Spotlight on Five! ~ Charlotte Mason Method / Resources / Classical

The teaching method of Christian British educator, Miss Charlotte Mason, makes a good fit in today’s homeschool.

In her writings Miss Mason insists upon using “living books” as schoolbooks. These enliven the mind and secure interest. Classroom textbooks, compiled by a committee, tend to be crammed with dry facts and information. Living books, by contrast, are often written by one author who enthusiastically shares his favorite subject with us.

The word classical or classic brings to mind a range of images. Some might think of classical music, classical literature, or a bald, bearded philosopher in a flowing robe. Classical education can be summarized simply as a set of skills (the Trivium) and a core content of knowledge.

A classical education is based on the skills described by the Trivium (Latin for “three roads”). These “three roads” are grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. If I wanted to learn Latin, I would begin with grammar. This first stage of learning the language would involve memorizing the vocabulary. Next, I would arrive at the dialectic stage of Latin, in which I could begin to translate sentences.

Karen Andreola

The teaching method of Christian British educator, Miss Charlotte Mason, makes a good fit in today’s homeschool.

In her writings Miss Mason insists upon using “living books” as schoolbooks. These enliven the mind and secure interest. Classroom textbooks, compiled by a committee, tend to be crammed with dry facts and information. Living books, by contrast, are often written by one author who enthusiastically shares his favorite subject with us.

With living books, children gain knowledge through their own effort. They dig out the facts and information clothed in literary language, and express what they’ve learned by narrating it in their own words (either orally or in writing.) Their thinking is personal, follows a train of thought, and isn’t limited by a page of multiple-choice questions.

Teachers needn’t be trained in giving lectures. Children educate themselves by narrating from the well-chosen words of authors. Mason believes too much explaining by a teacher elicits boredom. True education is self-education.

No bells announce the end of hour-long class periods. Children are free to move promptly onto the next lesson. When drills and skills are kept short, children develop the ability to pay attention. Dawdling is discouraged. Students are encouraged to give their best effort. Education is a discipline. This means establishing good and helpful habits, built one action at a time, one day at a time.

Mason’s method stresses education is an atmosphere. With living books, children are motivated by a love of knowledge rather than superficial stimulants such as prizes (stickers, candy, money,) competition, and grades. They retain their inborn curiosity. Cramming for tests isn’t necessary. Examinations require the child to narrate what they read during the semester.

Inspiring the love of knowledge in children depends on the presentation of ideas. Ideas are what feed the mind.. Miss Mason believes in offering children a wide curriculum of subjects. She says, “Varied human reading as well as the appreciation of the humanities is not a luxury, a tid-bit, to be given to children now and then, but their very bread of life.” Education is a lifelong pursuit.

Miss Mason places an emphasis on being outdoors to observe nature. Students keep a Nature Notebook. They record their “finds” in drawings, adding poems and mottoes.

Traditional after-school homework is rarely assigned. Instead, children apply their minds during morning lessons, while afternoons provide recreation. For children, this means running, climbing, and even yelling while outside. Handicrafts, chores, life skills, practicing an instrument, and play are their homework.

In 1987, while living in England, Karen Andreola began researching Charlotte Mason’s writings to guide her in educating her children at home. Her husband Dean visited a college in Ambleside, originally “The House of Education.” He met with its president, and was handed old copies of Miss Mason’s books from the archives. Back in the United States Dean was responsible for the republishing of the classic six-volume Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series. Later, Karen shared what she had been learning in her popular book, The Charlotte Mason Companion. You’ll find encouragement on Karen’s blog MotherCulture.com.

Jennifer Courtney

The word classical or classic brings to mind a range of images. Some might think of classical music, classical literature, or a bald, bearded philosopher in a flowing robe. Classical education can be summarized simply as a set of skills (the Trivium) and a core content of knowledge.

A classical education is based on the skills described by the Trivium (Latin for “three roads”).These “three roads” are grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. If I wanted to learn Latin, I would begin with grammar. This first stage of learning the language would involve memorizing the vocabulary. Next, I would arrive at the dialectic stage of Latin, in which I could begin to translate sentences. As a true scholar, I would continue to the rhetoric stage, in which I could read longer texts in the original Latin and even compose Latin prose and poetry myself.

The three stages of the Trivium can even be applied to different stages of a child’s development. Grammar skills involve memorization of facts that students will use in later stages of their education. Young children (ages 4-11) generally enjoy memorizing and reciting. They frequently memorize television commercials, nursery rhymes, and even entire picture books.

As children mature, they become less interested in memorizing facts and more interested in understanding them. They have moved out of grammar and into the dialectic stage (ages 12-14.) Once again, parents can work with the natural inclination of children by teaching them how to think and argue clearly and respectfully. This provides the perfect opportunity to pursue subjects like logic and debate.

Finally, when students reach the rhetoric stage (ages 15-18,) they will be interested in self-expression. They can be encouraged to deliver speeches and to teach others what they have learned. They will also learn to compose arguments on paper by refining their ability to write academic essays. The culmination of a classical education is the ability to persuade others of the truth of your arguments.

The skills of a classical education-grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric-can be applied to learning any new subject. However, the pursuit of a classical education also involves the best ideas of western civilization. As in a modern education, students will pursue history, math, science, and literature. Unlike most modern curricula, though, a classical student reads classics like Plato, Homer, Virgil, and Shakespeare and studies Latin, logic, and philosophy.

Suggestions for further reading:

Sayers, Dorothy. “The Lost Tools of Learning.” Lecture delivered at Oxford University in 1947. http:// www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html 

Classical, Christian Education Made Approachable. West End, NC: Classical Conversations MultiMedia, 2010.

Bortins, Leigh. The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Jennifer Courtney and her husband Tim have been classically home-educating their four children since 2004. They enjoy studying together, traveling, and biking. The Courtney family lives and works in Oklahoma.