Terms or Semesters? A Planning Post * Sage Parnassus

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As we are all planning and preparing for the upcoming school year, I thought I would share with you something that I have done over the past 25 years of Charlotte Mason homeschooling. At first I thought many people did what I had been doing but over the past few years as I have talked with moms and dads, it has come to my attention that this is not the case. As I share this practice with others, some have found it freeing and have done it also with great success. What is it? Well, we do semesters in our homeschool and not terms like they do in England.

When we began homeschooling, I didn't quite understand how terms went and jumped right in scheduling semesters like the schools around us. This worked just fine for our family. It fit with the cultural rhythms around us. If I looked at other CM curricula to see what books they were recommending, it was simple to see how I would break up our year by observing their term one and halfway through term two. So I viewed things in two stretches instead of three. I prepared exams twice a year instead of three times per year and we did two Plutarch's Lives and two Shakespeare plays. Years later, when my children began college, our schedule was in sync with theirs.

School planning has never been daunting but a joy as I plan things out in general for the year in August, knowing that I'll have a nice break in December to plan the 2nd semester and finish the year. There is something sustainable about this and planning never overwhelms me.

When we began our Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community, we decided that we would meet in two blocks of time: September through November and January through April. This left plenty of time to arrange our homeschools first, gave us a nice break over the holidays, and made the students eager to return to our meetings. Did I mention we are entering our 12th year?

How is the academic year arranged in England? Basically, they run three terms from September through July. Halfway through each term there is a week-long, half-term vacation. Summer holiday is around six weeks long. This is how Charlotte Mason ran the Parents' Union Schools.

I did try terms a few times over the years. In TBG, we tried it once and found it to be too much. It almost felt like we were rushing through the books as we worked through the holidays. We realized that we preferred the long break over the winter in order to spend more time observing Advent and Christmas and enjoying family and friends. And one year in my homeschool I tried it. One child needed surgery and a loved one passed away, as well as normal issues that arose and try as I might, I felt that year was spent always behind and never caught up. Perhaps if we took a week-long, half-term vacation we would feel differently, but that is not how the families' work schedules and patterns are set up.

Perhaps it would be helpful to think about the historical practices of CM and how we should apply them today. For instance, Charlotte scheduled school for six days of the week yet I know of only one family who practices this.What are some of the reasons for a six-day school week? That the school days are short, that afternoons are free, that there is a day of rest (Sunday), that this lifestyle of learning continues and probably more. Can I do all this if I only do a five-day school week? Yes.

So do I believe you can run a Charlotte Mason homeschool if you do semesters and not terms? Absolutely. I've been doing it for 25 years! But I think the way to decide is to go back to Mason's 20 principles. Can one do semesters yet adhere to the 20 principles? This quote from Recipe versus Thought by Essex Cholmondeley gives us some direction:

"May we do it?" cannot be decided by imagining or remembering what will probably follow if we do; this is merely 'looking after." It is the underlying principle, brought to mind and carefully held in view -"looking before" -which should give the final word of permission. Miss Mason left no recipes behind her. She believed in thinking persons, therefore she bequeathed certain principles based upon truth itself. Every parent and teacher is free to apply these principles in ever fresh practice according as new needs and difficulties arise.

So if you do terms and they are working for you, that's wonderful! Keep at it. There are so many great resources today that help tremendously with this (scheduling, exams, etc.). However, I also think that if two semesters fits your family's needs and rhythms, then you can effectively give your child a delightful CM education this way, too. I have listed my reasons and benefits above. But that is merely "looking after". I believe that while utilizing semesters, I can hold fast to Mason's principles - "looking before". I think we have the freedom to make this work for our families and the lives we live in the U.S. (mostly!) in the 21st century. Use common sense to determine if semesters would be a good solution for you to be able to sustain and thrive with this living education for few decades or more. It's worked well for us.

Teaching from peace,

Nancy

P.S. - Dr. John Thorley cleared up for me a few questions about how schools were run in Mason's time. He said, "The three-term year has been the norm in the UK for ever, as far as I know, partly of course determined by Christmas and Easter, and the long summer holiday at least in rural areas made necessary by the fact that children were often required to help with harvest. As for the 6-day school week, that has not been the normal pattern in state schools. Many independent schools (especially boarding schools) have used and still use a six-day week, or rather a five-and-a-half day week, with school on Saturday mornings - and in fact a state grammar school where I taught did use that pattern, with Wednesday afternoons a 'games afternoon', but that is quite rare for a state school. But I don't think CM was innovative in either of these."

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