{"id":1060,"date":"2022-07-17T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-17T10:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/?p=1060"},"modified":"2022-06-30T16:42:16","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:42:16","slug":"learning-to-observe-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/learning-to-observe-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Observe Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row full_width=&#8221;stretch_row_content&#8221; custom_padding=&#8221;true&#8221; custom_padding_t=&#8221;30&#8243; custom_padding_b=&#8221;30&#8243; row_hide_sm=&#8221;yes&#8221; row_hide_md=&#8221;yes&#8221; row_hide_xs=&#8221;yes&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1630864580219{background-color: #faf5eb !important;}&#8221;][vc_column]<div class=\"templatera_shortcode\"><div class=\"container-fluid row_section vc_row_cp_lr_15 vc_row_cp_t_0 vc_row_cp_b_0\"><div  class=\"vc_row wpb_row vc_row-fluid vc_column-gap-15 rdy_vc_row-o-equal-height 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Mason<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><div class=\"vc_empty_space  vc_empty_space_3\"   style=\"height: 10px\" ><span class=\"vc_empty_space_inner\"><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953b1c27e5a3979703538\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/blog\/\">Articles<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><div class=\"vc_empty_space  vc_empty_space_4\"   style=\"height: 10px\" ><span class=\"vc_empty_space_inner\"><\/span><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"vc_custom_heading vc_custom_heading_6953b1c27e69d099401597\" ><h5 style=\"font-size: 17px;color: #000000;text-align: left\"><span class=\"hilight\"  ><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amblesideschools.com\/main\/educator-support\" target=\"_blank\">Members<\/a><\/span><\/h5><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;3\/4&#8243;][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/blog\/\"><span style=\"color: #003865;\">&gt; Return to Articles<\/span><\/a><\/h4>\n<p>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_custom_heading text=&#8221;Learning to Observe Truth&#8221; use_theme_fonts=&#8221;yes&#8221; font_container=&#8221;tag:h1|font_size:30|text_align:left|color:%23020202&#8243;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;15&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_column_text]<em>The following address was given at an art show and fundraiser for Ambleside School of Fredericksburg, Texas (a K-12 institution). Founded on the principles of British educator Charlotte Mason, Ambleside Schools International and its member schools believe a &#8220;living&#8221; education is influenced by 3 principles: atmosphere, discipline (habits), and life (living texts rich in ideas).<sup>1<\/sup> Emily Bowyer is an alumna and current faculty member of the Fredericksburg school:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I would like to begin my brief remarks with a roll call, as it were, of some of the great masters of the artistic tradition: Fra Angelico, Pieter Bruegel, Winslow Homer, John James Audubon, Claude Monet and the Impressionists, Utagawa Hiroshige, Diego Velazquez, Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, Rembrandt van Rijn, J.M.W. Turner, Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Vermeer, Henri Matisse, Jacob Lawrence, and Vincent Van Gogh.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By the time Ambleside students begin high school, they will have spent three months with each of these artists, studying at least a dozen of their works with care and attention until they can happily hang each one in the gallery of their memories. We recognize, as Charlotte Mason once did, that<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cthe power of appreciating art and of producing to some extent an interpretation of what one sees is as universal as intelligence, imagination, [or] speech. . . But there must be some knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced .\u201d<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is not to say that we neglect the technical side of our students\u2019 art education. On the contrary, they are given weekly instruction in drawing or painting, and regularly produce free-hand color illustrations in science and history lesson books and watercolor entries in nature diaries. In addition, they complete several detailed reproductions of their favorite masterworks every year. Nonetheless, we discover that when we offer our students a relationship with the great artists of the past and present, they are more inspired to pursue excellence in their own artistic endeavors and to learn more about what it means to live, to be fully human.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Calvin Seerveld, an American art historian who studied in the Netherlands and then went on to a professorship in Canada, once wrote that<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cart calls to our attention in capital, cursive letters. . .<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">what usually flits by in reality as fine print.\u201d<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We must summon our aesthetic capacity\u2014our innate power to appreciate art\u2014to watch for these \u201ccapital, cursive letters,\u201d and even to seek them out. In other words, we must learn to open our eyes. Why? Because otherwise we might miss an opportunity to see our lives with greater clarity, insight, and wisdom. Great works of art serve as parables, <sup>4<\/sup> not mere copies, of the human experience. They reveal hidden meanings by engaging our imagination and our inner eye, something that Helen Keller called \u201csoul-sense, which sees, hears, feels, all in one.