Several years ago I attended a Charlotte Mason conference that included a special event: a craft display. Attendees were encouraged to bring sample objects produced by their children during handicraft lessons. The aim, of course, was to show for attendees what it really means to work with the hands. The aim was to inspire attendees …
Editor’s Note: Miss E. Bruce Low graduated from the House of Education and then travelled to India to begin teaching. There she met two other House of Education graduates. Together, they conducted a Charlotte Mason “mini-conference” in 1917. One of the trio, Mrs. J. H. Tasker, introduced themselves as follows: Miss Loveday, Miss Bruce Low …
Editor’s Note by Richele Baburina Charlotte Mason’s personal reading rotation often included one of Jane Austen’s novels, which were also among those assigned to her upper form students during study of the historical time period. She frequently references both the author and her works to illustrate certain principles in her philosophy of education, even borrowing the …
A mother contacted me a few months ago because her Form 1B student was enjoying everything in the program except Bible lessons. She asked for my advice. Should she try a different Bible translation? A different commentary? A different lesson format? My answer may have surprised her. I suggested a different attitude. An attitude of …
Editor’s Note: In March 1930, the PNEU hosted its 32nd annual conference in London. While most of the speakers were either PNEU leaders, school administrators, or educational specialists, one speaker was simply an ordinary mother. Her presentation was described as follows: During the morning session, Mrs. W. J. Brown’s address entitled “History of a P.U.S. …
This article was first published in the Method issue of Common Place Quarterly. Across the wide and varied spectrum of modern booklists and curricula inspired by Charlotte Mason, there seems to be a small set of books that always make the cut. First is the Bible, which Mason referred to as the “one source of …
In my first article in this series, I highlighted a quality that Charlotte Mason said should accompany “all our teaching of children”: reverence. This is a quality that I began to realize was sorely lacking in my own lessons, so I resolved to do something about it. But was this going to be something that …
By Miss C. M. Mason The Parents’ Review, 1913, pp. 561-572 The curriculum of the child is the provision for the man. “Do as you like,” is the new commandment for children,—so we are told; but there are two things against this rule of life. In the first place, it is not possible, and in …
Knowledge awakens. It’s the inspiring, startling, audacious claim of Charlotte Mason, a claim that’s at the heart of her method. “We know that religion can awaken souls,”[1] she writes. That claim isn’t so controversial, even today. But knowledge? I have to tell of the awakening of a ‘general soul’ at the touch of knowledge. Eight …