Slow Schooling Chapter Eight: Teaching and Training

Knowing the difference, and embracing the power of modeling and habit.

It has been said that the essence of teaching is causing another to know. It may similarly be said that the essence of training is causing another to do.Teaching gives knowledge. Training gives skill. Teaching fills the mind. Training shapes the habits. Teaching brings to the child that which he did not have before. Training enables a child to make use of that which is already his possession. We teach a child the meaning of words. We train a child in speaking and walking. We teach him the truths which we have learned for ourselves. We train him in habits of study, that he may be able to learn other truths for himself.

Clay Trumbull

A proper parental perspective goes a long way in discipling a child. If children are a blessing as the psalms proclaim (specifically 127 and 128), then they are a blessing despite what the world and even our own vexed spirits believe, even in times of frustration or failure. If, on the other hand, they were simply add-ons to a full life, then surely we would …