The Theology of Unschooling - Part 1
My basic premise for unschooling as a Catholic comes from the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God.
What flows from this belief?
Well, to my mind, what flows from it is a trust in God's design.
God designed the family. He designed things so that a child should grow up with his own mother and father. Anything short of this is a result of the fallen world. Anything short of this is a tragedy of monumental importance to the child. Yes, single parents can successfully raise children, but there is no getting around the fact that the child has a gaping hole in their life. Yes, children can be adopted into a loving home. That is certainly a wonderful thing but the very action stems from an existential tragedy for that child. (And this tragedy is not to be exploited by those trying to validate their lifestyle choices but that's another topic!).
God also designed how children learn. Children learn in a way that reflects the fact that they are made in the image and likeness of God.
Children need to be in an intense relationship to survive wholly. God, Himself, is a relationship of the Father to the Son and the Holy Spirit which is the love between the two, so real that it is its own person. God is a personal God who loves us as His children. Who has made covenants with us to bring us home to Him when we pass from this life. A covenant is like a sacramental marriage vow. It is intensely relational. It is the strongest bond between two persons. And God designed us this way. We, in the marital act, can behold our spouse face to face in this most intimate act (an act that can create a new soul for God!) Covenantal love is face to face love. It respects and beholds the lover on the most intimate level.
When a human mother nurses her baby, she isn't like a cat or dog who lie on their side and can not really see their babies as they nurse. We hold our baby up and can gaze into his or her face and he or she can gaze back at us. I read somewhere that that exchange of gaze while nursing was important to brain development in infants. And that the distance between breast and the mother's face was the perfect distance for a newborn whose eyesight isn't very good yet. They can see their mother's face clearly.
Having a strong relational bond gives us rest and security. If we have a strong faith in God, we can rest in that trust, no matter what evil assails, even unto martyrdom! If we have strong trust and respect for our spouse, we can rest in that love, even as all the vagaries of life assail us. If a child is secure in the love of his parents, he can relax and observe and absorb all that is in the world around him in a way wonderful to witness. And again studies have shown that when a student is relaxed and absorbed they learn and retain much more than if they are under compulsion, with the anxiety that comes with that.
To a lesser extent our relationship with the world around us shapes how we learn. In a relationship where there is love and nurturing a natural response to this is gratitude. Gratitude is relational. As G. K. Chesterton once wrote: "I maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." We must give thanks to someone. Where does that wonder, that awe, that fascination, that praise of thanksgiving that wells up in the heart of every man, where does it come from? It is because we are made in the image and likeness of God and so we love beauty, truth and goodness. Our souls seek this in this life. We are compelled to search for these things. And what is the pursuit of beauty, truth and goodness but true education? Education comes from the Latin meaning to lead out (ex or e + ducere). Education is to lead us out into the light! Out of the darkness of ignorance and sin and into the light of beauty, truth and goodness which is God, the Trinity, the eternally churning exchange of love of Father, Son and Spirit.
Children are designed to have absorbent minds, as Montessori phrased it. They observe the world around them, they explore it, they wonder at it, they imitate it, they rely on their parents to decipher it for them, to explain what they need to know, to answer their questions, to channel their curiosity safely. As Aristotle said (who did not even believe in a personal God, though he did reason to there being one God), "All men by nature desire to know." Or as John Holt, the one who coined the terms 'unschooling' said: "Fish swim, birds fly, children learn." It is innate in us as humans to acquire knowledge.
I think unschooling is based on the soundest principle (both from natural law - Aristotle, and revelation - Genesis) that children desire to know. If they can bloom and blossom in their own time, they will learn!
Now I also know that we are all fallen sinners and we must accommodate for that too when preparing children for adulthood. That will be for future posts. But for me, as a Catholic, to really embrace the idea of unschooling, I had to come to truly believe in Genesis 1:27. It was something that I had never really considered all that deeply until I undertook the education of my own children.
What flows from this belief?
Well, to my mind, what flows from it is a trust in God's design.
God designed the family. He designed things so that a child should grow up with his own mother and father. Anything short of this is a result of the fallen world. Anything short of this is a tragedy of monumental importance to the child. Yes, single parents can successfully raise children, but there is no getting around the fact that the child has a gaping hole in their life. Yes, children can be adopted into a loving home. That is certainly a wonderful thing but the very action stems from an existential tragedy for that child. (And this tragedy is not to be exploited by those trying to validate their lifestyle choices but that's another topic!).
God also designed how children learn. Children learn in a way that reflects the fact that they are made in the image and likeness of God.
Children need to be in an intense relationship to survive wholly. God, Himself, is a relationship of the Father to the Son and the Holy Spirit which is the love between the two, so real that it is its own person. God is a personal God who loves us as His children. Who has made covenants with us to bring us home to Him when we pass from this life. A covenant is like a sacramental marriage vow. It is intensely relational. It is the strongest bond between two persons. And God designed us this way. We, in the marital act, can behold our spouse face to face in this most intimate act (an act that can create a new soul for God!) Covenantal love is face to face love. It respects and beholds the lover on the most intimate level.
When a human mother nurses her baby, she isn't like a cat or dog who lie on their side and can not really see their babies as they nurse. We hold our baby up and can gaze into his or her face and he or she can gaze back at us. I read somewhere that that exchange of gaze while nursing was important to brain development in infants. And that the distance between breast and the mother's face was the perfect distance for a newborn whose eyesight isn't very good yet. They can see their mother's face clearly.
Having a strong relational bond gives us rest and security. If we have a strong faith in God, we can rest in that trust, no matter what evil assails, even unto martyrdom! If we have strong trust and respect for our spouse, we can rest in that love, even as all the vagaries of life assail us. If a child is secure in the love of his parents, he can relax and observe and absorb all that is in the world around him in a way wonderful to witness. And again studies have shown that when a student is relaxed and absorbed they learn and retain much more than if they are under compulsion, with the anxiety that comes with that.
To a lesser extent our relationship with the world around us shapes how we learn. In a relationship where there is love and nurturing a natural response to this is gratitude. Gratitude is relational. As G. K. Chesterton once wrote: "I maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." We must give thanks to someone. Where does that wonder, that awe, that fascination, that praise of thanksgiving that wells up in the heart of every man, where does it come from? It is because we are made in the image and likeness of God and so we love beauty, truth and goodness. Our souls seek this in this life. We are compelled to search for these things. And what is the pursuit of beauty, truth and goodness but true education? Education comes from the Latin meaning to lead out (ex or e + ducere). Education is to lead us out into the light! Out of the darkness of ignorance and sin and into the light of beauty, truth and goodness which is God, the Trinity, the eternally churning exchange of love of Father, Son and Spirit.
Children are designed to have absorbent minds, as Montessori phrased it. They observe the world around them, they explore it, they wonder at it, they imitate it, they rely on their parents to decipher it for them, to explain what they need to know, to answer their questions, to channel their curiosity safely. As Aristotle said (who did not even believe in a personal God, though he did reason to there being one God), "All men by nature desire to know." Or as John Holt, the one who coined the terms 'unschooling' said: "Fish swim, birds fly, children learn." It is innate in us as humans to acquire knowledge.
I think unschooling is based on the soundest principle (both from natural law - Aristotle, and revelation - Genesis) that children desire to know. If they can bloom and blossom in their own time, they will learn!
Now I also know that we are all fallen sinners and we must accommodate for that too when preparing children for adulthood. That will be for future posts. But for me, as a Catholic, to really embrace the idea of unschooling, I had to come to truly believe in Genesis 1:27. It was something that I had never really considered all that deeply until I undertook the education of my own children.
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