When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today

by Eve Anderson

Children need generous time to run about in the fresh air; time to skip; climb, and play; time to walk on cool grass barefoot; time to dig in the earth or wade in a stream. They all need time for imaginative play—not organized games (though these have their place). In this age, many children are deprived of play at home. Perhaps they are driven in a car from home to classrooms. After school they are driven home. Maybe the parents are afraid to let them play outside in the neighborhood. So children sit and watch hours of videos and TV or play computer games rather than anything else. Children are arriving at school without having had experience with play that springs from their own imaginations. Consequently, this type of play is a great, great need—dressing up, using “props” such as boxes to make forts, anything that can enrich the scene. People respond, “But the children don’t want to play. They say they are bored.” These children need rehabilitation. One teacher packed away all the textbooks and workbooks in his inner-city classroom. Because his students were so troublesome that no one hoped much for them anymore, he was permitted to “waste” his time. Desks were pushed back; he brought in cushions and some traditional illustrated fairy-tale books. He told them they weren’t going to do schoolwork for a few days (sighs of relief and curiosity). He had some favorite stories, and he’d read them one (more relief, nobody trying to get them to do more practice on the three R’s ...