Making the decision to homeschool your children is not one to be taken lightly, nor does it come easily. Once you have made that decision you now must consider how to do it. We understand the amount of time parents put into researching all the different methods and materials currently available to homeschooling families and are delighted that you are considering our learning community here at Grace as one of your options. You will find that, we too, have done much research and have designed just the right combination of traditional classical philosophy with a Charlotte Mason educational method. Here’s a peek…
The educational method used at Grace Academy is based upon the ideas of English author, philosopher and educator Charlotte Mason (1842-1923), who founded a teacher training college in Ambleside, England, inspired the creation of the Parents’ National Education Union, and shaped the work of education in hundreds of primary and secondary schools worldwide. Her ideas are set forth extensively in a six volume collection of her writings, and can be summarized as follows: “Children are born Persons” and “Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline and a Life.”
Children as Persons
At Grace Academy all children are viewed as persons, created in the image of God with a vast potential. Students are not classified according to strengths or weaknesses, but all participate in a broad, rigorous curriculum. All children calculate, solve, attend, explore, ponder, recite, paint, and sing. All children are held to a high standard in relationship to self, others, ideas, and work. All children are expected to have their ignorance informed and their weakness strengthened, but also to surprise and amaze with the wonder of their God-given potential. Charlotte’s Children’s Motto: “I am, I can, I ought, I will.”
Education as an Atmosphere
Grace Academy teachers welcome students into an atmosphere of visual beauty and tranquility, peace and acceptance. Released from the burden of competing for ranks, grades, or prizes, our students are free to learn for the pleasure of learning. Our teachers maintain a classroom atmosphere that is both inspiring and rigorous. Students encounter real life and great ideas in a natural manner. They observe, explore, understand, and respond.
Education as a Discipline At Grace Academy, we sow the seeds of good habit formation into the lives of our students. “The education of habit is successful in so far as it enables the mother to let her children alone, not teasing them with perpetual commands and directions – a running fire of Do and Don’t; but letting them go their own way and grow, having first secured that they will go the right way and grow to fruitful purpose.” ~Charlotte Mason
So the question for any school to ponder is not Are we teaching our students habits? The question is Which habits are we teaching our students? At Grace Academy we are intentional about the discipline of habit formation in order to disciple our students in godly character.
Rather than placing primary emphasis upon performance on the next exam, at Grace Academy, teachers focus on the kind of student a child is becoming. Does he give focused attention to the task at hand? Does she put forth consistent effort? Is he thorough? Does she show proper respect to authority? Does he relate well to his peers? In cultivating the habits proper to learning, our teachers equip students to master all areas of study to the fullness of their God-given potential.
At Grace Academy, we believe that the mind must be fed an abundant diet of food in the form of rich ideas. Education, then, should not merely be preparation for an unknown kind of future living – it must be intentional, and must begin with the feast of ideas placed before students each day. Education properly understood is not merely the assimilation of data and technique; it is the mind feeding on ideas given expression in God’s creation, great art, beautiful music, and “living books.” Real learning occurs when students engage with novelists, poets, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, historians, and explorers; when they wonder, ask why and how.
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