I'm still reading--and loving--a wonderful book by Diana Waring called Reaping the Harvest. (For the record, I love the prequel to this book as well!) The most recent chapter I've read is about the importance of becoming an independent thinker. You see, a real education should teach our children to think independently. Unfortunately, I think many of us--not just our kids--have fallen under the false impression that just because a person sounds knowledgable about something, they must have all the answers. Not true! We need to think more deeply, and test what we're being told/taught to see if it's in line with God's word. In other words, we should be like the Bereans, who "received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (Acts 17:11)
I think this is right in line with Charlotte Mason's teachings! Like this quote from Volume 6, chapter 7 of the CM Series: "If [students] have learned to... think independently they are then fit to be trained for such life and profession as taste or necessity may dictate... such a man is able, not only to earn his living, but to live."
Or this one:
"We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas but is rather... a 'spiritual organism' with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet with which it is prepared to deal and what it is able to digest and assimilate as the body does food-stuffs."She goes on to say, "A doctrine [that says the child's mind is an empty receptacle]... lays the stress of education upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching but little knowledge." I certainly want to make sure my children have true knowledge, not just a bunch of teaching that doesn't have any real value. This all goes back to the CM philosophy that education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life! Lindsey is new to homeschooling, so she doesn't realize yet all the things we've already been doing that are "school" because we try to incorporate learning in our daily lives, not just for a certain set "school time."
Charlotte Mason believed "in ideas as the proper and only diet upon which children's minds grow..." and said that "the ideas required for the sustenance of children are to be found mainly in books of literary quality; given these the mind does for itself the sorting, arranging, selecting, rejecting, classifying."
I do love those living books! Such wonderful literature stimulates the mind with new ideas: perfect for teaching us to think more deeply! As wonderful as these wonderful living literature books are, there really is only one book that truly is alive: the Bible! I want to be sure to teach my children how to appreciate the Bible as a truly living book, and in doing so, they will become like the Bereans.
