Karen's Clan

I am mindful that we are coming to the end of the mid year holidays, and I've been doing rather a lot of pondering and soul searching. It's easy, I think, no matter who you are and what you do, to become easily shaken by what you PERCEIVE others to be doing - how it looks like others are parenting, living, educating... the list can go on. Sometimes it can shake us to the core of our being.

I've been talking a lot with God this week, just looking to him for the reason, the purpose, the underpinning of our journey, specifically in educating our children. And tonight Braveheart came home with Leslie Laurio's modern English version of Charlotte Mason's School Education (vol 3). I am so excited! And just while flipping through it ever so quickly, these excerpts have LEAPT off the page at me!

 'Of all the duties of the family, the highest and most holy is the education of the children. The welfare, civilization, and culture of society essentially depend on how successful education is at home. Religious life and educational life meet and revolve around the point of the family principle. Compared with the influence of family, even a king's command seems powerless.' - Johann Herbart pg 96

And then....

We have always strived to present education as something that springs from and rests on our relationship to God. We are firmly committed to this idea. We don't seek to provide a 'religious education' as an alternative to some other kind of education, like secular education. We believe that all education is divine. Every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from God. God the Spirit is, ultimately, the One who educates mankind. The culmination of all education (which is approachable even for a little child) is personal knowledge of God, and an intimate relationship with Him. In that relationship, our being finds its fullest perfection. pg 95

And lastly....

 If the home atmosphere is permeated with a noble reverence, then a sincere faith can take root in the hearts of the children. A child's faithful devotion to guiding parents in his youth grows into faithful devotion to God who controls human destinies. Herbart expressed this idea beautifully: 'A child should see his family as the symbol of order in the world. His parents should provide him with the ideals of God's divine characteristics.' pg 55

 And what I love about these quotes, is that they not ONLY pertain to homeschooling, but to what our educational system, indeed our very society could aspire to being...

Food for thought huh?