Charlotte Mason Meets the Classical Method

For all of you non-homeschoolers, or those new to homeschooling out there, Charlotte Mason was a British educator who advocated a gentle, excellent style of teaching children. Her focus was on short lessons, narrations, lots of wonderful literature, nature studies, art and music. She believed that children should be given the best in all things: books, art materials, and the time and attention of the instructor. She formed her own school, but also provided materials for parents and governesses to teach children at home by correspondence, and was adamant that the mother was every child's best and first teacher, no matter where they received their formal education.

The Classical Method focuses on a different aspect of teaching during different time periods of a child's life. the Grammar Stage (grades 1-4) focuses heavily on rote learning, exploring a broad range of topics, and much delight-based learning. The Dialectic Stage (grades 5-8) focuses on logic, and the Rhetoric Stage (grades 9-12) on rhetoric, aptly so. Both of these methods focus on a high standard of excellence in educating children. I am currently searching out the similarities, so that I can bring the best of both worlds to my young students, giving them an education that I can be assured will take them far in life.

I appreciate both the structure of the Classical Method, and the gentle flow of Charlotte Mason. They both advocate the best literature, which is greatly appealing, and they both follow a chronological approach to history, which makes my life easier with several children to teach at once. Since I have young naturalists in the home, Charlotte Mason's ideas of nature studies and lots of time spent outdoors would be favorable here, as would the accompanying nature notebooks. Both methods encourage the study of foreign languages, although Charlotte Mason focuses on French first, and then Latin, and the Classical Method recommends the intense study of Latin in the early years, followed by a modern language in the middle school years. I would substitute Spanish for French as a modern language, since it seems more appropriate here in the United States, especially in the South, than French.

Where these two methods differ is the intensity and pace at which they are applied. Charlotte Mason wished children to study only excellent books, and only a limited number each year. She preferred that children read them slowly, gathering as much knowledge as possible from their pages at a slower pace. The Classical Method encourages lots of books from even the youngest ages. Of course, parents are to choose the best books, and not just mindless reading, for their children, but the sheer number of books to be read in a year can seem overwhelming to those just beginning a classical education. However, one has to wonder if the reason that so many books are recommended now, compared to so few during Charlotte Mason's day, is that there weren't as many books available to the masses during the late 1800s when she taught as there are today. One could spend a lifetime reading all the great literature available to us today, and still not get to it all. Children's literature is a wonderful example. I have been reading to my children for over ten years, and there are still many wonderful children's books that we have not gotten to, and many I'm sure that I don't even know about.

I think that these two methods combine well, and have many similar aspects that will cause them to become companionable methods of teaching. If you are interested in reading more about Charlotte Mason and her educational philosophy, go here for not only her complete written works, but excellent advice on how to implement them. For those interested in the Classical Method, go here for an excellent overview of what a classical education really is.