Wednesday with Words: To Know As We Are Known (Part 2)

We are surviving through some type of bug/ flu thing around here.  This is made more frustrating by the fact that we celebrated a 5 year old birthday and today celebrate my husband's 40th.  Not feeling very festive but fortunately the grandparents have stepped in to help out.  I did finish To Know As We are Known by Parker J. Palmer and it is GOOD.  I really can't explain all that it says well, so I will just pick some of my favorite quotes to share.

In Christian understanding, the gap exists not so much because truth is hidden and evasive but because we are.  We hide from the transforming power of the truth; we evade truth's quest for us. 

Throughout the scriptures knowing and obedient listening are linked . . . but he also connects obedience with freedom.  This connection is not simply a quirk of Christian teaching.  The idea that freedom is achieved through obedience to truth is also at the heart of a liberal education, whose aim is to liberate us through knowledge.  

He spends a whole chapter explaining our common practices that reinforce an objective approach to learning and life.  I liked this insight best

By keeping students passive and feeding them a steady diet of facts, we try to kill off their passions. Conventional education strives not to locate and understand the self in the world, but to get it out of the way.

But we find it safer to seek facts that keep us in power rather than truths that require us to submit. 

In the end he says

So, what is the alternative?

He talks about classrooms that have "openness, boundaries, and an air of hospitality."  His descriptions are helpful but the main idea is to allow people to realize that they don't know things, give them time to think and worthy things to think upon and allow dissenting opinions.

Readings are an important part of this discipline and he explains

There is often need for longer reading assignments to gather background information and perspectives, but a shorter text can become the arena of focused exploration. . . The key to this approach is to keep the students firmly within the boundaries of the text, to keep them from fleeing into ungrounded opinion, wishful thinking, or irrelevant facts.  

He speaks often of allowing silence - even if it is uncomfortable - to be a part of the classroom and conversation.  I need to hear this - daily!  We also must admit and deal with our feelings towards the subject - not that they rule us - but, because they are discussed openly, they cannot rule us.  As he explains, "But as I create a space for feelings, I find that the group's capacity for tough mindedness grows."

He then spends a whole chapter looking at the issue of obedience.  This is his definition

I know I am guilty of reading, thinking something is a good idea, but doing NOTHING about it.  I am not being obedient to truth.  I am not acting on what I have heard and therefore my education is incomplete - or possibly not even begun.  As he explains, "that however accurate a teaching may be it is not truthful until we follow it with obedience."  He ends by discussing humility in the teacher, other spiritual graces, silence and solitude.  This is something we have to fight for as he explains

This is the vacuousness of mass society and of mass education: our lives alternate between collective busyness and individual isolation but rarely allow for an authentically solitary or corporate experience. 

It is a short but meaty book with both philosophical and practical thoughts.  It is worth your time if you are interested in creating true learning communities.  What he is calling for is not easy - for the teacher or the student - but it is worth it.  

See what others are reading at Ladydusk.  

Wednesday with Words: To Know As We are Known

I read To Know As We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey over 15 years ago.  I was taken with it then but honestly didn't remember what it said until I picked it back up this weekend.  I originally got it because Henri Nouwen endorsed it.  Since then the author, Parker J. Palmer, has written a book that was assigned to many of my teaching friends The Courage to Teach.  I haven't read that one.  Re- reading the first two chapters I realize that this was my first introduction to a totally different way of thinking about knowledge, truth and education.  The way I am pursuing today.  
He argues that we often judge our knowledge by its outcome and he encourages us to think about the origins of our interest in knowledge.  As he explains:

But I have come to see that knowledge contains its own morality, that it begins not in neutrality but in a place of passion within the human soul. . . . From the point where it originates in the soul, knowledge assumes a certain trajectory and target - and it will not easily be deflected by ethics once it takes off from that source. 

He explains that when we don't think about its origin we think we can temper knowledge with ethics or values - he doesn't think this is so.  It recalled Mason's "way of the will".  She explains that we need to make sure that our feet are on the right path to begin with - this is why she downplays logic. Once you are on a path you can come up with MANY reasons for being there.

In our culture he finds that knowledge seeking is typically the result of two impulses: curiosity or control.  A few weeks back there was a conversation about curiosity and why it might be bad.  Here is Palmer's take on these reasons as being inadequate starting points for knowledge:

Curiosity is an amoral passion, a need to know that allows no guidance beyond the need itself. Control is simply another word for power, a passion notorious not only for its amorality but for its tendency towards corruption.  If curiosity and control are the primary motives for our knowing we will generate a knowledge that eventually carries us not toward life but death.  

So what should be our starting point? Love.  He also calls for a

mode of knowing and educating that is prayerful through and through.  What do I mean by prayer? I mean the practice of relatedness. 

If you are a Mason reader your alarms should be going off by now!  I love how he connects prayer to relations.  He says it more clearly

In prayer, I no longer set myself apart from others and the world (the objective approach of modern education - he explains elsewhere), manipulating them to suit my needs. Instead I reach for relationship, allow myself to feel the tuggings of mutuality and accountability, take my place in community by knowing the transcendent center that connects it all.  

Next he talks about the disciplines of a student.  He asserts that "the disciplines of prayer and contemplation have their counterparts in secular education".  In secular education when we aim "to see through and beyond the appearance of things" we use "research and analysis, by various forms of empirical study and logical thought".

Prayer and analysis do not end up at the same point; where analysis aims at breaking the world into it elements, prayer aims at seeing beyond the elements into their underlying relatedness.     

He then discusses fact, theory, objective and reality in fascinating ways.  He ends by going back to the origin - Adam and Eve - and explains

Adam and Eve were driven from the garden because of the kind of knowledge they reached for - a knowledge that distrusted and excluded God.  Their drive to know arose not from love but from curiosity and control, from the desire to possess powers belonging to God alone. . . In their refusal to know as they were known, they reached for a kind of knowledge that always leads to death.   

He also has a great word study of truth and its relationship to "troth" where a person enters into covenant with another to "engage in mutually accountable and transforming relationship".

So those are some of the high points of the first two chapters-  you can see it is dense but not difficult. Here are my favorite quotes:

 
In this last one, he is reflecting on the way our class culture and practices speak volumes about how the student can and should interact with the world - do you need an expert? is there one right answer? is this a competition?  what is our ultimate goal? It makes me think of J.K. Smith's work.

Truth. Reading. Relationship. I look forward to reading the next chapter "The Teaching Behind the Teaching".

See what others are reading at Ladydusk.

