Stage One<\/strong>: Invitation: Gathering Resources<\/p>\n What I want, and all my days, I pine for<\/p>\n Is to go back to my house and see my day of homecoming.<\/p>\n And if some god batters me far out on the wine-blue water,<\/p>\n I will endure it, keeping stubborn spirit inside me,<\/p>\n For already, I have suffered much and done much hard work<\/p>\n On the waves and in the fighting. So let this adventure follow.<\/p>\n Odyssey V, 219-224<\/p>\n The student\u2019s role is to gather what he needs for the journey. It is activated when he responds to the teacher\u2019s preparatory questions by offering what he already knows, understands, appreciates, and is able to do. Given time to gather, he is often surprised to discover how well he has prepared himself. Give him time!<\/p>\n Stage Two<\/strong>, Orientation: Wondering to the East<\/p>\n I will not go aboard any raft without your goodwill,<\/p>\n Nor unless, goddess, you can bring yourself to swear me a great oath<\/p>\n That this is not some painful trial you are planning against me.<\/p>\n Odyssey V, 177<\/p>\n When the teacher generates wonder, the student\u2019s role is to receive it by engaging with the questions raised. Because wonder can easily become fear (see teacher\u2019s role above), the student will need to trust his teacher to lead him safely across the gap without exposing, abandoning, or humiliating him.<\/p>\n Stage Three<\/strong>, Presentation: Attending to the types<\/p>\n \u201cCuriouser and curiouser\u201d<\/p>\n Alice in Wonderland<\/p>\n As the teacher presents types of the logos, the student\u2019s role is to attend to them in a receptive and trusting way. Wonder combined with trust and confidence will increase the student\u2019s motivation to attend. Well designed types, such as stories, analogies, examples, and paintings, attract students because they provide hope and radiate the glory that draws the soul to every good thing.<\/p>\n Stage four<\/strong>, Contemplation: Comparing the types<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know.\u201d<\/p>\n Socrates to Meno: 86b<\/p>\n As the teacher guides her student\u2019s contemplation of the types, the student\u2019s role is to actively compare them, noting similarities and differences, identifying common and specific, universal and particular, essential and accidental qualities.<\/p>\n While this stage may be easiest for the teacher, it may be the hardest for the student. Careful reasoning rooted in close observation and analysis is at least as difficult as anything else that requires care. Knowing he might fail to understand, the student risks an embarrassment that the wise teacher both remembers from her own childhood and labors to prevent in her students. The student needs courage, and the teacher needs gentleness and patience. Each needs to trust the other.<\/p>\n Stage five<\/strong>, Illumination: Receiving the Logos<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019m not Ada.\u201d Alice in Wonderland<\/p>\n The reward for attentive contemplation is usually the moment to which and around which and for which everything else has been oriented: illumination. As the teacher\u2019s role is to withdraw and wait on God, so the student\u2019s role is to wait receptively for the logos and the illumination it brings. At that moment, insight is born, the student experiences the joy of learning, and a resolution of discord flows into a harmony that feels like coming home while simultaneously opening new paths for the journey.<\/p>\n Astonishingly, this little moment of illumination becomes a type of spiritual illumination, for the child has experienced the truth that when we receive the logos by faith, God illumines us. The student contemplates the types expectantly, the teacher waits patiently, and when the time is ripe, the Holy Spirit of the Logos illumines, on earth as it is in heaven.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding=”||0px|||”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Stage Six<\/strong>, Re-presention: A New Song<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the idea has entered into other minds, it will tend to reincarnate itself there with ever-increasing Energy and ever-increasing Power.\u201d Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p>\n Once the student has been illumined, he is ready to show what he has seen. Now, he can re-present the logos his teacher presented to him. Using the arts of expression he mastered in previous lessons (such as sentences, essays, reports, models, etc.), he \u201cre-incarnates\u201d what was incarnated for him, sometimes expressing himself and sometimes applying the logos.<\/p>\n When he does so, his teacher can confirm that he has been illumined and has \u201cgrasped\u201d the logos. In addition, by embodying what he has learned, he secures his grasp on the logos and makes it stick.<\/p>\n Stage Seven<\/strong>, Recognition: Ruling His Domain<\/p>\n Every word\u2026 will be accounted for at the day of judgment because the word itself has power to bring to judgment.<\/p>\n Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p>\n Knowledge confers authority on its possessor, and the greater the knowledge gained, the greater the true authority the knower attains. Consequently, when the teacher has confirmed that her student can embody the idea or skill, she sets him free to rule the domain he has mastered, be it never so humble or so great. Older students who have been taught mimetically for many years will have gained extensive authority, while students who have learned little will have little authority.<\/p>\n The student becomes master who can exercise his authority in many ways, including play, applying on his own what he learned in other areas, and using the knowledge gained to make something else. However, the teacher should be careful not to determine how the newly equipped master will exercise his authority8<\/a><\/sup> as this would undercut it and reduce him to the level of a servant precisely where and when he ought to be master. For example, when a teacher intervenes in her students\u2019 play, she often robs them of their sense that what he is doing is in fact play. Students find this deeply discouraging, and many quit playing when it happens. Unfortunately, this disrupts their intuitive efforts to self-reinforce what they have learned.<\/p>\n At the same time, we need to remember that the authority and freedom attained in any given lesson are a micro-freedom. In each case, your student has mastered the lesson taught, not the whole art or science, not to mention the world or the people around him or even himself. Yet it is to rule all these things in appropriate ways that we are teaching him.<\/p>\n Furthermore, some teachers may feel irresponsible when they let their student decide how he will exercise his authority. After all, he might not exercise it at all. They need not worry; they teach mimetically! When they introduce the next lesson, they will begin with the first stage, bringing to their students\u2019 awareness what they will need to know for that journey. To switch metaphors, each lesson becomes a link in a chain. When the next link is added, it strengthens those previously acquired.<\/p>\n Time and space prevent me from dwelling on the glories of mimetic teaching, so I hope something of its beauty, practicality, and effectiveness has peeked through my words.9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Teaching in the form of Christ is beautiful, practical, and effective. It aligns with the seven-stage pilgrimage of the soul as it is illumined by the Holy Spirit and gives a true crown of authority, one gained not by grasping for equality with God or power over men but by knowledge and self-control (Phil. 2 and I Peter 1).<\/p>\n The glory of mimetic teaching is teaching in the form of Christ, imitating His person as the incarnate Word and imitating His manner of teaching in the creation, the types of the Old Testament, and the parables of the New.<\/p>\n Thus mimetic teaching fulfills the aspirations of the Christian classical educator by bringing glory to God while cultivating wisdom and virtue in our students.<\/p>\n Appendix:<\/p>\n Seven Lessons<\/p>\n Seven logoi that govern teaching:<\/p>\n 1. The success of a lesson depends on the teacher\u2019s apprehension of the logos, her ability to embody the logos in types, and her readiness to guide the student to perceive the logos in the types.<\/p>\n 2. To move from types to a logos, students pay attention and make comparisons.<\/p>\n 3. Students can only learn what they are ready to learn, so effective teachers determine whether their students are ready to learn.<\/p>\n 4. The minds of students are aroused to learn when they encounter a gap of wonder, one that is not so big as to be unbridgeable nor so small as to be uninteresting.<\/p>\n 5. Most properly speaking, learning is the moment of illumination, which is therefore the goal of any lesson. This moment is always a miracle and cannot be forced.<\/p>\n 6. Once the student has been illumined, he can re-present, express, and apply what he has learned in his own manner because he has become an authority on the given logos.<\/p>\n 7. The student should be recognized and honored in fitting ways for the authority gained.