When I first started saying that this blog is for the classical, Charlotte Mason mama, I got a bit of pushback from a couple corners of the blogosphere. And, honestly, it is hard to convince people that Charlotte Mason’s philosophy is part of the classical tradition when they assume that the essence of classicism is viewing the Trivium — three of the seven liberal arts — as developmental stages. (This is why Karen Glass’ book on the subject was so necessary.)
Mystie shared a bit with me about Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain’s book The Liberal Arts Tradition, and I was intrigued. I had this hunch that it was expressing a philosophy very similar to Charlotte Mason’s — and that it might do for the classical community what Karen Glass’ book has done — and is still doing — for the Charlotte Mason community. Now that I have my own copy (courtesy of Classical Academic Press, thankyouverymuch!), I am thoroughly enjoying the connections between the two. They are everywhere, while the differences (so far) are few and far between.
Sometimes, it can be hard to see the connections between two works like these because there is a bit of a language barrier. If two people describe something similar, but use very different words for it, they can appear to disagree — or be talking about different things — on the surface.
That’s where this new series comes in. As I’m (slowly) reading through The Liberal Arts Tradition, I’m going to try and build a language bridge. It isn’t that I want to make all the connections for you — that would be stealing your fun! Instead, I want to focus on some of the similarities, especially in areas where it might be hard to see the connection due to the language barrier.
I think it will be a bit of an adventure, and my hope is that it will add one more tie between classical and Charlotte Mason educators — which is important to me since when someone asks me if I am a classical or Charlotte Mason educator, my answer is, “yes.” 😉
If you want to read along, then go ahead and order yourself a copy of The Liberal Arts Tradition. I plan to publish my first post next Monday. I’d enjoy hearing your connections, too!
Series Index
- The Liberal Arts Tradition: Classically Charlotte Mason ← you are here
- A Tale of Two Pictures
- Piety: Where Education is Grounded
- Gymnastic: Because Students Have Bodies
- Music and the Poetry of Education
- The Liberal Arts and the Justification of Knowledge
- Trivium: The Threefold Curriculum of the Language Arts
- How the Arts Were Liberated
- Chasing Virtue with the Quadrivium
- Wonder, Work, Wisdom, and Worship: Balancing Science
- Arithmetic as a Liberal Art
- Recovering Geometry with Charlotte Mason
- God of Wonders: The Place of Astronomy in a Classical Education
- Dance of the Musical Universe
- Philosophy is for Lovers
- Nature Study: Handmaiden of Natural Philosophy
- Beyond the Grind: 5 Ways to Revitalize Your Classical Homeschool
- Theology: All Hail the Queen
- Atmosphere: Mother as Culture Maker
- The Liberal Arts Tradition: Series Finale and Final Review
- The Wonder-Based Classical Co-op
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