The Need for Balance. A Craving for Unity.

When it comes to education it's important to keep a balanced view of things. This is true because, all areas of life demand that we keep a balanced view. It's the way it is. Years ago when Charlotte Mason promoted the now well known motto 'Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life', none of these thoughts were 'new'. The emphasis of atmosphere in education wasn't original to her. Neither were these: 'Education is a Life' or 'Education is a Discipline'. These thoughts have all come and gone again and again. Taken individually, none is complete. Alone, each tends to one extreme or another.

As important as each aspect is, for example, atmosphere is not enough. It isn't enough to have a beautiful classroom, the best equipment and the picture perfect teacher with influence and knowledge to boot. If that were ALL there were to education, boredom, laziness, a lack of both curiosity and power of attention would be inevitable. Externals can only take you so far.

On the other hand, 'education as life' would tend to complete exhaustion. It be a literal case of too. much. information. One can only do so much learning without coming back round to the same ennui (n :a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.) Over much internal pressure will cause explosion! The brain reverts to a vegetable state in order to survive.

Similarly unbalanced, education with discipline (habit development) as it's primary focus, teaches the acquisition of character traits like 'subjects' meant to turn out a certain 'product' over-compartmentalizes our complex natures 'producing rather one-sided men'.

Any one of these mottoes taken alone is insufficient for summing up education because by itself each tips the balance to one extreme or another.

“Our nature craves after unity.” (p155)

Which is why Charlotte Mason proclaims, Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, AND a Life. All three.
When it comes to curriculum, it must be wide, varied, and balanced. It must be a feast of living ideas; from the past and present, from first-hand sources, from 'REALLY good books' (I really love that she emphasizes good books with the word 'really'. I really do.).

This is the way things are. As persons fashioned after an infinite God, we are complex beings. We must consider ALL our intricately interwoven parts when we think about educating persons. We can't afford to go to one extreme or the other. Balance. Education must be the Science of Relations:

“A child should be brought up to have relations of force with earth and water, should run and ride, swim and skate, lift and carry; should know texture, and work in material; should know by name, and where and how they live at any rate, the things of the earth about him, its birds and beasts and creeping things, its herbs and trees; should be in touch with the literature, art and thought of the past and the present I do not mean that he should know all these things; but he should feel, when he reads of it in the newspapers, the thrill which stirred the Cretan peasants when the frescoes in the palace of King Minos were disclosed to the labour of their spades. He should feel the thrill, not from mere contiguity, but because he has with the past the relationship of living pulsing thought...”

“He must have a living relationship with the present, its historic movement, its science, literature, art, social needs and aspirations. In fact, he must have a wide outlook, intimate relations all round; and force, virtue, must pass out of him,whether of hand, will, or sympathy, wherever he touches.” (p161-2)

:)

This post is based on my own thoughts about Chapter 14 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, A Master Thought, is May's topic for the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the May editions.

If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here. Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

Some thoughts on Moral Training.

"The subject of moral progress does not belong solely to the religious world. It is not altogether a matter of
religion ; it is a matter of that good sense, that idea of public utility which' considers the welfare of the immediate present, and looks with a benevolent eye to an improved manhood in the future. For morality is almost as beautiful when viewed as a guiding element to man in this world's transactions as it is when viewed as an essential to happiness in the world to come."
Moral and Literary Training in PUBLIC SCHOOLS by JOHN B. PEASLEE, p13


All moral progress depends on the consistency with which the great religious idea is made to permeate every suggestion: and yet all intellectual progress is possible only through the constant development of such qualities as perseverance, observation and attention, which are themselves but a continuation of moral growth; even in the case of physical training the motto of one and indivisible is still continued, and Bousseau's saying: "The weaker the body is, the more it commands; the stronger it is, the more it obeys," will perhaps serve to remind you of what I am thinking, and how the disregard of even this lowest point in the educationalist's programme is sufficient to bring to ruin a work that aims at the building up the stature of a perfect man.
Education, Part 1 by the Rev. M.R. Lutener


These are just some of the words I've had clunking around in the back of my head over the last couple of days. I haven't gotten any thoughts written down yet, but I plan to update this post today or tomorrow. We've had lice, visitors, serious stomach illness and a 16th birthday that kept me from sitting and plunking out a post.

I'm submitting it to the CM Blog Carnival as-is, please check back tomorrow if you're interested in further thoughts...

:)

This post is based on thoughts on Chapter 12 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Moral Training, is one option for a topic advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the March editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

Pre-requisite to Moral Traning: A Living Example

"A child's whole notion of religion is 'being good.' It is well that he should know that being good is not his whole duty to God, although it is so much of it; that the relationship of love and personal service, which he owes as a child to his Father, as a subject to his King, is even more than the 'being good' which gives our Almighty Father such pleasure in His children." v3 p136

"...that most delicate and beautiful of human possessions, an educated conscience, comes only by teaching with authority and adorning by example." v3 p129

And I don't venture far to say that the only true authority is one that is fleshed out by A Living Example. Authority won't get you very far if you don't practice what you preach.

A rather long, but oh so good illustration from my recent free-reading:

"Thus had Gibbie his first lesson in the only thing worth learning, in that which, to be learned at all, demands the united energy of heart and soul and strength and mind; and from that day he went on learning it. I cannot tell how, or what were the slow stages by which his mind budded and swelled until it burst into the flower of humanity, the knowledge of God. I cannot tell the shape of the door by which the Lord entered into that house, and took everlasting possession of it...

So, teaching him only that which she loved, not that which she had been taught, Janet read to Gibbie of Jesus, talked to him of Jesus, dreamed to him about Jesus; until at length—Gibbie did not think to watch, and knew nothing of the process by which it came about—his whole soul was full of the man, of his doings, of his words, of his thoughts, of his life. Jesus Christ was in him—he was possessed by him. Almost before he knew, he was trying to fashion his life after that of his Master...

Whatever Janet, then, might, perhaps—I do not know—have imagined it her duty to say to Gibbie had she surmised his ignorance, having long ceased to trouble her own head, she had now no inclination to trouble Gibbie's heart with what men call the plan of salvation. It was enough to her to find that he followed her Master. Being in the light she understood the light, and had no need of system, either true or false, to explain it to her. She lived by the word proceeding out of the mouth of God."

Sir Gibbie, George MacDonald. Kindle Edition (Loc 2499-2532).

I cannot recommend Sir Gibbie highly enough. It's my new favorite.
I kinda wanna memorize it.

The following quote from Charlotte Mason, as well as that at the beginning of the post, make me wonder if she might have read Sir Gibbie herself. Either way, I hope you'll be inspired to read it someday. It's so good. :)

"A child cannot have a lasting sense of duty until he is brought into contact with a Supreme Authority, who is the source of law and the pleasing of whom converts duty into joy. In these rather latitudinarian days, there is perhaps no part of religious teaching more important than to train children in the sense of the immediate presence and continual going forth of the supreme Authority." v3 p137

This post is based on thoughts on Chapter 12 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Intellectual Training, is one option for a topic advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the March editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

March CM Blog Carnival Announcement and Invitation!

This coming Monday, the next edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival will be posted! I'm already looking forward to it and still formulating my thoughts for my own post to submit. You might say I've been procrastinating. :) Hopefully, you have already sent in your blog post to be featured in the carnival next week, but if not, you have two days left!

