One of the biggest challenges in offering the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in a parish or school has to do with providing enough time in the Atrium. At The Way of the Shepherd the elementary children have two hours a week in the Atrium but even that much time is rarely enough. Twice this past week children came and asked for more work time and less presentations…and they already receive no more than one presentation a week, with some weeks completely dedicated to work time! As the children get older their follow-up work, their way of going deeper into the presentation or expanding and exploring or pondering and synthesizing the content, takes more and more TIME. They have huge ideas of what they want to do and rarely do these ideas come to fruition in one Atrium session or even three or four. Dr. Montessori’s observation that the elementary child desires “big work” is so apparent in the Atrium!
|
|
|
 |