 "Molly Reading a Book" Rose Mead (see also Best Books) “…the sort of thing we are looking for––the sudden keen, insatiate delight in a book which means kinship….” * “Not only are morals and manners taught, but our enthusiasms, even our religion, are kindled by fiction, whether in prose or verse. Our Lord Himself gave some of his deepest teaching in the fabulous stories known to us as parables;” * “But we want a wider range of knowledge than the life about us affords, and books are our best teachers.” * "’Studies serve for delight’; this delight being not in the lessons or the personality of the teacher, but purely in their 'lovely books,' 'glorious books.' * “…the only vital method of education appears to be that children should read worthy books, many worthy books.” * “As for literature––to introduce children to literature is to install them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served.” * “But she (the teacher) will bear in mind that the child of six has begun the serious business of his education, that it does not matter much whether he understands this word or that, but that it matters a great deal that he should learn to deal directly with books.” * “I do not know better how to describe the sort of books that children's minds will consent to deal with than by saying that they must be literary in character.” Examen: Are books my “kin?” ~~~~~~~ ...the sort of thing: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:196. Not only are: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:161 Bk.I. But we want: 4:9 Bk.II. Studies serve for: Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:7. ...the only vital: 6:12. As for literature: 6:51. But she will: 6:172. I do not know: 6:248. Day 20 Books-living with meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025
0 Comments
 "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.” * “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? ~~~~~~~ ...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  Detail from Portrait of Madame Moitessier by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1851. “You dear people are torch-bearers, bearing the light. It is not because we (of the P.N.E.U.) are cleverer, not because we know more, but because it has been our good fortune that a philosophy of education has come our way, our vocation has led us. We have received a call and are working on principles not worked on before. There is no cause for vanity on our part. If you picked up a bracelet lying by the way, it would be no credit to you. It is precisely the case with us. These principles are picked up, found, a find which is no one’s property; they belong to all who have wit enough to take them.” * "One discovers a thing because it is there, and no sane person takes credit to himself for such discovery. On the contrary, he recognizes with King Arthur, -- 'These jewels, whereupon I chanced Divinely, are for public use.' For many years we have had access to a sort of Aladdin's cave which I long to throw open 'for public use.'" * “Please do not misunderstand me. I have not made this body of educational thought any more than Columbus made America. But I think it has been given to me to see that education has a triune basis, to recognize that education is the science of relations, to perceive certain working theories of the conduct of the will and of the reason, to exact due reverence for the personality of a child (I mean the reverence of educational practice, not of sentiment), and some few other matters which go to make up a living, pulsing body of educational thought which I find to be a wonderful power in the lives of those who apprehend it…The thing we hold amongst us is too great to be lost and, I believe, is God-given.” * “And he who picks up what’s in his way: By this one law, the rich man richer grows,” * “And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am I did not make it, no it is making me It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.” ~ Rich Mullins Examen: “Give an outline of P.N.E.U. Philosophy.” The Method is based on principles that always prove true. We do not invent them rather, work with them. I may lift this torch high above me to shed light, but I am not the Light. If I have the wit, I may wear the bracelet discovered by Mason. ~~~~~~~ You dear people: Transcription Team, “Our Principles,” September 10, 2019, One discovers a thing: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:27–28. Please do not: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 108. And he who: Charlotte M. Mason, The Saviour of the World - Vol. 3: The Kingdom of Heaven (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015), 59. And I believe: “Rich Mullins - Creed Lyrics,” SongMeanings, accessed June 6, 2024, Give an outline: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org” Syllabus I. Examination 2. Day 22 Bracelet meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Still life with Bottle, Carafe and Bread" Monet “Yes; the Bread of Life, the Water of Life, the Word by which man lives, the 'meat to eat which ye know not of,' and much more, cease to be figurative expressions, except that we must use the same words to name the corporeal and the incorporeal sustenance of man. We understand, moreover, how ideas emanating from our Lord and Saviour, which are of His essence, are the spiritual meat and drink of His believing people. We find it no longer a 'hard saying,' nor a dark saying, that we must sustain our spiritual selves upon Him, even as our bodies upon bread.” * “But the children ask for bread and we give them a stone; we give information about objects and events which mind does not attempt to digest but casts out bodily (upon an examination paper?). But let information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea, and it is taken with avidity and used in making whatsoever in the spiritual nature stands for tissue in the physical.” * “We forget that it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live, ––whether it be spoken in the way of some truth of religion, poem, picture, scientific discovery, or literary expression; by these things men live and in all such is the life of the spirit. The spiritual life requires the food of ideas for its daily bread.” * “‘It was not Moses that gave you the bread.’ (Jn 6:32) Our Lord is not wearied with the wilfulness of the people. In answer to the querulous demand He reveals the origin of all that nourishes men in body, soul, and spirit. The poet who fires in us with highest thoughts, the inventor who makes the ways of life, easy, the farmer who produces bread – it is not Moses nor another; not any of these from whom we get the food that quickens us – they are but the vehicles. ‘The bread of God’ (v.33) is one, however it be conveyed, and is to be known by two signs; - It cometh down out of heaven and is holy, heavenly, undefiled; and it giveth life unto the world. The life-giving thought or discovery, the food and the teaching by which men live, are all of Him.” * “The song that cheers a man in listless mood, Things carved and pictured, wrought in stone and wood According to My pattern – these are good.” Examen: For Mason, it is not only bread and wine that have symbolic weight and invite communion. What happens when I look at the classroom in this way? ~~~~~~~ Yes; the Bread: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents, 2:246. But the children: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:26. We forget that: 6:125. It was not Moses: Scale How Meditations, 170 Several of Mason’s meditations expand her view of The Bread of Life. Dr. Benjamin Bernier notes, “Mason upholds the doctrine of the Uniqueness of Christ, ‘The sole and continuous Sustenance of Man.’” The song that: “Revival: The Saviour of the World - Volume VI (1914): The Training of the Disciples,” Routledge & CRC Press, 85, accessed June 7, 2024, https://www.routledge.com/Revival-The-Saviour-of-the-World---Volume-VI-1914-The-Training-of-the-Disciples/Mason/p/book/9781138567535. Day 23 Bread meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Breakfast," Henri Matisse 1920 (see also Books - a life with, Bread, By degrees,) “Having found the book which has a message for us, let us not be guilty of the folly of saying we have read it. We might as well say we have breakfasted, as if breakfasting on one day should last us for every day! The book that helps us deserves many readings, for assimilation comes by slow degrees.” * “In other words, we end up having to figure out what’s really stopping us. Why do we tend to back off at a certain depth? I assumed it was simply because it’s always easier to spread out and enjoy the rapid progress at the beginning of something else, than it is to tough it out with irregular French verbs or tricky guitar chords. Presumably, it is sometimes only that. But I think more often we stop digging because we find something extremely painful about working past a certain point, and we don’t want to sort it out. We don’t want to run into our limits, we don’t want to feel dumb, we don’t want to get rejected. We don’t want to put our hearts on the line if we don’t have to, and all the important things involve our hearts.” ~ David Cain “THE READING or listening which is the first step in lectio divina is very different from the speed reading which modern Christians apply to newspapers, books and even to the Bible. Lectio is reverential listening; listening both in a spirit of silence and of awe. We are listening for the still, small voice of God that will speak to us personally – not loudly, but intimately. In lectio we read slowly, attentively, gently listening to hear a word or phrase that is God’s word for us this day…. IN THE ancient tradition lectio divina was understood as being one of the most important ways in which Christians experience God in creation. After all, the Scriptures are part of creation! If one is daily growing in the art of finding Christ in the pages of the Bible, one naturally begins to discover Him more clearly in aspects of the other things He has made. This includes, of course, our own personal history.” ~ St. Andrew’s Abbey Examen: Can I name a book or thing which has had “a message” for me recently? How does my understanding of reading the world help my students? Am I courting novelty in my classroom? ~~~~~~~ Having found the book: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:11 Bk.II. In other words: “Why the Depth Year Was My Best Year,” Raptitude.com, December 30, 2018, https://www.raptitude.com/2018/12/why-the-depth-year-was-my-best-year/. The reading or listening: “Accepting the Embrace of God: The Ancient Art of Lectio Divina,” Saint Andrew’s Abbey, The reading or:, accessed June 7, 2024, https://saintandrewsabbey.com/our-daily-life/accepting-the-embrace-of-god-the-ancient-art-of-lectio-divina/. Day 24 Breakfasted meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Breath of God," Julie Veenstra (see also By the Way, Art of Standing Aside) “Method a Way to an End. ––Method implies two things––a way to an end, and a step-by-step progress in that way. Further, the following of a method implies an idea, a mental image, of the end or object to be arrived at. What do you propose that education shall effect in and for your child? Again, method is natural; easy, yielding, unobtrusive, simple as the ways of Nature herself; yet, watchful, careful, all pervading, all compelling. Method, with the end of education in view, presses the most unlikely matters into service to bring about that end; but with no more tiresome mechanism than the sun employs when it makes the winds to blow and the waters to flow only by shining. The parent who sees his way––that is, the exact force of method––to educate his child, will make use of every circumstance of the child's life almost without intention on his own part, so easy and spontaneous is a method of education based upon Natural Law. Does the child eat or drink, does he come, or go, or play––all the time he is being educated, though he is as little aware of it as he is of the act of breathing.” * “The intellectual habits of the good life form themselves in the following out