Charlotte Mason developed her educational method for all students, but many feel that by high school they must get on to more serious preparation for college or career and abandon the course they have been on. The moms of A Delectable Education discuss the high school years, what studies are tackled, how to deal with college transcripts and applications and college entrance exams. Does Mason’s curriculum prepare a child for the real world? Will they be able to succeed in a non-Charlotte Mason environment? What does high school look like if you follow a Mason approach to education?

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“The work of the Parents’ Union School led up naturally, and without any real break, to the larger life of the public school, for which the children by their early training were well fitted, as it seemed merely the stepping from one classroom to another, so comprehensive and intelligent had been the previous preparation.” (In Memoriam, p. 45)

“The history studies of Forms V and VI (ages 15-18) are more advanced and more copious and depend for illustration upon readings in the literature of the period…But any sketch of the history teaching in a given period depends upon the ‘literature’ set; for plays, novels, essays, ‘lives,’ poems, are all pressed into service and where it is possible, the architecture, painting, etc., which the period produced.” (Vol. 6, pp. 176-78)

“I feel one of the joys of the Sixth Form is that there the girls can go on with the subjects they are most keenly interested in–subjects they have been longing to have time for–and freedom of choice is one of its characteristics…[they] learn how little they know–what fields of knowledge there are of which they know.” (A P.U.S. Headmistress, writing in the Parents’ Review)

“But the people themselves begin to understand and to clamour for an education which shall qualify their children for life rather than for earning a living. As a matter of fact, it is the man who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books. The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfil his own life and serve society.” (Vol. 6, p. 3)

“All callings have one thing in common––they are of use; and, therefore, a person may prepare for his calling years before he knows what it is. What sort of person is of use in the world?” (Vol. 4, Book I, p. 205)

“The question is not,––how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education––but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?” (Vol. 3, pp. 170-71)

Michael Faraday

You Can Teach Your Child Successfully, Ruth Beechick

(Contains affiliate links)

Charlotte Mason had much to say about children even before they start formal school lessons. This podcast explores the wide world of the preschooler and what families should do to make the most of the early years, the “golden hours” of life before school officially begins.

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“Supposing we have got them, what is to be done with these golden hours, so that every one shall be delightful? They must be spent with some method, or the mother will be taxed and the children bored.” (Vol. 1, p. 44)

“In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother’s first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part out in the fresh air.” (Vol. 1, p. 43)

“‘Except ye become as little children ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.’ ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ ‘And He called a little child, and set him in the midst.’ Here is the Divine estimate of the child’s estate. It is worth while for parents to ponder every utterance in the Gospels about these children, divesting themselves of the notion that these sayings belong, in the first place, to the grown up people who have become as little children.” (Vol. 1, p. 12)

“So education does not start without much to go upon; the child is a person, a whole person, with all the powers latent that he will ever have. Therefore, education must advance altogether if it advance at all. One-sided development will leave other sides maimed. ‘Wisdom is justified of all her children,’ and varied knowledge in many directions is as necessary for the growth of the mind as varied food for the body.” (Kitching, Children Up to School Age and Beyond, p. 9)

“The consideration of out-of-door life, in developing a method of education, comes second in order; because my object is to show that the chief function of the child––his business in the world during the first six or seven years of his life––is to find out all he can, about whatever comes under his notice, by means of his five senses; that he has an insatiable appetite for knowledge got in this way; and that, therefore, the endeavour of his parents should be to put him in the way of making acquaintance freely with Nature and natural objects; that, in fact, the intellectual education of the young child should lie in the free exercise of perceptive power, because the first stages of mental effort are marked by the extreme activity of this power; and the wisdom of the educator is to follow the lead of Nature in the evolution of the complete human being.” (Vol. 1, pp. 96-97)

“The flowers, it is true, are not new; but the children are; and it is the fault of their elders if every new flower they come upon is not to them a Picciola, a mystery of beauty to be watched from day to day with unspeakable awe and delight.” (Vol. 1, p. 53)

