Charlotte Mason’s Call to Parents

Charlotte Mason’s Call to Parents

This essay was first published in Essays on the Life and Work of Charlotte Mason, Volume 2, published by Riverbend Press. ©2015 by the Charlotte Mason Institute.

The recording is taken from the Vision for Children event at Joy Christian Fellowship, September 23, 2017.

El artículo está disponible en español.

In the past twenty-five years, many families and schools have attempted to implement Charlotte Mason’s ideas within their educational program. These efforts typically focus on elements associated with Charlotte Mason such as living books, narration, and nature study. Some contemporary practitioners go further and imitate the exact techniques used in Mason’s original schools, such as journaling and dictation. However, Mason herself says that all such tools of education are inherently limited. According to Mason, the effectiveness of and responsibility for education ultimately reside with parents. Mason characterizes this responsibility as a call to parents. What is the nature and priority of this call? How does it relate to the essence of education and the role of schools? How can parents answer this call today?

The Nature of the Call

The foundational principle of Charlotte Mason’s call to parents is that it is not, in fact, her call. Instead, according to Mason, it is God’s call. As with so many of Mason’s ideas, she claimed not to be inventing something, but rather to be discovering something. God’s call to parents is universal and binding, whether or not parents are aware of it. Mason writes, “Be his knowledge of the law little or much, no parent escapes the call” (Mason, 1989b, p. 10). Other callings may, perhaps, be delegated, but the call to parents is so comprehensive that “he can have no deputy.”

According to Charlotte Mason, parents are called to fill a prophetic office. An office is defined as “a special duty, charge, or position” (Merriam-Webster, 1981, p. 790). Only God may appoint someone to a prophetic office. The prophets of Holy Scripture were chosen, commissioned, and empowered by God (2 Peter 1:21). In the same way, parents are appointed to a specific role:

“It is probable that parents as a class feel more than ever before the responsibility of their prophetic office. It is as revealers of God to their children that parents touch their highest limitations” (Mason, 1989b, p. 41).

“Their relation to their children is not an accident, but is a real office which they have been appointed to fill” (Mason, 1989e, p. 199).

As prophets, parents receive instruction directly from God as to how to carry out their office:

“And this individual work with each child, being the most momentous work in the world, is put into the hands of the wisest, most loving, disciplined, and divinely instructed of human beings” (Mason, 1989b, p. 50).

It is not surprising that God would provide direct enablement for “the most momentous work in the world.”

For Charlotte Mason, the prophetic office of parents takes on a sacramental quality. Charlotte Mason was an Anglican, and Anglicans define a sacrament as “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace” (Book of Common Prayer, 1662, Catechism). Thus a sacrament is a single event that contains both physical (“outward and visible”) and spiritual (“inward and spiritual”) dimensions. According to Charlotte Mason, parents are the outward and visible means of transmitting inward and spiritual grace to their children:

“We perceive that God uses. . . parents above all others, as vehicles for the transmission of his gifts” (Mason, 1989b, p. 20).

“All our teaching of children should be given reverently, with the humble sense that we are invited in this matter to co-operate with the Holy Spirit; but it should be given dutifully and diligently” (Mason, 1989b, p. 48).

“[The parent] is, strictly, no more than the agent of Almighty God, appointed to bring the children under the Divine government” (Mason, 1989e, p. 199).

This is sacramental language.

The Priority of the Call

If the nature of the call is divine, how important is it? How does the priority of this call compare to the other demands and callings of the parent? The first chapter of Mason’s second volume includes an interesting discussion of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In this chapter, Mason takes great pains to distance herself from Rousseau’s philosophy. However, she attributes to him one great accomplishment, saying: “He turned the hearts of the fathers to the children, and so far made ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Mason, 1989b, p. 3). Mason here describes Rousseau in a manner that paraphrases the last verse of the Old Testament, as well as the beginning of the gospel:

“And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:6, RSV).

“He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared” (Luke 1:17, RSV).

