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Episode 28: Nancy Kelly on Plutarch, An Interview

Nancy Kelly is an experienced Charlotte Mason teacher who joins us on this podcast to discuss the teaching of Plutarch. You will enjoy her helpful tips and inspiring wisdom.

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“We take the child to the living sources of history––a child of seven is fully able to comprehend Plutarch, in Plutarch’s own words (translated), without any diluting and with little explanation.” (Vol. 2, p. 278)

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.

Parents and Children (Volume 2), pp. 278-79


Loomis translation (For Teacher Prep)	North’s Plutarch (Heritage Press Edition)	Stories from the History of Rome

Fifty Famous Stories Retold	Nancy’s Favorite Retelling

(Contains affiliate links)

Anne White’s Study Guides (free online–scroll down to individual Lives listings)

Nancy’s 3-Part Blog series on Plutarch

The Great Courses on Plutarch

Episode 27: Plutarch

Charlotte Mason thought Plutarch an invaluable source of knowledge and moral wisdom in the subject of citizenship. This podcast explores who he was, why Mason thought so, and how the study of the lives he described would inform and enrich our children.

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“In the same way, readings from Plutarch’s Lives will afford the best preparation for the study of Grecian or of Roman history.” (Vol. 1, p. 286)

“[T]he principle being, that, whenever practicable, the child should get his first notions of a given period, not from the modern historian, the commentator and reviewer, but from the original sources of history, the writings of contemporaries.” (Vol. 1, p. 285)

“Perhaps nothing outside of the Bible has the educational value of Plutarch’s Lives.” (Vol. 3, p. 236)

“[The Lives] stand alone in literature as teaching that a man is part of the State, that his business is to be of service to the State, but that the value of his service depends upon his personal character.” (Vol. 3, p. 280)

“…an early education from the great books with the large ideas and the large virtues is the only true foundation of knowledge–the knowledge worth having.” (Vol. 6, p. 308)

“We read him his Tanglewood Tales, and when he is a little older his Plutarch, not trying to break up or water down, but leaving the child’s mind to deal with the matter as it can.” (Vol. 2, pp. 231-232)

“[Plutarch] hath written the profitable story of all authors. For all other were fain to take their matter, as the fortune of the countries whereof they wrote fell out: But this man being excellent in wit, learning, and experience, hath chosen the special acts of the best persons, of the famousest nations of the world.” (Thomas North as quoted by Mason in Vol. 6, p. 274)

Home Education (Volume 1), pp. 286-87

School Education (Volume 3), pp. 152, 235, 280-81, 286-89

Ourselves (Volume 4), Book I, Chapter 2

Towards a Philosophy of Education (Volume 6), Book I, Section II, “Morals and Economics”

Stories from the History of Rome	North’s Plutarch	The Plutarch Primer (Publicola)
Plutarch Project, Vol. 1	Plutarch Project, Vol. 2	The Children’s Plutarch
Plutarch retold by Weston	Plutarch retold by Kaufman	Ten Famous Lives

(Contains affiliate links)

Stories from the History of Rome (free online)

Anne White’s Study Guides (free online–scroll down to individual Lives listings)

The Children’s Plutarch (free online)

Weston’s Plutarch (free online)

Kaufman’s Plutarch (free online)

Episode 26: Charlotte Mason, Food for Mothers

Charlotte Mason’s education is not just for children. This podcast is a discussion of three mothers who have found that Mason has influenced them in ways they never could have dreamed when they took up her methods. Listen to discover all the ways the delectable feast can nourish you, the teacher.

