A Tune We Have Not Yet Heard

Music in art: poster found at a flea market

by Anne White

In his address The Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis said:

“The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.” (emphasis his)

Yes, the pile of books can betray us.  A book can disappoint. It can have a terrible ending. It can make us angry. It can bore us. It can leave us in tears or give us nightmares.  The whole pile could (literally or metaphorically) fall on our heads and kill us.

The music we love can suddenly become insufficient. A few among us may remember the ratings-busting finale of M*A*S*H* (in 1983, further back now than the actual Korean War was when we were watching it).  Near the beginning of the episode, Dr. Charles Winchester discovers that five captured Chinese soldiers are musicians, and he begins teaching them to play a Mozart clarinet quintet, using their own instruments. Later, the prisoners are taken away as part of a prisoner exchange (playing Mozart as they go). But just as a ceasefire is being announced, they are killed in a last round of enemy attacks.  When Winchester hears this, he goes to his tent and tries to listen to the Mozart record, but ends up smashing it to pieces. It is not only the music that betrayed him, but everything else in which he put his trust and which it represented.

Charlotte Mason also warned us about seeking beauty too much for its own sake:

The Beauty Sense adds so much to the joy of life that it is not easy to see what danger attends it...[We may think that] that the joys of Beauty are so full and satisfying that nothing else is necessary to complete the happiness of life...The person who is given up to the intoxication of Beauty conceives that Beauty and Goodness are one and the same thing, and that Duty is no more than seeking one's own pleasure in the ways one best likes. People, too, become excluded. (Ourselves Book I, p. 54)

We are fully allowed to value poetry, visual art, music, plays, and the natural world (including its tastes and textures). But we can love the scent of the flower, the echo of the tune, the rhythm of the sonnet (as Mason says) without becoming intoxicated by them. When they show themselves (as the Greek philosophers said) as only shadows of the true and wonderful things yet to come, we can understand and not grieve for what they are not, knowing that it is what comes "through them" that really matters.

And as our friend Lynn used to say, that enables us to enjoy every sandwich.

Challenge 2

Last week's challenge is here.

You have probably heard that Charlotte Mason’s method of education is a philosophy, a collection of ideas and principles.  You will find those principles in the front of each volume.  I suggest you read them in volume VI, because in this volume, her last one before she died, she expands the principles to 20.  

Rather than go line by line through those principles, I'd like to use them to demonstrate that a Charlotte Mason education really is for everybody, because those principles apply to the vast majority of the human race. For the sake of time, we'll just look at a few.

Her first principle, for instance, is that children are *born* persons. They are not born oysters, or empty sacs and we make human beings out of them. They don’t become people, they are people, individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses, bents and inclinations.  We definitely can help them along to be better informed people, and we can instill in them some helpful habits and knowledge about the world. but they come to us as fully human as you or I.  This is true for all children (and all adults- we, too, are born persons).  Of course, this is for everybody.  All human children are born persons.

Although they are born persons, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say because they are born persons, children are in need of assistance in the development of what used to be called character.  Mason says in her first edition of the Parents’ Review that “the formation of character” is “the essential function of education.” (here).  That goes along with the second principle:

“2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil.”

As with all the other principles her meaning is fleshed out further in her books, particularly in the first part of volume VI, but in summary, here Mason is speaking to the idea of hereditary determination, that children inherited, infallibly, the failures, weaknesses, sins, or successes, of their parents.  Children of thieves would be born with a nearly inescapable propensity to theft and children born illegitimate were tainted forever by that stain as it came with the same weak character and lack of moral standards which had resulted in a pregnancy outside of wedlock in the first place.  Mason is pronouncing that theory bankrupt and stresses that children have equal possibilities for good or evil regardless of their birth circumstances.  This is true of all children.

” 3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but––”

Authority and obedience are surely appropriate concepts for for all of us.

 “4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.”

Balanced application, don’t resort to manipulation based on fear or feelings (If you love me, you’ll….”)-  again, concepts appropriate for all.

 “5. Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments––the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”

Note the specific sphere of the application for this principle- “educational instruments.”

