Pedagogy of the Sacred

Only dialogue truly communicates.

(Paulo Friere; Education for Critical Consciousness:45)

           

            The word curriculum means “to run a course.”  The curriculum is a doorway that opens onto reality whenever its content and structure reflects the perceived nature of reality.  The word pedagogy meant originally “to lead the child” as a tutor, or guardian, does.  In spiritual education pedagogy must embody principles that enable human beings to lead each other to educe their true or sacred humanity, to run that course that leads them to the highest and noblest they can be.    

            I want to explore how a pedagogy of the sacred can lead the child to that higher reality both within himself and within the world, can bring him into attunement with the sacred which is also his own best self.  As I will discuss, this is a paradoxical situation, because the most effective principle composing a pedagogy of the sacred is dialogue.  Usually dialogue is for sharing information, opinion, feelings and thoughts.  That is, it is an exchange to achieve more knowledge or better understanding. But to achieve connection with the sacred, dialogue is to evoke a numinous consciousness, a new state of mind, to arouse a latent level of mind and heart. It is not so much an exchange as a gift from above, an invitation extended to a third party to enter and participate in the dialogue and to transform it.         

            Intelligence in any form is diverse, interactive and dynamic.  We all know of the studies proving that people retain significantly different mounts of information according to the methods of instruction they receive. Generally, simple lectures rank very low, participatory methods of all kinds rank the highest. The main reason for this is the increased activity of the learners, their bringing more of themselves, as children do, into the learning process so they understand their own processes of learning by applying knowledge in trial and error situations. They learn how to learn—and pretty quickly, too.  Also, research shows that, whatever the curriculum and learning style, students learn best when they are engaged in real experiences within meaningful social and intellectual contexts that yield authentic results that have worth and purpose for a greater good, and potential for reward.

            From this view, then, even attending a lecture can be a participatory educational experience if the listener is fully engaged in what the speaker is saying and if it arouses a desire within him to know more, and he arises to find out what he wants to know.  On the other hand, while animated discussion about some problem or challenge is obviously participatory learning for those involved in the discussion, for someone who cannot follow the discussion it is not participatory at all, for he cannot enter the conversation.  He is likely to tune out, his mind wanders and he exhibits all the characteristics of profound boredom.  Also, what may seem like a lot of participation, with the give and take of sharing stories and anecdotes of “related” experiences, is often actually resistance to new knowledge and perspective, diverting the mind into known channels of thought that causes people to quickly lose the thread of argument or the possibility of change.  In such situations, while there may be an emotional resonance, or a sense of “Yes, I’ve been there, too”, at the end of the “discussion” no advance of consciousness has been accomplished.  This is because true participatory learning is not just a happy exchange between people, but the transformation that occurs between the intelligence and knowledge.  The mind and heart must participate in knowledge and be transformed by it.  

            When properly brought forth, what best engages the mind and heart are life’s great questions”: Who am I?; What is my purpose?; How do we get along with one another?; and when we have answered these essential questions, How do I gradually apply this knowledge to my everyday life? 

            What do I mean by when properly brought forth?  I mean the phrase in two senses.  First, the creation of a safe environment of inquiry.  Though the great questions of life are the most engaging, they are also, for many, the most frightening.  One may wonder about the appropriateness of stirring up fear and anxiety within students.  Should we not banish these subjects to the limbo of unasked questions, and take the safe, even road?  Absolutely not!  One of the great joys any human being can experience is the joy of overcoming: breaking free of limitations, tearing down Berlin-wall barriers to greater prosperity of spirit; giving hope and building capacity.  Of course there may be fear and anxiety initially, but on the other side of these is joy and abundant life. The teacher must lead her students to these Elysian fields.  Joy and fear are, together, the taproot of motivation.  Education is not for life.  Education is life, since the modalities of the spirit are at the same time manifestations of life.  We are “hard-wired” for spirituality!  Without it we are no more than zombies.            

            However it is unlikely these questions will be taken up unless students feel that it is safe to unfold themselves.  Often there are tentative reachings out, small, timid explorations undertaken, simple quick forays into the realm of spirit made by the uncertain soul which can be the “teachable moment”, the guide (and guard) to further exploration and discovery.  If teachers are full of wonder and mystery they will ask themselves: Why at this moment did that soul drop the curtain behind which it hid to peep out from its mental and emotional swaddling clothes to look at spirit?  In this sense, teachers should be like the battery name: Ever-ready.  These moments can be among the most precious moments of our teaching lives and we should approach them as we would approach any sacred place: with dignity, respect, even awe, and not with the pat answer.  The pat answer only trivializes the moment and reduces the whole question to entertainment, not education, the bringing forth of the real depths of self.  But neither should the student’s questions necessarily be met with a long philosophical soliloquy on the complexities of life, meaning and existential angst.  Too much too soon will also kill inquiry.  We want to invite them to share in the mystery of formulating their own experience, interpreting it almost as they are creating it. 

            There is a striking dramatic portrayal of what I mean by bringing forth the sacred depths of essential humanity in a scene from the movie Dead Poet’s Society.  In that scene a shy, inhibited young man has his “poem” of self educed by the teacher’s master application of threat and encouragement.  And when he does, to other’s applause, the teacher remarks: ‘Don’t you forget this.”  Beautiful!

            The second sense in which I mean the phrase properly brought forth is in the activity of dialogue itself.  Modern learning theory has proved that human beings construct meaning collaboratively, that human reason needs communication and community to develop, for human beings generally think best in communion. Such conversation seems also to be a valuable key to mental well-being and the ability to cope with life’s challenges.  From these points we note, again, that, if participative methods of learning form the matrix of the learning world, then dialogue is the core element.  Good dialogue is people engaged in authentic relations of mutual unveiling and revealing of self.  Dialogue is indispensable to education, for it is the manifesting of the human essence.  Dialogue is a primary method of social re-ligia. 

            Dialogue and conversation are so important because the presence of the self is evoked by listening to its thought. Dialogue is not just the conveyance of ideas and information, but the silent inquiry into thought and knowledge.  We hear thought when it is conveyed by the sound of words, or see it in pictures and sculpture, perceive it in motion in dance, experience its pure forms in music.  Spiritual Education sees the classroom as one opportunity among many for this transformation from inner thought to outer expression.  But it sees all situations that way.   More in the next post.