Did Charlotte Mason have a rhyme or reason to her broad and varied feast or, was it just a collection of unrelated topics? Far from a mishmash, the more the whole feast is pursued, in all its varied subjects, the more it all fits as a whole. Emily, Liz, and Nicole have an animated conversation exploring just how connected this wide feast really is.
Listen Now:
“But I should like to say to any parents who may doubt the need for such and such a book set, that, to omit it is to leave out a link in the chain by which all hang together.” (Charlotte Mason, Parents’ Review 23, p. 503)
“Many people did not realise that Miss Mason’s ideal was to give each human being a chance of expanding in all directions. Almost unconciously children working in the school felt this themselves.” (Miss Pennethorne)
“And since it is so essential to all arts, I think it is of the utmost importance that the teaching of crafts, drawing, art appreciation, and design, should all be in the hands of the same person; they all interlock so completely and are so inter-dependent that they cannot be separated ; and how very carefully the syllabus of the Parents’ Union School is arranged, so that they shall progress hand in hand, is not always readily appreciated, even by those of us who have been in close contact with the methods of the Parents’ National Educational Union for some years, and who fail to realise that the scheme in handicraft and art is as comprehensive as that in Literature, History and Science. (K. Minn, Parents’ Review 47, pp. 329-330)”
“What is education after all? An answer lies in the phrase––Education is the Science of Relations. … What we are concerned with is the fact that we personally have relations with all that there is in the present, all that there has been in the past, and all that there will be in the future––with all above us and all about us…” (3/186-87)
“…the fact is, that a few broad essential principles cover the whole field, and these once fully laid hold of, it is as easy and natural to act upon them as it is to act upon our knowledge of such facts as that fire burns and water flows.” (1/10)
“…When we remember, as she always did, that ‘knowledge is truth,’ we know at once that no part of truth can be omitted without wrecking the whole. And in some wonderful way, P.U.S. children do realise that knowledge is a balanced whole; that Scripture, history, geography, botany and all the others are actually different facets of the same thing. Indeed it may be that herein lies the chief characteristic of a PNEU school; for it is merely another way of saying that children have a wide curriculum and that they get at knowledge for themselves and for its own sake. All this results in a real enjoyment and love of knowledge which is most delightful to witness…
“What is the secret of this? I do not know. What we cannot do with Midd Mason’s ideal is to reduce it to its lowest terms, and just in so far as we try to, so far we misrepresent it, and misunderstand it. But some of the secret undoubtedly lies in the Programmes of Work; the longer we work from those wonderful programmes, the more we realise how well balanced they are; how satisfying to the hungry mind; how the subjects dovetail; how difficult it is to teach history only in history time, how it will ‘flow over’ into geography, literature, or even into such unexpected channels as arithmetic or botany.” (Miss Wix, Miss Mason’s Ideal: Its Breadth and Balance)
“Let us always keep all the Forms and all the books in our minds, when we are asked questions about the school work, and make the details of the letterpress on the Programme our own as well. The school cannot be judged by one book or one subject. Every book and every subject has a niche to fill. It cannot stand alone, nor can it be omitted from the Programme without weakening the whole ‘organism.'” (Miss Kitching, Parents’ Review 36, p. 417)
“Let us hope that this may help to convince some that many subjects do all help each other and fit in together, and are not simply ‘more work,’ but rather less.” (Miss Pennethorne, Parents’ Review 26, p. 584)
“And finally, we must not let the Zeitgeist have the last word, or we shall be dropping now one subject, now another, according to the need of the moment, not realising that sooner or later we shall have to make good our omissions. The Board of Education became aware in 1915 that there was no European History taught in the schools, and quickly issued an important paper for official use. They also realised in 1924 that few schools were teaching Colonial Hisotry, and they appointed an able Director, who issued a manifesto with notes of lessons, to remedy this defect…The P.U.S. children, thanks to the wisdom and foresight of Miss Mason, had no need for sudden changes in their programmes, for these subjects were all provided for, and always had been.” (Miss Kitching, Parents’ Review 36, p. 417)
“What we have to do is to gather together and order our resources ; to put the first thing foremost and all things in sequence, and to see that education is neither more nor less than the practical application of our philosophy.”(2/119)
“See to it for your children that they do get the whole education planned to expand each one–not a few Terms in Forms IB. and A.–the mere threshold of the Temple of Learning and Life. No one understands our work who had not trodden the way with it till the goal is reached.” (Miss Pennethorne, Parents’ Review 36, p. 544)
“Integration [is] simple enough to understand. It means merely that all our bits of knowledge should be seen to be parts of wholes. A surgeon learns by dissection, but his knowledge is of use only to whole bodies, living men and women. So in school we learn by subjects, by lessons, in bits and pieces, but these should be fitted in, first to their own context, and then later on to the whole human scene as far as we are able to comprehend it…there is no comprehension at all until our bits of knowledge have a time and place, a context assigned to them. Even the youngest can be encouraged to say when and where things happen, and later on people and events should always be related to their environment. This principle will be readily accepted in historical subjects, and it is clearly the object of Century Books. But in other subjects it is important for the child to see where a life or work belongs.” (Parents’ Review 66, pp. 154-156)
“‘Isn’t it fun, mother, learning all these things? Everything seems to fit into something else.’ The boy had not found out the whole secret; everything fitted into something within himself.” (6/157
Miss Mason’s Ideal: Its Breadth and Balance, Miss Wix (Skip down to page 143)