Two Quotes from Charlotte Mason

In my readings yesterday, I found two quotes from Charlotte Mason that I wanted to share with you. The first was pithy enough to put in the masthead for a while. The second is below:

Perhaps the main part of a child's education should be concerned with the great human relationships, relationships of love and service, of authority and obedience, of reverence and pity and neighbourly kindness; relationships to kin and friend and neighbour, to 'cause' and country and kind, to the past and the present. History, literature, archeology, art, languages, whether ancient or modern, travel and tales of travel; all of these are in one way or other the record or the expression of persons; and we who are persons are interested in all persons, for we are all one flesh, we are all of one spirit, and whatever any of us does or suffers is interesting to the rest. If we will approach them with living thought, living books, if we will only awaken in them the sense of personal relation, there are thousands of boys and girls to-day capable of becoming apostles, saviours, great orientalists who will draw the East and the West together, great archeologists who will make the past alive for us and make us aware in our souls of men who lived thousands of years ago.

Description of a RiverTree Teacher

The time is fast approaching when I will need to start interviewing and hiring teachers for the fall of 2009. In preparation I have prepared a little description of a RiverTree School teacher. If you know anyone like this who might be interested, please let me know.

RiverTree teachers have an active, personal faith in Jesus Christ along with a desire to live out their faith in the classroom. They love books: classic stories, fairy tales, myths and legends, history, natural science, anything well written with good ideas. They love nature, art and music and many other subjects and want to introduce these things to their students. They are lifelong learners.

RiverTree teachers desire to have a discipling relationship with ten to sixteen children teaching them the habits of attention, respect, courtesy, honesty, thouroughness, accuracy, punctuality and many more. They are comfortable with a curriculum which uses few textbooks and requires teachers to master and teach their subjects without the usual educational aids and lesson guides.

Recognizing that RiverTree School exists for the purpose of implementing the method of Charlotte Mason, RiverTree teachers willingly submit to her philosophy and become her students. They eagerly seek to increase their knowledge and improve their practice by reading, discussing and attending educational internships.

RiverTree teachers have, at minimum, a Bachelor's Degree. A teaching certificate and classroom experience are added benefits.

RiverTree School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex or national or ethnic origin.

HT to Ambleside School of Herdon, VA for the idea and some of the language.

It's Official...

RiverTree is now a member of Ambleside Schools International. As I have mentioned previously, ASI will be a tremendous help to RiverTree in bringing Charlotte Mason's pedagogy to the Twin Cities. Marybeth and I are both thrilled.

Elevator Speech

I have heard it said that if you are trying to sell an idea, you should have a speech ready that can be delivered in the time it takes to ride an elevator. Here is my first attempt at an "elevator speech" for RiverTree:

Most schools view education as a systematic process and, therefore, implicitly view their students as products of that system. (How many times have you heard someone refer to the "educational system"?) The result is a cold, mechanistic, dehumanizing education that stifles children by teaching them to survive rather than thrive.

A RiverTree education is not a system. It is, as the founder of our method Charlotte Mason said, "a life." We constantly keep before us the truth that children are born persons, weak and ignorant to be sure, but fully formed in the image of God. We value them because of who they are, not what they can (or cannot) do.

We recognize that a child's mind is a spiritual organism hungry to be fed with living ideas: the good, the true and the beautiful. The young mind, as any parent will tell you, is astonishingly curious - eager to learn and understand. Too many schools stifle this desire by burdening children with repetitive work, teaching them that getting a smiley face or a star on their paper is the goal, and giving them nothing but dull, predigested texts with lots of facts, but few ideas.

Our goal at RiverTree is to feed a child's natural curiosity; it is our best ally. We want our students to have a steady diet of the best thoughts of the best minds so that they become engaged and their desire for knowledge grows. We do this by presenting them with living, vital books, and by asking them to assimilate and respond to the ideas in the text from the earliest grades. We teach them the habits of learning, especially the habit of attention, so that as they grow learning becomes easier and more a part of their daily life. And especially, we teach them that learning is its own reward. We do it because it is good and right without regard for extrinsic motivators like grades.

At RiverTree we also recognize that life is about relationships. Each person lives life in relation to God, self, others, and ideas. The role of the school and the teacher is to present opportunities for these relationships to form and then stay out of the way. This is nowhere more important than in a child's relationship with Christ. Too often Christian teachers, in their desire to see their students have a rich, vital Christian faith, try to form the relationship for them. They read a Bible story and then quickly follow it up with the proper moral conclusions hoping that if the child hears the right answers, the faith will necessarily come. Of course, that is not the way it works. Each child must form their own relationship. It is not the role of the teacher to serve as an intermediary between the child and Christ, but rather to be a wise guide and friend who introduces the child to Christ and then allows the relationship to grow.

It is the same way with other relationships, even relationships to ideas. A child who has been taught only about a subject doesn't necessarily know it. For example, a child who has learned the dates, locations and outcomes of the major battles of the Civil War only knows something about the war. However, unless these facts are connected to greater ideas, they will be of little value, and less interest. On the other hand, a child who has read and loved Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage has developed a relationship with several important ideas such as the nature of battles in the Civil War, how they were conducted, and what it was like to be in them. He also may have learned important ideas about courage, duty and honor. In other words, he has started to know the Civil War (and several other important things as well). Ironically, it is the student fed on ideas who will almost always have better command of the facts because they are no longer disconnected bits of data, but rather part of a larger, more complete picture.

In a practical sense it means that the children at RiverTree read (or are read to) a lot. They are expected to assimilate what they read or hear through a technique called narration, which is essentially a re-telling of the text they have just encountered. They interact with the ideas in a variety of ways, often very sophisticated ways. The students find delight in the learning because it is done for it's own sake. There are no marks given, the focus remains on the student's relationship to ideas, not on his ability to perform on quizzes or worksheets. It is gentle and humane and yet very rigorous. The children learn much.