  In the course of their education, are there any children who do not benefit from an educational environment, good habits, or living ideas? Are there children who are harmed by a healthy home atmosphere conducive to learning. harmed by learning good habits, harmed by being presented with living ideas? No.  This education is for everybody.

 “6. When we say that “education is an atmosphere,” we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a ‘child-environment’ especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child’s’ level.”

Are there children who would *not* benefit from their parents taking into account the educational value of the natural home atmosphere?  

We can do this with most of the principles (you can read them all in full here)- look at the principle, and consider turning it into a negative.  Are there children or families or human beings who do not benefit from this idea, properly applied?

I'll share more on the specific principles later, but I want to say something else about them.

They are vitally important, however, you can get started on a CM education without making sure you are clear on each and every one first. You don't need to write a thesis on them. You do not even need to read a thesis on them, or understand them all thoroughly before you can begin.  You can pick them up as you go along.  It may even be a more helpful way  to learn them if you stop and consider one or more of them when you run across an area where your assumptions are contrary to CM practices- learning on the job, so to speak. 

There's something else to keep in mind about principles- while they may seem overwhelming and also over your head at first, Mason did not intend for mothers to be overwhelmed and burdened and made to feel inferior by those principles.  

Her organization, the PNEU, worked on reaching out to mothers without the benefits of the same education and reading that Mason and the middle to upper class teachers, parents, and societal leaders who were the first members of the PNEU.  She really believed that a liberal education is for *all*.  

Toward that end, in 1894 PNEU member Isabella Copeland penned an article for the Parents' Review on the topic of spreading the principles to 'those we call the poor.'  You can read it in full here.  I want to point to one particular sentence.  She urges those who would do this work to have a real, genuine love for the people they are trying to help, and to make sure they get to know their audience in meaningful ways so they truly understand how the people they want to help are living.  It is this combination of love and personal knowledge, she says, that

"--makes all the difference between giving advice well nigh impossible to carry out, and applying principles in such a way as to suit the circumstance of those who hear. "

So the principles have some flexibility- they can, they must be, applied in such a way as to suit your circumstances!   In some cases, perhaps some of also need to work to change our circumstances a bit, but you know yourself and your environment best.

wWe want to understand those circumstances even better so we can be better in our our efforts to encourage you to do what you can, to help you apply principles in such a way to suit your circumstances.  We know very well sometimes it's hard, and sometimes we are discouraged and beaten down.  Lift your hearts.  You can do this- but do it in such a way that it suits the circumstances you are in, and not the ones you wish you had, dear hearts.

__________

This week's challenges:

Click on the above links and read more on the principles (see also here)

Read up to page 5 of volume 6 and pay extra attention to what she has to say about mind, knowledge, education, and character.

Try narrating yourself if you haven't already- or even if you have.  Read something worth reading (the first pages of volume VI, for instance, or the PR article linked above). Set a timer for 5 minutes and write down as much as you can remember as quickly as you can before the timer beeps.

Sing this term's folk song, or one you prefer, at least twice this week.

Join the forum.  You don't have to do anything else yet if you don't want, just join.  Here.

Go outside. If it's too hot, go earlier in the morning or later in the evening.  Take out an electric fan and plug it in, sit in front of it with your feet in a bucket of cold water if that is what needs to happen for you to endure time outside.  Spread out a sheet and lay down on grass in the shade.   Have iced coffee or lemonade ready to sit outside and sip at breakfast- along with some fruit and bagels and cream cheese, or boiled eggs, or a steamed sweet potato, or onigiri/rice triangles or whatever is the simplest thing to do in your culture and area.

 Remember that what Miss Mason actually says is that these long hours out of doors should happen on 'suitable days between April and October- in the fairly mild English climate (mild compared to many other places. Here's the reference:

"Possibilities of a Day in the Open.––I make a point, says a judicious mother, of sending my children out, weather permitting, for an hour in the winter, and two hours a day in the summer months. That is well; but it is not enough. In the first place, do not send them; if it is anyway possible, take them; for, although the children should be left much to themselves, there is a great deal to be done and a great deal to be prevented during these long hours in the open air. And long hours they should be;  not two, but four, five, or six hours they should have on every tolerably fine day, from April till October. Impossible! Says an overwrought mother who sees her way to no more for her children than a daily hour or so on the pavements of the neighbouring London squares. Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them. A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?"


