Charlotte Mason

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the late 1800s. She never married nor had children. Her educational ideas were 'progressive' for her time, and have become of new interest to educators (maybe especially home educators) in the last 30 years. I just finished a book called "For the Children's Sake," by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, wherein the author shares some of Ms. Mason's original writings. Of most interest to me was her (Charlotte Mason's) emphasis on the Christian aspect of educating children; please consider the following three quotes.

"Let us save Christianity for our children by bringing them into allegiance to Christ, the King. How? How did the old Cavaliers bring up sons and daughters, in passionate loyalty and reverence for not too worthy princes? Their own hearts were full of it; their lips spake it; their acts proclaimed it; the style of their clothes, the ring in their voices, the carriage of their heads -- all was one proclamation of boundless devotion to their king and his cause ... what shall we say of 'the Chief amongst ten thousand, the altogether lovely'?"

"But let their zeal be according to knowledge. Lay the foundation of their faith ... that they should know fully in Whom they have believed, and what are the grounds of their belief."

"The expressed knowledge attainable by us has its source in the Bible, and perhaps we cannot do a greater injustice to children than to substitute our own or some other benevolent person's rendering for the fine English, poetic diction, and lucid statement of the Bible."