It is impossible to overstate the importance of this habit of attention. It is …”within the reach of everyone and should be made the primary object of all mental discipline.” — Charlotte Mason
By Education is a discipline, is meant the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body.
In a moment, these three simple words shed a better light on a year’s work of daily lessons and nurturing and mending relationships.
In the Gospels we find a code of education summed up in three commandments: take heed that ye offend not––despise not––hinder not––one of these little ones.
Charlotte Mason evokes several principles in her call for children to serve: Service is a deliberate work; service widens one’s sympathy; and service involves self-sacrifice.
Charlotte Mason speaks of the family read aloud as a habit, 1-2 evenings each week for an hour. There are few stronger family bonds than this habit of devoting an occasional hour to reading aloud.
While there are many aspects to maturity, there is none as important as the nature of one’s relationship with God.
Education is the science of relations, relations with saints and sinners, the past and the present, earth and sky, art and craft, work and leisure. Still, there is more. Nothing matters so much in the making of a man or woman as his/her relationship with God.
For Ambleside students in the home and school classroom, the handwork lesson is a time of rest, contemplation, joy and accomplishment. Emphasis is placed on the skill to be learned rather than the project to be produced.
