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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
pg 225
Chapter 21 - An Educational Theory Proposed
to Parents
Each
Socio-Economic Group Should Have Its Own Ideal and Goal
A quote from Matthew Arnold might help us as we attempt to redefine
education's extent and methods. On page 61 of A French Eton, he says, 'The
education of every socio-economic class should have its own ideal. That
ideal should be determined by the needs and desires of that class, and
where it wants to go. Some people imagine that society is so uniform
that the same kind of education will work for everyone. But we don't
live in that kind of a society. In fact, that society doesn't exist in
any European country. If we look at our British society right now, you
could say that the best education for each class should be different
because the goal will vary according to the needs of each group.'
I am hesitant to completely agree with his comment, but it does help us
to define our position. When it comes to differences in classes, I
think that science gives evidence for my own ideas. For the most part,
the Fathers of Education (why shouldn't education have Fathers in the
same way that religion does?) worked out
pg 226
their educational ideas with an emphasis on poor children.
Poor
Children Need Improved Vocabulary
Pestalozzi noticed that the children he dealt with had a very limited
vocabulary and hadn't been trained to use their ability to observe. He
taught them additional vocabulary by having them say things like, 'I
see a
hole in the carpet. I see a small hole in the carpet. I see a small
round hole in the carpet. I see a small round hole with a black edge in
the carpet,' etc. That kind of exercise might have been beneficial for
his students. But what about the children we're dealing with? We
believe that scientific evidence proves the validity of heredity, and
experience confirms our belief.
Children
of Educated Parents Don't Need Improved Vocabulary
Punch magazine has illustrated
our point: 'Come and look at the puff-puff, dear.' 'Do you mean the locomotive, Grandma?' As a matter
of fact, a child of four or five has a wider, more exact vocabulary in
his everyday language than many adults who are older and more educated,
and he's constantly adding new words with amazing quickness. So, giving
these children vocabulary lessons isn't a necessary part of their
direct education. We also know that nothing escapes the notice of these
children's sharp scrutiny, so there's no need to train their perceptive
abilities. What they need is to develop the habit of observing
methodically and reporting the details accurately.
Working class people have spent generations doing physical labor. Their
heritage doesn't tend to breed imagination in their children. For that
reason, it's a good idea to initiate games for the children of working
class parents and carry them through little dramatic plays until,
hopefully, they're eventually able to create their own little stories
for themselves.
This
is True of Imagination
But the children
pg 227
of educated parents are more at risk of living too much in the world of
make-believe. They can hear a single sentence in a lesson or talk, just
the slightest details of a historical character, and they'll role play
for a week, inventing all kinds of scenarios to pretend. Like Tennyson
as a child, they'll carry on a pretend game of defending a castle under
siege (with a mound for the castle and some sticks as the garrison) for
weeks and weeks. A child who's engrossed with important interests like
this feels a reasonable loss of dignity when he has to flap his wings
like a pigeon, or skip like a lamb. Still, he'll do it gladly for his
beloved teacher. In the children of educated parents, imagination
craves food. It isn't languishing because it's starving for culture. In
their case, education doesn't need to work at developing their ability
to conceive and create. When it comes to these children's reasoning
abilities, most parents have had an experience like the mother of
five-year-old Thomas. She happened to be talking about the Atlantic
Cable with him and said that she didn't know how it was insulated. The
next morning, Thomas said that he'd been thinking about it and wondered
if perhaps the water itself wasn't an insulator. Instead of needing to
developing their children's ability to reason, most of these parents
pray for God's help to answer their intelligent children's constant
stream of 'why?' questions.
Developing
the Faculties Is Important for Deficient and Under-Privileged Children
Developing the child's so-called faculties is education's main purpose
when working with uneducated
or otherwise deficient children. But the children of educated parents
aren't uneducated in that
sense. They're alert to the world and eager for knowledge. Their
pg 228
faculties are sharp. Therefore, the concept of heredity makes us
re-think our ideas about education's purpose. We have to admit that the
child of educated parents has obtained faculties that are already
developed.
But
Children of Educated Parents Don't Need Their Faculties Developed
Therefore, education is naturally divided into teaching children of lettered parents, and children of unlettered parents. We're anxious
to evade the issue of class differentiation in common life, but it
becomes a practical issue in education. We have to deal with each child
individually and say, 'this part of education is necessary for this
particular child, or this particular class of children, but not as high
a priority for this child or group of children.'
The
Teacher Should Help the Children Develop Habits
Scientific evidence limits the kind of work we can do in the area of
developing the so-called faculties, but it expands what we can do in
the area of forming habits. We have nothing new to announce about
habits. Thomas a Kempis said, 'One custom overcomes another one,' in
the 1400's, and that still says it all. But now physiologists have
discovered why this law of
habit works. We know that a parent's most important duty is to form the
right habits of thinking and behaving in his child. We know that this
can be done successfully for every child within a specific timeframe.
But we've already discussed all of this. All that's needed is to remind
parents of what they already know.
The
Teacher Should Nourish the Child with Ideas
We believe that a parent's next duty is to nourish the child every day
with loving, right and noble ideas. Once the child has received the
Idea, he'll assimilate it in his own individual way, and work it into
the fabric of his being. A single sentence that his mother utters might
prove to be the catalyst that gives him an interest
pg 229
that could make him a painter, poet, politician or philanthropist.
Lessons should have two goals. They should help a child develop the
right mental habits, such as attention, accuracy, promptness, etc., and
they should provide the nourishment of ideas that might bear fruit in
his life.
Our
Main Purpose
These aren't the only educational principles that we keep in mind and
put into practice. But for the moment, it's worthwhile for us to focus
on the fact that one of our purposes is to emphasize the importance of
education in the two areas of forming
habits and presenting ideas.
