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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
pg 19
Chapter 3 - Parents as Inspirers: Children
Must Be Born Again Into a Life of Intelligence
Parents
Owe Their Children a Second Birth
M. Adolf Monod [1802-1856, celebrated
Protestant Reformed preacher in Paris] said that children owe
their mother a second birth--the first birth is their natural, physical
birth, and the second is into the spiritual life of intelligence--and
they also owe their mother a moral sense of right and wrong. If he'd
been writing for the general public and not just for mothers, I'm sure
he would have said that the work of achieving this second birth
requires the equal efforts of both
parents. How did he come to such a surprising concept? He observed
that great men always seem to come from great mothers--mothers who are
gifted with an unlimited ability to take great pains in raising their
children. He compares this work to a second birth that launches the
child to a life on a higher plane, and the higher this life is, the
more blessed the child's life will be. He says that every child has a
right to this kind of second birth into a more complete human being,
and that it's up to his parents
to secure this kind of life for him. If Monod's conclusions were only
based on his own deductions, we might ignore them and not trouble
ourselves with this second birth. After all, parents may and often do
neglect to secure it for their children. Or we might bring up
pg 20
examples of good parents whose sons turned out badly, and indifferent
parents whose children sincerely tried to do right, therefore, what
good is it to try? We think that a pat response like that lets us off
the hook.
Science
Supports Monod's View
The appeal to be a good mother to your son because great men always
have good mothers is inspiring and rousing, but it's not the only
argument. To confirm how urgent this view is, we can look at the
inductive methods of science. Although science still hasn't found all
the answers, what it's already discovered is the truth that
should be adhered to for all parents who believe it. The parable of
Pandora's Box has some truth for us today, and a careless mother can
let a thousand misfortunes loose on her children by her disregard. But
there's also a 'cup of blessings' ready and waiting that parents can
dip into to provide health, strength, justice, mercy, truth and beauty
for their children.
Some may object that 'every good and perfect gift comes from the
father,' and that therefore it's presumptuous for human parents to
think they can bestow spiritual gifts to their children. But this
is just superstitious thinking and has no part of true religion. It
results in the disaster of many badly managed households and badly
governed families. We need to recognize that God uses people,
especially parents, as His vehicle for distributing gifts, and that He
is honored when His law is kept. He isn't honored when we take the
attitude of a royal attendant waiting for special favors. When we
recognize that, then we'll make the effort to understand the laws
that are written, not only on stone tablets and paper, but on the
hearts of our
children. And when we understand the law, we'll perceive with
thankfulness and enlarged
pg 21
hearts all of the natural
ways in which God shows mercy to thousands of people who love Him and
keep His commandments.
But His commandment is 'exceedingly broad' and it seems to become
broader every year as science discovers new revelations. We need to
gird up our minds to keep up with all of these new revelations. We'll
also make an effort to keep the attitude of focused expectancy that it
takes to recognize the unity and continuity of scientific discoveries
with God's Word. It could be that only as we accept both scientific
discoveries and God's Word, and harmonize
them in a willing and obedient heart that we'll enter into the heritage
of
glad, holy living that is God's will for us.
Steps
and Methods of Attaining This Second Birth
In the light of current scientific thought, let's consider the steps
and methods needed for this second birth that is the child's right to
expect from his parents. 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and
when he is old he will not depart from it,' isn't just a promise. It's
a statement of fact expressing the effect that results from a reasoned
process. The author of those words had lots of opportunities to arrive
at his conclusion. He'd watched lots of children grow up, and his
observations taught him that children could be divided into two
groups--those who were well-brought-up and turned out well, and those
who were badly-brought-up and turned out bad. Undoubtedly there were
exceptions, but the fact that they were exceptional only confirms the
truth of this rule.
But in this passage as much as in other scriptures, the promises and
warnings of the Bible will stand up to being tested with reasoned
methods. We may wonder why that's the case.
pg 22
And we aren't satisfied with an answer as general as 'because it's
natural and right.' We may observe and look for evidence until we
finally come to the conclusion that this result is inevitable, and
(unless there are unusual influences), no other result is even
conceivable. How much we obey the rule will be in direct proportion to
how much we recognize that the rule is inevitable.
