Day 67 Discipline of Rules

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Children’s Games, 1560, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria.

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“…because wholesome mental effort, like moral, must be carried on under the discipline of rules. A shrewd writer suggests that mental indolence may have been in some measure the cause of those pitiable attacks of derangement and depression from which poor Cowper suffered; the making of graceful verses when the 'maggot bit' did not afford him the amount of mental labour necessary for his well-being.
The outcome of which is––Do not let the children pass a day without distinct efforts, intellectual, moral, volitional; let them brace themselves to understand; let them compel themselves to do and to bear; and let them do right at the sacrifice of ease and pleasure: and this for many higher reasons, but, in the first and lowest place, that the mere physical organ of mind and will may grow vigorous with work.”

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“Cricket, tennis, and rounders are the games par excellence if the children are old enough to play them, both as giving free harmonious play to the muscles, and also as serving the highest moral purpose of games in bringing the children under the discipline of rules….”
 
 
 
Examen: Am I ensuring occasions whereby students may experience the formation of rules? Where did I take up my own chances “to do and to bear” today?  

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...because wholesome mental: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:21–22.
Cricket, tennis, and rounders: 1:83.

​Day 67 Discipline of Games meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025

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