Charlotte Mason - Volume 1 Part 2
"We older people, partly because of our maturer intellect, partly because of our defective education, get most of our knowledge through the medium of words. We set the child to learn in the same way, and find him dull and slow. Why? Because it is only with a few words in common use that he associates a definite meaning; all the rest are no more to him than the vocables of a foreign tongue. But set him face to face with a thing, and he is twenty times as quick as you are in knowledge about it; knowledge of things flies to the mind of a child as steel filings to magnet."
Volume 1 page 68.
I am joining in with Laura at Wasted Textbooks again this week to read through Charlotte Mason's books and what she says makes a lot of sense. This week's reading takes us through the "Out of Door Life for the Children". Laura and Daisy are ahead of me as ever and so eloquently explored and commented on Charlotte's work that I don't feel that I have much to add. Hop over to Laura's blog for a real treat!
There is nothing more dull than sitting in front of books all day every day and looking out of the window at the world, just sat there waiting to explore. Not that books don't need to be read ( I love books!), but just that they do not replace real hands on learning. This passage reminds me that we can sometimes focus too much on bookwork and don't get out into the countryside around and about us to explore as much as we might. We have no excuse as well! We have so much countryside right on our doorstep and the children are out and about a lot.
The rest of the passage concentrates on what the children should know about trees and living creatures and concentrates on self discovery with encouragement from the mother (remember when this was written!). Not much of this is new to me and certainly the concern she shows for the fact that children should be outdoors and experiencing nature is one shared by psychologists now. One of the best books on the subject ,that I read a while ago and could do with re-reading, is "Last Child in the Woods".
"They must be let alone, left to themselves a great deal, to take in what they can of the beauty of earth and heavens; for of the evils of modern education few are worse than this––that the perpetual cackle of his elders leaves the poor child not a moment of time, nor an inch of space, wherein to wonder––and grow. At the same time, here is the mother's opportunity to train the seeing eye, the hearing ear, and to drop seeds of truth into the open soul of the child, which shall germinate, blossom, and bear fruit, without further help or knowledge of hers. Then, there is much to be got by
perching in a tree or nestling in heather, but muscular development
comes of more active ways, and an hour or two should be spent in
vigorous play; and last, and truly least, a lesson or two must be got
in."Charlotte Mason
Modern Education!!! Oh dear, my cackle can be heard in this house on many an occasion!! So where does this leave us? Reading this has been a timely reminder of what I have known for a long time; that we need to make time for more nature discovery. The weather is good at the moment and we can get out. I am sure we are already out more than a lot of families. We make time to go to the local nature reserves and walk out most days. The children already spend a number of hours outside each day even when it is raining, but I am determined to be a bit more organised about our outings. So often we spend so long deciding where to go that we lose a good chunk of time before we even get out.
This week I am armed with a detailed list of all the local nature reserves and what we can try to see at each. Then when we can schedule in time to be out and about and we can head out and make the most of the outside classroom! Scheduling sounds a bit artificial but if I don't schedule in time for things I want to achieve, they never happen!!
Comments
Yes we do have plenty of mud! Wet mud atm as they have rediscovered the river!!