Consider This: Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition

by Karen Glass

Having answered that philosophical question “What is man?” with “Children are born persons” who have “possibilities for both good and evil,” it now rests upon Charlotte Mason to explain exactly what she means by “person.” A child is a person in whom all possibilities are present—present now at this very moment—not to be educed after years and efforts manifold on the part of the educator; but indeed it is a greater thing to direct and use this wealth of spiritual power than to develop the so-called faculties of the child. It cannot be too strongly urged that our education of children will depend, nolens volens [whether we will or not], upon the conception we form of them. (Parents and Children, p. 260) I return to this first principle because it is first for a reason, and all that follows is dependent upon an understanding of what Charlotte Mason means when she says, “Children are born persons.” Out of her conception of a person grows her plan of how education must be undertaken.