What is your measure of success?

Charlott Mason’s measure of success is that: ‘at the end of their education how much do they care and how many things do they care about?’

What we sow into a child’s life will bear fruit at some stage. You could focus on academics as the be all and end all to the exclusion of relationships. You might end up with a young person with a brilliant mind but whose personal life is a train wreck.

When education is all about the child you could end up with children who only care for themselves. They’re the be all and end all and can’t cope when life doesn’t go the way they want it to go.

Education is like laying down railway tracks – they lead somewhere.

Feed your child's intelligence only on things worth caring for.

Let good music, good books and good talk be their daily food.

Let poetry shine its light into their lives.

Awaken their minds to beauty.

Keep out mean envies, vulgar admirations and shabby discontents.

Adapted from Edith Wharton, Glimpses of the Moon

‘…Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’

It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God.
C.S. Lewis

Artwork: The Sower by Jean-Francois Millet (1850)