Thoughts on Philosophy of Education introduction section 3

In this third section of the introduction, Charlotte lists points that distinguish a Charlotte Mason education which up until this time had been unrecognized or disregarded by the educational system. She goes into great detail as to how she came to some of the conclusions which led her to develope her philosophy of education. While observing children in the two schools where she was teaching, as well as some children of a friend of hers, she began to see that “the mind of a child takes or rejects according to its needs.” That whether the mind was taking in or rejecting an idea it was functioning for its own nourishment and it, just like the rest of the body, requires sustenance. The difference is that the mind is not something weighed or measured but it is spiritual so the food must be spiritual too. In other words, ideas. Children have a God given appetite for knowledge. We call it curiosity. She asks the question “can not people get along with little knowledge?” and comes to the conclusion, after observing her friends young children, that to the child who had not been turned off by “spiritual malnutrition”, the whole world barely had enough to satisfy a child’s desire to know. The next question she pondered is “what then is knowledge?” and states that “something only becomes knowledge to a person which he has assimilated, which his mind has acted upon”. Just like physical hunger is not satisfied until we take in food and our body begins the process of digestion. Charlotte believed that every child, no matter what “social class” they were from, could learn in the same way. That true education happens when “mind appeals to mind and thought begets thought.” Every child deserves to be exposed to great thinkers through great literature. She makes the point that books that focus on entertaining can be delightful and can have some profit but should not be considered “education” in which the main concern is knowledge. That in “light” reading the mind doesn’t work to set aside the information so that what is read truly becomes knowledge. What I thought of here is a book that was a good story but that didn’t introduce “new information” for one to think about. Charlotte felt that every person has a natural delight in “literary form” until we are “educated out of it.” We need to think of children as capable as adults are in regards to their ability to deal with knowledge. They have natural curiosity with an amazing ability to remember and an unlimited power of attention. I wondered about this “power of attention” that she speaks of, especially with an ADD or ADHD child, so I looked up the definition of attention. It is the “act of applying the mind to something.” I have seen my ADHD daughter be captured by a ladybug or a spider building a web, and focus intently on it, long after I have moved on from observing it. It seems if we capture the attention of a child through their natural desire to “know” with great thought, written by great thinkers, the mind will begin to digest these thoughts through a process of rehearsing what was read. The result will be that he “knows” or it has become a part of him. Something mentioned in the intro that I have been drawn to is this: “the mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself.” She makes the point that when we want to remember a conversation or say an accident we witnessed, we go over it in our mind. The mind asks itself what next? This same function is what the mind does with any knew knowledge. In the last few paragraphs, Charlotte outlines what she will present in the following text in regards to her educational philosophy highlighting that we should view children not unlike ourselves and offer them the best education using the best literature possible. That this knowledge will nourish their minds just as food nourishes the body. That children are naturally curious and prefer knowledge to be given in literary form over lectures and they have a natural ability to deal with this knowledge. She concludes that children educated in this manner will be capable, develop character, countenance, initiative, and a sense of responsibility and are “good and thoughtful citizens."