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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 215
Chapter 20 - Suggestions Regarding
Curriculum (For children under 14)
Part 1
Summary
of Earlier Chapters
The practical subject of this book is curriculum considerations, yet
I've left that subject until these last few chapters because a
curriculum isn't an isolated, independent thing, it's linked to many
other things with chains of cause and effect. We had to consider the
foundational principles of authority and submission first because
they're so fundamental. But, because they are so fundamental, they should be
there, yet not be visible--just like the foundation of a house supports
a house, but isn't visible. Yet authority and submission need to take
into account the respect for the child's individual personality. In
order to give children space to develop freely according to their own
particular 'bent,' parents and teachers need to adopt an attitude of
'masterly inactivity.'
I discussed the relationship between teachers and students, and then
the relationship between education and current philosophy. Education
should go along with current thinking, it shouldn't be isolated in a
sealed compartment away from modern trends. Some current trends that
should help us as we work towards an educational ideal are
pg 216
a sense of the brotherhood of man, and a deep awareness of the process
of evolution.
As far as the training of children falling under four convenient
divisions--physical, mental, moral and religious--that seems to be
common knowledge and generally accepted, so I didn't think it was
necessary to give any suggestions about that. Instead, I've focused on
aspects of training that fall under headings that are likely to be
overlooked. Under the phrase 'Education is a life,' I tried to show
that intellectual life needs ideas to stay alive. Therefore,
school-books should be a place to glean ideas, not mere collections of
dry facts. 'Education is the science of relationships' means that
normal children have a natural, inborn desire for all knowledge, and
they have a right to be exposed to it.
These considerations set the stage for us to begin considering
curriculum, and that's what the rest of this book will cover. This is
just a summary of what we've already covered. I hope you'll be patient
as I repeat what seems to me to be necessary in making my point.
Some
Preliminary Considerations
The following suggestions have come about in the administering of the
Parents' National Educational Union, so it might be helpful to say
again that the first priority for the PNEU during its first ten
years was impressing the definition of Education on its members, as
expressed in our motto, 'Education is
an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life.' What we mean by this is
that parents and teachers
pg 217
should understand how to make the most practical use of a child's
circumstances (atmosphere),
they should help him develop the kinds of habits that will make his
life better (discipline), and
they should feed his mind with the food of intellectual life--ideas. We believe that these
three are the only tools that are authorized in raising children. It
might be easier to play on their sensitivities, emotions, desires and
passions, but the result will be disastrous. Since habits, ideas and
circumstances are external, it's okay to help each other make the most
of them that we can. But it's forbidden to directly meddle with the
personality of anyone else. It's wrong to play on a child's vanity,
fears, affection, ambition, or anything else that helps make him who he
is. Most people are sincere about raising children, but we tend to take
control of more than we're entitled to by not recognizing that we're
limited to working only with the outward covering of personality.
A
Definite Goal
The Parents' Union devoted ten years to learning how to use the three
tools of education (circumstances, habits and ideas). Then, a few years
ago, we took a slight departure from that and asked ourselves what end
goal we should have in mind as a result of wisely using these tools.
What is education? The answer we accept is that Education is the Science of Relations.
We don't mean like Herbart did, that things and thoughts are related to
each other and that, therefore, teachers have to be careful to pack the
right corresponding things in the right order into the child's mind so
that, once these things and thoughts get into the child's mind, each
thing or thought finds others of its kind so that they can attach
themselves together to form a strong, cliquish 'apperception mass.'
What concerns us personally is that we all
pg 218
have relationships with things in the present world, and what's been in
the past, what's in the skies above us, and what's around us. A full
life and our ability to be useful depends on how many of these
relationships we realize and take hold of. Every child is heir to an
enormous inheritance. Our concern is, what are the practical things we
need to do to help him gain possession of what's already his?
Education
is Objective, not Subjective
This changes our perspective. It's no longer subjective regarding the child [what do we feel like teaching him?]
It's objective [what knowledge does he have a right to?]
So we no longer focus on developing the child's faculties, or training
his moral nature, or guiding his religious feelings, or grooming him to
function in a particular social circle, or for a specific career.
Instead, we accept the child as he is--a person with lots of healthy
affinities and budding connections. We try to help him solidify as many
of these connections as we can.
A newborn comes into the world with a thousand feelers, and he sets
right to work eagerly to connect to the world. From
everything around him, he gets,
'That calm joy that, if I'm not mistaken, surely must be part of
Those first-born affinities that connect
Our new existence to things that exist in the world.
