Inspirational Charlotte Mason quotes about reading, diversity, and home education
Charlotte Mason knew how to sling serious wisdom. She was a vanguard, ahead of her time in myriad ways. What follows are some of her most often referenced quotes about reading, diversity, and the art of home education. Settle in for a thorough dose of homeschooling and parenting inspiration.
Charlotte Mason quotes about reading
Charlotte Mason was all about those “living” books and developing a love for literature within every child. Here’s some of what she had to say on the subject of reading.
“The most common and the monstrous defect in the education of the day is that children fail to acquire the habit of reading.”
“Children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, at other times — a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their storybooks.”
“One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books, living books. The best is not too good for them; anything less than the best is not good enough. And if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books, which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child’s intellectual life.”
“And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children.”
“The only vital method of education appears that children should read worthy books.”
“Therefore, the selection of their first lesson-books is a matter of grave importance, because it rests with these to give children the idea that knowledge is supremely attractive and that reading is delightful.”
“I am speaking now of [children’s] lesson-books, which are all too apt to be written in a style of insufferable twaddle, probably because they are written by persons who have never chanced to meet a child. All who know children know that they do not talk twaddle and do not like it, and prefer that which appeals to their understanding.”
“It is well that we should choose our authors with judgment, as we choose our friends, and then wait upon them respectfully to hear what they have to say to us.”
“A book may be long or short, old or new, easy or hard, written by a great man or a lesser man, and yet be the living book which finds its way to the mind of a young reader.”
“Narrating is not the work of a parrot, but of absorbing into oneself the beautiful thought from the book, making it one's own and then giving it forth again with just that little touch that comes from one's own mind.”
Charlotte Mason quotes about diversity
Though language about diversity, equity, and inclusion was rare in her day, Charlotte Mason was no less an advocate for introducing children to a full, rich history that included more than a euro-centric worldview. Consider this small sample of what she had to say on the subject of diversity.
“We introduce children as early as possible to the contemporary history of other countries as the study of English history alone is apt to lead to a certain insular and arrogant habit of mind.”
On perspective and compassion…
“The question is not, — how much does the youth know? when he has finished his education — but how much does he care? and about how many orders of things does he care? In fact, how large is the room in which he finds his feet set? and, therefore, how full is the life he has before him?”
“We cannot live sanely unless we know that other peoples are as we are with a difference, that their history is as ours, with a difference, that they too have been represented by their poets and their artists, that they too have their literature and their national life.”
“Therefore to acquire the speech of neighboring nations is not only to secure an inlet of knowledge and a means of culture, but it is a duty of that higher morality (the morality of the family) which aims at universal brotherhood. Therefore every family would do well to cultivate two languages besides the mother tongue.”
“None of us can be proof against the influences that proceed from the persons he associates with. Wherefore, in books and men, let us look out for the best society, that which yields a bracing and wholesome influence.”
Charlotte Mason quotes about home education
Charlotte Mason had a method and perspective all her own about home education. That’s why she continues to influence families and educators everywhere with her unique philosophy. May we all ponder her wisdom.
