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Charlotte Mason in Modern English
Charlotte Mason's ideas are too important not to be understood and implemented in the 21st century, but her Victorian style of writing sometimes prevents parents from attempting to read her books. This is an imperfect attempt to make Charlotte's words accessible to modern parents. You may read these, print them out, share them freely--but they are copyrighted to me, so please don't post or publish them without asking.
~L. N. Laurio
Home Education
pg 1
Part I
Some Preliminary
Considerations
One sign that women have gained more status in the world is the desire
to use their education by going to work. [Remember that Charlotte was
writing around the turn of the century, before the women's
rights/equality movement.] The world needs the contributions of
women
who are educated, and, as education becomes more common among all
classes of people, more and more women will be entering the work force,
having regular hours and getting wages. Even those women who don't work
out of financial need will find pleasure in doing something useful.
Children
are a Public Trust
The
work that is the most important in society is raising and teaching
children. That makes school teachers important, but, even more, those
who care for and teach children at home are important, because it is
the influence of home life that has the greatest impact on a child's
character and future. Being a parent is the most important job and the
greatest honor a person can have. Even those raising just one child
don't know whether their cherished pride and joy may be the one person
who finds the cure for cancer. But being trusted with such an important
task
pg 2
means that parents are not free to raise their children however they
want. Really, their children are not their personal property, but sort
of a public trust, and parents must raise them in such a way that they
are a blessing to society. And this important job isn't divided equally
between both parents; it falls mostly to the mother because she is
usually the one at home with the children in their earliest, most
impressionable years. That's why great men often credit their mothers
for their success, for taking their responsibility seriously and not
giving the job of raising their children to others, such as daycare
workers and nannies.
Mothers
Owe an Educated Love to Their Children
Pestalozzi said that mothers were qualified by God
Himself to be the greatest influence in their children's early lives.
The
mother owes it to her child, and to God who entrusted her, to have a
'thinking love.' God gave children the same kind of hands, heart and
mind as ours, and mothers must ask themselves, 'How shall I train my
child to use those gifts? For whose benefits shall those gifts be
used?' The answers to those questions may determine the future of her
beloved child, whether his life is one of misery or happiness. A loving
mother is the most important part of what a child will become.
As mothers become more educated and read more, they will understand
the importance of their task and feel like such a grand mission
can't be left to anyone but themselves. And mothers will take up their
duty seriously,
pg 3
with the same care for detail and commitment they would give an
outside, paying job.
In order to understand more about her role in raising her children,
mothers should have more than popular notions about educational theory
and the underlying understanding of the nature of children that those
theories rest on.
The
Training of Children is Defective
Herbert Spencer, in his book 'Education,' said that
the way children are brought up is terribly lacking physically, morally
and intellectually. Mostly, that's due to parents not having the
knowledge they need to do the job correctly. What can you expect when
those who are entrusted with the most important job of raising the next
generation have barely considered the foundational principles upon
which child-rearing techniques are based? To make shoes or manage a
ship, one must go to school. A child, a living person, is so much more
complex than shoes or ships, so why shouldn't parents undergo some kind
of training? Since the process of teaching and raising a human being is
more complicated, it's crazy not to prepare oneself for the job. It
would be better to sacrifice the satisfaction of being accomplished at
one's career to get this training. Parents need to understand the
basics of child psychology to understand how to bring up children.
Childhood development follows specific laws, and unless those laws
pg 4
are followed at least a little, the child will die. ['Babies need to eat regularly' might be
the most basic law.] If the laws aren't followed to a great
degree, the child's development will be stunted [for example, neglecting to show affection
will cause
emotional problems]. Only when the laws are followed completely
will the child mature fully. So you can see how important it is for
parents to know what those laws are.
How
Parents Usually Proceed
Parents
generally begin by thinking of their newborn as a blank slate and
resolve to make grand designs about what to write on those slates [in-utero classical music, phonics
flashcards, politeness in role models, exposure to a second language...]
But then the child begins to show his own individuality, and his little
displays of personality are a delight to his parents. His joy at
greeting Daddy and his sympathy when Mommy is sad are rightfully
wonderful for us to see. But parents soon begin to take their child's
individuality for granted and are not so astounded when their child
later shows a preference for books or sports and has his own tastes and
desires. Parents naturally stop doing every little thing for their
child as they see that he can feed and dress himself, and they
encourage him to do more for himself as he is able. The
parents are delighted to watch their child's personality develop, but
the more a child begins to do for himself, the less the parents feel
the need to do for him beyond feeding him, clothing him, and showing
affection.
pg 5
With these things the parents only need to provide them. The
child can eat and dress himself; the parent's main concern is that what
they provide should be nourishing and wholesome, whether it's books,
school lessons, the influence of friends, nutrition, or
discipline. This is how most parents understand
education--focusing more on nutrition, discipline, culture, depending
on their own understanding. For the most part, they let their
children develop in their own way according to their own environment
and hereditary traits.
This leaving alone, or what Charlotte Mason calls 'Masterly Inactivity', is a good
thing for the most part. Children should be allowed to develop
according to their own nature, and as long as parents don't allow the
child to become spoiled, this masterly inactivity can be fine.
But this philosophy of letting
children be covers only a part of raising children. It
does not cover the most serious task of the parents, which includes the
continual guidance and guarding of influences according to their
understanding of the laws of child psychology so that their child grows
up to be the best he can be.
