Devising an Effective Curriculum according to Charlotte Mason

With the basic foundation of education being an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life, Charlotte Mason continues to take a look at principles that can lead to the creation of an effective curriculum. 

If we want to take a look at a simple summary of a syllabus that Miss Mason recommends, here is what she says in her book, Home Education Volume 6: 

In devising a syllabus for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:––
(a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
(b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite (i.e., curiosity).
(c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.

(Charlotte Mason Home Education Vol 6 Page 154) 

This starts us on the path down a wide curriculum highly dependent on literary formats. But let’s delve into her principles in more detail and expand our understanding of what an effective curriculum requires. 

11 Points to Consider in Devising a Charlotte Mason Curriculum 

Let’s take a look at some of the major points necessary in the devising of a school program in line with her principles: 

1. Our curriculum must be generous and full to meet the child’s need for much knowledge

We, believing that the normal child has powers of mind which fit him to deal with all knowledge proper to him, give him a full and generous curriculum, (Vol 6 Page 154)

When we are convinced that a child’s mind has enough powers to deal with whatever knowledge he needs, we can be confident as we prepare a generous curriculum. 

2. We present vital knowledge within their informing ideas, and these ideas in literary form 

…taking care only that all knowledge offered to him is vital, that is, that facts are not presented without their informing ideas. (Vol 6 Page 154)

As we prepare the curriculum, we bear in mind that a child’s mind responds best to ideas presented in literary form. We steer away from sharing facts devoid of their informing ideas, and we choose excellently-written stories and narratives to stir up the student’s imagination over the ideas that we are presenting to them. 

3. We present knowledge in a wide variety and trust in the child’s ability to make connections

Out of this conception comes our principle that:––

“Education is the Science of Relations’; that is, a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts: so we train him upon physical exercises, nature lore, handicrafts, science and art, and upon many living books, for we know that our business is not to teach him all about anything, but to help him to make valid as many as may be of––

          “Those first-born affinities
     That fit our new existence to existing things.” (Vol 6 Page 154)

Miss Mason espouses that “Education is the science of relations,” explaining that children can make natural connections with many different things. When we believe this, we can devise a curriculum confidently and without worrying about how they respond to the lessons. 

4. The curriculum includes narration as a vital component.

As knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced, children should “tell back” after a single reading or hearing: or should write on some part of what they have read.

A single reading is insisted on, because children have naturally great power of attention; but this force is dissipated by the re-reading of passages, and also, by questioning, summarising, and the like. (Vol 6 Page 155) 

The effective curriculum, according to Miss Mason, involves narration, because she adamantly believes that “knowledge is not assimilated until it is reproduced.” 

5. Our curriculum leans away from a utilitarian view 

We labour under the mistake of supposing that there is no natural law or inherent principle according to which a child’s course of studies should be regulated; so we teach him those things which, according to Locke, it is becoming for a ‘gentleman’ to know on the one hand, and, on the other, the arts of reading, writing and summing, that he may not grow up an illiterate citizen. In both cases the education we offer is too utilitarian, an indirect training for the professions or for a craftsman’s calling with efforts in the latter case to make a boy’s education bear directly on his future work. (Vol 6 Page 155-156) 

Miss Mason spends much time on explaining how the school system of her day tended toward the utilitarian, wherein students are taught certain things relating to how they would make a living from them. She believes this stems from a mistaken belief of the absence of a basic principle for regulating a course of study that is applicable to all children. 

6. We are educating a child that is at least three things: a child of man, a child of God, and an inhabitant of the world 

The days have gone by when the education befitting either a gentleman or an artisan was our aim. Now we must deal with a child of man, who has a natural desire to know the history of his race and of his nation, what men thought in the past and are thinking now; the best thoughts of the best minds taking form as literature, and at its highest as poetry, or, as poetry rendered in the plastic forms of art: as a child of God, whose supreme desire and glory it is to know about and to know his almighty Father: as a person of many parts and passions who must know how to use, care for, and discipline himself, body, mind and soul: as a person of many relationships,––to family, city, church, state, neighbouring states, the world at large: as the inhabitant of a world full of beauty and interest, the features of which he must recognise and know how to name, and a world too, and a universe, whose every function of every part is ordered by laws which he must begin to know. (Vol 6 Page 156-157)

This passage is a beautiful description of what we are as human beings, and what we can all be naturally curious about. Understanding that we are, all at the same time, these three things (a child of man, a child of God, and an inhabitant of the world) tells us that it’s almost our divine right to know about things relating to these aspects of our identity. 

7. As a result, an effective curriculum must include at least three things: knowledge of God, knowledge of man, and knowledge of the universe

Of the three sorts of knowledge proper to a child, the knowledge of God, of man, and of the universe,––the knowledge of God ranks first in importance, is indispensable, and most happy-making. (Vol 6 Page 158)

The choice of what a child should learn is not limited, he is to be put in touch with every sort of knowledge to which man is heir. For that reason the programme of work sent out every term for the members of the Parents Union School cover an enormously wide field of knowledge; Knowledge of God, of Man and of Nature, those three great relations of every human soul. (From A Liberal Education in Secondary Schools 1-12, The Parents’ Review, Volume 31, no. 3, March 1920)

Charlotte Mason was a vocal Christian and quotes the Bible all throughout her works. She believes that an effective curriculum values the knowledge of God above all, but that is not to the exclusion of the other two, the knowledge of man and the knowledge of the universe. 

