Philosophy of Education vol. 6 Chapter 1

‘Self Education’

From what I can gather there was a movement in the educational community in Charlotte’s day that started professing success in “self-education” for children. This probably included things like dance or other types of self expression. Charlotte doesn’t disagree with using some of these types of things, and even goes so far as to say that she looks forward to seeing the manner of citizen it produces, but in reality these “external educational appliances” “which are intended to mould his character are decorative and not vital”. The point being, that people are not ‘built up’ from without but from within. To accomplish this, Charlotte reminds us that the function of the mind is like the body and needs a quantity of nourishing food each day. That knowledge is not and should not be attained through sensation, but rather, by being “fed” the great thoughts from great minds is what makes one thoughtful. There are examples given of children who love learning and with a single reading of a passage can recall, point by point, in their own words, what was read. They can recall the details months later because the mind has been properly fed, material digested, and the thoughts have now become the child’s in the form of knowledge. She challenges us to look at a method of “self education” that is practical and pleasant and has produced capable men and women, with great character, over the past 30 years. In the final paragraph she likens the student’s education to a horse. A horse that is “light” rides over the ground using his own joyful will as opposed to the horse that is heavy in hand, which becomes a burden to the driver. Like the driver of the horse, the teacher then becomes one who is a guide to the student rather than someone who is forcibly feeding information.