Charlotte Mason

I just finished reading Charlotte Mason’s “Homeschooling.”

Ms Mason was a 19th century teacher with revolutionary ideas. The schools who implemented her methods gave the poorest children in England the equivalent education of the rich. There were some real gems in this book, though most were not new to me. I have read three books about her books in the past. Her methods of teaching are known as “The Gentle Art of Learning.” I highly recommend this book and most of her methods.

Sigh, yes, most. She recommends “see-say” for teaching reading. At that time it was the “New and scientifically improved way of teaching reading.” Today we know that many, many studies have shown it to be a complete failure (though our public schools keep trying to hold on by changing the name every few years) . Good old fashioned phonics is the best, indeed the only real way to teach reading. I will write a whole post on that sometime, but let’s just say you could skip that chapter of the book. She was also an evolutionist, but it was because she honestly believed science had proven the Bible wrong on origins. We now have so much more evidence to the contrary that there is no reason to make excuses or justifications.

Other than those two points, I found the book very inspiring. She was very dedicated to our Lord. Some of her ideas: children are people too and should be treated with dignity and consideration; don’t have a child do anything until they can do it well then except nothing short of perfection; to hire a “nurse” (babysitter) for a child who is uneducated and uncultured is to disobey Christ’s command to “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. Mat 18:10.”; daily nature walks; narration instead of tests; 20 minute lessons, tops, especially for little boys; the discipline of habit; the HABIT of obedience; careful training of the will to follow God.