You can take children to an art museum with little or no preparation, and they can enjoy it. But more often than not it takes some training. They need to know how to quietly look and observe - skills that are sorely lacking in many modern children accustomed to constantly moving images and sounds. Having a basic understanding of history, mythology, and Biblical narrative is helpful as they recognize stories in paint and sculpture.
Visits are also more enjoyable when children can participate in the art. One of my favorite homeschool memories is 8 children sitting in a Medieval ceramics exhibit enthralled in sketching a favorite piece or quietly telling me the "story" they imagine going on in a Renaissance painting. Some of my favorite photographs are of children imitating sculptures.
Repeated trips to the same exhibits deepens their appreciation and wonder, if between visits they have learned more about technique, color, perspective, artist, and style. Monet's "Waterlilies" is incredible the first time you see it. Come back to it again and again after learning about painting techniques, Monet's home and life, and the use of light and color, and the depth of appreciation for the piece grows!
Few people think to take children to art museums because they think it will be boring. The problem isn't the nature of the museum, or the children, but a lack of preparation and skills needed to participate in the experience. To take a group of children raised on fast paced movies and video games to the quiet, sedentary art gallery is often a disaster waiting to happen. On the other hand, to spend hours studying technique, style, biographies, and facts without ever taking the time to simply enjoy is a sure fire way to undermine developing any love for art.
We tend to approach education, and worship, the same way we approach art. As education is part of our worship, the two are intertwined. We all err toward one of two extremes. Either we have a check list of skills and knowledge that need to be covered, so we push through covering material and rarely stopping to enjoy the process, or we lead them to emotional experiences with little to no knowledge and understanding of what they are experiencing.
In a classroom, or home school room, we have our lists of topics to be covered, skills to be learned, and books to be read and stress when work isn't covered each week, or age/grade based benchmarks aren't reached "on time". We give our grammar stage students pages of math facts, time-line dates, Latin declensions, scientific terms, and Bible verses to memorize, rarely stopping to let them explore and experience the joy and beauty of it all. Or, we give a lot of experiences, living books, free-open-ended play, and don't require mastery of the skills and facts that equip them to fully understand and develop. Both leave students lacking, preventing them from fully delighting in and participating in what it means to be human.
Our churches do the same thing. We have Sunday mornings (or Saturday nights) filled with emotional experiences, bright lights, talented musicians, and inspirational speakers - but it is all emotional experience with no real hard understanding. Years of "1000 Reasons" and "5 Ways to a Happy Marriage" develop egocentric lethargic souls that have replaced the justice and majesty of God with a Being who is there to serve individual desires. Sunday puts us in the right mood for facing the world the rest of the week. In many other churches Sundays revolve around completing a check-list of skills and knowledge - statements of faith, creeds, catechisms, Old Testament readings, New Testament readings, confessions, sacraments. An hour (or 2) of great doctrine and theology, but lacking in Spirit, awe, and glorying in the Creator. God becomes something impersonal and a Being that needs to be satisfied through Sunday morning ritual. Neither bring us to a place of daily worship and deepening understanding of God.
This is not an attempt to advocate for a specific educational or worship style. They all have their benefits and weaknesses. None is perfect and all can be beneficial. My point is that we tend to forget we are physical, spiritual, emotional and cognitive creations. We have been created to know, to understand, and to experience God and creation. We have been commanded to worship in Spirit and in Truth. We are not complete learners or worshippers, until we have participated as cognitive, emotional, and spiritual beings.
As a teacher, don't read about Newton and memorize his laws of motion without taking the time to go bowling - watching how force, mass, and acceleration work and rejoicing in the pins falling down. Don't go bowling and fail to study how the weight of the ball, the force of the throw interact. Struggle with how to figure out what mass and acceleration is needed to get the desired force. Read about Newton, memorize F=MA, go bowling, learn about angles and trajectory, and go back to the bowling alley.
As a christian parent, teacher or pastor, prepare for corporate worship as both a teaching experience and an encounter with God Almighty. Adults and children need to be prepared for corporate worship, and that takes work during the week. Training children in sitting, listening, reading, singing, and doctrine. It means memorizing scripture, learning the catechism, singing hymns and worship choruses, memorizing creeds, and understanding sacraments during the week so they can actively and knowledgeably participate Sunday morning. Corporate worship is "practice" and preparation for heaven - the great marriage feast of Christ and the Church. It is exciting, emotional, and a celebration of who God is and what He has done. Sunday worship that is an emotional high without theological training leaves us without deepening understanding of God, limiting our capability of celebrating and knowing Him. Sunday worship that is all theology and liturgy without emotional, artistic, heartfelt response leaves us admiring the Kingdom of God without participating in the joy of the Wedding. Sunday worship should lead us (individually and corporately) to desiring week-day worship and increasing knowledge, which in turn adds to our Sunday morning worship - a cycle that ultimately prepares us for Heaven. True worship develops the heart, soul, and mind by using both our cognitive understanding and our affective sensory, bodily experiences.
How are you growing in Spirit and in Truth? How are you leading your children in understanding, participating in, and experiencing the Creator and creation? Are you going to the museum? Are you primarily understanding the Art? Are you primarily experiencing the Art? or Are you striving for both, for being a complete human - heart, soul, and mind?
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