Charlotte Mason’s Education is a Life

Principle # 8. In saying that “education is a life,” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

(Charlotte Mason’s Home Education Volume 6 Introduction)

Charlotte Mason believes in three instruments for education: education is an atmosphere, a discipline and a life. In this post, we will dig a little into the concept of education as a life. 

During Miss Mason’s day, a prevalent belief about educating children was that it’s like filling a vessel or writing on a tablet. Miss Mason acknowledges that when a child is still very young, it doesn’t make much difference whether we hold to this view or not; but as the child gets older, it becomes clear that we need to change our perspective of education. Here is what she says: 

In the early days of a child’s life it makes little apparent difference whether we educate with a notion of filling a receptacle, inscribing a tablet, moulding plastic matter, or nourishing a life, but as a child grows we shall perceive that only those ideas which have fed his life, are taken into his being; all the rest is cast away or is, like sawdust in the system, an impediment and an injury.

(Vol 6 Page 108-109) 

From the passage above, we see that throughout the child’s life, only those ideas that he has “taken into his being” remain, while every thing else virtually passes away into nothingness—or becomes “an impediment” and “an injury.” 

This is one reason why it’s important to understand the principle that “Education is a life.” But what does this mean? 

Education is a life = Education is sustained on ideas

Education is a life. That life is sustained on ideas. (Vol 6 Page 109)

In saying that education is a life, and understanding that the educational life is sustained on ideas, we are essentially saying that education is sustained on ideas.

What are ideas? 

What is an idea? we ask, and find ourselves plunged beyond our depth. A live thing of the mind, seems to be the conclusion of our greatest thinkers from Plato to Bacon, from Bacon to Coleridge. We all know how an idea ‘strikes,’ ‘seizes,’ ‘catches hold of,’ ‘impresses’ us and at last, if it be big enough, ‘possesses’ us; in a word, behaves like an entity. If we enquire into any person’s habits of life, mental preoccupation, devotion to a cause or pursuit, he will usually tell us that such and such an idea struck him. This potency of an idea is matter of common recognition. No phrase is more common and more promising than, ‘I have an idea’; we rise to such an opening as trout to a well-chosen fly.

(Vol 6 page 106)

Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony; but we must sustain a child’s inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food.

(Vol 6 Page 109)

From these passages above, we can see than an idea: 

• Is a live thing of the mind
• “Strikes, “ “seizes,” “catches hold of,” “impresses” and even “possesses” us
• Behaves like an entity 
• Results in habits of life, mental preoccupation, devotion to a cause or pursuit 
• Has potency 
• Is of spiritual origin 
• Is something we get conveyed to us through word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony and others 

Things to remember about the power of ideas

1. The mind lives, grows, and is nourished by ideas 

For the mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no organs for the assimilation of the one more than of the other.

(Vol 6 Page 105) 

The food of the mind is ideas. Information is tasteless and does nothing to help our minds grow. 

2. Our role is to supply the child with an abundance of ideas; his role is to take what he needs. 

Probably he will reject nine-tenths of the ideas we offer, as he makes use of only a small proportion of his bodily food, rejecting the rest. He is an eclectic; he may choose this or that; our business is to supply him with due abundance and variety and his to take what he needs. Urgency on our part annoys him. He resists forcible feeding and loathes predigested food. What suits him best is pabulum presented in the indirect literary form which Our Lord adopts in those wonderful parables whose quality is that they cannot be forgotten though, while every detail of the story is remembered, its application may pass and leave no trace. We, too, must take this risk.

(Vol 6 Page 109)

Our responsibility is to expose our children to as many ideas as possible, but it’s not our role to decide which ideas he takes a fancy to. We are not to “predigest” or “force-feed” the ideas that we like on our children; instead, we present different and plenty of ideas in indirect literary form, and it depends on the the child as to which ideas strike him. 

3. We don’t know which ideas will take root and grow 

We may offer children as their sustenance the Lysander of Plutarch, an object lesson, we think, shewing what a statesman or a citizen should avoid: but, who knows, the child may take to Lysander and think his ‘cute’ ways estimable! Again, we take the risk, as did our Lord in that puzzling parable of the Unjust Steward [Luke 16]

…out of a whole big book he may not get more than half a dozen of those ideas upon which his spirit thrives; and they come in unexpected places and unrecognised forms, so that no grown person is capable of making such extracts from Scott or Dickens or Milton, as will certainly give him nourishment. It is a case of,––”In the morning sow thy seed and in the evening withhold not thine hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that.” [Eccl. 11:6] (Vol 6 pages 109-110)

In line with the previous point, we will really have no control over which ideas capture a student’s fancy, and we won’t know which of them will take root and grow.

In this passage, Miss Mason goes so far as to say that it’s possible that a child may only get half a dozen ideas from a whole big book. And she explains that these ideas come “in unexpected places” and “unrecognized forms,” so that no one has the capacity to extract them out in a way that they give life. 

Knowing that ideas can come from anywhere, we just keep “sowing our seed,” not knowing which ones will grow in our child’s heart. 

4. We present ideas “padded” with “literary power” 

One other caution; it seems to be necessary to present ideas with a great deal of padding, as they reach us in a novel or poem or history book written with literary power.A child cannot in mind or body live upon tabloids however scientifically prepared;  

(Vol 6 pages 109-110)

This is an important point: we don’t just give our children a buffet of ideas in bullet or nugget form. Miss Mason shows the need for wrapping ideas in literary packaging, such as in stories and poems. She emphasizes that nobody can live upon tidbits no matter how well they are presented. 

5. We share ideas, not opinions

One of our presumptuous sins in this connection is that we venture to offer opinions to children (and to older persons) instead of ideas. We believe that an opinion expresses thought and therefore embodies an idea. (Vol 6 Page 110) 

This is a bit of a tricky point. Miss Mason urges us as parents to be intentional at feeding our children’s minds with ideas, but not with our opinions. This means that we need to be aware when we start to share our own personal biases and beliefs as opposed to, for example, sharing a general truth or concept about the world, life, and human nature. 

Applying Education is a Life 

As we understand this important principle of education being sustained by living ideas, we can become more intentional at making sure we feed our child’s mind with as many ideas from as many different sources as possible.