Wednesday with Words: Ambiguity and Mystery

I am almost done with 40 Days of Decrease.  Yes, it is a Lenten devotional and here it is almost Advent, but I couldn't resist it sitting on the shelf at the library. I am going through it out of season - but probably just right for me.  Her format packs a lot of punch in a few pages.  She has a short and novel introduction to an aspect of the Gospel story (she works through John) during Holy Week.  Next she introduces the "fast" for the day - criticism, avoidance, self protection, comparison, apathy - in 40 days you can cover a lot of territory.  Then she looks at a historical or current experience of Lent and preparing for Easter. Finally, she sends you to the Scripture that is somewhat tied to her reflection.  In a few short pages a day she covers history, Scripture, self reflection and meditation all in one.  I have really enjoyed it.

Today I am going to share a sample from Day Ten where we are asked to fast from avoidance.  Here is how she frames this fast:

The unknown triggers different reactions in different hearts and exposes our soul's own defaults.  Ambiguity reveals where we instinctively go to feel the illusion of security.  

She draws this discussion from James and John talking to Jesus about how he needs to tone down the talk about crucifixion.  She asserts that they don't know how to deal with the mixed messages around them so they'll take control (sounds familiar).

She explains

To change our defaults we must first address our theology of uncertainty.  And to address our theology of uncertainty, we must first befriend mystery.  

To help us understand mystery she pulls the following quote:

As I teach the 1st graders at church I am more often referring to the mystery and encouraging them to embrace that there are some things that are God's to know and that we can trust Him.

Today I also was catching up on old podcasts and listened to the Schole' Sisters podcast about teaching the Bible.  It starts with a discussion of synthetic versus analytic thinking.  I am still blown away that Mason thought that the first 15 years should basically be synthetic thinking.  I see her point.  I wonder how to keep the mystery in a culture that wants to dispel all mystery as soon as possible.  I was trained to be a great analytic thinker.

The podcast also talks about the role of poetry in teaching scripture.  Have you ever considered poetry as key to reflective reading of Scripture??  I didn't realize that Charlotte Mason's series Saviour of the World is actually a series of poems to help students reflect on the Gospel.  Now I am fascinated by the concept.  Poetry keeps the mystery in a way that prose just can't.  Maybe that's why so many of us know so little about it - we can't handle the mystery.

Now I am thinking about adding more poetry to our lives.  Maybe I should actually read the poetry books I have collected.  I don't like mystery and ambiguity; but, I need to stop avoiding it and embrace it - just like the devotion encourages me to do.

See what others are reading at Ladydusk.  

Wednesday with Words: Compassion and Teaching

This weekend I was blessed to watch an incredible teacher.  I wasn't expecting it, so it was even more refreshing.  My son's violin masterclass had an AMAZING teacher.  I don't teach music and won't ever - but I still took 4 pages of notes on his technique, questions and approach with the children he was guiding.  Wow!

Andrew Kern often talks about analogic thinking - using analogies to help us think more clearly about things.  I saw it in action with this teacher.  He seemed to develop analogies and explanations without difficulty.  He may have had a "bag of tricks" but it seemed so fresh and individual for each student (I watched him work for 15 minutes with 6 different students).  His stories and analogies helped students grasp the abstract concepts they needed to improve their violin playing.  He also had them embody what they were doing with singing, swaying, tapping and other things. I am not sure how that can translate into my everyday world -but I am thinking about it.

All that to say I have been thinking about analogy and when I read this one I was struck:

I know many people whose favorite verses are in Psalm 91 which also features this image of God. This is about extending the compassion of God and being sheltered under his wing - such a different picture of sheltering.  How can I best communicate this compassion and strength of this to my children?

Compassion and curiosity were the two keys to education in his view (we learned during the parent lessons).  He referenced Brenee Brown who places compassion and shame on a scale together.  More shame, less compassion because you have to protect yourself.  He didn't make Christian references but you don't have to look beyond the Garden of Eden to get this!   He also said that now some put curiosity and anxiety on a scale.  So, again, as anxiety increases questioning, wonder, and engagement - all those components of curiosity - decrease.   So helpful to consider.

His final point was about using achievement words versus artistry words.  We filled the achievement column in about 1 minute.  It took 30 grown adults 5 minutes to produce a verb related to artistry that he would accept - play, wonder, imagine, create, etc.  It was SO telling and I was frustrated that it took me a while to switch into that framework - I know better!  Later a friend who was there said that God is first a Creator - so He uses words of artistry first with us.  Once shame enters our vocabulary changes.  I was convicted!!

We are almost finished with Black Beauty and it teaches often about compassion and doing what is right regardless of circumstances.  It is an autobiography of a horse so it gives you a better sense of the helplessness and the mercy that animals are sometimes subjected to.  It might be a bit too direct at times but here is one quick reminder:

See what others are reading at Ladydusk this week.    

Weds. with Words: Present over Perfect

I dropped off the radar for a week or two.   I was working on the ARCH series, taking a "vacation", getting prepared for school - it was too much.  I am back though.

Present over Perfect by Shauna Niequist is putting words to many things I have been feeling, thinking, trying to express.  I haven't read her other books (although they have been recommended often).  It is a personal journey and there is some repitition of concepts.  However, what she is saying really resonates with where I am right now.  I still struggle with the power of "No". Although this little gem helps me put it in perspective

This kind of "strength" is ridiculous but often rewarded in our culture.  Why do I act on that lie? These are the kind of lies that we all deem as "responsible" and appropriate.  NO MORE!

This is our current selection for my mom's book club and I think we are all reading it (that doesn't happen often)!  I can't wait to hear what other people have to say about it.  Here's my favorite quote:

What you need along the way: a sense of God's deep unconditional love, and a strong sense of your own purpose.  Without those two, you'll need from people what is only God's to give, and you'll give up your larger purpose in order to fulfill smaller purposes or other people's purposes.  

And there you have it in a nutshell: Who is my audience? What is my part?  Truly only God can answer these questions.  If I could help lead my kids into spaces where they could know these answers for themselves - what a gift!

However, to do that you have to own it for yourself.  I think this is one reason I love reading all of Sally Clarkson's stuff she really has both of these aspects nailed in her own life and the fruit is amazing.  I think I have been climbing the wrong tree for a long time and wondering why the fruit isn't what I expected.   What is the blaze that I am constantly trying to put out in my life that requires a firehose?  Firehoses aren't known for their great ability to water for life.

As this new year begins I hope to gear it back and be present.

See what others are reading at Wednesday with Words.

Wednesday with Words: Heart & Mind

Well our crazy life continues.  My 6 yo was admitted to the hospital over the weekend with pneumonia.  Honestly, his trip home was GREATLY shortened by prayers - tons of prayers.  So he came home in less than 48 hours.  He thought it was great (he watched The Lego Movie 3 times!). We are just glad he is feeling better and thanks for praying if you did.