Okay, so it would have to be a very slow elevator that stops a lot. What do you think?

How I found a soul mate

No, not that soul mate. I won't turn this blog all personal and tell you about the great romance of mine with Mr. Nelson. No, I'm talking about Charlotte. It's funny, at our house we talk about Miss Mason like she's a beloved aunt. The other day as I was puzzling through how to handle a schooling issue Rodney suggested we think WWCD (what would Charlotte do?). Hope that isn't sacreligious to you. Yes, yes our concerns about discerning what Jesus would do takes significant pre-eminence, but you get the jist of how we think about her. In fact the part that makes our WWCD work is that Charlotte Mason sought to shape her approach to children and her entire world view with following Christ. But I digress....

I'm not sure exactly how it all began. Since I'm a historian who finds great joy in all the background details I'll not try to puzzle out exactly how for fear of a lengthy post, but somehow in my quest to provide enrichment for my children (who at the time were 4 and 2 years old) I turned to Amazon.com for inspiration. I enjoy recommended lists others publish there and have also had great success with Amazon's recommendations for me. One of those lists suggested For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. I recognized the name because of her father and another book she had written (How to be your Own Selfish Pig) which I had seen often on my mom's bookshelf. For the Children's Sake had rave reviews, so I added it to my cart and forgot about it. Eventually my order got placed, arrived and I read it. I remember sitting up late at night devouring it. I kept interrupting Rod's doctoral studies to read paragraphs to him. I just couldn't get over it. It spoke to me in a way that few books have, and I'm a reader. I read and read all the time. One of the many things that struck me about this book is that Susan Schaeffer Macaulay put into words what I had felt and thought. It was a rolling relief and recognition of an old friend or someone who get's what I'm talking about when others don't. It was fantastic!

Since that time I've read many other Charlotte related books and some of her own works as well. At first I read many of the books written by others about the CM method. Some I enjoyed more than others, but found value in all I read. Then I decided to "tackle" some of the original works. If you read enough of her admirers, you do get a sense of being warned off from the original works by Miss Mason. I figured if I could read and enjoy Victorian essayists like Mathew Arnold and Cardinal Newman, I certainly could read Miss Mason. I'll admit, her writing is rich and deep, and really I could read just a few paragraphs at a time. They haven't been a quick read for me, but I think that is because they are so good and complex that I need to ponder and savor the thoughts. So if you're really eager to better understand the method, by all means read her works. If you want to work your way up to that point, I've got a few books to point you to. All of them may be found at Amazon and sometimes at your local bookstore.

Marybeth's List of Charlotte Related Reading:

• Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss -- I'm reading this right now and am finding it to be so helpful and encouraging. It is one of the better CM books I've read. It is written more for homeschooling (as are most of the following). The lists of recommended books for children is a great resource.
• A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola -- this book gives a good overview of the method and breaks it down by subject area giving examples of how to accomplish instruction using the method. It is a great resource and a delight to read.
• Books Children Love: a guide to the best children's literature by Elizabeth Wilson. I love this book. Every family should have it. It organizes recommended reading by subject area and reading level. So say you really want a good, living book to read to your child about physics, you could use this book to track down a good read about Dr. Rontgen the discoverer of the x-ray. I enjoy just sitting and reading through this book which is why this post is taking me so long to finish!
• A Literary Education by Catherine Levison -- this book is similar to the one above, only not nearly so comprehensive. This is a catalog of books the author has used in homeschooling her children using the CM Method.

There are more books I could send your way, but these are enough for now! Soon I'll point you to a few of my favorite websites and blogs that have to do with our dear Miss Mason.

Charlotte Mason's Thoughts on Montessori

I found a paraphrase of a letter Charlotte Mason wrote critiquing Maria Montessori's method. Be sure to read the comments for some rebuttals on Montessori's behalf. It is pretty interesting, especially for the insights into CM's thoughts.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the paraphrase because I can't find the original text. If anyone can find the original, please post a link in the comments.

Pray for RiverTree

First off, hello! I've been listed as a co-blogger, but this is my first post. I often dream of the topics I will post on as I cook, keep house, etc., but when it comes down to it, I haven't gotten them typed down until now! Drum roll please...no, honestly this isn't one of the Charlotte Mason/RiverTree topics I've longed to write, but really one of infinitely greater importance. RiverTree is a plan and a dream that we have, but it won't happen without you! Since Rodney last posted we've begun a new series at church on prayer, and it has been motivating (and convicting) to think about our call and duty to pray. We, Rod and I, are praying about RiverTree. We want this beautiful, valuing, education to be available to hundreds of children! We long to see smiling faces, excited to learn. These dreams are ones that we offer up to God each day, but we really do need you. There's so much power in corporate prayer. Will you pray with us for RiverTree? We have a lot to accomplish before we open doors next fall. We covet your prayers. If this is something you could commit to in a more official sense, could you email me? I'd like to work on setting up a prayer team for the school. Also, if you are a Facebook user, please check out my new group Friends of RiverTree School (which I did try to link to, but hmm...not able to so you'll have to search for it) where I will also be working on building a network and communicating updates to people who may not always check out this blog.

Think about it. Prayer is amazing in its effectiveness. I'm sure my theology will have a few holes if I pontificate further, God doesn't need our prayers and certainly can and does do His wonders without our prayers, but we bless and are blessed in our praying. I just can't wait to really tell more of how God has been working lately and revealing His will for RiverTree. Can't let all all of the cat out of the bag yet, but expect more details as soon as we're able!

Ambleside of Fredericksburg

I had the great pleasure a few weeks ago to travel to Fredericksburg, Texas for a three day internship at the Ambleside School there. Up until my visit, my knowledge of Charlotte Mason's method had been largely theoretical. I understood it and believed in its efficacy, but hadn't actually seen it in action in a school setting. Well, now that I have, let me tell you, I am more eager than ever for RiverTree to open.

