The 20 Principles & the Gospel

Overview

Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles distill the essence of her educational philosophy, much like the Articles of Faith do for Latter-day Saint beliefs. Our goal is to create a collection of articles that highlight Miss Mason’s ideas and measure them against Latter-day Saint scripture and quotes from our leaders. If you would like to contribute your thoughts and findings, please contact us through our contact page.

Resources

The 20 Principles – Charlotte Mason’s original writings

Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles: An LDS Perspective – Written by one of our site contributors (Jenna Dilts), this series of articles looks at Miss Mason’s 20 principles from a gospel angle.

Baby Steps Blog – The personal blog of another of our site contributors (DoriAnn Haskins), this blog includes the author’s thoughts as she studies her way through the 20 Principles.

Afterthoughts Blog ($) – “Using Susan Schaeffer Macauley’s wonderful book (For the Children’s Sake), Miss Mason’s volumes, articles from Miss Mason’s magazine {The Parents’ Review}, the best blog posts on these subjects, and discussion questions meant to help you dig deeply, Start Here is a comprehensive guide to the big ideas governing Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.” (Not LDS-specific)

Articles

Born Persons

This is the first post in a series explaining Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles in the context of the Restored Gospel. 1. Children are born persons. “In the first place, we take children seriously as persons like ourselves, only more so.” CM 3:63 “[… M]an is homogeneous, a spiritual being invested with a body…” CM 3:68 […]

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Born with Possibilities

This is the second post in a series explaining Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles in the context of the Restored Gospel. 2. [Children] are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good or evil. “If the development of character rather than of faculty is the main work of education, and if people are born, so […]

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The Fundamental Principles of Authority and Obedience

This is the third post in a series explaining Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles in the context of the Restored Gospel. 3. The principles of authority on the one hand and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary, and fundamental… “For it is indeed true that none of us has a right to exercise authority, […]

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Authority Is Limited by Respect

This is the fourth post in a series explaining Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles in the context of the Restored Gospel. 4. These principles (i.e., authority and docility) are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue […]

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Narration is a Small and Simple Thing

Near the end of his life, Alma sat down with his son Helaman and gave him some final instructions. As he entrusted his son with the sacred records, Alma explained that the job was pretty straightforward: the Brass Plates and other Nephite records needed to stay bright. Well-cared for brass is shiny; I’ve got a […]

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