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’s curriculum set appropriately short lessons in many varied subjects. Her programmes included timetables to help organize the short morning lessons. This episode is a discussion of how the teacher may prepare, predict, and plan for the upcoming term to accomplish covering the material. We call it forecasting–a flexible plan for success, a term Charlotte Mason probably would have appreciated.
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“The teacher’s part is, in the first place, to see what is to be done, to look over the work of the day in advance and see what mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that lesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils’ mental activity.” (3/180-181)
“The children need your utmost freshness of mind and energy, so do not sit up late preparing lessons; what you seem to gain in preparation you lose by tiredness next day.” (The Story of Charlotte Mason, 150)
Merry Christmas to all. This re-release of an early episode on picture study and music appreciation begins with a few tips and updates and is appropriate for a feast for the eyes, ears, and heart during this special season. For the not-to-be missed lessons, including art and music is the life-giving energy for the rest of the feast.
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“We cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the child’s sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at even a single picture.” (Vol. 1, p. 309)
“They are never copied lest an attempt to copy should lessen a child’s reverence for great work.” (Vol. 6, p. 216)
“A great promise has been given to the world––that its teachers shall not any more be removed. There are always those present with us whom God whispers in the ear, through whom He sends a direct message to the rest. Among these messengers are the great painters who interpret to us some of the meanings of life. To read their messages aright is a thing due from us. But this, like other good gifts, does not come by nature. It is the reward of humble, patient study.” (Vol. 4, p. 102)
“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.” (Vol. 6, p. 216)
“[F]or though every child cannot be a great performer, all may be taught an intelligent appreciation of the beauties of music, and it is a wicked shame to clang the doors of music, and therefore of endless channels of delight and inspiration, in a child’s face, because we say he has “no ear,” when perhaps his ear has never been trained, or because he never will be able to “play.”” (Miss Pennethorne’s PR Article)
“Hearing should tell us a great many interesting things, but the great and perfect joy which we owe to him is Music.” (Vol. 4, Book I, pp. 30-31)
“Use every chance you get of hearing music (I do not mean only tunes, though these are very nice), and ask whose music has been played, and, by degrees, you will find out that one composer has one sort of thing to say to you, and another speaks other things; these messages of the musicians cannot be put into words, so there is no way of hearing them if we do not train our ear to listen.” (Vol. 4, p. 31)
“Many great men have put their beautiful thoughts, not into books, or pictures, or buildings, but into musical score, to be sung with the voice or played on instruments, and so full are these musical compositions of the minds of their makers, that people who care for music can always tell who has composed the music they hear, even if they have never heard the particular movement before.” (Vol. 4, p. 31)
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.
Home Education, Part V, Chapter XXI
School Education, p. 239
Towards a Philosophy of Education, Book I, Chapter X, Section II: f
Charlotte Mason made several statements that began, “Education is…” This episode teases out many of her definitions of education. Emily, Nicole, and Liz discuss her perspective on education and how it applies to us today.
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“It is the old story; utilitarian education is profoundly immoral, in that it defrauds a child of the associations which should give him intellectual atmosphere.” (5/313)
“The earlier reformers, notably Pestalozzi and Froebel, divide the faculties up with something of the precision of a phrenologist, and a chief business of education is, according to them, ‘to develop the faculties.’ … There is a certain pleasing neatness in this idea which is very attractive. We want to know, definitely, what we have to do. Why, develop the perceptive faculties here, with the conceptive there, the judgment in this lesson, the affections in the other, until you have covered the whole ground, giving each so-called faculty its due share of developmental exercise!” In case CM sarcasm eludes you, she was saying no to all of that. Instead she said, “The mind, like Wordsworth’s cloud, moves altogether when it moves at all.” (3/92)
“[W]e perceive that the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every department of knowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of vitalising ideas. In this great work we seek and assuredly find the co-operation of the Divine Spirit, whom we recognise, in a sense rather new to modern thought, as the supreme Educator of mankind in things that have been called secular, fully as much as in those that have been called sacred.” (3/173)
“But these principles are obvious and simple enough, and, when we consider that at present education is chaotic for want of a unifying theory, and that there happens to be no other comprehensive theory in the field which is in line with modern thought and fits every occasion, might it not be well to try one which is immediately practicable and always pleasant and has proved itself by producing many capable, serviceable, dutiful men and women of sound judgment and willing mind? (6/32)
“You perceive the point of view is shifted, and is no longer subjective, but objective as regards the child.” (3/186)
“There are good and evil tendencies in body and min, heart and soul; and the hope set before us is that we can foster the good so as to attenuate the evil; that is, on condition that we put Education in her true place as the handmaid of Religion.” (6/I/46)
Term examinations in Charlotte Mason’s schools were mandatory. This podcast explores the purpose of examinations, what was covered, and how we evaluate our child’s performance.
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“The children write with perfect understanding as far as they go and there is rarely a ‘howler’ in hundreds of sets of papers. They have an enviable power of getting at the gist of a book or subject. Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way…” (Vol. 6, p. 242)
“During the examinations, which last a week, the children cover say from twenty to sixty sheets of Cambridge paper, according to age and class; but if ten times as many questions were set on the work studied most likely they would cover ten times as much paper.” (Vol. 6, p. 241)
“The terminal examinations are of great importance. They are not merely and chiefly tests of knowledge but records which are likely to be permanent.” (Vol. 6, p. 272)
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.
School Education, Appendix II
Teacher Helps–on sale Black Friday through Cyber Monday, 2021 with code “IDEAS20”