Nothing that concerns a child is trivial. Even his offhand words have
underlying meaning if we listen. Children don't always express
themselves accurately, and it's up to parents to try to understand what
children are thinking behind what they communicate. Being able to
interpret our own children's personalities [and
learning styles] by working
to understand them will help us to know how best to educate them.
A great teacher in Charlotte Mason's day always said, 'the family is
the unit of the nation.' It's not about the individual but the
family. An individual is no greater than the family that he is
part of, and, in this same way,
pg 6
the child's actions will contribute to society, for better or worse.
It's the parents' responsibility to raise their children to be a
blessing to their society; they must not raise them any way they
want. Legally, parents have a lot of leeway in choosing how to
raise their own children, but they must remember that children are a
national trust. Raising children should concern everyone, even those
who are single or childless.
I.--A
Method of Education
Traditional
Methods of Education
Now
more than ever, parents need to consider education and all it includes.
In the past, parents simply did what had always been done, raising
their children the same way their parents and grandparents did.
Tradition tends to form the basis of child training for most people.
But science is causing a revolution in the way we understand education.
The old ways have been proven less effective. We don't yet fully
understand what is the very best way scientifically, so, for now,
parents must read and learn and find the best method for themselves.
For example, a mother might have done as her own mother did and
occasionally used her slipper to discipline her child with success. But
current opinion, which may or may not be correct, holds that the child
is sacred
pg 7
and hitting or spanking is abusive.
Another example is that parents used to think that plain food was best
and hunger was all that was needed to make a child eat. But now,
parents are expected to provide a variety of foods prepared in temping
dishes and, within reason, the child's own preference and cravings are
allowed to dictate his diet. In previous times, children were expected
to repress their personal food desires.
It used to be that children were taught to endure discomfort. One
little boy, watching a torchlight procession in wet, freezing weather,
turned down an offer to watch from a warmer shed. He said he'd never be
a good sailor if he couldn't endure wind and rain. But these days,
parents take diligent care so that their children stay warm and don't
get over-tired.
In the past, children were expected to quietly obey, study their
lessons dutifully, and play only when there was no work to be done.
Now, parents are more concerned about whether their children are happy
than how much work they do.
Before, children had no rights. They were seen and not heard. Today,
adults bend over backwards to provide just the right environment for
their children.
English parents rarely go so far as to arrive late for a dinner party
as one couple in a magazine did because their three-year-old didn't
want them to go, so they had to pretend to undress and go to bed and
then sneak out after she was asleep. But that extreme is where parents
are headed. Whether our new theories of child psychology are wise
pg 8
and kind, whether science proves them true, and whether they cause
child-worship rather than sound practice, are questions that should be
taken seriously.
At any rate, a parent who does not consider carefully the goal of his
child's education and the necessary steps to get to that goal will fail
to fully fulfill his obligation to raise his child properly.
A
Method is a Means to an End
A
method has two parts: a goal and a way to get there. The method is the
steps you take to get to the end. To follow a method implies that you
have some set goal, or end, in sight. What is the goal you have for your child's education? Once you
see the end clearly, you will find unexpected ways to naturally use
those things around you to accomplish your goal. This will happen
almost effortlessly because, with the end in sight, everything becomes
a tool to be used in attaining that goal almost without you even
realizing it. Without even thinking about it, everything your child
does--eat, play, work--will be seen as a way to get closer to your
goal. But those steps, that method, can become mindless steps that are
no more than an empty system if the focus of the goal is lost. The
Kindergarten
pg 9
Method, for example, was conceived by teachers who had a wonderful
vision of enlarging the lives of little persons, but when practiced by
those who don't understand that goal, it becomes nothing more than an
artificial system of lessons and busywork.
A
Rigid System Is Easier than a Method
A 'system' sounds impressive. A system of education with all its steps
and rules may sound more scientific than a method because each step has
measurable results that can be used to calculate progress. It can be
tested. Systems can be used successfully to learn skills such as
dancing, shorthand, or accounting.
A system that uses separate steps to achieve a goal is so good at
getting measurable results that it's tempting to confine all of
education to a scientific system.
If people were machines, systems would be fine for educating them. The
teacher could simply set a system in place, follow the steps, and the
result would be predictable and successful.
But people are not machines. The teacher has to deal with a real,
unpredictable child with an individual personality and his job is to
minimize the bad tendencies in that child, make the most of every good
tendency, and prepare that small person to be the best he can be before
he takes his place in the world.
A system may be very useful as one tool in education,
pg 10
but as the entire basis of education, it merely produces outward
behaviors rather than real growth in a person.
It is important to understand the difference between a system and a
method, because parents all too often become enamored of a system that
promises development in one area--but which misses the overall growth
of the entire person. A system is easier because you just follow the
prescribed steps, like a recipe. But a method requires constant
watchfulness over the whole being of the child, it demands more of the
teacher. Who is qualified for such a mammoth task? Even the most
loving, committed parent isn't physically able to be on the alert to
make the most of every educable moment 24 hours a day. But education
may not require a 24-hour effort; the child is learning all the time
and a few basic principles put into effect will cover the whole of the
child's education. Once the parent understands these principles, he
will find it natural and easy to let circumstances fall into place to
fit these principles. In the next chapters, I [Charlotte Mason is speaking] will
explain these principles, but first, let's consider a couple of
questions.
pg 11
II--The Child's Estate
The
Child in the Midst
First,
let's think about the child who is entrusted to his parents. Is he a
blank slate to be written on? A twig to be bent, or wax to be molded?
