Charlotte Mason (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If a human being were a machine, education could do no more for him than to set him in action in prescribed ways, and the work of the educator would be simply to adopt a good working system or set of systems.

But the educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best, with every capacity for good that is in him developed into a power.

Here, Charlotte Mason brings to the forefront again that our view of our children is what matters. If we see them as only requiring the right system to bring about necessary ends, we undervalue them and view them as beings that are mass-produced.

Schools often undergo expensive adoptions of new curriculum in the hopes that by following it will bring about mass results.

A teacher’s first requirement is a deep love for the kids she will teach. The second requirement is a strong sense of duty to them. The third requirement is the freedom to adopt whatever methods she deems fit for the variety and levels of souls before her. If new curriculum is used, let her use it according to her own wisdom and knowledge of the spirits she guides and the curriculum she is familiar with and loves.

We are dealing with a human soul. If we wish to reach it, we must love and use all our wisdom, prayer, and tools to work with the spirit-being before us.

The mother or father has, of course, a great advantage in the teaching of his or her child because of the many ways in which they interact that can improve the child’s education. All parents should use this advantage.

But any teacher should distrust curriculum that promises mass-produced results and remember she deals with human beings — people who are best taught through story and ideas.

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The children are, in truth, to be regarded less as personal property than as public trusts put into the hands of parents that they may make the very most of them for the good of society.

This quote rankles me. In a world where so many entities clamor for a piece of our child’s soul — factories, companies, clubs, sports, schools, churches, advertisers — I do not wish to regard our children as belonging to anyone but themselves. Paul and I hide them from all of these hooks and grabs and picks that want to use our daughters for their own ends.

But Charlotte does not say that children are a public trust. They are not. She says parents should regard them as such. We are often shoddy with our own work and perfectionist when working for someone else. I’ll be punctual for a work meeting and slack on attending church on time. I’ll keep my work desk clean and allow my home to become messy. We are more professional when working for someone else, bottom-line. If we consider our parenting as a professional endeavor and the raising of our children as a product that will be evaluated, we may take our jobs seriously and do for our children better than if we considered them our own. Sad, but true.

I remember when I had Elsa, I actually wrote out a job description (in the form of a mission statement), and decided to “clock-in” hours. Too often, we stay-at-home mothers are tempted to do less by our children because so much of our society does the same thing. We have the sole direction of the children’s early, most impressible years, yet parents are encouraged to give these years over to strangers for the making of our children. Children inhale their environment and it becomes a part of them. The first five years of a child’s life may be the most important learning curve in their lives. Those years lay the foundation for all else.

Regarding our children as a gift to be given to the world may help our minds to battle against societal pressure to undervalue them. It will place children in their rightful place. They deserve a thinking love. We owe our children a careful training, a thoughtful upbringing, a loving, firm path.

Today’s model for child upbringing is a terrible cycle: ignore them until they demand attention in a negative way, be dismayed that they would act in such a way, feel guilty for ignoring them and placate their negativity with some sort of quasi-reward, and as soon as they are happy, ignore them once again.

The mother is qualified and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; … and what is demanded of her is — a thinking love. … God has given to thy child all the faculties of our nature, but the grand point remains undecided — how shall this heart, this head, these hands, be employed? to whose service shall they be dedicated? A question the answer to which involves a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee. Maternal love is the first agent in education. Pestalozzi

We owe our children and the world a thinking love. They need our attention, our focus, and all of our experience to guide them. We do not realize that every happy hour, every peaceful meal, every restful nap, is actually the very education our world needs so badly. We underestimate the gifts we bestow in a well-managed, loving home. We undervalue the brain growth that occurs from hugs, kisses, interaction at meals, good food, cleanliness, order, daily and weekly routines. We hinder our children from obtaining an education when we ignore them and leave them to themselves too much. They require a thinking love.

We should allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and ‘spiritual’ life of children; but should teach them that the divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.

Yesterday, Paul mowed the lawn. Elsa watched him with interest.

“Dad is kind of chyuckinish about mowing the lawn,” she noted. (Translation: chyuckinish is Greta-ese for “messed up” or “weird”.)

“Why do you say that?” I asked. He wheeled around the yard with Dagne on his lap.

“You should see the pattern! He does a section over there. He misses pieces along the way. Then, he’s over here doing a section.”

“You mean there’s no logical pattern? Wow, that is so unlike Dad.” I said, sarcastically.

Paul’s playful, random way of doing things attracted me. He was refreshing, light and spontaneous. But it was also a source of major communication breakdowns between us. I always list everything in step-by-step order. He might listen to step 2 and 8.

Maybe.

Frustrated, I felt like I was wasting my breath.

Then came Greta. I remember watching her run around the church with one arm swinging in a wide wind-mill. Curious, I wondered why she swung just one arm and not the other. I asked her.

“Cause it makes me go faster,” she retorted.

Her look said, Duh, Mom, don’t you know anything?

Dealing with Greta has helped me to understand Paul. Somehow a mother’s heart is more understanding than a wife’s. We expect more. I sought to understand Greta and, through her, Paul was redeemed. I gained a deep love and admiration for both their random, creative ways of thinking.

Homeschooling Greta has had many miscommunications like this. I explain step-by-step. Her mind does not see steps. She bursts into life and assesses it with an uncanny gut-feeling about things. Her choices and thinking spring from an intuition and joy in life that is completely foreign to me. My mind sorts knowledge into patterns. Paul’s and Greta’s minds go like Paul’s lawnmowing job — willy-nilly. If I mowed the lawn, I probably wouldn’t miss a spot …

but I think I’d have less fun.

When I taught Greta math, we both shed tears of frustration. With Elsa, I explained once. Elsa, who started sorting as soon as those little fingers could pick up an object, grasped what I said with alacrity and never forgot it. It was filed in the correct spot and she could retrieve it anytime she wished. Then … Greta.

I prayed for wisdom. I prayed for Greta. I prayed for myself. I prayed with Greta. Turning to the Father who made us seemed only natural. We were at our wits end and needed help. So we asked for it.

I discussed this with Paul on a walk yesterday.

“I’ve figured out how to teach math to Greta. I skip the explaining. It just weighs her down. Instead, I explain the steps as she does the problem. Then she’s dealing with a step at a time. She doesn’t get bogged down.”

We watched an American Goldfinch balance on the twig of a bush.

I added,

“Teaching is really a spiritual exercise. Love brings the wisdom. It is through love that we find the answers.”

I’m so thankful for the Divine Spirit that has access to our spirits. I am grateful to be able to teach while integrating the spiritual and intellectual life. We are not a bundle of compartments. We are not machines or products. We are spiritual beings.