Secular Charlotte Mason

Living an Educational Life, as opposed to schooling or unschooling, has been at the forethought of my thoughts lately. I've come to realize *this* is really how my kids learn so much. Even when we aren't "schooling" we are doing things that enrich our lives and therefore teach us things. This weekend was a prime example. 

We had the opportunity to spend four days at the coast in our friend's beach house. As a family we all agreed that, for once, this would be a nonworking, noneducational, do only what we feel like, stricktly relaxing trip. Something we rarely do. Most of our trips are planned around activities. We had a fabulous time and all of us can't wait to do it again.  We feel so recharged and that feeling is what most of us focused on. Funny thing is, now that I have high schoolers I have to do a lot more documenting so as we do things I tend to catalog them in my head for later retrival. I have to say as I look back on this weekend, without even trying, we added hours of several transcriptable subjects. The ability to do this is because of our living an educational life. Our kids are able to transfer what they learn in our relaxed CM schooling to all their avtivities without even trying. They automatically see the relationships and act upon them. 

This weekend we truly were focused on just having an enjoyable time as a family. Yet, here is what we can document from the weekend. (This is great for those who do live in states requiring documentation.)

PE: We walked miles and miles and miles. Much of it along beaches. The rest uphill, or so it seemed. Probably totalled 3 hrs. of really working out.

Astronomy: Since there was no broadcast tv we watched 2 Nova videos on space. The kids asked a lot of really good questions and there were some lively debates. Definitely at the same level as my high school astronomy class discussions. Tide is studying astronomy right now so this was actually her request. 

Nature Studies: We seemed most drawn to watching the birds this trip. They were everywhere! All kinds. We spent hours watching them and commenting on their behaviors. We have a few things to look up now that we are home since some of the brids acted differently than we expected. I never realized birds play so much! I was also impressed with how many plants the kids could identify from our previous trips and research. Drakon noticed a field that nearly everything in it could be used to make a soup. Too bad we did miss out on the Wild Gourmet's workshop Saturday. That would have been interesting and counted toward a health credit. 

Chemistry: We watched a glass blowing session that included a full description of everything they were doing and how the glass was changing throughout the process and why. We've seen these demos before but this one was superior in the detail of explanation. We learned so much and some of us now want to try it ourselves. It's nice that this happened the year the girls are studying chemistry. We also have more research to do since some of the explanations went over our heads it was so indepth. 

All without trying! We just did what we felt at the moment while living the educational life.

You may be wondering, how is this different from unschooling. It is quite different really. Living the educational life marries the idea of schoolwork (to lay down a foundation of knowledge that the kids can later act upon) and enriching our lives in multiple ways. It's a lovely cycle that feeds upon itself. Doing nature studies for years has trained my kids to observe the natural world around them and observing the natural world fosters their interest in doing planned nature studies. Seeing the glass blowing demo got everyone thinking about chemistry again and has motivated Tide to, finally, do our basic chemistry course. Just thinking about chemistry has now gotten her thinking about the chemistry of our handicrafts and hairstyling (yes, she's a teen girl so the chemistry of hair dye is of interest) which means she now has to do that chemistry course so that she can understand the chemical formulas in the dyeing books we just ordered. She will then use what she learned about dyes to dye her own fabrics and to host a tie-dye party using indigo and natural dyes in addition to the traditional vat dyes.

Living the educational life....it is a beautiful thing!

As many of you know, Cori, helps out with this blog and we often toss ideas back and forth about how to secularize Charlotte Mason. I am now happy to announce that Cori's excellent blog has gone secular!  I absolutely love how she approaches educating and raising her children. So, esp. if you have preschoolers or primary grades, be sure to head on over to her blog and see what she and her family are up to. It's one of my favorites, and as far as we know, the only secularized CM blog. 

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2011/05/03/bike-ride-and-giveaway/

Gina

I've been doing some personal research on the similarities and differences between he secular and Christian CM worlds. I'm starting to think that there are even more differences than I initially thought but need much more info to determine if I'm onto something or just seeing something that isn't really there.

***Answering the following questions would help me grately as there is precious little information on how and why people choose a secular CM education.***

1. What was your path to CM? Was it a friend, a particular book, website, etc.?

2. What, specifically, do you love about a CM education?

3. Do you consider your homeschooling purely CM or eclectically CM? If eclectic, what do you combine it with?

4. Do you consider your family purely secular, religious/spiritual but use only secular materials, secular but use a mix of secular and religious resources, religious/spiritual and use a mix of secular and religious resources? If none of these fit you, feel free to just state your personal preference. 

