Pre-schoolers and Dialogue Education
The Principles at Work in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

by Jodi-beth McCain
Mount Ranier, MD

My daughters attend a local cooperatively run school called Christian Family Montessori School.  In her first year there, Aleja would come home telling me about the good shepherd, and holding a mustard seed or tasting honey.  She was sharing glimpses of lessons from the religious education program at the school called “The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd”, developed by Sofia Cavalletti, and I wanted to know more.  I sat in on classes for the catechists who facilitated the program.  Last year I was asked if I would like to be a teacher, and found myself, delightedly, teaching two and a half to six year olds.

During my first months in the atrium, the name of the space where we offer the lessons of the catechesis, I also had the opportunity to facilitate a Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach course.  I asked myself then, as I do now, how do the Principles and Practices of Dialogue Education apply to small children?

With both the Catechesis and Dialogue Education, we start with learning who the participants ARE.  Though there are no surveys or phone interviews though with three-year-olds, there is lots and lots of observation. With both the Catechesis and Dialogue Education, we start with learning who the participants ARE.  Though there are no surveys or phone interviews though with three-year-olds, there is lots and lots of observation.For example, through our own observation and talking with the classroom teachers, I learned that David was afraid of fire (so don’t light candles when he’s in the atrium) and that Jose preferred being spoken to in Spanish.  Also, Maria Montessori began and established her teaching philosophy on observation.  From her, we know that there are essential characteristics of 3-6 year old children such as the ability to absorb language and culture, and the need for order and movement. In addition Sofia Cavalletti observed spiritual characteristics of the young child: wonder, joy, love, knowing what no one has explained, and essentiality (being drawn to the essentials of faith).  What a luxury it would for a learning needs and resource assessment for a group of adults to result in such a list!

All year long, we watch and listen for glimpses of the child’s relationship with God.  There is a notebook in our atrium entitled “Responses of the Child.”  Here we write down what children have done or sung or said: everything from “thank you God for giving us light” to “I want to shout that on my birthday God is around me, and on Jesus’ birthday, he brings us the gift of love.  He also brings us plants and flowers.”

Most of the young children I work with are eager to use the power that they were born with, and are so transparent about it. Small children know without being told that the learning is in doing and deciding!  Some striking moments have been when a three or four-year-old gets up and walks away from a lesson I am giving.  They’ll usually explain, “I’m going back to my classroom”, or “I don’t want to do this anymore”.  Most of the young children I work with are eager to use the power that they were born with, and are so transparent about it.

For the 3-6-year old-child, there are thirty-one lessons in the program.  Instead of tasks, the young child does “works”.  How to set the task, or in the language of Montessori “give the lesson”, is a major part of our training as catechists.  We are setting the task for pre-readers, and modeling needs to be close to perfect.  The young child has what Maria Montessori terms an “absorbent mind”.  I usually only model the task once; the child absorbs the movements of the task and then does the work by herself.  So, for example, I carefully model how to use a candle snuffer: down, count “one, two”, up and tilt the head of the snuffer to the side (so no hot wax drips out).  If I were to blow out a candle instead of using the candle snuffer, the child would also.  Safety when working with young children frequently focuses on their physical safety.

For setting the task for the work called “The Good Shepherd,” I begin by talking about sheep, shepherds, the sheepfold, and introducing the figures and the enclosure representing each of these.  Most of the children in our community on the northeast border of Washington, DC have never seen a sheep or a shepherd.  Then, I preview the Bible passage that we will later read, including that Jesus said he is the good shepherd and will call all the sheep together in one flock.

And then, as in all lessons, we wonder together.  I might say, “I wonder who the sheep can be.  I wonder why the Good Shepherd calls the sheep by name.  I wonder who the Good Shepherd is.  I wonder how the sheep feel when they’re with the Good Shepherd.”  The child may answer with silence, their own wonderment, or an answer like, “the sheep are happy.”  I am careful to offer no answers, to not make any decisions for the child, but rather create a space where he or she can make their own discoveries and grow in their own relationship with God. I am careful to offer no answers, to not make any decisions for the child, but rather create a space where he or she can make their own discoveries

I then light a candle, read the scripture passage for this work, and carefully model how to move the shepherd and sheep figures for each part of the scripture reading.  We then wonder together again.  I ask the child if there is a prayer or a song that they’d like to sing or pray in response to the work, and usually we sing.  Finally, I model how to put the material away and invite them to work with it on their own whenever they would like to.

The child is free to choose any of the works on which they’ve received a lesson.  There’s lots of deciding going on in a Montessori classroom, also awe-inspiring engagement. I have observed children work with a single material for half an hour or more, putting all their energy into building the City of Jerusalem or quietly tracing the words and drawings from a scripture passage.  There is praxis all around!
 
Paolo Freire spoke of creating a world where it is easier to love. In The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, we speak of “pure love meeting pure love”: the pure love of the child meeting the pure love of God.  What other Principles and Practices of Dialogue Education do you see at work in this program for young children?  Which Practices or Principles couldn’t in some way be applied to pre-schoolers?

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