At the same time, we need to recognize that developing faculties isn't a
priority with children of the cultivated classes because this has
already been done in a previous generation [and passed down to the children in the
gene pool??]
We
Need to Recognize the Physical and Spiritual Principles of Human Nature
But how do we put all of this into practice? Is it practical? Is it the
most important issue we need to address today? It must be practical
because it
fully recognizes both facets of human nature: physical and spiritual. We're prepared to
acknowledge everything that even the most advanced biologist can ask
us. If he challenges us by saying, 'Thought is nothing more than a
physical reaction,' then we're not dismayed. We know that 99 out of 100
thoughts that pass through our minds are involuntary. We can't help
them because they're the result of the modifications of the brain
tissue that were caused by habit. A mean person thinks mean thoughts, a
noble man thinks great thoughts, because we all think the kinds of
thoughts we're used to thinking. Physical science shows us why. At the same time, we recognize
that the spirit within us is greater than the physical body that it
governs. Every habit started
pg 230
somewhere. The beginning of every habit is the idea that comes with a stir and
takes possession of us.
We
Recognize the Supreme Teacher
Ideas are the power in life that motivate. Because we recognize the
spiritual potential of an idea, we're able to bow reverently and accept
that God the Holy Spirit Himself is the Supreme Teacher. He deals with
each of us in the things we call sacred and things we call secular. We
submit ourselves to being open to the spiritual impact of ideas,
whether those ideas are transmitted to us via text in a book, a human
voice, or without any visible means.
Subjects
Are Valued Only When They Present Fruitful Ideas
But ideas can be either good or evil. We've learned that choosing
between all the ideas that present themselves is every human being's
most important responsible work. We try to give our children the
ability to
choose well. We ask ourselves, 'Is there a fruitful, productive idea
underlying this or that particular subject that my children are
studying?' We discard the notion that 'developing the faculties' is the
most important task of education. Any subject that doesn't arise from
some great thought of life is rejected because it isn't nourishing or
fruitful. Usually, but not always, we keep the subjects that promote
habits of clear, orderly thinking. We still use some mental gymnastics
to train the habit of clear, orderly thinking. Mathematics, grammar,
logic, etc., aren't only academic. We suppose that they develop
intellectual muscle. We don't reject the staples of traditional school
education in any way. In fact, we value them even more--not for their
distinct role in developing specific mental
'faculties,' but for
pg 231
their
ability to develop habits by leaving physical impressions on the brain
tissue.
Nature
Knowledge
With this in mind, our priority in nature knowledge should be to make
sure that the child has a personal, vital familiarity with the things
he sees in his environment. It's more important for him to know the
difference between snakeweed and Lady's Thumb, or hawkweed and
dandelion, and where to find this or that plant and what it looks like
as it grows, than it is for him to be able to define terms like epigynous and hypogynous. There's nothing wrong
with knowing scientific terminology, but that should come later, after
the child has seen and studied the real thing in its own habitat, and
tried to reproduce it in his nature notebook.
Object
Lessons
It's the same with object lessons. We're in no hurry to develop his
ability to make detailed observations about little parts of everything
and have him label them as opaque, brittle, flexible, and so on. We
don't want these kinds of exercises to dampen his curiosity. We'd
rather leave him to be receptive and respectful so that he asks
questions and discusses things with his parents like the lock in the
river, or how a mower works, or why fields are plowed, and provides
opportunities for his parents to talk. These are the kinds of concepts
that provide seeds to the child's mind, and we don't want to make him a
show-off who thinks he knows it all.
We
Rely on Good Books
As I've said before, we know that a great storehouse of thought exists
that holds all the great ideas and concepts that have ever moved and
changed the world. More than anything else, we're eager to give the
child the key to this wonderful storehouse. Some people claim that the
education of our day isn't producing reading
people. We're determined that children should love books. That's why we
don't come between the book and the child. We read him books like Tanglewood Tales, and, when he's
older, Plutarch's Lives, not
pg 232
trying to break them up or water them down, but leaving the child's
mind to deal with the material in its own way as best it can.
We
Don't Accept the Concept of a Specific 'Child-Nature'
We try to make sure that the way we treat children and what we teach
them is in harmony with nature--their nature as well as our own, and we
don't buy the concept of a distinct 'child nature.' We believe that
children are human beings at their best and sweetest phase, but also at
their weakest and least wise. We're careful that we don't dilute life
for them. Instead, we present to them the portions and amounts of it
that they're willing to receive.
We're
Fiercely Protective of Individuality, and We Consider Proportion
To sum up, we're fiercely protective of the dignity and individuality
of our children. The concept we recognize is that children have steady,
regular growth--with no transition
phases [no developmental stages for
education to treat
differently]. Our concept is current with science, but has also
been around as long as common sense. We believe that our common sense
has a physiological scientific basis to back it up. We can show reason
and logic for everything we do. We recognize the science of 'the
proportion of things.' We have our priorities in balance enough to put
first things first. Instead of taking too much of the burden and effort
on ourselves, we leave time and room for Nature and a Power even higher
than Nature herself to work.
We
Believe That Children Have a Right to Knowledge
One more principle makes it able for us to have guidance and
stimulation. We don't totally disagree with Kant's doctrine that the
mind is born with specific evident truths that need no proof, or Hume's
idea that the mind is born with some ideas already ingrained. But it
seems closer to the truth that the mind has eager cravings for
universal knowledge in all different fields of experience. We've found
that children will lay hold of any and all knowledge that's appropriate
for them and presented in an appropriate, interesting way. That's why
we declare that we owe them an immensely comprehensive and lavishly
abundant curriculum.
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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