Mind to Mind: An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education

by Charlotte M. Mason, Karen Glass

This is Charlotte Mason as you have not seen her before: Mind to Mind is her well-seasoned final work, originally titled An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education. Divested of outdated material, the essential philosophy is brought into sharp relief. Ms. Mason wrote, “The message for our age is, Believe in mind, and let education go straight as a bolt to the mind of the pupil.” Our generation needs to hear that message more acutely than ever. Karen Glass, with deep respect for the original, has preserved the essentials in Ms. Mason’s own words, while delivering the material in a format that speaks to today’s readers. This book is an abridgment in the literal Latin sense of “to shorten.” What has been shortened is not merely the length of the original volume, but the path between the modern reader and the mind of Charlotte Mason.




In this book, Charlotte Mason presents the vital principles that underlie her methods, and with the confidence of many decades of practice behind her, recommends those methods to a wider audience. She wanted to reform and regenerate the educational practices of Great Britain in the early 20th century, but 21st century readers will find her ideas just as potent, just as penetrating, and even more refreshing than they were when they were originally penned.

Her first principle is "Children are born persons": not machines, not animals, not accidental conglomerations of cells, but persons, with all the magnificent possibilities that personhood implies. The education we should offer a person is the education Charlotte Mason offers to us.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Parenting

203 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 2012

About the author

Charlotte Mason, a renowned British educator, lived during the turn of the 20th century. She turned the idea of education being something of utilitarian necessity into an approach based upon living ideas. She believed that education is "an atmosphere, a discipline, a life" and a "science of relations." Her methods are embraced around the world today, especially among the homeschool community.

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I love Charlotte Mason's Towards a Philosophy of Education and I love Karen Glass, I was bound to love this even though I am often not a fan of abridgements. At this time in my life, when I find myself reading more and more of Mason's writings, when I am learning more and more about her as a person, this is the perfect refresher volume. It is a great go-to volume for my podcast, The Mason Jar, also. It is especially helpful as my volume of Towards a Philosophy is in many pieces.

I will always remember Karen mentioning how she changed the title when she began to notice that CM used the term mind frequently. Charlotte was all about the mind and if we do not understand that we cannot understand her. Karen's volume and especially the notes before each chapter remind us of this.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! A copy of this book that won't fall apart and have to be held together with rubber bands! I'm thinking about transferring all of my notes as I read, but this book is almost too pretty to write in!

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Comencé a leerlo con mucha ilusión porque había escuchado buenos comentarios de CM y porque en parte, ya seguía un poco su filosofía.
Sin embargo, al sumergirme en las páginas de este libro me golpeé de frente con varios obstáculos inesperados. En primer lugar, CM tiene plena convicción de su método y hace un montón de aseveraciones del tipo “hemos demostrado que”, “la evidencia es obvia de”, etc. cuando en realidad, no presenta ningún argumento sustancial. Lanza muchísimas ideas al voleo que no justifica y que ella simplemente se cree porque lo vivió. Pero vivirlo no es evidencia de nada, es solo un botón de muestra en el mar de la estadística.
Además, queda bastante confusa la postura que ella tiene entre teología y metodología de educación. Las defensoras de CM dicen que debemos tomar esto como “solo” una metodología de educación y no como teología, pero a medida que la lees te das cuenta que ella todo el tiempo habla de su metodología como parte de la teología que le enseña a los niños.
Finalmente, sus ideas se repiten en bucle. Creo que todas estas páginas se podrían haber reducido a 50 sin perder absolutamente nada y habríamos aprendido lo mismo sobre su método.
En fin, me voy decepcionada porque su metodología, a grandes rasgos me gusta, pero en cuanto a este libro, deja bastante que desear.

[Catie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always like to read a Charlotte Mason book to start the school year. I wish Karen Glass would edit all of CM's works like this. It was so much easier to read the entire book with outdated and obscure references removed or explained. Some of the longer examples were also moved to an appendix. Overall, this was an excellent resource for CM homeschoolers and has been made very accessible to modern ears without loosing the original wisdom and language of the author.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Karen Glass truly has distilled Charlotte Mason's book An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education so that it is easily approachable in this century. I appreciated the section headings and occasional footnotes she added to help organize and give context to the original text. Charlotte Mason's ideas are themselves wonderfully practical and they provide a helpful lens through which to view education.

Note: The listing on Goodreads says this book is 202 pages. In fact it is 189.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how to review this... very helpful but also so dense that I only got a fraction of what was there. However, this philosophy of education is one that looks excellent and superior to any other. This semi-updating by Glass was definitely helpful.

[Marissa | storiesinthemeadow · Rating 5 out of 5]

This woman was a genius. Karen Glass did an incredible job with her intros/summaries before each chapter. One day I plan to read the unabridged version, but this was a great, approachable place to start.

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to Charlotte Mason's philosophy and writings.

[Samara Root · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a life-changing book! I highly recommend this book if you want to think deeply about what education is, how it happens, and the Holy Spirit's role in educating each one of us.

[Cristina Luna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Explica la manera en que los niños pueden aprender desde la mente de los autores de libros clásicos, es muy interesante la propuesta de Charlotte Masón para preparar un currículo para homeschool.

[Kacey Schreyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing way to approach Charlotte Mason without feeling so intimidated!