Maybe, but he is so much more. He is a living, breathing person in a
higher place than we adults, like a prince entrusted to mere peasants.
Wordsworth wrote a poem [Intimations of Immortality from
Reflections of Early Childhood] about the child's
estate that says we were in
heaven before we were born, and our birth is like forgetting that
wonderful place. But a newborn still has some of that heavenly aroma
still around him. His body may be small and unimpressive, but inside is
a soul newly arrived from heaven with some heavenly atmosphere still
hanging around him. Wordsworth's poem shows almost as much insight into
pg 12
the special innocence and wonder of children as the Bible does. Jesus
also had a special place in His heart for children: 'Of such is the kingdom of heaven.'
'Except ye become as little children ye shall in no case enter the
kingdom of heaven.' 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'
'And He called a little child, and set him in the midst.' Such
is God's opinion of children. Parents should consider every scripture
in the gospels that talks about children. Jesus was not talking
primarily about adults who became as innocent as children, He was
talking about literal children. Exactly what Jesus meant is too complex
to discuss here, but He meant more than even Wordsworth did when he
talked about children 'trailing clouds of glory. . . from God, who is
our home.'
Biblical
Reference to Our Code of Education
Parents
may be surprised that Jesus laid down a code of education in the
gospels. It can be summed up in three commands telling adults what not to do to harm children: Be
careful that you don't offend, despise
or hinder even one little
child.
These three educational laws, taken separately, cover everything we
adults should do and should not do in the training of our children. We
can first consider what these commands
pg 13
tell us not to do in order to
start our educational considerations with a clean, blank slate. Once we
understand what not to do, we
can then see more clearly what we can
do, and what we must do. Although, actually, what we can do is included in these laws
about what we can't do
because we are obligated to actively do what we can to avoid hurting
children.
III.--Offending the Children
How
We Offend Children
The first two
commandments seem to cover what we do to
children, and what we don't do for
children. We offend them by doing what we shouldn't, and we despise
them by not doing what we should for them. An offense is literally a
stumbling block. Mothers know to clear the floor of obstacles that may
make a toddler fall. A piece of furniture, or a toy mislaid on the
floor makes a newly-walking infant fall and cry and we kick ourselves
for not removing it from the baby's path. But a young child going out
into the world is like a newly toddling baby going in all directions.
There are obstacles out in the big world that are not as easy to move
out of the way as a footstool, but must be moved to keep the child from
stumbling.
Children
are Born Understanding the Concept of Right and Wrong
When
a mother chides her baby with, 'Bad boy!', the baby looks sad and
guilty. Some people
pg 14
think it's cute or funny and will tease and say 'Bad boy!' when the
child isn't doing anything wrong, just for the amusement of seeing the
baby look guilty and viewing the pure soul of the child. What does the
child's display of guilt show us? Even before he is old enough to have
been taught right from wrong from his parents, he displays a
conscience. This proves that a sense of right and wrong is born into the child. That is why
Jesus warned us not to offend children. We all know older children who
have not yet learned that there are duties they are obligated to do;
the only rule they know is 'I want' or 'I like.' Pity the parent and
child who are like that!
How can a baby who was born with a sense of right and wrong before it
can even speak come to have a lawless heart that only knows the rules
of 'I want' and 'I like'? It happens little by little, as all good or
bad character happens gradually. The mother says, 'No, no!' when her
two-year-old is caught red-handed taking a cookie from the cookie jar.
His little eyes search her face to see how far his mother will let him
go. When the mother is taken in by how cute he is and laughs and lets
the child off, she has unwittingly taught her child a lesson. She has
put a stumbling block in the child's path, an offense: he has learned
that something he knows is wrong may be done
pg 15
without punishment, and he builds onto this knowledge. And thus begins
the process whereby a mother's 'No!' is disregarded and her rules
challenged until she yields. The child learns that everything is as
allowable as his mother lets him get away with. And if every act is
merely up to the mother to decide on, then why shouldn't she be worked
on to decide in the child's favor? And if Mother can decide what's okay
to do based on her own whims or her child's persuasion, then why
shouldn't he be able to decide what's okay to do, too, so long as he
can get away with it? And from then on, the child's life is a struggle
to get his own way; in this struggle, the mother is sure to lose
because she has lots of responsibilities to think about, but her child
has time to be persistent in wearing her down to get what he wants.
Children
Must Understand That Those Over Them Are Also Under a Law
Where does this break-down have its
source? It begins because the mother lacks a sense of duty--she thinks
she is free to choose for herself what her child can and can't do, as
if the child were hers alone to do with as she likes. The child never
comes to realize that his mother is bound to a higher law than her own
whims--he never learns that she can't let
him break his sister's toys, or stuff himself with cake, or make
everyone around him miserable, because it
isn't right. The child needs to see that his parents are bound
by the same codes of right and wrong that he is. Their 'no' isn't to
please their own whims but because they cannot allow him to do wrong.
