|
| Schooling |
 School is derived from the Latin word Schola, meaning leisure devoted to learning. This is how school began, and this is how school succeeded for many centuries. Like playing with Lego, learning comes naturally, and is intrinsically enjoyed if it occurs within the context of leisure.
This definition does not in any way belittle the importance of learning. Rather, it indicates how learning is best accomplished. This definition comes from an age when everyone worked. Frankly, it is very similar to our family farm. If we were to allow it, there is sufficient work available that everyone in our family could labour all day, every day. Schola is that window of time we must budget into our day in order to give everyone a chance to set aside their jobs and spend time just learning.
Now, if schola is truly leisure, it would be inappropriate for parents to push to accomplish a certain amount of learning in the time given. If it is truly leisure, it needs to resemble other forms of leisure. If the Math book doesn't get finished this year it may be finished next. (When you get tired of water skiing, you head for shore - you don't ski the whole lake.) Carrying the analogy a little further, you may find that on the first few trips to the lake your child refuses to water ski. Somewhere along the way someone convinced him it was work, so he's resisting it. That's fine, let him build sand castles instead, but keep the skiing idea alive. It is natural for him to rise to a challenge and desire to succeed. The honest effort he will be willing to put in to any leisure, be it skiing or Math will be the ingredient necessary for successful learning.
But what about teaching discipline? How will a child develop acceptable character, if he/she can take learning casually? Well, first of all, notice how diligently a child applies himself to Lego, or herself to skiing, or horse training, or fort building. It may take a while, because school has come to mean work to your child, but once it truly becomes leisure, the student will dig in and concentrate just as with play. Secondly, school should not be the place where you teach character any more than you teach character at play (manners, charity,...). Rather, diligence, obedience, determination, self-control,... are best taught at work. If practice is needed in these areas, unhook the dishwasher, plant a garden, raise chickens, build a boat, help neighbours, volunteer in the nursing home, whatever can be done in your environment to do "meaningful work alongside an adult." This is the place to develop discipline.
|
|
