Give Your Child a Charlotte Mason American Education

To recap, in our last post we talked about the bright promise of American Education as intended by our founding fathers.  

To their minds, an educated public is a defense against enslavement and a means to bring God’s Kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.” 

(Of course, not all of their ideas were heaven-sent, but when we eliminate the erroneous influences, the core is golden.) 

As I personally delved deeply into American Education, I was surprised and pleased that so much of it resonated with the cry of my soul and the principles of Charlotte Mason. 

The homeschooling community has been head-over-heels in love with the Charlotte Mason Method for over three decades now. 

What is it about this philosophy of education which is so appealing? I believe it is because it has allowed us: 

1. To get back to centering education on Christ, the Bible, and the child. 

2. Is in stark contrast to failed factory schooling by allowing for human warmth and gentleness. 

3. Allows us to respect the individuality of the child while encouraging self-discipline and Christian virtues. 

4. Allows us to feast on rich ideas and the beauty of goodness found in God. 

There are so many beautiful books written which outline Mason’s ideas and give us visions of delightful afternoons spent sipping tea in a field of daisies… 

However, most of us are clueless as to how to make such visions a reality. We greatly desire to put the rich literature, art, and music before our children, but we feel hampered by the limits of time, money, and energy. 

As the mother of many (many) children, I know this was the reality for me. I struggled to find ways to spread the feast of the arts before my children while keeping them grounded in the Word and growing in the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. 

This is when I discovered American Education. 

In case you don’t know me, I’m Sherry Hayes, the interesting mother of 15 children and I’ve been homeschooling for 36 years. I love encouraging and equipping mommies like you, and I don’t like wasting your time, so I try and keep things real and full of nourishment and not cotton candy.  

So, since I am going to be mostly talking today, be sure and find something to do while you listen, such as washing the inside of your windshield or cleaning your washing machine filter…while we dive in to the good life in Jesus… 

If you are new to homeschooling or this channel, it would be good for you to do a bit of research on Charlotte Mason and the basics of her method. I think it will be of great benefit to you (in addition to recent treatments on this subject, I have a whole series on her method which I will link in the description below). 

As I have examined writings and textbooks from the Golden Age of American Education, I have found there are certain golden threads that run throughout which are quite close, almost identical, to the ideas of Charlotte Mason.  

In these I find evidence that: 

• Biblical knowledge is advanced or encouraged. McGuffey’s readers included lessons on the accuracy of the Bible, along with whole chapters of scripture to be read and studied. Thalheimer’s history, as included in the Eclectic Education Series, includes the account of the tower of Babel and other Bible narratives right along with the histories of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and makes no mention of the silly idea we were at one time cave men. (This was Mason’s aim.) 

• Ideas were simplified and compacted. These books may have been all that a family could afford or safely carry with them on their treks to settle new territories. Each page was full of information that could be used, because each page was precious. There was no room for fluff and erroneous information. (One of the hallmarks of Mason was her disdain of “twaddle,” which McGuffey called “nonsense.”) 

• The child was seen as a person of worth who was to become the master of himself to the benefit of others. This individuality was a reflection of the American attitude that we are all created equal in the eyes of God, Who is no respecter of persons. Each has his place in this world as ordained by God, and he is told to follow along after the Master to find this place. (Much like Mason’s idea that children are born “persons.” In American Education this is not stated directly because it is assumed, as expressed in our founding documents.) 

• Positive character traits were encouraged, such as thrift, honesty, self-sacrifice and the like. The stories in many of the readers of this time read almost as a devotional, since they highlight godly character and show it clearly in real-life scenarios. (Maon encouraged the formation of habit and the capture of the will; “I am, I can, I ought, I will.) 

• Children were given a feast of ideas. Besides scriptures, the readers are filled with positive ideals and negative examples from every walk of life, from the Bard to the farmer. Poetry is mingled with prose, and grief is treated as well as mirth. Because families owned few books, the readers, histories, etc. had to be concentrated with the only the most nutritious food for the mind and soul. (This is part of the core of Charlotte Mason Education.) 

• The material included was meant to challenge children intellectually, not brought down to a childish level. This is expressed in a review of the original readers: “There is no appearance of stiffness and art—no apparent effort to come down to the capacity of children—all is easy—natural—graceful.” (Of course Mason would agree.) 

• The books are without distinction of class or station. Since the goal of reading was to allow each person to read the scriptures and interpret them for themselves, this education was a leveler; an agent of equality among all. (This is in agreement with Mason’s assertion that all children are born “good,” as opposed to some being of a higher birth and others of a lower birth.) 

