[illinoismommy]

Originally Posted by Leslie

A pure CM education and a totally unschooling education are two different things, although on the surface, they can look similar. They can mesh well - but they are different at the foundation. A relaxed approach to CM will look more like unschooling, and a more scheduled approach will look more classical. But a pure CM education as CM intended will look like CM's schools.

("The author" . . . that would be me -- does it really sound like I'm talking down unschooling? I tried to find and include links to unschooling that didn't misrepresent the definition of unschooling, and I think highly enough of unschooling that I wouldn't have wanted to talk it down. CM is so often confused with unschooling and delight-directed that I was trying to draw a distinction between them by defining the differences . . .)

Just some thoughts on this. I am reading Charlotte Mason's original books and I just finished the 3rd one. The more I read the more I think how much the CMM and unschooling are alike. I am amazed at how much it all makes sense in fact.

Originally Posted by Charlotte Mason

In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her chidren is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air.

Since CMM predates unschooling maybe I should describe it as unschooling being like the CMM. Its like 100(+) years ago she already saw that the kids were under extraordinary pressure and we need to chill out. I shudder to think what she thinks about us today.

The "not unschooling" paragraph on AO says (my paraphrase),

1. When your child has an interest in something you continue reading whatever wonderful classic you are already reading
2. You give them plenty of free time to pursue their new interest.

Most unschoolers who do choose to introduce their children to subjects they would not have otherwise noticed or thought to read about, but a few do not. So I am not sure that is really the difference I would describe. There are important differences though in the goals of a CMM education. I think the most major difference is in the focus of teaching a child to be able to direct their own will (or the subject of self discipline),

In fact, character is the result of conduct regulated by will. ...We all know of lives, rich in gifts and graces, which have been wrecked for the lack of a determining will.

There is no such discussion in unschooling, but I love the way CM says that Education the science of relations as well as There is no education but self education. So education really ties into your whole life in a way it doesn't in other forms such as classical, but there is a defined goal of producing people who have discipline in a way I feel is lacking in unschooling (not that some unschooling families don't add that, but it isn't in the 'original text' as it were)