A sign of the Gospel of Christ is that the hearts of fathers are turned to the children. When parents follow this call, they are fulfilling the ministry of the one who prepares the way for the Lord.

Mason summarizes the teaching of Rousseau as follows:

“Fathers and mothers, this is your work, and you only can do it. It rests with you, parents of young children, to be the saviours of society unto a thousand generations. Nothing else matters. The avocations about which people weary themselves are as foolish child’s play compared with this one serious business of bringing up our children in advance of ourselves” (Mason, 1989b, pp. 2-3).

The context clearly indicates that Mason endorses Rousseau’s opinion. Why is this work so important that “nothing else matters”? The primary answer is simply that the children are worth it:

“The beautiful infant frame is but the setting of a jewel of such astonishing worth that, put the whole world in one scale and this jewel in the other, and the scale which holds the world flies up outbalanced” (Mason, 1989f, p. 34).

The secondary answer is that there is no substitute for the parent. As stated earlier, the office cannot be delegated. The parent may give up his or her parental rights, but he cannot delegate his sacramental anointing:

“The Rule of Parents cannot be Deputed. . . the king may rule by deputy; but, here we see the exigent nature of the parent’s functions; he can have no deputy. Helpers he may have, but the moment he makes over his functions and authority to another, the rights of parenthood belong to that other, and not to him” (Mason, 1989b, pp. 10-11).

Charlotte Mason describes the tragedy when parents give up their parental rights by not fulfilling their office. Even though each child is “a jewel of such astonishing worth,” (Mason, 1989f, p. 34) some parents focus on jewels of lesser value:

“Even so, the busy parent, occupied with many cares, awakes to find the authority he has failed to wield has dropped out of his hands; perhaps has been picked up by others less fit, and a daughter is given over to the charge of a neighbouring family, while father and mother hunt for rare prints” (Mason, 1989b, p. 12).

Note that Mason explicitly names both mothers and fathers as the parents who are occupied with secondary treasures (“rare prints”).

Mason points out that conscientious parents would not rely on public charities to provide food for their children. And yet the tragedy she observes is that parents rely on public charities to give them their spiritual food:

“That parents should make over the religious education of their children to a Sunday School is, no doubt, as indefensible as if they sent them for their meals to a table maintained by the public bounty” (Mason, 1989b, p. 92).

According to Mason, the priority of the call to parents is paramount.

The Call and the Essence of Education

Charlotte Mason describes the essence of education as “an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life” (Mason, 1989f, p. xxix). Interestingly, Mason demonstrates the foundational role of the parent in these three dimensions of education. Since the call to parents is foundational to atmosphere, discipline, and life, we may conclude that the call to parents is foundational to education.

Atmosphere is the first instrument of education, and according to Mason, the application of this instrument begins with parents:

“This atmosphere in which the child inspires his unconscious ideas of right living emanates from his parents” (Mason, 1989b, p. 36).

“Education is an atmosphere – that is, the child breathes the atmosphere emanating from his parents; that of the ideas which rule their own lives” (Mason, 1989b, p. 247).

The atmosphere of education emanates from the parent. It is not something that is scheduled as part of the school day. It is not something that the parent takes off the shelf at the beginning of a lesson and then puts away when the lesson is done. It is not something that is created in the schoolroom. It is who the parent is. That which emanates from the parent is the atmosphere of education.

The discipline of education is the formation of habits. A superficial reading of Mason’s discussion on habits may suggest that habit formation is a purely activity—physical, scientific, and even mechanical. But Mason describes the true nature of habit formation as follows:

“Let me offer a few definite practical counsels to a parent who wishes to deal seriously with a bad habit. . .Above all, ‘watch unto prayer’ and teach your child dependence upon divine aid in this warfare of the spirit; but, also, the absolute necessity for his own efforts” (Mason, 1989b, pp. 175-76).

