Vol. 6, A Philosophy of Education - An Index of Posts to Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles....

For ease of reference, here is an index of posts I produced after studying Charlotte Mason's Volume 6, A Philosophy of Education using Brandy Vencel's Start Here, a journey through Charlotte Mason's 20 principles. These principles are taken from "A Short Synopsis of the Educational Philosophy Advanced in this Volume" of A Philosophy of Education.

Principle 1. Children are born persons.

Principle 2. (part 1 - part 2) They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil.

Principle 3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but--

Principle 4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon, whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.

Principle 5. (5a & 6) (5b & 7) (5c & 8) Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments--the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life."

Principle 6. When we say that 'education is an atmosphere,' we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a 'child-environment' especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the 'child's' level.

Principle 7. By 'education is a discipline,' we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits.

Principle 8. In saying that 'education is a life,' the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

Principle 9. We hold that the child's mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.

Principle 10. Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher's axiom is "what a child learns matters less than how he learns it".

Principle 11. But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that,--

Principle 12. "Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of--

"Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things."

Principle 13. (part 1 - part 2 - part 3) In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:--

(a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
(b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity)
(c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

Principle 14. As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.

Principle 15. A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising, and the like.

Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment.

Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in Elementary Schools respond freely to this method, which is based on the behaviour of mind.

Principle 16. (16a & 17) (16b & 18)There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call 'the way of the will' and 'the way of the reason.'

Principle 17. The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated, as tending to stultify and stereotype character. It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)

Principle 18. The way of reason: We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will. In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.

Principle 19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.

Principle 20. We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but 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.

God the Holy Spirit is the Divine Teacher....

Principle 20

We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and 'spiritual' life of children, but 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. 

How exciting it was to open the final pages of the reading for our Start Here 20 Principles study and find Charlotte Mason recognizing the value of 'Subjects Divinely Taught', including The Seven Liberal Arts. In Chapter XXV of Parents and Children, Charlotte begins by telling us about Mr. Ruskin's 'Vaulted Book', or Mornings in Florence, where he describes the frescoes in the Spanish Chapel attached to the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, in Florence.  Charlotte tells of "seven mythic figures representing the natural sciences, and with the figure of the Captain-teacher of each."  These of course being Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Music, Astronomy, Geometry, and Arithmetic.

Charlotte goes on to explain Education not Religious and Secular...

In the first place, we divide education into religious and secular.  The more devout among us insist upon religious education as well as secular.  Many of us are content to do without religious education altogether; and are satisfied with what we not only call secular but make secular, in the sense in which we understand the word, i.e. entirely limited to the uses of this visible world.  (Vol. 2, Parents and Children, p. 270)

She then takes it a step further with The Great Recognition...

Many Christian people rise a little higher; they conceive that even grammar and arithmetic may in some not very clear way be used for God; but the great recognition, that God the Holy Spirit is Himself, personally, the Imparter of knowledge, the Instructor of youth, the Inspirer of genius, is a conception so far lost to us that we should think it distinctly irreverent to conceive of the divine teaching as co-operating with ours in a child's arithmetic lesson, for example.  But the Florentine mind of the Middle Ages went further than this: it believed, not only that the seven Liberal Arts were fully under the direct outpouring of the Holy Ghost, but that every fruitful idea, every original conception, whether in Euclid, or grammar, or music, was a direct inspiration from the Holy Spirit, without any thought at all as to whether the person so inspired named himself by the name of God, or recognized whence his inspiration came.  All of these seven figures are those of persons whom we should roughly class as pagans, and whom we might be lightly included to consider as outside the pale of the divine inspiration.  It is truly difficult to grasp the amazing boldness of this scheme of the education of the world which Florence accepted in simple faith.  

Knowledge, like Virtue, Divine. - But we must not accept even an inspiring idea blindly.  Were these people of the Middle Ages right in this plan and conception of theirs?  Plato hints at some such thought in his contention that knowledge and virtue are fundamentally identical, and that if virtue be divine in its origin, so must knowledge be also.  Ancient Egypt, too, was not in the dark in this matter... (Vol. 2, Parents and Children, p. 270-271)

Charlotte is not saying that every man who's ever made a discovery or advancement in technology is a Christian, however, she's suggesting that the initial conception of their idea was divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, whether or not they recognize(d) it.

Next, Charlotte uses examples of Pharaoh, Saul, and David to show how their discernment and wisdom of everyday matters was inspired by the "Spirit of God".  She's quick to mention that the Holy Spirit is not just involved in 'high themes', but in the 'Ideas of Common Things' as well.  She uses Isaiah 28:24-29 to show how basic wisdom and knowledge, of which we use to meet our everyday needs, comes from the Lord.

'God doth Instruct.' - In the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her.  Let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child.  Because He is infinite, the whole world is not too great a school for this indefatigable Teacher, and because He is infinite, He is able to give the whole of his infinite attention for the whole time to each one of his multitudinous pupils.  We do not sufficiently rejoice in the wealth that the infinite nature of our God brings to each of us. 

God is the Divine Teacher!  Whether or not we acknowledge it, He is the logos or the center, and not just of subjects such as "faith and hope and charity...temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude", but also of "...grammar, rhetoric, logic, music, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic - this we might have forgotten, if these Florentine teachers had not reminded us; his practical skill in the use of tools and instruments, from a knife and fork to a microscope, and in the sensible management of all affairs of life..."  Once again, we see Charlotte relieving the parent/teacher of carrying the solitary burden of what or how to teach.  She advises us to never contemplate any kind of instruction for our children without prayer and petition to the Holy Spirit.

Now, Charlotte does caution us that this does not mean only that "spiritual virtues may be exhibited by the teacher, and encouraged in the child in the course of a grammar lesson", but "that the teaching of grammar by its guiding ideas and simple principles, the true, direct, and humble teaching of grammar, without pedantry and without verbiage, is, we may venture to believe, accompanied by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, of whom is all knowledge."  Yes, we should be good role models exhibiting virtue, but this alone will not lure our children to see the hand of God.  We should not be the talking head, but must let each subject, whether it be grammar, math, etc., speak for itself.  We don't need to make it cute or fun or whatever else.  We need to simply let the Holy Spirit guide the child's mind through the lesson in a straightforward, no nonsense kind of way.   Charlotte reiterates this below...

Teaching that Invites and that Repels Divine Co-operation. - The contrary is equally true.  Such teaching as enwraps a child's mind in folds of many words that his thought is unable to penetrate, which gives him rules and definitions, and tables, in lieu of ideas - this is teaching which excludes and renders impossible the divine co-operation.  (Vol. 2, Parents and Children, p.274) 

Charlotte wraps up her proposal of Divine Teaching with the proposition of living ideas and the best books.

