Who wasCharlotte Mason?

Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a British educator, teacher trainer, author, and lecturer who invested her life in improving the quality of education in England at the turn of the twentieth century.  English children in the 1800’s were educated according to social class resulting in limited opportunities for the lower class. During the early years of her teaching career, she began to develop her own vision for “a liberal education for all,” using a more unique methodology. Charlotte's developing methodology envisioned a generous and broad curriculum for all children, rich in the liberal arts, regardless of social class. Mason spent many years teaching children and thinking about how to design a model of education that fit what she observed to be true:  that children are born persons—able to deal with ideas and knowledge, not "empty vessels" to be filled with facts.  She rejected the idea born out of the industrial age that the purpose of education is to fit children for a career or prepare them for examinations.  Instead, she viewed education as a way of living.  She insisted that children, as bearers of the divine image (Imago Dei), deserve the very best in literature, art, music, contemporary science, and mathematics as well as an intimate knowledge of nature through close contact with creation.  Her revolutionary methods led to a shift from utilitarian education to an education built upon living ideas.

At the age of 50, Mason moved to Ambleside in the beautiful Lake District of Northern England and established the House of Education,  a training school for governesses and others working with young children.  She worked from 1892 until her death in 1923 to educate parents, as the primary educators of their children, through lectures and what came to be her six volume book series entitled The Original Home Schooling Series.  Mason developed a broad, liberal curriculum that was used in home schools belonging to the Parents’ National Education Union (PNEU) and in the various Parents’ Union Schools (PUS) across the United Kingdom and British Empire.  Her House of Education and accompanying Practicing School are now part of the University of Cumbria. Mason's work carried on after her death, and the PNEU existed into the 1960s.  In 1984, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay sparked a renewed interest in Charlotte Mason's ideas, especially in America, through the publication of her book For the Children's Sake.  Since that time, Mason's work has been brought into many schools and homeschools around the world.

The Charlotte Mason Philosophy

One cannot fully grasp the philosophy of Charlotte Mason without reading through her written works.  It is helpful indeed that to give us a starting point Miss Mason offers a short synopsis in volume 6 of The Original Homeschooling Series: A Philosophy of Education. This synopsis has commonly become known as “The Twenty Principles,” which appear here as a slightly abridged version:

1. Children are born persons.

2. They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and for evil.

3. The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but—

4. These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon, whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire.

5. Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments—the atmosphere environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. The P.N.E.U. motto is: “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”

6. When we say the “education is an atmosphere,” we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a ‘child-environment’ especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the ‘child’s’ level.

7. By “education is a discipline,” we mean the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual line of thought, i.e., to our habits.

8. In saying that “education is a life,” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

9. We hold that the child’s mind is no mere sac to hold ideas; but is rather, if the figure may be allowed, a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does foodstuffs.

10. Such a doctrine as e.g. the Herbartian, that the mind is a receptacle, lays the stress of Education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; and the teacher’s axiom is “what a child learns matters less than how he learn it.”

11. But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him full and generous curriculum; taking care only that all knowledge offered him is vital, that is, that facts are to presented without their informing ideas. Out of this conception comes our principle that—

12. “Education is the Science of Relations”; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of— “Those first-born affinities that fir our new existence to existing things.”

13. In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:—

    (a) He requires much knowledge…

    (b) The knowledge should be various…

    (c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

14. As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should ‘tell back’ after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.

15. A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarizing, and the like…

16. There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call…

17. The way of the will…

18. The way of the reason…

19. Therefore, children should be taught, as they become mature enough to understand such teaching, that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the. acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. These principles should save children from some of the loose thinking and heedless action which cause most of us to live at a lower level than we need.

20. We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and ‘spiritual’ life of children, but teach them that Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life.

The Charlotte Mason Method

Charlotte Mason believed in a method rather than a system of education. A method which develops in the students, both their natural curiosity and love for learning, as well as a good work ethic, attention to detail, and self-discipline:

“In the first place, we have no system of education. We hold that great things, such as nature, life, education, are ‘cabined, cribbed, confined,’ in proportion as they are systematised. We have a method of education, it is true, but method is no more than a way to an end, and is free, yielding, adaptive as Nature herself. Method has a few comprehensive laws according to which details shape themselves, as one naturally shapes one’s behaviour to the acknowledged law that fire burns. System, on the contrary, has an infinity of rules and instructions as to what you are to do and how you are to do it. Method in education follows Nature humbly; stands aside and gives her fair play.”

The methodology of Charlotte Mason is a simple, yet profound approach to teaching resulting in self-learned, self-motivated, and self-disciplined children. It is a method that is a lifestyle of learning that continues long after formal schooling has ended.

While Charlotte Mason includes methods specific to certain subjects in her curriculum, the following methods are foundational and used across the curriculum:

Living Ideas - Mason insisted that a child should have first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through ‘living books’ in each subject area, through the masterpieces of great artists, composers and poets, and direct experience with the natural world.  ‘Living books’ are books that engage the child’s senses and draws him into the experience being shared. By engaging the emotions and connection with the senses, as well as the intellect, factual details are more easily remembered and the subject comes alive. ‘Living books’ are usually written by a singular person who has a passion/expertise for the topic, that uses rich language, and has the ability to write in an engaging, literary style while communicating great ideas rather than mere facts.  Mason only used textbooks when they were the best books she could find to meet her criterion. 

Habit Training - As stated in her seventh principle Mason explains that education is a discipline means, "…the discipline of habits formed definitely and thoughtfully whether habits of mind or of body."  She believed that habit training was a powerful force in helping children to take charge of their own education (self-education).  Mason specifically encouraged a child's learning the habits of attention, perfect execution, obedience, truthfulness, an even temper, neatness, kindness, order, respect, recall, punctuation, gentleness, and cleanliness, among others. Through the method of habit training, students use their habit of attention for the reading of a living book.  It is through this habit of attention the student takes in the ideas from just one reading of the passage. 

Narration - Narration is the act by which ideas are assimilated into knowledge. Narration requires the power of attention to attend to the ideas from the reading and synthesize and organize the material in his mind. When a child narrates he is the telling back what has been read by the student in his own words.  Narrations are generally oral or written, but can also be drawn, acted out, or expressed in a number of creative ways. 

Short and Varied Lessons - Charlotte Mason advocated for short and varied lessons.   In general, younger students lessons should last no more than twenty minutes, while older students lessons become progressively longer based on their power of attention.  Varied lessons allow for kept interest and use of different brain functions as not to exhaust the student and allow for a taking in of the broad and generous curriculum. 

TheCharlotte Mason Curriculum

Charlotte Mason believed in giving the child a full and generous curriculum. Her principle that "Education is the Science of Relations” means that a child should have natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts:  “So we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of those first-born affinities that fit our new existence to existing things.” Mason thus created a broad and liberal curriculum based on "the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child": the Knowledge of God, the Knowledge of Man, and the Knowledge of the Universe. She believed that the ‘Knowledge of God’ is the primary knowledge and most important. In fact, it is the culmination of all knowledge gained from a child’s education. The reading of sacred texts, e.g. the holy scriptures, as well as time outside of lessons for prayer, devotion, and contemplation are also emphasized. ‘The Knowledge of Man’ includes a chronological study of history, literature (aligned with the historical time period being studied), poetry, citizenship, language arts (copywork, dictation, grammar, composition, recitation, foreign languages), art, music, physical education, handicrafts, and life skills. .  ‘The Knowledge of the Universe’ includes the study of natural history (nature study, nature lore, object lessons, and special studies), the sciences, geography, and mathematics.