Thinkers over time have offered many analogies to describe the nature of education. But the one I have found most helpful comes from 19th century British educator Charlotte Mason, who likened teaching to serving a feast.

“We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can.” – Charlotte Mason

Consider a few observations about good meals and their connection to a good education.

The Purpose is to Nourish

A feast, to deserve its name, must nourish. It must feed a hungry person and leave him satisfied, but also eager to return to the table again and again. A meal of crumbs will never satisfy. But overindulgence will leave one sluggish and likely uninterested in eating that dish again anytime soon.

Similarly, in education, knowledge must be presented in a digestible way at a pace that nourishes rather than overwhelms the mind. This requires knowing our students generally, but also specifically. What can a child of this age realistically absorb from this lesson? What does this specific student, an embodied image bearer of God, need in this moment? Aiming at nourishment keeps the focus on the individual student in front of us.

Wide Variety Matters

It is not just the amount of food but the variety offered that makes a feast. Thanksgiving dinner isn’t complete with just a couple sides. The array of flavors, textures, and colors on the plate elevate the meal from an ordinary Thursday dinner to a truly special holiday spread.

Likewise a well-rounded education offers wide variety, perhaps most obviously seen in the breadth of subjects studied from mathematics to history to art. But a commitment to feeding the mind with variety extends much further. We intentionally read widely from books set in different time periods and geographic settings. Students explore varied genres and styles in literature, music, and art. Valuing variety informs even the complexity of the books chosen. At each stage students encounter both “easy” reads and challenging ones that stretch their reading comprehension.

Benefits may not Always be Immediately Seen

I cannot tell you every meal I have eaten over the last week (let alone the last year) but I can tell you that the health and energy I possess today would not be the same without those meals. To shift analogies for a moment, the life-long benefits of exercise are not always visible after each workout, but the benefits are no less real. 

So too in education the fruit of learning is not always immediately evident. From the Kindergartener laboriously sounding out simple words to the 6th grader stumbling through Shakespearean language, many moments in a school day or even a school year may feel futile. Discouragement can creep in for us as parents and teachers feeling that we and our students are simply running in place on a hamster wheel. In those moments, seeing education as a feast helps us to remember the long game. We seek to educate the whole person – mind, body, and soul – understanding that growth happens slowly and often starts internally long before it is evident on the outside.

As parents and teachers it is our great privilege and responsibility to fill our students’ educational journeys with a feast of the best food we can offer. And as we do so we ourselves are fed too, our minds and hearts shaped through teaching and learning together.