In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we find three major players, each with a different orientation toward life:
A true education must promote knowing and loving, not performing or indulging.
To believe in Divine Providence is to accept that we do not always know what is best, and the world does not conform to our will but to God's.
Slogans like "Be your way" and "Just do it," slogans that encourage us to follow any and all desires, may be good for sales, but they're horrible for souls.
As the spider is made for building silk webs, so we are made for building relations with persons and things. Our brains are designed for and dependent upon the creation of meaningful relations with persons and things.
Humans are not mere matter or a body directed by some external soul. They are a body-soul unity. In this dense discussion of these primary approaches to understanding humanity, we propose that a proper understanding of human nature will necessarily inform right relationship and education.
The first article of a valid educational creed – “children are born persons” – is of a revolutionary character; for what is a revolution but a complete reversal of attitude? - Charlotte Mason
It is a hard truth that, as a rule, a child will not give greater care and attention to the divine life than do his parents and teachers. read more
Education is the science of relations, relations with saints and sinners, the past and the present, earth and sky, art and craft, work and leisure. Still, there is more. read more.
Last time, we spoke of the Beauty Sense, a formative force rarely considered in its potent ability to shape the character of children. The Beautiful, together with the Good and the True are servants to one another, each drawing to the others, as it draws us to itself. Charlotte Mason speaks of imagination with the trained eye and ear, as central to the perception of beauty. read more
The story of the principal and Suzie was primarily about recovery from a distressed brain state, but this is only half of the work that is to be accomplished. It is also the responsibility of parents and teachers to build resilience. Resilience is the capacity to absorb adversity without slipping into a dysfunctional, distressed brain state. The greater the resilience, the less likely a child (or anyone for that matter) is to respond adversely, regardless of what is happening in the environs. Eight practices for building resilience will be the topic of this blog. read more
These last weeks have been taxing. Routines have been radically altered. Freedoms have been constrained. Normal pleasures have been curtailed. For many, income has been disrupted. And perhaps most trying of all, the future is uncertain. The illusion that we are in control is being challenged. Such testing times can be stressful for parent and child alike. read more
That children should be trained to endure hardness, was a principle of the old regime. "I shall never make a sailor if I can't face the wind and rain," said a little fellow of five who was taken out on a bitter night to see a torchlight procession; and, though, shaking with cold, he declined the shelter of a shed. Nowadays, the shed is everything; the children must not be permitted to suffer from fatigue or exposure.
That children should do as they are bid, mind their books, and take pleasure as it offers when nothing stands in the way, sums up the old theory; now, the pleasures of children are apt to be made more account than their duties. Formerly, they were brought up in subjection; now, the elders give place, and the world is made for the children.[1]
[1] Mason, Charlotte. Home Education. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1989. 7.
Last time, we heard from Essex Cholmondeley about opportunities, the opportunities parents have at home “to bring children up to be or to do” to be the kind of persons who have the power to live the life God has given them in exactly the way God intends, complete in mind, heart and soul with “the needs of something to love, something to do and something to think about.” It’s a lofty work indeed, to bring children up in these varied relationships. In truth, each parent and each teacher are a part of this work already, consciously or unconsciously. more
Modern technologies propagate a value system. Winners win and losers lose but is that a true statement?
Is the purpose of life. To make it to the one percent? Or would I or which would I rather have my child be? A neurotic performance-oriented performance driven member of the one percent. Or totally average in lifestyle but knows how to love his spouse and care for his children enjoys that which is good true and beautiful has a rich relationship with ideas and books as many friends and is a blessing to everyone in the neighborhood a quote winner one rich in the relation of life to set different value systems. Which do you want for your child?
What's the most formative influence in that child's life. Is it parents? Is it teachers? I promise you it's the screens that's what's shaping the child's character. Every child is born knowing there are things worth having and things worth avoiding but they're absolutely clueless what those are. Their affections are set first by the parents, then by the tribe. What do you desire? Child What do you want? Those desire we're not random events. They were cultivated. And they were cultivated by somebody or some thing.And. It's a function of quality time. Whoever has the most quality time with the child gets to do the most shaping of the affections.
Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their kids in no tech Waldorf schools. Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page went to no tech Montessori schools as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales many parents intuitively understand that the ubiquitous glowing screens are having a negative effect on kids.
Cholmondeley, Essex, What is Education? An address given to a meeting of the Women’s Institute. 1925.
