Gillingham

The CM conference this year was, in part, a celebration of the so-called "Liberal Education for All" movement, which Charlotte Mason originally proposed in 1914 in the midst of World War I. Apparently concerned that Britain's working class was being left out of liberal education, Mason wrote that a liberal education (think liberal arts) ought to be not just a privilege of the educated and the wealthy but a right for all citizens -- by virtue of their personhood. (CM folks make a great deal of this idea of personhood: children are people, not machines). Human beings need a human education, in other words.

In any event, there's much I don't know about the original movement, but one of the ways the conference celebrated the "liberal education for all" idea was with a kind of strand focused on Charlotte Mason in the public arena -- as it tends to be an educational approach for private and home schools. It seems that the Pottsville neighborhood in Philadelphia is home to the first American Charlotte Mason public school, a charter school called Gillingham. It's a K-12 school of about 225 students, and Nicolle Hutchinson, the head of the school, was at the conference along with 4-5 of her teachers -- most of whom had no idea who Mason was before applying to work at Gillingham. Hutchinson uses a kind of translated CM language: "relational education" instead of CM, "retelling" instead of narration. They don't send home letter grades, but teacher's write narratives of their students' progress, and students themselves narrate orally what they've learned in parent-teacher conferences. Instead of point systems and demerits, they use something called "restorative practices". Their music education is based on the Kodály Method -- they taught us to do this song:

So it's a challenge, translating a Christian educational philosophy to a non-sectarian environment, but the bigger challenge is actually making CM square with the high-stakes testing regime of our current public educational system. CM values narration -- which can't be done on a multiple choice test. CM values showing what you know, while tests tend to shame you for what you don't know. CM values connections between ideas, joining what Mason called the "Great Conversation;" the tests value discrete, factual knowledge. CM values lifelong learning -- learning as delight, pleasure, joy, curiosity -- the high stakes testing regime is predicated on global competition, by which I think they mean ready participants in the new global working class. 

Anyhow, Gillingham has 5 years to prove that they are doing good work, and the proof will be in the test scores. 

Still from the stories they told, these challenges are very much worth facing. Students who had always hated school weeping on the last day because they don't want to leave. Teachers who love what they do and get to do what they love. 

I know there are problems with the charter school movement, but all of this is nevertheless exciting to us, because I think the Mason approach combats the quantification craze in helpful ways. It's a movement -- probably like Waldorf and Montessori -- that a century after it first coalesced is again relevant. Education can be joyful, delightful, a place of rest and wonder instead. 

Tom

Growing up with Technology

Growing up with Technology: Helping Children Resist the Seduction of the Mediated Experience
A Lecture by Dr. Lowell Monke, PhD

Last week Hubry and I went to the annual Charlotte Mason conference, and while there we had the pleasure of attending a lecture about technology in our homes by Dr. Lowell Monke.  Monke has been researching this topic and presenting his ideas for over 30 years now, mostly to crowds who champion the Waldorf school movement.  Most recently he's been in communication with some Charlotte Mason folk and made his debut conference appearance this past week at Gardner Webb University.  I have a feeling, after his standing ovation (which was actually not that unusual at this conference), that he'll be asked to return and continue the dialogue about the effects of technology on our society and what to do about it.  This is my effort to narrate his talk, as I hope to continue to engage with these ideas in the future.

Monke began his talk with a distinction: technology doesn't work the same way for both children and adults.  Children are in the process of developing their internal capacities, and for them technology can easily become a substitute for first-hand experiences.  Whereas adults have already built up a library of first-hand experiences, allowing technology to enhance (rather than replace) their internal capacities.  There has been a substantial change in childhood over the past 60 years - within 2 generations, children have shifted from having mostly first-hand experiences to having mostly representational experiences mainly through screens.

Monke says that first-hand experiences create schema in our brains, allowing us to later make sense of symbols.  When children experience symbolic representations for things they don't already have first-hand experiences with a number of things can begin to happen.
1. They can make mistakes and have trouble with comprehension
2. They can end up feeling and caring less because they aren't actually interacting with real things
3. There may experience "delight" to a lesser extent (It's almost impossible to delight in symbols to the same extent we can delight in real objects and experiences)
4. They can assume ownership or "first-hand" experience with things they only have symbolic experience with (for example, saying they've been to China b/c they watched a movie called Wild China).

The next part of his talk deals with our "souls" (albeit in a broad sense of the word), and it was my favorite part.  He begins with this quote, "It's like eating the menu instead of the meal... No one ever prays over the menu."  Symbols can not inspire soulful capacities such as love, kindness, compassion, etc.  Charlotte Mason actually has a great quote about this in reference to citizenship. (Look-up later)

Monke says that community may be suffering more than anything else.  "Disembodied, abstract information allows us to learn anytime, anyplace, from anybody."  It makes it less likely that our kids will feel like they belong to anybody or any real community.  As a result, many children are experiencing a deep numbness.  If one of the main goals of education should be to sharpen our senses, then the opposite is happening when on average our children spend between 8 and 10 hours behind a screen a day (a statistic from some big research group, but I forgot to write it down).

