The Role of Books in a CM Education

What is the role of books in the CM method?

A. Books are very important in a Charlotte Mason education. I would say that they are foundational- but they are not the only key element. In volume six she says that a schoolmaster looked at her booklist and said that they could do anything with books like that, and she responds that it's not *just* the books- it is her principles. Those principles include her beliefs about children, learning, discipline, the arts, character, about the habit of attention, about the importance of learning to focus all ones attention on a single reading- if you have different basic beliefs about any of those things, then you could still have a book based program and not be very CM.
Several different structures could be built from the same foundation- one might pour concrete and then build a barn, a garden shed, a chicken coop, a play house, a garage, a basement to a three story home, an office- you get the idea. So one could choose a literature based program and still build a totally different structure than Charlotte Mason planned.

For a really good overview of her principles, you want to read Volume 6, the first ten chapters in particular.