It’s a question that often lingers in the mind of a homeschool parent: Charlotte Mason lived more than a century ago—can her methods prepare our children for the modern, STEM-focused world we live in today?
The doubt is understandable. After all, our children are growing up surrounded by smartphones, coding camps, biotechnology, and space exploration. Surely, a 19th-century educational philosophy would feel too antiquated for such a future-facing culture.
But before we dismiss Mason’s approach to science as outdated, let’s remember when she was writing.
In Her Own Time
Charlotte Mason lived during the Second Industrial Revolution (roughly 1869–1914), also known as the Technological Revolution. It was a period when the light bulb, the telephone, the airplane, and the Model T automobile all came into being. In her day, science and technology were advancing at breathtaking speed—much like today.
In her 1905 book School Education, Miss Mason encouraged parents not to fear that by feeding their children a “diet of great ideas,” they were somehow running counter to the scientific spirit of the age. In fact, she insisted, “the teaching of science [was] the new teaching … being vouchsafed to mankind in [her] age” (3/156).
Far from minimizing science, Charlotte Mason gave it a place of honor. Her PNEU school schedules allotted more time to science than any other single subject. She saw clearly that this was the “big idea” of her day, and she expected her students to engage with it deeply.
A Perspective on “Big Ideas”
What’s remarkable is that Miss Mason didn’t see science as the only idea worth pursuing. She suggested that perhaps the next age might be preoccupied with “poetry, or art, or philosophy; we cannot tell.” (3/160)
She couldn’t have imagined that science would still dominate our culture more than a century later. Yet her wisdom was not about chasing trends—it was about forming students who could engage thoughtfully with whatever ideas the world might bring to the fore.
Why Her Methods Still Apply
The children of the 21st century are still born persons, just as they were in Charlotte Mason’s day. Their minds are not meant to be crammed with facts, but nourished with living ideas. And Miss Mason’s twofold charge is just as relevant now as it was then:
- “To keep ourselves and our children in touch with the great thoughts by which the world has been educated in the past.” (Living Books)
- “And to keep ourselves and them in the right attitude towards the great ideas of the present.” (Current Events, Scientific Discoveries, Technology)
This is the balance we need: to place before our children both the enduring wisdom of the past and the unfolding knowledge of the present.
What This Looks Like in Our Homeschools
For us as homeschool parents, this means:
- Reading living books that tell the history of science with wonder and depth.
- Spending time in nature study, where children practice careful observation and grow in habits of attention.
- Bringing in current events, such as NASA missions, medical breakthroughs, or environmental questions, so that science is not abstract but connected to real life.
Rather than rushing children through a checklist of facts to “keep up,” we can give them something better: a vision of science as a living, human endeavor—one that invites awe, curiosity, and thoughtful engagement.
A Method for Any Age
Charlotte Mason’s methods are not outdated. They are timeless, because they rest on unchanging truths about how children learn. When we use her approach, we are not putting our children “behind” in STEM. We are forming them into thinkers who can engage meaningfully with science—students who will be equipped to navigate not only the present but also the unknowns of the future. Her methods proved faithful in the age of the light bulb and the Model T. And they will prove just as faithful in the age of AI and space exploration.
