About
charlotte mason
Almost a century after her death, Charlotte Mason’s design for education continues to stir the imagination and practice of parents and teachers and impact the lives of thousands of children. But who was she, and how did this movement begin?
Charlotte mason
Who is charlotte mason?
A British educator and philosopher in the late 19th and early 20th century, Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) designed, developed, and promoted a relational education in a living environment filled with books, experiences, nature, and ideas, where the child is viewed as a person and the educator as one who cooperates with God.
After more than a dozen years of teaching children in the British school system in Worthing, UK, and then four years teaching adults in a new teacher education program in Chichester, UK, Mason gave a pivotal series of “Lectures to Ladies” in Bradford, UK during the winter of 1885 and 1886.
The seven-lecture series had such resonance that over the succeeding seven years, Charlotte Mason was at the heart of founding and launching a parent’s union, a teacher’s college, an educator’s journal, and a curriculum. A network of parents, educators, student teachers and governesses, community activists, writers, and schools were organized—organic, structured, connected organizations, institutions, and individuals all around a new guiding and developing philosophy of education led by Mason herself.
As she promoted the idea that “education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life,” Mason summarized her educational philosophy into twenty principles drawn from her observations of children during years of teaching, the science of her day, and, most importantly, from the “code of education” she found in the gospels.
In addition to numerous letters, pamphlets, and articles, Mason’s writings include a six-volume poetic mediation on the gospels based on her Sunday meditations on the gospel of John (published from 1908-1914), six geography volumes for students written and published prior to her pivotal lectures in the 1880s, and a series of six volumes in which she describes her philosophy of education (first published from 1887-1925), later called The Home Education Series partly because of the emphasis it places on the education that takes place in a child’s life at home (not because, as some might assume, they are necessarily about homeschooling). Read our summary of her key ideas and methods here.
"The fundamental idea is, that children are born persons and are therefore moved by the same springs of conduct as their elders. Among these is the Desire of Knowledge, knowledge-hunger being natural to everybody."
Mason's Contributions
- The Parents' National Educational Union (PNEU), with local chapters across the UK, which provided resources and support for teachers and parents;
- The Parents’ Union Schools, the curriculum Mason developed which was eventually used by parents, governesses, and schools across the British empire;
- The Parents’ Review, an educational journal, that published monthly for 99 years of which Mason was editor till the year of her death, 1923;
- A Teacher College, originally with a practicing school, in Ambleside, UK, in the Lake District, The House of Education, now part of the University of Cumbria.
A fulsome introduction
The booklist
A fulsome introduction to Mason’s ideas includes the following books.
Home Education Series by Charlotte Mason
- Vol 1. Home Education
- Vol 2. Parents and Children
- Vol 3. School Education
- Vol 4. Ourselves, Our Souls and Bodies
- Vol. 5 Some Studies in the Formation of Character
- Vol 6. An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education
Key introductions to Mason’s philosophy
- For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
- When Children Love to Learn edited by Elaine Cooper
- The Story of Charlotte Mason by Essex Cholmondeley
- Modern Miss Mason by Leah Boden
- The Powerful and Neglected Voice of Charlotte Mason by Elaine Cooper
- Charlotte Mason’s Great Recognition by Deani Van Pelt & Camille Malucci
The charlotte mason
Digital collection
Housed at Redeemer University and digitized by Deani Van Pelt and a team of scholars affiliated with The Charlotte Mason Institute, the Charlotte Mason Digital Collection makes a wide variety of artifacts surrounding Mason’s life and work available to the public.
Pictures courtesy of the Armitt Museum and Charlotte Mason Digital Collection.
