{"id":74954,"date":"2026-10-22T17:58:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=74954"},"modified":"2026-10-22T17:58:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T15:58:58","slug":"children-and-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/children-and-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Children and Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A child asks about his angel\u2014a glimpse of what a school can mean for a person\u2019s life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A moving story was shared recently at a meeting of educators from Rede Social,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> the social network that encompasses nearly 40 public schools<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> in Brazil. These schools operate according to Rudolf Steiner\u2019s pedagogic principles and maintain close dialogue with state authorities. They are accessible to all children and are attended by many whose families live in poverty, often in situations where their very existence is threatened or, at the very least, in extremely difficult financial and environmental circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An experienced kindergarten teacher visits a Rede Social kindergarten. A little boy lets her rock him in her arms\u2014like in a tiny boat\u2014and she sings. The child grows still, looks at her, and says quite unexpectedly, \u201cMy guardian angel doesn\u2019t know my address.\u201d Deeply moved, she gets up, steps outside for a moment, and breaks down in tears. She is aware of the immense challenges this child faces at home. Back inside, she takes the child into her arms once more. The child looks at her and continues, \u201cBut my guardian angel knows the address of this school.\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There must be schools\u2014places that focus on the child, places where there is food, places where protection, security, hugs, joy, and care assure the child that they are welcome on this earth. Places that the angel knows. But where is the angel for the child when they are not at school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps learning to pray and to turn to a presence felt in the heart is also\u2014maybe especially\u2014a central lesson today. For this child, the question \u201cDo I have to believe in angels?\u201d may not be relevant; the question is, rather, \u201cAm I allowed to believe that the angel will find me?\u201d In a secular and, in some cases, atheistic society, it seems strange to think that it is of existential importance to a child that their angel can find them. How fortunate that this teacher, Vanda Elisa Raulino, was able to embrace the child and their relationship with their angel. What if she had said, \u201cThe angel won\u2019t find you here or anywhere else, because there is no such thing as an angel!\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere there are schools, there is hope,\u201d wrote Brazilian photographer Sebasti\u00e3o Salgado in the foreword to his book featuring photographs of children in war zones.<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He visited these areas as a photographer, and every time, children ran up to him and asked him to take their picture. Faces full of wonder, seriousness, sadness, and even laughter\u2014faces that had seen the worst yet remained full of hope. What he wrote was echoed by this kindergarten child\u2014simply and in a different way. The angel knows where he is: his school\u2014a \u201csacred place.\u201d<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Translation<\/strong> Laura Liska
Drawing<\/strong> by Elena Klee, age 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A child asks about his angel\u2014a glimpse of what a school can mean for a person\u2019s life. A moving story was shared recently at a meeting of educators from Rede Social, the social network that encompasses nearly 40 public schools in Brazil. These schools operate according to Rudolf Steiner\u2019s pedagogic principles and maintain close dialogue with state authorities. They are accessible to all children and are attended by many whose families live in poverty, often in situations where their very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9183,"featured_media":74717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8812,8823],"tags":[11848,11849,8814],"class_list":["post-74954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pedagogy","category-reflection","tag-ausgabe-41-2026-en","tag-english-issue-43-2026","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74954"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74973,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74954\/revisions\/74973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}