Narration – it’s time to bring back this simple, low-stakes, scalable assessment method What is Narration? Narration is a key feature of the Charlotte Mason Method. Mason was an English educator and reformer who set up a network of schools that hoped to provide a “liberal education for all.” Although her dream was forestalled after …
Category Archives: charlotte mason
“The world felt big”
The autodidact is a rare creature these days. I really enjoyed listening to this Talking Politics interview with Tara Westover, who grew up in rural Idaho as one of seven children in a strict Mormon family. Her father did not allow her to go to public school, but she taught herself, ending up studying at …
What sort of knowledge..?
From H W Household’s Reminiscences about Charlotte Mason, courtesy of Charlotte Mason Poetry: What sort of knowledge? Well, they want to hear of Odysseus and Nausicaa, to read the immortal stories of Herodotus, and Plutarch’s Lives; they want to listen to the tale of Thermopylae and Salamis and to learn how democracy raised Athens to her …
Knowledge is the road to joy
It is understandable that, in the fierce heat of contemporary squabbles, heads and educationalists prefer to talk up the more empirical benefits of a knowledge approach; but, by doing so, they leave the implementation of a knowledge-based approach open to those who would happily squander its joy for its effectiveness. I was really delighted to …
A beautiful speech by H W Household
I have written about Household before. Thanks again to the excellent archival work of the team at Charlotte Mason Poetry, I have just read another of his speeches from the time when he was Director of Education for Gloucestershire in the 1930s. So much of what he says still rings true today. I would love …
Charlotte Mason vs Christian Classical approach
This blog is in danger of becoming merely a groupie for the Charlotte Mason Poetry blog… but can I recommend this interview with a teacher (and homeschool mother) who was attracted to the Christian classical tradition of Dorothy Sayers et al before realising its shortcomings and finding Charlotte Mason instead: http://charlottemasonpoetry.org/from-classical-teacher-to-charlotte-mason-educator/ Ms Whiteside is especially …
Continue reading “Charlotte Mason vs Christian Classical approach”
“Meeting the Mountain”
Another beautiful letter unearthed by the great people of the Charlotte Mason Poetry blog, by Elsie Kitching. My favourite quotes below.. “There was a time—has it quite passed yet?—when the attempt at science made by a late Head master of Winchester was to offer an annual prize for the best collection of the wild flowers …
A Liberal Education (1929 style)
Listened yesterday to a tremendous edition of the Charlotte Mason Poetry Podcast, which featured a speech by Horace West Household, the Director of Education for Gloucestershire at the North of England Education Conference in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1929. Can you imagine a Regional Schools Commissioner in 2018 using the same beautiful language or whose vision of a …
Charlotte Mason vs Montessori
I listened to a great episode of the Charlotte Mason Poetry podcast on a run yesterday. It featured a letter, written by CM herself, explaining how her differed from that of Maria Montessori’s. The whole letter, which is very short, is really worth reading or listening to – is there any educationalist alive today who writes …
Charlotte Mason Retreat | Lake District | May 2018
A quick post to promote what looks like a glorious opportunity to reflect on Charlotte Mason’s work AND hear from the peerless Malcolm Guite in the splendour of the Lake District later this month. To quote from the website, Charlotte Mason Institute’s English Lake District Retreat The Afternoon of 30 April – the Morning of 4 …
Continue reading “Charlotte Mason Retreat | Lake District | May 2018”
Will Orr-Ewing 