">(<font size=-1><a href="Heartnotes.htm" target="_blank">Notes</a></font>)</font> <center> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="#top">return to top</a></font> <p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size=-1><a href="Copyright.htm" target="_blank">Copyright</a> 2004-2006: Robert Mays and Sune Nordwall</font></font></center> </td> </tr> </table> <center><img SRC="space20.gif" height=20 width=20></center> </td> </tr> </table></center> <br>&nbsp; </body> </html>