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Charlotte Mason's Students Motto
"I Am, I Can, I Ought, I Will."
I am . . . a child of God, a gift to
my parents and my
country. I'm a person of great value because God made me.
I can . . . do all things through
Christ who strengthens me.
God has made me able to do everything required of me.
I ought . . . to do my duty to obey
God, to submit to my
parents and everyone in authority over me, to be of service to others,
and to keep myself healthy with proper food and rest so my body is
ready to serve.
I will . . . resolve to keep a watch
over my thoughts and
choose what's right even if it's not what I want.
Charlotte
Mason wrote a little more about the motto in volume 1, which
I've re-worded here:
I
am, I ought, I can, I will. These are like four steps of
the ladder that St. Augustine wrote about when he said we could 'go up
on the stepping stones of the old, sinful man we cast off and are dead
to, and ascend to higher things.' I am means that
we can know ourselves and understand what we're really like. I ought
means
that we have a moral judge inside us. We feel like we're subject to it.
It lets us know what our duty is and compels us to do it. I can means
that
we know we have the ability to do what we know we're supposed to. I
will means
that we resolve to use the ability we know we have to do what our inner
moral judge has urged us to do. Resolve is the first step in actually
doing. These four make a perfect, beautiful chain . . . (You can
read Charlotte Mason's exact wording on page 330 of volume 1.)
"I am, I can, I ought, I will."
This was the motto she gave us. I am a
human being, one of God's children; I can do right by my fellowmen and
by myself; I ought so to do and God help me, I will so do. Is this not
a great message she has given us?
(Michael A. E. Franklin, one of Charlotte Mason's students; from In Memoriam)
"I am, I can, I ought, I
will." Miss Mason chose your inspiring motto. You can say,
"I am the greatest thing in
God's creation: a human being with a spark of God's divine spirit in my
body. Because I belong to the human family I can do the great
things
that other human beings have done. I have powers of doing,
thinking
and loving.
"I can use these powers. I
can change my thoughts from things that harm me and that worry me to
the beautiful things I have learnt in my School: I can know the
ways
of activity, I can think kindly thoughts of God's creatures in the past
and in the present, in this and other countries, of people who do not
think as I do in religion and politics.
I ought to do these things: I owe it to my
God,
my parents and my School.
I will forget myself, and live up to the
ideals of my School.
God is on the side of those who will, and with His help we will all go
on working as Miss Mason hoped we would.
(By the Hon. Mrs. Franklin, from In Memoriam)
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