And in our first days, they become
A bond that unites life and joy.'
[adapted from The Prelude, by
Wordsworth]
When he's left to himself, he also gains the kind of real knowledge
about each thing he comes across, and that knowledge helps to cement a
relationship between him and that thing. Then later, we step in to
educate him. The number of wide, essential interests he'll have, and
how full his life will be, depends on the range of different living
relationships we've exposed him to. He'll be a person of duty and
pg 219
usefulness if we make him aware of the laws that govern all
relationships to the world. When he recognizes that relationships with
people and things take effort to maintain, he'll learn the laws of work
and the joy of expending effort.
Our role is to remove obstacles, to stimulate interest, and provide
guidance to the child as he tries to get in touch with the universe of
things and thoughts around him. Our mistake is that we assume the role
of showman to the universe and think that there's no connection between
the child and his world unless we decide to set one up.
Interests
Do we have lots of captivating interests outside of our obligatory
work? If we do, then we won't be enslaved by trivial amusements.
Real interests aren't something we take up on the spur of the moment.
They emerge from whatever affinities we've found and connected with.
And, the way I see it, the goal of education is to help children get as
much use out of the world as possible.
When we're influenced by these kinds of considerations, the phrase
'Education is the science of relationships' will help us to form a
definite goal in our efforts.
Educational
Unrest
We've all become familiar with the term 'educational unrest,' and we
all sense how appropriate the phrase is. There have never been more
capable and dedicated teachers and educational staff in schools of all
social classes. Money, labor and research are all spent generously on
education. Theories are studied, and great pains are taken to find out
what's going in education in other places. Yet something's wrong, and
it's more than a 'divine discontent' that leads us to work harder. We
know that a major change is needed in how we approach the problem, and
we're ready as long as the change is something more substantial than
pg 220
just an experiment. I think that school principals are the most ready
to support a sensible reform. But, since they're more experienced and
intellectually trained, they're too wise to jump on the bandwagon of
change unless it has a reasonable philosophical foundation, as well as
practical, utilitarian results.
A
Unifying Principle
Up until now, the Parents' Union has emphasized our home-training views
to the public rather than our ideas about school teaching. But that's
only because we're not willing to disturb the system that's already in
place.
But, for the last twelve years, we've successfully worked out a unifying principle and the way to
implement it in our training college and school. We exist
because we have a definite goal and because our existence is needed to
meet that goal. I don't think I need to speak right now about the few
principles that should guide us as we raise children [that's in Volumes
1 and 2], but the principle that's supposed to guide us in teaching
knowledge
(education) might indicate why so much of education is a failure, and
show us how to improve.
Education
Should Give Knowledge That's Touched with Emotion
We can take a phrase that Matthew Arnold wrote about religion and adapt
it for education: 'education's goal should be to give knowledge that's touched with emotion.' I already
quoted the cute story from Frederika
Bremer's book Neighbors,
about the two school girls who fought a duel on behalf of their heroes,
Charles XII. and Peter the Great. Parents should be glad that girls
don't duel these days! School girls don't care about heroes anymore.
Now all they care about are their grades. They don't feel like
knowledge is 'touched with emotion' except in cases of their own
personal curiosity and ambition. Students have the potential to be
generous and eager. If they
pg 221
graduate from school without any real interests except preparing for
their next exam, or the mind-numbing entertainment of pointless games,
then it's the fault of the schools. Maybe the public's anxiety about
secondary education at home and overseas is due to the fact that
graduates coming out of schools that have excellent reputations, have
listless minds. They haven't been given 'long drinks of intellectual
enlightenment' to quench the thirst they had when they entered school.
H. C. Benson of Eton College wrote in 'The Schoolmaster,' which
appeared in the December 1902 issue of Nineteenth Century, 'I truly
believe that boarding school teachers have two strong ambitions: to
make their students good and to make them healthy. They don't seem to
care about making them intellectual. Intellectual life is left to fend
for itself. I believe that too many teachers look at the students' work
as a duty. In other words, they view it from a moral perspective rather
than an intellectual perspective. No one can deny that the academic
standard at English boarding schools is kept pretty low. Even more
serious, I don't see any signs that it's on its way to getting any
higher.'
Professor [Michael Ernest?]
