Have you ever wondered what makes a curriculum Charlotte Mason or not? Charlotte Mason herself gave us principles based on her idea that children are born persons. This season of the podcast, we are going to be working our way through chapter 10 of volume six and answering that question: What is a Charlotte Mason curriculum? Join us in this episode as we start to answer that question by exploring points 11-15 of her educational principles.
Listen Now:
Charlotte Mason, Volume 6 (Amazon) (Living Book Press – use code DELECTABLE for 10% off!)
ADE Vol 6, Chapt 10 Reading List
Episode 204: Short Synopsis Points 9-12
Episode 206: Short Synopsis Points 13-15
Episode 5: The Science of Relations
Emily
This season we are reading through chapter 10 of volume six and we invite you to read along with us. You can find a link in the show notes to the reading schedule that we have created to go along with this entire season.
We’re talking all season long about a Charlotte Mason curriculum. And today we’re going to look at really, what is a curriculum? Should we define that before we get going? What is a curriculum, mom?
Liz
It’s just the subjects that are contained in a program of study.
Emily
Yeah, a lot of people think about the curriculum as the specific resources or books or materials that we use, and those go into the curriculum. But basically, the curriculum is that big structure of what subjects we’re going to be studying, right?
So today we’re starting out right where Charlotte Mason did. And that is the principles that make her method unique and effective.
So volume six is her final volume. She actually wrote this in completion before she died, but it wasn’t published until after her death. So she had finished writing it. And the first – it’s made of two books – and the very first book walks through what we colloquially call her 20 Principles, but what she referred to as her Short Synopsis. This was the first new volume that she wrote in 17 years. As far as her homeschooling, her home education series, where her educational philosophy goes, she wrote other books during that time, but this is the last and it had been quite a while. So this is maybe the end of her life looking back at how her method had been implemented, particularly in England and in English speaking homes around the world throughout the empire.
So Charlotte Mason wanted to include the application of her method since it had been so long, because between writing her fifth volume and the sixth, there was what she called the Liberal Education for All movement. And that was putting her method into the state-run elementary schools, mostly in the North of England. And so she had a lot more, we would say, data about how her method worked for children of a diverse social cultural background.
So as I said, volume six is comprised of two books and the first is going to go point by point through her short synopsis. Some people refer to it as the 20 principles. There are 20 points and they’re all interrelated. These are not the only principles Charlotte Mason talks about though, just to clear that up. We are going to be discussing chapter 10 all season long. And so in that chapter, she lists five principles, principles 11 through 15, at the heading. And so that’s what we’re going to discuss today. We do have episodes on all of the points of her synopsis if you’d like to dig more deeply into the others.
But let’s start out today as we look at what makes the Charlotte Mason curriculum. I think it’s important to note that volume six is a summary of her philosophy and practice. And so our conversation this season will be guided by chapter 10. But we’re going to be referring to other volumes and other resources that Charlotte Mason and her fellow teachers and educators wrote and things that she describes in her other volumes of the Home Education Series because we get in very condensed nuggets in half of this book, right? It’s not even the whole book. It’s very condensed things that she talks about at much greater length in other places.
Nicole
I often share the idea that she was at 47 pages of Nature Study in Home Education, the first volume, and like two pages in volume six. So it is assuming that you have a little bit of background knowledge.
Emily
Yes, and she did not consider it a standalone volume, but just wanted to frame her philosophy in the context of the synopsis and also to bring forward that experience that she and other teachers had had as it went out into a broader audience than originally were practicing her method.
Okay, so I just want to note that in the other volumes of Home Education and especially in this chapter and the rest of the book, she specifically refers people, if you want to see how this looks, to go look at the programmes of the Parents Union School.
So when we say programmes, that’s what we’re meaning. We do have, I think is it 39 consecutive programmes plus some other outliers there that we have studied ourselves as we’ve learned how to implement this method. We’ll be bringing all of that knowledge forward for you all since those are not being sent to you term by term like they were for teachers in the PUS. Okay, so just keep that in mind that her comments in this section give you a big picture of what her curriculum, what her method, does, but it is not comprehensive. It is not the one stop shop that probably all of us wish it were.
Liz
Yeah, if only.
Emily
It would be a lot easier to figure this out. Well, let’s go through each of these points briefly. And I’m just going to summarize what the crux of them are. And maybe you guys can help flesh out a little bit for our non Victorian ears. You know, what do these mean? What is she talking about?
So point number 11, this is the first principle undergirding a Charlotte Mason curriculum and she says that a curriculum should be “a full and generous curriculum, taking care only that all knowledge offered to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas.” So why do you guys think that is important or you know help explain a little bit more about what that means to us today?
Nicole
Well she said in volume three that it’s not lawful that we pick and choose subjects. So this is a very serious thing, but she also points out, just like these words, as many as possible of the interests proper to him. So this was broad, not because we’re just trying to see what sticks, but because she felt like this was very important that they have all of these subjects that were proper for them. And then she points out, and this is in that same quote in volume three, that “we’re providing what will become the great field before him, which in all his life he will not be able to explore.” So we are just starting this child on a life, like just setting before them all these interests that might take hold and maybe not, but a lot of things…this is growing a person, you know, not just…
Emily
And it really is because we view him as a person that we see that he demands all of knowledge in all of these different directions, right? Mom, what do you think she means by vital knowledge? Or can you help explain that a little more?
