What is Grace?

Grace is a gift. It is the Love of God wrapped in mercy and forgiveness. 
Mercy is Christ on the cross. 
Forgiveness is Christ resurrected. 

Love is the whole package.

Grace captures you, but first it pursues you. Grace is ever running towards you, around you, ahead of you. Will you let grace capture you? Are you running always; chasing after the wind? You cannot chase grace. Grace must capture you. When will you sit still long enough to be captured by grace? When will you call out to grace for its mercy, forgiveness and love?  If you are hiding, call out " here I am! Come find me. Capture me!"

God's graces are all around you. If you think you cannot see God, remember the sunrise you behold, the water you drink, the food you eat. There is beauty all around you. You are daily captured by the graces of this world that God created. But have you been captured by THE Gift of Grace?

Why not sit still and discover the one who pursues you and accept His Gift of grace? Let grace capture you and wrap you in its mercy, forgiveness, and Love.  You are a gift. God wants you. Sit still and let Him capture you.

On "A Moral Imagination"

Rallying The Really Human Things by Vigen Gurorian has helped me to understand the importance of cultivating the minds of children. To develop and feed the imagination of a child is inevitable. If we do not supply the child with quality literature to help their imagination form, something else will grow in its place. Each human being was formed to have a sense of imagination; to somehow make some sense out of that which does not. We exist in a world that does not make sense. 


If one does not purpose to train a child's moral imagination what will grow in its stead? According to Guroian, a "corrupted imagination" will take root in one of three forms: Idyllic, Idolatrous, or Diabolic.


In other words, whether you purpose to cultivate the imagination or not, inevitably, the imagination will grow. Unfortunately, if not cultivated properly, weeds will grow in its stead and thus, the person will lead a life with a corrupted imagination. 


Gurioan claims "The moral imagination is the distinctively human power to conceive of men and women as moral beings., that is, as persons, not as things or animals whose value to us is their usefulness." He goes on.."The principal office of life in which society invests and entrusts this care are the parent and teacher. Modern educators - a breed with which I am all too familiar - have not been good gardeners of the moral life. In their penchant to treat fact as god, event as illusion, individual as datum, person as chimera, norm as relative value, and human nature as social construct, they leave the moral imagination to perish." (pp. 55 Rallying The Really Human Things)


Gurioan contiunes to establish his claims when he concurs "In philosophy and literary criticism memory is often associated with the imagination, for memory is thought to provide the images out of which the imagination construes the ultimate shape and meaning that we attach to the world." (pp. 70 Rallying the Really human Things)




I am stimulated into the reality that we must tend to our children's minds. We must put before them fairy tales and stories with heros and saints. One must never stop with the pre-school stories such as Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I am enjoying the adventures of King Arthur and his knights, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with my teens. In fact, I am reading The Story of King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle for the second time. It is, by far, one of my favorite books and I would challenge you to read it to your teens. I promise it will stimulate the "moral imagination" as well as increase their faith in God. Pyle often challenges the reader to trust in the God Almighty and bring glory to Him in ones conduct.




Yesterday I began reading Hereward The Last of The English by Charles Kingsley. In the preface to the story, Kingsley is setting the stage to write a book about a lowland hero, so it seems. When I read the paragraph below, it immediately brought my mind to Guroian's book, as well as Gregory Wolfe's Book, Beauty will Save the World. 


In reference to the Scottish "low lander" who has not been exposed to the the "poetic and romantic elements". Kingsley lists that which "still remains in the Scottish Highlands; and which when it disappears from thence, will remain embalmed forever in the pages of Walter Scott. Against that half magical background of his heros."  Kingsley asserts that these "lowladers"  have attained "none of the background of the unknown, fantastic, magical, terrible, perpetually feeding curiosity and wonder…" In other words, the lowlanders have not been exposed to a liberal education and have been robbed from the cultivation of a moral imagination. The nightmare that follows such a tragedy is the loss of a belief in God, or the making of an atheist. Atheism will grow in the gardens of an uncultivated imagination.