Habit formation is spiritual warfare. Charlotte Mason calls upon parents to develop habits within their children that are distinctly spiritual in nature:

“To keep a child in this habit of the thought of God – so that to lose it, for even a little while, is like coming home after an absence and finding his mother out – is a very delicate part of a parent’s work” (Mason, 1989c, p. 141).

Habits such as being continually in the thought of God leave a track in the immaterial soul, as well is in the material brain.

Mason indicates that children who have been “well brought up” by their parents are trained in “virtues and graces.” Mason classifies these virtues and graces as habits, and enumerates them as follows: “Diligence, reverence, gentleness, truthfulness, promptness, neatness, courtesy” (Mason, 1989b, p. 237). Parents must use the discipline of education to develop these habits in their children.

Education is a life in “the presentation of living ideas,” because “the mind feeds on ideas” (Mason, 1989f, p. xxix). The duty and responsibility of parents is to present the foundational living ideas to their children:

“The destiny of the child is ruled by his parents, because they have the virgin soil all to themselves. The first sowing must be at their hands. . . What do parents sow? Ideas” (Mason, 1989b, p. 29).

This initial sowing must be followed by an ongoing presentation of living ideas:

“The duty of parents is to sustain a child’s inner life with ideas as they sustain his body with food. . . In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand” (Mason, 1989b, p. 39).

Mason calls upon parents to practice education as an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.

The Call and Schools

If parents are foundational to the three instruments of education, then should children be educated exclusively at home? Not necessarily. Mason states that school education is a viable alternative to home education for both girls and boys. Regarding girls, she states:

“The home-taught girl may, in happy circumstances, excel in intellectual keenness and moral refinement; but for habits of work, power of work, conscientious endeavour in her work, the faithful schoolgirl is, as a rule, far before the girl who has not undergone school discipline” (Mason, 1989e, p. 192).

And regarding boys, she states:

“The parents of the young genius will probably do him an injury if they do not give him the chance of the school-training in habits of clear thinking and right judgment, as well as in the invaluable power of sustaining relations with his fellows” (Mason, 1989e, p. 326).

On the other hand, school education is only effective if it is preceded and accompanied by effective parenting:

“The point for our consideration is, that the duty of the parents to educate their child is by no means at an end when he enters upon school life; because it rests with them to supplement what is weak or wanting in the training of the school” (Mason, 1989e, p. 193).

In fact, according to Charlotte Mason, school education and home education are each characterized by respective strengths and weaknesses:

“We may assume at once that the discipline of the school is so valuable, that the boy or girl who grows up without it is at a disadvantage through life; while, at the same time, the training of the school is so far defective that, left to itself, it turns out very imperfect, inadequate human beings” (Mason, 1989e, p. 193).

It is remarkable that Mason, who worked so much with schools, would describe school training as “defective.” But she insists that parents must recognize this fact and act accordingly.

Mason gives parents specific instructions on how to compensate for the defects of school education. She describes in detail how parents are to:

  • Follow, encourage, and review their children’s studies (Mason, 1989e, p. 196).
  • Provide their children with a moral education (Mason, 1989e, p. 198).
  • Develop hearts of gratitude, kindness, and love in their children (Mason, 1989e, p. 204).
  • Secure for their children a daily time for private devotions (Mason, 1989e, p. 209).
  • Train their children in intellectual culture (Mason, 1989e, p. 212).
  • Read aloud with their children (even older children) (Mason, 1989e, p. 220).
  • Develop their children’s poetic taste (Mason, 1989e, p. 226).
  • Develop their children’s aesthetic sense (Mason, 1989e, p. 232).
  • Train their children’s senses of smell and taste (Mason, 1989e, pp. 187-88).

Parents would need to spend an extraordinary amount of time with their children in order to carry out all of these activities in the manner that Mason prescribes. It is remarkable that Mason expects all of this work to be done in the family context outside of normal school hours.

