 Preface to the third edition 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 Brooke Favorite, www.alongsidemom.com. The Home Education Series, Volume 2, Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason. Preface to the third edition. Our conduct is the outcome of our principles, even if these be only such as, it does not matter, what's the good. Every office implies the observance of certain fundamental principles in its discharge. These two considerations lead me to think that a careful examination of the principles which naturally and necessarily underlie the office of parents may be of some little use to those who take their great work seriously. Believing that the individuality of parents is a great possession for their children and knowing that when an idea possesses the mind, ways of applying it suggest themselves, I have tried not to wait these pages with many directions, practical suggestions and other such crutches, likely to interfere with the free relations of parent and child. Our greatness as a nation depends upon how far parents take liberal and enlightened views of their high office and of the means to discharge it which are placed in their hands. The following essays have appeared in the parents' review and were addressed from time to time to a body of parents who are making a practical study of the principles of education, the Parents' National Education Union. The Parents' Union exists to advance with more or less method and with more or less steadfastness a definite school of educational thought of which the two main principles are the recognition of the physical basis of habit i.e. of the material side of education and of the inspiring and formative power of ideas i.e. of the immaterial or spiritual side of education. These two guiding principles covering as they do the whole field of human nature should enable us to deal rationally with all the complex problems of education and the object of the following essays is not to give an exhaustive application of these principles. The British Museum itself would hardly contain all the volumes needful for such an undertaking but to give an example or a suggestion here and there as to how such and such a habit may be formed, such and such a formative idea be implanted and fostered. The intention of the volume will account to the reader for the iteration of the same principles in various connections. The author ventures to hope that the following hints and suggestions will not prove the less practically useful to busy parents because they rest on profound educational principles and also that they may prove in some degree suggestive and inspiring to teachers. CHAPTER 1 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. This is a LibriVox recording by Brooke favorite www.alongsidemom.com The Home Education Series Volume 2 Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Chapter 1. THE FAMILY The family is the unit of the nation. F. D. Maurice Rousseau succeeded in awakening parents. It is probable that no other educational thinker succeeded in affecting parents so profoundly as did Rousseau. A meal is little red now, but how many current theories of the regimen proper for children have there their unsuspected source? Everybody knows, and his contemporaries knew it better than we, that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had not enough sterling character to warrant him to pose as an authority on any subject, least of all on that of education. He sets himself down a poor thing and we see no cause to reject the evidence of his confessions. We are not carried away by the charm of his style. His forcible feebleness does not dazzle us. No man can say beyond that which he is, and there is a want of grit in his philosophic theories that removes most of them from the category of available thought. But Rousseau had the insight to perceive one of those patent truths which somehow it takes a genius to discover. And because truth is indeed prized above rubies, the perception of that truth gave him rank as a great teacher. Is Jean-Jacques also among the prophets? People asked and ask still. And that he had thousands of fervent disciples amongst the educated parents of Europe, together with the fact that his teaching has filtered into many a secluded home of our own day, is answer enough. Unfortunately no other educationalist has had a tithe of the influence exercised by Rousseau. Under the spell of his teaching, people in the fashionable world, like that Russian princess Galatzin, foresook society and went off with their children to some quiet corner where they could devote every hour of the day and every power they had to the fulfilment of the duties which devolve upon parents. Unfortunately mothers retired from the world, sometimes even left their husbands, to work hard at the classics, mathematics, sciences that they might with their own lips instruct their children. What else am I for, they asked, and the feelings spread that the bringing up of their children was the one work of primary importance for men and women. Whatever extravagance he had seen fit to advance, Rousseau would still have found a following, because he had chanced to touch a spring that opened many hearts. He was one of the few educationalists who made his appeal to the parental instincts. He did not say, we have no hope of the parents, let us work for the children. Such are the faint-hearted and pessimistic things we say today. What he said was, in effect, fathers and mothers, this is your work and you only can do it. Rest with you, parents of young children, to be the saviours of society unto a thousand generations. Nothing else matters, the avocations about which people weary themselves are as foolish child's play compared with this one serious business of bringing up our children in advance of ourselves. People listened, as we have seen. The response to his teaching was such a letting out of the waters of parental enthusiasm as has never been known before nor since. And Rousseau, weak and little worthy, was a preacher of righteousness in this, that he turned the hearts of the fathers to the children and so far made ready a people prepared for the Lord. But alas, having secured the foundation, he had little better than wood, hay, and stubble to offer to the builders. Rousseau succeeded as he deserved to succeed, in awakening many parents to the binding character, the vast range, the profound seriousness of parental obligations. He failed and deserved to fail, as he offered his own crude conceits by way of an educational code. But his success is very cheering. He perceived that God placed the training of every child in the hands of two, a father and a mother. And the response to his teaching proved that, as the waters answer to the drawing of the moon, so do the hearts of parents rise to the idea of the great work committed to them. Though it is true, no doubt, that every parent is conscious of unwritten laws, more or less definite and noble according to his own status, yet an attempt, however slight, to codify these laws may be interesting to parents. The Family a Commune The family is the unit of the nation. This pregnant saying suggests some aspects of the parent's calling. From time to time, in all ages of the world, communistic societies have arisen, sometimes for the sake of co-operation in a great work, social or religious, more recently by way of protest against inequalities of condition. But in every case the fundamental rule of such societies is that the members shall have all things in common. We are apt to think, in our careless way, that such attempts at communistic association are for doomed to failure. But that is not the case. In the United States, perhaps because hired labor is less easy to obtain than it is with us, they appear to have found a congenial soil and their many well-regulated communistic bodies flourish. There are failures too, many and disastrous, and it appears that these may usually be traced to one cause, a government enfeebled by the attempt to combine democratic and communistic principles. That is, to dwell together in a common life while each does what is right in his own eyes. A communistic body can thrive only under a vigorous and absolute rule. A favorite dream of socialism is, or was until the idea of collectivism obtained, that each state of Europe should be divided into an infinite number of small, self-contained communes. Now it sometimes happens that the thing we desire is already realized had we eyes to see. The family is practically a commune. In the family the undivided property is enjoyed by all the members in common, and in the family there is equality of social condition with diversity of duties. In lands where patriarchal practices still obtain, the family merges into the tribe, and the head of the family is the chief of the tribe, a very absolute sovereign indeed. In our own country families are usually small, parents and their immediate offspring, with the attendance and belongings which naturally gather to a household, and let it not be forgotten, form part of the family. The smallness of the family tends to obscure its character, and we see no force in the phrase at the head of this chapter. We do not perceive that if the unit of the nation is the natural commune, the family, then is the family pledged to carry on within itself all the functions of the state with the delicacy, precision, and fullness of detail proper to work done on a small scale. The family must be social. It by no means follows from this communistic view of the family that the domestic policy should be a policy of isolation. On the contrary it is not too much to say that a nation is civilized in proportion as it is able to establish close and friendly relations with other nations, and that not with one or two but with many, and conversely that a nation is barbarous in proportion to its isolation and does not a family decline in intelligence and virtue when from generation to generation it keeps itself to itself. The family must serve neighbors. Again it is probable that a nation is healthy in proportion as it has its own proper outlets, its colonies and dependencies which it is ever solicitous to include in the national life. So of the nation in miniature, the family, the struggling families at the back, the orphanage, the mission, the necessitous of our acquaintance, are they not for the sustenance of the family in the higher life? The family must serve the nation. But it is not enough that the family commune maintain neighborly relations with other such communes and towards the stranger within the gates. The family is the unit of the nation and the nation is an organic whole, a living body built up, like the natural body, of an infinite number of living organisms. It is only as it contributes its quota towards the national life that the life of the family is complete. Public interests must be shared, public work taken up, the public welfare cherished, in a word its integrity with the nation must be preserved, or the family ceases to be part of a living whole and becomes positively injurious as decayed tissue in the animal organism. The divine order for the family as regards other nations. Nor are the interests of the family limited to those of the nation. As it is the part of the nation to maintain wider relations, to be in touch with all the world, to be ever in advance in the great march of human progress, so