Kingsley continues to assert the repression of the lowlanders who lack a moral imagination:


"He finds out, soon enough for his weal and his bane, that he is stronger than Nature; and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, diking, building, without fear or shame. He knows of no natural force greater than himself, save an occasional thunder-storm; and against that, as he grows more cunning, he insures his crops. Why should he reverence Nature? Let him use her, and eat. One cannot blame him. Man was sent into the world (so says the Scripture) to fill and subdue the earth. 


But he was sent into the world for other purposes, which the lowlander is but too apt to forget. With the awe of Nature, the awe of the unseen dies out in him. Meeting with no visible superior, he is apt to become not merely unpoetical and irreverent, but somewhat of a sensualist and an atheist. The sense of the beautiful dies out in him more and more. He has little or nothing around him to refine or lift up his soul, and unless he meet with a religion and with a civilization which can deliver him, he may sink into that dull brutality which is too common among the lowest classes of the English lowlands, and remain for generations gifted with the strength and industry of the ox, and with the courage of the lion, and, alas! with the intellect of the former, and the self-restraint of the latter. - Prelude to Hereward The Last of the English by Charles Kingsley



I conclude this rant and appeal with a list of books that will cultivate the imagination. Books such as: Andrew Lang's Fairy books, Charles Dickens, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Beowulf, as well as the other books I listed in this blog. I do not earn money on your clicks. I simply added the links to make it easier for you to obtain copies of the books I am recommending. Be challenged to read great books to your kids, not only for their moral imagination, but also for your own. You will be amazed at what a difference it makes in the building of a human being with strong character. After all, isn't that why we are homeschooling in the first place?

My 18 year old got his wisdom teeth out!

Feeding Calvin
getting him meds
getting him water….standing and waiting till he is done

so he does not have to hold the cup….
getting him gauze
getting him tissues
getting him ice packs...

…. Repeat ritual every 20 minutes.

I decided not to be a cup stand or end table, standing next to him all day.

I needed a table by the couch.

hmmmmm…..what to do? Brian does not want end tables…..?????

Go to Target find the 4 pack of wooden TV tables. On the way to the car after our purchase…

Me: "I cant believe in 20 years of marriage we have never owned these!"
Lydia: " that's because only Grandma's have these!"
Elizabeth: "Nuhuh! Zena has them!"
Lydia: "SHE's a GRANDMA!"
Elizabeth: :No! Zena had them BEFORE she was a grandma!"
Hannah: "Everybody has them!"

ROFL…..LOL

Ramblings from a Charlotte Mason meeting

"There is no escape for us, no short cut; art is long, especially the art of living." ( pg 315)

This was one of my favorite quotes for this evening's reading. "the art of living". We are living! We are God's masterpiece and he is still painting our life story as we live. We are HIS art. We cannot escape the master's hands. 

My next favorite quote here in the paraphrased version from page 326, Charlotte Mason is adding to her definition of what Knowledge is:


"The message we really need is, 'With all that is in you, get understanding.' In one sense, understanding is an active thing that the conscious mind does to assimilate knowledge. And that's relative--the mind can't do that if it hasn't already acted on the intellectual food that was presented to it. The Gospels keep repeating the poignant question, 'Why won't you understand?' This is what's wrong with our nation--we don't understand. I'm not just talking about ignorant people. Even educated men and women use erroneous arguments, rely on prejudices instead of principles, and mistake cliches for ideas. Perhaps these failures aren't ignorance so much as insincerity. But insincerity is a result of ignorance. Darkened intelligence can't see clearly. 'It's as bright as day for those who know,' but knowing doesn't come easily for those who 'cram to pass tests instead of to really learn,' as Ruskin says."

The scripture that kept coming to mind in reading these pages was Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding." Over and over CM was trying to make the reader understand what TRUE knowledge is and Proverbs 9:10 kept resounding in my mind. The Holy Spirit is the one who tells us what to learn and "know". 

