A little interaction on a blog entry from Pastor John Barach
Eugene Peterson, pictured right, is quoted by John Barach here:
Eugene Peterson says that we all suffer from “an unfortunate education,” which “has come about through the displacement of learning by schooling”:
“Learning is a highly personal activity carried out in personal interchange: master and apprentice, teacher and student, parent and child. In such relationships, the mind is trained, the imagination disciplined, ideas explored, concepts tested, behavioral skills matured in a context in which everything matters, in a hierarchy in which persons form the matrix…. The classic methods of learning are all personal: dialogue, imitation, and disputation. The apprentice observes the master as the master learns; the master observes the apprentice as the apprentice learns. The learning develops through relationships expressed in gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, admiration. And all of this takes place in a sea of orality — voices and silences” (Working the Angles 93).
As Peterson points out, what he is describing here is the way children — even infants — learn from their parents. Interestingly, I noticed that my son picked up the music of “Thank you” before he could say the words: he was imitating our pitches, first a higher one (“Thank”) and then the lower (“you”).”
I saw this quote by Peterson and then read through the commentary on the part of Pastor Barach.
The Deuteronomy 6 passage could not be more clear on this topic that Peterson addresses. Moses gives his charge to parents to carry out the teaching and nurture of children as a way of life and living. Specifically, the point of being together walking along the road or sitting at a table or in the living room in the home, and the lying down and rising up shows the daily life give-and-take of instruction and training. The points of the Peterson quote about learning developing through relationships are spot on the mark.
What makes the Peterson quote particularly engaging—and the point that Pastor John conveys about his son learning how to say Thank You—turns on the expressions Peterson uses to describe the ingredients of learning: gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, and so on. These are the ingredients that are found in the dialog of worship liturgy.
Pastor Barach mentions that his son, as a very young child, was learning to say Thank You with a musical-like intonation. That makes for a strong connection between Sunday worship and the Monday-Saturday walk of life. Maybe we can call it liturgically-based learning.
G. Mark Sumpter
Eugene Peterson, pictured right, is quoted by John Barach here:
Eugene Peterson says that we all suffer from “an unfortunate education,” which “has come about through the displacement of learning by schooling”:
“Learning is a highly personal activity carried out in personal interchange: master and apprentice, teacher and student, parent and child. In such relationships, the mind is trained, the imagination disciplined, ideas explored, concepts tested, behavioral skills matured in a context in which everything matters, in a hierarchy in which persons form the matrix…. The classic methods of learning are all personal: dialogue, imitation, and disputation. The apprentice observes the master as the master learns; the master observes the apprentice as the apprentice learns. The learning develops through relationships expressed in gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, admiration. And all of this takes place in a sea of orality — voices and silences” (Working the Angles 93).
As Peterson points out, what he is describing here is the way children — even infants — learn from their parents. Interestingly, I noticed that my son picked up the music of “Thank you” before he could say the words: he was imitating our pitches, first a higher one (“Thank”) and then the lower (“you”).”
I saw this quote by Peterson and then read through the commentary on the part of Pastor Barach.
The Deuteronomy 6 passage could not be more clear on this topic that Peterson addresses. Moses gives his charge to parents to carry out the teaching and nurture of children as a way of life and living. Specifically, the point of being together walking along the road or sitting at a table or in the living room in the home, and the lying down and rising up shows the daily life give-and-take of instruction and training. The points of the Peterson quote about learning developing through relationships are spot on the mark.
What makes the Peterson quote particularly engaging—and the point that Pastor John conveys about his son learning how to say Thank You—turns on the expressions Peterson uses to describe the ingredients of learning: gesture, intonation, posture, rhythm, emotions, affection, and so on. These are the ingredients that are found in the dialog of worship liturgy.
Pastor Barach mentions that his son, as a very young child, was learning to say Thank You with a musical-like intonation. That makes for a strong connection between Sunday worship and the Monday-Saturday walk of life. Maybe we can call it liturgically-based learning.
G. Mark Sumpter
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