Day 30 Certain Laws

Image Lizbeth Zwerger

“…there is no part of a child's home life or schoolwork which the law does not penetrate.”
 
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“‘The training of children,’ says Mr. Herbert Spencer––‘physical, moral and intellectual––is dreadfully defective. And in great measure it is so, because parents are devoid of that knowledge by which this training alone can be rightly guided. What is to be expected when one of the most intricate of problems is undertaken by those who have given scarcely a thought to the principle on which its solution depends? For shoemaking or housebuilding, for the management of a ship or of a locomotive engine, a long apprenticeship is needful. Is it, then, that the unfolding of a human being in body and mind is so comparatively simple a process that anyone may superintend and regulate it with no preparation whatever? If not––if the process is, with one exception, more complex than any in Nature, and the task of ministering to it one of the surpassing difficulty––is it not madness to make no provision for such a task!? Better sacrifice accomplishments than omit this all-essential instruction ... Some acquaintance with the first principles of physiology and the elementary truths of psychology is indispensable for the right bringing up of children....Here are the indisputable facts: that the development of children in mind and body follows certain laws; that unless these laws are in some degree conformed to by parents, death is inevitable; that unless they are in a great degree conformed to, and that only when they are completely conformed to, perfect maturity be reached. Judge, then, whether all who may one day be parents should not strive with some anxiety to learn what these laws are.’ ”

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“…the universe of mind, as the universe of matter, is governed by unwritten laws of God; that the child cannot blow soap bubbles or think his flitting thoughts otherwise than in obedience to divine laws; that all safety, progress, and success in life come out of obedience to law, to the laws of mental, moral or physical science, or of that spiritual science which the Bible unfolds;”

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“It is difficult to explain how I came to a solution of a puzzling problem, ––how to secure attention. Much observation of children, various incidents from one's general reading, the recollection of my own childhood and the consideration of my present habits of mind brought me to the recognition of certain laws of the mind, by working in accordance with which the steady attention of children of any age and any class in society is insured, week-in, week out,––attention, not affected by distracting circumstances….”
 
 
 
 
Examen:  Do I study my art with confidence knowing that there are laws and principles to be followed which lead to fruitfulness and maturity?  How can I be surer of “the nature of things?”

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...there is no part: Charlotte M. Mason,  Home Education, 1:Preface.
 The training of children: 1:3–4.
...the universe of mind: 1:39.
 It is difficult: Philosophy, 6:13.

Certain Laws meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025
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