 Chapter 21 of the Home Education Series. Volume 2. Parents and Children. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Home Education Series. Volume 2. Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason. Chapter 21. A Scheme of Educational Theory Proposed to Parents. Each class and society should have its ideal. One of Mr. Matthew Arnold's discriminating utterances may help us in the effort to define anew the scope and the methods of education. In a French Eaton he says, The education of each class and society has, or ought to have, its ideal, determined by the wants of that class and by its destination. Society may be imagined so uniform that one education shall be suitable for all its members. We have not a society of that kind, nor has any European country. Looking at English society at this moment, one may say that the ideal for the education of each of its classes to follow, the aim which the education of each should particularly endeavour to reach, is different. This remark, to which we can give only a doubtful ascent, helps us nevertheless to define our position. In this matter of class differentiation we believe we have scientific grounds for a line of our own. The fathers, why should we not have fathers in education as well as in theology, worked out for the most part. Their educational thought with an immediate view to the children of the poor. Poor children need a vocabulary. Because the children that he had to deal with had a limited vocabulary and untrained observing powers, Pestilazzi taught them to see and then to say, I see a hole in the carpet. I see a small hole in the carpet. I see a small round hole with a black edge in the carpet. And so on. And such training may be good for such children. But what is the case with the children we have to deal with? We believe today on scientific grounds in the doctrine of heredity and certainly in this matter experience supports our faith. Children of educated parents do not. Punch has hit off the state of the case. Come and see the puff puff, dear. Do you mean the locomotive, Grandmama? As a matter of fact, the child of four and five has a wider, more exact vocabulary in everyday use than that employed by his elders and betters and is constantly adding to this vocabulary with surprise and quickness. Ergo, to give a child of this class of vocabulary, is no part of direct education. Again, we know that nothing escapes the keen scrutiny of the little people. It is not their perceptive powers we have to train, but the habit of methodical observation and accurate record. Generations of physical toil do not tend to foster imagination. It may be good then for the children of the working classes to have games initiated for them to be carried through little dramatic plays until perhaps in the end they will be able to invent such little dramas for themselves. This true of imagination. But the children of the cultured classes, why surely their danger is rather to live too much in rums of fancy? A single sentence and lesson or talk, the slightest sketch of a historical character and they will play at it for a week, inventing endless incidents. Like Tennyson, when he was a child, they will carry on a story of the siege and defence of a castle, represented by a mound, with sticks for its garrison, for weeks together, and a child engrossed with these larger interests feels a sensible loss of dignity when he flaps his wings as a pigeon or skips about as a lamb, though no doubt he will do these things with pleasure for the teacher he loves. Imagination is ravenous for food, not pining for culture in the children of educated parents and education need not concern herself directly for them with the development of the conceptive powers. Then with regard to the child's reasoning powers most parents have had experiences of this kind. Tommy is five. His mother had occasion to talk to him about the Atlantic cable and said she did not know how it was insulated. Tommy remarked next morning that he had been thinking about it and perhaps the water itself was an insulator. So far from needing to develop their children's reasoning powers most parents say, I would the gods the gift to guide us to answer the everlasting why of the intelligent child. The development of faculties important for ignorant and efficient children. In a word, to develop the child's so-called faculties is the main work of education when ignorant or otherwise deficient children are concerned. But the children of educated parents are never ignorant in this sense. They awake to the world all a gog for knowledge and with keen edged faculties. Therefore the principle of heredity causes us to recast our idea of the office of education and to recognize that the child of intelligent parents is born with an inheritance of self-developing faculties but not for children of educated parents. Thus education naturally divides itself into education for the children of lettered and education for the children of unlettered parents. In fact, this class question which we are all anxious to evade in common life comes practically into force in education. It is necessary to individualize and say this part of education is the most important for this child or this class but may be relegated into a lower place for another child or another class. The educator should form habits. If science limits our range of work as regards the development of so-called faculties it extends it in equal measure with regard to habit. Here we have no new doctrine to proclaim. One custom overcometh another, said Thomas A. Kempis, and that is all we have to say. Only physiologists have made clear to us the rationale of this law of habit. We know that to form in his child the purpose of thinking and behaving is a parent's chief duty and that this can be done for every child definitely and within given limits of time. But this question has been already dealt with and we need do no more than remind parents of what they already know. Should nourish with ideas To nourish a child daily with loving, loving ideas we believe to be the parent's next duty. The child having once received the idea will assimilate it in his own way and work it into the fabric of his life and a single sentence from his mother's lips may give him a bend that will make him or may tend to make him painter or poet, statesman or philanthropist. The object of lessons should be in the main two-fold. To train a child in certain mental habits as attention, accuracy, promptness, etc. and to nourish him with ideas which may bear fruit in his life. Our main objects There are other educational principles which we bear in mind and work out but for the moment it is worthwhile for us to concentrate our thought upon the fact that our objects is to accentuate the importance of education under the two heads of the formation of habits and the presentation of ideas and as a corollary to recognize that the development of faculties is not a supreme object with the cultivated classes because this is work which has been done for their children in a former generation. We recognize material and spiritual principles of human nature. But how does all this work? Is it practical? Is it the question of today? It must needs be practical because it gives the fullest recognition to the two principles of human nature the material and the spiritual. We are ready to concede all that the most advanced biologist would ask of us. Does he say thought is only a mode of motion? If so, we are not dismayed. We know that 99 out of 100 thoughts that pass through our minds are involuntary the inevitable result of those modifications of the brain tissue which habit has set up. The mean man thinks mean thoughts the magnanimous man great thoughts because we all think as we are accustomed to think and physiology shows us why. On the other hand, we recognize that greater is the spirit within us than the matter which it governs. Every habit has its beginning. The beginning is the idea which comes with a stir and takes possession of us. We recognize the supreme educator. The idea is the motive power of life and it is because we recognize the spiritual potency of the idea that we are able to bow reverently before the fact that God the Holy Spirit is himself the supreme educator dealing with each of us severally in the things we call sacred and those we call secular. We lay ourselves open to the spiritual impact of ideas whether these be conveyed by the printed page the human voice or whether they reach us without visible sign. Studies are valued as they present fruitful ideas but ideas may be evil or may be good and to choose between the ideas that present themselves is as we have been taught the one responsible work of a human being. It is the power of choice that we would give our children. We ask ourselves is there any fruitful idea underlying this or that study that the children are engaged in? We divest ourselves of the notion that to develop the faculties is the chief thing and a subject which does not rise out of some great thought of life we usually reject as not nourishing not fruitful. While we usually but not invariably retain those studies which give exercise and habits of clear and orderly thinking. We have some gymnastics of the mind whose object is to exercise what we call faculties as well as to train in the habit of clear and ordered thinking. Mathematics, grammar, logic, etc. are not purely disciplinary. They do develop if a bull may be allowed intellectual muscle we by no means reject the familiar staples of education in the school sense but we prize them even more for the record of intellectual habits they leave in the brain tissue than for their distinct value in developing certain faculties. Nature-Knowledge Thus our first thought with regard to nature knowledge is that the child should have personal acquaintance with the things he sees. It concerns us more that he should know bestort from Persecaria Hawkweed from Dandelion and where to find this and that and how it looks living and growing than that he should talk about epigenous