Monica's Musings: Making Haste Slowly

Hello Innovate Family and Friends,

When I discovered Classical Education as a parent and teacher, at least twenty five years ago, I was never the same. Every style of education paled in comparison! Christian education was game changer enough, deserving of its own space for thought, but for now we will unpack Classical. From the moment I encountered this philosophy and style of learning, my own kids will testify that I moved heaven and earth to try to bring it to them and my classroom! From classical camps to classical co-ops to classical start up schools, I signed my kids up for anything and everything classical. I was able to weave it into my traditional Christian school classroom as well as send two kids to two classical style colleges! For the next several months or maybe a year, I'd love to unpack its value bit by bit.

A favorite author and speaker of mine, Christopher Perrin sums it up in 8 principles. Let's examine the first one, a fancy Latin term, Festina Lente, which means, "make haste slowly". It reminds me of my favorite Aesop's Fable, The Tortoise and The Hare as the tortoise kept on going for a loooong time in the same direction slowwwwly and methodically, and eventually he won the race! One thing I love about Classical Education is that we master concepts step by step, spending ample time with what we want to remember for the future! Even a gifted student needs to live with ideas and skills for a while in order for learning to become permanent. I raised four kids and I am all too familiar with the typical way of cramming facts in for an AP test, thinking the material was mastered, only to find that six months later they can't articulate a thing they learned! When we master each step of a concept, it's similar to the Carpenter's Dictum, measure twice, cut once. We love tying our themes from Bible, history and literature together with other arts and sciences with the goal of remembering. It is rarely a good idea to speed on without mastery as information is quickly forgotten. Don't we all joke about how most of us experienced that kind of hurried and scatter brained education ourselves?

I have the privilege of teaching 5th grade writing this year and if I am tired of 'key word outlines' and 'dress up words' you can be sure that these scholars are all the more! But over time it will come natural for them to find a thesaurus and continue to discover stronger verbs or better adjectives for the rest of their lives! According to some contemporary studies, to become the best at something we need to practice it for about 10,000 hours! We have our scholars for 8-9 years and we realize that mastery comes slowly and we as mentors are patient and confident that our classical method of Festina Lente will stand the test of time! So the next time you are tempted to hurry your child through their home studies, take your time and assist them patiently with the same concept over and over, even when you think they should have already learned it!  Besides, isn't that actually what our heavenly Father does with us each day as we make haste slowly toward His Kingdom? 

Festina Lente,

Monica