is this the attitude which is incumbent on each unit of the nation, each family, as an integral part of the whole. Here is the simple and natural realization of the noble dream of fraternity. Each individual attached to a family by ties of love where not of blood, the families united in a federal bond to form the nation, the nations confederate in love and emulous in virtue, and all nations and their families playing their several parts as little children about the feet and under the smile of the Almighty Father. Here is the divine order which every family is called upon to fulfill. A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump, and therefore it matters infinitely that every family should realize the nature and the obligations of the family bond. For as water cannot rise above its source, neither can we live at a higher level than that of the conception we form of our place and use in life. The family should, a. learn languages, b. show courtesy abroad. Let us ask the question, has this of regarding all education and all civil and social relations from the standpoint of the family any practical outcome? So much so that perhaps there is hardly a problem of life for which it does not contain the solution. For example, what shall we teach our children? Is there one subject that claims our attention more than another? Yes, there is a subject or a class of subjects which has an imperative moral claim upon us. It is the duty of the nation to maintain relations of brotherly kindness with other nations. Therefore it is the duty of every family as an integral part of the nation to be able to hold brotherly speech with the families of other nations as opportunities arise. Therefore to acquire the speech of neighboring nations is not only to secure an inlet of knowledge and a means of culture, but is a duty of that higher morality, the morality of the family, which aims at universal brotherhood. Therefore every family would do well to cultivate two languages besides the mother tongue even in the nursery. Again, a fair young English woman was staying with her mother at a German courthouse. They were the only English people present and probably forgot that the Germans are better linguists than we. The young lady sat through the long meals with her book, hardly interrupting her reading to eat and addressing no more than one or two remarks to her mother as, I wonder what that mess is or how much longer shall we have to sit with these tiresome people? Had she remembered that no family can live to itself, that she and her mother, represented England, were England for that little German community, she would have imitated the courteous greetings which the German ladies bestowed on their neighbors. The Restoration of the Family But we must leave further consideration of this great subject and conclude with a striking passage from Mr. Morley's Appreciation of a Meal. Education slowly came to be thought of in connection with the family. The improvement of ideas upon education was only one phase of the great general movement towards the restoration of the family, which was so striking a spectacle in France after the middle of the century. Education now came to comprehend the whole system of the relations between parents and their children, from earliest infancy to maturity. The direction of such wider feeling about those relations tended strongly towards an increased closeness in them, more intimacy, and a more continuous suffusion of tenderness and long attachment. His labours in this great cause, the Restoration of the Family, give Rousseau a claim upon the gratitude and respect of mankind. It has proved a lasting, solid work. To this day, family relations in France are more gracious, more tender, more close and more inclusive than they are with us. They are more expensive too, leading to generally benign and friendly behaviour, and so strong and satisfying is the family bond that the young people find little necessity to fall in love. The mother lays herself out for the friendship of her young daughters, who respond with entire loyalty and devotion. And, Zola notwithstanding, French maidens are wonderfully pure, simple and sweet, because their affections are abundantly satisfied. Possibly the Restoration of the Family is a labour that invites us here in England, each within the radius of our own hearth, for there is little doubt that the family bond is more lax amongst us than it was two or three generations ago. Perhaps nowhere is family life of more idyllic loveliness than where we see it at its best in English homes. But the wise ever find some new thing to learn, though a nation, as an individual, must act on the lines of its own character, and we are, on the whole, well content with our English homes, yet we might learn something from the inclusiveness of the French family, where mother-in-law and father-in-law, aunt and cousins, widow and spinster, are cherished, and a hundred small offices devised for dependents who would be in the way in an English home. The result is that the children have a wider range for the practice of the thousand sweet attentions and self-restraints which make home life lovely. No doubt the metal has its obverse. There is probably much in French home life which we should shrink from. Nevertheless it offers object lessons which we should do well to study. Again, where family life is most beauteous with us, is not the family a little apt to become self-centered and self-sufficient, rather than to cultivate that expansiveness towards other families which is part of the family code of our neighbors. Chapter 2 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 2 Parents as Rulers The Family Government An Absolute Monarchy Let us continue our consideration of the family as the nation in miniature with the responsibilities, the rights and the requirements of the nation. The parents represent the government but here the government is ever an absolute monarchy conditioned very loosely by the law of the land but very closely by that law more or less of which every parent bears engraved on his conscience. Some attain the levels of high thinking and come down from the mount with beaming countenance and the tables of the law intact. Others fail to reach the difficult heights and are contend with such fragments of the broken tables as they pick up below but be his knowledge of the law little or much no parent escapes the call to rule. The rule of parents cannot be deputed. Now the first thing we ask for in a ruler is is he able to rule? Does he know how to maintain his authority? A ruler who fails to govern is like an unjust judge an impious priest an ignorant teacher that is he fails in the essential attribute of his office. This is even more true in the family than in the state. The king may rule by deputy but here we see the exigent nature of the parent's functions. He can have no deputy. Helpers he may have but the moment he makes over his functions and authority to another the rights of parenthood belong to that other and not to him. Who does not know of the heart-burnings that arise when Anglo-Indian parents come home to find their children's affections given to others their duty owing to others and they, the parents sources of pleasure like the godmother of the fairytale but having no authority over their children and all this nobody's fault for the guardians at home have done their best to keep the children loyal to the parents abroad causes which lead to the abdication of parents here is indicated a rock upon which the heads of families sometimes make shipwreck they regard parental authority as inherent in them a property which may lie dormant but is not to be separated from the state of parenthood they may allow their children from infancy upwards to do what is right in their own eyes and then Lear turns and makes his plaint to the winds and cries sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child but Lear has been all the time divesting himself of the honor and authority that belong to him and giving his rights to his children here he tells us why the biting anguish is the thankless child he has been laying himself out for the thanks of his children that they should think him a fond father has been more to him than the duty he owes them and in proportion as he omits his duty are they oblivious to theirs possibly the unregulated love of approbation in devoted parents has more share in the undoing of families than any other single cause a writer of today represents a mother as saying, but you are not afraid of me Bessie no indeed who could be afraid of a dear, sweet, soft little mother like you and such praise is sweet in the ears of many a fond mother hungering for the love and liking of her children and not perceiving that words like these in the mouth of a child are as treasonable as words of defiance authority is laid down at other shrines than that of popularity Prospero describes himself as all-dedicate to study and the bettering of my mind and meantime the exercise of authority devolves upon Antonio is it any wonder that the habit of authority fits the usurper like a glove and that Prospero finds himself ousted from the office he failed to fill even so the busy parent occupied with many cares awakes to find the authority he has failed to wield has dropped out of his hands perhaps has been picked up by others less fit and a daughter is given over to the charge of a neighbouring family while father and mother hunt for rare prince in other cases the love of an easy life tempts parents to let things take their course the children are good children and won't go far wrong we are told and very likely it is true but however good the children be the parents owe it to society to make them better than they are and to bless the world with people not merely good-natured and well-disposed but good of set purpose and endeavor the love of ease the love of favour the claims of other work are only some of the causes which lead to a result disastrous to society the abdication of parents when we come to consider the nature and uses of the parents authority we shall see that such abdication is as immoral as it is mischievous meantime it is well worth while to notice that the causes which lead parents to resign the position of domestic rulers are resolvable into one the office is too troublesome too laborious the temptation which assails parents is the same which has led many a crowned head seek ease in the cloister uneasy lies the head that wears a crown even if it be the natural crown of parenthood the majesty of parenthood the apostolic council of diligence and ruling throws light upon the nature and aim of authority it is no longer a matter of personal honor and dignity authority is for use and service and the honor that goes with it is only for the better service of those under authority the arbitrary parent the exacting parent who claims this and that of deference and duty because he is a parent all for his own honor and glory is more hopelessly in the wrong than the parent who practically abdicates the majesty of parenthood is hedged round with observances only because it is good for the children to faithfully serve, honor and humbly obey their natural rulers only at home can children be trained in the chivalrous temper of proud submission and dignified obedience and if the parents do not inspire and foster deference, reverence and loyalty how shall these crowning