A first condition of this vitalising teaching is that all the thought we offer to our children shall be living thought; no mere dry summaries of facts will do; given the vitalising idea, children will readily hang the mere facts upon the idea as upon a peg capable of sustaining all that it is needful to retain.  We begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers - intellectual, moral, spiritual - capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the Divine Spirit. (Vol. 2, Parents and Children, p.277)

If a book is stale, flat, and dull to me, more than likely it will be to the children as well and I should drop it.

No neat system is of any use; it is the very nature of a system to grow stale in the using; every subject, every division of a subject, every lesson, in fact, must be brought up for examination before it is offered to the child as to whether it is living, vital, of a nature to invite the living Intellect of the universe.

We need not say one word about the necessity for living thought in the teacher; it is only so far as he is intellectually alive that he can be effective in the wonderful process which we glibly call 'education.' ( Vol. 2, Parents and Children, p.279)

Charlotte closes with the importance of the parent/teacher being filled with that which is beautiful in order to give back to the student.  We cannot pour out what has not been put in.   I believe she is strongly endorsing 'Mother Culture' here.

A Matter of Principle....

Principle 19

Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas.  To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them.  These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.  

principle = a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning

According to Charlotte everyone has principles - that is, everyone has a few chief and leading opinions upon which every bit of his conduct is based.  She further asserts,

It is an interesting fact, that, though a person's principles of conduct are often not put into words, they are always written in characters of their own.  Everyone carries his rules of conduct writ large upon his countenance, that he who runs may read.  

We gather our principles unconsciously; but they are our masters; and it is our business every now and then to catch one of them, look it in the face, and question ourselves as to the manner of conduct such a principle must bring forth.  (Vol. 4, Ourselves)

I thought of Charlotte's words today as I read aloud Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor.  In Chapter 7 we found out that Stacey gave his new much needed coat to T.J.  The coat was originally given to Stacey as a gift from Uncle Hammer, but was too big.  When Mama tells Stacey to go get the coat so she can hem the sleeves, he stammers around until he's forced to admit giving the coat away because it was too big and T.J. told him he looked like a fat preacher in it.  After some back and forth dialog, the story goes like this...

"Now you hear me good on this - look at me when I talk to you, boy!"   Immediately Stacey raised  his head and looked at Uncle Hammer.  "If you ain't got the brains of a flea to see that this T.J. fellow made a fool of you, then you'll never get anywhere in this world.  It's tough out there, boy, and as long as there are people, there's going to be somebody trying to take what you got and trying to drag you down.  It's up to you whether you let them or not.  Now it seems to me you wanted that coat when I gave it to you, ain't that right?"

Stacey managed a shaky "Yessir."

"And anybody with any sense would know it's a good thing, ain't that right?"

This time Stacey could only nod. 

"Then if you want something and it's a good thing and you got it in the right way, you better hang on to it and don't let nobody talk you out of it.  You care what a lot of useless people say 'bout you you'll never get anywhere, 'cause there's a lotta folks don't want you to make it.  You understand what I'm telling you?"

"Y-yessir, Uncle Hammer," Stacey stammered.  Uncle Hammer turned then and went back to his paper without having laid a hand on Stacey, but Stacey shook visibly from the encounter.

A few pages later, we encounter T.J. "obnoxiously flaunting Stacey's wool coat" during the cold days of December.  Apparently, the coat fit T.J. perfectly and he was bragging about the beauty and fit of it.  The author then writes...

Stacey was restrained from plugging T.J.'s mouth by Uncle Hammer's principle that a man did not blame others for his own stupidity; he learned from his mistake and became stronger for it.  

Here we have a perfect example of conduct based on principle.  Stacey carelessly gave his new coat away, giving in to peer pressure.  Based upon Stacey's character earlier in the story, the reader knows it's likely he will fight to get his coat back.  However, after knowledge fitted to him from Uncle Hammer, Stacey realizes his mistake and that he cannot blame someone else for his failure.  Instead of beating T.J. up for his own personal shortcoming, he chalks it up to a lesson learned.  Stacey's conscience remembered Uncle Hammer's principle and steered his conduct.

Next, Charlotte addresses how we should teach children these principles of conduct.

But how is the conscience to become instructed?  Life brings us many lessons: when we see others do well, conscience approves and learns; when others do ill, conscience condemns.  But we want a wider range of knowledge than the life about us affords, and books are our best teachers.

There is no nice shade of conduct which is not described or exemplified in the vast treasure-house of literature.  History and biography are full of instruction in righteousness; but what is properly called literature, that is, poetry, essays, the drama, and novels, is perhaps the most useful for our moral instruction, because the authors bring their insight to bear in a way they would hesitate to employ when writing about actual persons.  Autobiographies, again, often lift the veil, for the writer may make free with himself.  In the Bible the lives of men and the history of a nation are told without the reticence which authors are apt to use in telling of the offences of the good or the vices of the bad.  Plutarch, perhaps alone among biographies, writes with comparable candour, if not always with equal justice.  

Charlotte also includes Psalms, Proverbs, dramatists and novelists in her list.  However, she does caution us, saying,

...not the works of every playwright and novelist are good 'for example of life and instruction in manners.' We are safest with those which have lived long enough to become classics; and this, for two reasons.  The fact that they have not been allowed to die proves in itself that the authors have that to say, and a way of saying it, which the world cannot do without.  In the next place, the older novels and plays deal with conduct, and conduct is our chief concern in life. Modern works of the kind deal largely with emotions, a less wholesome subject of contemplation.

I find that final sentence fascinating in today's world of political correctness.  Heaven forbid we should call a spade a spade for fear that it may be offensive.  Our society is extremely emotionally charged, and therefore, not producing the great thinkers of the past.  There is panic and pandemonium, rather than leisurely contemplation and deep thought.

Ironically, Charlotte didn't encourage reading books simply for their principles, but stated,

...the way such teaching should come to us is, here a little and there a little, incidentally, from books which we read for the interest of the story, the beauty of the poem, or the grace of the writing.  

This ties directly to classical education, which purports truth, beauty, and goodness.  We should choose classic works that have stood the test of time.  They should be interesting, have beautiful language, and will guide our conduct by their grace and goodness.  

In the last section of our assigned reading, Charlotte addresses conscience.

Everybody knows that the affairs of his body and those of his heart should be ordered by his conscience.  