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ theme_builder_area=”post_content” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” type=”4_4″ theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_team_member name=”Andrew Kern” image_url=”https:\/\/classicalchristian.org\/classis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/images.jpeg” position=”Author” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” title_text=”images” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Andrew Kern is the founder and president of the CiRCE Institute (Center for Independent Research on Classical Education), the husband of Karen, the father of five grown adults, and the grandfather of (so far) nine grandchildren. He has been researching, speaking, teaching, and consulting in the Christian classical renewal since 1993, during which he has been instrumental in the founding of three schools, consulted with over 100 schools and co-ops, and served as Director of Classical Instruction, Academic Dean, and Headmaster. Andrew speaks regularly at home school and classical conferences. In addition, he is the co-author with Dr. Gene Edward Veith of Classical Education, The Movement Sweeping America and, with Andrea Lipinski, of The CiRCE Guide to Reading. He also led the development of CiRCE\u2019s classical rhetoric program, The Lost Tools of Writing, and he loves Homer, Shakespeare, Anne of Green Gables, and Endeavour. Like Shakespeare, he knows a little Latin and less Greek. Except a lot less than Shakespeare. Andrew and Karen have settled in Concord, North Carolina, where they attend Christ The Good Shepherd Orthodox Mission and watch their five grown children raise their children and pursue their callings.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_team_member][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Glory of Mimetic Teaching \u00a0 August 5, 2022 Written By: Andrew Kern Originally published in ClassisSpring 2025, Volume XXXII Issue 2It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially about examination papers, which seems to be rather out of harmony with Pentecostal manifestations\u2026. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":1737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially about examination papers, which seems to be rather out of harmony with Pentecostal manifestations\u2026. But Pentecost will happen, whether within or without official education\u2026. No incarnate Idea is altogether devoid of Power.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p> One is your teacher, even Christ.<\/p> Matthew 23:10<\/p> There is a moment teachers live for, when the teacher\u2019s witness, the student\u2019s receptivity, and the spirit of the lesson converge in the soul of the learner, a spark ignites, and the student is lit up. It\u2019s the moment when Archimedes cried, \u201cEureka!\u201d, when Dante\u2019s weariness evaporated and he begged his guide to hasten their journey, when the student struggling with a math concept perceives the missing principle and, sometimes with relief, sometimes with joy, sometimes with ecstasy, whispers or says or shouts, \u201cI get it.\u201d<\/p> This is the moment to which every element of the lesson points, for which every word of the teacher is spoken, by which every act of the student is measured. It is the moment for which the school was built, the leadership provides support, and, to be personal, for which I do everything as a teacher, mentor, speaker, consultant, and executive.<\/p> The name for this moment is learning. What the student feels in that moment, we call the joy of learning. The privilege of the teacher - indeed, the glory of the teacher - is to play a role in that moment. The privilege of the student is to experience it. The purpose of this article is to see it multiplied.<\/p> We swim in a great variety of teaching techniques and methods, curricular philosophies and resources, educational theories and practices, learning styles and medications.<\/p> This dynamic variation expresses the nature of education: a complex activity by which mysteries called persons experience a mystery called learning. Unfortunately, such a dynamic variety easily descends into chaos, which makes us vulnerable, insecure, and gullible.<\/p> So the question arises: is there anything big enough to unite all these elements into a common purpose? To turn to the Greeks for a word: is there a logos or unifying principle?<\/p> For the Christian, to ask the question is to see its answer. Of course, there is a logos. In fact, we proclaim Christ The Logos. But a follow-up question seems irresistible: how did we get from joy of learning to Christ the Logos? Or to reverse ourselves, how can we get from Christ the Logos to the joy of learning?<\/p> This article attempts to answer that question.<\/p> What\u2019s coming<\/p> In what follows, I claim that Christ the Logos gives us the form of teaching, clarifying the role of the teacher and student in the journey to The Moment<\/em>. We call this form of instruction \u201cmimetic teaching,\u201d which I believe is the purest and most comprehensive expression of Christian classical pedagogy. I will describe it and indicate resources for further research.<\/p> First, however, since my title is \u201cthe glory of mimetic teaching\u201d, I need to explain what I mean by glory.<\/p> On Glory<\/p> In Exodus 33, Moses asks the Lord: \u201cShow me Your glory,\u201d and the Lord replies, \u201cI will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you\u2026 But, you cannot see My face.\u201d<\/p> This passage offers the archetypal description of how God\u2019s glory can be experienced: It is beyond us (you cannot see My face). As Paul says, God is \u201ceternal, immortal, invisible\u201d (I Timothy). Yet it contains all His goodness, which we can see in its parts (I Cor 13) and His Name, which we must revere. It seems that when His goodness is, as it were, divided into parts, we can see those parts, at least if we are prepared.<\/p> By analogy, God gives everything He makes its unique glory. Ultimately, any such God-spoken glory is a mystery that can never exhaust what God intends and means when He says its name. Yet we can see how its goodness is revealed to us, and we can learn its name.2<\/a><\/sup> Thus, we find a pattern we can follow to know the glory of a thing. First, accept its mystery. Then ask, \u201cWhat are its goodnesses?\u201d (ie, what good qualities does it possess? What good results does it affect? What good things can it do? Etc.) Finally, listen for its name.<\/p> What do we learn about the glory of mimetic teaching if we allow for its mystery, look for its \u201cgoodnesses\u201d, and listen for its name? Mimetic teaching is teaching in the form of Christ<\/em>. But what could that mean? What is \u201cthe form of Christ\u201d?<\/p> The form of Christ is the Incarnate Logos.<\/p> The apostle John revealed that Jesus is the Logos of God and that the Logos became flesh. As a result, the apostles beheld His glory, uniquely \u201cthe glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d<\/p> The authors of the epistle to the Hebrews pick up this theme, naming Christ \u201cthe radiance of His glory.\u201d The radiance of light is that portion of light that we can see. Similarly, Christ the Son became, as it were, that \u201cportion\u201d of God\u2019s glory that falls within the range of what we can see. John could say, \u201cWe beheld His glory\u201d because His glory was made radiant in Christ when Christ became flesh.<\/p> The form of Christ, then, is the Incarnate Logos, which enables us to see His glory. And mimetic teaching is teaching in that form When we teach mimetically, we incarnate a logos.<\/p> To deepen our understanding of teaching, then, we need to understand the two fundamental ideas of logos and incarnation. Let\u2019s start with incarnations.<\/p> The pattern of incarnating a logos began before Christ fulfilled it as God made man. Indeed, God spent millennia preparing for the birth of the incarnate Word. He had been revealing Christ to us in what I will awkwardly call \u201csub-incarnations,\u201d both in the Old Testament and in creation (I confess to adapting Tolkien\u2019s notion of sub-creation without his permission). Historically, these \u201csub-incarnations\u201d have been called types.<\/p> A type is an image, often impressed on wax, of an \u201carchetype\u201d or source of the type. The Old Testament is filled with types of Christ: specific actions, liturgies, objects, and even people intended to prepare the people of God to receive the Logos when He comes.<\/p> The creation is also filled with sub-incarnations or types that reveal truths about Christ. For example, He is the \u201csun<\/em> of righteousness,\u201d the \u201cfountain<\/em> of living water,\u201d and the \u201cmorning star.<\/em>\u201d When we look at the creation, our Lord teaches us about His Son in the types He spoke into being. Thus, we see types of Christ the Logos in the Old Testament and in the Creation.<\/p> Logos is a Greek word that means many things, especially a message or an ordering or governing principle. When we speak of Christ the Logos, we partly mean that He is the ordering principle of all things. When we speak of other logoi, we mean that they are subordinate principles that govern smaller things, like the logos of a lesson, which determines what to include and what to avoid.<\/p> Christ is the capital lambda <\/em>Logos, while the creation is filled with what we can call \u201csmall \u2018l\u2019 logoi\u201d (plural for logos). In less textured English, Christ is The Word<\/em> and you and I and every created thing or principle is a word<\/em>.