According to Monke, all evidence indicates that social media also has an alienating impact primarily due to the fact that it is barren to intimacy and real community.  Social media teaches our children to receive temporary enjoyment out of what they can get from others, instead of how they can be with others first-hand, which leaves them stunted in their growth.  This is a toxic social environment seducing us with its lure of easy external power, and convincing us that there's truly a way to have community and avoid pain.

And here's the kicker for adults.  Monke says that our culture (and us as parents in particular) model for our children that there's some powerful external tool (phone, facebook, computer) that will fix our problems, but more often than not it's not God that they are seeing as the solution.

So what we can we do?  He offers 3 general recommendations (though he offers more specific data and advice in some of his essays and books if you're interested).
1. A Personal Recommendation - Model the behavior we expect to see in our kids (especially when it comes to frequency and duration that we are spending on our devices).  Show your children that technology is meant to enhance, not replace rich, first-hand experiences
2. A Recommendation for Parents and Teachers - Help our children to rely on their inner capacities and feed their hunger for quality, first-hand experiences as much as possible
3. Conceptual Recommendation - As a society we must stop looking at education as machinery and pierce through the worldview that children are machines.  

After his talk, someone asked how he's been received by the public at large.  Sure, these ideas are applauded by the Waldorf and Mason communities, but what does the rest of society have to say about them?  His response was marked: at first he was largely ignored - even scorned. But now, 2 generations into technology, something very interesting has begun to happen.  It is the children who are beginning to ask what they can do about their parents "always on their phones and computers."  It is the children who have been missing time with their parents, feeling unsafe in the car, and wanting to see a societal pull away from technology. Now when he goes to speak to different groups of people, including children, they are the ones who notice that something isn't right.  And so he's beginning to see a glimmer of hope...
(Kelly)

SEVEN

Your first day of life

Your first trip to the beach the Summer after you turned 1 - not sure what you think...

Helping to water the plants at Apt. D when you were 2

When you were 3, outside Brandon Oaks with the Jesus Storybook Bible

Just before you turned 4,  gathering flowers at Grandmom Okie's Saluda house

Your sweet baptism at Res Pres - just after you turned 5

Conquering a mile-long hike up a mountain at Acadia, a few weeks before leaving Maine

SEVEN!

The birthday cookie you decorated 

Dear Songbird,
Aida Song, Aida Song,
Sent as a gift from heaven.
Long and pink, don't you think,
Born on May the 11th...
Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow,
Bloom and grow forever.
Aida Song, Aida Song,
Sent as a gift from heaven...

I think it was BMA who originally penned this song for you shortly after you came home from the hospital?, but either way it has become our sweet lullaby, and whenever you are feeling the pressures of this world wrap around you, you ask me to hug you and sing this song.  And, because you like the Sound of Music so much, you have recently started adding in the echoes (which is super sweet).

I was reading the letter I wrote for you last year when you turned 6, and was almost surprised to remember all of the stomach issues you had been struggling with.  I am surprised in a very good way, because you haven't been having any stomach issues in a long time - I can't even think of the last time you were doubled over on the couch in pain.  I am feeling so thankful for this.

You are still our little naturalist.  This year we have been studying birds for school, and you have become such a keen observer - finding nests all around and keeping a close eye on the eggs and babies.  When we went camping a few weeks ago a pileated woodpecker came to a nearby stump and you spotted him right off - alerting the rest of us.  It is so fun to take such joy together.  You are still learning more and more wildflowers, and after Papa or I teach you the name of a new plant you always remember it the first time (whereas it takes me lots of looking things up in our field-guides to remember them).

You have been off and on sad recently.  You told me you missed our runs together in Maine (which were through paths and fields and involved passing many berries and flowers), and you told Papa just last night that you missed the walks you used to take together in Maine to hunt for worms.  I feel sad about this, too, as it was so easy where we lived in Maine to walk through fields, forests and streams.  I loved our house there, and many times you and Bro lament about not having woods in our backyard "like we did in Maine."  But moving is such an adjustment, and we are trying to figure all of this out - learning to live in a neighborhood, and enjoying other things less natural (like the free pool!)

It has been fun to watch you with the bunnies - you observe them and know them so well.  You love to feed them and hold them, and you seem to know what they're thinking and help to interpret it for us :)  You stayed up late last night helping Papa to build the new cages, and you couldn't settle in for bed until you'd seen them all safely separated in their own cages.

