McGuffey

Yet another "nerd" book for me!  I loved A History of the McGuffey Readers by Henry H Vail. Yes, this is a book about a book (or rather, a set of books).  What I have found special about the McGuffey Readers is that the aim was not only to promote reading, but to build character.  We used one of the readers last year in our homeschool and had some wonderful conversations along with it.  We stopped using it as I didn't quite know how to continue. I hope to bring our McGuffey Readers back...especially after reading this book.

There are several different versions of the McGuffey Readers and this book helped to explain the versions and also clarified how the McGuffey Readers were used back in their time.  They were the readers used all across the United States.  Sure, there were others (such as the New England Primer), but none appear to be as widely used as these.  This book also shed light on the history of American education.  So, now to the quotes!

"The school readers are the proper and indispensable texts for teaching true patriotism, integrity, honesty, industry, temperance, courage, politeness, and all other moral and intellectual virtues.  In these books every lesson should have a distinct purpose in view, and the final aim should be to establish in the pupils high moral principles which are at the foundation of character."   (Page 2)

"As late as 1840 the Bible was read daily in all the schools of the West." (Page 7)

"Even up to the opening of the Civil War, whatever the faith or the practice of the adult inhabitants of the country, the Bible story and the Bible diction were familiar to all." (Page 7)

"In the texts authorized for the study of English classics, Biblical allusions are very common.  These have little meaning to pupils who have not read the Bible, unless the passage is pointed out and hunted up.  From the pages of these readers the pupils learned to master the printed word and obtain the thought of the authors.  Without conscious effort they received moral instruction and incentives toward right living.  Without intent they treasured in their memories such extracts from the authors of the best English Literature as gave them a desire to read more." (Page 7-8)

"If the pupil obtained from the printed page the very thought the author intended to convey, the pupil was expected to read orally so as to express that thought to all hearers.  If the correct thought was thus heard, no questions were needed.  The test of reading orally is the communication of thought by the reader to the intelligent and attentive hearer, and the words of the author carry this message more accurately than can any other words the pupil may select." (Page 11)

"The readers that deal simply with facts - information readers - may lodge in the minds of children some scraps of encyclopedic information which may in future life become useful.  But the readers that rouse the moral sentiments, that touch the imagination, that elevate and establish character by selections chosen from the wisest writers in English in all the centuries that have passed since our language assumed a comparatively fixed literary form, have a much more valuable function to perform.  Character is more valuable than knowledge and a taste for pure and ennobling literature is a safeguard for the young that cannot be safely ignored."  (Page 46)

"One of the wise men of the olden time cared not who wrote the laws if he might write their songs.  Among a people devoid of books the folk-songs are early lodged firmly in the mind of every child.  They influence his whole life.  The modern schoolbooks - particularly the readers - furnish the basis of the moral and intellectual training of the youth in ever community." (Page 51)

Other People Mentioned in this book (contemporaries):
Dr Joseph Ray - Ray's Arithmetic (Page 24)
Dr. Lyman Beecher - father of Harriet Beecher Stowe (Page 25)
Dr. Timothy Stone Pinneo - grammar books (Page 34)
Mr W.B. Thalheimer - history books (Pg 37)
Willson Readers - to teach reading and science - (Page 45)



"

Charlotte Mason's School Education (Vol. 3 in series)

This week I finished reading Charlotte Mason's School Education by Charlotte Mason, a modern English paraphrase by Leslie Laurio.  This is volume 3 of 6 in Charlotte Mason's Home Education series.

How do I begin to pick which quotes I want to remember from this excellent book on education?  There were so many golden nuggets that resonated with me and helped me to continue to clarify my own philosophy of education.

My favorites:

We believe that all education is divine.  Every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from God.  God the Spirit is, ultimately, the One who educates mankind.  The culmination of all education (which is approachable even for a little child) is personal knowledge of God, and an intimate relationship with Him.  In that relationship, our being finds its fullest perfection. (Kindle location 1249)

I love this and am trying to remember not to compartmentalize, not only in education, but in all of life.  


For one thing, I think it's important for children to dig for knowledge for themselves from the appropriate books in all their subjects.  We owe them that.  There are two reasons for this.  When a child works and finds something for himself, it's his for life.  But whatever comes too easily from hearing it like a casual song in the air, tends to float out of the mind as easily as it floated in.  It rarely gets assimilated.  I don't mean that lectures and oral lessons are totally useless, but their role should be to inspire and give direction to what's learned. (location 2202)

This is good to keep in mind as I plan and evaluate what we are doing in our homeschool.  Am I doing the work of knowledge and then spoon feeding my children from what I have dug up, or am I allowing them to do the mental work of processing knowledge, with guidance from me?  

And a few other goodies (although I could have chosen a bunch more!)

On authority:

Once God Almighty is dethroned, all human authority follows -- kings, those given roles of authority in nations, even parents in authority over their own families. (location 194)


A person in authority is a person who has been authorized.  And he's been authorized by someone that he's under authority to himself.  A person under authority is holding and fulfilling a trust.  Every time he asserts his own self, or commands on the whim of his own will, he stops being authorized and authoritative, and becomes arbitrary and domineering. (location 262) 
 

Authority is more than a gift, it's a grace.  "In the same way that every shade of the rainbow is light, so every one of the graces is a different shade of love."  Authority is just one part of the love that parents give to their children. (location 403)

On Play
Children need time to make up episodes, carry on pretend adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and defend forts, even if the fort is only an old armchair. (location 551)

On Education
I'll just bring up a few points and repeat my conviction that a system of education should make it its focus to establish children's relationships in as many varied directions as possible  - rather than mastery of certain "subjects." (location 1172)

A good question to ask myself about what we're doing: are the children building relationships with this subject through the book we've chosen?  Or is it dry, dull, boring, etc.?

On Character

Building character is the first priority for humans, because, a) if we train character, then intellectual "development" will take care of itself, and, b) the lessons created for intellectual learning have high value for the character, either by training the discipline or stimulating character. (location 1284)

Character doesn't just come from exposing children to great ideas.  It's also the result of habits that we strive to instill based on those ideas.  We recognize both principles -- idea and habit. (location 1296)