I've often said that Advent is my favorite season of the church year. Now I get the chance to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. In my Education class, I have been assigned to a small group that has the task of creating a curriculum for church education around the season of Advent.Advent is the first season of each new church year and comprises the four Sundays before Christmas. It is intended to be a time of preparation and waiting; for the coming Christ child and for the return of Christ. What I love about Advent is that if enough attention is focused onto this time of preparation, we can slow down the march towards Christmas and all of its commercialism and misdirected enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong. I love to celebrate all the traditions of Christmas and I'm certainly happy to participate in the joy of holiday gift giving and receiving. But I appreciate the intentional efforts of Advent to truly prepare us for the radical way in which our lives are to change when Christ comes into this world. Perhaps for a few brief moments we can turn our attentions away from ourselves and focus on those around us.
In addition to preparing this curriculum for a church's educational theme, our small group must also make a presentation that reflects Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, in particular the logical-mathematical category. I hope this proves to be as interesting an exercise as our research is shaping it to be. Logical-Mathematical learners aren't necessarily just good at math but rather enjoy problem solving through scientific theory, pattern recognition and logic games. At this point, we're looking hard at doing something with an Advent calendar that slowly reveals the elements of what we hope to communicate to our audience. I'll be sure to post some results.
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