Children Are Born Persons: Quotes Worth Pondering

Some of the ideas I am chewing on as I savor the readings that are part of the Charlotte Mason 20 Principles Study…

 

Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Charlotte Mason:

 

“…his mind is the instrument of his education…his education does not produce his mind.” (p.36)

 

“I say ‘experience’ advisedly, for the word denotes the process by which children get to know.  They experience all the things they hear and read of; these enter into them and are their life; and thus it is that ideas feed the mind in the most literal sense of the word ‘feed’.” (p.40)

 

“Children hunger for knowledge, not for information.” (p.44)

 

 

For the Children’s Sake, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

 

“We can only love and serve him and be his friend.  We cannot own him.  He is not ours.” (p.13)

 

“One aspect of life is not more Christian than another.” (p.20)

 

“Grown-ups need time if their life is to support this kind of play.”  (p.23)

 

“…if we try to organize perfection, we fail the child.” (p.25)

 

“A child should never be made to feel that he is lagging behind others of his age…A high standard was expected, but at a level appropriate to the child’s ability.  It was like climbing one’s own private ladder…It was not to be like a race…The Bible teaches that we are like parts of the body.   In other words, we are different from each other, we all have different gifts.  How immoral to apply an arbitrary yardstick to the little child and expect him to progress at some ‘normal’ speed!  We take form him the joy of accomplishing new skills which should be part of growing up.”  (p.36)

 

“It is a challenge to us to keep alive the eagerness the 9 month old child displays when a cupboard is left open.” (p.41)

 

 

School Education (Volume 3), Charlotte Mason:

“…our non-success in education is a good deal due to the fact that we carry children through their school work and do not let them feel their feet.” (p.38)

 

“…we should train children so that we should be able to honour them with a generous confidence, and if we give them such confidence we shall find that they justify it.” (p.40)

 

 

Children are born persons.  So what? (by Megan Hoyt at The Winding Ascent)

 

“But Charlotte Mason doesn’t advise us to “produce” anything.  Our job is to present ideas, then step out of the way.”

 

“Children are image-bearers of God.  Human being with souls.  The acorn bursts open, roots seize at the earth, digging ferociously for nutrition, gasping breathlessly for water.  And what that child, newly formed and hungry, finds on his desperate quest is of the utmost importance.   And we are their guides.”