I've been thinking about this for quite a while now and even started a discussion on the topic over on the SecularCM yahoo group. At the time the general consensus was that it is best to not have secular CM yahoo groups for each of the three stages since that would divide an already small population of homeschoolers.

After doing high school for the last 2 years I am rethinking this because I do think there is a need for a specifically secular CM high school group. The issues we run into are so very different than the issues we ran into with our younger kids.  I am on CM high school groups like House of Education but their approach is based on Ambleside Online and it just isn't providing me with the resources, ideas and support that I need as a secular CMer. I tried starting conversations on my forum specifically for HS but we just don't have enough activity on the forum to make it worthwhile. I know there are bloggers who write about this topic, but honestly, I tend to follow blogs only of people I know in person or are online "penpals" with so that isn't the best option for me.

Even though I know this is not true, I sometimes feel like I am the only one trying to incorporate more secular CM into the high school years. Even researching Ms. Mason herself is not providing me with the support I need since she tended to write more for the younger years and what she did write about HS seems geared more for her schools than for her governesses which is harder to translate into a homeschool setting.

So, my question for you all is:

Do you see a need for a high school specific yahoo group for secular CMers? I would love to hear your comments here, on the Secular Charlotte Mason page or via email. 

I came across the following article via Facebook. javascript:mox(); . I found it to be quite interesting. The title is somewhat misleading as they aren't actually talking about multiple choice testing as done via No Child Left Behind. Nope, instead they are talking about the old fashioned essay tests of my youth which are really just narrations that are graded. So, when you read this article and they are talking about the essay test just substitute the word narration in your head. 

I find it particularly interesting that the researchers compared essay tests to concept mapping. Concept mapping is a technique that was taught in EVERY single one of my teaching methods classes and was used extensively by my children's public school teachers. I confess to using it extensively my first two years homeschooling---until I realized it wasn't really helping my kids learn. I will say that concept mapping was effective for my son since writing was such a struggle for him but it wasn't nearly as useful for my girls who love to write. 

Like Howard Gardner, I had to do some serious rethinking of my methods and their outcomes. I'll have to look around and see what else he has to say about this study but it has definitely motivated me to do narrations with my kids. 

This article is about what is going on in England right now and how it is related to the United States and Charlotte Mason.  Not very long but enough to get an idea.  If you enjoyed the Finnish Education links, you might like this.  And this quote from the article is for all of us:

"So if anybody ever suggests to you that Charlotte Mason’s ideas are old-fashioned or out-dated, get them to listen carefully to the debates that still go on in education. I suspect that Charlotte would be concerned, though probably not too surprised, to learn that we are still debating today the same basic principles that she was debating, and that our politicians are still more interested in controlling the system of education than in developing the whole child."

~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/education-in-england-today-where-are-you-charlotte-mason-by-dr-john-thorley/

This idea is courtesy of my son.  

At some point in the last year I handed him a couple of lists of Great Books that I had been given. I told him for his free reading he really should chose some books from these lists along with his usual reading faire. He was amendable but when he saw the lists he drew a complete blank. At first I couldn't understand his blankness. Then, just as I began to realize what the problem was he started to explain that the lists alone were meaningless to him. While he had heard of some of those books/ authors there were just too many that he knew nothing about. How was he suppose to tell which ones were most likely to be interesting? Yes, a list with just the book titles and author's names is rather meaningless since the students do not have an adult's experience with such lists. Luckily, the Dover literature and humanities catalog came that very day. My sonwas looking through the catalog when he had a brilliant idea. Since the catalog include pictures and/or brief descriptions of many of the same books he would just choose his free reading from the catalog rather than the lists. Brilliant! You could do this with many other catalogs or bookstore fliers as long as the books they feature are of the quality you want your child reading. 

Yep, seeing those lists today and then getting the Dover Spring Sale email reminder reminded me of this idea from earlier in the year.

Charlotte Mason's ideas can be implemented a few at a time.  Read about a school teacher using her ideas...  Great article!  ~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/musings-of-a-masonite-by-dr-donna-johnson/

Yes, KodyGirl has proven Ms. Mason right once again!

I've been in the process of revamping our homeschooling and have been thinking about what has and has not worked within the area of nature studies; esp. since one of my kids is considering being a forester or a naturalist as a career option. As I was thinking about this and remembering some recent nature identification based discussions with my youngest I realized that most of what she remembers she learned........in story form. She will proudly identify a Douglas Fir pine cone and when asked how she knows what it is she will give a brief synapsis of the Native American story she was told in regards to identifying this particular pine cone. She does the same thing with star identification. She remembers the story along with the facts. Whenever she and I discuss medicinal herbs, which is fairly often, she will tell me about how that plant is used in the Warriors books. She is even planning a garden based on the plants used in the Warrior books. Now she has done plenty of other types of nature and life science studies but she rarely refers back to those experiences at all....unless there was some sort of living book or story telling involved.

