CMP Review 2024-11-19

November 19, 2024

What is beauty? Is it in the eye of the beholder?

It’s no new question. In 1926, speaking of music, Cedric Glover wrote, “our greatest difficulty in forming the taste of democracy is the old difficulty of showing why one thing is better than another… It is so easy for people to turn round and reply … ‘I don’t know anything about music, but I know what I like.’”

To explore this difficulty, four representatives of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy were invited to speak at the Conference of Educational Associations. They were to discuss the question of beauty and aesthetic taste in the arenas of nature, music, art, and literature.

The choice for the speaker on literature was a surprising one. Miss Moore was neither a House of Education graduate nor a teacher at a sophisticated institution. Rather, she was the headmistress of an elementary school in one of the poorest districts in London.

The choice was surprising, but powerful. Yes, there is such a thing as beauty. And every citizen, every child, every person has the gift to behold it. Read or hear Moore’s inspiring 1926 lecture here.

@artmiddlekauff