In today's podcast we are discussing principle 20 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. This principle is known as "The Great Recognition" and it discusses the spiritual life of children.

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #20 says: We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and ‘spiritual’ life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits and is their continual Helper in all the interests, duties, and joys of life.

“The idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to almighty God is one which we have ever laboured to enforce. We take a very distinct stand upon this point. We do not merely give a religious education, because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that very good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may, at the same time, be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection” (School Education, page 95)

“Our piety, our virtue, our intellectual activities, and, let us add, our physical perfections, are all fed from the same source, God Himself; are all inspired by the same Spirit, the Spirit of God” (School Education, p. 155).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

School Education by Charlotte Mason

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In our last podcast, we discussed the way of the will which is the 17th principle, but today we are covering “the way of reason”, which is the eighteenth principle, and with that comes the nineteenth principle.

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #16: “There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call ‘the way of the will’ and ‘the way of reason’.”

Principle #18: “The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to ‘lean (too confidently) to their own understanding; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration a) of mathematical truth, b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.

Principle #19: “Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.”

“For ourselves and our children it is enough to know that reason will put a good face on any matter we propose…” (A Philosophy of Education).

“Reason, so far from being infallible, is most exceedingly fallible, persuadable, open to influence on this side and that; but is all the same a faithful servant, able to prove whatsoever notion is received by the will. Once we are convinced of the fallibility of our own reason we are able to detect fallacies in the reasoning of our opponents and are not liable to be carried away by every wind of doctrine” (p. 150)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 139-153)

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Today we are discussing the sixteenth and seventeenth principles of Mason’s Twenty principles. Principle #16 focuses on the “way of the will” which I also like to call, a parent’s best kept secret. Learn more in this episode!

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #16: There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call ‘the way of the will’ and ‘the way of reason’.

Principle #17 is The way of the will: Children should be taught, a) To distinguish between ‘I want’ and ‘I will’. b) that the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may ‘will’ again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated as tending to stultify and stereotype character. It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well of success.)

“...choose this day the path of duty, however dull or tiresome, difficult or dangerous. The way of the will is a secret of power, the secret of self-government…” (A Philosophy of Education).

“Right thought flows upon the stimulus of an idea, and ideas are stored as we have seen in books and pictures and the lives of men and nations; these instruct the conscience and stimulate the will and man or child ‘chooses’” (p. 130).

“The ordering of the will is not an affair of sudden resolve; it is the outcome of a slow and ordered education in which precept and example flow in from the lives and thoughts of other men…” (p. 137)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 128-138)

Parents’ Review article from 1936 on The Way of the Will

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In today's episode I'm talking about the fourteenth and fifteenth principles of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on narration: the art of telling back.

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #14: “As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should “tell back” after a single reading or hearing; or should write on some part of what they have read”.

Principle #15: “A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarizing, and the like.”

"...a conscious mental effort, from the scholar, the mental effort of telling again that which has been read or heard. That is how we all learn, we tell again, to ourselves if need be, the matter we wish to retain, the sermon, the lecture, the conversation. The method is as old as the mind of man, the distressful fact is that it has been made so little use of in general education" (A Philosophy of Education).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

Know and Tell by Karen Glass

My blog post and video on Narration

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In today's episode I'm talking about the 13th principle of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on the "feast" that Mason focuses on. Learn more in this episode!

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #13: In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:

1. He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
2. The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity)
3. Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

“For it is a mistake to suppose that the greater number of subjects the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment, and the child who has written thirty or forty sheets during an examination week comes out unfagged. Not the number of subjects but the hours of work bring fatigue to the scholar…” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 158).

“The boy or girl aged from ten to twelve who is intimate with a dozen or so of Plutarch’s Lives, so intimate that they influence his thought and conduct, has learned to put his country first and to see individuals only as they serve or dis-serve the state. Thus he gets his first lesson in the science of proportion. Children familiar with the great idea of a State in the sense, not of a government but of the people, learn readily enough about the laws, customs and government of their country; learn, too, with the great interest something about themselves, mind and body, heart and soul, because they feel it is well to know that they have it in them to give to their country. (A Philosophy of Education, p. 187)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 154-234)

My video on Math the Charlotte Mason Way

My video on Modern Language the Charlotte Mason Way

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In today's podcast we are discussing principle #12 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles: "Education is the Science of Relations"

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #12: “Education is the science of relations” that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts; so we train him upon physical exercises nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything but to help him make valid as many as may be of – those first-born affinities that fit our new existence to existing things.”

“The art of standing aside to let a child develop the relations proper to him is the fine art of education” (School Education p. 67)

“We have relations with what there is in the present and with what there has been in the past, with what is above us, and about us; and that fullness of living and serviceableness depend for each of us upon how far we apprehend these relationship and how many of them we lay hold of. Every child is heir to an enormous patrimony. The question is, what are the formalities necessary to put him in possession of that which is his? (School Education, p. 218)

All knowledge is joined by a unity of “the relations which bind all things to all other things” (Parents and Children, p. 259)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 128-138)

Article from the Parents’ Review in 1905 on “Education is the Science of Relations”

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In today's podcast we are discussing principles #8-11 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. The eighth principle is the third of three instruments of education; "Education is a life." Learn about what this phrase means and how we can nourish a child's mind in today's episode.