Charlotte gives examples that illustrate how easy it is for an idle mind to "lie in wait for any chance notion that comes floating their way, take it up zealously, and make it their business in life to spread it."  She demonstrates how fallacies work and concludes with,

There is ever some new fallacy in the air which allures its thousands, and no one is safe who is not cognisant of danger, and who does not know how to safeguard himself.  Perhaps no rules for the right conduct of life are more important than the following: (a) that we may not play with chance opinions; (b) that our own Reason affords an insufficient test of the value of an opinion (because Reason, as we have seen, argues in behalf of Inclination); (c) that we must labour to get knowledge as the foundation of opinions; (d) that we must also labour to arrive at principles whereby to try our opinions. 

In the end, Charlotte calls us to labour, form with toil and care, till, and cultivate to help our children obtain knowledge.  We must then allow them to form opinions based on that knowledge that can be tested under the safety of our wing.  Giving them principles on which to base their conduct so they can soar at the highest possible level.

Logic as the Way of Reason...

Principle 16b & 18

There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, [the second] we may call 'the way of the reason'...

Their way to reason: We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration (a) of mathematical truth, (b) of an initial idea, accepted by the will, in the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.

**Reason = the power of the mind to think, understand and form judgments by a process of logic

To reason is to think.  Not only right thinking, but measuring and weighing all sides, because as Charlotte said, "every pro suggested by our reason is opposed to some con in the background".  In chapter IX of A Philosophy of Education, Charlotte aims to show us the importance and necessity of giving a variety of living ideas to shape a child's reasoning power or thinking.  

We must show the child instances where the outcome was negative even though the desire was strong and so, looked good. Sometimes a child should be taken into the psychology of crime, and he will see that reason brings infallible proofs of the rightness of the criminal act.   Charlotte begins with the example of Eve in the Garden of Eden...

We know the arguments before which Eve fell when the Serpent played the part of the 'weird Sisters.' It is pleasant to the eye; it is good for food; it shall make you wise in the knowledge of good and evil - good and convincing arguments, specious enough to overbear the counter-pleadings of Obedience. 

She goes on to say...

Children should know that such things are before them also; that whenever they want to do wrong capital reasons for doing the wrong thing will occur to them.  But, happily, when they want to do right no less cogent reasons for right doing will appear. 

After abundant practice in reasoning and tracing out the reasons of others, whether in fact or fiction, children may readily be brought to the conclusions that reasonable and right are not synonymous terms; that reason is their servant, not their ruler, - one of those servants which help Mansoul in the governance of his kingdom.  But no more than appetite, ambition, or the love of ease, is reason to be trusted with the government of a man, much less that of a state; because well-reasoned arguments are brought into play for a wrong course as for a right.  He will see that reason works involuntarily; that all the beautiful steps follow one another in his mind without any activity or intention on his own part; but he need never suppose that he was hurried along into evil by thoughts which he could not help, because reason never begins it.  It is only when he chooses to think about some course of plan, as Eve standing before the apples, that reason comes into play; so, if he chooses to think about a purpose that is good, many excellent reasons will hurry up to support him; but, alas, if he choose to entertain a wrong notion, he, as it were, rings the bell for reason, which enforces his wrong intention with a score of arguments proving that wrong is right.  (p. 142-143)

In defense of faulty reasoning, Charlotte suggests logic...

...for logic gives us the very formula of reason, and that which is logically proved is not necessarily right. We need no longer wonder that two men equally upright, equally virtuous, selected out of any company, will hold opposite views on almost any question; and which will support his views by logical argument.  So we are at the mercy of the doctrinaire in religion, the demagogue in politics, and, dare we say, of the dreamer in science; and we think to save our souls by being in the front rank of opinion in one or the other.  But not if we have grown up cognisant of the beauty and wonder of the act of reasoning, and also, of the limitations which attend it. 

We must be able to answer the arguments in the air, not so much by counter reasons as by exposing the fallacies in such arguments and proving on our own part the opposite position. (p. 144)

Children are born with the power to reason.  However, this power must be trained.  As ideas are planted, one must decide if they are worthy, right or wrong.  When we provide our children with a variety of living ideas through history, literature, and mathematics, we give them resources, of which, to draw from in training their power of reasoning.  For example, Plutarch's Lives comes to mind as one show of citizenship that could assist in this power of training.  When children are read a story of some noble and virtuous character, they are given a measure by which to weigh or reason.  

Reason like the other powers of the mind, requires material to work upon whether embalmed in history or literature, or afloat with the news of a strike or uprising.  It is madness to let children face a debatable world with only, say, a mathematical preparation.  If our business were to train their power of reasoning, such a training would no doubt be of service; but the power is there already, and only wants material to work upon.  

This caution must be borne in mind.  Reason, like all other properties of a person, is subject to habit and works upon the material it is accustomed to handle. (p. 147)

We must give consistent pabulum for the mind in a broad array of subjects in order to build habits of right thinking, or in other words, to train the power of reason.  I am going out on a limb here to suggest that once again Charlotte shows advocacy for a liberal arts education versus simply S.T.E.M. training.   The broad and varied curricula of a liberal arts education will give a balanced approach providing logic necessary to sustain reason.

We have seen that their reading and the affairs of the day should afford scope and opportunity for the delight in ratiocination proper to children.  The fallacies they themselves perpetrate when exposed make them the readier to detect fallacies elsewhere.  

What are we to do?  Are we to waste time in discussing with children every idle and blasphemous proposition that comes their way?  Surely not.  But we may help them to principles which should enable them to discern these two characters for themselves.  A proposition is idle when it rests on nothing and leads to nothing.  (p. 148)

Ratiocination is the process of exact thinking or a reasoned train of thought.  The ability to reason to a conclusion of right thinking, or virtuous ratiocination, is an extremely important skill so that our children do not fall prey to every notion that floats by.  However, this does not mean we should be talky talky, preaching regularly about morals and high standards, but rather, providing a broad and liberal education, giving ideas, of which, the child may draw from.    

Children must know that we cannot prove any of the great things of life, not even that we ourselves live; but we must rely upon that which we know without demonstration.

Once we are convinced of the fallibility of our own reason we are able to detect the fallacies in the reasoning of our opponents and are not liable to be carried away by every wind of doctrine. (p. 150)

The last sentence of the quote above is a perfect summary.  As humans, it's easy to fall to our sinful nature and faulty reasoning.  However, once we see the errant of our own thinking, we can realize the logic of reason.  When in doubt, we must encourage our children to pray...

