“Now, no one can employ leisure fitly whose mind is not brought into active play every day; the small affairs of a man’s own life supply no intellectual food and but small and monotonous intellectual exercise. Science, history, philosophy, literature, must no longer be the luxuries of the ‘educated’ classes; all classes must be educated and sit down to these things of the mind as they do to their daily bread. History must afford its pageants, science its wonders, literature its intimacies, philosophy its speculations, religion its assurances to every man, and his education must have prepared him for wanderings in these realms of gold.”
-Charlotte Mason, A Philosophy of Education
Form IV Student Experience
Students are wandering in the “realms of gold” as they continue their broad and liberal education. From beginning to manage their own schedules and coursework, to taking on more responsibilities at home and in the world around them, students in 9th-12th grades are growing in their independence and encountering more complex ideas than during the younger years.
In the context of their classes, Form IV students are building the skills of critical thinking, engaging “mind to mind” and forming relationships with great authors, thinkers, artists, poets and others through living books, and reading challenging material through essays, speeches, and other primary source documents. In response to a cultivated habit of attention, students respond to knowledge with increased opportunities to write more comprehensive narratives and essays or slowing down to “make entries into a Commonplace Book, of whose literary force or beauty have particularly appealed to them.” (Nesbitt, D.N.H. The Teaching of History, Parents Review). At this stage, narrations move from simple retellings to a variety of more robust writings.
In School Education, Mason expands upon the idea of narration for older students:
Other Ways of Using Books.––But this is only one way to use books: others are to enumerate the statements in a given paragraph or chapter; to analyse a chapter, to divide it into paragraphs under proper headings, to tabulate and classify series; to trace cause to consequence and consequence to cause; to discern character and perceive how character and circumstance interact; to get lessons of life and conduct, or the living knowledge which makes for science, out of books; all this is possible for school boys and girls, and until they have begun to use books for themselves in such ways, they can hardly be said to have begun their education.
Charlotte Mason states in Principle 19,
“…children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them.” Older students are thus, encouraged to think for themselves as they discuss various viewpoints or conflicting ideas. Parents and teachers must try to give a direction to their thoughts without in any way forcing their opinions upon them.
During the students time in Form IV, they will have more time engaging in the “Grand Conversation” of conversing with other students, thus learning how to engage in discourse with teachers and students through small group discussions and presentations, as well as formulate and express well-thought out opinions based on knowledge acquired and character developed.
Time is spent reading a wide breadth of coursework while also having restful learning experiences characterized by schole. While the coursework is more demanding and time consuming, two anchors keep students engaged and invigorated – a sense of wonder through living books and things that awaken the senses – such as masterpieces of art, demonstrations or enrichment materials and secondly, a trusted teacher who acts as a “guide, philosopher and friend”. As students transition to young adulthood and work independently they are never alone isolation. The parent or teacher are afforded the gift of deepened relationships with students through lively conversations and at times, debates.