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Foundational Principles of Education
- Children are born persons: they are not blank slates or embryonic
beings with potential to become persons - they already are persons.
- Children are neither all good nor all bad: children from all backgrounds are capable
of making choices for good or for evil.
- The concepts of authority and obedience
are true for all people, whether they accept it or not. Submission to appropriate authority is necessary for the
proper functioning of any society, group or family.
- A position of authority does not entitle an adult to abuse children or play on their emotions or natural
desires. Adults are not free to limit a child's education, or to use fear, love, the power of suggestion
or their own influence to make a child learn.
- The only means available for the education of a child are the child's natural
environment, training in good habits and
exposure to living ideas and concepts - in Charlotte Mason's motto, "education is an atmosphere, a
discipline, a life".
- "Education is an atmosphere": do not create an artificial
environment, but use opportunities that already exist in the child's natural environment.
The child learns best from real things in the real world.
- "Education is a discipline": the child needs to be trained in the
exercise of good habits and self-control.
- "Education is a life": children need intellectual, moral and physical
sustenance. A properly educated mind needs ideas of all kinds, and so the curriculum is rich and varied.
- Knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced. Children are required to
'narrate' (tell back) what they read or hear (through oral or written
narration, or through drawing or dramatic presentation).
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