Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was an Anglican British educator who advocated a shift from utilitarian education to one grounded in living ideas. She wrote The Ambleside Geography Books, six volumes on education, and a study of the life of Jesus. She also established the Parents’ National Educational Union (PNEU).

Charlotte Mason’s Principles

She believed that principles should guide your actions. In keeping with that idea, she developed twenty principles of education. The core of her philosophy centers on two of them.

The first is that “children are born persons,” meaning that from birth they have minds and personalities of their own. They are also a union of a physical body and a spiritual mind. She rejected the concept of tabula rasa, that children are blank slates. Children are to be treated with respect from their earliest days. While she holds high regard for obedience and adherence to duty on the part of children, parents and teachers have a responsibility to always respect the personhood of the children under their authority.

Her second core principle is that “education is the science of relations.” All knowledge is connected, including that of the physical and spiritual realms.

Karen Glass discusses Charlotte Mason’s natural laws of education, making them applicable for modern parents/teachers in her book In Vital Harmony. In this work, Glass explores Mason’s philosophy and how we can apply it to our homeschools. Our primary task in education should be to raise virtuous children who have a love of knowledge.

Mason divided knowledge into three interconnected categories: Knowledge of God (relationship with the Creator), Knowledge of Man (including history, art, literature, language, architecture, music, and poetry), and Knowledge of the Universe (scientific studies and physical education). Glass examines how each of these areas can be approached using Mason’s principles of education.

The Power of Narration

One of the key features of Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy is the power of narration, in which students state things (this may include oral, drawn, acted out, or written narration) that they have read or encountered in their own words, thereby building their attention skills and making the knowledge their own. In Know and Tell: The Art of Narration, Glass provides a deep dive into this process. She discusses the building blocks of narration and how it grows in different ages and stages, including moving from oral to written narration and building writing skills. She also explores the challenges and benefits of narration for children with special needs.

Anyone who is interested in learning more about Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy or methods will benefit from reading both In Vital Harmony and Know and Tell: The Art of Narration.

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