 "Reading a Letter," Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky “I am anxious that this work should be tried in the poorest school by the poorest teachers, at first--these will work mechanically on a convenient routine but teachers, as well as children, develop amazingly.” ~ Charlotte Mason As we practice the art of teaching with 19th century British educator, Charlotte Mason, we realize the truth of the Zen master’s saying, “If you walk in the mist, you will get wet.” Consistent engagement with the best books and Mason’s inspired timetable does change us, along with our students. Malcolm Gladwell made this idea of steady growth through repetition popular recently by asserting expertise to be a matter of practicing for at least 10,000 hours. Left in the Mason classroom, teachers do develop amazingly, but Mason’s heart is always searching for ways to make “definite,” to expedite our study beyond the incidental misting. “It is only those who have read who do read,” she observes enigmatically. James Clear, who analyzes the relationship between habits and change, confirms that those who attain the distinction of “World-class” in their fields have discovered a secret beyond showing up for the practice of a particular skill or profession; we humans can avail ourselves of the leverage of being “deliberate.” “I like the 10,000 Hour Rule,” Clear writes, “because it is a reminder that you have to put in your reps. But it’s not as simple as working for a long time. It has to be vigilant work. And in many ways, you have to be continually obsessed with building upon your current skill set in small ways.” He offers the example of his father helping him learn to throw a baseball. The youngster could have simply thrown the ball hour after hour in the backyard hoping to improve or, as it happened, a knowing person could have stood by for a few weeks, noticing his position, and saying, “Elbow up, Elbow up, Elbow up,” until an unconscious competence grew, and mastery was achieved. This standing by is the gift Charlotte Mason offers us. She discovers the one inflection point at which every other thing will begin to change and whispers: meditate, meditate, meditate. On our way to becoming substantial teachers, we will still want and need our 10,000 hours but our proficiency will begin to increase incrementally each day as we consider with care the many “small things” of our stance. It is a profound and life-changing invitation because Mason’s unrelenting Christ-centeredness leads her to posit nothing less than an educational revolution. What appears a simple Christian orthodoxy on the surface, is a complex and nuanced reading of that “unique philosophy” which reveals just how many of our ideas about teaching are unexamined, often resting on the latest fad or technique contrived in the rush to accomplish curricular objectives. Though we are without malice, many of our handed-down classroom practices are seeded in behaviorism, utilitarianism, and the residues of Enlightenment thinking. How they are antithetical to our faith is awaiting our recognition. Although circling this invitation for more than thirty years, since the publication of Studying to Be Quiet I have undertaken a cross-volume search for Mason’s principles and their outworking for these standing-aside nuances to highlight the “education written into the nature of things.” These are some of my study notes. Each day in this collection of meditations underlines a growing hope that under her mentorship, particularly in the Church, our method can become inseparable from our message. Honoring persons by walking out the revolutionary ways of Jesus, Mason illuminates a comprehensive, viable, and fruitful practice which is nourishing to children and fully grown people alike. In studying her distinctive work on human flourishing not only do our classroom undertakings come into sharper focus, but we also rediscover the treasures of our ancient faith for an education that is a way of reading the world and in its very essence, a practice of the presence of God. “If anyone does study....” Does she waver momentarily? Mason is imploring us, not only to learn to speak this language fluently, word by word if necessary, but to protect it, and to pass it on. I have provided the first one hundred standing aside words. There are myriads more. Are you ready to take up this Vigilant Work? ~~~~~~~ I am anxious that: Essex Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, New e. edition (Child Light Ltd, 2000). If you walk: Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones “Expanded Edition with a Preface and Interview with the Author,” n.d. Malcolm Gladwell made: James Clear, “How Experts Practice Better Than the Rest,” James Clear (blog), November 4, 2014, https://jamesclear.com/deliberate-practice-strategy. Mason’s heart is: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 45. It is only those: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education: Developing a Curriculum, vol. 3, The Original Homeschooling Series (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale House Pub, 1989), 234. James Clear, who: Clear, “How Experts Practice Better Than the Rest.” She discovers the one: Charlotte M. Mason, Scale How Meditations, null edition (lulu.com, 2011), 11. What appears a: Charlotte M. Mason, The Revival: The Saviour of the World - Volume VI, 1st edition (Routledge, 2018), Preface. Although circling this: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards A Philosophy of Education, vol. 6, The Original Homeschooling Series (Wheaton, Ill: Tyndale House Pub, 1989), 14,157 etc. If anyone does: Essex Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 110. Mason is imploring: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 143–44. 100 Words Invitation copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025