When children understand that, they generally comply willingly. To have
to reason with a child to win his compliance is usually a bad idea and
compromises
pg 16
the parent's dignity. If a child understands from his mother's tone and
facial expression that she cannot allow a thing as a matter of
principle of right/wrong, he will sense that her mind can't be changed
and he won't try to challenge or persuade her.
Parents
may Offend their Children by Disregarding:
A.
The Laws of Health
Allowing a child to get away
with doing wrong is only one way that loving mothers offend their
children. When a mother doesn't know any better, or, worse, doesn't
care, she may do her child the disservice of compromising his health by
feeding him a diet of junk food, letting him sleep and live in poorly
ventilated rooms, and disregarding other simple rules of healthy
living. Really, in an age when science is making all kinds of
discoveries and information is readily available, ignorance is no
excuse for letting a child's health go.
B.
The Laws of Intellectual Life
Almost
as bad is the way children's minds are allowed to develop a distaste
for learning with dry, tedious school lessons where real learning isn't
expected. Many girls [in Charlotte
Mason's day, girls didn't have the educational equality that they do
now] learn nothing more from their school lessons than that
learning is boring, and mental challenges are to be avoided. So a girl
grows up and reads nothing more than trashy novels and chatters
incessantly about clothes.
C.
The Laws of Moral Life
What
about the affections of the child? Most parents raise their children to
love and be loyal to family, but what about outsiders?
pg 17
Is popular thought allowed to discourage our children from reaching out
to strangers? Even worse is when a child is less favored in her own
family because she isn't pretty, or as smart as her sister. She is
ignored while her parents lavish affection on the other children. Who
can blame her for feeling no love for her siblings who got the share of
the affection she was entitled to? And who can blame her for resenting
her parents? So many children suffer hurt from this kind of neglect,
and many lives become bitter as a result. One woman talked about how
her childhood was made unbearable because her mother doted on her
little brother, but ignored her. She could never get over her feelings
of rejection. Although her mother was kinder to her after she had
grown, she never could feel natural with her mother. And it affected
her relationship with her brother, with whom she might have been close
if not for her hurt feelings.
IV.--Despising the Children
Children
Deserve the Best of Their
Mothers
How is it possible that a mother can despise her own
child? Despise means to undervalue. As much as adults may delight in
children, we do tend to have a low opinion of them. How else is it
possible for a mother to leave
pg 18
her precious children in the care of unconscientious care-givers during
their most crucial years? Every act a child sees, or word he hears,
leaves an impression in his mind in the same way that light leaves a
permanent image on a roll of film. It isn't that a nurse [or daycare or babysitter?] is
totally bad for a child; it is not always good for educated people to
have their children around constantly. That might be too stimulating
for the child, and the mother is more refreshed if she can enjoy time
with other people, discussing things unrelated to children from time to
time. But children should have their mother's best; her freshest, most alert time
of day. The mother should also choose care-givers carefully, train them
herself, and be vigilant about knowing what goes on while her children
are in the care of someone else.
Caregivers
A harsh, rude caregiver
causes permanent damage to sensitive children. Many children in the
care of others lose their sharp moral sense of right and wrong and pick
up a feeling of distance from God that they never get over. Children
are born with a keen sense of justice and pick up the slightest hint of
unfairness or deception. If his caregiver says, 'Be a good boy and I
won't
tell,' then the child learns that his mother, with whom he should be
completely honest and keep no secrets, is someone he can deceive. The
child may not even feel guilty about such compromises. Since he assumes
that grown-ups know better, he accepts the deception as normal and
shapes his own character accordingly. Because of his own sin nature, it
will be more natural for him to pick up bad habits than to resist them.
If his caregiver is rude, cruel and dishonest, even the youngest child
will pick up those traits.
pg 19
Even
Tiny Children's Misdeeds Should be Taken Seriously
Another
way parents despise children is by not taking their faults seriously. A
little child may show greed in eating his sister's treats, or
vindictiveness in biting a friend who angers him, or lying to get out
of trouble. The mother knows the trait is ugly and sinful, but hopes
he'll grow out of it. If he doesn't, she figures she can deal with it
later when he's a bit older. But life would be easier for herself and
her child if she would nip it in the bud in the first place. The child
is fully aware that he has done something wrong and, by letting it go,
the child is learning that sin is okay. Even a grieved look can be
enough the first time to show the child that his little sin is not
acceptable, but if the offense passes unchecked, it will become a habit
that has to be replaced later with more effort. To make light of little
offenses because the child is so little will cause trouble later.
V.--Hindering the Children
A
Child's Relationship with God
The worst way to despise children is to overlook their
relationship with God. Jesus said, 'Suffer the little children to come
pg 20
unto Me.' It's the normal, natural thing for children to come to
God--unless they are somehow hindered by grown-ups. In the same
beautiful way that babies who can't even say 'mama' know enough to turn
to her, and that flowers turn to the sun--children naturally turn to
God with delight and trust, even though they don't yet understand the
doctrinal implications of what they're doing.
Tiny
Tot Theology
But this is what
children hear all too often: 'Bad boy, how can God love you now?' or
'God will send you to hell with the demons if you keep acting like
that!' For some children, this is all they ever hear about God. They
never hear how God loves them and delights to bless them. If you add
long prayers in dry King James English, debates about doctrine in their
presence, casual use of holy, reverent terms, and few obvious visual
signs that God means more to his parents than their worldly concerns,
then it's no wonder that children hesitate to 'Come unto Me!' Yet, some
of these same children have parents who are committed Christians and
deeply value their spirituality. This is what happens when parents
assume that children are too young to understand spiritual things and
withhold proper discussion about God until they think the child is
ready.
