Generation Next > Stepping Stones Pre School > Philosophy

By way of introducing ourselves, we'd like to first introduce you to Charlotte Mason, the early 20th century educator upon whose writings our preschool is modeled.  Educator and mentor, Charlotte Mason was an Englishwoman who devoted her entire existence of 60+ years toward developing a method for education.   

Steeped in healthy Christian philosophy, Charlotte believed that children are "born persons".  By this, she meant that children do not come to us as empty vessels waiting to be filled, but rather they come to us complete with all that is required to grasp, and to assimilate, information that is useful to them.  Charlotte believed that children come into the world with all of the passion required both to learn and to love learning.  As a parent of a preschooler, I'm sure you can agree.  There's always something exciting for the preschooler and he tries to comprehend it all by quizzing you!   

Charlotte believed that all education is, after all, self-education.  No one makes us learn, we do that hard work ourselves.  She felt that we educators tend to arrogance when we think that we, and the information we impart, are the sum total of a child's education.  She felt education is much more than that.  In her writings, you find great deference and respect for the person of a child. This idea of whole personhood, even from birth, is the lovely premise that defines her method .   

Here is a bit of what a Charlotte Mason education looks like in practice.   

The curriculum is to be based on the best books available to children.  Charlotte was impatient with what she called "twaddle"; that is, poorly written books that don't truly appeal to the mind's appetite.  She felt that great ideas should be made available to children from the source, or at least from someone who had, and could communicate, a deep love and passion for their subject.  

Children should be allowed time to build "relationship" with the ideas books contain, before being encouraged to come to their own conclusions.  Educating in the wake of WWI, she felt incumbent upon her a commission to teach children to think.  She eschewed the utilitarian method of educating, which does much to prepare a child to be useful in our Industrial Age, but doesn't teach a child how to evaluate the worth of ideas.   

Charlotte insisted that a well-educated child is more whole as a person.  A well-rounded education insured that the child would bring a greater scope of understanding to whatever endeavor they chose to make themselves useful in.  By well-educated, she meant a child who had a working knowledge of a great deal of subjects acquired through the reading and retelling of many good books.  Narration is a key component to Charlotte's approach.  This retelling integrates the information for the child.  A child's personality, and thinking, begins to shine forth when choosing the parts of the story they find important.  And Charlotte didn't believe in padding the truth.  She told the story about a little girl who, upon being told a story about a sweet, fluffy lamb, in turn looked with serious eyes at her companion and told him about the slaughter of the pig that day.  Children are resilient, and deeply interested in the truth about the world.  Charlotte respected the innocence of the child, but she was also aware of the responsibility of the educator to bring the child to the realities of the world.   

At preschool and kindergarten levels, Charlotte believed that the child should spend as much time as possible freely playing outdoors, discovering nature and, through it, glimpsing the Creator.  Keeping this in mind, the science program at Gateway Stepping Stones is designed not only to allow children the ability to manipulate objects, but to give them a foundational understanding of God's love and care for them as we see in this world He's created for us to enjoy. We believe in field trips, because they serve to expand the child's awareness of the world.  We believe in outdoor walks, for the fun of being in the fresh air and finding so many interesting things, as well as that the child grasp his first sense of geography.

At Gateway Stepping Stones, narration happens in a number of ways such as retelling, play acting, illustrating, and sequencing.  In this way, the story becomes the child's own.  The all-important faculty of comprehension begins to be exercised in the child's mind. 

Numbers involve the magical connection between the object and the numeral, the objects and the words we use to talk about them, and the place those objects occupy in space.  Throughout all, the process of language and reasoning is developing in the mind of the child. 

By high school graduation, Charlotte Mason's children on the continent were usually fluent in three different languages.  Despite our geographical limitations here in the States, we are still enthusiastic about this part of a CM education.  We begin French lessons using lots of games and songs and we're glad to say that this is a part of our program that the children enjoy.  Stepping Stones' "graduates" have gone on to enjoy French, and other languages, in their later school years. 

We believe in the training of good habits, as well as what is commonly called, for the preschooler, socialization.  The formation of good habits should be taking root both at home and in school through careful training and modeling of self-control.  We believe self-control lies at the basis of every other virtue.  Charlotte was aware of the importance of the child's environment.  She said, "Ideas may invest as an atmosphere, rather than strike as a weapon".  Although her scope was somewhat broader, today we might say, "More is caught than taught".  Education is an atmosphere, and the teachers here at Stepping Stones model for your child cheerfulness, cooperation and esteem for others.  The standards of behavior are the same for both teacher and child.  As a result, we find that the hours spent in preschool are happy and enjoyable ones for all. 

We are delighted to bring art, cooking, and music to your preschooler.  Cooking happens on a monthly rotation, our music program is a bi-monthly activity.   

Stepping Stones finds that preparing your child for kindergarten is more than teaching numbers, shapes, or even how to get on with one another.  It's most important to us that we introduce them to the joy expressed by Robert Louis Stevenson when he wrote:   

Our program, based on Charlotte Mason's philosophy, endeavors to bring joie de vivre to every child. 

The teachers of Gateway Stepping Stones preschool