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 Edward Robert Hughes," Night with Her Train of Stars" (see also Divine Author, Glorious Deeds) “What daily and hourly thanks and praise, then, do we owe to the Maker and designer of the beauty, glory, and fitness above our heads and about our feet and surrounding us on every side! From the flower in the crannied wall to the glorious firmament on high, all the things of Nature proclaim without ceasing, "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty." * “There is seldom a daily paper but reveals the unsuspected glory in some human soul.” * “‘How like an angel I came down! How bright are all things here! When first among His works I did appear O how His glory did me crown! The world resembled His eternity, In which my soul did walk; And everything that I did see Did with me talk.’” * “We are aware of more than mind and body in our dealings with children. We appeal to their 'feelings'; whether 'mind' or 'feelings' be more than names we choose to give to manifestations of that spiritual entity which is each one of us. Probably we have not even taken the trouble to analyse and name the feelings and to discover that they all fall under the names of love and justice, that it is the glory of the human being to be endowed with such a wealth of these two as is sufficient for every occasion of life.” * “Perhaps this is one of the secrets of life – to know ‘glory’ when we see it.” * “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” ~ Irenaeus Examen: What helps me see glory? What changes in me in recognizing glory? ~~~~~~~ What daily and hourly: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:100 BkII. There is seldom: Mason, 4:147 Bk.I. How like an angel: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:369 Mason quotes Thomas Traherne speaking of children like Wordsworth. We are aware: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:58. Perhaps this is: Charlotte M. Mason, Scale How Meditations, 49. The glory of God: “The Glory of God Is Man Fully Alive: Saint Irenaeus and Mother Seton,” Seton Shrine, June 28, 2024, https://setonshrine.org/the-glory-of-god-is-man-fully-alive-saint-irenaeus-and-mother-seton/. Day 100 Glory meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Harriet Tubman (see Cottonwool, Fairy Tale) “Tales fix attention upon Conduct. ––The Bible (the fitting parts of it, that is) first and supreme; but any true picture of life, whether a tale of golden deeds or of faulty and struggling human life, brings aliment to the growing conscience. The child gets into the habit of fixing his attention on conduct; actions are weighed by him, at first, by their consequences, but by degrees his conscience acquires discriminating power, and such and such behavior is bad or good to him whatever its consequences.” * “…always tell them of beautiful ‘Golden Deeds,’ small and great, that shall stir them as trumpet-calls to the battle of life.” * “But (having taken the example of Macbeth) it must not be supposed that reason is malign, the furtherer of ill counsels only. Nurse Cavell, Jack Coruwell, Lord Roberts, General Gordon, Madame Curie, leave hints enough to enable us to follow the trains of thought which issued in glorious deeds.” * “In giving children the knowledge of men and affairs which we class under 'Citizenship' we have to face the problem of good and evil. Many earnest-minded teachers will sympathise with one of their number who said, –– ‘Why give children the tale of Circe, in which there is such an offensive display of greediness, why not bring them up exclusively on heroic tales which offer them something to live up to? Time is short. Why not use it all in giving examples of good life and instruction in good manners?’ Again,–– ‘Why should they read any part of Childe Harold, and so become familiar with a poet whose works do not make for edification?’ Now Plutarch is like the Bible in this, that he does not label the actions of his people as good or bad but leaves the conscience and judgment of his readers to make that classification. What to avoid and how to avoid it, is knowledge as important to the citizen whether of the City of God or of his own immediate city, as to know what is good and how to perform the same. Children recognise with incipient weariness the doctored tale as soon as it is begun to be told, but the human story with its evil and its good never flags in interest.” * “They say stories like that make a boy grow bold Stories like that make a man walk straight.” ~ Rich Mullins Examen: My job is to “leave the conscience and judgement of (my class of) readers to “make that classification” of good and evil. How does that feel? Can I wonder with the class about humankind’s perennial questions, let them follow “trains of thought” without trying to shape their response? ~~~~~~~ Tales fix attention: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:337. ...always tell them: 1:340. But (having taken: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:141. In giving children: 6:187. They say stories: “Lyrics | Rich Mullins | Boy Like Me/Man Like You,” accessed July 18, 2024, https://lyrics.lyricfind.com/en-GB/lyrics/rich-mullins-boy-like-me-man-like-you. Day 99 Glorious/Golden Deeds meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  (see also Attention, “Eyes and No-eyes” ) “…while the altogether pleasurable act of seeing, fully and in detail, is likely to be repeated unconsciously until it becomes a habit by the child who is required now and then to reproduce what he sees.” * “…and what a loss have those children who are not brought up to the gentle art wherein the eye is satisfied with seeing, and there is no greed of collecting, no play of the hunter's instinct to kill, and yet a lifelong joy of possession.” * “You know, my eyes ain’t too good at all. I can’t see nothing but the general shape of things, so I got to rely on my heart. Why don’t you go on and tell me everything about yourself, so as I can see you with my heart.” ~ Kate DiCamillo ~~~~~~~ ...while the altogether: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:49. ...and what a loss: 1:92. You know, my eyes: Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie, Reprint edition (Candlewick, 2015), Chapter Nine. Day 98 Gentle Art meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Girl Carrying a Basket," Winslow Homer (see also By Degrees) “The powers of Mansoul are many, but they are one; and, by careful scrutiny, we gather hints enough from the behaviour of each to help us in discerning those laws of our being whereby we must order ourselves.” * “It is well that we gather up, with tender reverence, such fragments of their (former generations’) insight and experience as come in our way; for we would fain, each, be as an householder, bringing forth out of his treasures things new and old.” * “Conscience and reason have their say, but will is supreme and the behaviour of will is determined by all the principles we have gathered, all the opinions we have formed.” * “So, in unlikely ways and from unlikely sources, do children gather that little code of principles which shall guide their lives.” * “It rests with us to add to our faith, virtue, and to our virtue, knowledge. It is an unheard-of thing that the youth of a great nation should grow up without those ideals, slow enough in maturing, which are to be gathered for the most part from wide and wisely directed reading.” * “…science seems to me to be the way of intellectual advance. All the same, the necessity incumbent upon us at the moment is to inculcate a knowledge of Letters. Men and their motives, the historical sequence of events, principles for the conduct of life, in fact, practical philosophy, is what the emergencies of the times require us to possess, and to be able to communicate. These things are not to be arrived at by any short cut of economics, eugenics, and the like, but are the gathered harvests of many seasons' sowing of poetry, literature, history. The nation is in sore need of wise men, (and women) and these must be made out of educated boys (and girls).” Examen: “Show that childhood is the time for gathering materials for classification.” Am I aware of what is being gathered each day in my classroom? Is there a symbol or an object I could add that would remind me? ~~~~~~~ The powers of Mansoul: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:174 Bk.II. It is well: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:157. Conscience and reason: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:135. So, in unlikely: 6:135. It rests with us: 6:307. ...science seems to me: 6:313. Show that childhood: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:375. Day 97 Gather meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Winter Im Park." by Leopold Blauensteiner “Geology, mineralogy, physical geography, botany, natural history, biology, astronomy––the whole circle of the sciences is, as it were, set with gates ajar in order that a child may go forth furnished, not with scientific knowledge, but with, what Huxley calls, common information, so that he may feel for objects on the earth and in the heavens the sort of proprietary interest which the son (or daughter) of an old house has in its heirlooms.” Examen: My role is to open the gate, but also to enter each field. Where can I ensure the gates are ajar today? What is my most recently realized “proprietary interest?” ~~~~~~~ Geology, mineralogy, physical geography: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:79. Day 96 Gates Ajar meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  An edition of Koloman Moser’s “Frommel’s Calendar” “The child is born, doubtless, with the tendencies which should shape his future; but every tendency has its branch roads, its good or evil outcome; and to put the child on the right track for the fulfilment of the possibilities inherent in him, is the vocation of the parent.” * “It is needless to repeat what has already been said on this subject; but, indeed, the future of the man or woman depends very largely on the store of real knowledge gathered, and the habits of intelligent observation acquired, by the child.” * “Education Stronger than Nature––The child's future depends not upon his lineage so much as upon his bringing-up, for education is stronger than nature, and no human being need be given over to despair.” * “There are a thousand supplementary ways of giving such teaching (i.e. ethical); but these are apt to be casual and little binding if they do not rest upon the solid foundation of duty imposed upon us by God, and due to each other, whether we will or no. This moral relation of person to person underlies all other relations. We owe it to the past to use its gains worthily and to advance from the point at which it left off: We owe it to the future to prepare a generation better than ourselves. We owe it to the present to live, to live with all expansion of heart and soul, all reaching out of our personality towards those relations appointed for us.” * “Courage. Nothing is lost yet, and the future is for us.” * “It is probable that the education of the future will recognise, as its guiding idea, Matthew Arnold's fine saying, that "The thing best worth living for is to be of use.” * “A great future lies before the nation which shall perceive that knowledge is the sole concern of education proper, as distinguished from training, and that knowledge is the necessary daily food of the mind.” * “Knowledge is that which we know; and the learner knows only by a definite act of knowing which he performs for himself. But appalling incuria blocks the way. Boys and girls do not want to know; therefore they do not know; and their future intellectual requirements will be satisfied by bridge at night and golf by day.” Examen: How does this notion of duty and an education shaped to our relational nature and responsibility sit one hundred years after Mason wrote? Incuria means neglect, lack of care. What do I care deeply about preserving for the future? ~~~~~~~ The child is born: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:109. It is needless: 1:265. Education Stronger than Nature: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:159. There are a thousand: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:85. Courage. Nothing is lost: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:153–54. It is probable: 5:447. A great future: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:2. Knowledge is that: 6:264. Day 95 Future meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  (see also Full Human Life)
“Fulness of living, joy and life, depend, far more than we know upon the establishment of these relations.” * “Relation to Almighty God. –– I have set before the reader the proposition that a human being comes into the world, not to develop his faculties nor to acquire knowledge, nor even to earn his living, but to establish certain relations; which relations are to him the means of immeasurable expansion and fulness of living. We have touched upon two groups of these relations––his relations to the universe of matter and to the world of men. To complete his education, I think there is but one more relation to be considered––his relation to Almighty God. How many children are to-day taught to say at their mother's knee, to learn from day to day and from hour to hour, in all its fulness of meaning––'My duty towards God is to believe in Him, to fear Him, and to love Him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul, and with all my strength; to worship Him, to give Him thanks, to put my whole trust in Him, to call upon Him, to honour His holy name and His word, and to serve Him truly all the days of my life'?” * “What we are concerned with is the fact that we personally have relations with all that there is in the present, all that there has been in the past, and all that there will be in the future––with all above us and all about us––and that fulness of living, expansion, expression, and serviceableness, for each of us, depend upon how far we apprehend these relationships and how many of them we lay hold of.” * “Most people live a poor maimed life, as though they carried about one or other mortified limb, dead in itself and a burden to the body. But they do not realise that their minds are slow and their hearts heavy for want of the knowledge which is life.” * “There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named. The search we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person's story. It is the search for those moments when we are most alive.” ~ Christopher Alexander Examen: “In how far does fulness of living depend on the establishment of relations?”Explain how “education is the handmaid of religion.” Is there a part of me that is no longer maimed or dead because of exposure to this method? ~~~~~~~ Fullness of living: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:75. Relation to Almighty God: 3:89. What we are concerned: 3:185–86. Most people live: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:79–80 Bk.II. There is a central: Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), X. In how far: School, 3:255. Day 94 Fullness of Living meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Nuevos mundos," Detovart " 'Open, Sesame.'