<\/p> Other logoi are \u201csmall \u2018l\u2019 logoi\u201d: logoi spoken by God and therefore truths, principles, or patterns that reveal truths about but are not Him, as Christ is. These can be found in the Scriptures and\/or the creation. Both the Old Testament and the creation reveal truths about, for example, the kingdom of heaven, the moral order, or the human soul.<\/p> Each of these is a logos, invisible and immaterial. We can understand none of them unless they are embodied.<\/p> The New Testament continues this pattern: a principle or truth (logos) is embodied in types (incarnated). Our Lord and the apostles use parables, signs and wonders, allegories, object lessons, and visions to explain what the Old Testament and the creation reveal. These are types of created logoi.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p> Thus we learn about the kingdom of heaven by contemplating mustard seeds, the moral law by going to the ant, and the structure of the soul by participating in temple worship. Created logoi follow the pattern revealed in Christ: you come to know a logos when it is embodied or incarnated. Eternal truths are embodied and made visible to our senses through the imagination, by parables, actions, rituals, and even miracles.<\/p> In the creation, we encounter created logoi of another order, which we might call natural. For example, cosmological, chemical, biological, and mathematical truths are embodied in created objects in time and space. These logoi reveal truths about God, but indirectly, which is why they are often turned into idols or skepticism. Yet they remain worth knowing because they are spoken by God. There\u2019s another reason they are worth knowing, which I\u2019ll pick up in the next section.<\/p> Nicholas Berdyaev wrote, in The Destiny of Man, <\/em>\u201cGod created man in his own image and likeness, i.e., made him a creator too.\u201d When we attend to created logoi, we acquire tools that enable us to imitate the creator in whose image we are made. We create, or, as Tolkien said, sub-create, on the pattern we observe: we make types of logoi. These are mimetic logoi.<\/p> By weighing and measuring real objects on earth or in heaven, we learn to deliberate, judge, reason, generate and test models, and compose music. We learn to use language to express our understanding and appreciation of the things we encounter. And we make things, like poems and cathedrals.<\/p> When we do so, we imitate God. All human activity comes under this pattern: the fine, visual, musical, serving, and liberal arts; the sciences in their inquiry, reasoning, modeling, experimenting, searching, and discovering; practical plans, such as blueprints, rules for games and constitutional law, strategies, and a bewildering array of schemes and activities, each of which pursues a logos as we conceive it in our minds.<\/p> Perhaps above all and certainly most germane to this paper, we imitate God by teaching, for God is always teaching. That is, He is always revealing Himself. The more closely and fittingly we follow His pattern, the more effectively we teach.<\/p> We are always making types of logoi, mimetic, created, or uncreated. The question is whether we do it wisely and well.<\/p> Since God teaches this way, we should imitate him. Indeed, by created nature, we do. The times we don\u2019t are the times when the pattern is distorted by some external temptation or threat, of which there are many.<\/p> We have seen that the mimetic pattern is universal, extending throughout the creation. That creation includes human activities and human activities include teaching, so the mimetic pattern is also the pattern of all teaching. It is universal. It is an archetype.<\/p> Whenever anybody teaches or learns anything, they follow this pattern. We even have comic images (types!) to represent it (a light bulb goes on); we use cliches to reduce it to a caricature (show, don\u2019t tell); and we tell tales and myths about people who experience it (Odysseus, Dante, etc.).<\/p> For the sake of this article, I will reflect on this pattern using another archetype: a journey, like a pilgrim\u2019s progress, an exodus, or a journey home. These represent the journey of the soul from ignorance to knowledge or darkness to light. Perils and promises permeate even what seems the shortest journey, because light always hurts the darkened eye, and ignorance stops being bliss the moment it is exposed. In every case, the goal of the pilgrim is the logos of the journey: to \u201cget it\u201d, to see it, to understand it, to adore it, to be able to apply it. In short, to be enlightened by the logos and live in that light (John 1:8). Thus, the metaphor of a journey enables us to examine and clarify the role of both teacher and student, and the moment of illumination is the goal of the mimetic journey.<\/p> God guard me from those thoughts men think<\/p> In the mind alone,<\/p> He that sings a lasting song<\/p> Thinks in a marrow bone;\u201d<\/p> Yeats, quoted in The Creative Process 108<\/p> When a teacher teaches mimetically, she identifies a logos, embodies it in types, and guides a student to the moment of illumination that we call \u201cthe joy of learning.\u201d Looking at it this way, we can see three parts to mimetic teaching: the logos, the types, and a guide, which draws to our attention the role of the teacher.<\/p> As we examine that role, we come to see a seven stage sequence, each stage of which plays a vital role in that moment of illumination that is the goal of all teaching.<\/p> I am going to describe that seven stage sequence, but first, an important caution: when I use the word stages, I do not mean steps in a mechanistic process\u2014a technique by which you can attain a predictable outcome at the end of a repeated process. I mean a journey with seven stages. A journey to Moscow, to Mt. Ararat, or the North Pole will be very different journeys, and yet each will pass through common stages.<\/p> For this reason, our best teachers of teaching are not the theorists who analyze what happens when the best teachers teach (as I am doing now). Rather, our best teachers are the storytellers who show us how to teach by teaching: Homer, Vergil, Moses, St. John, Dante, and others. They understand that the traveler and the guide experience different journeys, so in what follows, I will present the mimetic journey twice, once from the teacher\u2019s perspective and once from the student\u2019s.<\/p> Also, for simplicity, I will refer to the teacher as \u201cshe\u201d and the student as \u201che\u201d.<\/p> Stage One, Invitation: Preparing for the Journey<\/p> There is none like to Shadowfax\u2026 And to you, my other guests, I will offer such things as may be found in my armory. Swords you do not need, but there are helms and coats of mail of cunning work, gifts to my fathers out of Gondor. Choose from these ere you go, and may they serve you well.<\/p> J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers<\/p> At the beginning of the mimetic journey, the teacher invites her students to join her, prepares them, and most of all ensures they are ready by gathering resources they\u2019ll need for the journey: knowledge, skills, appreciations, and understandings gained on previous journeys. Do they know what they need to know and understand what they need to understand? Are they able to do what they\u2019ll need to do? Do they appreciate or value what they\u2019ll need to value?4<\/a><\/sup><\/p> Since children can\u2019t learn what they aren\u2019t ready for, the teacher should give this stage significant time and attention (as a rule, I recommend 33% or more of the lesson).<\/p> Stage Two, Orientation: The Gap of Wonder<\/p> My Lord, said I, let\u2019s hurry then and go!<\/p> I\u2019m not as weary as I was before<\/p> Dante, Purgatorio VI, 49<\/p> Next, having ascertained the student\u2019s readiness, the teacher leads the student to a gap. In other words, she raises a question in his mind, sometimes by asking one (ie what would happen if\u2026?), sometimes by making a promise (by the end of this lesson, you will be able to\u2026), sometimes by telling a story or anecdote that surprises the students (\u201cwhen the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket\u2026\u201d). <\/em><\/p> In each case, the teacher creates a gap in her student's mind, which is a form of wonder. Wonder, we often forget, a mild but usually pleasant form of fear. It is a more delicate challenge than we might think. The teacher needs to calibrate the wonder to match the readiness of the student (determined in the first stage) and the destination of the journey (the logos of the lesson). If the gap is too big, the wonder drifts toward fear. If it is too small, it tends toward indifference. Consequently, calibrating wonder is one of the classical teacher\u2019s most important skills.<\/p> Stage Three, Presentation: Into the Gap<\/p> It is the nature of the word to reveal itself and to incarnate itself\u2026 Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker p111<\/p> In the third stage, the teacher enters the gap with her students by presenting types of the logos, especially illustrations and examples. She gathers or develops these prior to the learning situation in order to embody the logos. She thinks about the types with her students, entering into their uncertainty and sharing in their discoveries. Here are some types:<\/p> If the logos is an idea, such as \u201cyou should share\u201d or \u201cMankind is the image of God,\u201d the type might be a fable, fairy tale, myth, analogy, historical event, Bible story, or experience from the students\u2019 lives.