Volume 1 Preface amblesideonline.org/CM/vol1complete.html The woman receives from the Spirit of God Himself the intuitions into the childs character, the capacity of appreciating its strength and its weakness, the faculty of calling forth the one and sustaining the other, in which lies the mystery of education, apart from which all its rules and measures are utterly vain and ineffectual. Part 1 I dislike Masons references to children being public trusts and property of the nation in this section. Other sources indicate that she simply wanted to make the point that parents are not free to do what they will with their children to the neglect of their education, character and future occupations. But her statements such as it is as well we should remember that the children are a national trust whose bringing up is the concern of all get under my skin and are the same arguments used for many needless government interventions. Nevertheless, that is one of the primary premises to part 1. The children are, in truth, to be regarded less as personal property than as public trusts, put into the hands of parents that they may make the very most of them for the good of society. And this responsibility is not equally divided between the parents: it is upon the mothers of the present that the future of the world depends, in even a greater degree than upon the fathers, because it is the mothers who have the sole direction of the childrens early, most impressible years. I love these thoughts about how God has qualified mothers to be the teachers of their children. The mother is qualified, says Pestalozzi, and qualified by the Creator Himself, to become the principal agent in the development of her child; ... and what is demanded of her is––a thinking love ... God has given to the child all the faculties of our nature, but the grand point remains undecided––how shall this heart, this head, these hands be employed? to whose service shall they be dedicated? A question the answer to which involves a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee. Maternal love is the first agent in education. The next section goes on to discuss how mothers should treat motherhood as an occupation. If they were preparing for any other career they would have training, apprenticeships, etc. Is it, then, that the unfolding of a human being in body and mind is so comparatively simple a process that any one may superintend and regulate it with no preparation whatever? If not––if the process is, with one exception, more complex than any in Nature, and the task of ministering to it one of the surpassing difficulty––is it not madness to make no provision for such a task!? We should prepare for motherhood, make the time to learn how to do the best we can. Some think that it is a waste of a mothers talents to leave the workplace and stay at home to raise children but what better use could our education and talents possibly be put to than raising the future generation? That is the reason God gave us these awesome gifts, motherhood is the greatest and most fulfilling job ever. Next is the discussion of masterly inactivity, a child beings to be independent and parents chief responsibility at this stage (ages 1-6) is to let them alone and provide all that is wholesome and nourishing food, books, lessons, playmates, and love. The last statement I loved (right before the whole national trust business) A great teacher amongst us never wearied of reiterating that in the Divine plan the family is the unit of the nation: not the individual, but the family. It is so true, the family always has been and always will be central to the Creators plan for the eternal destiny of His children. https://lds.org/topics/family-proclamation
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:22:28 +0000
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