6-WEEK Graduate-Level COURSE

The Relational Classroom

The heart of this six-week course has us thinking about and practicing what it means to build and sustain a community of learners in a school context. In what ways can school leaders, teachers, students, and parents develop and flourish in the lifeworld of the school? Even though Mason did not write about the communal aspects of schooling, she attested to the atmosphere, life, and science of relations that describe the nature of schooling. Here we will see that Mason’s philosophy comes face-to-face with how we have come to conceptualize the nature and role of the classroom community – is it a force of control and authoritarian rule, or a location of collaboration, values, and commitments which find meaning in love and imputed authority within the regulus of a community of learners? Mason’s work on the way of the will and reason, as well as identifying and articulating habits as shared understandings and values provide some basic philosophical understandings. Subsequently a growing recognition that building community is a function of creating a flourishing lifeworld (Sergiovanni, 2000), and that current research may provide some necessary council to us through models such as The Responsive Classroom and Restorative Justice that Mason could never have considered in her time.

Meeting Times:

Thursdays @ 7:00-8:00pm EST

Course Begins:

The class officially begins the week of January 18.

Class Meetings:

January 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25; March 4

Course Topics
Week 1: Mason and the Lifeworld of School
Week 2: Relationships in the Emerging School Community
Week 3: Building Community as an Intentional Act
Week 4: Models and Methods
Week 5: The Unfolding of the Professional Learning Community
Week 6: Leadership in the School Community

Prerequisites: None required. Anyone can jump into these courses regardless of their academic background or even their familiarity with Charlotte Mason's ideas. While these courses require more written assignments and dive further into Charlotte Mason's ideas and educational theory than our certificate level courses, we believe they are rewarding and accessible for anyone willing to put in the work – whether a homeschooling parent, classroom teacher, school administrator, or grad student.

Students who wish to proceed to the University of Cumbria MA in Charlotte Mason Studies may need an undergraduate degree to meet admission requirements.

Professional Development: Participants receive a certificate of completion showing 30 Professional Development hours after successfully completing the class.

6. When we say that “education is an atmosphere”, we do not mean that a child should be isolated in what may be called a’ child environment’ especially adapted and prepared, but that we should take into account the educational value of his natural home atmosphere, both as regards persons and things, and should him live freely among his (sic) proper conditions.

7. By “education is a discipline”, we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully….

8. In saying “education is a life”, the need for intellectual and moral as well as physical sustenance is implied.

12. “Education is the Science of Relations”; that is, that a child has natural relations with a vast number of things and thoughts….

~A Short Synopsis of 20 Principles