CMP Review 2026-09-17

September 17, 2026

In The Basis of National Strength, preserved for us in volume 6 of the Home Education Series, Charlotte Mason contemplates the ongoing education of the “working man”:

Some men naturally take to learning, and will struggle manfully with their Latin grammar, and Cicero, their Euclid and trigonometry. Happy they! (p. 333)

I think of that sentence from time to time when I am working on Latin. With no background in the language, and no teacher or class, it’s an exercise in self-study. I began six years ago so I could better teach my son. But now that he’s graduated, I continue for other reasons.

Is it easy? No. Do I struggle? Perhaps not “manfully,” but I do my best 🙂

The focal point of my effort is to read (translate) the Libellus de Supplemento, a 15th century volume. I work on this one day per week, with the rest of the week spent building up my vocabulary and grammar. So far, that vocabulary and grammar has not been quite up to the challenge of the Libellus.

Until recently, that is. One day I looked at a sentence of the Latin and it dawned on me that at a glance I knew what it was saying. No dictionary, no painstaking parsing, no puzzling, no pondering. The sense was as plain as day.

I have no responsibility, no grade, no teacher to satisfy. Just a hunger to understand a document composed six centuries ago. And as the fog begins to clear, and I begin to see clearly, I think I see where the joy of language learning really lies.

@artmiddlekauff