I am going to have to remember this as we move away from the more formal resources we had been using in the past. I need to get more comfortable storytelling and find even more living books. Thank goodness there are plenty of stories in Keepers of the Earth...I'm going to need them with this child.

The original article reminds me of a Charlotte Mason education in the way the kids are not pressured and the teachers can choose books, etc.  Also reading is a high priority in this country.  Other countries are now looking at the schools in Finland, wanting to replicate their success.  Here is the article and my blog post about and Free Range Kids, Lenore Skenazy's comments on it.  ~Cori

http://wonderinthewoods.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/free-range-finnish-education/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html?mod=wsj_share_twitter

http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/what-makes-finnish-kids-so-smart/

As I was proofreading my son's homework for his history class I realized that he is writing his essays in CM narration form. The key components of this style of narration is that:

1. there is some summarizing information (but not a straight-up summary) given

2. the learner's opinion

3. an example or statement from the chapter/class discussion supporting why the learner has that opinion. 

This is a narrative response for chapter 8 in A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz.   If you are using your narrations for teaching writing mechanics be sure to do it on a separate day than the day you had them write it as a history lesson. For example, I will be saving this and I will use it to show how he needs to have stronger paragraph structure; specifically a topic sentence, body and concluding sentence since those are inconsistent or nonexistent in this assignment. After discussing these factors he will rewrite the narration with a focus on having better paragraph structure. 

Chapter 8 Response

This is the first chapter where I felt the personal anecdotes added to the book by getting the opinions of people he meets. For example; the part about the modern southerner reaction to someone effectively telling them that the history they learned was wrong. I find that the author was making such comparisons between new Colombia vs. old Colombia in a previous chapter. I am unsure what prompted this revelation, as there are far less parallels to the old south than the new south.

In the chapter itself, the author finds a nice balance between his own retelling of his trip to the south and the historical tale he was telling. The only exception to this is the time he spent telling us how uncomfortable conquistador armor is. It was distracting and takes up too much space when he comments on the discomfort of it. Other than this single infraction I cannot think of a noticeable, off-topic tangent in this chapter.

I also found his treatment of De Soto pleasantly balanced. Despite the author showing more of his un-knightly deeds he also gives time to show that De Soto was not a mindless butcher, merely a ruthless conquistador. I myself find this very refreshing in an increasingly polarized media atmosphere. If one's argument cannot stand on its own then it should not be made, or at least it should be better constructed. Far too many historical interpretations are tainted by horribly slanted viewpoints limiting one aspect of a man's character and mentioning the bare minimum of anything else. It is important that authors remain balanced when they give a portrayal of a person when retelling a historical event.

After reading this chapter I found myself thinking about the justifications used by advanced nations to exploit more primitive groups. To demonstrate my thoughts on the subject, in a hypothetical scenario when one group is more technologically advanced than the first and requires a resource that the more primitive group controls in order to survive, the primitive group has to retain enough control of the resources to maintain their group. Often, the more technologically advanced group decides to take the resource, by violent or non-violent means, and thus deprive the primitive group of the resource. The primitives, for whatever hypothetical reason, cannot make any meaningful attempt to take the resource back. The advanced group lives long enough to establish a community and survive. The primitive group dies out with a number of members joining the advanced group. The surviving primitives are assimilated into the advanced group and loose their traditions to time.

In the end, the advanced and primitive groups join together to survive and will likely be larger than either group was at the start. The primitive survivors have access to the resources of the advanced group and may share native skills with the advanced group. The primitives will also have to adapt to an alien environment and will be a minority while losing their cultural identity. As far as I can tell, this is the least racist way to rationalize the subjugation of a primitive culture.

Lisa at "Keen Kids at Home" has a great blog post and review of the book "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success," by Dr. Carol S. Dweck.  Lisa's to do list and the ABC news coverage on Brainology reminds me of Charlotte Mason's ideas.  Gina, you might like Brainology also since you have been reading the lastest brain research.  ~ Cori

From her post, Lisa says:  "Did I:

•Offer constructive criticism (to assist in learning from mistakes) without judgment?

•Praise effort, not ability?

•Ensure that the work given was challenging?

•Say “no” in a fair, thoughtful & respectful way?

•Learn something today?

