It's interesting: this is the third time that I've read Miss Mason's Teaching in the Branches, which is an essay Charlotte Mason read at one of their meetings about the principles that their schools run on. The second time through, I felt like I'd entirely missed the point the first time. And this time, while I do think it would be going a bit far to say I'd missed the point the second time, I do think that I was still unclear on it --in spite of having pulled out 14 points in an "outline" of sorts of the essay. But she says right out, near the beginning, what the three main principles she thinks they ought to be attending to are:
(1) The recognition of authority as a fundamental principle, as universal and as inevitable in the moral world as is that of gravitation in the physical;
(2) The recognition of the physical basis of habits and of the important part which the formation of habits plays in education;
(3) The recognition of the vital character and inspiring power of ideas.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
The idea, at the time, was that the local groups running the schools affiliated with Miss Mason would get together and have lectures or other presentations on various aspects of these ideas. Now, for me, the idea is to consider the principles that our homeschool runs upon, and to put some thought into working out how that looks in practice in my home. Turns out, it's a topic well worth revisiting, repeatedly.
This time reading this essay, I went whole hog and actually did a real outline with Roman numerals and capital and small letters and the whole bit. Figuring out what are the main points and what are the supporting details (which then sometimes have still more supporting details) was a surprisingly challenging activity -one which I recommend the next time that you're working over a challenging bit of reading. In the end, I found that she's really got 2 main points. She says there's 3, but the third one, Habit, really just gets a lick and a promise in this particular essay, though of course she covers it thoroughly elsewhere. The ones she spends time on in this essay are Authority and Ideas.
It is fascinating to me, when you think about all the things that you could discuss as being foundational to what education is and ought to be, that Miss Mason was so clear as to the necessity of a principled foundation, and then these particular things as the starting point from which an education grows.
Authority, says Miss Mason, is an inescapable reality.
First let us consider the principle of authority, which is the basis of moral as it is of religious teaching. "Ought" is part of the verb "to owe," and that which we owe is a personal debt to a Lawgiver and Ruler, however men name the final authority. If they choose to speak of Buddha or Humanity, they do not escape from the sense of a moral authority. They know that that which they ought is that which they owe to do, a debt to some power or personality external to themselves. God has made us so, that, however much we may be in the dark as to the divine Name we can never for a minute escape from the sense of "Ought," the law, which becomes flesh-torturing and spirit-quelling in proportion as we are removed from the light of Revelation. To us, who know the name of God and have the revelation of the Scriptures, authority is no vague terror. We know what is required of us, and that the requirements are never arbitrary, but necessary in the nature of things, both for the moral government of the world and to gratify the unquenchable desire of every human soul to rise into a higher state of being.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
One thing that I like from this is how well it fits with our theology: scripture teaches us that we are all, believers and non-believers alike "sufficiently instructed" to tell good from evil, and it is also true that for those of us who have chosen to follow Christ, we can definitely trust that He will counsel in wisdom for our good.
So Miss Mason makes four points about Authority in her essay:
- Authority works by principles and not by rules.
Principles are something that I first began to understand in the study of the martial arts: you can learn a whole lot of techniques (rules), and that's an ok place to start your study -even a necessary starting place- but if that's as far as you go, you'll never get to "competent at self defense" much less find the art in the martial arts. But as you study, you start to notice that many of the techniques are simply different ways of producing the same effect on the body: different ways of getting the spine to do something. And when you start to realize that your wrist lock is important, not because wrist locks are important, but because of the way that it teaches you to work with your partner's spinal movement and posture/balance, then you are beginning to understand the principle of the technique. It's the principle that makes the technique, the rule, function.
