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MAGNANIMITY

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"Who aimeth at a star,
Shoots higher, far,
Than he who means a tree."

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A Charlotte Mason and Classical Education Newsletter
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Volume 1, Issue 5--November 4, 2002
karenglass@...
Copyright 2002 Karen Glass
All Rights Reserved

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

--A Word from the Editor
--E-text of the Month
--Narration, by Karen Glass
--Book Review: _The Rector of Justin
--Physics is Child's Play, by Lorraine Nessman
--Educational Quote


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Dear Readers,

Please accept my apologies for the lateness of this newsletter. I hope to
get back onto my planned schedule with the next issue due on or about
December 10th. I am sorry this one was not sent on time.

I've been wondering if any readers have downloaded and read any of the
e-texts that have been featured in earlier issues. I'd like to hear from
you. Have you read any of the texts in full or part? Did your or your
children enjoy them? Did they lead you into further reading? Please share
your experiences--I'd like to incude them in a future issue.

If you've discovered a little-known gem online somewhere and would like to
share it with Magnanimity readers, please let me know that, too. I would
enjoy some contributions for that feature.


Karen Glass
Editor

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E-TEXT OF THE MONTH

_Pearl Maiden: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem_, by H. Rider Haggard

I mentioned last month that I had flipped a coin because I couldn't decide
which of two excellent e-texts to share. This month's book was the loser on
that toss, but it is in no way an inferior book.

Some books take a few pages, or even a few chapters, to draw the reader into
the story. Not so with this author. Within three sentences, Haggard's story
has gripped the reader's attention in an iron grasp, and he is then carried
along from narrow escape to dramatic rescue to heart-rending decision, and
finally to a satisfying conclusion, with few stops for breath along the way.
(I think Haggard would have written thrilling movie scripts if he'd lived a
century later!)

_The Pearl Maiden_ takes place during the first century A.D. Christians are
being persecuted by Rome, and believers are required to take a strong stand
for their faith. The story takes us from Israel to the Roman capitol, and
the book incorporates many fascinating and accurate details about the
history of this time period. Among other things, we get an excellent account
of the destruction of Jerusalem and of a Roman triumph.

This book is truly wonderful in scope, as it follows the story of a young
Christian woman who falls in love with a Roman who wants to marry her. One
of the most impressive features of the story is her steadfast refusal to
marry someone who is not a Christian. She even rejects his offer to be
baptized for her sake, because she knows that it is not baptism that makes
one a Christian, but true repentence and faith.

The breadth and depth of this book are comparable to several other fictional
works set in this time period, including _The Robe_. This is historical
fiction at its best.

Shall we test my theory about the three sentences?

"It was but two hours after midnight, yet many were wakeful in Cęsarea
on the Syrian coast. Herod Agrippa, King of all Palestine--by grace of
the Romans--now at the very apex of his power, celebrated a festival
in honour of the Emperor Claudius, to which had flocked all the
mightiest in the land and tens of thousands of the people. The city
was full of them, their camps were set upon the sea-beach and for
miles around; there was no room at the inns or in the private houses,
where guests slept upon the roofs, the couches, the floors, and in the
gardens. The great town hummed like a hive of bees disturbed after
sunset, and though the louder sounds of revelling had died away,
parties of feasters, many of them still crowned with fading roses,
passed along the streets shouting and singing to their lodgings. As
they went, they discussed--those of them who were sufficiently sober--
the incidents of that day's games in the great circus, and offered or
accepted odds upon the more exciting events of the morrow.

The captives in the prison that was set upon a little hill, a frowning
building of brown stone, divided into courts and surrounded by a high
wall and a ditch, could hear the workmen at their labours in the
amphitheatre below. These sounds interested them, since many of those
who listened were doomed to take a leading part in the spectacle of
this new day."



