The Summer Break Test
If you want to get a good idea of the quality of a classical teacher, look at how they spend their summer break. The month of June and July in the life of the school may be the most important of the year because they provide faculty, staff, and students (and their parents to a different extent) the time and space to practice leisure.
It is often pointed out in classical education that our English word school is derived from the Greek word DZé, which roughly translates to leisure. Josef Pieper argues in his book, Leisure the Basis of Culture, that leisure is the opposite of production, it is a state of mind that delights in the higher things for in their own right. He writes:
“Leisure, it must be clearly understood, is a mental and spiritual attitude- it is not simply the result of external factors, it is not the inevitable result of spare time, a holiday, a week-end or a vacation. It is, in the first place, an attitude of mind, a condition of the soul, and as such utterly contrary to the ideal “worker” in each and every one of the three aspects under which it was analysed: work as activity, as toil, as social function.”
Progressive education has emphasized the product, seeking to prepare the student for the workforce; whereas classical education emphases and prepares the student for leisure.
What have you been up to this summer?
A funny quirk of being a teacher is running into students and parents during summer break. “How has your summer been?” often turns to, “so what do you do during summer?”
What does a summer day in the life of the ideal classical teacher look like? Do they wake up to watch the sunrise in their garden, read through the Lectio Divina with espresso and a croissant before strolling through the farmers market for fresh flowers and produce, eventually quoting Virgil in Latin while the ossobuco braises? Or does the ideal classical teacher repurpose their 7:30-4:00 schedule researching pedagogical theories and rewrite this year’s curriculum? Or do they simply get another job working at their uncle’s landscaping company to get a financial leg up?
Most realistically, the average classical teacher spends his or her summer days with her family and maybe feels bad about what little progress she’s made on her overly ambitious summer reading list.
Personally, I fight the need to justify my staying home during June and July with my two young daughters as a keen financial strategy. “The money we are saving on daycare alone in the summer pays for itself in legion.” If I were to honestly answer the question, I would say this: “I have put away the same toys and swept the same spot of my house 8,000 times.”
I am tempted to apologize for my lack of production. However, as Pieper argues and the Scriptures declare, leisure and rest is not unproductive but a freedom from production. God, through my children, is eliminating productivity as a precondition for my rest and my utility.
The good classical teacher uses their summer break to practice leisure. The good classical teacher uses her school year to practice and teach leisure. If a teacher is unable to practice leisure during June and July how can she train children to practice a life of leisure in August through May.
The correct way an ideal classical teacher uses their summer break is practicing leisure. What that looks like individually is as diverse as a school’s curriculum. A teacher may use the summer to serve their church, or spend time with their family, or memorize the monologues from Hamlet. However, the teacher who has a distaste for summer because they “feel so unproductive,” is one who needs to spend more time with Pieper, or sweeping the same spot of their kitchen more often.