Our time in the hospital did allow me to read Heart and Mind by Ruth Beechick.  It was recommended by Lori Lane over at The End in Mind and founder of Artios.  It was part of her masterclass - which I am not sure is available to everyone but it was good.

Beechick has some good one liners.

The word brain is not found in the Bible even once.  

I hadn't reflected on that before. She spends quite a bit of time discussing mind, brain and heart in science, history and the Bible.  In our era the heart is given less importance than in previous eras. It might be making a come back - but maybe not with the same understanding as earlier cultures had.

I found this one convicting too:

This leaves little wiggle room.

I like the way that she discusses common educational theories of the past and today and gives them context and definition.  She also shows what they are lacking.  The areas she finds lacking match with my own experience of educational theory. In addition she discusses some scientific trends in brain research.  She knows the field well.

As I was finishing the book I turned to my husband and told him this is the book I have been looking for over the past 10 years.  This little book (133 pages) answers many of the questions that have been stirring in my mind for quite a while.  I realize that other things have probably hinted and discussed similar ideas but she is so straight forward.  Her model is easy to apply and combines heart and mind and the ultimate expression is creativity.  She discusses different theories of creativity but in the end believes in inspiration coming from God.

In her theory of learning she explains that

In the Biblical view, we would think of a learning sequence as beginning with heart-set rather than beginning with knowledge. . . Purpose comes first.  Intention of the heart leads to knowledge.   

This idea of heart-set - self discipline - is what I have been thinking about but couldn't name.  Heart-set, I just like the way you can visualize that. She uses the first part of Psalm 78 for her model. And heart-set starts with fear.   She quotes an earlier researcher who says

But the child must fear something if he is to apply himself to the arduous task of learning. 

Beechick discusses how parents must model love and discipline in an honoring balance that develops the type of fear that leads to reverence of God as the foundation for all learning.  I struggle a bit with the idea of fear, but if it is the beginning of wisdom I need to trust it.  Honestly, whatever we fear will direct our lives.  We can teach our children a right reverence and fear of God or they will find something else to fear and therefore base their lives around.  This gets me thinking about the connection between fear and worship - for another time.  I still struggle with this idea but I think it is worth grappling over.  I do know that in the end our children are persons who will have to make their own choices about their heart-set.  This is the scary part of parenting and believing this model

Heart-set is not determined by conditioning.  We teach and discipline to do what we can for the child's heart and conscience. But the ultimate choice is his.  He determines which way his heart will be set.  

You see, we can't MAKE our kids do anything and so much of our educational system uses input/ output, behaviorist type ideas that lead you to believe that if you do it right they will turn out right. I think this is where a ton of homeschool stress comes from - we wonder if we are doing enough of the right inputs.  It is nice if you like to feel in control BUT that disregards that they are their own person created in His image.

In later chapters she applies her theory to leading conversations about character (key questions you could use in many settings), teaching reading (she has a convincing argument for using phonics readers) and the role of memory (including a surprising way to memorize Scripture).  She ends by discussing what teaching heart to heart is about and key concepts in helping to develop the spiritual life of children.

This is my big takeaway

I need to keep this in mind as we continue this journey.  Of course, I have heard this a gazillion times but this book helped me realize the roots of my "schooling" and how I can actually move towards true education.  The appendix is overwhelming - over 960 verses on the heart in the Bible - in categories!

See what others are reading at Ladydusk.

Weds. with Words - Berry's Quantity vs. Form

A few weeks ago I checked out a stack of books from my alma mater, including Wendell Berry and Norms and Nobility.  So, they were all due back Saturday and I had barely touched the stack - it's all those lectures people keep on recommending!   I decided to read some of the Wendell Berry essays - never a bad choice.  I was struck by a few thoughts from Quantity vs. Form from the collection The Way of Ignorance.

My purpose here is only to notice that the ideal of a whole or a complete life, as expressed in Psalm 128 or in Tiresias' foretelling of the death of Odysseus, now appears to have been replaced by the idea merely of a long life.  And I do not believe that these two ideals can be reconciled. 

But we are already in the thick of the problem when we have noticed that there does seem to be such a thing as a good life; that a good life consists, in part at least, of doing well; and that this possibility is an ancient one, having apparently little to do with the progress of science or how much a person knows.  And so we must ask how it is that one does not have to know everything in order to do well? 

We come to form, we in-form our lives, by accepting the obvious limits imposed by our talents and circumstances, by nature and mortality, and thus by getting the scale right.  Form permits us to live and work gracefully within our limits. 

The wheel of human - that is of fully human - life would consist over the generations of birth, growth, maturity, ripeness, death and decay.  

He finds the idea of ripeness in Shakespeare

By "ripeness" Edgar means a perfect readiness for death and his sentence echoes "The readiness is all" in act V, scene 2, of Hamlet.  

After the addition of "ripeness", "decay" acquires the further sense of the "plowing in" of experience and memory, building up the cultural humus.  The art of living thus is practiced not only by individuals, but by whole communities or societies.  It is the work of the long-term education of a people.  Its purpose, we may say, is to make life conform gracefully both to its natural course and to its worldly limits.  

This insatiable desire for more is the result of an overwhelming sense of incompleteness, which is the result of the insatiable desire for more.  This is the wheel of death.  It is the revolving of this wheel that now drives technological progress.  The more superficial and unsatisfying our lives become, the faster we need to progress.  When you are skating on thin ice, speed up.  

This last quote really hit home.  By not understanding or accepting the "form" of my life I have a desire for more and it truly does turn into a "wheel of death".   What I really need to do is remember what he highlights earlier

What is the goal of our life and work?  This is a fearful question and it ought to be fearfully answered. Probably it should not be answered for anybody in particular by anybody else in particular.  But the ancient norm or ideal seems to have been a life in which you perceived your calling, faithfully followed it, and did your work with satisfaction, married, made a home and raised a family; associated generously with neighbors; ate and drank with pleasure the produce of your local landscape; grew old seeing yourself replaced by your children or younger neighbors, but continuing in old age to be useful; and finally died a good or a holy death surrounded by loved ones. 

Now we seem to have lost any such thought of a completed life. 

There is more to illustrate how the cycle of life should be lived out more fully.  I do recommend this short essay to help you appreciate what life well lived looks like.   

See what others are reading at Ordo-Amoris. 

Weds. with Words: Gymnastics and Music

I broke down and bought a kindle version of The Liberal Arts Tradition by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain.  I am already regretting not having a paper version because I find kindles hard to navigate - it was an impulse purchase.  I should be fighting these better than I am.