They see there that authority works by principles and not by rules, and as they [parents] themselves are the deputy authorities set over every household, it becomes them to consider the divine method of government.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
This is true in the gospel as well: I love to identify principles in the Gospel: rules, such as "don't go shopping on the Sabbath", are an ok place to start, but at some point we need to find a way to slice through the "but what if..." and identify some fundamentals that allow us to really make the Sabbath a sign between us and the Lord, a reflection of our devotion to Him: we need to understand the principle that the rule is derived from, the fundamental posture that the technique is pointing to. We need the same thing in education: rules, such as "learn _____ in the 3rd grade" can get us a certain distance, but we need some underlying principle to help us determine what recommendations are junk, what ones are ok, and which things it's critical to include. Miss Mason is particularly good at laying out strong principles of Christian education in language that's, if not easy, then accessible with some effort. She is well worth the effort!
- Authority has limits:
Even the Divine Authority does not compel.
On the other hand, it is well that they should understand the limitations of authority. Even the divine authority does not compel. It indicates the way and protects the wayfarer and strengthens and directs self-compelling power. It permits a man to make free choice of obedience rather than compels him to obey. In the moral training of children arbitrary action almost always produces revolt. Parents believe that they are doing well to rule their households, without considering the pattern, the principles, and the limitations of parental authority.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
That's worth saying again: Even the Divine Authority does not compel.
Conscientious parents feel so much responsibility for how their kids "turn out", and there are good an valid reasons: parents have a Divinely mandated duty to rear their children in the fear of the Lord, and are firmly warned that failure to do so will carry very serious consequences. But these passages of scripture must be looked at in harmony with the pattern of parenting that our Father shows in Eden: clear instructions as to the rules and the results of disobedience. Adam and Eve didn't need to guess what the expectations were, they knew them clearly, up front. They also knew that the consequences of deviating from those expectations were significant, right up front. And then they were allowed to make their own choices. Even knowing from the beginning what the cost would be, God allowed them to make their own call.
Even the Divine Authority does not compel. We should not, either. He teaches us in ways that develop the "self compelling power". I've mulled that phrase over more than a little bit over the past couple weeks as I've pondered this essay. Our Father's commitment to our Agency is absolute: in all of scripture, I cannot lay my finger on any story at any point where He takes choice. Certainly there are consequences for every choice; sin inevitably brings sorrow and wickedness never was happiness. How great, then, the urgency of developing the self-compelling power!
- Authority does not admit Moral Relativism:
My first thought, when I realized that she was calling out moral relativism was, "Oh! Was that already a thing back then?" I think of it as a modern ill. But I quickly remembered that really the Adversary has very few tricks, he just plays the same tune, again and again. And she's absolutely right. I wrote about it the last time I was studying her ideas, and I still like what I wrote.
It is in their early years at home that children should be taught to realize that duty can exist only as that which we owe to God; that the law of God is exceeding broad and encompasses them as the air they breathe, only more so, for it reaches to their secret thoughts; and this is not a hardship but a delight. That mothers should love their little children and make them happy all day long--this is part of the law of God: that children are glad when they are good, and sad when they are naughty--this, too, is the law of God: that, if Tommy drops his spoon it falls to the ground, is a law of God too of a different kind. A mother cannot give her children a better inheritance than the constant sense of being ruled and encompassed by law, and that law is another name for the will of God.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
- Authoritative teaching builds an Educated Conscience:
She goes on out point to the Savior's simple teachings: our duty to God, followed by our duty to our neighbor. A conscience that is well-tuned to these two duties is, indeed, an educated conscience.
A certain rough-and-ready kind of morality, varying with our conditions, does come by heredity and environment; but that most delicate and beautiful of human possessions, an educated conscience, comes only by teaching with authority and adorning by example.
-Charlotte Mason, Teaching in the Branches
It is remarkable to me the way that, the better I get at reading and studying, the more I get out of Miss Mason's writing. I've really only covered about half of the essay's main points, and already I'm feeling like this is getting to be the longest, densest thing that I've written in quite some time. After spending so long feeling that education belonged in this box, and religion in that box, and the two compartments meeting was strictly taboo, reading Miss Mason is so incredibly healing. I love that way that, when she writes about education, it leads quickly and inevitably to the Savior: that is exactly what I want for my children in their education! I want them to learn and grown and find Him in more and more places, and bring Him more and more to the center of their lives.
This post is part of a series. Feel free to visit the series index for more thoughts on the Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles of Education.
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