The door into life with others, to the social life, has two doorposts - reliability and presence of mind. The following remarks are made so these doorposts can become increasingly distinct during community life and work here in Camphill.
The following notes are not meant to be a complete guidance into the landscape of the community; much more do they try to explain areas which may, in the ordinary course of events, remain unexplained. The way into life of the community can only emerge from the growth of understanding of it and one's own experience of it.
Apart from the training in the actual work process itself, the attention must be focused on the forming of a working group within the respective realm of work (for example, workshop, household or garden). The actual achievements within the respective sphere of work, of villager or co-worker, depend very largely on this and much less on the performance of the single individual, because of the achievements which are reached in the service of others (for example the cooked lunch, the washed or ironed laundry, the hoed turnips, the woven cloth) are after all the only real incentives.
One thing is needed so groups can form; love for the work that one is meant to do. This love cannot of course, come from one day to another, nor does it grow by itself, but it will surely come if one's involvement with it is imbued with enough effort, interest and respect. Part of this respect for those who work in it is also punctuality (not only for oneself but also for others).
We live without earning wages through our work. Camphill has done this from the beginning (over 50 years ago) so the nature of the work would become clearer rather than clouded by the amount of money earned.
On the one hand, nothing is worse to relate to the villagers as if they were children or patients. It is, on the other hand, a matter of tact how far one can make them responsible and co- responsible. A lot of empathy is needed, a lot of listening to the words and silences of the villagers, so that they feel that you are their friend, that there is no danger that you will hurt them. In the same spirit you must educate them and guide them into educating each other; it is no use to let them come to a meal with dirty hands because you do not want to wound them. The same spirit of goodwill, interest and respect you must bear towards co-workers, young and old; without sentimentality, without sympathy or antipathy, but with complete honesty, and a certain idealism to each one of them - idealism becoming the cause of educating them.
The less difference you make in your attitudes between villager and co-worker the better. The more you feel the meals are highlights of the social unit, "household" the better. Conversations and humour are the means to lift them towards these highlights. Punctuality, a properly laid table, proper cooking, communal responsibility towards their success, is therefore essential.
Regarding discipline, we have never, in the course of our history, had any difficulties because what had to be achieved we have always tried to achieve among friends, by talking it over amongst adults, to come to a common understanding. There can be no question of saying, "You must ..... " as to a child or as in the army. Equally intolerable under any circumstances, is physical violence to villagers or co-workers.
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