Cling to that 'suitable day,'Aspire to improve, but don't beat yourself up, either. There's a nice space between burdened with guilt and defeatism, and attempting the impossible and risking health.

---------------

Digging Deeper for those who can:

About five years ago several of the parents in the forum went through a study of volume VI. You can read those discussions here:

Parts 1 and 2 of the intro: https://amblesideonline.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=2472
 (you must first be signed into the forum for the link to work).  Alternative method of finding it- go the forums, scroll down to CM study hall, then Charlotte Mason Series, then Volume 6 PHilosophy of Education, and under that last title, go to page 2 and look for:

 Vol. 6 Discussion: Introduction, Parts I and II

Here's an excerpt  of the introductory study there: "So how do we avoid getting to the point of such debased morality? The context of our education, she says, must be 'great thoughts, great events, great considerations.' She notes that when the Prussians were defeated by Napoleon, they returned and changed their education philosophy and approach. They filled it with history, poetry, philosophy to develop character, etc. But when Germany returned to a utilitarian type education, their morality fell. [If you're into reading John Taylor Gatto at all, he discusses in much detail the Prussian influence on the development of the US public school system.]

Miss Mason then presents some ideas that the PNEU had developed over the years to make sure that the mind was nourished well, while not neglecting physical and vocational training. She also notes that these particular points differ from general educational theory and practice of that day. Some general themes that I see in these 10 points are that the onus is on the student to learn --- it does not rely on entertaining lessons and teachers, or prizes, or threats of punishment. The students are quite capable of handling the large amount of material that they cover each term. They can tell back in a single reading, and can still tell back, without review, at a final exam. All this is not all student/delight-led; they do not select their own studies, nor are "diverting rabbit trails" (as Leslie puts it) followed. "(Kay Pelham)
Be sure to read the rest, and add to the discussion if you wish to- we revise old discussions all the time in the forum.


Preface Study: https://amblesideonline.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=2470


Another study went through the six volumes in 2 years.  Here's a comment from the study discussion on the preface and introduction (https://amblesideonline.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=12616&pid=183436#pid183436)
"The whole idea of the miner's DC being richly educated and able to learn as well as DC of educated persons reminded me of Dangerous Minds as well as the various articles in which teachers or schools find how well DC, even those in inner-city environments, respond and understand poetry and Shakespeare. How sad that we're still re-learning lessons of the past - that we still haven't gleaned the best ideas and kept them at the forefront of our minds! Of course, I know there's a lot more to this issue than just not remembering or knowing or truly believing that DC are capable persons, but much of the problem still seems to be that those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Also, we seem to often forgetting this, as evidenced IMO by the colleges that are partnering w/businesses & industries to produce skilled people, rather than keeping to the more traditional liberal education"

Have you read any of the Parents' Review articles? They can be nice, shorter readers for busy mums while still giving you something meaty to think about:

https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR11p772TheOpenRoad.shtml
Frances Blogg, who later married G. K. Chesterton, invites readers to consider that education is part of the journey of life for our children, and what that could mean for a liberal education. 
"To travel deliberately through one's ages, is to get the heart out of a liberal education."
R.L. Stevenson (Dedication of the Vol. Virginibus Puerisque)

A headmistress, a headmaster, and some others speak on Miss Mason's Liberal Education for All, both the pamphlet and how Mason's philosophy works in their schools.  Very informative, whether you are a beginner or an experienced hand:

"I think I must detain you for a moment with a few words on how Miss Mason's methods differ from others in use at the moment. Firstly, she does not assume that the boys dislike work, and it is therefore necessary to disguise work as play—or to give them coloured bricks in place of units. If a boy dislikes work it is often because it is made so dull and uninteresting that it would bore an angel. I can only speak from my own experience, but I find a very small percentage want any driving; far more want restraining from overdoing things.

