Have you ever discovered something that changed your life?
A year ago I read a library book to my nephew (2) and niece (4). The book was called ‘Chase the Moon, Tiny Turtle,’ by Kelly Jordan. The story described a nest of sea turtle hatchlings making their first journey from their nest at the beach, to their new home in the sea, the soft moonlight guiding their path as they scurried along. Meanwhile, night predators lurked close by, hoping to catch their next meal.
While the story’s simple and poetic narrative gave me new insights to the beginning of a sea turtle’s life, I was most taken by how the story had captured the children’s minds. As I read the book, I could see their expressions change while the story unfolded.
Though he did not have the words to express it at that time, my nephew’s expression gave away what he was thinking. It was the same question that came out of my niece’s mouth: Will the turtles make it to the sea? They sat with wide-eyed anticipation, waiting to find out what would happen next. By the end of the story, relief swept over their faces, followed by joy when they heard that the sea turtles made it safely into the ocean, taking shelter in the seaweed.
This book became a favourite of sorts, being read and borrowed many times over at home. Both children picked up more information and asked new questions (and many repeated ones too) each time we read the book. My nephew named one of his stuffed animals, ‘Turtle,’ and cuddled it to sleep on many nights. My niece started noticing terrapins during our nature walks, and approached them with affection and tenderness rather than fear. They even initiated games where they were hatchlings, running away from me, the predator! A year later, both of them can still recall the book title, and what happened in the story (and now, with more vocabulary!).
Perhaps you as a parent or educator have experienced something similar while being with a child. You can witness first-hand, the enthusiasm of this person as they discover something coming to life in their minds. Many times, its more than we could anticipate, and sometimes in the most surprising of subjects. For me, this anecdote was just one small glimpse of how a living idea works in Charlotte Mason’s method of educating a child. What exactly are living ideas? And how do we go about finding them and introducing them to our children?
A Feast of Living Ideas
Borrowing a well-known metaphor from the lady of the hour, presenting a ‘living’ education to children is like providing them with a delicious and wide-spread feast. Instead of food for the body, we are serving them with a vast array of living ideas. We all know how it feels to be invited to the home of someone who loves to prepare and cook a whole table of good food during Christmas. Imagine how excited we would be to take part in a feast like that! Similarly, the feast of education has plenty of variety in terms of its programmes and subjects. But the common ingredients of all these dishes is that they present good, true and beautiful ideas, and therefore they give life to the person consuming them. Imagine how excited a child would be to take part in such an education!
Metaphors help us to understand a concept through descriptive yet rough pictures, but something which I didn’t get from this brilliant woman are clear and concise definitions or action steps of what a living idea constitutes (which was definitely intentional on her part. You will start to understand why as you read on). After taking time to ruminate on her words, as well others who follow her method, I cannot say that I have a perfect definition of what a living idea is. However, I have come up with a few key characteristics to look out for when I am searching for a living idea.
1) It connects to our pre-existing knowledge, and then deepens understanding.
"What we digest we assimilate, take into ourselves, so that it is part and parcel of us, and no longer separable.” (Charlotte Mason Volumes: Vol 4, pg 70)
We all love eating good food without much thought about what happens after we swallow it: once food goes into our mouths, it is processed by the body, nutrients are absorbed, and it becomes part of us.
While reading “Chase the Moon, Tiny Turtle,” it could easily be missed that anything was happening at all, besides that a story was being read to children. But what I saw before me was that complex concepts like life cycles, food chains, and sea turtle life could be delivered so subtly and deeply through the story and illustrations. Once a child has encountered a living idea, it shifts his perspectives ever-so slightly as those morsels of thought find a fitting place in his already-existing spiderweb of knowledge in his mind. If our minds are healthy, this process of idea-digestion will happen naturally: we do not need to break down the knowledge for the child and serve it to him half-chewed by ourselves or someone else. Even young children have a far greater ability to do this than we give them credit for. To give them semi-digested food would neglect their natural functioning and stunt their growth.