One of the constant sources of anxiety for me was that RiverTree was in uncharted territory. Sure, a lot is known about starting a more generic Christian School. The Association of Christian Schools International even publishes a guide: How to Start a Christian School. But RiverTree isn't going to be like those other Christian Schools, so I didn't have a model to follow.

This is why I am so excited about finding Ambleside Schools International. To find an organization with a vision so closely alligned with RiverTree's was encouraging. To find that the organization actually offered a model to be copied complete with curriculum, handbooks, policies, schedules and training made me want to jump, shout and cheer.

I was planning to spend a large portion of my time over the next few years figuring out what to do in order to make this method work in practice. Now that we have Ambleside of Fredericksburg to follow (and by follow, I mean shamelessly copy), I will instead be able to work on how we do it.

The advantage to parents considering RiverTree is that the early growing pains for the school should be fewer and shorter lived. We will be able to become a mature school much faster than we would have otherwise.

Praise God!

New Logo, New Look

I have been promising a new logo for RiverTree for a while now. I hope you like it and the new look for the blog.

Thanks to Bruce and the folks at SWP Agency for their help.

Mad Minutes

"This is the worst day of my entire life!" An excellent example of what schools shouldn't do.

Update: fixed the link.

Prayer for a Building

Please be in prayer for RiverTree over the next few weeks. We have recently sent letters to several churches in the Maple Grove/Plymouth area asking if they might consider leasing space to us. Needless to say, finding a location is very important. Pray that as we knock on doors, God would open one for us.

Cora's RiverTree Logo

We are in the process of choosing a logo for the school. Here is my daughter's contribution.

Television Revisited

One of my reasons for setting up this blog in advance of the launch of the RiverTree School website (coming soon - stay tuned) was to get feedback from people interested in a Charlotte Mason education. Perhaps not surprisingly, the post which generated the most feedback was on television and a school policy I was considering which would ask parents to effectively remove television, video and video games from their home.

My thought was that this policy would function sort of like a community covenant in which prior to enrolling, each family would agree to to the conditions. Thanks to some comments from individuals whom I respect, I have come to see that the "no t.v. rule" is something that I do not wish to burden RiverTree with.

My primary concern is that RiverTree have a good chance to succeed: sometimes a challenge with a private school. While I haven't changed my mind about the detrimental effects of television and video games, I have come to realize that pushing my ideal, was not good for the school.

Instead, I will take the tack I should have from the start: persuasion. The fact of the matter is that, from an educator's perspective, the elimination of t.v. and video games are a bit of a silver bullet. A school whose students spent less time in front of a screen would have a much easier time learning. For a Charlotte Mason education, which is so very literary, this is even more true. My desire for the students of RiverTree is that they develop an appetitie for great intellectual food, but for this to happen, they need to give up the junk food.

So, here is what I am proposing. Instead of having a mandatory t.v. pledge, I think instead we will just ask parents very directly to keep t.v., video and video game time to a bare minimum during the school year, providing ample assistance in both the rationale for such a decision, and ways to go about creating a low TV or no TV home. If we do this, I think that we will still have a very good chance to create a unique school culture without resorting to burndensome policies.

As always, I am very eager to hear your comments. So, please, post one.

Bible at RiverTree

One of the phrases that Charlotte Mason brought to prominence was "living books." These are books that contain vital ideas with which a person can thoughtfully engage. They spark interest and fuel the imagination. And for Miss Mason, no book was more lively than the Bible.

Her approach to biblical instruction is truly refreshing. She believed, as I do, that the Bible is the word of God to children as much as to adults. A teacher in a classroom has no right to set herself up as an intermediary between God and the child. Rather, a teacher should be a guide leading a child to scripture, but otherwise should be quiet so that the child can hear God's voice.

One of the common mistakes teachers often make is to conclude every Bible lesson with a "moral": some predigested little tidbit that he or she wants the child to take away . But really, how dare we? Who are we to decide what God is or is not trying to tell a particular child? It is much better to let the mind of a child reflect on the story or psalm in all its beauty and complexity. Sometimes we might find that God uses his word in ways that we would not have expected. Our talky nature can oftentimes be astumbling block to children when what they really need is time to think and reflect on the Word of God.

At RiverTree our approach to the Bible will be very simple: We will daily present children with the Word. There will not be workbooks, or fill-in-the-blank-pages, or word finds, or crosswords, but simply the Word itself. At the beginning of the day a teacher will read a selected passage and then ask the children to narrate it back, or perhaps she will work on a memory portion with her students and then let the scriptures sink into the hearts and minds of the children. But we will not put ourselves in the place of authoritative interpreters of scripture. We dare not risk so being a hindrance to children.

Merely Christian

One of the most important elements of RiverTree that I have not written about much is its Christian character. Perhaps one of the reasons I have not is that when I think about how to do education, Christian belief is the only context in which I think about it. You see, I am fully and solely committed to Christian education because I believe it to be the only true education. If I claim that Christian belief is a universal truth system, how could I possibly think to educate children outside of that system? So, Christian belief then, becomes the context in which I work out my thoughts and ideas about education. As such, it is not always at the forefront of my discussions about how RiverTree is different and how best to describe it. Nevertheless, Christianity is one of the key distinctive elements of a RiverTree education.

That said, it is worth spending some time on the particular nature of RiverTree's Christian character. RiverTree School's approach could rightly be called merely Christian. That is, there is a core of Christian orthodoxy to which all ascribe. This core is usually summed up in the ancient Christian creeds, specifically the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds. These two creeds will more or less form the boundary of RiverTree's statement of faith. To be sure, there are other important elements of Christian doctrine. However, many of those topics are ones on which Christians of good will disagree. RiverTree will not, for example, take a doctinal position on the nature of Baptism, or the Eucharist, the precise nature of scriptural authority relative to church authority. These important questions will be left to parents to work out with their children and their home church as they see fit.