“There is one thing the mother will allow herself to do as interpreter between Nature and the child, but that not oftener than once a week or once a month, and with look and gesture of delight rather than with flow of improving words––she will point out to the child some touch of especial loveliness in colouring or grouping in the landscape or the heavens. One other thing she will do, but very rarely, and with tender filial reverence (most likely she will say her prayers, and speak out of her prayer, for to touch on this ground with hard words is to wound the soul of the child): she will point to some lovely flower or gracious tree, not only as a beautiful, but a beautiful thought of God, in which we may believe He finds continual pleasure, and which He is pleased to see his human children rejoice in.” (Vol. 1, pp. 79-80)

“We have now started on the noblest work that can engage the mind of man, the guiding of the growth of our own child. Notice I say, the guiding of the growth, not the systematic training of a child in the ways that were good enough for his father and ought to be good enough for him.” (Roscoe, The PNEU in the Home, p. 2)

“Guard the nursery; let nothing in that has not the true literary flavour; let the children grow up on a few books read over and over, and let them have none, the reading of which does not cost an appreciable mental effort.” (Vol. 5, p. 215)

“They must grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told.” (Vol. 2, p. 263)

“The children should have the joy of living in far-lands, in other persons, in other times–a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story-books.” (Vol. 1, p. 153)

[If there is nothing better to think about,] “the children who are persons endowed with minds, clamour to be taught to read and write. We can do it with our children if we like, but it must be at the like cost, the exclusion of the intellectual and imaginative interests and joys proper to children, the devotion of dreary hours every day to these dead pursuits. No, let us be content to be the handmaids of Nature for the first five or six years, remembering that enormous as are the tasks she sets the children, she guides them into the performance of each so that it is done with unfailing delight; for gaiety, delight, mirth belong to her method. If a child chooses to read and write before he is six, let him, but do not make him; and when he does begin, there is no occasion to hurry; let him have a couple of years for the task.” (Mason, Three Educational Idylls, 811)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

Home Education (Volume 1), Part II, Chapter I; Part V, Chapters 1-3

Sabbath Mood Homeschool’s Outline for Out-of-Door Life for Children

PNEU Pamphlet: Children Up to School Age and Beyond, Elsie Kitching

PNEU Pamphlet: The PNEU in the Home, Mrs. Roscoe

Three Educational Idylls, Charlotte Mason

Excellent blog post, relevant for these early years by a former head of a CM School

Corrections, Clarifications, and Apologies: The breadth of the Charlotte Mason feast requires a lot of knowledge for teachers. We are still learning and discuss some of those points in this episode, as well as correct comments we have made that were wrong in math, foreign language, narration, and use of lesson time.

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“Two or three points are important. Children in lB require a quantity of matter to be read to them, graduated, not according to their powers which are always present, but they require a little time to employ their power of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of fluent narration. So probably young children should be allowed to narrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of seven or eight will ‘tell’ chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed.” (Vol. 6, p. 191)

Charlotte Mason Digital Collection

One of the forms of physical education Charlotte Mason addressed was dance. This episode is an interview with Lance Halverson, ballroom dance instructor and, with his wife, Mason educator of his own four children.

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“…to give the child pleasure in light and easy motion––the sort of delight in the management of his own body that a good rider finds in managing his horse––dancing, drill, calisthenics, some sort of judicious physical exercise, should make part of every day’s routine.” (Vol. 1, p. 132)

Men’s Idyll Challenge

Video of Lance and Nicole’s kids dancing!

Charlotte Mason did not neglect the physical education of children. This episode explores the myriad ways our children’s bodies can be developed in harmony with what is going on in their minds and hearts.

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“The object of athletics and gymnastics should be kept steadily to the front; enjoyment is good by the way, but is not the end; the end is the preparation of a body, available from crown to toe, for whatever behest ‘the gods’ may lay upon us. ‘Ye are not your own’; the divine Author of your being has given you life, and a body finely adapted for His service; He gives you the work of preserving this body in health, nourishing it in strength, and training it in fitness for whatever special work He may give you to do in His world.” (Vol. 3, pp. 102-03)

“The subject of the natural training of eye and muscles was taken up pretty fully in treating of ‘Out-of-door Life.’ I will only add, that to give the child pleasure in light and easy motion––the sort of delight in the management of his own body that a good rider finds in managing his horse––dancing, drill, calisthenics, some sort of judicious physical exercise, should make part of every day’s routine.” (Vol. 1, p. 132)

