Sunday 6 April 2014

Education is a Life

Recently I've been reading books by three very different authors - G.K. Chesterton, Charlotte Mason and A.W.Tozer - and they all touched on a similar idea with their own unique perspectives:
there should be no separation between the secular and the sacred.

But it would be well if we could hinder in our children's minds the rise of a wall of separation between things sacred and things so-called secular, by making them feel that all 'sound learning,' as well as all 'religious instruction,' falls within the office of God, the Holy Spirit, the supreme educator of mankind.
Charlotte Mason 
 
As a home educator I can get sidetracked into this division when I feel the weight of responsibility for our children's education. I need to remind myself of what education really means.


The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as we may the nearest by possessing our souls of true virtue, which being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the highest perfection...
I call therefore a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully and magnanimously all the offices both private and public, of peace and war.
Of Education: John Milton (1608-1674)


 Reading Utopia by Sir Thomas More


You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera, 
And before the concert and the pantomime, 
And grace before I open a book, 
And grace before sketching, painting, 
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing; 
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
G.K.Chesterton





You are not worshiping God as you should if you have departmentalized your life so that some areas worship and other parts do not worship.
A.W. Tozer 



A Flowering Bromeliad - occurs every two years


The Apostle Paul teaches that every simple act of our lives may be sacramental. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." And again, "Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

Some of the great saints, who were great because they took such admonitions seriously and sought to practice them, managed to achieve the sanctification of the secular, or perhaps I should say the abolition of the secular. Their attitude toward life's common things raised those above the common and imparted to them an aura of divinity.
A.W. Tozer (The Dwelling Place of God) 



Hands to Work, Hearts to God 
 


...a human being comes into the world, not to develop his faculties nor to acquire knowledge, nor even to earn his living, but to establish certain relations; which relations are to him the means of immeasurable expansion and fulness of living. 
Charlotte Mason 


A Little Frog (1cm long) on the Trampoline


Education is the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness and beauty...
Circe Institute 



The Birthday by Marc Chagall



Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.

George Herbert



6 comments:

Unknown said...

Reading your post here this morning is a delightfully refreshing start to my week. Love all the ideas you expressed. Thankyou.

Monica said...

Lovely. The Truth is honored by us learning the truth.

GretchenJoanna said...

Wonderful, wonderful! I've never seen this truth and principle and reality expressed by means of quotes from so many people gathered in one place. You have done a great service by this composition of words and pictures. Thank you so much!

Anna Mussmann said...

This is lovely (and I really like the wee little frog).

Silvia said...

Such a pleasure to read... you inspire others. I too love that wee little frog, and I had seen that painting by Chagall, and today you kept me looking at it and fascinated by it.

walking said...

I LOVE, LOVE the poem you shared! What a lovely reflection to go with your photos:

You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And before the concert and the pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
G.K.Chesterton