Charlotte Mason was a British educator who was born about twenty years before the U.S.Civil War and died in 1923. She formed an organization called the Parents’ National Education Union and influenced national education in Britain immensely. There are still a few PNEU schools in existence today! Her methods have also been revived and imported here in the States by a growing number of home educators. Today I tell my Charlotte Mason story. It is significant because it is really not just an educational philosophy but a lifestyle that envelopes everything we do.
I have always been a teacher. If you ask my siblings and childhood friends, they will recollect that if we weren’t playing Barbies or baseball, we were probably playing school and yours truly was the teacher. I was pretty strict, if I remember correctly, and oh how I knew everything…maybe it comes from being an oldest child or maybe it was just my genes. My red-headed Grandma was a teacher. I will always recall the first day I walked down the hallway of my elementary school and found her waiting by the door of my second-grade classroom. She was subbing for my teacher, Mrs. Navarre. O what a happy day! In any case, I suppose one could argue my passion for education is hereditary.
So my destiny was settled at an early age. When grown-ups inevitably asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would answer, “A teacher.” It is true that in college I must have had a wild hair because my first major, believe it or not, was political science. Thank heavens that I had a horrendous grad student teach one of my classes who scared me back over to where I belong! But even though I was now back in my realm, I was training to be a traditional teacher in a traditional public school in America.
And then I got married. To my high school sweetheart. And we moved to Germany which was actually probably the perfect place for a newly married pair of teenagers because we couldn’t run home when the troubles started. Heck, I couldn’t even afford to call home much less jump on an airplane. And except for some German classes, my education was on hold. We came back to America in 1991 and I enrolled at the University of Nebraska and continued my education but I knew that I wasn’t going to be teaching in the public school system. Somewhere along the way I met some homeschoolers, who were really unusual back in the day, and I knew that this is what I wanted for my own nonexistent children.
And so, proud moment in December of 1994, I walked across the stage to receive my diploma, with my parents and husband cheering me on and my first son about to debut in three weeks. I hoped I could just get off that stage without going into labor and I did. And when he was born, I felt that I understood a little more of my Savior’s love for me. And once I got over sleep deprivation, I taught that little guy everything I could from a very early age. Before he was two he knew his alphabet letters, numbers, shapes etc. People seriously thought he was a little genius and we garnered our fair share of stares when out in public, but I knew that it just took a dedicated parent spending time with their child. Most children spent their days in daycare but I knew that I needed to be home with my boy.
Another baby, this time a girl, another move back to Germany and now it was time for little guy to start school. He was just four but I knew he was ready. I chose a traditional, popular curriculum and began with gusto, with enthusiasm, with high hopes.
We nearly killed each other.
But I learned something important that year. Jason, was not a workbook learner. More importantly, I was not a workbook teacher. It was my first glimmer of hope at knocking traditionalism.
We sent him to DODDS (Dept. of Defense Dependent Schools) for kindergarten and he had lovely old-school teacher. First grade came and were more excited that ever–he was enrolled in a dual-language program where half the day was taught in English and half in German! This was my dream come true! I was super excited about it. He would have the same teacher for first and second grade and she was a native German speaker. Who could ask for more??
Ahem.
We were homeschooling again by Christmas. Very long story. But this time I was armed with a different curriculum, which was literature based, and as Jay and I are both avid readers, it was the perfect solution. We loved it. We read and read and read and learned so much together. When daughter LB was old enough, she joined us and we all learned together. We were a very happy homeschooling family.
Except for math. That is a subject for another post.
We moved back to the States, lived in D.C. for a couple of years and then we moved back to Texas, where Laura had been born. The kids were 6 and 10. And we started going to a church where I was seeing a few kids wear t-shirts advertising a Charlotte Mason school.
Charlotte Who?