• The traditional family is supported. To the mind of the early Americans, there was no question as to the family structure. While there are numerous stories dealing with widows and orphans in this curriculum, this is always with the understanding of children honoring their parents and parents caring for their children in the context of a loving home. (Charlotte Mason was quite concerned with the engagement of parents in the education of their children in the context of a loving, warm home environment.) 

Of course, ideals of Classical Education were included; Ancient Greece is covered as well as the major characters of all of ancient history, but not as a way to puff-up. Children were to become as familiar as possible with all the different views of the world so they would not be naive, but “wise as serpents, gentle as doves.” 

To illustrate the above ideas, I would like to list some of the titles of the lessons included in a few of the McGuffeys. 

From the 1837 Eclectic Third Reader: 

• Effects of Rashness 

• The Consequence of Idleness 

• The Way to Be Happy 

• How a Fly Walks on the Ceiling 

• Alexander the Great 

• A Contest with Tigers 

• How to Guard Against Temptation 

• The Bible 

• More About the Bible 

• Musical Mice 

• Character of Jesus Christ 

• About the Locust 

• Character of the Icelanders 

• Bonaparte Crossing the Alps 

• The Generous Russian Peasant 

• The Importance of Well-Spent Youth 

• Gospel Invitation 

And here are some from the 1879 Revised McGuffey Fifth Reader: 

• Do Not Meddle 

• The Fish I Did Not Catch 

• Respect for the Sabbath Rewarded 

• Select Paragraphs [from the Bible] 

• The Venomous Worm [alcohol] 

• How to Tell Bad News 

• The Battle of Blenheim 

• King Charles II and William Penn 

• Abou Ben Adhem 

• My Mother’s Hands 

• The Village Blacksmith [Longfellow] 

• The Goodness of God [Bible] 

• The Hour of Prayer  

• Make Way for Liberty 

• Control Your Temper 

• No Excellence Without Labor 

• Squeers’s Method [Dickens, from Nicholas Nickleby] 

• Transportation and Planting of Seeds [Henry David Thoreau] 

• The Blind Men and the Elephant 

• The Passenger Pigeon [Audubon] 

• The Virginians [Thackary] 

• Hamlet [Shakespeare] 

• My Mother’s Bible 

(I think it would be great fun sometime to read these lessons aloud so that mommies could enjoy them while working. What do you think?) 

As you can see, there is so much to glean here! I do not believe there is any other modern curriculum that even comes close. 

I believe Noah Webster has summed up just what American Education should look like in his “Advice to the Young,” which is found at the back of his “History of the United States,” originally published in 1832. Just the idea that Webster thought it important to speak directly with the child about the importance of such things shows there was an assumption each child was a complete person, not a blank slate (as an interesting side note: Mason was born in 1842, just one year before Webster’s death).  

Here are a few excerpts from Webster’s “Advice” (found on truthontheweb.org): 

… Among the first and most important truths which you are to learn, are those which relate to God and religion. As soon as your minds become capable of reasoning, or excited by curiousity to know the causes of things, you will naturally inquire who made the world, who made you, and why were you made? You will understand, by a moment’s thought, that the things around you cannot have made themselves. You will be convinced that a stone or a mass of earth cannot have made itself, as it has no power in itself to act or move; it must then have had a creator, some being that had power to act or move, and to bring the stone into existence. 

… The scriptures inform us also that God is a benevolent Being. “God is love,” and we have abundant evidence of this truth in the works of creation. God has not only made man and animals, but he has furnished the earth with every thing that is necessary for their support and welfare. The earth is stocked with plants, which are food for the animals, of various kinds, as well as for man; and plants and animals furnish man with food and clothing and shelter from the inclemency of the weather. The sea and the rivers and lakes are also stocked with animals that supply food and other conveniences for man. The earth contains inexhaustible stores for supplying the wants and desires of living creatures. 

… The first and most important point to be decided in your minds is that God is your Supreme or Sovereign Ruler… To the lower animals God has given certain propensities, called instincts, which lead them to the means of their own subsistence and safety.  

 14. Man is a being of a higher order; he is furnished with understanding or intellect, and with powers of reason, by which he is able to understand what God requires of him, and to judge of what is right and wrong. These faculties are the attributes of the soul, or spiritual part of man, which constitutes him a moral being, and exalts him to a rank in creation much superior to that of any other creature on earth. 

