January
1st is Miss Charlotte Mason’s birthday (1842-1923).
Between holiday cooking and company around our table, I nipped up to the chilly attic. This is where I managed to finish polishing a piece of writing for you, in time for the new year.
Between holiday cooking and company around our table, I nipped up to the chilly attic. This is where I managed to finish polishing a piece of writing for you, in time for the new year.
At
the mention of a penniless orphan-turned-governess in England’s 19th
century, many think of Jane Eyre, the fictional heroine of
Charlotte Bronte’s novel, a novel read and loved by successive
generations.
Painting by Jules Trayer |
Miss
Charlotte Mason says of herself that she was “rather lonely as a child.” In the
book, The Story of Charlotte Mason by
Essex Cholmondeley, there is no mention of neighborhood play with the urchins in the streets where the little girl Charlotte grew up. She had no brothers or
sisters. Her mother and father hadn’t any either. Nor is there mention of grandparents.
Without brothers, sisters and grandparents, without any cousins, aunts and
uncles, to round out the family and make a merry party on holidays, her parents
did an unusual thing for those days –
they spent time with Charlotte. During an era when children were told to sit still,
sit quiet, or go play, her parents were her companions.
Painting by George Calusen, a resemblance to C.M.? |
Miss
Mason remembered being a girl of 11 sitting near the fireside, watching and
listening to her mother read aloud. She sat clasping her knees and listening as
she had never listened since.*1
If,
like me, you’ve read Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel, North and South or have seen the British film, you’ve been
introduced to the noise, grim, stench, and concrete of England’s northern industrial
cities. Such were the cities of Charlotte Mason’s girlhood. In Liverpool where
she grew up, the streets were narrow. The row-houses were cramped and narrow, too, fronted
by pavement. The city was congested with the people who worked in the factories.
Charlotte’s
father was a merchant and business-owner in Liverpool. He was proud of his
contribution to free enterprise. But the city environment was hard on Mrs.
Mason’s delicate health. (City-life was also a hardship of Margaret Hale’s mother in North and South.) Therefore, with her
daughter Charlotte, Mrs. Mason spent much time living near the Isle of Man.
Here Charlotte remembers wading in the waves of the seashore.
North & South |
A
terrible thing happened in the years of 1848 and 49. A business crash left many
of the Liverpool merchants with large financial losses. (A similar financial
collapse, common of the times, is described in North and South.) By Charlotte’s 8th birthday
the Masons, now very poor, were living in small furnished lodgings.*2
At
this time Charlotte was home educated. Her father took some subjects, her
mother others. They were glad to keep busy this way. Across the street from their narrow row-house was a
curiously big house. It was set back behind a stone wall and shaded by large
trees. I can imagine young Charlotte doing lessons in their front
parlor in the light of its one window that overlooked the street. (I’ve been
inside London’s Victorian row-houses).
One day, perhaps through that parlor window, Charlotte and her mother caught a glimpse of a “tall lady with a dark shawl thrown scarfwise across her shoulders, a bonnet whose black strings floated, and a whole train of tiny children holding on to her skirts and following her.”*3 This lady was emerging from the big house’s shady footpath. Mrs. Mason found out through a friend that this lady was the mistress of a girl’s school nearby. It wasn’t long before Charlotte’s first thoughts of her vocation entered her mind. She got to know this mistress and took part in classes by aiding her in the girl’s school.
One day, perhaps through that parlor window, Charlotte and her mother caught a glimpse of a “tall lady with a dark shawl thrown scarfwise across her shoulders, a bonnet whose black strings floated, and a whole train of tiny children holding on to her skirts and following her.”*3 This lady was emerging from the big house’s shady footpath. Mrs. Mason found out through a friend that this lady was the mistress of a girl’s school nearby. It wasn’t long before Charlotte’s first thoughts of her vocation entered her mind. She got to know this mistress and took part in classes by aiding her in the girl’s school.