•Foster a love of learning in a nurturing but challenging environment?"

http://keenkidsathome.wordpress.com/2010/03/26/growing-a-growth-mindset/

http://www.brainology.us/

This Charlotte Mason article is not talking about the students attitude, instead it is a teaching tool.  Read on...  (Note: It is religion free except for the last paragraph which talks about the church calendar and I don't know how it fits exactly, maybe someone can tell me.)  ~Cori

http://childlightusa.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/detachment-disinterest-by-melanie-walker/

I collect books and materials for a school year but I don't create a daily schedule because I know I will not stick to it.  I have yet to find a flexible scheduling method.  Instead, I like this idea:   

http://www.whiteoakschool.com/camp-creek-blog/2008/11/3/inside-my-project-journal.html

~Cori

I would like to than Cori for finding this informative article. I like how it clearly states what language skills are being learned when our children do narration. Well worth reading. 

http://www.home-school.com/Articles/AndreolaNarration.html

I was looking over the Mater Ambalis website recently and came across this interesting article written by someone who attended one of Ms. Mason's PNEU schools.

http://wonder.riverwillow.com.au/home_education/PNEU_Education.htm

(Not sure why the web-builder is squishing the text together but hopefully this will still be legible.)

I am so very glad that the group discussion is forcing me to read Laying Down the Rails.It was one of those books I kept putting off reading. Ms. Mason and Idon't necessarily agree about WHY habit training is important, althoughI do agree with her on HOW to go about doing it. As I was pondering this difference of opinion I realized that a major factor in our disagreement is that people's perceptions of childrearing and actual lifestyles during Victorian times was vastly different from today.

Ms.Mason lived during a time that was at the beginning of the transition of seeing children as being completely under the control of their parents/authority figures to a slightly more benevolent view of children as persons and eventually, today, as seeing that even children have freewill. The gap between Victorian times and today is huge.  Ms.Mason lived in a homogonous world where most of the people around her practiced similar religions, lifestyles and held common moral beliefs that were heavily influenced by Christianity. In today's world common societal values are more ambigous than they have been previously . Ms.Mason's reasons for habit training and the emphasis on obedience show her Christian beliefs more than any other aspect of her educational philosophy (except for those lessons on Bible which we secular folks just ignore). Much of her reasoning for habit training emphasizes teaching habits in order to overcome nature. In some quotes it almost seems to me that parents of the Victorian Age thought of nature in almost the same context as original sin. Both are evil and both need to be overcome through obedience and behavioral controls. Believing that we humans can overcome nature (even our own) seems like a very old fashioned belief that has little place in today's world even though it was a common belief for centuries. Nowadays, we are surrounded by a variety of religions and beliefs, many of which emphasize a respect for nature (including our own) that I think Ms. Mason might have a hardtime accepting. It is part and parcel of the moremulticultural/multireligious/multiethnic/diverse world we find ourselves in today, though.

As I was reading through chapter 1, I realized that even though Ms. Mason saw children as persons (a very new concept back then!) there was very little concern for children's emotional states or long term effects upon the child's mental health. Today it seems like parents spend an excessive amount of time wondering and worrying about how our kids feel about themselves and how intact their self-image is. Why the difference you may be asking. My theory is that the lifestyles of the Victorian Era provided stability in some areas that are not as stable in today's world.Today roles are constantly changing and expectations can be quite situational. During Ms. Mason's time roles of all sorts were pretty clearly defined and it was fairly easy to know what would  be expected of you as an adult. Far fewer people back then went on tohigher education, now it is nearly the norm to go on to higher education which is changing what we expect of our children as adults. I think there is a wider variety of expectations today tha nthere was during Ms. Mason's time which makes it harder for parents to know what to emphasize when raising their children.

I sometimes wish we could get in a time machine and bring Charlotte Mason to our modern world for a week. I can't help but wonder what she would think of all the distractions that our children, not to mention ourselves, are surrounded by on a daily basis. Heck, there are 10 times the distractions, and temptations, from good habits just since I was a child.

As we study and learn more about Ms. Mason's educational philosophy it may seem as though she believes mothers have to be perfect and calm all the  time. What Ms. Mason doesn't tell us is that parents/mothers had far more support in raising their children back then. First, many families lived near each other and could pool their monetary and time resources. It was not uncommon for families to share a governess or tutor. While Ms. Mason believed that all children, regardless of social or economic status, would benefit from a liberal education, the reality is that she was member of a society that had staff to help take care of many of the daily household duties, including childcare. Today's mother has to do it all on her own, usually with very little familial support and while trying to work part or full time. Add in the hurriedness of today's western society and you can see how it may be quite challenging to be the calm perfect mother that Ms. Mason envisioned.

Some observations. Sure there will be more as I get further into the book.