graces of character thrive in a hard and endless world it is perhaps a little difficult to maintain an attitude of authority in these democratic days when even educationists counsel the children be treated on equal terms from the very beginning but the children themselves come to our aid the sweet humility and dependence natural to them fosters the gentle dignity, the soup-saint of reserve which is becoming in parents it is not open to parents either to lay aside or to sink under the burden of the honor laid upon them and no doubt we have all seen the fullest, freest flow of confidence, sympathy and love between parent and child where the mother sits as a queen among her children and the father is honored as a crowned head the fact that there are two parents each to lend honor to the other yet free from restraint in each other's presence makes it the easier to maintain the impalpable state of parenthood and the presence of the slight, sweet, undefined feeling of dignity in the household is the very first condition for the bringing up of loyal, honorable men and women capable of reverence and apt to win respect children are a public trust and a divine trust the foundation of parental authority lies in the fact that parents hold office as deputies and that in a twofold sense in the first place they are the immediate and personally appointed deputies of the almighty king the sole ruler of men they have not only to fulfill his counsels regarding the children but to represent his person his parents are as God to the little child and yet more constraining thought God is to him what his parents are he has no power to conceive a greater and lovelier personality than that of the royal heads of his own home he makes his first approach to the infinite through them they are his measure for the highest if the measure be easily within his small compass how shall he grow up with the reverent temper which is the condition of spiritual growth more parents hold their children in trust for society my own child can only be true in a limited sense the children are held as a public trust to be trained as his best for the welfare of the community and in this sense also the parents are persons in authority with the dignity of their office to support and are even liable to deposition the one state whose name has passed into a proverb standing for a group of virtues which we have no other word to describe is a state which practically deprived parents of the functions which they failed to fulfill to the furtherance of public virtue no doubt the state reserves to itself virtually the power to bring up its own children in its own way with the least possible cooperation of parents even today a neighboring nation has elected to charge itself with the training of its infants so soon as they can crawl or sooner before ever they run or speak they are to be brought to the maternal school and carefully nurtured as with mother's milk in the virtues proper for a citizen the scheme is as yet but in the experimental stage but will doubtless be carried through because the nation in question has long ago discovered and acted consistently upon the discovery that what you would have the man become that you must train the child to be perhaps such public deposition of parents is the last calamity that can befall a nation these poor little ones are to grow up in a world where the name of God is not to be named to grow up too without the training and filial duty and brotherly love and neighborly kindness which falls to the children of all but the few unnatural parents they may be returned to their parents at certain hours or after certain years but once alienation has been set up once the strongest and sweetest tie has been loosened and the parents have been publicly delivered from their duty the desecration of the home is complete and we shall have the spectacle of a people growing up orphaned almost from their birth this is a new thing in the world's history for even Lycurgus left the children to the parents for the first half dozen years of life certain newspapers commend the example for our imitation but God forbid that we should ever lose faith in the blessedness of family life parents who hold their children as at the same time a public trust and a divine trust and who recognize the authority they hold as deputed authority not to be trifled with laid aside or abused such parents preserve for the nation the immunities of home and safeguard the privileges of their order the limitations and scope of parental authority having seen that it does not rest with the parents to use or to forgo the use of the authority they hold let us examine the limitations and the scope of this authority in the first place it is to be maintained and exercised solely for the advantage of the children whether in mind body or a state and here is room for the nice discrimination the delicate intuitions with which parents are blessed the mother who makes her growing up daughter take the out-of-door exercise she needs is acting within her powers the father of quiet habits who discourages society for his young people is considering his own tastes and not their needs and is making unlawful use of his authority again the authority of parents though the deference it begets remains to grace the relations of parents and child is itself a provisional function and is only successful as it encourages the autonomy if we may call it so of the child a single decision made by the parents which the child is or should be capable of making for itself is an encroachment on the rights of the child and a transgression on the part of the parents once more the authority of parents rests on a secure foundation only as they keep well before the children that it is deputed authority the child who knows that he is being brought up for the service of the nation that his parents are acting under a divine commission will not turn out a rebellious son further though the emancipation of the children is gradual they acquiring day by day more of the art and science of self-government yet there comes a day when the parents right to rule is over there is nothing left for them but to abdicate gracefully and leave their grown-up sons and daughters free agents even though these still live at home and although in the eyes of their parents they are not fit to be trusted with the ordering of themselves if they fail in such self-ordering whether as regards time, occupations, money, friends most likely their parents are to blame for not having introduced them by degrees to the full liberty which is their right as men and women anyway it is too late now to keep them in training fit or unfit they must hold the rudder for themselves as for the employment of authority the highest art lies in ruling without seeming to do so the law is a terror to evil doers but for the praise of them that do well and in the family as in the state the best government is that in which peace and happiness truth and justice, religion and piety are maintained without the intervention of the law happy is the household that has few rules and where mother does not like this and father wishes that are all constraining End of Chapter 2 Recording by The Story Girl Chapter 3 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 Brooke Favorite www.alongsidemom.com The Home Education Series Volume 2 Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Chapter 3 Parents as Inspirers Children must be born again into the life of intelligence Parents owe a second birth to their children Miser Adolf Manot claims that the child must owe to his mother a second birth the first into the natural the second into the spiritual life of the intelligence and moral sense Had he not been writing of women and for women no doubt he would have affirmed that the long travail of this second birth must be undergone equally by both parents Do we ask how he arrives at this rather startling theory? He observes that great men have great mothers mothers that is, blessed with an infinite capacity of taking pains with their work of bringing up children He likens this labor to a second bearing which launches the child into a higher life and as this higher life is a more blessed life he contends that every child has a right to this birth into a completeer being at the hands of his parents Did his conclusions rest solely upon the deductive methods he pursues we might afford to let them pass and trouble ourselves very little about this second birth which parents may and off times do withhold from their natural offspring We too could bring forward our contrary instances of good parents with bad sons and indifferent parents with earnest children and pat to our lips would come the quibono which absolves us from endeavor Science supports this contention Be a good mother to your son because great men have had good mothers is inspiring, stimulating but is not to be received as a final word For an appeal of irresistible urgency we look to natural science with her inductive methods though we are still waiting her last word what she has already said is law and gospel for the believing parent The parable of Pandora's box is true today and a woman may in her heedlessness let fly upon her offspring a thousand ills but is there not also a glass of blessings standing by into which parents may dip and bring forth for their children health and vigor justice and mercy, truth and beauty Surely it may be objected every good and perfect gift comes from God above and the human parent sins presumptuously who thinks to bestow gifts divine Now this lingering superstition has no part nor lot with true religion but on the contrary brings upon it the scandal of many an ill-ordered home and ill-regulated family when we perceive that God uses men and women parents above all others as vehicles for the transmission of his gifts and that it is in the keeping of his law he is honoured rather than in the attitude of the courtier waiting for exceptional favours then we shall take the trouble to comprehend the law written not only upon tables of stone and rolls of parchment but upon the fleshly tablets of the living organisms of the children and understanding the law we shall see with thanksgiving and enlargement of heart in what natural ways God does indeed show mercy unto thousands of them who love him and keep his commandments but his commandment is exceeding broad becomes broader year by year with every revelation of science and we had need gird up the loins of our mind to keep pace with this current revelation we shall be at pains too to keep ourselves in that attitude of expectant attention wherein we shall be enabled to perceive the unity and continuity of this revelation with that of the written word of God for perhaps it is only as we are able to receive the two and harmonize the two in a willing and obedient heart that we shall enter on the heritage of glad and holy living which is the will of God for us processes and methods of this second birth let us for example consider in the light of current scientific thought the processes and the methods of this second birth which the child claims at the hands of his parents train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it is not only a pledge but is a statement of a result arrived at by deductive processes the writer had great opportunities for collecting data he had watched many children grow up and his experience taught him to divide them