A Principled Education

Charlotte Mason respected that all people, no matter how young, thrive on beautiful thoughts, big ideas, and great expectations. Since every student, teacher, and environment is different, education needs principles that can breathe with life.

Charlotte Mason did not claim to have "invented" her principles, but rather, through experimentation in her schools over time, she discovered that certain things just "work".

Mason believed these principles were objective, governing "Laws of Nature".

She found that when educators worked according to the ways people work, they were consistently successful in guiding their students into self-education and a deep love of learning for its own sake.

Mason found that all children, when carefully guided to the right kinds of books by their teacher over time, learned to wrestle with big ideas and grapple with excellent writing entirely on their own.

Below, we have outlined Charlotte Mason's 20 Principles, but we have grouped them under headings (and in some cases, omitted or substituted a few words, all clearly marked) for clarity to our modern ears.

Here are the "Laws of Nature" educators must work with, in Mason's own words.

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Children are born persons. (Principle #1) They are not born either good or bad [based on the advantages or disadvantages they start out with], but with possibilities for good and for evil. (Principle #2)

Respect for Children Calls for a Respectful Education

The principles of authority . . . and of obedience . . . are natural, necessary and fundamental; but-- (Principle #3) These principles are limited by the respect due to the person[hood] of children, which must not be encroached upon . . . . (Principle #4)

Therefore, we are limited to three educational instruments: the atmosphere of environment, the discipline of habit, and the presentation of living ideas. (Principle #5)

The P.N.E.U. Motto is:

When we say that "education is an atmosphere," . . . we should take into account the [intrinsic] educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should let him live freely among his proper conditions. It stultifies a child to bring down his world to the child's level. (Principle #6)

By "education is a discipline," we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. (Principle #7)

In saying that "education is a life," the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. (Principle #8)

Children Want to Deal Directly with Big Ideas

The child's mind is . . . a spiritual organism, with an appetite for all knowledge. This is its proper diet, with which it is prepared to deal; and which it can digest and assimilate as the body does food. (Principle #9)

[Believing] that the mind is a receptacle lays the stress of education (the preparation of knowledge in enticing morsels duly ordered) upon the teacher. Children taught on this principle are in danger of receiving much teaching with little knowledge; [this kind of] teacher's axiom is, 'what a child learns matters less than how he learns it.' (Principle #10)

But we, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum; taking care only that . . . facts are not presented without their informing ideas. (Principle #11)

Children Should Have First-Hand Exposure to Knowledge

. . . A child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books . . . .(Principle #12, cont'd)

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:

• He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
• The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity)
• Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form. (Principle #13)

Reading to Know

Narration

Since knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should 'tell back' after a single reading or hearing . . . (Principle #14)

One Attentive Reading

A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention.

This force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also by [quizzing], summarizing, and the like. (Principle #15)

There are two guides to moral and intellectual self-management to offer to children, which we may call 'the way of the will' and 'the way of the reason.' (Principle #16)

The Way of the Will

Children should be taught,

• to distinguish between 'I want' and 'I will.'
• That the way to will effectively is to turn our thoughts from that which we desire but do not will.
• That the best way to turn our thoughts is to think of or do some quite different thing, entertaining or interesting.
• That after a little rest in this way, the will returns to its work with new vigour. (This . . . is familiar to us as diversion, whose office it is to ease us for a time from will effort, that we may 'will' again with added power. . . .). (Principle #17)

The Way of Reason

We teach children, too, not to 'lean (too confidently) to their own understanding'; because the function of reason is to give logical demonstration

• of mathematical truth,
• of an initial idea, accepted by the will. (Principle #18)

In the former case, reason is, practically, an infallible guide, but in the latter, it is not always a safe one; for, whether that idea be right or wrong, reason will confirm it by irrefragable proofs.

The Work of Education

Therefore, children should be taught . . . that the chief responsibility which rests on them as persons is the acceptance or rejection of ideas. To help them in this choice we give them principles of conduct, and a wide range of the knowledge fitted to them. . . . (Principle #19)

We allow no separation to grow up between the intellectual and "spiritual" life of children, but teach them that the Divine Spirit has constant access to their spirits, and is their Continual Helper in all the interests, duties and joys of life. (Principle #20)