Amen…
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they work:
But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: (Exodus 20:9-10)
And as all have not faith, seek ye diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;(D & C 88:118-119).
"Love childhood, indulge its games, its pleasures, its delightful instincts....Why pave the way for future regret for yourselves by robbing them of the short span which nature has allotted them. As soon as they are aware of the joy of life, let them rejoice in it, so that whenever God calls them they may not die without having tasted the joy of life."
'General education is...a substitute for knowledge among people for whom that knowledge is too dangerous and too demanding...It creates and preserves mediocrity. It does not demand that contact with things, the piercing of man's self righteous subjectivity which is precisely the beginning of knowledge....At best it displays mountain peaks, but saves one the trouble of climbing them..........The great temptation of education is to insist that one should memorize the results of science instead of flinging open its sources"
The initial purpose of determining right and wrong headgates is that the right ones lead to love of learning, and the wrong ones lead to love of play. Love of play is a wonderful and necessary part of childhood, but children already have a love of play. We do not need to purposely provide activities for them that help keep them in perpetual childhood any longer then necessary. We're not trying to make adults out of our little children. We are trying to let them be little children while they are little children, in such a way, that they can stop being little children when they become big children. The right kind of play lands them into Love of Learning when they become old enough.
"One, they all begin with the consciousness, the mind, as the starting point of reality, as opposed to an independent existence outside the knower; two, doubt, as in the modern scientific mode, is the method of procedure to establish, if possible, certitude, or some experimental social agendas; and, three, following from number two, all these philosophies distrust, if they do not reject, the traditional view that the senses, inner and outer, are intimately integrated in the act of knowing with the will and the intellect, and have, as it were, a cognitive power in themselves, a light whose source is the illuminative energy of the mind that knows reality immediately and certainly.To summarize, then, in the spirit of Maritain: these modern philosophies stemming from Descartes all violate a primordial disposition of man, doing violence to his very nature as a specific being, who is capable of knowing his world as a whole being, integrated and entire, body and soul, recognizing unselfconsciously and spontaneously, that all is real and good. It is only when an exaggerated and isolated status of the mind is assumed, and removed from its proper integration within the knowing powers, that Descartes and his legacy gain prominence."
1. Does the fun or the thrill of the play come from the child's own brain, muscles, or voice box?A right headgate is defined as any activity you would want your children to voluntarily engage in, that would help develop their mind and direct their motivation towards wanting to read. A right headgate is determined by asking the following five questions:
5. What has become of the child after the activity is finished?
[Lehi speaking here]
7...I beheld myself that I was in a dark and dreary waste.
8And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.
9And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord I beheld a large and spacious field.
10And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy.
11And it came to pass that I did go forth and partake of the fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen.
12And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy; wherefore, I began to be desirous that my family should partake of it also; for I knew that it was desirable above all other fruit.
13And as I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also, I beheld a river of water; and it ran along, and it was near the tree of which I was partaking the fruit...
26And I also cast my eyes round about, and beheld, on the other side of the river of water, a great and spacious building; and it stood as it were in the air, high above the earth.
27And it was filled with people, both old and young, both male and female; and their manner of dress was exceedingly fine; and they were in the attitude of mocking and pointing their fingers towards those who had come at and were partaking of the fruit...
33And great was the multitude that did enter into that strange building. And after they did enter into that building they did point the finger of scorn at me and those that were partaking of the fruit also; but we heeded them not.
[Nephi speaking now to end]
34These are the words of my father: For as many as heeded them, had fallen away...
18And the large and spacious building, which thy father saw, is vain imaginations and the pride of the children of men. And a great and a terrible gulf divideth them; yea, even the word of the justice of the Eternal God, and the Messiah who is the Lamb of God, of whom the Holy Ghost beareth record, from the beginning of the world until this time, and from this time henceforth and forever...
