As I begin this blog, which is designed to discuss the merits of classical education and solid Catholic foundations within the larger scope of Catholic Education, I with to reflect on the use of words as an expression of a deeper ideal that is found within the mind and soul of a person.
On a given day, my mind races with likely hundreds of various ideas. These thoughts include more basic survival thoughts (including, with the recent snow, "is it safe to walk on the ice here?", to "I am hungry, and I need food."). My other thoughts include prayer, God, my family and their needs, and even things like financial moves that will help my family. More random thoughts include themes around anthropomorphizing my cats, what would happen if I sledded off my roof, and what kind of Lego creations I can make. This is certainly not intending to be an exhaustive list of all of my thoughts for the day. That would be quite the undertaking, but I hope everybody can come to this conclusion: conscious people have a lot of thoughts, both random and intentional, throughout the day.
It led me to wonder if anybody has attempted to answer the question: "How many thoughts a day does the average person have?" One modern study from 2020 (Queens University in Canada) came up with around 6,200 thoughts per day, which is roughly 6.5 thoughts per minute. More details of this study can be found here.
Words are expressions of the thousands and thousands of thoughts that an individual has. Words are a result of the discernment of our mind to select those things which are most important for us to express to others. When we put things in words, our mind determines that a thought we have is important enough to express that thought to others. We have a thought in our mind, and there is a level of discernment that our mind and decision making parts of the brain undergo to decide whether that thought should be shared. Most of the time, the thoughts are not shared and they stay in our brain. Other times, they come out.
The level of discernment that our mind undergoes is very important. As an educator for a middle school, I often have the experience of students undergoing several different scenarios, which are below:
1. The impulse wins
In this scenario, a child has a thought, and without any filter, says exactly what they are thinking. The child has a thought that usually has nothing to do with class, and decides that everybody needs to know that thought, and then they say it. This might get them into trouble, especially if the words they say are inappropriate or at least ill-timed. Any educator knows that occasionally a student needs to tell everybody about their beloved pet, and the story comes out when you least expect it. The teacher then has to pivot back to learning, while also both affirming any merits of the story and helping the student think twice about random stories at inappropriate times.
2. The impulse is forgotten
These are perhaps both the funniest and the most frustrating. A child raises their hand, and when called on, promptly forgets what the question was. This has happened to me in class, and it happens somewhat regularly. The teacher has to stifle his own laughter (and help others stifle the chuckles as well) and encourage the student to raise his hand again when the question or idea is remembered.
3. The Impulse is ignored
Perhaps this is a mark of maturity, or insecurity. A student raises his hand, and then says "never mind." He chooses not to answer the question. As a math teacher, sometimes it indicates that the problem he had was worked out in his brain. Perhaps it is a mark of maturity and the student chooses not to tell an ill-timed story and he stops himself before doing it. Perhaps his questions have been left unanswered, ridiculed, or ignored in the past, and he is insecure in class. Hence, he does not answer because he thinks there might be ridicule forthcoming if he asks the question.
What can a teacher do?
In the Catholic School, an affirming of the child is of the utmost importance, but our thoughts and ideas must be guided to the objective need to train and form our minds to be discerning in our questions. A child must know he or she is loved. At the same time, a dose of charity and truth is also required. Ignoring the problem does not teach the child; rather, it results in an unaffirmed child who may shut down in the future and not ask questions again. Questions are welcome, but the side-quests and tangential questions of students must be redirected to the learning objectives. Students must be told charitably that there is a time for tangential questions, and that learning times are not that time. It disrupts the class as a whole, and also individual students who might struggle with the topic.
At the same time, sometimes there is a seemingly unrelated question that is an opportunity for further learning. I call these Holy Spirit moments. I was once discussing the topic of infinity in math. As a concept, two issues arise on the topic of infinity. The first is that only God is infinite, so the idea of a math concept being infinite actually helps me talk about God ass infinite. A even go so far as to say that the infinity sign is in some ways the math sign for God. However, the challenge I have is that math is created and in the physical world, and the idea of infinity in a finite world is particularly challenging. God is in the world, but He is certainly not confined in the world. If math is confined in the world, can there really be a concept of infinity within math?
Back to the story: when the student asks about the topic of infinity, it is the opportunity to dive into the nature of God, and suddenly you are relating math concepts to God. Doing this naturally will result in a win in your class. Master teachers can also predict the tangents and use them for educational purposes. They plant little seeds that can bring the students to then start asking questions about God in their particular topics.
Any subject that is taught in a Catholic School will always have its roots in God and in Truth. Jesus Himself self-identifies as Truth in St. John's Gospel.
In other posts, I will talk about ways to allow the students to process their thoughts and words, but I will leave this post with these conclusions:
1. Students must be affirmed and redirected as the teacher sees fit.
2. Always leave room for the Holy Spirit to inspire students and the teacher to redirect students to some topic of Faith.
3. Pay attention to the student's verbal impulses. There are thoughts always happening, and it is important to get to the thoughts if we want to help form the student.
May God bless you today and always!
