CMP Review 2026-09-10

September 10, 2026

“There is no occasion for panic,” writes Charlotte Mason, “but it is time that we realised that to fortify the will is one of the great purposes of education, and probably some study of the map of the City of Mansoul would afford us guidance: at least, a bird’s eye view of the riches of the City should be spread before children.”

Now is this “map of the City of Mansoul” an actual physical drawing? Or is Mason talking about a purely mental model? According to Laurie Bestvater, “the ‘map’ is metaphorical and [Mason] refers to it in the first half of her unique book Ourselves” (The Living Page, p. 36).

Nevertheless, Bestvater cites a “private conversation with Kristy Fittro, daughter of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay.” In that conversation, Fittro explained that in her school, “the students drew, episode by episode,” visual narrations of Pilgrim’s Progress.

This conversation prompted Bestvater to imagine “a project undertaken upon the reading of the first book of Ourselves, wherein students design an artistic or visual narration—their own map of Mansoul.”

This project no longer need be merely imagined, as many have undertaken it. Have you? Do you have a picture to share?

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: @heidibuschbach