The
girls had professional fathers. Charlotte couldn’t help notice that they wore
wrist watches and some even wore rings!
It
was in this classroom that Charlotte was first struck with the misery of the schoolbook.
The class was reading a textbook of English history. As Charlotte
was reading Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley at home, the contrast of the two
histories must have been blaring. Students ought to have well-written books,
she thought. What a pity that England was a land of literary genius but so
little good writing ever reached the classroom. The necessity for well-written
books, books not combed and condensed by a textbook committee - and factual to
the extent of leaving out the color of literary detail - stayed to the
forefront of Miss Mason’s mind and heart all her life. She called these well-written books, living books because they are alive with the ideas. Their literary
language sumptuously pads the facts. This writing contributes to (not squelches) a student’s sense of wonder and delight.
The
strain of poverty on the families of the Liverpool merchants took its toll on
the well-being of Charlotte’s beautiful mother. In 1858 she died. Mr. Mason
couldn’t bear it. Soon after, he died, possibly of a broken heart. At age 16 Charlotte was alone in the world.
Without relatives and penniless, a friend of the family took her in. It was a frightening and depressing time.
One thought stayed on Charlotte’s mind. Teaching was the thing to do.*4
One thought stayed on Charlotte’s mind. Teaching was the thing to do.*4
Painting by James Charles |
It might
have been her lack of finances, but for her second year of study the college found a teaching post in Sussex for Miss Mason. Thus, she worked and continued her education by
distance-learning. At
age 19 Charlotte Mason was looked up to as headmistress by the little children
of this village school. The school had no connection with the government. It was
run by the Anglican church. Miss Mason kept in touch with her friends through
letters during her working experience. She wrote to one friend how parents must
be the happiest of people “to have God’s children lent to them . . . I love my
children dearly.” In another letter she writes of her resolutions, “I mean to
be so firm, so kind, so loving, so altogether admirable”.*5
The
Colonial Training College of London awarded her a Certificate in 1863. Miss
Mason kept a log book of her experiences at the Davison School (1861-73). At
times the children were “disorderly”. Her aspirations for the building of a new
school for girls was realized. It was much work but she was pleased at the
girls’ interests in their lessons.
Miss
Mason is said to have had a bad heart, although she carried on without a precise
diagnosis. At the insistence that she must rest after an illness she spent time in London staying with a friend she made during her year at the teacher’s
training college, observing this married friend’s curious children. Then she
stayed with another married college friend in Ambleside. She became fond of
taking long walks in the country. It was here, at her friend’s house (used both
as a home and day school) that Miss Mason “first became familiar with the
countryside she so deeply loved for the rest of her life”. One of the few
photographs we have of Miss Mason was taken during this stay in Ambleside. It is black and white so I’ll mention that her friend said “her hair was of the
darkest shade of brown. . . Her eyes were blue-grey, her height five feet four
inches.” *6 My son Nigel did the meticulous job of tinting the old photograph to honor my request. (copyright on colorization)
During
the years of being a classroom teacher Miss Mason explored books of philosophy
and education. Why so much digging? She says, “I thought with the enthusiasm of a young
teacher that education should regenerate the world”.*7 I can understand how she, being a Christian, could hold this high ideal. Consequently, with a close observation of children and her reading, she was struck with the realization that just
as the body craves food so does the mind have its appetite to know. She asked herself. Is it necessary
that we teach so many things to children? It was the
children, with their “insatiable curiosity”*8 that showed her that this world is
happily “so full of a number of things”*9 that it seems barely enough to
satisfy a growing child who hasn’t become lethargic by boredom.
And
yet she noted that what is presented to a child will only feed his mind
sufficiently to become knowledge when the child’s mind has “acted upon” it. Rather than "cram" he must ruminate, digest it, and make it his own.*10 Later, it was her insistence on the method of narration that would set the wheels
of child’s mind in motion.
