New Publications
The Parents’ Review, 1925, pp. 608–609
“An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education: A Liberal Education for All,” By Charlotte M. Mason (Kegan Paul, 10s. 6d.) was published on January 1st, 1925, together with a pamphlet “Some Impressions of the Method” (P.N.E.U. Office, 1s.)
The Trustees of the late Miss C. M. Mason have sent out the ‘last words’ of this great educationist with the conviction that the teaching contained in “An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education” will do much to steady, direct and inspire the work of parents and teachers in an age of stress and perplexity. Those who have the well-being of children at heart are seeking for a standard by which to judge the claims of modern educational theories. In this volume they are offered help towards the understanding of children and all that goes ‘to produce a person at his best’; a knowledge, also, of principles, the method of their application and the practical results of such application.
Miss Mason herself says in the Introduction: “Whether the way I have sketched out is the right way remains to be tested more widely than in the many thousands of cases in which it has been successful; but assuredly education is slack and uncertain for the lack of sound principles exactly applied. We have placed our faith in ‘civilisation’, have been proud of our progress; and, of the pangs that the War has brought us, perhaps none is keener than that caused by the utter breakdown of the civilisation which we held to be synonymous with education. We know better now and are thrown back on our healthy human instincts and the Divine sanctions. The moment has come to try the great cause of Education v. Civilisation, with the result, let us hope, that the latter will retire to her proper sphere of service in the amelioration of life and will not intrude on the higher functions of inspiration and direction which belong to Education.”
The book is of set purpose a considerable one, for Miss Mason wished to leave a record of her theory and practice in one volume, which she hoped would be of use in the years to come. In the first nine chapters of Part I: Theory, she works out in detail each clause of the Synopsis of the Educational Philosophy, which was first published in 1903. Chapter X takes up the question of the curriculum which is necessary for the child so that he may establish his due relationships with God, with his fellow-man and with the world around him. Part II sets forth her theory and practice as applied to all classes of schools—Secondary, Continuation and Elementary—showing that the basis of national strength lies in a liberal education for all.
The book was favourably reviewed in the Press in many parts of the world (see the Parents’ Review for October).
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