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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 126
Chapter
12 - Some Aspects of Moral Training
That We Don't Usually Consider
Much
of this chapter was delivered by Charlotte Mason at a PNEU conference,
which was printed in her Parents'
Review magazine.
Three
Foundational Principles
Here are three principles underlying the educational thought of the
PNEU. Some of us are passionate about advancing them. (a) Authority is
recognized as a fundamental principle. It's as universal and inevitable
in the moral world as gravity is in the physical world. (b) Habit has a
physical basis, and forming habits is an important part of education.
(c) Ideas are living and have the ability to inspire.
Authority
is the Foundation of Moral Teaching
First lets consider the principle of authority, which is the foundation
of moral teaching as well as religious teaching. The word 'ought' comes
from the verb 'to owe.' We owe a personal debt to a Lawgiver or Ruler,
or whatever people want to call the final authority. Even if some
choose to use the name of Buddha or Secular Humanism, they can't escape
from the sense that there's a moral authority. They recognize that what
they ought to do is the same as what they owe--it's a debt to some
higher power or person outside of themselves. God has created us in
such a
way that, no matter how much we're in the dark about God's name, we
can't for a minute escape from our sense of
pg 127
'ought,' which is the law. The farther we are from the light of
revealed truth, the more flesh-torturing and spirit-quenching the
awareness of 'ought' will be. The concept of authority holds no vague
anxiety for those of us who know the name of God and have the
revelation of Scripture. We know what's required of us. We understand
that the requirements are never dogmatic or frivolous. They're an
essential part of the way things are, necessary for the moral
government of the world, and necessary to satisfy the unquenchable
desire that every soul has of rising to a higher kind of existence.
Parents are great in the eyes of their children, and that's as it
should be, but that fact should make them more careful not to forget
that their authority is derived from Someone else.
Principles,
Not Rules
'God doesn't allow' us to do this or that shouldn't be said all the
time, but it should be consciously in the minds of parents. Parents
should study the nature of divine authority in the place where it's
revealed most fully: in the Gospels. There, they can see that authority
works by principles, not by rules. Since they're the deputy authorities
assigned to manage their household, they should consider the methods
that the Divine government uses. They should discern the signs of the
times, too. We tend to think that people can only act according to how
much information and wisdom they have within themselves, therefore,
it's right for them to do whatever seems to be right in their own eyes.
In other words, every man is his own final authority about what's right
and wrong. It's urgent that parents keep this tendency in mind so that
they can counteract it if they need to.
Limitations
of Authority
On the other hand, it's good for them to understand that authority has
its limitations. They must not force unwilling compliance. Even the
Divine authority doesn't compel. It shows the way and protects the
misguided traveler
pg 128
and strengthens and guides people's ability to compel themselves. It allows a person to
make a choice about whether to obey or not, rather than forcing him
whether he wants to or not. When we're trying to teach morals,
arbitrary actions almost always make children rebel. Parents think
they're
succeeding if they only rule
their household, but they don't always consider the nature of their
authority, the principles behind it, and its limitations.
Duty
Can Only Exist as Something That's Owed
An American who wrote about teaching children morals said, 'The school
teacher's job in teaching morals to children is to present the subject
matter to them. It isn't their job to confirm the validity of it.' This
has been disputed for at least two thousand years. Socrates opposed
this concept in his own day, although then it was expressed as, 'Man is
the measure of all things,' 'However
something appears to a person, that's the way it is for him,' or 'Truth
is relative.' These days we say that a person can only live by his
lights. In other words, there is no authority or truth or law beyond
what every person has within himself. The logical conclusion of this
kind of teaching is that God is unknowable. If there is a God, he
doesn't exist for us personally because we can't have any kind of
relationship with him. It's when they're little and still at home that
children need to learn that duty can only exist in the sense that it's
something we owe to God.
God's law is enormously extensive. It encompasses us like the air that
we breathe, only even more so because God's law even reaches to our
most secret thoughts. This isn't a truth that's difficult to live with.
It's a joy. Mothers love their children and want to make them happy all
day long--this is part of God's law. Children are happy when they're
being good, and unhappy when they're being
pg 129
naughty--this is also part of God's law. If Thomas drops his spoon, it
falls to the floor--this is God's law, too, although it's a different
kind of law. Mothers and teachers can't give children a better gift
than a constant sense of being ruled and surrounded by law. And that
law is just another name for God's will.
Morals
Don't Come Naturally
Every child is born with a conscience--a sense
that he ought to choose right and reject wrong. But children aren't
born with the ability to tell good from evil. An educated conscience is
rarer than we think. Every once in a while, we're all shocked when our
neighbors, who we've always considered conscientious, commit some
improprieties in
areas we consider obviously wrong. To be fair, our own moral
inconsistencies are probably just as shocking to our friends. It's the
fault of our inadequate moral education that resulted in us hardly even
being aware when we're confronted with some erroneous thinking or
insincere speech. We seem to think that, although Latin and Greek
require determined teaching, morals come naturally. A certain
makeshift kind of morality that varies according to our conditions does
come by heredity and environment. But that beautiful, delicate human
gift of an educated conscience only comes by teaching with authority,
and supplementing by example.
