Home Education, Part 2

By the way, the subtitle of this book is "Training and educating children under nine". This is not strictly a home schooling book. Charlotte Mason herself was a teacher in what might be called a public school in today's terms.

Part II - Out-of-door life for the children

Or, the indoors are over-rated.

"Perhaps a Mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone - body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good."

Are you ready? I am!

"...for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this - that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder - and grow."

Me??? Cackle???

Ah-hem.

Yes, the indoors are overrated, my friends. We have created such comfortable, climate controlled environments in our homes that going outside can seem too much trouble. Such a hassle. Too dirty. Too hot. Too humid. Too wet. Too cold. Too windy. Not as important as doing the dishes ... or scrubbing the toilet. Pack up everything? Be gone how long? We seriously spend too much time inside. This is something that I now realize is way easier to do before your children are in third grade. Then it really becomes a tug of war between what does the older child need versus what do the younger children need. Charlotte gives many suggestions as to the ins and outs of how you should spend your outdoor time. Also she says to not "send" them out, "take" them out.

"the flowers, it is true, are not new; but the children are; and it is the fault of their elders if every new flower they come upon is not to them a Picciola, a mystery of beauty to be watched from day to day with unspeakable awe and delight."

(I was so excited to actually know what she was talking about when she mentioned Picciola!)

"All this is stale knowledge to older people, but one of the secrets of the educator is to present nothing as stale knowledge, but to put himself in the position of the child, and wonder and admire with him;"

I struggle with this. I just simply find it challenging to put myself in their position. I am always needing to be reminded of this.

There is a lovely quote from Audubon, the American ornithologist, that is just lovely and inspiring. I won't share it now but will in a future post.

More CM:

"Most children of six have had this taste of a naturalist's experience, and it is worth speaking of only because, instead of being merely a harmless amusement, it is a valuable piece of education, of more use to the child than the reading of a whole book of natural history, or much geography and Latin. For the evil is, that children get their knowledge of natural history, like all their knowledge, at second hand. They ate so sated with wonders, that nothing surprises them; and they are so little used to see for themselves, that nothing interests them. The cure for this blasé condition is, to let them alone for a bit, and then begin on new lines. Poor children, it is no fault of theirs if they are not as they were meant to be - curious eager little souls, all agog to explore so much of this wonderful world as they can get at, as quite their first business in life.

'He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.'"

There is so much truth in this one paragraph. I think there are much fewer children now, even at the age of six, who have such experience with nature. Babies are placed in front of Baby Einstein videos, first graders are given their "lessons" on iPads, any leisure time is spent on the computer or in front of the tv. I have by no means "arrived" in this area. It's just something I feel very strongly about. We live is a "virtual" culture, and what is real is continually being replaced by something that is not. Don't get me wrong. I love my iPhone, I love Google, I love Pinterest, enjoy keeping in touch on Facebook, I realize these are good things. What I am saying is that we don't always choose what is best. And simply because something is good doesn't mean it is the best choice. Am I making any sense?? CM is saying natural history books are good. But they are not necessarily the best choice for your little ones. Your little ones don't need to look at a tree in a book. Not that in and of itself is bad. They need to go look at a real tree. They need to feel its bark, see how its branches grow. Notice the shape of its leaves, see how the tree changes through the seasons. And so on and so forth. They need to be aquainted, personally, with the natural world.

"Let them once get touch with Nature, and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight through life. We were all meant to be naturalists, each in his degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things."

After all, God did create this world for us to live in.

"Reverence for life, as a wonderful and awful gift, which a ruthless child may destroy but never can restore, is a lesson of first importance to the child:-
'Let knowledge grow from more to more;
But more of reverence in us dwell.'
The child who sees his mother with reverent touch lift an early snowdrop to her lips, learns a higher lesson than the 'print-books' can teach."

More is caught than taught!

"For it is a law of the mind that what we know, we struggle to express. This fact accounts for many of the aimless questions of children; they are in quest, not of knowledge, but of words to express the knowledge they have."

"The evil of the ready-made life we lead is that we do not discern the signs of the times."

What I particularly like about this chapter are all the ideas she gives in spending time outdoors. Things I would never have thought of. I also appreciate her articulating how to let the children alone. Of course, not the one-year-old. But there are so many things that can be taught to the children while outdoors, i.e., not during "school".

I have heard that spending much time outside and nature study is a "Holy Grail" of sorts. I can see why, and have not really found a solution for our family yet. I think it is a process, and different things have to be tried until you get into a routine that fits. For me, I have to see in my head how it will work before I attempt to try. But like I said, I feel very strongly that it is more important than ever to get outside in order to be in touch with nature and real things. Everything else is slipping away into a virtual reality that I find quite frightening.