Most biology teaching today is based on a reductive-analytic approach to the life sciences. After the organism has been broken down into its smallest entities, it is seen as both determined and constrained by the principles of chemistry and physics. Although this approach has proven effective at certain levels of existence, it leads to a view of nature as «nothing but» matter-in-motion, and thereby merely a resource to exploited (destruction of forests, factory farming, etc.). Humans become «nothing but» a pack of neurons (Crick), the heart «nothing but» a pressure-propulsion pump, and so on.
Taken seriously, such a perspective can lead students to the obvious question: what is the point in life — is there any real meaning — if reality is only matter in motion? But, as Waldorf students learn, there is much more to modern science than just reductionism. The concept of «emergence», for example, reveals that characteristics of life cannot be deduced from lifeless matter, that the appearance of new characteristics at each higher level of complexity cannot be predicted from the previous level. In short: the complex whole cannot be traced back to its component parts. Once one is awake to this perspective, life science teaching in Waldorf high schools becomes an exciting adventure of discovery in the realms of human physiology, ecology, embryology, genetics, etc. that transcends the one-sided reductionist viewpoint and leads to a dynamic and meaning-filled understanding of nature and the human being.
Keywords: biology lessons, Waldorf school, Waldorf high school