We come finally to our third tool of education–living ideas. We’ve talked a couple times (or more) about living books …so let’s talk about living ideas. Because Charlotte Mason wasn’t just talking about getting ideas from living books. She was also talking about the things of education. So as we head into summer break, let’s talk about the ideas that flow out of the natural rhythms of a Charlotte Mason home. Living ideas are woven into the fabric of our homes when we live in a way where the books and things of a classical Charlotte Mason education are a part of our daily rhythms. And, of course…we do not work alone.

Books Mentioned: Home Education | A Philosophy of Education (*affiliate links)

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COMMONPLACE:

These indefinite ideas which express themselves in an ‘appetency’ towards something and which should draw a child towards things honest, lovely, and of good report, are not to be offered of set purpose or at set times: they are held in that thought-atmosphere which surrounds him, breathed as his breath of life. (A Philosophy of Education, 107)

“Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony: but we must sustain a child’s inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food. Probably he will reject nine-tenths of the ideas we offer, as he makes use of only a small proportion of his bodily food, rejecting the rest. He is an eclectic; he may choose this or that; our business is to supply him with due abundance and variety and his to take what he needs.” (A Philosophy of Education, 109)

“all I have said is meant to enforce the fact that much and varied humane reading, as well as human thought expressed in the forms of art, is, not a luxury, a tit-bit, to be given to children now and then, but their very bread of life, which they must have in abundant portions and at regular periods. This and more is implied in the phrase, "The mind feeds on ideas and therefore children should have a generous curriculum." (A Philosophy of Education, 111)

“[We ought to] take it upon ourselves that great character comes out of great thoughts and great thoughts must be initiated by great ‘thinkers’, then we shall have a definite aim in education. Thinking, and not doing, is the source of great character.” (A Philosophy of Education, pg. 278)

“that an inspiring idea initiates a new habit of thought, and hence, a new habit of life; we perceive that the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of vitalising ideas. In this great work we seek and assuredly find the co-operation of the Divine Spirit, whom we recognise, in a sense rather new to modern thought, as the supreme Educator of mankind in things that have been called secular, fully as much as in those that have been called sacred.” (School Education 173)