children
What If I Fail: The Model of Mary
The Pietà is my favorite work of art. I’ve always thought it was beautiful, but since I listened to a lecture by Jordan Peterson,1 Michelangelo’s Mary reminds me that she brought her son into this world not understanding his divine destiny and fully understanding that he would suffer and die. All the same, her face …
“Still the Same Person”: Edith Schaeffer on Child-Rearing, Beauty-Seeking, Home-Keeping
Ponder-worthy wisdom from Edith Schaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking: You cannot expect to have a close relationship with a teenager who, after all, is still the same person as the two-year-old you stuck crying into bed, the three-year-old you spanked and shoved aside, the four-year-old you wouldn’t listen to, the five-year-old you never shared …
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The Power of Story: Perfect for Children, Dangerous for Adults
Stories are the most powerful tool for communicating truth. Truth is a logos and idea that must be incarnated for the mind to apprehend it, to contemplate it, and then to incarnate it itself. The classical educator, the parent, the teacher, the mentor, each leads another in the hope that the student, child, or apprentice …
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Finding their Voice
“Children are born persons” is the first of Charlotte Mason’s principles. A person has a voice, or wants a voice, or should have a voice, especially children. In Paul’s letter to Timothy, he indicates as much, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in …
The Mysterious Footprints
Three small marks, a blend of dirt and water, pocked the middle of the back patio. The small paw prints with elongated fingers, slightly larger than a quarter, did not appear before or after the three. My oldest three children, who always enjoyed following deer tracks in the backyard, saw me looking down at the …
8 Reflections on the Nature of a Child
The nature of a child and education come together, either to mar the child or to help the child flourish. When a child is not taught according to his or her nature, it is like cutting against the grain, dulling the knife and marring the wood. Yet when a child’s instruction aligns with his or …
Un-Ironically Whole Hearted
Editor’s Note: This piece is posted with the permission of our friends at Story Warren, where it was originally published. America’s current crop of bright young things, like every crop before them, seems sure they’ve invented some new ideas. Like smoking pipes, home-grown vegetables, and over-sized mustaches. Of course they didn’t, but don’t get me …
The Heart of a Child
A child at home with a busy mother learns to be the object of affection without being the object of attention. I don’t know if there is a more important lesson for a child to learn and I don’t know if there is any other context in which it can be learned.