Wonder Together: The Inspiration of Charlotte Mason

I was given a copy of Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s book For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School when my oldest daughter began kindergarten. The school she was to attend follows the philosophy of a revolutionary British educator, Charlotte Mason, who lived from1842 to 1923 in The Lake District in Northwest England.

Today, my copy of For the Children’s Sake wouldn’t make it past inspection at a used bookstore. Torn, with writing and highlighted phrases on each page, it would be tossed into the “free books” pile at firstglance. However, to me it is a treasure – The Velveteen Rabbit of books. Few books have affected my life as a parent as profoundly as this one.

Charlotte – who never married or had children of her own – saw children as thinking, feeling human beings. English children in the 1800s were educated according to social class, but Charlotte envisioned a liberal curriculum for all children regardless of social class. She believed that children were capable of intelligent, independent thought and that they needed vital ideas, rather than dry facts, to feed their growing minds. She promoted ideas such as reading quality literature to children to teach various subjects; the use of narration to organize thinking; the importance of free play for the imagination; and the helpfulness of developing good habits such as attentiveness and responsibility.

The children in the schools she founded read and discussed “living books,” took daily nature walks and recorded their observations in notebooks, enjoyed art and music, and learned foreign languages.

“It is the person who has read and thought on many subjects who is, with the necessary training, the most capable whether in handling tools, drawing plans, or keeping books,” she said. “The more of a person we succeed in making a child, the better will he both fulfill his own life and serve society.”

One of Charlotte’s greatest passions was nature study. She believed children should spend as much time as possible outdoors exploring, watching, and developing “nature-knowledge” through personal interaction. She encouraged parents to begin nature study at an early age, offering simple ways to inspire and develop an interest in the natural world.

Charlotte’s Christian faith is also woven joyfully throughout her work. She warned parents of compartmentalizing Christianity. “True spirituality covers all of life,” she said.

Macaulay sums up Charlotte’s educational philosophy best with these words: Wonder together. She places the joy and responsibility of educating children for life in the hands of parents and the home – regardless of where a child attends school.

“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?” she challenged parents. “In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”

Charlotte published a six-volume set of books explaining her theories of education:  Home Education (date?), Parents and Children (1896), School Education (1904), Ourselves (1904), Formation of Character (1905), and A Philosophy of Education (1923). Charlotte’s books were reissued by Tyndale House in 1989 thanks to Karen and Dean Andrealo.

Her teachings fell out of popular use in the 1940s; however, there has been a resurgence of interest in her work in recent years. While homeschoolers are the largest group of followers, many private schools are incorporating her philosophy. Ambleside Schools International, based in Fredericksburg, Texas, trains teachers and parents in Charlotte Mason’s methods and represents a number of schools throughout the world.

Parents and families can also incorporate Charlotte Mason techniques at home. To learnmore, visit Simply Charlotte Mason.