Dr.
Henry Maudsley's Comments About Heredity
Almost all of what we know about heredity is irrelevant to the second
birth. But it applies to the first birth: 'qualities from a child's
father and mother, grandfather and grandmother, may be dormant and show
up in the child. His development will progress along the lines of those
qualities in his nature. It isn't so much education as inheritance
that's responsible for a child being brave or timid, generous or
selfish, cautious or reckless, boastful or modest, quick-tempered or
calm. The foundation of his character is laid in him at birth, and it
colors all of the emotions he'll feel and the ideas that go along with
them. The influence of carefully planned environment on a person is
tremendous, but a child's inherited nature determines the limit that
environment will have, and even, to some degree, the nature of that
environment which forms the foundation that all the later modifications
rest on.'
Disposition
and Character
If heredity is so important as it seems to be if a child comes into the
world with his character all ready laid out, then what's left for
parents to do except to stay out of the way and give him room to work
out his own salvation along the lines of his own individuality without
their interference? The strong tendency to naturalism in our day makes
us inclined to accept this view of the goals and limits of education.
Yes, it's a fact and
pg 23
it's the truth, but it's not the whole truth. The child brings disposition into the world with
him, but not character. He's born with tendencies that might just need
to
be reinforced, or re-channeled, or even repressed. His character--that
flowering of the person that prepares the fruit of his life--is a
formula consisting of the disposition he was born with, with
modifications, direction, and expansion provided by education,
circumstances, self-control and self-culture when he's older, and, most
of all, the supreme power of the Holy Spirit, even when that power
isn't evident or even requested.
The great labor of creating character is the single most effectual work
that people can attempt. How is it to be accomplished? We'll start our
question from a physical perspective. Yes, it's the lowest basis, but
that's why it forms the foundation for the rest. The rooms on the first
floor of any building are pleasant, but nobody starts a building with
the first floor. What would it rest on? The difference between the
physical gray brain tissue and the mind that works through it is like
the difference between a song and the vocal chords of the singer. The
distinction is even more physical than the difference between the
physical brain and the spiritual person. The brain
registers and effects every movement of thought and feeling, whether
it's conscious or unconscious, with detectable molecular movement. It
supports the unlimited activities of the mind by balancing an enormous
amount of activity with an enormous amount of waste. The brain is the
physical organ of the mind that, under present conditions, is
inseparable from, and indispensable to, the vital spirit. Every time we
think a thought, there's a distinct series of activities set into motion
pg 24
in some area of the physical brain tissue, in the same way that there's
a series of activities that have to happen within the arm muscles in
order for the hand to write a sentence. Once we recognize this, we'll
understand that the way the brain tissue behaves provides us with a
possible key to guaranteed effectiveness and a systematic approach in
our educational efforts, speaking of education in its most worthy sense
of character formation.
We heard Dr. Maudsley's comments about heredity. Now let's hear what he
has to say about environment, which practically lets us define the
possibilities that education can have.
Dr
Maudsley's Comments About the Physical Effects of 'Certain Experiences
in Life'
'Anything that's existed with complete consciousness leaves something
behind it after it leaves the mind or brain. It leaves behind a
functional tendency to reproduce or reappear in the consciousness
later. No mental activity is as fleeting as something written in water.
Some evidence of it always remains behind to make it easier if it needs
to be repeated. Every impression of the senses, every nerve impulse
from one area of the brain to another, every cerebral action that
generates movement of the muscles, leaves behind some modification in
the brain nerves that it relates to. It leaves an impression, a memory
of itself to make it easier to do the same thing again. The more often
it's repeated, the easier it is to repeat it again. On the other hand,
because a trace is left behind, it's impossible to say that the action
could never happen again under some circumstance, no matter how trivial
or insignificant the action is. If any kind of stimulation happens in a
nerve cell and none happens to an identical nerve cell right next to
it, that stimulation will create a difference in them
pg 25
so that the two cells will never be the same as one another again.
Whatever the nature of this physical process might be, the process is
the physical basis of memory, and it's the foundation of the
development all of our mental functions.
