CMP Review 2025-03-18

March 18, 2025

What is “a liberal education” and why is it “for all”? Few people better understood (or endorsed) Charlotte Mason’s answer to these questions than H. W. Household. As Secretary for Education of Gloucestershire County, he was determined to bring a living way of learning to as many children as possible.

In January 1918 a one-day symposium was held to discuss the application of Mason’s method to the schools of England. The leading speaker was Mr. Household himself. He understood many things so well: how boys and children learn, how many approaches of education have failed, and how things need to change.

Household’s address can help us grasp the significance and nature of living books and their role in the liberal education Miss Mason envisioned. He can help us teach our children better. But his address has been filed away for more than 100 years. Until today. Now you can read Household’s paper on a liberal education. Or better yet, you can hear it spoken by the voice of Greg Rolling, and imagine Household is reading his paper to you. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff