Charlotte Mason Companion: A Book Reflection

In Book Reflections, I'll reflect on selections from last year's book-completed list (see The Renaissance Biologist post). Given that last week's post introduced the juxtaposition of Charlotte Mason education and one's daily family routines, I wanted to reflect this week on a book that was helpful for me in that regard, A Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (1990s). For most reflections, including this one, I will follow the general sequence of 

1. Contextualize the author's writings as a whole (bibliography)
2. Bring the author's major ideas to the present day
3. Comment on major sections of the book, or important chapters, depending on organization

Charlotte Mason's Writings

Charlotte was a somewhat prolific educational writer. Her magnum opus, reprinted recently by the Andreolas, is a 6-volume, 2400-page Original Homeschooling Series. What topics (volume names) does this cover?

Home Education

Parents and teachers can learn how to educate children up to age 9 years. Considerations include one's own attitude toward the children, structured and unstructured outdoor activities/subjects, formation of habits, features of lessons such as narration and reading for each subject, and nurturing the child's will and conscience.

Parents and Children

This is actually a collection of magazine articles from CM-era Parents' Review. Parents have many roles in the home, including rulers, inspirers, and schoolmasters. Faith, philosophy, duty, and character are intertwined ends of education. Some sketches of educational theory are in later articles in the volume.

School Education

More detail is needed for educational pieces of children aged 9-12 years. Foci include recognition of and response to authority; training in physical, intellectual, moral, and religious aspects; and use of textbooks (and "living books"), curricula, and exams.

Ourselves

Charlotte wrote this character-development curriculum with children as her intended audience: younger (under 9) in Part I and older (9-12) in Part II. Part I teaches about the inhabitants of several "houses" of body, mind, and heart, using an extended metaphor of a "mansoul" country. Part II expands upon this metaphor, with slightly more abstract chapters and sections about conscience, the will, and the soul.

Formation of Character

To inspire and comfort parents and children, this volume has independent chapters and examples of character (mal)development. It is meant to be read throughout one's educational process, including young adulthood.

A Philosophy of Education

Having had the opportunity to read Smidgen Press's recent edition of this volume, I can appreciate both her thought process and her writing style. She does tend to repeat the same ideas throughout, but with different angles and "meat" each time. This volume came years after 1-5, and is especially helpful for children over age 12 years.

Charlotte Mason (CM) Education in Contemporary Homeschooling

Homeschooling is a very broad movement in education that has been around in some form since people started educating their children on things they wanted them to learn, remember, and practice. While wealthier families in the Roman Empire (for example) provided tutors for their children, public or private schools were not considered the method of choice for all children until centuries later. 

Today, people who homeschool their children come from all walks of life. My perspective is as a conservative/moderate religious homeschooler whose parents were in the same mindset. We have always lived in suburban settings. If features of your setting are different, chances are there is still a local homeschool community into which you fit and feel that you belong. If not . . . create one!

It's important to differentiate between an educational philosophy and a specific curriculum, whether one is homeschooling or educating their child(ren) elsewhere. Charlotte Mason outlined a philosophy of education (see volume 6 of her works above), meaning that she had principles in mind that can be put into practice in various ways, with the educator (parent) always thinking about what principle(s) s/he is trying to live by. A curriculum, on the other hand, is a sequence of resources intended to be completed in a given time; it is undergirded by one or another educational philosophy.

Given that background, how is the Charlotte Mason philosophy used in contemporary homeschooling?

• Several curricula have been designed specifically using her principles, such as Simply Charlotte Mason, AmblesideOnline, and the Charlotte Mason Educational Center (CMEC)
• Many other families (like my parents) piece together their own curricula as they go along, while keeping principles in mind. In my case, our resources came from all over (I'm using Wisconsin's required subjects as an example although my early education was in a different state):
• Reading: after some initial phonics instruction from my mom (a reading specialist), we had regular trips to the local public library and our well-stocked household library! After we no longer needed them, we also found a nice reprinted set of McGuffey Readers.
• Language arts: Warriner's Grammar (which I hated back then but profited much from later), Institute for Excellence in Writing, and oral and written narration; later, we learned German and Latin from various readers and Wheelock's, respectively
• Mathematics: mostly Cuisenaire rods, assisting with from-scratch cooking, and Saxon, followed by participation in middle- and high-school homeschool math teams competing with public and private schools of similar sizes
• Social studies: I can't remember any specific textbooks, but we supplemented with historical novels and trips to indoor and outdoor history museums. With Child(ren), this is one area I want to emphasize more because of my own deficiencies.
• Science and health: various outdoor and indoor exploration projects, and plentiful outdoor time with from-scratch cooking, sometimes supplemented by whatever we could get from A Beka and Apologia.

Book Breakdown

Since The Charlotte Mason Companion has 49 chapters, I'll comment on the approximate sections into which the chapters lend their arrangement.

Education

Chapters 1-5 address Karen's attraction to a CM style of education, and defining education according  to Charlotte's terms ("a science of relations"). What features were most attractive?

• Use of books interesting to both children and adults
• Children's knowledge acquisition by active effort of narration
• Lack of homework/busywork for children 0-13 years old
• Short, focused lessons without the external motivator of grades
• Afternoons open for life and outdoor time
• Teaching by means other than lecture
• Exposure to the breath and depth of human cultures and ideas throughout history
• Conceptualization of education as a discipline (habit), rather than a specific task only trained teachers can do

I agree with all of the above, with the possible exception of lack of homework for certain subjects. Sometimes, a child will need more reinforcement and processing time on their own before they can internalize a concept, and homework properly applied can do that.

What does Charlotte mean by "a science of relations"?

• Children are naturally curious about the world around them and before them
• A quality education should give children depth and emotional connection to a wide variety of knowledge
• Three key areas for knowledge are God, humanity, and the universe around us

Home Habits

Chapters 6-11 deal with positive and negative atmosphere, and habits in relation to a strong versus a weak will. My favorite takeaways from this section have been the specific examples Karen gives of what habit training looks like for individual children, and the vital importance of developing the habit of attention first, by gentle means. For, without attention, a child (or adult) cannot stay with a topic long enough to gain value from it.

Books, Narration, and Writing

Chapters 12-23 expand on the concepts of living books, narration, vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. In CM education, narration is oral for the first few years (i.e., the child speaks and the parent listens and may write down what the child says), then can become written as the child's writing abilities develop. 

One feature of CM education that my mother and I both disagree with is the lower weight placed on formally learning the rules of spelling and grammar. English being a semi-phonetic language with many exceptions, I favor incorporation of phonics-based reading instruction.

Arts and Languages

Chapters 24-31 explore CM-specific foci on picture study, music appreciation, poetry and Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens. I particularly like the time a CM approach takes to repeat and passively or actively expose children to a parent-selected sequence of artworks. Children can either focus on the work at hand or just have it nearby as they work on other subjects or go about leisure activities.

History and Nature

Chapters 32-44 talk about history (using living books as usual!), nature study in any setting, and seasonal ideas for getting outside and learning inside and outside. I can safely say that my education focused much more on nature study than on history, which is one of my few regrets. I'm thankful that Husband has a strong memory for the details and interrelationships of those historical details, so together we have a plan to remediate my deficiencies, improve his competencies, and instill a historical mindset in Child(ren).

Morality and Motivational Thoughts

Chapters 45-49 conclude the book with reflections from a conservative (and perhaps somewhat fundamentalist) Christian perspective. For years before high school transcripts are beneficial (e.g., if the child is applying to take one or more community college courses), I agree with avoidance of formal grading systems; the example of "admiration, hope, and love" as the basis for grading younger children reinforces the worldview of a particular morality that typical CM education is oriented to instill.

One concept I had forgotten about for many years, but rediscovered on having Child, is "Mother Culture." The Commonplace YouTube channel has some excellent videos on this. Essentially, Mother Culture is a form of self-care that nurtures the vocation of mother-educator. A mother does this by planned, brief (half-hour) time away from meeting her children's wants, in order to read, reflect, and refresh. Like her children, mother should read several living books at a time, of varying difficulty depending on what her brain is up for at that time.

I hope this post has been informative for you in learning about CM education and one of the important books written to help homeschool parents (especially mothers) decide whether and how to implement it for themselves!