CMP Review 2023-04-27

CMP Review 2023-04-27

April 27, 2023

In 1911, Charlotte Mason wrote to Henrietta Franklin about the Parents’ Review: “When you and I are gone, the P.R. will be long quoted and made much of in the annals of Education.” Sometimes I get a strange feeling that our community is playing a part in the fulfillment of this prophecy. There is so much to quote in the P.R. — it’s filled with living ideas!

But I like to dig behind the ideas to find the people who wrote the articles. I try to penetrate the fog to find something about the story of the mother, father, or teacher who wrote a particular article. And at occasional moments another strange feeling comes to my heart.

I start to think that these parents and teachers were in many ways like us. Yes they loved their children and their students. But they also felt they were part of something bigger. That perhaps in some way, they were fulfilling a prophecy too. They poured their hearts and their time into this journal because they believed in the vision that Miss Mason had put before them.

Lurking in the recesses of those pages, I find more than ideas. I find dreams. And that motivates me to keep working, to do my part to bring those dreams to fruition. To make the P.R. forever quoted and made much of in the annals of education.

One evening the rest my the family was away and I was determined to record a 27-page P.R. article for the podcast. I was only 2 or 3 pages in when the power went out. Night fell and I wondered how I could complete my task. But then I reasoned that I didn’t need electricity for light. And so there I was in the darkness recording by candlelight deep into the night.

That’s the way it is with dreams. They don’t need power. They only need a flame.

@artmiddlekauff