You'll find the rest at

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=5175




Copyright 2002 Karen Glass



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NARRATION

This is going to be the first in a series of articles about narration. In
my opinion, narration is the cornerstone of a Charlotte Mason education, and
it plays an important role in classical education as well.

The concept of narration is so closely linked with the name "Charlotte
Mason" that we may be in danger of thinking that she invented the idea, as
well as popularized the use of it in education. Nothing could be further
from the truth, and Miss Mason made no such claims for herself. She did
not "invent" the concept of narration.

Charlotte Mason definitely deserves credit, however, for focusing on
narration, and she has been the instrument that has brought this method into
popular use in modern homeschools. However, I have also found it
instructive to look back and see the classical roots of narration.

Narration goes back a long way--all the way back to ancient Greece. The
Greeks had made rhetoric a prominent part of their educational process.
However, "rhetoric" is a broad topic, and it was painstakingly broken down
into small pieces, the simplest of which could be practiced by fairly young
children. "Narration" was one of the earliest exercises for rhetoric--part
of the "progymnasmata," which might be considered the "kindergarten" of
rhetoric.

"Narration," for the Greeks, meant reciting an ordered account of events.
The mental discipline of being able to recall events in order, and
communicate them in an intelligible way, was part of their early training.
Quintilian, a Roman educator, divides narration (or narratives) into fable,
fictitious narrative, and historical narrative. While Charlotte Mason's
version of narration is more comprehensive, she does recommend that younger
children and beginning narrators should work with this same type
information--they should have a definite action, event, or "story" to
narrate.

"....read to a child of any age from six to ten an account of an incident,
graphically and tersely told, and the child will relate what he has heard
point by point, though not word for word, and will add delightful original
touches; what is more, he will relate the passage months later because he
has visualised the scene and appropriated that bit of knowledge."
(_Philosophy of Education_, p. 29.)

The material that is appropriate for narration for younger children will
tell a story, or at the very least, allow the child to visualize what he is
hearing. From experience, Charlotte Mason knew that children would
embellish things in their own way, and Quintilian encouraged this in his
pupils as well.

"Let this age then be bold oft-times, inventive too and prone to delight in
its own inventions, though they may still be lacking in exactness and
clear-cut outline. It is easy to correct exuberance, but barrenness no toil
can overcome." (_Institutes of Oratory_, Book II, Chapter 4.)

This early practice in narration lays the groundwork for "creative writing"
and more advanced writing and thinking projects at a later age. Abstract
language is difficult for young children to narrate, but the ability will
grow with the child. Charlotte Mason continues:

"A rhetorical passage, written in 'journalese,' makes no impression on
him;....An older boy or girl will read one of Bacon's Essays, say, or a
passage from De Quincey, and will write or tell it forcibly and with some
style, either at the moment or months later." (_Philosophy of Education_, p.
29.)

Both Charlotte Mason and the classical Greek and Roman educators recognized
that the act of narrating simple stories and historical events laid a
powerful foundation for later thinking and learning. The exercise of
narration was not set aside as the child grew, but rather became more
complex, and was able to be implemented with increasingly abstract ideas.

It is interesting to note that others, throughout the ages, did not entirely
forget narration. Erasmus recommended that narration be used in much the
same way that Charlotte Mason used it (though he does not call it
narration.)

"The master must not omit to set as an exercise the reproduction of what he
has given to the class. It involves time and trouble to the teacher, I know
well, but it is essential. A literal reproduction of the matter taught is,
of course, not required -- but the substance of it presented in the pupil's
own way." (_Upon the Right Method of Instruction_.)

Seeking out and examining the origins of narration may not make an
immediate difference in the way we homeschool our children. However,
narration is sometimes a hard thing to do. Children do not always narrate
readily, or fluently, and a great deal of time and patience may be required
before a child narrates well. In spite of these difficulties, the process
of narration is so fundamental, so valuable to growth of mind, that a
recognition of its historical importance in classical education may give us
some added determination as we attempt to establish the practice of
narration.

Many of the skills that we think of as belonging to "creative writing" or
"composition" may be well developed simply by the consistent use of
narration. A child who narrates consistently becomes accustomed to
expressing ideas and thoughts in his own words, and it is a manageable step
from oral narration (which may also be called "oral composition") to written
narration. After written narrations become a matter of ease and habit, a
child is ready for more formal instruction in writing. I hope to explore
this process in more detail in a future issue.

For now, it is enough to look back into history, and see that narration was
not an uncommon idea to the classical educators. We can see small
differences in the way that they practiced narration. The Greeks and Romans
assigned "narration" to younger pupils as an exercise in re-telling a story
or historical event in proper order (with all the liveliness they could
include as a bonus). Erasmus pictures his pupils re-iterating a lesson that
they have heard, perhaps to sharpen their attention and fix the lesson in
their minds. Charlotte Mason incorporated narration into the very heart of
her method for the sake of both these reasons and more.

We live in a time when when something "new" is virtually synonymous with
something "better." In fact, "new and improved" is a by-word in the
advertising world. Our cleaning products, food, clothing, decorating
schemes--everything is constantly changing. This year's styles and fads
push last year's wardrobe to the back of the closet, and our society
encourages us to buy new paint, new furniture, new appliances, and new cars
for no other reason than that "new" is "better."

Unfortunately, this type of attitude is reflected in other areas of our
life, but I will restrict my discussion to educational philosophy. New
curriculum and "new" methods of educating are being developed year by year.
Schools and teachers play around with classroom models and and methods of
teaching as if they were doing no more than re-arranging furniture in a room
or discarding an old sweater in favor of the latest style. Sometimes this
is a good thing, but we must be very careful that we are not enticed into
trying something "new" when something "old" is actually much better. The
flip side of the coin, of course, is that being "old" does not automatically
make something good, right, true, or superior. Most of what we consider
"old" was once a new-fangled idea, too.

So, how do we evaluate educational methods? How do we know if narration,
specifically, is fundamentally important? Those earnest ancients did other
things as part of their educational process that we neglect or ignore.
Modern research has taught us things about the human brain that they never
could have known, and are worth our consideration.

While nothing can, perhaps, be conclusive, narration is a method in which we
can have confidence. The fact that narration was practiced and endorsed
across centuries is a point in its favor, but perhaps more telling is the
fact that narration is a natural part of our human communication. We
eagerly share with others the story-line of a book or movie we have enjoyed.
We relay the events of a day's activities over the evening meal. We tell
and re-tell familiy tales to children. Narration, in its natural form, is
part of ordinary human life and interaction.

By harnessing a natural tool and employing it in a disciplined and
consistent way, we are able to lay a strong language-based foundation for
our children. In future issues, we will take a look at methods and
processes involved in narration, but for now, it is enough to be reassured
that narration is both "natural" and "classical." Perhaps that is why it is
also one of the most effective tools available to us as educators.


Copyright 2002 Karen Glass


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BOOK REVIEW

In the prologue to his book _Norms & Nobility_, David Hicks begins by
mentioning another book:

"A college president I know keeps three books on his night table: the
Bible, the Iliad, and Louis Auchincloss' 1964 novel _The Rector of Justin_.
When I once asked him, 'Why the novel?," he responded, 'Because it raises
questions I cannot answer or ignore, the sort of questions that possess a
wisdom apart from answers.' "

I was recently delighted to discover a copy of this novel on the shelves of
the library I patronize in Krakow, Poland, and it is this book that I'd like
to recommend to you this month.

Frank Prescott is the founder of a school--a school that most of us would
call a "classical school." His goals and ideals about education were rooted
in ancient traditions, and he wanted to teach young men. They had plenty of
intellectual and academic studies, but his primary goal was to instill in
his students steadfast character and ageless wisdom. In spite of his
tremendous personal devotion to these worthwhile goals, he failed.

