If you could design a school, what would it be like?

An atmosphere, a discipline, and a life ala Miss Charlotte Mason. Having home-educated my three children (and aiding other like-minded families to do the same), I actually have “designed” my own school for grades 0-12. In the process of the last 16+ years, I have employed the principles of Charlotte Mason, a British educator who believed that education was more than being trained to “pass” standardized tests, job-training, or being accepted into the “best” college.

The school I designed included small-group learning, field trips and learning adventures; it employed an educational philosophy which promoted the joy and excitement of hands-on learning, developed reasoning skills and inspired the habit of living a lifestyle of learning

I have been blessed to introduce my children to ideas and knowledge rather merely dispensing canned information via a cookie-cutter scope and sequence. They have learned to think for themselves; to discern and articulate their own viewpoints based on sound evidence as opposed to generalizations and/or regurgitating someone else’s rhetoric.

They have become acquainted with wise and noble ideas by reading  “living books” (well-written and engaging; original works; source documents; narrative biographies and testaments of historical events — not mere textbooks); said books have served as our “curriculum” in core subjects (civics, science, history, mathematics, English) as well as fine arts, music, prose and poetry.

My children have developed speech and composition skills, even during “pre-writing years” via their own recitations and oral narratives (summaries) of what they were studying. Their early years included informal learning situations (i.e. sorting and counting sea shells, finding specific letters within signage, simple decision-making and story-telling) which prepared them for more challenging lessons in mathematics, spelling, debate and composition.

We have discovered nature (science) together via creating our own illustrated nature journals and long walks outdoors — and simple play-time in the midst of birdsongs and God’s Creation. We discovered relational-education within our family and with the numerous families we learned and shared our adventures with, as well as the community organizations with whom we volunteered and worked.

That is what my "school" is like ...