Lawrence Hall, HSG
All Children by
Nature Have a Desire to Learn
“All men by nature have a desire to know.”
-Aristotle, p. 3 of Man in the Universe in the 1943
Classics Club edition
We would now say “all men and women,” that is, if the
fashionable among us will allow Aristotle a voice at all.
Once upon a time I was sitting in the car reading,
waiting for the spouse-person who was yakking with some other women after Mass.
Suddenly I noticed a little boy standing next to me at the window. He said, “You
look like Father Brown.”
Well, any little boy who reads G. K. Chesterton has
certainly been raised right, and I was pleased to meet him.
The little boy is now taller than I am, but for me he
will always be that kid was a strong reader even when he was so small he was
only about car-window high.
His name is not Jacques, nor is his little sister’s name
Chantel, but give the unhappy temper of our time I will not reveal their true
names, the town in which they live, nor the school they attend. Things have
just gotten too weird.
Because they live far, far away I see Jacques and Chantel
only a few times each year when they come to visit their grandparents, but it
is always fun to hear what books they are reading, what new music they have
learned, and how their summer jobs are going.
This is because their parents have given them love not
only in food, clothing, and shelter, but in making their home a library, a
music studio, an art museum, and a science laboratory. The farm animals are
outside.
A few months ago their mom posted from their living room a
video clip of Chantal singing a solo and Jacques accompanying her on a (viol? viola?).
As the song says, if you’re gonna play in Texas you gotta have a fiddle in the
band. Big fiddle. [Alabama - If You're Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A
Fiddle In The Band) Lyrics | AZLyrics.com]
Well, okay, they’re rich folks who can afford to send
their kids to fancy-schmancy schools, right?
Nope. Two working parents and an ordinary public school
in Texas.
Jacques and Chantel, you see, were never permitted to
feel sorry for themselves and submit to the Sauron’s eye that is the
InterGossip. They have always had to work, study, and try to get along with
their fellow humans.
Recently their mom sent a video of Jacques (but not
Chantel, who was in a different program) in a Christmas presentation by their high
school’s madrigal club. All the young folks were in beautiful costumes along
the mediaeval-renaissance continuum (I know nothing about fashion) except for
one who seemed to be a pirate, but, hey, good fun! The musical presentations of
old – as in olde – Christmas hymns and Christmas carols, along with some contemporary
just-plain-fun songs were outstanding: professional in voices, professional in
musical talent, and professional in stagecraft, and obviously professional
through months of disciplined rehearsals. It can only have been difficult.
I don’t know who the music teacher is, but she does a
fantastic job in leading her students.
On this night, the kids got to have some fun, and they
certainly did – such energy!
We’ve all been to school musical presentations and often
suffered through them. We smile through the sixth-grade band’s pieces when what
we really want to do is cover our ears. We applaud the children not because the
strange noises they’ve made are objectively good but because the children gave
it a go at all and we want to encourage them.
Okay, sometimes we want to encourage the brass to
practice in the next county, but, hey, childhood.
However, the Christmas-themed program staged by Jacques
and his fellow high school musicians was objectively good. The applause was not
aw-ain’t-they-cute applause but real wow-they-are-great applause. With discipline, practice, and the handing on
of civilization from one generation to the next you get something good.
Only some hours later did I wonder if all those good, smart,
talented, hard-working young people had been patted down for firearms.
All men and women by nature have a desire to know; all
children by nature have a desire to know. The question for us is this: what
do we give our children to know?
-30-
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