Charlotte Mason was a British educator in the late 19th century and the turn of the 20th century. Born in 1842, she was mostly educated by her parents. She was orphaned at the age of 17 and soon after enrolled in the Home and Colonial Society for the training of teachers. Miss Mason taught for more than ten years at the Davison School. It was during this time that she began to develop her vision for "a liberal education for all" regardless of social class. In the 1880's, Mason wrote her popular geography series known as The Ambleside Geography Books. Of her 6 volumes on education, Home Education was the first, published in 1886, resulting from a series of lectures to parents. Parents and Children (1896), School Education (1904), Ourselves (1904), and Formation of Character (1905) followed. Her last book, An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education, was published in 1923. In it she revises and refines what she had written in the first five volumes. In addition to the geography series and the education volumes, Miss Mason also wrote The Saviour of the World, a study of the life of Jesus in verse.
Charlotte Mason believed that education was about more than training for a job, passing an exam, or getting into the right college. She said that children are born persons and believed that children are able to deal with ideas and knowledge, that they are not blank slates or empty sacks to be filled with information. She said children should do the work of dealing with ideas and knowledge, rather than the teacher getting between the child and the ideas, dispensing filtered knowledge. A Charlotte Mason education includes first-hand exposure to great and noble ideas through books in each school subject, and through art, music and poetry.