Performing these activities will of necessity encroach on the leisure time of both parents and children. Parents may choose to send their children to a Charlotte Mason school and then give their children free rein over their leisure time. The children may then spend every afternoon playing video games. Such an education, however, would not be a Charlotte Mason education. Charlotte Mason’s call to parents is to practice atmosphere, discipline, and life during leisure time, including even Sundays and vacations.

In fact, Charlotte Mason presents clear instructions to parents for Sunday activities:

“Let the day be full of its own special interests and amusements. An hour’s reading aloud, from Sunday to Sunday, of a work of real power and interest, might add to the interest of Sunday afternoon; and this family reading should supply a pleasant intellectual stimulus” (Mason, 1989e, p. 211).

Sunday is the day for a very particular kind of poetry:

“A little poetry may well be got in: there is time to digest it on Sunday; not only George Herbert, Vaughan, Keble, and the like, but any poet who feeds the heart with wise thoughts, and does not too much disturb the peace of the day with the stir of life and passion” (Mason, 1989e, p. 211).

And it is also a day for a specific kind of music:

“Music in the family is the greatest help towards making Sunday pleasant; but here, again, it is, perhaps, well to avoid music which carries associations of passion and unrest” (Mason, 1989e, p. 212).

Charlotte Mason expects that the parents, not the schools, will be exposing the children to this flavor of reading, poetry, and music.

Even vacations are to be oriented towards family education. Mason devotes an entire chapter to this topic, explaining that “the whole secret of a successful holiday [is that] the mind must be actively, unceasingly, and involuntarily engaged with fresh and ever-changing interests” (Mason, 1989e, p. 132). Mason urges parents to refrain from lessons and homework during the vacation and let the atmosphere, surroundings, and Nature provide the education (Mason, 1989b, p. 193).

Fathers

To what extent is Mason’s call to parents a call to fathers? This is a natural question to ask. A brief glance at the covers of contemporary books about Charlotte Mason reveals that most of them include some kind of picture of a mother and a daughter. I am not aware of a single book about Charlotte Mason’s life or work that includes a picture of a father on the cover. This sampling of data may suggest that Mason’s call was primarily directed to mothers.

However, a different sample of data yields a different conclusion.

Mason’s fifth volume, Formation of Character, includes the word parent 280 times, the word mother 260 times, and the word father 182 times. So Mason refers to parents collectively more often than she refers to mothers or fathers separately. Charlotte Mason’s call is to parents. Furthermore, if there are 182 references to the word father in a 450-page book, that means that father appears on almost every other page. And not all of those references to father are generic. For example, at one point she states explicitly, “Girls often fare well when their fathers have a hand in their education” (Mason, 1989e, p. 192).

Mason’s longest discussion about fathers in particular is found in Formation of Character. In this book she includes a 65-page exposition of the education of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (The treatment is so long that it could actually be published on its own as a small book.) In these pages, Mason describes how Goethe was homeschooled by his father:

“Young Goethe’s father, who delighted in teaching, instructed his children himself; and there are still exercises of the boy preserved in the Frankfurt library, in German, Latin, Greek, and French, written between his seventh and ninth years. These exercises show that the manner of instruction was immediate and interesting; the father dictating what had struck himself. . . [Goethe] never seems to have gone to school, except on one occasion, when the family house was being rebuilt and the children were sent out of the way” (Mason, 1989e, pp. 306-07).

Johann Caspar Goethe planned, designed, and delivered his son’s education at home.

The elder Goethe emanated an atmosphere of education. This began with his own delight in learning:

“[The father’s] love for the Italian language, and for everything concerning that land, was very outspoken. He often showed [the children] a little collection of marbles and natural objects which he had brought away with him” (Mason, 1989e, p. 314).

“A whole row of the beautifully-bound works of poets. . .; these the father read constantly and knew well, and so did the boy, who could recite many passages for the pleasure of his elders” (Mason, 1989e, p. 327).

The father also delighted in his son:

“The Boy’s gifts of language and rhetoric were greatly cherished by his father” (Mason, 1989e, p. 318).

