 Image Lizbeth Zwerger “…there is no part of a child's home life or schoolwork which the law does not penetrate.” * “‘The training of children,’ says Mr. Herbert Spencer––‘physical, moral and intellectual––is dreadfully defective. And in great measure it is so, because parents are devoid of that knowledge by which this training alone can be rightly guided. What is to be expected when one of the most intricate of problems is undertaken by those who have given scarcely a thought to the principle on which its solution depends? For shoemaking or housebuilding, for the management of a ship or of a locomotive engine, a long apprenticeship is needful. Is it, then, that the unfolding of a human being in body and mind is so comparatively simple a process that anyone may superintend and regulate it with no preparation whatever? If not––if the process is, with one exception, more complex than any in Nature, and the task of ministering to it one of the surpassing difficulty––is it not madness to make no provision for such a task!? Better sacrifice accomplishments than omit this all-essential instruction ... Some acquaintance with the first principles of physiology and the elementary truths of psychology is indispensable for the right bringing up of children....Here are the indisputable facts: that the development of children in mind and body follows certain laws; that unless these laws are in some degree conformed to by parents, death is inevitable; that unless they are in a great degree conformed to, and that only when they are completely conformed to, perfect maturity be reached. Judge, then, whether all who may one day be parents should not strive with some anxiety to learn what these laws are.’ ” * “…the universe of mind, as the universe of matter, is governed by unwritten laws of God; that the child cannot blow soap bubbles or think his flitting thoughts otherwise than in obedience to divine laws; that all safety, progress, and success in life come out of obedience to law, to the laws of mental, moral or physical science, or of that spiritual science which the Bible unfolds;” * “It is difficult to explain how I came to a solution of a puzzling problem, ––how to secure attention. Much observation of children, various incidents from one's general reading, the recollection of my own childhood and the consideration of my present habits of mind brought me to the recognition of certain laws of the mind, by working in accordance with which the steady attention of children of any age and any class in society is insured, week-in, week out,––attention, not affected by distracting circumstances….” Examen: Do I study my art with confidence knowing that there are laws and principles to be followed which lead to fruitfulness and maturity? How can I be surer of “the nature of things?” ~~~~~~~ ...there is no part: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:Preface. The training of children: 1:3–4. ...the universe of mind: 1:39. It is difficult: Philosophy, 6:13. Certain Laws meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025
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 Eliot Hodgkin Undergrowth 1941 “The Ultimate Object of Education––Suppose the parent see that the formation of character is the ultimate object of education; see, too, that character is, in the rough, the inherited tendencies of the child, modified by his surroundings, but that character may be debased or ennobled by education; that it is the parents' part to distinguish the first faint budding of family traits; to greet every fine trait as the highest sort of family possession to be nourished and tended with care; to keep up at the same time the balance of qualities by bringing forward that which is of little account––the more so when they must deliver their child from eccentricity, pitfall to the original and forceful nature;––suppose they have taken all this into the role of their duties, there yet remains much for parents to do. The Defects of our Qualities––We are open to what the French call the defects of our qualities; and as ill weeds grow apace, the defects of a fine character may well choke out the graces.” * “Two Luminous Principles. ––This is doubtless true of Psychology alone, but of Psychology illuminated by Physiology we have another tale to tell. It is the study of that border-land betwixt mind and matter, the brain, which yields the richest results to the educator. For the brain is the seat of habit: the culture of habit is, to a certain extent, physical culture: the discipline of habit is at least a third part of the great whole which we call education, and here we feel that the physical science of to-day has placed us in advance of the philosopher of fifty years ago. We hold with him entirely as to the importance of great formative ideas in the education of children, but we add to our ideas, habits, and we labour to form habits upon a physical basis. Character is the result not merely of the great ideas which are given to us, but of the habits which we labour to form upon those ideas. We recognise both principles, and the result is a wide range of possibilities in education, practical methods, and a definite aim. We labour to produce a human being at his best physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, with the enthusiasms of religion, of the good life, of nature, knowledge, art, and manual work; and we do not labour in the dark.” * “We cannot, as you will see presently, afford to have cracks in our character.” * “I have used the current phrase, ‘formation of character’ because it is current and therefore convenient; but to show that I recognize the fallacy it contains, I venture to quote the following (very inadequate) definition: ‘His character—the efflorescence (unfolding and flourishing) of the man wherein the fruit of his life is a-preparing—character is original disposition, modified, directed, expanded by education, by circumstances; later by self-control and self-culture; above all, by the supreme agency of the Holy Spirit, even when that agency is little suspected and as little