TheHolisticParent.ORG Prominent Home Schooling Figures

Prominent Figures

Charlotte Mason

I love this woman! Her philosophies of how children learn are so refreshing. Mason
lived in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. She believed “education is an atmosphere, a
discipline, a life.” One of her guiding principles that I greatly took to heart was the
incorporation of whole “living” books into learning. She believed that by giving children
entire works from great thinkers, children’s lives would become enriched. She placed
emphasis on excellent literature. By having children read entire works, they get an entire
perspective instead of bits and pieces from dry textbooks. Books written by authors
passionate for the subject matter is what makes the books “living”; they literally “come
alive”.

Another aspect of Mason’s philosophy that I love is to simply let children be children.
She was very outspoken of the fact that children need time to play. Playing is how
children learn. This is lost when a child’s day is too structured.
Mason also put a lot of emphasis on learning about nature. She felt it is very important
for children to be connected to and respect nature. She had many neat ideas about how
to engage children in the study of nature from nature walks to nature journals; her ideas
are plentiful.

Mason understood that children’s attention spans are short as well. She placed
emphasis on short lessons before children become bored and their minds wander.
She would make each subject matter last only approximately 15 minutes before moving
on to a different subject. Fifteen minutes was the goal. If not everything was
accomplished in that time frame, it was simply saved for the next day.
Charlotte Mason had quite extraordinary philosophies. If you have a greater interest in
learning more about Mason in advance, pick up the book A Charlotte Mason Primer: A
Simplified Approach to Real Education.

John Holt

John Holt coined the term “unschooling”. He is responsible for how we largely define
homeschooling today. He was truly a pioneer in this field. He believed children could be
trusted to learn; that it was natural and inevitable. Parents of his methods oversee a
child’s education, but they do not direct or assign learning. Originally, the phrase
“unschooling” simply meant to learn at home. Once this became referred to as
“homeschooled”, the term “unschooling” became further defined by Holt’s concepts.
Holt felt children could learn concepts better without the influence of other children and
without artificial stopping times. When children direct their learning, they gravitate
towards what they are interested in or passionate about. This allows them to assimilate
the information more comprehensively.

The Moore’s

Dr. Raymond Moore and his wife, Dorothy, were prominent homeschooling advocates
advancing change in legislation to legalize homeschooling. The believed it was better to
wait until a child was older for formal education, even to ages as late as 12. They felt
that once children were ready to enter into the stage of formal instruction, they would
catch up to their traditionally schooled counterparts quite quickly. While I see some
merit to this, I personally don’t think I would feel comfortable waiting this long. I do
believe in child directed learning, however. If a child is showing no signs of readiness,
then I feel it is okay to wait. Conversely, if a child is roaring to go, let them.

Empowering Parents to Make Holistic Choices For The Benefit of Their Children

Advertise
With Us
Click Here

Calling All
Birth Stories!
Click Here
To Submit
Yours!

Visit our
Book Review
Blog
Click Here

Download
our FREE
GIFT! The
best money
saving tool
ever.
CLICK HERE

The Holistic Parent.ORG