Home education was evidently the father’s passion, hobby, and perhaps even vocation. Mason recounts several examples of the father’s diligence, including:

  • Locating and hiring a French teacher for his son (Mason, 1989e, p. 336)
  • Purchasing an interlinear Old Testament for his son (Mason, 1989e, p. 342)
  • Continuing to practice English (in addition to other languages) after an introductory course (Mason, 1989e, p. 339)

In summary, Mason says that the success of Goethe’s education was due to “the unresting efforts of his father” (Mason, 1989e, p. 357).

I would love to see a new book about Charlotte Mason with a picture on the cover that shows Johann Caspar Goethe with his son Johann Wolfgang. Mason calls us to imagine a world where children love to learn. But she also calls us to a world where fathers love to learn, and where fathers love to teach.

Answering the Call

Given the nature, priority, scope, and extent of Charlotte Mason’s call to parents, how can parents answer this call today? I suspect that the biggest challenge for parents today is to find the time to invest in these activities. Perhaps we think that the time challenge is a modern phenomenon. We might think that the parents that Mason addressed had more time to devote to education.

Interestingly, Mason was aware that parents are busy and that it is hard to find time to perform the activities she suggested. In fact, she described it as a contemporary problem:

“Yes; but where is his mother to get time in these encroaching days to put Henry under special treatment? She has other children and other duties, and simply cannot give herself up for a month or a week to one child” (Mason, 1989b, p. 87).

Mason offers a solution:

“If the boy were ill, in danger, would she find time for him then? Would not other duties go to the wall, and leave her little son, for the time, her chief object in life” (Mason, 1989b, p. 87)?

Mason points out that there is something about crises that help us understand what is really important in life. When a child is ill or in danger, he or she becomes the chief object in life.

I was once invited to speak with a small gathering of parents. Several fathers were in attendance and I gave the fathers this thought exercise: What would you do if your daughter were dying of a rare blood disease which necessitated daily blood transfusions, and only you, the father, had the matching blood characteristics that would sustain her life? If it required two hours of transfusions per day during which you had to sit by her side in the hospital, could you manage?

Not one of them said to me, “No I can’t do that. . .” No one said, “See, I watch football on Monday nights. And I go to a board meeting on Tuesday nights. And by Wednesday night I’m really tired after work, so I go to bed early. On Thursday nights I like to catch up on my reading. And Friday night I usually make some repairs to the house. Saturday nights, of course, I have a game night with friends. So no, it wouldn’t work out.” In fact, I have never met a Christian man who said he could not give two hours a day to his daughter if he knew her life depended on it.

But what about her spiritual life? Fathers, your children don’t need your blood, they need your heart. Your children need something that only you can provide. You have the prophetic office. You are the agent of Almighty God to bring your children under His divine government. There is no substitute. Please, feed your children with the ideas that sustain their lives.

Time was an issue even in the Middle Ages. In 1377, Catherine of Siena wrote,

“And then our heart rises up. . . in search of how we might best spend our time. For we seem never to have enough time. . . In our concern for [souls] we steal time from ourselves – time, that is, that we might have had for our own comfort, any comfort new or old – and we give that time to our neighbors” (Noffke, 2001, p. 653).

There are so many things I would like to do with my time – hobbies I would like to pursue, books I would like to read, places I would like to go, concerts I would like to attend, friends I would like to see, games I would like to play, classes I would like to take – and I have the right to enjoy all of these things for my “comfort.” But I have stolen all of these things from myself so I can give the gift of time to my children.

Why would I do this? Why would I steal from myself? There is only one force that could make me do it: love. Mason explains how love works. She quotes a poem from Wordsworth:

“Your love hath been, nor long ago,
A fountain at my fond heart’s door,
Whose only business was to flow;
And flow it did; not taking heed
Of its own bounty, or my need” (Mason, 1989e, p. 203).

Love’s only business is to flow. Love never runs out. Love never burns out. As Charlotte Mason wrote, “love grows, not by what it gets, but by what it gives” (Mason, 1989e, p. 205).

