Welcome to week 23, The Children have No Self-Compelling Power Charlotte Mason Home Education Read-Along Series.
This post contains affiliate links, I receive a commission when you purchase products through these links at no additional cost.
Children have no self-compelling power. Charlotte Mason Home Education Read-along
This week we are reading pages 98-100 of the Home Education volume. Children have no self-compelling power.
If you want to see the rest of these posts in one place, you may view them HERE. And don’t forget to download your free worksheets with each reading! If you are interested in a Charlotte Mason “curriculum”, our favorite resource is Ambleside Online.
****If you need to purchase the Charlotte Mason Home Education volume, it is available in a newer version HERE. (Affiliate link)****
I am using the Original Homeschooling Series, Volume One, Home Education- the pink books.
An educational cul-de-sac
Charlotte shares from her heart in the opening of today’s reading by telling of her own experience as a young teacher and her own frustrations at seeing her students remaining unchanged even though they are brought up by well-intentioned parents and taught the best lessons in school. She notices that the children do not seem to grow in character.
I love the ending quote which says, “If education is to secure the step-by-step progress of the individual and the race, it must mean something over and above the daily plodding at small tasks which goes by the name.”
Charlotte recognized that true education was more than simply memorizing facts and completing small tasks. True education GREW the child in maturity and character, as well as knowledge.
Love, Law, and Religion as Educational Forces
CM noticed the benefits of religion for moral progress, she recognized how knowing the law helped children to restrain from evil and that love impelled them towards good. But she couldn’t find anything like that for education. A guide of sorts to compel children to want to learn and to stay motivated.
Why Children are Incapable of Steady Effort
Charlotte explains that children, as well as adults, are incapable of steady effort because they lack the strength of will to do so. She concludes that parents and teachers should be able to make a child do ‘that which he lacks the power to compel himself to do.’, but this training is usually quite poor.
So, she concludes that education must find a way around this lack of will by supplementing these weaknesses.
Children should be saved the effort of decision
Charlotte shares her thoughts that children must be spared the effort of decision, because they cannot possibly be expected to always choose between right from wrong due to their weak wills.
My takeaway from This Week’s Charlotte Mason Reading
My biggest takeaway from this week is that I mustn’t lay unnecessary burdens upon my children that will hinder education. If I am counting on my children to always know the course they should take, then we will all be disappointed.
I suspect that this is leading into the coming readings which will discuss why it is so important to form habits, but I will need to wait and read them to find out.
How about you? What’s your takeaway this week from the reading???
Don’t forget your free printable to go with this week’s reading!
Leave a Reply