solicited,’ that is to say, character is not the outcome of a formative educational process; but inherent tendencies are played upon, more or less incidentally, and the outcome is character.” Examen: Why does Mason find it necessary to preface her work with cautions about the word character? What does she mean by “we are not in the dark?” ~~~~~~~ The Ultimate Object: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:83. Two Luminous Principles: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:99. We cannot, as: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:174 Bk.I. I have used: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:Preface Emphasis Mine. Character meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Gulf Stream, Winslow Homer 1899 (see also Authority) “Three Ultimate Facts––Not open to Question. ––There are two directions in which we commit intellectual offences against the law, (natural or moral law) and oppose ourselves to authority. In the first place we are disposed to regard everything by turns as an open question. We forget that there are three ultimate postulates which the thought of man can neither prove nor disprove, though in every age it has played uneasily about one or the other. God, Self, and the World are the three fixed points of thought. The active Western mind, with each new evolution of scientific thought, finds again and again that there is no place for God in the world; nay, so active and pleasant is the conception of self that an important school of philosophy has demonstrated that the real world is no more than a simulacrum, a mirage, as it were, projected from the conscious self. The more passive Eastern mind, is, on the contrary, inclined to regard selfhood as a passing phase in a state of absorption or reabsorption by deity. But when we learn to realise that––God is, Self is, the World is, with all that these existences imply, quite untouched by any thinking of ours, unprovable, and self-proven, ––why, we are at once put into a more humble attitude of mind. We recognise that above us, about us, within us, there are "more things . . . than are dreamt of in our philosophy." We realise ourselves as persons, we have a local habitation, and we live and move and have our being in and under a supreme authority. It is not well we should take it for granted that everybody knows these things. Perhaps we all have a hearsay acquaintance with, but very few of us have a realising knowledge of, these ultimate facts.” * But for the uneasy young soul, whose chief business in life is the navigation of an unknown craft, some knowledge of the carrying and sailing powers of the vessel is not only beneficent in itself, but is a relief from the obsession of that tiresome other self––the subjective self, we have called it––of which we become aware in that day when we eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and leave the paradise of the unconscious child. (This awakening must come to us all….” * “Do but watch the eagerness with which the young catch up every remark made by their elders on public affairs, books, men, and you will see they are really trying to construct a chart to steer by; they want to know what to do, it is true, but they also want to know what to think about everything.” * “Somehow, in her presence, meanness and pettiness fell away, and one believed in and strove to reach the highest of which one was capable. And not only this—one learnt to believe in the goodness and joy of life. One felt that, at the back of all Miss Mason’s teaching, was a philosophy of life based on an intense conviction of the personal relationship of every individual soul with God—a relationship that was the basis of all joy in living.” Examen: Does Mason help me connect my deepest values to my everyday living? Do I have a “realizing knowledge” of the ultimate facts and Christian philosophy? How am I scaffolding this understanding in the classroom, standing aside so my students can also construct a chart to steer by? ~~~~~~~ Three Ultimate Facts: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:114–15. But for the uneasy: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:Introduction. Do but watch: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:228. Somehow in her presence: Union, In Memoriam, 77. Chart to Steer By meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Source Unknown (see also Bird-Stalker) “Our only means of true intimacy with a child is the recovering of our own childhood.” * “Generosity at its highest level, and with a certain added tincture, becomes Enthusiasm….” * “In a school, you must have an enthusiasm, must strike a note that vibrates in every breast to secure the common feeling without which there is no life.” * “The Certificate (House of Education Certificate) will be awarded only when the student shows herself possessed of – to adapt a phrase – the enthusiasm of childhood, which makes all work of teaching and training heart-service done to God.” * “Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” ~ G.K. Chesterton Examen: Set a timer and write for 10 minutes on “my enthusiasm.” Don’t evaluate, just keep the pencil moving. Now write for 10 minutes on “recovering my own childhood.” Do this as often as it seems fruitful. ~~~~~~~ Our only means: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:184. Generosity at its highest: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:104 Bk. I. In a school: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:149. The certificate will: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org,” accessed September 25, 2024, https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR03p651HofEd.shtml. Because children have: G. K. Chesterton and Charles Colson, Orthodoxy, New edition (Moody Publishers, 2009), 91–92. Childhood Enthusiasm meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  Painting by Soosh (see also Countenance) “Diversion. ––Again, some slight affront has called up a flood of resentful feeling: So-and-so should not have done it, he had no right, it was mean, and so on, through all the hard things we are ready enough to say in our hearts of an offender against our amour propre. But the man under the control of his own will does not allow this to go on: he does not fight it out with himself, and say, 'This is very wrong in me. So-and-so is not so much to blame, after all.' He is not ready for that yet; but he just compels himself to think of something else––the last book he has read, the next letter he must write, anything interesting enough to divert his thoughts. When he allows himself to go back to the cause of offence, behold, all rancour is gone, and he is able to look at the matter with the coolness of a third person. And this is true, not only of the risings of resentment, but of every temptation that besets the flesh and spirit. Change of Thought.