This book traces his life through the eyes of six individuals who knew him,
from boyhood to the end of his life. The influences of the world infected
and affected the outcome of his lovely school. As the college president
tells us, the book provides no answers about why the school failed to
realize its ideals, but it does raise questions that those of us who are
devoting much energy to the education of children should ponder.

This is an interesting story to read, in and of itself, because of the
portrait it presents of a truly fine and dedicated man. On a deeper level,
we can appreciate the story that allows us to penetrate some of the issues
that surround education, its ideals, and its short-comings.

_The Rector of Justin_ , originally published in 1964 and reprinted in 2001,
is not currently available at amazon.com, but a search at www.bookfinder.com
discovered over 200 copies available. Over 50 of them were available for
less than $5, so it should not be difficult to find a copy. Check your
library, too! This is not "light reading," but it is a thoughtful novel
that will add insight and perspective to your philosophy of education.

Copyright 2002 Karen Glass



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PHYSICS IS CHILD'S PLAY

Physics is child's play! Really! What infant does not thrill to the
wonderful effects of gravity? They are born linguists, and scientists, and
we hardly even know it until their innate genius transfixes us with the
wisdom of simplicity, and that, when we least expect it. They love the
study of all of life, and are quite adept at observation and organization of
megabytes of data.

So what do we normally do to help children learn more about what they
observe on their own? Do we not talk about the color of the toy in the
child's hand? Telling him gently the name of the food he eats? A child's
weakest link to accessing more fully what he loves to observe is what he
does not hear. Children hear the names of birds, animals, friends, foods,
and more. We know they can learn these real life words and many others too.
These words help them interact with people and time and objects in the world
around them. Now, for a twist..... Could they, and should they learn the
words that help them interact with the natural science of physics? Yes,
natural science.

Even Anna Botsford Comstock considered that the study of physics in nature
is just as important as animals, insects, weather, and so on, or so she
states in the notes at the beginning of her well known and respected
Handbook of Nature Study. She did not address physics herself, not because
she considered the study unimportant, but because it was not her area of
expertise. She did not address the study herself, not because she
considered it above children, but because someone who was familiar with the
science, and loved it, would better draw the heart of each child into the
love of observation, and especially into the process of asking questions.

Still, Anna Botsford Comstock believed that parents who knew how to say, "I
don't know," yet were eager to draw their children's attention to the
amazing miracles in the earth and all of life, were fully capable of
teaching natural sciences to children. Wouldn't she also believe that the
same kind of heart in a teacher would draw the heart of children into the
study of physics in the natural world? Wouldn't she ask us to contemplate
the depth of that calling too?

Before I had seriously considered homeschooling, when my oldest son was
three years old, I was watching an interview with a highly respected
physicist whose father was also a physicist. The thing about the interview
that piqued my interest, as a mother, was that Mr. Physicist Sr. had begun
to introduce physics to Mr. Physicist Jr. when Jr. was only three or four
years old. The thought intrigued me, so I listened further. There was only
one example given as to how this father accomplished such an odd-sounding
feat. As well as I can recall, the example is as follows:

The child was playing with a ball in a wagon. As the child played, the
father asked him what the ball would do next. When the child was surprised
by the results, the father helped him further by supplying him with the
vocabulary for his observations. In essence, the child had begun to learn
the concepts of inertia, and learned the word which identified those
concepts.

Closer to home, I wondered if my son would have such an interest, and how I
would know. Though now I believe that all children are fascinated by the
basic principles of physics (what baby doesn't experiment with the affects
of gravitation, and with great enthusiasm?), it was fortunate that I did not
know whether my son would be interested.

I say I was fortunate, for, as I watched for signs of interest, I stumbled
upon one of the better ways of teaching. In practice, I waited for a moment
when my son was observing the effects of physical laws, and then asked him
questions about it. As he needed more vocabulary, I offered him help with
this.

