For two weeks, prior to the opening of the first Waldorf school in Stuttgart, Rudolf Steiner intensively prepared the individuals he had chosen to become the first Waldorf teachers. At 9:00 a.m. he gave the course Study of Man  now also translated as Foundations of Human Experience ; at 11:00 a.m., Practical Advice to Teachers; and then, after lunch, from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., he held the informal 'discussions' published in this book.

The tone is spontaneous and relaxed. Steiner does not prescribe specific methods but introduces topics and situations, giving guidelines and allocating practical assignments that are taken up and discussed in the next session. In this way, the discussions are filled with insights and indications in many different areas of teaching - history, geography, botany, zoology, form drawing, mathematics.

Speech exercises are included. This edition also includes, for the first time in English, three very important lectures on the curriculum given on the day before the school opened.

These fifteen discussions constitute an essential part of the basic training material for Waldorf teachers.