Please join us by submitting a post, or just reading along. Posts are due by 3/10 before 5pm EST. Send the link to your post in an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

As always, we welcome any Charlotte Mason inspired blog posts! Bloggers vary widely in their gifts and experiences, which means, we can all learn from each other. We hope you'll share with us! You might even consider submitting the link for someone else's CM blog post you've run across and been encouraged by as well.

Below, you will find an optional topic, a thought provoking quote or two and several ideas for those who need a little writing prompt or who would like some direction for further study. :)

The optional topic for discussion during the month of March is:

Some Unconsidered Aspects of Moral Training - Chapter 12

Here are a couple of interesting things that I came across in my pre-reading of the chapter. There are many more potentially interesting ideas there as well. I'd encourage you to read the entire chapter online here.

A couple of thought provoking quotes and questions:

“Morals do not come by Nature. - No doubt every child is born with a conscience, that is, with a sense that he ought to choose the right and refuse wrong; but he is not born with the power to discern good and evil. An educated conscience is a far rarer possession than we imagine...” v3 p130

“It may be said that we neglect all additional ethical teaching because we have the Bible; but how far and how do we use it?” v3 p133

“A child's whole notion of religion is “being good.” v3 p136

To read these quotes and questions in their proper context and ponder over what Charlotte was getting at, read Ch 12 of School Education in its entirety here.


*Please see the CM Blog Carnival Schedule page for a list of dates and topics for the whole year (in progress).
**By subscribing to the Carnival Announcement/Reminder list you can stay up-to-date and never miss another carnival. Plus, you'll receive handy-dandy monthly ideas & occasional links pertaining to the topic... for free! ;) oh wait, it's all free! heheh.
***Also, please encourage your bloggy AND non-‐bloggy friends, who love Charlotte Mason and/or those who are newly interested, to visit the CMBCarnival, the more the merrier!! :)

On Intellectual Habits, the Fallibility of Reason and Being Transparent.

When Reason turns us against ourselves

"The reasoning power, acting in a more or less mechanical and involuntary manner, does not necessarily work towards the morally right conclusion." (v3, p117)

Right.

Have you ever experienced this?

"We all know that, entertain a notion that [so and so] is dishonest, that a friend is false, that a dress is unbecoming, and some power within us, unconsciously to us, sets to work to collect evidence and bring irrefragable proof of the position we have chosen to take up." (v3, p117)

This was my Thursday. It might be my tomorrow.
Wait. I'm about to be transparent. Are you ready for this?

This was a day I woke up with lots of 'reasons' to be annoyed, several of which are listed below, not in order of occurrence but by severity of annoyance.

#1
Because of the existence and consistent insistence upon the rule - 'Thou shalt not exit thy room and shall remain quiet, if not speechless, before 7 am', I feel it is reasonable that one might wake up somewhat grumpily before 6 am, to the tune of a six year old neighbor's singing, at the top of her lungs (even if it was Great is Thy Faithfulness), after an awake-til-2am-late-night experience of blissfully picking billions of lice out of somethree's hair.
Tired.
Want.to.sleep.more.
Can't.
Annoying.


#2
To me, it seems perfectly reasonable that I could be annoyed that someone took my running shoes outside and forgot them there overnight. It rained. They were right where whoever left them when I went searching for them, still outside, and FULL of water.
Things can potentially take a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG time to dry here in the humidity...
I don't have an extra pair.
I can't effectively walk on the treadmill in this seventh month of bulging belly in flip flops. Can't.
Yep. more annoying.


#3
Some child bursts into my room (while I am still in bed looking upon the Proverb about how to handle loud early rising neighbors) and presents incriminating evidence re: a teenager. Evidently, Certain-Fifteen-Year-Old has decided to, this very day, break a rule that he has broken weekly for the last two months, for which has been doled out timely, just, and painful consequences every.single.time.
Try to imagine the pattern with me. Infraction. Weeklong restriction. Infraction. Weeklong restriction. Infraction. FOR WEEKS LONG ON END. Today, the cycle continues.
My husband being away, I get to deal with it all.by.my.tired.grumpy.self.
You get it.
Yep. super annoying.

Honestly, I was annoyed. Very. Multiple times.

But.
Do you know what?
In part because of my recent rumination on this subject, but entirely for grace, I was able to quickly detect, even before leaving my bedroom, some fallacies in mine and my son's reasoning and therefore choose me that day whom I would serve.

You see, though there were without a doubt lots of things to be annoyed about, there are always innumerably MORE things to be thankful for. For example, that I have legs and am able to walk; that eventually, the sun will shine again, my shoes will dry, and even if they don't, I can afford another pair or ask my mother-in-law for one ;). And, how thankful I truly am to have a 6 year old daughter, a delightful child (who sings Great is Thy Faithfulness to boot).

Now in the case of the teenager, it was a little more difficult to find the bright side... heheh. Well, seriously, I'm only partly kidding. However, what an immense privilege to talk with him about how the decisions made right.this.very.minute do have an impact on who he is becoming, his character; about the importance of self-government; and how submission to authority now is simply practice for days when he'll have to will himself to obey an Invisible Authority without parents who look over shoulders. He may have said 'Amen' to that.

We got to discuss how we are capable of convincing ourselves using our REASON that certain things, while forbidden, are not that bad... or, it isn't really going to hurt anyone... or, this rule is unreasonable compared to... or, if I can indulge and just not get caught... or, only this one last time. I can stop this habit whenever I decide to... or... whatever.

Sin is sin. Disobedience of authority is disobedience of Authority. We can and naturally will use reason to justify sin, UNLESS we keep in step with the Spirit. The lights came on. The waters broke. I gave an illustration, which I can't remember now, and complimented myself on it; as it was really quite perfect considering. I wished aloud I could have recorded it. He told me, he wished he'd recorded the whole conversation it was all so good.

Phew.
Praise the Lord. PRAISE the Lord.
It's all grace.

In this battle against fallible reasoning, where right thinking may become a matter of life or death, thankfully, we are not left alone. God has graciously given us a Standard of Truth by which we may judge aright, to which we may refer, rather must refer, and that often.

And look what I found today while rummaging around in my commonplace for an appropriate quote. Whoa. Great minds think alike...

"How are we to get this vital knowledge, without which we assuredly perish? - not in some unknown future state, but here and now, a slow paralysis creeps upon us. We have seen that there is but one source of illumination, the Bible itself. It is true that the divine Spirit is a light in every man's soul; but if a lamp is to be kindled, there must be the lamp; and it would seem as if the process followed by the Holy Spirit were to teach us by an arresting illumination, from time to time, of some phrase written in the Bible. Hence, our business is, before all things, to make ourselves acquainted with the text. (v4, p84)

By long, slow study and by quick heart's love we shall learn to discern God, to know in an instant those words which are not of him... (v4, p89)"

And this is the advice I gave myself on the temptation to be 'reasonably' annoyed on Thursday, and that which I subsequently shared with my son for 'truthfully' dealing with the temptation to use faulty reasoning to defend his wrongdoing.

Turn reason right side out.

We have a choice regarding what we will think about.

We can sit and smolder, thinking of all the reasons 'Why I am justifiably annoyed today', which will absolutely not help the situation, even if it feels by far the most reasonable thing at the moment.
Or, we could list all the reasons 'Why I can do this thing and disobey just this once'.
We can defend ourselves with good reasons to act whichever way the wind blows.

