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Charlotte Mason in Modern English

Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them freely--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio



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Chapter 7 - The Parent as Teacher

'The Teacher'll Straighten Him Out!'

'Straighten him out' apparently means 'make him come when he's called,' because this comment was made about a child who kept playing with his toy nonchalantly, ignoring his mother as she nagged at him because she had decided it was bedtime. The circumstances are different in every case, but it's not unusual in the upper classes of society for a parent to put trust in the teacher to make a child straighten up after years of mental and moral sprawling at home.

Reasons Why This Task is Left to the Teacher

'Oh, he's just little; he'll outgrow it when he's older.'

'My opinion is that children should be allowed to have a stress-free childhood. There's time enough for rules and restraint when he starts school.'

'We don't believe in punishing children. Just love them and let them be is our motto.'

'They'll have enough limit and stress when they have to face the world. Childhood shouldn't have any unpleasant memories associated with it.'

'School will break them in. Let them grow up as natural and wild as young colts until it's time to break them. All young things should be free to kick and run.'

'Whatever traits they inherited are going to be part of their

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character, anyway. I don't see any sense in all this training and shaping of children. It destroys all of their individuality.'

'He'll know better when he's older. Time cures lots of faults.'

And so on. We could fill pages with the wise-sounding things people say who, for one reason or another, prefer to leave it up to the teacher to straighten out a child. And does the teacher live up to his reputation? How much success does he have with a child who comes to him with a total lack of disciplined self-management? His real and proud successes are with those children who were already trained at home before they ever got to school. Teachers take a lot of pleasure in such children. They take unlimited time with them. They're able to get them started in successful careers that exceed the ambitions of even the most ambitious people--quiet, sensible, matter-of-fact parents. But the teacher doesn't take all the credit for such successful results. Teachers tend to be a modest lot whose virtues aren't always recognized.

A Teacher's Successes Are With Children Who Have Been Trained at Home

'You can do anything with So-and-so. His parents have disciplined him so well.' Notice that the teacher doesn't take any credit himself, not even as much as he deserves. Why not? Experience makes even fools wise, so you can imagine what it will do for a person who already has some wisdom! 'People send us their untamed cubs to whip into shape, and what can we do?' The answer to this question especially concerns parents. What and how much can a teacher do to get a child into shape when he hasn't been disciplined at all? No coaxing will make you 'straighten up' if you're an

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oyster--no, not even if you're a codfish. To straighten up requires a backbone, and the backbone needs to be trained before it can be physically possible to stay straight and upright. Yes, it's possible for a human oyster to develop a backbone, and a human codfish might learn how to sit up. Maybe someday we'll know about all the heroic attempts teachers have made to prop up, haul up, pull up and use whatever methods they can think of to keep children who are used to sprawling and slouching sitting upright and alert. Sometimes the results are surprisingly effective. They sit up in a row with the rest of the class and look just like everyone else. Even when the props are taken away, they can still perform the trick of remaining upright for awhile. The teacher rubs his hands in glee and the parents say, 'See? Didn't I always say that Jack would turn out just fine in the end?' But just wait, it isn't over yet.

The Habits of School Life are Mechanical

School habits, like military habits, are pretty much mechanical. It's the early habits that stick. A person will always revert to the habits he learned first, and Jack, as an adult, will sprawl and slouch just like he did as a little boy, only more so. Various social pressures will keep him propped up--he's clever enough to appear to be upright and alert, he's affectionate and leads a respectable life. And, thus, no one would ever suspect that Mr. Jack Brown, who had elements of greatness in him, is a failure. He could have been useful to the world if he had been brought under discipline from the time he was a baby.

Mental 'Slouching' is Illustrated in 'Edward Waverley'

Slouching and sprawling aren't pretty words, yet they can be done in a way that they have a look of style and elegance. Sir Walter Scott gives a charming illustration of one kind of mental sprawling in his book Waverley:

'Edward Waverley's ability to understand was

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so quick that it seemed almost like intuition. His teacher's main concern was to keep him from 'overrunning his game,' as sportsmen call it--in other words, to prevent him acquiring knowledge in a shallow, half-hearted way. And he had his work cut out for him, because he had to combat another tendency that all too often accompanies creative brilliance and high-spirited talent: a laziness that has to be motivated with some kind of reward, and abandons study when the reward is in hand. As soon as the pleasure of accomplishment or curiosity is satisfied, the novelty of pursuing the goal ends.' And, without ever blatantly pointing out the moral, the story goes on to show how Waverley was true to his name. His very nature was wavering. He was always at the mercy of circumstance because he had never learned to direct his own course when he was young. He blunders into many misadventures, most of them quite interesting, because his studies never taught him how to keep his mind alert, and how to mature into a man by learning self-restraint. Many pleasant things happen to him, but not one of them was earned by his own wit or talent, unless we count the love of Rose Bradwardine, and women are never fair and just about who they fall in love with. Every lucky break and success that came to him was earned by someone else. His uncle was not only rich. He also had a strong enough character to make friends, so his friendly young nephew who we're made to feel sympathy for never lacks for friends. He never does anything to carve out a path for himself in the world. Everything he does actually hinders him because of his lack of self-direction. But, because of his uncle's friends and money, everything works out well. But not all young people have such fortunate circumstances or parents

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who can provide for the children that they failed to bring up to conduct their own lives. For their sake, Scott makes it a point to mention that education was to blame for Edward Waverley's personal failure in life. He was gifted with brilliant talents, but he had never learned 'I ought.' He had only lived by 'I want' from his earliest days. He had never learned how to make himself do the things he should.

