The notion of Festina Lente, to make haste, slowly, is a common phrase tossed about in the classical education world. It is a seemingly contradictory phrase that we often times do not take the pain to delve further into our understanding or explanation.
I will not, at the outset, claim to fulfill this explanation fully here, because it is not something that can be fully understood or explained in a short article – that itself would be counter productive to the notion of Festina Lente itself.
Let us first look at Psalm 1:
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.
In verse 2, we see this beautiful concept – “but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
What does that look like? I remember a former pastor of mine mentioned that there are times you read your Bible and you want to get through a chapter a day in the New Testament and a chapter a day in the Old Testament. That’s a great goal, but – he noted – if you don’t understand what you’ve read, you have only checked off a box of completion, you have not fully understood what God is saying through His Word.
This pastor friend of mine continued that you are to think on a phrase or a word that strikes you and let it fill your thoughts throughout the day – just the same message as we see in Psalm 1, verse 2.
How does that translate to education?
In similar fashion, education should not be about simply checking a completion box, but the lessons we teach and learn should be those that cause us to think, to fill up ourselves, and to consider and ponder for some time, and to master a topic.
For an example, my tenth grade students studied Statesmanship this past school year. While reading Cicero, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Jefferson, Locke, Sidney, Franklin, Washington, et. al., we were left with questions such as “what is the true role of government?” and “what is a statesman?”.
In truth, we never completely or fully answered those questions (at least to the satisfaction of my fourteen- and fifteen-year-old students). And in the end, isn’t that great?
Those students will hopefully continue to ponder those thoughts – and the conversations surrounding them, the readings that posed the questions, and the influence those questions will have on them as they seek to be good citizens for the United States.
The concept of Festina Lente also cultivates the virtues of humility and patience in the lives of our students. Geared to ensure we are not rushing through simply to get the job done, we guide our students to wisdom and virtue by helping them wrestle with the big questions of life.
As I write this, summertime schedules are in full force – Festina Lente is much easier. Perhaps as we get closer to another school year in the next couple of months, we will take time to work that muscle of making haste, slowly so we can fully capture and dive deeply into the rich heritage of faith, reason, wisdom, and virtue.