Learning by imitation and repetition, otherwise known as “rote” learning, is foundational to classical education, and is part of the fabric of every day and every subject at Providence Hall. In every classroom throughout the day you can hear history songs, Bible chronologies, Latin and English grammar chants, and multiplication tables being sung or recited by our students.
In the afternoon, if you come into the gym between 2:45 and 3:00 you will hear students being led by Miss Hoover in the learning of hymns by hearing her sing a line and singing it after her. These hymns are, for the most part, statements about the nature of God or prayers set to music. As the children are learning them, they aren’t really thinking much about the meaning of the words, they are simply imitating Miss Hoover. Eventually they will know the words very well, but for most of them, being able to really understand and appreciate their meaning will be several years down the road.
The same is undoubtedly true for the Scripture passages and catechism questions they memorize; students memorize fairly large chunks of Scripture every year, and the answers to many weighty doctrinal questions. I would venture to say that many of us adults don’t have a complete understanding of these things yet, and I’m sure the students don’t either, but these things will reside in their minds and hearts until, one day, the Lord will give them insight and understanding of them.
Is it wrong for students to recite Scripture verses or to sing prayers together with others without understanding what they are saying? If these things do not come from their heart, are they displeasing to God? When my children were very young, we listened to music tapes featuring a character named Psalty who said, “You can sing songs until you’re blue in the face, but if it doesn’t come from your heart, it isn’t praise.” Is this true? Are we encouraging students, in the singing of hymns, to engage in some sort of empty, ritualistic recitation of someone else’s prayers set to music? Or is it possible that the children’s voices, singing words that are true and good and beautiful about our God, His love for us, His goodness towards us, and so on is a pleasing offering to Him, whether they fully understand what they are saying or not, and even though someone else wrote the words?
I have no hesitation whatsoever in believing the latter. Not only that, I believe that these words, learned “by heart” are actually coming from their hearts! As it says in scripture, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart…” Ps. 119:11 When they sing a song over and over so that it is deeply imbedded in their innermost being, it’s in their “heart!” When they bring the words out in song, the song is coming from their heart! Where else would it be coming from?
Now, obviously, the greater their understanding of the words, the greater will be the depth of the emotion behind what they are singing. But this does not make their singing somehow inadequate, and suggesting that it isn’t praise simply because the children didn’t come up with the words themselves is unthinkable!
The same is true of the prayers in Chapel and Morning Prayer. They are prayers written by someone else. More often than not, they come straight from the Scriptures, and were written by people like David, Isaiah, Zechariah, and even Jesus. They aren’t in rhyming stanzas and we don’t sing them, but they speak of all the attributes of God, praising and thanking Him, asking for His mercy and forgiveness, and interceding for others. Do the students understand everything they are saying? No, not yet, but someday they will. Someday, when they are doing something else, the words to one of these prayers or Psalms will come to mind, and they will meditate on them; they will turn the words over in their minds and hearts (because this is where they are being stored) and God, the Holy Spirit will bring insight and understanding to them. As they pray, whether one of these prayers or a more spontaneous one, the depth of the emotion behind what they are praying will become much greater as their understanding increases, and the depth and breadth of what they will be able to say will, too! Hopefully, they’ll learn several different ways to pray “Dear God, please help us to have a good day!”
Read over the prayers in the Providence Hall missal. Use them in your own devotions. Join us for Morning Prayer. Be glad and rejoice that your children are being trained to begin every day with words that honor and magnify the One True and Living God, and that their lives and hearts are being shaped by such words!
