School Education

Originally published in 1905, this book argues that the educational outlook was rather misty and depressing both at home and abroad. That science should be a staple of education, that the teaching of Latin, of modern languages, of mathematics, must be reformed, that nature and handicrafts should be pressed into service for the training of the eye and hand, that boys and girls must learn to write English and therefore must know something of history and literature; and, on the other hand, that education must be made more technical and utilitarian - these, and such as these, are the cries of expedience with which we take the field. But we have no unifying principle, no definte aim; in fact, no philosophy of education.

Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason (1 January 1842 - 16 January 1923) was a British educationalist in England at the turn of the twentieth century. Her revolutionary methods led to a shift from utilitarian education to the education of a child upon living ideas. She was inspired by current brain research, by the writings of John Amos Comenius, Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin.