Charlotte Mason distilled her philosophy into some succinctly stated principles, and the homeschool or classroom teacher does well to underpin their efforts by considering the philosophy that drives the teaching. Today’s episode addresses principles 9-12, the specifics of what we believe about the mind, how it learns, and what the teacher must not do to impose on the natural development of a child in acquiring knowledge.

Listen Now:

[9] We hold that the child’s mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal ; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.

[10] Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of Education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher’s axiom is ” what a child learns matters less than how he learns it.”

[11] But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum ; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that,-

[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 to make valid as many as may be of–
“Those first-born affinities
That fit our new existence to existing things.”

“Herbart’s psychology is extraordinarily gratifying and attractive to teachers who are, like other people, eager to magnify their office; and here is a scheme which shows how every child is a new creation as he comes forth from the hands of his teacher. The teacher learns how to do it; he has but to draw together a mass of those ideas which themselves will combine in the mind into which they effect an entrance, and, behold, the thing is done: the teacher has done it; he has selected. the ideas, shewn the correlation of each with the other and the work is complete! The ideas establish themselves, the most potent rule and gather force, and if these be good, the man is made.” (6/114)

“…as we have seen, the world is being educated, that it is found wanting. Herbart begins to account for man minus what I have called the person. (Person is used in the common-sense, everyday acceptance of the word.) He allows a soul, but he says, “The soul has no capacity nor faculty whatever either to receive or to produce anything. It has originally neither ideas nor feelings nor desires. It knows nothing of itself and nothing of other things…” (3/58-60)

“Kaspar Hauser’s story and our common experience go to prove that the labour we spend on developing the ‘faculties,’ or in cultivating the senses, is largely thrown away. Nature has no need of our endeavours in these directions. Under the most adverse conceivable conditions she can work wonders if let alone.” (3/74)

“…we have not to develop the person; he is there already, with, possibly, every power that will serve him in his passage through life.” (3/75)

“We no longer ask ourselves whether it is better to learn a few subjects ‘thoroughly,’ so we say, or to get a ‘smattering’ of many. These questions are beside the mark.” (3/75)

“…there seems good reason to believe that the limit to human intelligence arises largely from the limit to human interests, that is, from the failure to establish personal relations on a wide scale with the persons who make up humanity,––relations of love, duty, responsibility, and, above all, of interest, living interest, with the near and the far-off, in time and in place. … [she continued] I think we should have a great educational revolution once we ceased to regard ourselves as assortments of so-called faculties and realised ourselves as persons whose great business it is to get in touch with other persons of all sorts and conditions, of all countries and climes, of all times, past and present.” (3/82-83)

“Therefore we do not feel it is lawful in the early days of a child’s life to select certain subjects for his education to the exclusion of others; … but we endeavour that he shall have relations of pleasure and intimacy established with as many as possible of the interests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering about this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a great field before him which in all his life he will not be able to explore. In this conception we get that ‘touch of emotion’ which vivifies knowledge, for it is probable that we feel only as we are brought into our proper vital relations.” (3/223)

“…they can only be elevated by ideas which act upon the imagination and act upon the character and influence the soul, and it is the function of all good teachers to bring those ideas before them.” (Charlotte Mason quoting Mr. Fisher, 6/126)

“As I have said elsewhere, the ideas required for the sustenance of children are to be found mainly in books of literary quality; given these the mind does for itself the sorting, arranging, selecting, rejecting, classifying, which Herbart leaves to the struggle of the promiscuous ideas which manage to cross the threshold.” (6/117)

“… we want to ensure that the children are gaining knowledge, not merely acquiring information, for the difference between the two is fundamental. Information might be described as the record of facts, whether in books or the mind of the individual, and it may be received rather passively and without much effort; whereas knowledge implies the result of the voluntary action of the mind to the material presented to it. It is something vital and personal, and presupposes an increase of intellectual aptitude in new directions and, as knowledge is never stationary, a new point of departure.” (Downton, PR 47, p. 334)

“Method implies two things-a way to an end, and step-by-step progress in that way…” (1/8)

“…asked itself what end it had in view…What is education after all? The answer came in the phrase–Education is the Science of Relations.” (Education as the Science of Relations, PR 13, p. 485)

“What we are concerned with is the fact that we personally have relations with all that there is in the present, all that there has been in the past and all that there will be in the future–with all above us and all about us–and that fulness of living, expansion, expressions and serviceableness for each of us, depend upon how far we apprehend these relationships and how many of them we lay hold of.” (PR 13, p. 485)

“It is our chief business to give him a chance to make the largest possible number of these attachments valid.” (PR 13, p. 486)

“The five relations which it is necessary for children to establish are:–[1]Their relations with God, of prayer, praise, love and duty; [2] their moral relations with their fellow-creatures, including history, literature, duties of a citizen, etc.; [3] their relations with Nature and the world around them; [4] their relations with the earth, including all sorts of bodily exercises; [5] their relations with materials, in handicrafts, etc.” (PR 16, pp. 61-64)

“A small English boy of nine living in Japan, [who] remarked, — ‘Isn’t it fun, Mother, learning all these things? Everything seems to fit into something else.’” But, she points out, “The boy had not found out the whole secret; everything fitted into something within himself.” (6/156-157)

“Everyone comes into the world capable of forming relations; some have greater affinities in one direction than others, and while one child will receive one class of ideas, and assimilate it quickly, another will choose another class altogether.” (Owen, PR 16, p. 61)

“Our deadly error is to suppose that we are his showman to the universe; and, not only so, but that there is no community at all between child and universe unless such as we choose to set up.” (3/188)

“…we, for our part,” Miss Mason tells us, “have two chief concerns–first, to put him in the way of forming these relations by presenting the right idea at the right time, and by forming the right habit upon the right idea; and, secondly, by not getting in the way and so preventing the establishment of the very relations we see to form.” (3/66)

“It is her duty to open the doors in many different directions through which the children may walk in the pursuit of knowledge whilst she is there to guide and direct as occasion requires.” (O’Farrell, PR 33, p. 782)

“Establishing proper relations is necessary for ‘fullness of life and joy in living.’” (3/75)

“We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. ‘Thou hast set my feet in a large room,’ should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time…that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot give the children these interests…The question is not,-how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education-but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (3/170-171)

“…the one positive precept [given to parents by Christ]… is ‘feed’ (which should be rendered ‘ pasture ‘) my lambs,’ place them in the midst of abundant food.” (6/81)

“It is a wide programme founded on the educational right of man; wide, but we may not say it is impossible nor may we pick and choose and educate him in this direction but not in that. We may not even make choice between science and the ‘humanities.’ Our part it seems to me is to give a child a vital hold upon as many as possible of those wide relationships proper to him.” (6/157)

The Tech-Wise Family, Andy Crouch

Bestowing the Brush: Foundations in Drawing Video Course

Synopsis Reflection Questions with Reflection Questions to use personally or with a Discussion Group

Episode 201: Short Synopsis Points 1-4

Episode 202: Short Synopsis Points 5-8

Homeschool teachers must consider many aspects of education beyond the books and pencils, especially with the Charlotte Mason method. This “shorts” episode includes three widely dispersed topics: the role of the “State,” sensations and feelings, and mottos.

Listen Now:

“…children are the property of the nation, to be brought up for the nation as is best for the nation, and not according to the whim of individual parents. The law is for the punishment of evil-doers, for the praise of them that do well [and, as an aside, that’s I Peter 2:14 she’s quoting there]; so, practically, parents have very free play; but it is as well we should remember that the children are a national trust whose bringing-up is the concern of all…” (1/6)

“The smallness of the family tends to obscure its character, and we see no force in the phrase [‘The family is the unit of the nation.’]; we do not perceive that, if the unit of the nation is the natural commune, the family; then, is the family pledged to carry on within itself all the functions of the State, with the delicacy, precision, and fulness of detail proper to work done on a small scale.” (2/5)

“The wonder that Almighty God can endure so far to leave the very making of an immortal being in the hands of human parents is only matched by the wonder that human parents can accept this divine trust with hardly a thought of its significance.” (1/333)

“…they are, like the bloom to the peach, the last perfection of a beautiful character; but when they become subjective, when every feeling concerns itself with the ego, we have, as in the case of sensations, morbid conditions set up; the person begins by being ‘over sensitive,’ hysteria supervenes, perhaps melancholia, an utterly spoilt life.” (2/295)

“…we perceive that the education we are giving exceeds all that we intended or imagined.” (3/148)

“…has had much effect in throwing children upon the possibilities, capabilities, duties and determining power belonging to them as persons.” (6/29)

“The P.U.S. motto, ‘ I am, I can, I ought, I will ‘, is known as the Augustine ladder. A ladder suggests a necessity to climb, and this ladder should help us in our efforts to achieve higher things. The first step of the ladder, ‘ I am ‘ reminds us of our responsibilities. Our conscious existence suggests all kinds of possibilities. This is our starting point. ‘ I can ‘ suggests an ideal. There may be a series of failures, but each effort should bring us a little nearer to the goal; we all can do a little, and *every mickle makes a muckle ‘. ‘ I ought *, which is sometimes put before ‘ I can ‘, is a twin to it, for what we ought to do we can do. ‘ I ought’ may suggest to us but cold duty. It might be an assistance if we thought of this step surrounded by a glowing halo, we would do better if we loved warmly what we ought to do. The story of Balaam in the Old Testament is an illustration of a man who did what he ought with his heart attached to that which was not permitted, and the end of the story shows us that his desire for wealth and worldly success was too strong, and his fall was inevitable. The last step, and likewise the most important, ‘ I will’, should be prefaced by the phrase ‘ by the Grace of God ‘ We are often too much inclined to feel that our strength is in ourselves, but St. Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, shows us the right view. ‘ Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling he says, and then adds, *It is God Who worketh in you, both to will and to do … ‘ We may not know what the will is, but we know what it does. It may be likened to a door-keeper letting in the guests. The door-keeper, having once let in the guests (ideas), has no further control over them. The more we consciously perform an act of will the stronger that will-power becomes….found in an old catechism book … I’m only one, but I am one; I can’t do everything, but I can do something. That which I do, I ought to do, and that which I ought to do, with God’s help so I will do” (THE P.U.S. MOTTO by Nancy Hatch (C.M.C.) PR 65, p. 68)

“I am told that we, as a society, are destined to live by our motto. … An inspiring motto must always be a power, but to live upon the good repute of our motto, and to live up to it and in it, are two different things, and I am afraid the Parents’ Union has much and continual thinking and strenuous living to face, if it proposes to stand before the world as interpreting and illustrating these ‘memorable words.’ But we are not a faint-hearted body; we mean, and mean intensely; and to those who purpose the best, and endeavour after the best, the best arrive.” (3/148)

Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall

Episode 202: Short Synopsis Points 5-8

Episode 4: Three Tools of Education

Parents’ Educational Course Reading List

Whether you homeschool, or wherever you teach with Charlotte Mason’s method, a working knowledge of her synopsis is essential. This second installment addresses the three instruments of education covered in points 5-8. Questions for your discussion group are included to help facilitate your conversation and application.

Listen Now:

“We can of course learn of them from Home Education and School Education, and certainly no one would venture to teach in the P.U.S. without first reading these books. To read once, however, is not enough; we must go back to them again and again…In the forefront of the modern editions of these books there is in smallish print a ‘Short Synopsis of P.N.E.U. Philosophy.’ It is a wonderful summary worth reading again and again to get one’s work-worn vision cleared.” (Wix, “A Few Roots”)

(5) Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas.

(6) When we say that “education is an atmosphere,” we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a ‘child-environment’ especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child’s level.

(7) By “education is a discipline,” we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits.