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Show Notes:

See the show notes for this episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #8: “In saying that “education is a life” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum."

Principle #9: "We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs."

“One of our presumptuous sins in this connection is that we offer opinions to children (and to older persons) instead of ideas” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 110)

“we know that food is to the body what fuel is to the steam-engine, the sole source of energy; once we realize that the mind too works only as it is fed education will appear to us in a new light” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 105)

“...but an idea clothed up on with fact, history, and story, so that the mind may perform the acts of selection and inception from a mass of illustrative details” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 111).

“...all I have said is meant to enforce the fact that much and varied humane reading, as well as human though expressed in the forms of art, is not a luxury, a tit-bit, to be given to children now and then, but their very bread of life, which they must have in abundant portions and at regular periods” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 111).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 104-127)

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In today's podcast we are discussing principle #7 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. The seventh principle is the second of three instruments of education; "Education is a discipline."

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

“We need not labour to get children to learn their lessons…Let the lessons be of the right sort and children will learn them with delight’ (p. 99)

“The habits of fitting and ready expression, obedience, of good-will, and of an impersonal outlook are spontaneous by-products of education in this sort. So, too, are the habits of right thinking and right judging; while physical habits of neatness and order attend upon the self-respect which follows an education which respects the personality of the child” (p. 100)

“If we fail to ease life by laying down habits of right thinking and right acting, habits of wrong thinking and wrong acting fix themselves of their own accord” (p. 101)

“We entertain the idea which gives birth to the act and the act repeated again and again becomes the habit; ‘Sow an act,’ we are told, ‘reap a habit.’ ‘Sow a habit, reap a character.’ But we must go a step further back, we must sow the idea or notion which makes the act worthwhile” (p. 102)

“It is possible to sow a great idea lightly and casually and perhaps this sort of sowing should be rare and casual because if a child detect a definite purpose in his mentor he is apt to stiffen himself against it” (p. 102).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 99-104)

Article from 1967 on “Education is a Discipline”

Habits of the Household by Justin Whitmel Earley

Habit Training Resources:

Laying Down the Rails by Simply Charlotte Mason

Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson

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We're covering principles #4-6 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. The sixth principle is the first of three instruments of education; "Education is an atmosphere."

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for this Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

“Set an example… in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity… be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” (1 Timothy 4:12, 15-16 NIV).

“It is not an environment that these want, a set of artificial relations carefully constructed, but an atmosphere which nobody has been at pains to constitute" (A Philosophy of Education, p. 96)

“We all know the natural conditions under which a child should live; how he shares household ways with his mother, romps with his father, is teased by his brothers and petted by his sisters; is taught by his tumbles; learns self-denial by the baby’s needs, the delightfulness of furniture by playing at battle and siege with sofa and table; learns veneration for the old by visits of his great-grandmother; how to live with his equals by the chums he gathers round him; learns intimacy with animals from his dog and cat; delight in the fields where the buttercups grow and greater delight in the blackberry hedges” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 96)

“It is worth while to remember that space is the most precious and also the most pleasing thing in a house or room; and that even a small room becomes spacious if it is not crowded with useless objects.” (Ourselves, Book 1, p. 177).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 94-99)

Ourselves by Charlotte Mason (Book 1, page 177)

The Lifegiving Home by Sally Clarkson

The Lifegiving Table by Sally Clarkson

Article from 1899 on the Influence of the Mother

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In today's episode I'm introducing the third principle of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. The Twenty Principles are the basis for her educational philosophy. Without these, we can't apply the method. The second principle is "The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental.”. Today we discuss what this principle means, and how we can apply it in our own homes.

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

“And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands…” 2 John 1:6 (NIV).

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“The sense of must should be present with children; our mistake is to act in such a way that they only seem to be law-compelled while their elders do as they please” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 73).

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“...see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience. (I am assuming that everyone entrusted with the bringing up of children recognises the supreme Authority to Whom we are subject. Without this recognition I do not see how it is possible to establish the nice relation which should exist between teacher and taught). (A Philosophy of Education, p. 73)

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“Our chief concern for the mind or for the body is to supply a well-ordered table with abundant, appetising, nourishing, and varied food, which children deal with in their own way and for themselves” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 71-72).

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“Our part is to regard attention, too as an appetite and to feed it with the best we have in books and in all knowledge" (A Philosophy of Education).

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“Educated mothers know that their children can read anything and do not offer explanations unless they are asked for them” (A Philosophy of Education).

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Further Education:

Home Education by Charlotte Mason

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Article written by a former headmistress of a P.N.E.U. school in 1961 on Obedience

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