CMP Review 2024-06-25

June 25, 2024

In 1926 a notice appeared in the January issue of the Parents’ Review. “The attention of Members is called to this Course,” it said, “which is open to all Members of the P.N.E.U. and the Parents’ Union School Association.” Charlotte Mason’s sixth volume had just been published the year before, and now educators were being invited to read it together:

The five volumes of the Home Education Series are set for study. These books were specially prepared from time to time by Miss C. M. Mason for the use of the Parents’ National Educational Union. The method of these volumes is a progressive amplification of the principles of the Union… The course also includes Miss Mason’s latest and most important work, An Essay towards a Philosophy of Education.

Ninety years later a new notice appeared on the Charlotte Mason Poetry website. Educators around the world were invited again to read the six volumes and experience the “progressive amplification of the principles” of Miss Mason. The Idyll Challenge was born, a two-year reading schedule with group discussions. Eight years and four challenges later, the format has proven effective.

What does reading the volumes accomplish? Several parent-educators have compiled their testimonies and together we issue the next challenge. Perhaps this is the year for you to start reading the Home Education Series for yourself. Wherever you are in the world, we probably have a group for you. But space is limited. Read more and sign up here.

@artmiddlekauff