Day 22 Bracelet

Detail from Portrait of Madame Moitessier by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1851.

“You dear people are torch-bearers, bearing the light. It is not because we (of the P.N.E.U.) are cleverer, not because we know more, but because it has been our good fortune that a philosophy of education has come our way, our vocation has led us. We have received a call and are working on principles not worked on before. There is no cause for vanity on our part. If you picked up a bracelet lying by the way, it would be no credit to you. It is precisely the case with us. These principles are picked up, found, a find which is no one’s property; they belong to all who have wit enough to take them.”

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"One discovers a thing because it is there, and no sane person takes credit to himself for such discovery. On the contrary, he recognizes with King Arthur, -- 'These jewels, whereupon I chanced Divinely, are for public use.' For many years we have had access to a sort of Aladdin's cave which I long to throw open 'for public use.'" 

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“Please do not misunderstand me. I have not made this body of educational thought any more than Columbus made America. But I think it has been given to me to see that education has a triune basis, to recognize that education is the science of relations, to perceive certain working theories of the conduct of the will and of the reason, to exact due reverence for the personality of a child (I mean the reverence of educational practice, not of sentiment), and some few other matters which go to make up a living, pulsing body of educational thought which I find to be a wonderful power in the lives of those who apprehend it…The thing we hold amongst us is too great to be lost and, I believe, is God-given.”

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                 “And he who picks up what’s in his way:
               By this one law, the rich man richer grows,”
 
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“And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am
I did not make it, no it is making me
It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.”
 
                                                   ~ Rich Mullins
 
 
Examen: “Give an outline of P.N.E.U. Philosophy.” The Method is based on principles that always prove true.  We do not invent them rather, work with them. I may lift this torch high above me to shed light, but I am not the Light. If I have the wit, I may wear the bracelet discovered by Mason.

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You dear people: Transcription Team, “Our Principles,” September 10, 2019, 
One discovers a thing:  Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:27–28.
Please do not: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 108.
And he who: Charlotte M. Mason, The Saviour of the World - Vol. 3: The Kingdom of Heaven (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), 59.
 And I believe: “Rich Mullins - Creed Lyrics,” SongMeanings, accessed June 6, 2024,
Give an outline: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org” Syllabus I. Examination 2.

​Day 22 Bracelet meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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