Oh, I'm going to work really hard to remember that next time I am tired of washing dishes in the evening, or hurriedly packing lunches, or confronting daily messes at home or in the yard! I realize I'm blessed to have household chores as a challenge, and that I'm healthy enough to accomplish these daily chores. But really staying in the moment of the task and what it means to sanctify that work is something I'll aspire to.
I think this concept of staying in the moment is helpful to keep in mind as we learn the "Practical Life" and "Grace and Courtesy" aspects of the Atrium. Stephanie taught us that the more work we do with the basic principles or the "How To's" in the beginning, the smoother our year in the Atrium will be. As simple as some of the works seem- How to Shake Hands, How to Say Thank You... they are the building blocks. It's important to learn these fundamentals carefully, even though your tendency might be to hunger for the more complex works. As our handout on the Montessori Prepared Environment and Practical Life describes in its final tenet: "To integrate the mind and soul and body as a preparation for the observation and contemplation of life, and as the foundation for meditation and prayer."
We discussed how to make album pages, and one of the main points was to not overthink it- Sofia said this needs to be very "essential." I sensed that Stephanie's corrections on the album pages we submit to her will help us with this- if we include too much, she'll help us pare it down. We learned that it's important to have a beginning, middle, and end to your presentation or group pages. There's also something called the Point of Interest, or "hook" to really draw the child in to the work. As I understood it, this helps you to focus on what the child will hone in on- "thumb, thumb" when carrying a table, or maybe "hands behind your back" when we're watching a work. This is certainly more effective in the short and long term than- "Don't drop that table!" or "Don't touch what she's working on!"
Along these lines, we talked about "de-schooling" when we were in the Atrium. Examples are showing instead telling, going slowly and only telling only the most important things, not being obsessed with progress or how many lessons each child gets..... Stephanie described that this is all part of our formation as Catechists, and near the end of Monday's class she reminded us that "As Catechists we remember that Christ is the only teacher."
In closing I wanted to share a passage from a book I read several years ago and
loved. The author, Sue Bender, went to live with the
Amish for several weeks and came away with a much deeper understanding
of their lack of distinction between process and product, work and
outcome. I'm not ready to become Amish by any stretch, but their principle of work reminds me of St. Benedict, the concept of Holy work, and how we are learning to plant these seeds in our Atrium.
From Plain
and Simple:
"Since all work is honored, there is no need to
rush to get one thing over so you can get on to something more
important. The Amish understand that it's not rushing through
tasks to achieve a series of goals that is satisfying; it's
experiencing each moment along the way."
