![]() When we wonder through the earliest times of human history, through the growth of family, community and society, we meet with practices for teaching and training the young. As children walked by the way alongside their elders, as they settled for sleep at night, as they awoke in the morning to meet what the day held for them, they were learning. Through natural learning, life experiences, and coming of age ceremonies, through stories, remembering, and conversation, through prayer and worship the children were taught. When we consider how Jesus taught the disciples, how Paul taught the early church, the songs of ancient poets like David and Homer, the conversation of Socrates and the stories of Shakespeare, we begin to glimpse a path of education that is life-giving and we see ribbons of connection through ages and cultures of humanity. We begin to see what it means to be human, what it means to live in our earth home and care for it, and what it means to be a child of God. Into this great tradition stepped Charlotte Mason in the late 1800's and took her part in the great conversation of education. Charlotte Mason was born in 1842, in Wales, to Margaret Shaw and Joshua Mason. Her father had been married twice previously, both wives passing away earlier in life, and Charlotte was the youngest of 13 children. Her father was a Quaker and her mother was a Roman Catholic. Charlotte herself joined the Anglican church as a young adult as part of her requirements during her teaching training and she remained part of that church for the remainder of her life. Sadly both her parents passed away not long before the finish of her teaching training. Miss Mason entered the world of teaching and over time, through her work as an educator, her readings of the great educational thinkers, and the great thinkers of her time she began to develop a method of education that was rich and liberal, and accessible to all children regardless of socio-economic status or perceived ability. Charlotte Mason was a contemporary of Italian physicist and educator Maria Montessori (1870-1923) and Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who each founded two well-known alternative educational philosophies today in Australian education. In 1891 Charlotte Mason established a training school for teachers and governesses in Ambleside, England, named the House of Education. In 1892 she founded the Parents' Educational Union, later renamed to the Parents' National Education Union (PNEU), which provided resources and support to families educating their children at home, and later opened a number of schools throughout England. Charlotte Mason's work also reached Australia. In 1904 a Melbourne branch of the PNEU was opened and a conference was held in Melbourne in 1907. A group in Brisbane also formed to read and discuss the ideas found in The Parents' Review. Today Charlotte Mason's methods connect globally through home educating families and education support groups, curriculum developers, writers, and schools. Her method continues to provide a rich and liberal educational offering to today's post-modern families around the world. © Amy George, January 2020 Please seek permission to link or reference this post. Learn more about Charlotte Mason: The Legacy of Charlotte Mason by Deani A. Neven Van Pelt (2011) Charlotte Mason: Hidden Heritage and Educational Influence by Margaret A. Coombs (2015) In Memoriam: A Tribute to Charlotte Mason by Parents' National Education Union (1923) The Story of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondeley (1960)
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AuthorI teach with the Charlotte Mason method in home education, tutoring and P-12 Christian school contexts in Australia. Archives
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