into two classes the well brought up who turned out well and the ill brought up who turned out ill no doubt then as now there were startling exceptions and the exception proves the rule but here is elsewhere the promises and threatenings of the bible will bear the searching light of inductive methods we may ask why should this be so and not content ourselves with the general answer that this is natural and right we may search until we discover that this result is inevitable and no other result conceivable except for alien influences and our obedience will be an exact proportion to our perception of the inevitableness of the law Dr. Maudsley on heredity the vast sum of what we understand by heredity is not to be taken into account in the consideration of this second birth by the first natural birth it is that his father and mother his grandfather and grandmother are latent or declare themselves in the child and it is on the lines thus laid down in his nature that his development will proceed it is not by virtue of education so much as by virtue of inheritance that he is brave or timid generous or selfish prudent or reckless boastful or modest quick or placid in temper the ground tone of his character is original in him and it colours all the subsequently formed emotions and their sympathetic ideas the influence of systematic culture upon anyone is no doubt great but that which determines the limit and even in some degree the nature of the effects of culture that which forms the foundations upon which all the modifications of art must rest is the inherited nature end quote disposition and character if heredity means so much if as would seem at the first glance the child comes into the world with his character ready made what remains for the parents to do but to enable him to work out his own salvation without let or hindrance of their making upon the lines of his individuality the strong naturalism shall we call it of our day inclines us to take this view of the objects and limitations of education and without doubt it is a gospel it is the truth but it is not the whole truth the child brings with him into the world not character but disposition he has tendencies which may need only to be strengthened or again to be diverted or even repressed his character the efflorescence of the man wherein the fruit of his life is a preparing is original disposition modified directed expanded by education by circumstances later by self control and self culture above all by the supreme agency of the Holy Ghost even where that agency is little suspected and as little solicited how is this great work of character making the single effectual labor possible to human beings to be carried on we shall rest our inquiries on a physiological basis the lowest doubtless but therefore the foundation of the rest the first floor chambers of the psychologist are pleasant places but who would begin to build with the first floor what would he rear it upon surely the arbitrary distinction between the grey matter of the brain and the mind which plays upon it even as the song upon the vocal chords of the singer is more truly materialistic than is the recognition of the pregnant truth that the brain is the mere organ of the spiritual part registering and affecting every movement of thought and feeling whether conscious or unconscious by appreciable molecular movement and sustaining the infinite activities of mind by corresponding enormous activity and enormous waste that it is the organ of mind which under present conditions is absolutely inseparable from and indispensable to the quickening spirit once we recognize that in the thinking of a thought there is as distinct motion set up in some tract of the brain as there is in the muscles of the hand employed in writing a sentence we shall see that the behavior of the grey nerve substance of the cerebrum should afford the one possible key to certitude and system in our attempts at education using the word in the most worthy sense as its concern is the formation of character having heard Dr. Maudsley on the subject of heredity let us hear him again on this other subject which practically enables us to define the possibilities of education Dr. Maudsley on the structural effects of particular life experiences quote that which has existed with any completeness in consciousness leaves behind it after its disappearance there from in the mind or brain a functional disposition to its reproduction or reappearance in consciousness at some future time of no mental act can we say that it is writ in water something remains from it whereby its recurrence is facilitated every impressor of sense upon the brain every current of molecular activity from one to another part of the brain every cerebral action which passes into muscular movement leaves behind it some modification of the nerve elements concerned in its function some after effect or so to speak memory of itself in them which renders its reproduction an easier matter the more easy the more often it has been repeated and makes it impossible to say that however trivial it shall not under some circumstances recur let the excitation take place in one of two nerve cells lying side by side and between which there was not any original specific difference there will be ever afterward a difference between them this physiological process whatever be its nature is the physical basis of memory and it is the foundation of the development of all our mental functions that modification which persists or is retained in structure after functions or has been differently described as a residuum or relic or trace or disposition or vestige or again as potential latent or dormant idea not only definite ideas but all affections of the nervous system feelings of pleasure and pain desire and even its outward reactions thus leave behind them their structural effects and lay the foundation of modes of thought feeling and action particular talents are sometimes formed quite or almost quite involuntarily and complex actions which were first consciously performed by dint of great application become automatic by repetition ideas which were at first consciously associated ultimately coalesce and call one another up without any consciousness as we see in the quick perception or intuition of the man of large worldly experience and feelings once active leave behind them their large unconscious residual thus affecting the generation of the character so that apart from the original or inborn nature of the individual contentment melancholy cowardice bravery and even moral feeling are generated as the results of particular life experiences end quote our age has acquired a great educational charter here we have sketched out a magnificent educational charter it is as well perhaps that we do not realize the extent of our liberties if we did it may be such a fervor of educational enthusiasm would seize us that we should behave as did those early Christians who every day expected the coming of the Lord how should a man have patience to buy and sell and get gain had it been revealed to him that he was able to paint the greatest picture ever painted and we with the enthralling vision of what our little child might become under our hands how should we have patience for common toils that science should have revealed the rationale of education in our day is possibly the divine recognition that we have become more fit for the task because we have come to an increasing sense of moral responsibility what would it be for an immoral people to discern fully the possibilities of education but how slow we are how custom lies upon us with a weight heavy as frost and deep almost as life a generation has passed away since these words of Dr. Maudsley and many of like force by other physiologists were published to the world we have purposely chosen words that have stood the test of time for today a hundred imminent scientific men at home and abroad are proclaiming the same truths and we we go on after our use and want as if nothing had been said dropping hour by hour out of careless hands seeds of corn and hemlock of bramble and rose let us run over the charter of our liberties as Dr. Maudsley has summed them up in the passage quoted above some articles of this charter we may lay the physical basis of memory while the wide-eyed babe stretches his little person with aimless kickings on his rug he is receiving unconsciously those first impressions which form his earliest memories and we can order those memories for him we can see that the earliest sights he sees are sights of order, neatness, beauty that the sounds his ear drinks in are musical and soft, tender and joyous that the baby's nostrils sniff only delicate purity and sweetness these memories remain through life, engraved on the unthinking brain as we shall see later, memories have a certain power of accretion where there are some, others of alike kind gather and all the life is ordered on the lines of these first pure and tender memories we may lay the foundation of the development of all the mental functions are there children who do not wonder or revere or care for fairy tales or think wise child thoughts? perhaps there are not but if there are, it is because the fertilizing pollen grain has never been conveyed to the ovule waiting for it in the child's soul these are some of the things that, according to the citations we have given from Dr. Maudsley's Physiology of Mind his parents may settle for the future man even in his early childhood his definite ideas upon particular subjects as, for example, his relations with other people his habits of neatness or disorder of punctuality of moderation his general modes of thought as affected by altruism or egoism his consequent modes of feeling and action his objects of thought the small affairs of daily life the natural world the operations or the productions of the human mind the ways of God with men his distinguishing talent music, eloquence, invention his disposition or tone of character as it shows itself in and affects his family and other close relations in life reserved or frank, morose or genial melancholy or cheerful cowardly or brave End of Chapter 3 Recording by Brooke Favorite www.alongsidebomb.com Chapter 4 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 Brooke Favorite www.alongsidebomb.com The Home Education Series Volume 2 Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Chapter 4 Parents as Inspirers The life of the mind grows upon ideas So an act, reap a habit So a habit, reap a character So a character, reap a destiny Summary of the preceding chapter The last chapter closed with an imperfect summary of what we may call the educational functions of parents We found that it rests with the parents of the child to settle for the future man, his ways of thinking behaving, feeling, acting his disposition, his particular talent the manner of things upon which his thoughts shall run Who shall fix limitations to the power of parents? The destiny of the child is ruled by his parents because they have the virgin soil all to themselves The first sowing must be at their hands or at the hands of such as they choose to depute Educational Conceptions of the Past What do parents sow? Ideas We cannot too soon recognize what is the soul educational seed in our hands, or how this seed is to be distributed But how radically wrong is all our thought upon education We cannot use the fit