<\/p> If the logos is a mathematical or material truth, such as 3+2=5 or maple leaves have serrated edges, the teacher presents examples, such as a few real maple leaves5<\/a><\/sup> or three plastic bears beside two plastic bears which combine to become five plastic bears.<\/p> If the logos is a skill or action, such as holding a bow (a physical skill) or generating a simile (an intellectual skill), the teacher provides examples for the student to imitate.<\/p> Whatever the logos, the teacher\u2019s task is to find or generate types and to present them to the student in as vivid and clear a manner as possible in order to draw the student's attention to the types (vivid and clear examples do a better job of revealing the glory of the logos than the dull and cloudy and students are naturally drawn to glories).<\/p> Stage Four, Contemplation: The Great Puzzle<\/p> \u201cDear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I\u2019ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I\u2019m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that\u2019s the great puzzle!\u201d<\/p> Alice in Wonderland, p. 12<\/p> Attentiveness is the underlying virtue of all learning, and people tend to pay better attention when they compare things with each other. In the fourth stage, the teacher guides her students to compare the types with each other.<\/p> Attending to this stage helps overcome our tendency to draw hasty conclusions as well as our eagerness to set aside a lesson before we reach its goal. But the main purpose of the comparison stage is to move the student from types to logos.<\/p> In a sense, this is the easiest stage for the teacher. We compare long before we are conscious of doing so, so the questions tend to come quickly and easily: How is this type like that one? How are they different? Is there more or less? Which is a better or worse instance? What is common to them all? What is specific to one or only a few? What is essential and what is accidental?<\/p> These identifications are among the most essential activities of the thoughtful person, we can see that the contemplation stage may well be the activity that best trains students in the most essential activities of reasoning, such as attentive noting, inference, deduction, analogical reasoning, discernment, etc.<\/p> A teacher might ask a preschool child, \u201cWhen I combined three bears with two bears, how many were in the new group? What about when I combined three apples with two apples? What was the same both times? What was different?\u201d Another teacher might ask her students to compare the way Vronsky treated his horse with the way he treated Anna Karenina: \u201cWhat was the same? Different? Did Vronsky\u2019s treatment of each have any effects common to both?\u201d The logos is, as it were, hidden in the types, and it is by asking such questions that we coax it out.<\/p> Stage Five, Illumination:<\/p> Then came, at a predetermined moment,<\/p> a moment in time and out of time.<\/p> TS Eliot<\/p> As the teacher guides her students to compare the types, something magical (really, it is miraculous) begins to happen: the logos that has been, as it were, hidden in the types begins to emerge in the students\u2019 minds (like a stowaway?).<\/p> We call this stage illumination, the moment when the student says, \u201cI get it!6<\/a><\/sup>,\u201d when the joy of learning laughs because learning has occurred, when the light bulbs go on.7<\/a><\/sup><\/p> In the scriptures, Our Lord tells us that \u201cone is your teacher, Christ\u201d (Matthew 23:10) which seems a bit odd. But at this moment, the moment every other moment serves, our Lord\u2019s words become to the teacher. Because the teachers\u2019 role when she senses that The Moment is coming is to withdraw and simply to wait prayerfully on the Lord to do what only He can do.<\/p> This moment of illumination is the goal of the entire lesson, the reason for every element and stage, the motivation for every action. Yet it is always a gift, one we can prepare for, bear witness to, and pray for, but not one we can give.<\/p> Stage 6, Re-presentation:<\/p> When the writer\u2019s Idea is\u2026 incarnate\u2026 then, and only then, can his Power work on the world. A book has no influence till somebody can read it.\u201d<\/p> Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p> The student illumined by a logos is changed by the experience. As a result, the teacher\u2019s role changes. Now she provides a means for the student to re-present using his own resources the logos he has apprehended.<\/p> In most lessons, the teacher will ask her student to express the logos: the moral of the story, the steps of an algorithm, the insight gained about, e.g., Achilles\u2019 motivations. Often, she will instruct him to apply the logos in math exercises, an essay, a project, or life. Sometimes, students should combine lessons with other students. For example, the violin student who has mastered a new technique can perform it with a quartet.<\/p> Stage 7, Recognition: Crowning<\/p> \u201cI crown and miter you lord of yourself.\u201d<\/p> Vergil to Dante. Purgatorio XXVII, p. 142<\/p> Once the student has embodied the logos learned, he has attained a micro-mastery\u2014a little bit of authority. Now, the teacher\u2019s role is to crown him, that is, to recognize that authority and set the student free in a proportionate and appropriate way that acknowledges he has taken one more step on the road to self-governance, his domain has expanded by a little bit, and he is becoming a free person.<\/p> Student\u2019s Perspective<\/p> While in the preceding section we described the seven stages from the teacher\u2019s perspective, we included the student\u2019s experience simply because we cannot consider the teacher\u2019s work without thinking about what the teacher is working on. If there is no student there is no teacher.<\/p> Nevertheless, the teacher needs to understand the student\u2019s journey from the student\u2019s perspective as well. It is surprisingly easy for us as teachers to plough ahead up the mountain and fail to notice when one of our flock has wandered away or fallen off a cliff. Let us therefore consider the student\u2019s perspective.<\/p> Stage One: Invitation: Gathering Resources<\/p> What I want, and all my days, I pine for<\/p> Is to go back to my house and see my day of homecoming.<\/p> And if some god batters me far out on the wine-blue water,<\/p> I will endure it, keeping stubborn spirit inside me,<\/p> For already, I have suffered much and done much hard work<\/p> On the waves and in the fighting. So let this adventure follow.<\/p> Odyssey V, 219-224<\/p> The student\u2019s role is to gather what he needs for the journey. It is activated when he responds to the teacher\u2019s preparatory questions by offering what he already knows, understands, appreciates, and is able to do. Given time to gather, he is often surprised to discover how well he has prepared himself. Give him time!<\/p> Stage Two, Orientation: Wondering to the East<\/p> I will not go aboard any raft without your goodwill,<\/p> Nor unless, goddess, you can bring yourself to swear me a great oath<\/p> That this is not some painful trial you are planning against me.<\/p> Odyssey V, 177<\/p> When the teacher generates wonder, the student\u2019s role is to receive it by engaging with the questions raised. Because wonder can easily become fear (see teacher\u2019s role above), the student will need to trust his teacher to lead him safely across the gap without exposing, abandoning, or humiliating him.<\/p> Stage Three, Presentation: Attending to the types<\/p> \u201cCuriouser and curiouser\u201d<\/p> Alice in Wonderland<\/p> As the teacher presents types of the logos, the student\u2019s role is to attend to them in a receptive and trusting way. Wonder combined with trust and confidence will increase the student\u2019s motivation to attend. Well designed types, such as stories, analogies, examples, and paintings, attract students because they provide hope and radiate the glory that draws the soul to every good thing.<\/p> Stage four, Contemplation: Comparing the types<\/p> \u201cWe will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know.\u201d<\/p> Socrates to Meno: 86b<\/p> As the teacher guides her student\u2019s contemplation of the types, the student\u2019s role is to actively compare them, noting similarities and differences, identifying common and specific, universal and particular, essential and accidental qualities.<\/p> While this stage may be easiest for the teacher, it may be the hardest for the student. Careful reasoning rooted in close observation and analysis is at least as difficult as anything else that requires care. Knowing he might fail to understand, the student risks an embarrassment that the wise teacher both remembers from her own childhood and labors to prevent in her students. The student needs courage, and the teacher needs gentleness and patience. Each needs to trust the other.<\/p> Stage five, Illumination: Receiving the Logos<\/p> \u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019m not Ada.