and hypogenous. All this is well in its place but should come quite late after the child has seen and studied the living growing thing in situ and has copied colour and gesture as best he can. Object Lessons So of object lessons we are not anxious to develop his observing powers on little bits of everything which he shall describe as opaque, brittle, malleable, and so on. We would prefer not to take the edge off his curiosity in this way. We should rather leave him receptive and respectful for one of those opportunities for asking questions and engaging in talk with his parents about the lock and the river, the mowing machine, the plowed field which offer real seed to the mind of a child and do not make him a priggish little person able to tell all about it. We trust much to good books. Once more we know that there is a storehouse of thought wherein we may find all the great ideas that have moved the world. We are above all things anxious to give the child the key to this storehouse. The education of the day, it is said, does not produce reading people. We are determined that the children shall love books, therefore we do not interpose ourselves between the book and the child. We read him his tangled wood tails and when he is a little older his Plutarch, not trying to break up or water down but leaving the child's mind to deal with the matter as it can. We do not recognize child nature. We endeavor that all our teaching and treatment of children shall be on the lines of nature, their nature and ours, for we do not recognize what is called child nature. We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest but also at their weakest and least wise. We are careful not to dilute life for them but to present such portions to them in such quantities as they can readily receive. We are tenacious of individuality. We consider proportion. In a word, we are very tenacious of the dignity and individuality of our children. We recognize steady, regular growth with no transition stage. This teaching is up to date but it is as old as common sense. Our claim is that our common sense rests on a basis of physiology, that we show a reason for all that we do and that we recognize the science of the proportion of things. Put the first thing foremost. Do not take too much upon ourselves but leave time and scope for the workings of nature and of a higher power than nature herself. We think that children have a right to knowledge. Much guidance and stimulation are afforded by another principle. We are not anxious to contend with Kant that the mind possesses certain a priori knowledge nor with Hume that it holds innate ideas. The more satisfying proposition seems to be that the mind has, as it were, pencil adaptations to each department of universal knowledge. We find the children lay hold of all knowledge which is fitly presented to them with avidity and therefore we maintain that a wide and generous curriculum is due to them. End of Chapter 21 Read by The Story Girl Chapter 22 of the Hume Education series Volume 2, Parents and Children This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Amy Bodkin, Navar, Florida. The Hume Education series, Volume 2, Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason. A Catechism of Educational Theory Character and Achievement As the philosophy which underlies any educational or social scheme is really the vital part of that scheme, it may be well to set forth, however meagerly, some fragments of the thoughts on which we found our teaching. We believe that disposition, intellect, genius come pretty much by nature. That character is an achievement, the one practical achievement possible to us for ourselves and for our children. That all real advance in family or individual or nation is along the lines of character. That therefore to direct and assist the evolution of character is the chief office of education. But perhaps we shall clear the ground better by a little of the teaching of the union into categorical form. Character and Disposition Origin of Conduct What is character? The resultant or Residuum of Conduct. That is to say, a man is what he has made himself by the thoughts which he has allowed himself, the words he has spoken, the deeds he has done. How does conduct itself originate? Commonly in our habitual modes of thought we think as we are accustomed to think and therefore act as we are accustomed to act. What again is the origin of these habits of thought and act? Commonly inherited disposition. The man who is generous, obstinate, hot-tempered devout is so on the whole because that strain of character runs in his family. Means of modifying disposition. Are there any means of modifying inherited dispositions? Yes. Marriage for the race, education for the individual. Life history of a habit. How may a bad habit which has its rise in an inherited disposition be corrected? By the contrary, good habit as Thomas Ah Kempis has said, one custom overcomeeth another. Genesis of a habit. Trace the genesis of a habit. Every act proceeds from a thought. Every thought modifies somewhat the material structure of the brain. That is the nerve substance of the brain forms itself to the manner of thoughts we think. The habit of act rises from the habit of thought. The person who thinks, oh it will do, oh it doesn't matter, forms a habit of negligent and imperfect work. Correction of bad habit. How may such habit be corrected? By introducing the contrary line of thought which will lead to contrary action. This must be done well because is it enough to think such thought once? No. The stimulus of the new idea must be applied until it is, so to speak, at home in the brain and arises involuntarily. Involuntary thought. What do you mean by involuntary thought? The brain is at work unceasingly, is always thinking or rather is always being acted upon by thought as the keys of an instrument by the fingers of a player. Is the person aware of all the thoughts that the brain elaborates? No. Only of those which are new and striking. The old familiar way of thinking beats in the brain without the consciousness of the thinker. Conduct depends on unconscious celebration. What name is given to this unconscious thought? Unconscious or involuntary celebration. Why is it important to the educator? Because most of our actions spring from thoughts of which we are not conscious or any way which are involuntary. Is there any means of altering the trend of unconscious celebration? Yes, by diverting it into a new channel. The unconscious celebration of the greedy child runs upon cakes and sweet meats. How may this be corrected? By introducing a new idea, a pleasure of giving pleasure with these good things, for example. Springs of action. Is the greedy child capable of receiving such new idea? Most certainly because benevolence, the desire of benefiting others is one of those springs of action in every human being that need only to be touched to make them act. Give an example of this fact. Benevolence. Dying of thirst, hunger, and weariness in an African desert found himself in the vicinity of a cannibal tribe. He gave himself up for lost, but a woman of the tribe found him, took compassion on him, brought him milk, hid him, and nourished him until he was restored and could take care of himself. Are there any other springs of action which may be touched with the effect in every human being? Yes, such as the desire of knowledge, of society, of distinction, of wealth, friendship, gratitude, and many more. Indeed, it is not possible to incite a human being to any sort of good and noble conduct, but you touch a responsive spring. How then can human beings do a miss? Malevolence. Because the good feelings have their opposite bad feelings, springs which also await a touch, malevolence is opposed to benevolence. It is easy to imagine that the unstable savage woman might have been amongst the first to devour the man she cherished had one of her tribe given an impulse to the springs of hatred within her. In view of these internal impulses, what is the duty of the educator? To make himself acquainted with the springs of action in a human being and to touch them with such wisdom, tenderness, and moderation that the child is insensibly led into the habits of the good life. Habits of the good life. Habits of well brought up persons. Name some of these habits. Diligence, reverence, gentleness, truthfulness, promptness, neatness, courtesy. In fact, the virtues and graces which belong to persons who have been well brought up. Is it enough to stimulate a spring of action, say, curiosity, or the desire of knowledge once in order to secure a habit? No. The stimulus must be repeated and action upon it secured over and over many times before a habit is formed. What common error do people make about the formation of habits? They allow lapses. They train a child to shut the door after him 20 times and allow him to leave it open the 21st. With what result? That the work has to be done over again because the growth of brain tissue to the new habit. The orming of cell connections has been disturbed. The result would appear to be much the same as when the flesh-forming process which knits up a wound is disturbed. Time should be given to the forming of a habit. Then the educator should time himself in forming habits? How long it may take to cure a bad habit and form the contrary good one? Perhaps a month or six weeks of careful incessant treatment may be enough. But such treatment requires an impossible amount of care and watchfulness on the part of the educator? Yes, but not more than is given to the cure of some bodily diseases. Measles, scarlet fever for example. Then the thoughts and actions of a human being may be regulated mechanically, so to speak by setting up the right nerve currents in the brain. This is true only so far as it is true to say that the keys of a piano produce music. Thoughts follow in sequence. But the thoughts which may be represented by the fingers of the player do they not also run their course without the consciousness of the