Giving Teachers and Students Time to Ponder: A brief introduction to The SALT Approach (Scripture and Liturgy Teaching Approach)
Poverty of time to ponder poses challenges for humanity. In today’s climate opportunities to ponder are frequently stripped away. Moments of external silence are increasingly rare. Life is rushed. Shopping happens in busy, noise-filled environments, traveling is accompanied with headphones and electronic devices to distract and occupy. Silence is a rare commodity. Yet external silence opens the way to inner quiet. Inner quiet facilitates thinking This can become pondering. Pondering can lead to wonder and wonder to awe. Awe is an experience unique to human beings. It manifests in a sense of joy and peace, and to the experience of love.
In this rushed world, garnishing time is essential for both teachers and students. Teachers themselves need this precious commodity if they are to open the path to pondering and wondering in the lives of students. It is a sine qua non: No time, no pondering, no wondering, no contemplation, and the consequence is little experience of the joy, love and awe.
Emanating from my doctoral studies, which focused on the work of Montessori, Cavalletti and O’Shea, The SALT Approach offers a pedagogy that facilitates pondering, offering time and space, despite the challenges. It is designed to encourage children and educators to engage through the body, heart and mind. It fosters a personal encounter with God through Jesus, God-made-man.
Through it, children and adults alike are empowered to ponder deeply as they engage with the Catholic faith in all its dimensions, applying it to their own lives in age-appropriate ways. Both teachers and children are drawn towards deep and absorbing reflections.
Time for pondering is created by providing an ordered, uncluttered space with range of materials accessible to students such as dioramas, charts, maps, timelines and sacramentally related kits.
Time for pondering is garnered as teachers and students gather in a recollected, mutually respectful way, encountering Christ in Scripture and the sacraments. As the teacher effectively uses the dioramas, kits, charts, or images, the students are drawn to ponder. Following the presentation is a time for pondering and wondering. Effective thought-provoking questions are often framed in terms of ‘I wonder…’. Subsequently, time is given for independent learning: time to ‘ponder’ the rich depths of faith. The hands-on materials are readily and constantly accessible to students. The teacher’s role of facilitator and observer is paramount during this time. Sessions come to a close with a few minutes of recollection. Well selected audio-visual materials are well suited to this moment, offering consolidation and further pondering through a video clip, prayer, or song. Concluding quietly and respectfully facilitates extending the pondering beyond the session.