In January of 2008, Michele Quigley wrote in her blog that the month of February is notorious for burnout. She continued:

“When I feel the stress and challenge of these days I am tempted to go inward. Not spiritually, but selfishly. I want to hibernate, relax, do something for me. But a funny thing happens at my house when I start focusing too much on myself; everyone else starts focusing on themselves too…” (Quigley, 2008)

Then she described how at church her toddler became fussy. Michele stopped thinking about herself and focused on the needs of her daughter. And she finally felt peace. She remembered that Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24-26, RSV). Her blog continued,

“It’s all about love. It’s about following our Lord’s example and laying down our lives. It’s about burning up that which is not of God and turning towards Him by turning towards others and away from ourselves” (Quigley, 2008).

She wrote that we burn up, we don’t burn out.

All of this doesn’t really make sense – stealing from yourself, giving without limit, focusing entirely on others. Michelle concluded her article:

“Oh I know. . . that’s so contrary to what the world would tell me. The world would tell me that I need to find myself and be fulfilled. But I don’t need to find myself, I know exactly who I am and what fulfills me. The world has no clue. But thanks be to God, I do” (Quigley, 2008).

And you do, too.

References

Book of Common Prayer (1662). Retrieved from http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/1662/baskerville.htm.

Mason, C. M. (1989b). Parents and children: The role of the parent in the education of the child. Charlotte Mason Research & Supply. (Original work published 1896)

Mason, C. M. (1989c). School Education: Developing a curriculum. Charlotte Mason Research & Supply. (Original work published 1905)

Mason, C. M. (1989e). Formation of Character: Shaping the child’s personality. Charlotte Mason Research & Supply. (Original work published 1905)

Mason, C. M. (1989f). A Philosophy of Education: Curiosity – the pathway to creative learning. Charlotte Mason Research & Supply. (Original work published 1925)

Merriam-Webster (1981). Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 150th Anniversary Edition. G. & C. Merriam Co.

Noffke, Suzanne (2001). The Letters of Catherine of Siena: Volume II. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies.

Quigley, Michele (2008). Burning Up, Not Out.

RSV. The Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version.

16 Replies to “Charlotte Mason’s Call to Parents”

  1. Thank you, Art, for this deeply heartfelt essay; it is so moving and causes me to feel even deeper sorrow for the majority of the children in our nation today. The sad fact is that today so many fathers can barely read themselves and are ashamed to read aloud. They are not reading the Bible or any literature to their children, and many are not even living with their children.

    We’ve personally experienced that in church through men’s Bible studies and other spiritual training. To me, this is an even more compelling reason for the Church (body of Christ) to find a way to either provide literacy training or to encourage believers to volunteer in community literacy programs.

    I think that there has been an increasingly poor quality of education found in our public schools over the past four decades and even many decades before. This has been due to not only the intentional decision to “dumb down” our populace but also due to the fact that in so doing, what is taught is so very boring. Children begin to tune out, and some give up entirely.

    Rather that learning to find joy in learning in both the structured and the unstructured activities of life, children are left to become more self-oriented which leads to a more selfish, less compassionate and materialistic society which can easily be manipulated by those who prefer the parenting of the government rather than self-government, safety over freedom, and perhaps despotism or autocracy over a republic.

    True freedom is found in Christ, and excellence in education and the ability to sacrifice our own selves as parents is the door to finding such freedom.

  2. Brother Art. You wrote in this article that whether the education at a streamline school or the education at home both have the streghts and weakness (I am sort of paraphrasing what you wrote in one of the paragraphs).

    In this paragraph.. “The home-taught girl may, in happy circumstances, excel in intellectual keenness and moral refinement; but for habits of work, power of work, conscientious endeavour in her work, the faithful schoolgirl is, as a rule, far before the girl who has not undergone school discipline” (Mason, 1989b, p. 192).

    Can you please clarify, …”but for habits of work, power of work, conscientious endeavour in her work, the faithful schoolgirl is, as a rule, far before the girl who has not undergone school discipline””.