VI.--Conditions of
Healthy Brain-Activity
Now that we know what not to do, what does the mother need to do to
educate her child?
pg 21
Any
Work that the Mind Does Puts Wear on the Brain
The
parts of the child that we educate--his intelligence, his will, his
moral feelings--are controlled in the brain. In the same way that the
eye is what sees,
the brain is what thinks, wills, loves and worships. Nobody is quite
sure what part of the brain does what [at
least, not in Charlotte Mason's day!] but we do know that actual
physical activity takes place in the gray matter of the brain when a
person does anything. Brain activity isn't just a concern for research
scientists, because the brain needs certain conditions to operate
properly. The brain needs exercise, rest and nutrition, just like any
other part of the body.
Exercise
We all know of silly
or bizarre people who make us wonder if some people were born with less
brains than most people. Everybody is probably born with the same
amount of brain power, but without daily mental challenges, the brain
gets no exercise. Children need to get into the habit of daily thinking
activities and sustained acts of the will, otherwise the brain grows as
lazy and flabby as an arm carried in a sling for years. A brain cannot
stay inactive; without regular work, it creates work on its own,
reaching out its own lines of thought. That makes the person eccentric
because the brain can't work sporadically in a haphazard way. It needs
to work under
pg 22
some order. It has been suggested that poet William Cowper, who had
attacks of
derangement and depression, may have been the cause of his own
suffering because his brain needed more to do than writing poems.
So, don't let children spend a day without some kind of real mental
effort, whether it be intellectual, moral or an act of the will. They
need to stop and figure things out in their minds, they need to make
themselves do what they don't feel
like doing, they need to determine to do something that costs them
sacrifice in pleasure or comfort, and, most of all, they need to
exercise their brains with regular mental activity.
Rest
Rest is just as important
as exercise. Just like the rest of the body, when the brain is working,
blood is diverted to send energy there. The body has a limited supply
of blood and should only have to support one strenuous activity at a
time--first the arms and legs, then the digestive tract, then the
brain, one at a time. The body sends all the blood it can spare to the
part of the body that is working the hardest.
Rest
after Meals
After the
child has eaten dinner, the heaviest meal of the day [in CM's day, this would have been the
midday meal],
pg 23
his blood is diverted to his digestion for 2 or 3 hours. If the child
goes for a walk right after dinner, his blood is diverted to his legs
and half his food is left undigested. If this becomes a regular habit,
the child will be plagued with digestion problems. Sending a child to
do his homework right after dinner is just as bad: all the blood that
should have gone to digesting his meal will go to his brain.
So it makes sense that lessons should be scheduled carefully after
periods of mental rest, such as after sleeping or playing, when the
blood is not engaged in working on some major activity. Since breakfast
is usually a light meal and requires less energy to digest, the time
after breakfast is a good time to plan lessons. If the whole afternoon
can't be spared for play, then constructive light tasks can be done,
such as sewing, drawing or practicing music. A child's mind is fresh
enough to do mental work in the evening, but that can interfere with
sleep if his mind gets too alert and excited from his work, and it can
cause him to have restless dreams and a fitful night's sleep. If there
is no way to avoid homework at night, then there should be an hour or
two right before bedtime for pleasant socializing. Best of all is not
to have any homework at all in the evenings.
A
Change of Occupation
Huxley
said that there was no clear proof that
pg 24
certain parts of the brain were responsible for specific activities--no
part of the brain specifically for exercising caution, or for playing
music [remember, CM wrote this back
in the 1800's before x-rays and MRI scans!]. But anyone knows
that, if you work too hard at some mental task, your brain becomes
tired. If a child does very challenging math, his mind will get
fatigued and he will start to have trouble and make silly mistakes. But
if you switch activities and let him read some history, his mind is
fine for that task. Using his imagination to picture history apparently
uses a different part of the brain than doing math and, since it was
dormant during the math, it is well-rested and ready to work for
history. Schools often schedule lessons to mix up types of brain
activities during the day, but parents often don't know that it's
important to do this.
Nourishment
The brain can't do
its work without nourishment. Someone once calculated how many ounces
of brain activity it took to do a certain activity, such as writing
Paradise Lost, or writing music. We don't need to know the exact
calculations to know that any kind of thinking uses up some energy in
the brain tissue. The blood works to bring energy to that area for
nourishment. The blood must be healthy and well-fed if it's going to
provide energy effectively to the brain. The brain is only going to be
as
well-nourished as the quantity and quality of the blood.
pg 25
What
Affects the Quality of
the Blood
There are three or four things that can affect the
quality of the blood. Food that is healthy and easy to digest will make
the blood more vital and life-giving. The diet should be varied so that
all the various micro-nutrients are included. Children are never still
and all their comings and goings and even their chattering expends
energy little by little. It's healthy for them to move and exercise,
but it means they lose energy that must be made up for by eating.
Children are more active than grown-ups, and their minds are all
a-flutter and busy all the time. The human brain takes up only a
fortieth of the weight of the body, but it expends a fourth or fifth
part of the blood's energy to function. And not only does the child use
energy moving and thinking, but his young body is also growing and
needs building material for this growth.
