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.