An Invitation or a Lesson Plan ?

CHARLOTTE MASON VOLUME 2 ; CHAPTER 25: THE GREAT RECOGNITION REQUIRED OF PARENTS

It’s human nature to want to be efficient. People naturally seek ways to get things done faster. We want to find the best and quickest way to make things, teach lessons, and go from one place to another. There is nothing wrong with efficiency. We need to realise, however, that in delivering lessons, unless we deliver them in a living way, the child will not take a minute to ponder upon the lesson in his free time. Dry summaries and bullet point lessons are a chore for any child. They attend these lessons because they have to.

Imagine a child listening to a story about travelling, going on a trip in their imagination with the traveller, thinking about what it's like to be in different parts of the world, and looking at maps to find the places the traveller is talking about. You won’t need to constantly drill the child about what countries border Chile or what ocean borders Brazil. The child will know because in hanging on to the living ideas heard, they’ll also hang on to the facts.

What is considered living for each child will be different.

One child will always say yes to an invitation to draw or paint, and another child will only say yes if there’s a stylus involved. Why do we think that producing a system to repeat year after year will serve as a worthy invitation to learning for our children? We must examine every lesson for every child and ensure that the lesson is inviting enough to every child it’s presented to.

Does this mean we need to embellish our lessons with fun artificially?

Absolutely not. If we choose the best living books for our children, our children will be stimulated intellectually.

One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child's intellectual life. We need not say one word about the necessity for living thought in the teacher; it is only so far as he is intellectually alive that he can be effective in the wonderful process which we glibly call 'education.'

- Charlotte Mason

Best Regards,

Olufunmike