The first occasion was modeled on the example of Mr. Physicist Sr. and
Jr.'s. While driving home from day-care, my son was observing the movement
of the pennies in the console. I asked him questions as to what he thought
they would do when the car began moving, and stopped again. He was
fascinated by the results when they agreed with his thinking (his
hypothesis), and when they did not. As the conversation and observations
continued, the benefit of better vocabulary was obvious, and he quickly fell
in love with inertia, developing a hypothesis, variables, etc. Through the
next couple of years, he continued asking questions until it seemed time to
introduce him to Sir Isaac Newton and his three laws, as they would answer
his most recent questions with more clarity. Not remembering them well, I
mentioned asking my father about the laws.

We did not memorize the three laws, but my son was introduced to them
sitting on Grampa's knee. Later, he got excited when I found a biography on
Sir Isaac Newton in the junior section of the library. We read most of it
together. He loved hearing about the kites and lights and experiments that
Newton benefited from as a child, and how Newton expounded on those early
observations when he grew up.

Watching my son ask more and more sophisticated questions was fascinating,
and fortunately, not intimidating. This shouldn't have been intimidating
anyway, as I will explain later, but the fact that I had small introductions
to physics and chemistry in high school gave me confidence that I could
grasp the basics enough to point him in a fairly good direction. What was
even more fascinating than my son's progress, was the nature of the
questions. The increasingly sophisticated questions had to do with laundry
cooling as it came from the clothes drier, cooking, falling leaves, and
other things which we take for granted in our daily lives.

Later, when I took my son out of private school and began to homeschool, I
heard of other homeschooling parents, even previously poor students in
school themselves, who were teaching their children without much, or even
sometimes, any curriculum. They were achieving astounding results. This
seemed foreign and a bit frightful to me. One of the things that they kept
emphasizing was that the home is a laboratory. It is funny that I didn't
understand this right away, although I had been using our home as a
laboratory. But as my son continued to ask questions and learn, it quickly
occurred to me, that I had accidentally stumbled onto some of what these
non-curriculum families were benefiting from.

There is a seven year gap between my oldest two sons. When my second eldest
son became old enough to begin observing the laws of physics, and my eldest
son needed more vocabulary than I had retained from my early introduction to
physics, I went to the library for help. To help us determine better
vocabulary, more understanding of the laws of physics, and
experiments/systems to set up to observe the laws in motion, we checked out
some experiment books, and some biographies of physicists, as they are as
close to heroes as my oldest son has. One of the books we picked up was
_Science as it Happens! Family Activities with Children Ages 4 to 8_ by Jean
Durgin Harlan, Ph.D. and Carolyn Good Quattrocchi. There is an encouraging
thing I want to share with you from the first chapter of that book. It
discusses, "Why early science?"

"You can make science _real_ and fascinating for your child. And yes, _you_
can do it.

"You don't have to convert your house into a science lab--it already is
one....In recent decades, educators have realized that the easiest children
to teach in school are those who have already learned much at home. Today
you, as parents, are encouraged to build the foundations of reading as soon
as you can hold both a book and a baby on your lap at the same time......"

"The older, narrow vision of formal, school-based education as the best way
to teach children is changing. But, for the most part, the physical
sciences are still deemed 'too difficult for amateurs to teach.' These are
the very branches of science in which today's American high school students
have been faring so badly.

"But impressive evidence backs the idea that you can help your child with
beginning steps toward future science learning." ( Benjamin Bloom, in his
book _Developing Talent in Young People_.)

"Beginning physical science is only 'too difficult for amateurs to teach'
when taken out of the context of the child's known world......"

Well, that's it. It's simple. Perhaps too simple to quickly feel
comfortable with how simple it is. Once you spend a little time looking at
science this way (and perhaps children's experiment books) it just falls
into place.