The first part of the work discusses philosophy but I have already bought into that so I skimmed it to move into the practical suggestions. The base of education for them is piety - showing honor where it is due. Then from there, in the younger grades, they talk about developing wonder especially through gymnastics and a musical education.  Both of these are defined in the classical sense - not the modern.  Thus gymnastics is about helping children use their body well and develop self control and music education is about music in the sense of the nine muses.  This focus reminds me of Beauty in the Word (if you don't have the book you can read some of his basic principles for elementary education here).

Clark and Jain quote extensively (in the footnotes or end notes - hard to tell on the kindle - they are great though and should be read) from the writings of the creators of the Integrated Humanities Project (IHP), which apparently they became acquainted with after they had written most of the book.  If you have read Poetic Knowledge then you know quite a bit about it.  In regards to gymnastic education Quinn (from IHP) says

This essential aspect of education (gymnastics), so important to the ancient Greeks, is sadly neglected today because of the exaggerated emphasis on competitive sports.

Even running has turned into a competition with many of my friends trying half marathons or more.  You can't just do something physical and good for you - it has to be a competition.  So, I have bought into this unbalanced view of a gymnastics education and need to rethink its importance.   Maybe this is why yoga appeals to people - you can't really do competitive yoga!

Musical education is not about instruments - rather it comes from the idea of the muses - poetry, history, literature and music.  One of the aims of the book is to help tie together some of the seeming disparate strains of Christian Classical Education.  Here is one of the ways they try to do this:

Imagine the possibilities of thinking of these areas of the curriculum as musical education rather than the "grammar of - ."  History would not be so many facts to memorize, however, creatively we do it, but an opportunity to use stories from the past to build up a child's moral imagination - a possibility that if followed instantly unlocks the significance of ancient historians.  Literature as musical education would resist the modern enroachment of critical reading in order to awaken the same imagination. 

This is not new, really, but it is necessary to repeat often because our modern approach so wants to analyze and dissect and claim that this is the only valid form of education.  I am now reading through the definition of liberal arts and this is one of the best explanations that I have seen.  I can see why people rave about this book.

See what others are reading at Ordo Amoris.

Weds. with Words - A Latin teacher on Science

Last week, I chatted with a homeschool dad who really felt that history was extra - you can always pick that up later. I was a little shocked by his attitude. In part, because history is fundamental to what we are teaching here. However, after reflection this is the logical end to an analytical approach to the world.  The conviction that science is the future and is knowable, while history is really all opinion and doesn't offer much toward our practical formation is pretty common.  I used to think this way too.  I have been corrected.

This overreaching of science is not a new issue. I love the argument offered in Teaching High School Latin (1916) by Josiah Game.  He begins by arguing that science has yet to show the utility that it promises to the students. He is not arguing against science in all of its forms, just the push, in his era, towards lab sciences at the expense of the classical curriculum.  His argument

In the very nature of the case, the sciences are a utility only to those who work along applied lines, and thus keep step with advances and changing theories of authorities.  As a test of this statement, let the man who studied physics or chemistry thirty years ago compare his old text with a recent text on the subject.  His old text is out of date, utterly absurd, and even dangerous. The science of thirty years ago, twenty years ago or even ten is a "dead science", and no language ever looked so dead as does a "dead science"

He then shares about a time when German universities decided to allow students with technical training into the universities along with those who had received a classical training.

After ten years of experimenting, the entire faculty of professors, natural and physical sciences included, declared that in spite of the start gained in scientific study by the graduates of technical schools, they were speedily overtaken by the graduates of the classical institutions, and left in the rear.  

He's not against science as a subject, he just makes the point that

No one can pretend to have an education who does not know something of science, but he must be prepared to unlearn it every few years, in the very nature of the case.    

He also argues that the way science has to be approached in high school does not leave room for critical thought (do you remember high school lab experiments where you just followed the steps and hoped for the best).  Plus, most students lack the math to understand science, especially physics.  In this book he is making the case that Latin teaches more logical thinking than science can and in a way that is more accessible to youth.

If you want to read about teaching Latin -  he has that in there too.  He talks about issues with teaching Latin in his day and thoughts about what should be covered during each year of Latin.  He did develop a full curriculum in First Latin: A Lesson a Day a Year.  The great part of this resource is the "optional" lesson at the end of each day's work.  Most of them involve memorizing something in Latin, history tidbits and similar other extensions of the learning.  It does move at a pretty fast clip if you are new to this material but it is not overwhelming.

It is interesting to read the arguments from 100 years ago against letting classical education slip away.  We are reaping the "benefits" of that loss.

DtK - Section 2 - Overview to forming our loves

We are pressing on in chapter 1 of Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith.   Read others comments over at Simply Convivial.

Intentional 

This section talks about how our love is always aimed at something.  It is intentional.  Honestly, this section made me think about teaching "critical thinking" skills.  I have spent a lot of time in, around and learning about teaching "gifted" children.  One of the primary things that they focus on is developing creative and critical thinking skills.  They teach kids phrases like S.C.A.M.P.E.R.  to help students to be more thoughtful.  Now that I look at it again, I see that in some ways it is teaching the tools of invention that Kern draws on in Lost Tools of Learning.  Anyhow.

James' point is that "we can never just "think"; I will necessarily be thinking of . . . something".  Honestly, this is where modern education comes to a screeching halt.  Since we don't really teach kids facts (rote memory is bad), nor do we read them full stories; they don't have much to think about.  Sure they can SCAMPER but what are they thinking about if they don't have any information beyond what they can find on their own. This is why critical thinking skills can only take you so far - you need something to think about.  If you have something memorized - all the better - you can think about it wherever you are.

Telos
The next part talks about the aim of our love - the telos.  Here he says

a vision of the good life captures our hearts and imagination not by providing a set of rules or ideas, but by painting a picture of what it looks like for us to flourish and live well.  This is why such pictures are communicated most powerfully in stories, legends, myths, plays, novels and films rather than dissertations, messages and monographs.  

Honestly, I think this is what I enjoyed most about Mr. Kern's talk last week.  He has a way of helping you hear the story of God's love for you, through things you have read before, in a new way.  He paints a picture of the relationship God desires with you - through his son - in a very concrete and inviting way.  His look at Luke 12:37 - where the master (Jesus) serves us is amazing.  His focus on God's desire to teach us through analogy - story - parable - is so in keeping with this idea of how we develop a vision of the good life.  How do I capture my child's imagination in a world that is constantly showing a totally different story - with pictures and videos and song and dance.