8. We offer a wide curriculum in respect of a child’s wide range of relationships

It is a wide programme founded on the educational rights of man; wide, but we may not say it is impossible nor may we pick and choose and educate him in this direction but not in that. We may not even make choice between science and the ‘humanities.’ Our part it seems to me is to give a child a vital hold upon as many as possible of those wide relationships proper to him. Shelley offers us the key to education when he speaks of “understanding that grows bright gazing on many truths.” (Vol 6 Page 156-157)

Because the relationships a child is born to are very various, the knowledge we offer him must be various too. (Vol 6 Page 157) 

When we understand that each individual child has a wide range of relationships, we can be more intentional at offering a wide curriculum, including the sciences, the humanities, everything necessary to meet his “educational rights.” 

9. The CM curriculum is not busywork but is wisely ordered and complete  

The knowledge of children so taught is consecutive, intelligent and complete as far as it goes, in however many directions. For it is a mistake to suppose that the greater the number of ‘subjects’ the greater the scholar’s labour; the contrary is the case as the variety in itself affords refreshment, and the child who has written thirty or forty sheets during an examination week comes out unfagged. Not the number of subjects but the hours of work bring fatigue to the scholar; and bearing this in mind we have short hours and no evening preparation. (Vol 6 Page 158) 

The effective curriculum is not haphazard; instead, we put great care in making sure it’s consecutive and wisely ordered. We also make sure it’s as complete as possible, understanding that it’s not the quantity that exhausts the student; on the contrary, Miss Mason believes that “the variety in itself affords refreshment.” 

But she also explains that it’s not the wide variety that tires the student but rather the long hours, so she makes sure we schedule schoolwork over “short hours” and “no evening preparation.” 

This is only made possible when taken in conjunction with her other principles on the insistence of a single reading and full attention, as dawdling and half-heartedness are among the main causes of long, dreary hours! 

Understanding the importance of paying full attention, we order the contents of the lesson in respect to the child’s mind’s need for a fresh start, as described below: 

Miss Mason used to say that anything short of full attention was waste of time, and that was why she insisted on short lessons and many and varied subjects. For the mind re-asserts itself again the moment it makes a fresh start upon a fresh subject, when the child again pays the one attention, and gives the one good narration, but it must always be a fresh start that calls forth the full powers. (From Concerning “Repeated Narration” by Elsie Kitching, Parents’ Review Volume 39, no. 1, January 1928, pgs. 58-62)

10. A child’s mind is complete to digest its food, but he is dependent upon the adult to select this nourishment 

First and foremost in her theory stands the recognition of the fact that a child is born a person, in possession of a mind as complete as that of an adult excepting in experience, and that the mind of a child is ready to devour whatever is presented to it.Just as a child needs the wisdom and experience of an adult to select the food proper for his nourishment, so the child is dependent on his teachers for the mental food necessary for the development of his mental growth. (From A Liberal Education in Secondary Schools 1-12, The Parents’ Review, Volume 31, no. 3, March 1920)

While we believe that a child’s mind is complete enough to process its own learning, it’s still the adult that is expected to prepare the buffet, so to speak. 

11. We design the curriculum with a view to self-education. 

An objection may be raised as to how it is possible to get so much reading done in the time, and that brings me to the method insisted upon by the Parents’ Union. First, the work is to be the work of children themselves, there is practically no oral teaching in the ordinary sense. Professor Welton has said that “in a very real sense all real education is self-education, and all learning is doing,” and again, “A teacher can no more perform for his pupils the functions of mental assimilation than those of physical digestion,” and the same writer discourages what he calls an “excessive use of that form of oral teaching in which the teacher guides and leads the pupil’s thoughts from one detail to another so persistently.”  (From A Liberal Education in Secondary Schools 1-12, The Parents’ Review, Volume 31, no. 3, March 1920) 

In line with the goal for making sure the school schedule does not stretch into the night hours, we also design the curriculum on the basis of self-education. This means it’s not about the teacher talking and lecturing, but focused on the student grappling with the material himself—with some assistance if necessary, and some guidance in terms of narration and discussion, but the bulk of the work really does fall on the student himself. 

The Charlotte Mason Curriculum 

When we understand the principles behind the Charlotte Mason method, we can be more effective at preparing a curriculum in line with the natural way that children learn. 

But this also means we have to take the time to apply these principles. If you don’t have the time, energy, or resources to create a full Charlotte Mason curriculum from scratch, feel free to take a look at our Charlotte Mason International full open-and-go curriculum guides. You may download a FREE SAMPLE by clicking the age level you need over at our Shop page.