OR

"...We turn away our thoughts from beholding evil, the evil in another or the evil suggestion to ourselves; and we do so, not by reasoning the matter out, but just by thinking of something else, some other pleasant or interesting thing belonging for the moment to our lives. For we are so made that there is always with the temptation an easy and natural way of escape."

I can't even tell you what good advice this is. Seriously.

Turn the thoughts.

To Scripture. Listen to an audiobook for 5 minutes. Take a shower. Eat peanut butter toast with limited edition raspberry jelly. Make coffee. Sit and read a visually appealing book with a 6yo Great is Thy Faithfulness aficionado. Search the attic for an old pair of running shoes. Sing a folksong or three and read poems. Make every opportunity to avoid direct speech with teenager until full composure has set in, toast and coffee are digested, etc.

When faced with temptation, think of something else, find something pleasant or interesting (and lawful) to do or think about.

Fallible reasoning can be overcome.

By testing with truth.
By thought turning.
By taking in big gulps of grace.

:)

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ."

2 Cor.9:5

This post is based on thoughts on the first part of Chapter 11 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Intellectual Training, is one option for posts advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the February editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

CM Blog Carnival Invitation for February (& Ideas for discussion)

Attn: Charlotte Mason bloggers! You're invited! 

Please consider joining us by submitting a post, or just reading along! Submissions are due by 2/10 and 2/24 anytime before 5pm EST. Send the URL of your post in an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

As always, we welcome all Charlotte Mason inspired blog posts! Bloggers vary widely in their gifts and experiences, which means, we can all learn from each other. We hope you'll share with us!

Below, you will find an optional topic, a thought provoking quote (or two) and several ideas for those who need a little writing prompt or who would like some direction for further study. :)

I look forward to reading and sharing!




Feel free to snag the CMBC button for your post! {Link it back here, if you'd like to inform or encourage your readers to share!}
The optional topic for discussion during the month of February is:
Some Unconsidered Aspects of Intellectual Training - Chapter 11

“The intellectual life, like every manner of spiritual life, has but one food whereby it lives and grows––the sustenance of living ideas.” 

Key Points to delve into further.

• Limits of Human Reasoning
  
• Great ideas → best basis of Educational Philosophy
• Intellectual Habits → Come of training, are not in-born. Therefore the development thereof rests primarily w/ parents.

Some Intellectual Habits:
(see chapter for further explanation)

Attention.
Concentration.
Thoroughness.
Intellectual Volition.
Accuracy.
Reflection.
Meditation.

(Quotes taken from Charlotte Mason's School Education, Volume 3)

*Please see the CM Blog Carnival Schedule page for a list of dates and topics for the whole year (in progress). 

**By subscribing to the Carnival Announcement/Reminder list you can stay up-to-date and never miss another carnival. Plus, you'll receive handy-dandy monthly ideas & links pertaining to the topic... for free! ;) oh wait, it's all free! heheh.

***Also, please encourage your bloggy AND non-bloggy friends, who love Charlotte Mason and/or those just getting interested, to visit the CMBCarnival, the more the merrier!! :)

On Raising Heroes & Physical Training

Hmmm. I just can't seem to shake this question:

Does our Culture make Heroes?

I had intended to pursue some other thoughts I came across in my reading of Charlotte Mason's, School Education. But for the whole week, every time I open the chapter, I can't get past the subject of heroes. It's been haunting me and won't let me go 'til I give it a good think.

For how many of us, is it our goal to make heroes? Have you ever even thought of that? I am of the opinion that it's pretty uncommon in modern American culture to purposefully set out to make, much less to be heroes. Americans want smart kids. If we're especially ambitious, we might hope for rich or famous kids. Mostly, we just want them to get good jobs, to earn a good living, to enjoy the good life.

But heroes? Is that what anybody is aiming for?
Should that be what we're aiming for?

I can't imagine that heroes ever happen on accident.


The mythical Greek hero Heracles, known to the Romans as Hercules,  was renowned for his great strength and the heroic deeds he performed. *

What is a hero?

n: a person, typically a man, who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities: a war hero. 

(Mac dictionary Version 2.2.1)

Courageous. Outstanding. Noble.

Yep. I'm convinced that's precisely what is required of Christ-followers in today's world.

Instead, popular culture isn't that much different from what CM describes as 'fine physical culture' of the English in her day, it's 'poor and narrow that [youths and maidens] may get the most, especially the most of physical enjoyment, out of life...' and 'excess in sports, excess in easy-going pleasure, excess in study, excess in desultory reading, excess in carelessness in regard to health, any excess that we have a mind to, is lawful to us if only it is expedient.'

How often have you heard echoes of popular thought, 'Well, it's my body and I can do what I want with it'? Rather self-centered, I'd say.

What of heroism? Do we give it a second thought?
Probably every kid wishes they could be a hero someday in some way. But from 4 feet tall, it all seems so unattainable. So. Far. Away. Children turned adults usually leave those Neverland-type dreams far behind altogether.

How can we help our children preserve that heroic impulse and go on to become courageous, outstanding, noble? In a word modern-day Heroes?

“It would be good work to keep to the front this idea of living under authority, training under authority, serving under authority, a discipline of life readily self-embraced by children, in whom the heroic impulse is always strong. We would not reduce the pleasures of childhood and youth by an iota; rather we would increase them, for the disciplined life has more power of fresh enjoyment than is given to the unrestrained.”

A hero is respectful of authority.
A hero is practiced in in self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control.

The old maxim affirms that habits ARE important, even in the pursuit of happiness. “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

But why? Why not just grow up in the headlong pursuit of one's own happiness? Besides, that's natural and more... normal.

The Bible says it's because, we are NOT our own. Charlotte adds, 'The divine Author of your being has given you life, and a body finely adapted for His service.' It is our work to preserve 'this body in health, nourishing it in strength, and training it in fitness for whatever special work He may give' us to do in His world.

Inspiring, isn't it? Our kids, too, can be inspired by such a high purpose, if we share it with them. Bought with a price, we ought to glorify God with our bodies.

“Life is held in trust from a supreme Authority.”

CM, v3 pg104

Let us all aspire to be heroes.

::

For further exploration on encouraging true heroic impulse, Charlotte suggests, and I strongly concur, reading on the following subjects might be profitable to both parents and children.

Greek games and Greek heroes.
How a child may be trained to his physical responsibilities.
The vocation of the body.
'Innocent' excesses.
Unlawful and lawful home discipline.
The heroic impulse.
The training afforded by games.
Athletics, their use and abuse.
Parental authority in physical matters.
The right uses of self-denial.
The government, management, and training of the body.
The duty of health.

This post is based on thoughts on the first part of Chapter 10 in Volume 3, School Education by Charlotte Mason. The topic, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Physical Training, is one option for posts advocated by the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival 2014 Schedule. If you'd like to read other posts on the subject, be sure to read all the January editions.
If you'd like to share your post with the upcoming carnival, find out how here.
Find links to past CMBCarnivals here.

*Image source info here. License for use here.

2014 CM Blog Carnival Announcement and Invitation!

For the first edition of this year, the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival will be posted on January 14, 2014! 
How cool is that? 1/14/14! That's only a week away.

Please join us by submitting a post, or just reading along. Posts are due by 1/13 before 5pm EST. Send the link to your post in an e-mail to: charlottemasonblogs (at) gmail (dot) com.

As always, we welcome all of your Charlotte Mason inspired blog posts! Bloggers vary widely in their gifts and experiences, which means, we can all learn from each other. We hope you'll share with us!