Liz
I think vital means alive. You know, we don’t want just a lot of dead facts that lead nowhere. We want things that actually trigger their thinking and inspire their imagination and cause them to ask questions about what’s next and what does that mean and that sort of thing. Don’t you think?
Emily
Yeah, yeah, exactly. We often quote or misquote or sum up her thing that the dried bones of fact must be clothed or enfleshed with living ideas. And that is such a core tenant of her philosophy. Facts alone are not enough to inspire our imagination.
Liz
Because the mind lives on ideas, not information.
Emily
Yes, that’s how it grows. The idea has to take root.
Nicole
Right. She even says it requires nourishment to function. And these ideas are the nourishment, the same way the food is the nourishment for our bodies to run and play and do all the things.
Emily
So you will hear us use lots of food analogies.
Liz
They work real well.
Emily
Okay, so moving on to principle or point number 12. She says “education is the science of relations.” That phrase will come up a lot, but it’s simply that a child has natural relationships with all kinds of ideas and things.
Nicole
And very specifically, like you said, a child has those relationships. This is really where the work of their education comes in because these ideas are coming in but then they have to grapple with them. They have to work with them and then they become a part of them and what that looks like in one child isn’t the same as what it would look like in another child.
Emily
It is his duty. So when she says education is the science of relations, the science of relations is the act or art of building those relationships, right? And that alone is what education is in Charlotte Mason’s mind.
Nicole
Absolutely.
Liz
It’s between the child and what he’s learning. It isn’t between you and the child.
Emily
Right, right. And it’s not as is maybe commonly interpreted that all knowledge is in some way connected, but it’s all connected inside of him because he is making those relationships. And just the way that you’re talking to someone and they say, “that reminds me of…” it’s because they’ve taken in and have already built a relationship with another idea that then they see another thing. It can be completely unrelated in your mind, but this happens with my kids all the time. They’re like, “it’s just like ____”, and I’m like, “how…?” And they’re making that and building that relationship.
Okay. So point number 13, she says a curriculum must do three things. The first is it must give the student much knowledge. Second, it should give the student various knowledge. And third, it should give the student knowledge in literary form.
So again, this kind of goes back to 11 like the feast must be broad, right? But it’s not just the volume of ideas that we give them, right? We need to give them ideas in all different directions, all different subjects, right?
Nicole
Miss Wicks had a comment. She said “when we remember that knowledge is truth, we know at once that no part of truth can be omitted without wrecking the whole.” And I think this is something that we’ve got to keep in mind with the whole “much knowledge” thing because…and maybe I always get those two – much and various – they seem to overlap, but there is some uniqueness to the two.
Emily
Much is like quantity.
Nicole
Yeah.
Emily
And various is the kind.
Nicole
Right. So, you know, we’re going to have science, but we’re going to have multiple kinds of science threads in there. So I think that kind of helps me to understand that a little bit. But if we pick and choose here and there, we don’t get that interconnection. The child doesn’t get the interconnection of the science to relations without this.
Emily
And what about knowledge and literary form? Why did she say that was essential for a curriculum? And what does she mean? What is literary form?
Liz
Words. And she specifically meant in a narrative style of writing, not just independent little sentences put on a page. But we are word people. We were made to respond to words. And she believed that knowledge was taken in most normally and readily through the literary format.
Emily
Mmhm. And often when she uses the word literary, she’s also talking about the caliber of writing. Like you said, mom, it’s not just words strung together, but they are so fitly spoken. She talks about poetry in that way. But even she talks about the French science writer Jean-Henri Fabre, who was writing about science in a way that was very poetic. And she was lamenting the fact that we didn’t have that in our English language.
Nicole
She even goes so far to say that our minds just reject anything that’s not put in that form. And we know it’s true. We’ve all read things that are just dry and we get done and we’re like, wait, I missed it. I was thinking about something else, but something that’s literary captures us.
Emily
Yes. And I do think there’s an exception to that. And I think moms might be hearing you say that and go, “but my kid loves to pour over those like factoid and blurby books.” I would argue that they’ve already built a relationship with the thing, right? They’re just adding to their store of knowledge on that topic and they have gotten some idea in some way that is more fit.
Liz
They’re collecting at that point. It’s not what’s inspiring.
Emily
Yes. It didn’t initiate the relationship. It’s just adding to it.
Well, point number 14 is something that we’re going to talk about a lot this year and that is narration. It is the primary means by which children take in the knowledge. So instead of just having these, you know, we’re presenting this wide feast, it goes in one ear and comes out the other…to stop that from happening, the child needs to take it in and digest it. And so narration is like mental digestion for these ideas, right?
Liz
Yes. And she said that knowledge that wasn’t reproduced in some way was a waste. And it’s to me kind of like, pouring water into a cup that has a hole in the bottom. It’s just going to be lost.
