School educationMason, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Maria)
Philosophy
School education
Mason, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Maria)
Education -- Curricula; Education -- Philosophy
=Attitude of Parents and Teachers towards Evolution.=—If I appear to
dwell on a subject which at first sight appears to have little to
do with the bringing up of children, it is because I think that his
attitude towards the great idea, great lesson, set for his age to grasp,
is a vital part of a parent’s preparation. If parents take no heed of
the great thoughts which move their age, they cannot expect to retain
influence over the minds of their children. If they fear and distrust the
revelations of science, they introduce an element of distrust and discord
into their children’s lives. If, with the mere neophyte of science, they
rush to the conclusion that the last revelation is final, accounts for
all that is in man, and, to say the least, makes God unnecessary and
unknowable, or negligible, they may lower the level of their children’s
living to that struggle for existence—without aspiration, consecration,
and sacrifice—of which we hear so much. If, lastly, parents recognise
every great idea of nature as a new page in the progressive revelation
made by God to men already prepared to receive such idea; if they realise
that the new idea, however comprehensive, is not final nor all-inclusive,
nor to be set in opposition with that personal knowledge of God which
is the greatest knowledge, why, then, their children will grow up in
that attitude of reverence for science, reverence for God, and openness
of mind, which befits us for whom life is a probation and a continual
education. So much for the nutriment of ideas laid on the table of the
world during this particular course of its history.
=Education is a World Business.=—Next, we may have poetry, or art, or
philosophy; we cannot tell; but two things are incumbent upon us,—to keep
ourselves and our children in touch with the great thoughts by which
the world has been educated in the past, and to keep ourselves and them
in the right attitude towards the great ideas of the present. It is our
temptation to make too personal a matter of education, to lose sight of
the fact that education is a world business, that the lessons of the ages
have been duly set, and that each age is concerned, not only with its own
particular page, but with every preceding page. For who feels that he has
mastered a book if he is familiar with only the last page of it? This
brings me to a point I am anxious to bring forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account