On Principles 3 & 4

Summer with Charlotte: The Posture Issue

This is the third article in my “Summer with Charlotte” series. If you missed the first two, you can read On Education and On Principles 1, 2 & 20.

Let’s jump in.

Principle 3: Authority and Docility

The principles of Authority on the one hand and Docility on the other are natural, necessary, and fundamental.

Reference: Volume 6, Chapter 4

This principle uses a couple of words that have fallen out of fashion among moderns so let’s start by defining our terms.

Authority is, essentially, the person in charge.

Merriam-Webster defines authority as “power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior” and “freedom granted by one in authority” and “persons in command.” So from authority comes order and freedom.

I’ll say it this way: someone’s gotta drive the bus, and it isn’t your child. In fact, it would not be loving to hand your child the keys and allow him to drive the bus ;).

Docility, the root word being “docile,” may make us think of someone who is submissive, obedient, and easy to manage and while those are factors of being docile, the true meaning goes deeper than that. According to Merriam-Webster.com:

Today calling students "docile" indicates that they aren't trouble-makers, but there's more than just good behavior connecting docility to teachability. The original meaning of docile is more to the point: "readily absorbing something taught." "The docile mind may soon thy precepts know," rendered Ben Jonson, for example, in a 17th-century translation of the Roman poet Horace. Docile comes from the Latin verb docēre, which means "to teach." Other descendants of docēre include doctrine (which can mean "something that is taught"), document (an early meaning of which was "instruction"), and doctor and docent (both of which can refer to teachers).

I think we lose Charlotte’s original intention if we simply think of a child needing to be a “yes man.” There is a softness and openness and beauty associated with the word “docility” that we are working to nurture in the hearts of our children.

For homeschoolers who embrace rebelling against “the system” (Hear, hear!) and particularly Americans, having recently celebrated our famous and fantastic Revolution, these words can evoke mixed emotions. Blind obedience led to the Holocaust, we argue and no doubt it contributed. I want to raise thinking children, myself, but we must also be careful to raise trusting children. Not everyone is the enemy; God created the loving, connected, rightly positioned relationship of the parent-child as a way to make the world go round.

Even in the grown-up world where we are called to ‘respect the office’ if not the man, we realize trust is still necessary because we trust an Almighty God who ordains the order of things. Charlotte says, “…the teacher, or other head, may not be arbitrary but must act so evidently as one under authority that the children, quick to discern, see that he too must do the things he ought; and therefore that regulations are not made for his convenience.” God is the ultimate authority over us all and that leads us to the idea of duty.

This is another word that is sadly falling out of fashion. My husband is a veteran and we are a patriotic family, but above all we are a Christian family. Both result in a devoted sense of duty and an admiration for the idea of having something or someone worth being dutiful to. Charlotte says, “there must be subjection, but it must be proud, worn as a distinction, an order of merit.” Our sense of devotion to our King and our country is something we embrace but there is nothing unique in this about our family; all humans were created with a sense of duty. Charlotte explains it this way:

Without this principle, society would cease to cohere. Practically there is no such thing as anarchy; what is so-called is a mere transference of authority, even if in the last resort the anarchist find authority in himself alone. There is an idea abroad that authority makes for tyranny, and that obedience, voluntary or involuntary, is of the nature of slavishness; but authority is on the contrary, the condition without which liberty does not exist and, except it be abused, is entirely congenial to those on whom it is exercised…”

In addition to being under authority, children should also be given a turn at a role of authority when it makes sense. In our home we have a system called “Kid of the Week” which started when everyone was little. KOTW gets 1-on-1 time with mom or dad, plans Saturday night dinner, chooses the movie night movie, and takes on any extra responsibilities at the house. As they have gotten older this meant KOTW was in charge when we left the house (if old enough) and functions as the zone checker for the week. This has given everyone a chance to work their leadership muscles under our boundaries and we’ve seen some amazing fruit from it.

As Charlotte so aptly put it, “the office makes the man as much as the man makes the office and it is surprising how well rather incompetent children will perform duties laid on them.”

Surely having authority and docility in order make for a more pleasant home and school atmosphere but there is something more specific that this has to do with education:

“All school work should be conducted in such a manner that children are aware of the responsibility of learning; it is their business to know that which has been taught.”

We are not to spoon feed, repeat, over explain, sermonize, or coddle their attention spans; when the responsibility of learning is on the child, there is less required of the teacher. This is not to say the teacher’s work is not important, but the goal of eduction is not to make a good teacher; it is for the student to learn and though the teacher is responsible for spreading the feast, she is not in charge of digesting the food. Yes, be enthusiastic, prepare well, choose carefully, but in the end it’s not up to us. No matter how well-prepared the table is, the responsibility lays on the child to enjoy the feast.

This is a great joy for the child to succeed in learning. Charlotte says, “…he makes use of the authority which is in him in its highest function as a self-commanding, self-compelling, power. The knowledge is his; the ideas become his; the satisfaction is his. It will be noticed that the child is educating herself; her friends merely take her to see the things she knows about and she tells what she has read, a quite different matter from the act of pouring information down the throats of the unhappy children who are taken to visit our national treasure houses.”

This self-education is crucial for long-term thriving as an adult. What will our children do when they don’t have our reading lists to lean on? Our hope, of course, is that just like a child weaned off of training wheels, he will be able to go at it on his own. He will recognize true knowledge in good books because he’s had lots of examples over the course of his education and he will crave real knowledge over superficial. Charlotte bemoaned the state of society in the early 1900s and I can only wonder what she’d think of the goldfish attention spans existing on sawdust diets today. “They are devoid of intellectual interests, history and poetry are without charm for them, the scientific work of the day is only slightly interesting, their "‘job’ and the social amenities they can secure are all that their life has for them.”

Authority and Docility are natural and necessary in the home and also in the real world. The dance of these two ideas together leads to peace, beauty, and a full life that embraces responsibility and duty.

Principle 4: The Sacredness of Personality

These principles (i.e. authority and docility) are limited by the respect due to the personality of children which may not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.

Reference: Volume 6, Chapter 5

Oh no! A list of cautions that we are not to do. What are we to do? In the words of Mr. Bennett, “it seems a hopeless business” but Charlotte does not leave us destitute. Lest you become discouraged, here’s a teaser for Principle 5, which has the answer, and I’ll cover it in the next article:

Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments - the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. Motto is: “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.

Whew.

Okay, now that we know the three legs to build our chair on, let’s get back to Principle 4 so we know what to avoid.

Used improperly, the concept of authority can turn you into a bully if not for this principle to hold you accountable. There are ways which we can abuse our authority even with the best of intentions.

All action comes out of the ideas we hold and if we ponder duly upon personality we shall come to perceive that we cannot commit a greater offense than to maim or crush, or subvert any part of a person.

We have many ingenious, not to say affectionate, ways of doing this, all of them more or less based upon that egoism which persuades us that in proportion to a child’s dependence is our superiority, that all we do for him is of our grace and favor, and that we have a right, whether as parents or teachers, to do what we will with our own. Have we considered that in the Divine estimate the child’s estate is higher than ours; that it is ours to “become as little children,” rather than theirs to become as grown men and women; that the rules we receive for the bringing up of children are for the most part negative? We may not despise them, or hinder them, (“suffer little children”), or offend them by our brutish clumsiness of action and want of serious thought; while the one positive precept afforded to us is “feed” (which should be rendered ‘pasture’) “my lambs,” place them in the midst of abundant food.

This deserves some contemplation.

So, though we should stand confidently in our role of authority we should be careful to understand that our knee-jerk inclinations may not actually be what is best. Certainly, myself and most people I know have been educated using these methods. Since we tend to do what is familiar, we must approach our role as teacher joyfully but humbly realizing that we too have so, so much to learn.

We may not use fear, or even love, as a motive to education. Charlotte says ‘Suggestion’ is to be avoided, which sounds very similar to the artificial rewards/punishment set up that most of us are familiar with. This approach sabotages the very thing you’re trying to instill and makes the child forever dependent on you. Here’s what she says about it:

“That particular virtue becomes detestable; no other virtue is inviting; and he is acquiring no strength to stand alone but waits in all his doings for promptings from without. Perhaps the gravest danger attending this practice is that every suggestion received lays the person open to the next and the next. A due respect for the personality of children and a dread of making them incompetent to conduct their own lives will make us chary of employing a means so dangerous, no matter how good the immediate end.”

“No matter how good the immediate end.” Note that just because it may be effective doesn’t mean it’s the best approach.