35And the multitude of the earth was gathered together; and I beheld that they were in a large and spacious building, like unto the building which my father saw. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Behold the world and the wisdom thereof; yea, behold the house of Israel hath gathered together to fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
36And it came to pass that I saw and bear record, that the great and spacious building was the pride of the world; and it fell, and the fall thereof was exceedingly great. And the angel of the Lord spake unto me again, saying: Thus shall be the destruction of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, that shall fight against the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
"Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child's mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education. A creative fiat calls it forth, 'let him narrate'; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, so soon as he can speak with ease. This amazing gift with which normal children are born is allowed to lie fallow in their education. Bobbie will come home with a heroic narrative of a fight he has seen between 'Duke' and a dog in the street. It is wonderful! He has seen everything, and he tells everything with splendid vigour in the true epic vein; but so ingrained is our contempt for children that we see nothing in this but Bobbie's foolish childish way! Whereas here, if we have eyes to see and grace to build, is the ground-plan of his education."Also, "In every case the reading should be consecutive from a well-chosen book...this sort of narration lesson should not occupy more than a quarter of an hour."
2. I knew this from the first reading but still need to work on it: My 2 oldest (8 and 9) should be able to do more work independently.
Which brings me to referencing another book: There is a free ebook on http://simplycharlottemason.com/ called Smooth and Easy Days. In it is a quote by Charlotte Mason, "What we must guard against in the training of children is the danger of their getting into the habit of being prodded to every duty and every effort." This is from Vol. 3, p. 39, I need to read that section as I know part of my problem with my two eldest is we have fallen into that very danger. If I am not by their side every second making sure they are doing what they should be they go off on tangents. I'll have to do a bit more studying, pondering, and praying about this issue! Suggestions welcome.
Inspire Daily
...an example of poetic learning...the child...left alone,undistracted by methods and systems, so that the senses and emotions come naturally into play when being read to, where wonder and delight gradually lead the child's imagination and memory toward the imitative act of reading...the same approach can be used for the child learning to write, that is, by first simply listening to stories. Poetic experience and knowledge is essentially passive, and listening is above all the gateway, along with looking, to the poetic mode...we don't just learn about something...we simultaneously learn how we feel as we learn."
"If we, as a society as a whole, were more familiar with classic stories we would be more apt to believe in such stories/miracles and not think them "wild". All the modern stories of such a nature are recognized fiction. If our children grew up on scripture stories and Plutarch's Lives miracles and visions would be more accepted."
And...that's all for now folks!
"The brain was designed in such a way that work and accomplishment stimulate the executive center of the brain..., which...stimulates the pleasure center of the brain...Work brings satisfaction, and the desire for life satisfaction motivates people to work."
“Consider the shocking implications. The games children play are designed to bring effortless pleasure (movies and music have the same effect). Over time, this slickly produced entertainment ‘tricks’ the brain into by-passing the executive center, making it more rewarding to pursue entertainment and less rewarding to accomplish anything of value.
“Language lights up the brain…in order to trigger the use of language, both motivation (from the executive center) and arousal (from the pleasure center) are required…Language seems to be a bridge that reconnects the broken-down relationship between the executive and pleasure centers of the brain.”
"In 1923 French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed the idea that an electron, like a photon of light, could behave both as a particle and as a wave. This discovery made scientists 'giddy' again. They were used to thinking of nature's objectivity: A flower is a flower; a tree is a tree. In the quantum world, a particle is a particle sometimes and a wave sometimes."
The article goes on to explain the "Two-Slit Experiment" that german physicist Max Born conducted to test the Broglie theory. In it Born sets up three testing areas. Each area consists of a screen with two doors that can be closed with a solid panel behind the screen. Each test "shoots" something at the screen with one door closed, then the other door closed, then both doors open. The first test uses a machine gun shooting bullets, the next water waves, and the third electrons. Born made curve diagrams for each test result. The bullets are like particles and made a pattern one would expect. The water waves resulted in a pattern one would expect too. Now for the interesting part,
"Since electrons are particles, the logical expectation is that they would form a pattern like the bullet pattern. The electrons behaved like particles, like the bullets, going through the slits, but they made a pattern on the screen like the water waves. The switch from particle pattern to wave pattern made no sense.
