We are now a month into school and it has been a smooth transition into homeschooling. There have been mostly ups verses downs and I am relived at how natural a Charlotte Mason education is. I was told it was going to be like this, but I am so happy to see that it is the truth. It really is natural.
It has been challenging though. In education, there is delight in the feast and at times a struggle when learning new concepts. The struggle is just as important as the delight for with it children experience the rewards and the negative consequences of their actions. Without the struggle, there is no growth in character.
It has been mostly challenging because of the books we read for history and literature. Books like The Little Duke, Parables from Nature, Tales from Shakespeare and Understood Betsy. These have gone over Danica's head and sometimes, I don't get one narration from the story. I knew this would happen. I was prepared. However, sometimes you have to hear from other parents who have gone through the trenches, so to speak, already.
Someone, in a group I'm in, provided insight on how reading above your child's level keeps them thinking about it. As adults, we think about something that we didn't easily understand."What was the author thinking when she wrote that?" I have been in this state a lot lately as I read more books that are beyond what I am used to reading for my own Mother Culture.
What children don't understand right away, they tend to meditate on. Some day, out of the blue, it will pop out and all that wondering comes to life.
A Charlotte Mason education isn't about what the results are on the outside but what is going on on the inside. That is true education.
Imagination goes hand in hand with it. How much time do we give to our children to just think? In school, there isn't any time to ponder about something they've read. They have to quickly go on to their next class or the material they are given is twaddle. Dumbed down literature has made children more dumb. When did it start?
Lets start around WWII. At the start of WWII, millions of men took a low-level academic test before being inducted into the Army. The literacy rate was 96%. Ten years prior it was at 98% but the 2% dip wasn't a concern.
Six years after WWII the Korean War began and more men were tested for military service and literacy rate in the draft pool dropped to 81%. Only a fourth grade reading proficiency was needed to make the cut. This time, 600,000 men were rejected. The interesting thing is that this group of men had received their schooling "in the 1940's and had more school with more professionally trained personnel and more scientifically selected textbooks that the WWII men, yet it could not read, write, count, speak or thing as well as the earlier, less-schooled contingent."-John Taylor Gatto
In the mid 1960's, another war began. This time literacy dropped to 73%. And those who past, were barely adequate. They couldn't read the newspaper, could not read for pleasure, they couldn't sustain a thought or an argument, they couldn't even write well enough to manage their own life and affairs.
Today, 50% of the population cannot read above an 8th grade level. Let that sink in.
When the facts are in front of you, its hard to ignore them. These findings aren't even from college admissions. They were tracked through Army admissions.
So we can see that kids today, have more schooling, more testing and more homework. And on top of that, parents are nonstop after school to do all the extra things that they put their kids into. Ballet, soccer, various clubs, etc.
WHAT IS IT ALL FOR? WHY? Please slow down and let your kids think and meditate on those things that are not seen. Give them a living education where creativity and imagination can flourish. Snuggle up to your kids and read those books that are deep and nourishing.
I can tell you that you won't regret it.
