This month marks the 100th anniversary of Charlotte Mason’s death, and Calvary Schools is setting this week aside to share with our community more about her life and history. Each day, you’ll be learning from educators around the country who have been impacted by her teachings and have dedicated their lives to educational renewal one student at a time.

Charlotte Mason College in Ambleside, England. The building is now part of the University of Cumbria.

By Melissa and Brandon Byrd
Class 4 and 8 Teachers, Calvary Schools of Holland
Educational leaders and parents within the Ambleside network for over a decade

Have you ever walked into church, work, a social gathering, or even just stood in line at the market and heard those around you lamenting their busyness?

“I feel like I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off!”

We’ve had many chickens on our homesteads throughout the years. The first time we set out to prepare one for dinner, we missed the mark completely. Brandon held the ax, and Melissa held the rooster on the chopping block. The first try released the chicken into a full sprint with all of himself still intact.

After much discussion (which mostly revolved around Melissa not wanting to lose her head as well), Brandon decided that for the second try, he would keep his eyes open. We have been successful ever since and while keeping one’s eyes open while chopping is a great lesson, there is another point to consider as well.

Without our heads in tow, we can’t expect to be able to think straight and make thoughtful choices. At best, we will just be able to flop about from one cultural bandaid to another. Charlotte Mason addresses this need for thoughtfulness as parents and educators.

“The parent who would educate his children,” argues Mason in Parents and Children, “in any large sense of the word, must lay himself out for high thinking and lowly living; the highest thinking indeed possible to the human mind and the simplest, directest living.”

We find that these thoughts are just as true today as when Mason wrote them over a century ago. Perhaps they are provocative to those of us who are often looking for the “biggest and best” for our children. What if a simpler, more realistic way of child rearing is possible, if not even best? What if less really is more?

“In the spiritual as well as in the natural world, great means are always simple.”
– Charlotte M. Mason, Ourselves

For anyone who has stepped into an Ambleside classroom, you have seen and felt Mason’s words firsthand.

• The walls are simply decorated with beautiful art, maps, an graceful scripts.
• Technology use is minimized.
• The natural world is gathered, pondered, and admired on nature tables and in nature journals.
• The feast of good books on hand is sumptuous and from their pages heroes and villains, wise and foolish, speak their stories and are consumed and discerned by hungry minds.

Mason writes, “None of us can be proof against the influences that proceed from the persons he associates with. Wherefore, in books and men, let us look out for the best society, that which yields a bracing and wholesome influence.”

Mason’s devotion to the well being of the family and school permeates her work. And here is where the generous curriculum of a Charlotte Mason education can be seen. Children read and retell from many different subjects. Through this, they gain the best that civilization and history have to offer. As such, her emphasis on a child’s education in school was seen as the outpouring of what had already been started in the home.

Don’t we as parents deserve to keep that same best company as well? In fact, this is largely why we became Ambleside educators. We became even more enthusiastic when we discovered that this was good not only for our children but for us as adults, too. That means that a Charlotte Mason education does not have to end with the wonderful experience children have in the classroom. If what is good for a child is also good for an adult, a Charlotte Mason home can look and feel very similar. Our homes are the first classroom, and parents are the primary educators.

More than likely we have all, at one time or another, sighed regrets of being too busy. More than likely we have used it as an excuse for stepping back from thoughtful and relational living. “Chicken with its head cut off” syndrome is something we are all familiar with. It feels unavoidable in our culture today and quite often we seem to accept this feeling as just a normal part of our and our children’s, daily lives.

But there is another way.

Mason gives insights into what a fruitful adulthood can look like. She reminds us that parenting and marriage is much deeper than simply paying bills, running errands, and providing for physical needs. Her words untiringly call us back toward what is most needful. As such, Mason avoids advocating a simplistic legalism, an arbitrary list of dos and don’ts. Instead, her words and life speak to the truth that every action, habit, and discipline should have at its aim additional relational belonging and peace as we seek to grow in our capacities as men and women.

By simplifying our homes, pursuing firmer habits, and focusing on relationships, we have the opportunity to slip our necks off the chopping block. We might not have as much going on, have as much stuff, or be moving as quickly, but Charlotte Mason has taught us that in this way we are better able to keep our thoughts and our hearts intact.

History of the Charlotte Mason College

As Charlotte Mason began publishing her six volumes of education, other schools in England adopted her philosophy and methods. Her Ambleside network developed into a teacher training college to resource all of these schools and programs that were springing up. The school was a training center for young women to learn to teach using Mason’s methods in both homes and schools.

After Mason’s death in 1923, the training school was managed by various educational institutions, eventually becoming part of the current University of Cumbria.