About
Meals
Therefore,
children must be well-fed. Half the people who complain of low energy
were not adequately fed during their childhood, and that was usually
pg 26
because their parents didn't understand what their child's nutritional
needs were rather than because of poverty. Regular meals at regular
intervals is a good, common-sense practice. A midday dinner should be
no more than five hours after breakfast, and animal protein should be
served once a day
or twice if one of them is a light form. It isn't how much food is
eaten, but how much gets digested that counts as far as nourishing the
body and brain. There are so many aspects of digestion; we'll just name
a couple of the most obvious. Everybody knows [at
least, they did in CM's day!]
that children should not eat pastry, pork, fried meat, cheese, rich
food, highly flavored food, sauces and spices such as pepper, mustard,
vinegar, new bread, rich cake, and jam that still has leathery skins.
Milk that is not too warm and which may be mixed with water, or cocoa,
is the best drink for children. They should learn not to drink during
meals, but only after meals. A good breakfast might be fresh fruit,
oatmeal with molasses, and the fat of toasted bacon [but not the bacon itself??]. A
glass of water first thing in the morning and last thing at night helps
promote regularity [but might not be
the best idea if you have a bed-wetter!]
Mealtime
Conversation
It isn't just
rules of nutrition that affect how much of the meal is actually
digested. Emotional
pg 27
considerations must also be taken into account. Digestive juices are
only secreted freely when the mind is content and unstressed. If a
child dislikes his meal, he may swallow it, but it won't digest very
well. If the meal is strained with uncomfortable silence, the meal
likewise won't digest very well. So, providing meals in pleasant
surroundings isn't a matter of pampering and spoiling, but a matter of
health. And too much excitement is also bad for the digestion. Every
effort should be made to make mealtimes around the family table the
happiest times of the day. If possible, children should sit at the
table with their parents [in CM's
day, children sometimes ate in the nursery or in the kitchen]
unless the parents are having a late supper. Mealtime is an excellent
opportunity to teach children proper manners and morals, to have family
bonding, and to teach healthy eating habits such as thorough chewing.
A
Variety of Foods
Pleasant
environment and high quality food isn't enough, children's food should
be plain, but it should also be varied. Mutton served as leftovers all
week won't adequately nourish the child if
pg 28
he gets so tired of mutton that he loses his appetite. The mother
should plan a meal rotation so that no dinner is repeated more than
once every two weeks. Fish as the main dish is an excellent change of
pace because it is rich in phosphorus, which is good for the brain.
Puddings can be a good choice because they don't often like fatty
foods, but they will eat sweet, starchy puddings. But even their
puddings shouldn't always be the same kind--think variety. A wise mother should never
say, 'I always give my children such and such for tea.' There should be
no 'always' when it comes to children's meals, every meal should have
something different. But won't this make children overly concerned
about what they eat and drink? No. It isn't well-fed children who are
greedy, but underfed children who can't be trusted with special treats.
Air
as Important as Food
The
quality of the blood depends on good, fresh air as well as good, varied
food. Every two or three minutes, all of the blood circulates entirely
around its circuit in the body, returning to the heart to be
re-oxygenated by the lungs. The change that oxygen makes in the short
time it's in contact with the lungs is so drastic that even the blood's
color undergoes a dramatic change. It enters the lungs spoiled and
unable to sustain life, but leaves as life-giving fluid. But blood is
only fully oxygenated when the air
pg 29
contains plenty of oxygen. In a room, every living being and flame
takes some oxygen from the air, depleting it. So it's very important
that children spend time every day out in the fresh air exercising
their limbs and lungs in fresh, pure, fully oxygenated air.
Children
Should be Outside Every Day
A
mother brags that her children are outside for a walk at least one hour
a day. Perhaps that's better than nothing. A little girl uses her lunch
money to buy aniseed candy drops; we might say that's better than
nothing, too. But children can't thrive on candy and they can't thrive
on just an hour outside every day. The human animal wasn't meant to
survive in an artificial environment of walls any more than plants were
designed to live in glass houses. Countries such as France, Germany,
Italy have an advantage in that their people practically live
out-of-doors and are happier, simpler and healthier for it. Charles II
said England had the best climate for being outside. Man can't live on
food and drink alone. It's true that you can't
pg 30
live on air, but if we had to choose between air, food or drink, air
would sustain us longer. You can survive days or weeks without food and
water, but only a few minutes without air. We are so used to that
knowledge that it no longer holds our interest. Every schoolboy knows
how the blood circulates and is brought to the lungs for oxygen.
Oxygenation
has its Limitations
We're so familiar with our knowledge of oxygen that we don't even think
about it anymore, but even the miracles oxygen can do are limited. It
can only work where it is--if
the air has been depleted by fire and candle and others breathing in
the room, how vital can it be? Air should be 23 parts oxygen per
hundred parts, but with all those things taking oxygen out of the air,
pg 31
and the air in a room not vented or circulating, the air gets stagnate
and has little life-giving oxygen left. And then imagine how many fires
and candles and pets and people are in a city, taking oxygen from the
air, and what do you think is the result? People only feel fully alive
when their blood is well-oxygenated by breathing fully oxygenated air.
