Laying Down the Rails for Children - Simply Charlotte Mason

Decency and Propriety Habits
cutting boards and utensils. Washing hands before cooking, pulling long hair back into
a ponytail, using a separate surface for meat preparation, washing fruits and vegetables,
cleaning up the kitchen when finished—all of these are good topics for discussion.
“Certainly this is a duty, not a sin. ‘Cleanliness is indeed next to godliness.’ ” — John
Wesley
Lesson 9
Discuss how Cleanliness is a service to others. Reminisce about a time when you’ve been
in a clean hotel room or a clean home and how welcoming it felt. Presenting ourselves
with clean teeth, combed hair, and neat clothing is appreciated by others. A person
doesn’t have to be obsessive about cleanliness; but just the right amount of effort makes
life pleasant for those around us.
Read “The Sanitary Commission” and discuss how important cleanliness was in that
account. Define “sanitary” or “sanitation” as needed.
Notes
If a particular lesson
doesn’t seem like it would
be a good fit for your
children, skip it. Your
children will still benefit
from the lessons you do
use. Make these lessons
your servant, not your
master.
The Sanitary Commission
from An American Book of Golden Deeds by James Baldwin
On the 13th of April, 1861, Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was fired upon by
the soldiers of the South.
This was the beginning of the great struggle known in history as the Civil War in
America.
Two days before this, Abraham Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand men to
defend the government and maintain its laws in the South.
The call was answered at once and with great enthusiasm. Not only did seventyfive
thousand men offer themselves, but thousands more who could not be accepted.
Business was at a standstill. The plow was left in the furrow. The factory doors were
closed. The thoughts of all men were upon the crisis which the country was facing. In
every village of the North the tap of the drum and the shrill music of the fife were heard.
On the very day that Lincoln issued his call, some women of Bridgeport, Connecticut,
met together to consider what they could do.
“We cannot go to war,” they said, “but our husbands and sons can go—yes, they
will go. Shall we who remain at home be idle?”
“There will be bloodshed,” said some.
“And there will be much suffering in camp and on the march,” said others. “Men
will be wounded in battle, they will be sick from exposure, they will need better attention
than the army surgeons alone can give them. Can we not do something to help?”
And so these earnest, sympathetic women of Bridgeport organized themselves into
what they called a Soldiers’ Aid Society, and resolved to do all that they could for the
relief and comfort of the men who were at that moment hurrying forward to answer the
President’s call.
“We cannot fight,” they said, “but we can help the fighters.”
Miss Almena Bates, a young lady of Charlestown, Massachusetts, did not know what
the ladies of Bridgeport were doing, but she started out that same day to do something
herself. She went with pencil and paper to her friends and acquaintances, and asked each
one to volunteer as a helper.
“The boys are answering the President’s call,” she said. “To-morrow they will be on
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