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)

5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

     and do not lean on your own understanding.

6  In all your ways acknowledge him,

     and he will make straight your paths.

Self-Governance, An Ordering of the Will...

Principles 16a and 17

There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, [the first] we may call 'the way of the will'....

The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will.  (c) That the best way to turn out thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour.  (This adjunct of the will  is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power.  The use of suggestion as an aid to the will is to be deprecated as tending to stultify and stereotype character.  It would seem that spontaneity is a condition of development, and that human nature needs the discipline of failure as well as of success.)

I remember a time when I believed a strong-willed child was simply stubborn and tenacious, not necessarily a bad thing, but rather more irritating than troublesome.  However, since my Charlotte Mason education, in addition to studying scripture, I have come to see the seriousness of the problem at hand and how a strong will is in fact, a weak will.  

Initially when I read this chapter, it didn't spark much thought.  Even at our CM Book Study, the attending mothers felt we had already hashed these principles over in the discussion of habit training.  However, in now taking a closer look, re-reading portions to write this post, I see there is more to the story.  In essence, I believe we habit train to order the will...but, I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, Charlotte starts the chapter...

The great things of life, life itself, are not easy of definition.  The Will, we are told, is 'the sole practical faculty of man.'  But who is to define the Will?  We are told again that 'the Will is the man'; and yet most men go through life without a single definite act of willing.   Habit, convention, the customs of the world have done so much for us that we get up, dress, breakfast, follow our morning's occupations, our later relaxations, without an act of choice.  For this much at any rate we know about the will.  Its function is to choose, to decide, and there seems to be no doubt that the greater becomes the effort of decision the weaker grows the general will.  (Vol. 6, p. 128-129)

So, a habit is based on routine, a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.  The will is the faculty by which a person decides on and initiates action.  It's a decision or a choice.  Later in the same opening paragraph, Charlotte goes on to state....

But the one achievement possible and necessary for every man is character; and character is as finely wrought metal beaten into shape and beauty by the repeated and accustomed action of will.  We who teach should make it clear to ourselves that our aim in education is less conduct than character; conduct may be arrived at as we have seen, by indirect routes, but it is of value to the world only as it has its source in character. (Vol. 6, p. 129)

In other words, character is shaped by the will.  Character is the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual.  Conduct is the manner in which a person behaves, especially on a particular occasion or in a particular context.  I envision conduct to be more closely aligned with habits.  It can be influenced, but it's also rooted in character.  If you are of shady character, your conduct or behavior, having it's source, will shine through in a negative light.  On the contrary, if you have upstanding character, your conduct will support it. 

Charlotte begins the second paragraph with this...

Every assault upon the flesh and spirit of man is an attack whoever insidious upon this personality, his will; but a new Armageddon is upon us in so far as that the attack is no longer indirect but is aimed consciously and directly at the will, which is the man; and we shall escape becoming a nation of imbeciles only because there will always be person of good will amongst up who will resist  the general trend.  The office of parents and teacher is to turn out such persons of good will;... (Vol. 6, p. 129)

It is our duty as parents and home educators to produce children of "good will".  I believe providing a broad and liberal education is the key in doing so.  By exposing the child to truth, beauty, and goodness through the best literature, art, music, etc., we will cultivate affinities toward a will that is true, good and beautiful.  Being born a person, whose mind is an instrument of his education, the child is able to digest what is honest, lovely, and of good report.

For right thinking is by no means a matter of self-expression.  Right thought flows upon the stimulus of an idea, and ideas are stored as we have seen in books and pictures and the lives of men and nations; these instruct the conscience and stimulate the will, and man or child 'chooses'.  (Vol. 6, p. 130) 

This quote is directly in line with providing pabulum or nourishment for the mind.  When our students read the Bible, Plutarch, Ourselves, it is providing food for thought, giving the child options in order to strengthen the will.  This is the purpose of education!  Charlotte asserts that the way of the will is not automatic.  It must be trained.

Self- Governance

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty,

and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. 

Proverbs 16:32

Charlotte uses the example of Jacob and Esau to demonstrate guiding the will...

He...measures Esau with a considering eye, finds him more attractive than Jacob who yet wins higher approval; perceives that Esau is wilful but that Jacob has a strong will, and through this and many other examples, recognises that a strong will is not synonymous with 'being good,' nor with a determination to have your own way.  He learns to distribute the characters he comes across in his reading on either side of a line, those who are wilful and those who are governed by will; and this line by no means separates between the bad and good.  

It does divide, however, between the impulsive, self-pleasing, self-seeking, and the persons who have an aim beyond and outside of themselves, even though it be an aim appalling as that of Milton's Satan.  It follows for him that he must not only will, but will with a view to an object outside himself...  

It is well that children should know that while the turbulent person is not ruled by will at all but by impulse, the movement of his passions or desires, yet it is possible to have a constant will with unworthy or evil ends, or, ever to have a steady will towards a good end and to compass that end by unworthy means...   

The boy must learn too that the will is subject to solicitations all round, from the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life; that will does not act alone; it takes the whole man to will and a man wills wisely, justly and strongly, in proportion as all his powers are in training and under instruction...  (Vol. 6, p. 132-133)

I remember studying this idea of self-governance while using Beautiful Feet's Early American History guide.  We were reading Leif the Lucky by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire.  Over the course of his life, Leif became strong and cunning.  He learned early how to navigate his own ship and went to visit the King of Norway.  Leif showed great respect upon his arrival, practicing good manners and courtesy, remembering the counsel of his father.  On the other hand, Leif's father, Erik the Red, was hot-tempered and lacked self-control.  It was not difficult for the children to quickly catch which character was self-governed and the importance of this concept based on the results of each character's actions.  

While reading, I was also reminded of one of the very first homeschool meetings I ever attended.  A veteran mother was speaking about child rearing and biblical teaching, among other things.  She said she taught her children early on, "There are two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self."  I thought it was quite clever and never forgot it.  You can imagine my surprise upon reading p. 135 where Charlotte wrote...

There are two services open to us all, the service of God, (including that of man) and the service of self.  

I was brought right back to the living room of the host of that early homeschool gathering.

Unfortunately, this post is getting much longer than I intended.  Charlotte left us many gold nuggets, I could go on, but I will suffice to say providing an education based on the liberal arts is intended to bring about the improvement, discipline, or free development of the mind or spirit, in which,there will be ordering of the will.  It does take time, but it is well for us to plant the seeds.  I will leave you with one last quote from p. 137...

