Fight the Dragon You Were Sent to Fight

 "Then the Red Cross Knight saw that a little path led up the distant mountain to that city, and he said, "I thought that the fairest palace in the world was the crystal tower in the city of the Fairy Queen. Now I see a palace far more lovely. Una and I should go there at once.

But the old hermit said, "The Fairy Queen has sent you to do brave deeds in this world. That high City that you see is in another world. Before you climb the path to it and hang your shield on its wall, go down into the valley and fight the dragon that you were sent to fight." 
St. George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodges, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman

Apparently, the legend of St. George and the Dragon is an old one "going back to the 7th century at least," but Margaret Hodges based her beautiful narrative on Edmund Spencer's The Faerie Queen which began to be published in 1590.

This passage has stayed in my mind ever since I first read it. 

I've been learning a lot about dragons recently. I was unfortunately brought up sheltered from them. I don't identify fully with Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I see now that I was also brought up with the wrong books:

"Most of us know what we should expect to find in a dragon's lair, but, as I said before, Eustace had read only the wrong books. They had a lot to say about exports and imports and governments and drains, but they were weak on dragons." 

The first time I heard someone talk about the value of fairy tales for children, I was skeptical. And then I read some old fairy tales, and I was even more skeptical. And then I heard some more arguments (including this fabulous talk by Angelina Stanford), and I decided to read a few to my children. I was still not fully sure I was doing the right thing so I was careful to not read any too gruesome ones at first. But let me tell you, I was amazed. To say that they loved these old stories in 100 year old English in a dusty, hardcover book with zero illustrations (at 5 and 4) is to say the least.

C.S. Lewis says this (as quoted in this article - which I highly recommend):
"But in making this objection, some mean that 'we must try to keep out of [the child's] mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.' But we are born into a world like that, and hiding it from children actually handicaps them. 'Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage...Let there be wicked kings and beheadings, battles and dungeons, giants and dragons, and let villains be soundly killed at the end of the book'"

St. George and the Dragon is one of the most wonderful examples of what C.S. Lewis was referring to. The power in the message of this book leaves us speechless - and I'm not just referring to the children here. "Before you climb to [that high city] and hang your shield on its wall, go down into the valley and fight the dragon you were sent to fight."

I've been quoting this to myself all week, folks. Every time I had to clean up another round of dishes; get up and discipline another child; sweep the floor again; wipe the spots off my white, tile floor; help my husband address envelopes... this is what I've been thinking about. 

"Fight the dragon you were sent to fight."

Back to the Classics Challenge

I just found out about this challenge from Books and Chocolate and I'm excited to participate.

All books must have been written at least 50 years ago; therefore, books must have been written by 1967 to qualify. See all the rules at Books and Chocolate and join me! Watch for me to write about each of these books this year. :)

I haven't actually nailed down which titles I will use for each so watch for this post to be updated as I figure it out. (It is permitted to shuffle books into different slots later if need be.)

1.  A 19th century classic - I'm sure I'll find something to fit this slot.

2.  A 20th century classic - The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis (1945)

3.  A classic by a woman author. Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852)

4.  A classic in translation.  Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1830)

5.  A classic published before 1800. Book I of Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene (1590)

6.  A romance classic. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811)

7.  A Gothic or horror classic. I'm not sure what I'm putting here. I did look at the list linked to for inspiration and discovered that I've actually read two gothic novels in the last couple years (Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey). I just finished Northanger Abbey. That doesn't count. Shoot. I'm thinking either Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. My husband just read that one and told me I should read it. We'll see.

8.  A classic with a number in the title. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859)

9.  A classic about an animal or which includes the name of an animal in the title.  Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851)

10. A classic set in a place you'd like to visit. Sir Gibbie by George MacDonald (1879). Scotland!

11. An award-winning classic. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (1931) winner of the Pulitzer Prize

12. A Russian classic. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1880)

I also learned of Tim Challies' challenge and am intrigued (but I already have 30 books in my currently reading pile so we'll see if I come back around to this one).

Little Helper

My son very proudly brought me his shoes just as I asked him to.

"My shoes had sand all over them, Mom!"

"Oh."

"But I got it off."

"So now it's all over the bedroom floor?"

"Yep!" (Big smile.)

The Shepherd King - as contrasted with the tyrant king

Almost every night, we pray and sing hymns before the kids go to bed. When in it's full version, each child gets to choose a hymn. Out of the blue the other evening, my daughter said, "What was that "king one," Mom?" 

"King one? Have we sung it before bed before?"
"Yeah, awhile ago."
"We Three Kings?"
"Yeah! I used to know all the words!"

I know that many will think this is just awful, but I'm okay with breaking out the Christmas carols on October 29. I think I've usually waited until November 1, but what's a few days? :)

The irony of it all is that I just studied Matthew 2 last week. I had no thoughts of Christmas when I began studying Matthew, but the timing was beautiful.

Here Herod the King is noticeably concerned over some tidings from some eastern visitors. Their claim that a Jewish king had been born has him summoning all of the chief priests and scribes to learn more about this.

