Assessing the Pedagogical Power of Poetry for Poetic Knowledge

However, the difference in growth rates between the treatment and control group for attentiveness was substantively large and statistically significant. The average of the control group students’ attentiveness scores increased about 0.13 points from 2.80 to 2.93. In contrast, the average of the treatment group students’ attentiveness scores increased 0.39 points—three times the magnitude of the control group— from 2.97 to 3.36. Similarly, the degree to which control group students enjoyed poetry did not change over the course of the two-week intervention, while treatment group students exhibited much more enjoyment of poetry over the same time period.

Next Steps and Implications for Future Research and Pedagogy

In summary, our scientific experiment demonstrates that integrating poetry into the study of the natural world fosters poetic experience. We would also like to suggest that poetry may have analogous impacts on poetic knowledge in other content areas such as history and mathematics as well as for students older than the ones in our sample. Conducting a similar experiment could provide empirical evidence to speak to that hypothesis. More generally, we encourage efforts to conduct studies with larger, representative samples to improve the quality of the available evidence about classical pedagogy. Widening the scope of the research in other ways by, for example, considering other outcomes or tracking students over time would likewise lend greater confidence about the validity of the claims of classical education. Moreover, these studies would provide additional data for classical educators to reflect upon the quality of their practice and their pursuit of excellence in teaching.

Considerations for future research aside, what do our findings mean for pedagogy, particularly as it pertains to poetic knowledge and the everyday classroom? First, the integration of poetry in nature studies enhances knowledge of the natural world because “scientific knowledge…does not, cannot, give an experience of the whole thing,” Taylor asserts.11 An experience with poetry in relation to science reveals a fuller picture of the nature of things. It has the ability to arouse a new love and new view. For instance, some kindergartners in our study became more attentive to the effects of the wind. After reading Christina Rosetti’s poem “Who Has Seen the Wind?” they began to seek out new evidence of the wind as depicted in the poem and to know it as more than just an invisible atmospheric phenomenon. We encourage teachers to consider how to weave poetry throughout their curriculum to draw out an additional layer of understanding. Importantly, engagement with poetry requires a learner to practice the intellectual virtue of attentiveness. Contemplating a poem (as in this experiment) or any experience, necessitates a student’s undivided gaze. This cultivation of attentiveness is necessary for keeping students “focused, present, and alert” during the learning process according to Jason Baehr.12 Experience with poetry invites students to apprehend details of the natural world through various senses, and to “apprehend / More than cool reason ever comprehends,”

11 James S. Taylor, Poetic Knowledge , 172.

12 Jason Baehr. Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching Intellectual Virtues (Cambridge, MA, Harvard Education Press, 2022), 141.

Assessing the Pedagogical Power of Poetry for Poetic Knowledge as Shakespeare’s King Theseus observed.13 While many distractions compete with students’ attention today, poetry naturally directs students to attend to things worth loving and to wonder deeply beyond the surface. Finally, poetry offers a dimension of knowing unique to divine image bearers caring for creation. As David the poet-king announces, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”

Poetry has the ability to help one develop poetic knowledge, to discern aspects of nature for deeper understanding about Who God is and humanity’s place in the world. It gives life, meaning, and coherence to scientific facts and reasoning. Ultimately, poetry helps souls discover God’s truth and goodness in beauty, fulfilling the aim of classical Christian education.

For over twenty-three years, Carrie Eben has championed classical education. Carrie leads teachers and parents in the classical model of education by developing and delivering customized workshops for administrators, teachers, and parents (www.classicaleben.com). She is currently a PhD student in the Humanities program at Faulkner University and teaches Integrated Humanities (adjunct) at John Brown University. Last summer she graduated from the CiRCE Institute as a Master Teacher and became a scholar in residence at the Society for Women of Letters. She also serves as founding board member at Sager Classical Academy in Siloam Springs, AR.

13 William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993): 143

Albert Cheng is an assistant professor of educational policy at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. He also directs the Classical Education Research Lab, an initiative that conducts empirical research about the effectiveness of classical education and provides resources for classical educators. Dr. Cheng teaches courses in educational policy and philosophy. He is a Senior Fellow at Cardus and board member of Anthem Classical Academy.

Works Cited

Augustine. The Confessions ; The City of God ; On Christian Doctrine / Saint Augustine. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1990.

Baehr, Jason. Deep in Thought: A Practical Guide to Teaching Intellectual Virtues. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2022.

Dickens, Charles. Hard Times. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc, 7.

Dickinson, Emily. “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” Accessed May 23, 2022. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56824/ tell-all-the-truth-but-tell-it-slant-1263

Lewis, C. S. The Abolition of Man. Quebec, Canada: Samizdat University Press, 2014.

Maritain, Jacques, and William Sweet. Natural Law: Reflections on Theory and Practice. South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2001.

Plato. The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter. Edited by M J Adler and P W Goetz. Translated by B Jowett and J Harward. 6. 2nd ed. Vol. 6. Great Books of the Western World. Chicago; Auckland; Geneva; London; Madrid; Manila; Paris; Rome;

Assessing the Pedagogical Power of Poetry for Poetic Knowledge https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud

Seoul; Sydney; Tokyo; Toronto: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1990.

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Taylor, James S. Poetic Knowledge: The Recovery of Education. Boulder, CO: NetLibrary, Inc, 1999.

Wordsworth, William.“I wandered lonely.”Accessed May 23, 2022.

The Lord’s Gifts to Human Nature

The Role of the Liberal Arts in the Educational Philosophy of John Calvin

by Lucas E. Vieira

Introduction

In the history of the Christian faith, there are few men as renowned as the protestant reformer, John Calvin. Trained in the schools of the scholastic humanists of the sixteenth century, Calvin was well-educated with his initial sights on entering the legal profession. Following his conversion to the Protestant faith, Calvin became a preeminent voice in the Reformation—most notably as a pastor, theologian, and writer based in the city of Geneva. While much academic scholarship and devotional reflection has focused on Calvin’s work as both a pastor and theologian, many forget the cultural significance and influence of Calvin’s work in the realm of Christian education. One central idea which pervaded the writings and sermons of the Protestant Reformers was the desire to educate the people so that they would not fall prey to the theological errors of the Roman Catholic church due to their own ignorance. Thus, Protestants emphasized the importance of having Bibles in the vernacular and equipping the people to read and understand God’s Word for themselves. It is in this milieu that Protestants throughout Europe began to start schools.1 For John Calvin, the Bible was at the heart of his theological vision. 2 God’s Word was to be the guiding light for all of life. Because of this, Calvin launched the Academy of Geneva, a Christian educational institution. John Calvin understood that Christian education was to serve as one of the primary means by which Christians could be equipped to know the truths of the Christian faith.

In light of this, the following question arises: What role does non-Scripture based study hold in a Christian education? For the Protestant reformer and school founder, the liberal arts served as essential to his program at the Academy of Geneva. John Calvin highly valued the liberal arts in his educational philosophy due to the fact that he understood them to be gifts from God, he believed they provided the proper educational foundation upon which later theological study could occur, and he recognized that they existed to stir the hearts of men to glorify God. Rooted fundamentally in Calvin’s theological conception of the centrality of the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self found in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin’s doxological approach to Christian education offers insightful guidance to the classical Christian education movement today.

1 Karin Maag, Seminary or University? : The Genevan Academy and Reformed Higher Education, 1560–1620 . (England: Scolar Press, 1995), 1–2.

2 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion , ed. John McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1960), 1.6.1–2.