Self-Education

Episode #4 | Self-Education

What makes Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methods different from others?

How do we nurture a love of learning in our children?

What should parents look for in a curriculum or school?

Over 100 years ago, Charlotte Mason said,

“Teaching, talk, and tale, however lucid or fascinating, affect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature.”
Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education

In this episode I’ll answer those questions as we explore perhaps one of Mason’s most profound ideas: self-education. The secret to curious, motivated, intelligent children.

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Episode Links

The Decline of Play and Rise in Mental Disorders | Psychology Today

Antidepressant Use in Persons Age 12 and Older | CDC

The Importance of Being Little by Erika Chrystakis

A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger

The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley

Punished by Rewards by Alfie Kohn

The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler

Quotes

“it occurred to me that a series of curricula might be devised embodying sound principles and securing that children should be in a position of less dependence on their teacher than they then were; in other words that their education should be largely self-education.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“ hard things are said of children, that they have “no brains,” “a low order of intelligence,” and so on; but many of us are able to vouch for the fine intelligence shewn by children who are fed with the proper mind-stuff; people generally do not take the trouble to find out what this is nor how it must be served-up;” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“Knowledge is not sensation, nor is it to be derived through sensation; we feed upon the thoughts of other minds; and thought applied to thought generates thought and we become more thoughtful.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“Let me try to indicate some of the advantages of the theory I venture to press upon your notice. It fits all ages, even the seven ages of man! It satisfies brilliant children and discovers intelligence in the dull. It secures attention, interest, concentration, without effort on the part of the teacher or taught.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“Here on the very surface is the key to that attention, interest, literary style, wide vocabulary, love of books and readiness in speaking, which we all feel should belong to an education that is only begun at school and continued throughout life; these are the things that we all desire, and how to obtain them is some part of the open secret which we are labouring to disclose “for public use.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“The children, not the teachers, are the responsible persons; they do the work by self-effort. The teachers give sympathy and occasionally elucidate, sum up or enlarge, but the actual work is done by the scholars.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend, and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“Therefore, teaching, talk, and tale, however lucid or fascinating, affect nothing until self-activity be set up; that is, self-education is the only possible education; the rest is mere veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature.” (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“[grades], prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame, or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect” without them. (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education)

“In the grand division of all of God’s creations, there are things to act and things to be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:13–14). As sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, we have been blessed with the gift of agency—the capacity and power of independent action. Endowed with agency, we are agents, and we primarily are to act and not only to be acted upon—especially as we seek to obtain and apply spiritual knowledge.” (David A. Bednar, Seek Learning by Faith)

Read the Episode

What makes Charlotte Mason’s philosophy and methods different from others?

How do we nurture a love of learning in our children?

What should parents look for in a curriculum or school?

When Charlotte Mason graduated from the teachers academy at the ripe old age of 16, she began teaching in primary schools. What she was taught at teachers training college just didn’t fit with what she was experiencing first-hand. She saw the need for a different philosophy of education. She began to write down her observations and questions, and Line upon line, and precept upon precept she began to find answers. Towards the end of her life she compiled her final volume and began with a chapter that pretty much sums up her entire philosophy in two words: self-education. In that first chapter she said:

She wanted a curriculum that was founded on the truth that children are born with intelligence, and inner desire and motivation to learn. She wanted an education that created life-long learners.

But before we dig in we need a little historical context: at this point in time education was mostly based on the idea that children were born evil, in sin, and they were inherently lazy, unmotivated, and unintelligent. Therefore they must be externally motivated to learn (usually through fear and punishment). Education’s purpose was to coerce, mold, and fill an empty mind. But an opposing and radical view of children came when Jean Jaques Rousseau published Emile. This fictional book, also called “a treatise on education” focuses on how the boy Emile was educated. The boy’s tutor didn’t believe in teaching the child anything. He believed that everything the boy needed to learn, he would learn on his own with very little guidance from himself (the teacher). In fact, he believed it was damaging to the child’s psyche if a teacher pushed or prodded too much.

