The Gentle Art of Learning:

 

Education as a Feast for the Mind

 

Proverbs 9:1-11

 

Wisdom has built her house,

Yes, she has spread her table.

She calls from the heights out over the city.

“Let whoever is simple turn in here; to him who lacks understanding,

Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed.

Forsake foolishness that you may live;

Advance in the way of understanding.

For by me your days will be multiplied

And the years of your life increased." 

 

Wisdom's call suggests discipline: we come, attend heedfully, and absorb proffered wisdom. The image of the feast also suggests delight and satisfaction, culminating in increased life and vitality.

 

Charlotte Mason loved this image and used it as a backdrop for her own understanding of education as a feast for the mind.

 

The atmosphere of the feast

 

Children receive intellectual nourishment best in an atmosphere of relaxed attentiveness. The teacher, as philosopher and guide, creates this atmosphere, not so much by words as by an attitude that says: "This is serious work.  We are seeking knowledge and wisdom.  What an honor it is to read the words of this great author."  Charlotte Mason called this "the bracing atmosphere of sincerity and truth."

 

High quality mind food

 

The teacher sets the table by selecting the material, preparing the lesson, and providing a brief introduction.

 

"Prepared lessons have objectives in mind: questions to be asked, ideas to be discussed, skills to be introduced or reinforced [.. .] Yet in all this preparation the educator is careful not to do the mind work for the students,{...] not to get in between the living books (and things) and the child."  (St. Cyr, When Children Love to Learn, 111)

 

In short, the teacher's words are not the feast.  The feast is the book of the great author, the painting of the great painter, the music of the great composer, contact with nature, etc.

 

Let the children feed on the good, the excellent, the great. Our business [as teachers] is to give the student mind-stuff, and both quantity and quality are essential.  We must open books to children, the best books, our own concern is abundant and orderly serving [...] quantity, quality, and variety.”  (Charlotte Mason, Philosophy of Education, 214)

 

 

The child’s mind must go to work on the matter presented

 

Once the material has been presented, the teacher must leave the students alone with their thoughts; we cannot digest the feast of ideas for them.  They must think through what they have heard or seen, organize their thoughts, and narrate to the best of their ability.  As Charlotte Mason explains:

 

"The children must be left alone with their own thoughts.

The teacher must practice the art of standing aside.

The child and the author must be trusted together.

Children weary of talk and questions bore them.

The art of standing aside which lets a child develop the

relations proper to him is the fine art of education."

  (Mason, School Education, 62)

 

All receive the same high quality mind food, but each works according to his or her ability

 

All students are given access to the same great feast of ideas. Variations in ability show up in the narrative process as students will express themselves according to their giftedness and skill level.  We work with students as they are.  We support them as they climb their individual ladders of academic achievement and encourage them to take delight in new skills mastered along the way. 

 

“Let me try to indicate some of the advantages of the theory I am   urging; it fits all ages and abilities. It satisfies brilliant children and discovers intelligence in the dull.    Pursued under these conditions, studies serve for delight."    

(Mason, Philosophy of Education, 26,19)

 

The feast is transforming

 

If on the physical level “we are what we eat,” intellectually, we become what we think.  The mind feeds on ideas as the body feeds on food.  The good and inspiring ideas we take in, according to Charlotte Mason, have the power to transform us into magnanimous people.

 

"Another powerful factor in this approach is that the child has had a daily diet of books written by persons of well-above-average abilities of communication.  They are deeply influenced by the ideas, standards, and breadth of expression in such nurturing."

(Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, For the Children’s Sake, 122)