Updated to add a link to a PDF of this post.
Children are born persons is the very first principle of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy of Education. It seems fairly obvious to readers at this time in history, on the surface at least, but it was a revolutionary idea in 1886 Victorian England when her ideas on education were first published in book form.
In the 1850’s Charles Dickens had portrayed utilitarian schools with rampant bullying, harsh headmasters and teachers whose main efforts were to force facts into their student’s heads. Child labour and neglect were acceptable practices and children in the ‘lower classes’ of society were often treated no better than animals. Most of them didn’t receive what could be called an education.
What was Charlotte Mason’s view of a child?
She believed that children are born fully human. They are not blank slates to be written on or empty vessels to be filled up. They are not embryonic beings waiting to grow into true personhood at some time in the future.
They are persons, individuals, who need to grow in knowledge.
She started with the premise that the child’s mind is the instrument of his education…his education doesn’t produce his mind. This flips our present-day idea of education on its head too, because although we’ve come a long way since Victorian times, there is a prevailing undervaluing of a child’s ability. Children are talked down to, given mentally inferior books, are plied with endless questions, given a standardised education, and presented with “play-approach” lessons that leave no time for real, imaginative play.
Quoting from Charlotte Mason’s School Education:
But organised games are not play in the sense we have in view. Boys and girls must have time to invent episodes, carry on adventures, live heroic lives, lay sieges and carry forts, even if the fortress be an old armchair; and in these affairs the elders must neither meddle nor make…
There is an idea afloat that children require to be taught to play––to play at being little fishes and lambs and butterflies. No doubt they enjoy these games which are made for them, but there is a serious danger. In this matter the child who goes too much on crutches never learns to walk; he who is most played with by his elders has little power of inventing plays for himself…
Macaulay points out that children can have rich creative play crushed out of them by over-entertainment. We’ve come from one extreme to the other in the way we treat children. Child labour isn’t the problem it was in the Victorian Age (unless the child lives in either of the two regions of the world which account for nearly nine out of 10 children involved in child labour worldwide.)
Instead, they are now herded into institutions, fitted into schedules, put in front of screens.
Living Ideas from Outside of the Child
A few months ago I went to a local supermarket which has a private preschool next door. There was a group of about four boys clustered together near a tree poking around with sticks. They were having a great time until one of the female staff members called them away from their play because ‘there might be spiders.’ How sad.
Children are hungry to know. Their curiosity knows no bounds. Why does the school institution (and this sadly includes many preschools/kindergartens) often blunt this interest?
Charlotte Mason believed that,
She outlined a sensible plan for teaching reading, writing, and number work - mechanical skills that require each step to be mastered before going on to the next.
She began ‘formal’ education at age six and made sure that the child was read to - really good books, chapter by chapter which would include works of literature, biographies of historical figures, stories about animals and birds etc.
After the reading the young child tells back what he has heard in his own words. Mason called this narration or telling back. No questions, moralising or prompts. This is such a simple practice that it is often questioned.
It’s a good idea to try it for yourself. I read every night and sometimes I go back over a chapter and try telling it back to myself. Sometimes I really struggle! You need to pay attention to what you’re reading in order to do this. If a child knows he will be required to narrate after every book used for his lessons, he learns very quickly to pay attention.
No ‘comprehension’ tests or quizzes. No child left behind because they’re a late reader. If you read aloud and a child narrates or tells back in his own words what he’s heard, he is assimilating knowledge, even if he hasn’t acquired the mechanical skills of reading and writing for himself yet.
See pp. 35-38 of Macaulay’s book for some practical ideas of what a Charlotte Mason education looks like with a child around age 6 or 7 years.
Education should not be fragmentary- little bits here and there, Wikipedia information and extracts. Although we have immediate access to all kinds of information via the internet and T.V. this is not education. A complete book, well-chosen, worked through steadily chapter by chapter and narrated by the child, will become his own. When they narrate, they are the ones who decide what they are going to concentrate on. This is important because we might be expecting a detailed rendition of what took place in the reading. Some children might do that, but many will just focus on some particular passage that spoke to them. Both are valid responses.