thinker? They do. Not merely vague and consequent musings, but thoughts which follow each other in a more or less logical sequence according to the previous training of the thinker. Would you illustrate this? Mathematicians have been known to think out abstruse problems in their sleep. The bard improvises authors reel off without premeditation, without any deliberate intention to write such and such things. The thoughts follow each other according to the habit of thinking previously set in the brain of the thinker. Into new developments. Is it that the thoughts go round and round a subject like a horse in a mill? No. The horse is rather drawing a carriage along the same high road, but into ever new developments of the landscape. The initial thought. In this light the important thing is how you begin to think on any subject precisely so. The initial thought or suggestion touches as it were the spring which sets in motion a possibly endless succession or train of ideas thoughts which are so to speak elaborated in the brain almost without the consciousness of the thinker. Are these thoughts or successive ideas random? Do they make for any conclusion? They make for the logical conclusion which should follow the initial idea. Then the reasoning power may be set to work involuntarily? Yes. The sole concern of this power is apparently to work out the rational conclusion from any idea presented to it. Makes for logical conclusions. But surely this power of arriving at logical rational conclusions almost unconsciously is the result of education most likely of generations of culture. It exists in greater or less degree according as it is disciplined and exercised, but it is by no means the result of education as the word is commonly understood. Witness the following antidote. When Captain Head was traveling across Pampas of South America his guide one day suddenly stopped him and pointed high into the air, cried out, a lion surprised at such an exclamation accompanied with such an act he turned up his eyes and with difficulty perceived at an immeasurable height a flight of condors soaring in circles in a particular spot. Beneath this spot far out of sight of himself or guide lay the carcass of a horse and over this carcass stood as the guide well knew a lion whom the condors were eyeing with envy from their airy height. The sight of the birds was to him what the sight of the lion alone would have been to the traveler a full assurance of its existence. Here was an act of thought which cost the thinker no trouble which was as easy to him as to cast his eyes upward yet which from us unaccustomed to the subject would require many steps and some labour. Reason acts without volition then is what is called the reason innate in human beings? Yes it is innate and is exercised without volition by all but gains in power and precision in proportion as it is cultivated not an infallible guide to conduct. If the reason especially the trained reason arrives at the right conclusion without any effort of volition on the part of the thinker it is practically an infallible guide to conduct. On the contrary the reason is pledged to pursue a suggestion to its logical conclusion only much of the history of religious institutions and of family and international feuds turns on the confusion which exists in most minds between that which is logically inevitable and that which is morally right but according to this doctrine any theory whatever may be shown to be logically inevitable exactly so the initial idea once received the difficulty is not to prove that it is tenable but to restrain the mind from proving that it is so can you illustrate this point? The child who lets himself be jealous of his brother is almost startled by the flood of convincing proofs that he does well to be angry which rush in upon him beginning with a mere flash of suspicion in the morning the little cane finds himself in the evening possessed irrefragable proofs that his brother is unjustly preferred to him and all seems infected that the infected spy as all looks yellow to the jaundiced eye but supposing it is true that the child has cause for jealousy given the starting idea and his reason is equally capable of proving a logical certainty whether it is true or whether it is not true is there any historical proof of this startling theory? confusion as to logical and moral right perhaps every failure in conduct in individuals and in nations is due to the confusion which exists as to that which is logically right as established by the reason and that which is morally right as established by external law is any such distinction recognized in the Bible? distinctly so the transgressors of the Bible are those who do that which is right in their own eyes that is that of which their reason approves modern thought considers on the contrary that all men are justified in doing that which is right in their own eyes acting up to their lights obeying the dictates of their reason for example a mother whose cruel usage had caused the death of her child was morally exonerated some time ago in a court of justice because she acted from a mistaken sense of duty error from mistaken sense of duty but is it not possible to err from a mistaken sense of duty? not only possible but inevitable if a man accept his own reason as his law giver and judge take a test case the case of the superlative crime that has been done upon the earth there can be no doubt that the persons who caused the death of our lord and savior Jesus Christ acted under a mistaken sense of duty it is expedient that one man die for the people and that the whole nation perish not said most reasonably those chaotic leaders of the Jews and they relentlessly hunted to death this man whose ascendancy over the common people and whose whispered claims to kingship were full of elements of danger to the subject race they know not what they do he said who is the truth children should be taught self-knowledge all this may be of importance to philosophers what has it to do with the bringing up of children a child should know what he is as a human being it is time we reverted to the teaching of Socrates know thyself exhorted the wise man in season and out of season and it will be well with us when we understand that to acquaint a child with himself what he is as a human being is a great part of education it is difficult to see why surely much harm comes of morbid introspection introspection is morbid or diseased when the person imagines that all which he finds within him is peculiar to him as an individual to know what is common to all men is a sound cure for unhealthy self-contemplation how does it work this knowledge a safeguard to recognize the limitations of the reason is a safeguard in all the duties and relations of life the man who knows that loyalty is his first duty in every relation and that if he admit doubting grudging and lovely thoughts he cannot possibly be loyal because such thoughts once admitted will prove themselves to be right and fill the whole field of thought why he is on his guard and writes up no admittance to every manner of mistrustful fancy that rule of life should affect the supreme relationship truly yes if a man will admit no beginning of mistrustful surmise concerning his father and mother his child and his wife shall he do so of him who is more than they more than all the lord of his heart loyalty for bids is the answer to every question of his truth that would intrude against honest doubt but when others whom you must needs revere question and tell you of their honest doubt you know the history of their doubt and can take it for what it is worth it's origin in the suggestion which once admitted must needs reach a logical conclusion even to the bitter end take heed that ye enter not into temptation he said who needed not that any should tell him for he knew what was in men man as free agent if man is the creature of those habits he forms with care or allows in negligence if his very thoughts are involuntary in his conclusions inevitable he ceases to be a free agent one might as well concede at once that thought is a mode of motion and cease to regard man as a spiritual being capable of self-regulation is not this the case it is hardly possible to concede to wide a field to biological research if we keep well to the front the fact that man is a spiritual being whose material organs act in obedience to non-material ideas that for example as the hand writes so the brain thinks in obedience to stimulating ideas life sustained upon ideas is the idea self originated probably not it would appear that as the material life is sustained upon its appropriate food from without so the immaterial life is sustained upon its food ideas spiritually conveyed may the words idea and suggestion be used synonymous terms only in so far as that ideas convey suggestions to be affected in acts as the man himself play in the reception of this immaterial food it is as the one stood on the threshold to admit or reject the vayans which should sustain the family volition in the reception of ideas is this free will in the reception or rejection of ideas the limit of man's responsibility in the conduct of his life probably it is for an idea once received must run its course unless it be superseded by another idea in the reception of which volition is again exercised origin of ideas how do ideas originate they appear to be spiritual emanations from spiritual beings thus one man conveys to another the idea which is a very part of himself how ideas are conveyed is the intervention of a bodily presence necessary for the transmission of an idea by no means ideas may be conveyed through picture or printed page natural objects convey ideas but perhaps the initial idea in this case may always be traced to another mind the supreme educator then the spiritual sustenance of ideas is derived directly or indirectly from other human beings no and here is the great recognition which the educator is called upon to make God the Holy Spirit is himself the supreme educator of