Rousseau’s ideas were revolutionary. A child-centered education had never been attempted, or thought of before. Many parents and educators were attracted to his ideas because they could see the inherent goodness and desire to learn in children. They wanted to let children take charge of their education, while they took a back seat and watched the wondrous journey take place. Although his educational philosophy was lacking, he succeeded in awakening a desire in parents to “rise to the idea of the great work committed to them.”

So what did she find lacking in these two opposing education philosophies? And what did she advocate for instead?

First, she observed that children were intelligent beings from birth. Many adults today still think children lack intelligence, when children actually lack experience.

Children crave ideas and knowledge, just like adults, but for some reason we give them dumbed down materials stripped of all its nourishing ideas. The mind does not deal with mere facts, no more than our body can digest sawdust.

Education is a Spiritual Matter

Some popular education theories before, during, and after Charlotte Mason’s time were based on what could be experienced by the senses. Learning was directly neurological; but she believed education and learning went deeper than what we learn from our senses; she believed that “Education is a matter of the spirit.” She said:

“Knowledge is not sensation, nor is it to be derived through sensation; we feed upon the thoughts of other minds; and thought applied to thought generates thought and we become more thoughtful. ~~No one need invite us to reason, compare, imagine; the mind, like the body, digests its proper food, and it must have the labour of digestion or it ceases to function.”~~

So education shouldn’t be solely vocational training, or learning only what we can gather from our five senses. Ideas, or knowledge, are of a spiritual nature. Education according to Ms. Mason isn’t simply learning some scientific facts; it’s becoming a scientist. It isn’t remembering dates from history; it’s becoming a historian. True education shouldn’t just change behavior; it should change who we are.

A Theory Applicable to All

One thing I love about Mason’s theory is that she believed all children were capable of learning. In a time when people still believed that certain classes or races were born with less intelligence than others, this was truly radical. She wanted an educational theory that was applicable to every stage of life and every culture. A theory of education for all of God’s children. One that takes into account eternal principles, like divine nature and agency. She can barely contain her excitement when she describes her theory of education:

And isn’t that what we all want?

The Teacher’s Role

Notice that she isn’t proposing a child-centered education, like in Emile. She believed that children need a teacher to provide structure and material.

What makes her philosophy different is how she views the role of the teacher and student. She believes all knowledge comes from God, and that He shares that knowledge with his children through the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is the true teacher. We are simply facilitators. We are not to force learning by rewards, punishments, or undue play on any natural desire. We can try to teach this way, but the child isn’t truly learning if knowledge is forced on them.

Punished by Rewards

What does she mean by “veneer laid on the surface of a child’s nature?” The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word “veneer” is extrinsic motivators.

Mason said that “[grades], prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame, or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect” without them. (Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education, p. 7.)

Modifying behavior through the use of rewards and punishments does not change the child’s character, and studies show it can actually stunt the growth of character and moral development.

As parents, we want our children to love learning, be kind, honest, and responsible. But all those character traits develop from the exercise of agency. Sue Spayth Riley, author of How to Develop Values in Young Children wisely observed that,

“…freedom and responsibility are inseparable, and that one cannot be learned without the other.” (Sue Spayth Riley)

In the premortal world, before this earth was formed, Satan came forward with his plan to remove agency and force everyone to do his will. But Heavenly Father shut it down. Why? Because He knew that without agency a person is nothing. The ability to judge between two choices and exercise the agency and will to choose what you know is right is unique to human beings. Stripping a person of their agency, by force or coercion, is stripping them of their humanity.

When I was a young mother I imagined whipping up nutritious meals that my children would devour with enthusiasm. I envisioned them cleaning their plates and growing healthy and strong with all the nutrients they were receiving.

Then my dreams were shattered when my first child refused to eat anything other than bread and yogurt. I tried to bribe him with promises of dessert, then resorted to negative consequences in one last, desperate attempt to regain control over the situation. However, I soon realized that if my child did not want to eat a certain food, nothing in the world could make him eat it.

In situations like this, parents may feel that the “gift” of agency is more like a curse. We constantly stress ourselves out trying to take control of things that were never meant to be in our control. In regards to mealtime, I soon learned that I am in control of when meals are given and what is put on the table, while my child has control over if he eats and how much. Once I understood my responsibility, mealtime was much less stressful. Is it a coincidence that my two younger sons became hearty, adventurous eaters? I don’t think so.