(8) In saying that “education is a life,” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

“Over thirty years ago I published a volume about the home education of children and people wrote asking how those counsels of perfection could be carried out with the aid of the private governess, as she then existed; it occurred to me that a series of curricula might be devised embodying sound principles and securing that children should be in a position of less dependence on their teacher than they then were; in other words, that their education should be largely self-education.” (6/29)

“These three we believe to be the only instruments of which we may make lawful use in bringing up children.” (3/217)

“An easier way may be found by trading on their sensibilities, emotions, desires, passions; but of this the result must be disastrous.” (Story of Charlotte Mason, p. 102)

“The theory has been, put a child in the right environment and so subtle is its influence, so permanent its effects that he is to all intents and purposes educated thereby.” (6/94)

“That he should take direction and inspiration from all the casual life about him, should make our poor words and ways the starting point from which, and in the direction of which, he develops–this is a thought which makes the best of us hold our breath. There is no way of escape for parents; they must needs be as ‘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)

“There are but three left for our use and to each of these we must give careful study or we shall not realise how great a scope is left to us.” (6/94)

“Wherefore, it is as much the parent’s duty to educate his child into moral strength and purpose and intellectual activity as it is to feed him and clothe him; and that in spite of his nature, if it must be so. (1/103)

“Divine Grace works on the Lines of Human Effort.” (1/104)

“‘ Sow an act, reap a habit ; sow a habit, reap a character ; sow a character, reap a destiny.'” (2/29)

“‘Begin it, and the thing will be completed!’ is infallibly true of every mental and moral habitude: completed, not on the lines you foresee and intend, but on the lines appropriate and necessary to that particular habitude.” (1/107)

“I was charged the other day with putting habit, the means of life-long discipline allowed to us, in the place of the grace of God. On the contrary, the PNEU recognises the laws of habit as laws of God, and the forming of good and the hindering of evil habits as among the primary duties of a parent. But it is just as well to be reminded that habits, whether helpful or hindering, only come into play occasionally while a great deal of spontaneous living is always going on towards which we can do no more than drop in vital ideas as opportunity occurs.” (PR 13, p. 484)

“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)

“A curriculum which shall furnish children, not with dry bones of fact, but with fact clothed upon with the living flesh, breathed into by the vital spirit of quickening ideas. [She continued] A teacher objected the other day that it was difficult to teach from Freeman’s Old English History, because there were so many stories; not perceiving that the stories were the living history, while all the rest was dead.” (3/124)

“Again, we have made a rather strange discovery, that the mind refuses to know anything except what reaches it in more or less literary form.” (6/256)

“As a child grows we shall perceive that only those ideas which have fed his life, are taken into his being; all the rest is cast away or is, like sawdust in the system, an impediment and an injury.” (6/108-109)

“An Adequate Definition––Observe how it covers the question from the three conceivable points of view. Subjectively, in the child, education is a life; objectively, as affecting the child, education is a discipline; relatively…as regards the environment of the child, education is an atmosphere.” (2/33)

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

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Synopsis Reflection Questions–A PDF with Reflection Questions to use personally or with a Discussion Group

Episode 201: Short Synopsis Points 1-4

Episode 4: Three Tools of Education

Episode 199: Multi-Age Math Immersion

Whether in homeschooling, public or private schooling, the teacher finds that the appeal and wonder of narration that Charlotte Mason employed is not without its challenges. This episode addresses commonly asked questions and confusion surrounding the implementation of narration to offer some practical solutions to difficulties you may encounter in the classroom.

Listen Now:

“Even with regular lessons and short lessons, a further stimulus may be occasionally necessary to secure the attention of the child. His desire of approbation may ask the stimulus, not only of a word of praise, but of something in the shape of a reward to secure his utmost efforts. Now, rewards should be dealt out to the child upon principle: they should be the natural consequences of his good conduct.” (1/142)

“In considering the means of securing attention, it has been necessary to refer to discipline––the dealing out of rewards and punishments,––a subject which every tyro of a nursery maid or nursery governess feels herself very competent to handle. But this, too, has its scientific aspect: there is a law by which all rewards and punishments should be regulated: they should be natural, or, at any rate, the relative consequences of conduct; should imitate, as nearly as may be without injury to the child, the treatment which such and such conduct deserves and receives in after life.” (1/148)

“Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again what he has read.” (6/261)

“…while we grown-up persons read and forget because we do not take the pains to know as we read, these young students have the powers of perfect recollection and just application because they have read with attention and concentration and have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration, or, the gist of some portion of it, in writing.” (6/185)

“Not only is narration not verbal memory, but reading and narration do not constitute the whole of the lesson. They are the kernel but not the whole fruit. There is the introduction and connection with the last lesson; there is the intelligent use of map, blackboard and pictures; there is the time after the narration for discussion. If a part of the lesson for any reason has to be omitted, this part may never be the narration, for narration is not, as so many people think, a test of the knowledge gained, but an integral part of the acquisition of knowledge, and the means whereby the ‘food of the mind’ (i.e. knowledge) is digested.” (PR36, pp. 780-782)

“Narration, however, if of many kinds, though always the answer to the question (put mentally): ‘What comes next?’ Obviously it requires some power of concentration from the first. Very young children, in the nursery class, are not expected to narrate, but often they insist on doing so because of this instinct to ‘tell all about it’ to somebody. How many of us can refrain from telling that good story we heard yesterday? And anything that must be remembered, do we not repeat it even if it is only ‘First turning to the left and third to the right’? Narration is extraordinarily satisfying to the narrator, though, alas, a little boring sometimes for the listener since he is getting it at secondhand.

“It must be, we know, the child’s answer to ‘What comes next?’ It can be acted, with good speaking parts and plenty of criticism from actors and onlookers; nothing may be added or left out. Map drawing can be an excellent narration, or, maybe, clay modelling will supply the means to answer that question, or paper and poster paints, or chalks, even a paper model with scissors and paste pot. Always, however, there should be talk as well, the answer expressed in words; that is, the picture painted, the clay model, etc., will be described and fully described, because, with few exceptions, only words are really satisfying.

“When children reach the middle school other types of narration may be used; they can offer headings to cover the lesson and then narrate by filling in the details under each heading or the class may be divided into small groups with a leader in each one and narrate part of or all the lesson…

“As to the interesting extras that the teacher can add, they may either come at the beginning, to arouse interest or curiosity or, generally better, at the end in those few minutes so jealously saved for questions, remarks, etc., which round off the perfect lesson.

“Narration in silence needs great concentration, but once mastered it gives the possessor the power of carrying on his education for the rest of his life.” (Wix, PR 68, pp. 61-63)

Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

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Episode 196: Short Topics #3

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason’s method is truly a joy when employing her foundational, and unique, use of narration. This episode unpacks the basics of why children make excellent narrators and learn abundantly through building that skill, as well as some basics of how to begin and make use of “telling.”

Listen Now:

“As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. We are all aware, alas, what a monstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of our memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural and spontaneous ‘act of knowing,’ as easy to a child as breathing and, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves. The reward is two-fold: no intellectual habit is so valuable as that of attention; it is a mere habit but it is also the hall-mark of an educated person. Use is second nature…” (6/99)

“Children Narrate by Nature.––Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education. A creative fiat calls it forth. ‘Let him narrate’; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, so soon as he can speak with ease. This amazing gift with which normal children are born is allowed to lie fallow in their education.” (1/231)

“Indeed, it is most interesting to hear children of seven or eight go through a long story without missing a detail, putting every event in its right order. These narrations are never a slavish reproduction of the original. A child’s individuality plays about what he enjoys, and the story comes from his lips, not precisely as the author tells it, but with a certain spirit and colouring which express the narrator. By the way, it is very important that children should be allowed to narrate in their own way, and should not be pulled up or helped with words and expressions from the text.” (1/289)

“…power of knowing, evinced by the one sure test,––they
are able to ‘tell’ each work they have read not only with accuracy but
with spirit and originality. How is it possible, it may be asked, to
show originality in ‘mere narration’? Let us ask Scott, Shakespeare,
Homer, who told what they knew, that is narrated, but with continual
scintillations from their own genius playing upon the written word.
Just so in their small degree do the children narrate; they see it all
so vividly that when you read or hear their versions the theme is
illuminated for you too.” (6/183)

“Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons,
and leave the handling of such material to themselves.” (1/247)

“Value of Narration.––The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading,––one reading, however slow, should be made a condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another opportunity of finding out ‘what ’tis all about’ There is the weekly review if we fail to get a clear grasp of the news of the day; and, if we fail a second time, there is a monthly or a quarterly review or an annual summing up: in fact, many of us let present-day history pass by us with easy minds, feeling sure that, in the end, we shall be compelled to see the bearings of events. This is a bad habit to get into; and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first.” (3/179-180)

“The value of narration does not lie wholly in the swift acquisition of knowledge and its sure retention. Properly dealt with, it produces a mental transfiguration. It provides much more exercise for the mind than is possible under other circumstances and there is a corresponding degree of alertness and acquisitiveness. As a Yorkshireman would put it, the children become very “quick in t’ up-tak” (quick in the up-take). Psychologically, narration crystallises a number of impressions. It also tends to complete a chain of experiences.” (Wix, PR 28, p. 697-693)

“So, probably young children should be allowed to narrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of 7 or 8 will ‘tell’ chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed.” (6/191)

“If the lesson has been misunderstood, narration will show where, and when that is finished it is the teacher’s part to start a discussion in order to clear up misconceptions, etc.” (PR 36, pp. 780-782)

“Narration lessons need very thorough preparation so that she does not notice till too late that there are names and unfamiliar long words which will bother the class. Such interruptions do no less than ruin the very best lesson, the thread of interest and intense concentration has been broken and the class will have great difficulty in picking it up again…So, all names should be on the board directly the introductory question on the previous lesson has been dealt with, and the children should say them over until their tongues find them easy and familiar.” (Wix, PR 68)

“Knowledge [is] received with attention and fixed by narration.” (6/259) so attention is clearly an important aspect of our children’s education and their ability to narrate. In fact, Miss Mason called it the “prime agent” of education. She said: “You want a child to remember? Then secure his whole attention, the fixed gaze of his mind, as it were, upon the fact to be remembered” (1/156)

“They bring with them not only that intellectual appetite, the desire of knowledge, but also an enormous, an unlimited power of attention to which the power of retention (memory) seems to be attached” (6/14)

“I dwell on the single reading because,.. it is impossible to fix attention on that which we have heard before and know we shall hear again. (6/261)

“This is a bad habit to get into; [she warned] and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first. (3/179)

“the power of such composition is innate in children and is not the result of instruction. Two or three points are important. Children in lB require a quantity of matter to be read to them, graduated, not according to their powers [ — ] which are always present, but they require a little time to employ their power of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of fluent narration. (6/191)

“…he learns that one time is not ‘as good as another’; that there is no right time left for what is not done in its own time; and this knowledge alone does a great deal to secure the child’s attention to his work.” (1/142)

“…that the school tasks be done, and done well, in the assigned time, should be a most fixed law. The young people will maintain that it is impossible, but let the mother insist; she will thereby cultivate the habit of attention…” (5/195)

“…the unspoken demand of children for a wide and very varied curriculum.” (6/14)

“The natural provision for the appropriation and assimilation of Knowledge is adequate, and no stimulus is required; but some moral control is necessary to secure the act of attention; a child receives this in the certainty that he will be required to recount what he has read. (6/18)

“…you must not only fix his attention upon each new lesson, but each must be so linked into the last that it is impossible for him to recall one without the other following in its train.” (1/157)

“Even with regular lessons and short lessons, a further stimulus may be occasionally necessary to secure the attention of the child. His desire of approbation may ask the stimulus, not only of a word of praise, but of something in the shape of a reward to secure his utmost efforts. Now, rewards should be dealt out to the child upon principle: they should be the natural consequences of his good conduct.” (1/142)

“Marks, prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame, or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect.” (6/7)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

School Education (Vol. 3), Chapter XVI

An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Vol. 6), Introduction, Chapter X

Atomic Habits, James Clear

Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

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Episode 186: Method of Lessons

A helpful article on narration from the Parents’ Review