When we think about education, wonder and awe are not usually descriptors that we reach for, or at least not in the way that we mean them. A student might wonder when a lesson will end, or when his time at school will be over. A teacher might be in awe of his students’ lack of attention, or ‘awe’ might just be the first syllable of ‘awful’, a descriptor often associated with schooling.
But John Senior and Stratford Caldecott, among others, think that education should primarily inspire wonder and awe. They see the world as an enchanted place, and education’s role as the medium by which wonder and awe in the world is transmitted.
At Via Classica, we too think the world is a wonderful place. It is awesome, in the true sense of the word. And we want to communicate that sense of wonder and awe to our students, so that they can grow up delighting in good things, and joyfully sharing them with others.
John Senior (1923-1999) knew that when we become disconnected from reality, and from the enchanted world, we cannot flourish. He famously advised those interested in restoring our broken culture, to smash their televisions. What did he mean? He meant that if we are to re-engage with reality, if we are to see the world as God created it, if we are to wonder at our beautiful existence, we must not put such unreal, distracting, warped barriers in the way. In its place, Senior advised families to sit before an open fireplace, sing good songs together, and perhaps most importantly, to read ‘the thousand good books.’ When the minds of our children are filled with the brilliant creations of Aesop, Andersen, Grimm, Dickens, Stevenson and others, they are able to be cultivated in the right way. Like a garden, well prepared with good soil, brings forth beautiful fruits, so too hearts and minds fed with nourishing stories, can produce wonderful things.
Stratford Caldecott (1953-2014), in his writings about teaching and learning, encourages a re-enchantment of education. Like Senior, he encourages reading good books, listening to good music, looking at and admiring good art. These are the ways we can engage with the world as it really is, not as it is presented to us in modernity. Caldecott tells us that “to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight to reality.” He speaks about the education of the imagination. Imagination comes naturally to children, but at some point they lose the sense of wonder and awe that a strong imagination sustains. They stop playing with the world and delighting in it. We can restore the sense of wonder and the use of imagination by immersing ourselves in the past. We can read the good books, the classic poems, the nursery rhymes and chants; we can listen to good music and sing good songs; we can delight in the masterful art of the greats, and surround ourselves with beautiful things. We can also go outside into nature, collect samples, draw, or simply gaze attentively.
At Via Classica, we want to bring something of this ‘enchanted’ education to the lives of our students. More than that, however, we want to equip parents and communities to restore wonder and awe in the formation and education of their young people. In a culture that is desperate, we often need reminding that the world is ‘charged with the grandeur of God.’ We just have to open our eyes.
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