Below, you will find an optional topic, a thought provoking quote and several ideas for those who need a little writing prompt or who would like some direction for further study. :)

I look forward to reading and sharing!  

::

The optional topic for discussion during the month of January is:

Some Unconsidered Aspects of Physical Training - Chapter 10 

Here are a couple of interesting things that I came across in my pre-reading of the chapter (read the entire chapter online here). A thought provoking quote, considering the day and age we live in:

"'Ye are your own,' is perhaps the unspoken thought of most young persons––your own, and free to do what you like with your own. Therefore, excess in sports, excess in easy-going pleasure, excess in study, excess in desultory reading, excess of carelessness in regard to health, any excess that we have a mind to, is lawful to us if only it is expedient. This loose morality with regard to our physical debts, without touching actual vice, which is probably on the decline, is the reason why the world does not get all that it should out of such splendid material."     Charlotte Mason, v3 p103

A list of pertinent ideas to think over (read the entire chapter online here):

• Greek games and Greek heroes.
• How a child may be trained to his physical responsibilities.
• The vocation of the body.
• 'Innocent' excesses.
• Unlawful and lawful home discipline.
• The heroic impulse.
• The training afforded by games.
• Athletics, their use and abuse.
• Parental authority in physical matters.
• The right uses of self-denial.
• The government, management, and training of the body.
• The duty of health.

(List quoted from v3 p105)

*Please see the CM Blog Carnival Schedule page for a list of dates and topics for the whole year (in progress). 

**By subscribing to the Carnival Announcement/Reminder list you can stay up-to-date and never miss another carnival. Plus, you'll receive handy-dandy monthly ideas & links pertaining to the topic... for free! ;) oh wait, it's all free! heheh.

***Also, please encourage your bloggy AND non-bloggy friends, who love Charlotte Mason and/or those just getting interested, to visit the CMBCarnival, the more the merrier!! :)

What I learned this summer... with pictures!!

This summer I had the enormous pleasure and privilege to find myself stateside in attendance of several Charlotte Mason retreats, with some shopping and visits on the side. How kind and longsuffering my husband is to have taken care of things back home in Peru so I could have a couple of weeks of ‘mommy break’ as he calls it!

Among the interesting gems I have laid hold of this summer are: the importance of the manual hand work of Sloyd in early education; the place and importance of Mathematics, as well as it’s proper instruction; and how to take Science out of the box even in the upper years, getting the student to ask the questions. And perhaps outstanding amongst the others, the idea of being fully present and living fully wherever one is, struck home once again.

Read more... HERE.



P.S. My arm may be twisted to blog about and/or link to those interesting gems... I will try and see what I can do.  :)

the way of the will.

This subject is, I believe, the single most wanting characteristic in our culture today.

We want, want, WANT everything now, now, NOW. 

In. every. area. of. life.

We want to tell everybody what we're thinking RIGHT NOW (and we can via twitter or facebook; whether it's worth the telling or not).

We want to share the beautiful moments with the entire universe RIGHT NOW (and we can via instagram or other modes of photo sharing).

We want to eat a hamburger or a taco or a salad RIGHT NOW (and we can via numerous fast food outlets or myriad quick fix options available on every shelf of the local grocery store).

We want to know a good story RIGHT NOW (and we can by watching a two-hour summary via the theater or DVD or by gobbling down an abridged version or even worse, reverting to the clif notes).

We want to feel good RIGHT NOW so we... well, fill in the blanks of what the impatient, undisciplined and/or worldly would do.

But the real question is not what we WANT, but what we ought as applies to both action and thought. And in order to do or think what we ought, we must WILL ourselves to it. Obviously, some decisions require more power of will than others.

Tarapoto's best, no wait, only FAST FOOD... a very real and constant temptation for me to skip out strengthening my will when it comes to our family's eating enjoyment. I am not saying that fast food is bad.  Or that taking advantage of quick foods is wrong. It's just that, not so long ago, I shared that cooking was one of the areas I needed to work on... "For me lately it is cooking. I've never really liked to cook. And for some reason, in recent weeks, it's become more of a chore. But someone must cook, or there'd be certain mutiny among my crew. And we'd be very, very hungry. So, even though I don't want to cook, and wish someone else would do it, I know that I ought to. So I do. Many days I can think of a thousand things I'd rather, and so have to will myself to do it; twist my own arm, so to speak."

Like my friend Tammy wrote in her post, this is not just a consideration for children. I think that's why this post was so long in coming. There is just so much that could be said. AND, it hit so close to home for me!! This is a lesson we as parents must take time to consider for ourselves if we are ever going to really teach our children a single blessed thing. Especially those of us raised in the generation of Instant Satisfaction. We must will ourselves to live a disciplined lifestyle in order for some of these things to rub off on our children. Of course we must keep in mind what my friend Megan mentioned, "Once again, though a disciplined will is not a necessary condition of the Christian life, it is necessary to the development of the heroic Christian character." And this is of course, what I'm so intensely longing after, praying for and thinking of as I'm writing this post. In order to do that:

We must be willing to go the distance, to will ourselves to make right choices even though they may be difficult or even postpone gratification for a very long time.

This chapter is absolutely chock full of food for thought, as relates to personal life, education and the life of a nation. You should read it! :) And maybe someday, I'll write up full posts for all the thoughts I had... you never can tell. :)

Two guides to MORAL and INTELLECTUAL self-government.

The way of the will: Children should be taught,(a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion,whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character, It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)

Read more about how we Pursue the Way of the Will here.

This has been another 'thinking out loud' post, along the lines of chapter 8 of CM's Homeschooling Series, Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education. Did you know that the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is going through this volume systematically? Interested? Check out recent posts and the schedule for future posts here.

thoughts and quotes on the use of mind.

“...the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a 'spiritual organism' with an appetite for all knowledge. ”

p111, CM's principle #9 AND the theme of this chapter.

The psychology [think mind is an empty sac/blank slate theory] touted by Herbart [the guy whose philosophy Charlotte primarily refers to in this chapter], is extraordinarily gratifying and attractive to teachers who are, like other people, eager to magnify their office...” because teachers are tempted to show off “how every child is a new creation as he comes forth” out of his or her hands, and may begin to pin the student's success as a result of the teacher's own prowess in teaching.

This may describe many a classroom...even a homeschool? The unit-study approach is particularly in danger of falling into this category. Note the similarities:

• First we have nine lessons in literature and language, the subjects being such as 'Robinson climbs a hill and finds he is on an island.'
• Then, ten object lessons of which the first is,––The Sea, the second, A Ship from Foreign Parts, the sixth, A Life-Boat, the seventh, Shell-Fish, the tenth, A Cave. How these 'objects' are to be produced one does not see.
• The third series are drawing lessons, probably as many, a boat, a ship, an oar, an anchor and so on.
• Then follows a series on manual training, still built upon 'Robinson'; the first, a model of the seashore; then models of Robinson's island, of Robinson's house, and Robinson's pottery.
• The next course consists of reading, an infinite number of lessons,––'passages from The Child's Robinson Crusoe and from a general reader on the matters discussed in object lessons.'
• Then follows a series of writing lessons, "simple compositions on the subject of the lessons. ... the children framed the sentences which the teacher wrote on the blackboard and the class copied afterwards..."
• Arithmetic follows with, no doubt, as many lessons, many mental examples and simple problems dealt with Robinson"; the eighth and last course was in singing and recitation,––'I am monarch of all I survey,' etc. "The lessons lasted about forty-five minutes each.