Secondly—and this is the whole mainspring of the system—Miss Mason insists that children are really human beings: and must be treated as such. Failure in the past, complaints or inattention and laziness, all can be traced to7 the inability to recognise this fact on the part of reformers and teachers. Formerly, the children did not do the work—we did it for them. We separated what they should learn from what they should not learn, and then made them do it—by notes, by explanations, by special preparation, by any means the brain of man could devise, but always working on the principle that the child could not be expected to do anything but accept what we cared to throw him. Quite unconsciously, I honestly believe, the master so dominated the boys that the latter could not develop his own mind—he merely tried to produce what he thought his master appreciated, not what he wished to produce, or what he could have produced, had his mind not been really in subjection to another and stronger."

A few further studies of the principles: Children are born persons
    Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles side-by-side original/paraphrase version of the 20 Principles that boiled down CM's education-  how would you paraphrase those principles yourself?
    A Magical Expansion - A Study of CM's Principle 12 by Lynn Bruce
     An Imaginary Conversation with a Great Mind - A Study of CM's Principle 8 by Tammy Glaser
     An Oyster and a Jewel - A Study of CM's Principle 10 by Lynn Bruce
The Spiritual Octopus - A Study of CM's Principle 11 by Lynn Bruce
Some principles are practices, by Karen Glass
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Children are born persons

Children are born persons, and this is a great relief.

Several links related to principle 3 (authority, obedience):

• For the Children's Sake, Chapter 3, beginning at "Authority: A Balance" (pp. 48-ff in my copy--)

• Vol 3 Ch 1 Docility and Authority in the Home and the School, to 'Quick as Thought.' page 8/9
• Vol 2 Ch 2 Parents As Rulers
• PR Article: Authority by Mrs. Dowson
• PR Article: Docility and Authority, Part 1 by Charlotte Mason
• PR Article: On the Value of Authority in Moral Education by Charles D. Olive
• PR Article: Obedience by Henry Beveridge
• PR Article: Unreasoning Obedience (by CM? not sure of the author on this one)
• Authority in Perspective by Tara Schorr
• At School with Charlotte: Beginning with Authority by Brandy Vencel
• At School with Charlotte: How Authority Behaves by Brandy Vencel

Charlotte Mason is powerful (Part I)

by Anne White

Karen Glass, along with other CM and classical educators, has pointed out that our aim in studying the classical tradition is asking "why" rather than "how." What was the ultimate goal of a Charlotte Mason education?

We might list things like "not filling a bucket but lighting a fire"; educating the conscience to make well-reasoned choices (but not to depend wholly on reason); exercising magnanimity and other values such as honour and justice; understanding "I am, I can, I ought, I will"; using the "mind's eye" to recall what has been observed. If education is a science of relations, then to be educated means having proper relationships with the universe, the earth, people, and God. Education allows a generous space and time for minds to meet (also known as the "large room," or leisure). 

Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute wrote, "There is no education without leisure for the simple reason that education is a leisure activity. It requires all of the other values: controls, freedom, money, and honor. But its only true end is virtue for the simple reason that only virtue is big enough to rightly order the other goods. The wise man...is not driven by [his desires] as by an unruly mob. Instead he governs them." ("Leisure, Plato’s Republic, and American Education"). Lynn Bruce defined leisure as “ceasing from anxiety and merely utilitarian preoccupations so that one can contemplate higher things, those pursuits without which we cannot be fully human.”

One of the worst things C.S. Lewis had to say about the character Eustace Clarence Scrubb is that he "hadn't read the right books." It implied that Eustace, although stuffed full of utilitarian facts, was completely lacking in imagination and understanding. When Eustace was drawn into a Narnian adventure, he could only squawk about personal discomforts; when he was kidnapped by slave traders, they misheard his name as "Useless" and couldn't wait to be rid of him.

So we have our "why." We are looking for something "big enough" (Kern), "higher" (Bruce), wide, large, generous, and "beyond ourselves." To put it very shortly, we want children to be educated for virtue. And we don't want them to grow up useless.

We have our "what": "we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books."

How did Charlotte Mason's lessons integrate those two to make a "how?" The desire to teach with Mason's principles is admirable, but its application can be frustratingly vague. Some people using Mason's methods see quick and almost magical success, even (or particularly) with "difficult" students. Others of us have continued, years along, to wonder if we're doing it right, or if we're missing some crucial point, particularly after taking a student through a round of examinations and getting one-sentence responses, or, worse, "I don't remember that at all." 

