Charlotte Mason died nearly a hundred years ago, but her ideas have continued to thrive. This episode addresses a few notions that exist that do not necessarily reflect hers. Based on listener questions, we address this Q&A to some of the myths that circulate.

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“Readings in literature, whether of prose or poetry, should generally illustrate the historical period studied; but selections should be avoided; children should read the whole book or the whole poem to which they are introduced.” (Vol. 6, p. 340)

“Knowledge is a state out of which people may pass and into which they may return but never a store upon which they may draw.” (In Memoriam)

Schools should only be admitted as Parents’ Review Schools if “the amount of time for each of these subjects shall not be more nor less than that stated in the Time-Table.” (“Suggestions” PNEU Pamphlet, 1906)

“There is no selection of studies, or of passages or of episodes, on the ground of interest. The best available book is chosen and is read through perhaps in the course of two or three years.” (Vol. 6, p. 7)

“We need not ask what the girl or boy likes. She very often likes the twaddle of goody-goody story books, he likes condiments, highly-spiced tales of adventure. We are all capable of liking mental food of a poor quality and a titillating nature; and possibly such food is good for us when our minds are in need of an elbow-chair; but our spiritual life is sustained on other stuff, whether we be boys or girls, men or women. By spiritual I mean that which is not corporeal; and which, for convenience sake, we call by various names––the life of thought, the life of feeling, the life of the soul.” (Vol. 3, p. 168)

The completeness with which hundreds of children reject the wrong book is a curious and instructive experience, not less so than the avidity and joy with which they drain the right book to the dregs; children’s requirements in the matter seem to be quantity, quality and variety: but the question of books is one of much delicacy and difficulty. After the experience of over a quarter of a century in selecting the lesson books proper to children of all ages, we still make mistakes, and the next examination paper discovers the error! Children cannot answer questions set on the wrong book; and the difficulty of selection is increased by the fact that what they like in books is no more a guide than what they like in food.” (Vol. 6, p. 248)

Madam How and Lady Why

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In Memoriam

A Delectable Education’s Schedule Cards

How closely should we adhere to all of Charlotte Mason’s principles and practices? This podcast explores the ramifications of taking part of Mason’s method, practicing some of her ideas or mixing in other curricula, and addresses whether it is positive or negative to be labeled ‘A Charlotte Mason Purist.’

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“The reader will say with truth–‘I knew all this before and have always acted more or less on these principles’; and I can only point to the unusual results we obtain through adhering not ‘more or less’ but strictly to the principles and practices I have indicated. I suppose the difficulties are of the sort that Lister had to contend with; every surgeon knew that his instruments and appurtenances should be kept clean, but the saving of millions of lives has resulted from the adoption of the great surgeon’s antiseptic treatment; that is from the substitution of exact principles scrupulously applied for the rather casual ‘more or less’ methods of earlier days.” (Vol. 6, p. 19)

“We do not invite Heads of schools to take up work lightly, which implies a sound knowledge of certain principles and as faithful a practice. The easy tolerance which holds smilingly that everything is as good as everything else, that one educational doctrine is as good as another, that, in fact, a mixture of all such doctrines gives pretty safe results,––this sort of complacent attitude produces lukewarm effort and disappointing progress. I feel strongly that to attempt to work this method without a firm adherence to the few principles laid down would be not only idle but disastrous. ‘Oh, we could do anything with books like those,’ said a master; he tried the books and failed conspicuously because he ignored the principles.” (Vol. 6, p. 270)

“We have a method of education, it is true, but method is no more than a way to an end, and is free, yielding, adaptive as Nature herself. Method has a few comprehensive laws according to which details shape themselves, as one naturally shapes one’s behaviour to the acknowledged law that fire burns. System, on the contrary, has an infinity of rules and instructions as to what you are to do and how you are to do it. Method in education follows Nature humbly; stands aside and gives her fair play.” (Vol. 2, p. 168)

Art Middlekauff’s helpful article on this very topic

Charlotte Mason included a subject uncommon to most modern teachers: recitation. This podcast episode explains why she did, what it is, and how it differs from memorization. This is an essential in the feast and a great gift to the students and the people around them.

