| CM SERIES HOME | CONCISE SUMMARIES | PARAPHRASED IN MODERN ENGLISH |
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 113
Chapter
11 - Some Aspects of Intellectual Training That We Don't Usually
Consider
We
are All Naturally Law-abiding in Physical and Moral Matters
All of us recognize that our bodies are subject to physical laws. We
know that if you put your finger in the fire, it will burn, if you're
exposed to a virus, you'll get sick, if you live an active, balanced
life, you'll be rewarded with good health. We know very well that we
experience the law's penalties or rewards in everything we do
physically. Some people go even beyond that and feel a personal sense
of God's hand as Lawgiver in matters concerning their health. When
we're sick, we have a special feeling that God is dealing with us, and
it makes us examine ourselves and try to learn what He's trying to
teach us. We live under a moral law, too. Sometimes we don't think
through
our actions and we make bad decisions, but we have a feeling of regret
and
we're very aware of the penalties.
But
That's Not the Case with Intellectual Matters
But in intellectual matters, we tend to hold onto our rights. We don't
acknowledge any authority or abide by any law. We believe that every
person is free to their own opinion, no matter how casually they form
it. Every man kindles the wisdom within him, as if it's a little light,
and feels that all that's expected of him is to live up to that wisdom
within himself. In fact, our attitude regarding
pg 114
our own intellectual processes is what gives us a disturbing sense of
having a dual nature. That misperception causes the ruin of many lives,
anxiety in many others, and a casual, shiftless drifting of even more.
Our intellectual thoughts aren't a separate thing from our outward
actions and spiritual prayers, or even from our physical state of
being. Man isn't a combination of separate entities. He is one spirit
that lives in a visible physical form, and he's able to do many
different things. He can work ethically, love unconditionally, pray
faithfully and live righteously--but all of these actions are the
outpouring of his thought-life and the kinds of things he thinks about.
Three
Ultimate Facts That Are Not open to Question
We tend to offend the law intellectually, opposing authority, in two
ways. First, we tend to think that everything is an open question. We
forget that there are three things that man's reasoning will never be
able to prove or disprove, even though men in every age have tried.
God, Self and the World are the three things. Active scientific western
minds try to confirm again and again that there's no place for God in
the world. They've developed such a pleasant, eager concept of Self
that one major school of philosophy has gone so far as to demonstrate
that the world isn't really here, it's just a mirage that we're
projecting from our own minds. The more passive Eastern mind, on the
other hand, tends to regard Self as a passing phase always in a state
of being absorbed by the deity/universe. But God is, Self is, and the
World is. They exist with all that their existences imply, no matter
what we think or what we 'prove.' Once we accept that, then we have a
more humble
pg 115
attitude. We suddenly realize that all around us, above us, behind us,
inside us, there are 'more things than we could ever dream up in any of
our philosophies.' We get a proper perspective of ourselves as persons.
We're confined to our own little corner of the universe, and we live
and breathe and move in and under a supreme authority. We can't assume
that everybody realizes these things. We may all have heard something
about it, but very few people have a real, living realization of this
ultimate reality.
The
Limitations of our Reason
The second area where we need to recognize our limitations is the
nature of our Reason and what it does. At least, we call it Reason, but
it would be more accurate to describe it as our power of reasoning. We
all know what it's like to go to bed with some issue on our mind. We
say we'll sleep on it, and, in the morning, viola! The whole problem
has come into focus. We see what it involves and we know exactly what
we need to do. We're so used to taking this kind of miracle for granted
because it happens so often that it becomes routine. It doesn't even
occur to us to be surprised. We even have a rational explanation for
it. We say that the mind is clearer after a night's sleep, even though
that should make no difference since it isn't a clear mind in the
morning that solved the problem--we didn't solve the problem at all.
The solution seemed to have come all by itself. In fact, when we stop
to think about it, most of the decisions we arrive at seem to come to
us in this way. We can't honestly say that we've thought out a certain
matter, because the solution comes to us in an inspired flash, or
intuition, or whatever you want to call it. This is a broad subject,
but the only thing I want to emphasize is that children should
understand that a lot of our reasoning and thinking out is actually
involuntary. It's a natural function in the same way as our blood
circulation. This very fact means that the Reason has to be limited.
pg 116
Reason
Provides Logical Proof for Any Idea We Entertain
Certain individuals might or might not be trusted to come to a morally
right conclusion about any premise on their minds. In any case, the
reasoning ability itself acts in a mostly mechanical and involuntary
way. It doesn't necessarily arrive at the right conclusion. The only
job Reason does for us is to logically prove any idea that we decide to
entertain. For example, we've already said that schools of philosophy
in both eastern and western thought entertain the idea that the real,
physical world doesn't exist, it's man's conception. Logical proofs of
this concept pour into their minds so much that books proving this
seemingly absurd idea abound. We all know that if we entertain the
notion that a servant is dishonest, or that a friend isn't really our
friend, or that a certain dress makes us look fat, some power from
within us that's unconscious to us will go to work collecting evidence
and presenting clear-cut evidence to confirm it to us. This is how wars
and persecutions and family feuds all over the world have started.
