A Charlotte Mason Education: Introduction to Book VI - preparing the soul to dare to teach......

To begin, to be ready at all to begin, one must first be prepared to be prepared.  To begin to be prepared?  What does that look like?

(More below..... here are the first three paragraphs from the Introduction to the Charlotte Mason Series, Volume VI):

"These are anxious days for all who are engaged in education. We rejoiced in the fortitude, valour and devotion shown by our men in the War and recognize that these things are due to the Schools as well as to the fact that England still breeds "very valiant creatures." It is good to know that "the whole army was illustrious." The heroism of our officers derives an added impulse from that tincture of 'letters' that every Public schoolboy gets, and those "playing fields" where boys acquire habits of obedience and command. But what about the abysmal ignorance shown in the wrong thinking of many of the men who stayed at home? Are we to blame? I suppose most of us feel that we are: for these men are educated as we choose to understand education, that is, they can read and write, think perversely, and follow an argument, though they are unable to detect a fallacy. If we ask in perplexity, why do so many men and women seem incapable of generous impulse, of reasoned patriotism, of seeing beyond the circle of their own interests, is not the answer, that men are enabled for such things by education? These are the marks of educated persons; and when millions of men who should be the backbone of the country seem to be dead to public claims, we have to ask,––Why then are --vol 6 pg 2--  not these persons educated, and what have we given them in lieu of education?"

"Our errors in education, so far as we have erred, turn upon the conception we form of 'mind,' and the theory which has filtered through to most teachers implies the out-of-date notion of the development of 'faculties,' a notion which itself rests on the axiom that thought is no more than a function of the brain. Here we find the sole justification of the scanty curricula provided in most of our schools, for the tortuous processes of our teaching, for the mischievous assertion that "it does not matter what a child learns but only how he learns it." If we teach much and children learn little we comfort ourselves with the idea that we are 'developing' this or the other 'faculty.' A great future lies before the nation which shall perceive that knowledge is the sole concern of education proper, as distinguished from training, and that knowledge is the necessary daily food of the mind.

"Teachers are looking out for the support of a sound theory, and such a theory must recognize with conviction the part mind plays in education and the conditions under which this prime agent acts. We want a philosophy of education which, admitting that thought alone appeals to mind, that thought begets thought, shall relegate to their proper subsidiary places all those sensory and muscular activities which are supposed to afford intellectual as well as physical training. The latter is so important in and for itself that it needs not to be bolstered up by the notion that it includes the whole, or the practically important part, of education. The same remark holds good of vocational training. Our journals ask with scorn,––"Is there no education but what is got out of books at school? Is not the lad who works in the fields getting education?" and the public lacks the courage to say definitely, "No, he is  -vol 6 pg 3-  not," because there is no clear notion current as to what education means, and how it is to be distinguished from vocational training. But the people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for an education which shall qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the man who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve society."

Matthew 18:1-5 "At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, 'Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?'  He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them.  And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.'"

To begin, to be ready at all to begin, one must first be prepared to be prepared.  To begin to be prepared?  What does that look like?

"The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve society."  "....unless you change........ and become like little children......... "

We must first, ourselves, become educated - we must........ overcome....... miseducation in our own lives.......  But how can this be done?

We must first do what we must teach the children to do:  we must become childlike in order to even begin learning how to lead little children out of childishness and into childlike personhood - that they may become "more of a person"....... more of the person God is calling them to be.........

And thereby the child in us can begin to become a 'more of a person'...........

Think of it with care.  We must become childlike, not childish.  We must proceed with innocence and wonder before the child.  Though our broken world may have left us scarred and we have thus lost some sense of innocence......

Even if we are broken, and even if we see some of the brokenness of this broken world in the children...., we can operate from a sense of the great dance arising from the celebration of innocence.

What a wonder that is.  To celebrate innocence, goodness, and the joy thereof, in this broken world!  Any such celebration of innocence..... well,..... that requires inestimable faith.......... but that faith is within our grasp.  We have been given the gift of faith - a gift prepared for us since eternity past - a gift which we might wish to place in our own estimation of the value of things, or persons....... even of children.........  but a faith which we can place in His estimation of ....... the power of His love.........  and in His inestimable value of children...........

When we know that they are priceless, and that they have inestimable value....... even when their brokenness is distasteful to us, it will be easier to neither neglect nor abuse them.......  

The need to come before the Lord as a child is penultimate for the teacher and then for the student to come into a right relationship both with life and with the Lord of all that is living.

...........

Despise not, Offend not, Hinder not.  (The code of education found in the gospels:  Matthew 18-19)

Why the order here: despise not, offend not, hinder not?  We are not likely to offend someone whom we properly esteem.  If we have despised them, have we not already offended them?  If we continue despising them, will we not neglect and/or abuse them?  If we have done all of that, have we not hindered them in their quest to become 'more of a person'?

Despise:  "to look down on with contempt or aversion (despised the weak); to regard as negligible, worthless, or distasteful"  (as opposed to cherishing children)

Offense:  any manner of Neglect &/or Abuse  (misuse would be a subset of one and/or both of these):  neglect and abuse result in lack of knowledge (no one is teaching a child properly if one is neglecting and/or abusing him)

Hinder:  "to make slow or difficult the progress of; to hold back; to delay, impede, or prevent action"

In order to come before the child without despising the child, we must come before the Lord as a child ourselves.

..........

then........

we must not place ourselves between the child and the creator......, 

we must learn to be childlike with the children............,

ode to how children's eyes light up with they see other children........., they stand in awe, wonder, and delight in others who are childlike........

and they are so very typically, gravely disappointed in not having found true childlikeness when little children exhibit childishness........

children only grow beyond exposure to others' childishness when the adults in their lives help them to be secure in their faith - an unwavering faith - not placed in their rights, not placed in their own understanding - but firmly placed .... in a greater Father, a Father of ultimate and unfading love......., and therefore, they can continue their little journey, still being childlike..... lost in wonder - rejoicing in all that is innocent........, in spite of brokenness around them..........

this is where we must begin......   

This is no PollyAnna complex.  This childlikeness comes before a cross.  A cross that recognizes the grievousness of unholiness......... of even little bits of sin.........

........ but still recognizing the power of love to overcome unholiness..... because the source of true love ----- is utterly holy, therefore utterly powerful............

...............

Next challenge............ to observe this section of the Introduction in light of the following.......

The model of growth in becoming a person:

first not even alive

then being born

then being a child

then being a young adult

then being a reproducing adult.....