I have read all six volumes of Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, and I have read them more than once. Even so, I have not read all of them from cover to cover recently. Since I spent most of the last year very engrossed in the sixth volume, A Philosophy of Education, because of Mind to Mind, I decided recently to read through another volume afresh, and so I began the second volume, Parents and Children, which I have read from but not through for a good while.

And there, almost right in the very middle, I found the clearest statement I can remember reading in which Charlotte Mason makes it plain, herself, that her philosophy of education is rooted in the past. If I ever have occasion to update or revise Consider This, I’ll be sure to include quotes from this section, and I’m sorry they are not there already.

(all quotes are from Chapter XII of Parents and Children)

Charlotte Mason laments, “Probably the chief source of weakness in our attempt to formulate a science of education is that we do not perceive that education is the outcome of philosophy. We deal with the issue and ignore the source.” That, of course, is her recognition that why we pursue education along certain lines is more important than how.

She makes reference to the tradition of studying Greek at the major universities and observes the fear which existed then that something was in danger of being lost, as there was a struggle in educational circles at that time between classical studies and scientific studies. But she is unafraid, because:

…we are beginning to recognise that education is the applied science of life, and that we really have existing material in the philosophy of the ages and the science of the day to formulate an educational code whereby we may order the lives of our children and regulate our own.

Looking backward…and looking forward. This quote really belongs somewhere in Consider This. But she goes further, and emphasizes the fact that educational practices are sound only when they rest solidly on a clear and comprehensive philosophy, and there are two main schools of thought which seek to dominate.

Will education be based upon the premise of naturalism, in which only the material considerations of brain will be given attention, or will education be based upon idealism, in which non-material ideas are given precedence? She has quite a lot to say about this, which I will not attempt to summarize, but if you know Charlotte Mason, you know where this is going to conclude.

You cannot have it both ways (which is why an eclectic mish-mash of philosophical ideas is ineffectual).

Either thought is a process of the material brain, one more ‘mode of motion,’ as the materialists contend, or the material brain is the agent of the spiritual thought, which acts upon it, let us say, as the fingers of a player upon the keys of an instrument.

She goes on to explain the the practical implications of this, and I will not repeat all of that here, but the chapter ends with a call for a unified, synthetic approach to knowledge which I can’t resist quoting.

We must introduce into the study of each science the philosophic spirit and method, general views, the search for the most general principles and conclusions. We must then reduce the different sciences to unity by a sound training in philosophy…

Yes, I really wish I had read this chapter before I wrote Consider This. It doesn’t say anything new, but it certainly does confirm everything I wrote there.

Well, tomorrow is the big day! I’m looking forward to finding out who the two winners are, and then seeing if there will be a couple more!

There’s still a little time left to share and post if you want to enter to win one of the free copies.

I did send out a number of review copies, and one of the those early readers posted a review today. Check it out! Her interaction with Mind to Mind is exactly what I hoped readers would find there. She’s giving away a copy, too, so there’s another chance.

During the first week that Consider This was released, it had a brief moment in the sun (figuratively speaking) at Amazon. It was featured, to my amusement, as a “hot new release” in the sub-sub-sub-sub category of “Education Theory.”

So, just for fun, I thought we might make an attempt to put Charlotte Mason into the limelight and give Mind to Mind the same “hot new release” status in its sub-sub-sub (I really don’t know how far down it goes) category. Amazon updates its status hourly, so things move fast. I’ll announce the winners of the free books at noon on Friday, Eastern Time, and if you are planning to buy a copy soon, why not make your purchase on Friday afternoon? If enough people decide to do that, Charlotte Mason will rise to the top of the charts, and maybe a few teachers doing some back-to-school shopping on Amazon will notice and be introduced to her for the first time.

Well, we can hope. Wouldn’t it be a breath of life for children in public schools to have a teacher influenced by Charlotte Mason?

In any case, if we achieve this fleeting status by purchasing enough books to feature Mind to Mind as a “hot new release,” (originally published in 1925!) I’ll give away an additional two books. Why not?

Another lovely bit from Mark Van Doren’s Liberal Education:

The educated person, says Pascal, is one who has substituted learned ignorance for natural ignorance. That is valuable because it keeps ignorance in the picture, which otherwise would be false.

Even before I published Consider This, and more so since I’ve seen the response to it, I have sensed that the Charlotte Mason community is “growing up”—wanting to move beyond “how do I do this?” to explore the deeper ideas in Charlotte Mason’s writings. We are in for a marvelous treat.