It is a universal truth that when any person, adult or child, is given more control over their life, they are more responsible and happy. This doesn’t mean they are given freedom to make all decisions. Not at all. Children still need boundaries and, as they mature, they are given more and more freedom within those boundaries.

Developing our children’s sense of agency is not an educational frill or some new-age idea. Children who are coerced regularly, begin to doubt their competence; they set low goals and choose easy tasks. When they face problems, they become confused, lose concentration, and start doubting themselves. Children with a strong belief in their own agency work harder, focus better, are more interested in their studies, and are less likely to give up than children with a weaker sense of agency. ((Skinner, Zimmer, Gembeck, and Connell. Individual Differences And The Development Of Perceived Control).

Agency is Key

Agency is a main component in the Plan of Salvation, so is it any surprise that agency is also the determining factor in human happiness and well-being? The opposite of agency, lack of control, is a significant cause of stress and unhappiness. When I attempted to force my son to eat food he did not want to eat, I was causing stress on both of us; I was stressed because I was trying to take control over something that I physically and morally had no control over, and he was stressed because he did not feel like he had control over his own body. Part of life on earth involves taking responsibility for those things in our control, and letting go of the things we can’t control.

In regards to education, parents, teachers, and administrators may feel stress because they are trying to control what “mind food” children intake and how much they retain. As a result, children will rebel—or concede and lose an important part of their humanness. David A. Bednar explains the importance of agency by saying,

“Learning by faith and from experience are two of the central features of the Father’s plan of happiness. The Savior preserved moral agency through the Atonement and made it possible for us to act and to learn by faith. Lucifer’s rebellion against the plan sought to destroy the agency of man, and his intent was that we as learners would only be acted upon.”

Bribery and coercion from a parent/teacher may seem effective, but they are only short-term solutions. They only create a desire for a reward or to avoid a negative consequence, they do not create a genuine desire for knowledge. The child is not truly utilizing their agency; they are not motivated by a desire to learn. Russell M. Nelson stated this of the important role that desire plays in education: “I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution.” (Where is Wisdom? October 1992)

Study after study shows that when people of all ages are allowed to exercise their agency and judgment they are happier, less stressed, and more responsible. Here are some sobering statistics:

Childhood mental illness has increased at such a rate that the anxiety an average child feels today was once considered a psychiatric disorder in the early 20th century. In fact, “rates of depression and anxiety among young people in America have been increasing steadily for the past 50 to 70 years. Today, by at least some estimates, five to eight times as many high school and college students meet the criteria for a diagnosis of major depression and/or anxiety disorder as was true half a century or more ago. This increased psychopathology is not the result of changed diagnostic criteria; it holds even when the measures and criteria are constant.” (“Decline of Play and Rise in Mental Illness”, Peter Gray)
In 2011 CDC reported there has been a 400 percent increase in prescriptions for antidepressant medications to children over the age of twelve years since 1988. In fact, 11 percent of Americans over the age of twelve now take antidepressants.
Children ask less questions after starting school (in first grade it drops off a cliff) and engagement decreases with each year. (A More Beautiful Question)

I believe that the rise in childhood depression, anxiety, and lack of motivation is directly related to the way we educate them.

Curiosity

Knowledge first comes from a desire to know, or a question posed by the mind itself. Ms Mason profoundly observed that

The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself.” (Charlotte Mason. Philosophy of Education, p. 16)

When your mind is open to learning, you have experienced something in your life that sparks a question. You desire an answer to that question. You seek knowledge and when you find the answer you apply it and therefore remember. This is the only way people truly learn.

Interestingly, asking questions is directly correlated with class engagement. The more questions a student asks, the more engaged they are in school. And the reverse is true: the less questions, the less engagement.

Young children are notorious for asking questions. In fact, a preschooler asks, on average, 300 questions a day! But this curiosity drops dramatically in first grade, and continues declining into high school. Students are not encouraged to ask questions, especially ones unrelated to the lesson topic. And yet we wonder why they aren’t interested and engaged in their education.