The early teachers coming from the House of Education, and even the parents following PNEU programmes, expected better results (I use that word carefully), and, if we can judge by the printed examples, they got them. Although Charlotte Mason insisted that there was no education but self-education, and that each student had to perform his or her own act of learning, she also emphasized the need for working with, not against, human nature and the makeup of the mind. She believed that most children could "love to learn" if they were given the right mind-food in the right way. But what is the right way? Or at least, what is the way that Mason meant? 

To know what PNEU students were expected to learn...really learn and retain long-term...it's valuable to look at their examination questions, especially those in the subject areas most concerned with character. If students were expected to have certain stories in their memories, why those ones? How would the questions raised about them, and their responses, change their lives? How would this knowledge give them courage, honour, and a sense of something beyond themselves? This could very well be the highest power of living books.

I have taken a selection of Plutarch exam questions from Forms II through IV, leaving out the lowest and the highest grades (partly because they did not include the study of Plutarch's Lives).

From the youngest, pre-Plutarch group of Form II's (reading Mrs. Beesly's Stories of Rome):

"We will pardon Horatius  because he has done such great things." What great things had he done, and why was he pardoned?

Why did Fabius refuse to wear a laurel wreath and come home in triumph? Tell the whole story.

Write an account of the dictatorship of Cincinnatus.

The older Form II's who were beginning Plutarch:

How did Aemilius conduct the war against the Ligurians at the time of an eclipse of the moon?

Why did Cæsar honour and esteem Brutus ?

Give an account of the meeting of Brutus and Cassius at Sardis, or at Smyrna.

How did Caius Marcius win another term?

Why did Marcius go disguised to the house of Tullus?

How did Caesar inspire his soldiers with valour? Give two instances.

Describe the crossing of the Rhine by Caesar.

Why did Timoleon first save his brother's life and then consent to his death? Tell the whole story.

Give a short account of Timoleon's expedition against the Carthagenians.

From the Form III Plutarch examinations:

Describe the triumph of Æmilius after his victory over Perseus.

Give an account of the way in which Brutus and Cassius prepared for the battle of the Philippian Fields. How did Lucilius save the life of Brutus?

(a), "Veni, vidi, vici," (b), "To cross the Rubicon." What events in Julius Caesar's life gave rise to these popular sayings? Describe Caesar's great victory at Alesia.

Describe the conquest of Syracuse. How did Timoleon treat the city?

From the Form IV Plutarch exams:

How and why did Agis set about the reformation of the City of Sparta?

Compare and contrast the characters of Cassius and Brutus, giving illustrations.

How did Cassius comfort Brutus after the latter had seen a spirit?

 "He did excel all the young men of his time." Who was he? Show how he excelled, and describe the meeting with the Numantines.

Describe the progress of Æmilius through Greece.

Give the substance of the speech of Æmilius on the death of his two sons.

Describe the battle of the river of Crimesus, and show that "in the wars of Timoleon, besides equity and justice, there is also great ease and quietness."

What do we draw from the questions as a group? Many of them, like Bible or history questions, ask simply for a narrative. How did someone comfort another person, how did he reform something, how did he prepare for a battle or conduct a war, what happened when he crossed the river? But a narrative account often gives the students something to think about as well. Why might someone refuse special honour? Why did Timoleon not allow family ties to come before his civic duty? How did Caesar "inspire others with valour?" Should people who do great things be excused from minor offenses? 

Finally, there are questions that move beyond knowledge and comprehension into analysis (comparing and contrasting), synthesis, and evaluation (showing how someone excelled). The last question given in Form IV quotes from North's translation of the Life of Timoleon, and the passage goes on to say that one who studies Timoleon's victories "shall find...that they have not been fortune's doings simply, but that they came of a most noble and fortunate courage."

On a practical ("don't be useless") end, each Form had other Citizenship questions, drawing from other books such as Ourselves ("Everyday Morals") and civics materials.

Form II (both levels) answered questions such as these:

Why ought everyone to save (money)? How can it always be done?

Give a short account of the government of a town.

What is the work of the Home Office, the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office, a County Council?

Mention four of the great rules observed in English Courts of Justice. What is the work of the lawyers, of the jury and of the judge?