This is also why I can't stand the fact that we teach lots of modern writers to high school students.  Why do we need to increase student's vision of alienation and separation?  I could go on about this - maybe another day.

Habits 

Here he asserts that "the virtuous person is someone who has an almost automatic disposition to do the right thing "without thinking about it".  He talks about how "it's made, not some kind of 'hard wiring'.   And this is where your anthropology makes a huge impact.  If you believe that people are basically good and born that way then why would you have to learn habits of goodness?  If you believe that men are evil then you would expect a constant need to train in habits of righteousness.  Honestly, I still struggle with this because I spent so long in the world of early childhood education where kids are good and we need to follow their impulses.

One of the things that wasn't very "Montessori" about the school that I worked with was that she was old school and believed in training kids to be good.  She constantly talked with them about self control and being in charge of themselves.  She had VERY HIGH standards and I struggled watching her because this old song of "let kids be kids" played in my head.  She was right and I was naive.

His baseball analogy to forming habits was helpful to me.  Most of my summer vacations were spent at baseball fields.  My brother was VERY disciplined and he practiced those grounders over and over.  We had a batting cage in our backyard.  My dad was more of a basketball player and he talked about "muscle memory".   Often, he focused on throwing free throw shots.  You just practice and practice so that when the moment comes your body is in the habit of doing it correctly.  At my small high school I was on the basketball team and I was called "swishy" - because I was pretty good at free throws.  Mostly, because I practiced a lot in our driveway while studying for tests. That was the ONLY part of basketball I was good at, by the way.  

I like the way he is laying out his definitions and look forward to more application.

32 Thoughts from Andrew Kern's Talk

Yesterday was a GREAT day!  My husband watched the kids while I went to the all day conference put on by Circe.  Andrew Kern was speaking about rest and assessment.  This isn't an attempt to outline the talk but rather to share some of the thoughts that hit me as I listened this time.  If you live around Houston it is NOT too late - he'll be there tomorrow.  

1.  He started in 1 Kings 8 - the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. Here he focused on the fact that there was an expectation of failure - they were going to turn away and mess up.  Thus much of the prayer is a pleading for forgiveness and that they would return to confess his name.

2.  The model of the temple wasn't totally unique to the Jewish temple.  What was unique was the fact that no idol or other item was put on the mercy seat - there was no physical being set on the "throne".

3.  A quick Latin lesson - audest means that you were there, interest means that you were there among and participating with - yes, that's where we get our word interest from.

4.  Prior to the 1800's the idea behind emotions is that they needed to be trained, ordered and would help us to do what is right.  Today, we think of emotions as helping us to do what want.

5.  He asserted that "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." is the only basis for consistent rational thought.  If you don't start there you end up with just physicality and end in nihilism.  The other side is that everything is or can be a god, it is all illusion.

6.  Your creation myth or belief will impact your political structure.

7.  If God is a good teacher and we use Genesis 1 - 3 as a model - God took 6 days to prepare the classroom in which he would teach Adam.

8.  The temptation of the fruit in the garden of Eden was essential to teach Adam how to take appropriate possession of all he had been given.  If he can't say no to the temptation then that thing possesses him instead of the other way around.  We are called, in Christ, to possess all things (1 Cor. 3), which means being able to deny ourselves and separate from those things which makes us slave to them instead of Him.

9.  The hierarchy of peace is when we are not slaves to other things but put ourselves in full submission to Christ in God.

10.  Luke 12:32 - Do not fear, little flock, for its your father's pleasure to give you the kingdom.  Do we really believe this about God in relationship to us?   We must receive what he has given us.

11.  God's pattern for a day - do your job, assess it, rest.   At the end of the week just rest.

12.  He quoted this hymn which I had never heard before:

We who mystically represent the Cherubim,
and sing to the life-giving Trinity the thrice-holy hymn,
let us now lay aside all earthly care:
that we may receive the King of all,
who comes invisibly upborne by the Angelic Hosts. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.Amen
And talked about a people together as a body welcoming Christ in during their worship.

13.  Sabbath should be about turning away from our cares and letting the King enter into our lives and focusing on his cares.

14.  In some ways creation is about giving form to chaos, education is about filling forms with content.

15.  Luke 12 - he talked about this parable quite a bit.
If our master is celebrating his best day ever - his wedding day - we should be about getting the house ready for his return.  Keeping the lamps lit has to do with the Holy Spirit.  Shocking end to this tale - when the master returns from his wedding and sees that you have been faithfully waiting THE MASTER WILL HAVE YOU SIT DOWN AND SERVE YOU!  Remember, it's his wedding day. That's the kind of God we serve - that's the kind of love he has for us.

16.  Blessing is not about feeling good it's about being completely fulfilled.  Psalm 1 is great picture of being blessed.

17.  Forget about meditating as an activity that you do quietly, away from everyone else.  Sometimes; yes but, God was physically active while he was thinking we should hold and meditate on his law while we are doing our daily stuff.  (Made me think of David meditating as a shepherd).

18.  God is not a moralist.

19.  Kids need to be taught about their nature so that they can take dominion over it.

20.  The quality of life is determined by quality of questions. (and someone added - who you ask those questions with)

21.  Key verse on standards Phil. 4:8-9

22.  Good things can become temptations quickly.  We aren't tempted by bad things typically.  Instead, he aims at what we love and what we fear.  Temptations move us away from rest (abiding in him) and from keeping a watchful readiness (see parable above)

23,  Flattery is demonic.  If we are using manipulation to get what we want out of children we need to stop. We are very vulnerable to this because our first feeling is shame and we want someone to say that we are okay.  There is a difference between flattery and assessment and flattery and praise.

24.  In reference to the parable of the prodigal son (or two sons).  The older brother never comes home - the younger brother does.  Older brothers want things in black and white, clear, absolute truth (a phrase he hates), get invested in things, create customs to help maintain "order" which moves from blessing to preservation of self/ group.  Need to ask "Are our customs blessing us and others or just preserving the status quo?" 

25.  Fundamental questions in assessment - What can the student do?  What is the next step? 

26.  f you aren't sure about what next steps should be 50's textbooks are pretty good guides for the key principles of a subject.

27.  Form teaches more than content.  Here we talked about liturgies of the classroom (desk arrangement, going from class to class by a bell, having different teachers as "experts" in a subject area, etc.)

28. The hard work of most work is aligning our will with the task - the rest is easy.

29.  Grading should be A or I - acceptable or incomplete.  You either have mastered the standard/ skill or not - this is for memorization, skill - not truth.

30.  Compared abiding in Christ to a compass.  We are supposed to point due north but there are lots of other magnets around pulling us away. We need to repent and ask God to help remove those magnets so that we can point true North.

