Charlotte Mason
Charlotte Mason was an educator in the early 1900's who saw amazing success with her well researched methods. She ran a school in Ambleside, England producing students that were unusually bright, diligent and successful and who went on to pursue higher education with a ferver unmatched by those in typical school settings. Ms. Mason was adamantly against many of the new philosphies and practices being used at that time. She foretold that those practices were ineffective and would only serve to denegrate a child's mind and ability to learn, as well as have a negative impact on education in general.
If you and I were to look at what a child was to know in the late 1800's and what a child is to know now, we would see that Charlotte Mason was a prognosticator of truth.
Charlotte Mason says, “Let the lessons be of the right sort, and children will learn them with delight.”
What are the right sort of lessons? How can I get my children to learn with delight? There are several methods CM used that proved to be successful in producing delighted learners. The first is that the lessons were short and rich. The second is that the lessons were usually learned from a source of literature or interestingly written text filled with ideas and concepts – not mere facts.
Mason tells us, “For the mind lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body.”
Though it is easier for us today to hand them a workbook, tomorrow, we will wonder why our children grumble over learning.
I pray that in my effort to fulfill God’s call upon our homeschool, I can also enrich the lives of my children with an education that will inspire them, not mire them.
Click on the links above to learn how to implement her philosphies in your homeschool.
