Scholé Means WHAT?

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Scholé is the latest lingo being bantered about the classical homeschool community, but what does it mean? 

Well, it’s from an ancient Greek word meaning leisure and school.

What a second? Leisure and school? I don’t know about you, but leisure and school don’t equate in my mind. School is hard work. School means studying and diligence. And school requires discipline!

But the ability to engage in education, in school, requires a certain amount of leisure.

  • If we’re out hunting mammoths, we don’t have time to spend contemplating the atom.
  • If we’re desperately fighting for our lives and our country as our grandparents did during World War 2, we don’t have time to ponder what beauty truly is.
  • And if we’re frantically trying to pay bills and put food on the table, we don’t have time to read through the great books.

Education, or school, requires leisure… Not leisure of plopping down on the sofa to watch TV or hours mindlessly playing video games. It’s a leisure of quality pursuits. Pursuits aimed to fulfill our minds and souls.

Scholé means taking time to educate ourselves. Not in a frantic, we must finish this textbook next week, type of way. But in a relaxed, contemplative manner where we spend time enjoying poetry, reading great books, and contemplating the nature of beauty.

When we homeschool using scholé as our backbone, we are intentional about the subjects we cover in the homeschool and why. We don’t just add and add and add until the children are hiding under their covers shivering.

We thoughtfully consider what subjects are needed by each child. Which subjects are vital to our goals as classical educators. And what do children need to develop not just their bodies and minds, but their souls as well.

Scholé is to be intentional about our homeschool and the education we give our children.

How do you apply scholé to your homeschool?

Recommended Reading:

schole means what

9 Comments

  1. I definitely don’t want my boys to have to learn about hunting a woolly mammoth, but that might be super interesting to them when they’re older…

    My boys are still young, so that’s a ways off. In the meantime, we’ll try to cover a good variety of things – and see what their interests are.

  2. How intriguing! I never heard of this term before but Schole is definitely something we partake in frequently (and unintentionally). Love it!

    Thanks for sharing and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop!

    Wishing you a lovely weekend.
    xoxo

  3. We are a Military famiky, and I am Native American, so we are always using Hunt The Buffalo and WW2 metaphors to explain life and human nature. Even small children understand , as a member of the Tribe.
    Your wisdom is spot-on.
    Thanks for helping us succeed while Keeping it Real.

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