The ordering of the will is not an affair of sudden resolve; it is the outcome of a slow and ordered education in which precept and example flow in from the lives and thoughts of other men, men of antiquity and men of the hour, as unconsciously and spontaneously as the air we breathe.  But the moment of choice is immediate and the act of the will voluntary; and the object of education is to prepare us for this immediate choice and voluntary action which every day presents.  

Narration is Natural...

Principles 14 & 15

As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.  

A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarizing, and the like.  

Acting upon these and some other points in the behaviour of mind, we find that the educability of children is enormously greater than has hitherto been supposed, and is but little dependent on such circumstances as heredity and environment.  

Nor is the accuracy of this statement limited to clever children or to children of the educated classes: thousands of children in Elementary Schools respond freely to this method, which is based on the behaviour of mind.  

I believe narration is natural, as did Charlotte Mason.  Just today, Levi came to The Farmer and I telling us all about a show he'd finished watching.  At age 3 1/2 he could easily put his thoughts into words, sequencing events, and enthusiastically sharing what he had learned.  Charlotte tells us...

Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child's mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education.....This amazing gift with which normal children are born is allowed to lie fallow in their education. (Home Education Vol. 1, pg. 231)

I've written more extensively about The Art of Narration in the past so I will suffice to add a few quotes and comments here, simply to highlight the basics.  There are some things to keep in mind to encourage a great start with narration....

Until he is six, let Bobbie narrate only when and what he has a mind to.  He must not be called upon to tell anything. (Home Education Vol. 1, pg. 231)

The points to be borne in mind are, that he should have no book which is not a child's classic; and that, given the right book, it must not be diluted with talk or broken up with questions, but given to the boy in fit portions as wholesome meat for his mind, in the full trust that a child's mind is able to deal with its proper food.   (Home Education Vol. 1, pg. 232)

Charlotte does elaborate on advancing narration to composition only after the child has mastered oral narration.

If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books.  They should narrate in the first place and they will compose, later, readily enough; but they should not be taught 'composition'.  (Home Education Vol. 1, pg. 247)

In addition, Charlotte mentions the importance of narration as an aid to public speaking...

To secure the power of speaking, I think it would be well if the habit of narration were more encouraged, in place of written composition.  On the whole, it is more useful to be able to speak than to write, and the man or woman who is able to do the former can generally do the latter. (School Education, Vol. 3, pg. 88) 

Now that we are nearly through Charlotte's 20 Principles, I'm seeing that narration is a super important part of her philosophy.   At this point, if someone asked me to narrow Charlotte's philosophy to three main ideas, I would say children are born persons; living books provide pabulum for the mind, and narration is a natural means to better speaking and writing.

Imparting Knowledge, Part 3, Including the Sciences....

Continuing on from Imparting Knowledge, Part 1 and Imparting Knowledge, Part 2, Including the Arts, where we are studying...

Principle 13: 

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered: -
     (a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
     (b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity).
     (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

The Knowledge of the Universe

Science

Books dealing with science as with history, say, should be of a literary character, and we should probably be more scientific as a people if we scrapped all the text-books which swell publishers' lists and nearly all the chalk expended so freely on our blackboards.  (Vol. 6, p. 218)

They are expected to do a great deal of out-of-door work in which they are assisted by The Changing Year, admirable month by month studies of what is to be seen out-of-doors.  They keep records and drawings in the Nature Note Book and make special studies of their own for the particular season with drawings and notes.  (Vol. 6, p. 219)

The only sound method of teaching science is to afford a due combination of field or laboratory work, with such literary comments and amplifications as the subject affords. ....Certainly these note books do a good deal to bring science within the range of common thought and experience; we are anxious not to make science a utilitarian subject. (Vol. 6, p. 223) 

Charlotte was a huge advocate for children playing outside.  She felt in this, they would become acquainted with God's world. Nature study was a part of every PNEU student's life.  Charlotte suggested visiting the same places in various seasons so the children could make connections and see what happened to nature in the changing scenes.  Children were allowed to collect specimens in order to later draw them in their notebooks.   Charlotte said we should avoid nature lectures, instead use living books and continue with narration.  However, please note this is a subject, in which, Charlotte did use some textbooks at the high school level.

Geography

There are two rational ways of teaching Geography. The first is the inferential method, a good deal in vogue at the present time; by it the pupil learns certain geographical principles which he is expected to apply universally. This method seems to me defective for two reasons. It is apt to be misleading as in every particular case the general principle is open to modifications; also, local colour and personal and historical interests are wanting and the scholar does not form an intellectual and imaginative conception of the region he is learning about. The second which might be called the panoramic method unrolls the landscape of the world, region by region, before the eyes of the scholar with in every region its own conditions of climate, its productions, its people, their industries and their history. This way of teaching the most delightful of all subjects has the effect of giving to a map of a country or region the brilliancy of colour and the wealth of detail which a panorama might afford, together with a sense of proportion and a knowledge of general principles. I believe that pictures are not of very great use in this study. We all know that the pictures which abide with us are those which the imagination constructs from written descriptions. (Vol. 6, p. 227-228)

Here Charlotte is referring to the use of living books so the child could see the region, its people, their industries and their history for themselves.  She also believed geography began with first hand knowledge of the world around the child, right out their own front door.  This could be connected with nature study in that you're out walking the surrounding hills/mountains or playing in the local streams/rivers, seeing and feeling the lay of the land.

Charlotte, herself, wrote geography books.  She also thought highly of map work in the geography study.

Great attention is paid to map work; that is, before reading a lesson children have found the places mentioned in that lesson on a map and know where they are, relatively to other places, to given parallels, meridians. (Vol. 6, p. 224

Something of literary character is preserved in the Geography lessons. The new feature in these is the study of maps which should be very thorough.  For the rest of the single reading and narration as described in connection with other work is sufficient in this subject also.  (Vol. 6, p. 227)

...vivid descriptions, geographical  principles, historical associations and industrial details, are afforded which should make, as we say, an impression, should secure that the region traversed becomes an imaginative possession as well as affording data for reasonable judgments.  (Vol. 6, p. 228)

When studying geography, it's important to keep it in context as it relates to other subjects, studying people and places as you read a variety of books.  Charlotte did relate geography to current events as well with older students.

Mathematics

I find Charlotte's beginning paragraph on Mathematics poetic.  I've read it over and over again.  This whole section is very philosophical in nature.  There is very little practical application here.

