“If we have any insight at all, we will quickly identify the fact that Christians begin from a very different starting point when thinking about education.  It is not merely a question of what we want to teach, who teaches it, or what exactly is right or wrong.  It is deeper.  We speak of who the human being is.  We do not have to achieve anything to earn self-worth; we know that the person is a creature of this planet into whom God breathed the spirit of personality.  Yes, we are created having that within ourselves which is so unique that God could say,” ‘Let us make man in our own image; male and female created He them.” “

~ For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, ch. 2

“Get to know a child.  It may be your own or somebody else’s.  Don’t think of it as either a menial or a professional task.  Do it for its own sake.  I can assure you, the child will bring more to you than you can bring to him or to her.  A child can be the very best friends in all the world.  They are so responsive.  Their minds are challenging and wonderfully surprising.

Get a few really good books, and read them together aloud.  Set aside a good regular chunk of time.  This will be one of the most rewarding and stimulating relationships in your life.  Guess what?  If you have the courage to be honest, that youngster’s comments and questions are really going to make you think, think hard.  You can throw away all the manuals.  That child has an awful lot to teach you.  Your mind is probably in a worse state than his. After reading together, go to a really nice place outside for a couple of hours at least.  Don’t rush.  Turn a rock over and watch the beetles run away.  Throw rocks in the stream and slide down a hill.

Talk together.

Relax.

It isn’t all as hard as the experts make out.  We are human beings, persons, created to live.  To have life more abundantly.  Wonder together; grow together.  Together share the struggles of knowing that we cannot perfectly follow God’s law.  We are fellow-pilgrims.  We walk side by side as human beings under the love and authority of Him who made us.”

~For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, ch. 2

“We devalue the personhood of our wonderful children.  We rob their minds of proper, interesting, strong meat to nourish their growing needs.  We belittle their interests.  We compete with the entertainment of TV.  We flick images, flash colors, use tricks.  And yet many small children are at the same time being robbed of free and happy childhood play.  Endless “play-approach” lessons bore them and leave no time for imaginative real play in or out-of-doors.”~For the Children’s Sake chapter 2

Each Friday, I post an inspiring passage from For the Children’s Sake, a book by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay about the Charlotte Mason method of education and childrearing.

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Try a simple experiment.  Take a small child on your knee.  Respect him.  Do not see him as something to be prune, form, or mold.  This is an individual who thinks, acts, and feels.  He is a separate human being whose strength lies in who he is, not who he will become.  If his choices made now and in the future are to be good ones, this person must understand reality and see the framework of truth.  In the shorthand of language we call this “knowing.”  The child is a person who needs to grow in knowledge.

You have some of that knowledge.  Not because you are an adult and adults are supposed to be wonderfully clever; the Bible is very clear in its teaching that there is a sense in which we must ourselves become like this little child on our knee if we are to inherit the kingdom of God.  But we have knowledge because we have lived in God’s world as persons, adn that knwledge can be shared.  Christians have the added perspective of God’s Word from which to explain their experience and understanding of life.

We are told my many in our generation that this small child is a cog in a machine, or even that he is a possession, like a pet animal.  Many adults now “have” a child, in the same way that they “have” a washing machine or a collie dog.

We must answer: No.  You are holding a person on your knee.  And that is wonderful.

~Chapter 2, Children are Born Persons

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NOW ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY!!!

I was recently given a gently used copy of For the Children’s Sake, and I would love to pass it on to one of you!  If you would like to enter the giveaway, please just leave a comment.  And if you blog, tweet, or facebook about it, feel free to add an additional comment for each thing you do, so that you will be entered multiple times.  Giveaway is open until next Friday when I will draw a winner.

Feel free to grab a button!  Two sizes, big and small!