Day 21 Born Person

"The Child," Mary Cassatt 1905

                                                  (see also Bird's-eye view)
 
“…we do not take children seriously enough; brought face to face with a child, we find he is a very real person, but in our educational theories we take him as 'something between a wax doll and an angel.'”
 
                                                   *
 
“A child is a person in whom all possibilities are present––present now at this very moment––not to be educed after years and efforts manifold on the part of the educator; .... It cannot be too strongly urged that our education of children will depend, nolens volens, (like it or not) upon the conception we form of them.”
 
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                       “It is only persons that matter;”

                                                   *

“A person is not built up from without but within, that is, he is living, and all external educational appliances and activities which are intended to mould his character are decorative and not vital.” 

                                                    *

“That children are born persons,––is the first article of the educational credo which I am concerned to advance; this implies that they come to us with power of attention, avidity for knowledge, clearness of thought, nice discrimination in books even before they can read, and the power of dealing with many subjects.”

                                                   * 

“…we speak of ourselves as "finite beings," but is there any limit to the generosity and nobility of almost any
person?”

                                                   *
 
“Children are born persons; that all the elements of peculiar personality are latent in the child in arms; that the little person is a spiritual being in a fleshly vesture; the body must be sustained and comforted, and so must the spirit or mind or soul, whatever we may call that which is non-material.”
 
                                                   *
 
            “A person’s a person no matter how small.”
 
                                                  ~ Dr. Seuss
 

Examen: When have I been particularly struck by a child’s personhood?  Do I have a “hearsay acquaintance” with personhood? What would it take to have personhood as my rule of thumb in all my affairs like Mason does?

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...we do not: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:49.
A child is: 2:260.
It is only:  Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:114 Bk.I.
A person is not: Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:24.
That children are: 6:247.
...we speak of ourselves: 6:334.
Children are born: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org,” accessed June 6, 2024, Mason’s response to Maria Montessori, her contemporary.https://www.amblesideonline.org/PR/PR27p202ImaginationinChildhood.shtml. 
A person's a person:  Dr Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!, Reissue edition (New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 1954).

Day 21 Born Person meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025