Children
Aren't Born Moral or Immoral
It's odd how educated people can be silent about the moral status of
children. A while ago I was listening to an interesting discussion
among members of an educational club about children and lying. It was
interesting that the group, which was made up of capable, intelligent
people, was equally divided into those who thought that children were
born pure, and those who thought that children were born corrupt.
pg 130
It didn't seem to occur to anybody to think back to his own childhood
or to even reflect on his own human condition at the current moment.
The issue was whether children are born moral or immoral. Nobody
recognized that every person comes into the world with unlimited
possibilities to do good, and, sadly, just as unlimited potential to do
evil. They may have inherited negative tendencies, but proper training
can cure that. Or they may have inherited good tendencies that a lack
of training can cancel out.
Moral
Teaching
We don't need to go any farther than the Ten Commandments and Jesus'
instruction about the moral law to find suggestions to help correct the
erratic, impulsive efforts at teaching what we think it is to 'be
good.' The best place to find a clear, practical commentary about the
moral law is in the Church Catechism. Bishop Ken, the venerable Father
of the Church, used to recite the 'duty towards God' and 'duty towards
my neighbor' every single day. It's not a bad habit to imitate, and it
wouldn't be a bad idea to let children of all denominations learn these
short summaries about the 'whole duty of man.'
The
Poets
The poets give us some wonderful help in this kind of teaching. Look at
this, for example, from Wordsworth's Ode
to Duty:
'You seem so stern, but yet you are
A truly blessed grace.
There isn't anything more fine
Than your kind smiling face.
The flowers even wait for you
With perfume for your feet,
You keep the stars from going wrong
So heaven's fresh and sweet.'
pg 131
Or Matthew Arnold's lines about Rugby
Chapel:
'Servants of God! Or maybe
I should call you sons because
You knew, not as mere servants,
Your Father's innermost thoughts,
He who unwillingly witnesses
One of His little ones lost
It's you who are to be credited if Mankind
Hasn't yet, in its weary journey,
Fainted and fallen and died!'
Or this from Tennyson:
'More than once in our fair island story
The way of Duty would have led to glory.
The person who always follows Duty's commands
Through toil of heart, or knees, or hands,
Through the long tunnel to the far light has won
An upward path and has prevailed.
The tops of the Duty's peaks that he has scaled
Are very close to those shining lands,
Where God Himself is the shining sun.'
Or Matthew Arnold's Morality:
'Tasks that are determined in moments of insight
Can be fulfilled through long gloomy hours.'
There might not be any better way to inspire children than by leading
them to reflect on some excellent poetic teachings, adding love to law,
and adding devotion to duty. Then children will know for themselves,
both by duty and prayer, that they are
'Bound by gold chains around God's feet.'
Ethical
Teaching of the Middle Ages
The medieval Church kept to classical traditions. It tried to answer
Socrates' question: 'What
pg 132
should we do, and what do we mean by the words 'should' and 'do'?' And
it answered the question as far as it could by using object
lessons--visible objects to symbolize spiritual truths. In the Arena
Chapel in Padua in Italy, there are pictures by
Giotto that depict Faith and Unfaithfulness, Generosity and Envy,
Love and Hostility, Justice and Injustice, Moderation and Excess, Hope
and Despair. They're illustrated very plainly so that even uneducated
and non-reading people can understand what they're supposed to be. In
the gothic Amiens
Cathedral that John Ruskin called 'The Bible of Amiens,' we can
study the same theme a little differently. [The stone
carvings are incredibly detailed and beautiful!] It
includes Pride and Humility, Moderation and Excess, Purity and Lust,
Love and Hatred, Hope and Despair, Faith and Idolatry, Perserverance
and Disbelief, Harmony and Conflict, Obedience and Rebellion, Courage
and Cowardice, Patience and Anger, Gentleness and Sarcasm. They're
paired in groups of four, one pair above the other, each group under
the feet of one of the Apostles [possibly
this?].
Each Apostle represents a specific virtue. But we don't have anything
to teach us which are cardinal virtues and which are deadly sins.
We
Have no Authoritative Teaching
We don't have any 'official' teaching by any authority in the area of
virtue. As a culture, we haven't sculpted any organized teaching in
marble, we haven't painted a program of virtue lessons on our walls,
and nothing about which evil vices should be avoided. Yes, our poets
speak out for us, but their moral sayings that sparkle like precious
jewels on the finger of time are scattered here and there. It's
casually left as a matter of chance that our children might happen to
glimpse the lines that will inspire them with the impulse to live
virtuous lives. Perhaps we neglect all supplemental ethical lessons
because we have the Bible. But how much and
pg 133
how often we use that? The Bible is the most perfect system of ethics.
