Saturday, 19 January 2013
Benedictine Education-desiring God through learning
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.