As a society we are worried that we won’t teach children enough, or the “right” things. We either dangle rewards in the form of good grades, gold stars, and praise over their heads, or we inflict fear over not getting high enough grades or losing parental acceptance to get them to learn what we want them to learn. We have a prescriptive list of items that need to be checked off, and if the child isn’t interested in learning the things we deem necessary then we use “external motivators” to get the job done.

We worry there will be gaps in their education, but you can’t possibly teach a person everything there is to know in the first eighteen years of life. The most debilitating learning gap is a lack of desire. The most important skill you can teach your child is how to learn and to find joy in it. If you can teach your children how to ask questions, seek answers by study and by faith, and to apply knowledge, you’ve taken care of any gaps they will have in the future. The first eighteen years of education should be the spark that ignites a voracious life of learning.

Education is…

So, if external motivators–coercion, fear, and bribery–don’t work, how did Ms.Mason propose we teach children? Because, for most of us, this is the only way we know how to do it.

Mason said parents and teachers have three tools available to us: atmosphere, discipline, and living ideas.

“Education is an atmosphere” doesn’t mean that we should create an artificial environment for children, but that we use the opportunities in the environment he already lives in to educate him. Children learn from real things in the real world

“Education is a discipline” means that we train a child to have good habits and self-control.

“Education is a life” means that education should apply to body, soul and spirit. The mind needs ideas of all kinds, so the child’s curriculum should be varied and generous with many subjects included.

I’ll devote a separate episode to each of these tools, but for now let’s talk about living ideas.

What Charlotte Mason said over a hundred years ago, and what scientists are learning today is that the mind learns best through stories. The best way to a child’s mind is through their heart. Education should be introducing our children to great minds who share their ideas in books. And the children should be doing the work by reading those books and “digesting” the material for themselves. They should be making the connections and summarizing the knowledge, not us. The saying goes that you learn more when you teach, so why are we still the ones reading, compiling, summarizing and instructing?

In Mason’s schools teachers set a wide “feast” of subjects and topics because the mind, like the body, gains an appetite when there is variety. Students gained knowledge from “living” books and real objects. What are living books? They’re books written by one author with a passion for the subject, and usually first-hand knowledge. They narrated what they learned, made connections, and were encouraged to ask questions. Instead of grades they were given specific feedback on their work and expected to improve it. She believed grades nurtured cheating, pride, and competition between students and smothered out the natural desire to learn.

But her philosophy and methods seem extremely different from the educational methods used today. Are they just another unreachable “ideal” that will never work in the real world? This is exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past few years, and so far I’ve found mounds of evidence so support her philosophy:

Modern Examples of These Principles

The Importance of Being Little. Erika Chrystakis shares her experience working at the Yale Child Study Center where she discovered young children crave knowledge and meaningful work. They don’t need the cartoonish books and dumbed-down material. When knowledge is presented in a concrete way, children are capable of understanding advanced ideas. She called young children “armchair philosophers.” We are stunting our child’s intellectual growth with childish materials and activities.

A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger Deborah Meiers was a public school teacher at a progressive school in NYC. She allowed a lot of freedom in the curriculum and encouraged students to ask questions and helped them pursue answers. Deborah’s approach was questioned by parents and administrators. They were skeptical of her unorthodox lessons and giving students so much autonomy. Later she pointed out that though it’s counterintuitive to many teachers and parents, when you give kids freedom to pursue what they’re interested in, they become easier to control.” Pg 53 In three next decade, in a city with a dropout rate that ranged between 40-60%, only 1% of Meiers students failed to finish secondary school.

The Smartest Kids in the World. After researching schools from four countries – United States, Poland, South Korea, and Finland– Amanda Ripley discovered these commonalities:

The best education is simple: children don’t learn better with advanced technology and curriculum with all the bells and whistles.
Parents should view themselves as primary teachers. Home is where learning begins and parents are true primary teachers.
All children are capable of understanding advanced ideas and deserve high expectations, no matter what their socio- economic status.
Curriculum is best when it’s structured with lots of freedom for teachers to follow student’s interests and questions.

Punished by Rewards. Alfie Kohn provides us with ample evidence that rewards and punishments–in the form of gold stars, grades, and praise–completely extinguish the internal motivation to learn. Performance, motivation, and knowledge are all negatively affected when children are coerced through their natural desires for food, love, fear, embarrassment, acceptance, pride, and competition.

