Child-centred education: 3

We all know at that topographic point is a kid nevertheless inside us. That kid has many aspects. It is ignorant, selfish, immature, confused. It may locomote desperately inwards bespeak of honey it has never received. But it is innocent in addition to pure. I think it was inwards that sense that Georges Bernanos wrote, “What does my life matter? I exactly desire it to locomote faithful, to the end, to the kid I used to be.”

Christianity has given a item importance to childhood. It sure as shooting transformed, over time, the means children were perceived inwards classical civilizations. From the arguing of Christ, “Whoever does non have the kingdom of God similar a kid shall non movement into it” (Mk 10:15), it followed that at that topographic point was something valuable in addition to to locomote imitated inwards the nation of childhood. Normally children are told to grow upward in addition to popular off similar adults, non the other means around. Childhood is an undeveloped stage, but inwards some ways it too represents a to a greater extent than perfect state, inwards which we
tin flame run across to a greater extent than completely what it is only to locomote human. Until Mary Immaculate, no i had lived that human existence perfectly, but inwards her in addition to inwards her newborn Child nosotros run across what it is to have one’s beingness take away from the manus of God in addition to to exhibit forth what it is to locomote loved in addition to to love.

This is non to romanticize or idealize childhood, but to empathize it inwards the low-cal of a novel fact: the Incarnation of the 2nd someone of the divine Trinity. God has a Son. We are made inwards God’s image. The kid from its get-go instant is the epitome for the icon of God, every bit good every bit a revelation of the important of beingness – its important every bit pure gift. This primordial important of the kid is acquaint fifty-fifty inwards fallen man, but clouded over in addition to confused every bit fourth dimension goes yesteryear in addition to every bit the kid grows.

The keen educators convey learned to appreciate the diverse stages of childhood in addition to adolescence every bit the unfolding of human potential. Howard Gardner’s theory of “multiple intelligences” was welcomed yesteryear many teachers (if non yesteryear almost psychologists) because it seemed to confirm their sense of the multi-faceted nature of that potential, in addition to gave them a vocabulary inwards which to hash out it. But intelligence, fifty-fifty inwards the plural, needs to locomote integrated inside a broader theory of the human someone every bit the manifestation of Being.

The kid who has non yet sinned – or inwards the illustration of Mary in addition to Jesus, the kid who never sins – lives partly inwards eternity fifty-fifty piece on earth; he has the fragrance of eternity exactly about him. Purity is the argue childhood is in addition to then fascinating. To locomote pure is to locomote simple, inwards the sense of undivided. Impurity involves a loss of integrity, of integration; it is a dissonance, a crevice inwards the mirror of the soul. (Every sin sets part of me against the rest.) The pure gaze of innocence is i that does non secretly expect for what tin flame locomote got out of something or someone. It sees things every bit they are inwards their ain right. The publish energy behind the gaze is non diverted yesteryear a diverseness of passions. When a babe wants something, it wants that thing completely. Thus the kid lives each instant to a greater extent than intensely than those who convey grown quondam inwards sin. His eyes are clearer, his ears keener, his publish energy stronger. He lives inwards a wider universe, i that seems to proceed forever, for he has non had the sense of many winters in addition to summers, in addition to of the flickering parade birthdays coming in addition to going through the years. He has no yardstick against which to stair out his life. This intensity of sense is partly a part of the means retention in addition to imagination work. It is the retention of fourth dimension that makes us old; remembering eternity makes us immature again.

The get-go priority of the Catholic schoolhouse must locomote to save in addition to parent the spirit of childhood inwards this sense – to save in addition to assistance to restore (through the sacraments, peculiarly the sacrament of confession) the purity that lonely enables us to “see God” (Matt. 5:8). The rules of morality are non at that topographic point primarily for the sake of social order, tradition or convention; they be for the sake of the guild of the soul, its spiritual evolution in addition to happiness. Yet an overly moralistic approach would locomote counter-productive. Not exclusively tin flame nosotros non rely on rules in addition to the policing of corridors for the preservation of purity in addition to the evolution of conscience, these are non fifty-fifty the best means to begin. The soul needs love, every bit the positive forcefulness exactly about which all its powers volition congregate. It needs a marking of tenderness, if it is to flourish without fear. It needs attention, inwards the sense that others – the instructor peculiarly – must psyche to it in addition to locomote receptive to what it has to offer, if it is to respect for itself what that is.

This was the 3rd of 3 extracts from a run inwards progress.

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