That's why it's so important for children to learn that their
reason is limited. Then they won't confuse logical arguments with
eternal truth. They'll know that the important thing is the ideas they
allow
themselves to entertain. The conclusions they draw from those ideas
aren't foolproof because they evolve all by themselves.
A
Third Fallacy: Intellect is Man's Own Sphere, and Knowledge is His
Personal Discovery
There's a third fallacy that lies at the root of our thinking, and
therefore, needs to be addressed in our education. We all admit that
nature, morality, and theology are pretty much divine in
pg 117
origin and what they relate to. But we tend to assume that intellect is
man's own sphere and his exclusive domain. Even knowledge--clever
inventions, knowledge about mankind, nature, art, literature, the
heavens and earth--is assumed to be man's own discovery. He thinks he
found it out all by himself, thought it out for himself, observed,
reasoned, collected, worked, gathered his forces, all of his own accord
for his own purposes as an independent agent. This is intellectual
pride and it comes from man's arrogance. It isn't just true of our
modern age, which I think is the best age the world has seen, but in
every age, mankind has tended to lift his head and say,
'We are the only people who matter. There's never been anyone as
advanced as us
before, and there never will be.' But when we come to our senses, we
realize that our Creator and Father has not given over any aspect of
our lives to our sole care.
Great
Eras Come from Time to Time
The knowledge that's given to us seems to come to us in meals. There
are great eras of scientific discovery or ages of literary activity or
poetic insight or artistic creativity that seem to come from time to
time, followed by long intervals so that there's time for the world to
assimilate the new knowledge or idea. After that, the world seems to be
swept off its feet with a flurry of great minds involved with that
idea. Yet we haven't learned to discern the signs of the time, or
realize that this is the routine way that God provides us with
knowledge which
is, after all, just as divine as God's nurture and admonition. The
medieval church recognized this great truth. John Ruskin eloquently
explained how the 'Captain Figures,' or inventors, of grammar, music,
astronomy,
pg 118
geometry, arithmetic and logic all spoke what had been put inside them
as a result of the direct outpouring of the Holy Spirit--even though
none of them had any recognition of God as we know Him. We could
revolutionize education if we could understand that seemingly dry and
dull subjects like grammar and math are supposed to come to children in
a living form, revealed by the power of the Spirit who 'shall teach you
all things.'
Nothing
is as Practical as Great Ideas
It might seem like the line of thought I'm suggesting is interesting
but impractical. Yet nothing is as practical as a great idea
because nothing else produces so much practical effort. We must not
shun philosophy. Education is nothing more than the application of
philosophy. It's
our job to train children according to the wisdom we have within us,
rather than according to the latest new trend in educational
methodology.
'Man, know yourself,' is good advice that we might rephrase as,
'Child, know yourself, and know your relationships to God and mankind
and nature.' In order to give children the preparation they need to
live, parents need to know a little bit about the laws of the mind and
where knowledge comes from.
Forming
Intellectual Habits
The second part of our subject is forming intellectual habits. It
shouldn't take long to discuss it. We know that 'ability' means having
about a half dozen of these intellectual habits. They make a person
able to do whatever he wants to with his mental ability, and to use
only a tenth of the wasted brain tissue to do the same amount of mental
work as a person without disciplined mental
pg 119
habits. We also know that the mental habits we're talking about are
acquired by training, they aren't a natural gift. It's been said that
even genius itself is really only an unlimited ability to exert
oneself. We might say that genius is the habit of exerting oneself with
infinite pains, and every child is born with the capacity to do that.
We
Put Blind Trust in Disciplined Subjects
We put too much blind trust in the training that's supposed to give
certain mental habits. We suppose that the classics cultivate one
habit,
math cultivates another mental ability, and science still another. And
they do, as far as each of those subjects is concerned, but they
probably don't form those habits in a general sense like we expect. If
you take a mathematician out of his field of math, he's no more
superior than anyone else. In fact, he's apt to make a blunder like
making a big hole in a door for a big cat, and a little hole for a
little kitten! Studying the humanities don't always make a man
humane--meaning broad-minded, tolerant, gentle and honest when it comes
to the opinions and situations of others. It isn't the fault of the
individual subjects. It's our lazy habit of trying to misuse each of
these subjects as if it was some sort of a mechanical tool for plowing
and planting that's to blame. Parents don't get off the hook. Even more
than teachers and curriculums, it's up
to them to form the mental
habits that will give their children an intellectual advantage all
their lives.