    So, was this a weakness or even today, is this a weakness of educating a girl at home?

    What are the “habits of work”, power of work, “conscientious endeavour in her work”? Thanks.

    1. This was Mason’s observation in her day. I think it points to the idea that schools generally have a more rigorous schedule and structure than the home. It is hard to create the same consistency at home. I don’t think that is a reason not to homeschool. I love homeschooling, and there are reasons for homeschooling today that were not relevant in Mason’s day.

      “habits of work” = the habit of doing work, such as school work, consistently every day, carefully and strictly enforced.

      “power of work” = the ability to work hard every day, obtained by habit, from consistent effort.

      “conscientious endeavour in her work” = intentionally working hard on a consistent basis.

      I think it was more difficult for homeschoolers in Mason’s time to get all of these benefits. But now we have co-ops, community groups, church activities, and many other supports for homeschoolers. I don’t think it is the same situation today. But I include this to be fair, to show that Mason was not exclusively in favor of homeschooling.

      1. Such an encouraging, and timely reading. Thank you! I firmly believe in the Biblical Principal what God calls us to do He equips. Our purpose here in this world is not really so complicated. May I, Lord in Your grace, not be found “off buying prints.”

  3. I found this challenging, yet so encouraging, Mr. Middlekauff. Charlotte Mason often does that, doesn’t she? Challenges yet inspires us! Thank you for sharing this!

    1. Yes, she does. In the 1948 Parents’ Review we read:

      An able lecturer in an Emergency Training College wrote recently, ‘There is a permanent quality in all Miss Mason’s work, a sense of urgency, as if writing for the present moment, that I do not find else where. One remembers the famous comment “Not for an age but for all time.” Miss Mason’s writing has, if it is not impertinent of me to say so, that quality.’

      They felt it then, and we feel it now. Blessings to you.

  4. Thanks for your response… However I am puzzled with this paragraph:
    I am also puzzled with this quote:
    “The parents of the young genius will probably do him an injury if they do not give him the chance of the school-training in habits of clear thinking and right judgment, as well as in the invaluable power of sustaining relations with his fellows” (Mason, 1989b, p. 326).
    How could we train our boys in habits of clear thinking and right judgment?

    1. Nat,

      Thank you for bringing the focus to this quotation. The context is helpful:

      The fact is, the genius cannot accept of the intellectual discipline of the schools, not so much out of lawlessness, as because his constructive mind is for ever busy in evolving a mental discipline of its own. It is in this sense that a genius is a law unto himself. He is not lawless, but has singular powers of self-education. The parents of the young genius will probably do him an injury if they do not give him the chance of the school-training in habits of clear thinking and right judgment, as well as in the invaluable power of sustaining relations with his fellows—a power often wanting in persons of casual education.

      Mason here is contrasting a casual education to a school education. If homeschooling parents diligently follow the discipline of a Charlotte Mason education, they should be able to avoid the dangers of a “casual education.” The power of sustaining relations with fellows can be achieved by giving homeschooled students outlets for engaging with their peers either in team sports, volunteer work, or church activities. It requires effort and consistency on the part of the parents, but in my opinion, it’s worth it!

      Blessings,
      Art

  5. I so enjoyed listening to this content via the CM Poetry Podcast from your talk from the Vision for Children Event. Thank you!! I am encouraged and spurred on and excited for my husband to listen to it and us discuss it together! And even more excited to continue living it out with our three young children! One question, I am curious, what book was it that your father in law gave you to read in regards to homeschooling?

    1. Katelyn,

      Thank you for listening to my presentation and taking the time to leave a comment. I am so glad that it encouraged you in your calling as a parent and a mother. The book my father-in-law gave me was Homeschooling: The Right Choice by Chris Klicka. It’s amazing how a book can change the course of one’s life!

      Blessings,
      Art

    1. Thank you! I have updated the link. I am glad the article is now available on your current site. It has meant so much to me over the years—I hope it always remains available on the web.