In a word our point is that Mathematics are to be studied for their own sake and not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of mind.  (Vol. 6, p. 232)

Mathematics is one area of the Charlotte Mason method that frustrates me.  Maybe because it's a subject I feel inadequate to teach, not because I'm a math failure, but because no matter which approach I take, it's a subject in which our children struggle.  It's a subject that gives me anxiety, not because my children struggle, but because I lack the patience to wait upon maturity. I want Charlotte to tell me exactly what to do!  It should be black and white.  The rest of her method seems very clear to me, but math is so vague.

I will get off my soapbox now...(ahem!).  Maybe one of you will enlighten me in the comments section.  For now, here are some quotes I found intriguing and pulled from the reading....

Once again, though we do not live on gymnastics, the mind like the body, is invigorated by regular spells of hard exercise.  

But education should be a science of proportion, and any one subject that assumes undue importance does so at the expense of other subjects which a child's mind should deal with. Arithmetic, Mathematics, are exceedingly easy to examine upon and so long as education is regulated by examinations so long shall we have teaching, directed not to awaken a sense of awe in contemplating a self-existing science, but father to secure exactness and ingenuity in the treatment of problems.  (Vol. 6, p. 231)

Mathematics depend upon the teacher rather than upon the text-book and few subjects are worse taught; chiefly because teachers have seldom time to give the inspiring ideas, what Coleridge calls, the 'Captain' ideas, which should quicken imagination.  

To sum up, Mathematics are a necessary part of every man's education; they must be taught by those who know; but they may not engross the time and attention of the scholar in such wise as to shut out any of the score of 'subjects,' a knowledge of which is his natural right.  (Vol. 6, p. 233)

Here are notes I've made regarding math based on Charlotte's writings and For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay....

     - Continue to focus on a broad and liberal education, keeping math in its place among a variety of other subjects
     - Study Mathematics for its own sake
     - Short lessons
     - Study in the beginning of the day - first subject
     - Explain the concept having the child tell back (narration)
     - Student needs practice to gain confidence
     - Begin with concrete teaching before abstract
     - Use manipulatives

Physical Development, Handicrafts

It is unnecessary, too, to say anything about games, dancing, physical exercises, needlework and other handicrafts as the methods employed in these are not exceptional.  (Vol. 6, p. 233-234)

And with this, Charlotte closes Chapter X.  I do hope you will read Charlotte's actual writings in addition to these posts so as to make your own connections regarding her method.  Do not let this series be a substitution, but a stepping stone.     

Imparting Knowledge, Part 2, Including the Arts....

Continuing on from Imparting Knowledge, Part 1, where we are studying...

Principle 13: 

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered: -
     (a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
     (b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity).
     (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

The Knowledge of Man

Composition

According to Charlotte Mason, various subjects are interrelated.  Composition is no exception.  Charlotte believed the art of composition was the art of telling, or more simply, narration.  Composition was taught through narration, not as a separate subject until the very upper Forms, but not too much, lest the young scholars be saddled, with a stilted style which may encumber them for life (Vol. 6, p. 193).

Composition is not an adjunct but an integral part of their education in every subject.  The exercise affords very great pleasure to children, perhaps we all like to tell what we know, and in proportion as their composition is entirely artless, it is in the same degree artistic and any child is apt to produce a style to be envied for its vigour and grace.  But let me again say there must be no attempt to teach composition.  (Vol. 6, p. 192)

Composition in the form of narration was started orally around age six and was continued orally throughout the child's academic career.  Narration started paragraph by paragraph, building up to chapter by chapter. In Form II, oral narration slowly changed to written narration or transcribing thoughts.  Charlotte believed great narration/composition was built from reading a feast of great books.  A couple other key points to remember about narration/composition are...

Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed.

Children must not be teased or instructed about the use of stops or capital letters.  These things too come by nature to the child who reads...From their earliest days they should get the habit of reading literature which they should take hold of for themselves, much or little, in their own way.  As the object of every writer is to explain himself in his own book, the child and the author must be trusted together without the intervention of the middle-man.  (Vol. 6, p. 191-192)

They should be asked to write upon subjects which have interested them keenly. (Vol. 6, p. 193)

Languages

In this section, Charlotte refers to teaching English grammar as well as foreign languages.  Regarding English grammar, she says....

English is rather a logical study dealing with sentences and the positions that words occupy in them than with words and what they are in their own right.  Therefore it is better that a child should begin with a sentence and not with the parts of speech, that is, he should learn a little of what is called analysis before he learns to parse.....Every sentence has two parts, (I), the thing we speak of , and (2), what we say about it.  (Vol. 6, p. 209)

But a child cannot dream parts of speech, and any grown-up twaddle attempting to personify such abstractions offends a small person who with all his love of play and nonsense has a serious mind.  (Vol. 6, p. 210)

Charlotte doesn't give a great deal more in how to instruct English grammar, saying, But these are matters familiar to all teachers and we have nothing new in the teaching of grammar to suggest; but we probably gain in the fact that our scholars pay full attention to grammar, as to all other lessons. Charlotte finished off this section briefly mentioning the teaching of French grammar, among other foreign languages.

Art & Music

Here, Charlotte describes picture study...

There are few subjects regarded with more respect and less confidence in our schools than this of  'Art.'  Of course, we say, children should have their artistic powers cultivated, especially those who have such powers, but how is the question.  (Vol. 6, p. 212)

We recognise that the power of appreciating art and of producing to some extent an interpretation of what one sees is as universal as intelligence, imagination, nay, speech, the power of producing words. But there must be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by reading, not books, but pictures themselves. A friendly picture-dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful little reproductions of the work of some single artist, term by term. After a short story of the artist's life and a few sympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the little pictures are studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a picture but to look at it, taking in every detail. Then the picture is turned over and the children tell what they have seen,––a dog driving a flock of sheep along a road but nobody with the dog. Ah, there is a boy lying down by the stream drinking. It is morning as you can see by the light so the sheep are being driven to pasture, and so on; nothing is left out, the discarded plough, the crooked birch, the clouds beautiful in form and threatening rain, there is enough for half an hour's talk and memory in this little reproduction of a great picture and the children will know it wherever they see it, whether a signed proof, a copy in oils, or the original itself in one of our galleries.   (Vol. 6, p. 214)

There is no talk about schools of painting, little about style; consideration of these matters comes in later life, but the first and most important thing is to know the pictures themselves.  As in a worthy book we leave the author to tell his own tale, so do we trust a picture to tell its tale through the medium the artist gave it.  In the region of art as elsewhere we shut out the middleman.  

