Charlotte Mason believed that children were born persons and should be respected as such. Her motto for students was “I am, I can, I ought, I will.”
Charlotte Mason believed that children are able to deal with ideas and knowledge and that they are not blank slates to be filled with information. She thought children should do the work of dealing with ideas and knowledge rather the teacher acting as a middle man, dispensing filtered knowledge.
Possibly the most well known of Charlotte’s methods is her use of living books instead of dry, factual textbooks. “Twaddle” refers to books or information that is “dumbed-down” and insults the child’s intelligence.
Therefore a Charlotte Mason education includes, among other things, first-hand exposure to great ideas through books. There are some similarities with Classical Education and Charlotte Mason’s methods.