Do you know what strikes me? The wise men said a king was born. Herod asked about where the Christ was to be born. He was immediately concerned that the Messiah had come. He immediately began plans to destroy this baby. How often do you think Herod sat in fear of his kingdom being ripped from him? 

My thoughts immediately go to "The Sword of Damocles." Damocles was a Greek who was given the opportunity to be king for a day, but before allowing him the privilege, the tyrannical king Dionysius had a sword hung from the ceiling by a horse hair. Damocles was enjoying himself immensely until he looked up. To Dionysius, being king meant a life of constant fear that others would want his power. 

And how do rulers act when they're living in fear? They're tyrants. The tyrant knows that if everyone else wants his power half as much as he does, he's in real danger. He thinks that if he can somehow get everyone else lower than him... if he can keep everyone else afraid enough of him... then he will stop being afraid and start feeling secure.

Fear is a terrible thing to base authority on.

Contrast that with Jesus.

"for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel."

What's the opposite of a tyrant? What's the opposite of someone who spends every effort to crush everyone around him? Perhaps we might think of someone who spends every effort to take care of every last one under his care. Perhaps we might think of a shepherd.

What does a shepherd do?

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
    He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
    He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever. (Psalm 23)

What did Herod do? He killed all of the boys 2 years old and younger. Having two of those sleeping in their bedrooms as you read that makes it hit a little closer to home.

But what does the shepherd do?

He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
    he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
    and gently lead those that are with young. (Isaiah 40:11)

That verse the scribes quoted came from Micah 5. When I read the rest of that passage, I was just so amazed at the contrast to the storyline in Matthew 2.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
 And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:4-5)

Here’s hope for the tyrant. Here’s hope for the mama who just lost her babies. Where is peace and security to be found?

“He shall be their peace.”

Jesus came as the shepherd king - not the tyrant king. He came humbly - as a child under the protection of his earthly father. But earthly kings still had no dominion over him. Herod stood no chance to destroy him. Jesus is who deserves all of our worship and praise - all of our elaborate, impractical worship.

The Most Important Recognition of Every Educator

As I write this, I'm actually just trying to figure out how to motivate the whole world to go read this one chapter that Charlotte Mason wrote. Here Charlotte Mason points us to one of the most amazing metaphors education and how God works through the minds of men. She then takes that metaphor and applies it directly to our hearts as parents and educators. Honestly, it won't take you long. I read it out loud to my husband while he stood in the kitchen. He was just as awed as I was.

Have I convinced you yet?

Here's a link. 

Here are some snippets:

"In the things of science, in the things of art, in the things of practical everyday life, his God doth instruct him and doth teach him, her God doth instruct her and doth teach her. Let this be the mother's key to the whole of the education of each boy and each girl; not of her children; the Divine Spirit does not work with nouns of multitude, but with each single child...

...His God doth instruct him and doth teach him. Let the mother visualize the thought as an illuminated scroll about her newborn child, and let her never contemplate any kind of instruction for her child except under the sense of the divine co-operation....

...Suppose we are willing to make this great recognition, to engage ourselves to accept and invite the daily, hourly, incessant co-operation of the divine Spirit, in, to put it definitely and plainly, the schoolroom work of our children, how must we shape our own conduct to make this co-operation active, or even possible? We are told that the Spirit is life; therefore, that which is dead, dry as dust, mere bare bones, can have no affinity with Him, can do no other than smother and deaden his vitalising influences. A first condition of this vitalising teaching is that all the thought we offer to our children shall be living thought; no mere dry summaries of facts will do; given the vitalising idea, children will readily hang the mere facts upon a peg capable of sustaining all that is needful to retain. We begin by believing in the children as spiritual beings of unmeasured powers - intellectual, moral, spiritual - capable of receiving and constantly enjoying intuitions from the intimate converse of the Divine Spirit."

This has me thinking about so many things. First and foremost is that recognition that this training and educating of my children is really not all on me. Incidentally, I read a section from Sarah Mackenzie's book Teaching From Rest just yesterday.

"We must drop the self-inflated view that we are the be-all and end-all of whether the education we offer our children is going to work out. We are too quick to feel both the successes and the failures of our job as homeschoolers. Our kids test well on the SAT and we pat ourselves on the back. They are miserable writers and we scourge ourselves for failing them. But He never demands that we produce prodigies or achieve what the world would recognize as excellence. Rather, he asks us to live excellently - that is to, live in simple, obedient faith and trust. He asks us to faithfully commit every day to Him and then to do that day's tasks well. He's in charge of the results....

....Because whether or not he becomes an excellent writer or a proficient mathematician is not your business to worry over. Your business is that single assignment today and loving him through it."

And here Sarah hints at what is required of me. It's the same lesson God's been trying to teach me over and over again the last few years. What's my part? To be faithful.

Come to think of it it's the same lesson God's been trying to teach His people from the beginning. 

Here are some of the best words on education ever written:

"Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children - how on the day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, 'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so." (Deuteronomy 4:9-10)

Watch yourselves carefully. Be diligent. Be faithful. The rest of he work is His.

