[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ost of you are familiar with my study guide, Start Here: A Journey Through Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles, which was published almost exactly a year ago. The guide is a tried, tested, edited, and refined version of a study I originally wrote for my own local Charlotte Mason study group. I don’t know why it never dawned on me to give a conference talk to go along with it, but it didn’t. It wasn’t until Kathy Wickward asked me to give a talk on the 20 Principles for the Northwest Charlotte Mason Educators Conference that it ever crossed my mind, but it turned out to be a really good idea {Kathy is brilliant, after all}.
I will tell you a secret. Studying all of the 20 Principles together as a whole was different from studying them separately and all spread out. I’m not saying the study guide’s process is a bad thing — no! Not at all! But I am saying that looking at the principles as a whole philosophy is another experience that I think all of us ought to have. I have such clarity now — I see how all the principles work together as a comprehensive whole, and how they serve to balance one another, and how so many of our mistakes originate from focusing on some of the principles while neglecting others.
My conclusion, naturally, is that Charlotte Mason was even more brilliant that I initially realized.
Not that you’re surprised by this.
I gave a 20 principles talk at the conference in September, yes. But a bad thing happened: I forgot to press record. This was horrible! Unlike the other talks, which are already up in the shop, this is the one that I had personal plans for. Our local group’s leadership team had decided that before we began with our next book, we were going to regroup by sending the recording out to all of our members and having them listen beforehand, and then we’d use our next meeting to have a discussion. We went back and forth over what to do. Should I record the talk by myself in my office at home? Or give it live at our next meeting?
We decided I’d do it live.
And so I did.
And that live recording is what I’ve spent a bunch of time editing this week. Apparently, I use the words um, like, and so an awful lot. I’ve a long ways to go as a speaker, but no worries. I took most of them out before putting it up in the shop. Some things that are tolerable in person just aren’t in a recording, you know?
The up side of my imperfections is that I now have some fierce audio editing skillz.
Ahem.
So. Go grab your copy of the talk. I initially called it Start Here: A Survey of Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles, but later I renamed it Charlotte Mason in One Hour — because that’s what it is! Along with the talk, you’ll get a copy of my awesome handout {if I do say so myself}. When you see how it’s structured, you’ll be as excited as I was. I tried to give a visual representation of how everything fits together, and I’m super happy with how it turned out. {Hayley helped me with the formatting. This is the real reason it’s so nice.}
If you are currently in one of the many groups across the country using the Start Here study guide, I think this talk might provide some great discussion at the end, when your group finishes up the guide and wants to step back and see the whole forest after spending so many months studying the trees up close. Make sense? But until then, of course it is also great for personal enrichment.
And so, without carrying on any longer: enjoy!
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