“The teacher was probably at her best in getting by sheer force much out of little: she was, in fact, acting a part and the children were entertained as at a show, cinema or other; but of one thing we may be sure, an utter distaste, a loathing, on the part of the children ever after, not only for 'Robinson Crusoe' but for every one of the subjects lugged in to illustrate his adventures. We read elsewhere of an apple affording a text for a hundred lessons, including the making of a ladder, (in paper), to gather the apples; but, alas, the eating of the worn out apple is not suggested." p116, CM 

I'm not trying to single out the unit study approach, however, this bears thinking about. This is why this is such an important issue...

The children who are capable of and eager for a wide range of knowledge and literary expression are reduced to inanities; a lifelong ennui is set up; every approach to knowledge suggests avenues for boredom, and the children's minds sicken and perish long before their school-days come to an end. p116

As I have said elsewhere, the ideas required for the sustenance of children are to be found mainly in books of literary quality; given these the mind does for itself the sorting, arranging, selecting, rejecting, classifying, which Herbart leaves to the struggle of the promiscuous ideas which manage to cross the threshold. p117

Charlotte then moves on to point out how this erroneous [empty sac/blank slate] philosophy works out in the education of the time. Things we see happening again in our time. She quotes from several authors to support her thinking.

"There is too much learning and too little work. The teacher ready to use the powers that his training and experience have given him works too hard while the boy's share in the struggle is too light. It is possible to make education too easy for children and to rob learning of the mental discipline which often wearies but in the end produces concentration and the capacity to work alone...”

p119 CM quoting Alexander Paterson in Across the Bridges.

Charlotte quotes Paterson as he talks about the fact that in Elementary schools time is WASTED on such like as tiresome unit studies or spending too many years teaching the basic R's of education, instead of providing that feast of knowledge on which a mind must inevitably grow. The teacher acts as the prime figure while the student's minds go to waste because, “...the powers of voluntary thought and reason, of spontaneous enquiry and imagination; have not been stirred...”. p120

She goes on to speak about Continuation Schools which seem to refer to high schools, as reference is made to the fact that at one time it was the norm that, “the seventh standard boy about to leave school and take up his life work.” and again, “the average boy whose school-days are to end at fourteen”.

Remember, we're near the Industrial Age when the outcry was growing against children forming part of the work force and their need for schooling... so the subject of Continuation Classes [Poly-technic, which from the context we can deduce that these are high schools that teach a trade].

The problem with education extends and displays itself in life after school in the following ways:

"...we seem to aim at producing a nation of clerks for it is only to a clerk that this perfection of writing and spelling is a necessary training."

As a result of a faulty education, while a boy may boast of perfect execution in the kinds of work that would make a successful clerk (3R's), he may not care to boast additionally of the accompanying short attention span, low comprehension, incapability of working alone, feeble memory – which attributes will show themselves quickly in a general laborer or even a professional who at times is obliged to work at a dull job.


What we should aim for then, is that “boys are not trained to be lawyers, or parsons, or doctors, but to be men. If they have learned to work systematically and think independently they are then fit to be trained for such life and profession as taste or necessity may dictate.”

And we are happy with Paterson, who happily remarks that Universities on the other hand, “do not undertake to prepare barristers, parsons, stockbrokers, bankers, or even soldiers and sailors, with a specialised knowledge proper for each profession. Their implicit contention is, given a well educated man with cultivated imagination, trained judgment, wide interests, and he is prepared to master the intricacies of any profession; while he knows at the same time how to make use of himself, of the powers with which nature and education have endowed him for his own happiness; the delightful employment of his leisure; for the increased happiness of his neighbours and the well-being of the community; that is, such a man is able, not only to earn his living, but to live.” p121

In conclusion, I thought this quote particularly inspiring, as we think about how to educate the little persons in our charge:

"What the poor, as well as the rich, require is not to be taught other people's opinions, but to be induced and enabled to think for themselves. It is not physical science that will do this, even if they could learn it much more thoroughly than they are able to do.'

"The young people of this country are not to be regenerated by economic doctrine or economic history or physical science; they can only be elevated by ideas which act upon the imagination and act upon the character and influence the soul, and it is the function of all good teachers to bring those ideas before them.'

John Stuart Mill, quoted by CM on p127

interesting ideas from the chapter:
knowledge/idea as mind food.
Herbart.
apperception mass.
unit studies.
educating the whole person for life.


helpful links:
A Pot of Green Feathers.
CM Blog Carnival on Principle #9
Robinson Crusoe in Education by T.G. Rooper, a PR article (expands on related information presented in this post)
This article, and this one also, seem to be somewhat favorable to at least parts of Herbart's philosophy.
CM volume 6, ch7
Thoughts on the mind of the child and our resulting obligations, from Sally Clarkson



This has been another 'thinking out loud' post, along the lines of chapter 6 of CM's Homeschooling Series, Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education. Did you know that the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival is going through this volume systematically? Interested? Check out recent posts and the schedule for future posts here.

Thoughts on Education is a Discipline.

Habit Training, or discipline is... 

Taking care to guide our children in good habits to the end that the child is a delight to God, to self and to others.

When we use a GOOD curriculum, if intellectual habits do not develop properly almost on their own, it certainly is done without a great deal of trouble. You just see if it isn't true. Try a few confucian style* lessons out on your kids and afterwards, hand them a couple of living books on China and just see which is easier for them to apply their full attention to.

Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight. The call for strenuousness comes with the necessity of forming habits; but here again we are relieved. The intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the following out of the due curriculum in the right way.

Some habits that make the way easier in education...

Attention. This is numero uno. Without it, the road is weary, filled with pot-holes and lined with jeering crowds. It is impossible to advance and the way is very unpleasant, until the habit of attention is cultivated.

Fitting and ready expression. Being able to put thoughts into words (spoken or written) is SUCH a valuable skill. Can I just say that twice? The ability to communicate ideas on any given subject, but especially one relevant to the current conversation, is VERY useful.

Obedience. This comes in super handy, when it comes to learning. A student must obey his teacher in order to improve. Must.

Good-will. And this of course makes it all pleasant. Can this be cultivated? A resounding yes. See CM's 5th volume, Formation of Character for more.

Impersonal Outlook. A person who reads widely and becomes familiar with a lot of subjects, is more likely to be a useful citizen. I think this is what is meant by Impersonal Outlook. Here's a contrasting example: Have you ever heard anyone say that North Americans are generally self-absorbed? Well, sad to say, it's probably often true. Too many times, we know nothing about the world, and care only for our local economies and personal comforts. A good education helps eradicate that by developing an appreciation for culture and the world we all live in.

We have lost sight of the fact that habit is to life what rails are to transport cars. It follows that lines of habit must be laid down towards given ends and after careful survey, or the joltings and delays of life become insupportable. More, habit is inevitable. If we fail to ease life by laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of wrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord.

...a certain strenuousness in the formation of good habits is necessary because every such habit is the result of conflict. The bad habit of the easy life is always pleasant and persuasive and to be resisted with pain and effort, but with hope and certainty of success, because in our very structure is the preparation for forming such habits of muscle and mind as we deliberately propose to ourselves.

Habit is like fire, a bad master but an indispensable servant.

'Sow an act,' we are told, 'reap a habit.' 'Sow a habit, reap a character.' But we must go a step further back, we must sow the idea or notion which makes the act worth while.