In The Knowledge Gap Natalie Wexler dives deep into the question that we all ask: why do some children excel in school, while others flounder. What she discovered is that children need knowledge. They crave it like their bodies crave food. Like Charlotte Mason, Wexler learned that children are capable of much more complex ideas than we give them credit for, yet we keep giving them dumbed-down books that offend their intelligence. All children do better in school, no matter what their economic situation, when they are taught to read and are introduced to lots of ideas through a broad curriculum. Education must include nourishing ideas from the best books. The best way to learn is to read a variety of books and write about what you learn.

Main Takeaways

Education trends swing from child-centered to extremely structured, but Charlotte Masons philosophy is a balance of both.
Learning is inherently active, not passive. The mind generates questions, seeks answers, takes what is relevant, throws out what is not, and makes connections and conclusions. This requires judgment and discernment, all of which require agency. Real learning is never passive.
The mind feeds on ideas, and these living ideas come from other minds, through good books.
A variety of subjects, short lessons, and “living” ideas are the key to interest and motivation.
Extrinsic motivation actually kills the desire to learn, and shouldn’t be used in education.

Application

Ask your child, “What do you like about school?” Does he say “Learning history, geography, math, or doing science experiments?” Or does he say he likes recess the most? Playing with friends? Riding the bus? Or does he say he doesn’t like it at all. Does your child actually enjoy school for learning, or does he only enjoy it for social aspects? It may be portrayed as a normal thing for kids to hate school, but it’s not healthy for a child to hate learning. Your child’s attitude toward learning is one of the best ways to gauge whether their education is self-education.

Talk to your child’s teacher to get an idea of how much control your child is given over his education. Does the teacher encourage students to ask questions and find answers? Are they allowed to choose the books they read? Are students asked to write about what they read along with their thoughts on the subjects? Or are they given a worksheet and multiple-choice quiz? Are students allowed to choose how to express their new knowledge through their preferred medium? (i.e. orally, visually, kinesthetically, etc) or are they required to complete a one-size-fits-all project? Are they coerced to learn through rewards, incentive programs, or grades?

If you are your child’s teacher, take a look at your child’s curriculum:

Does it require your child to sit quietly and listen to you read a script from a book? Does it require worksheets, busywork, or meaningless projects? Or is it based on your child asking the questions, reading interesting books to find answers, and completing a meaningful project that shows what they’ve learned.

Over the course of this season I’ll go over each of those methods in-depth. For now, here are some things you can begin applying now:

When your child comes home from school, instead of asking “How did you do on the test?” or “What is your grade in history?” Ask “what did you learn?”

Find out what they’re learning about in school and bring home some “living” books to enrich their studies.

Give them some Post-it notes and encourage them to write down questions as they read their books, either for school or free reading. Ask them if they found answers to any of their questions. You can also dedicate a wall to display these post-it notes, or make a chalkboard to write down their questions. Talk about these questions as a family.

Talk to your child’s teacher about what they are learning at school. Do they have history, geography, and nature or science a few days a week? Which topics are they studying and which books are they reading?If the schools aren’t studying these subjects more than once a week and/or they are using books to learn from, then you need to ensure your child receives this knowledge at home. Follow the example of Sonya Carons, Ben Carson’s mother. When she worked cleaning homes for wealthy families, she noticed one thing they all had in common: they had a lot of books. So she decided that if her boys were ever to rise above their poverty books were the way out. She turned off the television and told her boys they were only allowed a few shows a week, the rest of the time they were to pick a book from the library, read it, then write a book report about it. At first her boys grumbled and resented her, but once they began reading Ben said his mind and heart were opened to the world outside of his own. He eventually became a neurosurgeon and his brother became an aeronautical engineer.
One effective way to get your kids to read more is to 1) limit screen time, 2) fill your house with interesting books and 3) ask your child to tell you about the books they read, either orally or written. But not all books are created equal, you want ones that Charlotte Mason calls “living.” These are usually written by one author who is passionate and knowledgeable about the subject, and is written in narrative form. We now know that the brain responds better and remembers more when information is presented in story form.