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“The mother cannot devote herself too much to [nature] reading, not only that she may read tit-buts to her children about matters they have come across, but that she may be able to answer their queries and direct their observations. And not only the mother, but any woman who is likely ever to spend an hour or two in the society of children, should make herself mistress of this sort of information; the children will adore her for knowing what they want to know, and who knows but she may give its bent for life to some young mind designed to do great things for the world.” (Vol. 1, pp. 64-65)

Find a Charlotte Mason group in your area

Find a Charlotte Mason Retreat in your area

Other Charlotte Mason Endeavors Near You

Grace to Build Retreat

Living Education Retreat

CM West Retreat

More Upcoming CM Conferences on the West Coast

Simply Charlotte Mason Seminars

Audio Download of Liz’s Plenary at Grace to Build Retreat last year: “Mothers: The Living Books Our Children Read”

Fisher Academy Blog

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival Link Up

Sage Parnassus

Episode 25: Listener Q & A #3

This podcast addresses common questions that arise as parents and teachers pursue knowledge of the Charlotte Mason method. Whether specific small questions, or large philosophic ones, they are common to most of us and Nicole, Emily and Liz attempt to draw from the deep well of Mason’s own writings, as well as their experience in applying that wisdom, to meet the most frequent perplexities head on.

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“[H]e knew that that which he beheld of lowly living and service and suffering was ‘glory.'” (Scale How Meditations, p. 49)


The Phantom Tollbooth, Norman Juster	The 21 Balloons, William Pene du Bois	My Side of the Mountain, Jean Craighead George

Old Yeller, Fred Gipson	Where the Red Fern Grows, Wilson Rawls	Harry Potter Series, J.K. Rowling

Rascal, Sterling North	Deathwatch, Robb White	Read-Aloud Handbook, Jim Trelease

The Living Page, Laurie Bestvater

(Contains affiliate links)

Scale How Meditations (see page 49 for quote discussed)

A Delectable Education, Episode 4: Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life

Episode 24: Middle and High School Science

Charlotte Mason is extraordinary in the arts and humanities, but does her method really work for science, especially in an age when science is king? This podcast will address all the aspects of teaching science that put most average parents in a panic at the high school level and you will find yourself eager to get on with it.

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“Our aim in Education is to give a Full Life.––We begin to see what we want. Children make large demands upon us. We owe it to them to initiate an immense number of interests. Thou hast set my feet in a large room; should be the glad cry of every intelligent soul. Life should be all living, and not merely a tedious passing of time; not all doing or all feeling or all thinking––the strain would be too great––but, all living; that is to say, we should be in touch wherever we go, whatever we hear, whatever we see, with some manner of vital interest. We cannot give the children these interests; we prefer that they should never say they have learned botany or conchology, geology or astronomy. 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)

“Where science does not teach a child to wonder and admire it has perhaps no educative value.” (Vol. 6, p. 224)

“Geology, mineralogy, physical geography, botany, natural history, biology, astronomy––the whole circle of the sciences is, as it were, set with gates ajar in order that a child may go forth furnished, not with scientific knowledge, but with, what Huxley calls, common information, so that he may feel for objects on the earth and in the heavens the sort of proprietary interest which the son of an old house has in its heirlooms.” (Vol. 3, p. 79)

“The essential mission of school science was to prepare pupils for civilised citizenship by revealing to them something of the beauty and the power of the world in which they lived, as well as introducing them to the methods by which the boundaries of natural knowledge had been extended. School science, therefore, was not intended to prepare for vocations, but to equip pupils for life. It should be part of a general education, unspecialised, in no direct connexion with possible university courses to follow.” (Sir Richard Gregory, quoted by Charlotte Mason in Vol. 6, p. 222)

“So much attention is now given to the practical and systematic study of science in schools that the valuable influence of descriptive scientific literature is apt to be overlooked. An intimate knowledge of the simplest fact in nature can be obtained only through personal observation or experiment in the open air or in the laboratory, but broad views of scientific thought and progress are secured best from books in which the methods and results of investigation is stated in language that is simple without being childish.
“Books intended to promote interest in science must differ completely from laboratory guides, textbooks, or works of reference. They should aim at exalting the scientific spirit which leads men to devote their lives to the advancement of natural knowledge, and at showing how the human race eventually reaps the benefit of such research. Inspiration rather than information should be the keynote; and the execution should awaken in the reader not only appreciation of the scientific method of study and spirit of self sacrifice, but also a desire to emulate the desires of men whose labors have brought the knowledge of nature to its present position.” (From The Wonders of Physical Science by Edward Fourlier, used in PNEU)

The Mystery of the Periodic Table