When you read quality literature aloud to young children (e.g. Treasure Island, Little House in the Big Woods, The Wheel on the School) you might be tempted to stop and explain a word you think they don’t understand. Don’t, unless they ask. They will pick up meanings from the context. I used to really annoy my kids when I did this, so I learnt to shut up and keep reading.
Literary Power & Living Books
We have never been so rich in books. But there has never been a generation when there is so much twaddle in print for children, much of it in schools. (31)
Education has to include the proper use of books.
If a child can read well he should be encouraged to read his lesson books for himself. I loved reading aloud to my kids and I continued to do so all the way through high school but they did the bulk of their own reading. I used a daily read aloud time to share a book as a family or to read a book that warranted discussion.
On page 33, Macaulay shares a list of books her family enjoyed. Each family will be different and will take into consideration their cultural background and situation.
Living books are well-written, literary in style, stir the imagination and intellect, are not too easy or too direct, and are able to be narrated.
We are told by many in our generation that this small child is a cog in a machine, or even that he is a possession, like a pet animal. Many adults now “have” a child, in the same way they “have” a washing machine or a collie dog. (13)
Education is an Atmosphere
There is no such thing as the perfect environment and we often have to accept the limitations placed upon us. But education is an atmosphere and not an environment - there is a difference. I wrote more fully about this here (linked to blog):
What is a child?
A child is no ‘ordinary’ person.
With apologies to C.S. Lewis I have substituted some words (in brackets) from a passage in a sermon he delivered in 1941. It’s applicable to every person but I wanted to direct it to those of us who have any dealings with children, whether they be our own or someone else’s. The original passage is here.
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting (child) you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption…
All day long we are, in some degree helping (them) to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with (children)…all loves, all play…(all education).
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal (child). Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortal (children) whom we (chide, engage, ignore, manipulate) and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”
One of the things that inspired me when I first read For the Children’s Sake was that Charlotte Mason’s ideas are applicable to all children; the bright and the ‘backward.’ At the end of this chapter Macaulay shares some of the creative ways these ideas have been applied successfully with children who were classified as failures or ‘impossible’ cases.
Some suggestions 😊
Try Susan Schaeffer Macaulay’s experiment:
Get to know a child. It may be your own or somebody else’s. Don’t think of it as either a menial or a professional task. Do it for its own sake…
Get a few really good books, and read them together aloud…
After reading go to a really nice place outside for a couple of hours at least. Don’t rush…
Talk together.
Relax.
Read a chapter of a book - something literary such as a book by Jane Austen, Elizabeth Goudge or C.S. Lewis. In your mind, or aloud if that’s easier for you, tell back to yourself what you remember from your reading. No looking back. 😊
Talk to someone about the ideas discussed in this chapter. What stood out to you? What could you put into practice? Comment below if you like.
Keep a Commonplace Book & write in it passages from books that have inspired you or spoken to you in some way.
Further Reading
Hard Times and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - both books depict schools and attitudes towards children during the Victorian Era.
Marva Collins’ Way by Marva Collins – Collins was a visionary teacher who became disillusioned with the failure of the USA public school system. She opened her own private school in 1975 for students from the worst of backgrounds and those considered unteachable. She loved her students and refused to let them fail.
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - Durrell’s entertaining account of his family’s five year stay on the Greek island of Corfu. He was ten years of age when they moved there and his education was conducted at home by various interesting & eccentric tutors. During his time on Corfu he made a special study of zoology and kept a large number of various creatures as pets.
An Episode of Sparrows & other books by Rumer Godden - this author had great insight into the inner lives of children. I love her sensitive writing and her ability to honour the child’s personhood by acknowledging the effects parents’ actions, attitudes and poor decisions had on their children.
Cat’s in the Cradle - a song from the viewpoint of a father who never had time for his son when he was young. It’s a reminder for mums and dads that our children grow up quickly. We’ll never have this time over again.
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