Some habits that make the way easier for persons...

When we train ourselves to think of others first, many rules of personal and social etiquette suddenly become sensible, palatable, and therefore more easily remembered and practiced.

Consider how laborious life would be were its wheels not greased by habits of cleanliness, neatness, order, courtesy; had we to make the effort of decision about every detail of dressing and eating, coming and going, life would not be worth living.

Seriously. Life. Would. Not. Be. Worth. Living. If we had to think about everything before it got done: roll over in bed, take a breath, open eyes, pump the heart 3 times, breathe again, rub eyes, pump the heart again, breathe, pull back the sheet, breathe, pump heart, pull self to sit up, breathe, stretch, pump... by the time we actually got out of bed and dressed, we'd be exhausted. Okay, so the illustration is not exactly realistic, but seriously, there are so many things we do habitually that make our lives easier. We do them without thinking.

Neatness. Developing neatness demonstrates respect for ourselves and for others.

Order. This is what makes it possible to live with others. In the same way that music is played or sung to time, so that everyone can sing or play along, we cultivate orderly lives in order to be able to coordinate and live harmoniously with others.


*We read Pastor Hsi, in which he details normal lessons for the typical young Chinese scholar. Very intense, immense quantities of memorization, which is attempted daily in a room full of chanting boys all chanting different portions. Um, yeah. Give me some living books, please. :)

This has been another 'thinking out loud' post, along the lines of chapter 6 of CM's Homeschooling Series, Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education.

Thoughts on Atmosphere.

*see caption below

A couple of weeks ago now, the whole week long, I couldn't stop myself from thinking about how foreboding it was that the upcoming blog carnival should be on 'atmosphere'. Not because of how constantly perfect ours is, on the contrary, it was because atmosphere has always been one of our (my) constant struggles. And if it isn't for you, I truly congratulate you. It must be nice.

Conveniently, at our place, a lot of our atmosphere troubles have to do with how habits come into play, and that's the current week's topic, so I'll spare you the details. It was nothing but wishful thinking as applies to the current topic of this post, that caused this post to be two weeks late as it is, according to the carnival schedule. I wanted it to be more. Oh well. Someday, when I'm all grown up, and have more time to write, I'll share more of our personal atmospheric details with you all.

So. Atmosphere.
It is what we breathe.
All that we communicate, what we take in and what we put out, is what our atmosphere is made up of.

It is there, about the child, his natural element, precisely as the atmosphere of the earth is about us. It is thrown off, as it were, from persons and things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion, by the regulated action of common sense. We all know the natural conditions under which a child should live; how he shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father, is teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught by his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby's needs, the delightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with sofa and table; learns veneration for the old by the visits of his greatgrandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he gathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and cat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater delight in the blackberry hedges. And, what tempered 'fusion of classes' is so effective as a child's intimacy with his betters, and also with cook and housemaid, blacksmith and joiner, with everybody who comes in his way? Children have a genius for this sort of general intimacy, a valuable part of their education; vol 6 pg 97 care and guidance are needed, of course, lest admiring friends should make fools of them, but no compounded 'environment' could make up for this fresh air, this wholesome wind blowing now from one point, now from another.

“a child's natural element, thrown off by persons & things, stirred by events, sweetened by love, ventilated, kept in motion by the regulated action of common sense.”

The child's natural conditions... As parents we are always working (or at least we should be) for the best natural conditions for our children. Proper relations with mother, father, brothers, sisters, baby. Play; rough and tumble, pretend w/ furniture forts. Special visits from grandparents. Dealings with friends from the neighborhood, pets, and the great outdoors all contribute to the child's natural conditions; “no compounded 'environment' could make up for this” fresh and wholesome air.

Atmosphere is all of these things.

And compared with this, no hand-made, specially contrived, child-appropriate 'environment' could ever even come close!
We can't create an artificial environment and be able to maintain it in our homes, even if we did want to. Still, too often, too much time is spent trying to make the classroom or our schedules 'just right', when what we really want is to make sure there is grace, time and enough air to breathe. To ensure the people and things are true to life and that there's always a wide variety of stuff to know.

It's not all about force fitting an artificial world to fit the child. We want the real child to be able to function in the real world. There's no use, “sprinkling with rose-water, softening with cushions. Children must face life as it is; if their parents are anxious and perturbed children feel it in the air. "Mummie, Mummie, you aren't going to cry this time, are you?" and a child's hug tries to take away the trouble. By these things children live and we may not keep them in glass cases; if we do, they develop in succulence and softness and will not become plants of renown.”

Plants of renown. That's it. That's what we want. Choice plants that, come what may, thrive.

There are two courses open to us in this matter. One, to create by all manner of modified
conditions a hot-house atmosphere, fragrant but emasculating, in which children grow apace but are feeble and dependent; the other to leave them open to all the "airts that blow," but with care lest they be unduly battered; lest, for example, a miasma come their way in the shape of a vicious companion. v6 p99

This has been another 'thinking out loud' post, along the lines of chapter 6 of CM's Homeschooling Series, Volume 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education.

*Please pardon the watermark... I did that for the other blog, and didn't take the time to re-edit!! ;) 

thoughts on sacredness of personality...

If it were possible to whittle it all down to one essential distinctive of a Charlotte Mason education, if I were a gamblin' man, I'd place a wager, that at the core, we'd be left with this one. Of course, I'm not a man, and I don't gamble, but still... I do know, that she wove the importance of it in and out of every subject area. In Philosophy of Education, the idea of sacredness of personality is one that from the start immediately arrests our attention and challenges to the uttermost the cleverness of every parent/educator to the very end. Or at least it should.
Did I hear an, amen?

[Ahem.] ... moving right along.


Everybody is different. Every single one is one-of-a-kind. Unique. I'm sure you've noticed?!
Think: fingerprints, snowflakes.
How much more carefully crafted are those who bear His image?
Image-bearers.

“...we must admit, whenever we meet the Infinite in man, whether well or poorly understood, we react with respect. There is in the synagogue, in the mosque, in the pagoda, and in the wigwam, a hideous side that we detest and a sublime aspect that we adore. What a subject of meditation, and what a limitless source of reverie is this reflection of God upon the human wall!”

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Personality is how we bear his image. We bear His image in our persons.
As persons, the children too are image-bearers.
Oh, therefore, how carefully we must tread!

I read recently of an author whose grandmother cultivated prize roses.

“When I came tripping up beside her, all set for sharing two or three of those cozy moments, when no one else stood on the earth but my Gram and me, she would cup a long lovely rosebud in her hand reverently and say:
     “Would ja' jist look at that? Would ja' jist look!”
My grandmother was not an educated woman. And she was not even proud of the fact that she could practically stick a pencil into the ground and make the pencil grow! She expected things to grow. She was simple enough and wise enough to revere the very life of that rose.
She was in awe of it.
In a deep and profound and marvelous way this simple woman and this simple child bowed before the life in that rose.”

Eugenie Price

It's like that with education.

We stand in awe of the child. We don't bow before the child. We bow before the life in the child. The image borne in that child. The child as a learner. The child is fresh yet often wise, delicate yet resilient, fascinating yet often grievously dulled by a lifeless education.

The kind of education that respects personality, requires a great deal of patience, faith and ingenuity on the part of the educator.  But, you may say, “Wait a minute, I agree with everything you've said. Who's to say that I'm not already doing all this? What does it all mean? How is what you're saying specially implemented?”