31.  Can't steward something if you can't name it appropriately.

32.  If we are going to restore health to a broken world we need to start with our own souls.

Honestly, this doesn't get into the time he spent on the tabernacle and the Garden of Eden and how that parallels the structure of our soul.  Afterwards we went out to dinner.  Then I visited one of my best friends. After that I stopped by my favorite Half Price books.  It did not disappoint - it had Winston Churchill's History of the English Speaking People.  All four books are in one hard bound volume - unabriged - for a GREAT deal and Greek stories in Latin.  Total winner of a LONG day!

DTK - Week 2 - Worldview - it ain't enough

I truly appreciate that Mystie, our fearless book club leader, has broken up our readings into smaller chunks. I think it will help me to stay faithful to reading it and focus on the key issue in each section.

I enjoyed this part of the chapter because it articulates an issue that bothers me.  He starts by discussing the idea of  "I think therefore I am".  This is not a new point of departure in the discussion of the development of educational pedagogy.  He then takes on the current Christian trend of teaching about worldview.  He argues that Christian education uses a " 'believing' pedagogy [which] will simply be a tweaked version of the informative paradigm."  Basically, that we are substituting what we believe for what we know and while this is more essential to who we are - it is not enough - to truly shape our practice and life.  As he puts it "if I bump into a 'thinking thing' and a 'believing thing' on the street, I don't think I'd notice much difference."

I have worked in and with regular schools, charter schools, Christian schools, and Catholic schools (which are Christian but have a very strong tradition of their own).  I haven't been a regular classroom teacher, but most of my jobs have put me in conversation with teachers, administrators and board members.   I have watched them discuss pedagogy and approach.  I have to say that this is pretty much where I get caught and where the school's seem to get caught too.  We are aware that our Christian worldview is no longer the cultural norm and a response is required.  We have responded with "worldview" - educate Christians about what they should think and believe in response to the current state of matters.

I first learned about the term worldview in college when James Sire came to speak on our campus.  I'm getting old because it seems like it was a pretty new concept at the time.  That set the wheels in motion.  A few years later I went through Focus on the Family's attempt at making worldview education more widely available - the Truth Project.   It was eye opening, especially after my mostly secular education, how a Judeo Christian outlook really changes your view.  It challenged my thinking and helped me get a better grip on how the Gospel knows no bounds.  I know we frustrated our poor leaders because we ran from very conservative, been in the field missionaries to pretty liberal main line denominational types with lots of stops in between.  We were not all going to start "thinking or believing right" in accordance with this DVD series anytime soon.   Awareness and education are a step but they aren't the answer.

Both of these encounters, and my work in schools, helped me become more aware of my own faulty thinking and how it shaped my education.   My immediate response was an attempt to figure out what right believing and thinking would look like.  I am a researcher; I can find the right answer.  However, as I am challenged by parenthood, having the right answer often seems totally insufficient.  Even believing the right things, while better than being wrong, is not able to transform me and my kids the way that one would expect.  If thinking or believing is all there is - then we are in big trouble.  That's why I am excited to read more about what James is going to delve into, what he calls the "Augustinian anthropology that sees humans most fundamentally oriented and identified by love".

Honestly, that's why I can't get enough of the conversation around classical Christian education because it does aim at wisdom and virtue, truth, beauty and goodness.  It believes in and desires to rediscover the right ordering of loves.  My education had NOTHING to do with ordering my loves. Mostly it was a combination of "do your best morally" and "be as smart as you can be".  I did fairly well on both accounts but they leave you empty in the end.  I don't want my kids to simply have a fractured idea of self and education and a utilitarian understanding of life.  I truly want them to see God's order and honestly come to love what He loves.

I do understand the need for appropriate head knowledge and an understanding of worldview -but honestly that is not something that speaks to the formative years of my preschoolers and early elementary kids. There is fundamental shaping taking place but it has nothing to do with academic lectures, three point sermons or memorizing their catechism.  Those are all important; but, fundamentally something else is going on in them. So far I have caught the idea of reading good literature and I do think that is helping my sons to develop an imagination that includes concepts of good and evil.  I hope that this book is able to shed more light on what shaping our loves looks like practically.  I guess that puts a lot of pressure on the next section!

Desiring the Kingdom: Introduction

I am pleased to join with other mother's who are studying Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith this semester.  My librarian husband isn't keen on buying more books for our house, but I did convince him we should get this one - for Christmas.  He wasn't going to get it for the library - so we added it to our personal collection.

This book has been the talk of many Classical Christian educator circles so I am aware of the premise.  This might have stolen some of the thunder of the introduction (especially his discussion of the mall).  His focus is on college age students, but the concepts can apply to any age.  He is arguing that education is much more than just information, it is formation.  This formation comes through liturgies, practices or habits.  Often we use the term liturgy to talk about the form of our worship but he wants to expand this idea to help us think about cultural liturgies that shape us - the mall, sports events, etc.  He wants us to consider how these practices form us at a level even more basic than our thinking - a physical level.

Honestly, this is one reason I wanted to raise my children in a liturgical church.  My husband was bored by the repetition - but the calesthenics of sit, kneel, stand and using the same words every week has a way of forming us in ways we don't expect.  I really don't have words to explain why this is so important to me, so I hope that this book gives me some more ideas about how to better explain this to my friends who are a little freaked out by liturgical churches.  I also wanted to have communion regularly which is not possible in many non-liturgical churches.  At one point in a reformation class in (a secular) college we talked about the difference between a service ending with the message or sermon and one which ends with communion.  The professor contended that if you held the word central then you would end with it as the last thing to make an impact.  Ending with communion sends a very different message about what is central to worship.  It will be interesting to see if he discusses something similar later in the book.

In some ways I think he is going to be discussing similar ideas that are found in Poetic Knowledge.   When I read this quote

And that precognitive or prerational orientation to the world is shaped and primed by very material, embodied practices.  Thus such a pedagogy is much more attune to the formative role of ritual. 

It makes me think of some of the ideas encountered in Poetic Knowledge.  The approach is very different and we'll see how it shapes up - but it seems they are discussing some similar concepts.  They are focusing on not putting the mind at the center of our education - but forming or developing the whole human - body, mind and spirit.

I am interested to see what he has to say next.

Wednesday with Words - Boethius

Recently I read an article about how Boethius influenced thinking in the middle ages and many great rulers copied his work “The Consolation of Philosophy” in times of trouble.  So, I decided to give it a read (although I am reading a more recent translation than the google books version).  WOW!  I really like it.  Basically it is a conversation about the whims of fortune as Lady Philosophy helps Boethius deal with his turn of luck.  (He uses the term wheel of fortune frequently).  In translation, it is not a difficult work nor is it long.  

