Weekends with Chesterton: Education

Over the years, I have read a number of books by G.K. Chesterton. However, since I am not currently reading anything by this great Catholic writer, I thought that I wouldn't be joining Sarah for her Weekends with Chesterton. Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen's Children and Parents caused me to change my mind. In his book, Venerable Archbishop Sheen quotes G.K. Chesterton.

Sheen explains, "By this he meant that education begins early." I will add that I think that Chesterton is also saying that education begins at home. Parents truly are the primary educators of their children.

But the men signed of the cross of Christ go gaily in the dark...

My friend, Peggy Sue, shared this with our homeschool group today.

The Ballad of the White Horse
By Dale Ahlquist

Chesterton may have considered The Ballad of the White Horse his greatest literary accomplishment. I have two reasons for saying that. First of all, it is a masterpiece. But it was the only one of his works that he felt worthy enough to dedicate to his wife. The Ballad of the White Horse is one of the last great epic poems in the English language. It deserves a high place in literature. It should be studied in depth and discussed at length and appreciated far and wide. But as is the case with most of Chesterton’s writings, too few of us have figured this out.The Ballad is the story of the English King Alfred, who fought the Danes in the year 878. But it is also the story of Christianity battling against the destructive forces of nihilism and heathenism, which is the battle we are still fighting.

At the beginning of the poem, the Blessed Virgin appears to King Alfred, and he asks her if he is going to win the upcoming battle. Her reply is not what he expects:

The gates of heaven are lightly locked,
We do not guard our gold,
Men may uproot where worlds begin,
Or read the name of the nameless sin;
But if he fail or if he win
To no good man is told.

The men of the East may spell the stars,
And times and triumphs mark,
But the men signed of the cross of Christ
Go gaily in the dark. . .

The wise men know what wicked things
Are written on the sky,
They trim sad lamps, they touch sad strings,
Hearing the heavy purple wings,
Where the forgotten seraph kings
Still plot how God shall die. . .

But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save.

I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.

Night shall be thrice night over you,
And heaven an iron cope.
Do you have joy without a cause,
Yea, faith without a hope?

The Church teaches that the two sins against hope are presumption and despair. We must not be either triumphalist or defeatist. We must not be either smug or suicidal. We do not know the outcome of the battle. We are not guaranteed victory – even if we fight for what is right. The message of this poem is that it is up to us to choose the right side, even if there is a risk that it is not the winning side. It is enough to know what we are fighting for. That is the meaning of faith and hope. That is the meaning of going “gaily in the dark.” King Alfred gets no encouraging words from Mary. And yet, strangely enough, he is encouraged. He gets naught for his comfort and naught for his desire, yet he is comforted, and emboldened in his desire to fight the foe.

Chesterton on "Keeping Christ in Christmas"

"You cannot chip away the statue of a mother from all round that of a newborn child. You cannot suspend the new-born child in mid-air; indeed you cannot really have a statue of a newborn child at all. Similarly, you cannot suspend the idea of a newborn child in the void or think of him without thinking of his mother. You cannot visit the child without visiting the mother, you cannot in common human life approach the child except through the mother. If we are to think of Christ in this aspect at all, the other idea follows I as it is followed in history. We must either leave Christ out of Christmas, or Christmas out of Christ, or we must admit, if only as we admit it in an old picture, that those holy heads are too near together for the haloes not to mingle and cross."

~The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton ~

Chesterton's Thoughts on Eugenics

from What is Eugenics?

People talk about the impatience of the populace; but sound historians know that most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late.

~ The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. IV, p. 297 ~

Chesterton's Thoughts on Christian Feasts

from The Story of the Vow

It is often said by the critics of Christian origins that certain ritual feasts, processions or dances are really of pagan origin. They might as well say that our legs are of pagan origin. Nobody ever disputed that humanity was human before it was Christian; and no Church manufactured the legs with which men walked or danced, either in a pilgrimage or a ballet. What can really be maintained, so as to carry not a little conviction, is this: that where such a Church has existed it has preserved not only the processions but the dances; not only the cathedral but the carnival. One of the chief claims of Christian civilisation is to have preserved things of pagan origin. In short, in the old religious countries men continue to dance; while in the new scientific cities they are often content to drudge. 

~ The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. IV, p. 264 ~

Chesterton's Thoughts on Family and Education

from The Story of the Family

The most vital function [the family] performs, perhaps the most vital function that anything can perform, is that of education; but its type of early education is far too essential to be mistaken for instruction.