Some
Intellectual Habits
I don't need to refer again to how habits begin. But perhaps most of us
are more diligent and definite when it comes to forming physical and
moral habits than we are about intellectual habits. I'll just mention a
few intellectual habits that should be carefully trained in children
pg 120
during their early childhood. Attention
is the ability to focus the whole mind on the subject at hand. Concentration is a bit different
from attention because it's actively working with some problem instead
of just being passively receptive. Thoroughness
is the habit of not being satisfied with a vague, fuzzy understanding
of a subject; the mind feels unsettled until it can gain a clearer
knowledge of the subject. An encyclopedia is a great help in clearing
up any confusing points. Intellectual
Determination is the ability to make ourselves think of a
specific subject at any given time. Most of us know how unruly our own
minds are. But, if a child gets used to enjoying effort for the sake of
effort, then he'll find it easier as an adult to make himself think
about what he wants to think about when he wants to think about it. Accuracy isn't only taught via
math. It's also taught through repeating little statements, delivering
small messages and doing daily routine tasks and errands. Reflecting is the ability to mull
over ideas and thoughts. It's usually well-developed in children, but
it somehow gets lost with a lot of other precious natural abilities as
they mature. Nothing is more pitiful than the way we let intellectual
impressions pass through our minds without even making an effort to
consider and retain them.
Meditation
I'll just mention one more mental habit. Mr. Romanes, a young
scientist, asked Darwin how he maintained his intellectual life.
'Meditation,' was his answer. Apparently Romanes placed great value on
this advice. Meditation is another habit that children should acquire.
Actually, it needs to be preserved more than acquired, because we
believe that children are born knowing how to meditate, just like
they're born knowing how to reflect. Reflection and meditation are
closely related. When we
pg 121
reflect, we mull over knowledge we've received. When we meditate, we
don't just go over the past, we let our minds wander and consider the
subject from all angles and to its logical conclusion. Christians have
known for a long time that spiritual progress depends a lot on
meditation. In the same way, intellectual progress needs more than mere
reading and studying a subject diligently. It takes an active
surrendering of all of the mind's abilities to work on the task at
hand. That's what the word meditate infers. It would be easy for any of
us to add a dozen more intellectual habits to this list, and
considering them would undoubtedly be valuable and interesting.
Living
Ideas Provide Sustenance
Intellectual life, like all the other facets of spiritual life, can
only live and grow on one food: the nourishment of living ideas. I
can't repeat this too many times or emphasize it too insistently. This
is probably the area we fail in most often when raising children.
All we feed them are dry, gray ashes from a fire of ideas whose spark
of original thought has long since been extinguished. We give children
inferior story books with tired clichés, unimaginative
situations, mere threads of other people's thoughts, and
unoriginal, worn-out attitudes. Our children complain that they
already know how the story is going to end! Even worse, they can
predict how every page will play out. Just the other day I heard
someone say that children don't like poetry, that they prefer an
exciting story told in prose. I have no doubt that they like the story,
but poetry does appeal to children, although in other ways. Shelley's Skylark will captivate a child
sooner than any touching tale. What
about art? We tend to hang their rooms with sentimental illustrations [such as this 'Christmas
number 'picture] and the
pictures in their books are
pg 122
even worse. Were getting a little better in the area of children's
illustrations, but there's still room for improvement.
Children's
Literature
There's been lots of discussion about 'children's literature,' and I
only have one more thing to add: children have no natural appetite for
twaddle. There's probably less need for a special genre of literature
for children than book publishers would have us believe. On any general
adult list of 'the hundred best books,' I think that seventy-five of
them would be well within the range of a seven or eight year old. They
would love Rasselas. Eöthen would be as fascinating
to them as Robinson Crusoe. The Faërie Queen, with its
allegory and adventures of knights and sense of traveling freely in
wild wooded areas, is right up their alley. What children want is to be
brought in touch with the very best living thought. If we bring it to
them, their intellect will feed on it with no meddlesome intervention
from us.
