Na cestě od lilie k růži – Smolková Táňa (2009)

The journey from lily to rose depicted in this publication is an educational path intended for educators. The journey lasts a year, and the pilgrim reader will go through seven stops along the way. These stops are placed in the festive periods in the order they occur throughout the year: Advent, Christmas, through Carnival, Easter, Pentecost, the feast of St. John the Baptist, St. Wenceslas, and St. Michael, and finally the feast of St. Martin. In our cultural tradition, these holidays carry a rich spiritual and moral heritage of Christian ideals. They culminate in an atmosphere of harmony and understanding, compassion, and love for one's neighbor. Experienced educator Mgr. Táňa Smolková, a promoter of the Waldorf approach to education, has chosen them as sources of inspiration for the concept of child-rearing, not towards the usual image of consumerist mediocrity, but towards a distinctive, intellectually sovereign, and emotionally equipped personality. In her evocative interpretation, she projects spiritual symbolism into images of natural events and formulates the postulate of education as self-education, that is, effective influence through one's own example. According to her, the adult educator should shape the child not directive but through maximum and considerate support of the natural and non-violent development of their own dispositions. To be an example for them and...