We Only Learn From and With Others

Modern natural science emerged over the course of a century. First, Nicholas of Cusa presented a forward-looking, theological-philosophical conception of the infinite cosmos; then his conception scientifically verified through measurement. What was once seen through thinking was now viewed with the eyes and became subject to the laws of measure. And, as Rudolf Steiner pointed out, only “[a] century lies between them.”¹

It seems permissible to draw a parallel between what unfolded in the span between Cusanus’s De docta ignorantia [On learned ignorance] and Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium [On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres] and what is taking place today between descriptions of an education oriented toward the development—the “becoming”—of the human being, on the one hand, and statistically validated surveys, on the other. More than a century later, insights that Steiner gained through what he called “perceptive cognition” [schauender Erkenntnis] can become comprehensible to anyone in terms of the natural sciences.² Reading the UNESCO study published in 2025, I was surprised—and affected—by this parallel.

Closed Schools

School closures during the COVID-19 crisis were a global experiment. This is suggested by the UNESCO study An Ed-Tech Tragedy? Educational Technologies and School Closures in the Time of COVID-19.³ The foreword explains the title of this analysis of what it calls “the largest global disruption to education in history,” a period in which education, for the first time, “became largely reliant on connected technology.”⁴

“The global evidence […] exposes the ways unprecedented educational dependence on technology often resulted in unchecked exclusion, staggering inequality, inadvertent harm, and the elevation of learning models that put machines and profit before people. […] [T]his publication shows how technology-first modes of learning introduced novel health and safety risks, handed significant control of public education to for-profit companies, expanded invasive digital surveillance, and carried detrimental environmental repercussions, in addition to adversely impacting educational access, equity, quality, and outcomes in most contexts.”⁵

On the surface, the findings describe how moving school activity into technological formats affected children and adolescents. They are referred to as “learners”—and that goes to the heart of the question: Could the children and adolescents learn? What can we conclude from this event, which has now been plainly revealed, statistically documented, and laid open to scrutiny?

The students couldn’t learn. The environment was lacking: other people were entirely missing, and there was thus no tangible interaction with others. The electronic medium was not conducive to sustained attention or creative approaches. For children and young people, learning takes place through human interaction. It requires human presence as well as the perception and incorporation of bodily reality. “[E]ducation became less accessible, less effective, and less engaging when it pivoted away from physical schools and teachers and towards technology exclusively.”⁶

Human Witnesses

The study highlights an anthropological fact: Human beings form themselves through learning from and with others and from the world they experience. Educators and teachers who observe, bear witness to, and take responsibility for learning are irreplaceable. As we grow into adulthood, we, as learners, increasingly take on the role of witness to our own learning. As a grown-up, I know that I myself am learning. But even then, “the presence of others who see what we see and hear what we hear” (Hannah Arendt),⁷ is fundamental to the reality of my experience.

After Steiner gave a lecture course at the “Conference on Spiritual Values in Education and Social Life,” held at Manchester College and Keble College, Oxford, in 1922,⁸ the Educational Union for the Realisation of Spiritual Values published a statement.⁹ In light of today’s experiences, such as those highlighted in the UNESCO study, it could be called a “Manifesto for Human Values in Education”—for this is the real focus of the declaration. Herein lies the seed for a pedagogy that seeks to recognize and perceive the spiritual—a pedagogy made possible by teachers who work autonomously and creatively out of a sense of responsibility toward children and young people. This groundbreaking statement declares that teachers “must be fully in touch with the world, autonomous in their profession, responsible to the conscience of humanity, working out of their own free spirit to pave the way for the unfolding spirit in their pupils.”¹⁰ “[Rudolf Steiner] has spoken to us of the kind of knowledge which the teacher needs—a knowledge of man and of the world, not only scientific, but intimate, intuitive, artistic. […] We therefore feel that the impulse should go out from this conference, to form a worldwide association for the foundation and support of schools in which the teachers will work freely and co-operatively on the basis that has been indicated.”¹¹

A century later, the UNESCO study states: “This elevation of the technical over the human is contradictory to education’s aim to further human development and cultivate humanistic values. It is human capacity, rather than technological capacity, that is central to ensuring greater resilience of education systems to withstand shocks and manage crises.”¹²

The absence of human beings creates a sense of emptiness and abandonment. For children and young people around the world, we must ensure that there are schools and places for learning and working together, where adults take responsibility for this unique process: growing into a shared world that depends on the contributions and presence of “newcomers.” Welcoming them is society’s responsibility. The lessons learned from school closures and the findings of the study call for wakefulness and the will to advocate for a humane learning environment.

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Translation Joshua Kelberman
Photo Xue Li

1. Rudolf Steiner, The Origins of Natural Science, CW 326 (Spring Valley, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1985), lecture in Dornach, Dec. 24, 1922.
2. Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy Has Something to Add to Modern Sciences, CW 73 (Lower Beechmont, Australia: Completion Press, 2004), lecture in Zurich, Nov. 12, 1917.
3. Mark West, An Ed-Tech Tragedy? Educational Technologies and School Closures in the Time of COVID-19 (Paris: UNESCO; New York: Routledge, 2025).
4. Ibid., 1.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid., 35.
7. Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 50; first published in English, 1958.
8. Rudolf Steiner, The Spiritual Ground of Education, CW 305 (Great Barrington, MA: Anthroposophic Press, 2004).
9. John Paull, “Rudolf Steiner and the Oxford Conference: The Birth of Waldorf Education in Britain,” European Journal of Educational Studies 3, no. 1 (2011): 60.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. See footnote 3, An Ed-Tech Tragedy, 35.