S10E138: Amy Snell on Studying History with Charlotte Mason
The Parents’ Union School curriculum aims at giving the child ideas which will grow into principles of conduct, ideas of eternal truths. Her books are largely chosen for the purpose of training her capacity to differentiate and to see the contrast between the ideas which are of the moment and those which are of eternity. Such a child is being trained all the time for life as it is today; she has learnt in her literature, her history, her citizenship, her geography, her science, to question and to reason, to weigh, to appreciate at their proper value the kaleidoscope of passing ideas and aims and the slow steady progress towards Christian Ideals. She is being helped to be unafraid of Truth, however grimly it strips us of our cloaks, to have the long view, the Christian view. For that is the foundation of the whole philosophy of Miss Mason and on that basis are the books chosen and the curriculum drawn up…
Mrs. Shelley, from “Education in the Parents’ Union School” in The Parents’ Review, 1936, p. 35
Show Summary:
- On this episode of The New Mason Jar, Cindy and Dawn talk with Amy Snell, veteran homeschooling mom of 5 and co-founder of the CMEC, about studying history in the Charlotte Mason paradigm
- How Amy first discovered Charlotte Mason’s philosophy
- What is the role of history in the CM philosophy of education?
- How is that different from the typical approach to how history is being taught today?
- Why is pointing to the moral in a history lesson a problem?
- What is unique about the CM history sequence?
- How does the curriculum change as a student grows older?
- Encouragement for teaching history using the CM method
Listen Now:
Books and Links Mentioned:
50 Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin
Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall
This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall
A History of England by H. O. Arnold-Forster
The CMEC Retreat on History – “Time and Eternity: The Student’s Pursuit”
Find Cindy, Dawn and Amy:
Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group
Mere Motherhood Facebook Group
The Charlotte Mason Education Center Website
Subscribe:
…it is necessary to know something of what has gone before in order to think justly of what is occurring to-day…We are conscious of a lack of sound judgment in ourselves to decide upon the questions that have come before us and are aware that nothing would give us more confidence than a pretty wide acquaintance with history.
Charlotte Mason, from Towards a Philosophy of Education, p. 169