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“Children know how to read, but they cannot read.” (Burrell, “Recitation”)

“Without them the best pieces of English writing lose half their value; the best paper read before a cultivated audience misses its aim; the best lecture is only half a lecture, and the best sermon is an opiate. With them all is changed; the light from the writer’s soul is handed down from one generation to another. For good authors cannot die; the human voice is for-ever conferring immortality upon them. So magical is the power of a good reader that he can convey to an audience shades of meaning in his author which he himself does not suspect.” (Burrell)

“Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing…” (Vol. 1, p. 224)

“And if such appreciation can be born when a good reader and a good audience meet, is it not worse than madness for us to look on English literature as mere work for the study, mere dictionary stuff? It was meant to be interpreted by the voice of life; there is only half the passion in the printed page. If there were more good reading round English firesides, do you suppose that the masterpieces of English thought would be studied, as they often are, merely with an eye to the examiners’ certificate?” (Burrell)

“The child should speak beautiful thoughts so beautifully, with such delicate rendering of each nuance of meaning, that he becomes to the listener the interpreter of the author’s thought.” (Vol. 1, p. 223)

“Knowledge is information touched with emotion: feeling must be stirred, imagination must picture, reason must consider, nay, conscience must pronounce on the information we offer before it becomes mind-stuff.” (In Memorium, p. 4)

“At this stage, his reading lessons must advance so slowly that he may just as well learn his reading exercises, both prose and poetry, as recitation lessons.” (Vol. 1, pp. 204-205)

“Perfect enunciation and precision are insisted on, and when he comes to arrange the whole of the little rhyme in his loose words and read it off (most delightful of all the lessons) his reading must be a perfect and finished recitation.” (Vol. 1, p. 222)

“The teacher reads with the intention that the children shall know, and therefore, with distinctness, force, and careful enunciation; it is a mere matter of sympathy, though of course it is the author and not himself, whom the teacher is careful to produce.” (Vol. 6, p. 244)

“The gains of such a method of learning are, that the edge of the child’s enjoyment is not taken off by weariful verse by verse repetitions, and, also, that the habit of making mental images is unconsciously formed.” (Vol. 1, p. 225)

“There is hardly any ‘subject’ so educative and so elevating as that which Mr. Burrell has happily described as ‘The Children’s Art.'” (Vol. 1, p. 223)

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, Part V, Chapter VII: Recitation

Recitation: The Children’s Art, Arthur Burrell, Parents’ Review, Vol. 1, pp. 92-103

Lady Clare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Charlotte Mason Soiree Facebook Group

Recitation Program Details by Form from Nicole Williams

Bible Passages Set for Recitations

Is “co-op” a Charlotte Mason term or concept? This podcast episode addresses the pros and cons of sharing the feast with others.

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“We have still to complain that Grammar and Arithmetic are rather weak. When this has been reported more than twice under the same teacher, the parents absolutely ought to get help, in these subjects, from some teacher of a neighboring elementary school.” (Parents’ Review, Vol. 6, p. 75)

Nancy Kelly’s Co-Op

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode explores what can happen when we join with other Charlotte Mason families to spread the feast together in settings beyond our home. Amy Snell shares her experience in starting mothers’ study groups, a charter school program, nature clubs, and Truth-Beauty-Goodness afternoons with her community. Her wealth of wisdom and experience is not only helpful in considering what kind of shared experiences are beneficial, but what happens when relocation takes you away from your group, how to initiate groups, organizing and maintaining them, and perils to avoid.

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“[W]e endeavour that he shall have relations of pleasure and intimacy established with as many as possible of the interests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering about this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a great field before him which in all his life he will not be able to explore.” (Vol. 3, p. 223)

“Not all this at once, of course; but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as opportunity offers.” (Vol. 1, pp. 328-29)

Charlotte Mason Institute

Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community