Public-domain ebook
Language: en2,301 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Philosophy & Ethics·Teaching & Education
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #66369.
Charlotte M. Mason’s An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education is a sweeping treatise that argues for a liberal, humanistic curriculum accessible to every child from six to seventeen. The work opens with a rapid succession of headings, Herbartian psychology, the dangers of utilitarian schooling, the role of will and reason, setting a tone of systematic critique. Mason surveys the whole educational enterprise, from the “will” that underpins character formation to the “reason” that must be trained to detect fallacies, before moving into detailed proposals for a curriculum that balances knowledge of God, history, literature, science, and the arts. The text repeatedly invokes contemporary reforms such as the 1918 Education Act and the continuation‑school movement, positioning her argument within early‑20th‑century British debates about public versus private instruction, efficiency, and the moral purpose of schooling.
The prose is dense, scholarly, and infused with the rhetorical style of late‑Victorian and Edwardian educational writers. Mason’s voice is that of a reformist educator, peppered with references to Herbart, Carlyle, and Arnold, and she employs a mixture of philosophical exposition and practical prescription. Readers who relish exhaustive, idea‑driven works on pedagogy, especially those interested in the history of British education, the philosophy of liberal arts, or the social‑cultural context of the interwar period, will find this volume rewarding. It appeals to scholars, teachers, and history enthusiasts who appreciate a rigorous, historically grounded argument for a broadly humanistic curriculum.
The opening · free to read
Will, “the sole practical faculty”--“The will is the man”--Its function, to choose, to decide--Opinions provided for us--We take second-hand principles--One possible achievement, character--Aim in education, less conduct than character--Assaults upon the will--“Suggestion”--Voluntary and involuntary action--We must choose between suggestions--Danger of suggestion given by another with intent--Vicarious choosing--Weakens power of choice--Parasitic creatures may become criminal--Gordon Riots--His will, the safeguard of a man--Indecent to probe thoughts of the “unconscious mind”--Right thinking, not self-expression--It flows upon the stimulus of an idea--Will must be fortified--Knowledge of the “city of Mansoul” necessary--Also instruction concerning the will--Dangers of drifting--A child must distinguish between will and wilfulness--A strong will and “being good”--Will must have object outside of self--Is of slow growth--Will v. impulse--A constant will, compasses evil or good--The “single eye”--_Bushido_--Will, subject to solicitation--Does not act alone--Takes the whole man--He must understand in order to will--Will, a free agent--Choice, a heavy labour--Obedience, the sustainer of personality--Obedience of choice--Persons of constant will--Dangers of weak allowance--Two services open to all--Self and God--Will is supreme--Will wearies of opposition--Diversion--The “way of the will”--Freewill--We may not think what we please--Will supported by instructed conscience and trained reason--Education must prepare for immediate choice--Adequate education must be outward bound.
Reason brings forward infallible proofs--May be furtherer of counsels, good or bad--Inventions--How did you think of it?--Children should follow steps of reasoning--Psychology of crime--Reasonable and right, not synonymous--Reason works involuntarily--Reason never begins it--Reason will affirm any theory--Logic, the formula of reason--But not necessarily right--Beauty and wonder of act of reasoning--But there are limitations--We must be able to expose fallacies--Karl Marx--Socialistic thought of to-day--Reason requires material to work upon--Reason subject to habit--Children must have principles--Be able to detect fallacies--Must know what Religion is--Miracles--Quasi-religious offers--Great things of life cannot be proved--Reason is fallible--Children, intensely reasonable--Reasoning power of a child does not wait upon training--But children do not generalise--Must not be hurried to formulate--Mathematics should not monopolise undue time--Cannot alone produce a reasonable soul.
Standard in Secondary Schools set by public examinations--Elementary Schools less limited with regard to subjects--A complete curriculum in the nature of things--Education still at sea--Children have inherent claims--Law of supply and demand--Human nature a composite whole--The educational rights of man--We may not pick and choose--Shelley offers a key--Mistakes v. howlers--Knowledge should be consecutive, intelligent, complete--Hours of work, not number of subjects, bring fatigue--Short hours--No preparation.