words because we do not think the right thing We have perhaps got over the educational misconception of the tabula rasa No one now looks on the child's white soul as a tablet prepared for the exercise of the educator's supreme art But the conception which has succeeded this time-honored heresy rests on the same false basis of the august office and the infallible wisdom of the educator Here it is in its cruder form Pestilazzi's Theory Pestilazzi aimed more at harmoniously developing the faculties than at making use of them for the acquirement of knowledge He sought to prepare the vase rather than to fill it Frobel's Theory In the hands of Frobel, the figure gains in boldness and beauty It is no longer a mere vase to be shaped under the potter's fingers but a flower, say a perfect rose, to be delicately and consciously and methodically molded, petal by petal, curve and curl for the perfume and living glory of the flower Why, these will come, do you your part and mold the several petals, wait too upon sunshine and shower Give space and place for your blossom to expand And so we go to work with a touch to imagination here and to judgment there, now to the perceptive faculties, now to the conceptive In this aiming at the moral and in this at the intellectual nature of the child touching into being, petal by petal, the flower of a perfect life under the genial influences of sunny looks and happy moods The Kindergarten of Vital Conception This reading of the meaning of education and of the work of the educator is very fascinating and it calls forth singular zeal and self-devotion on the part of those gardeners whose plants are the children Perhaps indeed this of the Kindergarten is the one vital conception of education we have had hitherto But science is changing front But in these days of revolutionary thought went all along the line in geology and anthropology chemistry, philology, and biology Science is changing front It is necessary that we should reconsider our conception of education As to heredity We are taught, for example, that heredity is by no means the simple and direct transmission from parent or remote ancestor to child of power and proclivity, virtue and defect and we breathe freer because we had begun to suspect that if this were so, it would mean to most of us the presence of exaggerated defects, imbecility, insanity, congenital disease Are they utterly removed from any one of us? Is education formative? So of education we begin to ask Is its work so purely formative as we thought? Is it directly formative at all? How much is there in this pleasing and easy doctrine that the drawing forth and strengthening and directing of the several faculties is education? Parents are very jealous over the individuality of their children They mistrust the tendency to develop all on the same plan and this instinctive jealousy is right for supposing that education really did consist in systematized efforts to draw out every power that is in us why we should all develop on the same lines be as like as two peas and, should we not, die of weariness of one another Some of us have an uneasy sense that things are tending towards this deadly sameness but indeed the fear is groundless We may believe that the personality, the individuality of each of us is too dear to God and too necessary to a complete humanity to be left at the mercy of empirics We are absolutely safe and the tenderest child is fortified against a battering ram of educational forces Education an inadequate word The problem of education is more complex than it seems at first sight and well for us and the world that it is so Education is a life You may stunt and starve and kill or you may cherish and sustain but the beating of the heart, the movement of the lungs and the development of the faculties Are there any faculties? Are only indirectly our care The poverty of our thought on the subject of education is shown by the fact that we have no word which at all implies the sustaining of a life Education to lead, to draw is very inadequate It covers no more than those occasional gymnastics of the mind which corresponds with those by which the limbs are trained Training, trough hair is almost synonymous and upon these two words rests the misconception that the development and the exercise of the faculties is the object of education We must needs use the word for want of a better Bringing up Our homely Saxon bringing up is nearer the truth Perhaps because of its very vagueness Anyway up implies an aim and bringing an effort The happy phrase of Mr. Matthew Arnold Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life is perhaps the most complete and adequate definition of education we possess It is a great thing to have said it and our wiser posterity may see in that found an exquisite remark the fruition of a lifetime of critical effort an adequate definition Observe how it covers the question from the three conceivable points of view subjectively in the child education is a life objectively as affecting the child education is a discipline relatively if we may introduce a third term as regards the environment of the child education is an atmosphere we shall examine each of these postulates later at present we shall attempt no more than to clear the ground a little with a view to the subject of this chapter parents as inspires not modelers but inspires method away to an end it is only as we recognize our limitations that our work becomes effective when we see definitely what we are to do what we can do and what we cannot do we set to work with confidence and courage we have an end in view and we make our way intelligently towards that end and away to an end is method it rests with parents not only to give their children birth into the life of intelligence and moral power but to sustain the higher life which they have born the life of the mind grows upon ideas now that life which we call education receives only one kind of sustenance it grows upon ideas you may go through years of so called education without getting a single vital idea and that is why many a well-fed body carries about a feeble starved intelligence and no society for the prevention of cruelty to children cries shame on the parents some years ago I heard of a girl of fifteen who had spent two years at a school without taking part in a single lesson and this by the expressed desire of her mother who wished all her time and all her pains to be given to fancy needlework this no doubt is a survival not of the fittest but it is possible to pass even the university's local examinations with credit without ever having experienced that vital stir which marks the inception of an idea and if we have succeeded in escaping this disturbing influence why we have finished our education when we leave school we shut up our books and our minds and remain pygmies in the dark forest of our own world of thought and feeling what is an idea? a live thing of the mind according to the older philosophers from Plato to Bacon from Bacon to Coleridge we say of an idea that it strikes us impresses us, seizes us takes possession of us, rules us and our common speech is as usual truer to fact than the conscious thought which it expresses we do not in the least exaggerate in ascribing this sort of action and power to an idea we form an ideal a so to speak embodied idea and our ideal exercises the very strongest formative influence upon us why do you devote yourself to this pursuit, that cause because twenty years ago such and such an idea struck me is the sort of history which might be given of every purposeful life every life devoted to the working out of an idea now is it not marvelous that recognizing as we do the potency of ideas both the word and the conception it covers enter so little into our thought of education Coleridge brings the conception of an idea within the sphere of the scientific thought of today not as that thought is expressed in psychology a term which he himself launched upon the world with an apology for it as an insolence verbom but in that science of the correlation and interaction of mind and brain which is at present rather clumsily expressed in such terms as mental physiology and psychophysiology in his method Coleridge gives us the following illustration of the rise and progress of an idea rise and progress of an idea we can recall no incident of human history that impresses the imagination more deeply than the moment when Columbus on an unknown ocean first perceived that startling fact the change of the magnetic needle how many such instances occur in history when the ideas of nature presented to chosen minds by a higher power than nature herself suddenly unfold as it were in prophetic succession systematic views destined to produce the most important revolutions in the state of man the clear spirit of Columbus was doubtless imminently methodical he saw distinctly that great leading idea which authorized the poor pilot to become a promissor of kingdoms Genesis of an idea notice the Genesis of such ideas presented to chosen minds by a higher power than nature notice how accurately this history of an idea fits in with what we know of the history of great inventions and discoveries with that of the ideas which rule our own lives and how well does it correspond with that key to the origin of practical ideas which we find elsewhere quote, doth the plowmen plow continually to open and break the clods of his ground when he hath made plain the face thereof doth he not cast abroad the pitches and scatter the cumin and put in the wheat and rose and the barley in the appointed place and the spelt in the border thereof for his God doth instruct him aright and doth teach him bread corn is ground for he will not ever be threshing it this also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom end quote an idea may exist as an apotency ideas may invest as an atmosphere rather than strike as a weapon the idea may exist in a clear distinct definite form as that of a circle in the mind of a geometrician or it may be a mere instinct a vague apotency towards something like the impulse which fills the young poet's eyes with tears he knows not why to excite this apotency towards something towards things lovely honest and of good report is the earliest and most important ministry of the educator how shall these indefinite ideas which manifest themselves in apotency be imparted they are not to be given of set purpose nor taken at set times they are held in that thought environment which surrounds the child as an atmosphere which he breathes as his breath of life and this atmosphere in which the child inspires his unconscious ideas of right living emanates from his parents every look of gentleness and tone of reverence every word of kindness and act of help passes into the thought environment the very atmosphere which the child breathes he does not think of these things may never think of them but all his life long they excite that vague apotency towards something out of which most of his actions spring oh the wonderful and dreadful presence of the little child in the midst a child draws inspiration from the casual life around him that he should take direction and inspiration from all the casual life about him should make our poor words and ways the starting point from which and in the direction of which he develops this is a thought which makes the best of us hold our breath there is no way of escape