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The Teacher Learner
Cycle |
| I want to thank Misty
Sheehan and the Sunday Service Committee for inviting me to speak and
thank Maura Brennan for assistance with the setting. A special thanks goes to Sally Mitchell for the portraits of Sophia Lyon Fahs and Angus MacLean she has produced this week! And for the many other thoughtful and artistic renderings of our religious heritage Sally has created over several years. Sally you are a gem! I anticipate the topic this morning may take you on a journey in reflecting on your own learning-teaching cycle. So, if you leave me to examine that path then I count this a worthy event. Being a grandparent of young children has reinforced my sense of the centrality of parenting for children to learn about trust and love and grow in all the dimensions of their lives. Granted there is nothing new or earth shaking in this knowledge, but it has spurred me to reflect on how I parented and think about how my parents nurtured me. When I see my daughter and son-in-law caring for, laughing, encouraging, setting limits and teaching their two young sons, I think they have far exceeded what I did as a parent. I am grateful and amazed at the cycle of teaching – learning we are engaged with throughout our years and over generations. I try to imagine what a shock it must have been to my parents to have two daughters arrive during the depression when the doctor had predicted that our mother was carrying one large boy. Many of you know that my identical twin sister and I were the only children in an active Universalist family in a small town in Ohio. It was a religious protected environment in that our childhood friends attended the Universalist Church and only in my teen years did I discover others in the community held conservative religious ideas. My primary and continuing religious education occurred in my home with my parents. Whether my parents knew of this awesome responsibility as religious educators I can only speculate. I only know our mother was instrumental in extending our vision beyond the local church because we attended summer UU camps throughout our teen years. It was in the church school we were introduced to Sophia Lyon Fahs. Oh, she was not there in person. And yet she was. She was the unseen and omnipresent teacher in our classroom each Sunday. She was unseen teacher in thousands of church school classrooms in Unitarian Universalist churches for decades. Her presence was visible in every curriculum book used. She was present as author or co-author. She was present as editor of other books she did not write. But most import she was present as the visionary in the creation of the entire New Beacon curriculum series. A curriculum series of over 40 books that extended from pre-school through high school. A curriculum series that was treasured for 40 years. Before you are some of the curriculum books with supplemental materials in that series. Books used by this congregation retrieved from storage boxes. The old book smell lingers among them! Perhaps what is most amazing is that Sophia was 61 years old when she became Curriculum Editor for the Unitarians in 1937. And she was 88 when she fully retired in 1964, and then lived on to be 101. Before Sophia came on the scene, religious education was didactic with almost exclusively Bible stories offered to the youngest through teens. Was she ever a breath of fresh air…one could say a cyclone. It was her belief that children were born with religious instincts, that children were naturally curious about the world around them…that children had capacities for cognitive thinking and ethical growth. And she believed in experiential and experimental learning for all ages. My favorite curriculum from childhood was all the beginning of life and death, earth and sky stories. Creation stories from many cultures…Native Americans, African tribes, Aboringinals, Scandinavian cultures… that led us to wonder about the creation of the world and where life came from and what happened after death. Those beginning stories took us on imaginary journeys to other times and people, introduce me to other eras and places. I suspect my curiosity and appreciation for the natural world, for history and for the exploration of ideas were nurtured in a mysterious way because of Sophia. Unfortunately, none of the Beginning books are before you today. Sophia also promoted the inclusion of science in religious education believing there was no clear separation of the two. She believed that science, studied in a religious context, would help children develop a sensitivity to the deep mystery of life and introduce them to the vast outreaches of the unknown. I think it is no accident that some of our current Unitarian Universalist principles reflect the seeds she planted decades ago that have been incorporated in our religious philosophy. Perhaps the most contentious area Sophia confronted in our religious movement was the place of Biblical material in religious education. For her the Bible was to be a source book. One among many. Stories of Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Jesus were presented within the historical and cultural context times they were written. She believed investigations into Biblical material should be taken up after exposure to beginning stories from other cultures. She was a stickler for intellectual integrity and Biblical scholarship in writing curriculum for children. Oh, that Sophia was here today to preach to the intelligent design and creation advocates in our society. Which leads me to ask where are our religious leaders in giving voice to our views in the Religion-science-Biblical criticism tug of war? We do have a long-standing intelligent position to defend. Where are the spokespersons in our Association? Having visits from our young grandsons vividly reminded me how curious, experimental, persistent and adventuresome children are. Always, children were the focus for Sophia. Whether she was teaching teachers and ministers about children’s developmental needs or stages or writing curriculum, it was nurturing children’s spiritual life she held dear. I suspect she never forgot the poem her 11year old daughter Ruth wrote:
Where is the really, really me? Afterward, Sophia wrote, “How can a
child really grasp the significance of the invisibility of God (you can
substitute your own word) until he/she has first realized the
invisibility of his/her own real psyche?” At 13 Ruth suddenly died from polio. Afterward Sophia wrote, “No
religion could inspire, that did not include sorrow and tragedy. Life
had no special protective privilege to grant to anyone. Had it not been
for this personal tragedy, I would never have had the courage, I
believe, to think of putting the word ‘death’ on the title page of a
children’s book.” The reading “Living” on the front of the order of service I believe is a
summation of Sophia’s reverence for this mysterious gift of life, that
includes death, and the confidence she held that each of us was up to
discovering our own “me” within the vastness of the this place we call
home. Before I even started theological school I only knew Sophia Fahs through
books and stories others told of her. On just two occasions did I
converse with Mrs. Fahs. Once while a student at theological school, the
other when I visited her in a retirement facility when she was in her
late nineties. She was a striking presence. It was in 1974 when more
women were entering our ministry and she wanted to talk about women
studying for ministry and religious education. On the other hand my learning from Angus H. MacLean was person to
person. In fact it was because of Angus’s reputation as a religious
educator that I chose St. Lawrence University in 1958 to study for the
UU ministry. Angus and Sophia had been on parallel paths in their shared
philosophy about religious education for decades. They each believed an
hour each week was too short a time to explore and experience any
religious idea. They shared a correspondence, but surprisingly rarely
met face to face. While Sophia was writing curriculum, it was Angus who taught the
countless men, and a few women like me, about how children were to be
valued in their ministry and how religious education curriculum was to
be used in the church school. Decades ago children were an afterthought
in church life and most clergy knew little about child development.
