Truth be told, I think the
Charlotte Mason approach to high school is more unschooly by far than what I’ve
seen suggested on many unschooling pages. Dual enrollment seems to be the major
recommendation for high schoolers. Dual
enrollment looks beyond fantastic on a college application, and it’s a great way to earn college credit
for free. But for those people who would
prefer to continue to create their own high school curriculum free from
textbooks and lesson plans, I feel that the CM method offers a lot of flexibility.
One
aspect of a Charlotte Mason education that seems to be unique is the practice
of spreading out subjects over the years. In CM, a student does not take one
year of Shakespeare study, but Shakespeare plays are read all throughout the
high school years. Typically, a student would read three Shakespeare plays per
year. This approach is used in both Ursa Minor (secular) https://ursaminorlearning.com/and Ambleside Online
(religious Christian). http://amblesideonline.org/ At the end of
high school, you could grant your student one credit in Shakespeare for the
work done throughout the years, or you could include each year’s Shakespeare
readings under the umbrella of Literature along with the other books read.
The study
of economics is also spread out over four years. The student reads books and essays over the
course of four years instead of having one credit, or half a credit, crammed
into a year or a semester. I see this
approach as being so friendly to unschooling because you are not locking
yourself into learning about something for only one year. Or, if you do lose
interest in something for a while and then become curious about it again, this
approach allows you to weave in and out of learning about a specific topic.
The CM method is not in and of itself
unschooling. In fact, if you do approach
it with the attitude really wanting a CM education, then there will be a certain
rigor just by what subjects are covered in a CM setting. Those subjects include art history,
Shakespeare, poetry, Plutarch, along with the traditional subjects of history,
literature, math, science, and foreign language. I would think that an unschooler using a
literature based learning approach would probably not do a study in all of
these subjects. On the other hand, curiosity may be sparked and a student may
choose to learn about Plutarch’s Lives.
That is something that goes back to that idea that education is a
feast. Lay the suggestions out before
the student and allow them to decide how much they may want to tweak things.
In
many ways, CM’s approach to the rigorous subjects is so gentle that it really
can be wonderful way for an unschooler to approach the subject. For example, art history is learned by
reading one or two books on art history spread out over four years. Each year, three different artists and their
work are studied. By studied, we mean read a biography or even a Wikipedia
entry on the artist. Twelve of their pieces are closely observed and described
by the student. You could definitely be
flexible with this and not necessarily study twelve pieces by the same
artist.
I think that the major concern with combining unschooling with the CM method is
one of credits. It is really hard to
measure credit hours in a CM education because many subjects are spread out
over four years and also because one student might finish a book faster than
another. For that matter, a student
might read a history book with a lot ease and then have to go slower on a
science book – maybe even re-reading parts to gain a complete understanding. If an unschooler learns about six artists, maybe
that could be considered half a credit in art history instead of a full
credit. Or, should that study count for
a full credit? Also, I think a student could
reasonably earn a full credit for Shakespeare by reading six plays instead of
twelve. I asked a secular homeschooling facebook group how many Shakespeare plays
they thought should be read for one credit solely in Shakespeare, and the
average (and majority) of responses indicated that six plays would equal one
high school credit.
I’m not saying that all unschoolers should become Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. I’m saying that I think unschoolers who want to continue to create their own education might find a lot of the CM methods to be very conducive to non-traditional study. The books that are suggested by CM sites are just that – suggestions. There are no textbooks or lesson plans in a CM education. And again, it’s a feast. An unschooler could use the CM approach for economics and not read a single Shakespeare play. It’s not all or nothing. (However, if you are participating in a study on CM educated students then I would say that one would have to show that they really followed all of the methods in a Charlotte Mason education.)
I’m not saying that all unschoolers should become Charlotte Mason homeschoolers. I’m saying that I think unschoolers who want to continue to create their own education might find a lot of the CM methods to be very conducive to non-traditional study. The books that are suggested by CM sites are just that – suggestions. There are no textbooks or lesson plans in a CM education. And again, it’s a feast. An unschooler could use the CM approach for economics and not read a single Shakespeare play. It’s not all or nothing. (However, if you are participating in a study on CM educated students then I would say that one would have to show that they really followed all of the methods in a Charlotte Mason education.)