of the due curriculum in the right way. As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. We are all aware, alas, what a monstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of our memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural and spontaneous 'act of knowing,' as easy to a child as breathing and, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves.” * “Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet- Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” ~ Tennyson Examen: Am I finding education as natural as breathing? What keeps me from the Master’s Method? ~~~~~~~ Method a Way: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:8. The intellectual habits: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:99. Speak to Him: Poetry Foundation, “The Higher Pantheism by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.” Day 25 Breathing meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  “…our brother who is bruised is not merely near and dear; he is our very self, and whoso will ease and revive him is our deliverer too.” * “The present writer (viz. Mason) recollects the moment when the conviction of the common sisterhood of women was brought home to her in a way never to be forgotten. She was driving from station to station in London, and saw a drunken woman carried on a door. She knew by the shock of pain and the tears the sight brought that the woman was not outside of her but was in some mysterious way part of her––her very self. This was a new perception to a girl, and one never again to be lost sight of. Such shocks of recognition probably come to most of us, and when they come to the Greathearts of the world we get our Elizabeth Frys, our Wilberforces, our Florence Nightingales. Deeds of pity have been done through all the Christian ages, and, indeed, wherever the human heart has had free play; but to feel pity for another and to be aware, however dimly, that that other is, part and lot, indissolubly bound up with ourselves––these are two things. We venture to believe that this is the stage which the education of mankind, as divinely conducted, has reached in our day. In other days, men did good for the love of God, or to save their own souls; they acted uprightly, because it behooved themselves to be just in all their dealings; but the motives which stir us in our relation to each other now are more intimate, tender, indefinable, soul-compelling. What the issues will be when we have learned to con understandingly this new page in the Book of Life we cannot foretell, but we may hope that the Kingdom of God is coming upon us.” * “One other idea that appears to be at work in the world for the elevation of mankind is that of the solidarity of the race. The American poet, Walt Whitman, expresses one side of this intuition when he tells us how he conquers with every triumphant general, bleeds with every wounded soldier, shares the spring morning and the open road and the pride of the horses with every jolly waggoner––in fact, lives in all other lives that touch him anywhere, even in imagination. This is something more than the brotherhood of man; that belongs to the present; but our sense of the oneness of humanity reaches into the remotest past, making us regard with tender reverence every relic of the antiquity of our own people or of any other; and, with a sort of jubilant hope, every prognostic of science or philanthropy which appears to us to be the promise of the centuries to come.” * “… we are all the children of one Father, … Love and Justice, Intellect, Reason, Imagination, all the lofty rulers of Mansoul, are present, however dormant, in every man we meet. It is by honouring all men that we find out how worthy they are of honour.” * “Thy one concern is – watchful be; Who serves his neighbour, serveth ME.” Examen: Do I see my neighbour as my “very self?” Is the good of my neighbour the object of my study? How many “Greathearts” are part of our classroom this term? * P.S. Please notice Mason also includes sisterhood. ~~~~~~~ ...our brother who: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:151. The present writer: 2:264. One other idea: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:48. ...we are all: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:146 Bk.I. Thy one concern: Charlotte M. Mason,“Saviour of the World -Revival,” 50. Day 26 Brotherhood of Man meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  source unknown (see also Brotherhood of Man)
“It is hardly possible to overestimate the force of this league of educated parents (P.N.E.U.) When we think of the part that the children being brought up under these influences will one day play in the leading and ruling of the land, we are solemnised with the sense of a great responsibility, and it behooves us to put to ourselves, once again, the two searching queries by which every movement should from time to time be adjudged––Whence? and Whither?” * “Children should be Brought up to Live for All (People)––Studying reverently these signs of the times (i.e. observant of the “Greathearts” who understand that “the other is, part and lot, indissolubly bound up with ourselves”), what indications do we find for our guidance in the bringing up of children? The tender sympathy of the child must be allowed to flow in ways of help and kindness towards all life that anyway touches his.” * “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” ~ Alexander Den Heijer Examen: How can I shelter and nurture the “tender sympathy” in our classroom? Am I aware of my circumstances and times as “graciously and mercifully ordered?” ~~~~~~~ It is hardly possible: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:249. Children should be: 2:266. When a flower doesn’t: “Alexander den Heijer - quotes,” purposologist, accessed June 18, 2024, https://www.alexanderdenheijer.com/quotes. Day 27 Brought Up meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  The Mosaic Christ, Source Unknown “That which has become the dominant idea of one person's life, if it be launched suddenly at another, conveys