As she asks him about his situation she puts it to him this way:

“As Homer tells us ‘ Speak out, don’t hold it, buried in your heart.”  If you want the physicians cure you must bear your wound. “

In Latin vulnus is wound.  From which we get vulnerability.  So, if we want the cure we must be vulnerable – which is basically what happens in the rest of the conversation.  He bears his wounded pride and she applies ‘medicine’.

I don’t need a library with comfortable chairs, ivory gewgaws, and big glass windows, but rather the workroom of your mind, for it isn’t the books that are important but the ideas in them, the opinions and principles of times gone by, which is what gives the books their value. 

And here is what philosophy says about the root of his illness:

“Tell me this.  Do you remember the purpose of things and the goal of Nature’s order?”
“I used to know that, but in my grief, I can’t remember.”
“Well, what is the source of all things?”
“God.” I said, albeit tentatively.
“But how can you remember the beginning of things and not remember their end?  You are distracted, it would appear, but not totally undone.  Tell me this.  Do you remember that you are a man?”
“Yes, of course.”
“And what is a man?” she asked.
“Are you asking me if I believe that man is a mortal, rational animal?  Both of those things are certainly true.”
“But are you not something more?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
After a brief pause, she said.  “I see.  And I understand the cause of your sickness.  You have forgotten what you are.  I see why and how you are ill, and I also see the way to cure you.  It is what you cannot remember that causes you to feel lost and to grieve about your exile and the loss of your property.  If you cannot remember the goal of all things, then you suppose that wicked men have power and luck.  And because you have forgotten how the world is ordered, you imagine that there is nothing but the vicissitudes of Fortune.  This is enough not only to cause serious illness but even death. 

 There is more, but not for today! 

Knowledge is not Power

A few years ago when KIPP (the Knowledge is Power Program) started schools in our area I was excited.  I actually know the leadership at a few of the local schools and did a special project with them years ago.  However, I was convicted by the title of their program - knowledge is not power. In fact, that realization is what started me on my journey into other approaches to education.  Since that time, God has gently led me to understand what true education is about.

Actually, touting that knowledge is power might be the core of what is wrong with our approach to education.  If How Children Succeed is accurate - it seems that KIPP is finding that out as well (I saw their rubrics for character at the training that I did this past week).   I actually had to stop reading How Children Succeed because I wanted the throw the book across the room at the arrogance of modern educators.  It seems they are now "discovering", after many experiments, that things like self control and empathy are really important too.  This isn't new information.  In my Mars' Hill group*, once upon a time, had a running joke about Emotional Intelligence - which was a forerunner to these "insightful" studies.  But, it isn't new.  The problem is that they have to base their focus on emotions and values on newfangled sociological and psychological studies instead of something like, say, the word of God.   Why would we create standards of behavior based on revealed truth that has stood the test of time when we can create studies involving radishes and cookies to teach us about the importance of self control and tone of voice?

This is why I love the classical tradition - here education is about wisdom and virtue.  But, when you deny the foundation of wisdom and virtue all you are left with is power.  This is not a new point but it is one that needs to be revisited frequently.  When there is no "higher power" dictating your morality then it seems like the school principal or maybe the superintendent is deciding which values are most important.  Why should a 13 year old care about that?  When your child is taught that a loving God who created them and desires what is best for them provides some thoughts about how we best live and move and have our being -somehow that carries much more weight.

I used to be a big proponent of character education in the schools.  But, without a higher moral authority it lacks any depth and in the end becomes relativistic.  It is probably still worth doing but we shouldn't be surprised when it fails.

So although I admire the mission and support my friends who work there, in the end we all know that teaching kids that knowledge is power on its own is insufficient.  Haven't we all learned that "with great power comes great responsibility".  In effect, power needs character.  I know that KIPP addresses this practically in a myriad of ways but ultimately, without anything higher than the superintendent, it is hard to see how character can move beyond the concept of someone else "imposing" their values.

Basically, I am trying to help myself undo years of flawed thinking that included lots of majoring on the minors.  I have read a lot of the research, but in the end the Bible speaks the truth and others are just trying to find a way to justify it through other means or negate it at their own peril.   I am glad that things like self control and empathy are making a comeback in the classroom - too bad we had to remove the source, play around with values clarification and other such nonsense to return to what centuries of educators have known.  I am doubtful that they will return to the classical techniques of teaching character, but we shall see.  Maybe studies will reveal that stories help develop this type of intelligence.

*   I was a part of a VERY nerdy group for a few years that consisted of listening to the Mars' Hill Audio tapes and then debating/ discussing them.

And then there is repentance

I have heard both Andrew Kern and Bill St. Cyr (at a talk I attended) discuss the role of repentance in education - really as the bedrock of education.  Allowing yourself to be educated means living on the edge of what you know and it is hard and scary because it makes us feel out of control.  It requires repentance because to learn you have to admit one of two things:

I don't know. 

I was wrong. 

In an unsafe world that wants answers admitting these things is hard to do.  Aren't you supposed to know?  Especially as a homeschool mom you feel like you need to have your ducks in a row. Of course we don't want to be wrong.  This is why it is so important to create a safe space where mistakes are admitted and where we run to Jesus when we mess up.  How else can we learn if we can't say those phrases above?  This is also why it's hard to be a child; you constantly don't know and most of the time you are probably doing something wrong.

I am glad that God seems to answer quickly if I am willing to learn.  I have always thought that I learn pretty well from other's experience - but not when it comes to teaching.  I have to try it out for myself to see if it really works.  Thus I have tried traditional education, Montessori, Classical and flavors in between.

I am now repenting because I have put too much emphasis on memorizing facts.  This past week I finally got around to doing the first trimester testing of my son in an Ambleside fashion.  He did this last year and although he didn't like it, he was able to pull his thoughts together.  This year we have introduced CC and although I have enjoyed the memorizing together, I was really frustrated with his test.  I asked him a general question, "Tell me about the Middle Ages."  He spent all of his time trying to remember the jingle instead of reflecting on the books and stories (King Arthur, The Little Duke, etc.) that we have read about the time period.  I was confronted with the what others keep saying - memorization is not character building education.  It appears that I have short circuited our education by focusing on memorizing. He thought repetition of his memory work was sufficient and the response I was seeking.  Honestly, that is the least important aspect to me.  So, we will be reconsidering how we approach these things.

