A good education? - part 2

As I sought to wrap my head around what a good education looked like, one of the first books that I read was For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. Although the information in the book can be applied in both a homeschool environment and a school environment, I found many of the ideas in the book to be thought provoking and would highly recommend it for any new homeschooler.

The basic educational premises in the book stem from the work of a British educator by the name of Charlotte Mason who lived in the late 19th and early 20th century. I will say upfront that our current homeschool situation is not strictly a Charlotte Mason style one by any means. I have, however, learned and continued to learn much by exploring the philosophy of education espoused by Miss Mason. For the moment, I'll stick to a few of the main premises that resonated with me as I first read Macaulay's book.

Premise 1 - Children are born persons.

I know that seems obvious, but it's very easy to forget day to day. One of the best reasons to homeschool is the ability to tailor the education to my students. Each child has different needs. If one child excels at math, let them work ahead. If they struggle with handwriting, it can be worked on a little each day while doing more of their work orally. If they struggle with reading, schedule more time reading aloud after a short phonics lesson. If they love to draw, let them draw a picture of whatever they read in history or science that day. Basically, I get to budget my time to let them maximize their strengths while still working on shoring up their weaknesses. Above all else, avoid the temptation to compare one child's progress with another either within a home or from one home to the next.

Premise 2 - Read living books and let the children learn from the authors.

Possibly the most important lesson, I learned from Miss Mason is to be selective about what my children read. Children need "living books" that capture their imagination not short little snippets of a story here and there with a pile of comprehension questions to test their learning. Children will respond to the books with their own questions and learn directly from the author without any interference from me. Jessie was so excited one day when she first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to recognize the similarities between Aslan and Jesus without any help from me. When we read Little Pilgrim's Progress together, we had a lot of good discussions about some of little Christian's choices, both good and poor. It wasn't my idea, but the kids with comments like, "He shouldn't have done that," and cheers whenever he overcame a problem.

Premise 3 - Respect the child's mind.

In practical terms for me, this meant allowing the children to narrate the stories without interrupting. I try to correct them only if they make a mistake in the sequence of the story. They may not always pick up on the same things as I do. Most of the time when both Jessie and Violet narrate to me on the same book, someone reading their narrations would think that the girls read two different stories about the same person. One may have been particularly struck by an event in a person's childhood while the other didn't even give that event a second thought. Still they are learning and making their own connections. They will hear the name of a book, a person, or a place and recall hearing about it in another book that they read.