Those who live cooped up in poorly ventilated houses can't possibly be
as alive as those who live mostly outside in the open air. In cities
where the air is depleted, people subsist at low levels of health and
energy, their growth is stunted, and they get respiratory diseases that
kill them before their time. Yes, we need shelter from the weather and
a place to sleep at night, but we lose when we make our homes so
comfortable that we never want to leave them to go outside.
Unchanged
Air
Pale city children who spend too much of their days cooped up inside
are not as healthy in one way as street children who scavenge for food
in the garbage--at least they get lots of the most essential element:
fresh air. Even a city street in the slums has better air than a
closed-up home. But even city air
pg 32
isn't the best. What's even better is delicious country air. It's even
more important for children than adults to breath country air because
they move and play and breath more air, and they are also growing and
developing new tissue. The body needs high-quality blood to keep up
with all of this activity. A child's brain, too, is growing and needs
the best material it can have to make new tissue.
'I
feed Alice on beef tea.'
A parent might go out of the way to research the healthiest diet
and spare no expense or effort to provide it for their dear child, but
if the child spends most of the day cooped up in the house, they may
still be starving for oxygen. The nutritionally superior food isn't
being converted into energy as well as it should be because the body
isn't working as efficiently as it should and has inferior blood to
work with.
And if the child's body is listless and pale as a result of being in
the house, imagine how the alert, curious mind of the child must be
stifled without real things from nature to handle. Children can't fully
grasp the words--mere symbols of things--until they have something real
in their mind to relate it to; therefore, mere lessons without the
experience of being out in the real world with real things will be
largely wasted.
pg 33
The Wordsworth poem 'Three Years She Grew' is quoted in which a girl
grows up close to nature and nature herself smiles on the girl and
blesses her with the 'silence and the calm of mute, insensate things.'
The girl finds peace among the beauties of nature and the peace of
nature adds its own beauty to her face.
Indoor
Airings
Out-door airings will be discussed later, but indoor airings are just
as important. The damage of hours spent inside with depleted air can't
be undone by spending a couple hours outside. With a couple of people,
a fire and other things using air in a room, it becomes de-oxygenated
pretty quickly unless the room is well-vented. We've all experienced
the stuffiness of entering a closed room after being outside, but after
a few minutes, we don't even notice the stuffiness anymore. Thus, we
can't depend on our senses to tell us when a room needs ventilation.
Ventilation
Therefore, we need to have a plan to keep the room ventilated
regardless of
pg 34
whether anyone in the room thinks the room needs it or not. Windows
must be kept open at least one inch at the top day and night. That will
allow enough air to circulate because light, depleted air rises and
will escape out the top of the open window, while fresh air can seep in
from cracks around doors, windows and floors. An open chimney is not
enough ventilation, but stopping up the chimney in a bedroom is
suicidal. Children should get used to sleeping with the window open
an inch or two all year, and even more than that in summer.
Night
Air is Healthy
Some people think night air is unhealthy, but it actually contains as
much oxygen as day air. In fact, since there are less things going on
to use up oxygen (fires are put out at night), night air is actually
healthier. When children are away from their room is a great
opportunity to throw open the doors and windows and give it a thorough
airing.
Sunshine
It isn't just fresh, clean air that makes healthy blood. Healthy blood
has a high number of red blood cells which are produced in the blood
itself. People who spend a lot of time in the sun have ruddy faces
pg 35
because they have so many red blood cells, but people who live in dark
cellars and alleys have pale, paper-white faces. It follows that light
and sunshine are necessary for
making red blood cells; therefore, children's rooms should be on the
sunny side of the house, on the south, if possible. The whole house
should be kept bright by removing trees and outbuildings that obstruct
light from coming in the windows, especially in the children's room.
Free
Perspiration
There's one more thing needed to make sure that the blood that
nourishes the brain is the best quality. One of the functions of the
blood is to carry waste from the various parts of the body and get rid
of it. One of the most important ways the body expels waste is through
the millions of pores in the skin in the form of perspiration.
Insensible
Perspiration
When there is lots of waste expelled through the pores, we notice
perspiration on our skin. But even when it's too light for our notice,
our body is constantly getting rid of waste through perspiration. If
anything hinders the body's discharge of waste through the pores,
perhaps by coating a large part of the skin so that no moisture can get
through, death will be the result. That's why people can die when large
parts of their skin gets burned even though no vital organ is
injured--many pores through which waste should be carried away
pg 36
are gone and the remaining skin's pores and the waste organs [kidney, liver] have to pick up the
slack, but may not be able to keep up, causing a pooling of fluid that
can't get out of the body. If the blood is going to nourish the brain,
the pores all over the skin must be unrestricted to allow wastes to be
carried away.
Daily
Bath and Porous Garments
Two factors affect the pores. First, daily bathing and vigorous skin
rubbing. Just as important are clothes that breathe. Perhaps delicate
women who felt faint at church had their fashionable sealskin coats to
blame. And that may be why people who sleep under thick bedding wake up
unrefreshed--all that covering restricts their perspiration so their
blood can't expel impurities. We might be surprised by how many people
go through life fatigued simply because of their choice in clothing.
The best clothing for children is breathable wool, flannel and serge [serge is cloth made from twilled wool, or
silk twilled to be like wool], heavier weight for winter,
thinner for summer. Wool is more porous and therefore better than
cotton and linen. Wool also holds in heat in the winter and absorbs
perspiration so the skin doesn't feel clammy
pg 37
like it sometimes does after sweating. We'd all be better off if we
slept in light wool sheets instead of cotton or linen.