Sadler, who may have a broader outlook, says almost the same thing. He
says that our secondary schools have some good qualities, but they're
behind intellectually, even as compared to schools in some European
countries. Mr. Benson undoubtedly speaks from personal experience, but
might it be true that such an intellectual group of teachers would
deliberately neglect academic excellence in their schools? Or perhaps
the problem is that exams force them to rely on the false intellect
pg 222
of cramming? Cramming deadens the intellect, and that's why some of us
consider teaching certification a backwards trend. Hundreds of mediocre
young women work to cram for a set of exams, often a long set, so they
can get their certificate. Head teachers are already feeling the
decline of this system and have started actively seeking assistants who
are different than the usual candidates. This causes the young woman to
be too conscientious and try too hard, and the stress of years of moral
effort to prepare for one exam after another often leaves them without
any clear understanding of the material studied. There are some
brilliant exceptions, but most young women who have gone through this
process don't have much initiative, don't catch on to things very
quickly, don't adapt easily, and can't think on their feet. They seem
to lack spirit. I call their effort 'moral effort' because the
preparing for exams and enduring a steady grind for a prolonged period
of time doesn't require intellectual effort, it's mostly moral. Young
men don't seem to have this problem--they're often less strenuous and
less absorbed, and, therefore, more receptive to the ideas they come
across while studying.
Education
is the Science of Relationships
The idea that gives life to the teaching in the Parents' Union is the
idea that 'Education is the Science of Relationships.' That phrase
means that children come into the world with a 'natural appetite,' to
use Coleridge's mental image, and with a natural attraction to
knowledge of all kinds and in all forms. They have a natural interest
in the heroic past and in the age of myths. They want to know about
everything that moves and lives, and strange places and strange people.
They want to handle materials and make things. They have a desire to
run and ride and row and do whatever gravity
pg 223
will allow them to do. That's why we think it's wrong to select certain
subjects and exclude others when a child is young. For instance, it's
not right to decide that a child shouldn't learn Latin, or doesn't need
science. Instead, we strive to make sure that he'll establish
enjoyable, intimate relationships with as many appropriate interests as
possible. He won't just get a slight, incomplete smattering of this or
that subject, either--we'll let him plunge right into vital knowledge,
and introduce him to a great field of knowledge before him that will
take more than his lifetime to explore. Having this concept in mind, we
try to get that 'touch of emotion' that indicates that living knowledge
is being taken in. We probably only feel
when we enter our proper vital relationships.
Is
There Such a Thing as a 'Child-Mind'?
We gain courage to challenge such a wide program just by applying a few
working ideas or principles. One concept we challenge is the notion
that there's such a thing as a 'child mind.' We don't believe that
children are a different species than us. Yes, their ignorance is
unlimited, but, on the other hand, their intelligence can run circles
around our slower wits. In practical use, we discover that knowing this
fact has great power. Teachers no longer talk down to children, and
they don't strain to explain every word they use, or poke and pry to
make sure that children understand every detail. When I was about
twelve years old, I browsed quite a bit through William Cowper's poems
and, for some reason, took an interest in Mrs. Montague's Feather Hangings.
It was only the other day that the ball that would fit that socket came
to me--it arrived in the form of an article in The Quarterly called 'The Queen of
the Bluestockings.' And, right there in that article, I recognized Mrs.
Montague and her feather hangings! The pleasure of seeing her again
after all those years was wonderful. Knowledge is at its most enriching
when it
pg 224
leaves behind a dormant appetite for more of the same kind of
knowledge. Arthur Evans's discovery of the palace of Knossos in Crete
can only be appreciated by those who remember how Ulysses told Penelope
about Crete's ninety cities, and Knossos, and King Minos. It isn't what
we've already learned that makes knowledge so fascinating, but what
we're still waiting to know. Knowledge shouldn't be predigested or
watered down. It should be offered to students with some substance and
vitality still in it. We've discovered that children can cover a large
and varied amount of knowledge intelligently, and enjoy it, in the same
amount of time that it usually takes to cover the 3 R's, object
lessons, and other overly-diluted material where there's more teaching
being offered than knowledge.
Knowledge
vs. Information
I think the difference between knowledge and information is
fundamental. Information is the record of facts, experiences,
appearances, etc. that's compiled in books or in the verbal memory of
an individual. But knowledge implies that there's been a pleasurable
voluntary activity of the mind acting on the material presented to it.
