SFL Series: Learning as Leisure

My daughter will soon begin her 6th grade homeschooling year, which gives me pause for serious reflection. I vividly remember being 12 years old. This was one of the best times of my life. I was a precocious kid in many ways. In fact, in my turbulent 20s I sometimes longed for the wisdom that I possessed at the age of 12! I was studious, creative, and very religious at that stage of childhood. I knew my own mind, and I proceeded through life with intense purpose and joy.

I spent long hours exploring the woods and creek behind our home, often in the company of my dog, Elsa, a best friend who we had for only a short while before she died of heartworms. I listened to music, recording my voice (on a tape recorder!) singing along with the likes of Olivia Newton-John and Anne Murray. I thought that I sounded just like Olivia! I was an avid reader and enjoyed drawing, writing poems and stories, and gymnastics. I had a nice circle of friends and loved the Girl Scouts.

My family went to a charismatic Christian church where we danced and clapped along with a live band, and where bursts of speaking in tongues, prophesy, and interpretation were common. I would speak in tongues in the privacy of my bedroom, but I told my parents about it, and they were somewhat concerned. We had previously attended the very conservative, traditional Church of Christ, so this was new territory. I also woke up each morning hoping to no longer need glasses, as a youth leader had testified to the healing of his eyesight. Faith healing was a mainstay of this new church. (At the age of 47, I still need glasses, and bifocals at that!)

Life was full, meaningful, and simple in those days. But it was also the beginning of changes that brought on insecurity and confusion. Sixth grade was the year that I moved up to the Jr. High School. This was the first time that students changed classes for different subjects. I felt so big. I was at the top of my class. I literally fell out of the school bus into a ditch once, because I was wearing clogs and couldn't see over the top of my miles high stack of homework books (pre-backback days!). My best friend and I were competitive with one another, and the same boy decided he liked both of us. This was the point where I began to lose some of the innocence of childhood. In a relationship with this boy, I had my first experience of getting spiritually lost.

When you homeschool, these types of pressures can be so much less. In the school atmosphere, issues of popularity, drama with friends, and the distraction of the opposite sex make academic studies practically secondary. This only intensifies with the higher grades. The long school days (and school year), with homework and associated extracurricular activities, also render life as secondary. A family life, a personal life, a spiritual life--all are sacrificed on the altar of school. And the meaning of education has been so drastically altered from its origins as to be unrecognizable. Even a homeschooling parent, especially one who went through the public school system herself, has to work hard to pull focus on what matters.

In my mind, the 6th grade was a pivotal turning point. Academic subjects became more distinguished and rigorous. I believe that this was the year when I really began to relate my identity and worth as a person to being a "super smart" student. This defined me. The boy that liked both me and my friend even gave me the nickname, Brains.

I want something different for my daughter. While I loved life at age 12, the memory also triggers feelings of pain and regret. Sure, suffering in life is unavoidable, in the general sense. We have to carry our crosses daily. But at age 12, those crosses should be light. Innocence should be preserved.

I had been thinking that this 6th grade year should mark a similar transition for my daughter to the one I experienced in school, with an increased focus on productivity, on hard work that will eventually, supposedly lead to material wealth. But I had forgotten about the classical ideal of education as the encountering of Truth, Goodness, & Beauty. How could I, a staunch proponent of Charlotte Mason, have so easily fallen off the wagon? It just goes to show how deeply the indoctrination of government schools goes.

Learning as leisure is exemplified in the Greek word and concept of schole (accent mark above the e). Schole is the basis for the Latin schola; in English, school. This doesn't mean that education should be very easy and filled with unproductive amusement. Rather, learning as leisure is a deep well that feeds the soul. The schole ideal encompasses an education of the entire human person, not merely the process of acquiring skills and memorizing facts. Seeking Truth, Goodness, & Beauty for their own sake was the basis of classical education. Learning arithmetic, Latin, or any other subject was a means to that end.

