A Charlotte Mason Moment:
“Long ago, I was in the habit of hearing this axiom quoted by a philosophical old friend: – ‘The mind can know nothing save what it can produce in the form of an answer to a question put to the mind by itself.’
I have failed to trace the saying to its source, but a conviction of its importance has been growing upon me during the last forty years. It tacitly prohibits questions from without; (this does not, of course, affect the Socratic use of questioning for purposes of moral conviction); and it is necessary to intellectual certainty, to the act of knowing. For example, to secure a conversation of an incident, we ‘go over it in our minds’; that is, the mind puts itself through the process of self-questioning which I have indicated. This is what happens in the narrating of a passage read: each new consecutive incident or statement arrives because the mind asks itself, – “What next?”
For this reason it is important that only one reading should be allowed; efforts to memorize weaken the power of attention, the proper activity of the mind; if it is desirable to ask questions in order to emphasize certain points, these should be asked after and not before, or during, the act of narration.”
(Home Education by Charlotte M. Vol. 6 pp. 16-17)
This Post Has 2 Comments
I don’t know how to ask this question I have one daughter and that’s it will I still be able to do the heart of Dakota with her and she is only one child
Hi Krystal! You can absolutely do Heart of Dakota with one child! Many families do and enjoy it very much. The type of discussion mentioned here takes place between parent and child. Heart of Dakota never assumes you are homeschooling more than 1 child when writing plans, so they will always work with parent and child. If you have any other questions, please let us know!
In Christ,
Julie