What about the School Dance?
We all know something of school because we were subjected to school for at least 13 years. But this becomes part of the problem. Give us all a bland familiarity with a common experience, attach a name to it, and we should all know it.
We humans have to generalize from our limited experience or how else would we make sense of the world? My experiences with wine aficionados is limited, but from my experience, they always recommend red wine with beef. I find it reasonable to assume that all wine aficionados recommend red wine with red meat.
But may I go a step further and now dogmatize? Everyone should always pair red wine with red meat. This is a rule of fine dining. Will you fault me with making a hasty generalization? Am I therefore wrong to proclaim such a rule?
My experience with wine experts is limited indeed but I do have 13 years of experience with school through 12th grade alone. I think my experience is broad. I think I am qualified to say a lot about what school is and should be–don’t you?
And what about dancing? What is a good dance in your estimation? What would it be for your children? I grew up with disco. Ironically, disco in Latin means “I learn.” Well I did learn to disco, and in this case “disco” comes from the mere spinning of a record or disk. You would not want to see me disco these days (or maybe you would). As another general rule about K-12 education, we tend to suppose that what we know about education (or dancing) is sufficient. Especially if we did well in school (got good grades) and enjoyed the school prom.
I have witnessed founding board members of start-up schools that come together with enthusiasm to start a new classical school, fairly confident they know practically all they need to know about what school was, is, and should be. It is hard not to admire the boldness, courage, and optimism of these founders. It is an American virtue. We Americans are innovative, sometimes brash, and willing to try just about anything that seems promising.
I have also counseled many school boards that call for counsel, help, and advice–though this has been most often after the school has started and encountered some rough patches.
Haven’t we all generalized from our experience of schooling–since it is our primary study of the history of education? What we often miscalculate, however, is how deeply we have been formed by our own education, even when we are trying to transcend it. This is because education is formation–for good or ill, or some combination of both. Our own education has placed us in an educational “box” and it is hard to climb out, sometimes hard to know we are even in a box. This is why classical educators at first will use the red pen and the A, B, C, D, F grading scale without qualm or question. This is why we will divide our school week into five days with eight 42-minute periods and a 22-minute lunch. This is why we will start and fund multiple athletic programs before we fund and build a good chemistry or physics lab. This is what we have known.
This is why a godly mom might ask, when her daughter reaches 9th grade, why there is no prom at the school. And why she might volunteer to administer the first school prom, complete with a DJ, dancing music, and colored lights. It is what we know, and it seems that what we have come to know when we were 16, sits deep in our bones. Those things we experienced when we came of age–don’t we want them for our own kids? Would you wish your prom experience on your own children? This is an irony I have yet to master.
I am reminded of several beautiful and holy wedding ceremonies I have enjoyed when the service, words, music, and celebration of the union of man and wife can only be described as joyful. I have then witnessed wedding receptions in which a hired DJ from outside the church took over the celebration, with words, music, and hijinks that were as low as the wedding service was high. Do we really need to see (at the DJ’s injunction) the groom reach for a garter up his bride’s dress? This is a witness to the power of education as formation–it disposes us to what we can see and cannot see.
Now not everything we have inherited should be despised, and often what we have inherited are corrupted forms of good things. For example, we should assess students, and give them important written feedback on their academic work, even if we don’t use the modern grading system we all know (but likely don’t love). Having high school students learn to celebrate, dance, and cordially engage one another is a good thing, wisely directed. Much of our secular education is just this–corrupted forms of the older, better liberal arts education that we now often call classical education. Even the DJ at the wedding reception is responding poorly to the right and good inclination of everyone to dance. Sadly, we no longer teach people to dance, which requires preparation, attention, coordination, and harmony. The DJ must work with the little that our own education has provided us–a left-to-right rock or shuffle, and perhaps some version of the electric slide. To be more positive, many schools are reviving real dance–ballroom dancing and line dancing for example.
Because we have all been formed by our own educations, we will (all of us) at times wish to bring something of that education to our children. This in itself is okay. Some of what we have received is worth passing on and does no harm and perhaps even good. But most of us have trouble discerning what should stay and what should go, and we all should seek prudence and discretion and be patient with one another as we seek to renew and extend classical, liberal arts education.
To varying degrees, we are stuck with the blinders that come with our own generally poor educations. If we are stuck with what we know from our own experience of education, how can we do better? How can we recover the older, uncorrupted education? Can we learn a better dance?
If we are to climb out of the box we have three sensible choices: read, seek counsel, and visit schools that have gone before us. The first classical schools in the American renewal were started in 1980 and 1981–over 40 years ago. There is no reason for founding school board members to depend on the combined wisdom of their own education and experience. There is now some valuable, accumulated experience that is easily accessible to new boards. There are books, there are websites, there are conferences, and most importantly, there are schools. In my opinion, every start-up school should be mentored by another more mature classical school that is at least 10 years old (20 would be better). Every start-up school should consult with someone who has successfully done what it hopes to achieve. If you are part of a start-up school–have you ever visited a mature classical school? Have you considered asking such a school to mentor your school?
The word “conversation” or “converse” (from the Latin cum + versus) literally means to “turn with” as we all do when we dance. If we are to learn to dance well, we must engage in conversation with the past (by reading) and with each other (by reading and visiting one another). It is a good question to ask, “What about a school dance?” It is even better to ask, “What makes for really good dancing?”
If you are one of those seeking to get out of the box, here is just a sampling of resources to consult (Nota Bene: I work with ClassicalU and Classical Academic Press):
The Book Finder: Browse some 75 books on classical education that are organized by topic
Society for Classical Learning: Articles, leadership cohorts, and conferences for classical schools
Association of Classical Christian Schools: Articles, reports, and conferences for classical schools
The Circe Institute: Articles, conferences, and consulting for classical schools and homeschools
ClassicalU.com: Over 70 recorded mini-courses for teachers and those new to classical education
Institute for Catholic Liberal Education: Resources and Conferences for Catholic classical schools
Classical Academic Press: Classical K-12 Curricula