In modern times, we have a new model of education in the U.S. known as Common Core. The associated curriculum "standards" put the focus on the rules, rather than the Beauty, of the English language; and it envisions literacy as merely the comprehension of "informational texts", as opposed to the classical model of losing oneself in the worlds of literature and the great minds of humanity which serve to connect us all.

My child's sixth grade year will be one which continues in the depth and breadth of a Catholic Charlotte Mason education, the perfect model of schole if ever there was one. Beezy's childhood will continue to be just that--a childhood. Learning as leisure, centered upon faith formation, will be the supreme rule. After all, as our Lord himself proclaimed, "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The Many Paths of Relaxed Homeschooling

 What steps must I take to reach the cat?

Have you ever had the experience of reading an article about homeschooling, seeing a post on Facebook, or talking to another homeschooling mother and feeling like you don't quite measure up? And then maybe you have the impulse to suddenly overhaul everything you do in order to be as awesome as someone else seems to be? There is that fine line between being inspired and feeling inferior.

I remember reading a blog post once that implored home educating mothers to be real on their blogs, to give a more balanced view of what homeschooling is really like, not just the Pollyanna version. I didn't quite agree with this. As a blogger, I want to be encouraging and inspiring. Who wants to see pictures of the messes and bad days?

But now I get it. For example, I received an invitation in my inbox yesterday from Lori Pickert for a master class on project-based homeschooling. I have Lori's book. I think project-based homeschooling is a great idea, and oh dear, I had forgotten all about it! I had the sudden urge to entirely redo Beezy's arts and crafts area and then remembered that I was simply not up to it physically, and I'd have to wait. I was thinking that I'd better finish reading Lori's book and make sure everything in my home is perfectly arranged to optimize the doing of self-directed projects!

But let's hit the pause button and reflect on this for a moment. Beezy has an ongoing self-directed project of writing daily in her diary, sometimes several times a day. She regularly creates drawing projects and likes to invent potions, mixing together various lotions, perfumes, shampoos, etc..., which can yield interesting chemical reactions. Recently she redesigned her desk area in her bedroom. A couple of days ago she assembled a few of her Monster High dolls and created a store where they were buying and selling things. And of course when Beezy gets together with a friend, the projects do not cease unless the girls are sleeping. Do we really need a master class?

In Lori's blog post she made the point that children learn by doing. She said that if you walk into a classroom and you see children copying notes from the chalkboard, what they are actually learning to do is to copy notes. Reminders such as this keep us on our toes as home educators. We must leave enough space to allow children to learn how to learn, to think critically, and to create in organic ways. There is a place for formal lessons, but we need to be careful not to spoon feed. And even in those formal lessons, nothing should be wasted or done just to check off a box.

Beezy loves to do work pages. They might seem like busy work to me, but she intuitively knows that they facilitate her learning in a way that she needs. She also knows when her mind is not being fed. She announced one day that she hates math because it's boring and too easy. Too easy! So I realized that she doesn't have to do a thousand math problems when she learns a new concept. We can skip what isn't necessary in the workbook and move on.

Thinking in terms of relaxed home learning, that restful schole that I wrote about recently, reminds me that homeschooling takes on a unique form in every home. And those pictures of perfect homeschoolers on Facebook? I have been in some of those homes, and I know better. Those perfect moments are about as brief as the time it takes to snap the photo. The beauty is in the reality of life.

Once you get your system rolling, through trial and error and experience, your family will find its natural rhythm. You'll roll with the changes as you observe your children, and you will provide them with exactly what they need. In trying to meet Beezy's desire to make potions, I checked out a gigantic book of such recipes from the library and was promptly overwhelmed by all of the ingredients I would need to find. Where the heck would borax be in Wal-Mart? I sent the book back and kept thinking about how to do chemistry at home. Then it hit me. I went on Ebay and found a kit with all of the stuff already included for 16 edible experiments, for only $13 with free shipping. Huzzah!

It's good to read blogs and books and to share ideas with other homeschoolers. Just don't get caught in the comparison trap. Don't imagine that what you are doing isn't already wonderful. Because I assure you, it's the bees knees!

