tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481184.post4743520428652053377..comments2017-09-24T05:54:44.593-07:00Comments on If Flannery Had A Blog...: One more from The Presence of GraceTSnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7481184.post-66637661741403564142009-01-19T07:28:00.000-08:002009-01-19T07:28:00.000-08:00You may be interested in the Catechesis of the Goo...You may be interested in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, based on the work of Maria Montessori. I help teach a class for children ages 3-6. One of the main differences between this program and others is its thesis that children develop their faith in a very different way from that posited by a "traditional" religious education system. Montessori taught that the young child is primed for big ideas -- language, behavior, mathematics, and so on. A child ages 3-6 doesn't learn arithmetic, he learns about quantities, about adding and subtracting, about the generalities of multiplication and division. He learns these naturally, as he learns grammar, and when you develop materials and lessons based on how he already learns, you teach him the basics for formal mathematics later. Ditto with other subjects -- including religion, which was originally a integral part of Montessori's classes.<BR/><BR/>The young child, she said, is ready for the big ideas of religion: salvation, sin, redemption, and so on, including the crucifixion of Christ. She learns these through exactly the same images and readings adults do. So in these classes, children hear the Bible (not a "child's version"), view sacred art, and learn the parables. The main difference is one typical to anyone familiar with Montessori -- child-sized replicas of real things, such as the altar and the vestments, and "works" that the child can touch and handle. Children learn all the real names for things (this is the time when they pick up names -- ask any child the names of dinosaurs).<BR/><BR/>The idea is that as they grow they deepen their knowledge and understanding, based on their age and development. They don't learn a childish version of things that they then have to abandon for an adult one -- if they make that step and don't just abandon it.Gail Fhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11740482509910163332noreply@blogger.com