Draw the Union Jack and explain its meaning.

What do you understand by rates and taxes?

What is meant by being a good citizen?

Form III Citizenship questions:

"Truth is not violent." How does Botticelli portray this? What may we learn from this picture?

What do you know about the Government of Mansoul? How do Hunger and Thirst behave? Show that they may change in character.

What is our duty towards foreign countries?

"India is a continent and not a country." Explain this, and say what you know about the peoples and religions of India.

Show that we are all paid labourers. What do you understand by Integrity? In what various ways should integrity be shown?

Show that increase in price means decrease in demand. What are the dangers of Trade Unionists?

Form IV had more difficult questions:

Show fully by what courts and what judges Law is administered.

"He is a boy of good principles." What do you understand by principles?

Explain fully what is meant by the electorate. Show that the parliamentary vote is a right and a duty.

What have you to say about drifters and dawdlers, small thefts, bargains, borrowed property? Discuss "we are all born equal."

What are the powers and what the limitations of the House of Commons? What qualities should we look for in a Member?

"To think fairly requires knowledge and consideration." Illustrate by an example, and mention three subjects upon which the nation has to think fairly today.

What is to be said for and against military services as the duty of a citizen?

Write an essay on loyalty.

Looking at the body of questions, it's fairly obvious that "useful" citizens were to be not only aware of how the government worked, including the court system, basic economics, and the tax system, but they were to consider what would make up a good representative, what a citizen's responsibility was to the military, and  the difference between "drifters and dawdlers" and those who would get things done.

They were to be aware of current national issues, and to realize that solving these problems would require "knowledge and consideration." They were also to think globally, asking what their country's responsibility was to others. (An interesting question, considering it was being asked during the last years of the British Empire.)

Did history and Bible questions follow the same general pattern? Here is a selection of questions given for each Form.

Questions for Form II:

What question did St. John (in prison) send messengers to ask our Lord, and what answer did he get? Tell the whole story.

 (a), "What lack I yet?" (b), "Lo, we have left all." What answers did our Lord give to (a), the young ruler, (b), St. Peter, and what lessons may we learn?

Tell the story of the Battle of Beth-horon. Explain, as far as you can, "Sun, stand thou still."

What was the parable of the Marriage of the King's Son? What was its lesson (a), for the Jews, (b), for us?

What do you know of Sir Robert Peel, Lord Shaftesbury, John Bright, Wilberforce?

What great discoveries have been made in the 19th Century? Describe one of them.

"Therefore I am making you love literature as your mother," said a Scribe. Give some account of these Egyptian Scribes.

How did St. Swithin educate King Alfred? What did Alfred do for England besides fight her battles?

Describe the signing of Magna Charta, and mention some of the great things it secures for Englishmen.

What do you know of the education of St. Louis? Describe his character.

Observations: Again for Form II, the students are asked for description and narratives: great discoveries, the text of a parable, the story of a battle.  There are civics questions (what was the significance of the Magna Charta?), and questions of personal contribution: what King Alfred did for England, the achievements of people like St. Louis, William Wilberforce (evangelical reformer and abolitionist) and John Bright (founder of the Anti-Corn Law League), even the potential impact of ancient Egyptian literature-lovers (with a quote from Albert Malet's The Ancient World). There are considerations of faith: what does it mean to leave all? What would it mean to answer God's call to the marriage feast? What did Jesus' answer to John mean? Do we want to be like those who responded to a need, or like the young ruler and those who missed out on the banquet?

Questions for Form III:

What do you know of the prophet Malachi and the shortcomings of the priests?

What remarks have you to make about "certain of the synagogue"? What do you know of the synagogue of Cyrene, of Alexandria and of Silicia?

"As long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord." Describe the occasion when these words were used, and quote from Hannah's thanksgiving.

"He loved him as he loved his own soul." Give an account of this friendship.

"Suffer me to speak unto the people." Write what you can of St. Paul's address on this occasion.

 What do you know of (a), the foreign policy of King Edward VII (b), the Union of South Africa?

Write a short account of Polar exploration. What do you know of the most recent expedition?

What do you know of the Fourth Crusade to Jerusalem?

