“The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving. People who seek their work or play in this principality find themselves braced by effort and satisfied with truth.”
— Charlotte Mason, Ourselves
Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) was a British school reformer at the turn of the twentieth century, a contemporary of William James and John Dewey. She advocated strongly for poor children, arguing they were equally capable of learning a wide and liberal curriculum as were the children of privilege.
Mason believed that all children from the time they are born share a natural curiosity and hunger for learning, and the adult’s role is to spread a “wide and generous feast” of inspiring ideas.
She was also a homeschooling pioneer, and the homeschooling revival of the late twentieth century rediscovered and popularized her books. Many found her principles a refreshing balance to the dominant educational paradigm of pragmatism.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 