Progymnasmata: Proverb
An In Media Res Introduction to the 'Beginning Exercises'
At the beginning of this school year, I determined to more heavily rely upon traditional ways of teaching and learning in a school room. I have learned over the course of this year that ‘Classical Education’ entails much more than merely referencing classical texts—their must be a systematic (schedule, subject classification, class organization) agreement to this style of learning for it to be effective. I have, nonetheless, persisted in my struggle to bring my own English and History classrooms into as much of a semblance of ‘Classical Education’ that I can within the restrictions of a more industrial school setting.
One great success has been the use of progymnasmata, which if you are familiar with anglicized Greek (or are an astute reader of subtitles) you know means “the beginning exercises.” The order and details of these exercises understandably varies between ancient schools, but the resource I have found from BYU contains fourteen exercises, each completed in succession. I have had to only slightly adapt the language of some of the directions for the steps to each exercises, but I am happy to say that the average 6-8 grade student understands the steps and can imitate them fairly reasonably.
For the first installment in of my “from the desk” series in quite some time, I thought I would provide examples from the ‘proverb’ exercise, where students are asked to recommend a saying by: 1) praising the saying, 2) give a paraphrase of the theme, 3) say why this was said, 4) introduce a contrast, 5) introduce a comparison, 6) give an example of the meaning, 7) Support the saying/action with testimony of others, and 8) Conclude with a brief epilog or conclusion. This has been the most enjoyable exercise for me to work on with students, so I have several examples to provide of a completed ‘proverb’ exercise which I’ve included below with a few notes of explanation for each. These proverbs can be taken from either the current class text or from other proverbial sources, though I have found that it is not too difficult to integrate the class text into this exercise so I’ve used their books as a source to encourage them to think critically about what we read. This, likewise, has been an excellent exercise to supplement classroom learning when tutoring students one on one. -CW
“This is the house of the Prince of Peace, and would you profane it/ Thus with violent deeds and hearts overflowing with hatred?”
- Father Felician, Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In these two lines, Longfellow’s character, Father Felician, beautifully exhorts his parish not only to love one another, but to be moved to love by being present to the place they are in. Amidst riots at the English proclamation of expulsion from their village, Father reminds the Acadians of Grand Pré that though anger and wickedness assail them, the same anger and wickedness cannot exist in us when we choose to be present to the reality of our (real or perceived) enemy’s human nature. Like the epic poems Evangeline is modelled after, such as The Odyssey, blind rage must heed wisdom’s voice, just as in The Odyssey, Odysseus’s hand is stayed in his rage against Ithaca by the goddess of wisdom, Athena. In a more contemporary example, take any number of acts of terror that occur across our country, especially in places of worship as in Evangeline. Do these terrorists have love in their heart? Are they present to the humanity of the people they attack or the sacredness of the buildings they invade? Hate blinds us to our surroundings, but love enlightens us to what things truly are. As St. Isaac the Syrian writes, “A merciful heart burns [—not with hate—but] with love for all creation.” So, too, does Father Felician beg his people to exchange their hate for their persecutors with the fire of love by recognizing the place they are in and the humanity of the Englishmen who persecute them there.
Note: This is, obviously, a more advanced example than what a middle school student may be capable of. I will say, however, that I have been pleased with how similar student work has been to this as far as quality. The beauty of the progymnasmata is that it establishes patterns for how students should write about a given topic and allows them to creatively interpret how to fill those patterns. It does not, in other words, restrict their originality, but encourages them to draw on their own knowledge to write about a given topic. One thing that I especially emphasized in this example is for students to fulfill steps four through six utilizing sources that are tangentially related and learn to integrate them into the text. For some, this requires more research and therefore greater effort, but many are able to reference past readings (like The Odyssey) and other sources of wisdom they have received from.
“To love and win is the best thing. To love and to lose, the next best.”
—W.M. Thackeray
The Anglo-Indian author William Makepeace Thackeray’s few words on love have echoed out for over one hundred years. Who would not find comfort in the fact that love is always with us? It may be difficult to see the truth of this saying for someone who feels they have not received love, but that does not mean it is never true or even not true most of the time. All great stories emphasize the universal experience of love in all circumstances such as The Little Prince, which shows that love is best when you are ‘winning’—as when the pilot fixes his plane with the company of the Prince—but remains present and desirable even in loss—as the love and joy the pilot still feels when the Prince returns to his home planet. St. Paul also writes on the power of love, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” It is this same belief which motivates Thackeray to extoll the power of love in win and loss and should motivate us to also embrace love’s power.
Note: This, as an example for my sixth grade class, was written with greater definition to each step to demonstrate how to utilize them creatively and concisely. Again, students are encouraged to first draw on examples they are familiar with (The Little Prince being a book we read together last semester). In the first step, they are also expected to draw upon biographical details from the author we are studying, William Makepeace Thackeray. Yet again, I have found that writing in this way relieves the pressure from students to be original constantly and allows them to use their creativity while still giving them defined boundaries to work within.
‘“He deserves death.’
‘Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it… In any case we did not kill him: he is very old and wretched. The Wood-elves have him in prison, but they treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.’”
—Gandalf to Frodo, when discussing Gollum (Lord of the Rings, p. 59-60)
In Tolkien’s day, perhaps to a greater degree than our own, it took much courage to take a pacifistic position on death ‘judgements.’ His were the days of the evils of new war machines, Nazism, and Soviet Era atrocities. How many cries resounded that Hitler, Stalin, Goebbels, the Japanese, or the inventors of the atomic bomb deserve death? Tolkien, quite wise in his own right, exhorts these judges through Gandalf, “Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.” What sort of ear did his words fall on? Indeed, what ears do these words fall on now, deaf or attentive? Like the Gospels, Tolkien challenges the spirit of the self—what grounds do we have within ourselves for judgement unto condemnation when we cannot death? Like this also, St. Maximus pleads with those who may judge him, “Overcome with compassion the failings of your child, and become the means by which I may be reconciled to God.” His assertion, of the same essence as Tolkien’s, places the human being not as a judge unto condemnation, but unto life. “Can you give life to them?” Gandalf asks. Yet not I, but Christ within me. Christ, therefore, is the only one who may judge unto condemnation. Gandalf, at the end of his wise words on judgement, demonstrates his words to be true because others who are considered wise (the Wood-elves) withhold judgement against Gollum but instead, though he may deserve death, “treat him with such kindness as they can find in their wise hearts.”
Note: For this particular assignment, students were asked to reflect on a piece of wisdom from either a book they were currently reading or a book from our class library. Using a book I am currently reading, I demonstrated to them by mirroring my screen and asking Socratic questions to have them contribute to our class exercise. After this, I noticed that many students who had struggled with the exercise before were able to better able to complete a similar exercise with a proverb they found on their own.