Anglican educator’s legacy boosted by new University appointments

The University of Cumbria has appointed nine new research affiliates to strengthen its position as a centre of excellence in Charlotte Mason studies.

Based in Ambleside, the University’s Charlotte Mason College seeks to research and promote the work of the renowned Victorian educator, whose approach was rooted in her Christian faith.

Honorary appointments include Jason Fletcher, Headmaster of Heritage School in Cambridge — which employs Mason’s theory and methods — and American Reformed Presbyterian academic Professor Jack Beckman.

Theological foundations

Mason (1842-1923) dedicated her life to improving the education of young children from all backgrounds, and her ideas have inspired a global home and school-based teaching movement.

In her book School Education, she wrote: “This idea of all education springing from and resting upon our relation to Almighty God is one which we have ever laboured to enforce.

“We take a very distinct stand upon this point. We do not merely give a religious education, because that would seem to imply the possibility of some other education, a secular education, for example.

“But we hold that all education is divine, that every good gift of knowledge and insight comes from above, that the Lord the Holy Spirit is the supreme educator of mankind, and that the culmination of all education is that personal knowledge of and intimacy with God in which our being finds its fullest perfection.”

According to Mason, the essence of Christianity is helpfully understood as loyalty to the person of “Christ, our King”. She also conceived of parents as “personally appointed deputies of the Almighty King, the sole Ruler of men”, and held the Bible to be “the chief source of moral ideas”.

‘A remarkable woman’

Cumbria’s Professor Sally Elton-Chalcraft said that the appointments “will support further research and publication, while showcasing Ambleside’s unique heritage assets, including archives linked to Mason”.

In 2023, ahead of an event on the Ambleside campus to mark the centenary of Mason’s death, the University of Cumbria hailed her as an “iconic figure” and “a truly remarkable woman”.

Campus director at the time, Professor Lois Mansfield, observed how millions of pupils across the world — in America, Australasia, Canada, Japan and India — are home schooled using her methods.

She added: “We want to share her life’s work and demonstrate how her philosophies are as relevant now as they ever were.”