no very great depth or weight of meaning to the second person––he wants to get at it by degrees, to see the steps by which the other has travelled.” * “But let the imaginations of children be stored with the pictures, their minds nourished upon the words, of the gradually unfolding story of the Scriptures, and they will come to look out upon a wide horizon within which persons and events take shape in their due place and in due proportion. By degrees, they will see that the world is a stage whereon the goodness of God is continually striving with the wilfulness of man; that some heroic men take sides with God; and that others, foolish and headstrong, oppose themselves to Him. The fire of enthusiasm will kindle in their breast, and the children, too, will take their side, without much exhortation, or any thought or talk of spiritual experience.” * “Then, by degrees, as we go on reading this world-teacher, (Shakespeare) lines of insight and beauty take possession of us, and unconsciously mould our judgments of men and things and of the great issues of life. * “… the object in our gospel reading should be, less to find words of comfort and admonition for ourselves, than to perceive with our minds and receive upon our hearts the impress of Christ. To know him is life, and is the whole of life; and every thought of Him, walking in the cornfields, sitting weary by the well, moving among crowds or in solitary places, raising his eyes upon the multitude, taking by the hand that little maid, ––every such living conception we get of Christ is life to us. Just as, from the apparently casual touches of the painter, the living likeness grows, so, by laying upon the canvas of our hearts every apparently casual and insignificant detail about our Master, we shall by degrees gather a living vision of the Son of Man;” * “…we are guilty of fraudulent practices. What he (the child) wants is the world and every bit, piece by piece, each bit a key to the rest.” * “By degrees children get that knowledge of God which is the object of the final daily prayer in our beautiful liturgy – the prayer of St. Chrysostom – ‘Grant us in this world knowledge of Thy truth,’ and all other knowledge which they obtain gathers round and illuminates this.” * “God is a wise husbandman, who "waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it (James 5:7). He cannot gather the fruit until it is ripe. ~ Andrew Murray Examen: How is each accumulating day in a Mason classroom like stringing beads of a sacramental rosary, or adding pieces to a ever-expanding mosaic of the Incarnation? ~~~~~~~ That which has become: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:97. But let the imaginations: 1:249. Then, by degrees: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves Bk. II. ...the object in: 4:91–92 Bk.II. ...we are guilty: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:42. By degrees children: 6:64. God is a wise: Andrew Murray, Waiting on God (Moody Pub, 1961), 101–2. Day 28 By Degrees meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Illustration by Marina Pavlikovskaya “…(mother/teacher) will find a hundred opportunities to teach geography by the way: a duck-pond is a lake or an inland sea; any brooklet will serve to illustrate the great rivers of the world; a hillock grows into a mountain––an Alpine system; a hazel-copse suggests the mighty forests of the Amazon; a reedy swamp, the rice-fields of China; a meadow, the boundless prairies of the West; the pretty purple flowers of the common mallow is a text whereon to hang the cotton fields of the Southern States: indeed, the whole field of pictorial geography––maps may wait until by-and-by––may be covered in this way.” * “Field of Knowledge too circumscribed.––But it is possible that the child's marvelous power of obtaining knowledge by means of his senses may be undervalued; that the field may be too circumscribed; and that, during the first six or seven years in which he might have become intimately acquainted with the properties and history of every natural object within his reach, he has obtained, exact ideas, it is true––can distinguish a rhomboid from a pentagon, a primary from a secondary colour, has learned to see so truly that he can copy what he sees in folded paper or woven straw,––but this at the expense of much of that real knowledge of the external world which at no time of his life will he be so fitted to acquire. Therefore, while the exact nicely graduated training of the Kindergarten may be of value, the mother will endeavour to give it by the way, and will by no means let it stand for that wider training of the senses, to secure which for her children is a primary duty.” * “Where there is avidity for any sort of knowledge, it comes from chance sources.” * “Again, the taste for parties of pleasure, for what may be called organised amusement, is an ever-growing taste, and dislodges the habit of taking pleasure in the evening reading, the fireside games with the children, the home music, the chat with friendly neighbours, the thousand delights that home should afford. For ‘Pleasure is spread through the earth In stray gifts, to be claimed by whoever shall find;’ and not the least evil of incessant party-going and pleasure-seeking is, that it blinds people to the nature and and pleasure; pure and true pleasure is of impromptu occurrence, a stray gift, to be found not sought; it is just a thing to happen upon by the way.” * “Expect nothing. Live frugally On surprise.” ~ Alice Walker Examen: How can I be more awake to the “thousand delights” of an ordinary day and lessons “by the way?” How does it feel to rely on this education by gift? ~~~~~~~ ...(mother/teacher) will find: Charlotte Mason, Home Education, 1:72. Field of Knowledge: 1:179. Where there is avidity: Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character, 5:309. Again, the taste for: 5:252. Expect nothing. Live: “Expect Nothing - Expect Nothing Poem by Alice Walker,” Poem Hunter, January 13, 2003, Day 29 By the Way meditation/100 Days Copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025 |