The
Independent Intellectual Development of Children
It's up to us to initiate and direct children's independent
intellectual development without controlling or dominating it--but
often, we don't even recognize its existence. I know a little nine year
old girl who brooded every day because the house she was visiting
didn't have her favorite Tennyson poems in any of their larger volumes
of books. She actually missed her favorite poems in the same way that a
child would miss a meal. And why not? The intellectual appetite is just
as real and just as compelling as physical hunger. Perhaps more so in
some cases. In H. King Lewis's book The
Child and Its Spiritual
Nature, there's a cute story told by Miss Martineau about the
intellectual awakening of 'a ten
year old boy who plopped himself down on his tummy with Southey's
pg 123
Thalaba on the floor in front
of him on the first day of his Easter vacation. In spite of his
inconvenient position, he turned the pages quickly as if he was looking
for something. A few hours later, he was done. He took it back to the
library and came back with Southey's Curse
of Keharna. He went on to do this with all of Southey's poems
and some others for the entire short vacation, hardly wanting to move
except to run to the library. After this process, he was so changed
that his family couldn't help noticing it. The look in his eyes, his
facial expression, the way he phrased things, even his walk was
different. In ten days he had matured years intellectually, and I've
always thought of this as the turning point in his life. His parents
were wise enough to kindly leave him alone. They were well aware that
school would end the opportunity to indulge in his new interest soon
enough.'
In the same way that a child who has been brought up always aware of
the presence of God won't usually have a dramatic conversion
experience, parents who have always satisfied the intellectual craving
of their children won't have the pleasure of witnessing a literary
awakening. One little girl whose parents had strong convictions against
alcohol said, 'I'm so sorry that my father isn't a drunk,' because she
wouldn't be able to rejoice in his conversion and reform. That's
exactly what we mean. :-)
Selecting
and Appropriating for Themselves
If children are provided with an abundant feast of ideas, they'll
naturally take on the process of selecting from them on their own.
Tennyson's lines--
'Our elm tree's ruddy-hearted blossom-flake is fluttering down,'
'Ruby-budded lime,'
'Black as ash-buds in the front of March'
pg 124
have done more to interest children in botany than any Science and Art
Department with all of their equipment, lectures and exams.
Browning also provides nature inspiration:
'Beside boulders with lichens that look
Like spots on a moth, and small ferns attach
Themselves to the polished rock.'
Concepts of nature, life, love, duty, heroism--children will discover
and select for themselves from the books they read. The authors of
the books children read contribute more to their education than any
deliberate
lessons. This is precisely why children need to choose these vital
ideas
and allocate them for themselves.
I'll discuss the burning question of what kind of curriculum will
provide children, not with the hard, dry bones of mere facts, but with
facts that are wearing warm flesh that's been made alive by having the
vital spirit of dynamic ideas breathed into them. The other day, a
teacher complained that it was difficult to teach from Freeman's Old
English History because it had too many stories--never
recognizing that
that it was the stories teaching living history, while all the rest was
dead.
Inherited
Stinginess Regarding Schoolbooks
Sometimes there's an unconscious inherited stingy attitude that came
down from the days when people had less money and there weren't as many
books. It can make parents unnecessarily restrict their children's
school books. Children should have living books, varied from time to
time, and not thumbed through from one generation of schoolchildren to
another until the mere sight of them is tedious. But the subject of
feeding children's minds with ideas is so
pg 125
extensive and important that I'll have to be satisfied with giving just
a few concise suggestions. For further study, books about these topics
should be helpful:
1) What kind of books children like in fiction, poetry, travel,
history, and biography, which is the most interesting subject.
2) The concepts about life and behavior that children assimilate from
their reading.
3) Concepts of duty that are assimilated in the same way.
4) The concepts of nature that children latch onto
5) The leading, life-giving ideas in school subjects such as geography,
grammar, history, astronomy, ancient history, etc.
Once more, I'd like to bring up John Ruskin's description of the
'Captain Figures' heading each of the Liberal Arts in his commentary
of the fresco
at the Spanish chapel from Mornings in Florence. And I'll
conclude with a wise quote by Coleridge about Plato's method, which
should always be on the mind of anyone involved with training children--
Plato's
Educational Aim
'He didn't want to help the passive mind store the various bits of
knowledge that were deemed most important, as if the human soul was
nothing more than a storage bin or banquet room. He wanted to place the
mind in the relationship of circumstance that would incite its growing
and germinating abilities so that it would produce new fruits of
thought, new concepts and imaginations and ideas.'
Paraphrased by L. N. Laurio
Please direct any comments or questions to me by emailing me at cmseries-owner at yahoogroups dot com.
|
CM SERIES HOME | CONCISE SUMMARIES
| PARAPHRASED IN MODERN
ENGLISH |