Knowledge of God indispensable--Mothers communicate it best--Relation to God a first-born affinity--“Kiddies” not expected to understand--School education begins at six--_No conscious mental effort_ should be required earlier--Dr. Johnson on “telling again”--Two aspects of Religion--Attitude of Will towards God--Gradual perception of God--Goethe on repose of soul--Children must have passive as well as active principle--New Testament teaching must be grounded on Old--Sceptical children--Must not be evaded or answered finally--A thoughtful commentator necessary--Method of lessons, six to twelve, twelve to fifteen, fifteen to eighteen--Aids of modern scholarship--Dogmatic teaching comes by inference--Very little hortatory teaching desirable--Synthetic study of life and teaching of Christ, a necessity--“Authentic comment” essayed in verse--Catechism--Prayer Book--Church History.
(a) History: Montaigne on history--The League of Nations and its parallels--_Henry VIII_ on precedent--Dangers of indifference to history--Rational patriotism depends upon knowledge of history--History must give more than impressions and opinions--P.U.S. method multiplies time--Concentrated attention given to the right books--Condition, a single reading--Attention a natural function--Teacher’s interest an incentive--Teacher who “makes allowance” for wandering, hinders--Narration in the history lesson--Distinction between word memory and mind memory--English history for children of six to nine--Of nine to twelve--French history--Ancient history--For children of twelve to fifteen--Indian history--European history--History for pupils of fifteen to eighteen--Literature--A mental pageant of history--Gives weight to decisions, consideration to action, stability to conduct--Labour unrest--Infinite educability of all classes--Equal opportunity should be afforded--But uneasiness apt to follow--Knowledge brings its own satisfaction--Education merely a means of getting on, or, of progress towards high thinking and plain living.
(b) Literature: Literature in Form I--Classics, not written down--In Form II--Children show originality in “mere narration”--Just as Scott, Shakespeare, Homer--Children all sit down to the same feast--Each gets according to his needs and powers--Reading for Forms III and IV--Abridged editions undesirable--Children take pleasure in the “dry” parts--Must have a sense of wide spaces for the imagination to wander in--Judgment turns over the folios of the mind--Statesmanship, formed upon wide reading--Reading for Forms V and VI (fifteen to eighteen).
(c) Morals and Economics: Citizenship: Form I--Tales--Fables--Hears of great citizens--Form II--The inspiration of citizenship--Plutarch--Present day citizenship--Problems of good and evil--Plutarch does not label actions--Children weary of the doctored tale--The human story always interesting--Jacob--The good, which is all virtuous, palls--Children must see life whole--Must be protected from grossness by literary medium--Learn the science of proportion--Difficulty of choosing books--Chastely taught children watch their thoughts--Expurgated editions--Processes of nature must not be associated with impurity--Games--Offences bred in the mind--Mind must be continually and wholesomely occupied--A sound body and a sound mind--_Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies_--An ordered presentation of the possibilities and powers of human nature.
(d) Composition: Oral, from six to seven--Dangers of teaching composition--The art of “telling”--Power of composition innate--Oral and written from nine to twelve--Integral part of education in every subject--From twelve to fifteen--An inevitable consequence of free and exact use of books--Verse--Scansion--Rhythm--Accent--Subject must be one of keen interest--From fifteen to eighteen, some definite teaching--Suggestions or corrections--Education bears on the issues and interests of everyday life.
(e) Languages: English--Grammar--Begin with sentence--Difficulty of abstract knowledge--French--Narration from the beginning--Italian--German--Latin.
(f) Art: Art is of the spirit--Reverent knowledge of pictures themselves--Method--No talk of schools of painting or style--Picture tells its own tale--Drawing--Original illustrations--Figures--Objects--Colour--Field studies--Architecture--Clay-modelling--Artistic handicrafts--Musical Appreciation.
