CMP Review 2026-07-23

July 23, 2026

I’m doing it!

Yes, for this Idyll Challenge, I have been reading Home Education in French, in the expert and dynamic translation by Maeva Dauplay and Sylvie Dugauquier.

Going into it, my worries were that the French would be too hard, it would slow me down, and I would miss the key ideas that Miss Mason wanted to impart.

So far I have found that the French is not too hard, though it does slow me down a bit. But in a good way. Having read Home Education at least a half-dozen times, my eyes can breeze past familiar passages in English. Not so in French.

And the key ideas … far from being obscured, I find they stand out in a kind of starker majesty. Masterly inactivity has become « l’inactivité magistrale » — how noble and dignified is that? And system vs. method? « Le système » appeals to « la mollesse de la nature humaine » — “the sluggishness of human nature” — ouch!

And « le code d’éducation dans les Évangiles » — “the code of education in the Gospels,” expressly laid down by Christ — from where the “the ought get its awful majesty” — the French is highlighting, not obscuring, Mason’s points.

I’m grateful to be climbing towards the same lofty ideas on a different stairway of words, thanks to the work of Maeva and Sylvie. Perhaps you’ve seen the monthly schedule of Idyll Challenge VI? I have also broken this down to a daily schedule of readings which you can follow if you’d like — post a comment to request the link.

P.S. If you registered for the Idyll Challenge and haven’t heard back, check your spam filter for emails from art@charlottemasonpoetry.org. Some people have missed their confirmation emails this way. And if you are confirmed in a group, best get started reading now, because you probably won’t have the entire month of August to read.

@artmiddlekauff