by Dr. David Fleischacker
One of the basic parameters that most of us think of when we think of school is to setup a day, time, and place for education. There are of course truths in this however that scheduling tends to over dominate our idea of how to educate. I will not spend too much time on the history, but modern scheduling has its roots in the change of how people perceived time with the advent both of modern scientific methodologies and its sociological child called the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution was that, and it usered in a massive transformation of the material resources of the world for increasing the goods and services offered in civilization. It has led to an accumulation of material wealth for vast reaches of society. However, success in one facet of life does not mean that the methods and techniques used are appropriate for all aspects of life. Yet, this is what happened with much of the industrial revolution. Its success led to expansions into all facets of life including the formation of children and young adults. And this is where behaviorist techniques increasingly became the techniques of modern education. It is a massive mistake however, because education is not producing adult citizens but rather it is forming human beings into their own intrinsic perfections (virtues) that allow for them to participate in higher kinds of life and happiness, ultimately with God. Thus, we need to look to the wisdom of the ages in how to form human virtue. Montessori has contributed much to this, building on that wisdom, and then adding a new paradigm for its realization. Schedules needs to be minimized. In the industrial revolution, schedules help an industry to coodinated people and resources to produce something. Instead, we need to follow a different kind of schuled, that based on the unfolding development of the powers of the soul of the child and young adult. These have different rhythms to them than a production line. And they are rhythms and patterns. It is only the fool that says it is a free for all. And it is false to think that the opposite of a free for all is to schedule the learning of a student. Rather, it is to setup a learning world in which most of one’s activities as a parent or teacher is to show the child that world when the child is ready and wanting it. To schedule a child in an industrial format is to treat the soul of the child as if it is an empty vessel that needs to be filled with knowledge and right behavior. That is a lie. The soul of the child has its own inner teacher, the light created by the Divine Light. Just as a tree grows interiorly without our help, so the soul of the child grows. We cannot determine whether that interior need is for practical life or math or language. But, when it moves and acts, we then see what is needed, and we can offer help. With regard to virtue formation, virtues do not happen because an adult makes them happen at a certain place and time. This is why we need to understand human relationships not as that between a tool user (teacher) and a tool (student), but as one free intelligent subject in relationship to another. Even notions of authority and obedience need to spring from that kind of a relationship. Any authority who treats another as a tool or an instrument of use is doing so abusively and it is important to change this to one of mutual self-mediation. If schedules are used, they must spring from the child’s own engagment with the activity. We can encourage, persuade, cojole, call forth children to do various activities, but we need to be careful with the frequency of such acts, and we need to minimize going to stronger acts, such as requiring, forcing, making them do things. Requiring, forcing, and making have almost no ability to awaken life in the child as such. Even the best of teachers are severely constrained when operating in such a manner. The best route is to have a lively interesting environment or world in which the students naturally wonders and explores and creates. In such an environment, the teacher can then be a guide. There will be no need to be a tyrant or dictator controlling every thought and activity every minutes of the day. If the environment is not naturally filled with things to explore, then it is not sufficient. This is a Montessori principal. Schedules simply are not needed in the right environment. If you find you have to use one, then you need to spend more time getting the child into the right environment. And if you are having trouble finding that, then turn toward God’s creation. The child loves to be in the cosmos (gardens, hills, forests, lakes, streams, etc.), because these are filled with the wonders of the world. Abstract subjects such as math and language only come alive if the child has already been awakened to the mysteries of the world. And when you get the right environment, you as the teacher can join in with the wonder and discovery and creativity that authentic education is about. Then the drugery of scheduled education goes aways and you became an authentic child again who can enter the Kingdom of God and all the good things that God has given to us.