Born Shone a light behind the slits to see what was going on. When he watched the electron particles with his light, they made a particle pattern like bullets instead of the wave pattern they made when he was not watching. Then he dimmed the light and the pattern began to look like the wave patterns again. His conclusion was that electrons are one way or the other. If anyone sees them they are particles; if no one sees them they are waves. Electrons seem to come into existence as real objects or particles only when someone observes them."
"The electron pairs in each sublevel do not revolve around the nucleus in a conventional sense...Due to the electrons size and energy level when orbiting the nucleus, the electron is in all of the possible places at once. If we were to freeze-frame the atom, we could only see where the particle is, but would have no indication of speed or direction. In short, the electron in motion is a wave of possibilities all at once, until we observe it, rendering it a stationary particle but never both at once."
"If we were to schedule school time, that would suggest to them that we have in mind some things that they ought to do before they can go do what they want to do; this would hinder the falling in love process...a child knows that their boring 'school work' is something they are 'supposed' to do, they treat it like work, and they get in 'get it done' mode...Now they look at learning with a 'minimum requirement' paradigm, instead of a 'the sky is the limit' paradigm."Okay, now for the tie in, ooooh! I'm so excited by truth connections! First of all, a quick definition. "Poetic knowledge is not necessarily a knowledge of poetry but rather a poetic (a sensory-emotional) experience of reality...it is not strictly speaking a knowledge of poems, but a spontaneous act of the external and internal senses ..it is...knowledge from the inside out, radically different in this regard from a knowledge about things. In other words, it is the opposite of scientific knowledge." The headgate system depends on the childrens "play turning into learning." Taylor states that all poetic knowledge requires a condition of leisure. Oh, yeah, did you know that, "the Greek word for leisure is skole and, in Latin, scola, which as can easily be seen, becomes school in English"? Something was definitely "lost in translation" with both the words school and leisure! Education is an atmosphere (Charlotte Mason). Free time vs. school time (The Headgate). Love of learning (TJ Ed). Wholesome recreation (Family Proclamation). All these phrases come to mind. Many of the ancients used leisure time to nurture poetic knowledge, to them it was free time and school time. I think we need to revive ancient understanding of certain terms, don't you? A love of learning was there because the atmosphere was there. I know that the principle of, "Wholesome recreation" is given as one ingredient to family happiness and success. That phrase was most likely used because most Americans no longer understand "leisure" as the rejuvenating and carefully guarded time it once was. To me there is something more noble, refreshing, and good about the ancient definition of leisure then todays idea of it. Taylor put it this way, "To be placed at a 45^ angle in a reclining chair, drink in one hand, remote control in the other, in front of the television, is not leisure but something closer to sloth of mind and body." What better way to wisely spend our properly defined leisure time then by learning via poetic knowledge? I know, for most of us, the atmosphere is not up to par but thankfully there will be more of how to go about that as we continue our study of The Headgate. Now, I wanted to keep this post brief so I tried to focus on just one area. I hope you were all able to follow me. Sheepish grin.
Other parts of this section of The Headgate that stood out to me were:
Tibbets pointed out that we need "order in the schedule." Although it does not need to be strictly adhered to or perfect it should be "productive and reliable". She goes on to say, "when a family is in survival mode, their schedule is not productive. They exist day to day, but they do not produce much of anything beyond primal needs. " As I read this the second time through I wondered: is this why Satan inspired employers with crazy work hour schedules? Now adays many out there will work a closing shift only to open the next day. My own hubbie works 12 hour shifts bouncing back and forth between night and day. There is NO consistency from week to week, although he is on a 4 wk rotation it is very hard for us to be consistant. This is an area where we could see vast improvement if he could obtain a job with a steady schedule. That may need to wait a few years though. Sigh....
