In today's podcast we are discussing principle 20 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles. This principle is known as "The Great Recognition" and it discusses the spiritual life of children.

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #20 says: 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.

“The idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to almighty God is one which we have ever laboured to enforce. We take a very distinct stand upon this point. We do not merely give a religious education, because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example. But we hold that all education is divine, that very good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education (which may, at the same time, be reached by a little child) is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection” (School Education, page 95)

“Our piety, our virtue, our intellectual activities, and, let us add, our physical perfections, are all fed from the same source, God Himself; are all inspired by the same Spirit, the Spirit of God” (School Education, p. 155).

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason

School Education by Charlotte Mason

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In our last podcast, we discussed the way of the will which is the 17th principle, but today we are covering “the way of reason”, which is the eighteenth principle, and with that comes the nineteenth principle.

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #16: “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 reason’.”

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, 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.”

“For ourselves and our children it is enough to know that reason will put a good face on any matter we propose…” (A Philosophy of Education).

“Reason, so far from being infallible, is most exceedingly fallible, persuadable, open to influence on this side and that; but is all the same a faithful servant, able to prove whatsoever notion is received by the will. Once we are convinced of the fallibility of our own reason we are able to detect fallacies in the reasoning of our opponents and are not liable to be carried away by every wind of doctrine” (p. 150)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 139-153)

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Today we are discussing the sixteenth and seventeenth principles of Mason’s Twenty principles. Principle #16 focuses on the “way of the will” which I also like to call, a parent’s best kept secret. Learn more in this episode!

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Show Notes:

See the Show Notes for This Episode

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Commonplace Quotes:

Principle #16: 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 reason’.

Principle #17 is 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 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 of success.)

“...choose this day the path of duty, however dull or tiresome, difficult or dangerous. The way of the will is a secret of power, the secret of self-government…” (A Philosophy of Education).

“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’” (p. 130).

“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…” (p. 137)

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Further Education:

A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 128-138)

Parents’ Review article from 1936 on The Way of the Will

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Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood

(Get an EXCLUSIVE monthly Q+A podcast episode, an exclusive Day in the Life and Lesson Plan With Me videos, and more!)

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