Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In 1944, Essex Cholmondeley had not yet written her biography of Charlotte Mason, and she was no longer principal of the House of Education. Nevertheless she was still quite active in the PNEU, and she occasionally wrote articles for The Parents’ Review to shed light on educational issues of her …
Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff Daisy Golding was the Headmistress of the Hanham Road Girls’ Elementary School in Bristol. In 1918, her school took the bold step of adopting the Charlotte Mason method. She quickly became an expert in the method and corresponded frequently with Miss Mason herself. In June 1920, a conference was held …
Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In the fall of 1927, a headmistress wrote to Elsie Kitching to ask about a fine point in the practice of narration in a group setting. Elsie Kitching’s response not only clarified the fine point but also provided a robust model for how to interpret and apply Charlotte Mason’s method. …
Editor’s Note, by Art Middlekauff In the final pages of the December 1921 issue of The Parents’ Review, five paragraphs appeared under the heading, “Extract from a letter.” No information was given about the writer or recipient of the letter, but the excerpt described a method by which a school with “a little organisation will …
Editor’s Note: On June 18, 1926, Henrietta Franklin welcomed parents and teachers to the 28th Annual PNEU Conference in Caxton Hall, Westminster. She “plunged” her audience “directly into the pith and marrow” of the PNEU enterprise with an address entitled “Miss Mason’s Contribution to Educational Thought.” She insisted that while Mason’s fresh ideas had “changed …
The following thought exercise is based on a true story. Imagine that you get a call from your oldest daughter who has just started her first semester at college. This is the first phone call you have received from her since starting college away from home. Naturally you’re excited to hear from her: “Well, how …
Editor’s Note: Have you ever corresponded with someone so often that you felt you knew the person, even though you’d never met? That’s how Charlotte Mason felt in 1920. She had exchanged so many letters and children’s examination papers with teacher Daisy Golding that she felt she already knew the woman — even though they’d …
Editor’s Note: The debate between Charlotte Mason and classical education has been going on for years. Does it really make a difference whether Mason was a classical educator or was influenced by classical theories of education? In this episode, Shannon weighs in on this topic as she recounts her journey from classical teacher to Mason educator and researcher. …
In my first article in this series, I highlighted a quality that Charlotte Mason said should accompany “all our teaching of children”: reverence. This is a quality that I began to realize was sorely lacking in my own lessons, so I resolved to do something about it. But was this going to be something that …