A few days ago I had to take you to the mall to exchange a dress you'd been given for your birthday.  It was a complete disaster - it was 6:00 in the evening, you were hungry and sleepy and definitely not up for walking through a crowded department store and trying on different sized dresses.  You finally had a complete meltdown, and after successfully exchanging the dress (which is beautiful, by the way), I had to drag you out of the mall with you crying (wailing) the entire way behind me.  I'm sure I thought at least once that you were seven now and 7 year-old don't throw fits in public anymore - right???

Contrast that to a few days later when we drove out to a small farm to pick strawberries.  It was just me with all three of you, and I'm always a bit nervous navigating something new by myself, but you were so strong and capable - picking a gallon of good strawberries on your own, carrying two full buckets, riding in the front of the tractor.  I was able to have free hands to hold Eliza and help her around, and before we left you discovered an Eastern Bluebird nest with 2 super cute baby birds in it.   On the drive home I thought it was the first time berry picking that we had fun together AND got a lot accomplished.

Papa and I call you a little mountain woman, and we pray you will grow in grace for all those social situations where you aren't allowed to run free and wild :)  We love you Aida Song Okie.  You have been and continue to be such a gift to us.  Happy Birthday!

Amicolola Falls: The Flora

                        Iris Cristata (Crested Dwarf Iris) 

Trillium recurvatum (Bloody butcher or Prairie trillium)

Geranium maculatum, (spotted geranium, wood geranium, or wild geranium)

Stellaria pubera (star chickweed)

Thalictrum thalictroides (Rue-anemone)

Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)

Erigeron philadelphicus (Common Fleabane)

Arisaema triphyllum (jack-in-the-pulpit)

Amicolola Falls: The Raptors

The Park was having a Saturday afternoon raptor show in the lodge lobby, so of course we planned on attending.  It was pretty amazing to see so many different raptors up close and personal, and to feel the breeze from their wings as they tried to fly away.  All the birds were rescued, and none of them will be released again to the wild.

Barred Owl

Great Horned Owl

Barn Owl

American Kestrel

Eastern Screech Owl

Red-Tailed Hawk

Amicolola Falls: The Creatures

For my birthday we went camping at Amicolola Falls, a state park neither Hubry nor I had ever visited before.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect (though a bit nippy in the morning hours), and the park was full of flowers, butterflies, and other creatures.  These are some of my favorite finds.

FIVE

Five is a mile marker.  I remember feeling this way when Sister turned five, and now I feel the same as I reflect over your childhood.  Not that you aren't a kid anymore, but you are a bigger, school-aged kid now.  Maybe because all of your siblings' birthdays happen at the end of the school-year, 5 seems like a more significant marker to me.  Either way, I can see it in the way your body has grown taller and your face less boyish.  I can see it in your independence and confidence.  I can see it when you interact with other people outside our family.

So much has changed in this last year.  You have grown just as eager as Songbird to do "school."  You love to listen to good stories, to paint and create beautiful pictures.  You are learning to read short sentences and small books.  You love understanding how things work.  This morning you looked up at the ceiling and asked if the upstairs was above our heads.  I said, "Yes, of course!"  Then you walked all around the downstairs trying to figure out where each room above us was.  You weren't satisfied until you had the whole floor plan completely mapped out.  That's how you are - you love figuring things out and knowing them well.

When I decided to send you to Masters Academy with sister this past Fall, I wasn't sure you were ready.  Every time I dropped you off we had this ritual of you clinging to me, me gently pushing you away, you running back after me (with a big smile on your face).  Then one day I was really sick and could barely get out of the car to walk you in.  I said you were going to have to be brave, and you looked at me and gave me a kiss and a hug, and walked to your class.  And that was it.  Now you run down the hall ahead of me and go to your class on your own, and your teachers marvel at how much you can remember, and how "ready" you are for school (you smile at this, too).

You love learning, you adore both of your sisters, you love swords and bows and arrows, knights and Indians, and you want to have things exactly right when you play dress-up and pretend.  This can be hurtful to others around you sometimes, and we are working on accepting gifts and love from others when they are not just the way you want them to be.

I feel like recently I've seen a sweet softening of your heart, and I was even blessed to overhear you tell Aida you wanted to be baptized on Easter Sunday.  You haven't talked to us about this yet (and Easter is already past), but I'm praying that the Lord would give you eyes to see His love for you and his people.  

For your birthday you wanted a cake that really looked like a castle.  I found these awesome grey pebble chocolates that we used for the walls.  Aside from finding the oven turned up to 500 degrees and burning 1/4 of the cake, the part we salvaged actually turned out tasting alright.  I'm considering a second career in cake decorating :)  It was such a mess I just gave it to you and let you do what you wanted with it (and you were very enthusiastic about the decorating).

For your party you wanted the Maphets, and bows and arrows, so Papa did some research and came up with a good plan.  After making bows and arrows, you had a tournament of sorts - seeing who could shoot the furthest, who could shoot on target, and who could balance over the fire pit.  It was a lot of fun, and we were surprised how engaging it was.