Charlotte Mason's web

Back to School | With an emphasis on big ideas, an educational philosopher from the 19th century is becoming popularized in 21st-century America | Alisa Harris

Lisa McGowan

HERNDON, Va.—A dad visited The Ambleside School in Herndon, Va., met a group of its sixth-graders, and took a book from the classroom shelf—the 18th-century epic poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. "You can't do this," he told the middle-school students. "I did this in college." The students quoted a section from memory. He filled out an application.

Another parent, thinking of switching schools mid-year, brought his child to visit an Ambleside class. He later told Ginnie Wilcox, the principal, that his son had talked about the Romans the whole way home—the first time he'd talked about school since he started five years ago.

Ambleside School is part of an educational movement based on the writings of 19th-century educator Charlotte Mason. The Ambleside philosophy emphasizes ideas, with the belief that facts without ideas are just "sawdust" for the mind. In this view even children can grasp and synthesize ideas, learning how to engage a classical text instead of just how to pass a test. In 10 years, Ambleside has grown from one school to nine—perhaps because, as Wilcox says, Ambleside students don't have "the bored adolescent look" and they know Coleridge by heart.