Awakening the Whole Child: A Charlotte Mason Philosophy of Education for the 21st Century

Deani Van Pelt is a Canadian education scholar and leader. Editor of the Charlotte Mason Centenary Series, she chairs the Charlotte Mason Institute and is Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Cumbria, UK. She led the digitization of the Armitt Museum’s Mason Collection and now directs Edvance while serving as a senior fellow at Cardus and the Fraser Institute.Elizabeth Millar is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research, Storyteller for Vision Ministries Canada, and Academic Mentor at Northwest Seminary. As a Charlotte Mason educator for 20 years, she has witnessed the life-giving nature of a Mason philosophy of education.Sally Elton-Chalcraft is a professor at the University of Cumbria, UK, and publishes in the areas of Religious Education, decoloniality in India and the UK, and Charlotte Mason Studies. She is the editor of Religious Education and Teacher Education textbooks and has given keynote lectures in India, Germany, Ireland and the UK. She is passionate about dismantling injustices in education.

• 1. Charlotte Mason: Core Ideas, Educational Influences, and Institutional Legacy, Section 1: For the Sake of the Child: Nurturing a Flourishing Sense of Self, 2. The Gift of a Charlotte Mason Philosophy: A Practical Theology in an Age of Depression and Anxiety, 3. Building School Atmosphere: An Invigorating Thought Environment for Contemporary Students, 4. Mason’s Principle of Narration: An Educational Practice that Honours Personhood, 5. The Goods of the Gods: A Brief Look at Narrative in Charlotte Mason’s Model of Education, 6. Narration of Heroic Becoming: Plugging into the Collective Unconscious, 7. William Wordsworth: Why is Charlotte Mason Always Quoting Him?, 8. How to Teach Effective, Lasting Concepts in a Simple Way: The Power of Visual Memorisation, 9. How to Guide Narration in Differentiated Contexts: Further Up and Further In, 10. United States of America: Students and Stories of a Charlotte Mason Education in a Rural Mining County, 11. Brazil: Spreading the Feast for Students in Brazil, 12. South Africa: The Delights and Challenges of a Living Education, 13. Türkiye: Exploring Charlotte Mason’s Pedagogy in the Context of Turkish Education, 14. France: The French Touch in Charlotte Mason’s Pedagogy, 15. New Zealand: The “Wow Factor” of a Charlotte Mason Education, Section 2: For the Sake of the World: Cultivating Creativity and Citizenship for the Common Good, 16. Making Citizens: Narration as Participation, Participation as Narration, 17. Stunted Growth: A Charlotte Mason Perspective on Smartphones, 18. Charlotte Mason’s Approach to Reading the Bible and the Context and Purpose of her Saviour of the World, Part 1, 19. The Relevance of Charlotte Mason’s ‘Saviour of the World’: Moral and Biblical Learning in the 21st Century, Part 2, 20. Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy and Practice as Antidote to Modernist Epistemology, 21. From Greece to Zoom: The History (and Future) of Narration, 22. Learning Backwards, Living Forwards: Medical Education, Christian Narrative, and Virtue Formation, 23. How to Reach Beyond the Bounds of Time and Place: Supporting a Diverse and Dynamic 21st Century Education, 24. How to Understand Success and Childhood: Curiosity, Courage, Clarity, 25. Korea: The Application of Charlotte Mason’s Pedagogy at Sandol Nature School’s Poetry Class with Songs and Traditional Korean Instruments, 26. United States of America: Embracing a Hispanic Heritage within the Broader Culture, 27. South Africa: Community and the Other in Post-Apartheid Context, 28. Australia: Discussing Mason, Pestalozzi, Montessori, and Piaget over Tea and Cake, 29. Ukraine: A Relational Education in Time of War, 30. United States of America: Experiencing the Charlotte Mason Philosophy in a Spanish Immersion School, 31. Canada: Charlotte Mason and Island Winter Life, 32. Charlotte Mason in the 21st Century, Appendix A: Charlotte Mason’s Twenty Principles of Education, Appendix B: Mason Centenary Monograph Series

“While the work of Charlotte Mason is known in some circles and continues to provide inspiration for education today, she is not a prominent figure in the canon of the history of educational reform in the 19th and early 20th century. This book sets the record straight by providing a wide-ranging, thoughtful, and multifaceted introduction into Mason’s life, work, and ideas. A rich source of information for scholars and practitioners alike, the book also raises important questions about where, how and for whom the work of Mason might be of value in today’s challenging educational climate.”Gert Biesta, Professor, The Centre for Public Education and Pedagogy, Maynooth University, Ireland.“This new volume of collected essays, Awakening the Whole Child, seeks to interact with the wide-ranging scope of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy and Practice of Education and will undoubtedly usher in many new readers unfamiliar with her work. Rich engagement with her ideas and pedagogy, from many countries and on many levels, offers a clarity and challenge in trying to move forward with implementing Mason’s vision and vitality into the increasingly bleak, contemporary educational landscape. Written from a variety of perspectives, the discussions generated will hopefully, always reflect her lifegiving and evergreen principles.”Elaine Cooper, Charlotte Mason Consultant, Heritage School, Cambridge, UK, author of When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason’s Philosophy for Today.“Finally! Scholarship with handles - a doorway into Mason’s pedagogy that classrooms on five continents can walk through. In place of the numbed-out exhaustion of our technocratic age, this volume offers a luminous reintroduction to Charlotte Mason’s vision for education. At once rigorous and warm, it proves that Mason’s claim - children are born persons - still has world-making power.”Anne Snyder, Editor-in-Chief of Comment, author of The Fabric of Character.“This book engages readers with the philosophy of Charlotte Mason's pedagogy, showing how her principles can be meaningfully applied in the modern day. An essential book for every educator, especially those in countries unfamiliar with her work, such as Türkiye.”Yildiz Kizilabdullah, Professor, Religious Education Department, School of Divinity, Ankara University, Turkey.