2011 Reprint of 1935 Edition. Charlotte Maria Shaw Mason (1842-1923) was a British educator who invested her life in improving the quality of children's education. She was founder of the Charlotte Mason College of Education in England and was 100 years ahead of her time in developing an education philosophy that stressed bringing broad and stimulating education to a child in a noncompetitive, biblically based way. Mason's timeless, practical insights and her stress on the responsibility of the home have made her a founding influence in the home schooling movement. Her work has been especially influential in the United States.