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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 make sure that your browser is not set to block them.
Speaker: Jack Beckman BiographyJack's thirty 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.
Topic: From Enigma to Educationalist - Assessing Charlotte Mason (2007) The historian's imagination takes the traces and voices of the past and creates a narrative story of a lived life. There is much to commend in the life and work of Charlotte Mason as we sift through the archival boxes in the Armitt and listen to the now dwindling voices of those most touched by her. How are we to assess all of this knowledge and wisdom? What does it tell us about life and learning? In a conference focused upon assessment in the classroom, an appropriate starting point is Charlotte herself. Let us examine some of the mysteries and extant truths of Charlotte Mason as we seek to assess her ideas through the narrative turn of history.





    Speakers: Deborah Dobbins Biography
Deborah Dobbins has taught at Perimeter Christian School in Duluth, GA for 6 years. She enjoyed teaching 2nd grade for five years and this year has exclusively taught nature studies to 1st and 2nd graders in the Enrichment Art program. Deborah has a Master's in Education from the University of South Carolina. & Holly Anne Dobbins Biography
Holly Anne Dobbins was a student at Perimeter Christian School. She is being homeschooled during her high school years which enables her the opportunity to be an assistant teacher in the nature studies classes with her mother. HollyAnne's cumulative review describing the nature study process was published in the Spring 2007 Charlotte Mason Educational Review. HollyAnne has a passion for nature studies, art, and ballet.
Topic: Teaching Nature Study to First and Second Graders (2007) Deborah and HollyAnne will demonstrate techniques used in teaching Enrichment Art/Nature Studies classes for 1st and 2nd grade students. This class includes:
  1. – a devotion
  2. – 1 minute observation of nature
  3. – sharing from observation
  4. – mixing watercolors
  5. – nature book handwriting lesson
  6. – watercolor painting using drybrush method
Supplies needed: nature study book, Prang professional OVL-8 semi-moist watercolors and a size 2 brush.







Speaker: Megan Hoyt Biography A licensed teacher and freelance writer, Megan Hoyt has endeavored to bring the humanities to life for her children and the families of the homeschool group she co-created, CMeLearn. The daughter of symphony musicians, Megan was raised backstage at the opera, ballet, and music hall. This blend of experiential learning with exposure to great works of music has made her increasingly aware of the desperate needs within our nation's schools for quality arts study and outreach. She earned a master's degree in Biblical Studies from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and a bachelor of arts degree with double majors in English and History from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Her breakout topics will include: "Bringing Composers to Life: The Use of Story to Ignite a Passion for Music Within Your Students," "CMeLearn! How to Plant, Fertilize, and Grow a Charlotte Mason Support Group," and "Bible Instruction for All Ages: Awakening a Passion for God within the Hearts of His Children."
Topic: Composer Study: The Waltz King Cordially Invites You to Attend... (2007) This session will feature a sample CM composer study lesson with a modern twist. You will learn the value of listening to live music as opposed to recordings and walk away with creative ideas to enliven the composer study experience. Listening recommendations will be handed out and we will put a name to those many tunes you know you've heard before somewhere. You will discover innovative ways to incorporate composer study into your regular day and learn new ways to freshen the music of the past for your 21st century students.





Speaker: Lisa Cadora Biography Ms. 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 recognised 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 that employed Mason's methods and has enjoyed a career of teching, learning and sharing her ideas and practice in her own school and with others who endeavor to bring a “sane” education that honors learning in all of its complexity to children and families in diverse settings.
Topic: Knowing What Knowers Know (2007) Charlotte Mason offers a uniquely biblical view of the human knower, what there is to be known, and the process of coming to know that stands in contrast to the views commonly held in her day and in ours. The challenge for those who wish to embrace and operate out of these views of knowing is to resist the ease of and clamor for traditional pedagogy. In a society that places a great premium on amassing quantification in order to ascertain the validity of an endeavor, courage is required to protect the learner as a person by choosing a different route when it comes to assessment. In this session I will address these questions:
  1. 1. What do we mean by "knowledge" and "knowing" something?
  2. 2. How are our definitions of these terms influenced by the society's values and the purposes of the institutions designed to facilitate them?
  3. 3. What is a biblical view of knowledge?
  4. 4. What is the human knower like?
  5. 5. What are conditions that facilitate coming to know?
  6. 6. What are evidences of knowing?
  7. 7. Why do we want to assess? What do we do with the data that assessment yields?
  8. 8. How do we work against years of tradition and mountains of expectation in choosing to assess in a different way?