This article was first published in the Inspire issue of Common Place Quarterly. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo entered the world in 1617, and he came with talent, as if equipped for the journey. His family noticed early on that his drawings were not the scribbles or sketches of an ordinary child, so they directed him towards …
Ice surfaces are a scarce resource, even in the Detroit area. Figure skaters compete with hockey skaters for access to this precious commodity. Junior skaters compete with senior skaters. And singles skaters compete with ice dancers. The quest for ice is so difficult that school hours are enticing. Many skating families choose to homeschool just …
El artículo está disponible en español. In 1885, Charlotte Mason was a published author who had written several books on geography, but not on the general topic of education. Nevertheless, she had gained a great deal of experience from teaching at the Davison School and the Bishop Otter Memorial College. She had also read many …
A question I commonly hear from home educators (both men and women) is how to integrate spirituality with the mundane tasks of home and work life. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes said that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men” (3:11, NIV). At some time or another we all crave a deeper and richer …
There is a quality that Charlotte Mason said “is our first duty and our last duty, and includes all our duties.” She said it “is the hall-mark of character,” and that “all men are divided into two sorts”: those who have this quality and those who do not. Only the “few” have this quality, but …
In 1890, Charlotte Mason wrote, “Is not physiology hurrying up with the announcement that to every man it is permitted to mould and modify his own brain?” By 1894, Mason clearly saw the implications: “Within our own time the science of Education has been absolutely revolutionised, not by educationalists, but by Physiologists, who have made …
A listener asked, “If Charlotte wanted us to rely most of all on the Holy Spirit for guidance, why was she so specific (e.g. the timetables etc.)? If we were handed her 20 principles alone, I think there would be a wider array of practices, but she expounded on the specifics of her methods. Should …
What is scaffolding? Does it mean one thing in some educational circles and something else in Charlotte Mason educational circles? Is there anything wrong with scaffolding “the Charlotte Mason way”? Does the concept affect how we approach lessons in a living education? Join me as I weigh in on the scaffolding debate in a detailed discussion with Ashley Olander. …
In 1865, Uno Cygnaeus launched a revolution in handicraft education with the invention of Slöjd, now known to English speakers as sloyd. Cygnaeus (1810-1888) was a Finnish clergyman with a special interest in education. He is known to have studied educational reformers Johann Pestalozzi and Friedrich Fröbel, who inspired him to develop his own philosophy …