mankind how he openeth man's ear morning by morning to hear so much of the best as the man is able to hear in things natural and spiritual are the ideas suggested by the Holy Spirit confined to the sphere of the religious life no Coleridge speaking of Columbus and the discovery of America ascribes the origin of great inventions and discoveries to the fact that certain ideas of the natural world are presented to minds already prepared to receive them by a higher power than nature herself is there any teaching in the Bible to support this view yes very much Isaiah for example says that the plow man knows how to carry on the successive operations of husbandry for his God death instruct him and death teach him are all ideas which have a purely spiritual origin ideas of good unhappily no it is the sad experience of mankind that ideas of evil also are spiritually conveyed what is the part of the man to choose the good and refuse the evil this view throws light on Christian doctrine does this doctrine of ideas as the spiritual food needful to sustain the immaterial life throw any light on the doctrines of the Christian religion yes the bread of life the water of life the word by which man lives the meat to eat which you know not of and much more cease to be figurative expressions except that we must use words to name the corporeal and the incorporeal sustenance of man we understand more over how ideas emanating from our Lord and Saviour which are of his essence are the spiritual meat and drink of his believing people we find it no longer a hard saying nor a dark saying that we must sustain our spiritual selves upon him as our bodies upon bread divine cooperation in education what practical bearing upon the educator has this doctrine of ideas he knows that it is his part to place before the child daily nourishment of ideas that he may give the child the right initial idea in every study and respecting each relation and duty of life all he recognizes the divine cooperation in the direction, teaching and training of the child the functions of education how would you summarize the functions of education education is a discipline that is the discipline of the good habits in which the child is trained education is a life nourished upon ideas is an atmosphere that is the child breathes the atmosphere emanating from his parents that of the ideas which rule their own lives part of lessons in education what part do lessons and the general work of the school room play in education thus regarded they should afford opportunity for the discipline of many good habits and should convey to the child such initial ideas of interest in his various studies as to make the pursuit of knowledge on those lines an object in life and a delight to him a curriculum has a child any natural fitness for knowledge yes it would appear that he has a natural affinity for all knowledge and has a right to a generous curriculum of studies what duty lies upon parents and others who regard education thus seriously as a lever by means of which character may be elevated almost indefinitely perhaps it is incumbent upon them to make conscious endeavors to further all means used to spread the view they hold believing that there is such progress in character and virtue possible to the redeemed human race as has not yet been realized or even imagined education is an atmosphere a discipline a life End of Chapter 22 Recording by Amy Bodkin Navarra, Florida Chapter 23 of the Home Education Series Volume 2 Parents and Children This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Abby Jay The Home Education Series Volume 2 Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Chapter 23 Wentz and Wither A Question for Parents One Wentz Progress of the Parents National Educational Union The Union goes on an observer writes without puff or fuss by its own inherent force and it is making singularly rapid progress At the present moment thousands of children of thinking, educated parents are being brought up more or less consciously and definitely upon the lines of the Union Parents who read the Parents Review or other literature of the society Parents who belong to our various branches or our other agencies Parents who are influenced by these parents are becoming multitudinous and all have one note in common the ardor of persons working out inspiring ideas Its Importance It is hardly possible to overestimate the force of this league of educated parents When we think of the path that the children being brought up under these influences will one day play in the leading and ruling of the land we are solemnized with the sense of a great responsibility and it behooves us to put to ourselves once again the two searching queries by which every movement should from time to time be adjudged and wither whence the man who is satisfied with his dwelling place has no wish to move and the mere fact of a movement is a declaration that we are not satisfied and that we are definitely on our way to some other ends than those commonly accepted in one respect only we venture boldly to hark back the legacy of the past exceedingly fine men and women were brought up by our grandfathers and grandmothers even by our mothers and fathers and the wise and old amongst us though they look on with great sympathy yet have an unexpressed feeling that men and women were made on the old lines of a stamp which we shall find it hard to improve upon this was no mere chance result nor did it come out of the spelling book or the Pinnock's catechisms that we will go consigned to the limbo they deserve children responsible persons the teaching of the old days was as bad as it could be the training was haphazard work reckless alike of physiology and psychology but our grandfathers and grandmothers had one saving principle which for the last two or three decades we have been of set purpose laboring to lose they of the older generation recognized children as reasonable beings persons of mind and conscience like themselves but needing their guidance and control as having neither knowledge nor experience witness the queer old children's books which have come down to us before all things these addressed children as reasonable intelligent and responsible terribly responsible persons this fairly represents the note in the last generation so soon as the baby realized his surroundings he found himself a morally and intellectually responsible person now one of the secrets of power in dealing with our fellow beings is to understand that human nature does that which it is expected to do and is that which it is expected to be we do not mean believed to do and to be with the fond and foolish faith which Mrs. Hardcastle be stowed on her dear Tony Lumpkin expectation strikes another chord the chord of I am I can I ought which must vibrate in every human breast for tis our nature to the capable dependable men and women whom we all know were reared upon this principle now we are not sure but now now many children in many homes are still brought up on the old lines but not with quite the unfaltering certitude of the old times other thoughts are in the air a baby is a huge oyster says one eminent psychologist whose business is to feed and to sleep and to grow even professor Soli in his most delightful book is torn in two the children have conquered him beyond doubt that they are as ourselves only more so but then he is an evolutionist and feels himself pledged to accommodate the child to the principles of evolution therefore the little person is supposed to go through a thousand stages of moral and intellectual development leading him from the condition of the savage or ape to that of the intelligent and cultivated human being if children will not accommodate themselves pleasantly to this theory why that is their fault and professor Soli is too true a child lover not to give us the children as they are with little interludes of the theory upon which they ought to evolve now I have absolutely no theory to advance an M on scientific grounds disposed to accept the theories of the evolutionary psychologist but facts are too strong for me intellectual labor of the child's first year when we consider the enormous intellectual labor the infant goes through during his first year in accommodating himself to the conditions of a new world in learning to discern between far and near solid and flat large and small and a thousand other qualifications and limitations of this perplexing world why we are not surprised that John Stuart Mills should be well on in his Greek at five that Arnold at three should know all the kings and queens of England by their portraits or that a musical baby should have an extensive repertoire of the musical classics intelligence of children I was once emphasizing the fact that every child could learn to speak two languages at once with equal facility when a gentleman present stated that he had a son who was a missionary in Baghdad married to a German lady and their little son of three expressed all he had to say with equal fluency in three languages German English and Arabic using each in speaking to those persons whose language it was Nana which does God love best little girls or little boys said a meditative little girl of four oh little girls to be sure said Nana a good-natured wish to please then if God loves little girls best why was not God himself a little girl which of us who have reached the later stages of evolution would have hit upon a more conclusive argument if the same little girl asked on another occasion watching the blackbirds at the cherries Nana if the bees make honey do the birds make jam it was by no means an inane question and only proves that we older persons are dull and inappreciative of such mysteries of nature as that bees should make honey children highly endowed but ignorant this is how we find children with intelligence more acute logic more keen observing powers more alert moral sensibilities more quick love and faith and hope more abounding in fact in all points like as we are only much more so but