––I think we should have a great educational revolution once we ceased to regard ourselves as assortments of so-called faculties, and realised ourselves as persons whose great business it is to get in touch with other persons of all sorts and condition; of all countries and climes, of all times, past and present. History would become entrancing, literature a magic mirror for the discovery of other minds, the study of sociology a duty and a delight. We should tend to become responsive and wise, humble and reverent, recognising the duties and the joys of the full human life. We cannot of course overtake such a programme of work, but we can keep it in view; and I suppose every life is moulded upon its ideal.” * “It is well we should recognise that the business of education is with us all our lives, that we must always go on increasing our knowledge.” * “As soon as a person asks himself the question, ‘How do I live my life in the best way?’ Then all other questions are answered. Real living takes place not in the domain of outward change, but in the inner domain, where changes can hardly be observed, in our spiritual life.” ~ Tolstoy “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” ~ Jesus Examen: How have the joys of the full human life been represented to me as less than, or not quite spiritual? What am I just now getting in touch with? ~~~~~~~ “Open Sesame.” -- I think: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:174–75. It is well: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:54. As soon as: Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, June 30. I came that: “ESV Bible,” Jn.10:10. Day 93 Full Human Life meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Paul Cezanne, "Fruit" (see also Bible, Bible Text, Christianity) “Indecision. ––In another way still, we are eating the fruit of our ignorance. A paralysing hesitancy and uncertainty are upon us. We are tolerant of all beliefs because we have none. 'We do not know,' we say; 'we are not sure.' 'What right have we to think that the creed of another man, or another people, is not as true as ours?' The very newspapers ask us, Is Christianity effete? ––and we presume to discuss the question; or, at any rate, we are able to listen in calmness while men toss to and fro the one question which is vital to us. Let us believe it––What think ye of Christ? is the only question that matters. We cannot escape with the evasion, ‘We think not of Christ, but of the Father’––for the word is true, ‘No man cometh unto the Father but by me.’ * “So soon as men's eyes turn from minute literary criticism to the gradual revelation of our God in His beauty (the progressive revelation which we get in the Bible alone), the truth of the Book is confirmed to us; and we know, without proof. "Thou canst not prove the Nameless, Nor canst thou prove the world thou movest in, For nothing worthy proving can be proven, Nor yet disproven." Plato has said the last word on this matter for our day as well as his own. The danger I refer to is that, while occupying our minds about questions of criticism, we neglect the knowledge which cannot come without labour; that we forsake the earnest and devout study of the Bible, the one way of approach to the knowledge of God. Already we begin to gather the fruits of our ignorance. Little books with Bible sayings, working into specious arguments to prove a philosophy of life which the Bible does not sanction, come to us as a new and wonderful gospel. We talk of new developments of Christianity when the Christianity of the Bible offers infinite scope for development in the beauty of holiness and in the knowledge of our illimitable God. We are offered on all hands, religions about Christ and without Christ. We are taught to believe that, ‘God manifest in the flesh,’ means no more than the divine in ourselves, and that every power that was used by Christ is available to us. A smug religiosity is upon us, a religion of which we ourselves are the measure; whether we call it 'Christianity on a Higher Plane,' or Buddhism, or Theosophy; or whether, like the Dukhobors, we decline to obey human law, because we choose to believe ourselves under the immediate direction of God,––saying, with that poor little community in Lancashire, 'There is no law but God's law,' and drawing the absurd inference that all human law is transgression:––all these things have the one interpretation; we are declining from the knowledge of God.” Examen: Have I forsaken earnest study of my faith? Why? What do I prefer instead? ~~~~~~~ Indecision.--In another: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:83 Bk.II. So soon as: Mason, 4:82 Bk.II. Day 92 Fruits of our Ignorance meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025 |