“To turn to the question of practical instruction, under the heads of ‘Science, Drawing, Manual and Physical Training,’ etc., I can do no more than repeat our convictions. We believe that education under these four heads is due to every child of whatever class.” (Vol. 3, p. 236)

“For physical training, nothing is so good as Ling’s Swedish Drill, and a few of the early exercises are within the reach of children under nine. Dancing, and the various musical drills, lend themselves to grace of movement, and give more pleasure, if less scientific training, to the ‘little people.'” (Vol. 1, p. 315)

“And here we have the reason why children should learn dancing, riding, swimming, calisthenics, every form of activity which requires a training of the muscles, at an early age: the fact being, that muscles and joints have not merely to conform themselves to new uses, but to grow to a modified pattern; and this growth and adaptation take place with the greatest facility in early youth.” (Vol 1, p. 113)

“…a desire to run and ride and row and do whatever the law of gravitation permits.” (Vol 3, p. 223)

“The tendency of some of our great games to become spectatorial, which is deplored by every man of sense, and which really constitutes a national evil and danger, is not fostered by a sound system of physical training and education, but the very reverse. The man who, as a boy, has been taught the duty and experienced the advantage and pleasure of taking exercise for himself, of a kind suitable of his age and circumstance, is not likely to sit or stand during a Saturday afternoon as spectator of a gladiatorial show, unless he can otherwise secure his own personal exercise. For my own part, I have not witnessed a cricket or football match for many years. I require the time for my own exercise.” (“Questions Proposed by the Royal Commission on Physical Education (Scotland)” Parents’ Review, Volume 14, 1903, pp. 268-276)

“But don’t think for a moment that physiology lends itself to the cult of muscle. Here is a youth whose biceps are his better part: like most of us, he gets what he aims at––some local renown as an athlete. But what does he pay for the whistle? His violent ‘sports’ do not materially increase the measure of blood which sustains him: if the muscles get more than their share, their gain implies loss elsewhere, to the brain, commonly, and, indeed, to all the vital organs. By-and-by, the sports of youth over, your brawny, broad-chested young fellow collapses; is the victim of ennui, and liver, lungs, or stomach send in their requisition for arrears of nourishment fraudulently made away with.” (Vol. 5, pp. 140-41)

“Swedish Drill is especially valuable, and many of the exercises are quite suitable for the nursery. Certain moral questions come into play in alert movements, eye-to-eye attention, prompt and intelligent replies; but it often happens that good children fail in these points for want of physical training.” (Vol. 1, p. 132)

“The training of the ear and voice is an exceedingly important part of physical culture…Drill them in pronouncing difficult words…in producing the several sounds of each vowel; and the sounds of the consonants without attendant vowels. French, taught orally, is exceedingly valuable as affording training for both ear and voice.” (Vol. 1, p. 133)

“I cannot place so high a value on drill and gymnastics as some do, though I believe that they should form part of the daily work of all schools. Drill is undoubtedly useful in giving a boy something of a soldier’s training, teaching him to give prompt obedience to the word of command, and makes him hold his head up and avoid a slouching gait. And gymnastics do much in the way of developing the muscles, and of expanding the chest, though I think that the latter object would be equally achieved by the freer games, which are more conducive both to high-spirited health and to the development of individuality and initiative. In these remarks, I have been looking at things from my own point of view as the headmaster of a school in the country. In town schools generally, games, such as football, etc., are not attainable every day, and often not at all. In such cases drill and gymnastics are the first order of importance. Drill of an active nature should always, when weather makes it possible, be in shirt sleeves or gymnastic dress.” “Questions Proposed by the Royal Commission on Physical Education (Scotland)” Parents’ Review, Volume 14, 1903, pp. 268-276)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

Home Education (Volume 1), Parts II, III (Chapter IX), and V (Chapter XXI)

School Education (Volume 3), Chapters IV and X

The Swedish Drill Teacher

Dawn Duran’s Swedish Drill Videos

A breakdown of Drill and Physical Training by Form in the P.U.S.