“’I am, I can, I ought, I will,’ must vibrate in every human breast, for ’tis our nature to.’ The capable, dependable men and women whom we all know were reared upon this principle.”   – Charlotte M. Mason

Throughout all time, adults have characterized children by their behaviors, both good and bad. Often this characterization takes on a life of its own as the child becomes labeled according to that behavior: a loving heart or a deceiving spirit, highly intelligent or academically weak.

Charlotte Mason became a beacon of light when she brought the truth of personhood to educators, be they parents or teachers. Charlotte Mason’s high consideration of personhood was informed by her varied opportunities to observe children and teachers across a wide demographic – from classrooms in mining towns to private lessons by tutors. These opportunities provided insight and practice, as well as a framework of foundational truths of what it means to educate.

I am: to “rise on stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things.”

I can: “be conscious of the power to do that which we perceive we ought to do.”

I ought: “within me is a moral judge, to whom I feel subject to, and who points out and requires of me, my duty.”

I will: “determine to exercise that power with a volition which is in itself a step in the execution of that which we will.”¹

How much better it would be for our students (and each of us) to not only recite the motto, but to give conscious thought to the succession of truths, gaining both a greater understanding and application of the power of ideas as proclaimed in the motto.

What is the ideal? The ideal is the consistent active participation of both parents and teachers in the lives of the children before them. Children are often seen through the lens of their limitations. Both parents and teachers excuse and justify children’s weaknesses rather than supporting growth.

But it is poor training that keeps the child dependent upon the personal influence of the teacher or parent. It is the work of education to find another way of supplementing that weakness of will, which is the bane of most of us as well as of the children.

Bringing children up at home and in the classroom takes both wisdom and time. Charlotte Mason continues asking the educator, “why the recognition of the potency of ideas, both the word and the conception it covers enter so little into our thought of education?”² And she continues further in stating:

”In effecting the renovation of a man, the external agent is ever an idea, of such potency as to be seized upon with avidity… The potency of an idea depends upon the fact of its being complementary to some desire or affection within the man. Man wants knowledge, for example, and power, and esteem, and love, and company; also, he has within him capacities for love, esteem, gratitude, reverence, kindness. He has an unrecognized craving for an object on which to spend the good that is in him. Now is it not marvelous that, recognizing as we do the potency of ideas!”³

Children are sacred mysteries, born persons with capacities that defy measurement. And yet they are dependent upon adults to guide them in the path to maturity. And the path is “continuous and progressive, with no transition stage from the cradle to the grave, except that maturity takes up the regular self direction to which immaturity has been trained.”⁴

Maryellen St Cyr

Director of Curriculum, Co-Founder

Ambleside Schools International