While we are unequivocally Christian, we are not directly associated with any particular church or denomination. In fact, from the first, it has been a priority that RiverTree school be equally welcoming to all Christians. Our goal is to provide a Christian eduation without excluding any particular denomination. Whether your home church is Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Reformed, independent or none of the above we want you to be very comfortable with RiverTree's open arms approach.

On the other hand, while we want RiverTree to be doctrinally inclusive, we certainly do not want it to be without character. In this regard RiverTree will be rooted in tradition and history. It is a good thing for children to grow up with a sense of the flow of history and their place in it. This is nowhere more true than in their Christian faith. By making use of the great Christian traditions we communicate to children that their faith is not a mere whim or a triffle, but something grounded upon which they can stand firm. Therefore, we will make use of the old things like hymns, liturgy, the Christian calendar, and study of the lives of saints who have gone before us. All this so that a child's spiritual life may be rich, full and grounded in history and truth.

There is much more to say on the subject, of course, but I hope this gives you some idea of where we are coming from. I will try to write more soon. In particular, I want to talk about Charlotte Mason's approach to Biblical instruction. But that will have to wait.

Update

It has been a while (quite a while) since I last updated this blog so, let me get you caught up on what is happening with RiverTree. Most importantly, I am glad to announce two new additions to the RiverTree board of directors. Dr. Dennis Morrow and Dr. Michael Mignard have both agreed to serve as members of the initial board. Both Mike and Denny bring a lifetime of experience in education and school administration. I am deeply grateful that they agreed to serve and RiverTree will be much stronger for their guidance.

I have also recently completed RiverTree's application for tax-exempt status. Any of you who have gone through this application process with the IRS know that it is very involved and thought provoking. It took a lot of time, but I think we did everything correctly. Now it is a matter of waiting. Please pray that the process goes quickly and that RiverTree receives approval from the IRS as soon as possible.

I am also busily at work on a marketing strategy for the school. RiverTree has retained an excellent firm, SWP agency, which is guiding us through the process. We are very close to unveiling our official school logo. Then, sometime in September, we will launch the new website and this blog will move to one of the back pages.

On a personal note, I am back from vacation and blogging should resume a more regular pace. Thanks for your patience with me.

Narration

In previous posts I have written about the importance of living ideas and living books to a RiverTree education. I have been remiss, however, in writing about one of the most distinguishing and important aspects of Charlotte Mason's method - narration. Miss Mason's method contained as a centerpiece of her instructional technique an element of genius. Under her method children read (or are read to) from an idea rich book, written in a literary style. Importantly, they read or hear the text only once. They are then asked to tell back what they read either orally, or in writing.

This simple, yet highly effective technique accomplishes several important things: First, by telling back what they have read the children make the knowledge their own. I am sure we have all had the experience of explaining an idea to a friend or colleague and in so doing coming to understand the idea better ourselves. It is the same with children. Yes, children will retain something if they only hear or read. But hearing or reading and combined with telling results in much higher levels of retention.

Second, narration causes the student to mentally engage the ideas. After hearing or reading a long passage, a narrating student naturally begins to interpret, analyze and summarize the material. He is not expected to merely absorb detached bits of knowledge, but rather to set his mind to work upon ideas, glean from a text the ideas that are most important and reset those ideas into prose of his own.

Third, narration helps a child develop the skill of attentive listening and reading. Children have an enormous capacity for attentiveness. Oftentimes, however, this natural ability is dulled by hours in front of a TV or by schools that persist in teaching by repetition and drill. When teachers insist that a single hearing is enough for understanding, children learn to attend to the first reading, especially when the books are worthy of attention. It does not take long before a habit of attention develops. What's more, this habit eliminates the pattern of children being introduced to material in class, but really learning it only when the time comes to prepare for an exam.

Fourth, narration helps a child become a better writer. A child in a Charlotte Mason school regularly composes ideas, either orally or in writing, after encountering the best thought of the best writers. Oftentimes the child will use the very words of the author with surprising precision. The regular use of narration in the presence of excellent literature is a highly effective tool for developing an ear for good prose.

Finally, the use of narration in the classroom helps to keep the focus on the child's learning. A teacher who uses narration as her primary assessment tool will naturally tend to have a learner centered classroom. Rather than pouring her efforts into writing and grading worksheets and tests, the teacher can remained focused on the proper subjects of her attention: the minds of her students.

This simple technique is one of the distinguishing characteristics of a Charlotte Mason education and I can personally attest that it works. Allow me to share two examples: First, just this morning my eldest daughter (six years old) read and narrated a book about the life cycle of a frog. Not only did she use the word "metamorphosis" correctly, but she also was able to tell me all about how tadpoles grow up and how they live. If I ask her next week or next month, she will still be able to tell me because the ideas now belong to her. Second, while the primary purpose of this blog is to introduce parents to RiverTree School, an important secondary purpose is as a personal narrative journal. Since starting this blog I have been reading through Charlotte Mason's books. Writing about them on this blog as I read has helped me to significantly sharpen my understanding of the method.

Hunting for a Building

We are on the lookout for a home for RiverTree School and we could use your help. The best buildings are often churches with education facilities or buildings that have housed schools in the past. Take a look at the location preference map I created to get an idea of where we are looking. If you happen to know of something that might be suitable, please contact me using the email address in the sidebar.

Living Books

As I look forward to the start of RiverTree School one of the things that gets me most excited is the chance to introduce students to really good books. Such books allow a child to connect with ideas, people, and stories in a meaning and exciting way. It is a sad fact, however, that the books children are often forced to read in schools these days do little to peak their curiosity or spur their imagination. In fact, they often do quite the opposite.

