Autumn Kern: The Common Classical Charlotte Mason Mom

While falling in love with her college boyfriend, Autumn learned that if she wanted to become "Mrs. Kern," she would have to accept the charge of becoming a homeschooling mother. Now several years down life's road, listen in as Trae and Autumn Kern (Spoiler, she took the challenge!) talk about the joys and lessons learned from homeschooling in the classical tradition with the help of Charlotte Mason.

Show Notes

About Our Guest
"Autumn Kern is a wife, mother, and keeper of an actual commonplace book. When she was twenty-one, she sat under a tree with a man who told her the woman he married would homeschool his children. Handsome as he was, she didn’t anticipate being that woman, but here she is with three little ones in tow, and, as in all God’s providential ways, it has been the greatest gift" (TheCommonplacePodcast.com).

Autumn writes, produces, and hosts The Commonplace Podcast and Youtube channel.

Consider joining a community of Charlotte Mason mother teachers (and Trae) and supporting Autumn's work through Patreon here.

Notes
In this episode, Autumn Kern shares with Trae some of her journey from discovering classical education through an internet quiz taken on a lark to becoming someone who delights in reading Plato and Aristotle and putting into practice the educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason. While Autumn has grown in knowledge and reading abilities, she has not lost touch with the common things of life, including common people. If anything, she finds joy in being a "common mom" called to join The Great Conversation, share in fine culture, and relate rightly to all things in the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. And better yet, she gets to share all that with Mr. Kern and their little kernels.

Some Topics and Ideas in this Episode Include: 

• What if Education Was Not Utilitarian? 
• Charlotte Mason's Place Within the Classical Tradition 
• Responding to the Herbartian "Mind Bucket"
• Synthetic Knowledge Before Analytical Knowledge 
• Charlotte Mason's Principal #4: "Authority is not a license to abuse children, or to play upon their emotions or other desires, and adults are not free to limit a child's education or use fear, love, power of suggestion, or their own influence over a child to make a child learn."
• How What you Motivate With is What You Motivate Towards 
• Moving Backwards Into the Future 
• Searching for "Marks of Authenticity" 
• Solving Problems and Sanctification Through Marriage
• Avoiding Sin in the Pursuit of Ideals
• Wonder Working Mothers (Doing What's Best for Children)

Resources and Books Mentioned / Referenced 

• Grove City College
• The CiRCE Institute's Definition of Classical Education 
• Norms and Nobility by David Hicks 
• The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis 
• Confessions by St. Augustine 
• Institutes of Oratory by Quintillian 
• On the Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius  
• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport 
• Jason Barney on Charlotte Mason and the Liberal Arts Tradition 
• Margarita Mooney Clayton on John Dewey
• Sean Johnson on Technology in the Home 
• Joshua Gibbs on The Teacher Who Points 
• Karen Glass 
• Brandy Vincel 
• Heidi White  

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What is Classical Education?

Classical Education is a podcast perfect for learning about the tradition of a liberal arts education. We invite you to join us on a journey in pursuit of the True, the Good, and the Beautiful as we participate in the great conversation and listen to the many voices coming from the world of classical education.