The Bible is the most authoritative and ancient of all books and Mason considered its lessons to be the supreme lesson, leading most directly to knowledge of God. This podcast explores why she was of this opinion, why we must not neglect its lessons, and how those lessons should be presented.
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“Perhaps the main part of a child’s education should be concerned with the great human relationships. . . Before all these ranks Religion, including our relations of worship, loyalty, love and service to God; and next in order, perhaps, the intimate interpersonal relations implied in such terms as self-knowledge, self-control.” (Vol. 3, p. 234)
“The Bible is the chief lesson–“But we are considering, not the religious life of children, but their education by lessons; and their Bible lessons should help them to realise in early days that the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and, therefore, that their Bible lessons are their chief lessons.” (Vol. 1, p. 251)
“What is peculiar to the children in their nature and estate. ‘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 worth while 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…. do no sort of injury to the children: Take heed that ye OFFEND not––DESPISE not––HINDER not––one of these little ones.” (Vol. 1, pg 12)
“The truth which interprets our own lives…” (Vol. 1, p. 251)
“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 due proportion. By degrees, they will see that the world is a stage whereon the goodness of God is continually striving with the willfulness 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.” (Vol. 1, p. 249)
“But, here as elsewhere, the promises and threatenings of Bible will bear the searching light of inductive methods.” (Vol. 2, p. 21)
“The fact is, our religious life has suffered, and by-and-by our national character will suffer, through the discredit thrown upon the Bible by adverse critics. We rightly regard the Bible as the entire collection of our Sacred Books. We have absolutely nothing to teach but what we find written therein. But we no longer go to the Bible with the old confidence: our religion is fading into a sentiment not easy to impart; we wait until the young people shall conceive it for themselves. Meantime, we give them such æsthetic culture as should tend to develop those needs of the soul that find their satisfaction in worship. The whole superstructure of ‘liberal’ religious thought is miserably shaky and no wonder there is some shrinking from exposing it to the Ithuriel’s spear of the definite and searching young mind. For we love this flimsy habitation we have builded. It bears a shadowy resemblance to the old home of our souls, and we cling to it with a tender sentiment which the younger generation might not understand.” (Vol. 2, p. 96)
“It is well, by the way, that we should remember that we have as a nation an enormous loss to make good; time was, and not so long ago, when rich and poor were intimately familiar with one of the three great classical literatures. Men’s thoughts were coloured, their speech moulded, their conduct more or less governed, by the pastoral idylls called “Genesis,” the impassioned poetry of Isaiah, the divine philosophy of John, the rhetoric of Paul––all, writings, like the rest of the Bible, in what Matthew Arnold calls ‘the grand manner.’ Here is the well of English undefiled from which men have drawn the best that our literature holds, as well as their philosophy of life, their philosophy of history, and that principal knowledge we are practising to do without––the knowledge of God. And we wonder that the governing classes should forget how to rule as those who serve; and that the working man, brought up on “Readers” in lieu of a great literature, should act with the obstinate recklessness proper to ignorance.” (Vol. 6, pp. 309-310)
”That there is in the human breast an infallible sense of ‘ought’ is an error prolific of much evil.” The problem is that if we rely on ourselves or our culture’s norms to determine morality, then we can individually or collectively change our mind about what is right and what is wrong at any time. Instead, we must rely on God’s commands to determine right and wrong. Mason said, “To attempt to treat of morals without dealing with the sanctions of morality is to work from the circumference instead of from the center.” (Vol. 2, p. 103)
“To attempt to treat of morals without dealing with the sanctions of morality is to work from the circumference instead of from the center.” (Vol. 2, p. 103)
“The foundation of parental authority lies in the fact that parents hold office as deputies; and that in a two-fold sense. In the first place, they are the immediate and personally appointed deputies of the Almighty King, the sole Ruler of men; they have not only to fulfil his counsels regarding the children, but to represent his Person; his parents are as God to the little child; and, yet [a] more constraining thought, God is to him what his parents are; he has no power to conceive a greater and lovelier personality than that of the royal heads of his own home; he makes his first approach to the Infinite through them; they are measure for the highest; if the measure be easily his small compass, how shall he grow up with the reverent temper which is the condition of spiritual growth?” (Vol. 2, pp. 14-15)
“He should not be able to recall a time before the sweet stories of old filled his imagination; he should have heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden in the cool of the evening; should have been an awed spectator where the angels ascended and descended upon Jacob’s stony pillow; should have followed Christ through the cornfield on the Sabbath-day, and sat in the rows of the hungry multitudes––so long ago that such sacred scenes form the unconscious background of his thoughts. (Vol. 2, pp. 108-109)
“Their Bible lessons should help them to realize in early days that the knowledge of God is the principal knowledge, and therefore, that their Bible lessons are their chief lessons.” (Vol. 1, p. 251)
“Knowledge of God ranks first in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making.” (Vol. 6, p. 158)
If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.