Do we as homeschooling moms remember how important it is to let the Spirit of God teach our kids? It is our duty to present to our children great works of art, nature, literature, poetry, mathematics, biographies, science, music and history. 

But it is not our job to digest this knowledge for them. When we present this information to our babies, are we digesting it for them or are we stepping aside and allowing God's Spirit to come forth and nurture that seed we planted? Are we letting the Spirit make this written work become "knowledge and truth" to them? OR are we pre-digesting the information for them? True knowledge has to come from The Spirit according to Proverbs. We cannot be the Holy Spirit to our kids!

I used an example of vitamins in food we eat. My body might need vitamin c and your body might need more vitamin A. When you digest the food your body will take the proper amount of vitamins that it needs, whereas my body will take what it needs. Our needs are not the same! The same is true for our learning. Who are we to pre-digest the food for our kids and tell them what they should have learned from a lesson? Are we stepping aside and letting God speak to the heart and mind of our child? What does that look like? How do we do that?

I am learning so much from reading Charlotte Mason's books. She does such a wonderful job explaining how to do this. Thank you all for participating in this learning adventure with me!

CiRCE Institute Conference: What Is Man?

I attended the CiRCE Institute Conference on "What Is Man?" this past week.  I have walked away with a gem of information. I could narrate at least 6 different facets of information from my perception of that gem. The following is my meager attempt to narrate my perspective from 1 facet of that precious stone I now carry in my mind.

"What is Man?"...This is the chief contemplation we must consider when choosing to be an educator and  embracing an educational philosophy. The only way to truly honor our students is to take a firm stand on who they are as "humans" and embrace a philosophy whereby we can teach them well.

The three states of "man" as I see it:

1. God Created Man in HIS image: Beautiful
2. Man has sinned: Fallen
3. God Redeemed Man in Christ: Glorious

These 3 parts of who we are as "humans" are critical to consider and they are part of MY narration. This facet of my gem of knowledge has been magnified. It was only one part of the conference and keep in mind that my perspective is taken from other elements of my personal life that I have explored and theologies that have influenced my behavior.

I discovered that I have been greatly influenced by a theology that focuses on the "fallen" nature of man. The central theme of this doctrine is that:

1. We must realize that we are completely fallen and utterly detestable and unable to do anything good. 
2. We are void of any beauty from the "original" creation; Therefore, rendered handicapped and unable to do any "good" thing.
3. As "saved" and redeemed men we must pursue holiness and we are obligated to address sin not only in ourselves, but also in those whom we love. 

Over the past decade, this belief has eaten away at my ability to focus on the "beauty" and "glory" that God has put before me. I have turned into a critical wife, mother and sister.

This weekend at the CiRCE conference I was reminded of the miracles of God's creation and the beauty he has made. Even though all of creation suffers from the "fall", that does not negate the "beauty" that He put within each human being and all of creation. If indeed we have nothing good within, then even "unsaved" people would be incapable of doing beautiful deeds. If indeed all of creation has suffered as we have, then fruit trees would not produce fruit. If at the fall, we became 100% wicked and lost our "image bearing" then surely all of creation would have also lost all of its beauty as well and we would have no food to eat and no flowers to smell and all beauty would be gone.

BUT….because beauty and God's image has remained upon all of creation, and as humans we still bear His image, all people are worth loving and respecting.

I am now looking at my husband and my children through a different lense. Instead of thinking it is my "Christian Duty" to "help" them become "Godly" I am looking at them through a lense that makes them BEAUTIFULLY created in the image of God. They are fully humans who are in need of a savior, just as I am. But they are fully humans "made in the image of God" and bearers of the "glory of God" in Christ because they are Christians.

I am saying "Good-bye" to my critical eyes. I am putting on the eyes of Christ that allow me to see beauty and give praise to the glorious humanness of being loved and made in the "image of God". What a beautiful wonder to behold…. a human being!

Recommended books from the conference:

 

Baby Cardinal explores outside of nest

Today the one cardinal that survived has ventured out of the nest. We do not know if it is a male or female yet, but we sure are excited that it is hopping around in the tree today.

