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My Children
and St. Augustine
by Franko Mandato
January 29, 2006
“I am not doing the puzzle, I am just giving
you pieces.” I hear my four-year old Jaedan exclaim to his
five-year old brother, Elian. And I had to laugh because Jaedan
is teaching his brother to do harder puzzles (200+ piece &
up). This is the technique I used while working with Jaedan well
over a year ago. He subsequently is up to 500 piece puzzles while
his older brother rarely if ever attempts puzzles.
I began to consider if my fervor and demonstrated pleasure with
Jaedan’s success had inadvertently caused a dislike in Elian
for jigsaw puzzles. But Elian did not like to accept my help much
once he got good at puzzles. He seemed to hit a block at 100 piece
and he wasn’t interested in learning or having me help him
master that next level of jigsaw puzzle construction.
Secretly I was excited that Jaedan was working with Elian but
then I heard “You can do 200 piece puzzles all by yourself
now Elian!” but then Elian replied “No, I don’t
think so.” I thought perhaps this was a moment that I could
interject some sort of self-esteem boost towards Elian and I thought
I could say ‘Sure you could do it Elian’ fortunately
Jaedan beat me to the punch and delivered a similar encouraging
phrase. Then their conversation turned to completely more playful
matters.
This gave me pause to recall St. Augustine on children and education:
"But why, then, did I dislike Greek learning, which was
full of like tales? For Homer also was skilled in inventing similar
stories, and is most sweetly vain, yet was he disagreeable to
me as a boy. I believe Virgil, indeed, would be the same to Grecian
children, if compelled to learn him as I was Homer. The difficulty,
in truth, the difficulty of learning a foreign language mingled
as it were with gall all the sweetness of those fabulous Grecian
stories. For not a single word of it did I understand, and to
make me do so, they vehemently urged me with cruel threatenings
and punishments.
There was time also when (as an infant) I knew no Latin; but
this I acquired without any fear or tormenting, by merely taking
notice, amid the blandishments of my nurses, the jests of those
who smiled on me, and the sportiveness of those who toyed with
me. I learnt all this, indeed, without being urged by any pressure
of punishment, for my own heart urged me to bring forth its own
conceptions, which I could not do unless by learning words, not
of those who taught me, but of those who talked to me;*
into whose ears, also, I brought forth whatever I discerned. From
this it is sufficiently clear that a free curiousity has more
influence in our learning these things than a necessity full of
fear." Confessions of Saint Augustine
* italics are mine not St. Augustine's.
More of Franko Mandato's
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