\u201d Alice in Wonderland<\/p> The reward for attentive contemplation is usually the moment to which and around which and for which everything else has been oriented: illumination. As the teacher\u2019s role is to withdraw and wait on God, so the student\u2019s role is to wait receptively for the logos and the illumination it brings. At that moment, insight is born, the student experiences the joy of learning, and a resolution of discord flows into a harmony that feels like coming home while simultaneously opening new paths for the journey.<\/p> Astonishingly, this little moment of illumination becomes a type of spiritual illumination, for the child has experienced the truth that when we receive the logos by faith, God illumines us. The student contemplates the types expectantly, the teacher waits patiently, and when the time is ripe, the Holy Spirit of the Logos illumines, on earth as it is in heaven.<\/p> Stage Six, Re-presention: A New Song<\/p> \u201cOnce the idea has entered into other minds, it will tend to reincarnate itself there with ever-increasing Energy and ever-increasing Power.\u201d Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p> Once the student has been illumined, he is ready to show what he has seen. Now, he can re-present the logos his teacher presented to him. Using the arts of expression he mastered in previous lessons (such as sentences, essays, reports, models, etc.), he \u201cre-incarnates\u201d what was incarnated for him, sometimes expressing himself and sometimes applying the logos.<\/p> When he does so, his teacher can confirm that he has been illumined and has \u201cgrasped\u201d the logos. In addition, by embodying what he has learned, he secures his grasp on the logos and makes it stick.<\/p> Stage Seven, Recognition: Ruling His Domain<\/p> Every word\u2026 will be accounted for at the day of judgment because the word itself has power to bring to judgment.<\/p> Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p> Knowledge confers authority on its possessor, and the greater the knowledge gained, the greater the true authority the knower attains. Consequently, when the teacher has confirmed that her student can embody the idea or skill, she sets him free to rule the domain he has mastered, be it never so humble or so great. Older students who have been taught mimetically for many years will have gained extensive authority, while students who have learned little will have little authority.<\/p> The student becomes master who can exercise his authority in many ways, including play, applying on his own what he learned in other areas, and using the knowledge gained to make something else. However, the teacher should be careful not to determine how the newly equipped master will exercise his authority8<\/a><\/sup> as this would undercut it and reduce him to the level of a servant precisely where and when he ought to be master. For example, when a teacher intervenes in her students\u2019 play, she often robs them of their sense that what he is doing is in fact play. Students find this deeply discouraging, and many quit playing when it happens. Unfortunately, this disrupts their intuitive efforts to self-reinforce what they have learned.<\/p> At the same time, we need to remember that the authority and freedom attained in any given lesson are a micro-freedom. In each case, your student has mastered the lesson taught, not the whole art or science, not to mention the world or the people around him or even himself. Yet it is to rule all these things in appropriate ways that we are teaching him.<\/p> Furthermore, some teachers may feel irresponsible when they let their student decide how he will exercise his authority. After all, he might not exercise it at all. They need not worry; they teach mimetically! When they introduce the next lesson, they will begin with the first stage, bringing to their students\u2019 awareness what they will need to know for that journey. To switch metaphors, each lesson becomes a link in a chain. When the next link is added, it strengthens those previously acquired.<\/p> Time and space prevent me from dwelling on the glories of mimetic teaching, so I hope something of its beauty, practicality, and effectiveness has peeked through my words.9<\/a><\/sup><\/p> Teaching in the form of Christ is beautiful, practical, and effective. It aligns with the seven-stage pilgrimage of the soul as it is illumined by the Holy Spirit and gives a true crown of authority, one gained not by grasping for equality with God or power over men but by knowledge and self-control (Phil. 2 and I Peter 1).<\/p> The glory of mimetic teaching is teaching in the form of Christ, imitating His person as the incarnate Word and imitating His manner of teaching in the creation, the types of the Old Testament, and the parables of the New.<\/p> Thus mimetic teaching fulfills the aspirations of the Christian classical educator by bringing glory to God while cultivating wisdom and virtue in our students.<\/p> Appendix:<\/p> Seven Lessons<\/p> Seven logoi that govern teaching:<\/p> 1. The success of a lesson depends on the teacher\u2019s apprehension of the logos, her ability to embody the logos in types, and her readiness to guide the student to perceive the logos in the types.<\/p> 2. To move from types to a logos, students pay attention and make comparisons.<\/p> 3. Students can only learn what they are ready to learn, so effective teachers determine whether their students are ready to learn.<\/p> 4. The minds of students are aroused to learn when they encounter a gap of wonder, one that is not so big as to be unbridgeable nor so small as to be uninteresting.<\/p> 5. Most properly speaking, learning is the moment of illumination, which is therefore the goal of any lesson. This moment is always a miracle and cannot be forced.<\/p> 6. Once the student has been illumined, he can re-present, express, and apply what he has learned in his own manner because he has become an authority on the given logos.<\/p> 7. The student should be recognized and honored in fitting ways for the authority gained.<\/p> <\/p> Sayers, Dorothy. The Mind of the Maker. p112\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> By \u201cits name\u201d, I do not refer to the way we use names in our brokenness, but rather as the creator speaks them. A things real name is, as it were, what God means when He calls it by name (a close study of the Biblical practice of naming would be illuminating). It is its nature fulfilled and identified.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> I confess that the line between created and uncreated is too fine for me to see. If a truth is eternal, it would seem to be an uncreated logos. It may be that Christ is The Uncreated Logos and that there are other uncreated logoi, but I leave that to wiser men than I to explain.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> The average student is not idly waiting for the teacher to arouse him from indolence and invite him on a journey. Indeed, often enough he is not convinced that the journey is worth the cost unless experience has convinced him otherwise. The wise teacher will be prepared to work with students who are not brimful of confidence, hope, and expectancy.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> Illustrations or pictures can be used, but in general they are not as effective as examples, nor are they typically as precise, varied, or realistic.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> Latin for \u201cI get it\u201d is apprehendo<\/em>, from whence we derive, \u201capprehend.\u201d\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> Not off, the ironically odd form into which the cliche has twisted itself.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> \u00a0<\/p><\/li> To do so in stage 6 is fine, but not in stage 7.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li> At CiRCE, we strive to support and embody mimetic teaching as the path to the joy of learning. In addition, we turn to Christ the Logos for our guide rather than to conventional theories and practices. At the heart of our ministries is a three year teacher apprenticeship that disciples teachers in mimetic teaching. To learn more about any of our ministries, please visit our website, attend a CiRCE event near you, or contact us at info@circeinstitute.org<\/a>.\u00a0\u21a9<\/a><\/p><\/li><\/ol><\/div>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9,33],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-1734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-classis","category-features","tag-classical-education"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Well designed types, such as stories, analogies, examples, and paintings, attract students because they provide hope and radiate the glory that draws the soul to every good thing.<\/span><\/h6>\n
Notes<\/h2>\n
\n\n
The Moment<\/h2>
The Glory of Mimetic Teaching<\/h2>
Types<\/h2>
Logos and Logoi<\/h2>
The Pattern: Embodied Logoi<\/h2>
Natural Logoi<\/h2>
Mimetic Logoi<\/h2>
Teaching Mimetically<\/h2>
The Archetype of Teaching<\/h2>
The Mimetic Journey<\/h2>
The Mimetic Journey: Teacher\u2019s Perspective<\/h2>
Notes<\/h2>
