Understanding Liturgy in Schole'

My curiosity was piqued over a year ago when I first talked with Dr. Perrin and learned his vision for Schole' groups.  It was specifically piqued, and I will admit a bit confused, when I heard him talk about the "liturgy of the classroom".  I really wanted to understand what this whole idea of liturgy and education had to do with each other and get my mind around it all.  So to understand it we need to start at the mall...

 WHAT DO THE MALL
AND CATHEDRALS HAVE IN COMMON?
LITURGY!

Dr. Perrin in one of his many videos I watched, talked about the "liturgy of the mall".  I have never thought about the liturgy of the mall before now.  I didn't recognize the liturgy until he described it's purposeful, planned out, aesthetic design, it's beauty and powerful messages of what success and living the "good life" really are.  When kids go with friends they are fellowshipping in an embodied, full senses experience of; running water, beautiful plants, music playing, flowers throughout and each little store is waiting with their "priests and priestesses" to bring them into their beautiful temples filled with things upon which they should dwell and desire.  This is liturgy.  It's the well planned out scope and sequence of the capitalist society's beacon - the mall.

If you are like me and grew up Catholic, then perhaps when you hear the word "liturgy" you right away think of the Catholic Church.  They are excellent at liturgy.  Dr. Perrin talks about the experience of walking into a cathedral.  When you walk into a cathedral your eyes are drawn upward, fellowship greets you, the sights and organ sounds all surround you with beauty and awe, the service is rhythmic, planned out, it has it's own scope and sequence as well.  You can't help but come away awe inspired for God, fellowshipping and desiring Him, seeing Him beautiful, dwelling on His Word and His Character.  I see it there.  I see the liturgy.

While seeking two different end points, the mall and the cathedral have liturgical plans for the people they seek to influence.  They both get that liturgy is a powerful persuader of man's heart.  The mall and the cathedral have been designed by brilliant aestheticians!  They're both very powerful in their ability to convince me to desire what they are immersing my senses in.  Their beauty is what draws me to them and out of myself into their world.  One drawing me away from God and one drawing me to God.

DO WE CONSIDER LITURGY?

So what are we doing with our children when we teach them at home?  Are we making sure we have aesthetic embodiment built into our daily teaching at home?  Do we think about what the kids are seeing, what that is causing them to desire and how that is addressing their body and senses?  Our students are making up their minds, and making their decisions about what they love, every day we are teaching.  What are we communicating to them to love?  Are we surrounding them with Beauty, Truth and Goodness?  Education is formation -so it has to involve the body.  What they do with their bodies matters.  Our schools both home and in community, would be more excellent and Godly if they were steeped in well thought through and planned out liturgy with embodied teaching at the heart of it all.

WHO MATTERS MORE?

He talks about what we would do if we were to invite dearly loved friends over to dinner.  We would begin to think about how to create beauty for our friends.  We might light candles, put on soft music, set the table with a new tablecloth and some fresh flowers, we may bake an apple pie for dessert, still piping hot with aromatic pleasure erupting from it's center as our guests arrive.   We suddenly care about the setting and what we wear and how things smell, when we are entertaining friends - the body matters to us then.  What we do with our body is critically important to everything that happens to us.  To cultivate a child's soul, we must do it through their body.  We were designed to love.  We must therefore order those loves and cultivate what we should love and it's through our five senses that we do that.  He also references the quote "Show me how you teach and I will show you what you believe a human being is."  Every pedagogy assumes an anthropology.  Therefore we must ask ourselves, "In what ways does our pedagogy conflict with our anthropology?"   Are the practices we are engaged in, assuming an anthropology we reject?  Do I say I want my child to love what is true and beautiful, but I have her sit at the kitchen table day after day and do workbooks and worry about finishing the curriculum and staying on my plan?   Conversely, do I spend time having tea with her, talking to her on nature walks about our great God, reading books on the back porch that provoke thought, and having conversations that are meaningful each day?  It begs the question -who matters more to us?

LITURGY FOR THE HOMESCHOOL

How can we have a liturgical homeschool?  It's not really that difficult.  It just takes some thought and simple actions.  Add beauty, steep your children in Truth and create rhythms - engage the senses of your child.  Practically speaking, that could look like sitting on a screened porch with a math lesson gazing upon the leaves falling, as you talk through the math lesson. Taking a nature walk and discovering the wonder of a blue heron wading in the pond.  It could be as simple as a lit fireplace and cozy blanketed children listening to Shakespeare together.  It could be lit candles, essential oils diffusing, classical music softly playing, beautiful fresh flowers on the table - any of these elements adds beauty to your school.  Consider what is on your walls, on your table, in your schoolroom?  What greets your child each day as they do their schoolwork?

It's also about creating rhythms they can expect like Morning Time each day to start your day together with what matters most.  You can plan Tea for Tuesdays or a spring Poetry Cafe' each year and invite your extended family.  Be creative, you get the idea - come up with things they can expect and count on to be part of their school rhythms each year.  Provide beautiful greetings, blessings and poetry to fill their days, hearts and minds.  Create a rhythm that they begin to look forward to - knowing that their day is earmarked by these rituals of blessing and order.

It's the prayerful ordering of your child's loves through steeping them in Beauty, Truth and Virtue.