Great minds like Darwin and Plato are able to deal with appearances and
experiences first-hand. But more ordinary minds only get a little of
their knowledge this directly. For the most part, ordinary minds are
set into action by the energizing knowledge of other people, which
stimulates and provides a point of departure at the same time.
Information acquired during a course of formal education is only by
chance, and only of practical value in certain circumstances. But
knowledge, on the other hand, is the result of the active working of
the mind on material presented to it--and this kind of knowledge is
power. It implies that the intellectual mind has grown in many
different directions, and provides an ever new point of departure.
pg 225
Perhaps the most important task for a teacher is to be able to tell the
difference between their students gaining information, and knowledge.
Since knowledge is power, the student who has gotten knowledge will be
able to demonstrate power in dealing with it. He'll be able to remodel,
condense, illustrate or narrate it vividly and with freedom in his
wording. But the child who has only gained information will only
be able to parrot the stereotypical phrases in his textbook, or mangle
his teacher's lectures in his notes.
Children
Naturally Crave Knowledge
It's easier for us to deal directly with knowledge this way because we
don't feel the pressure to develop 'faculties' first. For our practical
purposes, the so-called 'faculties' can be collectively defined as 'the
mind.' And we've found that the normal mind already has everything it
needs to handle knowledge in the same way that the digestive process
already has everything it needs to handle food. What we need to be
concerned about is providing the kind of knowledge that will open up as
large a share of the world the child lives in as possible for his use
and enjoyment. There are certain gymnastic exercises for the body, and,
for the mind, there are also certain disciplinary subjects that we can
make use of. When the body digests food, it works invisibly and without
our conscious awareness. In the same way, judgment, imagination and all
the other mental abilities deal with the mental food of knowledge. It
incorporates it and makes it part of the mind, which isn't the same as
memorizing. Another analogy is that the digestive process is motivated
by appetite. In the same way, children come into the world with a few
inborn desires that motivate them to get what they need. These
appetites are ambition, praise, wealth, the desire to excel,
companionship, and curiosity--the
craving for knowledge.
pg 226
It seems to me that any education that appeals to the desire for wealth
(grades, prizes, scholarships), or the desire to excel (being top in
the class), or any other desire other
than the craving for knowledge will upset the natural balance of
character. Even more fatal, wrongly motivated educational efforts will
kill any desire and love for the knowledge that's supposed to enrich
and delight us for our entire lives. Dr. Johnson says, 'The desire to
know is natural to mankind. Every human being whose mind hasn't been
destroyed will be willing to sacrifice everything he has to get
knowledge.' Could it be that a hunger for good grades is really the
sign of a debased, ruined mind? A pure, healthy mind will eagerly take
in knowledge. Our students have found their lessons so interesting that
they don't need any other motivation to learn.
Children
Must Be Educated With Books
Related to the principle that Education is the Science of
Relationships, is that no education is worth its name if it doesn't
make children feel at home in the world of books. Education should
connect children mind to mind with thinkers who have dealt with
knowledge. We reject things like abridged synopses and condensed
compilations. Instead, we provide children with books that, whether
they're long or short, are definitely living.
The teacher's main job is to help children deal with their books.
Lectures and oral lessons are just a small part of the teacher's job,
and are only used to summarize, expand or illustrate the book [--never in place of it!]
It's a tendency to put too much faith in lectures and oral lessons.
Carlyle said, 'To have material poured into you as if you were a bucket
isn't exhilarating to anyone.' And it's not very exhilarating to have
every difficult concept
pg 227
explained to the point of tediousness, or to be coaxed to explain with
annoying questions. Dr. Johnson said, 'I refuse to be put to the
question. Don't you think, sir, that this questioning is a rude way for
a gentleman to behave? I refused to be baited with what? and why? What is this? What is that?
Why is a cow's tail long? Why is a fox's tail bushy?' Children think
the same thing, although they don't say so. Oral lessons are
occasionally useful, and when they're used correctly, it's the child
who will be curious enough to ask questions. It isn't as healthy or
totally honest as has been supposed for a teacher to pose as the source
of all knowledge who gives such nice lessons. Such lessons might seem
interesting at the moment, but they deprive the child of having to
exert any mental effort, and the result is the same as when an older
person reads a magazine. But, on the other hand, when children work
through a substantial book, even if takes two or three years to master,
they stay interested to the end. They develop an intelligent curiosity
about cause and effect. In fact, what they're doing is educating themselves.
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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