Professor John Sullivan of Liverpool Hope University has sent me this kind review which he wrote for the Spring 2020 issue of Networking, an English Catholic education journal:
Did Jesus go to school? By Roy Peachey (Redemptorist Publications, 2019) Pp.149; £9.95.
This is an engaging, down-to-earth, original, wise and spiritual book about parents, children and education. It has something of value for all Catholic teachers and parents. The topics it touches upon are intriguingly opened up by a series of questions. These include: why did it take three days for Mary and Joseph to find Jesus? Are parents more like gardeners or carpenters? Were Adam and Eve children? Did Jesus go to school? How did he learn? What can Jesus teach us about education today? The author, who has already given us another interesting book on how to transform Catholic education – Out of the Classroom and Into the World (Angelico Press, 2018) – blends reflections on passages from scripture (especially about the early life of Jesus), insights from spiritual reading and personal anecdotes, all related to daily experience of parenthood and being a teacher – about which vocations he offers simple yet profound advice. I was particularly struck by his observations about silence, adoption, the qualities needed by parents, the soul-extending part played in our lives by longing, the Bible (‘a pool deep enough for elephants to bathe in and shallow enough for mice to paddle in’) and time. ‘Neither love nor education can be rushed’ (p.142). Neither can discipleship.
John Sullivan, Emeritus Professor (Christian Education), Liverpool Hope University
Roy Peachey's Books 