Ep 21 | It’s Time to Say Goodbye
You didn’t think I’d end the season without saying goodbye, did you?
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You didn’t think I’d end the season without saying goodbye, did you?
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Let me take us back to the trailer for this season; do you remember it? I drew out the first morning of formal homeschooling. The piles of books. The hanging nature packs. The art cart overflowing with brushes, watercolors, clay, and pencils. The 25 alphabet hand manipulatives because we had already lost one before the year began. We were surrounded by every beautiful material possible and just as those little feet descended the stairs, I asked:
Are we missing something?
I still stand by my point that while the material cause of education is important, we moderns overemphasize the material to our own downfall: namely, we forget what makes a homeschool really good and instead focus too much on what makes our homeschool look really good.
With or without the perfect twig-like crayons, what we need to homeschool well is a solid philosophy. And, to be even more specific, as all educational philosophies are not equal, we need a philosophy grounded in the natural and spiritual realities of God’s world. We need Christ, the Logos, as our north star; the one through whom all things were made; he, the Word incarnate in which we live and move and have our being; he, the King who cries out, “Mine!’ over every part of creation, including the common Tuesday at the common table where a common mom teaches her common children.
But you know all this now.
It has been a great joy to walk through Mason’s twenty principles with you this season, to get our bearings in the world of educational philosophy, and to find our way into the long tradition of chasing truth, goodness, and beauty; but now, it’s time for a break.
During this podcast break, however, you will still find The Commonplace in a couple of places. Of course, there is Commonplace Market wherein resources await you, including The Way of the Will, The Benediction Table, and The Family Rules guides.
I will still be sharing ideas and questions about how classical principles apply to the commonplace things of life on YouTube and you can find me over there at The Commonplace.
Lastly, and primarily, I will be most active within Patreon continuing the monthly minisodes, Q+As, and gifting exclusive resources and guides without warning. We’re nearing 250 mother-teachers and I’m happy to say I’ve managed to form a not-so-secret-but-kind-of-secretive society of wise, thoughtful, witty women whose insights and additions delight me. We’d love to have your company as we learn to go further up and further with our children in tow.
So, to close us out here, I feel I should give the floor to the lady of the season, Miss Charlotte Mason:
We trouble ourselves about the uses of the young person to society. As for his own use, what he should be in and for himself, why, what matter? Because, say we, if we fit him to earn his living we fit him also to be of service to the world and what better can we do for him personally? We forget that it is written,
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live,––whether it be spoken in the way of some truth of religion, poem, picture, scientific discovery, or literary expression; by these things men live and in all such is the life of the spirit.
I’ll see you next season.
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Oh, wait. Look at that. One more thing. If The Commonplace podcast has been a help to you, would you be kind enough to leave a rating and review over at Apple podcasts? The link is in today’s episode notes and you can’t imagine how much it helps the podcast, yes, but also what an encouragement it is in this work. Thank you and, as I said, see you next season!
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