Charlotte Mason Simplified, The Two-Point Plan

A few years back I wrote out my personal philosophy of education in no less than 100 points. I stand by what I wrote then, but I am realizing that it can all be conceptualized much more simply. While my personal philosophy is not identical to that of Miss Mason, when you boil it down this way, we are on the same page. Which is to say, the differences come in the details, the whys and wherefores, but I flatter myself in thinking that she would agree with me on these two points at least.

They are:

1. Spread a feast of good things for the child.
2. Trust God the Holy Spirit to work in his heart and mind.

Now nothing is ever as simple as it seems so let’s unpack a little. The parent/teacher’s job in a Charlotte Mason education is to be selective. Unlike unschoolers, we do not trust that the child will gravitate towards what is good for him entirely on his own. While Mason had a lot of faith in the child (more on that below), she also believed there is some level of fallenness in the child. That is why we do not trust him to recognize the good on his own (though our hope is that with the right input he will develop a taste for it that stays with him).

What is “good”? I am using the term very generally. It includes not just moral goodness but truth and beauty as well (a much longer excursus could talk about how these things are related). To borrow from the Apostle Paul: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil. 4:8; NIV). When we speak of such things, we imply that there is some standard which determines what is good, true, or beautiful and what isn’t. For Christians and other people of faith, that standard comes from God Himself. (If you are not a “person of faith,” maybe ask yourself: how do I know what is good and true? Are there objective standards?)

When we spread a feast for our guests, we do not necessarily expect them to eat everything. Maybe we hope they will try a little bite of each dish, but, as good hosts, we do not push them and we understand that one may go to town on the bean dip while another prefers the pigs-in-blankets. The same principles apply to the educational feast. We lay out; we do not force-feed. We may be really, really sad that no one even tries grandma’s recipe for potato chip cookies (a real recipe from my grandma; they are awful), but we need to be okay with that.

Which brings us to point two: Trust. Mason was a Christian (Anglican specifically) and for her the primary agent in education was not the teacher or the child but God the Holy Spirit. Again, it is completely possible for non-Christians to use Mason’s philosophy, but you may want to ask yourself whom you are trusting. Who is the agent in his education?

If your answer is that you trust the child’s own nature, I would say you are not entirely wrong. Mason, as we said, did not believe children were little angels. She believed that they have sin natures and so she did not trust them to pick the good for themselves. But she did trust that they had complete human natures and that they were capable, even from a young age, of the mental work required to “ingest” the feast we spread. In her language, they are “born persons.” From the Christian viewpoint, we might say that one way God works in our children is by giving them that intellectual ability. I would add that for Mason there was no clear line between the intellectual and the spiritual. We cannot work on the mind without also affecting the heart and the spirit.

What is perhaps most important for us parents in the second point above is what is left out: our role. We are not mentioned because we are not the prime movers here. As homeschooling parents especially, it is really, really hard not to take your child’s progress, or lack thereof, personally. No doubt some well-meaning friend or relative is out there judging you for the choices you are making. You really, really want to prove them wrong by showing off a child who can read four grade levels ahead and recite all the kings of England. Don’t do it. Don’t be tempted. Recognize that this is a sacred work that is happening and that you are not in control of it.

In Mason’s philosophy, when we educate our children, we do two things: we offer our kids what is good and we step back. That’s it. If you are hung up in details of how to do copywork and when to start written narration, I empathize, but you need every once in a while to return to these basics and ask yourself: Am I giving my child good, beautiful, true things? Am I trusting that Someone bigger than me can and will work in my child’s life?

There are a lot of big ideas behind Mason’s philosophy. It is good to explore those ideas and to try to understand them better, but at its base this approach is very simple: spread and trust.