That is: What do PA and CM have to do with L.E.D.?
As I’ve shared in the first two parts of this series – Our Journey TO Home Ed, and Our Journey THROUGH Home Ed – we have gleaned from other approaches to home education. Yesterday I mentioned that both PA and CM played a part in my study of approaches to education. Since these are probably two approaches we’ve gleaned the most from, besides general discipleship approaches, I’ll share how we have incorporated these ideas, and to what extent. Today I will focus mostly on CM, and tomorrow or Mon. will perhaps conclude this series with our application of PA.
To reiterate, LED is and has always been first and foremost completely Scripture-centered. It is ALL about training our children in the Scriptures. It is a Discipleship methodology, a lifestyle saturated with God and His Word.
Charlotte Mason is an approach that considers education to be emersion in excellence and beauty. We agree with that, and further, believing that our home should be an environment permeated with the the excellence and beauty of the Word and worship, honoring God in awe of His Creation and His Providence, in all that surrounds us and in all we study . CM utilizes gentle, natural methods of learning, rather than artifical assignments. We agree with that, believing that learning should be a gentle experience, especially for children. Learning should be a natual flow from our lifestyle.
CM endorses excellent, living literature, including Poetry, rather than what she termed “twaddle”. We agree with that, believing that excellent living books not only have much more to offer than twaddly fluff, but that they are more enjoyable by all ages. And further that Scripture is the most excellent literature and poetry. However, our book lists don’t come from CM lists. I’m sure we’d agree with some choices, and disagree with others.
CM utilizes Copywork, Dictation, and Narration as key natural methods for learning, and utilizes Nature and Picture and Classical Music Studies. We agree with that, and utilize these methods also (and probably others I’m not specifically thinking of right now). However, there are other aspects of the philosophy and methodology of CM that we don’t agree with.
There are many methodologies of the Charlotte Mason approach that we glean from in L.E.D. However, it is not a philosophy that we completely line up with. In Part 2 I will share with you an approach that we line up more closely with in philosophy.
