CMP Review 2023-09-26

September 26, 2023

In 2020, I enjoyed the opportunity to speak to the teen conference at a Charlotte Mason retreat. My topic was “Vocation,” and I could think of no better text for the discussion than Mason’s remarkable closing chapter of Ourselves Book I. The chapter, which continually resonates with Idyll Challenge readers, proclaims that “the worth of any calling depends upon its being of use.”

And yet in School Education, Mason says that “we do not talk about … educating [the child] with a view to his social standing or his future calling.” How do we prepare a child for his calling if we don’t educate him with that calling in view?

In 1928, a graduate of the House of Education named Vera Pim shed light on this apparent paradox of the Charlotte Mason method. “We are not idealists without practical and common sense,” she insisted. Rather, “we are intensely practical as well as idealistic.” She realized that we need to prepare children for a livelihood, as well as for a life.

Today we offer our second vintage article in our series on the Charlotte Mason method in the upper years. Read or listen as Miss Pim touches on Form V students, the Cambridge School Certificate Examination, a wide curriculum, and how all these topics relate to preparing children for life. We believe that parents of teenagers (and future teenagers) will find her words thought-provoking and encouraging. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff