CMP Review 2026-06-25

June 25, 2026

18 years ago almost to the day I received an email that began with, “Hello! My name is Nancy Kelly from Windom, MN.” The email went on to ask me if I was “even remotely interested” in speaking at the “3rd Annual Living Education Retreat.” It was an invitation to take a step of faith. I had never before spoken to an audience about Charlotte Mason. Here was my first chance.

Many years have passed since then and many things have changed, but some things have stayed the same. I’ve been back to the Living Education Retreat several times, but each time is a new step of faith. Granted, it will never again be my first time to speak to an audience about Charlotte Mason. But every year I have new ideas to share. And so each year is my first time to speak to an audience about these ideas. That’s what makes it so exciting for me.

Charlotte Mason wrote that “knowledge … is a state out of which persons may pass and into which they may return, but never a store upon which they may draw.” As I study Mason’s writings with my friends in the Idyll Challenge, my friends at conferences and retreats, and my friends in the community, I pass into ever-widening landscapes of knowledge about education, life, personhood, and God. All inspired by the inexhaustible supply of ideas Mason left behind.

Someone once asked me how long it took me to write a talk for the Living Education Retreat. Do I say six months? Do I say six years?

In two weeks, the 20th Living Education Retreat begins. I look forward to it as a high point of my year. I have a new talk this year. How long have I been working on it? I would say, ever since the Living Education Retreat began. For two decades I’ve been reading, studying, discussing, comparing, and reasoning. And now I’m ready to share my newest thoughts, and stand with Charlotte Mason once again.

@artmiddlekauff