Three More Lies....

Three More Lies that Charlotte Mason Social Media has Made You Believe:

1) Lie: Unit Studies Aren't Compatible with Charlotte Mason

Truth: Mason constructed her own unit studies within her programmes.

There's a few things Charlotte Mason homeschoolers like to do more than Strut Their CM Stuff, and they're more prone to elitism than any other group of people I've ever witnessed.

One of the most popular flexes to make is to turn up one's nose at unit studies with the "unpopular opinion" that they aren't compatible with CM principles.

Except...that very statement is cognitively dissonant.

Not only does it say one thing about the nature of Principles but imply another, but it also ignores the reality that Mason herself constructed "unit studies" within her programmes and that CM homeschoolers also do so all of the time.

Matching up artists and composers to your history time period...is a unit study.

All of the Christiam Curriculum currently filling your feed...it's all unit studies. 

Choosing topical books to match up to other subjects...yep, unit study.

Yes, there is more than one type of unit study, and yes, we should avoid using connected ideas in  certain ways in a living education...

But overall, a mom who *truly* understands mason's principles can use anything without subsequently connecting every dot for her children or telling them what to think.

2) Lie: Textbooks are bad.

Truth: Mason used textbooks.

This one is easy to refute, because Mason herself used textbooks.

Living Books are vital to a living education, but textbooks are useful and often necessary too.

3) Lie: Only Living Books

Truth: Mason used a variety of books and so should we.

Closely related to the lie of "textbooks are bad" is the lie that she only used living books in her programmes.

The reality is that living books were one of many types of books that Mason utilized and that there are many more types of books than just "Living" and "Twaddle".

This false dichotomy between living books and twaddle ignores textbooks, reference books, infographic books, guides, and more...all of which are neither living nor twaddle, but all of which are useful and important.