A Full Life: The Works of Charlotte Mason

An Adequate Doctrine.––Holding this view, we believe that our educational doctrine is adequate, while following the progress of biological psychology with avidity, and making use of every gain presents itself, and while following with equal care the advance of philosophic thought, we recognise that each of these sees the chameleon in a different light, that the person includes both and is more than both; and, if our educational creed is by no means conclusive, we think it is not narrow, because we have come across no problem of life or mind the solution of which is shut out from us by any dogma of ours. We cannot say that our doctrine is necessary, but we do say that some educational theory which shall include the whole nature of man and the results of scientific research, in the same or a greater degree, is necessary. We find ourselves, too, in touch with those three great ideas which seem to me to be the schoolmasters of the world at the present moment. The person of the child is sacred to us; we do not swamp his individuality in his intelligence, in his conscience, or even in his soul; perhaps one should add to-day, or even in his physical development. The person is all these and more. We safeguard the initiative of the child and we realise that, in educational work, we must take a back seat; the teacher, even when the teacher is the parent, is not to be too much to the front. There is no more facile way of swamping character and individuality than by that idol of the ‘fifties’––personal influence.

I’ve been putting the wrong volume out.  I’m very sorry.  I will put out the correct one starting tomorrow. 

Tomorrow I will begin posting excerpts from Charlotte Mason’s Volume 2: Parents and Children.  Volume 2 is a collection of 26 articles from the original Parent’s Review magazines.

You can find this volume in one plain text file or one html page courtesy of Ambleside Online.

A Full Life will be taking another short, 2-day vacation for New Year’s.  May all my readers have a 2007 filled with joy.

A Full Life will be taking a 3 day holiday for Christmas. Regular installments will begin again on Dec. 27th.  May your Christmas be blessed!

Welcome to “A Full Life: The Works of Charlotte Mason.” My goal here is to share the wisdom of Charlotte Mason as seen in her writings, in manageable, “muse-able” sized pieces. For my own sense of order and sanity, I’ll be going through her six volume “Home Education” series, in order. The whole text of that series can be found HERE.

From now on, the words will not be mine, but Miss Mason’s. If I have something to say, it will be in the comments (or clearly noted).