Charlotte Mason Conference Resources
The lectures and Keynote presentations from our conferences are listed below- click on the appropriate button to access them. The lectures will appear in a pop-up window, so please make sure that your browser is not set to block them.
Speaker: Jack Beckman
BiographyJack’s thirty-five years of school experience include serving as a teacher, Principal, school-starter, and professor of education, and have encompassed master's degrees in both Curriculum and Instruction, and Educational Research, and a Ph.D. in Teacher Education from the University of Cambridge. Charlotte Mason's model of teacher training drew him to the UK to complete his dissertation on that topic. In collecting data, Jack spent a full year driving from the South Downs to the Lake District of England interviewing Charlotte Mason-trained teachers ranging in age from 101 to 78 – listening to their stories of life in college and in the classroom. At present, he is Associate Professor of Education at Covenant College. Jack and his wife Barbara have two lovely daughters, Kara and Anneliese, one grandchild (Jack Henry), and another on the way!
Topic: The Books That Changed My Life
Speaker: Melanie Walker
BiographyMelanie has been drawn to the ideas of Charlotte Mason since she began her career in education in 1984. They have informed her as a teacher in traditional Christian schools, in homeschooling her own children, and most recently in the development of Red Mountain Community School, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Topic: On Time Much has been written about the ways the sacred enters our ordinary time, bringing grace and glory with it. This theme captures the essence and speaks to an unhurried life, one well lived. I am deeply grateful for the way this idea seeps into and shapes the words and ways of our mentor, Charlotte Mason. Atmosphere, discipline, life, relations and proportions are all impacted by our understanding of time. This offering hopes to unearth ways that the ‘more’ of Eternity enlarges and nourishes our educational endeavors as well as our inner lives.
Speaker: Jennifer Spencer
BiographyJennifer Spencer has worked for thirteen years in home, private, and public schools with children in preschool through high school. She has a bachelors degree in early childhood education and a masters in elementary education, and she is currently pursuing a doctoral degree from Gardner-Webb University in curriculum and instruction. Her passion for Charlotte Mason's educational philosophy and practices keeps her involved in a wide range of activities, including research, writing, speaking engagements, consultant work, and curriculum planning. Jennifer is the assistant director at The Village School of Gaffney.
Topic: How Firm a Foundation: Rebuilding Education in the Mason School (2009) How Firm a Foundation examines the underlying principles that support Mason's methods. The paradigm of education with which most of us grew up was rooted in classicism and industrialism, both of which are very humanistic and materialistic. If we simply add Mason's methods to those existing ideas, we fall way short of the mark. A comparison can be made here to the ideas of salvation through works and salvation through grace; we want the behaviors to be an outward expression of a pivotal change that has been made in the heart. Therefore, we will study Mason's Great Recognition and the role of the Holy Spirit in education, the nature of knowledge and the nature of the learner, and the implications for methodology.
Speaker: Jason Fletcher
BiographyJason was born in St Louis, raised in Salem, Oregon from age 5. He travelled to L'Abri in England in early 1993 where he met his wife, Fiona and since being married they have lived in Cambridge, UK. Jason earned a BA in Theology/Biblical Studies from Wheaton College, and a M.Phil in Church History from Cambridge, followed by a one year teacher training course. He taught religious studies, history and politics at the secondary level for 4 years prior to becoming the manager, and then director, of the Jubilee Centre, an evangelical think-tank based in Cambridge. He left that in Jan 08 to work full time as the headteacher of Heritage School, established in September 07. Fiona and Jason have two children: Maisie (8) and Seth (6).
Topic: Relational Paradigm of Christianity (2008) The debate about the place of assessment in education has been going on for a long time, and still continues unabated. In England as well as N. America the debate has reached new heights, as governments increasingly want to exercise control over the school curriculum and over what they perceive as educational standards.
Christianity is a relational religion, a worldview with a concern for relationships at its heart. In this lecture, we will look at how the Scriptures give us a relational agenda with applications extending from public policy to everyday individual decisions. Practical examples of how relational thinking affects our ordinary lives will be discussed with attention given to the five dimensions of relational living. Brief applications to education and Mason’s work will conclude the lecture. Attention is given to responding to today’s concerns for “going green,” climate change, global warming by thinking about care of creation within a relational agenda.
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