The Meaning of Schole

Let's continue the discussion of relaxed homeschooling in the framework of the Catholic Faith.  I would first of all suggest that home education should, by nature, be relaxed.  What do I mean by this?  I don't mean that one's approach to home-centered learning should be lazy or lacking a method.  My basic premise is simply that homeschooling and mothering can be used interchangeably.  Homeschooling mothers are doing the job they have done since their babies were born, or even from the womb.  As the child grows in every way and changes developmentally, the job of the mother evolves and adjusts.  As home educators, we are not intended by God to be just like classroom teachers or to turn our homes into mini-replicas of public schools, or even private ones.

I really don't like to use the word school at all, but prefer to call our system of structured learning, "lesson time".  My daughter Beezy, however, likes to "do school", and I haven't been able to convince her not to call it that.  I found a wonderful substitution for both.  Have you heard of schole?  This Greek word has an accent mark above the "e", and it reflects an ancient meaning of education.

Josef Pieper’s seminal work, Leisure, the Basis of Culture opens with this:

The Greek word for leisure (scholé) is the origin of Latin scola, English school. The name for the institutions of education and learning mean “leisure.”

Schole is restful learning! It isn't about work and productivity, as in the modern idea of school, but rather refers to philosophy, contemplation, and the search for truth.  The Charlotte Mason (CM) approach of feeding the mind with living ideas reflects the classical understanding of schole.  The student, which basically means any human being, is nurtured and becomes lost in this food of the mind/spirit.  We forget ourselves in the captivating stories we read, in the beauty of music, or in the intoxicating fragrance of a flower.  A frog at the edge of a pond is fascinating, and complete stillness is required to observe it.  The eloquence of the Psalms fills us with awe, as does the mystery of Mona Lisa's smile.  The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet brings us to tears.  The goodness of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross envelops us as we receive the sacrament of Holy Communion.  In schole, we are transported to behold with our very souls the nature of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

School, we can conclude, was never intended to be about check lists, profit, or productivity.  It wasn't about cramming the mind full of dates and facts to be forgotten after the test.  It was a very different thing from jobs training.  A relaxed, Charlotte Mason inspired homeschooler will endeavor to return education to the realm of the liberal arts.  Charlotte Mason believed that education should serve to form the character of the child and to equip him with critical thinking skills and the ability to learn.  Whatever job or vocation was chosen, the man or woman would do it better because of this "gentle art of learning".  He or she would, most importantly, be a better person.

If your homeschooling experience is not one of leisure, relaxed CM home education might be the answer.  It's difficult to undo the effects of our many years of what is now called "traditional" schooling, which in reality is a modernist invention, and to think of education in an entirely different way.  At first it might seem easier to follow the typical protocol of subjects, textbooks, scope, and sequence.  It may feel safer to use a curriculum designed by someone else, by a company who chooses the books, methods, and schedules for you, a company made up of people who don't know your child.  The notion that you will at least have tangible "results"  and "cover" all subjects can be consoling.

I'm not saying that a "school-at-home" type of choice is inherently wrong.  It might work well for your particular children, and some curriculum packages are based on living books and classic literature.  And certainly there are excellent and truly traditional Catholic educational companies.  I have also heard reports that homeschooling mothers are able to use portions of curriculum packages in a relaxed way.  The concern is that choosing a one-size-fits-all program, which the government schools are increasingly doing with the adoption of Common Core, could be a form of sloth; if you are indeed taking the easy way out and not considering the needs of each unique child.  A faith-driven choice will not be one born of fear. 

We may sit and wonder how God came to be, and how he created the whole wide world out of nothing.  We may suddenly have a poem or the tune of a song appear mysteriously in our minds.  We may marvel that a hawk has landed in our own backyard and watch it do nothing but perch on a branch for an entire hour.  This would be called "daydreaming", a pastime highly discouraged in today's schools.  But this is religion, art, and science; mathematics, philosophy, and theology.  This is embracing the gift of abundant life.  This is schole.