I remember using my son's "known world" when my son and I discussed the
sheets coming out of the drier and finding ways of putting the issues of
heat loss/surface area into more specific terms (that when the sheet is
spread out, creating greater surface area, the heat loss is faster than when
the sheet is bunched up---and discussed why that would be so). There are
many, many other examples like that. We lived day to day, observing as we
went. When I get a book from the library with experiments, I especially
look for the specific instructions, or vocabulary alone, which I want to
help my children 'run into' when they are in the tub, in the kitchen, etc.

________________________________________

I actually do experiments with them from time to time, and when my thirteen
year old son was eleven I particularly remember one experiment which he
altered as he went. His changes accidentally created a model of clouds
being held up by air pressure, or water pressure increasing as you go deeper
into the ocean. It was an experiment of buoyancy, but he took it further,
discovering the cloud and ocean model on his own. It was rewarding to see
his joy at this simple project. (By the way, I didn't naturally use the
word buoyancy. As his observations increased, my vocabulary became more
distinct and concise for him.)

In another experiment, he concisely discussed why water explodes out of a
cup if it is 'superheated' in a microwave. Since then, my sons have
observed nucleation points in liquid systems as they enjoy carbonated
beverages or cooking together, or even set up experiments themselves. The
oldest son uses most terms effectively while asking even more questions.
Questions I wouldn't have been able to design for him, and terms I wouldn't
have run into except for his questions, but he just keeps running into
these. The second oldest son might instead ask what that word is that
defines the point where the bubble forms (nucleation point). He'll watch
again for a while. Occasionally he'll even ask another question. All the
while, the youngest son just observes our observations. This is a
lifestyle, and one which I do not believe will fade before my youngest has a
chance to begin learning the same way.

Through these various experiments, I began to see how the principles we
discussed at home fit into the equations that had been covered in high
school physics.

My oldest son, now 13, is currently enrolled in a co-op class using
_Conceptual Physics_ by Paul G. Hewitt. To add to the fun, I am finally
learning enough about physics with him to feel confident that I can take the
next step when he is in high school and teach him a full-blown high school
level physics course. I look forward to obtaining a copy of _Mechanical
Universe_ in the future. We have a physics instructor living across the
street, and he is able to help with the few things that we just can't begin
to dig out of a textbook ourselves. Physics is indeed, at some point, too
complicated for most of us. We each need to determine where that
complicated point is individually, but it is much further up the ladder of
concepts than most of us ever dreamed of. Don't decide quickly that
learning is too much for you. If you decide to learn as a lifestyle, it
comes to you in baby steps until you are ready to walk, and then to run.

While working our way through this particular text (_Conceptual Physics_), I
have acquired better tools to teach my second son more about the wonderful
world of natural physics in his daily life. I am renewed in my fervor to
continue opening up this enlightening science to all four of my children.
This in spite of the fact that I don't necessarily anticipate a single
scientist coming from my home.

Indeed, in our co-op studies, I have come face to face with how much science
has impacted philosophy throughout millennia. Aristotle's views on motion,
first rejected by the church, then later held to by the church dogmatically,
altered our understanding of life, God, each other, and more. Not until
Galileo actually observed the physical world more in keeping with itself
than another man's supposition, did we begin to see new changes in man's
philosophy occur with significant rapidity. Thinking he had local authority
to finally publish his findings, though prosecuted later in spite of his
documentation of that authority, Galileo showed the world that not only
Aristotle's views on motion, but his conclusions about life, though
predominantly accurate, were flawed.

This change in understanding was furthered by Newton's study, conclusions,
and mathematical proofs. Many people began to rationalize that God either
did not exist, or did not need to be a relevant, 'near' God, or any other
sort of argument to explain away their lack of regard for their own creator.
These are rationalized responses to scientific discovery, but they in no way
make science a study in opposing God. The created earth is a reflection of
the creator. Understanding this reflection helps us to understand Him
better. The better we understand Him, the better we can see Him. The
better we see Him, the more fully we will be prepared to reflect Him if we
love Him.

