"Christian education is not the communication
of c orrect views about what the various works and words of Jesus might
mean; rather it is the stocking of the imagination with the icons of
those works and words themselves. It is most successfully accomplished,
therefore, not by catechisms that purport to produce understanding, but
by stories that hang the icons, understood or not, on the walls of the
mind." - Robert Farrar Capon, The Parables of Grace
If you have free iTunes
software installed on your computer, you can hear a recent Sunday forum
by Josh Hosler, Associate for Christian Formation:
"A Philosophy of Children's Formation." Excerpts are included below.
Experience + Reflection = Learning
A four-year-old girl lost her father in a car accident. At the
funeral, her family was very concerned about her; they e xpected her to
cry at the loss of her dad, but she acted perfectly normal, as if she
didn’t miss him at all.
A week later, her mother observed the little girl playing in the
sandbox with her favorite doll. She covered the doll with sand,
unearthed the doll, and then buried it and exhumed it again and again
and again. She wasn’t crying, but she was grieving deeply. She was
learning by reflecting on her experience through serious play.
 Sacramental Play
Baptism is just like this,
but we use water instead of sand. We bring people to the water one by
one and pretend to drown them in it. Then we bring them up alive again
from the water. Why? Because the people we bring to the water have
experienced God’s unconditional saving love, which mere words cannot
begin to describe. Now they—and we as their community—need to reflect on
that experience of our old selves dying as God calls us into new life.
Communion is the same kind of story. We pretend
to make sacrifices on this altar, like the priests of Ancient Israel did
with actual knives and animals and blood. We sing Jesus’ words: “My
flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” Graphic words! In
another way of looking at the story, we sacrifice ourselves on the
altar. After the pretend sacrifice, we have a pretend meal … not enough
food to fill us up, but we do actually consume it. We offer ourselves to
God as a sacrifice, and God gives us ourselves … or gives us Jesus … it
depends on how you choose to play the game today.
Serious Play
But it would be a mistake
to say we’re “just pretending” to drown our friends, or “just
pretending” to share a meal. For children, pretending is the most
serious thing in the world, because it is how they reflect on their
experiences and learn new things.
Basic Assumptions
-
 Story and Play are the two basic elements of children’s
learning.
- Children are capable of meaningful religious experience: not only do
they sense God’s presence and respond to it … they have deep
relationships with God.
- Young children already have a spiritual life of depth that
adults may not understand or honor. They are already wrestling with
complex existential issues, including:
– a. Aloneness/loneliness
– b. Freedom/free will
– c. Death
– d. Purpose/meaning
- Young children can discover and use the language of religious
narrative and symbol that will allow them to express themselves
spiritually and “make meaning.”
- Children should be active participants in the ministry of the
church.
Outlining a Philosophy
- Our children don’t need more teachers in the academic sense.
They need a different kind of teacher: a model of the Christian
faith.
- Our teachers are guides; they do not have to have all the
answers.
- Every member of the community is responsible for teaching our
children, whether or not they spend time in Sunday school.
- An attentive teacher will learn from the children as well.
- We should treat our children seriously and with deep respect.
They are subjects, not objects.
- It’s up to us to create a safe place for
children to:
– a. Be themselves
– b. Learn how Christians live in community
– c. Come closer to the mystery of God’s presence
– d. Learn the language of the Christian people
- Part of creating a safe place is creating a safe space where
children feel welcome.
- The most important “answers” we can seek to give our children
are answers that already lie inside them. These answers will be most
important to them if they can discover them on their own.
- As we teach, we must keep in mind that religion is more like an
art form than a science. God’s love does not depend on our
knowledge, but seeking knowledge is a blessed path, and we should
support it.
Sources/Further Reading
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