A Contemporary School in the Wisdom Tradition

A Contemporary School in the Wisdom Tradition.

“O come, thou Wisdom from on high. Who ord-‘rest all thing mightily. To us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go.”  (O Come, Emmanuel,” c. 9th century).

What with the fast-growing influence of AI and everything technological, could there be a better time to develop a school that would help children to think for themselves, to grow in intellectual reasoning and moral discernment? Is there a better time to inspire a student’s imagination and learn to discern between the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false? Here’s a brief summary of what a Wisdom School might look like:

WHY does this school exist? To nurture the qualities of wisdom and love in each student. As St. Paul wrote, “Love finds its joy in the truth.” (1 Corinthains 13:6). Or maybe St. John said the same thing, “Active, genuine love is proof that we belong to the truth.” (1 John 3:19). Wisdom Schools aim to inspire students who love to learn and learn to love.  

1. Wisdom: the practical art of living skillfully; moral and intellectual understanding; practicing the truth in daily life; astute discernment; shrewd insight; using knowledge to make good decisions and healthy choices; to develop a unified lifestyle of both hearing and doing what is true, good and beautiful; a discerning appreciation of life’s distinctions between wise and foolish, beautiful and ugly, just and unjust, good and evil, right and wrong, choices and consequences; practical, common-sense spirituality.
2. Love: the genuine desire for the highest good of another; the willingness to make sacrifices for the benefit of someone; to choose to treat others in their best interests; the decision to demonstrate acceptance of others without necessarily approving of their behavior; to imitate the character and actions of Jesus in the Gospels; to grow in the ability to look with compassion, to act with mercy, to judge with grace; to treat others the way you want to be treated.

WHAT are the three aspects of the learner’s whole mind that need to be woven together for a complete education? Truth, Goodness, and Beauty… Acquiring truth by sharpening the intellect; Developing virtue by cultivating the conscience; Experiencing beauty by inspiring the imagination. The Wisdom School aims to help students develop a moral and creative intelligence, and an exposure to every kind of art form, whether drama, music, visual arts, dance, poetry, construction, or other opportunities for students to grow in creative expression.

HOW does the school operate?

1. As a Children’s Museum, in which each classroom is a dynamic, multi-sensory, experiential environment based on “the best features of the intuitive learner… naturally curious, resourceful, adventuresome, energetic, imaginative and creative.” (Gardner); one might say that in this setting the teacher is the gifted docent and the students are the museum participants.
2. As a Craftsman’s Workshop, in which the students engage in hard work with a light spirit as they confidently develop the fundamental tools of the Three R’s in a disciplined and systematic way, and continue growing in the art and craft of learning; in this case, the students are the apprentice learners and the teacher is the master learner training them.
3. As a Learner’s Playground, in which the students learn how to freely operate within necessary boundaries as they experience the joy of unhurried adventure in the spirit of discovery; to support this spirit, the Wisdom School will have recess every day for an hour.
4. With an Integrated Curriculum, in which the disconnected content areas are woven together into a more realistic coherent whole… enabling the students to make connections between history, literature, the arts, Bible, and other core subjects; to study the cause and effects in human culture; to consider how aspects of world history and human life fit together rather than remain unrelated. Integrated within an integral unit of study will be an opportunity to not only become aware of local needs of the underserved but also personal experiences in helping to meet those needs. Nature studies are also woven into the thematic instruction to help students develop an eye for beauty and complexity in God’s creation.

WHO is the centerpiece and guiding source of the school’s vision? The Person of Christ, who is Wisdom and Love in the flesh, is the North Star of a Wisdom School, since all truth is God’s truth, all goodness is God’s goodness, and all beauty is God’s beauty. “Jesus existed before time, matter and space. Everything was brought into being through him, and in him everything continues to exist, held together by him alone. He is the upholding principle of the whole scheme of creation, and in union with him all things find their proper place. Yes, Jesus holds it all together. And with Christ in the center, all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe, people and things, animals and atoms, get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmony.” (Colossians 1:6-7, MSG). It makes sense then, in a Christ-centered Wisdom School, to have a weekly all-school meeting to sing and pray together, and to hear as a community some words of wisdom from Scripture.

WHERE is the school’s energy found? Within a community of personal relationships, not a network of web sites. God Himself provided the model of learning through His Incarnation, the flesh and blood presence of a human teacher. Learning is best done in relationship, between mutually respectful teacher and student, between cooperative students, between the supportive school and like-minded parents. Like real life, each classroom is mixed ages, where differently aged students learn to operate well in a community atmosphere in the classroom. Each class has a wide profile of families and students, including learning styles and differences, personal giftedness, varieties of personalities, and a diversity of socioeconomic levels. A Wisdom School is in no way an elitest learning environment intended for a narrow range of students and families, but instead enjoys building a wide and expansive community of friends who want to learn in harmony with each other. In light of that, once a week the Wisdom School will have “Buddy Time,” during which younger students will be paired up with older students to play games, read together, and enjoy each other’s company.

WHEN should a Wisdom School be built? Right now! In our high-tech society, there is no better time for a low-tech learning environment. Virtual leaning is living up to its own definition… sort of learning, almost learning, not fully real learning, not actual learning. Screen addictions are only getting worse. From calculators to computers, we have allowed machines to do our thinking for us far too often. It has become far too easy to let smart phones and chrome-books replace social interaction and active brain exercise. Data and information have replaced wisdom and understanding. Attention spans have shrunk to alarming levels. Quick-changing images and split-screen TV programs are producing minds that are constantly distracted and can’t focus on one thing at a time. Visual entertainment is fast replacing active mental functioning as a teaching method. It is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to discern what is real or fake, AI music or genuine music, an authentic photograph or something photoshopped, a false podcast or a true one. In an era when it is becoming almost impossible to trust what we see and hear, students need to be equipped for the onslaught of fakeness by a home and school that will strengthen their whole minds to know what to believe, to shrewdly discern what is true and real and what isn’t. Our society is grooming all of us to become dependent on technology for practically everything, but that doesn’t have to be true for education. A Wisdom School is not mediated by technology, but instead by flesh and blood people, up close and personal, in which deep learning is experienced in the context of meaningful relationships.