CMP Review 2024-11-26

November 26, 2024

For almost twenty years I have wanted to write an article about how the Charlotte Mason method is perfect for the education of boys and young men. I have wanted to dispel the myth that the Charlotte Mason method is “too soft,” or that it is only for girls, or that it is only for boys up to the age of ten. I have wanted to show that it is a method that cultivates manliness.

But who was I to write such a piece? I was no professional educator, no educationist, no sociologist; I was just a homeschool dad. But an article was needed!

In 1913, two young teachers got married. One was an instructor in a boys’ preparatory school. The other was a graduate of Charlotte Mason’s House of Education. The bride could not conceal her love for Miss Mason’s ideas. So her husband read the books. And then he was hooked.

A few years later, the couple founded a new boys’ preparatory school built from the ground up around the Charlotte Mason method. The couple also had a child. And the husband, now a headmaster and a father, tested Mason’s ideas.

In 1928, he wrote about his experience in The Parents’ Review. His article became an instant classic, and was published in pamphlet form and sold by the PNEU for the next thirty years.

The author’s name is A. V. C. Moore. I am so thankful for his article because it lets me off the hook. I don’t need to write about the Mason method for boys because someone more qualified than me has done it. A professional teacher who has dispelled the myths.

But myths have a way of resurfacing. Moore’s article was known in PNEU circles for decades, and then it faded away. It’s time to bring it back to life. Now, on the Internet for the very first time, we present A. V. C. Moore’s masterful defense of the Charlotte Mason method for boys and young men. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff