I am now reading Chapter V of Charlotte Mason's Towards a Philosophy of Education, her 6th book in her Homeschooling series. If you are new to homeschooling, or even if you're not and would like to learn about the Charlotte Mason method of teaching, read along with me. View her books in Ambleside Online and let's be amazed together.
I learned a new term this week. Maxima Reverentia Devetur Pueris. Google translate says it means the greatest respect is due to children. The greatest respect should be given to children. In other words, we owe our children the greatest respect. I looked back at the title of the chapter and it says The Sacredness of Personality. So I have a feeling that this chapter will talk about how parents and educators must not look down on children just because they are young and we are older.
I'm sure most of us were raised believing that children are only to be seen, not to be heard. That children should obey their parents' commands without question and just do as they are told. Children are seen as chess pieces that the parents move here and there, expecting the kids not to question the judgement of their parents. This chapter was a reminder to me that as parents, we need to stop thinking that we are superior from our children and that we may do to them as we please. This is an old notion that needs to be abolished. Our children does not belong to us but to the society, thus our responsibility is to make sure that they become productive citizens of the world in the future.
The term maxima reverentia devetur pueris means that we should respect our child as a person. Just like the way we would also want us to be respected by others. Children has their own personalities and like I always mention, we are just here to lay down the rails to them and simply watch as they unfold their personality before us. We need to be extra mindful and intentional with the way we treat our children so that they will feel free to truly let their personality shine.
As parent educators, we need to see that our children's brains are a very powerful spiritual matter, capable of understanding and digesting knowledge, which is why we need to feed them a banquet of ideas. The sooner we understand how powerful every child's brain is, the more effective and efficient teaching techniques could be formulated. Spoon feeding our children with endless information, explaining each topics to them before they could even reword it in their minds is simply undermining their ability to understand sentences and paragraphs on their own.
The more that the teacher talks, the less the student learns. I know it might seem counterproductive but we should know that our children are very much capable of understanding us without having to dumb down (or baby talk) the words for them. It is also very condescending of us to think that they need to repeatedly hear a passage or that they immediately need an explanation after reading a passage to them.
This is why I never repeat a reading to my little girl. I know she is capable of understanding me, she just needs to focus her attention when I talk to her or read to her during our lessons. It took me a lot of time to learn to respect her brain's capabilities. I was used to reading my books over and over again, I am used to reviews and refreshers. But with the Charlotte Mason method, I unlearned everything that I was taught from my childhood. Instead, I appreciated and learned to respect the personality of my child in our homeschooling journey. I respect that she is capable, I respect that her brain is powerful. She just does not know a lot of things yet, but with the way that she's studying now, I know she's going to discover a whole lot of things in the world. All she needs is for her parent educators to respect her ability and her personality.
maxima reverentia devetur pueris.
Ain't that a beautiful phrase?
Sometimes adults forget that children are people who, like them, also deserve respect, but because of their situation, they need an adult to be with them, accompanying them in this difficult process of growth until they are able to fend for themselves. I believe that many confuse this fundamental role of a parent, who should be a guide, with that of a tyrant who has the power to rule with an iron fist.
I do not know how many times I have seen a parent scolding their child for being their own person, because there is the belief that children have to obey in everything, when it is not so. For example, when a child does not want to give a hug to someone, even if it is a relative, and ends up being scolded because he is supposedly being unfriendly...
Don't children deserve to have their own voice?
Also, there are those who treat children as idiots for asking questions about things they consider simple, such as why the sky is blue, when in fact curiosity should be encouraged because that is one of the factors needed for learning. It's an attitude that fills me with a lot of anger, especially because in teaching children I've found that many of them are constantly afraid to ask questions and admit that they don't know something because they think it means they're dumb.
The same goes with discipline and habit formation. When a little child does something wrong, the parent would go "Oh, she's still so little, she wouldn't understand even if I tell her." That is where bad habits start. Teaching them right from wrong at an early age is part of showing respect to them as a person.
It's indeed a beautiful phrase and should be a must read for every parent on a journey to raise healthy, emotionally stable and intelligent children.
I was verbally abused as a child, especially by my father, because he felt I was not as brilliant as he wanted me to be and you could bet that this impacted on me negatively. I started believing that I could never measure up. This thought trailed my path and I performed so badly until I went to live with my mother who was the direct opposite of my dad. Then the improvement was noticeable until I came out tops, in my class.
Children would always reflect, in words and actions, what they see and what they are taught by their parents/wards.
Thank you for sharing this masterpiece.
I can see how the power of suggestion worked in your life. Lucky you have your mom. She showed the respect and love you deserve from a parent.
Most people think that the fact that a child is still little means that the child cannot be able to say something that is reasonable and that’s why they don’t want so many children to be heard
That book seem reasonable
Yeah. I am learning a lot about teaching and parenting from this book. This is a must read for every parent. I read What to Expect When You're Expecting when I was pregnant. Though that was helpful to me during the pregnancy, I wish I had met Charlotte Mason's books during those times too.
This article is great and I have learnt one or two. Children deserves our respect too and should not be treated as trash, we should allow them thrive in their personalities, by not imposing our own will on them.
Children are people who deserve our respect and consideration. We should always present them with challenges that push them to think and become analytical people. Each individual is unique and should be treated as such. Interesting reflection.
I want to say here that it is also important to take the opinion of children because sometimes they give such advice that it is very special for life, so every person when he grows up, his words must be important. Should be given.