It's the most inspiring and captivating collection of ethics lessons
that the world has ever seen. But I think we fail to spark our
children's hearts with the concept that they are required to be
perfect, 'even as your Father in heaven is perfect.'
High
Ideals
It's time for us to start seriously working on the moral education that
needs to be taught. The most important thing to do is to expose
children
to high ideals. 'Lives of great men remind us that we, too, can make
our lives something excellent.' Studying the lives of great people, and
reading about great defining moments in the lives of lesser people, is
very inspiring for children, especially when they realize what
strenuous childhoods some of these great people had. As we grow older,
we understand more and more that the fully matured person evolves from
the child so that 'the child is like the father to the man.' We're
amazed when we see so many people we know personally whose lives are
the result of fulfilled dreams they had since childhood and early
youth, and who consistently lived one day after the next virtuously.
The
Value of Biographies
The Bible is a treasure-house of inspiring biographies. But it would be
good if we could plan our teaching so that we brought out in each Bible
character the master-thought of his thinking. Queen Victoria did this
very tactfully and powerfully in the Albert Memorial Chapel. The
prophets and patriarchs are presented there showing the special virtue
of act of faith that seemed to be the keynote of his character. It's a
nice attempt to revive the kind of teaching they did in the medieval
era that I mentioned earlier. We see the same thing again in the
pg 134
Song School at St. Mary's
Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. Phoebe Anna Traquair painted
frescoes on the walls to illustrate the Benedicte Omina Opera. 'Holy and
humble men of heart,' for example, is pictured as three men of our own
time from three different schools of thought. The only one I remember
is Cardinal Newman. The power that this kind of master-idea can have,
and the unity it can bring to a life, might be exemplified by our
beloved Victoria's prophetic childhood statement, 'I will be good.' Few
children in Britain haven't felt thrilled at that phrase. Maybe one day
Queen Victoria will know how much good was done because that simple
child's promise was fulfilled so well, and it inspired the whole Empire
to have a similar moral impulse.
Patriotic
Poems
After biographies, the most effective way to inspire children is with
the burning words of our poets, such as Ode to the Iron Duke by
Tennyson. Rudyard Kipling may be the poet who has done the most to stir
the flame of patriotism. His words, 'Our wistful mothers teach us to
consider old England our home,' open a flood of patriotic feelings. The
complete poems The Native-born
and The Flag of England both
fan our love for our country:
'No island is so small,
No sea is so alone
That over its clouds and palm trees
The English flag hasn't flown.'
This poem of Kipling's inspires our hearts with patriotic feelings:
'Buy my English flowers
From Surrey and from Kent
Violets damp with water
From the English Channel sent.
pg 135
'Cowslips grown in Devon
Brambles colored bright;
Buy my English flowers
And you'll buy my heart's delight.'
Mottoes
When reading the Bible, or poetry, or the best prose, it's fun and
productive to collect mottoes, especially if they're kept in a book.
Headings may or may not be used. It would be a nice idea for children
to make a new book every year with a motto they find every day from
their own reading. It would be so encouraging to read a motto that you
selected yourself first thing in the morning instead of having someone
else's voice command, 'Follow the rules! Be quick to obey!' Mottoes
could be collected under countless subject headings, such as lives with
a keynote, Bible heroes, Greek heroes, morally inspiring poems,
patriotic poems, poems about responsibility or any other virtue, ethics
object lessons, where to find mottoes, etc.
The
Habit of Thinking Pleasant Thoughts
Moral habits--that's a subject that's on many of our minds: how to form
them, and the responsibility of every parent to send their children
into the world with a good collection of them. I don't need to go into
that any more here. Once the moral inspiration has been planted using
some of the inspiring ideas I've mentioned, the parent or teacher's
next job is to keep that moral impulse at the front of the child's
mind. This should be done with tact and delicacy, never with
insistence. And casual opportunities should be provided to try to put
those moral impulses into action. Children need to be constantly aware
that it's the kind of thoughts they
pg 136
think that count. When a child is young enough that the parent can tell
what they're thinking by looking at their face, the parent should work
to give the child the habit of thinking pleasant thoughts. Every time
the child's face betrays a selfish thought, or resentful or unkind
thought beginning, his thoughts must be changed before he's aware
of it.
Virtues
that Children Should be Trained to Have
One more thing: parents should make it a point to have a clear idea of
what kind of virtues they want their children to have. Impartiality,
backbone, moderation, patience, humility, courage, generosity--in fact,
the whole range of virtues would be an interesting subject for thinking
about, teaching and finding illustrative examples. But I'd like to
offer a word of caution. A child's whole concept of religion is 'being
good.' He needs to know that 'being good' isn't his whole
responsibility towards God, although it is a big part of it. A love
relationship with God and being of service are also his duty. He owes
that to God as a child owes love and service to his father, and as a
subject owes it to his King. That's more than just 'being good,'
although 'being good' also makes God pleased with His children.
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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