"The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself." (Charlotte Mason quoting another source, V6 p. 16) |
To assuage my curiosity, I went and looked up the first question I posted on the AO Forum:
I'm going to be purchasing Trial and Triumph. It is a few dollars cheaper on Christianbook.com come as compared to Amazon. However, Christianbook.com looks like it is carrying a 1999 edition while Amazon has a 2010 edition. Does anyone know if there are differences in these two editions which would be meaningful in deciding which one to purchase? |
Then, one day, I answered a question posed by another on the Forum. For a prideful person, there was as much, if not more, fear in answering a question as in asking one. What if my answer was wrong? Who was I, really, who at that point had only a few months of CM under my belt? I was not a CM expert. I had only scratched the surface of trying to fully implement a Charlotte Mason Education in my own home. I had only made it through a small portion of one of Miss Mason’s Volumes. How could I even possibly think I could be a part of the conversation? When we consider the idea which Miss Mason holds forth of connecting our children’s minds to great minds, I was certainly not the great mind to which these other parents needed connected.
But the question that was asked…I knew the answer, or at least I thought I did. I had posed the question to myself well before my time as a member of the Forum and had grappled my way to a conclusion. Though I knew very little, perhaps for this one question, I was a possible expert. So I thought a bit, carefully worded my answer, and submitted it to the thread. My heart pounded as I waited to see what would happen. Was I right? Was I wrong? Would my answer be well received?
Just as I went looking for the first question I posted, I went looking for the first answer I submitted. I think the question another posed was, “What does your school bible time look like?” I still have the memory of typing out my answer. Two people actually liked the answer. The truth is, though, I had never actually studied what Miss Mason or her contemporaries, through the Parent’s Review articles, specifically taught about including Bible in the school day. Most likely, I didn’t even know that information was available. We sang hymns (Mason); we read the Bible (Mason); we narrated (Mason); we studied a catechism (Mason); we had a time of recitation—I even used that word—(Mason). But really, it was actually just a few paragraphs of cobbled together ideas. However, it was my very best narration of what I knew at the time. For that is what I was doing when I posted my answer. Indeed, it is what we all do when we answer questions for one another: narrating.
I suppose here a word of caution should be given. As we are making our way slowly up the mountain, there are times we are being encouraged by the person right next to us, just as tired and weary from the climb, but at that moment offering a glimmer of hope through the extension of a hand or a push from behind. In these moments, we have a choice to make which could involve some risk. We can accept the help, which honestly, though well intended, could be a little off. Or we can wave the person by and sit and wait for the rope from above. I have most often made the choice of the former, choosing not to disdain the help of my peers (nor to hesitate to offer it), because I have discovered my greatest growth often comes from joining the narration of Charlotte Mason as opposed to the lonely wait for the perfect help. And is this not what we see with group narrations? We do not criticize, but sometimes another is there to offer a correction as she adds to the narration, and more or less, we head in the right direction.
A second word of caution must also come, because often, our daily help is coming through the written word—Facebook, forums, and e-mails. It is very challenging to communicate well through the written word, as our facial expressions and nonverbals cannot be included in our prose. It is easy to offend or to take offense. Yes, at times my words have hurt others. And at times, I have been hurt by the words of others. Here, we have two options. We can shut down the conversation and end the narration, or we can forgive and continue on. My choice is for the latter, which often includes reminding myself of 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, meaning, I must actively choose not to make assumptions nor impute motives to my fellow writers. And if ill intent really was intended? It is time not to dwell but rather to move on for that part of the narration will most likely not endure.
There has been much joy in coming to realize my answers are my narration of what I do know, be it little or great or proof of ignorance. This circles back to the opening quote of this post.
"The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself." (Charlotte Mason quoting another source, V6 p. 16) |
Whatever a child or grown-up person can tell, that we may be sure he knows, and what he cannot tell, he does not know. (Charlotte Mason V. 6 pp. 172-173) |