CHAPTER V PARENTS AS INSPIRERS The Things of the Spirit           Parents, Revealers of God to their Children.—It is probable that parents as a class feel more than ever before the responsibility of their prophetic office.  It is as revealers of God to their children that parents touch their highest limitations; perhaps it is only as they succeed in this part of their work that … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 5

CHAPTER IV PARENTS AS INSPIRERS The Life of the Mind grows upon Ideas           ‘Sow and act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.’           Summary of the Preceding Chapter.—The last chapter closed with an imperfect summary of what we may call the educational functions of parents. We found that it rests with the parents of the … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 4

CHAPTER III PARENTS AS INSPIRERS Children must be born again into the Life of Intelligence           Parents owe a Second Birth to their Children.—M. Adolf Monod claims that the child must owe to his mother a second birth—the first into the natural, the second into the spiritual life of the intelligence and moral sense. Had he not been writing of women and for women, no … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 1 Chapter 3

CHAPTER II PARENTS AS RULERS         The Family Government as Absolute Monarchy.—Let us continue our consideration of the family as the nation in miniature, with the responsibilities, the rights, and the requirements of the nation. The parents represent the ‘Government’; but, here, the government is ever an absolute monarchy, conditioned very loosely by the law of the land, but very closely by that law more … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chapter 2

CHAPTER I THE FAMILY ‘The family is the unit of the nation.’—F.D.Maurice Rousseau succeeded in awakening Parents.—It is probable that no other educational thinker has succeeded in affecting parents so profoundly as did Rousseau. Emile is little read now, but how many current theories of the regimen proper for children have there their unsuspected source? Everybody knows—and his contemporaries knew it better that we—that Jean … Continue reading Parents and Children Volume 2 Chatper 1

III.—THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE CHILD          “The very Pulse of the Machine.”—It is evident we have not yet reached                  “The very pulse of the machine.”Habits, feeling, reason, conscience—we have followed these into the inmost recesses of the child’s life; each acts upon the other, but what acts upon the last: what acts upon them all? “It is,” says a writer who has searched into the deep … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 6. Chapter 3

II.—THE CONSCIENCE           Conscience is Judge and Lawgiver.—But the will by no means carries on the government of the kingdom of Mansoul single-handed. True, the will wields the executive power; it is only by willing we are enabled to do; but there is a higher power behind, p.330 whose mandate the will does no more than express. Conscience sits supreme in the inner chamber. Conscience … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 6. Chapter 2

PART VI THE WILL.—THE CONSCIENCE—THE DIVINE LIFE IN THE CHILD I.—THE WILL Government of Mansoul.—We have now to consider a subject of unspeakable importance to every being called upon to sustain a reasonable life here, with the hope of the fuller life hereafter; I mean, the government of the kingdom of Mansoul. Every child who lives long enough in the world is invested, by degrees, … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 6. Chapter 1

XXI.—PICTORAL ART           Study of Pictures.—The art training of children should proceed on two lines. The six-year-old child should begin both to express himself and to appreciate, and his appreciation should be well in advance of his power to express what he sees or imagines. Therefore it is a lamentable thing when the appreciation of children is exercised only upon the coloured lithographs of their … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 5. Chapter 21

XX.—FRENCH           French should be acquired as English is, not as a grammar, but as a living speech. To train the ear to distinguish and the lips to produce the French vocables is a valuable part of the education of the senses, and one which can hardly be undertaken too soon. Again, all educated persons should be able to speak p.301 French. Sir Lyon Playfair, … Continue reading Home Education Volume 1 Pt 5. Chapter 20