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: Lisa Cadora
BiographyLisa Cadora has studied Mason since providentially hearing of her from Ranald and Susan Macaulay at a Rochester, MN L'Abri Conference in the summer of 1982, while an undergraduate education major at Covenant College. She found a few of Mason's volumes in the college library upon returning to school that fall, and was entirely swept up in what she recognized as a much needed antidote to the decidedly mechanistic approach to teaching prevalent in most teacher education programs and even Christian education practice in those days. She was blessed to find a school some years later (Intown Community School) that employed Mason's methods and has enjoyed a career of teaching, learning and sharing Mason's ideas and practice with those who endeavor to bring a “sane” education to children and families in diverse settings. Lisa lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband Matt who is a PCA pastor and two dachshunds who preside over home security. She currently teaches basic writing and college-level reading at Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and is a catechist in The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd children’s spiritual formation program at Faith Presbyterian Church.
Topic: Charlotte Mason Today As we engage life and education in the 21st Century, just how well have CM ideas and methodologies remained relevant for today? Are there current practices and trends that have verified the timelessness of her philosophy? If they knew of her and her views of the child and the teaching and learning process, would any modern educators find in Mason a kindred spirit? These questions will be addressed in an examination of Charlotte Mason for education in the new millennium.
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.
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