As I was reading through Charlotte Mason's thoughts on the
sacredness of personality I revisited two places where I'd previously gleaned
some ideas or understanding which to me paralleled what she expressed about
this subject.
Hints on Child Training by H. Clay Trumbull was one of
those places. In chapter 8 of this book he speaks about honouring a child's
individuality.
'A child is liable to be looked upon as if he were simply
one child among many children......but every child stands all by himself in the
world as an individual, with his own thoughts and feelings, his own hopes and
fears and possibilities, his own relations to his fellow beings and to God.
This truth is often realised by a child before his
parents realise it; and if it be unperceived and unrecognised by his parents,
they are thereby shut off from the opportunity of doing for him much that can
be done by them only as they give due honour to their child's individuality as
a child.'
I've been a mother for 24 years and this idea didn't
really sink into me until I saw our older children develop and become 'their
own person' and make their own decisions. For many years I was busy with little
ones and then suddenly I also had older children who had ideas of their own and
I was constantly going between the two camps, juggling my role and treading new
ground. Sometimes BB and I look at each other and wonder where on earth some of
our kids got their personality traits and how we ended up with so many
different varieties of them.
One of the things about the sacredness of personality
that I had to learn was in relation to one of my children who is introverted by
nature. I watched a TED video last year about the hidden power of introverts which helped me understand that an introverted personality is about
how you respond to stimulation - an extrovert has an increased need for social
stimulation whereas an introvert is drained by too much of it.
Introversion is not about shyness - which is fear of
social judgement - and I'd be trying to help a child to overcome this; but it
is about needing quiet and time to recharge, think and reflect and be alone.
I don't agree with her general philosophy or
worldview
but I thought she said some interesting things about how our culture and
societal institutions such as schools are designed mostly for
extroverts and as a society we tend to think that 'all creativity
comes from a gregarious place.'
