Ep 10 | Children Need the Science of Relations (Principles #11-12)
At first take, Mason’s eleventh and twelfth principles seem a little obvious. We’ve been studying hard this season and we know some stuff! We know children need living ideas and to be allowed to make connections on their own, that they need natural relationships with a wide array of things.
But today, I want to ask: why. Why does it have to be done this way? Why these living ideas?
Let’s figure out how living ideas and the science of relations are necessary for a proper education. Together, they form Mason’s captain idea of education, and by adhering to them, we’ll find we’re working with the grain of truth, goodness, and beauty towards virtue and wisdom in our homeschools.
Video Resource | Let’s get practical.
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Principles #11-12: But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that,
"Education is the Science of Relations"; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of--
"Those first-born affinities
"That fit our new existence to existing things."
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By this point in our travels through Mason’s philosophy, these two principles seem kind of obvious.
We believe children have minds able to deal with proper knowledge when their minds are fed a nourishing diet of ideas.
We know, Charlotte.
And so we know that their minds are capable of making connections with knowledge and experiences, and that is why we give them a curriculum of nature, handicrafts, science, art, living books, and so on. We want to introduce them to that wide and generous feast, and we let them make the connections; that’s learning.
We know, Charlotte.
But, why do we do this? Why do we have to make so many connections? Why can’t we use textbooks with call-out boxes? How does this “science of relations” fit into the larger goal of education in cultivating virtue and wisdom? Can you get to that end by any other road? Do you have to have working minds and living ideas and natural relationships with many good things?
I, of course, say yes. In fact, I’ve actually answered the question “Can you teach virtue?” over on YouTube when we covered Mason’s second principle (Come find me at The Commonplace), but today, I want to show how principles 11 and 12 are absolutely necessary for offering an education, in cultivating virtue and wisdom.
Now, you may be wondering, aren’t there many roads to virtue? And if virtue is tied to wisdom, isn’t that something God provides and grows regardless of your educational background?
Well, yes, and yes. There are many roads to virtue, as in there are many ways God moves and wills in his world, but there are more obvious, direct paths and more difficult ones. Do we, as mothers, ever want to purposely set our children on the more difficult path when God’s design and order have offered a clearer, more direct way? Would we let our children maintain a habit of lying knowing God can still work in their hearts despite our bad decision? Of course not. We try our best to continue to show our children the path of life by introducing them to good, true, and beautiful things, as well as working within the developmental design of people: how we learn, how we’re formed, how we do. Working with God’s design is a grace in itself and easier.
Hear me now: pedagogy matters. Not all education methods or systems are equal. They don’t all accomplish the same ends. And I think much of our effort and vision hinges on Mason’s eleventh and twelfth principles and how they’re fleshed out in the daily practicals of teaching.
So when we think about the teleology of education—to form wise, virtuous people who know God and love his world—we can work with the grain in many respects.
This is what Mason is getting at when she talks about how the mind must have living ideas because it’s what best nourishes the mind and forms the cares of the child. She understood that the human mind grows by its own effort when fed correctly, just like the body, and she wanted educators to allow that natural process to unfold. Work with the grain, with the design.
Likewise, when Mason insists upon facts only given within their ideas, and that even those should be the very best, she does that because she’s submitting to God’s design of what shapes the inner thought life, imagination, and affections of a child. And we want all of those things shaped towards virtue.
When we think about virtue, we can think of it in two categories: the theological and the cardinal. The theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity—are given by God. The cardinal virtues—justice, temperance, fortitude, and prudence—can be cultivated by everyone and are the hinges upon which other virtues depend. We’re going to pull one of these virtues for our example right now. Let’s take prudence because I like her; she reminds me of Lady Wisdom.
Prudence is the ability to see or know an eternal principle and apply it to ever-changing situations and circumstances. It’s to know what’s good, true, and beautiful in 1154, 1763, and 2022. We are prudent if we can clearly apply eternal truths to changing times, places, and cultures and then understand right action. It’s clear sight, a firm heart, and a right doing.
Which is what we all want for our kids, and in a sense, what education should form in a student.
