Day 35 Children

"Jesus and the Angry Babies," Brian Kershishnik

                                     (see also Born Person, Code of Education)

“Of such is the kingdom of heaven. "Except ye become as little children ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven." "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" "And He called a little child and set him in the midst." Here is the Divine estimate of the child's estate. It is worthwhile for parents to ponder every utterance in the Gospels about these children, divesting themselves of the notion that these sayings belong, in the first place, to the grown-up people who have become as little children. What these profound sayings are, and how much they may mean, it is beyond us to discuss here; only they appear to cover far more than Wordsworth claims for the children in his sublimest reach, ‘Trailing clouds of glory do we come/From God, who is our home.’”

                                                   *

“There is possibly no known field of research in which so little available work has been done as in that covered by the word 'children.' … the mistakes we make through this ignorance are grievous and injurious. For example, are not all our schemes of education founded on the presumption that a child's mind––his 'thinking, feeling man'––begins 'very small,' and grows great with the growth of his body? …but if one of us do, by chance, get a child revealed to him, he is startled to find that the child has by far the keener intelligence, the wiser thoughts, the larger soul of the two.”

                                                  *
 
“We endeavour that all our teaching and treatment of children shall be on the lines of nature, their nature and ours, for we do not recogise what is called ‘Child-nature.’ We believe that children are human beings at their best and sweetest, but also at their weakest and least wise.”

                                                   *
 
“We know so little about children, or indeed, about human beings at all.”
 
                                                   *

“The fact seems to be that children are like ourselves, not because they have become so, but because they are born so; that is, with tendencies, dispositions, towards good and towards evil, and also with a curious intuitive knowledge as to which is good and which is evil.”

                                                   *
 
“People are too apt to use children as counters in a game, to be moved hither and thither according to the whim of the moment. Our crying need to-day is less for a better method of education than for an adequate conception of children….”

                                                  *
 
“…but the children suffer, poor little souls; ‘poured into like a bucket….’”
 
                                                   *

“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children. “                                                                                                                                               
                                                  ~ Nelson Mandela


Examen: “Sketch briefly, a) the sum of what a child is as a human being, b) what has become through “heredity,” c) what parents may reasonably expect to effect by education.”

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Of such is:  Charlotte M. Mason,  Home Education, 1:12.
There is possibly: 1:182.
We endeavour that:  Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:232.
We know so little:  Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:136.
The fact seems:  Charlotte M. Mason, Towards aPhilosophy of Education, 6:46.
People are too apt: 6:80.
...but the children: 6:301.
There can be: “Nelson Mandela - Speeches - Address by President Nelson Mandela at the Launch of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, Pretoria,” accessed June 20, 2024, http://www.mandela.gov.za/mandela_speeches/1995/950508_nmcf.htm.
Sketch briefly: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org” Syllabus I. Examination I.
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Children meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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