Gratefully that has changed somewhat, but attitudes and patterns die
slowly. Especially when theological education for ministers even today
is sorely lacking in life span RE. curriculum. Angus, a Scots Presbyterian from Nova Scotia, was a teacher without
peer. From him I learned that the teacher is an integral part of the
curriculum…to teach fairness one must be fair, to teach about loving
one’s neighbor one must demonstrate love. He believed ethical values
were demonstrated in the interaction of people, not in talking about
them in the abstract. His pamphlet, “The Method is the Message” has
kernels of truth in it that are worthy of our attention today. When Angus wanted to teach about valuing the earth he might take a class
birdwatching or to a dump to see the abuses heaped on our earth. He
taught with stories and through personal experiences. Always insisting
there be planned time for reflection and conclusions reached if there
was any chance of learning taking place. In other words, he demanded a
critical component be present in our learning experiences. Taking time
for reflection, I suspect, is the component most likely absent from
personal and church life. Angus was what I call a wise loving person….he thought deeply and
carefully and urged his students to do likewise, not making hurried
judgments or drawing hard and fast conclusions. He was a gentle man.
Except when he was cheering for his favorite hockey team when his voiced
would be raised several decimbals and his wife might need to restrain
him. Angus insisted the arts be utilized in religious education, whether it
be music, painting, ceramics, or impromptu plays. He was an artist
himself painting many good landscapes he often gave to students. Well do
I remember one class when his assignment was to create a play with
puppets. We were to choose the theme, write the script, make the puppets
for the play. It was to be a group effort. Initially frustration and
chaos was in full gear as we argued what the theme and story line would
be. Argued over the written script. Making the puppets and props was a
major frustration for some. After weeks the play was completed and
rehearsed and finally given with relief and pride. I have thought the
joy we knew of a job well done is echoed in all group achievements at
whatever age level they occur. Why given this assignment? As ministers many situations in congregations
we would serve might be frustrating and chaotic until clear goals were
established, then tasks delineated and finally tasks assigned and shared
according to participants talents. Most of Sophia and Angus’s attention was regarding the creation of
church school curriculum and the teaching of that curriculum. Upon retirement Angus turned his attention to how the church can help
families in their religious education endeavors. Long had we professed
that parents were the first and most influential religious educators.
Long had he ruminated about how families teach religious values. He
wanted to explore ways in which the church could assist those parents
who wanted to be more intentional and reflective of how they parented.
He was interested in how and who in families choose the use of vacation
time, extra-curricula activities, when and how meals are shared and how
families celebrate anniversaries, to name a few. In other words he was interested in how families experience a sense of
togetherness, of loyalty, of cooperation and of love for each other. He
wondered how families express attitudes about civic responsibility?
About charities and causes and the church? He hoped congregations would
support those parents who wanted to explore being more thoughtful in
religious nurture at home. On the Internet I discovered a paper Angus
wrote in 1960, the year of his retirement, “Home Patterns in Religious
Teachings”. It is a treasure trove of his musings and wisdom about how
the church and families might collaborate in developing a deeper more
thoughtful religious education enterprise. Unfortunately, in the 40 years since Angus wrote his observations there
has been little interest by our Association and/or local congregations
for examining let alone implementing a program for parents. I confess I
don’t have ready-made answers of how a program would look. But I do
believe resurrecting and studying Angus’s paper, “Home Patterns in
Religious Teaching” is one way to begin. A small group of parents,
including grandparents, may be intrigued enough to take up the
challenge. If we believe, “You who are a parent are the greatest teacher of
religion”, as was written decades ago, then we owe it to parents to
support them with more than words. Keeping the church school program
vital is as important as it always has been. I do not suggest less
emphasis on it. Let’s acknowledge too, parents and their task, as religious educators
are worthy of our thought and action. Each family has its own lifestyle
patterns, each family has its treasury of stories to draw on through
good times and bad, each family has its rituals, symbols and art it
lives with and is nurtured by. How can we support families in examining
the resources intrinsic to their lives? To life them up for reflection
and even sharing. To my knowledge this inquiry with parents is an untrod
path waiting to be walked. Years ago Sophia Fahs wrote, “There is never an end to our trying the
untried after all our failures in striving. Fling wide the windows, O my
soul! The bright beams of morning are warm.” What better way to remember
Sophia than trying the untried while continuing the unfinished learning
Angus suggested many years ago. |