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Mary's daughter
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| Posted: June 21 2011 at 4:26pm | IP Logged
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Did Charlotte Mason "teach" philosophy as a subject?
Stephanie
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 21 2011 at 5:23pm | IP Logged
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No, Stephanie, I don't believe she ever taught Philosophy as a formal subject.
CM's curriculum fit within three categories:
** Knowledge of God - the primary and most important focus of her curriculum
** Knowledge of Man - this includes subjects such as history, literature, art, citizenship, morals, music, other humanities
** Knowledge of the Universe - includes science, geography, mathematics, handicrafts
Now, one could certainly say that through her curriculum choices (living literature), branches of philosophy were presented through the literature selections. For example, ethics as a part of reading Plutarch, Principles of Citizenship, as well as her own book, Ourselves, and MANY others. In fact, I would say that ethics was a primary component of her literature selections. And, since her curriculum's purpose was built on introducing children to a variety of ideas and encouraging those children to have relationship with those ideas, the child's overall vocabulary and ability to participate in *the great conversation* in a logical, ordered way increases naturally and significantly over the years quite as a result of the generous and varied curriculum.
Hope this answers your question, Stephanie! 
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mary's daughter
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| Posted: June 22 2011 at 8:14am | IP Logged
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Thank you, Jen! You did answer my question.
Your latest blog post gave me a lot to think about as I'm revamping our homeschooling. I've done bits and pieces of Charlotte Mason but couldn't seem to make it all work with everything else! 
One of the things missing from my education was philosophy and the ability to logically think things through. I want to make sure my children are given the opportunity to learn these skills. Anyway, I was questioning the necessity of a course as opposed to learning it more naturally or intuitively. Am I making any sense?!
Stephanie
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 22 2011 at 8:56pm | IP Logged
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Mary's daughter wrote:
Thank you, Jen! You did answer my question.
Your latest blog post gave me a lot to think about as I'm revamping our homeschooling. I've done bits and pieces of Charlotte Mason but couldn't seem to make it all work with everything else! |
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You're so welcome! And thank you! Glad you enjoyed the post.
Mary's daughter wrote:
One of the things missing from my education was philosophy and the ability to logically think things through. I want to make sure my children are given the opportunity to learn these skills. Anyway, I was questioning the necessity of a course as opposed to learning it more naturally or intuitively. Am I making any sense?!
Stephanie |
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Yes - I understand completely where you're coming from! Now, just because CM doesn't teach a subject doesn't mean that you can't. I'll give you an example and I *think* it fits with some of your concerns.
I have...
(1) exposed my children over the years to a variety of thoughts and ideas through literature, and...
(2) noticed that in the teen years a child is naturally argumentative in the sense that they don't just accept at *face value*...they want explanations, and it better make sense, and they like to push the envelope of thinking and considering (enter wide and generous curriculum from the past which feeds this conversation)...
...so now...I introduce a third variable, which truthfully, comes very naturally after the quality and quantity of literature read....
(3) logic as a subject!! I do introduce logic as a subject during the high school years and my high schooler enjoys it a great deal! I see it as simply offering a tool to help organize thoughts, form expressions *logically*, and recognize illogical arguments. It's been very successful for us so far, though you won't find LOGIC as a subject on CM's curriculum.
We enjoy the offerings from Classical Academic Press for logic, having completed Art of the Argument last year, and this year we're excited to dig into The Discovery of Deduction: An Introduction to Formal Logic. We also enjoy logic games and an old magazine series that we inherited from my mom when she was finished home schooling, Provoking Thoughts: The Magazine Devoted to the Thinking in All of Us. This magazine has a number of logic games and fun brain challenges. It would fit a younger age group, but it has something for every age in it...probably upper elementary - high school. We really enjoy our copies. (I did a little searching around....these magazines were originally published in the early 90's by KNOWLES DOUGHERTY, which eventually became IDEAS, INC. From their website, I understand that the company no longer publishes new magazines, but they do still sell back issues. If you're interested, here is the page with contact info.)
Again, I hope this is a help, Stephanie!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Topic: Charlotte Mason and Philosophy
