I recently looked over Ambleside Online’s book choices for various years to see what I might want to add to our home library and was astonished at how many of their recommendations involve stories of noble acts, heroes, and the like. When we fill our children’s lives and hearts with noble thoughts and beauty, I believe the impact on our postmodern culture will be great. Where there are even a handful of students being ignited by large ideas and fed on such a banquet of magnanimity and joy and beauty, who knows what can happen. Exciting!

Children are to discover some things for themselves in a Charlotte Mason education – but not because they are to develop meaning for life….

Some of the educationese ideas you expressed actually sound quite a bit like Charlotte Mason’s own ideas – though of course, those ideas are out of balance in most educational practices today.

Since there is a time and place for manipulatives and explorations, the question becomes this, “Where does one draw the line? and, What litmus test might there be to guide us in our lesson planning? When is it….. ?safe? to use manipulatives?”

What are the purposes behind manipulatives? When might the use of manipulatives, or explorations, or real life experiences …… be …. errr…. well….. When might they negatively impact a student’s …… ‘world view’?

Your admonition that the choice expresses a philosophy, a world view as it were, is a significant challenge, and points the parent to ponder anew and with greater care what methods are used and why.

Can each choice to either use or not use a manipulative possibly help to form my child’s ‘philosophy of life’?

Perhaps, though that isn’t your point exactly – and it doesn’t need to be our fear.

However, our methodological choices do matter. They do impact our children, not as much because it was what we do, but because it is an expression of what we think.

What we do, and what we have our children do, is an example we provide to our children. An example that can indeed affect how they think.

We cannot merely be Pragmatic about these matters.

Education is a life. Pragmatics does not promote the ability to ‘get a life’. It actually interposes a lot of unnecessary verbage between the pragmatist and life itself. This in essence actually distances one’s self from real life in order to accomplish a specific goal.

The Pragmatist might actually be studying ‘life’ in some way, but in a way distanced by the ‘philosophy’ of pragmatism itself.

Miss Mason was never about distancing the child from life, but bringing the child, as a whole person, to that which is most alive.

A living plant. A living creature. A life giving tool. A living idea. A living love. A living God.

………..

Using ’styles’ of learning as a guide can be misleading:
Physical. (jumping geometrical shapes)
Active. (walking while reciting – or etc., etc.,)
Participatory. (various)
Hands on. (e.g. – rulers, weights and measures, etc.)

Using ‘types’ of learning as a guide can be misleading:
Conceptual. (e.g.- math concepts)
Physical. (e.g. – nature study)
Inquisitive. (e.g. – nature study, basic physics, math, etc.)

Recognizing types of ‘output’ as a guide and being too overly swayed by the motor/physical issues can be misleading:
Handwriting
Art
Dance
Swimming

Relying too heavily on organization of ideas, such as the use of ‘graphic organizers’ can inadvertently throw out a smoke screen (not that organizers are bad…):
Folded papers. (e.g. – Dinah Zike’s foldables)
Posters.
Notebooks.
etc.

……..

In your discussion, you mentioned the ‘do it’ perspective.

Once that becomes the end goal, then the child’s having attempted to ‘do it’ becomes the goal, and once that is achieved, what is left for the child to do? What outcome is left?

Nanci Bell, whose work heartily recognizes educational law, knows that simply trying to ‘just do it’ doesn’t carry enough weight.

Bell knows that the student needs to recognize (see and hear – those senses are imperative prior to the ‘just do it’ experience…), anyway, Nanci Bell knows that there is a standard to which Johnny can aspire. He can value each attempt towards that goal, yet still value the need to learn HOW to ’self-correct’ along the way.

When one becomes the center of meaning (the determiner of meaning), then what standard must one acknowledge? What ’self-corrections’ are actually important? Any of them?

Over time, such a philosophy devolves any system of education until there is no ’standard’ left with which to challenge ourselves – with which to be challenged to raise ourselves up. There is no perceived need to meet that standard as fully as possible.

……….

On the other hand, those students who *naturally* notice the standard and learn to care about that standard typically rise to the standard with relative ease no matter how the subject matter is presented, and thus they learn to do well in life (in whatever areas they recognized and valued the standards, that is).

Those students who do not *naturally* notice as many details of the standard struggle to rise to the challenge, or in some cases, they might not have any idea that there is even a specific challenge which they could take specific steps to try to meet.

(these students may know they are failing, but they might not be fully aware of specific standards which are within their grasp – the application of ‘object teaching’ here – as in the PRArticle by that name – is empowering to the teacher – helping the student identify the various parts of the standard, so that the student can aspire to one bit at a time if need be – and manipulatives can be used to develop that awareness…….)

Those students who notice the standard and do not care about the standard, initially fare worse than those who missed the specifics of the standard. However, that unequal result is only temporary. – – These two scenarios are much like the man who neglects the upkeep of his home vs. the man who abuses his home. Both men’s homes will deteriorate; however, depending on the specific neglect and abuse, the abuse typically creates more obvious and painful results much more quickly.

The benefit to the one who abuses educational standards is that he may more readily recognize what he can do to change his circumstances.

The one who was unaware of specific standards, and who thus neglected to aspire to them, is less aware of what he can do to change his circumstances.

