Welcome to A TRUE GOOD BEAUTIFUL LIFE podcast!
Here we will discuss all things Charlotte Mason in light of the ideas of the TRUE, the GOOD, and the BEAUTIFUL! I am your host, Jennifer Milligan, and throughout this series I will share with you how to find and cultivate various elements of TRUTH, GOODNESS and BEAUTY in our homes and classrooms through conversations with homeschooling parents and classroom teachers; interviews with experts, entrepreneurs, and artists; discussions regarding the great books, great minds, and great resources; fun travel and field trip summaries; and practices and creative experiences that embody the TRUE, the GOOD, and the BEAUTIFUL life. Over 100 years ago, British educator, Charlotte Mason, declared that, "Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life," and so today, I hope you will join me on this adventure in education.
ON THIS EPISODE
It's Fall! Time for a new season of the podcast and I have more fascinating people and ideas to share with you as the autumn leaves begin fall and as we get underway with school.
Have you ever heard of the Common Arts? Do you know what paper sloyd is? Well, if these words are new to you, or you want to know more about them, please stick around and listen to my inspiring conversation with Rose Tomassi of Martin Saints Classical High School in Oreland, Pennsylvania. She has a lot of experience incorporating these valuable arts in her school and classroom, as well as in her personal life. Some of our Favorite Resources:
COMMONPLACE QUOTES
" . . . we fancy ourselves connected, we are in fact distanced and disjointed. We're connected to the internet, but not to the soul. We're connected to networks, but not to the hearth, the kitchen, the workshop, the woods. We spend time enjoying them, but at arm's length, rather than apprehending them in our heads, hearts, and hands. We are tourists now, rather than natives." - Christopher Hall, Common Arts Education, p. 19
"The common arts are the skills that provide for basic, embodied human needs through the creation of artifacts or the provision of services. . . . The common arts formed the baseline rhythms of home and hearth around the world for millennia." - Christopher Hall, Common Arts Education, p. 19
“Man’s ability to see is in decline. Those who nowadays concern themselves with culture and education will experience this fact again and again. We do not mean here, of course, the physiological sensitivity of the human eye. We mean the spiritual capacity to perceive the visible reality as it truly is. To be sure, no human being has ever really seen everything that lies visibly in front of his eyes. The world, including its tangible side, is unfathomable. Who would ever have perfectly perceived the countless shapes and shades of just one wave swelling and ebbing in the ocean! And yet, there are degrees of perception. Going below a certain bottom line quite obviously will endanger the integrity of man as a spiritual being. It seems that nowadays we have arrived at this bottom line.” —Josef Pieper, “Learning How to See Again”, Only the Lover Sings, pg. 31
“Again we know that the human hand hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day perhaps, we shall see apprenticeship to trades revived and good and beautiful work enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each shall "live his life"; and that, not at his neighbor's expense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbor as well as himself; we all thrive in the well being of each.” - Charlotte Mason, Volume 6: Philosophy of Education, p. 328
. . . give a child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information . . . - Charlotte Mason, Volume 1: Home Education, p. 174
APPLICATION
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Pick something from your History or Literature class and have your class practice it -- such as baking cookies from the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book, taste-testing different flavors of Turkish Delight from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, learning how to weave while reading The Odyssey, grow seedlings by the window or under grow lights as you read The Secret Garden, practice illumination as you study Medieval History, put on a play as you read through Shakespeare, churn your own butter with a Mason jar as you study U. S. Colonial History.
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At home, take a class or teach yourself how to knit or crochet. YouTube how to change a tire or replace the brakes on your bicycle. Start a Craft Circle with your homeschool group, church friends, or neighborhood and have everyone bring what they are working on or have someone teach you all something new. Try learning a new dinner recipe to try Saturday night.
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Support a local artisan by asking about their work and purchasing their designs.