Give an account of the war with Flanders in 1298. What was the end of it? What do "Flanders Poppies" stand for?

 What reminders have we in the British Museum of Nabopolassar and of Darius?

What do you know about the Vedas and their writers?

Observations: The questions for Form III are a little more open-ended, a little more "What do you know of...," implying that they could be answered in greater depth. There is personal inspiration to honour, bravery, and friendship: the love of Jonathan for David; Paul's speech in Jerusalem (Acts 22); the exploration of far corners of the earth; the faith of Hannah and of the prophet Malachi (compared to the priests, who were "lighting useless fires"), not to mention Stephen (from the question "certain of the synagogue"). There are questions stretching to more global awareness: the Vedas, Chaldean history, British foreign policy, South African issues.

One point I notice (relating to the Stephen question) is that often there is a key phrase that the students are expected to recognize. I am familiar with the chapter of Acts concerning Stephen, but I did not immediately connect those four words with that story. I agree that in some cases, students should be able to connect a phrase or line with a character or story; I'm not sure how important it is in a case like this.

Questions for Form IV:

Write a short account of the period between the Old and New Testaments.

What Messianic prophecies have we in Malachi and Daniel? What do you know of the prophets Obadiah and Joel?

Write an essay on, --"If any thirst, come unto Me and drink."

Why did Jeroboam set up two calves of gold? Describe the denunciation that followed at Bethel.

Comment on (a), "Before Abraham was I am," (b), "Did this man sin?" (c), "What is truth?"

What was the Royal Proclamation of 1858? In what ways has England made this proclamation good? What do you know of recent events in this connection?

Give some account of German world policy.

Describe the condition of Germany when Charles V. became Emperor.

Give a sketch of Luther's career and of the Diet at Worms.

Show that "the Nile is a vast historical volume."

Name a dozen famous men of the days of "Great Elizabeth." Give an account of three of them.

Observations: In Form IV, again we have the accounts of "famous men," but there is even more choice allowed: name a dozen, give details of three. Again there is more focus on the larger world: German history and politics, the Government of India Act (a.k.a the Royal Proclamation), Egyptian history, the "intertestamental period" of Jewish history. There are deeper reflections on the sayings of Christ, and the story of "the king who made Israel to sin." 

In all this long list of questions (and these are just samples), have you seen opportunities to light fires? To educate the conscience? To show magnanimity? To say "I ought...I will?" 

Is there space here for minds to meet? 

Is there preparation for adventure?

I think there is.

(Part II will examine the "why" of PNEU lesson plans.)

An Oyster and a Jewel: Charlotte Mason's 10th Principle

By Caravaggio - Self-scanned, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15219497

The glimmer of a white satin gown is most pronounced when arranged against a dark background. Stars and lightning make no impression in daylight, but against the black velvet of night they rivet our gaze toward heaven and take our breath away. Artists, lacking an English word to capture this artistic concept of the play of light against dark, long ago borrowed the Italian "chiaroscuro" (pronounced KEY-aura-SKU-ro, with a slight trill on the r's).
Charlotte Mason, who loved both art and languages, was most likely familiar with the concept of chiaroscuro, and I believe it often shows in the way she presents her "light" to us. She creates on her canvas a sort of philosophical chiaroscuro, first laying out the dark parts so we may fully apprehend the light.
Herbartianism provides the dark underlayment for the picture Charlotte begins to paint in principle 10, upon which she layers the light of principles 11 and 12. This trio of principles flows from one into the next like streams gathering into a river--Charlotte even punctuated them seamlessly. They convey individual ideas which coalesce to inform a larger idea, as we shall see over the next three weeks--but it all pivots on an understanding of Herbartian doctrine. So in this Part One of our study, we will simply meet the mind of Herbart, to get us on track with Charlotte's train of thought. Then in Part Two, we will explore Charlotte's response to Herbart, and in Part Three we'll consider some ways in which Herbartian doctrine affects us--you and me--even today.

From our own Lynn Bruce's excellent study of Miss Mason's 10th principle, which you can read in its entirety on our website. And if you are wondering why on earth you should care about "Herbartian doctrine" and what it could possibly have to do with you, she answers that question, too. You just might be surprised.