________________________________________


When we first began science notebooks for my second son, we went to the
library and got books about sound as we studied that God spoke and things
became. Thus, the beginning of a note book. We looked into poetry, etc.
Then, when light was created---another trip to the library and another
notebook. And so on. We learned a song about creation, which he enjoyed.
Some of these notebooks are very detailed--on a child's level, but detailed.
During that time, one example of a 'treasure' that we found from the library
was the following poem, illustrated by a school play, with children
symbolizing the planets, holding stuffed animals which represented the
various moons in the solar system, all spinning in orbit around the child
who stands for the sun--a dance.

"In silent space between the stars, in the middle of the Milky Way, the
Earth dances.

Held in the circles of the planets, around her sun she turns, and turns
her moon.

Through the years she whirls, tilting into summer, spinning into fall,
tipping into winter, twirling past spring. Tilting, spinning, tipping,
twirling, the Earth turns through the days into the nights. Sheltered,
secured, we turn with her, singing, sleeping, dancing, dreaming, awake,
asleep.

In the silent space between the stars, the Earth dances." (from
_Earthdance_ by Lynn Reiser, copyright 1999 Greenwillow Books) Through
this simple book, it is powerfully clear to the observer what is happening,
even to young children. This poem went into my children's notebooks, along
with jokes, and stamps, and experiments, and listings of biographies. We
are excited about what has happened so far.

In the meantime, I think that many homeschoolers do physics more than they
think. I don't think that I have to 'do' science for my children to have
discovered important scientific principles along the way. That is what we
do most...we just kept observing it on our way about our world, which does
at times inspire a quest. These quests for knowledge involve mere questions
to ponder at times, other times they involve actual experiments. Physics
is gravity, light, inertia, water/solid/vapor, lift, pressure, simple tools,
friction, etc. Many of you have discussed these things with your children,
but have not had the power of this concretely in your mind. These things are
physics. If you occasionally look in a book so you can learn a little
vocabulary, you will start asking more sophisticated questions bit by bit.
You won't always have the answer, but isn't that what constitutes the heart
of a love of learning?

A lifestyle of learning such as this is what will help you begin to piece
together the tools you need to turn your own home into a laboratory. From
these daily interactions with your children, the simple ideas lead to
questions which involve combinations of earlier questions. The interactions
of time, pressure, temperature, etc., with one or more variables changing at
a time, and the way they work within a 'system' are the next step. But it
is a step that you can take together with children. It is child's play.

Let me leave you with the thoughts of Charlotte Mason, in CM Volume 2, pp.
36-37, where she says:

"An Idea may exist as an 'Appetency.'--Ideas may invest as an atmosphere,
rather than strike as a weapon. 'The idea may exist in a clear, distinct,
definite form, as that of a circle in the mind of a geometrician; or it may
be a mere instinct, a vague appetency towards something,...like the impulse
which fills the young poet's eyes with tears, he knows not why.' To excite
this 'appetency towards something'--towards things lovely, honest, and of
good report, is the earliest and most important ministry of the educator.
How shall these indefinite ideas which manifest themselves in appetency be
imparted? They are not to be given of set purpose, nor taken at set times.
They are held in that thought-environment which surrounds the child as an
atmosphere, which he breathes as his breath of life; and this atmosphere in
which the child inspires his unconscious ideas of right living emanates from
his parents. Every look of gentleness and tone of reverence, every word of
kindness and act of help, passes into the thought-environment, the very
atmosphere which the child breathes; he does not think of these things, may
never think of them, but all his life long they excite that 'vague appetency
towards something' out of which most of his actions spring. Oh, the
wonderful and dreadful presence of the little child in the midst! "

Copyright 2002 Lorraine Nessman
Used With Permission

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EDUCATIONAL QUOTE

Rigorous teachers seized my youth,
And purged its faith and trimmed its fire,
Showed me the high, white star of Truth,
There bade me gaze and there aspire.

--Matthew Arnold

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