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Two days ago, I posted about
an unconventional way of teaching history. I’d read a lot about what Charlotte Mason had to say on the
subject, and I want to throw some ideas and quotes out there that will maybe
help 1)show I’m a little nuts, 2)illustrate what I do when I can’t sleep, and
3)explore history with Charlotte Mason. Here goes…
Charlotte Mason wrote that children in grades 4 through 8*
were capable of working through a single large book on history. This would mean
that students would spend 5 years moving chronologically from ancient to modern
history.
The wasteful mistake
often made in teaching English history is to carry children of, say, between
nine and fourteen through several small compendiums, beginning with Little
Arthur; whereas their intelligence between those ages is equal to steady work
on one considerable book.
-Vol. 3, pg. 235
If students studied history in this way, what prepared them
for this in grades 1 through 3, and how did they deepen their knowledge in
grades 9 through 12?
~
Students only used living books – books about lives – in
grades 1 through 6 (or 8).**
My plea is, and I
think I have justified it by experience that…they shall be introduced to no
subject whatever through compendiums, abstracts, or selections; that the young
people shall learn what history is…from the living books of those who know.
-Vol. 3, pg. 247
Short biographies were used beginning in 2nd
grade (Vol 6, pg. 174). However, tales was a subject in 1st grade
and tales could include history stories.
~
In Vol. 3, on page 272, Mason wrote that “the child of six”
(a first grader) had 13 subjects. These were: 1)drill, 2)recitation,
3)arithmetic, 4)music (singing and piano), 5)writing (how-to, not composition),
6)reading (how-to, not literature), 7)French, 8)brushdrawing, 9)handicrafts,
10)Bible, 11)tales, 12)natural history, and 13)geography. History was not its own
subject, but part of Bible and part of tales, which means the history focus for
1st grade was Bible history and stories from history.
On page 275, she wrote of seven and eight year olds (second
and third graders), “But by this time the
children can usually read, and read for themselves some, at any rate, of their
books for History, Geography, and
Tales.” Also, in 2nd/3rd, students had 15 subjects;
two subjects were added, history being one of them.
On pages 276 and 277, Mason includes exam questions asked to
children in 2nd/3rd, and they have to do with the lives
of Saint Patrick (5th century) and Alfred, Lord Tennyson (19th
century). So, while Mason advocates for chronology and consecutiveness in some
places, there are lots of examples (including this one) where she contradicts
herself.
In Classes II and III, which students spent “usually five
years in these two classes,” the teacher read aloud one of Plutarch’s
biographies per term. “The Lives are read to the children almost without comment, but with necessary
omissions.” This could be grades 4 through 8, or 5 through 9, or a parent,
if she wanted, could choose to make this period from grades 4 through 9.
A couple of important things to note: 1)Ancient history was
not studied “first.” One of Plutarch’s Lives was read each term, so that
Ancient History lasted five years. 2)At the same time, English and French
history were studied concurrently. (See pgs. 280-281.)
The example exam questions Mason includes for a 5th
grader are about 16th century England (the history of ‘F.D.’ on a
penny) and 17th century France (Richelieu). This is another example
of the contradiction I mentioned earlier.
On page 286, she writes about Class III, saying the range is
11 or 12 to 15. This corresponds to 6th (or 7th) grade through 9th grade. That’s a
period of either 3 or 4 years.
On pages 286, the example exam question asked to a 14 ½ year
old (9th grader) is about 18th century England (South Sea
Bubble), and the question asked to a 7th grader is about 18th
century France (the States General). This contradicts Mason’s writing about
students concurrently studying English and French history in chronological
order if a 7th grader and a 9th grader are both studying
the 18th century.
In Class IV, students were 14 or 15 to 17 (9th or
10th grade to 12th grade), and spent 3 years, so we would
consider that 10th through 12th. (See pg. 294.) “Class IV…sets the history of Modern Europe
instead of French history… and the German and French books when possible
illustrate the history studied.” This means that, not only were students in
high school learning about history in History, they were also learning about it
in foreign language classes. It would also seem to answer the question about
what students did after their completion of a chronological study of history:
three years of Modern History. The focus was not just their home country
England, but all of Europe; it’s worth noting that non-European countries were
not included.
