Charlotte Mason Motherhood Larissa Leigh

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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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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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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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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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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In today's episode I'm talking about the fourteenth and fifteenth principles of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on narration: the art of telling back.
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Show Notes:
See the Show Notes for This Episode
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Commonplace Quotes:
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, summarizing, and the like.”
"...a conscious mental effort, from the scholar, the mental effort of telling again that which has been read or heard. That is how we all learn, we tell again, to ourselves if need be, the matter we wish to retain, the sermon, the lecture, the conversation. The method is as old as the mind of man, the distressful fact is that it has been made so little use of in general education" (A Philosophy of Education).
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Further Education:
A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason
Know and Tell by Karen Glass
My blog post and video on Narration
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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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In today's episode I'm talking about the 13th principle of Charlotte Mason's Twenty Principles. This principle focuses on the "feast" that Mason focuses on. 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 #13: In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:
He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e. curiosity)Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.“For it is a mistake to suppose that the greater number of subjects the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment, and the child who has written thirty or forty sheets during an examination week comes out unfagged. Not the number of subjects but the hours of work bring fatigue to the scholar…” (A Philosophy of Education, p. 158).
“The boy or girl aged from ten to twelve who is intimate with a dozen or so of Plutarch’s Lives, so intimate that they influence his thought and conduct, has learned to put his country first and to see individuals only as they serve or dis-serve the state. Thus he gets his first lesson in the science of proportion. Children familiar with the great idea of a State in the sense, not of a government but of the people, learn readily enough about the laws, customs and government of their country; learn, too, with the great interest something about themselves, mind and body, heart and soul, because they feel it is well to know that they have it in them to give to their country. (A Philosophy of Education, p. 187)
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Further Education:
A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 154-234)
My video on Math the Charlotte Mason Way
My video on Modern Language the Charlotte Mason Way
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Learn with over 100 fellow mothers in the Charlotte Mason Motherhood Community. https://www.patreon.com/charlottemasonmotherhood
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In today's podcast we are discussing principle #12 of Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles: "Education is the Science of Relations"
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Show Notes:
See the Show Notes for This Episode
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Commonplace Quotes:
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 make valid as many as may be of – those first-born affinities that fit our new existence to existing things.”
“The art of standing aside to let a child develop the relations proper to him is the fine art of education” (School Education p. 67)
“We have relations with what there is in the present and with what there has been in the past, with what is above us, and about us; and that fullness of living and serviceableness depend for each of us upon how far we apprehend these relationship and how many of them we lay hold of. Every child is heir to an enormous patrimony. The question is, what are the formalities necessary to put him in possession of that which is his? (School Education, p. 218)
All knowledge is joined by a unity of “the relations which bind all things to all other things” (Parents and Children, p. 259)
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Further Education:
A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason (pages 128-138)
Article from the Parents’ Review in 1905 on “Education is the Science of Relations”
(*some are affiliate links)
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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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