Now, how does this prudent talk get back to Mason’s principles? Well, when Mason insists on giving children many natural relationships with the very best of things, it’s because these developing relationships set the appetitive tastes, spirited loyalties, and mental convictions in our students. Whatever you offer a child in education will do this, will set them on the path of what they’ll believe to be the flourishing life, what they’ll believe is necessary to defend, pursue, and celebrate. It matters if you offer your children the eternal gifts of truth, goodness, and beauty or if you offer them the ephemeral hot trends of the day.
Because what captures their attention, their imagination, and their loyalties will be, most likely, what they pursue for the rest of their lives. Their habit tracks will be set, the trains will run, and it will be incredibly difficult—although admittedly not impossible—for them to choose otherwise later.
If the goal of education is to have students who are taught to find what is best, rightly apply it to their lives, and act rightly out of love of God and neighbor, then they must have a very developed understanding of what the best is, of what form truth, goodness, and beauty take. How else will they be able to be prudent? How will they know what they ought to be looking for?
Have you ever searched for your children on a busy playground? You know, when too many kids are running wild and you want to keep tabs on all of yours amidst the chaos? Maybe you catch a single streak of a blonde ponytail or the edge of a blue sneaker or the faint sound of a giggle in a tunnel, but you know, without a doubt, that’s your kid. How do moms do that? How can we see something so fleeting and be certain it’s ours? Because we love our kids. Because we know them. We’ve studied them, observed them, delighted in them, listened to them, been formed by them, and seen them even as they change through the years. When you love and know something, you can find it.
Do you see? An education that offers repeated, natural opportunities to feast on the very best of ideas teaches a child to love those ideas, to find those ideas in life, even if it’s a brief glimpse, an echo of a sound, a flash of light.
There is a direct connection between your pedagogy and the outcome, your method and the formation of your child.
But now, we have to turn to the question of how did we get these particular living ideas? How do we know which ones are the right ones? The true, good, and beautiful ones?
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I’m taking a brief break right here to make sure you know that I’m continuing this explanation of Mason’s eleventh and twelfth principles over on Patreon after this episode ends. This is a new thing I’m doing with my episodes, and I hope it’ll be helpful. We’ll be hitting a few practical things like what Mason meant by the word “science” and how a mother-teacher asks good questions in her homeschool. You can join for $7/mo and get the other patron perks at patreon.com/thecommonplace
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So, the classical tradition, of which you know I believe Miss Mason to be a part, is also known as the Great Conversation.
Someone once led me down the rabbit trail for the word conversation, and when you get into its etymology, you find that conversation used to be understood as “the way of life” from the Old French—which I will now butcher with a Spanish accent—conversacion. But it also, in its Latin form—conversare—was understood as “to turn about”. I think both of these are very interesting.
When we think about the Great Conversation, it’s important to note that people have been having one long conversation about the deepest questions about the human experience, across disciplines, throughout generations. They write, question, debate, and build upon the wisdom mined by those before them. The goal of this conversation has primarily been human excellence through a spirit of inquiry and a desire to be changed by what’s true, good, and beautiful.
So, it stands to reason that this great heritage from which we pull our curriculum, our living ideas, is not just a list of things to cover, but is a way of life, the good life.
And haven’t I mentioned the good life before? Oh yes, whenever I talk about our children not being brains-on-sticks. Remember, our primary orientation in the world, the main way we move through our lives is in pursuit of whatever we believe is the good life.
Mason understood that digging into the best of ideas across every discipline, pulling from the long conversation, and wrestling with all of it with active, nourished minds was the way to show students the good life.
Does that not just blow your mind?
But wait, do you remember the Latin root? To turn about? That’s part of education too. We lay this feast before our children so they realize that the only posture possible in pursuit of the good life, in education, is that of one who turns about to the truth again and again, who humbles himself in awe of the Creator of all that is good and beautiful; and who recognizes that he must be formed by what is worthy of his formation.
Or, in other words, education is about repentance.
Because that’s going to be necessary if any of us ever deeply know the good life.
So, maybe that wasn’t the most direct route through principles eleven and twelve, but it was a beautiful one. I’m raising my coffee cup to you as we all work towards a future of the good life with our children. Just imagine what might await the end of our homeschooling journey when we adhere to living ideas and the science of relations. Imagine a generation of children turned adults with the powers of mind which fit them to deal with all knowledge proper to them, that have natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts, who move freely, joyfully, and prudently through God’s world with minds, hearts, and hands searching for all that is true, good, and beautiful.
I’ll see you guys in two weeks.
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