I think it’s also important to look at the lesson plans she
provides in Vol. 3, pgs. 334-337, specifically the objectives.
Grade Level
|
3rd
|
3rd/4th
|
5th
|
8th
|
11th
|
Subject
|
OT
|
Ancient Greece
|
NT
|
Early Middle Ages
|
France 18th
century
|
Objectives
|
1.to interest the children in the story of Jacob’s death that they may not forget it.
2.to give a new idea of God as drawn from the story of Jacob’s
deathbed: God’s abiding presence
3.to give them an admiration for Joseph as one who honored his
father and mother
|
1.to establish relations with the past
2.to introduce the boys to a
fresh hero
3.to stir them to admiration of the wisdom, valour, and self
reliance of Alexander the Great.
|
1.to try to give to the children some new spiritual thought and a practical
idea of faith
2.to bring the story of the
Stilling of the Tempest vividly before
their minds.
3.To interest them in the geography of the Holy Land.
4.By means of careful,
graphic reading, to help them to feel the wonderful directness, beauty and
simplicity of the Bible language: in short to make them feel the poetry of the Bible.
|
1.to recapitulate and enlarge
on the period of history taken during the term (AD 871 - 1066)
2.to increase children’s interest in it by giving as much as possible in detail the history of one of the
prominent families of the period.
3.to exemplify patriotism in the character of the Godwins.
|
1.to establish relations with the past
2.to show how closely literature and history are linked
together and how the one influences
the other.
3.to try to give yet a
clearer idea of the social and political
state of France before the Revolution than the girls have now, and to draw from them the causes which
brought about the Revolution in France and at this time (1789).
|
Summary of objectives
(general)
|
1.to interest them so they
won’t forget
2.to illustrate something
about who God is
3.to give them an
admiration for a quality we want our children to have
|
1.to establish relations
with the past
2.to introduce a new hero
3.to give them an
admiration for the admirable qualities of the historical figure
|
1.to be a lesson in faith
2.to tell the story
vividly, bringing history to life, (to interest them so they won’t forget)
3.to interest them in the geography
of the place
4.to make them feel the
poetry of the Bible
|
1.to review and go deeper
2.to increase interest with
details
3.to use the lives of the
historical figures as examples of admirable and desirable qualities
|
1.to establish relations
with the past
2.to show how literature
and history are linked; they influence each other
3.to study the social and
political context of the event (not an individual’s life) to understand the
causes of the event
|
~
In Vol. 6, pg. 178, Mason writes, “Perhaps the gravest defect in school curricula is that they fail to
give a comprehensive, intelligent and interesting introduction to history. To leave off or even to begin with the
history of our own country is fatal. We can not live sanely unless we
know that other peoples are as we are with a difference, that their history is
as ours, with a difference, that they too have been represented by their poets
and their artists, that they too have their literature and their national life.
We have been asleep and our awaking is rather terrible.”
Many sequences for homeschoolers begin with American
history, or American history layered with Ancient History, but Mason thought
Ancient should come first. In contrast, in California public schools, students
learn about California history before they learn about U.S. history, which
means they have no foundation – Mayflower, Boston Tea Party, Lewis and Clark -
for the ideas presented in 4th grade.
~
Mason wrote that history should be taught chronologically:
Vol 6, pg. 172, “The
child of six in 1B has, not stories from English history, but a definite
quantity of consecutive
reading, say forty pages in a term, from a well-written, well-considered, large
volume which is also well-illustrated.”
Vol 6, pg. 178, “It
will be observed that the work throughout the Forms is always chronologically progressive. The young student rarely
goes over old ground; but should it happen that the whole school has arrived at
the end of 1920 [the present], say, and there is nothing for it but to begin
again, the books studied throw new light and bring the young students into line
with modern research.”
However, there are lots of places where she contradicts
these ideas.
~
*Mason wrote “between nine and fourteen,” which corresponds
to grades 4 through 8.
**Mason wrote “until they are at least twelve or fourteen,”
which corresponds to the ages children are when they enter 7th and 9th
grades.