Textbooks used in schools are written for the simple purpose of sales. In order to do this, the textbook writers try to appeal, as best they can, to their target market: teachers, administrators and curriculum committees. Unfortunately, the top criteria of these groups are often things like: which textbook series has the best teaching aids? which has the best assessment tools? which most closely meets the state or school standard? which will cause us the fewest problems? The result is bland, encyclopedic, "age-appropriate", politically correct, drivel that while easily employed by a teacher, is of nearly no use to a student.

If these books were as filled with vital knowledge as the publishers would have us believe, then why is it only schools that buy them? Have you ever known anyone who ever bought a elementary school textbook to read to their children? Some small private schools require parents to purchase the textbooks their students use. But one of the most telling testimonials to the quality of school textbooks is how few of them are kept once the school year ends. If these books were the useful compendium of learning their publishers claim them to be, you would think that a few more might make their way to the family bookshelf rather than the dumpster.

A RiverTree education will be different. We will offer to our students what Charlotte Mason calls "living books." That is, books containing vital ideas written is a style that engages the student. Unlike the textbooks chosen by most schools these books are written with the reader in mind, not the curriculum committee. As a result, they are actually worth reading, for their own sake. They are also books that you might find on the shelf of a good book store or library because, you know, people actually like them.

The students are allowed to encounter these books and the ideas within them on their own terms. There is no list of carefully chosen facts that a child needs to glean in order for the book to accomplish its purpose. Rather the reader is offered an interesting topic presented in a lively, engaging manner. The ideas are there for him to take or leave as they are needed.

The result is a much more enjoyable education. Instead of laboring over a chapter trying to find the "answers" for the worksheet, a child spends her time with the sublime pleasure of a good book. She remembers more of what she read because the book was good enough to hold her interest. Perhaps it is even so good that she regrets having to set it down. Isn't that a much more refreshing and natural way to approach learning?

Status Update

I am sorry that I have not posted for a while. Sometimes life gets in the way of good blogging. I do have some news to report, however. Last week I had a delightful conversation with the director of Ambleside Schools International. Ambleside is a network of schools dedicated to the principles of Charlotte Mason; it could be a very good fit for us. The conversation was one of those energizing moments when you find someone with whom you share a purpose and who can be of enormous help. I am very encouraged because not only do they offer support for schools and teachers, but they also have a fully developed curriculum sequence which member schools can use. Writing a curriculum sequence was my biggest "to-do" item looming so, I might have just chopped about 200 days off mygantt chart. Please check out their website. It should give you a good idea of what RiverTree will be like.

Some of you have asked me recently if it was OK to tell your friends about this blog. YES!!!, by all means! Please tell anyone who you think might be interested in this type of education to check out the blog, or, better yet, contact me via the email address in the sidebar. Most schools start with a group of committed parents who go looking for an administrator. This startup reverses that order. I am keenly interested in finding parents who might desire to be involved, especially if they live in the Twin Cities.

Those of you who know me personally, also know that I have a doctoral dissertation underway. I am scheduled to defend the proposal on May 29th. Shortly thereafter I hope to get approval to begin the research. If you think of it, please pray that the process would move forward quickly. The prospect of simultaneously concluding a dissertation and starting a school is causing a little anxiety.

"I will" vs. "I want"

Charlotte Mason has an interesting and insightful idea about the purpose of education regarding the development of the will. Will, she says, is that part of us that separates man from beast. It is the thing in us that gives us freedom, makes us true moral agents, able and obliged to discern right from wrong and act accordingly. Will is also that part of us that allows us to choose something that we do not desire. It allows us to rise above our base instincts and passions and choose what we will over what we want.

I have often heard it said of children who are being particularly naughty that he or she has a strong will. In fact, precisely the opposite characteristic is being shown. The child with a strong will is able to behave himself when what he wants to do is throw a tantrum. The strong willed child can do those activities that are contrary to her desires, while the willful child is a slave to her passions. How many of us have had the experience of watching a child make himself miserable because he doesn't want to clean his room (or some other simple chore)? He pouts and he mopes and he cries and acts generally wretched, when if he would just "decide to do it.", he could be quickly done and go play.

One of the purposes of education is to teach children to use their will to master their desires. The educated child should set his will upon those things that are good and right and pursue them. The end result is a life lived more fully. Of course, this is easier said than done. The nurturing of a child's will takes time, patience and a steady supply of good examples to follow, both present and historical. It also requires that teachers and parents have at hand good techniques to help the child along.

Charlotte Mason maintained that one of the best helps to a child in learning to use his will is diversion. When a child (or an adult for that matter) is finding that concentrating on the task at hand is too great a strain, diverting focus to some other more refreshing pursuit for a time allows the child to return later to the task with renewed vigor. For example, a child may on a particular day be finding his mathematics lesson to be frustrating. Rather than manipulating the child through extrinsic motivation (threats or bribes) to concentrate on his lesson, the wise teacher will allow him to take a break and come back with his will restrengthened . This gives a much preferable result, because the child has learned, with help, to use his will to master his desires. He has also mastered his mathematics lesson for its own sake, using his own strength. This triumph allows the student to find satisfaction in an accomplishment that would not have had otherwise.

Television: The Bane of the Literate Mind

As you have probably picked up if you are a regular reader of this blog, RiverTree School will make regular and prolific use of books in the classroom. We do this because children's minds are fed on ideas and good books are the best source of those ideas. Books also do another wonderful thing. They force a child to actively use his imagination. Anytime a child is read a story, especially a good story, his mind is actively creating his own personal mental image of the scene . It is wonderful mental exercise.

There is, however, a modern enemy of the imagination and of the intellectual and spiritual development of children that Charlotte Mason did not have to deal with: the television. In my opinion this instrument of distraction is the single greatest hindrance to the education of the child and one of the main reasons that the population of the United States has become increasingly illiterate, despite the emphasis on reading in the schools. Mark Twain's quip, "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read", has never been so applicable as today. Children who receive a steady diet of television have their imaginations blunted by the constant barrage of imagery. This steady diet of mental junk food leaves little appetite for the comparatively challenging work and sublime pleasures of literature.