My long-time friend and colleague (fellow AmblesideOnline Advisory member) Anne White has written a book—Minds More Awake— that is going to delight, edify, and nourish those hungry for “more.” Hence, my suggestion to make a little room on your bookshelf, because you are going to want to read this. More than once.

I have been privileged to read an early manuscript, and it felt like sitting down with a wise, experienced homeschool mom who has kept her own mind awake but never lost touch with the nitty-gritty day to day details of life. So, while she delves deeply into ideas that will refresh and encourage, she can grab the nearest kitchen appliance as an illustration, or remark, “that reminds me of seventh-grade shop class,” and add a layer of meaning to every children’s book you can remember.

Go read all about it, and do make a little space on the shelf. It will be so worth it.

I imagine readers of Consider This reaching the end of the book and thinking, “I wish there was more information here about how to actually do this.” Especially with regard to developing synthetic thinking, which is such a paradigm shift for many of us.

I am happy to be able to say that there a few resources you can look to for further ideas and concrete suggestions. One of those is The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater.

Since the beginning of 2015, I have slowly been working my way through this book, taking pleasure in each sentence or reference that reinforces the ideas in Consider This. It isn’t remotely surprising that this is so, since Ms. Besvater and I have learned at the feet of the same great teacher.

The Living Page deals primarily with the various notebooks that Charlotte Mason either suggested or actually incorporated into her teaching methods. However, The Living Page is much more than that. It is actually an invitation to partake fully of a synthetic understanding of life and relationship. Ms. Bestvater recognizes the timeless nature of Charlotte Mason’s ideas, and the necessity of not merely doing what Charlotte Mason suggested, but understanding why it is important.

Keeping personal notebooks was a reflection of Charlotte Mason’s respect for children as persons. Ms. Bestvater has much to say about the way that notebooks allow a child to make personal connections with knowledge. Education is the science of relations, and many delightful pages are devoted to developing the way in which Charlotte Mason’s notebook practices allow children a comprehensive and consecutive way to establish those relations.

One doesn’t have to use the term “synthetic thinking” to discuss the idea. In fact, few people do, which is why it’s not a bad idea to begin learning to recognize the concept in whatever form it appears.

…if Mason says or does it, there is a specific reason. Looking at her pedagogy closely, one does not see a cobbled together educational grab-bag but a cohesive philosophy, a unity generating an elegant method that supports human learning in the most profound ways. (The Living Page, p. 38)

Ms. Bestvater quotes this passage from Ourselves (Book I, p. 37) with special emphasis:

…we begin to understand that we too are making History, and that we are all part of the whole; that the people who went before us were all very like ourselves, or else we should not be able to understand them. If some of them were worse than we and in some things their times were worse than ours, yet we make acquaintance with many who were noble and great, and our hearts beat with a desire to be like them.

Ms. Bestvater understands synthetic thinking very well, including the link it plays in affecting actual behavior and actions, and she leads us through Charlotte Mason’s use of notebooks to show us one very powerful way in which that synthetic understanding of the world, and life, and ourselves can be developed. She reminds us again and again that the notebooks are part of this important process, not merely products.

Speaking of the history timeline and notebooks used by Charlotte Mason, she says,

It is designed to support sorting and relationship, connection, observation, and meditation. (p. 54).

Without any deliberate collaboration, Consider This and The Living Page dovetail beautifully. There are not so many contemporary books on education that support and encourage synthetic learning that we can afford to overlook even one of them.  This is not a book to be missed. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to do so, and if you read it before you read Consider This, I recommend reading it again and paying particular attention to the way that “paper postures” can play a vital part in helping our students develop the synthetic, relational knowledge of life that Charlotte Mason desired for all of us.

Links are affiliate links.

Education is the science of relations, says Charlotte Mason. Children are born persons, she asserts.

In his book Liberal Education, Mark Van Doren (who perhaps never heard of Charlotte Mason), suggests the same idea, as well as echoing her thoughts about a person’s responsibility to understand and govern his soul.

The individual has no relation to anything except the state or society of which he is a member, and to which he is relative. But the person is not a member. He is the body of himself, and as such is always to be understood as an end, not a means. As a ruler, he has first ordered his own soul. As the ruled, he likewise orders his soul. And this is something which he is unique among creatures in knowing how to do, even though he may never do it perfectly.(Liberal Education, p. 39, emphasis mine)

The powers of the person are what education wishes to perfect. To aim at anything less is to belittle men; to fasten somewhere on their exterior a crank which accident or tyrants can twist to set machinery going. The person is not machinery which others can run. His mind has its own laws, which are the laws of thought itself. (Liberal Education, p. 40)