We live in a time of great confusion: meaning and fact, history and truth have become separated. As the poet W.B. Yeats wrote of the world in the time between the two world wars, “Things fall apart, the center does not hold.” The people of Jerusalem went through even more difficult times in the years …
The first time I ever spoke at a Charlotte Mason event was the 2008 Living Education Retreat. I thought I did pretty well, but I wasn’t sure I would ever be invited back. (I was, thankfully, in 2015.) A key element of my 2008 presentation was Charlotte Mason’s theology. My focus was narrow, however, and …
In 1861, a nineteen-year-old was starting her first full-time job. She had just moved and was by all accounts feeling overwhelmed by her new set of responsibilities. She was a teacher and of course she had a lot to worry about. But her thoughts drifted not to all the work to be done without, but …
Editor’s Note: In September of 1908, educationalists from around the world were invited to present and discuss their views at the first International Moral Education Congress in London. A notable delegate from America named Felix Adler will be familiar to those who have read chapter 10 of Charlotte Mason’s Parents and Children. Interestingly, Adler argued …
Editor’s Note: By the time the May, 1917 issue of The Parents’ Review went to print, planning for the upcoming “Baby Number” was well underway. In that May issue, Henrietta Franklin wrote, “We are anxious to compile a list for publication in the July (Baby) number of the Parents’ Review. Suggestions should reach me before …
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 …
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. …