...these picture studies do not afford much material for actual drawing; they are never copied lest an attempt to copy should lessen a child's reference for great work.  (Vol. 6, p. 215)

Toward the end of the section Charlotte quotes from an address by Mrs. Howard Glover at the Ambleside Conference of the Parents' Union in 1922 regarding music appreciation.  In part of that speech, Mrs. Glover states, "Musical Appreciation, of course, has nothing to do with playing the piano."  

In her other volumes, Charlotte associates music study/appreciation with composer study, being similar to an artist study, in that, you choose one composer for each term, of which, to read a short biography.  At the same time, incorporate the composer's music into your life.  This should not be contrived as in, "OK kids, today we're going to listen to Johann Sebastian Bach's Magnificat."  Rather, play the artist's music throughout the day in your home.  Let it be in the background while you're washing dishes, sorting laundry, or mopping the floor.  Start with short catchy tunes as children love to dance and make merry. Singing hymns was also a part of music study.

Given the nature, length, and breadth of Chapter X, I will conclude here today, continuing with the final installment tomorrow, covering The Knowledge of the Universe.  

Knowledge of God, My Notebook...

As we work through Start Here, A Journey Through Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles by Brandy Vencel, part of the assigned reading each month comes from For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.  I read this book years ago, not too long after starting to homeschool.  It seemed quite philosophical at the time and I wasn't sure what do to with it.  Of course, this was before I studied Charlotte's writings for itself.  Now, as I reread For the Children's Sake along side A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason, I see parallels.  I am finding Chapter 5 Education: A Science of Relations particularly helpful as a more practical application of Charlotte's philosophy on teaching specific subject areas in our time.   Check out Imparting Knowledge, Part 1 to read quotes from A Philosophy of Education regarding Charlotte's ideas on Knowledge of God.  In contrast, here are my notebook entries on Biblical teaching after reading Chapter 5 of For the Children's Sake....

Knowledge of God

- Biblical teaching must be directly from the Bible
- PNEU schools read consecutively from the Bible including The Gospels, epistles, Revelation, and Old Testament
- Narration is a must after each single reading
- Model simple daily prayer that is sincere and conversation genuine
- Give the child grace after an offense
- Show thanks and praise to the Lord
- Introduce other Christians through biographies and books
- Children should have their own Bible
- Be a role model
- Memorize Psalms

Some things can be enjoyed as a Christian.  Others must be discussed and understood.  A third category must be avoided. (p. 97)

We don't have to make every day a sort of Sunday school lesson... (p. 101)

Children need to consider practical issues.  They want to think.  They want answers.  Christianity is part of that rock of reality about which youngsters long to know.  They need to understand how contemporary issues fit into what the Bible says. (p. 102)

Atmosphere - love, truth, humility, forgiveness

Discipline - plan for contact between child and truth; not left to chance

Life - Bible, worship, worries, questions, failures, joys

 

Imparting Knowledge, Part 1....

Principle 13: 

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered: - 

     (a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body. 

     (b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity).

     (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.  

Our assigned reading this month was to finish Chapter 10 in A Philosophy of Education plus read Chapter 5 of For the Children's Sake.  Since this was over 130 pages of reading, our group decided to split the lesson into two months.  I personally read Section I, The Knowledge of God; Section II, The Knowledge of Man (a) History; (b) Literature; and (c) Morals and Economics: Citizenship before our October group discussion.  

In this chapter, it's easy to get wrapped up in studying the curriculum, as in which books Charlotte used in each form, but I think it's important to remember the purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of Charlotte's principles of education.  Try to focus more on the method as a means to meet the goal rather than which particular books she used. 

In principle 13, she gives three key points in her philosophy to impart the goal of knowledge.  First the syllabus must provide food for the mind.  Again we go back to this idea of pabulum, or nourishment for the mind.  Second, the syllabus should be varied creating curiosity or interest.  Third, the knowledge conveyed should be in literary form.  

Let's break it down and measure each section with the three key points...

The Knowledge of God

I love the way Charlotte starts this section!...

Of the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child, - the knowledge of God, of man, and of the universe, - the knowledge of God ranks first in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making.  Mothers are on the whole more successful in communicating this knowledge than are teachers who know the children less well and have a narrower, poorer standard of measurement for their minds. (p. 158)

 Now to the key phrases in regard to teaching the knowledge of God ...

Now our objective in this most important part of education is to give the children the knowledge of God.  We need not go into the question of intuitive knowledge, but the expressed knowledge attainable by us has its source in the Bible, and perhaps we cannot do a greater indignity to children than to substitute our own or some other benevolent person's rendering for the fine English, poetic diction and lucid statement of the Bible.

Literature at its best is always direct and simple and a normal child of six listens with delight to the tales both of Old and New Testament read to him passage by passage, and by him narrated in turn, with delightful touches of native eloquence.  Religion has two aspects, the attitude of the will towards God which we understand by Christianity, and that perception of God which comes from a gradual slow-growing comprehension of the divine dealings with men.  (p. 160)

I should like to urge the importance of what may be called a poetic presentation of the life and teaching of Our Lord.  The young reader should experience in this study a curious and delightful sense of harmonious development, of the rounding out of each incident, of the progressive unfolding which characterises Our Lord's teaching; and, let me say here, the custom of narration lends itself surprisingly to this sort of poetic insight.  (p. 165-166) 

Probably very little hortatory teaching is desirable.  The danger of boring young listeners by such teaching is great, and there is also the further danger of provoking counter-opinions, even counter-convictions, in the innocent-looking audience.  On the whole we shall perhaps do well to allow the Scripture reading itself to point the moral.  (p. 166)

It seems to me that verse offers comparatively new medium in which to present the great theme. (p. 166)

Charlotte encourages teaching knowledge of God directly from the Bible itself.  The Bible is "poetic" and of literary form.  She advocates the use of narration to solidify comprehension.  Throughout this section, she gives sample narrations from various aged students.  Let the Bible speak and it alone will impart moral wisdom.

The Knowledge of Man

History

Charlotte gives many clear examples in this section on imparting the knowledge of history...

It is not too much to say that a rational well-considered patriotism depends on a pretty copious reading of history, and with this rational patriotism we desire out young people shall be informed rather than with the jingoism of the emotional patriot. (p. 170)

We know that young people are enormously interested in the subject and give concentrated attention if we give them the right books.  

It is our part to see that every child knows and can tell, whether by way of oral narrative or written essay.

