I've been spending a little time with my friend Charlotte Mason again and she's reminded me of some things I needed to hear. Sometimes it's good to be reminded: learning really is a lifestyle! I think I get hung up on the "norm" because I was trained by the public school system, and I am surrounded by friends, family, neighbors, and even my stepson in public school. Even among homeschooling moms, the talk tends to veer into what curriculum we're using and things like that. All fine topics, and certainly something to put some thought into, but not the real point of education, and not what I want to be focused on.
Charlotte Mason said, "Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking––the strain would be too great––but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest..."
Ever experienced the tedious passing of time? Many times I've caught myself doing the same mundane things, and not paying a bit of attention to what I'm doing. Even driving to an often-traveled destination requires very little thought, and I catch myself on mental auto-pilot. Yes, of course I'm paying attention to things like other vehicles and traffic lights and such, but I'm not noticing the scenery or anything. I wonder how much I miss out on that way. Wouldn't it be great to really be living even at those mundane moments? Paying attention, and noticing the details of interest "wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see"?
Charlotte explains, "the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought." She explains that God is "the supreme Educator of mankind" in all things, and goes on to encourage us with this: "in this great work [of education] we seek and assuredly find the co-operation of the Divine Spirit." No matter what curriculum we use, no matter what style of homeschooling we love, no matter how many hours we devote to education, we will never be able to teach our children absolutely everything they need to know. Those education gaps we all worry about sometimes? Oh, yes, they'll be there. But the really fabulous thing is that God himself will fill in those gaps because He is the supreme Educator!
We can't and shouldn't try to shape our kids into a mold of what we want them to become. Each one of us is created just a little differently, and we are instructed by God to train our children according to their unique bent, the unique way He made them. Isn't that one of the great things about homeschooling? We can completely individualize what we do for each child, and that will look different for every single family and every single child!
Charlotte also reminded me of the importance of relationships for a child, to both people and things. "In proportion to the range of living relationships we put in his way, will he have wide and vital interests, fulness of joy in living." Wide and vital interests, and fulness of joy in living are most certainly high on my list of hopes for my children as they grow up, and when they are adults. Because they are all unique, we can't predict what will spark their interests, and it won't necessarily be anything we ourselves are interested in! Charlotte reminds us to let our children live and learn from plenty of imaginative free play, preferably outdoors whenever possible. Encouraged to explore, even in their own backyard, they will develop relationships with trees and flowers and birds, and more. Kathryn has a tree just outside her bedroom that she calls "her tree", and a "climbing tree" she loves in the front yard. Our dog Lacy is a big part of Kathryn's life, and even if I hadn't already loved having a dog as a pet, I certainly see the value of Charlotte Mason's suggestion that every child have a pet of some kind to love and care for. I just read an article about a program called "Reading to Rover." The goal of the program is to motivate kids who have a difficult time reading by allowing them time to read to a therapy dog at a public library or school. The program has had great results, and I believe it's because of the relationship the kids develop with those patient canine pals.
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." Every day is full of opportunities to learn, even if we never sit down for any tablework. We do need to model and teach good habits, because life will be so much more full (and less stressful) if they develop those good habits while still young. And we must let them feast upon great ideas, which Charlotte says is "the food upon which personality waxes strong." There are those great ideas again! Where do we get them? Great books! I still think of Kathryn pretending for weeks to be an Inuit girl with her doll Robyn zipped up in her jacket, and Lacy as a wolf she befriended -- all because of a great book we read together!
When I think about what I really want as my primary goal for education, do I want my child to have the highest test scores and earn straight A's though college? Do I want her to have a prestigious title with lots of letters after her name? Is my primary goal for her to be "successful" and well-paid? No, none of those things. While those are all fine and good, what I really want is for my children to be kind and empathetic; to love the Lord and follow Him; to be passionate about whatever they choose to do with their lives.
Charlotte explains, "the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought." She explains that God is "the supreme Educator of mankind" in all things, and goes on to encourage us with this: "in this great work [of education] we seek and assuredly find the co-operation of the Divine Spirit." No matter what curriculum we use, no matter what style of homeschooling we love, no matter how many hours we devote to education, we will never be able to teach our children absolutely everything they need to know. Those education gaps we all worry about sometimes? Oh, yes, they'll be there. But the really fabulous thing is that God himself will fill in those gaps because He is the supreme Educator!
We can't and shouldn't try to shape our kids into a mold of what we want them to become. Each one of us is created just a little differently, and we are instructed by God to train our children according to their unique bent, the unique way He made them. Isn't that one of the great things about homeschooling? We can completely individualize what we do for each child, and that will look different for every single family and every single child!
Charlotte also reminded me of the importance of relationships for a child, to both people and things. "In proportion to the range of living relationships we put in his way, will he have wide and vital interests, fulness of joy in living." Wide and vital interests, and fulness of joy in living are most certainly high on my list of hopes for my children as they grow up, and when they are adults. Because they are all unique, we can't predict what will spark their interests, and it won't necessarily be anything we ourselves are interested in! Charlotte reminds us to let our children live and learn from plenty of imaginative free play, preferably outdoors whenever possible. Encouraged to explore, even in their own backyard, they will develop relationships with trees and flowers and birds, and more. Kathryn has a tree just outside her bedroom that she calls "her tree", and a "climbing tree" she loves in the front yard. Our dog Lacy is a big part of Kathryn's life, and even if I hadn't already loved having a dog as a pet, I certainly see the value of Charlotte Mason's suggestion that every child have a pet of some kind to love and care for. I just read an article about a program called "Reading to Rover." The goal of the program is to motivate kids who have a difficult time reading by allowing them time to read to a therapy dog at a public library or school. The program has had great results, and I believe it's because of the relationship the kids develop with those patient canine pals.
"Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life." Every day is full of opportunities to learn, even if we never sit down for any tablework. We do need to model and teach good habits, because life will be so much more full (and less stressful) if they develop those good habits while still young. And we must let them feast upon great ideas, which Charlotte says is "the food upon which personality waxes strong." There are those great ideas again! Where do we get them? Great books! I still think of Kathryn pretending for weeks to be an Inuit girl with her doll Robyn zipped up in her jacket, and Lacy as a wolf she befriended -- all because of a great book we read together!
When I think about what I really want as my primary goal for education, do I want my child to have the highest test scores and earn straight A's though college? Do I want her to have a prestigious title with lots of letters after her name? Is my primary goal for her to be "successful" and well-paid? No, none of those things. While those are all fine and good, what I really want is for my children to be kind and empathetic; to love the Lord and follow Him; to be passionate about whatever they choose to do with their lives.
"The question is not, how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education, but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care?" - Charlotte MasonI want my children to care, and I want their lives to be all living. I'm glad Charlotte and I had this little chat; now I've just got to apply all that she's reminded me, because, of course, I'm still learning, too.