I have come to believe that in order to raise up truly well educated children it is necessary to drastically reduce the amount of time children spend in front of a screen. Therefore, at RiverTree school we are going to try something unusual. In fact, I have never heard of another school that has even attempted what we are going to do. We are going to insist that the families who make up the RiverTree community commit to each other that they will remove television, video and video games from their children's home lives. We will do this for the simple reason that it is the best thing for children.

My wife and I, about four years ago, decided to put the televisions in the closet for a month as an experiment. We did this because I came home from an education workshop having just heard a psychologist* talk about thephysiological effects that television viewing had to the cognitive development of children under eight. Suffice it to say that it wasn't good. Well, that month long experiment is still ongoing. Other than two Thanksgiving days when the TV came out for football, it has remained safely stored. I can honestly say that removing the TV was one of the best parenting decisions we have made. The kids don't miss it at all.

I have been hesitant to make this posting, even though for some time now I have known this would be a part of RiverTree, because I realize this kind of thing is not for everybody. But before you click away from this site, never to return, I would urge you to read the article: Life without TV. Notice how many different families mention how happy their children are, how much better their family life is, and how good a decision they believe removing television to have been. Then ask yourself: could we try it for a month? If your experience is at all like ours, it will be a very long and very good "month."

*I can't recall her name, but I am sure someone will remember and put it in the comments: hint, hint

Ideas

I like this quote:

Education is a life.  That life is sustained on ideas.  Ideas are of spiritual origin, and God has made us so that we get them chiefly as we convey them to one another, whether by word of mouth, written page, Scripture word, musical symphony;  but we must sustain a child's inner life with ideas as we sustain his body with food.  (CM, A Philosophy of Education p. 109)

Typical 4th Grade Textbook vs. A Real Living Book.

Here are two excerpts to help illustrate the difference between typical school fare and the kind of books children will be reading at RiverTree School.

First, an excerpt from a forth grade social studies text used in many Christian schools:

The Lost Colony

Queen Elizabeth I was the powerful ruler of England in 1585. She was proud of England and wanted all Englishmen to be proud, too. A successful English colony in the New World would boost her people's pride.

Walter Raleigh [rô'lē] was a good friend of the queen. When he asked for permission to begin a colony, Queen Elizabeth gave it to him without hesitation. But the queen told him that he himself could not go to America - he had to choose someone else to go!

How strange it seems that the man who was to plan the first English colony in America never went to America himself! The queen had very good reasons. England was having trouble with Spain. If a war broke out, she knew she could trust Raleigh's judgment to help England.

Raleigh sent two sea captains to find a good place in America for an English colony. When they returned, they reported finding an island called Roanoke [rō'ə‧nōk] that would be a good place to begin a colony.

Queen Elizabeth was as delighted as Raleigh. For his excellent plans, the queen added a title to his name. From now on, he would be called Sir Walter Raleigh. The land the sea captains explored was also given a name. This part of the New World belonging to England would be called Virginia, after Elizabeth, the "Virgin Queen."

Notice the helpful bold type and underlining to help a child figure out the parts he can safely ignore. See how the "author" in the third paragraph cleverly tells the students what to think! What a strange use of an exclamation point! Notice also the short, declarative sentences designed to minimize any strain on young minds.

Now an excerpt from H.E. Marshall's This Country of Ours:

ABOUT SIR WALTER RALEIGH'S ADVENTURES IN THE GOLDEN WEST

The first attempt to found an English colony in America had been an utter failure. But the idea of founding a New England across the seas had now taken hold of Sir Humphrey's young step-brother, Walter Raleigh. And a few months after the return of the Golden Hind he received from the Queen a charter very much the same as his brother's. But although he got the Charter Raleigh himself could not sail to America, for Queen Elizabeth would not let him go. So again he had to content himself with sending other people.

It was on April 27th, 1584, that his expedition set out in two small ships. Raleigh knew some of the great Frenchmen of the day, and had heard of their attempt to found a colony in Florida. And in spite of the terrible fate of the Frenchmen he thought Florida would be an excellent place to found an English colony.

So Raleigh's ships made their way to Florida, and landed on Roanoke Island off the coast of what is now North Carolina. In those days of course there was no Carolina, and the Spaniards called the whole coast Florida right up to the shores of Newfoundland.

The Englishmen were delighted with Roanoke. It seemed to them a fertile, pleasant land, "the most plentiful, sweete, fruitfull and wholesome of all the worlde." So they at once took possession of it "in the right of the Queen's most excellent Majesty as rightful Queen and Princess of the same."

The natives, too, seemed friendly "and in their behaviour as mannerly and civil as any man of Europe." But the Pale-faces and the Redskins found it difficult to understand each other.

"What do you call this country?" asked an Englishman.

"Win gan da coa," answered the Indian.

So the Englishmen went home to tell of the wonderful country of Wingandacoe. But what the Indian had really said was "What fine clothes you have!"

Exit Question: Suppose you were going to be trapped in a school room for a whole day and could only take one of these books with you. Which would it be?

I thought so.

Intrinsic Motivation to Learn

I have observed over the years the tremendous effort that teachers put into motivating students by crafting creative lessons and class activities. In fact, a teacher's ability to charm, coax, bribe or otherwise convince children to do their work is considered by some to be the mark of professionalism and talent. The problem, of course, is that all of these motivations toward effort are external to learning. Students do their work not so that they may learn, but so that they receive a good mark, or an approving look from a teacher, or so that they might avoid being held in at recess. It is true that the children give effort, but all the while they steadily become more and more dependent upon extrinsic motivation and more and more jaded toward school work.