absolutely ignorant of the world and its belongings of us in our ways and above all of how to control and direct and manifest the infinite possibilities with which they are born happy and good or good and happy our conception of a child rules our relations toward him poor Samuse is the rule of child life proper for the oyster theory and most of our children's books and many of our theories of child education are based upon this rule oh he's so happy we say and are content believing that if he is happy he will be good and it is so to a great extent but in the older days if you are good you will be happy and this is a principle which strikes the keynote of endeavor and holds good not only to the childish stage of evolution but for the whole of life here and here after the child who has learned to endeavor himself as the prayer book has it has learned to live our conception of the child is old of education new if our conception of wence as regards the child as of a being breathing thoughtful breath a traveler betwixt life and death is old that of our grandfathers our conception of the aims and methods of education is new only made possible within the late decades of the last century because it rests one foot upon the latest advances in the science of biology and the other upon the potent secret of these latter days that matter is the all serviceable agent of spirit and that spirit forms molds is absolute lord over matter as capable of affecting the material convolutions of the brain as of influencing what used to be called the heart knowing that the brain is the physical seat of habit and that conduct and character alike are the outcome of the habits we allow knowing too that an inspiring idea initiates a new habit of thought and hence a new habit of life we perceive that the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalizing ideas as to the relations of life departments of knowledge subjects of thought and to give deliberate care to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of vitalizing ideas divine cooperation in this great work we seek and assuredly find the cooperation of the divine spirit whom we recognize in a sense rather new to modern thought as the supreme educator of mankind in things that have been called secular fully as much as in those that have been called sacred to educational labors we are free to give our whole force to these two great educational labors of the inspiration of ideas and the formation of habits because except in the case of children somewhat mentally deficient we do not consider that the development of faculties is any part of our work seeing that the children so called faculties are already greatly more acute than our own test for systems we have too in our possession a test for systems that are brought under our notice and can pronounce upon their educational value for example some time ago the London board schools held an exhibition of work and great interest was excited by an exhibit which came from New York representing a week's work on her Barcian lines in a school that worked for a week upon an apple they modeled it in clay they painted it in brushwork they stitched the outline on cardboard they pricked it they laid it in sticks the pentagonal form of the seed vessel older boys and girls modeled an apple tree and made a little ladder on which to run up the apple tree and gather the apples and a wheelbarrow to carry the apples away and a great deal more of the same kind everybody said how pretty, how ingenious what a good idea and went away with the notion that here at last was education but we ask what was the informing idea the external shape the internal contents of an apple matters with which the children were already exceedingly well acquainted what mental habitudes were gained by this week's work they certainly learned to look at the apple but think how many things they might have got familiar acquaintance with in the time probably the children were not consciously bored because the impulse of the teacher's enthusiasm carried them on but think of it rabbits hot and rabbits cold rabbits young and rabbits old rabbits tender and rabbits tough no doubt those children had enough of apples anyway this apple course is most instructive to us as emphasizing the tendency in the human mind to accept and rejoice in any neat system which will produce immediate results rather than to bring every such little course to the test of whether it does or does not further either or both of our great educational principles advance with the tide wither our wence opens to us a wither of infinitely delightful possibilities seeing that each of us is laboring for the advance of the human race through the individual child we are educating we consider carefully in what directions this advance is due and indicated and we proceed of set purpose and endeavor to educate our children so that they shall advance with the tide can you not discern the signs of the times new renaissance is coming upon us of unspeakably higher import than the last and we are bringing up our children to lead and guide and by every means help in the progress progress by leaps and bounds which the world is about to make but wither is too large a question for the close of a chapter end of chapter 23 chapter 24 of the home education series volume 2 parents and children this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Andy Glover the home education series volume 2 parents and children by charlotte mason chapter 24 wither wither physical and psychical evolutions they are no longer able to believe otherwise than that man is the issue of processes ages long in their development and what is more and even more curious that each individual child from the moment of his conception to that of his birth appears in his own person to mark an incredible number of the stages of this evolutionary process the realization of this truth has made a great difference in his life the realization of this truth has made a great impression on the minds of men we feel ourselves to be part of the process and to be called upon at the same time to assist in the process not for ourselves exactly but for any part of the world upon which our influence bears especially for the children who are so peculiarly given over to us but there comes as we have seen a point where we must arise and make our protest the evolution of man admits of no doubt the physical evolution, on the other hand is not only not proven but the whole weight of existing evidence appears to go into the opposite scale the greatness of children the age of materialism has run its course we recognize matter as force but as altogether subject force and that it is the spirit of a man which shapes and uses his material substance in its own ways to its own ends of the spirit perhaps this is one of the ultimate questions upon which man has not yet been able to speculate to any purpose but when we consider the almost unlimited powers of loving and trusting of discriminating and of apprehending of perceiving and of knowing which a child possesses and compare these with the blunted sensibilities of the slower apprehension of the grown man or woman of the same caliber we are certainly not inclined to think that growth from less and from small to great is the condition of the spiritual life that is of that part of us which loves and worships reasons and thinks, learns and applies knowledge rather would it seem to be true of every child in his degree as of the divine and typical child that he given not the spirit by measure to him wisdom, the recognition of relations it is curious how the philosophy of the Bible is always well in advance but he grew in wisdom and in stature we are told now what is wisdom philosophy? is it not the recognition of relations? first we have to understand relations of time and space and matter the natural philosophy which made up so much of the wisdom of Solomon then by slow degrees and more and more we learn that moral philosophy which determines our relations of love and justice and duty to each other later perhaps we investigate the profound and puzzling subject of the interrelations of our own most composite being mental philosophy and in all these and beyond all these we apprehend slowly and feebly the highest relation of all the relation to God which we call religion in this science of the relations of things consists what we call wisdom and wisdom is not born in any man apparently not even in the son of man himself wisdom increases intelligence does not he grew in wisdom in the sweet gradual apprehension of all the relations of life but the power of apprehending the strong subtle discerning spirit whose function it is to grasp and understand appropriate and use all the relations which bind all things to all other things this was not given to him by measure nor we may reverently believe is it so given to us differences in men that there are differences in the measure of men in their intellectual and moral stature is evident enough but it is well that we should realize the nature of these differences that there are differences in kind and not in degree and depend upon what we glibly call the laws of heredity which bring it to pass that man in his various aspects shall make up that conceivably perfect whole possible to mankind this is a quite different thing from the notion of a small and feeble measure of heart and intellect in the child to grow by degrees into the robust and noble spiritual development which according to the psychical evolutionist should distinguish the adult human being ignorance is not impotence these are quite practical and simple considerations for everyone entrusted with the bringing up of a child and are not to be set aside as abstract principles the discussion of which should serve little purpose beyond that of sharpening the wits of the school men as a matter of fact we do not realize children we underestimate them in the divine words we despise them with the best intentions in the world because we confound the immaturity of their frames and their