\u201d <sup>5<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Allow me to demonstrate: Van Gogh teaches us about loneliness by painting an old chair with a pipe and tobacco on it, the owner of the chair, a cherished friend, made conspicuous by his total absence. Vermeer shows the virtue of a milkmaid going about her daily work with strength, vitality, and fortitude, reminding us that there is dignity even amidst the seemingly menial occupations. Matisse highlights the remarkable shapes and colors present in every person, place, and thing around us, whether it is as stationary as a French window, or as dynamic as the couple having a conversation beside it. Bruegel celebrates the ingenuity and rashness of children at play. Velazquez depicts a Venus looking in a mirror; her forlorn gaze tells us, \u201cBeauty isn\u2019t everything.\u201d Monet transfixes us with the utter tranquility of a cluster of lilies floating on the surface of water. Turner exposes the travesty of the slave trade by depicting a single slave ship unburdening itself of unwanted human cargo during a storm. Da Vinci uncovers the scientific proportions of the human body in an ingenious way, while still preserving the enigmatic mystery of a woman\u2019s smile.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These are but a very few examples of the way in which art serves to draw our attention to ideas that we too often ignore or forget. The poet Robert Browning put it thus:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cFor, don\u2019t you mark? we\u2019re made so that we love<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">First when we see them painted, things we have passed<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see. . .\u201d<sup>6<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Why might this be the case? How can a painting, a sculpture or a drawing cause us to\u202flove that which we have overlooked so often in reality? I would venture to say that when we see something for the first time through the lens that an artwork provides, we see its <em>essence<\/em>. Art comes to us an invitation. It invites us to know the truth of a thing. Great artists are firstly great observers. They teach us how to clearly see the details, the symbols, the wonder of everything around us. The English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins called this the \u201cinscape\u201d <sup>7<\/sup> of all created matter, its inner glory. Artists possess the gift of turning the world inside out so that the invisible truth becomes visible. We are all created to yearn for this truth, and to love it when once we find it. There are times when a piece of art depicts something less than beautiful, even grotesque, but if it tells the story of the world\u2019s brokenness or cruelty in a truthful way, it remains an important object of our study, if not our enjoyment. Art should provoke us on our ongoing search for the Truth, and our souls will remain unsatisfied until we meet that same Truth, face to face.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_separator width_in_percentages=&#8221;yes&#8221;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;30&#8243;][vc_column_text]<sup>1<\/sup> See www.amblesidefredericksburg.com<\/p>\n<p><sup>2<\/sup> Mason, Charlotte. <em>The Philosophy of Education<\/em>, Vol. 6 (Wheaton: Tyndale House, 1989), 214.<\/p>\n<p><sup>3<\/sup> Seerveld, Calvin. <em>Rainbows For the Fallen World <\/em>(Toronto: Toronto Tuppence Press, 1980), 27.<\/p>\n<p><sup>4<\/sup> Rookmaaker, Hans. \u201cImages of Man in Art,\u201d L\u2019Abri Fellowship, Lecture, www.labri-ideas-library.org.<\/p>\n<p><sup>5<\/sup> Keller, Helen. <em>The Story of My Life <\/em>(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1904), 122.<\/p>\n<p><sup>6 <\/sup>Browning, Robert. \u201cFra Lippo Lippi,\u201d in\u202f <em>My Last Duchess and Other Poems<\/em>, ed. Shane Weller (New York: Dover, 1993), 43.<\/p>\n<p><sup>7<\/sup> Hopkins, Gerard Manley. \u201cPoetry and Verse,\u201d <em>Hopkins: Poems and Prose<\/em>, Everyman\u2019s Library Pocket Poets ed. Peter Washington (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), 123.<\/p>\n<p>Image: Pieter Bruegel, detail, <em>Children&#8217;s Games, oil on canvas, <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidebruegel.net\/#p\/v=udroom&amp;lan=en&amp;a=1017&amp;x=s:3_l:1_v1:1017,vis\">Kunsthistorisches Museum<\/a>, Public Domain[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How often it is that we go through life missing the simple pleasures. Our focus is on ourselves; our thoughts, our plans and our concerns&#8211;failing to hear the joy around us. Charlotte Mason reminds us to be fully present and to listen. Miss Mason\u2019s idyllic picture of being \u201cin the fields on a spring day\u201d is far from the reality of most 21st century lives. Although being in the fields on a spring day, or most days for that matter, would do us all good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-and-education","category-spiritual-formation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Learning to Observe Truth - Ambleside International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/amblesideschools.org\/learning-to-observe-truth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning to Observe Truth - Ambleside International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How often it is that we go through life missing the simple pleasures. Our focus is on ourselves; our thoughts, our plans and our concerns--failing to hear the joy around us. Charlotte Mason reminds us to be fully present and to listen. Miss Mason\u2019s idyllic picture of being \u201cin the fields on a spring day\u201d is far from the reality of most 21st century lives. 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