Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Wednesday With Words: Quotes from Charlotte Mason

I've been reading the introduction to Charlotte Mason's A Philosophy of Education (volume 6 of her Original Home Schooling Series) for our next local Charlotte Mason meeting.

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. (p. 3)
We fail to recognize that as the body requires wholesome food and cannot nourish itself upon any substance so the mind too requires meat after its kind. If the War taught nothing else it taught us that men are spirits, that the spirit, mind, of a man is more than his flesh, that his spirit is the man, that for the thoughts of his heart he gives the breath of his body. As a consequence of this recognition of our spiritual nature, the lesson for us at the moment is that the great thoughts, great events, great considerations, which form the background of our national thought, shall be the content of the education we pass on. (p. 5)

Linking up with Wednesdays with Words at Ordo Amoris.