~ The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton, Vol. IV p. 257 ~

Chesterton's Thoughts on Marriage

from The Superstition of Divorce

It is not hard to see why the vow made most freely is the vow kept most firmly. There are attached to it, by the nature of things, consequences so tremendous that no contract can offer any comparison. There is no contract, unless it be that said to be signed in blood, that can call spirits from the vasty deep; or bring cherubs (or goblins) to inhabit a small modern villa. There is no stroke of the pen which creates real bodies and souls, or makes the characters in a novel come to life. The institution that puzzles intellectuals so much can be explained by the mere material fact (perceptible even to intellectuals) that children are, generally speaking, younger than their parents. "Till death do us part" is not an irrational formula, for those will almost certainly die before they see more than half of the amazing (or alarming) thing they have done.
~ G.K. Chesterton: Collected Works, Volume IV, pp. 237-238

Chesterton's Thoughts on Education

from What's Wrong with the World

It is quaint that people talk of separating dogma from education. Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It is education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching.
~ G.K. Chesterton: Collected Works, Volume IV, p. 162

But the important point here is only that you cannot anyhow get rid of authority in education; it is not so much (as poor Conservatives say) that parental authority ought to be preserved, as that it cannot be destroyed.
~ p. 166

That is the one eternal education; to be sure enough that something is true that you dare to tell it to a child."
~ p. 167

Many a school boasts of having the last ideas in education, when it has not even the first idea; for the first idea is that even innocence, divine as it is, may learn something from experience.
~ p. 167

Today we all use Popular Education as meaning education of the people. I wish I could use it as meaning education by the people.
~ p. 167

Chesterton's Thoughts on Women

Yesterday, during my eldest daughter's piano lesson, I continued to read Chesterton's What's Wrong with the World. I found myself wanting to make note of a lot of what I was reading in his chapter, "The Emancipation of Domesticity". I was happy to finally learn where the following famous quote could be found:

How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about the Rule of Three, and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman's function is laborious, but because it is gigantic, not because it is minute.
~G.K. Chesterton: Collected Works, Volume IV, pp. 118-119

In his chapter on "The Coldness of Chloe", I could not help but think of some discussions that have taken place regarding skirt wearing. Only Chesterton could expound on skirt wearing in this way:

...a little while ago it was common for an "advanced" woman to claim the right to wear trousers; a right about as grotesque as the right to wear a false nose. Whether female liberty is much advanced by the act of wearing a skirt on each leg I do not know...It is quite certain that the skirt means female dignity, not female submission; it can be proved by the simplest of all tests. No ruler would deliberately dress up in the recognized feters of a slave; no judge would appear covered with broad arrows. But when men wish to be safely impressive, as judges, priests or kings, they do wear skirts, the long trailing robes of female dignity. The whole world is under petticoat government; for even men wear petticoats when they wish to govern.
~p. 128

In "The Pedant and the Savage", Chesterton's insights seem particularly acute for a man.;)

...the woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn't obeyed.
~p. 130

I am looking forward to reading more of this book.

Sometimes Things Happen for a Reason

A few weeks ago, I left a comment on Love2LearnMom's blog, regarding Chesterton. She recommended that I read St. Francis by Chesterton. I visited our library online (they carry quite a few Ignatius Press titles) and searched for St. Francis. A volume of G.K. Chesterton's Collected Works showed up in the search results. Assuming that this was the volume that had what I was looking for, I put the book on hold. I was surprised when my husband recently brought home The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. IV: What's Wrong with the World, Superstition of Divorce, Eugenics and Other Evils.

I looked over the book and told my husband that it wasn't the book that I had put on hold, but I was glad that he had checked it out for me. It turned out that it was the book that I had put on hold and I couldn't be more delighted. I thouroughly enjoyed Fr. Schall's introduction and now I am loving reading What's Wrong with the World.

I might be recording quite a few quotes from this book as I read it. Below are the first two:

Among the many things that leave me doubtful about the modern habit of fixing eyes on the future, none is stronger than this: that all the men in history who have really done anything with the future have had their eyes fixed upon the past.
p. 54

As my high school Western Civ teacher, Mr. Anderson, used to say, "It is necessary to study history because it is in studying history that we can learn from our past mistakes and avoid them. History often repeats itself."

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.
p. 61

Chesterton for Second Graders?

Bernadette: "Mommy, please will you put The Ballad of the White Horse on hold at the library?"

Me: "No, it's too old for you."

Bernadette: "But I am reading the Outlaws of Ravenhurst, again, and on the back of the book it says that students really like this book."

Bernadette is my avid reader who enjoys discussing what she has read. She often surprises us with not only what she has chosen to read, but also with her insights. Nevertheless, I will still wait to get The Ballad of the White Horse.

Chesterton

Today, during my daughter's Ballet class, I began reading G.K. Chesterton's, The Everlasting Man (published by Ignatius Press). The thesis of this great work is

that those who say that Christ stands side by side with similar myths, and his religion side by side with similar religions, are only repeating a very stale formula contradicted by a very striking fact. (p. 7)