Day 36 Children's Magna Carta

Archbishop Stephen Langton blessing the body of St Thomas. The Stowe Breviary, c.1322-55. © British Library Board, Stowe MS 12, f. 270r.

“The Children's Magna Carta.––My plea is, and I think I have justified it by experience, that many doors shall be opened to boys and girls until they are at least twelve or fourteen, and always the doors of good houses, ('Education,' says Taine, 'is but a card of invitation to noble and privileged salons'); that they shall be introduced to no subject whatever through compendiums, abstracts, or selections; that the young people shall learn what history is, what literature is, what life is, from the living books of those who know. I know it can be done, because it is being done on a considerable scale.

If conviction has indeed reached us, the Magna Carta of children's intellectual liberty is before us. The need is immediate, the means are evident. This, at least, I think we ought to claim, that, up to the age of twelve, all boys and girls shall be educated on some such curriculum, with some such habit of Books as we have been considering.”

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“Wait for two or three centuries, and you will find this revolution of ours written down as the epoch of the 'Children's Magna Charta.'”
  
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“Please think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their health care, their education-listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Listen to the children first.”
       
                                                    ~  Fred Rogers
 
Examen:  Either as a child, or more recently, have I been treated in a way that makes me long for this “Magna Carta” or a revolution?  Write that memory and share it with someone if that feels appropriate.

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The Children’s Magna Carta: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:247.
Wait for two:  Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:160.
Please think of: Fred Rogers, World According To Mr Rogers: 2005 Day-To-Day Calendar, Page/Day edition (Hyperion Books, 2004).

Day 36 Children's Magna Carta Meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025​

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