for parents they must needs be as inspirers to their children because about them hangs as its atmosphere about a planet the thought environment of the child from which he derives those enduring ideas which express themselves as a life long apotency towards things sordid or things lovely things earthly or divine order and progress of definite ideas let us now hear Coleridge on the subject of those definite ideas which are not inhaled as air but conveyed as meat to the mind quote from the first or initiative idea as from a seed successive ideas germinate events and images the lively and spirit stirring machinery of the external world are like light and air and moisture to the seed of the mind which would else rot and perish the paths in which we may pursue a methodical course are manifold and at the head of each stands its peculiar and guiding idea those ideas are as regularly subordinate indignity as the paths to which they point are various and eccentric in direction the world has suffered much in modern times from a subversion of the natural and necessary order of science from summoning reason and faith to the bar of that limited physical experience to which by the true laws of method they owe no obedience progress follows the path of the idea from which it sets out requiring however a constant wakefulness of the mind to keep it within the due limits of its course hence the orbits of thought so to speak must defer among themselves as the initiative ideas differ end quote platonic doctrine of ideas have we not hear the corollary to and the explanation of that law of unconscious celebration which results in our ways of thinking which shapes our character rules our destiny thoughtful minds consider that the new light which biology is throwing upon the laws of mind is bringing to the front once more the platonic doctrine that quote an idea is a distinguishable power self affirmed and seen in its unity with the eternal essence end quote ideas alone matter in education the whole subject is profound but as practical as it is profound we must disabuse our minds of the theory that the functions of education are in the main gymnastic in the early years of the child's life it makes perhaps little apparent difference whether his parents start with the notion that to educate is to fill a receptacle inscribe a tablet, mold plastic matter or nourish a life but in the end we shall find that only those ideas which have fed his life are taken into the being of the child all the rest is thrown away or worse is like sawdust in the system a magnet and an injury to the vital processes how the educational formula should run this is perhaps how the educational formula should run education is a life that life is sustained on ideas ideas are of spiritual origin and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another the duty of parents is to sustain a child's inner life with ideas where they sustain his body with food the child is an eclectic he may choose this or that therefore in the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not which shall prosper whether this or that or whether they both shall be alike good the child has affinities with evil as well as with good therefore hedge him about from any chance lodgement of evil ideas the initial idea begets frequent ideas therefore take care that children get right primary ideas on the great relations and duties of life every study every line of thought has its guiding idea therefore the study of a child makes for living education in proportion as it is quickened by the guiding idea which stands at the head infallible reason what is it in a word our much boasted infallible reason is it not the secondary thought which follows the initial idea upon necessary logical lines given the starting idea and the conclusion may be predicated almost to a certainty we get into the way of thinking such and such manner of thoughts and of coming to such and such conclusions ever further and further removed from the starting point but on the same lines there is structural adaptation in the brain tissue to the manner of thoughts we think a place and a way for them to run in as we see how the destiny of a life is shaped in the nursery by the reverent naming of the divine name by the light scoff at holy things by the thought of duty the little child gets who is made to finish conscientiously his little task by the hardness of heart that comes to the child who hears the faults or sorrows of others spoken of lightly End of Chapter 4 Recording by Brooke Favorite 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, Vol. 2 Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason Chapter 5 Parents as Inspirers The Things of the Spirit Parents, Revealers of God to their children It is probable that parents as a class feel more than ever before the responsibility of their prophetic office. It is as Revealers of God to their children that parents touch their highest limitations. Perhaps it is only as they succeed in this part of their work that they fulfill the divine intention in giving them children to bring up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How to Fortify Them Against Doubt How to fortify the children against the doubts of which the air is full is an anxious question. Three courses are open to teach, as we of an older generation have been taught and to let them bide their time and their chance to attempt to deal with the doubts and difficulties which have turned up or are likely to turn up or to give children such hold upon vital truth and at the same time such an outlook upon current thought that they shall be landed on the safe side of the controversies of their day open to truth in however new a light presented and safeguarded against mortal error. Three Ways The First Unfair The first course is unfair to the young. When the attack comes they find themselves at a disadvantage. They have nothing to reply. Their pride is in arms. They jump to the conclusion that there is no defense possible of that which they have received as truth. Had there been, would they not have been instructed to make it? They resent being made out in the wrong, being on the weaker side, so it seems to them, being behind their times and they go over without a struggle to the side of the most aggressive thinkers of their day. Evidences are not proofs. Let us suppose that on the other hand they have been fortified with Christian evidences defended by bulwarks of sound dogmatic teaching. Religion without definite dogmatic teaching degenerates into sentiment. But dogma as dogma offers no defense against the assaults of unbelief. As for evidences the role of the Christian apologist is open to the imputation conveyed in the keen proverb, key six cues say accuse. The truth by which we live must needs be self-evidenced admitting of neither proof nor disproof. Children should be taught Bible history with every elucidation which modern research makes possible. But they should not be taught to think of the inscriptions on Syrian monuments, for example, as proofs of the truth of the Bible records, but rather as illustrations of those records. Though they are cannot but be subsidiary proofs, the outlook upon current thought. Let us look at the third course and first as regards the outlook upon current thought. Contemporary opinion is the fetish of the young mind. Young people are eager to know what to think on all the serious questions of religion and life. They ask what is the opinion of this and that leading thinker of their day. By no means can find themselves to such leaders of thought as their parents have elected to follow. On the contrary, the other side of every question is the attractive side for them, and they do not choose to be behind the foremost in the race of thought. Free will in thought. Now that their young people should thus take to the water need not come upon parents as a surprise. The whole training from babyhood upward should be the view of this plunge. When the time comes, there is nothing to be done. Openly it may be, secretly if the home rule is rigid, the young folk think their own thoughts, that is, they follow the leader they have elected, for they are truly modest and humble at heart and do not yet venture to think for themselves, only they have transferred their allegiance. Nor is this transfer of allegiance to be resented by parents. We all claim this kind of suffrage in our turn when we feel ourselves included in larger interests than those of the family. Preparation But there is much to be done beforehand, though nothing when the time comes. The notion that any contemporary authority is infallible may be steadily undermined from infancy onwards, though at some sacrifice of ease and glory to the parents. I don't know, must take the place of the vague wise-sounding answer, the random shot which children's pertinacious questionings too often provoke. And, I don't know, should be followed by the effort to know, the research necessary to find out. Even then, the possibility of error in a printed book must occasionally be faced. The results of this kind of training in the way of mental balance and repose are invaluable. Reservation as regards science. Another safeguard is in the attitude of reservation, shall we say, which it may be well to preserve towards science. It is well that the enthusiasm of children should be kindled, that they should see how glorious it is to devote a lifetime to patient research, how great to find out a single secret of nature, a key to many riddles. The heroes of science should be their heroes. The great names, especially those who are amongst us, should be household words. But here, again, nice discrimination should be exercised. Two points should be kept well to the front. The absolute silence of the oracle on all ultimate questions of origin and life, and the fact that all along the line, scientific truth comes in like the tide, with steady advance, but with ebb and flow of every wavelet of truth. So much so, that at the present moment the teaching of the last twenty years is discredited in at least a dozen departments of science. Indeed, it would seem to be part of wisdom to wait half a century before fitting the discovery of today into the general scheme of things. And this, not because the latest discovery is not absolutely true, but because we are not yet able so to adjust it, according to the science of the proportion of things, that it shall be relatively true. Knowledge is progressive. But all this is surely beyond children? By no means. Every walk should quicken their enthusiasm for the things of nature and their reverence for the priests of that temple. But occasion should be taken to mark the progressive advances of science and the fact that the teaching of today may be the error of tomorrow because new light may lead to new conclusions, even from the facts already known. Until quite lately, geologists thought, they now think, but they may find reason to think otherwise in the future. To perceive that knowledge is progressive and that the next find may always alter the bearings of what went before, that we are waiting and may have very long to wait for the last word, that science also is revelation, though we are not yet able fully to interpret what we know and that science herself contains the promise of great impetus to the spiritual life. To perceive these things is to be able to rejoice in all truth and to wait for