The verse which tells us that God would rather that we were hot or cold comes to mind here……..

…………

Thus, any subject matter, whether it employs a manipulative or it does not, should illustrate to the child several things:

–the value, merit, and often the beauty of the subject
–the challenge to the child
–the pieces of the challenge to that child
–the responsibility of the child to do what he should to try to rise to the challenge (and in Miss Mason’s economy, this typically should be within the range of the child’s ability, perhaps with a little stretch, but not a stretch which would strain the heart, soul, or spirit of the child)

Also, Miss Mason knew that any subject worth learning should help the whole person of the child develop:

–the heart (concern for a great many things)
–the mind (cause and affect, science of relations, logic)
–the spirit (faith, hope, love for self and others, reverence for God, reverence for life, etc.)
–the will (such as the will to attend, or the will to do)
–the conscience (to rise to the standard in various areas)
–the attention (actually tying various types of attention together, such as visual attention in general, visual discrimination, and that ‘impression’ on the mind of which Miss Mason so eloquently speaks – as well as auditory attention, auditory discrimination, and that ‘impression’ on the mind – then tying those data streams together; in addition to knowing how the hand moves to make a letter’s stroke, etc.)
–etc.

So the choice of when/if to use manipulatives revolves around so much more than the subject matter at hand, or the ‘biological processing of the child-mind’.

This mis-philosophy may very well have much to do with the sense of meaningless that so many people grow to experience in life.

The choice of when to use manipulatives certainly does not have to do with the child’s alleged need to be about the task of developing meaning for life.

Children have a wisdom within them, but they also have foolishness bound up in them. They are not up to the challenge of developing meaning for life. Only a god could do such a thing.

Yet a child can recognize the meaning that God has for him.

Sometimes he simply needs his attention brought to this realm of truth – with a simple question here or there.

Allowing the child to see in Christ ‘the holiest child’s heart’, and to see in Christ ‘the highest holiest manhood’ is the greatest part.

Certainly we need to make the principles seen therein real to the child as much as it is within us to do so – by being honest, respectful, etc. ourselves. But nothing we can do will make Jesus truly palpable to the child.

In spite of the fact that this knowledge is not tangible, is not palpable, cannot be seen for itself in nature, it is the most pragmatic thing *&* the most living thing a child can ever know.

………..

This knowledge is something which the child, upon hearing the living truth, can visualize, internalize, and *then* put into practice.

The living truth is thus the germ, the seed that can germinate and produce participation with life, hands on activity in life that bears fruit.

Interestingly, such knowledge was alive in the child before he could ever act upon it physically, participate in it in any hands on way, etc.

As abstract as this living truth is, this knowledge gave meaning to life before the child could act upon it.

………….

However abstract an idea is, once it is made alive to the child, it will take hold.

If a sense of meaning, a sense of value, a sense of life, a living idea is presented to the child, that is all he needs.

If a manipulative helps to express that living idea, then the living idea expresses much of its own meaning to the child itself.

If the manipulative encourages within the child-mind an inquisitive spirit, and explorative investigation, all the better.

The manipulative then becomes a conduit to help the teacher to reach the child-mind to help him value a living idea.

The manipulative then becomes the tool by which the child finds a way to begin exploring the useful meaning of a a life empowering tool, a living idea, or a living truth.

Associate ‘k’ with ‘kitty’, the idea comes alive.

Associate the cross with forgiveness for a child’s very real sense of guilt, and the idea comes alive.

If petting that kitty and holding a plastic or ivory ‘k’ helps, wonderful. If comparing and contrasting a plastic ‘k’ with the sign language alphabet handsign for ‘k’ helps the child-mind ‘make an impression’ upon itself, how lovely.

Helping the child bring his senses to see, hear, and thus name (usually informally at first) living things, living ideas, and living truths, helps the child to care about a great many things.

If a manipulative can be used to awaken such meaning in a child’s heart, mind, soul, and spirit, then it is definitively a manipulative effectively employed……

………..for the child’s sake.

………..for God’s sake.

I wanted to share with you something I wrote recently on the subject at French Kids Don’t Get Fat.

I wasn’t familiar with CM’s phrase “the art of standing by” and was happy to learn about it.

I hope to see more from you here. I know we met at Ambleside (Fredericksburg, TX) a few years ago. I wish I’d gotten to know you more then!

Sandy, you have such a lovely way of describing this journey. Thank you for sharing your observations and the time you could have been reading ahead!

Isn’t it wonderful as you make grow and changes in your learning life with your children to rediscover how “right on” Miss Mason was! I have found that to be true over and over again.

Well, my daughter didn’t finish the book, so I’m not sure if it is a living book. I have to finish it for it goes back to the library.
We loved The Wednesday Wars. Do read that or listen to that! I’ll hopefully put a comment here when I’m done with
Wilson’s book. I hope to email him too.

Wendell Berry has a new book that is excellent for children about a mouse: WHITEFOOT. Quite beautiful pencil illustrations! Look for that one.

Bonnie

As always I love your book recommendations Bonnie. I immediately put both of these books on hold. Can’t wait to read them. Thank you for giving us concrete ways to bring more beauty into our homes.