Four years of teacher education and I had never heard of Charlotte Mason. Five years of homeschooling and I had never heard of woman who sounded like she must have founded a men’s secret society or something. I googled the school. I was intrigued. If I was ever going to send my kids to school, which I wasn’t, then this would be where I’d want to send them. Oh but we could never afford that anyhow so, pressing on…Truly, I don’t even remember what intrigued me about the school, I just knew it was what I wanted. I remember vaguely hearing homeschoolers talk about living books but I honestly didn’t have time to figure out what they meant by it all. How could books be living? Weird.
Fast forward to 2007 when our youngest, Alex, was born and post-partum depression nearly did me in–literally. Our kids needed to go to school, I was not able to teach them that year and I knew where I wanted them to go but again it was that pesky money issue. Well we took a deep breath and decided to apply for a scholarship, even though they said they didn’t give full scholarships. We didn’t find out if Jay was admitted til the week before school but he was and they gave us not quite a full scholarship but almost. It was incredibly generous. It was God: lavishing His love on us again.
Laura went to public school and I regretted it from day one but we couldn’t afford Ambleside for her. She would go the next year. In retrospect I think it was great for her to be there. She had a nice teacher, if somewhat overexuberant about test scores, and it really allowed us to clearly see the difference between traditional and CM methods. She went with her brother the following year. Oh how much I learned! I finally understood what was meant by a living book, which incidentally is hard to define in words. Living books are full of ideas and the ideas feed the brain. In CM education, we are training our students to learn to accept or reject ideas and form their lives based on this “life-stuff” of the brain. They don’t, however just read these books, but they narrate them first orally and in later years in writing. They retell what they have read which is not the same as memorizing. The best I can describe it is they are making pictures in their head as they read and then either orally or in writing recalling it–making it their own.Shifting it from the short-term memory to the long. CM method also focuses heavily on forming positive life-habits that will bless them not only in the academic sphere but in every area of their lives. These two things, in case you were wondering, form the backbone of a CM education.
In a nutshell: assimilation of ideas + formation of positive life habits = a CM education.
But there is much more to it! We teach students to pursue the beautiful. To honor the King through appreciation of His handiwork. To love others, their community and the world by being their best selves.
We set before them a feast. A feast of great literature–and they themselves must decide to be responsible for their own learning. All education is self-education. You simply cannot force feed a child ideas anymore than you can make them eat brussel sprouts. As teachers, we just set the wholesome “food” before them and graciously get out of the way. The author’s mind communicating to the mind of the student. We are just there to be a guide. And to learn along with them. There’s always something new to learn. Connections to be made between this work and that. This experience and that book. It’s really rather amazing to see what putting a great literature in the hands of a child is able to accomplish. And we lived happily ever after–for five years
Small school politics. Again too lengthy and traumatic to talk about here and we were back to homeschooling. But this time I knew that I wanted more. I knew my philosophy had changed. Honestly it was the first time I knew I actually had a philosophy! I was no longer the sage on the stage. I was a learner along with my students from books that were living. This method teaches me not only how to teach, but to quote CM it teaches me “how to live.”
Have I confused you? Intrigued you? Inspired you? Hopefully more of the latter two!
Alex is almost ten and we are really savoring our days. We enjoy reading, spending our days together. Looking for saffron finches, sewing projects (that are really his favorite things to do), learning to draw and paint together. Yes we’re still very novice. But it doesn’t matter. We are forming relationships with nature. Humming Vivaldi’s four seasons in our sleep. Honing our narration skills–he often does better than me. And now we have a new learning community online! We are very happy to be part of the program’s pilot year..I learn at least as much as Alex. Probably more.
I wish I had known all this when my olders were little but I can’t look back.
This is my journey. I’m still on it.
The Holy Spirit is our Guide. He is the teacher of all things: sacred and secular.
We press onward daily toward the prize that beckons us.
Ever upward–
Moving toward the Beautiful.
For more info check out: http://www.charlottemasoninstitute.com or check out this book:https://www.amazon.com/Childrens-Sake-Foundations-Education-School/dp/1433506955/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489293664&sr=8-1&keywords=For+the+children%27s+sake
Decidedly Different 