Schole - The Hard Work of Leisure

In leisure, man oversteps the frontiers of the everyday workaday world, not in external effort and strain, but as though lifted above it in ecstasy.

- "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" by Joseph Peiper

"So why are you here?" was the first question asked in class. Answers were as varied as each individual: For the adventure. Just to do it. To go with friends. To see new things.

My answer: Because my husband and daughter want me to. 

Though, while true, it wasn't a fully satisfying answer. While I was sitting in that classroom because they had enrolled me, there was something deeper and bigger tugging on my heart. It was about 4 weeks later, and 50 ft under sea level that the answer came to me - worship. I was there not for the adventure, or to share experiences with friends and family, or to see new things - I was there for worship. 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism states it perfectly: What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. 

We were made for one thing - Worship. And Worship is the root of schole- leisure. 

In the first third of his book "Leisure: The Basis of Culture" Joseph Peiper lays out that the fall of Western Civilization will come not from a lack of work, but because of the cult of work. Work for completely utilitarian purposes. Work that is done to fill our stomachs, clothe our bodies, and to give life purpose. Western civilization works for the sake of work. It even rests for the sake of work - which really isn't true rest at all. We work so that we can take a break from work, so that we can be more productive at our work. 

We have been groomed and indoctrinated to think leisure is a lack of work. It is the weekends on a beach, an evening of Settlers of Catan, Saturday morning donuts and cartoons. When the term for leisure is used in scripture, and through other ancient works, it has a very different meaning. Schole, the Greek word from which we get "school", implies not a lack of work, but an active pursuit of what is means to be human. The classical understanding of education is working to find the what it true, what is good, and what is beautiful. It is working toward understanding something bigger than ourselves. It is a pursuit in and of itself - not a quest toward more knowledge, more opportunity, more meaning, more experiences - but to simply be. It is hard work, but it is not burdensome. It takes a lot of energy, but it isn't wearisome. It is actually a work that invigorates us toward more work. 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me,....and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11: 28-29

Jesus reiterates this idea of true rest in Matthew 11. He doesn't say "Come to me and sit under your beach umbrella".  He says to "Take my yoke and learn". His rest is active. It is a pursuit of Him, not an escape from toil. It provides "rest for your souls" - at that deepest level of who we were created to be. 

On this Monday morning, after a weekend of 3 underwater dives, I am sore. The journey there was not easy - at one point it left me vomiting from over-exertion. My body is weary, yet my soul is looking forward to the next dive.  This morning, my spirit has a new sense of vigor. Because, for a few brief moments, 50 feet underwater, surrounded by walls of coral and schools of fish, with only the sound of my own breathing, relieved of even the weight of my own body and the apparatuses keeping me alive,  I was free to worship and understand my Creator in a whole new light and at an entirely new depth. It is going to take a lot more work to more fully worship in this manner, I still have much to learn and many skills to refine, yet the "yoke" of  worship is leisure to the soul. 

It is a pursuit of understanding and knowing my Creator, and thus who I am. 

Schole - Living Life Classically

It is 9 am Sunday morning. My husband and 3 of our children were up and out of the door early for a base church service. I am supposed to be herding the other 3 out of bed and out the door toward the service we usually attend --- yet I am sitting on our back patio, listening to birds sing, cicadas chirp, cars zipping down the road, and airplanes taking off.  My heart and soul are yearning for worship, for peace, for connection with Something bigger than myself - yet in ways very different from what I can find in any church here on our little island. The liturgies, hymns, choruses, creeds, scripture readings, preaching, and sacraments are all good and necessary - yet too often move too fast, cover too much, are ruled by the clock, and focused on personal application or lost in theological intricacies,  loosing what it truly means to Worship. They become the airplanes over powering the birds singing. What I need, is "schole" - contemplation, leisure. Worship that take the time to engage the heart, soul, mind, body, and relationships (both with God and others).  If I am honest, this is not just what I am missing in corporate worship - it is what I am missing in my life - my marriage, my teaching, my learning, my parenting, my daily chores.  What my soul needs is the hard work of slowing down, listening, searching, discussing, and contemplating Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

The last several months I've been digging into the intricacies of Classical Education - a quickly growing movement to re-learn and re-claim educational tools, pedagogies, and content from the ancient and middle ages that have been lost with the advent of modern progressive education. While I set out to read and study for professional and parenting reasons, it is leading me on a journey of self-discovery. As I've been tracing what has been lost and why, it has struck my core that what has been lost, and what is being learned within this renewal movement, is not just about formal education, but life and all that our modern world has lost in the pace of Progress. The principles of Classical Education cannot be effectively applied to a classroom, or homeschool, without being lived out in every aspect of life. While our modern world is focused on productivity, what can we do, how well can we do it, and how much can get done, the Classical world yearned for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

There is much irony that as modern peoples we have systems, technologies, and knowledge that leave us with more  "leisure" than any in the Classical world would have dreamed of; yet we run non-stop races to be more, make more, and have more in hope of that week on the beach or a weekend BBQ with friends.  Yet the Ancients, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine, had none of our modern conveniences and scientific understanding, but lived daily lives of  true "leisure" and saw beauty that we can only yearn for. They lived in a "music of the spheres" that we can't fathom. We have lost "schole" - leisure at its most basic and fundamental definition.

I would like to invite you to join me on this journey of renewal. Not as an educator or parent, but as a human - as a created being designed to glorify its Creator and rest in Him. I want to explore what it means to apply the eight fundamental principles of Classical Pedagogy to life:

1- Festina Lente - Make haste slowly
2 - Multum non multa - Much not many
3 - Repitio mater memoriae - Repetition is the mother of memory
4 - Embodied Learning
5 - Songs and Chants
6 - Wonder and Curiosity
7 - Virtue
8 - Schole - Contemplation and Leisure

I want to begin with "schole", because I believe it is really the most fundamental. It is both the ends and the means of the other seven. It is doing the hard work of sitting at the feet of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and having the virtue to receive it.