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n August 5, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n Written By: Andrew Kern<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Originally published in Classis<\/span> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||4px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” width=”78.9%” custom_padding=”||7px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It is the business of education to wait upon Pentecost. Unhappily, there is something about educational syllabuses, and especially about examination papers, which seems to be rather out of harmony with Pentecostal manifestations\u2026. But Pentecost will happen, whether within or without official education\u2026. No incarnate Idea is altogether devoid of Power.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n One is your teacher, even Christ.<\/p>\n Matthew 23:10<\/p>\n There is a moment teachers live for, when the teacher\u2019s witness, the student\u2019s receptivity, and the spirit of the lesson converge in the soul of the learner, a spark ignites, and the student is lit up. It\u2019s the moment when Archimedes cried, \u201cEureka!\u201d, when Dante\u2019s weariness evaporated and he begged his guide to hasten their journey, when the student struggling with a math concept perceives the missing principle and, sometimes with relief, sometimes with joy, sometimes with ecstasy, whispers or says or shouts, \u201cI get it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the moment to which every element of the lesson points, for which every word of the teacher is spoken, by which every act of the student is measured. It is the moment for which the school was built, the leadership provides support, and, to be personal, for which I do everything as a teacher, mentor, speaker, consultant, and executive.<\/p>\n The name for this moment is learning. What the student feels in that moment, we call the joy of learning. The privilege of the teacher – indeed, the glory of the teacher – is to play a role in that moment. The privilege of the student is to experience it. The purpose of this article is to see it multiplied.<\/p>\n We swim in a great variety of teaching techniques and methods, curricular philosophies and resources, educational theories and practices, learning styles and medications.<\/p>\n This dynamic variation expresses the nature of education: a complex activity by which mysteries called persons experience a mystery called learning. Unfortunately, such a dynamic variety easily descends into chaos, which makes us vulnerable, insecure, and gullible.<\/p>\n So the question arises: is there anything big enough to unite all these elements into a common purpose? To turn to the Greeks for a word: is there a logos or unifying principle?<\/p>\n For the Christian, to ask the question is to see its answer. Of course, there is a logos. In fact, we proclaim Christ The Logos. But a follow-up question seems irresistible: how did we get from joy of learning to Christ the Logos? Or to reverse ourselves, how can we get from Christ the Logos to the joy of learning?<\/p>\n This article attempts to answer that question.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”2px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n In what follows, I claim that Christ the Logos gives us the form of teaching, clarifying the role of the teacher and student in the journey to The Moment<\/em>. We call this form of instruction \u201cmimetic teaching,\u201d which I believe is the purest and most comprehensive expression of Christian classical pedagogy. I will describe it and indicate resources for further research.<\/p>\n First, however, since my title is \u201cthe glory of mimetic teaching\u201d, I need to explain what I mean by glory.<\/p>\n In Exodus 33, Moses asks the Lord: \u201cShow me Your glory,\u201d and the Lord replies, \u201cI will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the Name of the Lord before you\u2026 But, you cannot see My face.\u201d<\/p>\n This passage offers the archetypal description of how God\u2019s glory can be experienced: It is beyond us (you cannot see My face). As Paul says, God is \u201ceternal, immortal, invisible\u201d (I Timothy). Yet it contains all His goodness, which we can see in its parts (I Cor 13) and His Name, which we must revere. It seems that when His goodness is, as it were, divided into parts, we can see those parts, at least if we are prepared.<\/p>\n By analogy, God gives everything He makes its unique glory. Ultimately, any such God-spoken glory is a mystery that can never exhaust what God intends and means when He says its name. Yet we can see how its goodness is revealed to us, and we can learn its name.2<\/a><\/sup> Thus, we find a pattern we can follow to know the glory of a thing. First, accept its mystery. Then ask, \u201cWhat are its goodnesses?\u201d (ie, what good qualities does it possess? What good results does it affect? What good things can it do? Etc.) Finally, listen for its name.<\/p>\n What do we learn about the glory of mimetic teaching if we allow for its mystery, look for its \u201cgoodnesses\u201d, and listen for its name? Mimetic teaching is teaching in the form of Christ<\/em>. But what could that mean? What is \u201cthe form of Christ\u201d?<\/p>\n The apostle John revealed that Jesus is the Logos of God and that the Logos became flesh. As a result, the apostles beheld His glory, uniquely \u201cthe glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n The authors of the epistle to the Hebrews pick up this theme, naming Christ \u201cthe radiance of His glory.\u201d The radiance of light is that portion of light that we can see. Similarly, Christ the Son became, as it were, that \u201cportion\u201d of God\u2019s glory that falls within the range of what we can see. John could say, \u201cWe beheld His glory\u201d because His glory was made radiant in Christ when Christ became flesh.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”4px||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||4px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The form of Christ, then, is the Incarnate Logos, which enables us to see His glory. And mimetic teaching is teaching in that form When we teach mimetically, we incarnate a logos.<\/p>\n To deepen our understanding of teaching, then, we need to understand the two fundamental ideas of logos and incarnation. Let\u2019s start with incarnations.<\/p>\n The pattern of incarnating a logos began before Christ fulfilled it as God made man. Indeed, God spent millennia preparing for the birth of the incarnate Word. He had been revealing Christ to us in what I will awkwardly call \u201csub-incarnations,\u201d both in the Old Testament and in creation (I confess to adapting Tolkien\u2019s notion of sub-creation without his permission). Historically, these \u201csub-incarnations\u201d have been called types.<\/p>\n A type is an image, often impressed on wax, of an \u201carchetype\u201d or source of the type. The Old Testament is filled with types of Christ: specific actions, liturgies, objects, and even people intended to prepare the people of God to receive the Logos when He comes.<\/p>\n The creation is also filled with sub-incarnations or types that reveal truths about Christ. For example, He is the \u201csun<\/em> of righteousness,\u201d the \u201cfountain<\/em> of living water,\u201d and the \u201cmorning star.<\/em>\u201d When we look at the creation, our Lord teaches us about His Son in the types He spoke into being. Thus, we see types of Christ the Logos in the Old Testament and in the Creation.<\/p>\n Logos is a Greek word that means many things, especially a message or an ordering or governing principle. When we speak of Christ the Logos, we partly mean that He is the ordering principle of all things. When we speak of other logoi, we mean that they are subordinate principles that govern smaller things, like the logos of a lesson, which determines what to include and what to avoid.<\/p>\n Christ is the capital lambda <\/em>Logos, while the creation is filled with what we can call \u201csmall \u2018l\u2019 logoi\u201d (plural for logos). In less textured English, Christ is The Word<\/em> and you and I and every created thing or principle is a word<\/em>.<\/p>\n Other logoi are \u201csmall \u2018l\u2019 logoi\u201d: logoi spoken by God and therefore truths, principles, or patterns that reveal truths about but are not Him, as Christ is. These can be found in the Scriptures and\/or the creation. Both the Old Testament and the creation reveal truths about, for example, the kingdom of heaven, the moral order, or the human soul.<\/p>\n Each of these is a logos, invisible and immaterial. We can understand none of them unless they are embodied.<\/p>\n The New Testament continues this pattern: a principle or truth (logos) is embodied in types (incarnated). Our Lord and the apostles use parables, signs and wonders, allegories, object lessons, and visions to explain what the Old Testament and the creation reveal. These are types of created logoi.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Thus we learn about the kingdom of heaven by contemplating mustard seeds, the moral law by going to the ant, and the structure of the soul by participating in temple worship. Created logoi follow the pattern revealed in Christ: you come to know a logos when it is embodied or incarnated. Eternal truths are embodied and made visible to our senses through the imagination, by parables, actions, rituals, and even miracles.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the creation, we encounter created logoi of another order, which we might call natural. For example, cosmological, chemical, biological, and mathematical truths are embodied in created objects in time and space. These logoi reveal truths about God, but indirectly, which is why they are often turned into idols or skepticism. Yet they remain worth knowing because they are spoken by God. There\u2019s another reason they are worth knowing, which I\u2019ll pick up in the next section.