At Educational Renaissance, we are passionate about education, but not just any kind. It must be an intellectually stimulating, grit-growing, morally formative education aimed toward human flourishing. We are aware that with the dawn of the modern era, new tricks, tips, and techniques for the classroom are manufactured daily. While some of these contributions have indeed proven beneficial, we have found none that have surpassed the comprehensive educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason.
Who was Charlotte Mason?
Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a teacher, governess, educational philosopher, and leader of the Parents’ National Educational Union, which was dedicated to educating students in a manner consonant with their personhood. She held firmly to the belief that all children can learn regardless of social class, pedigree, or upbringing. Out of this conviction comes a pedagogy in which students encounter knowledge for themselves as teachers support the engagement of mind-to-mind interactive learning with authors, composers, artists, and one another. Over her 60+ years career, Charlotte Mason wrote six volumes on education which can now be accessed as the Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series.
Here are some distinctive features of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy:
Charlotte Mason’s Practice of Narration
Passive learning is not sufficient for the mind of a student eager to encounter knowledge. To promote active learning, students narrate, or tell back, in detail what they have read, heard, or observed, which enables them to digest concepts and assimilate knowledge into their minds for long-term retention. As it turns out, narration is one excellent way to get into the flow of thought.
Charlotte Mason’s Focus on the Discipline of Habit
So much of a flourishing life can be boiled down to the formation of good habits. This includes a flourishing intellectual life. As a student is called to perform a worthy task over and over, the neuroplasticity of the brain enables these tasks to become second-nature. Core habits for a young scholar to develop include the habit of attention, thorough execution, and careful thinking. Beyond scholarship, of course, students should develop good spiritual habits and physical habits as well.
Charlotte Mason’s Emphasis on Living Ideas
While the acquisition of facts is integral to the learning process, nothing stimulates the mind for learning like living ideas. We’ve all had an idea strike us and force us to reconsider some presupposition in our mental repertoire. Imagine what education could be like if ideas, rather than facts, were the focus day in and day out.
Charlotte Mason’s Definition of Education as “the Science of Relations”
Reality is an integrated whole of complex parts. Each unique facet of knowledge is therefore related to another in some way. The goal of education is to discover these relations in order to see reality as it truly is. As children grow in knowledge, they should grow in their affection and appreciation for the created world, proper relationship with authority, and, ultimately, an abiding worshipful love for the Creator.
As Charlotte Mason put it,
“The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (School Education, p. 170-171)
Reading Charlotte Mason for Yourself
The best place to read Charlotte Mason for free online is AmblesideOnline’s Annotated Charlotte Mason Series. The website also contains concise summaries and a modern English paraphrase, along with helpful links along the text distinguishing page numbers in their original version. This makes it easy to cite Charlotte Mason, as we often do on Educational Renaissance.
You can also find hard copies of the 6 volumes of her Home Education series on Amazon. The title (Home Education Series) is really a misnomer, because only the first two volumes mainly concern education in the home (Home Education and Parents and Children). Volume 3 is titled School Education. Volume 4: Ourselves was written by Charlotte Mason as a informative Christian moral formation or human philosophy textbook to be read by students themselves. Volume 5 analyzes literary texts on the Formation of Character through education. Volume 6, her final work written near the end of her life and titled Towards a Philosophy of Education, represents a culmination of her life’s work and her mature thought on nature and methods of education.
The best place to start may be the 1st, 3rd or 6th volume depending on your interest and tastes. If you have young children and are interested in the practical details of early education, start with Home Education. If you are a school teacher or interested in the bigger picture philosophy, dive into School Education or Towards a Philosophy of Education.
AmblesideOnline has also digitized many of the articles published in Parents’ Review, the publication that Charlotte Mason edited for the Parents’ National Educational Union from 1890 until her death in 1923.
Modern Introductions to Mason
Some of the most important modern introductions to Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy include the following:
- Jason Barney, Charlotte Mason: A Liberal Education for All
- Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School.
- When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy for Today, edited by Elaine Cooper and with sections written by some of the leaders in the Charlotte Mason movement, including Maryellen St.Cyr, Bobby Scott, Jack Beckman, and Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.
- If you’re coming from a classical education perspective, Karen Glass’ Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition is a great place to start.
- The classic biography of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondeley, entitled The Story of Charlotte Mason is definitely enlightening, if you can find it for something less than the egregious price it often goes for.
EdRen Articles on Charlotte Mason’s Thought
- “Charlotte Mason, the Educational Philosopher“
- “‘Education is a Life’: Igniting a Love for Learning in the Classroom“
- “Charlotte Mason and the Liberal Arts Tradition, Part 1: Mapping a Harmony”
- “Charlotte Mason and the Liberal Arts Tradition, Part 2: Educating the Whole Person”
- “Charlotte Mason and the Power of Ideas”
- “The Role of Ideas in Education”
- “Attention, Then and Now: The Science of Focus Before and After Charlotte Mason’s Time”
- “Authority and Obedience in the Classroom: Reading Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy of Education”