Home Education (Volume 1), Part IV, Chapter 3
Parents and Children (Volume 2), Chapters 10 and 11
School Education (Volume 3), Chapter 13
Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Chapter 10, Section I
Commentaries by Canon Paterson-Smyth
YAY! 🙂 This is my treat for working on my list of to-do's on Friday! You are helping me with the habit of discipline. LOL! That means you can't EVER stop the podcast, though. 😉
This was so good! I find Bible one of the hardest for me to just "let alone" and I think you've helped me see why. I don't scaffold enough at times and also help them by listing names/places etc ahead of time. I absolutely LOVE the idea of occasionally using the classics to continue to spark their minds in the Bible arena! So interesting also about having them narrate close to the Bible language. I have not yet used commentaries, although sometimes my Bible's notes, so good to learn more in that regard. I loved hearing about the Parables and how they learned them over a few weeks time…we have done this in the past…a good reminder!
One question! How would you help children understand the "harshness" of the Lord in the OT vs the NT? I know there will be some differences in opinion based on theological bents/opinions, but that has come up a lot with my children. 🙂 I'm curious to see what you think.
Nicole, Liz, and Emily, once again, thank you so much! (and I am SOOOO excited about Geography as this is an area I very much want to learn more about!!!)
Amy,
We also appreciate the discipline of doing weekly shows as it keeps us in the habit of digging into Mason's ideas and principles.
Perhaps your Bible question should be included in our next Q&A recording. It is good, of course, for children to wrestle with truth; it makes their faith strong. The Old Testament reveals a God who is described as creating the world, making man in His own image, bestowing blessings and promises (which He keeps), seeing a cast-out maid and her son in the desert, blessing a nation when Joseph is enslaved, delivering that nation out of bondage, sustaining them in the desert…and endless examples of what David sums up as "The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love," and the lists of his benevolence are endless. The New Testament shows God killing Ananias and Saphira, shipwrecking Paul, and allowing Christ to be crucified. Every parent understands their own deep love for their children that often is displayed in inexplicably hard ways to their children. Perhaps you could remind your children after reading an instance of God's punishment, as you end the lesson after narration, "How good and kind our God is." God is unchanging, the Bible teaches, and is the same in both Testaments, which are one story, and Jesus is the demonstration of God's exact nature in the Old Testament, the Old Testament our preparation to receive him in the New.
-Liz
Thank you, Liz! Good reminders!!! 🙂
Laying out Charlotte's Bible teaching plan by Form is particularly helpful. I've read a lot about the method of teaching in the past, but giving a visual of what books were taught in each Form makes it more practical. Any chance you'd consider creating a chart for visual mamas like me 😉
Thanks,
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
We are so glad you found this helpful! I haven't laid out a visual, but if you read the chapter section from Volume 6 (listed above in the Study Guide), I think you'll find your questions answered as Mason lays it all out pretty clearly!
-Emily
Thank you so much for this series of podcasts! It's been such a blessing! I was wondering, what do you recommend for missionary stories for form 1 & 2? We have been using Trial and Triump but now I'm wondering if it would be better to do a more in-depth biography per term or year. Thoughts?
Deborah,
Mason included missionary stories for Sunday readings. You could have them for extra evening reading, especially when their lives coincide with your historical time period. A young people's church history we like a bit better than Trial and Triumph is Fire Upon the Earth by Norman Langford . I'm so glad you are enjoying our podcast. Biographies are a potent teacher–children love learning through the lives of others.
-Liz
Hello again, I'm playing around with your scheduling cards for form 1, 3 and 4 trying to plan our average week. I'm wondering if Bible should be done together as a family , that is how I always thought it should be, but I'm thinking maybe I'm getting confused…. Bible as a cm lesson…. Should they do that on their own and we have a separate small devotional time as a family? I like the idea of studying the bible as a family and it being the first thing in our day using commentaries and maps etc which is how I think cm meant for the bible lesson to be as described in your pod casts but can /should it be done as a family? Or in separate forms. Any thought greatly appreciated , Jo in the uk xx
Jo,
I have a couple of thoughts, but first want to assure you that Mason herself wrote to homeschooling mothers that adherence to an exact schedule or format would be on an individual family basis. Obviously, her principle was that the Bible should be the first lesson, for example, and all lessons should be in the morning, but how a mother manages the details otherwise are up to each family's situation.
