Spreading the feast of the Charlotte Mason method of education through weekly podcasts. Join us for short discussions that provide information, examples, and encouragement to the homeschool parents putting CM's ideas into practice in their homes.
Charlotte Mason did not limit persons and knew the scope of a child’s education was limitless in its potential for each individual. This episode of Charlotte Mason in Our Homes interviews Caroline Chermely whose son was born at 25 weeks causing multiple deficiencies and life-long limitations. Two terms of a Charlotte Mason approach has resulted in undeniable growth and possibilities now. Whether you personally must cope with a child having “special needs,” or not, this mom shares ideas with immense lessons and ramifications for every child applicable in every home.
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“If we have not proved that a child is born a person with a mind as complete and as beautiful as his beautiful little body, we can at least show that he always has all the mind he requires for his occasions; that is, that his mind is the instrument of his education and that his education does not produce his mind.” (6/36)
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.
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“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
Not only did Charlotte Mason include abundant novel reading in her curriculum feast and reference novels and characters from them continuously throughout her own writing, but she believed they were valuable for everyone–not just students. This week’s episode is a book discussion of Middlemarch by George Eliot, a novel she references and an author she admired. Whether you have read this novel or not, join in to hear not just what we thought of it, but how it reveals much about our Charlotte Mason education.
Today’s episode is a talk given by Liz at several conferences and events. She discusses the role parents play in the lives of their children–a topic much discussed by Charlotte Mason. We hope you enjoy this talk and are challenged and encouraged by the wisdom Miss Mason has to offer us parents.
Charlotte Mason included the study of great works of art in her regular school curriculum. This episode explores the many options for making picture study and picture talk more robust, richer, and engaging for your children with examples and ideas straight from the P.N.E.U.–ideas beyond just “look and tell.”
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“But there must be knowledge and, in the first place, not the technical knowledge of how to produce, but some reverent knowledge of what has been produced; that is, children should learn pictures, line by line, group by group, by reading, not books but pictures themselves. A friendly picture-dealer supplies us with half a dozen beautiful little reproductions of the work of some single artist, term by term. After a short story of the artist’s life and a few sympathetic words about his trees or his skies, his river-paths or his figures, the little pictures are studied one at a time; that is, children learn, not merely to see a picture but to look at it, taking in every detail. Then the picture is turned over and the children tell what they have seen…there is enough for a half hour’s talk and memory in this little reproduction of a great picture and the children will know it wherever they see it…
“It will be noticed that the work done on these pictures is done by the children themselves. There is not talk about schools of painting, little about style; consideration of these matters comes in later life but the first and most important think is to know the pictures themselves. “As in a worthy book we leave the author to tell his own tale, so do we trust a picture to tell its tale through the medium the artist gave it. In the region of art as elsewhere we shut out the middleman.” (6/214-216)
” In Forms V. and VI., a more organised study is begun with the help of books on the history and development of art. The girls may read to themselves a section on a certain say; then in class, after narration of the passage which has been read, we may take one of the principle painters. They study several reproductions of his works and then, choosing the one she prefers, each studies it for a few minutes, afterwards narrating it in writing or drawing. Later, an essay may be written on the particular school of painting with descriptions of some of the pictures.” (PR 42, pp. 443-444)
“Miss Parish advocated a variety in the manner of taking the ‘talk.’ Children might sometimes be allowed each to describe a picture so as to make the others see and recognise it.” (L’Umile Pianta 1907, p. 9)
