Introduction
The
education itself cannot be defined to be exclusive but it is, in fact, the most
inclusive and dynamic. It is believed that education can be acquired through
multi-dimensions and multi-sources. However, such multi-dimensions of the educational process has its own perfections at different levels. In addition,
as education is about a large collection of information, a large source of
information to be connected and facilitated to the children.
There are many philosophers, psychologists and educators who have discussed how to educate children. Among them is Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason
who was an English educator in England at the turn of the twentieth century. She implemented a precise idea of education for the children. Her thoughts on education have significant connections to the reality of
knowing the most existence based. She believed on independent and freedoms of
education assuming that children have their own perfections.
Charlotte
Mason was also a great educational thinker of the 19th century who
believes on child’s autonomy of education as she quoted, “let children alone.. the education of habit is successful in so far as
it enables the mother to let her children alone, not teasing them with
perpetual commands and directions –a running fire of Do and Don’t; but letting
them go their own way and grow, having first secured that they will go the right way and grow to the fruitful purpose. (Charlotte Mason).
Thus,
this short write up would try to focus on a few insights of Charlotte Mason’s
homeschooling education.
Charlotte Mason’s few Ideas on Education
Charlotte
Mason has large educational ideas, she took six large volumes to complete her
single educational topic. Her few ideas have been discussed below.
a. Living books: Her idea of
educational approach focus on living books, by this, she means that the mere a
textbook without any historical facts and interesting stories can’t draw a
child’s heart and mind. Instead, she recommends the books full of
characterized stories that can touch the child’s mind and heart. In fact, it is
connected to the child’s psychological perspectives, and today’s homeschooling can actually
facilitate such books for the children.
b. Narration: In simple word, it is meant to say as revision about the learnt lessons. In this approach, children are given full of information based on their learning competencies and
later they will be asked to revise what they have just learnt. This
approach would make children validate their learnings more correctly.
Moreover, by doing this child would increase their writing skills, reading
skills, painting skills etc.
c. Short Lessons: Despite the
long hour of lessons Charlotte recommends to have lessons for very short time
(10-15 minutes). In fact, it is frequently observed that lessons for a long time
do not make any sense to children, instead, they feel bore and learn nothing
qualitatively. However, such lessons for a long hour is recommended for higher
classes.
d. Nature walks: The
educational ideas of Charlotte Mason is not only on theoretical, however, but it is also connected to the reality. Considering this fact, she recommends for nature
walks where children will have lots of ground reality experiences. In this
approach, she distinguished between nature walks and nature talks. However,
nature walks is recommended in this approach, as children’s visual understanding
is more precise than talks and discussions.
e. Daily walks: As Charlotte
model of education is defined to be inclusive; she recommends having daily
walks in order to have fresh air that would boost a child’s physical strengths.
She believes physical fitness is connected to mental fitness.
f. Free-Time Handicrafts: It
is one of the most important aspects of a child’s education that has been
recommended by Charlotte Mason. She allows each child to have a real play
with creativity after school. Charlotte model of school finishes in the morning, and such activities must be conducted in the afternoon. In fact, such activities do not draw mere a
fun but draw lots of real learning outcomes connected to the daily needs.
Despite, following all recommended approaches of Charlotte
Mason’s educational model, the above-mentioned aspects can be focused if
parents want to home school their child.
Please do write your reflections on the comment box.
The article is published as part of a series of articles on
homeschooling. By visiting our homeschooling page, you can read all the
connected articles.
The above article is a reflection from the below article. Please Click
the link to explore the above reflection in detail from an external site.
Reflection is contributed by:
Satyasing Mushahary
An Alumni of Azim Premji University (2014-16)
Consultant @ CLLF