––Again, the sameness of his duties, the weariness of doing the same thing over and over, fills him with disgust and despondency, and he relaxes his efforts;––but not if he be a man under the power of his own will, because he simply does not allow himself in idle discontent; it is always within his power to give himself something pleasant, something outside of himself, to think of, and he does so; and, given what we call a 'happy frame of mind,' no work is laborious.” * “We have seen, too, that the obstructions to the rule of Will, arising from strong impulses and powerful suggestions, may be met in a simple way. The Will asserts itself, not by struggle and insistence, but by a diversion of thought, to be repeated as often as the impulse or suggestion recurs; and each recurrence is fainter than the last: whilst the Will employs the pause secured by such diversion to gather force.” * “The way of the will: Children should be taught, (a) to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.' (b) That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will. (c) That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting. (d) That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This adjunct of the will is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power.) ” * “When the overstrained will asks for repose, it may not relax to yielding point but may and must seek recreation, diversion, ––Latin thought has afforded us beautiful and appropriate names for that which we require. A change of physical or mental occupation is very good, but if no other change is convenient, let us think of something else, no matter how trifling. A new tie, or our next new hat, a story book we are reading, a friend we hope to see, anything does so long as we do not suggest to ourselves the thoughts we ought to think on the subject in question. The will does not want the support of arguments but the recreation of rest, change, diversion. In a surprisingly short time, it is able to return to the charge and to choose this day the path of duty, however dull or tiresome, difficult or dangerous. This 'way of the will' is a secret of power, the secret of self-government, with which people should be furnished, not only for ease in practical right doing, or for advance in the religious life, but also for their intellectual well-being.” Examen: Am I aware of myself desiring something I do not will?When lately have I used diversion to good effect in my own life? How shall I let the children under my care in on their human super-power? ~~~~~~~ Diversion.--Again, some: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:324–25. We have seen, too: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:171 Bk.II. The way of the will: Charlotte M. Mason, Philosophy, 6:XXXI. When the overstrained will: 6:136. Day 68 Diversion meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "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.” ~~~~~~~ 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. Children meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  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.” * “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.'” * “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. ~~~~~~~ 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  Source Unknown (see also Best Books, Books- living with) “The subject of 'Children's Literature' has been well threshed out, and only one thing remains to be said,––children have no natural appetite for twaddle, and a special literature for children is probably far less necessary than the book sellers would have us suppose. Out of any list of 'the hundred best books,' I believe that seventy-five would be well within the range of children of eight or nine. They would delight in Rasselas, Eöthen would fascinate them as much as Robinson Crusoe, the Faëry Queen, with its allegory and knightly adventures and sense of free moving in woodland scenery, would exactly fall in with their humour.” * “Pretty books for the schoolroom age follow those for the nursery, and, nursery and schoolroom outgrown, we are ready for "Mudie's" lightest novels; the succession of "pretty books" never fails us; we have no time for works of any intellectual fibre, and we have no more assimilating power than has the schoolgirl who feeds upon cheese-cakes. Scott is dry as dust, even Kingsley is "stiff." We remain, though in another sense than that of the cottage dame, ‘poor readers’ all our days.” * “Compare this (the knowledge demonstrated after a unit study or reading extracts) with the voluminous output of children of six or seven working on the P.U.S. (Parents’ Union School) scheme upon any subject that they know; with, indeed, the pages they will dictate after a single reading of a chapter of Robinson Crusoe, not a 'child's edition.'” * “I am almost inclined to set it up as a canon that a children’s story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story.” ~ C.S. Lewis Examen: Am I relying on the Ambleside method everywhere or are there still places I can’t trust children having all the mind they need to come to whole, living books? When I list my reading and that of my students for the last three months do I see any “pretty books” or child-editions? ~~~~~~~ The subject of “Children’s Literature”: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:122. Pretty books for: Charlotte M. Mason, Formation of Character, 5:214. Compare this with: Charlotte M. Mason, Towards a Philosophy of Education, 6:115. I am almost inclined: William O’Flaherty, The Misquotable C.S. Lewis: What He Didn’t Say, What He Actually Said, and Why It Matters (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018), 63. Child's Edition meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Child Picking a Fruit," Mary Cassatt “…but to be at the mercy of associations, to have no power to think what we choose when we choose, but only as something 'puts it into our head,' is to be no better than an imbecile.” * “The Way of the Will should be taught to Children. ––It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children. Are you cross? Change your thoughts. Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts. Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change your thoughts; there is a power within you, your own will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right. And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the will acts; this is the sole secret of the power over himself which the strong man wields––he can compel himself to think of what he chooses, and will not allow himself in thoughts that breed mischief.” * “But ideas may be evil or may be good; and to choose between the ideas that present themselves is, as we have been taught, the one responsible work of a human being. It is the power of choice that we would give our children.” * “All that reason does for us is to prove, logically, any idea we choose to entertain.” * “There is, as we have seen, only one power in the Kingdom of Mansoul quite at its own disposal, a free agent, able to do what it likes, and that is the Will; and the one thing the Will has to do is to prefer. 'Choose ye this day' is the command that comes to each of us in every affair and on every day of our lives; and the business of the Will is to choose.” * “…a person be truly a person only as he acts upon the choice of his own will….” * “Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their pre-suppositions should be *chosen* after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.” ~ Francis A. Schaeffer Examen: “Discuss the discipline of consequences, as applied e.g. to the child who does not choose to learn.” “How may children be brought up to 'do as they choose'?” “Why may we choose for ourselves only, and not for others?” ~~~~~~~ ...but to be: Charlotte M. Mason, Home Education, 1:139. The Way of: 1:325–26. But ideas may be: Charlotte M. Mason, Parents and Children, 2:230. All that reason: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:116. There is, as we: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:143 Bk.II. ...a person be: 4:145 Bk. II. Most people catch: Jackson Jeremy C. Schaeffer Francis A, How Should We Then Live, First Edition (Fleming H Revell Co, 1976), 19. Discuss the discipline: “AO Parents’ Review Archives AmblesideOnline.Org” Syllabus II. Examination I. How may children: Home, 1:367. Why may we: Ourselves, 4:233 Bk. II. Day 37 Choosing meditation/100 Days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025  "Libation of Peace," Elena Cherkasova (see also Adorable Person) “The essence of Christianity is passionate love and loyalty towards a divine Person: and faith, the adoring regard of the soul, must needs make us like Him who is 'meek and lowly of heart.'” * “One thing we must hold fast––a clear conception of what is meant by Christianity. It is not 'being good' or serving our fellows: many who do not own the sovereignty of Christ are better than we who do. But the Christian is aware of Jesus as an ever-present Saviour, at hand in all his dangers and necessities; of Christ as the King whose he is and whom he serves, who rules his destinies and apportions his duties. It is a great thing to be owned, and Jesus Christ owns us. He is our Chief, whom we delight to honour and serve; and He is our Saviour, who delivers us, our Friend who cherishes us, our King who blesses us with His dominion. Christianity would only appear to be possible when there is a full recognition of the divinity of Christ. Let us cry with St Augustine: –– ‘Take my heart! for l cannot give it thee: Keep it! for I cannot keep it for Thee.’” * “We are in the dark hour before the dawn; such a Christianity is coming upon us as neither the world nor the Church has ever dreamed of, even now we begin to see our way out of the darkness because we begin to see why it has fallen upon us. To use the language of philosophy, religion as we know it is subjective not objective; that is, our religious idea is directly opposed to the genius of Christianity…. ‘For me’ is the keynote of one great school of religious though: by me’ of another’ but how seldom is Christ Himself, for Himself – not for what He is for us, or has done for us, or worketh in us – placed in the foreground of religious thought.” * “Christianity is not just involved with "salvation", but with the total man in the total world. The Christian message begins with the existence of God forever, and then with creation. It does not begin with salvation. We must be thankful for salvation, but the Christian message is more than that. Man has a value because he is made in the image of God.” ~ Francis A. Schaeffer Examen: “How should children be taught that the essence of Christianity is devotion to a Person?” “Show that Christianity means the recognition of Christ.” ~~~~~~~ The essence of Christianity: Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves, 4:19 Bk.II. One thing we must: 4:202 Bk.II. We are in: Cholmondley, The Story of Charlotte Mason, 93. Christianity is not: Francis A. Schaeffer, [(Art and the Bible: Two Essays)] (Inter-Varsity Press, US, 2009). How should children: Charlotte M. Mason, School Education, 3:262. Show that Christianity: Ourselves, 4:238 Bk.II. Day 38 Christianity meditation/100 days copyright Laurie Bestvater 2025 |