I have always taken a little pride in having a good timeline in my head, knowing lots of facts, etc. My husband and I are a GREAT trivial pursuit team.  But that is not wisdom and pride goes before the fall.  I am glad to have this revealed now so that I can repent and think about what real education is about.  Thank you to those bloggers who continue to proclaim this message (often because they are Charlotte Mason adherents).  I am getting it!

Memory has its place but I believe that story is truly more formative (Andrew Kern always talks about the 60+ chapters of story BEFORE the law).  Now, I need to make sure that my approach reflects that truth.  I am afraid that he thinks stories are just for fun but real learning is memorizing. Truly, it is the exact opposite.

Reconciling my Montessori past with a Classical future

I am actually a part of two coops.  Yes, I am insane - this is the expression of my honey bee, extrovert personality.  This is my first year with Classical Conversations, in part, to find other people interested in Classical education.  The second coop focuses on art, music and Montessori.  I started it in my home 6 years ago (yes my oldest had just turned 1).  One of my friends was crazy enough to buy the materials so that I could try Montessori on their kids.  I took two years off of the coop (it continued without me), one to have a baby and one year I was an assistant at a new Christian Montessori School (now closed, they are starting a mission school in El Salvador - I have their elementary library let me know if you want to buy some books). We were there 8 to 1 pm, 5 days a week.  We have been back at coop for the past three years. 

I finally had my "aha" moment about Montessori last year.  

The Good 

First, it teaches skills well.  In fact, it does this better than any other curriculum.   Today, as I was getting ready for coop #2 I realized that it follows the model that Andrew Kern discusses in his talk "Assessment that Blesses" to a tee!  

First you imitate the master.  The teacher presents the material to a student individually or in a small group exactly the way that it should be done.  Then the child works with it - once, for an hour, for months; whatever amount of time it takes for them to internalize the lesson.  This ability to let children to move at their own pace is one of the amazing things about Montessori.  Once you reach that milestone the teacher introduces the next step in the progression.  Eventually, step by step, you master skill based areas - mathematics, grammar, etc.  

In fact, a student can just look around the room and get an idea of what he will learn over the course of the next six years. Motivation is built in because you see the goal and know the next steps.  In the multiaged classroom you are constantly exposed to the next level and reviewing previous levels as you help younger students.  It truly is genius. Teacher training is the key to success here.  Teachers spend years developing their understanding of the progression of lessons and their ability to evaluate students and move them along in the progression.  It is academic coaching at its best!  

If the heart of education is teaching skills then this is the way to go. 

However, education is not about skill building - education is about soul shaping. 

I now desire my education to look more Classical, more like this: 

EDUCATION is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty.  It should be distinguished from training (for a career), which is of eternal value but is not the same thing as education.  Circe Institute 

The Bad (in my estimation)

I wondered why this program could cross borders so easily.  You see, Montessori does have a few great lessons that frame the elementary years.  Although Montessori was Catholic and probably pretty faithful, her education system does not require a certain story or perspective on life to be effective.  Her "soul shaping" great lessons are so universal and general that you can overlay your own philosophy or creed and get one of the best skill building frameworks - ever!    

This is most evident in her curriculum design.  There are 5 areas of study: practical life, sensorial, language, math and cultural (art, music, science and geography).  She does not outline stories to read and her history curriculum is the great lessons mentioned above (she had the original social studies).  In the most blatant terms - she doesn't even aim at teaching wisdom and virtue.  Although she is strong on aesthetics there isn't any ultimate truth that she points towards.  The soul shaping stories that the children hear are left completely to the discretion of the teacher and the school.  Although, as we'll see, she did have some thoughts about the type of stories children should hear.   

I often got frustrated at the school because on the rare occasions when we read aloud to children it was mostly non fiction books.  I constantly wondered how children were introduced to the ideas of love, jealousy, faithfulness, greed, etc.  They never really heard stories that dealt with these issues. Montessori focused on the reality of life. She had strong feelings about fantasy and fairy tales.  She basically said they were inappropriate for children.  For a while I could see her point, but I still read Peter Rabbit and St. George and the Dragon to my kids.  I'm glad I did. 

I understand the concern about kids not understanding fantasy and reality - but now, after reading books like Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Esolen, and trusting in quotes like these: 

"Since it is so likely that (children) will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker.” -C.S. Lewis

 and  

Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.  G.K. Chesterton 

and from one of my favorite bloggers:

Music is for listening. Art is for seeing. Poetry is for loving. History is for tethering. Stories are for virtue. Let's not make this harder than it has to be.

"Stories are for virtue."  Virtue is key to soul shaping.  Virtue is "moral goodness; the practice of moral duties and the abstaining from vice, or a conformity of life and conversation to the moral law. “ (1828 dictionary)   If stories are not a critical and clearly outlined element of your educational curriculum; you are leaving it open to chance, whim or intentional design by the individual user.  

Montessori wanted her children grounded in reality and she is often discredited for this reason.  However, it is not just that they don't engage in fantasy play.  It goes beyond that. They aren't even introduced to fantasy story.  Truly, this might be okay if parents rebel and don't follow this creed at home.  But, without a good story how do you learn about heroes? Where do you overcome villains?  Maybe through history?  But that is also missing from her core curriculum. 

Montessori focuses on culture studies and geography - you don't learn the history of your nation or people as a part of the curriculum.  Of course you can add it - if you like - how you like.  If history is for tethering - giving you a sense of rootedness and connection - here it is totally open to interpretation.  

So the two key parts of a curriculum that are truly soul shaping are not outlined specifically in Montessori training.  In some ways, this is genius because anybody can add what they like with an excellent core in skill building.  In some ways it leaves the “real education” the “soul shaping” up to the discretion and beliefs of the teacher and school – often without parents realizing it.

My Personal Conclusion

For me,  Montessori will always provide excellent tools for skill building - especially in math and grammar.  Truly, it is amazing!  But for forming a soul, a full education, it is lacking.  Honestly, in many ways, true Montessori kids are more open to suggestion because they lack the sense of direction and rootedness that story and history provide (if teachers strictly follow Montessori teachings). Of course, probably not more so than public school children.  At least Montessori kids have skills!  

I will discuss Montessori materials often, but I can't adhere to a Montessori philosophy.  I use the tools and the progression of skills because they are excellent.  Plus, I am still part of a coop where LOTS of the materials are available to my family.   At coop, I know what philosophy people believe and how it influences their teaching.  

In the end, soul shaping will happen.  That's why I don't think Christian Montessori is necessarily an oxymoron (which some believe) - but it isn't a given, just because of the founders' faith.  I intend to be intentional in the stories I read and history I tell.  I want my sons learning lessons in virtue and rootedness that will serve them well.  This is also why many curricula are a list of books and Montessori provides a room full of materials.  Heart versus skill.