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"A closely walled-in paddock, a daily circuit of limited space and unvarying monotony, or the wide spread of breezy moorland, shifting scenes and countless surprises? Which shall we elect as the "course" on which to train those we wish to educate?"
"What advantages are to be reaped from the use of a wide curriculum for young children? Now, in considering the merits of any system we must first find out what it hopes to accomplish, ascertain the means to be used, and, as "the end crowns all," consider how far it has been successful..."
"...pupils should find knowledge delightful in itself and for its own sake, without thought of marks, place, prize, or other reward, that they should develop an intelligent curiosity about whatever is on the earth or in the heavens, about the past and the present."
"... We want our children to feel that each fresh lesson gives them an "open sesame" to a fairy palace full of treasures worth the seeking; that they are the inheritors of all the heaped-up gains of past ages, not slaves doomed to a treadmill of weary monotony. We do not want their experience to be that of some "grown-ups" who can tell us of a happy early childhood, when the world seemed all alive with interest, and Nature was teaching them many things, until there came an ever-to-be- remembered dark time when they had to begin to "do lessons"; lessons which unfortunately failed to excite any interest and only became a big, palpable barrier, shutting off the old gracious freedom of the days when they learnt without learning. "
A "...generous supply of tales, prescribed for the younger children, makes reading a delight, creates a desire to understand language, and equips the children with an ever-extending vocabulary, and, by so doing, increases their power of expression when they are called upon to describe what they have read."
"...Once more, the books we use encourage and develop powers of observation. A child of six without the faintest leaning towards abstract learning can rejoice in being sent to the garden to fetch in, identify, and describe six leaves. Perhaps (after a pause and mental grope for the more accurate language which was not forthcoming) to individualize a poppy leaf as "very in and outy" sounds absurdly inadequate and certainly lacking in scientific precision. And yet the poppy had received very special attention, and may not the mental grope have stimulated, albeit unconsciously, a desire for fuller powers of expression? "
"...instead of work and play being diametrically opposed, they may supplement and stimulate each other, and that work can yield such healthy interest that its results may be seen in an added zest to play. And may we not believe that a lesson which has been translated into play is a lesson assimilated?"
When a six year old boy declares with shining eyes that Beowulf is his favorite character in a book, and his eight year old sister declares with equal fervor that Laura of Little House on the Prairie is hers, when the two of them spend many hours playing on an old tree trunk they designate is their Viking Ship, and he is Hengist and she is Rowena, when a ten year old child listens to a sermon on the destructive powers of gossip and afterward thoughtfully says, "That reminds me of the French Revolution. A careless word about somebody you didn't like could get them sent to the guilliotine," then "...may we not hope that the seed have been sown of that healthy interest in literature and knowledge which will bring forth abundant fruit in after days?"
If this effort toward providing children with a wide and generous education appeals to you, then you may be interested in a Charlotte Mason education.
For more information, see:
http://www.amblesideonline.org
http://homepage.bushnell.net/~peanuts/CMason.html
(Above quotations taken from Parents' Review, volume 14, P.N.E.U. conference, beginning on page 920. From the AmblesideOnline website)
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