Which do you have more of, intrinsic or extrinsic motivation? What motivates you to learn and to educate yourself? In Charlotte Mason education, intrinsic motivation attached to inborn curiosity is the focus, while teachers' "talky-talky" is kept to a minimum and grades are omitted in place of continuing with the content until each child masters it. She also says that "all education is self-education." How does that work with adults who are done with formal school but not done with learning?
In our family, both sides have historically been self-educators who never stopped reading for pleasure and knowledge no matter how much formal schooling we completed (which was a lot). This year, for the Bibliovore, wife, and Eldest, here's what we did to self-educate! (Next week, I'll share my complete reading list from this year.)
The Bibliovore's Self-Education
His focus areas this year have been the autism spectrum, generative AI, and, continually, history. His titles have long been re-shelved, but I know that he's read about 60 books so far. Generative AI learning has been on the more technical (back-end developer) side for work. While our version of a "date" these days is listening to the same audiobook together in the car on the way to and from church, or in 7 discontinuous minutes at the dinner table, this has also been a means of self-education.
Case in point: autism spectrum disorders have been under-recognized until quite recently, and so we look with fresh eyes on what we know of historical figures who have had special interests, discomfort in social situations, and atypical means of communication and expressing intelligence. U. S. Grant has been one such person--we are listening to Chernow's biography of him, and everything about him (and both of his parents, especially his mother) screams autism. Check it out!
The Bibliovore's Wife's Self-Education
I started the year finishing up a special interest in origins theories. This stemmed in part from ongoing theological discussions and church-history reading between the Bibliovore and myself, as well as an autistic drive to revisit what I "should have" learned in my undergraduate biology major. Some of the shorter volumes I read in this area are Four Views on the Historical Adam, Belief in God in an Age of Science, and The Genealogical Adam and Eve.
During almost all 12 months of the year, I read in two related areas. The first is home education. Because my mother is in the stage of passing down her resources to me bit by bit, two of her books that are now mine are Honey for a Child's Heart and The Read-Aloud Handbook. Eldest has been extremely interested in reading (pictures and being read to), and I in curricular design, so these two were very natural choices at this stage. On recommendation from several people I respect, I also read Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition.
The second area is working toward a Benedict Option-type community, based on, of course, The Benedict Option. The Bibliovore finally got to reading the book in November (after a colleague borrowed it), and since then we've been discussing the themes, worthiness of ideas, and implementation of community in more intentional depth. More to come on that. In this vein, I re-read The Cost of Discipleship and read Religious Freedom in a Secular Age. (Religious freedom is one requirement for BenOp communities to work.)
Most recently, since several people whose podcasts and videos I listen to moved from another Christian denomination to Eastern Orthodoxy, my autistic brain decided to do nothing but read about EO for several weeks, to the point where it was painful to read about anything else. Three of the more informative books were For the Life of the World, Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology, and Marriage: An Orthodox Perspective. It has been quite interesting to see the variation in tone, which questions are answered or not answered, and which answers are actually explained.
The Eldest's Self-Education
It has been a joy to witness and support the development of our Eldest child. The toddler years are formative for the rest of life, and so we have tried to be very intentional in both setting out resources of possible interest and bringing him to places and people who will support the full personhood of each child. In no particular order, his self-education has been in hymn, physical skill, and story.
Hymns are by far his strongest current interest. We have a small shelf's worth of illustrated books of classic Lutheran and Anglican-tradition hymns, in board and hardback format. He has been diligently learning these and others via requests to sing with/for him, bedtime playlists of excellent choral/organ settings, and our membership at a "hymnal church" in the AngloCatholic tradition. Recent favorites are Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart; We Praise You and Acknowledge You; and Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice. (He's also learning Compline in the Lutheran Service Book setting, which technically isn't a hymn, but fits in the music category.)
Physical skills have been honed over spring, summer, and fall. He has, developmentally appropriately, acquired the ability to navigate all playground equipment, run up and down and across expanses, and remember how to get home from almost anywhere in a 1-mile radius of our house. Indoors, he is now focusing a little more on dexterity tasks like scribbling, poking, and pinching.
Story is my favorite aspect, tied with hymns. "Now read-you?" is a frequent request in the mornings and late afternoons. Longer books he has memorized and "reads" to himself include Alfie's Feet and a large classroom-sized edition of Bunny Day. On neighborhood walks, he asks to listen to a chapter at a time of Journey Through Church History--gifted to us by a retired pastor-professor, and well worth going through again when he's old enough to read it for himself. (On a side note, I couldn't help but notice how very CM-y Bunny Day is--order and routine, participation by all in the life of the household, and 5 hours spent outside over the course of a 12-hour day.)
Next Year's Plan
What's in the (literal) books for next year? We're taking things a month and semester at a time, but what I would like to accomplish, at minimum, is some core reading in CM philosophy, curricular design, and church history. Books in these areas are the 5.5 remaining volumes of Charlotte's works, a re-read of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, selected writings of Aristotle, Justin Martyr's First Apology (next Advent?), and a pairing of Christians as the Romans Saw them and Cultural Christians in the Early Church.
The Bibliovore has a lengthy list at the start of each year and revisits the list in each November, making it even more ambitious. We'll see! However, he has been systematically working through church and world history in lieu of formal graduate work in these areas, so that is his plan for 2025.
Eldest, meanwhile, will continue to explore the "feast of ideas" in our and his library and expand his musical repertoire. We introduced the concept of a cantata ("potata") a month or so ago. To prepare for more maturity in all areas of life, we will also focus on habit training, further play opportunities, and including him in the cleaning and food preparation routines of the household. Because he is learning so much lately through auditory memory alone, I am holding off until at least his 3rd birthday on phonics--he can identify the entire alphabet and some numerals/punctuation so the interest is there.
What about you? How do you plan to implement self-education goals in the new year?
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