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nicholas Berdyaev wrote, in <\/span>The Destiny of Man, <\/span><\/i>\u201cGod created man in his own image and likeness, i.e., made him a creator too.\u201d When we attend to created logoi, we acquire tools that enable us to imitate the creator in whose image we are made. We create, or, as Tolkien said, sub-create, on the pattern we observe: we make types of logoi. These are mimetic logoi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By weighing and measuring real objects on earth or in heaven, we learn to deliberate, judge, reason, generate and test models, and compose music. We learn to use language to express our understanding and appreciation of the things we encounter. And we make things, like poems and cathedrals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When we do so, we imitate God. All human activity comes under this pattern: the fine, visual, musical, serving, and liberal arts; the sciences in their inquiry, reasoning, modeling, experimenting, searching, and discovering; practical plans, such as blueprints, rules for games and constitutional law, strategies, and a bewildering array of schemes and activities, each of which pursues a logos as we conceive it in our minds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Perhaps above all and certainly most germane to this paper, we imitate God by teaching, for God is always teaching. That is, He is always revealing Himself. The more closely and fittingly we follow His pattern, the more effectively we teach.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are always making types of logoi, mimetic, created, or uncreated. The question is whether we do it wisely and well.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_margin=”15px||||false|false” custom_padding=”3px||1px|||” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”2px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Since God teaches this way, we should imitate him. Indeed, by created nature, we do. The times we don\u2019t are the times when the pattern is distorted by some external temptation or threat, of which there are many.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We have seen that the mimetic pattern is universal, extending throughout the creation. That creation includes human activities and human activities include teaching, so the mimetic pattern is also the pattern of all teaching. It is universal. It is an archetype.<\/p>\n Whenever anybody teaches or learns anything, they follow this pattern. We even have comic images (types!) to represent it (a light bulb goes on); we use cliches to reduce it to a caricature (show, don\u2019t tell); and we tell tales and myths about people who experience it (Odysseus, Dante, etc.).<\/p>\n For the sake of this article, I will reflect on this pattern using another archetype: a journey, like a pilgrim\u2019s progress, an exodus, or a journey home. These represent the journey of the soul from ignorance to knowledge or darkness to light. Perils and promises permeate even what seems the shortest journey, because light always hurts the darkened eye, and ignorance stops being bliss the moment it is exposed. In every case, the goal of the pilgrim is the logos of the journey: to \u201cget it\u201d, to see it, to understand it, to adore it, to be able to apply it. In short, to be enlightened by the logos and live in that light (John 1:8). Thus, the metaphor of a journey enables us to examine and clarify the role of both teacher and student, and the moment of illumination is the goal of the mimetic journey.<\/p>\n God guard me from those thoughts men think<\/p>\n In the mind alone,<\/p>\n He that sings a lasting song<\/p>\n Thinks in a marrow bone;\u201d<\/p>\n Yeats, quoted in The Creative Process 108<\/p>\n When a teacher teaches mimetically, she identifies a logos, embodies it in types, and guides a student to the moment of illumination that we call \u201cthe joy of learning.\u201d Looking at it this way, we can see three parts to mimetic teaching: the logos, the types, and a guide, which draws to our attention the role of the teacher.<\/p>\n As we examine that role, we come to see a seven stage sequence, each stage of which plays a vital role in that moment of illumination that is the goal of all teaching.<\/p>\n I am going to describe that seven stage sequence, but first, an important caution: when I use the word stages, I do not mean steps in a mechanistic process\u2014a technique by which you can attain a predictable outcome at the end of a repeated process. I mean a journey with seven stages. A journey to Moscow, to Mt. Ararat, or the North Pole will be very different journeys, and yet each will pass through common stages.<\/p>\n For this reason, our best teachers of teaching are not the theorists who analyze what happens when the best teachers teach (as I am doing now). Rather, our best teachers are the storytellers who show us how to teach by teaching: Homer, Vergil, Moses, St. John, Dante, and others. They understand that the traveler and the guide experience different journeys, so in what follows, I will present the mimetic journey twice, once from the teacher\u2019s perspective and once from the student\u2019s.<\/p>\n Also, for simplicity, I will refer to the teacher as \u201cshe\u201d and the student as \u201che\u201d.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||4px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n God guard me from those thoughts men think<\/p>\n In the mind alone,<\/p>\n He that sings a lasting song<\/p>\n Thinks in a marrow bone;\u201d<\/p>\n Yeats, quoted in The Creative Process 108<\/p>\n When a teacher teaches mimetically, she identifies a logos, embodies it in types, and guides a student to the moment of illumination that we call \u201cthe joy of learning.\u201d Looking at it this way, we can see three parts to mimetic teaching: the logos, the types, and a guide, which draws to our attention the role of the teacher.<\/p>\n As we examine that role, we come to see a seven stage sequence, each stage of which plays a vital role in that moment of illumination that is the goal of all teaching.<\/p>\n I am going to describe that seven stage sequence, but first, an important caution: when I use the word stages, I do not mean steps in a mechanistic process\u2014a technique by which you can attain a predictable outcome at the end of a repeated process. I mean a journey with seven stages. A journey to Moscow, to Mt. Ararat, or the North Pole will be very different journeys, and yet each will pass through common stages.<\/p>\n For this reason, our best teachers of teaching are not the theorists who analyze what happens when the best teachers teach (as I am doing now). Rather, our best teachers are the storytellers who show us how to teach by teaching: Homer, Vergil, Moses, St. John, Dante, and others. They understand that the traveler and the guide experience different journeys, so in what follows, I will present the mimetic journey twice, once from the teacher\u2019s perspective and once from the student\u2019s.<\/p>\n Also, for simplicity, I will refer to the teacher as \u201cshe\u201d and the student as \u201che\u201d.<\/p>\n Stage One<\/strong>, Invitation: Preparing for the Journey<\/p>\n There is none like to Shadowfax\u2026 And to you, my other guests, I will offer such things as may be found in my armory. Swords you do not need, but there are helms and coats of mail of cunning work, gifts to my fathers out of Gondor. Choose from these ere you go, and may they serve you well.<\/p>\n J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers<\/p>\n At the beginning of the mimetic journey, the teacher invites her students to join her, prepares them, and most of all ensures they are ready by gathering resources they\u2019ll need for the journey: knowledge, skills, appreciations, and understandings gained on previous journeys. Do they know what they need to know and understand what they need to understand? Are they able to do what they\u2019ll need to do? Do they appreciate or value what they\u2019ll need to value?4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Since children can\u2019t learn what they aren\u2019t ready for, the teacher should give this stage significant time and attention (as a rule, I recommend 33% or more of the lesson).<\/p>\n Stage Two<\/strong>, Orientation: The Gap of Wonder<\/p>\n My Lord, said I, let\u2019s hurry then and go!<\/p>\n I\u2019m not as weary as I was before<\/p>\n Dante, Purgatorio VI, 49<\/p>\n Next, having ascertained the student\u2019s readiness, the teacher leads the student to a gap. In other words, she raises a question in his mind, sometimes by asking one (ie what would happen if\u2026?), sometimes by making a promise (by the end of this lesson, you will be able to\u2026), sometimes by telling a story or anecdote that surprises the students (\u201cwhen the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat pocket\u2026\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n Stage Three<\/strong>, Presentation: Into the Gap<\/p>\n It is the nature of the word to reveal itself and to incarnate itself\u2026 Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker p111<\/p>\n In the third stage, the teacher enters the gap with her students by presenting types of the logos, especially illustrations and examples. She gathers or develops these prior to the learning situation in order to embody the logos. She thinks about the types with her students, entering into their uncertainty and sharing in their discoveries. Here are some types:<\/p>\n If the logos is an idea, such as \u201cyou should share\u201d or \u201cMankind is the image of God,\u201d the type might be a fable, fairy tale, myth, analogy, historical event, Bible story, or experience from the students\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n If the logos is a mathematical or material truth, such as 3+2=5 or maple leaves have serrated edges, the teacher presents examples, such as a few real maple leaves5<\/a><\/sup> or three plastic bears beside two plastic bears which combine to become five plastic bears.