Latin and Other Languages in a Charlotte Mason Education

What About Latin and Other Languages? (Making Sense of Language Arts Part 4)

Speaking a Foreign Language

Charlotte Mason had much to say about foreign language learning. In Home Education, she writes:

"French should be acquired as English is, not as a grammar, but as a living speech. To train the ear to distinguish and the lips to produce the French vocables is a valuable part of the education of the senses, and one which can hardly be undertaken too soon.

Again, all educated persons should be able to speak French. Sir Lyon Playfair, once speaking a conference of French masters, lamented feelingly our degeneracy in this respect, and instanced the grammar school of Perth to show that in a Scotch school in the sixteenth century the boys were required to speak Latin during school hours, and French at all other times. There is hardly another civilised nation so dull in acquiring foreign tongues as we English of the present time; but, probably, the fault lies rather in the way we set about the study than in any natural incapacity for languages.

As regards French, for instance, our difficulties are twofold—the want of a vocabulary, and a certain awkwardness in producing unfamiliar sounds. It is evident that both these hindrances should be removed in early childhood. The child should never see French words in print until he has learned to say them with as much ease and readiness as if they were English."

Key Principles for Language Learning

Mason emphasized several principles:

1. Ear before eye - Children should hear and speak the language before seeing it in print
2. Start early - Young children learn pronunciation more easily
3. Build vocabulary steadily - Even half a dozen words a day adds up significantly
4. Learn idioms alongside vocabulary - New words should be put into sentences and kept in use

She continues in The Parents' Review:

"A foreign language should be learned in the same way as its mother tongue is learned by a child. The written page must not intervene between the mind and spoken speech. The uttered words must reach the mind by the direct channel of the ear, must be assimilated by the mind, and be imitated by the tongue. It is thus every child of sane faculties learns, and infallibly learns, his own language, which to begin with is unknown or foreign to it; it is only thus that the man can learn an unknown speech. He must become as a little child, taking in his humility the noblest attitude, moral or spiritual, that man can take."

What About Latin?

Charlotte Mason's students did indeed study Latin. However, Mason believed learning common languages first was more important than studying Latin. Therefore, her students didn't start learning Latin until Form II (around Year 4).

"It is an open question, however, whether it is desirable to begin Latin at so early an age." — Home Education, p. 296

Mason viewed Latin as one subject among many, not as the cornerstone of education. She wrote:

"We shall not be content that they learn geography, history, Latin, what not,—we shall ask what salient ideas are presented in each such study, and how will these ideas affect the intellectual and moral development of the child." — Parents and Children

Breadth of Interest

She also emphasized that Latin should not crowd out other subjects:

"We must get rid of the notion that to learn the 'three R's' or the Latin grammar well, a child should learn these and nothing else. It is as true for children as for ourselves that, the wider the range of interests, the more intelligent is the apprehension of each." — School Education, p. 210

The Danger of Shallow Learning

Mason warned against superficial knowledge that produces arrogance without wisdom:

"'I can read and understand a Latin author,' said young Edward, with the self-confidence and rash reasoning of fifteen, 'and Scaliger or Bentley could not do much more.' Alas while he was thus permitted to read only for the gratification of his amusement, he foresaw not that he was losing for ever the opportunity of acquiring habits of firm and assiduous application, of gaining the art of controlling, directing, and concentrating the powers of his mind for earnest investigation—an art far more essential than even that intimate acquaintance with classical learning which is the primary object of study." — School Education, p. 211

The Primacy of English

Ultimately, Mason believed that mastery of English was most essential:

"A careful analysis will bring us to the conclusion that not Latin and Greek, Games, Athletics, or environment, but the 'humanities' in English alone will bring forth the stability and efficiency which we desire to see in all classes of society." — Towards a Philosophy of Education, p. 298