Living Books Approach Detailed

Users of the Charlotte Mason method treat children as persons, not as containers to be filled with information.

The Living Books Approach is based on the writings of Charlotte Mason, a turn-of-the-century British educator. Miss Mason was appalled by several tendencies she noticed in modern education: (1) the tendency to treat children as containers to be filled with predigested information instead of as human beings; (2) the tendency to break down knowledge into thousands of isolated bits of information to be fed into "container" children; and (3) the tendency to engineer artificial learning experiences. She believed in respecting children as persons, in involving them in real-life situations, and in allowing them to read really good books instead of what she called "twaddle" - worthless, inferior teaching material. She considered educational failure when it produced children able to "do harder sums and read harder books" who lacked "moral and intellectual power." Children were to be taught good habits, to be involved in a broad spectrum of real-life situations, and given ample time to play, reflect, and create.

Mason's approach to academics was to teach basic reading, writing, and math skills, then expose children to the best sources of knowledge for all other subjects. This meant giving children experiences like nature walks, observing and collecting wildlife; visiting art museums; and reading real books with "living ideas." She called such books "living books" because they made the subject "come alive" unlike textbooks that tend to be dry and dull and assume the reader cannot think for him/herself.

Here are some questions to ask yourself before trying the Charlotte Mason method:

1. Does our family love to read, both alone and together through reading aloud?
2. Do we love to go to the library?
3. Am I comfortable with more of a "free-form" approach to learning?
4. Will I follow through with teaching my children good habits and character qualities?
5. Do I trust my children to learn on their own?
6. Will I follow through with exposing my children firsthand to nature and to great art?

Strengths of the
Living Books Approach

Treat children as active participants in the learning process
Exposes children to real objects and books instead of interactions with distilled information
Encourages curiosity, creative thinking, and a love of learning
Eliminates meaningless tasks, busywork
Developmentally appropriate
Stresses formation of good character and habits

Weaknesses of the
Living Books Approach

Tends to be very child centered
Very little prepared curriculum
May neglect higher level studies because of its emphasis on art, literature, and nature study
May become too eclectic

Special thanks to Elijah Company for allowing this reproduction from their 2002 catalog.
For your own free catalog, contact The Elijah Company, 1053 Eldridge Loop Crossville, TN 38571 1.888.235.4524

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