Mothers' Education Course 2023

Mothers' Education Course 2023 - Afterthoughts

source: https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2023/05/mothers-education-course-2023.html/

How do we make ourselves better teachers? Better mothers? Better persons? Once upon a time, Charlotte Mason had a course that did just that! The Mothers’ Education Course (MEC) was a three-year (and later a two-year) program Charlotte Mason put together to educate moms who were educating their children. (If you want a more detailed history of the program, read this.)

The program assigned books in four subject areas:

Divinity Physiology and health (with an emphasis on caring for children) Mental and moral science and education Nature lore and the elements of science

Doing the full course (or some sort of equivalent) would be a lot. Most of us don’t have time for (or don’t want to make that amount of time for) such an endeavor. If, however, you want to read books from this list in a truly MEC way, you need to buckle up, buy a giant stack of books, and read about 25 pages in each subject area per week. Even then, the plan will take you longer than a summer. I highly recommend keeping a commonplace and/or reading notebook, as well as narrating to yourself.

My personal opinion is that we can be inspired by her approach and use it as a way to structure our personal reading, which will in turn make us much better educated (and more equipped for the task of teaching) without using the intense schedule of the original course. I basically fuse the Mother Culture habits I have already built with Charlotte Mason’s MEC categories and call it Good Enough for Me.

In this post, I’ll be offering some book idea for each of the above categories. This isn’t an assignment — it’s supposed to be fun and inspiring. If you have a book you’re reading right now in one of these categories, I’d love it if you shared the title in the comments. I’m always up for ideas for future reading!

As usual, these titles are pulled from my personal reading lists. I have either already read these books, or plan to read them in the near future. (I never recommend books I wouldn’t spend money on myself.) Sometimes, I include an out-of-print book that is extremely overpriced. I am not recommending you spend hundreds of dollars on a single book. Rather, I want to recommend to you the best books so that you can watch for them and snap them up when you see them available at a reasonable price.

So let’s get to the fun part: the list!

Divinity

Today, we use the word theology. Theology and divinity mean basically the same thing. Charlotte Mason’s divinity assignments attempted to answer basic questions about biblical history and theology, as well as questions about passing on the faith to our children. I try to choose books that do the same — understand, though, that the “basic” questions I’m thinking of aren’t the basic questions from Charlotte Mason’s day. Rather, the basic questions of our time are what I’m interested in exploring.

by Matthew LaPine

Sigh. My husband gave me this book over a year ago and I keep wanting to start it and other more pressing things keep getting in the way. This is a big goal for the year, though. I am so interested in this topic!

by David Ayers

This book is great not just to read, but to have on hand as a reference. One of my sons was recently asking me a ton a questions on divorce and remarriage and what is and is not permissible (biblically speaking) and I grabbed this book and read him about a third of the chapter on remarriage. It was so helpful and sparked great conversations!

by Jim Wilson

Mystie was kind enough to send me a copy of this book, and I plan to read it this summer. Books in this category can be quite one, but this one is tiny. I’ve been told it packs a mighty punch, though!

by Darrell Harrison and Virgil Walker

I’m a huge fan of the Just Thinking Podcast featuring Darrell Harrison and Virgil Walker, so I have high expectations for this book (which I haven’t read yet). These men are so thorough and deliberate in their examination of social issues; I look forward to reading their application of the Bible to issues of the state.

