The year is 1921. You’ve just heard about a revolutionary new method of education where children actually love to learn. It’s been developed by a woman named Charlotte M. Mason, who is still living. You find out that the method is especially suited to teaching one’s own children at home, which is exactly what you …
Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Merriam-Webster defines an idyll as “a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic life or pastoral scenes or suggests a mood of peace and contentment.”[1] In November 1912, Charlotte Mason observed that three educational idylls had emerged on the world scene. The first idyll was described …
Oxford defines an idyll as “an extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque period or situation, typically an idealized or unsustainable one.”[1] It’s not a word I would normally be expected to know, even though I am familiar with the adjective form idyllic, which means “extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque.” The only reason I know the noun …
Just over two years ago, I first read the article “Three Educational Idylls,” by Charlotte Mason. Published in 1912, it reveals many profound thoughts about Charlotte Mason’s vision for education. (To be honest, I had to look up the word idyll; it means, “a simple descriptive work in poetry or prose that deals with rustic …