Charlotte Mason’s counsel on education extends beyond academics to sound parenting advice. It’s wonderful to come to the feast, but what if the learners at the table have such bad attitudes that it spoils the meal? Liz, Emily, and Nicole discuss the reality of facing the challenges of children with bad attitudes and ways of dealing with them.
Listen Now:
“Our part is to remove obstructions and to give stimulus and guidance to the child who is trying to get into touch with the universe of things and thoughts which belongs to him.” (3/188)
“The mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no organs for the assimilation of the one more than of the other.” (6/218)
“There is no way of escape for parents; they must be ‘inspirers’ to their children, because about them hangs, as its atmosphere about a planet, the thought-environment of the child, from which he derives those enduring ideas which express themselves as a life-long ‘appetency’ towards things sordid or things lovely, things earthly or divine.” (2/37)
“They do not give their children the discipline which results in self-compelling power; and by-and-by…the time for training in the art of self-mastery has gone by, and a fine character is spoiled through indolence and willfulness.” (2/64)
“It rests with parents to make low the high places and exalt the valleys, to make straight paths for the feet of their [child].” (2/68)
“To give a child this power over himself — first in response to the will of another, later, in response to his own, is to make a man of him,” (3/20)
“Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend.” (1/118)
“…it is a mistake to suppose that the greater the number of ‘subjects’ the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment.” (6/158)
“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.” Point 20 of the Short Synopsis
“It is a happy thing that the ‘difficult’ children who are the readiest to resist a direct command are often the quickest to respond to the stimulus of an idea.” (3/23)
