Charlotte was a British educator who lived at the turn of the century. While, like all of us, she has a life story, the main focus of her life was to provide a thoughtful way of educating children that kept their natural desire for knowing alive and respected the value they have individual persons. While she had many avenues for disseminating her ideas and methods for education, the most prolific resource used today are the six books she wrote on education.

Charlotte boiled education down to three main areas that we can use to educate any person, young or old: atmosphere, discipline, and life.

By Atmosphere she means:
Use the place the student lives as a means of showing what you value and what is important, as well as a place of love and nurturing. Atmosphere in a CM Ed does not bring in special objects or processes that are adapted for a child as though the child is on a lower level than adults, because children are perfectly capable of living among normal, beautiful, quality things.

By Discipline she means:
We are to train ourselves to good patterns of behaviour called habits. Habits then, form the character of the person.

By Life she means:
Give the student the type of intellectual food that the mind needs to grow. These are things that keep the doors of imagination, ideas, and relationships open. We keep the door open to the wide world of various subjects. Without imagination, ideas, and building the bridges of relationships, facts clog the mind and shut it down. A life-giving education fosters learning by keeping the love of learning alive.

There are key qualities that a Living Education relies on and takes subtle yet certain intentionality to train and protect. The habits of Attention and Observation are paramount. Narration, short lessons, and the student motto are among the practices to help train these habits.

One of the ways to keep imagination and ideas flowing is by having a large number of subjects as part of the students schedule. There are 30 or so subjects and activities found throughout a CM education. Wide variety eliminates boredom and repetition keeping the windows of the world open to the student.

There are important tools available to a CM educator. Thoughtful lessons, living books, things/objects, notebooks, journals, and field trips are among the daily life activities in a CM Education.

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Charlotte’s six books are also found in our Library for you to read.