Every conscientious mother can think of a thousand ways to provide these kinds of opportunities naturally as she goes about her daily routines.-Charlotte Mason Volume 1
This quote has been swirling round and round in my head the last few weeks. What role should textbooks really play in education? No one can argue that textbooks are the absolute most uninspiring, lifeless, tiresome, string of continuous letters ever to bore humankind. Yet, this is the preferred method of educating lively, rambunctious children. I must agree with Charlotte Mason when she said that:
Too often, school texts are written in a style of insufferable twaddle. That's because the people who wrote them probably never met a real child. -Charlotte Mason
But how else will children learn if they don't read it in a textbook, fill-in-a-blank, or take a multiple choice test?
The answer is by putting our children in contact with living books. I am starting to come out of the fog. Although I've never been a heavy user of textbooks, it has been the only method of "education" I've ever known. Therefore by default I would lean on the grammar textbook or assign some pages in a history or science book so that I could feel like we "did science" or "did history".
My thinking has shifted. Instead of picking up a Biology book and reading chapter after chapter about every plant and animal known to man; I can pick up 1 good, interesting, book. My kids don't need to know every insect in the animal kingdom. They need to know the ones in their backyard. After they have come in contact with real bugs in their own backyard, I can start to explain to them about various bugs all over the world. What could does it do them to name every animal in the Amazon, when they can't name bug that just bit them? Do you know how many "science" lessons I've created by looking around my house and backyard:
Do you know how a door knob works?
What makes a door bell ring?
Why do door keys have bumps?
How does water get into the faucet?
What happens when you flush the toilet?
What makes a clock keep the right time?
What makes a light bulb light up?
How does a toaster work?
How does the fridge work?
How does the microwave heat?
Where does the sun go at night?
What kind of weeds grow in our yard?
What kind of snake is that?
What kind of rock is this?
How do you find north?
How was this bridge built?
How was this tunnel built?
What is your scapula and how did daddy break his?
How does a telephone work?
How does a television work?
How do video games work/computers work?
How does the Internet work?
etc. etc. etc.
Is this not physics, biology, chemistry, geology, geography, engineering,anatomy, etc.
Do you know much fun we've had finding out the answers to some of these questions. They could easily read any 1 textbook that will give them all the answers, but they'd never remember it. Active learning is true learning especially for younger children.
"Education is the science of relations"
"Imagine how the alert, curious mind of the child must be stifled without real things from nature to handle. Children can't fully grasp the words-mere symbols of things-until they have something real in their mind to relate it to; therefore, mere lessons without the expereince of being out in the real word with real things will be largely wasted"