SECTION III: THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE UNIVERSE 218
(a) Science: Huxley--“Common information”--Books should be literary in character--French approach to science--Principles underlying science meet for literary treatment--Details of application too technical for school work--Universal principles must be linked with common incidents--Verbiage that darkens counsel--Out-of-door work--Natural history, botany, astronomy, physiology, hygiene, general science--A due combination of field work with literary comments--Fatal divorce between science and the “humanities”--Nature Note Books--Science not a utilitarian subject.
Geography: Suffers from utilitarian spirit--Mystery and beauty gone--Modern geography, concerned with man’s profit--A map should unfold a panorama of delight--Map work--Children read and picture descriptions--Knowledge of England, a key to the world--Naval history--Empire geography--Current geography--Countries of Europe--Romance of natural features, peoples, history, industries--Generalisations, not geography--Children must see with the mind’s eye--Two ways of teaching geography--Inferential method--But general principles open to modification--No local colour and personal interests--No imaginative conception--Panoramic method--Gives colour, detail, proportion, principles--Pictures not of much use--Except those constructed by the imagination from written descriptions--Survey of Asia--Africa--America--Physical geography--Geography in connection with history--Practical geography.
(b) Mathematics: Reasoning powers do not wait upon our training--Beauty and truth of Mathematics--A sense of limitation wholesome--We should hear sursum corda in natural law--Mind invigorated by hard exercise--Mathematics easy to examine upon--Dangers of education directed not to awaken awe but to secure exactness--Which does not serve in other departments of life--Work upon special lines qualifies for work on those only--Mathematics to be studied for their own sake--Not as they make for general intelligence and grasp of mind--Genius has her rights--Tendency to sacrifice the “humanities” to Mathematics--Mathematics depend upon the teacher--Few subjects worse taught--A necessary part of education.
A liberal education, birthright of every child--Good life implies cultivated intelligence--Difficulty of offering Humanism to everyone--Problem solved at last--by the Drighlington School (Yorks)--Teachers, not satisfied--Potency, not property, characteristic of mind--We try to give potency rather than knowledge--Result, devitalisation--Mind receives knowledge _in order to grow, not to know_--Office of teacher depreciated--He has prophetic power of appeal and inspiration--Delightful commerce of equal minds--And friction of wills ceases--Children not products of education and environment--Carlyle on “a person”--Children not incomplete and undeveloped, but ignorant and weak--Potentialities of a child as he is--_David Copperfield_--Knowledge, conceived in mind--Ignorance, a chief cause of our difficulties--Matthew Arnold--Three divisions of knowledge--All classed under Humanism--Mind acts upon it--Vitality results--Mind and knowledge like ball and socket joint--Results of P.N.E.U. method made good by thousands of children--Work done by self-effort--Single reading tested by narration--No revision--For children _know_--Use proper names with ease--Write fully--Rarely make howlers--Get at gist of book or subject--Children of six to eight dictate answers at examination time--Teacher reads with intention--Is careful to produce author--Children listen with attention--No selection of subjects--Book read through--Older children read for themselves--Work done in less time--No preparation--No working-up--Time for vocational work--Such education, a social lever--A venture of faith--In knowledge and in children--A new product appears--Peculiar experience, misleading--General experience testifies to laws--Usual educational equipment based on false assumption--Which intervenes between child and knowledge--Method specially suitable for large classes--Labour of correction minimised--Choice of books--Character of P.U.S. examination--Children reject wrong book--Great cause of Education v. Civilisation--Grand elementary principle of pleasure--Only one education common to all.
The book keeps going
Reading is free forever. Sign up and watch scenes appear while you read.
Scenes Storieta drew for other classics.
New illustrated classics
Once or twice a month: the latest books to get full character casts, scene art, and free comic editions. No account needed.