We also observed the male cardinal eating from our bird feeder and bathing in our new birdbath.

Photos below are of mom, dad and baby. They are blurry because we have to take the photos behind our glass window in our living room.

Baby Cardinals born

We have a family of Cardinals just outside our living room window. They laid 2 eggs the last week of June. Carly Cardinal sat on her eggs and protected them each day, rarely leaving the nest to go eat or get a drink.

July 8 baby #1 was born. July 11( my birthday) baby #2 was born.

Carl Cardinal has been coming and feeding the babies too!

See Carly feeding her babies! She loves them so much!

Baby Bewick's Wren: 3 days old video

June 27, 2011: a bird built a nest and laid eggs in our Begonia hanging basket on our patio. Not sure if all 4 eggs are hers. Suspecting the large one is a cowbird egg.

June 30, 2011: One egg hatched and the larger of the 3 eggs was pushed up out of nest onto the dirt. As of July 2 we are still contemplating if we should remove it or not 

July1, 2011: Dr. Chancellor identified our bird as a Bewick's Wren. We had been thinking it was a Nuthatch for 2 days. Thankful for Dr.Chancellor's expertise.

July 3, 2011: I snuck up and took a short video with my iphone right after the mama fed her baby and flew off. She usually is gone for 15 minutes at a time.

Meaningless Words & Broken Covenants Introduction

I started the introduction of this book by Tim Coody today. The message is simple, yet profound. Quotes below will be what stood out to me. I hope it will challenge you to ponder as it has me.

Introduction quotes:

"Like tires contacting the pavement, words interface with our reality."
"...Our words are losing their grip. The tread is disappearing, and the meaning is leaking out."

With reference to our high demand for lawyers in America the following quotes come to light:

"They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements, therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field." Hosea 10:41

"We could not keep our agreements because we forgot the importance of honoring our words. Without Honor in our words everything falls apart sooner or later."

"We use more words now than we did in 1978 to do the same job. All these words assure us that people will keep their agreements right? Wrong. As solomon said 'The more the words, the less the meaning and how does that profit anyone?'."

"When words are rendered meaningless, so is everything else."

"We have become unwilling to pay the high toll that honor demands, and now we must face the consequence- meaninglessness."

Magnum Opus of a child's mind

"The Wart did not know what Merlin was talking about, but liked him to talk. He did not like the grown-ups who talked down to him, but the ones who went on talking in their usual way, leaving him to leap along in their wake, jumping at meanings, guessing, clutching at known words, and chuckling at complicated jokes as they suddenly dawned."  This marvelous quote from The Once and Future King by T.H White reminded me of yet another reason why I homeschool. The truth of the matter is that children do not like to be talked-down to.

Our society believes that children are less superior to adults. Our children are riddled with dumbed down lessons as evidenced in the Disney renditions of the classics such as Bambi by Felix Salten , The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and Heidi by Johanna Spyri. On and on, title after title, Sunday School class after Sunday school class, Classroom upon classroom. We are living in a culture that has "dumbed down" education.


When we read good books to our children we are exposing them to the good thoughts from the author who penned that story. Charlotte Mason, a British educational philosopher who studied and educated children for over 60 years asserts, "We feed upon the thoughts of other minds; and thought applied to thought generates thought and we become more thoughtful"( Vol. 6, ch. 1, p. 26). She continues with an analogy that our minds need quality food, and much of it every day, just as our bodies need 3 square meals a day. We do our best to feed our children a varied diet of nutritious food so their physical bodies will grow strong. But, what are we feeding into the minds' of our children? Are we placing before them a feast such as is found in good literature, beautiful music, brilliant paintings, biographies of brilliant people, and walks in nature to stimulate their minds to grow!?

Miss Mason continues, "The mind , like the body, digests its proper food, and it must have the labour of digestion or it ceases to function. But the children ask for bread and we give them a stone; we give information about objects and events which mind does not attempt to digest but casts out bodily ( upon an examination paper). But let information hang upon a principle, be inspired by an idea, and it is taken with avidity and used in making whatsoever in the spiritual nature stands for tissue in the physical" ( vol. 6, ch. 1, p. 26).