  6. I too enjoyed this post and audio. Lots of good information and great thoughts to ponder. I do, however, have one question. It related to your blood transfusion example. We had a real life example of this in our family. Our 7th child was born with brain cancer and the cancer caused hydrocephaly. Of course, we dropped everything we could to get him what he needed. Two and a half weeks in the hospital for the original surgery and recovery. I stayed with him the entire time since he nursed and my DH and I felt that was best. My DH went back and forth – to the hospital, home with our other six (my mom helping), and trying to make some money (he was laid off at the same time). Then 3 months of treatment for three days out of every 3 weeks plus weekly blood tests, frequent dr appts and MRIs, etc. Then 3 more surgeries. Then 5 years of MRIs to make sure the cancer stayed gone. Plus trying to walk our other children through this – some of them were old enough to fully understand what was happening and struggled with their faith as to why God would let this happen (PTL they are still walking strong! but it was a struggle for awhile). Of course, we gave and gave and did what we needed to to save our child, to meet the needs of our other children. We went without sleep, without food, without free time, without time with each other, without a regular schedule, without money. And we would go back and do it all again -the child is now cured but even if he hadn’t been we would still do it again. But now, with 7 children still at home (God sent two more so a total of 9), my husband and I are fighting for our health. The health issues we have lead to severe exhaustion – both the fatigue/need sleep and the “can hardly move or go upstairs”. Our 7 still at home range in age from 16 to 2 years. The oldest two are in college and still need us in various ways too. So how does this all fit? It is a daily struggle. We are getting treated but at the earliest it will be a year before we feel better. But in a year the children will be older and we will have missed this time. We continue to give everyday but there are so many things we don’t have the energy to give. It’s not that we don’t love them, it’s that our bodies are broken. How do you balance this?

    1. Dear Rebecca,

      Thank you so much for sharing your story. I admire the love, devotion, and sacrifice that you and your husband poured out to save the life of your seventh child. I praise God that your son is healed. You heeded the call of love, and your faithfulness is an example to all of us.

      I am sorry for the health challenges that you and your husband are now enduring. I pray for a deep healing that touches your body and soul and blesses your entire family. Please know that my heart is with you in your struggle.

      Your question is a good one. I share the thought exercise in my talk as an analogy in order to encourage parents to think about their lives in a different perspective. Rarely do I encounter someone like you who has actually lived—and loved—through such an ordeal. Your real-life example is more powerful than any thought exercise I might make up; your example shows what parents can do when they surrender to love.

      I hope that by sharing my thought exercise, I will help parents think clearly about their priorities. Children are very important: more important (I would argue) than many social events, community work, and leisure activities. But there are other priorities too, and these include God, marriage, work, and self-culture. I would never advise parents in ordinary circumstances to go without sleep, food, or fellowship as part of their normal routine of parenting. (Although your example shows that in extreme circumstances, parents do go without all of these things, for the sake of love.)

      I advise you to continue to pursue your own healing, and to love your children and let them be present with you as you recover. You may feel that you have very little to give. I imagine that is how one small boy felt, who had only five barley loaves and two fish, when he saw five thousand hungry souls. God does not hold us accountable to give what we don’t have. But when we give what we do have, He blesses us mightily. Those five loaves and two fish satisfied an enormous crowd. I believe that God will multiply your love as well, and that He will provide for your children’s needs.

      Blessings,
      Art

      1. Art,
        Thank you so much for responding. Your answer was exactly what we needed. I forwarded it to my husband. We both felt relieved when reading “God does not hold us accountable to give what we don’t have” and “When we give what we do have, He blesses us mightily”.
        I have been looking for an answer to this for some time, have even asked others, hoping to find some encouragement and an answer. Thank you for providing that for us.
        I think your example was a good one – it gives perspective where perspective is needed. I was just stuck on the “what happens after you’ve given and are now struggling”.
        -Rebecca

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