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Saturday 19 January 2013

Benedictine Education-desiring God through learning

St. Benedictine and the Benedictines created the education system of the West. We owe the revival of classical education to the Benedictines. They preserved the texts of the Greeks and Romans and used these to re-create the Trivium and the Quadrivium in the context of Catholicism.

The entire idea of work and prayer, labore et orare is also part of the day for education of the monks as well as their lay students.

The beauty of the Benedictine Rule, which covers the practice of the virtues, and the pursuit of perfection, under obedience and through humility, provides a great format for the home schooling.

A parent can divide up the day between work, manual labor and study, as well as prayer.

Children then learn necessary maintenance skills, as well as cooking, cleaning and so on as part of the spirituality of work and prayer and study.

A typical day can look like this:

Rise, dress, short morning prayer
Mass
Breakfast

Study of the home schooling curriculum based on the Trivium and Quadrivium, depending on age
Prayer

Lunch

Outside or inside work

Prayer

Tea or snack break

Study, including Scripture study

Play

Dinner

Play

Prayer

Sleep

Rarely does a homeschooler need to study all day and the Benedictine methodology fits into teaching the whole person, based on order and scheduling.

It works.

Art and Beauty are part of the Benedictine heritage. So that and music should always be part of the curriculum.


I highly suggest reading The Love of Learning and the Desire for God by Jean Leclercq, which I read years and years before I was married, but it prepared me for my Benedictine day of work, prayer, and study, and led me to use the Benedictine model for home schooling.