It's a Classical Life

  Hi all, and welcome back! This week's 'oldie but a goodie' Bitesize Inspiration comes from Charlotte Mason. If you don't know about Mason she was a British educator who dedicated her life to improving the role of education in children's lives in the nineteenth century. So much of what she believed and endeavoured to teach has been lost in our modern school system (at least from what I've seen in over seventeen years of teaching!) This quote is at the heart of her belief of what education should be - an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. Let's have a quick look at each of these. Atmosphere refers to the environment in which we learn. This can be the school environment, but also the atmosphere at home and the attitude towards learning. Education shouldn't just refer to those thirteen years of registered learning - it should be a part of our whole lives (see here for my thoughts on being a lifelong learner). Discipline isn't about punishment and cruel...

  We have been having many discussions about education in our home recently. We haven't been all that pleased with the schooling that our two youngest children are receiving and have been discussing the possibility of switching to home-schooling. Charlotte Mason has been an inspiration to me for a long time and this quote of hers not only guides my beliefs as an educator, but also guides the premise of this blog.  My husband and I have both recently left our careers in teaching to go down a different path. Part of this came from burn-out, part came from a desire for a slower life, less dependant on the "system", and part of it came from a real disillusionment with the education system in our country today. Teachers are trying their best, but it's an uphill battle and very rarely do they win. And it's our children that are caught in the crossfires.  Our daughters are sensitive girls, they're well-read, eager learners and their growth - physical, intelle...