Charlotte Mason talks about ways that we teachers often encroach on the personality of the child. We pressure, coax or otherwise manipulate our kids to get them to do what we want them to do, specifically in this case: to learn.

But, they will not be forced.

These principles (ie., authority and docility) are limited by the respect due to the personality of children which may not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.

v6, p81

Wily ways of manipulating:

• Using Prizes & Punishment / Praise & Threats to motivate. “If you do this, I will...”
• Using Love/Fear as motivators. Tyranny or improper use of affection, “If you loved me, you would...”, or, "This is a requirement if you want to pass this class."
• Forced consumption and memorization of dry facts, and the various presentations & repetitions of such.
• Personality of Teacher / Undue Influence (this may be the most subtle: influence, which can be used rightly or wrongly “...the schoolgirl who idolises her mistress, the boy who worships his master, is deprived of the chance of free and independent living. His personality fails to develop and he goes into the world as a parasitic plaint, clinging ever to the support of some stronger character.”)

“Therefore schoolmasters do not amiss in basing their practice upon the Desires whose very function appears to be to bring nourishment to Mind. Where we teachers err is in the stimulating the wrong Desires to accomplish our end.”  v6, p

As educators, we respect Personality when we step out of the driver's seat, into the role of advisor and guide those childish persons to look to, to depend on, to develop and be taught in all things by the Holy Spirit. They are already endowed with wonderful gifts... curiosity, attention, will, etc. Our goal is to help equip them with tools for harnessing and using those to their full potential: books, habits, reason, knowledge (though still, we're only facilitators, the child must choose to take hold and use them).

We don't expect that a rose would grow in the same way as a daffodil. We stand in awe of the uniqueness of each. We water and watch with faith in springtime. In the same way, we wouldn't expect that one boy would turn out the same as the next. We stand in awe of the uniqueness of each. We spread the feast; we guide, pray and watch with faith. 

This one idea of respecting the sacredness of personality, has been revolutionary in my parenting. In life. In ministry. I'm still learning. The longer I live, the more convinced I become that I have so much to learn. It is my sincere hope that something I've written, might prompt you too, to pick this idea up for a moment's contemplation and in time, make it your own.

Read more here.

thoughts on authority and docility

As for authority, people nowadays don't really like the terms authority and discipline. Equality and freedom are generally more to their liking. How 'bout you? I admit, I felt a subtle twinge of revolt upon utterance of the former two terms and an immediate corresponding sense of relief at mention of the latter. As progeny of Eden, it comes naturally I guess. I wonder though, if we can't come to terms with both and perhaps even work out some synergy between the two apparently opposite values?
Here's the beginning of wisdom...

(I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognizes the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught.) [*]

~ She is Charlotte Mason, who in this parenthesis, pretty much says

all that needs be said.

Need I say more? Seriously.
Alas, it is my intention to post my thoughts, so I guess I will try to say something else.
Even if it's all going to sound somewhat similar; about the parts I understand, that is. heheh. ;)
Oh. there is that one little thing I don't agree about...
The bit about the American physiologist who says it might be possible to live for 1,000 years.

[ahem. right. moving on...]

:: Spoiler Alert ::
If you don't like to know how the story ends, skip the paragraph immediately following.

Important words from the chapter:
docility = teachableness; acceptance of authority
hortatory = tending or aiming to exhort, ie, lecturing (which I don't use in this post for reasons that should be obvious)
deputed = appointed to perform a task for which another is responsible
arbitrary = random or based on whim
Important correlations:
teacher :: authority (… & docility)
taught :: docility (… & authority)
Important points:
Those in authority must govern as those also under authority... this fact should be discernible. [*]
A child does in fact have authority... over himself; to make himself attend, to make himself to know.

Oh and if you find that you forget what docility means, refer to your dictionary or resort back to the spoiler right above here.

Thoughts on Docility & Obedience:
It is heroism, that makes our hearts swell, produces a lump in the throat, even prompts tears, that we read about in a man who obeys orders (authority), at peril of his own life, to save friend, family or sovereign. 'Proud subjection and dignified obedience' is that which distinguishes great men and noble citizens. The higher the authority, the greater distinction in obedience.

EveryONE must practice docility in life:
All under God...
parent/child
owner/employer/employee
government/elected official/citizen
etc.

We are all constituents under one authority structure or another (postmodernism doesn't like the sound of that). Even so, there are learning grounds when it comes to any given system... in the case of the education these are:

Home & School.

Once we acknowledge that we are subject to a system (and we would be fools to think otherwise), we must admit that obedience or subjection to authority is a crucial lesson for members such as we are of the Establishment. [*] Therefore students learn a critical life lesson – obedience – by learning subjection to authority (docility) in the classroom. [*]

Children must be subject to authority, but they also exercise authority. They exercise authority over themselves. They are the only ones that can make themselves learn. They exercise authority by choosing if and when they learn and subsequently what they will do with their knowledge.

Thoughts on Authority:
It will almost never be the case of ONE teacher; knowing all, teaching all, and the lot of learners subservient. Though these do exist, having earned a right to lecture through a lifetime of learning...

When it comes to us normal people though...
Authority is proper to office, without it society would cease to cohere [*]. Parents and teachers have inherent authority and therefore should be careful with it. All proper docility & obedience may be secured under two conditions:

1. Authority must operate as also under authority, as deputy (representative of a Supreme Authority – he too must do the things he ought). It must not be arbitrary (ie, regulations subject to convenience).
2. Docility requires a sense of freedom (there is a choice, to know or not to know), [*] which necessitates self-government. Each individual must choose to learn, [*] will choose how they respond to what they've learned.

Authority is not as needful for activities such handicraft, drama, poetry, dance, etc., unless to limit these (though having a place, they shouldn't receive undue attention). In other words, a student does not need to be told to do the things he is naturally inclined to learn, but must by means of authority, be brought to discover relations he might not ordinarily seek out, which though requiring effort, may prove to be sources of real satisfaction and delight.

Authority in education comes into play not in pointing one toward where one already has a tendency to go, but in helping to see where freedom is to be had, in fields one might not otherwise choose to look.

Teachers depreciate children, therefore discrediting their own authority in education by:

• regarding children as inferior, themselves as superior beings, by not recognizing the potency of the children's minds [*]
• taking for granted the children's quickness of apprehension, over-explaining and paraphrasing [*], convinced that they cannot understand a literary vocabulary.
• disregarding the nature and power of attention – that it is not to be cultivated, wooed by persuasion, or pictures and illustrative objects – that it IS a very Niagra of force, [*] an appetite fed with books and knowledge.
• depreciating knowledge. Failing to realize, children revel in knowledge. A child will educate him/herself [*].

: : 

“To return to our method of employing attention; it is not a casual matter, a convenient, almost miraculous way of covering the ground, of getting children to know certainly and lastingly a surprising amount; all this is to the good, but it is something more, a root principle vital to education. In this way of learning the child comes into his own, he makes use of the authority which is in him in its highest function as a self-commanding, self-compelling power. It is delightful to use any power that is in us... but to make yourself attend, make yourself know, this indeed is to come into a king – all the more satisfying to children because they are so made that they revel in knowledge.” v6 p77-78

: : 

In summary, if you've followed this line of thinking, both authority and docility play a significant role in education. We may all exercise authority, if only in discipline of ourselves AND we are all subject to authority, if only under God. On the other hand, docility is necessary to all. In this, adults and children are all equal, and there is MUCH freedom in the acquisition of knowledge; here we find ourselves in a wide room full of life and interest, where each is at liberty to engage one's self unreservedly.