absolute ignorance as to the relations of things with spiritual impotence whereas the fact probably is that never as intellectual power so keen the moral sense so strong spiritual perception so piercing as in those days of childhood which we regard with the supercilious if kindly smile all possibilities present in a child a child is a person in whom all possibilities are present present now at this very moment not to be educed after years and efforts manifold on the part of the educator but indeed it is a greater thing to direct and use this wealth of spiritual power than to develop the so-called faculties of the child it cannot be too strongly urged that our education of children would depend no lens volans upon the conception we form of them if we regard them as instruments fit and capable for the carrying out of the divine purpose in the progress of the world we shall endeavor to discern the signs of the times perceive in what directions we are being led and prepare the children to carry forward the work of the world by giving them vitalizing ideas concerning at any rate some departments of that work we live for the advancement of the race having settled it with ourselves that we in the children alike live for the advancement of the race that our work is immediately with them and through them immediately for all and that they are perfectly fitted to receive those ideas which are for the inspiration of life we must next consider in what directions we shall try to set up spiritual activities in the children our wince in the potency of the child our wither in the thought of the day we have sought to establish our wince in the potency of the child we will look for our wither in the living thought of the day which probably indicates the direction in which the race is making progress we find that all men everywhere are keenly interested in science that the world waits and watches for great discoveries we too wait and watch believing that as Coleridge said long ago great ideas of nature are imparted to minds already prepared to receive them by a higher power than nature herself all men are interested in science at a former meeting of the British Association the president lamented that the progress of science was greatly hindered by the fact that we no longer have field naturalists close observers of nature as she is a literary journal made a lamentable remark there upon it is all written in books said this journal so we have no longer any need to go to nature herself now the knowledge of nature we get out of books is not real knowledge the use of books is to help the young student to verify facts he has already seen for himself let us before all things be nature lovers intimate acquaintance with every natural object within his reach is the first and possibly the best part of a child's education for himself all his life long he will be soothed by the breathing bomb the silence and the calm of mute and sensate things children trained to observe and for science he is in a position to do just the work which is most needed he will be a close loving observer of nature at first hand storing facts and free from all impatient greed for inferences a new conception of art great ideas demand great art looking out on the realm of art again we think we discern the signs of the times some of us begin to learn the lesson which a prophet has been raised up to deliver to this or the last generation we begin to understand that mere technique however perfect whether in the rendering of flesh tense or marbles or of a musical composition of extreme difficulty is not necessarily high art it is beginning to dawn upon us that art is great only in proportion to the greatness of the idea that it expresses while what we ask of the execution the technique is that it shall be adequate to the inspiring idea but surely these high themes have nothing to do with the bringing up of children yes they have everything in the first place we shall permit no pseudo art to be in the same house with our children next we shall bring our own facile tastes and opinions to some such searching test as we have indicated knowing that the children imbibe the thoughts that are in us whether we will or no and lastly we shall inspire our children with those great ideas which shall create a demand anyway for great art children should learn to care for books in literature we have definite ends in view both for our own children and for the world through them we wish the children to grow up to find joy and refreshment in the taste the flavor of a book we do not mean by a book any printed matter in a binding but a work possessing certain literary qualities able to bring that sensible delight to the reader which belongs to a literary word fitly spoken it is a sad fact that we are losing our joy in literary form we are in such haste to be instructed by facts or titillated by theories that we have no leisure to linger over the mere pudding of a thought but this is our error for words are mighty both to delight and to inspire if we were not as blind as bats we should long ago have discovered a truth very fully indicated in the Bible that that which is once said with perfect fitness can never be said again and becomes ever there after a living power in the world but in literature as an art we require more than mere form great ideas are brooding over the chaos of our thought and it is he who shall say the thing we are all dumbly thinking who shall be to us as a teacher sent from God children must be nurtured on the best for the children they must grow up upon the best there must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading made easy there is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts well put inspiring tales well told let Blake's song of innocence represent their standard in poetry Defoe and Stevenson and prose and we shall train a race of readers who will demand literature that is the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life perhaps a printed form to the effect that gifts of books to the children will not be welcome in such and such a family would greatly assist in this endeavor the solidarity of the race to instance one more point there is a reaching out in all directions after the conception expressed in the words solidarity of the race we have probably never before felt as now an absolute relation with all men everywhere everything human is precious to us the past belongs to us the present and we linger tenderly over evidences of the personality of men and women who lived ages ago an American poet expresses this feeling with western intensity but he does not exaggerate when he tells us that he is the soldier wounded in battle he is the galley slave and he is the hero come to the rescue that every human pulse is his pulse every fall his fall and every moral victory his triumph the present writer recollects the moment when the conviction of the common sisterhood of women was brought home to her in a way never to be forgotten she was driving from station to station in London and saw a drunken woman carried on a door she knew by the shock of pain and the tears the sight brought that the woman was not outside of her but was in some mysterious way part of her her very self this was a new perception to a girl and one never again to be lost sight of what shocks of recognition probably come to most of us and when they come to the great hearts of the world we get our Elizabeth fries our Wilbur forces our Florence Nightingale deeds of pity have been done through all the Christian ages and indeed wherever the human heart has had free play but to feel pity for another and to be aware however dimly that that other is part and lot indissolubly bound up with ourselves these are two things we've entered to believe that this is the stage which the education of mankind as divinely conducted has reached in our day in other days mended good for the love of God or to save their own souls they acted up rightly because it behooved themselves to be just in all their dealings but the motives which stir us in our relation to each other now are more intimate tender indefinable soul compelling what the issues will be when we have to con understandingly this new page in the book of life we cannot foretell but we may hope that the kingdom of God is coming upon us children should be brought up to live for all men studying reverently these signs of the times what indications do we find for our guidance in the bringing up of children the tender sympathy of the child must be allowed to flow in ways of help and kindness towards all life that anyway touches his I knew a little girl of five came in from her walk under an obvious cloud of distress what is the matter H. she was asked a quick little nothing with the reticence of her family was all that could be got out of her for some minutes but a caress broke her down and in a passion of pity she sobbed out a poor man no home no food no bed to lie upon young as she was the revelation of the common life in humanity had come upon her she was one with the beggar and suffered them children must of course be shielded from intense suffering but woe to mother or nurse who would shield by systematically hardening the child's heart this little girl had the relief of helping and then the pain of sympathy sees to be too much for her children should not hear of imposters whatever our own opinion of the world and of human nature let us be careful how we breathe the word imposter into the year of a child until he is old enough to understand that if the man is an imposter that does not make him the object of a deeper pity and a wiser help a help whose object is not to relieve but to reform to serve is promotion again children are open to vanity as to all other evil dispositions possible to human nature they must be educated to give and to help without any notion that to do so is goodness on their part it is very easy to keep them in the attitude of mind natural to a child that to serve is promotion to the person who serves for indeed he has no absolute