I also recognised the children absorbing these ideas in the subsequent questions they asked, the books they requested for, the games that they played, and the way they interacted with the subject matter (the closest thing we had were terrapins in the park) in the real world. The ideas in their book were now connected to their experiences, and this brought about a deeper understanding and connection to what they were learning.
2) It connects the mind to the heart.
The little ones requested this storybook to be read to them over and over again. As far as the adults were concerned, we were done with the book long before the return date reached. How did the story sustain their interest for so long? The answer was most simple. Their hearts were wooed by the little hatchlings, through the words and images of the story. The idea that they were in danger stirred the children to want to ensure their safety.
As living ideas are being digested, they are not just processed with the logical parts of our brains, but with emotions. They are absorbed as pictures in the mind, and become part of our understanding of reality. As Ms. Mason said, it is not about how much a person knows, but how much he cares. His care for the subject will lead him to intrinsically want to find out more. As this cycle continues, he then thinks about how able he is to do something about the matters for which he cares, and this gives his life a purpose.
All of us have at least one subject/book/story/idea that we could go on about with passion and (hopefully) an adequate amount of knowledge. Have you seen a child talk about something that so clearly inspired them before? Imagine how wonderful it would be if every child felt this way towards the subjects they are learning in school! It would no longer be about memorisation or route learning to pass a test, but self-directed learning on things which actually matter to the child. It would go beyond the ‘schooling years,’ and continue throughout the person’s life. But I digress.
3) Produces a greater appetite (curiosity).
Going back to the story of my niece and nephew, it did not matter if they did not pick up every idea on the first read. In fact, the ideas my niece picked up was different from my nephew’s, and also my own. We were all learning something, which meant that each of our minds were able to take the idea and digest it naturally on our own. We may not have picked up the same things, but that is perfectly well and good. As she said:
“We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programs and each small guest assimilates what he can.” (Charlotte Mason Volumes: Vol 6, pg 183)
One similarity that all of us experienced was that our observations and questions grew and changed after every few reads. And we wanted to know more. Just like the healthy and active stomach will digest and then hunger for food again soon after, the healthy and active mind also hungers for living ideas to digest, if fed a good diet of wholesome ideas. You can see this through a child’s endless questioning of “How does this work?” or “Why?”, or the way they can sit and watch something which may seem particularly boring to an adult for an extended period of time. This is their curiosity at play, and it is something precious to nurture and protect.
In our modern world, we move at such a fast pace trying to clear our endless to-do lists and aiming to do things as efficiently as possible. We have to be careful that we don’t slowly kill the child-like curiosity in ourselves, and in the little ones around us. The flame must be fanned, but often it is extinguished. And what is left is a disengaged mind, forced to cram in dead facts which may mean nothing to us.
The brain is a living organism. It is either growing, or dying, and in order for it to grow healthily, we need to feed it with the best! This is what we aim to provide for children: the good, the true and the beautiful.
Conclusion
At the start of this year, the Gentle Seeds staff gave ourselves the challenge to share one living idea we encountered every week. We found it not only manageable, but an enriching experience to come together and share the good, true and beautiful things that have become a part of our lives. It has become a source of mind-enrichment and shared joy. Although it may seem a bit melodramatic to say that an idea can change our lives, every person has encountered many ideas in their lives which have made an impact on who they are and shaped their perceptions for the better, whether big or small. It is ideas which touch upon our spirits, and inspire us to do something!
“The question is not, how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education, but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (Charlotte Mason Volumes: Vol 3, pg 170-171)
I love this quote by Charlotte Mason so much, and have come back to ‘chew’ on it multiple times, realising that thinking about it over and over actually deepens my own thoughts and understanding of what it means, and how it applies to my life. She was never someone to give out the step-by-step answers because she understood that every person’s circumstances are different, and that it is much better for an individual to understand the principles for themselves. With that, I invite you to digest these thoughts and perhaps you will taste and see the goodness of living ideas for yourself. Your lens will be different from mine, from other parents and educators, but it is precisely what makes each person’s perspective valuable and insightful. Please feel free to share your thoughts on these things as well, as we are all learning from one another! I hope that reading this reflection was just a start, a taster to whet your own appetite as you discover the feast of living ideas.