With
Miss Mason’s study, experience, and spirit of dedication, came her next
appointment. She was lecturer at a new teacher’s training college. Then, she
became vice-principal of Bishop Otter College. She gave her all to this new position. But it proved too much for her health. It drained her of her last drop of energy. What a disappointment it
must have been to suffer a “serious breakdown”*11 and be forced to give up.
Following a typical remedy of the times, she
visited Switzerland for a rest-cure. When she returned to England she had a
bright idea. Because she had for years loved to explore the English countryside
- by train and by footpath - and "had laid the crumbs of these journeys in a
notebook," unknowingly collecting material for a book, she did just that. She
wrote, The Forty Shires. Published in
1880 it was widely read. For the time being this was a relief to Miss Mason’s
financial cares.
In
the light of its success she was asked to write a series of geography
schoolbooks. “They took me 12 years and hundreds of books on travel, in
fact all the travel there was then, went into the making of them.”*12 The British
Museum Reading Room in London was her usual place of study. Years later these
volumes would be re-issued as the Ambleside
Geography Books and used in the curriculum of the day-school at Ambleside
and in Miss Mason’s home correspondence course.
Charlotte
Mason combined her high thinking with lowly living. She exercised her generous soul. I believe this was the fruit of her deeply held
Christian beliefs. While living in the city she got involved in parish life of
the Anglican church. As “district visitor” she saw the poor living conditions
of the working-class. She sincerely sought to be a greater help. But how? If only she
could offer parents (without seeming holier-than-thou) a “few principles which
are the very gospel of education . . . that would enlighten and encourage them in
bringing up their children.”*13 It was the new building fund of her church that
gave her an idea. She couldn’t give money. Instead, she offered to give a series of
lectures for the parish that winter as her contribution. (I assume a donation
or a very small fee was collected.) Would people come? They did. In fact, she
was happy to see much interest. Months later, gathering all her lecture notes in
a book, she contacted a publisher. In 1886 these were published as Home Education.
Soon
after, the author of the insightful Home
Education, was approached with a cushy job-offer, that of governess
to an aristocratic family. I would think the role might be easy on Miss Mason's health. But unlike the character Jane Eyre, governess was a role Miss Mason resisted. It
was not her calling. Perhaps also, familiar with the Bronte sisters’ plight,
she was well-aware of the hazards and loneliness of the job.
Wider
horizons are part of Charlotte Mason’s story. But I break here for the sake of
brevity. Copyright Karen Andreola, 2016
Letters
Following publication of A Charlotte
Mason Companion in 1998, paper-letters came my way giving testimony of Miss Mason’s principles changing lives. Only one letter, received by email, asserted Charlotte Mason
couldn’t possibly have been a Christian. The writer made other demeaning, unsubstantiated, inferences. Dean wrote
a gentlemanly reply.
This is one reason I appreciate the blog
post by Art Middlekaulff where he states why a Charlotte-Mason-Education
is the best way to evangelize children. His post "For Whose Sake?" is refreshingly clarifying.
Published 1998. |
To read about A Charlotte Mason Companion click here.
If you like period-piece drama I recommend the British films based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels. I was gifted the DVD 3-film set. Found on Amazon here.
If you like period-piece drama I recommend the British films based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels. I was gifted the DVD 3-film set. Found on Amazon here.
I've read a handful of Mrs. Gaskell's novels and recommend them.
Karen
Andreola
End
Notes
*1
Essex Cholmondeley, The Story of
Charlotte Mason, Charlotte Mason Foundation, 1960. p. 3
*2
& 3, Ibid, p. 4
*4
Ibid, p. 5
*5
Ibid, p. 7
*6
Ibid, p. 9
*7
Ibid, p.10
*8
& 10 Ibid, p. 11
*9 The
world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as
kings. Robert Louis
Stevenson’s Child’s Garden of Verses
*11
The Story of Charlotte Mason, p. 12
*12 Ibid, p. 14