Also to be avoided is influence. Think of “goody-goody” moral tales about doing the right thing and avoiding anyone who would dare make a mistake. I can’t help but think of Alice Wendleken from The Best Christmas Pageant Ever here. We’ve all known an Alice, keeping notes on all the bad things, putting marks next to everyone’s name…except her own, of course.

Influence also signifies an over-dependence on the example of others. Charlotte warns strongly against this: “…the schoolgirl who idolizes her mistress, the boy who worships his master, is deprived of the chance of free and independent living. His personality fails to develop and he goes into the world as a parasitic plant, clinging ever to the support of some stronger character.”

Ouch.

We all have a favorite adult who has influenced us so we may think it’s good to be that person for another child and it is…except when it isn’t. When raising independent thinkers and students capable of self-education, motivation must be of pure desire. We must get them to strive not to be more like us or George Washington or the wonderful lady at church, but to be the best version of the man or woman God has created them to be.

And now for the “undue play upon any one natural desire.”

It is natural to desire the approval of loved ones but it should not be the motivation for education. Charlotte says, “Nay, this desire for approval may get such possession of him that he thinks of nothing else; he must have approval whether from the worthless or the virtuous. …both infamy and fame mean being thought about and talked about by a large number of people;”

Again we go back to motive. The purpose of knowledge is for knowledge’s sake and when motives turn impure, a person is willing to do anything for recognition.

Charlotte warns us, “…there is danger; and nothing worse could have happened to our schools than the system of marks, prizes, place-taking, by which many of them are practically governed. A boy is so taken up with the desire to forge ahead that there is no time to think of anything else. What he learns is not interesting to him; he works to get his remove.”

Written almost 100 years ago, but boy that sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Turns out not much has changed. Cram, get a good grade, get into a good college, check the box…but are they truly learning?

Charlotte goes on to say, “each such desire has its place but the results are disastrous if any one should dominate. It so happens that the last desire we have to consider; the desire of knowledge, is commonly deprived of its proper function in our schools by the predominance of other springs of action, especially of emulation, the desire of place, and avarice, the desire of wealth, tangible profit. This divine curiosity is recognized in ordinary life chiefly as a desire to know trivial things. What did is cost? What did she say? Who was with him? Where are they going? How many postage stamps in a line would go round the world? And curiosity is satisfied by incoherent, scrappy information which serves no purpose, assuredly not the purpose of knowledge whose function is to nourish the mind as food nourishes the body. But so besotted is our educational thought that we believe children regard knowledge rather as repulsive medicine than as inviting food. Hence our dependence on marks and prizes, athletics, alluring prevention, any jam we can devise to disguise the powder. …and he whose mind is sustained by the crutches of emulation and avarice loses that one stimulating power which is sufficient for his intellectual needs. This atrophy of the desire of knowledge is the penalty our scholars pay because we have chosen to make them work for inferior ends.”

In other words, even the precious desire for knowledge can turn rotten if not nurtured properly. They will become busy-bodies for want of pure knowledge in the same way that someone snacks on carbs all day instead of sitting down to eat a healthy meal.

“The work of education is greatly simplified when we realize that children, apparently all children, want to know all human knowledge; they have an appetite for what is put before them, and knowing this, our teaching becomes buoyant with the courage of our convictions.”

What a relief! We don’t have to dress education up in a cute costume, put lipstick on it, or add sound effects or colorful charts. We don’t need to threaten or bribe or manipulate or guilt-trip or exploit their natural desires to get our kids to enjoy learning. Just real knowledge for knowledge’s sake. There’s a disclaimer there - it’s got to be “real” and we’ll talk about that a lot more when we get to the principles on curriculum but know this: no one disguises grandma’s homemade brownies to get kids to eat them. Just like kids are pretty much born wanting homemade goodness, they are born wanting knowledge. And real knowledge is appetizing enough in itself if we don't ruin their appetites with empty carbs.

There’s a fun word in the CM community called “twaddle” that I like to think of as empty carbs but we’ll talk about that more later.

For now…

Set the feast and invite them to the table.

Join me next time as we cover principles 5 - 8. Be sure to subscribe to my Substack so you’ll be notified of new articles.

You can also follow along on my podcast, Homeschooling Outside the Box, and my Instagram.

If you enjoyed this article, please like, leave a comment, or share it with a friend.