… As mankind are all one family, the rule of loving our neighbor as ourselves, extends to the performance of all duties of kindness to persons of all nations and all conditions of men. Persons of all nations, of all ranks, and conditions, high and low, rich and poor, and all sects or denominations, are our brethren, and our neighbors in the sense that Christ intended to use the word in his precept. This comprehensive rule of duty cannot be limited by any acts of our own. Any private association of men for the practice of contracting the rule, and confining our benevolence to such associations, is a violation of the divine commands. Christ healed the sick, and the lame, without any regard to the nation or sect to which they belonged. 

Webster goes on to talk about respecting property, honesty, ethical business practices, and the obligation of citizens to make good choices when voting. 

I also find that McGuffey had much agreement with Mason (or should I say that Mason had much in common with McGuffey, since he was her predecessor by 42 years?) 

From the Suggestions to Teachers section of McGuffey’s original second reader: 

Accuracy is too little valued in school instruction. Nothing is of much value which is not accurately acquired: and yet that accuracy, which consists in an adherence to the precise language, as well as ideas, of the Lesson, is of but little value. 

Let the child be encouraged to tell over the story, which he has just read, in language of his own. Let his faults be pointed out to him, with such simplicity, and clearness of illustration as shall make sensible of what is meant,–and with such kindness, as shall secure his gratitude for the corrections made: and those teachers who have not before tried the experiment, will, it is believed, be surprised at the results.  

In conclusion,–let teachers be assured, that any method of teaching, even the alphabet, which does not exercise their own minds, so as to give a pleasurable excitement of thought, will not be successful in securing the object which every instructor ought mainly to propose to himself, namely, the interest and improvement of his pupils. 

From “Suggestion to Teachers” portion of the Fourth Reader: 

Let the teacher then study the lessons as well as the pupils. Let him require, that the substance of what has been read be continuously narrated by the pupil without recurrence to the book. Let him direct that this be written down without the aid of a dictionary or grammar, and with no other appliances at hand than pen, ink, and paper. Let each pupil be so situated that he can derive no assistance from his fellow pupil; and then let the narratives, both oral and written, be the subject of severe but candid criticism by the teacher and the other pupils, as to the style, pronunciation, grammar and penmanship. 

Let the teacher sometimes read aloud a lesson to his class, having previously removed every means of taking notes while he reads—and then let him require each pupil within a given, but sufficient time, to render in writing and from recollection, an abstract of what he has read.  

This exercise improves the attention, practices the pen, gives fluency of expression, and a readiness of employing the ideas gained in reading, as capital of our own; and will be found highly interesting to the pupils and highly improving in a greater variety of ways than many other highly approved methods of recitation. 

For those of us who know Mason well, this all sounds so familiar!  

And this is only the readers! There are history books (such as Thalheimer’s) along with grammar and math texts which are so much better and so much easier to use than the typical ones we purchase today. There are even handwriting and art study books which are real gems.  

And part of the magic of all this is that this “method” of learning does not take up loads of time or effort on the parent’s part. All these texts were designed to be used in one-room schoolhouses, where teachers were dealing with different ages and levels all at the same time. Most of the books can be done in a self-paced manner, without the need for constant attention on the part of the instructor.  

This makes an American Education focused on the texts of the past perfect for the average busy mother who is busy with all the other realms of care for the child and family. 

This is what American Education has been for me. Using the texts and methods of the Golden Age of American Education has helped me use “observe, think, and do” with my children, and also to put in place the Four Elements of Excellent Education so that our academic time was less stress for me and more fulfilling for each child.  

I was able to be more successful this way, and I believe you can be, too. In fact, I think I can go one further. I believe if we: 

• take the intentions and thoughts of our founding fathers,  

• merge them with the expanded understanding of Charlotte Mason,  

• put these in the context of “observe, think, and do” and the four elements of excellent education, 

• add in quality modern literature, art, and music which has been developed since, 

• do all this utilizing the best technology has to aid us,  

we can offer our children the best curriculum available! 

Are you quizzical, interested, intrigued? Then let’s spend some time exploring our resources with an American Education/Charlotte Mason lens, shall we? 

I hope to look more carefully at the actual texts of the past, both those in and out of print, how to find them, how to evaluate them, how to print and bind them yourself.  

I also hope to discuss some worthy modern additions and what criteria is best to evaluate them.  

Then we could go on to apply, not only Charlotte Mason’s ideas, but also those of Ruth Beechick and Dr. Raymond Moore (perhaps even some of John Taylor Gatto and John Holt). 

In case you missed our posts on the above individuals, please be sure and watch them via the playlist referenced in the description below. 

And with that…be sure and visit these sites to listen to this message as a podcast:

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