Quotes referred to above or otherwise especially interesting:
[*] The teacher, or other head may not be arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority that the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognizes the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject; without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught.) p74

[*] Every king and commander, every mother, elder sister, school prefect, every foreman of works and captain of games, finds that within himself which secures faithful obedience, not for the sake of his merits but because authority is proper to his office. Without this principle society would cease to cohere. p70

[*] Order is the outcome of authority. p70

[*] That subservience should take the place of docility is the last calamity for nation, family or school. Docility implies equality; there is no great gulf fixed between teacher and taught; both are pursuing the same ends, engaged on, the same theme, enriched by mutual interests; and probably the quite delightful pursuit of knowledge affords the only intrinsic liberty for both teacher and taught. “He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,” and this freedom the steady pursuit and delighful aquirement of knowledge afford to us day by day. p72

[*]...once children are allowed a due share in their own education, not a benefit for us to confer but rather a provision for them to take.

[*] The sense of must should be present with children; our mistake is to act in such a way that they, only, seem to be law-compelled while their elders do as they please. p74

[*] But the principle of authority, as well as that of docility, is inherent in children and it is only as the tact and judgment of the teacher make opportunity for its free play that they are prepared for the duties of life as citizens and members of a family. p75

[*] They do choose and are happy in their work, so there is little opportunity for coercion or for deadening, hortatory talk. p75

[*] To allow repetition of a lesson is to shift the responsibility for it from the shoulders of the pupil to those of the teacher who says, in effect, – “I'll see that you know it,” so his pupils make no effort of attention. Thus the same stale stuff is repeated again and again and the children get bored and restive, ready for pranks by way of a change. p76

[*] But if they recognized that the potency of children's minds is as great or greater than that of their own, they would not conceive that spoon-feeeding was their mission... p76

[*] We depreciate children in another way. We are convinced that they cannot understand a literary vocabulary so we explain and paraphrase to our own heart's content but not to theirs. p76

[*] Another misapprehension which makes for disorder is our way of regarding attention. We believe that it is to be cultivated, nursed, coddled, wooed by persuasion, by dramatic presentation, by pictures and illustrative objects... Attention, we know, is not a 'faculty' nor a definable power of mind but is the ability to turn on every such power, to concentrate, as we say... There it is in every child in full measure, a very Niagara of force, ready to be turned on in obedience to the child's own authority and capable of infinite resistance to authority imposed from without. p76

[*] Our part is to regard attention, too, as an appetite and to feed it with the best we have in books and in all knowledge. p77

There are few who do not know the mischievous and baffling effects of inattention and forgetfulness on the part of subordinates... p78

We may not pose before children, nor pride ourselves on dutiful getting up of knowledge in order to deliver it as emanating from ourselves. p78

We are filled with compassion when we detect the lifeless hand or leg, the artificial nose or jaw, that many a man has brought home as a consequence of the War. But many of our young men and women go about more seriously maimed than these. They are devoid of intellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for them, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting, their 'job' and the social amenities they can secure are all that their life has for them.
The maimed existence in which a man goes on from day to day without either nourishing or using his intellect, is causing anxiety to those interested in education, who know that after religion it is our chief concern, is, indeed, the necessary handmaid of religion. p80


This has been an especially LONG post containing my thoughts out loud over chapter 4 of volume six of Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling Series, you can read the chapter in its entirety for yourself right here.

Pursuing the Way of the will...

According to some sources, every one of my kids (my husband and I as well), would probably be categorized as "strong-willed". If I didn't know better, I'd say that strong-willedness was a Tuttle family trait. :) But what would you say, if I told you, that we were actually born very weak-willed individuals all?

Charlotte helps clarify how things really are when she explains, "The baby screams himself into fits for a forbidden plaything, and the mother says, 'He has such a strong will.' The little fellow of three stands roaring in the street, and will neither go hither or thither with his nurse, because 'he has such a strong will.' He will rule the sports of the nursery, will monopolise his sisters' playthings, all because of this 'strong will.' ...But, all the time, nobody perceives that it is the mere want of will that is the matter with the child. He is in a state of absolute 'wilfulness,'––the rather unfortunate word we use to describe the state in which the will has no controlling power; willessness, if there were such a word, would describe this state more truly." (v1 p321).  If you'd like to read more about 'will training', click here, and see helpful links below.

So, as it is, in our family, weak wills are constantly being stretched and strengthened. Every one of us has come a long way... and yet we still have a long way to go. :) The following excerpt pertaining to the will, is a modified example of what I write down periodically in my 'Mother's Diary'. Read more about that here (v2 p106).

For me lately it is cooking. I've never really liked to cook. And for some reason, in recent weeks, it's become more of a chore. But someone must cook, or there'd be certain mutiny among my crew. And we'd be very, very hungry. So, even though I don't want to cook, and wish someone else would do it, I know that I ought to. So I do. Many days I can think of a thousand things I'd rather, and so have to will myself to do it; twist my own arm, so to speak. Now, I've taken measures to make it easier on myself, like having a plan, organizing my recipes, delegating some tasks, etc. But do I really have to *like* to do it?! I don't know. But I do know that the hours preceding dinnertime would be a lot less miserable if I could find a way to be cheerful about it. :) So, my next step in pursuit of the way of the will is to approach cooking cheerfully, without even a hint of complaint. And believe me, this is gonna be huge! My plan is to think about something else. Listen to a sermon, an audiobook? I don't know what, but changing one's thoughts is a very CMish idea, and one I fully intend to employ. :)

Then, there is one of us who is strengthening his will muscles in the area of math. This certain someone does not enjoy taking time to attend closely to the math lesson. He does not enjoy using his time to do his math exercises. This, for him is a huge daily feat of the will.

Another certain someone, who shall also remain nameless, has by way of the will, been overcoming in the area of copywork. Even though this person has special talent in this area, for some reason it had become a burdensome and most dreaded task. Being made aware that the way to victory lay in taking it in manageable sized chunks, and going straight to task to get it over with quickly, has been key for this person.

Then there is one who usually makes it his business to be the most attention loving groupie wherever two or more are gathered. He has a most perpetual test of will power especially during school hours: having to will his pencil not to drum, his feet not to tap, his tongue not to click, his chair not to tip, his voice not to burst out with every answer... etc. maybe you know someone like this. If you don't have one in your homeschool, be very, very glad. :)

The cutest little someone in the family is currently valiently working on willing herself not to suck her thumb, the sweet chick. For such a small person, she's admirably facing this gargantuan exercise of the will, and though she's had some setbacks, she's doing a fantastic job.

Lastly, there's the one who seems to do everything well, and get along with just about everybody all the time. But even this one doesn't escape the occasional test of will, and is currently working on willing to obey right away, because otherwise forgetfulness sets in immediately within ten seconds or so.

These are some of the tests of will we've been facing lately.
How 'bout you? What are some areas you have seen improvement by working on willing?

"The will is the controller of the passions and emotions, the director of the desires, the ruler of the appetites." v1 p320

helpful links:
The Will -- The Conscience -- The Divine Life In The Child
Looking for an easy read? Simply Charlotte Mason has a free book called "The Way of the Will", where they've gathered some of the most important CM quotes and put them together in a easy-to-digest format.