When Children Love to Learn - Chapter Two

Chapter 2 is entitled, "The Child Is a Person" by Jack Beckman. While it is not as well written (in my opinion) as the first chapter of the book, it is filled with quotations from Miss Mason's A Philosophy of Education and other CM scholars.

The main takeaway from this chapter is that we, as teachers, are to see students/children as people. Beckman explains,

The child is born a person—not an object to be manipulated as the behaviorist believes. Not a rudderless and morally neutral explorer as the cognitive theorist would think. Nor  an animal at the mercy of drives beyond his or her control as believed by the Freudian theorist. But rather a person made in the image of God, both active and interactive in his or her own life and learning. Fully a person, not a person "to become" (pp. 57-58).

At first glance, it seems such a simple concept, one might easily skip over this chapter thinking, "Well, duh! I knew that!" But it's not that easy. We have been conditioned by society to believe that children are either empty vessels to be filled (by us), clay to be molded (by us), or little monsters to be controlled (by us).  Charlotte Mason truly grasped the true nature of the personhood of a child, and went to great pains to explain it to the rest of us who have never contemplated the implications of this particular facet of our worldview.

The child is a PERSON. My son whom I homeschool is a person. He came into the world a person with a voracious appetite to learn, but also as one who lacked the necessary skills and street-smarts to accomplish the task without self destructing. Our role as parents and teachers is to recognize that this life which has been loaned to us truly is not ours to mold, shape, or chisel. It's a life in which we participate as a guide and life coach. We help the child discover safe boundaries in order to avoid the pitfalls of this fallen world, but we are not there to stop him from falling. We are there to encourage him to get back up again, keep trying, and remember who he is in Christ.

Homeschooling ca. 2010
Little one probably enjoying coolmath.com

Our goal as teachers is to train the child in the habits of attentiveness, respect, and responsibility. We want to encourage their taking responsibility for their own learning: "'It is their business to know that which has been taught' with no repetition" (p. 63). We need to keep ourselves out of the way of their learning—this applies both in the classroom and outside of it, in real life, where the rubber meets the road, and life gets hard. We cannot step in and solve conflict for them, because in doing so, it hinders their ability to grow into maturity.

In addition to staying out of the way of a child's learning so as not to hinder it, we must also daily fight the urge to control them through manipulation, strong suggestion or influence, or undue play upon a particular desire (p. 64). We cannot treat our children as animals seeking to condition their behavior as if they were one of Pavlov's dogs.

The truth is, I am VERY guilty of this type of "conditioning," and now I can see that it's very likely I have stunted growth in certain areas through this bribery. I have offered rewards for doing math facts accurately and faster, and he earned every reward! But then what happened? As soon as the reward was achieved, the behavior went right back to the way it was before the incentive. I realize hind-sight is 20/20, and it's easy to look at this now and see why it went wrong; however, I think many of us parents who are just trying our best to get along in life and raise our kids the best way we know how often resort to bribery with regards to behavior, school work, grades, and other necessary habits. Upon reflection, I was raised that way, too.

So, to step away from this model, and put the responsibility for learning and excelling onto the child—expecting him to motivate himself to do better—this is going to require a lot of work on my part. Beckman summarizes this by explaining:

It is through the process of discipleship and relationship that we must make our plea—calling the heart of the child to duty to self, authority, and dominion-seeking in right ways. It is truly showing the child his own responsibility to choose and to act as a thinking, responding, relational person (p. 65).

Isn't that what we all want? Children who accept responsibility for their thoughts, responses and relationships? Of course, it is what we have been working for since they were born. But maybe we've been taking a less-than-stellar approach to parenting and education. I don't think I'm a complete failure at parenting, none of us is; however, I am willing to admit when I discover an area in my life that needs some fine-tuning, tweaking, or a major overhaul.

My goal is to see my child as a person. Not a "mini me" or a "mini hubby" or a "mini combo." He is his own person, given to us to raise in order that he might have a fighting chance in this life. A fighting chance to be fulfilled and to make a difference in this crazy world. It's not my job to mold him into the person I want him to be. It's my job to help him figure that out for himself. Yay!

Burden = Lifted = Relief.

Ahhhh. :)

Thank you, Charlotte Mason!