Charlotte Mason Reviewed

Kristine loaned me this little book called Charlotte Mason Reviewed, republished by Childlight and I started reading it this weekend. Don't you just love it when your friends double as a library full of books you can't wait to read!

The book was first published in Great Britain , 1981. Ah, just yesterday, I thought; until I realized that's almost 30 years ago! The author, Jenny King, is a CM trained teacher who graduated from the Charlotte Mason College, Ambleside in 1935.

I love sharing what I read so I thought I'd post some of what I found interesting in the book.

Some quotes from the forword by Joyce van Straubenzee, also a CM trained teacher:


It was perhaps unfortunate that Charlotte mason was so strongly averse to the use of her own name. This gave rise to the ugly letters PNEU.

So true! Reminds me of PEEE EEEEWWW!

The nourishing of the mind through the reading and narration of well-written books is not easily understood without training. Indeed, I can say that this particular aspect of the training in the Practising School at Ambleside was usually the last to be grasped.


I wonder if she meant not easily understood by the teacher or by the child. It sounds like perhaps she's talking of the child here. Interesting. And to think that I sometimes become frustrated when my daughter "can't remember anything."

From Part One:

A hundred years ago the gentle voice of Charlotte Mason was heard and listened to by many people interested in a liberal education for all. It is the purpose of this book to record that voice anew because we still have no unifying principle, no definite aim, no philosophy of education.
We are surrounded by voices crying first for one reform and then for another, a little here and a little there. Energies and finances are dissipated in a welter of theory, while what we seek, an education which draws out the best of every child and builds a nation of responsible citizens, eludes us at every turn of the road.

Could this have been written today? Easily. She goes on...

The solution to our problems does not lie in more nursery schools, bigger comprehensives, a return to 'Eleven Plus' and the re-establishment of grammar schools. It lies in the child himself.

Of course, this leads to CM's philosophy that the child is born a person and that there are ways to make the most of the potential that exists in every child; a potential that God himself placed within them. Not something we need to fill them up with, but to cultivate; a treasure awaiting inspiration.

Can't wait to read the rest!