Physiology and Health

If you want the basic books for this category — the ones I would actually recommend you to start with if you don’t read much in this subject area — make sure you check out my past MEC posts. These books are, yes, intended to help you take better care of the health of your family, but they also build on prior knowledge that is covered in previous lists.

by Abram Hoffer, MD PhD and Morton Walker, PhD

What can I say? I love reading about the orthomolecular approach to health, even though I tend to disagree with their recommendations for diet. Abram Hoffer in particular is someone whose work I find it worth the time it takes to follow.

by Daniel Amen, MD

Dr. Daniel Amen is another guy I follow, mainly because I couldn’t figure out why psychologists never looked at things like hormones and brain scans and I was thrilled to find that Dr. Amen actually does do this! There is overlap between this book and some of the others he’s put out there, but I found it the most useful because of how thorough are his descriptions of various supplements he recommends.

by Angela Hanscom

This book pairs well with Charlotte Mason’s lobbying for young children to spend many long hours outdoors and also her thoughts on what constitutes real play and what doesn’t (hint: if adults are directing it, it’s not real play). Highly highly recommended.

by Abram Hoffer, MD PhD; Andrew Saul, PhD; and Harold Foster, PhD

I know in the past I recommended the early version of this book but I can’t recommend this second edition enough! It is so good! I finished it a couple weeks ago and there is so much to think about. Niacin can be a huge part of healing, especially for people with mental problems.

Mental and Moral Science and Education

Charlotte Mason’s goal for this category was to show the principles of education, as well as methods based on these principles. Charlotte Mason, of course, assigned parts of her own books here. But I know you already know about those. The question is what else she would assign. Often, her focus was on the best of educational thought throughout history. The number of pages she devoted to the history of classical education was astounding!

by John Skillen, PhD

I’m reading this book right now and it is excellent. I wanted to dip my toes in aesthetics this year, and this book does this in a wonderful way because it ties everything back to concepts that are more familiar, such as rhetoric. It’s a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

by Brent Pinkall

I finished this book earlier this year and was amazed at the richness of the Chinese educational tradition. It also gave me much to think about regarding my own endeavors in giving an American classical education. I actually got a chance to talk with the author about his book. Click here to find our podcast episode with Brent Pinkall.

by Charles Duhigg

I know this doesn’t seem like and education book, but please remember that Charlotte Mason spent a lot of time thinking about habits. This book has indirectly helped me a lot in the area of habit training with teenagers because it helped me understand a lot more about habit in general, and then gives a plan for how to commit to building habits. It gave me language to use with my children.

by David Epstein

This is the summer book for my local book club. I can’t wait to read it! I’ve been told it dovetails nicely with some of Charlotte Mason’s principles.

Nature Lore and the Elements of Science

Mothers who know about nature and science can talk more naturally with their children as they walk along the way — no stopping for Google required. While I don’t think there is anything wrong with saying “I don’t know” and looking things up together, this part of the MEC curriculum was trying to offer moms an understanding of the world around them. In this category, you can read about flowers and rocks, or quantum physics. It depends on what your children are like and what they harass you about, I suppose.

by Nigel Calder

This one is on my To Be Read pile for the year. I’m really hoping I’m able to get to it; I’ve heard such good things. I find the theory of relativity fascinating and I’m always on the lookout for good books in this vein for regular people.

by Nigel Calder

Once I saw the great reviews on Calder’s Einstein book, I determined to see what else he had written and found this gem, which I plan to read, but haven’t yet. I look forward to what the description says is a “high-spirited tour through the halls of science.”

by Dava Sobel

Um, I love Dava Sobel, but somehow I missed out on this book on Copernicus! I only discovered it recently, immediately adding it to my hopeful stack for 2023.

by Antoine Bechamp

Last year, I recommended a book about Bechamp. This book is by him — it’s a collection of his actual lab notes! It gives great insight into the mind who was Louis Pasteur’s chief competitor, and also into the inner workings of the body.

Want more book ideas? Try my past MEC lists!

Mothers’ Education Course 2022 Mothers’ Education Course 2021 Mothers’ Education Course 2020 Mothers’ Education Course 2019 Mothers’ Education Course 2018 Mothers’ Education Course 2017 Mothers’ Education Course 2016 Mothers’ Education Course 2015

Need some habit trackers to help you discipline your reading time? Try these!

The post Mothers’ Education Course 2023 appeared first on Afterthoughts.

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