A single reading is a condition insisted upon because a naturally desultory habit of mind leads us all to put off the effort of attention as long as a second or third chance of coping with our subject is to be hoped for.  (p. 171)

Whatever a child or grown-up person can tell, that we may be sure he knows, and what he cannot tell, he does not know. (p. 172-173)

...so we may not ask questions to help the child to reason, paint fancy pictures to help him to imagine, draw out moral lessons to quicken his conscience.  These things take place as involuntarily as processes of digestion. (p. 174)

It will be observed that the work throughout the Forms is always chronologically progressive. (p. 177)

Perhaps the gravest defect in school curricula is that they fail to give a comprehensive, intelligent and interesting introduction to history.  To leave off or even to begin with the history of our own country is fatal.  We cannot live sanely unless we know that other peoples are as we are with a difference, that their history is as ours, with a difference, that they too have been represented by their poets and their artists, that they too have their literature and national life.   (p. 178)

It is never too late to mend but we may not delay to offer such a liberal and generous diet of History to every child in the country as shall give weight to his decisions, consideration to his actions and stability to his conduct; that stability, the lack of which has plunged us into many a stormy sea of unrest.

...the desire for knowledge for its own sake, on the other hand, finds satisfaction in knowledge itself. (p. 179)

I apologize for all the quotes in this post, but I really feel this chapter is the meat of Charlotte's philosophy.  She had some very distinct ideas regarding teaching history as she clearly felt it was a subject of great importance.  Charlotte proposed offering a liberal and generous diet of History to every child.

Throughout, she mentioned doing this by using biographies of persons connected with the time period studied and literature of the period.  She further states, "plays, novels, essays, 'lives', poems are all pressed into service and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced."

Charlotte was insistent on things like a single reading and narration.  She also suggested studying history chronologically and not beginning and ending with the history of our own country.

I loved the final paragraph in this section, which reads...

We live in times critical for everybody but eminently critical for teachers because it rests with them to decide whether personal or general good should be aimed at, or a means of general progress towards high thinking and plain living and therefore an instrument of the greatest national good. (p. 180)

We should all be striving for higher thinking and plain living!

Literature

Regarding literature, Charlotte says, "...the study of Literature goes pari passu with that of History."  I couldn't agree more!   Choose books with literary quality either written about or within the time period being studied.  You are killing two birds with one stone as they say.

Other wisdom from Charlotte regarding literature....

...I would remark on the evenness with which that power of children in dealing with books is developed.  We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can.  The child of genius and imagination gets greatly more than his duller comrade but all sit down to the same feast and each one gets according to his needs and powers.   (p. 182-183)

I think this quote deserves special attention.  If you have multiple children, you know they learn at different paces and have varied interests.  Charlotte understood that not all children were of the same mold.  Each has strengths and weaknesses.  Again, going back to that first principle, Children are born persons.   Each child is uniquely created in the likeness of God.

Charlotte didn't comment often on teaching children with learning disabilities or differences.  In her time, children with special needs were institutionalized and not in PNEU schools.  However, times have changed.  Today, more often than not, we keep our special needs kids in the home and there's no reason not to homeschool them and provide them with a liberal education, providing a broad and generous curriculum.

I liken the curriculum to food.  Whether your child is learning disabled or not, you will provide them with a variety of fruits and vegetables.  They will eventually acquire a taste and preference for certain fruits and vegetables.  However, once this happens, you will not stop serving a variety because each of your children will desire a different taste.  Sally may grow to love peas, Thomas asparagus, and little Johnny carrots.  In creating a syllabus for our children, it's the same.  We should provide a feast and allow each child to take what they are ready and able to digest.

There has been discussion in Elementary Schools as to whether an abridged edition would not give a better chance of getting through the novel set for a term, but strong arguments were brought forward at a conference of teachers in Gloucester in favour of a complete edition.  Children take pleasure in the 'dry' parts, descriptions, and the like, rendering these quite beautifully in their narrations. (p. 183)

The object of children's literary studies is not to give them precise information as to who wrote what in his reign of whom? - but to give them a sense of the spaciousness of the days, not only of great Elizabeth, but of all those times of which poets, historians and the makers of tales, have left us living pictures.  In such ways the children secure, not the sort of information which is of little cultural value, but wide spaces wherein imagination may take those holiday excursions deprived of which life is dreary; judgemnt, too, will turn over these folios of the mind and arrive at fairly just decisions about a given strike, the question of Poland, Indian Unrest.  Every man is called upon to be a statesman seeing that every man and woman, too, has a share in the government of the country; but statesmanship requires imaginative conceptions, formed upon pretty wide reading and some familiarity with historical precedents. (p. 184)

...but while we grown-up persons read and forget because we do not take the pains to know as we read, these young students have the powers of perfect recollection and just application because they have read with attention and concentration and have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration, or, the gist of some portion of it, in writing. (p. 185)

Again, with literature, we are choosing the best books and requiring narration.

Morals and Economics: Citizenship

Charlotte believed in teaching Citizenship as in the qualities that a person is expected to have as a responsible member of a community.  

Like Literature this subject, too, is ancillary to History.  In Form I, children begin to gather conclusions as to the general life of the community from tales, fables and the story of one or another great citizen.  In Form II, Citizenship becomes a definite subject rather from the point of view of what may be called the inspiration of citizenship than from that of the knowledge proper to a citizen, though the latter is by no means neglected. We find Plutarch's Lives exceedingly inspiring.  (p. 185)

In giving children the knowledge of men and affairs which we class under 'Citizenship' we have to face the problem of good and evil.  

Now Plutarch is like the Bible in this, that he does not label the actions of his people as good or bad but leaves the conscience and judgment of his readers to make that classification....Children recognise with incipient weariness the doctored tale as soon as it is begun to be told, but the human story with its evil and its good never flags in interest....Children like ourselves must see life whole if they are to profit.  At the same time, they must be protected from grossness and rudeness by means of the literary medium through which they are taught.  A daily newspaper is not on a level with Plutarch's Lives, nor with Andrew Lang's Tales of Troy and Greece, though possibly the same class of incidents may appear in both.  (p. 186-187)

Supply a boy with abundant mental pabulum, not in the way of desultory reading, (that is a sort of idleness which leads to mischief), but in the way of matter to be definitely known, give him much and sound food for his imagination, speculation, aspiration, and you have a wholesome-minded youth to whom work is a joy and games not a strain but a healthy relaxation and pleasure. (p. 189)

Using the three key points of Principle 13, we see that Charlotte remained true to teaching History, Literature, and Citizenship by providing pabulum and using varied books of literary form.  She followed through with narration, plain and simple.

In November, our group will continue reading through Chapter 10 and I will attempt a follow-up post detailing other subjects.   Here is Part 2 and Part 3.