Engaging with story to engender living ideas: a 21st-century Charlotte Mason critique of teaching and assessing reading in the UK (and beyond?)

Throughout history, from the time of the great Roman teacher Seneca to the time of Jesus Christ and on through the centuries to the invention of print, story has been used to enable people to engage with concepts and ideas. However, in primary classrooms today, the power of story can often be reduced to providing a scaffold for writing and a resource for learners merely to learn analytical techniques to be tested on later. This monograph considers current reading pedagogy and offers a critique and a corrective through the lens of Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason’s approaches. The current context of government-led education policy in England and Wales is explored first, then the second part of this monograph draws upon Mason’s approach to reading and to the teaching of reading before concluding with implications and recommendations for current practice. The monograph argues that Mason’s approach should stimulate living, provoke real experiences, and extend curiosity. It should encourage freedom of thought, discussion, interaction, and possibility with and in between the lines of powerful and poignant story.