Is a Charlotte Mason Education Good for Black Children?

Is a Charlotte Mason Education Good for Black Children? | Heritage Mom

source: https://heritagemom.com/index.php/2020/06/11/is-a-charlotte-mason-education-good-for-black-children/

Charlotte Mason was a white educator who lived in England from 1842-1923. What on earth does she have to do with black children living in America now?

Important note: I wrote this post several weeks ago, and I'd scheduled it to go live last week, but I held it back once I realized we were smack dab in the middle of a red hot national conversation on race. I saw a lot of ugliness, hate, and deafening silence (?!?!?!) from white Christian homeschool moms, and that hurt. I wasn't sure if this post was still relevant. BUT THEN...there was an intense wave of love and affirmation that swept into my inbox, text messages, Instagram, and blog. It was pervasive and consistent, and at the root of the very intentional and authentic love fest were Charlotte Mason mamas, along with other Jesus-loving women, who were insistent that their voices would drown out the hate they knew I was seeing and feeling. So in the end, I've decided to move forward with my unedited original post. No sugar added. No salt poured. Because I still stand by every word. So without further ado...

When I look at Charlotte Mason websites, blogs, Facebook groups, and Instagram posts, I just see a lot of white moms and their white kids learning about white people and all that they've done, said, and written. I don't really see myself pursuing that type of experience for my Black kids.

I've heard this too many times to count, and I get it. I REALLY do. When black moms* come across or are introduced to the Charlotte Mason style of education, they are often intrigued and interested until they search for curriculum options. They're then typically faced with booklists that will leave their children feeling like people who look like them have done very little worth knowing, have written very little worth reading, and have created very little worth studying.

Then, along with rejecting the specific curricula and booklists, black moms reject the entire Charlotte Mason philosophy - not realizing that they are not one and the same.

And the online CM world, and its related in-person communities and conferences, carry on as life-giving spaces masked with an imaginary "for whites only" sign hanging above the water fountain.

And if these online and in-person communities were hostile towards new visitors of color, I would agree that black moms should stay away because who needs that? But therein lies the problem:

I have found the Charlotte Mason homeschooling community to be one of the most amazing, loving, intellectually stimulating, and God-honoring spaces for me and my family. It is a place where I feel a sense of belonging, and yet, at the same time, I often feel alone on a beautiful island. I don't want to leave the island, but I want more of my people to join me from the mainland.

There are other homeschooling communities that run alongside, overlap, or stand separately from CM where I've seen the same type of acceptance and fervor (I see you Wild + Free!), but for the most part, I've found it to be unique among CM circles. That's just my personal experience.

And I know there are white moms in the CM world who would like nothing more than for me to stop talking. Yep, I've heard it all. But ignorance and hate lurk in every corner of the world. As far as my companions - the white moms that are doing this thing with me personally - they are down for me and my kids. That doesn't mean they understand the complexities of our lives, but they try. It means that they listen and show that they care. It means that they tell me that they hear me and are leaning in to learn more. It means that they send me book recommendations when they find a needle in a haystack and speak up when ignorance abounds so I don't always have to do the heavy lifting. These ladies are following Him, and it shows.

A Charlotte Mason education is based on a philosophy shared through a series of books she wrote (The Original Homeschooling Series - here or here), including 20 Principles that CM educators are committed to following to one degree or another. When I read through the principles, they speak to me as being incredibly beneficial to black children, starting with even the very first one - Children are born persons. The absence of many of these principles being applied to children of color in school districts across the country is a reason that many black parents choose to home educate, whether they realize it or not. That you can have your children home with you and use CM's principles as a framework on which to build your educational and home atmosphere is a blessing. The principles have no color.

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Some dedicated women and men have taken on the heavy lifting of using these principles and building out booklists and lesson plans that they feel honor the essence of a Charlotte Mason education. And from what I've seen, most of them have done a good job. I'm thankful for their work and use much of it. However, none of the options that I've personally seen will work - as is - for black children.

But that is okay!** Because we can fill in the gaps...together.

Black moms:* I'm here, in this space, extending my hand and encouraging you to move across the divide. I'm reading and researching and practicing and sharing what I find so that black children - all children - can experience the beauty of a Charlotte Mason education without abandoning the need to offer a loving, truthful, affirming education. But there's so much more work to be done, and I don't want to do it alone. Please join me! Make the brave choice to pursue beauty without a rock-solid road map for precisely how the feast will be spread for your brown and black children. It will all be fine. You'll purchase curricula, and there are books that you will add or replace and changes you will make, and YOU SHOULD make those changes. Or you may choose to build your plans from the ground up. Either way is perfect. No one on Earth knows your babies the way you do, and no one will love them better.

White moms: Please help me. Can you imagine what it would feel like to look at the CM world from the outside and feel like it's not for you? Please say out loud to anyone who will listen that "A Charlotte Mason education is open to all, and all means all." [Tag #charlottemasonmulticultural if you'd like] When you meet homeschooling moms with brown and black children, share about the wonderful aspects of CM that have attracted you and make sure they know that there is no mandatory prescriptive book list. Empower your black and brown sisters in Christ by letting them know that you see them and recognize that the specific books/composers/poems/artists you're using, or that they may find on a quick google search, may not work for them all the time and that this community is still for them. Explain that there are moms committed to walking the journey out with them and that they'll have support and understanding. Ensure that they know they are welcome in this space.

Charlotte Mason leaders: If you are a curriculum provider, blogger, co-op/bookclub/support group leader, conference organizer, magazine editor, social media influencer, author, thought-leader, or anyone else with a platform or voice in the CM world, please know that our beloved CM world is generally seen as only being for white people. Now part of that, as I mentioned, is certainly due to the confusion related to white booklists being mistaken for a Charlotte Mason education. And even if I have to scream it from every rooftop, I'm determined to see that fallacy exposed. But a lot of it is also due to the lack of POC voices, books, and images in everything. I see the needle slowly moving here, but please continue to include other voices. We exist. We are here. And the best way to show moms that the CM world is inclusive is...to be inclusive. If there is a barrier preventing it from happening, please let me know. I'd love to help if I can.

This is not about a specific curriculum. The philosophy is not about black or white. The Charlotte Mason world is a rare space ripe with the opportunity for us to unite as mothers with a common purpose, rooted in Christ and watered with the collective love we have for our children - both yours and mine.

"Education is a discipline-that is, the discipline of the good habits in which the child is trained. Education is a life, nourished upon ideas; and education is an atmosphere-that is, the child breathes the atmosphere emanating from his parents; that of the ideas which rule their own lives"

Discipline...life...atmosphere. Those tenets hold no loyalty or attachment to skin color. They are universal because they are true and emanate from Truth. Any mom can breathe new life into her home(school) by relying on the Holy Spirit to lead her and her children. No one owns that - not even Charlotte Mason - but there is a community of moms that can choose to stand together and help ensure that every single child in the village has what they need to be healthy and whole.

*I write "black moms" for ease of language, but I'm actually speaking of ALL moms with black and brown children.

**It's actually not okay with me that some of these lists are sooooooooo very, very white because I wish some curriculum providers would go further in including the stories of black and brown people. But it is okay because we can do it ourselves. In other words, it's not philosophically okay, but everything is going to be okay.

You can find me on Instagram @heritagemomblog. See you there!

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