Family in Feast and Feria

There is so much great discussion and planning going on over at Montessori and More Forum of the 4Real Learning Board. It's funny how often my planning and working things out coincides with the 4Real Learning Group. I have lots to read and do for my son. He turns 4 in September and I need some more structure and planning for our learning. Most of you readers have already worked out the nitty-gritty, but this is uncharted territory for me.

My personal unit study the past few weeks is studying in depth The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. Dh is providing me a wonderful opportunity to take Level 1 Training this year. This was a good time to take the course, although I'm not sure if I'll only implement it at home or be using the training elsewhere. The intensive training starts next week, but I've been doing some reading to prepare myself.

First I read Listening to God With Children: The Montessori Method Applied to the Catechesis of Children by Gianna Gobbi and now I'm finishing The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy With Young Children by Sofia Cavalletti. I have more on my planned reading list, but I needed to ponder out loud a bit.

While I don't see this as a complete catechesis, I do love the goals of this approach. From my reading I see the main goal as each child developing their interior/prayer life; to build a personal, deep, long-lasting relationship with Christ and His Church. The tools are the Liturgy and God's Word. It is Mass and Eucharist centered. I love how it teaches about Christ, and His Paschal Mysteries are a central theme.

The Catechesis is accomplished through the use of the Montessori Method. It is set up in place called an atrium. Montessori herself used this name as reminiscent of the anteroom of a basilica, before one enters the actual church. "There is nothing of the academic classroom about the atrium; it is not a place for religious instruction but for religious life. The atrium is a place of work, where the work however becomes conversation with God" (The Religious Potential of the Child, p. 56).

Like in Montessori classrooms, the teacher is doesn't really "teach" but directs (hence the title "Directress"). Even more so in CGS, the adult is the "unworthy servant" of the Gospel. "The catechist's task is to create specific conditions so that this relationship may be established, but to withdraw as soon as the contact occurs....Saint Thomas states that 'the teacher only brings exterior help, as the physician who heals'; the teacher's task is that of the person who 'proposes aids and tools' (Religious Potential, p. 52). The adult answers the silent request of "Help me to come closer to God by myself" (p. 62).

This approach reminds me of the Charlotte Mason's "masterly inactivity" approach. Elizabeth Foss in Real Learning also illustrates this idea from Edith Stein:

Edith Stein deplored the fact that the idea of education typically is "that of encylopedic knowledge: the presumed concept of the mind [is] that of the tabula rasa onto which as many impressions as possible [are] to be registered through intellectual perceptions and memorizations." (Woman, 130) Like Charlotte Mason, she recognized that education is so much more than the acquisition of encyclopedic knowledge. In the poetic words of William Butler Yeats, "Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire." (p. 22)

I really, really like the intention of the CGS to embrace the liturgical year, living out the seasons, focusing on the Mass and the Bible is exactly what the Church intends for all Catholics. But as I'm pondering for the 3-6 age, I have unanswered questions. Most of them apply to making this work in the home atmosphere.

I've already failed at being a humble instructor and a gentle Directress in daily life. I'm not going to get discouraged. God sent me this child now, at this point of my interior struggles for perfection and sainthood. I'm a work in progress, but my child needs me now. He can't wait until I reach that ultimate goal of perfection (which may be never!). Every day is a new day...I will not look at my failings, but look ahead at what we will do today. When my siblings and I were younger (7 of us) my mother would pray nightly to the Holy Spirit to help the child forget the bad events or mistakes that she or Dad had done, and to fill in the gaps where they had failed. I have taken up the same practice. Dh and I can't be good parents alone -- we need the Holy Spirit to help us along every step of the way!

The atrium time was originally set for 1 1/2-2 hours once a week. The idea is simplicity and "less is more" especially for the young age. But if I have an atrium at home, is that all the religious work I will do? I think not. Our life is surrounded by religious reminders and discussions. I'm not going to "fill the bucket", but I'm not going to hold back. One huge example, there are religious picture books we read as suggested by Catholic Mosaic. We also sing hymns and simple Gregorian chant, and we talk about the saints. We don't do saints in depth, but we mention them at night in our prayers, and sometimes read or discuss them during the day.

While rote prayer isn't encouraged at the young level in the atrium except in small passages, I find that unrealistic. How can one avoid hearing and teaching the Hail Mary, Our Father, the Rosary, Blessing Before Meals, etc. if that's some of the prayer routine in the home? And even at Mass there is repetitive rote prayer -- my son knows all the responses.

My biggest struggle is the discipline and moral formation, or lack thereof. With the Church I know that a child is not culpable or capable of sin until the age of reason. CGS does not do moral training until after the age of 6. Cavelletti doesn't define what she means by moral training. I presume it means talking about personal sin. But how does this translate into a home? Where does one fit obedience and parental authority? Within a family each person needs to learn self-discipline, respect for others and property, good habits, proper manners. Each age level has different expectations, but I don't exactly see these illustrated in the CGS (I'm no expert, just wondering out loud). There can't be a vacuum from age 0-6, allowing free rein until the child reaches the age of reason, unless you like utter chaos. I picked up Elizabeth's Real Learning last night to find my thoughts were affirmed in her section "Education is a Discipline".

But the best approach for the preschool age is still my questioning. So where is the connection, the lead-in? How do I build a foundation so that by age 6 there is something? For example, while a young child isn't culpable, he is still sensitive and has a great deal of introspection. My son from a very young age would do a self-examination of conscience when he went to bed -- it was his own doing. He would see how he was disobedient or misbehaved and asked Jesus to help him the next day. Was this because of my failings in dealing with him? Perhaps, but I also see a sensitive soul.

And what about pain and sacrifice? CGS doesn't believe dwelling on death or the pain of the cross, or making personal reparation for sin should be introduced until later. So what does one say to a child when he was to wait? Or he's hurt or sick? Or when he is playing with others and feels disappointments and hurts? Or other times when there's sadness? Or when he can't his way or the attention he craves right then because of other family needs. How do you explain to a little child? I find "offer it up" and "making sacrifices" is not beyond his comprehension. I don't overdo it, but I find it the best explanation. Covering it up or giving in to whims is not being true to the child, and I can see have bad habits to undo later.

My final pondering (for today) is the idea from Cavelletti (pp. 105-106):

We maintain that the children's initiation to the Old Testament should not begin before the age of eight....There are many biblical passages the history of which the child easily learns, without piercing through to their theology. We should carefully avoid such passages, otherwise we risk making the Bible become a book of "stores" if not "tall tales"....I do not think it right that the child first know certain facts, and only at a later time enter into their theological significance. I believe that an event learned only as a story (or legend) will stay a story even when the child is grown, and it will be extremely difficult to recover its theological content later on.

While I understand her premise that the bible is both theology and history and shouldn't be separated, I do think that some of the stories should be related to children of all ages. I just think of Noah's Ark, Creation and Adam and Eve, Jonah, Moses and Exodus...all these have been related to children of all ages for centuries. They need to be presented as true events, of course. But I can't see keeping these away from a child until they are 8!

I find some contradictions in CGS and Montessori. I keep reading that a child has deep levels of contemplation and understanding, and yet, I see a level of holding back that I don't fully agree. And one of my main objections to Montessori in general is that the philosophy believes that all previous or other forms of education are incorrect, and Montessori has the answer. I can't believe that of anything. We do have the Catholic Church, the one, true Faith, but there are many, many different paths leading to Heaven. There is not just correct spirituality. And the same way for each individual and the way they learn.

This got very long, so I'll stop my ponderings for today. It does help to get these in writing to "see" my thoughts. God bless you if you read through all this!