The key to a highly effective school, I think, is to structure it in such a way that children find joy in learning. That is, to find learning intrinsically motivating. Of course, you cannot do this if you expect children to plow through mountains of worksheets, drills, quizzes and projects. Rather, a school must guide a child to material that holds interest on its own. In this books, real living books written in a literary style, are our secret weapon. Children have an innate appetite for knowledge and a greatly underestimated capacity to enjoy and learn from stories well told. If we feed that appetite with the best material available, it grows and becomes more and more refined.

What we must studiously avoid doing, therefore, are those little things which convince the child that the effort of learning is a drudgery, a contest, or a means to some more desirable reward. Even a child's love for her teacher can be put to bad use. The beloved teacher who tells her students "you should work hard because it will please me" is doing long term harm for short term gain. The child's vanity is fed and grows, while her knowledge and self-reliance are neglected, all for the ephemeral reward of a filled out worksheet or high quiz score.

Mind-food for Your Children

Many parents have asked me where to find good books for their children. There are many sources, but my two favorites have the great advantage of being free.

The Baldwin Project is an online collection of children's and juvenile literature. All of the works were published before 1923 and, therefore, are in the public domain. If you are looking for a new family read-a-loud, this is a great place. Many of the volumes can also be purchased on the site.

Librivox is a collection of public domain audio books. The catalog is a little hard to navigate. I think the best way to find a new book is to choose by genre. All the recordings are available in mp3 format. Next cold, rainy day, download a book to your mp3 player, turn off the TV and let your child get lost in another world. You may find you have some favorite readers. We like books read by Kara Shallenburg, she seems to have a knack for pickings some excellent books for kids and has a very pleasant voice.

As I think of more resources for children I will add to the new link list in the sidebar.

Children are Born Persons

Charlotte Mason begins her philosophy of education with this simple and profound statement: "Children are born persons." For some such a statement might border on the obvious. After all, it is a basic Christian belief that humans are created in God's image and by virtue of that image are invested, from the beginning, with person-hood. While this is part of what Charlotte Mason meant, the full impact of her statement is much greater.

You see, Miss Mason also meant that children are born with fully active and fully engaged minds. She did not, as was popular with educational theorists of her day, believe that the child was born a blank slate on which a mind slowly became imprinted through the accumulation of experiences. She saw that even in the newborn or the toddler there is a rich, beautiful, interesting personality that lacks only nourishment in order to grow.

The food metaphor is one that she often used to describe the minds of children. Just as every parent knows a child need a nutritious and plentiful diet to grow healthy and strong, so also must the mind of the child be fed a steady, plentiful and healthful diet of mind-food. And it is ideas that are the food of the mind.

The Charlotte Mason method (and the RiverTree method) involves ensuring that every child receives the best ideas available and receives them in quantity, for that is what they both need and crave. The four year old who incessantly asks "why?" (I speak here from experience) is simply ravenous for ideas, and good ones at that.

Too often, however, instead of good mind-food we feed our children intellectual pablum. We read them ridiculous, dull stories from a phonics reader because it includes the sounds from that week's lesson. Or we give them "age-appropriate" history lessons complete with review questions that stifle the imagination. Charlotte Mason had a word for such stuff: twaddle. The sad fact is that our schools, especially our Christian schools, are full of it. Just pick up a reader from ABeka Books or Bob Jones University Press (the leading publishers for Christian schools) and ask yourself: "could I stand reading this stuff for a whole school year, or would I go batty with boredom?" I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

What children need is not a dubious system of instruction, but rather a method of education that respects them as people, one that steadily feeds them good ideas. Of course, very few people are capable on their own of providing enough mind-food to satisfy a child, let alone a classroom of 15 or more. I know I am not. Fortunately, though, we know where we can find it: books. The teacher who opens the world of books to a child has brought him to a source of knowledge and ideas which he will never exhaust. Such an approach to books will be characteristic of the RiverTree classroom. But not just any books. We have no use for the boring, drivel filled textbooks of the modern school. We want our children to read (or be read) real living books that were written to be enjoyed, that hold their interest and cause them to want more. We want this for our children because we know they are people, hungry for knowledge.

We will not allow ourselves to be guilty of the sin of boring children.

Isn't Charlotte Mason a Home Schooling Method?

A reader pointed out to me today (HT: Mrs. Curtis) that some people might think Charlotte Mason's method is a homeschooling method and that using her method in a school might be a counter productive application. This misconception arises, I think, because the renaissance in Miss Mason's thinking has grown fastest among the networks of home schooling parents who have found the method to be just what they were looking for. Check out AmblsideOnline for a taste of how the method can be used in the home. In my experience home schoolers are some of the most innovative educators going and it is almost definitional that home schoolers are responding to an unmet demand. It is not too surprising, then, that it was home schooling parents at the forefront of the revival of this most humane of methods. It is also not surprising that much of the recent literature about Charlotte Mason's method is aimed at home schooling parents.

Nevertheless, it is good to remember that it was through the PNEU schools in England that the method was developed and originally popularized, and it was in the laboratory school attached to the House of Education at Ambleside that the method was even further refined. The Charlotte Mason method, while an excellent approach to home education, was originally conceived to transform the schools of England. So, what we will be doing at RiverTree is entirely consistent with Miss Mason's original intentions.

It also should be noted that there are already several schools in the United States which are successfully implementing the Charlotte Mason method. Three of note are Ambleside School of Virginia, Ambleside School of Fredricksburg, TX, and Perimeter Christian School near Atlanta. My wife and I intend to visit at least one of these schools next fall so that we can learn from their experience and apply it to RiverTree.

Most important, however, to understanding why this method can be successfully implemented in a school environment is that it is true to the nature of the child. If a method of education is founded upon philosophical principles that are true, then the application of those principles will naturally be effective no matter the setting. More than any educational philosophy I have found, the Charlotte Mason method is consistent with Christian truth about our human nature, our relationship with God and our role in the world. I am very confident that our application of this philosophy to a school will be successful.