The more important principle to bear in mind here, and I think you are understanding this from what you have written, is that the school Bible time is not synonymous or a substitution for family devotional or worship time. Bible as a school subject was for the purpose of examining the Bible as a book. We have found that the Bible was read aloud to children under 12, and that in her schools, the upper forms, or III-VI, read independently during the Bible class. In a family, I think several possibilities for dealing with this can be considered.
I personally think I would always read aloud for the Bible lesson if even one of my children was a form I or II student, but perhaps assign independent reading of study notes or commentary to the older students in addition to the usual read and narrate class. It would probably also be an option to read aloud to the younger children and allow the older children to read on their own their Bible lesson–even at the
same time, just as you would work with a math lesson with a young student while the older children did their geometry on their own.
Liz
Thank you Liz, that has helped me some, if I may narrow it down a bit more….. In keeping them together for "bible lessons" as you describe, how would I decide the content? As I think (?) form 1 was mainly learning parables and the upper forms reading nearly the whole bible through gradually…. Is it possible to keep them going through the bible together at the same pace? Thanks x
Jo,
As best we can tell, younger students–first year through sixth, had the Bible read to them by the teacher and there was a schedule of how Mason worked her way through the years–similar to the history rotation. Parables were done in the first three years, but as part of recitation, not the Bible lesson.
I don't know the exact age spread you have, so it may be that your older students would be reading the Bible lessons on their own, with you assigning which portions, while you still read to younger ones.
-Liz
I'm looking to see how to best use the commentary link. Would CM have read say Joshua 1, narrate, do memory lessons, and then read through each commentary lesson (as in Joshua and the Judges) and then asked the lesson questions at the end? Or is this for me to pre-read?
I can't begin to explain the impact your podcasts have had on me. It has lifted a veil and removed a burden from our school day. Thank you deeply from my heart!
-Sherry
Sherry,
Read and narrate is the core of the lesson. If your children are small, you should study the commentary and perhaps give them some choice nugget on occasion. If they are older, they may read one themselves as part of the Bible lesson. Also, I don't believe Bible "memory" is part of the Bible lesson time. She does include Scripture in the recitation portion of the feast, for reading and retelling and perhaps memorization of portions of the Bible.
-Liz
I have just recently found your podcast and have learned so much within a week! I have started from the beginning and keeping notes as I go. 🙂
One question please, is there a link or somewhere can you direct me where it lays out what to study in what terms/forms for the Bible. I heard you briefly discuss but I didn't catch how it is broken up. Thanks again for sharing all of your wisdom and may God bless you all!
You can find that information at the following link, though it isn't broken down by term: http://www.livingbookslibrary.com/2016/04/CMBible.html?m=1
This link is broken. 🙁
I don’t understand why this link is broken! If you Google “Paterson-Smyth Books” you will come up with the complete listing at this page (http://jpatersonsmyth.com/page3.html). I can access this through my browser, though WordPress says access is forbidden.
This is awesome! Thanks so much Nicole!
I just finished listening to this episode and greatly enjoyed it. I recently read an article on Ambleside Online that proposed that the KJV is the best version to use for Bible lessons. The reasoning they shared made sense to me and I am curious if y'all agree or disagree with using the KJV over others?
Katelyn,
I personally use the KJV for Bible lessons, though we don't read that version for family worship time. I agree with those reasons you have read, but at the same time, am not legalistic as long as the family is using a translation and not a paraphrase or children's story Bible. Like Bunyan or Shakespeare or the poets, there is a beauty of language there that lends weight to the lessons and is worth exposing the children to as the KJV is probably the most beautiful literature in the English language.
Liz
I am so glad to have found these podcasts. I admit I jumped straight into a Charlotte Mason style curriculum before fully understanding the principles and these have been a huge blessing in opening my eyes to the richness of it all. Anyway, I have been looking for a bible commentary to support our study and the ones you have mentioned are fantastic but I can't find them in print and I really like having the actual book in front of me. Could you recommend any alternatives to the Paterson Smyth texts? Thank you so much Claire
If you wait just a little while they will be available in print. Living Library Press is working on republishing them.
~Nicole
Hi, I have an upcoming Form 1B (followed by three youngers). Is this an accurate expectation and outlinefor our first year according to the podcast?
1) EOD narrative OT/synoptic gospels
2) Parables for memorization
3) post narration scaffolding of names, commentaries, landscape/geography, famous artist rendering
If so, my only question is do we read through each of the synoptic gospels or match story to story in each, presenting their different versions (if applicable) before proceeding?
Thanks!
Bryanne