Born is the operative verb in this revolutionary and foundational principle of Charlotte Mason’s.
Children are BORN persons.
We know from Mason’s explanation of this principle that she is illuminating a physical and spiritual reality.
Children enter the world possessing personhood, drawing our attention to what is universal about every occurrence of this experience.
Children are each unique and distinct, yes, and that is certainly an implication of personhood.
But what Mason is building her philosophy upon isn’t the unique nature of each child, but rather what is universally possessed by every person because of their personhood itself.
Because of the Imago Dei, every person is universally alike in significant ways.
These universal possessions are:
*A Mind of One’s Own
*A Mind Nourished by Ideas
*The Power of Reason
*Intellect
*Will
*Imagination
*Capacity for Beauty
*Body, Mind, and Soul
*Emotion
*Conscience
It is because of the universal nature of personhood, not its uniqueness, that we know that to respect persons is to refuse to manipulate them, malnourish them, or mismanage their training.
Personhood is endowed, but it develops as it matures.
And this maturing requires the nourishment of the mind and the training of the will and conscience.
We can not respect persons by giving into their whims.
Personhood’s universal qualities take on a plethora of many forms, and we should indeed be students of the persons in front of us.
We should intentionally and personally craft the education best suited to the individuals given to our charge, to the best of our ability.
But we shouldn’t forget that “individual” and “person” are not interchangeable.
People are both.
And all persons, no matter their individuality, are in need of the nourishment of ideas found in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.
We’ve no right to allow them to self-limit out of their own ignorance or immaturity.
Respect of personhood requires us to require them to do hard things.
We adapt and accommodate in wisdom.
We don’t acquiesce to the desire to avoid difficulty.
No comments:
Post a Comment