What do you suppose are the stones we are feeding to our children? Are we offering them quality materials that can be digested in their minds? Are we setting before them a feast to educate upon?


If thought begets thought, as Miss Mason claims , don't you want brilliant ideas for your children to feast upon?

Last night I was reading an article about the new Facebook movie called Social Networking. The article was referring to ideas building upon ideas which lead to inventions. I pondered this concept of people having ideas, that feed more people with more ideas, until eventually an idea evolves and an invention is created. This is what happens in the mind of a child when he is stimulated to think because of the influence of the great minds. A bountiful curriculum leads to abundant thinking and this leads to brilliant minds.

Just as The Wart (the young boy from The Once and Future King) loved sitting in the presence of adults and deciphering their conversations, we should be presenting books and art that would be considered above the minds of our young children. Instead of reading the Disney version of The Little Mermaid, read the real version written by Hans Christian Anderson. Instead of watching Shirley Temple as Heidi, read the original book by Johanna Spyri. Experience the Magnum opus of Shakespeare with your children. Study the masterpieces by Vermeer and Waterhouse. Listen to Mozart and experience the glory of God by exploring creation.

My 14 year old is experiencing the hardships of David Copperfiled through Charles Dickens, Shrew Taming from the mind of Shakespeare, The adventures of Merlin  from the imaginations of T.H, White, The culture of Normans and Anglo-Saxons from Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, the language of Middle English Poetry, the use of lighting in The paintings of Vermeer, the spirit of God in the sounds of Beethoven, the intricacy of the human body in the study of anatomy through the mind of a professor and the life of Dr. Paul Brand, the articulations of Spanish through Mrs. Neve, and much more.

I tell you this to show you how a 14 year old can be fed a generous feast of ideas. She is capable because she is a human being that has a mind to think. Unfortunately, if she were in a public school, she would likely be spoon fed ideas, rather than left alone with the ideas which will naturally build within her more ideas and a strong character and life long love of learning. Did I mention that she LOVES school?!

My "customer review" for A Sacrifice of Praise

A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century


Rating: 5 star

Comments: I am so thankful for this book. I am really struggling with our year 7 curriculum and understanding some of the literature (Ivanhoe and the poem assigned for memory).

This morning I decided to read some "Middle English" poems from this resource that came highly recommended. I was floundering, and about ready to just "forget it". Seriously, who can understand a poem like this!?

A Song of Passion

My trewest tresowre sa trayturly was taken,
Sa bytterly bondyn wyth bytand banders,
How sone of thi seruandes was thou forsaken,
And lathly for my lufe hurld with thair handes.....

and on and on we go!!!

My overwhelmed mind is thinking "How in the world are we going to comprehend Beowulf later this year?!

STOP!!! Take a breath. Would Charlotte throw it all out just because she does not "get it"? What would Charlotte do if she were presented with a daunting task of teaching something of which she has no understanding? She would "self-educate".

This morning I began reading the introduction to the "Anglo-Saxon/Middle English" section of A Sacrifice of Praise. The historical context set ablaze in the recesses of my mind, the first chapter of Ivanhoe, of
which I had read a few weeks ago. I proceeded to Google search "Anglo-Saxon and Middle English" and have stumbled upon some very interesting information about the evolution of our language.

I want to thank Lynn Bruce for recommending this book at our last meeting. I do believe that this book is going to do a work in my soul. I endeavor to press onward and slowly read through this poetry that has me groping. A Sacrifice of Praise is a shining beam to help lead the blind into a new world of undiscovered terrain.

I do believe this should be a recommended "teacher resource" for AO educators. I plan to use this for historical referencing in all of our poetry study.