A School is Born

I am pleased to announce that at 3:30 central time I received word that RiverTree School is now officially incorporated in the State of Minnesota. Hooray!

Map of Location Preferences

Below is a rough map of where we are thinking about locating RiverTree School. This map is most definitely a work in progress and will likely change as time goes by and people start to express interest in the school. The darker red shape in the center indicates the most desirable locations. The outer areas represent decreasing levels of desirability. You will probably need to zoom in to see the map clearly. Right now, the most salient factor is commuting distance from my home, but that could change as we start to get an idea of where interested families are located. So, if you are interested in RiverTree, don't be shy; send an email to:



View Larger Map

Reading Lists

I just added two reading lists to the right sidebar: "Required" and Recommended Reading. These are books and articles which have been influential to my thinking about education and my planning for RiverTree School.

Science in the Early Grades

Charlotte Mason firmly believed that children, especially young children, should spend a great amount of time outdoors. She thought that direct observation of the handiwork of creation did wonders for the developing mind and soul and that fresh air and exercise were vital to physical and mental health. The study of nature (i.e. science) should form an important part of a child's early education. It teaches attention to detail and encourages a sense of wonder that is so important to the growing mind. Mason would have balked, however, at the approach often taken by schools today in which a child learns about nature from within the confines of a classroom. We should not steal from our children the opportunity to be amazed at the marvelous wonders of creation, which we do when we have them learn "science" solely from the pages of a book. Instead, let them get outside and make friends of the plants, trees, and animals, and discover the world, which, though ancient, is new to them.

All this is stale knowledge to older people, but one of the secrets of the educator is to present nothing as stale knowledge, but to put himself in the position of the child, and wonder and admire with him; for every common miracle which the child sees with his own eyes makes of him for the moment another Newton (CM Home Education Vol 1 p. 54).

The Importance of Community

One of the things that parents often look for in a school is a community in which they and their children can engage. A community in which parents know each other, know each other's children and are known by those children can be of enormous benefit. Too often we deny our children the freedom that older generations took for granted because we are unsure about their safety or supervision. How many of us remember summer days in which we had what seemed to be a whole world available to us. I remember my sister and I had a whole block of our street and we could romp through any of the yards. My parents were comfortable with this because they knew the other parents in the neighborhood and they shared many of the same values. Even if our parents could not see us, they were pretty sure that somebody else could. The gang of neighborhood kids was never far from watchful, loving eyes.

Nowadays that type of neighborhood is sadly unavailable to many children because the cohesion of neighborhood communities has steadily broken down. Fortunately, the Christian school community can provide a helpful replacement that is in some ways even better. By bringing together a group of parents who share values about faith, family and childrearing we can again open up to our children the rich blessing of a group of childhood friends. This community will form an important boundary within which a child can play, learn and grow.

Therefore, one of the things that we will emphasize at RiverTree School will be the community we form together. Because many childhood friendships will likely grow out of this community, it is important that the parents share a few, important common values. Thus, we can be reassured that even when our children are out of our sight loving eyes are still watching over them.

I'll post later about what we mean by common values.

Method vs. System

In order to understand what RiverTree School is about, it is important to first understand the difference between an educational method and an educational system. A method implies the gradual accomplishment of a certain goal and steady progress toward that end. Thus, a method of education is the means by which over the course of years an education is brought about. A method always has the goal in mind but the particular steps toward that goal can vary widely as the situation warrants. In education this is vitally important because, of course, God has made each child unique. The particular steps that are right for one child may be counterproductive for another. The proper application of an educational method requires thought, sensitivity, judgement and a sense of empathy. The method driven teacher is continually evaluating her progress toward the goal and seeking feedback from her students about the effectiveness of her technique, but the technique is not the method itself. A method is an applied philosophy: a mode of action derived from a belief system about the nature of children, people, learning and education.

An educational system, on the other hand, is a series of steps and procedures that can teach a certain skill or impart some knowledge. Systems, properly employed are part of the toolkit of the accomplished teacher. The best teachers have a variety of systematic tools that they can pull out in the proper situation to help students grow and learn.

Where we run into trouble is when we elevate systems and use them in place of an educational method. The lure of relying on educational systems is strong because we want to believe that there is "one best system" that will work for everybody. We want to believe that if we can perfect our systems we can demystify education and change it from an art to a science. This approach always ends in disappointment , however, because children are not machines nor are they blank slates. As Charlotte Mason reminds us, "Children are born persons" with their attendant strengths and weaknesses, each one different.

The educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best, with every capacity for good that is in him developed into a power. (Home Education, p. 9)

A system, or a series of systems, can never have the necessary flexibility or adaptability required to accomplish the task of proper education.

Too many of our schools neglect method in favor of a mere system. The result for students is a frustrating, mechanical, cold school experience. What they really crave and need is the attentive care of a teacher empowered to use a variety of systematic tools in service of a humane and gentle educational method. RiverTree School is committed to providing just such an environment and employ just such an educational method.

Welcome to RiverTree School

If you are reading this post it is, I hope, because you are interested in RiverTree School. Perhaps you have come here after viewing our website and want to know more about what is happening. As it stands right now we are still in the very early stages of stating this school. And by "we", I mean my wife and me. So far we have an idea, a name, a domain name, a lot of energy and a goal. Our plan is to start a Charlotte Mason school in the northwest quadrant of the Twin Cities metro area. We plan to open our doors to students in grades K-3 on Sept 8, 2009. We will then add a grade every year until we have filled grades K-8. Please check back here often for updates on our progress, thoughts about education, opportunities for you to get involved, and other items. Once the website is up and running (very soon, I hope) this will be the best place to come for up to date information.

Thanks for visiting.