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T. Kelly, Pt. 2 >>>
BENEDICTINE EDUCATION, Part 2
by Abbot Timothy Kelly OSB
Conference Delivered at Saint Martin's Abbey
Lacey, Washington, November 12, 1994
(Continued from Part 1)
I have to admit that one of the most satisfying courses I ever took in high school was typing. I went to a good preparatory school and no one wanted to admit that he was taking typing. But when it was all over with I could type, and that was pretty satisfying considering that so many other subjects didn't seem to leave much residue a few months after they were over.
But typing is an aid to education, not education itself. I suppose in some ways it is like reading. I read not for the sake of reading, but for the sake of being better informed so that I can be better formed. I am grateful to those who taught me how to read and write, or taught me how to type, or introduced me to the mysteries of the computer (about which I still have much to learn). The tools of learning are important, but more important is learning how to use them to continue the process of learning throughout life.
Listening
One of the most difficult skills to learn is that of listening. Listen is the first word of the Rule of Saint Benedict. The one who speaks much tends to become very defensive of what he or she already knows (or think they know) while the listener is unthreatened enough by truth to be able to listen respectfully to the other so as to address the other with the respect due that person.
There are at least two words in this statement that can cause us trouble. The first, of course, is spiritual. What is spiritual ? Allow me not so much to define it as describe it. We are not automatons who make programmed movements and gestures and act always in predictable ways. There is a depth to us that even surprises us at times, a reality that can overcome the burdens of illness and impending death, that can become truly loving in ways that defy the expectations of the wholly materialistic of our world. We act sometimes on principle, we give our lives for the sake of others. Perhaps the most unexpected evidence of our spiritual selves is that we even forgive.
The second troublesome word is formation . In monasteries we talk about formation programs, and now and then we find someone who doesn't like the idea of being subjected to being "formed." Rest assured that I reject any notion of brain washing, of indoctrinating others into the "correct" way of thinking, of following the party line, of surrendering one's own good judgment to another who has an agenda that doesn't allow for diversity. Rather, formation is a process of education that acquaints another with the context of a particular life-style and commits the teacher as well as the student to a process of truth seeking that frees the spirit to become all it can and is meant to be.
It is with these understandings of words that I would say that education and spiritual formation cannot be separated.
Peace
One of the mottos you frequently will find displayed in a Benedictine monastery is the word peace. Peace is more than an exterior silence. It is essentially an interior attitude. A monastery generally has four places that are considered rather sacred. The first is the church where silence is as important as words and where the monk is able to ponder the word and listen to it interiorly. The second is the library where the monk can read and make contact with ancient wisdom. The third is the chapter house where the monks together discuss and listen to each other for the sake of learning wisdom. And the fourth is the dining room where we are reminded that king and pauper alike need the basic elemental food to keep alive.
The Benedictine school will share in many of these same elements. Education without peace is virtually impossible, not just the external peace and quiet that can be an essential element if a student is to concentrate, but more importantly that interior peace that allows the truth to take root. Students need the space to ponder the word and listen to it interiorly. They need the library where they can read and make contact with ancient wisdom. They need the classroom where they can discuss and listen to each other for the sake of learning wisdom. And they need a good dining room where they can experience that sacrificial aspect of sharing food that teaches us the fundamental equality of all human beings.
All of this speaks of environment, and such an environment is necessary if the goals of any kind of education are to be achieved.
Learning to Learn
In some ways I want to say that this is almost the most important practical principle. Thirty years ago I worked in the slums of New York City and did so for eight years. In the summer time we had a program for the youth of the neighborhood and for a period of six or eight weeks hired artists and musicians to work with the young people. It always amazed me to see how putting the tools of culture in the hands of these youngsters tended to bring out of them a self-knowledge they didn't know they had. We discovered artists and musicians among them, creators of images and composers of melodies. We found people expressing their fears and anxieties as well as their joys and successes.
I also worked in Mexico City at a school that began with the primary grades and continued through preparatory school. Part of the government mandated program for the education of the young was hands-on familiarity with pottery, book binding, music, and art in multiple forms. These brought forth the fruit of self-confidence and supplied ways in which what was deeply felt and believed could be expressed in concrete forms that communicated to other people also.
I taught school in The Bahamas as well. And just one year ago I was back for a visit and saw what the students there are doing with art and how they are progressing in music. There are many ways of expressing what is deeply inside of us, but I am quite convinced that until we facilitate in students the employment of the tools of culture we cannot say we have led them very well to the wisdom that gives meaning to life.
A Benedictine college or university, it seems to me, will be a place where we learn to learn and where we go forth knowing we are at the beginning. This kind of education requires a humble spirit, for only in humility are we able to be fully the listeners that true students always are. It takes obedience, for obedience means listening, listening to the truth that is bigger than we are, yet is not separate from who we are.
Above all, it takes love, the kind of love that is self-giving for the sake of the other, the kind of love that reveals to us what we hold in common with every other human being on the face of this earth. The one who grows educationally is the one who recognizes that we converge at the center and we discover that in fact we are all one. It is the perception of the essential unity of all things that will be the best indication that our education is bearing fruit in truth and that we are going forth in this world as people capable of making the world a better place to live in rather than the mess selfish interests continue to make of it.
In many ways, our educational process is similar to the learning process that goes on in a monastery where the community in its stability gives of itself to the growth of one another. But this process began in the family environment where the first and frequently most important lessons of life were learned. Somewhere in our culture we have learned to value ambition and competition more than cooperation. The result has been the death of classical education and the denigrating of wisdom. I believe that the Benedictine educational setting has much to say to the world today and I hope that these islands of learning will become centers of hope for all who seek truth in love and who trust that truth accomplishes the quest of our deepest longings.
Thank you.
Abbot Timothy Kelly, O.S.B.
Saint John's Abbey
Collegeville, Minnesota 56321