Magnanimous Academy

 

Earlier today I posted about our science plans for the 2023-2024 school year (check them out here!) - in this post I will share our plans for several of the Knowledge of Man topics that we will cover in a small group.

In all of my previous planning posts you'll notice how I share school subjects under one of three main topics: Knowledge of God, Knowledge of Man, and Knowledge of the Universe. Chapter 10 of Volume 6 has these three broad categories and all their subjects listed with advice and instruction. Even though Charlotte Mason wrote these over 100 years ago, the principles remain the same! They are "captain ideas" for the education of man. Even Aristotle grouped education in this way! (Read about my plans and the three categories here.)

When I read through Volume 6 this year I was inspired to create a class for middle school where we could really dive deep into discussions and a love of learning to build our character and "magnanimity!" (I still stumble over speaking the word out loud!)

"It is a mistake, perhaps, to think that, to do one thing well, we must just do and think about that and nothing else all the time. It is our business to know all we can and to spend a part of our lives in increasing our knowledge of Nature and Art, of Literature and Man, of the Past and the Present. That is one way in which we become greater persons, and the more a person is, the better he will do whatever piece of special work falls to his share. Let us have, like Leonardo, a spirit 'invariably royal and magnanimous.'" and "Upon the knowledge of these great matters––History, Literature, Nature, Science, Art––the Mind feeds and grows. It assimilates such knowledge as the body assimilates food, and the person becomes what is called magnanimous, that is, a person of great mind, wide interests, incapable of occupying himself much about petty, personal matters. What a pity to lose sight of such a possibility for the sake of miserable scraps of information about persons and things that have little connection with one another and little connection with ourselves!" -Volume 4 (emphasis and italics added)

There are so many beautiful conversations to be had as we grow in knowledge through these "great matters!" I'm excited to have several of Christian and Eva Mae's friends to join us on the adventure of history, literature, and more.

The topics we will be covering are:
Christian living: We will be reading through Charlotte Mason's book Ourselves which she wrote for students to think about character and the heart set apart for service to God. She uses the term Mansoul throughout this book as a reference to the John Bunyan allegory Holy War. In our first session we will also read some poetry from the Holy War. I also love the way Brandon Withrow writes in his Church History books so we will spend the first semester reading the chapter on John Wesley and Elizabeth Fry.

History: I love TN History For Kids and the way Bill Carey writes to students. We will be going through the booklet Free and Independent State this year. Students will also be bringing their Book of Centuries to share entries from their previous lessons at home. I look forward to hearing what students are learning in their lessons and this will be a great time to share some narrations.

Poetry: We have a habit of reading poetry and reciting every school year. We will also spend time on the life and history/historical time of the poet. Our first semester will be Tennyson and Chaucer. We'll try our hand at reading Old English!

Latin: Speaking of languages, Latin has been one of our favorite subjects the past several years. There are so many rules to memorize in order to decline your nouns and conjugate your verbs. I will work a little on that during our class but I want us to have some fun by spending more time on vocabulary, derivatives, and trying our hand at translating some Aesop Fables written in Latin! Canon Press has a great Latin program here: https://canonpress.com/products/storybook-latin-year-1-package/ I feel like you as a teacher need to know Latin in order to teach it. It's not that user friendly, but if you understand how the language works (and also how English grammar fits in with the noun declension!) there are ways for your students to get a lot out of this program!

Plutarch: In our previous study of a Greek or Roman life by Plutarch, the discussion was our favorite part! Sometimes the language of the translation hindered the understanding. For that reason I am using stories written by Rosalie Kauffman and F.J. Gould to tell Plutarch's story of Fabius Maximus in order to hear what the children think of his leadership. I'll also use some of the guidance of Anne White's guide found here.

Shakespeare: We have learned all the comedies of Shakespeare so now it's time to move into a "problem play" which I read has a bit of tragedy and comedy. We will familiarize ourselves with the plot through a retelling and then spend several weeks looking at short phrases and even play a fun game called Playing Shakespeare. I also love this visual for the characters of the play.  Hopefully we can see the play in person this year!

Composer: We will look at the life of Mozart this semester in our small group and use some of the resources I wrote for Composer Study Companion as well as set up a field trip to a concert by the Nashville Concerto Orchestra. 

Artist: Titian is the artist we will study in the first semester and discuss his painting techniques as well as the history behind some of his paintings. I'm also looking forward to having the students make their own oil paint! It might get a little messy but even middle schoolers love some creative arts time!

This is the schedule for our first session. Something I've shared with the parents participating is that I don't want to assign any homework which is why we will be meeting each week. Also, Charlotte Mason says we should keep our lessons short "to keep them from getting into the habit of being bored.....How, if we tried the same quantity of work in one-third of the time with the interest which induces fixed attention? This would enable us to reduce working-hours by one-third, and at the same time to get in a good many more subjects, having regard to a child's real need for knowledge of many kinds: the children would not be bored, they would discover the delightfulness of knowledge, and we should all benefit, for we might hope that, instead of shutting up our books when we leave school or college, each of us, under ninety say, would have his days varied and the springs of life renewed by periods of definite study: we should all be students, the working-man as well as the man of leisure." Volume 5 pp410-411

I might have over planned for our day but I'm hopeful that these readings and discussions will make the morning fly by and give our students a passion and love for learning! Pray for me that I'll have wisdom as I lead them and that they will grow in kindness and love for one another as they develop a magnanimous spirit!