S9E119: Q&A No. 10, Back to School Conference 2025
With this thought of a child to begin with, we shall perceive that whatever is stale and flat and dull to us must needs be stale and flat and dull to him, and also that there is no subject which has not a fresh and living way of approach. Are we teaching geography? The child discovers with the explorer, journeys with the traveller, receives impressions new and vivid from some other mind which is immediately receiving these impressions; not after they have been made stale and dull by a process of filtering through many intermediate minds, and have found at last their way into a little text-book. Is he learning history? His concern is not with strings of names and of dates, nor with nice little reading-made-easy stories, brought down, as we mistakenly say, to the level of his comprehension; we recognise that his power of comprehension is at least equal to our own, and that it is only his ignorance of the attendant circumstances we have to deal with as luminously as we can.
Charlotte Mason, from Parents and Children, p. 278
Show Summary:
- On The New Mason Jar this week, we bring you a special Q&A episode recorded with Kay Pelham and Jami Marstal as a follow-up to our 2025 Back to School Online Conference
- How can a mom of many finish well with her last few students, implementing more of Mason’s methods now that she has more time with fewer children?
- What is some advice for dealing with disrespect from teens and pre-teens?
- What are some principles to help guide the upper years, making time for what really matters without overloading ourselves and our students?
- How should you approach starting a Charlotte Mason education with an older student?
- How can we communicate about Charlotte Mason’s principles with those unfamiliar with them in a community or cooperative context?
Listen Now:
Books and Links Mentioned:
Parents and Children by Charlotte Mason
Exercises in Dictation by F. Peel
Formation of Character by Charlotte Mason
Toward a Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason
Find Cindy:
Cindy’s Patreon Discipleship Group
Mere Motherhood Facebook Group
Subscribe:
At any rate that GOLDEN RULE of which Comenius was in search has discovered itself, the RULE, “WHEREBY TEACHERS SHALL TEACH LESS AND SCHOLARS SHALL LEARN MORE.”
Charlotte Mason, from Philosophy of Education, p. 8