So narration literally means to tell. And so the children take in some of the literary knowledge that they have in their book and they tell back what they understand or what they can explain from what they’ve just received. It’s usually oral. Sometimes it’s written too as they get older, especially. And they do this after one reading. So we don’t go over and over the same material. They hear it once, and that guarantees their attention to the material.
Emily
Yes, and in fact, that is her point number 15, which is the end of these five principles that she reiterates for us to consider as we think about a curriculum. And she says, “only allow a single reading.” And there should be no teacher questioning or drilling or summarizing for the student, right? So they hear the reading as you’re saying once and then they’re asked to narrate. Now, as they get older and more adept at that, there is some time that can lapse in between, but this is the primary at the beginning of their education.
Nicole
Right. There’s a couple of things with the single reading that are really important. First of all, if they know that they will have to reread it, or that they can reread it, one or the other, they’re either being forced to by studying or they can just go back, they won’t pay attention that first time. And that is prime. This is work.
In fact, I have this quote here, Ms. Farrell says, “think of the time you saved.” But Charlotte Mason then goes back and says, yes, but that’s actually not the primary value with this. She specifies “for that child he makes use of the authority which is in him to attend that way in its highest function as a self-commanding, self-compelling power.” She says “to make yourself attend, to make yourself know this is indeed to become a king.” So this is like a power but it takes work. It does. And if any of us try it we know it’s hard it’s hard to do so but this is really the crux of them being able to remember.
Emily
And all of this should sound very different than traditional methods of education, right? Allowing our child to narrate not what we think is important, but what the textbook curriculum company says is important, but what they have taken in. So it’s giving us a glimpse into the relations that they’re building, but it’s also, science has proven their studies on this, that that’s how we transfer things to long-term memory. But Charlotte Mason said that the only way we can encourage that to happen is if they know and they absolutely attend. Because if they’re just, you know, la-di-da, gazing out the window, totally distracted, they’re not going to be able to do it. And they should feel that lack, right?
Nicole
Right.
Liz
Right, so as you were saying about the textbook, they decide ahead of time what the child needs to get out of the chapter. And we have those little comprehension questions. And it’s also not what you as the parent thinks the child should be getting. Narration literally tells you what they did get out of the reading.
Emily
Yeah. So after she lists these five points, and if you’re reading along you can see how she does this, she actually has a summary of this section of the synopsis in there. It’s not a separate point to it. But she just needed to impress upon her audience then, and we need to know today, that all children have it in them to learn. And she says she believes and she demands us to believe that they have greater potential than we realize. Every single student. It’s not due to their heredity or their circumstances in which they were brought up. Not just clever children can learn in this way or be educated. And it’s not just for children of educated classes. I think that is what I love about this volume when she opens it in the preface, which we don’t have on your reading schedule. But she talks about the soul of the mining children being awakened to knowledge and it’s beautiful.
Liz
Yeah.
Nicole
Also in a separate Parents Review article, she makes the comment, “thought breeds thought, and that the children familiar with the great thoughts, which is what we’re providing them through this kind of education, take as naturally to thinking for themselves as the well-nourished body to growing.” And she goes on to say that “we must bear in mind that growth, intellectual, moral, spiritual, is the soul end of education.” So all of this work that they’re doing, again, this is for the person that is being grown, not just that child check education is done. This is for growing a person.
Emily
Do you have any thoughts, Liz?
Liz
Yeah, I mean, it’s just what you’re saying is making me think that we’re giving them the fuel that is going to keep them burning to know more.
Emily
For their whole life.
Liz
For their whole life. So it’s not about what they got out of this specific lesson today. This is a seed that is being planted that will sprout at some point in the future.
Emily
And we never know when those are. We may think that they were seeds that fell on the stony path, right? And only to come find out that they somehow have germinated and become a flourishing plant in their life.
So I hope you can see that this curriculum, these foundational principles of a curriculum that makes a Charlotte Mason curriculum was absolutely revolutionary in her day. She saw herself as creating something new, or she got ideas from various places, but how it was all synthesized and put together in her method was revolutionary. And her proof of that is in these hundreds of children that previously were thought to be uneducatable, right? But they proved them wrong. They’re taking in Plutarch and Shakespeare, and their teachers are going, “what in the world? How is this even possible?”
And I think it’s just as transformative today. We have heard from mothers over the last 10 to 15 years who have children with extreme special needs who show up, you know, and when we are feeding them and allowing them to build relationships in all directions, they just astound us.
So just in conclusion today, as we wrap up this episode, though Miss Mason developed her curriculum and method of education 150 years ago in a different context and really a different world than we find ourselves in, we and thousands of other educators believe her philosophy to be as relevant today and universal because it is based on what is true about all persons.
Thanks for joining us for our conversation today. We will be continuing this conversation about what makes a Charlotte Mason curriculum next week, looking especially at what it is not as we continue to spread the feast of the Charlotte Mason Method. If you’d like to learn more, we have episodes that go deeper into Charlotte Mason’s synopsis, as I mentioned at the beginning.
Those are episodes 204 and 206 covering this section, but again, we have them for all of the synopsis. We also have episode number eight on narration and episode number five on the science of relations, if you’d like to dig a little deeper into those topics before joining us for our conversation next time.