final certainty. Children should learn some laws of thought. In another way we may endeavor to secure for the children that stability of mind which comes of self-knowledge. It is well that they should know so early that they will seem to themselves always to have known some of the laws of thought which govern their own minds. Let them know that once an idea takes possession of them it will pursue so to speak its own course, will establish its own place in the very substance of the brain, will draw its own train of ideas after it. One of the most fertile sources of youthful infidelity is the fact that thoughtful boys and girls are infinitely surprised when they come to notice the course of their own thoughts. They read a book or listen to talk with a tendency to what is to them free thought. And then the fearful joy of finding that their own thoughts begin with the thought they have heard and go on and on to new and startling conclusions on the same lines. The mental stir of all this gives a delightful sense of power and a sense of inevitableness and certainty too. For they do not intend or try to think this or that. It comes of itself, their reason they believe is acting independently of them, and how can they help assuming that what comes to them of itself with an air of absolute certainty must of necessity be right. To look at thoughts as they come. But what if from childhood they had been warned take care of your thoughts and the rest will take care of itself. Let a thought in and it will stay, will come again tomorrow and the next day will make a place for itself in your brain and will bring many other thoughts like itself. Your business is to look at the thoughts as they come to keep out the wrong thoughts and let in the right. See that ye enter not into temptation. This sort of teaching is not so hard to understand as the rules for the English nominative and is infinitely more profit in the conduct of life. It is a great safeguard to know that your mind is capable of proving any theory you allow yourself to entertain, the appeal of the children. We have touched here only on the negative side of the parent's work as profit inspirer. There are perhaps few parents to whom the innocence of the babe in its mother's arms does not appeal with pathetic force. Open me the gates of righteousness that I may go in unto them is the voice of the little unworldly and a wish anyway that he may be kept unspotted from the world is breathed in every kiss of his mother in the light of his father's eyes. But how ready we are to conclude that children cannot be expected to understand spiritual things. Our own grasp of the things of the spirit is all too lax and how can we expect that the child's feeble intelligence can apprehend the highest mysteries of our being. But here we are all together wrong. It is with the advance of years that a materialistic temper settles upon us. But the children live in the light of the morning land. The spirit world has no mysteries for them. That parable and travesty of the spirit world, the fairy world where all things are possible, is it not their favorite dwelling place? And fairy tales are so dear to children because their spirits fret against the hard and narrow limitations of time and place and substance. They cannot breathe freely in a material world. Think what the vision of God should be to the little child already peering wistfully through the bars of his prison house. Not a far-off God, a cold abstraction, but a warm, breathing, spiritual presence about his path and about his bed. A presence in which he recognizes protection and tenderness in darkness and danger towards which he rushes as the timid child to hide his face in his mother's skirts. My hiding place. A friend tells me the following story of her girlhood. It so happened that extra lessons detained her at school until dark every day during the winter. She was extremely timid, but with the unconscious reserve of youth never thought of mentioning her fear of something. Her way home lay by a river-side, a solitary path under trees, big trees with masses of shadow, the black shadows in which something might lie hidden, the shush, shush of the river, which might be whisperings or the rustle of garments, filled her night by night with unabated terror. She fled along that river-side path with beating heart. But quick as flying steps and beating heart, these words beat in her brain over and over and over the whole length of the way, evening by evening, winter after winter. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Years after, when the woman might be supposed to have outgrown girlish terrors, she found herself again walking alone in the early darkness of a winter's evening under trees by the river. The old terror returned and with it the old words came to her and kept time the whole length of the way with her hasty steps. Such a place to hide him in should be the thought of God to every child. The mind of the child is good ground. Their keen sensitiveness to spiritual influences is not due to ignorance on the part of the children. It is we, not an error. The whole tendency of modern biological thought is to confirm the teaching of the Bible. The ideas which quicken come from above. The mind of the little child is an open field, surely good ground, where morning by morning the sower goes forth to sow, and the seed is the word. All our teaching of children should be given reverently, with the humble sense that we are invited to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. But it should be given dutifully and diligently, with the awful sense that our cooperation would appear to be made a condition of the divine action, that the saviour of the world pleads with us to suffer the little children to come unto me, as if we had the power to hinder, as we know that we have. Children suffer from a deep-seated discontent. This thought of the saviour of the world implies another conception which we sometimes leave out of sight in dealing with children. Young faces are not always sunny and lovely, even the brightest children in the happiest circumstances have their clouded hours. We rightly put the cloud down to some little disorder or to the weather, but these are the secondary causes which reveal a deep-seated discontent. Children have a sense of sin, acute in proportion to their sensitiveness. We are in danger of trusting too much to a rosewater treatment. We do not take children seriously enough. Brought face to face with a child we find he is a very real person, but in our educational theories we take him as something between a wax doll and an angel. He sins. He is guilty of greediness, falsehood, malice, cruelty, a hundred faults that would be shown up person. We say he will know better by and by. He will never know better. He is keenly aware of his own odiousness. How many of us would say about our childhood if we told the whole truth, oh, I was an odious little thing, and that not because we recollect our faults, but because we recollect our childish estimate of ourselves. Many a bright and merry child is odious in his own eyes, and the peace peace where there is no peace of fond parents and friends is little comfort. It is well that we ask for the old paths where is the good way. It is not well that in the name of the old paths we lead our children into blind alleys, nor that we let them follow the new into bewildering mazes. End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 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 6 Parents as Inspirers and Parents One of the little boys gazing upon the terrible desolation of the scene, so unlike in its savage and inhuman aspects anything he had ever seen at home, nestled close to his mother and asked with baited breath, is there a god here? John Burroughs The Chief Thing We Have to Do The last chapter introduced the thought of parents in their highest function as revealers of god to their children. To bring the human race family by family, child by child, out of the savage and inhuman desolation where he is not, into the light and warmth and comfort of the presence of god, is no doubt the chief thing we have to do in the world. And this individual work with each child, being the most momentous work in the world, is put into the hands of the wisest, most loving, disciplined and divinely instructed of human beings. Be ye perfect, as your father is perfect, is the perfection of parenthood, perhaps to be attained in its fullness only through parenthood. There are mistaken parents, ignorant parents, a few indifferent parents, even as one in a thousand callous parents, but the good that is done upon the earth is done under god by parents, whether directly or indirectly. Ideas of god fitting for children. Parents who recognize that their great work is to be done by the instrumentality of the ideas they are able to introduce into the minds of their children, will take anxious thought as to those ideas of god which are most fitting for children, and as to how those ideas may best be conveyed. Let us consider an idea which is just now causing some stir in people's thoughts. We ought to work slowly up through the human side, why not? We read some of the Old Testament history as History of the Jews, and Job and Isaiah and the Psalms as poetry, and I am glad to say he is very fond of them, and parts of the Gospels in Greek as the life and character of a hero. It is the greatest mistake to impose them upon children as authoritative and divine all at once. It at once diminishes their interest. We ought to work slowly up through the human side. Here is a theory which commends itself to many persons because it is so reasonable. But it goes upon the assumption that we are ruled by reason, an infallible entity which is certain, give it fair play, to bring us to just conclusions. Now the exercise of that function of the mind which we call reasoning, we must decline to speak of the reason, does indeed bring us to inevitable conclusions. The process is definite, the result convincing, but whether that result be right or wrong depends all together upon the initial idea which when we wish to discredit it we call a prejudice, when we wish to exalt we call an intuition, even an inspiration. It would be idle to illustrate this position. The whole history of error is the history of the logical outcome of what we happily call misconceptions. The history of persecution is the tale of how the inevitable conclusions arrived at by reasoning pass themselves off for truth. The event at Calvary was due to no hasty, mad outburst of popular feeling. It was a triumph of reasoning. The inevitable issue of more than one logical sequence. The crucifixion was not criminal, but altogether laudable, if that is right which is reasonable. And this is why the hearts of religious Jews were hardened and their understanding darkened. They were truly doing what was right in their own eyes. It is a marvelous thing to perceive the thoughts within us striving us forward to an inevitable conclusion, even against our will. How can that conclusion which presents itself to us in spite of ourselves fail to be right? And what is the certainty and moral right? The conscientious Jew and the crucifixion. Let us place ourselves for one instant in the position of the logical and conscientious Jew. Jehovah is a name of awe, unapproachable in thought or act, except in ways himself has specified. To attempt