CMP Review 2024-10-10
October 10, 2024


In her 1952 article “Memories of the Past,” Henrietta Franklin recalls her visits to the House of Education in the 1890s. One sentence in particular stood out to me: “The walls also echo to … Mademoiselle Duriaux’s lectures when she first introduced the living method of language teaching (Gouin) and Charlotte Mason felt her students must know this reform.”
This made me think about pages 302–307 of Home Education in a whole new way. In this chapter entitled “French,” Charlotte Mason describes “M. Gouin’s Method” and mentions his 1892 book The Art of Teaching and Studying Languages. It always sounded to me like Miss Mason picked up Gouin’s book and was inspired. But it was not a book that struck her. It was a person: Mlle Duriaux.
It is telling that the appendices of Home Education mention not Gouin’s book, but a book by Duriaux — and that book is mentioned twice (pp. 389 and 399). The book is entitled The Study of French and is written by Alfred F. Eugène and H. E. Duriaux (first edition 1896).
It is fascinating to see the Gouin Series in Duriaux’s book and to imagine her sharing these with Miss Mason, Mrs. Franklin, and the students gathered at the House of Education. Mason saw this demonstration and “felt her students must know this reform.”
The Gouin method has been a part of our home school for many years. We have spent so many hours with the two volumes of the lovely Speaking French with Miss Mason and François by Cherrydale Press. This week one of our graduates joined in for the lesson and with smiles and laughs we recounted the series in French. It was a delightful moment. One might even say it was living.
@artmiddlekauff