'The change that happens in the nerve cells after the activity or
function is over has been called different things--residuum, relic,
trace, disposition, or vestige. It's also been called a potential or
latent or dormant idea. It isn't just definite ideas that leave
physical impressions behind and lay the foundations for later
modes of thought, feeling and action. Everything that affects the
nervous system, feelings of pleasure and pain, desires, and even the
outward reaction to desires leave impressions behind, too. Sometimes
certain talents are formed practically or completely involuntarily.
Complex actions that were first done with total application of effort
and attention become automatic after enough repetition. Ideas that had
to be deliberately thought of as related to each other begin to
converge and become associated with each other without our conscious
thinking about it, so that a person with enough experience in the world
begins to have quick perception or intuition. Once feelings are active,
they leave behind a lot of unconscious residual impressions that affect
the way the character of the person evolves. That's how, apart from the
original inborn nature of a person, contentment, depression, cowardice,
bravery, and even moral feelings, a moral sense are created from
certain experiences in
life.'
Our
Era Has Acquired a Great Educational Outline
And this sketches out a wonderful educational outline for us. It's
probably a good thing that we don't realize how much liberty we have.
If we did, we might be seized with such a fervor of educational
enthusiasm that we'd start acting like those early Christians who
expected Jesus to come
pg 26
any day. How would a person ever have the patience to buy and sell and
collect if he knew that he was destined to paint the greatest picture
the world had ever known? And if we had a striking vision of what our
little child could become under our hands, how would we ever have the
patience for our daily routine work? Maybe Science has finally revealed
the
rationale for education as a Divine sign that we've become more fit for
the task because we've arrived at a higher sense of moral
responsibility. Imagine what would happen if immoral people were able
to fully discern the possibilities that education could bring! But
we're so slow!
'Tradition lays on us like a heavy weight,
As heavy as frost and almost as deep as life!'
It's been a whole generation since Dr. Maudsley wrote his words about
the physical impressions of mental activity, and since other
physiologists wrote similar things to the world. I've chosen wording
that has stood the test of time on purpose because, in our day, a
hundred leading scientists in England and overseas are saying the same
thing. Every scientist believes this! And what about us? We go on doing
everything the way it's always been done as if nothing had been said.
It's as if, every day and every hour, we're letting seeds of corn,
hemlock, bramble and rose drop from our careless hands.
Let's go over the outline of our liberties according to the passage of
Dr. Maudsley that I quoted above.
Some
Articles Contained in This Outline
One thing we can do is to lay the physical basis of memory. When the
wide-eyed baby reaches out with aimless kicking on the rug, he's
unconsciously receiving the first impressions that will form his
earliest memories. We can influence
pg 27
those early memories. We can make sure that the earliest sights he sees
are orderly, neat and beautiful. We can make sure that the first sounds
that his ear drinks in are musical, soft, tender and happy. We can make
sure that his nose only smells delicate purity and sweetness. Those
first memories are engraved on the unconscious memory, where they stay
for life. As we'll see later, memories have a certain ability to
accumulate. Where some memories exist, other ones of the same kind will
gather, and all of life is ordered along the lines of those first pure,
tender memories.
Another thing we can do is to lay the foundation for the development of
all the mental functions. Is there such thing as a child who doesn't
wonder, or revere, or like fairy tales, or think wise child-thoughts?
Maybe not. If there is, it's only because the pollen grain was never
delivered to fertilize the seed that was waiting in the child's soul.
According to Dr. Maudsley's Physiology
of the Mind, there are certain things that parents can arrange
for the adult the child will become, even in his early childhood:
His definite ideas about certain subjects, such as how he relates to
other people.
His habits in things like neatness or disorder, promptness and
moderation.
Whether the general way he thinks is affected by generosity or
selfishness.
The way he feels and what he does as a result of the way he thinks.
What he thinks about--the trivial affairs of daily life, nature, the
way the mind works, how God relates to people.
pg 28
His distinguishing talent--music, speaking, creativeness.
The way the disposition of his character shows and affects his family
and others he interacts with regularly--reserved or open, sullen or
friendly, depressed or cheerful, timid or confident.
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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