Parents Tend to Leave It Up To the Teacher to Teach Children To Make Themselves Do What They Should

This is the kind of training that parents tend to leave up to teachers. They don't discipline their children in a way that teaches them to compel themselves. Later, when it's time to hand the job over to the school, the window of opportunity is gone. They're past the age of learning to master themselves, and what might have been an excellent character is ruined by their laziness and stubbornness.

'But what's wrong with letting the teacher teach a child to straighten up? It's natural for children to be left as free as a wild colt in areas that have no moral significance. We understand that he needs to learn that lying is wrong. But if he hates his school lessons, maybe it's nature's way of saying that he's just not ready.'

We Are Not Meant to Grow up in a State of Untamed Nature

We need to face facts. We were never meant to grow up like wild and free animals in Nature. It sounds simple, clear and idyllic to say that a person is 'natural.' What could be better? Jean Jacques Rousseau advocated natural learning and has had a greater following than anyone else. When volatile little Harrison grabs his toy drum from Jack, or when Megan, who isn't quite two, screams for

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Sidney's doll, we say, 'it's just human nature.' And that's true. But that's the very reason why it needs to be dealt with. Even little Megan needs to learn better. One wise mother [Susanna Wesley?] said, 'I always finish teaching my children obedience before they're a year old.' Anyone who understands the nature of children and the possibilities that the teacher has will say approvingly, 'Why not?' If obedience is learned in the first year, then all the virtues of good living can be learned in the following years. Every year will have its own specific character training issues, progressing as the child gets older. If Eric is a selfish child at five years old, that fact could be noted in the parents' yearbook with the resolve that, by the time he's six, with God's help, he'll be a generous child. Those who still don't recognize that exercising discipline is one of a parents' most important duties will get this far and smile and talk about 'human nature' as if it's an unanswerable argument.

The First Function of the Parent is that of Discipline

But, fortunately for us, we live in a redeemed world. One of facts of human nature is that it's the duty of whoever's raising children to get rid of ugly, hateful traits and to plant and encourage the fruits of the Spirit within children who have been delivered from the fallen world of Nature, and are now in the kingdom of grace. That includes all children who are born into this redeemed world. Parents who truly believe that the possibilities for instilling virtue are unlimited will set to work eagerly and confidently. They'll reject the twaddly idea that Nature, because of its beauty, must be all good, and the notion that Nature is an irresistible force that can't be overcome. They'll understand that the parent's first priority is the discipline that many parents are so content to leave up to the teacher.

Education is a Discipline

Discipline doesn't

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mean a rod, or a time-out corner, or a paddle, or being sent to bed. All of these are last resort measures that feeble-minded people rely on. The sooner we realize that God's plan includes more than the shame and pain of punishment, the sooner the intermittent use of the rod will end in families. I'm not saying that the rod is never useful. I'm saying that it should never be necessary. Many of us only think of education as the process where we get a specified amount of knowledge. The concept of education as a means of methodically dealing with every character flaw doesn't even enter our minds. But this is exactly what I mean when I say Education is a Discipline. If a person's parents fail to teach him discipline, he still has one more opportunity to learn the hard way, through life's hard knocks. We need to remember that it's the nature of children to willingly submit to discipline. But the nature of undisciplined adults is to stubbornly resist circumstances that should train them. A parent who willingly leaves his child to be reigned in by his teacher is leaving him to a fight where all the odds are against him. A man's physical condition, temper, disposition, career, affections, and aspirations are all mostly the result of the discipline his parents brought him under, or the lawlessness they allowed him to grow up with.

Discipline is not Punishment

What is discipline? Look at the word--there's not even a hint of punishment in it. Discipline is the state of being a disciple. A disciple is one who follows, learns and imitates. Mothers and fathers need to remember that their children, by the order of Nature itself,

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are their disciples. No person attracts disciples unless he wants to indoctrinate them and teach them certain principles or behavioral rules of life. The parent who is discipling his children should have some concepts of life and duty at heart that he works unceasingly to instill into his children.

How Disciples are Attracted

A person who wants to draw followers can't rely on force. There are three ways to attract disciples: an appealing doctrine, a persuasive presentation, and the enthusiasm of the followers. A parent has all three: the teachings of a perfect life, and the ability to continually present them with winning persuasion until their children catch such a passion for virtue and holiness that their zeal carries them forward with leaps and bounds.

Steady Progress Using a Careful Plan

A teacher doesn't indoctrinate his students at one time. He teaches them a little here, a little there, making steady progress along a careful plan. In the same way, a parent who wants his child to have Christ's nature has an outline, a progressive list of virtues to instill in his young disciples. The child is born with a rich measure of faith. To that faith, the parent adds virtue. To virtue, he adds knowledge. To knowledge, he adds self-control. After the child has acquired some self-control, he trains him in patience. To patience he adds godliness. To godliness he adds kindness, and to kindness he adds love. Wise parents systematically cultivate these and other virtues with results that are as definite as if they were teaching the 3R's.

But how? That answer covers such a broad field that we'll have to leave it for another chapter. I'll just mention this here: every good quality has its own defect, and every defect has its own good quality. Take a look at your child. He has his own individual qualities. Perhaps he has a generous spirit.

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You need to make sure that the affectionate little guy who would give away his own soul isn't allowed to also be impulsive, volatile, self-willed, passionate, his own worst enemy. It's up to parents to make the high places in his character lower, to make the valleys higher, and to make straight paths for the feet of their little child.





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Paraphrased by L. N. Laurio
Please direct any comments or questions to me by emailing me at cmseries-owner at yahoogroups dot com.



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