unlawful approach is to blaspheme. As Jehovah is infinitely great, presumptuous offense is infinitely heinous, is criminal, is the last crime as committed against him who is the first. The blasphemer is worthy of death. This man makes himself equal with God, the unapproachable. He is a blasphemer, arrogant as Beelzebub. He is doubly worthy of death. To the people of the Jews is committed in trust the honored name. On them it is incumbent to exterminate the blasphemer. The man must die. Here is the secret of the virulent hatred which dogged the steps of the blameless life. These men were following the dictates of reason, and knew, so they would say, that they were doing right. Here we have the invincible ignorance which the light of the world failed to illumine, and he, who knows us as we are, yet loves us better than he knows, offers for them the true plea. They know not what they do. The steps of the argument are incontrovertible. The error lies in the initial idea. Such a conception of Jehovah as made the conception of Christ in admissible impossible. The patriotic Jew and the crucifixion. Thus reasoned the Jew upon whom his religion had the first claim. The patriotic Jew to whom religion itself was subservient to the hopes of his nation, arrived by quite another chain of spontaneous arguments at the same inevitable conclusion. The Jews are the chosen people. The first duty of a Jew is towards his nation. These are critical times. The hope is before us, but we are in the grip of the Romans. They may crush out the national life before our hope is realized. Nothing must be done to alarm their suspicions. This man, by all accounts he is harmless, perhaps righteous, but he stirs up the people. It is rumored that they call him king of the Jews. He must not be permitted to die. He must die. It is expedient that one man die for the people and that the whole nation perish not. Thus the consummate crime that has been done upon the earth was done probably without any consciousness of criminality. On the contrary, with the acquittal of that spurious moral sense which supports with its approval all reasonable action. This action was the logical and necessary outcome of ideas imbibed from their cradles by the persecuting Jews. So of every persecution none is born of the occasion and the hour, but comes out of the habit of thought of a lifetime. Primal ideas derived from parents. It is the primal impulse to habits of thought which children must owe to their parents The man's thought and action Godward is, the very pulse of the machine, the introduction of such primal ideas as shall impel the soul to God is the first duty and the highest privilege of parents. Whatever sin of unbelief a man is guilty of, are his parents wholly without blame? First approaches to God. Let us consider what is commonly done in the nursery of God. No sooner can the little being lisp than he is taught to kneel up in his mother's lap and say God bless and then follows a list of the near and dear and God bless and make him a good boy for Jesus' sake amen. It is very touching and beautiful. I once peeped in at an open cottage door in a Moorland village and saw a sign in its mother's lap and saying its evening prayer. The spot has ever since remained to me a sort of shrine. There is no sight more touching and tender. By and by so soon as he can speak the words gentle, Jesus, meek and mild is added to the little one's prayer and later our father. Nothing could be more suitable and more beautiful than these morning and evening approaches to the children brought to him by their mothers. And most of us can think back to the hallowing influence of those early prayers but might not more be done. How many times a day does a mother lift up her heart to God as she goes in and out amongst her children and they never know. Today I talk to them, a boy and girl of four and five about Rebecca at the well. They were very much interested especially about Eliezer praying in his heart and the answer coming at once. They said how did he pray? I said, I often pray in my heart when you know nothing about it. Sometimes you begin to show a naughty spirit and I pray for you in my heart and almost directly I find the good spirit comes and your faces show my prayer is answered. Oh! stroked my hand and said, Dear mother I shall think of that. Boy looked thoughtful but didn't speak. But when they were in bed I knelt down to pray for them before leaving them. And when I got up boy said, Mother God filled my heart with goodness while you prayed for us and mother I will try tomorrow. Communing out loud before the children. Is it possible that the mother could when alone with her children personally hold this communion out loud so that the children might grow up in the sense of the presence of God? It would probably be difficult for many mothers to break down the barrier of spiritual reserve in the presence of even their own children. But could it be done would it not lead to glad and natural living in the recognized presence of God? A child's gratitude. A mother who remembered a little bottle as an early joy of her own took three such small bottles home to her three little girls. They got them next morning at the family breakfast and enjoyed them all through the meal. Before it ended the mother was called away and little M was sitting rather solitary with her scent bottle and the remains of her breakfast. And out of the pure well of the little girl's heart came this intended for nobody's ear Dear mother, you are too good. Think of the joy of the mother who should overhear her little child murmuring over the first primrose of the year. Dear God you are too good. Children are so imitative that if they hear their parents speak out continually their joys and fears, their thanks and wishes, they too will have many things to say. Another point in this connection. The little German child hears and speaks many times a day of der Liebe Gott. To be sure, he addresses him as do, but do is part of his everyday speech. The circle of the very dear and intimate is hedged in by the magic do. So with the little French child whose thought and word are ever of le bon do, he also says do. But that is how he speaks to those most endeared to him. Archaic forms in children's prayers. But the little English child is thrust out in the cold by an archaic mode of address reverent in the ears of us older people, but forbidding we may be sure to the child. Then, for the Lord's prayer, what a boon would be a truly reverent translation of it into the English of today. To us who have learned to spell it out, the present form is dear, almost sacred, but we must not forget that it is after all only a translation and is, perhaps, the most archaic piece of English in modern use. With chart, commonly rendered chart, means nothing for a child, hallowed is the speech of a strange tongue to him, not much more to us. A child who passes is a semi-legal term never likely to come into his everyday talk, and no explanation will make thy have the same force for him as your. To make a child utter his prayers in a strange speech is to put up a barrier between him and his almighty lover. Again, might we not venture to teach our children to say that a parent, surely, can believe that no austerely reverential style can be so sweet in the Divine Father's ears as the appeal to Dear God, for sympathy and joy and help and trouble which flows naturally from the little child who is used to God. Let children grow up aware of the constant, immediate, joy-giving, joy-taking presence in the midst of them, and you may laugh at all assaults which is foolishness to him who knows his God as only far better than he knows father or mother, wife or child, the shout of a king. Let them grow up, too, with the shout of a king in their midst. There are, in this poor stuff we call human nature, founts of loyalty, worship, passionate devotion, glad service, which have been sealed in the earth-laden older heart, but only ask place to flow from the child's. There is no safeguard and no joy like that of being under orders, being possessed, controlled, continually in the service of one whom it is gladness to obey. We lose sight of the fact in our modern civilization, but a king, a leader, implies warfare, a foe, victory, possible defeat and disgrace. And this is the conception of life which cannot too soon be brought before children, the fight of Christ against the devil. After thinking the matter over with some care, I resolved that I cannot do better than give you my view of what it was that the average boy carried away from our rugby of half a century ago, which stood him in the best stead, was of the highest value to him in his life. I have been in some doubt as to what to put first, and am by no means sure that the few who are left of my old school fellows would agree with me, but speaking for myself, I think this was our most marked characteristic, the feeling that in school and close we were in training for a big fight. We're in fact already engaged in it, a fight which would last for hours, physical, intellectual, and moral to the utmost. I need not say that this fight was the world-old one of good with evil, of light and truth against darkness and sin, of Christ against the devil. So said the author of Tom Brown in an address to rugby school delivered on a recent Queen Quagessima Sunday. This is plain speaking. It is only worthy of the name as it teaches this lesson, and it is a lesson which should be learned in the home or ever the child sets foot in any other school of life. It is an insult to children to say they are too young to understand this for which we are sent into the world. Oh, dear, it's very hard to do God's work. A boy of five, a great-grandson of Dr. Arnold played the piano with his mother choosing his Sunday hymn. He chose, Thy will be done, and, as his special favorite, the verse beginning, renew my will from day to day. The choice of hymn and verse rather puzzled his mother, who had a further glimpse into the world of child thought when the little fellow said wistfully, oh, dear, it's very hard to do God's work. And bearing was not plain to him, but the battle and struggle and strain of life already pressed on the spirit of the careless happy child. That an evil spiritual personality can get at their thoughts and incite them to be naughty children learn all too soon and understand perhaps better than we do. Then they are cross, naughty, separate, sinful, needing to be healed as truly as the hoary sinner and much more aware of their need because the tender soul of the child like an infant's skin is fretted by spiritual soreness. It's very good of God to forgive me so often. I've been naughty so many times today, said a sad little sinner of six, not at all because anyone else had been at the pains to convince her of naughtiness. Even Pet Marjorie's buoyancy is not proof of this sad sense of shortcoming. Yesterday I behaved extremely ill in God's most holy church for I would never attend myself nor let Isabella attend and it was the very same devil that tempted Job that tempted me I am sure. But he resisted Satan though he had boils and many other misfortunes which I have escaped. At six we must need to smile at the little crimes but we must not smile too much and let children be depressed with much naughtiness when they should live in the instant healing in the dear name of the saver of the world. End of Chapter 6