<\/p>\n If the logos is a skill or action, such as holding a bow (a physical skill) or generating a simile (an intellectual skill), the teacher provides examples for the student to imitate.<\/p>\n Whatever the logos, the teacher\u2019s task is to find or generate types and to present them to the student in as vivid and clear a manner as possible in order to draw the student’s attention to the types (vivid and clear examples do a better job of revealing the glory of the logos than the dull and cloudy and students are naturally drawn to glories).<\/p>\n Stage Four<\/strong>, Contemplation: The Great Puzzle<\/p>\n \u201cDear, dear! How queer everything is today! And yesterday things went on just as usual. I wonder if I\u2019ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I\u2019m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I? Ah, that\u2019s the great puzzle!\u201d<\/p>\n Alice in Wonderland, p. 12<\/p>\n Attentiveness is the underlying virtue of all learning, and people tend to pay better attention when they compare things with each other. In the fourth stage, the teacher guides her students to compare the types with each other.<\/p>\n Attending to this stage helps overcome our tendency to draw hasty conclusions as well as our eagerness to set aside a lesson before we reach its goal. But the main purpose of the comparison stage is to move the student from types to logos.<\/p>\n In a sense, this is the easiest stage for the teacher. We compare long before we are conscious of doing so, so the questions tend to come quickly and easily: How is this type like that one? How are they different? Is there more or less? Which is a better or worse instance? What is common to them all? What is specific to one or only a few? What is essential and what is accidental?<\/p>\n These identifications are among the most essential activities of the thoughtful person, we can see that the contemplation stage may well be the activity that best trains students in the most essential activities of reasoning, such as attentive noting, inference, deduction, analogical reasoning, discernment, etc.<\/p>\n A teacher might ask a preschool child, \u201cWhen I combined three bears with two bears, how many were in the new group? What about when I combined three apples with two apples? What was the same both times? What was different?\u201d Another teacher might ask her students to compare the way Vronsky treated his horse with the way he treated Anna Karenina: \u201cWhat was the same? Different? Did Vronsky\u2019s treatment of each have any effects common to both?\u201d The logos is, as it were, hidden in the types, and it is by asking such questions that we coax it out.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Stage Five<\/strong>, Illumination:<\/p>\n Then came, at a predetermined moment,<\/p>\n a moment in time and out of time.<\/p>\n TS Eliot<\/p>\n As the teacher guides her students to compare the types, something magical (really, it is miraculous) begins to happen: the logos that has been, as it were, hidden in the types begins to emerge in the students\u2019 minds (like a stowaway?).<\/p>\n We call this stage illumination, the moment when the student says, \u201cI get it!6<\/a><\/sup>,\u201d when the joy of learning laughs because learning has occurred, when the light bulbs go on.7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n In the scriptures, Our Lord tells us that \u201cone is your teacher, Christ\u201d (Matthew 23:10) which seems a bit odd. But at this moment, the moment every other moment serves, our Lord\u2019s words become to the teacher. Because the teachers\u2019 role when she senses that The Moment is coming is to withdraw and simply to wait prayerfully on the Lord to do what only He can do.<\/p>\n This moment of illumination is the goal of the entire lesson, the reason for every element and stage, the motivation for every action. Yet it is always a gift, one we can prepare for, bear witness to, and pray for, but not one we can give.<\/p>\n Stage 6<\/strong>, Re-presentation:<\/p>\n When the writer\u2019s Idea is\u2026 incarnate\u2026 then, and only then, can his Power work on the world. A book has no influence till somebody can read it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dorothy Sayers, The Mind of the Maker, p. 111<\/p>\n The student illumined by a logos is changed by the experience. As a result, the teacher\u2019s role changes. Now she provides a means for the student to re-present using his own resources the logos he has apprehended.<\/p>\n In most lessons, the teacher will ask her student to express the logos: the moral of the story, the steps of an algorithm, the insight gained about, e.g., Achilles\u2019 motivations. Often, she will instruct him to apply the logos in math exercises, an essay, a project, or life. Sometimes, students should combine lessons with other students. For example, the violin student who has mastered a new technique can perform it with a quartet.<\/p>\n Stage 7<\/strong>, Recognition: Crowning<\/p>\n \u201cI crown and miter you lord of yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Vergil to Dante. Purgatorio XXVII, p. 142<\/p>\n Once the student has embodied the logos learned, he has attained a micro-mastery\u2014a little bit of authority. Now, the teacher\u2019s role is to crown him, that is, to recognize that authority and set the student free in a proportionate and appropriate way that acknowledges he has taken one more step on the road to self-governance, his domain has expanded by a little bit, and he is becoming a free person.<\/p>\n Student\u2019s Perspective<\/p>\n While in the preceding section we described the seven stages from the teacher\u2019s perspective, we included the student\u2019s experience simply because we cannot consider the teacher\u2019s work without thinking about what the teacher is working on. If there is no student there is no teacher.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the teacher needs to understand the student\u2019s journey from the student\u2019s perspective as well. It is surprisingly easy for us as teachers to plough ahead up the mountain and fail to notice when one of our flock has wandered away or fallen off a cliff. Let us therefore consider the student\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_color=”gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”2px||2px|||” global_colors_info=”{%22gcid-4da62d67-488e-47fe-957b-2fa016fcfae2%22:%91%22background_color%22%93}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” background_enable_image=”off” custom_padding=”0px||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”|auto||auto|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/classicalchristian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/ACCS-cross_x512_white_trans_x200.png\"){kind=spacer}
<\/span><\/p>\n
Spring 2025, Volume XXXII Issue 2<\/span><\/p>\nThe Moment<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
What\u2019s coming<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
On Glory<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
The Glory of Mimetic Teaching<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
The form of Christ is the Incarnate Logos.<\/h4>\n
In what follows, I claim that Christ the Logos gives us the form of teaching, clarifying the role of the teacher and student in the journey to <\/span>The Moment<\/span><\/i>. We call this form of instruction \u201cmimetic teaching,\u201d which I believe is the purest and most comprehensive expression of Christian classical pedagogy.<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
<\/h4>\n
Types<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Logos and Logoi<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
The Pattern: Embodied Logoi<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Natural Logoi<\/h4>\n
<\/h4>\n
Mimetic Logoi<\/h4>\n
\u00a0When we speak of Christ the Logos, we partly mean that He is the ordering principle of all things. When we speak of other logoi, we mean that they are subordinate principles that govern smaller things, like the logos of a lesson, which determines what to include and what to avoid. <\/span><\/h6>\n
Teaching Mimetically<\/h4>\n
The Archetype of Teaching<\/h4>\n
<\/h3>\n
The Mimetic Journey<\/h3>\n
The Mimetic Journey<\/h4>\n
The Mimetic Journey: Teacher\u2019s Perspective<\/h4>\n
Attentiveness is the underlying virtue of all learning, and people tend to pay better attention when they compare things with each other.<\/span><\/h6>\n
\u00a0But at this moment, the moment every other moment serves, our Lord\u2019s words become to the teacher<\/span><\/h6>\n