There is much more that might be said about the various aspects of
nourishing the brain, but it is enough if the awareness of one or two
rules of health are made so plain and clear that one can't help
implementing them.
These may seem like the least interesting details of education, but the
foundation of good nutrition and health is the ground on which
everything else rests. Every part of our being--our thinking, our mood,
even our spiritual life--is affected by our physical condition, by how
healthy and alert we are. This doesn't mean that a person with a toned
body is necessarily brilliant and good, but a brilliant and good person
has necessarily invested years of reasonably sound health practices to
enable him the health to develop his wisdom and morality. If you doubt
whether physical health affects your mind, ask yourself, is it easier
to be friendly, kind and outgoing with or without a headache or acute,
painful nerve spasms?
VII--'The Reign of Law' in
Education
Common
Sense and Good Intentions
Even
though all these physical considerations are just the groundwork, the
same principles can be applied
pg 38
to all of education--the principles of orderly, regular progress under
a specified law. The reason that education has so much less effect on
the person than it should is because 90 percent of parents rely on
their own 'common sense' and good intentions. But common sense must be
well-informed, and good intentions must be according to actual laws of
nature, which are divine laws that are found more often in life than in
the scriptures.
A
Person who Lives Ethically May Be More Successful than a Religious
Person
It is really pitiful that many people who
pride themselves on not
knowing God live purer lives with less character flaws and selfishness
than many professing Christians! Our children won't be able to escape
notice of that fact and we will need to be prepared with some
explanation of that phenomena. If the secular person they see should
happen to be a beloved, respected person in their lives, it will speak
more to them than years of doctrinal teaching. The biggest threat to
religion isn't all the wickedness around us, but good that comes from a
source refusing to acknowledge God.
That is the reason why I say the little I do about religion, because I
sense the danger and I know that educated parents need to be aware,
since they are
pg 39
the best and most competent persons to deal with it.
Mind
and Matter Are Both Governed by God's Law
So,
what do we make of the morality of non-believers? The world of the
mind, just like the world of matter and nature, is governed by
unwritten laws. A child blowing bubbles or reflecting on flitting
little thoughts in his mind cannot do so outside of that Law. All
safety and success happens because of obedience to these Laws [for instance, we stay safe while walking
along a cliff's edge because we heed the law of gravity.] There
are natural laws of thought, morality, the physical world and spiritual
life. Anyone who recognizes, respects and heeds those laws will reap
the reward of obeying those laws, whether he attributes those laws to
God or not. Anyone who obeys God's laws will experience the blessing of
that obedience even if he doesn't know the Author of those laws, just
as anyone who steps into the sunshine will be warmed whether he
acknowledges the sun as the source of the warmth or not. Even if he
closes his eyes and refuses to see the sun, it warms him nevertheless.
On the other hand, those who don't bother to learn what those laws are
can't experience the blessings of heeding them even if they are
Christians who will inherit the eternal gift of salvation and heaven.
Some
Christians Don't Live as They Should
Sometimes the gift of eternal life is so
wonderful that a Christian doesn't seek for anything else. He breathes
in deeply, enjoying the freshness of his new spiritual life--but he
breathes in the spiritual laws only, completely missing the laws of
nature and almost treating them with contempt, or resisting them as
belonging to the secular world [an
example might be Christians who scoff at laws of conservation and
environmental responsibility, relegating them to 'new age thinking.']
pg 40
Such a person might care nothing for the wonderful way in which he was
created, or how the brain works, or the subtle ways that the mind
develops in accordance with natural laws. They think that these earthly
matters are worthy only of the attention of nonbelievers, as if it
somehow dishonors God to focus on the way He displays His character in
the laws of this world. They refuse to have anything to do with any
laws except the blatantly religious ones. Meanwhile, the secular person
seeking to discover how the world operates most efficiently finds that
things work better when he adheres to certain natural laws--physically,
mentally, morally; in fact, all of the various facets of God's
interests except the spiritual one. Don't forget that, although Esau
gave away his spiritual birthright, the inheritance he did receive was also a blessing of
God. When secular people heed God's natural laws and Christians don't,
is it any wonder that the children of Christians ask, 'Why does it seem
like non-believers are better off than we are?'
Parents
Must Familiarize Themselves with
the Principles of Physiology and Moral Laws
Christians
parents shouldn't set up their children to have to face this
difficulty. They have no right to pray that their children would be
honest and have integrity while neglecting the principles and
scientific details that go into teaching and training children to be
honest and have integrity. These principles and scientific details are
just as divine as God's spiritual Laws. The principles and laws of the
natural world won't help us enter into a true knowledge of God Himself,
which takes priority over anything else and makes life worth living.
But these natural and scientific laws play a part in the
pg 41
education of all persons, and parents may not neglect them
without
paying the price. In these volumes, I will attempt to roughly lay out a
method of education that adheres to divine natural laws and thus will
result in divine blessings and success. Anything I can offer in this
short guide will be imperfect and incomplete, but I hope it will be
enough to get thoughtful parents focused on the proper lines of
thinking in regards to the education of their children.
Paraphrased by L. N. Laurio
Please direct any comments or questions to me by emailing me at cmseries-owner at yahoogroups dot com.
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