"...that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth..." (Deuteronomy 8:16-17)

I'm just here to be the gardener. I can cultivate the plants, but I can't make them grow. I can provide nutrients and healthy soil and I can water. God is the instructor. Not me. But I am responsible for providing a living, active, vitalising atmosphere of education. My children are their own persons with a God who loves them and will instruct and teach them.

Lord, please create a clean heart in me. Please do a work in my soul. Please make this home a place that breathes life, a place of peace and rest, a place of remembering. Teach us to fear You. Teach us true humility. It's all Yours.

I love you to the moon...

When putting my 2 year old to bed, I said, "I love you to the moon."

He said, "I love you to the moon and back."

I said, "I love you to the sun."

He said, "I love you to the moon and back."

I said, "Do you love me to the sun?"

He said, "No. Just to the moon and back."

What a guy.

Narration - Thoughts from Charlotte Mason

As promised, I'm here to offer a brief introduction to narration. I feel like it's such a tricky thing to talk about. Because on one hand, it's so very simple and I don't want it to sound anymore complicated than it is. But on the other hand, there is so much to be said and I know I could never adequately cover it all. 

Narration is so very simple. You read a story and then you say, "Can you tell me back what we just read?" The child then tells the story back again. It is such a simple, powerful tool. 

We started practicing narration this summer in preparation for this school year. I had heard from a few different places that Aesop's fables were a great starting point. They're short (so they're easier to remember) and they tell complete stories (so it's much easier for a child to figure out what to tell).

After we finished reading it, I asked my daughter to tell the story back to me. And let me just paint an accurate picture for you: she absolutely hated it. She fought me very hard and in no way wanted to do it. I wasn't surprised by this. I know my daughter's personality. And I'd heard of this happening from others. 

Let me just pause right here and let you in on a secret. Narration is really hard - especially if you've never done it before. Right after I started doing it with my daughter, I started doing it for myself. I've always struggled to listen to Audiobooks. I used to say it was because I wasn't an auditory learner. Now, I've had to admit that it's really that I lack that "Habit of Attention." My mind wanders and I don't take any control over it. 

So I started listening to a couple Audiobooks (You were wondering how I manage to read all those books in the sidebar and clean my house, weren't you?). In the beginning, I paused the recording after every 5 minutes and made myself tell back what I had heard. 

Guess what! It works. And now I can get my house clean and my reading done at the same time. I'm so thankful.

Why does it work? I think there are a lot of reasons, but there are 3 that come to mind for me. First of all, starting with short sections is really vital. From the beginning I could pay attention for a short time. I've had to work to discipline my mind to keep paying attention. Setting the clock for 5 minutes gave me a manageable goal. Surely I can pay attention for 5 minutes at my age!! As I've continued to work on it, I've been able to lengthen that time.

Second, knowing that I was going to have to narrate helped me force my mind to pay attention. That accountability is vital. I've noticed that every time I start a new book I still have to work a bit harder in the beginning. But once I get into the book, I don't struggle nearly as much. 

The third reason starts to get into the power of narration itself. There's a quote I remember from a student in one of Charlotte Mason's PNEU schools. She said, "We narrate and then we know." I've found that to be so true. If all I do is just listen to the reading and then go onto the next thing, most of what I heard dissipates. But if I force myself to stop and process it in some way, it stays with me. I've been listening to Northanger Abbey on Audiobook. I started the book weeks ago (forcing myself to read this novel slowly). But I can still tell you what happened in each chapter. It's taking up residence in a deeper part of my soul.

Of course the same is true whether I read the words on a page or listen to the Audiobook. We have to stop and process the information somehow. This is something humans do naturally. Stop and think about the things that excite you the most. What's something you've learned and felt a passion for? Did you keep it to yourself? No, you went and found the next soul (willing or not) to tell all about it. And what happens after you tell something a few times? You know it.

So what did I tell my daughter when she didn't understand why she had to do this whole narration thing? I told her it was practice for telling stories (because it is). A fancy term for narration is "Oral Composition." Eventually, my daughter will be writing some of her narrations down. She will get all kinds of practice with Written Composition. But she's currently 6 years old. That means that her writing skills are in no way matched with her composition skills.

And this is why I love Charlotte Mason (Okay, it's not just this). My daughter is getting an education and grappling with big ideas - because she is perfectly capable of that. She doesn't have to wait until her fine motor skills catch up or her grammar knowledge increases. 

There's so much more I could say here. In a future post, I'm going to talk about how I take my daughter's narrations and turn them into opportunities for character development and relationship building. 

In the meantime, here's some more from the experts:

• This links directly to Charlotte Mason's short chapter on narration in her first book.
• This is a very helpful and practical guide to narration.
• Six Steps to the Narration Sequence
• Karen Glass is amazing. 
• Why you should never re-read the passage (because the habit of paying attention is crucial):
• A more thorough discussion of the single reading
• This is an article from 1924 written by someone who taught in the PNEU Schools that Charlotte Mason started.