My family delights in finding older, out-of-print books on Christian education because I delight in reading them. Written by Christian pedagogues in the 1800s or earlier, such books become a time capsule for all of us interested in passing on the best of classical Christian education. In a recent find called The Discourse of Errors in Education, the author, a man named Mr. Francis, tells the reader that when Antipater demanded of the Spartans fifty of their children as hostages, they replied that they would rather surrender fifty of the most eminent men in the state, whose principles were already formed, than children to whom the want of early instruction would be a loss altogether irreparable. He then asks, “The Spartans were wise; and shall Christians be less so?”
Mr. Francis writes in another work, The Mother’s Book,
We believe that our labor cannot perish even with life; we believe that, even if the inscrutable providence of God removes these objects of affection from us, neither the pleasure they have poured into our hearts nor the good we have imparted to them will, or can, be lost.
Similarly, Cheryl Lowe, founder of Memoria Press, believed in the lasting impact of Christian education upon children of all abilities. This is why Memoria Press became the welcome home of Simply Classical. In this issue we are thrilled to introduce our newest set, which we are calling My First Words. Designed for our youngest children or for our most disabled, My First Words includes books, songs, and suggestions for earliest faith instruction and language acquisition. This new, small set may be taught before Memoria Press Preschool, before Simply Classical Level A, or alongside any of the Simply Classical Readiness Levels.
Edward Koehler writes in A Christian Pedagogy,
As we gaze upon the new-born infant, the question comes to us, “What manner of child shall this be?” … What we are today we owe, in a measure, to the training we received in our youth, and the future of our children will be determined largely by the type of training they are receiving at our hands. The education of our children therefore is worthy of our best thoughts and efforts.
Our new set, My First Words, is intended to assist these thoughts and efforts from the earliest days. When we teach our children, from the youngest or weakest to the most advanced, we can do so with confidence and hope. Let us remember with peace and with gratitude that “neither the pleasure they have poured into our hearts nor the good we have imparted to them will, or can, be lost.”