claim to be in a position to poor benefits upon another the child's range of sympathy must be widened his love must go out to far and near rich and poor distress abroad and distress at home should appeal to him equally and always he should give some manner of help at real cost to himself when he is old enough the object lessons of the newspapers should be brought before him no considerations of expediency he should know that atrocities in Armenia for instance are the cause of real heart trouble in English homes that there are cases of abstract right and wrong for nations as for individuals which admit of no considerations of expediency that to sucker our neighbor and mortal distress is such an occasion and that he who has fallen among thieves is therefore our neighbor whether as a nation or as an individual to not let us bring up our children in glass houses for fear of the ravages of pity upon their tender hearts let them know of any distress which would naturally come before them and let them ease their own pain by alleviating in some way the sufferings they sorrow for children are not given to us with infinite possibilities of love and pity that we might choke the springs of pity and train them into hardness of heart it is our part on the contrary to prepare these little ministers of grace for the larger and fuller revelation of the kingdom of heaven that is coming upon us Chapter 25 Mr. Ruskin has done a great service to modern thought in interpreting for us the harmonious and ennobling scheme of education and philosophy recorded upon one quarter of what he calls the vaulted book that is, the Spanish chapel attached to the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence Many of my readers have probably studied under Mr. Ruskin's guidance the illuminating teaching of the frescoes which cover roof and walls but all will like to be reminded of the lessons they have pondered with reverence and wonder the descent of the Holy Ghost is on the left hand of the roof as you enter the Madonna and Disciples are gathered in an upper chamber underneath are the Parthians Meads, Elamites, etc who hear them speak in their own tongues Three dogs are in the foreground their mythic purpose to mark the share of the lower animals in the gentleness given by the outpouring of the Spirit of Christ On this and the opposite side of the chapel are represented by Simon Memmi's hand the teaching power of the Spirit of God and the saving power of the Christ of God in the world according to the understanding of Florence in his time We will take the side of intellect first Beneath the pouring forth of the Holy Spirit and the point of the arch beneath are the three evangelical virtues Without these, says Florence you can have no science Without love faith and hope no intelligence Under these are the four cardinal virtues temperance prudence justice, fortitude Under these are the great prophets and apostles Under the line of prophets as powers summoned by their voices are the mythic figures of the seven theological or spiritual and the seven geological or natural sciences and under the feet of each of them the figure of its captain teacher to the world the seven natural sciences I hope the reader will continue to study Mr. Ruskin's exposition of the vaulted book in Mornings in Florence It is wonderfully full of teaching and suggestion Our immediate concern is with the seven mythic figures representing the natural sciences and with the figure of the captain teacher of each First we have grammar a gracious figure teaching three quarantine children and beneath Christian next rhetoric strong, calm and cool and below the figure of Cicero with a quite beautiful face next logic with perfect pose of figure and lovely countenance and beneath her Aristotle intense keenness of search in his half-closed eyes next music with head inclined in intent listening to the sweet and solemn strains she is producing from her antique instrument and underneath tubal cane not jubal as the inventor of harmony perhaps the most marvelous record that art has produced of the impact of a great idea upon the soul of a man but semi-civilized Astronomy succeeds with majestic brow an upraised hand and below her Zoroaster extremely beautiful the delicate Persian head made softer still by the elaborately reed silken hair next geometry looking down considering some practical problem with her carpenter's square in her hand and below her Euclid and lastly arithmetic holding two fingers up in the active calculating and under her Pythagoras wrapped in the science of number the thoughts of God are broader than the measures of man's mind but here we have the breaths of mind so wide in the sweep of their intelligence so profound in their insight that we are almost startled by the perception that pictured on these walls we have indeed a true measure of the thoughts of God let us glance for a moment at the conception of education in our own century education not religious and secular in the first place we divide education into religious and secular the more devout among us insist upon religious education as well as secular many of us are content to do without religious education altogether and are satisfied with what we not only call secular but make secular in the sense in which we understand the word i.e. entirely limited to the uses of this visible world of great recognition many Christian people rise a little higher they conceive that even grammar and arithmetic may in some not very clear way be used for God but the great recognition that God the Holy Spirit is himself personally the importer of knowledge the instructor of youth the inspirer of genius is a conception so far lost to us that we should think it distinctly a reverent to conceive of the divine teaching as cooperating with ours in a child's arithmetic lesson for example but the Florentine mind of the Middle Ages went further than this it believed not only that the seven liberal arts were fully under the direct outpouring of the Holy Ghost but that every fruitful idea every original conception whether in Euclid or Grammar or Music was a direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit without any thought at all as to whether the person so inspired named himself by the name of God or recognized whence his inspiration came all of these seven figures are those of persons whom we should roughly class as pagans and whom we might be lightly inclined to consider as outside the pale of the divine inspiration it is truly difficult to grasp the amazing boldness of this scheme of the education of the world which Florence accepted in simple faith knowledge like virtue divine but we must not accept even an inspiring idea blindly were these people of the Middle Ages right in this plan and conception of theirs Plato hints at some such thought in his contention that knowledge and virtue are fundamentally identical and that if virtue be divine in its origin so must knowledge be also ancient Egypt too was not in the dark in this matter Pharaoh said to his servants can we find such a one as this a man in whom the spirit of God is practical discernment and knowledge of everyday matters and of how to deal with emergencies were not held by this king of Egypt to be teachings unworthy of the spirit of God the spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied among them we are told of Saul and we may believe that this is the history of every great invention and every great discovery of the secrets of nature then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of all that he had by the spirit of the courts of the house of the Lord we have here a suggestion of the source of every conception of beauty to be expressed in forms of art science art and poetry by the spirit but it is not only with high themes of science art and poetry that the divine spirit concerns himself it sometimes occurs to one to wonder who invented in the first place the way of using the most elemental necessaries of life who first discovered the means of producing fire of joining wood of smelting ores of seed of grinding corn ideas of common things we cannot think of ourselves as living without knowing these things and yet each one must have been a great idea when it first made a stir in the mind of the man who conceived it where did he get his first idea happily we are told in a case so typical that it is a key to all the rest doth the plowman plow all day to sow doth he open and break the clods of his ground when he hath made plain the face thereof doth he not cast abroad the fitches and scatter the common and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rye in their place for his god doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him for the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument neither is a cartwheel turned about but the fitches are beaten out with the staff and the common with the rod red corn is bruised because he will not ever be threshing it nor break it with the wheel of his cart nor bruise it with his horseman this also come forth from the lord of hosts which is wonderful and counsel and excellent in working azea 28 24 etc god doth instruct in the things of science in the things of art in the things of practical everyday life his god doth instruct him and doth teach him her god doth instruct her and doth teach her let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl not of her children the divine spirit does not work with the sounds of multitude but with each single child because he is infinite the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable teacher and because he is infinite he is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitude and his pupils we do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our god brings to each of us is divinely taught and what subjects are under the direction of this divine teacher the child's faith and hope and charity that we already knew his temperance, justice, prudence and fortitude that we might have guessed his grammar, rhetoric, logic music, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic this we might have forgotten if these florentine teachers had not reminded us his practical skill in the use of tools and instruments from a knife and fork to a microscope and in the sensible management of all the affairs of life these also come from the lord which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working his god doth instruct him and doth teach him let the mother visualize the thought as an illuminated scroll about her newborn child and let her never contemplate the instruction for her child except under the sense of the divine cooperation but we must remember that here as everywhere the infinite and almighty spirit of god works under limitations our cooperation indispensable our cooperation appears to be the indispensable condition of all the divine workings we recognize this in what we call spiritual things meaning the things that have to do more especially with our approaches to god but the new thing to us is that grammar for example may be taught in such a way as to invite and obtain the cooperation of the divine teacher or in such a way as to exclude his illuminating presence from the school room we do not mean that spiritual virtues may be exhibited by the teacher and encouraged in the child in the course of a grammar lesson this is no doubt true and is to be remembered but perhaps the immediate point is that the teaching of grammar by its guiding ideas and simple principles the true direct and humble teaching of grammar without pedantry and without verbiage is we may venture to believe accompanied by the illuminating power of the holy spirit of whom is all knowledge teaching that invites the divine cooperation the contrary is equally true such teaching as in wraps a child's mind in folds of many words that his thought is unable to penetrate which gives him rules and definitions and tables in lieu of ideas this is teaching which excludes and renders impossible the divine cooperation discord in our lives resolved this great recognition resolves that discord in our lives of which most of us are more or less aware the things of sense we are willing to subordinate to the things of spirit at any rate we are willing to endeavor ourselves in this direction we mourn over our failures and try again and recognize that here lies the Armageddon for every soul of man but there is a debatable land is it not a fact that the spiritual life is exigent demands our soul interest and concentrated energies yet the claims of intellect mind of the aesthetic sense taste press upon us urgently we must think we must know we must rejoice in and create the beautiful and if all the burning thoughts that stir in the minds of men all the beautiful conceptions they give birth to are things apart from God then we too must have a separate life a life apart from God a division of ourselves into secular and religious discord and unrest we believe that this is the fertile source of the unfaith of the day especially in young and ardent minds the claims of intellect are urgent the intellectual life is a necessity not to be foregone at any hazard it is impossible for these to recognize in themselves a dual nature a dual spirituality so to speak and if there are claims which definitely oppose themselves to the claims of intellect those other claims must go to the wall and the young man or woman full of promise and power becomes a free thinker an agnostic what you will but once the intimate relation the relation of teacher and taught in all things of the mind and spirit be fully recognized our feet are set in a large room there is space for free development in all directions and this free and joyous development whether of intellect or heart is recognized as a godward movement we are safeguarded from intellectual as from moral sin various activities with unity of aim bring harmony and peace into our lives more this perception of the intimate dealings of the divine spirit with our spirit in the things of the intellect as well as in those of the moral nature makes us as keenly alive in the one case as in the other to the insidious promptings of the spirit of evil we become aware of the possibility of intellectual sin as of moral sin we perceive that in the region of pure reason also that behooves us to see that we enter not into temptation we rejoice in the expansion of intellect and the expansion of heart and the ease and freedom of him who is always in touch with the inspiring teacher with whom our infinite stores of learning wisdom and virtue graciously placed at our disposal harmony in our efforts such a recognition of the work of the Holy Spirit as the educator of mankind in things intellectual as well as in things moral and spiritual gives us new thoughts of God new hopes of heaven a sense of harmony in our efforts and of acceptance of all that we are what stands between us and the realization of this more blessed life this that we do not realize ourselves as spiritual beings invested with bodies living emotional a snare to us and a joy to us but which are after all the mere organs and interpreters of our spiritual intention once we see that we are dealing spirit with spirit with the friend at whose side we are sitting with the people who attend to our needs we shall be able to realize how incessant is the commerce between the divine spirit and our human spirit it will be to us as when one stops one's talk and one's thoughts in the spring time to find the world full of bird music unheard the instant before in like manner we shall learn to make pause in our thoughts and shall hear in our intellectual perplexities as well as in our moral the clear sweet cheering and inspiring tones of our spiritual guide we are not speaking here of what is commonly called the religious life or of our definite approaches to God in prayer and praise these things all Christian people comprehend more or less fully we are speaking only of the intellectual life the development of which in children is the aim of our subjects and methods of instruction conditions of divine cooperation supposing we are willing to engage ourselves to accept and invite the daily hourly incessant cooperation of the divine spirit in to put it definitely and plainly the schoolroom work of our children how must we shape our own conduct to make this cooperation active or even possible we are told that the spirit is life therefore that which is dead dry as dust can have no affinity with him can do no other than smother and dead in his vitalizing influences a first condition of this vitalizing teaching is that all the thought we offer to our children shall be living thought no mere dry summaries of facts will do given the vitalizing idea children will readily hang the mere facts upon the idea as upon a peg capable of sustaining all that it is needful to retain we begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers intellectual moral spiritual capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the divine spirit teaching must be fresh and living with this thought of a child to begin with we shall perceive that whatever is stale and flat and dull to us must needs be stale and flat and dull to him and also that there is no subject which has not a fresh and living way of approach are we teaching geography the child discovers with the explorer journeys with the traveler receives impressions new and vivid from some other mind which is immediately receiving these impressions not after they have been made stale and dull by a process of filtering through many intermediate minds and have found at last their way into a little textbook is he learning history his concern is not with strings of names and of dates nor with nice little reading made easy stories brought down as we mistakenly say to the level of his comprehension we recognize that his power of comprehension is at least equal to our own and that it is only his ignorance of the attendant instances we have to deal with as luminously as we can books must be living we recognize that history for him is to live in the lives of those strong personalities which at any given time impress themselves most upon their age and country this is not the sort of thing to be got out of nice little history books for children whether little Arthur's or somebody's outlines we take the child to the living sources of history a child of seven is fully able to comprehend Plutarch in Plutarch's own words translated without any deluding and with little explanation give him living thought in this kind and you make possible the cooperation of the living teacher the child's progress is by leaps and bounds and you wonder why in teaching music again let him once perceive the beautiful laws of harmony the personality so to speak of music looking out upon him from among the queer little black notes and the piano lesson has ceased to be drudgery no neat system is of use it is unnecessary to go further into details every subject has its living way with what Coleridge calls its guiding idea at the head and it is only as we discover this living way in each case that a subject of instruction makes for the education of a child no neat system is of any use it is the very nature of a system to grow stale in the using every subject every division of a subject every lesson in fact must be brought up for examination before it is offered to the child as to whether it is living vital living intellect of the universe children must have the best books one more thing is of vital importance children must have books living books the best are not too good for them anything less than the best is not good enough and if it is needful to exercise economy let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books and the frequent changes of books which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child's intellectual life we need not say one word about the necessity for living thought in the teacher it is only so far as he is intellectually alive that he can be effective in the wonderful process which we glibly call education end of chapter 25