Living in JOY,
Adrienne

The Arrival of Our New Tea Kettle

My endeavor to find a tea kettle not manufactured in China was like being on a 20 hour flight! I was glued to my chair and armed with my computer, researching for many hours. Frustration and sore legs made me just about ready to buy a $300 tea kettle from Italy! I even contacted Brian to see if he could fine it in Dubai before coming home.

Pouring my mind over reviews, labels, and calling stores to actually read the box to see if it truly was not made in Asia was exhausting to say the least. At last the return phone call I was waiting for came on Tuesday. The tea kettle I kept returning to was much less than $300 and was indeed made in Belgium!!

The features I wanted were:

• Not made in Asia
• Stainless Steel throughout
• No aluminum or nickel or plastic touching the water ever!!
• Well constructed without seams
• Warranty

It is made by Demeyere in Belgium.  http://www.demeyere.be/

The Apollo Tea Kettle comes with a 30 year warranty and a complete stainless steel construction.

Demeyere makes another tea kettle that looks identical to this one, but in a different line called Resto. The Resto tea kettle is a fraction of the cost, not the quality of stainless and has an aluminum interior wall. It also only comes with a 2 year warranty and the worst part: "Made in Indonesia".  Beware looking for customer reviews, I am certain that the 2 reviews I read for the Apollo were actually for the Resto.

I plan to use the Apollo for at least 6 months before giving it a review. If it holds up as well as I think it will, it is worthy of a strong customer review for being made in Belgium and well constructed without harmful metals or plastic parts. It is the only tea kettle of its kind besides the beautful line of Italian tea kettles, one of which can be found here: http://www.unicahome.com/catalog/item.asp?id=50113&PartnerID=SLI

$300 teakettle from Italy made by SerafinoZani

If you are interested in purchasing the Apollo Tea Kettle by Demeyere, the customer service was perfect with Metro Kitchen. They called me promptly and affirmed that it was made in Belgium. I ordered it on Tuesday and it arrived via UPS 2 days later and shipping was FREE!!!
http://cookware.metrokitchen.com/search#w=apollo%20teakettle&asug=

Look closely and you can see "Made in Belgium"!

Word Clouds

Wordle– a place where you can copy and paste large amounts of text and create a “Word Cloud”. Here is an example of a word cloud I made out of the first 16 pages from A Little Princess. The more times a word appears in the text, the larger its image in the word cloud. This is useful for pulling out the main themes in difficult documents, or for helping older children with composition by allowing them to see whether or not the most prominent ideas are the ones they intended. Make your own word cloud at www.wordle.net.

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/2317906/The_Little_Princess

Queen Anne's Lace

Is it any wonder that Queen Anne's Lace was always one of my favorite flowers growing up! It was in abundance in the fields of Ohio where I wandered and played while growing up in a quiet suburb of Ohio. Last year I picked this "flower" that looked to me like Queen Anne's Lace. I drew it in my nature journal and titled it "Queen Anne's Lace".

However, it always bothered me that the "Queen Anne's Lace" in Texas was not as full as it was in Ohio! I told the girls, "In Ohio the tiny florets are much thicker and and more exquisite than this!".

Well, I just found out I was DEAD WRONG!! It is NOT Queen Anne's Lace. It is Water Hemlock and it is VERY POISONOUS!!

The girls wore it in their hair yesterday and we have picked it frequently. I finally decided to look into this and see if it is indeed "queen anne's lace". I discovered that is was NOT and Found out the Water Hemlock is the MOST deadly plant in North America!! YIKES! In the 1930's 7 kids died because they made  whistles out of the stems of it and were playing them. Even if a small part get in your mouth it can kill you.

I was flabbergasted! I immediately thought "What if one of the girls would have
held the stem in their mouth while fixing their barrette or ponytail in order to
properly fasten the "flower" in their hair!? They could have died!!


So, the moral to this story is........

Look it up!! I am crazy to have assumed that Queen Anne's Lace would look different in TX.

Living in JOY,
Adrienne

P.S. We have wild blackberries growing on the trail back their too. We did look those up last year and picked a huge bowl full and washed and ate them. This year, I have a male puppy and he pees on them and I have noticed other male dogs doing that too. I did not tell my kids yet, and my 15 year old daughter came home yesterday after picking Water Hemlock and said, "Mom, the blackberries are ripe and I ate some!!" I guess we've got another moral lesson here too! LOL

French Women of the 1800s much like todays modern woman

My son is reading Democracy in America by Alexander De Tocqueville. He was a French man who came to the Americas in the 1830s to study the American Government.  

    

In the chapter titled: How the Americans View with Equality of Men and Women, De Tocqueville contrasts women of Europe with the women of America.

"There are Europeans who confuse the various characteristics of the sexes and would make of men and women beings not only equal but alike. To both, they attribute the same functions equally, impose on them the same duties and grant them the same rights. They would involve them both in everything- work, pleasure, business. It is easy to see that, in the ambition to make the one sex equal to the other, both are demeaned and that, from this crude mixing of nature's works, will emerge weak men and immodest women."  

When I read this quote, I was astounded at how much this describes the situation we find in America, 2010. The ratio of men to women in college is sickening. Currently, about 58% of college campuses are women. The number of men who are going to college is dropping each year. How much we have become like Europe of the 1830s!

The author goes on to note that American people have a very contrasting view of women to those views of the Europeans.

"Their [Americans] idea is that since nature has established such a great variation in the physical and moral make-up of men and women, and she clearly intended to give different employment to their different faculties. They have concluded that progress would not be achieved by having dissimilar creatures doing the same jobs but by enabling each of them to accomplish their respective tasks as effectively as possible."

Hmmm...."progress would not be achieved by having dissimilar creatures doing the same jobs..."

"America is the one country where the most consistent care has been taken to trace clearly distant spheres of action for the two sexes and where both are required to walk at an equal pace but along paths that are never the same. You do not see American women directing concerns outside the range of the family, or handling  business dealings, or entering politics."

Wow! this does not sound like the America I live in!!

"I have noticed that American women considered the husband's authority as a lucky encroachment on their rights or that they believed that they degraded themselves by submitting to it. Rather, it appeared to me that they derived a sort of pride in the willing surrender of their wishes and that they felt their stature increased by their bending to this yoke and not seeking to escape from it.....in the United States you do not hear any adulterous wife noisily claiming the rights of women even as she tramples under foot the most sacred of her duties".

After this he goes on to explain how the women are treated as equal in intelligence and freedoms. She is viewed as virtuous and treated as such by all men in America.

"America....still punish rape by death. And no other crime is prosecuted with the same relentless severity by public opinion. The explanation is this: Americans have nothing they value and respect more than a woman's honor and independence, they consider no punishment too harsh for those who deprive her of both against her will. In France, where this same offense is subject to much milder penalties, it is often difficult to find a juty to convict. Would that indicate scorn for a woman's modesty or her person? I cannot help believing that it is both". 

I don't know about you, but I am under the strong impression that according to this historical account, we have become like France during the time of Alexander De Tocqueville.

In conclusion the author notes, "Thus  Americans do not believe that men and women have the duty or the right to perform the same things but they show the same regard for the role played by both and they consider them as equal in worth, although their lot in life is different".

In conclusion , De Tocqueville states " I have recorded so many considerable achievements in the Americans, if I am asked how we should account for the unusual prosperity  and growing strength of this nation, I would reply that they must be attributed to the superiority of their women".

Sadly, I would have to agree that much of the downfall that we are experiencing in our nation today, is from this shift away from our God ordained roles. God created us in his image, but we were made distinctly with gender roles, neither of which is more important than the other.

I am so glad that my son is reading this book and what a rich and truthful history he is getting because he is reading REAL history and not a government social studies book that only publishes what is "politically correct". Much of history in the public school system is not "historically correct".

If you want to read this chapter for yourself, here it is free. It is however a slightly different translation. 

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/DETOC/ch3_12.htm

To read a very satisfying account on the roles of woman, according to how we were created, I strongly recommend Passionate Housewives Desperate for God.