August 25, 2026
Students as Persons with Dr. Deani Van Pelt and Dr. Jen Spencer
Introduction
The Charlotte Mason Centenary Series, a multi-authored monograph series commissioned in connection with the Charlotte Mason Centenary, is designed to highlight and explore the continuing educational and leadership relevance of the late 19th-century British educationalist Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) through the collective contributions of The Armitt Museum and Library, the University of Cumbria, the Charlotte Mason Institute, and other scholars and practitioners worldwide.
This post is included in a series on the monographs. Each post gives a snapshot of the author's motivation for writing, the various topics and content of each monograph, and suggestions for who might benefit most from the work.
Interview
What motivated you to join this research project?
Jen: Originally, I wasn't planning to. I had recently stepped down from my position in the Alveary for some much-needed respite, and I didn't think I had the energy or capacity to take on a project like that at the time. I was happy to cheer Deani on from the sidelines, though. She is so amazing, and I was thrilled for her that the project was coming together so well. I knew that she was planning to write something on personalism, and I was looking forward to reading it. But between her job and her editing duties, and as the sand was running through the hourglass, it became clear to her that she was going to have to let that one go. I thought it would be a grave loss to the project to omit a topic as central to Mason as personhood, and so I emailed her to ask if we could try to get it done together. The timeline was absurdly tight at that point, but she agreed that it was too important to leave it out, and so we jumped in. I'm so glad we did.
Deani: I had two articles mostly written (one that i had frequently spoken on and both topics I had long been intrigued by) that I was hoping to see in print someday. It was such a joy to realize that they could be part of a larger body of work designed to bring together many other authors who were equally passionate about their thinking and writing on Charlotte Mason and the relevance of her ideas for today.
Why did you pick your topic?
Jen: Mason's very first principle is that the child is born a person. Everything else she did hangs on that. Deani had talked with me about Personalism as a philosophy, and I had bought a few books on it based on her recommendations. I am always looking for more modern concepts and research that complement Mason's work and keep her living ideas looking and moving forward because, in my opinion, that's the only way they can continue to breathe freely. (At the risk of putting too fine a point on it, if they are not breathing, then they are dead, and I'm not terribly interested in building shrines to dead things.) Personalist philosophy is gaining momentum right now, and I find that this offers us an opportunity to showcase Mason as a pioneer who showed us a what a practical outworking of it might look like.
Deani: The notion that children are persons is profound. It was radical for Mason's time and continues to be an idea with deep relevance for our times. I wanted to learn more about the history of the concept and about how sociologists thought about it. I also wanted to explore if it actually has meaning for education in our times.
What was the most interesting thing you discovered during your research and writing?
Jen: The most interesting thing for me was seeing the pamphlet showing the PNEU criteria for assessment using the acronym "RAISE:" Relevance, Accuracy, Integration, Significance, and Economy. In assessing student work it is very easy to become fixated on factual accuracy (or accuracy and writing mechanics). In this way, we allow our culture's obsession with objectivity and empiricism to undermine our work. The RAISE criteria show us how to put personhood at the center of assessment.
Deani: That the concept of person is essentially a twentieth century concept and that, according to one historian, it is the task of the twenty-first century to sort out what the concept of personhood applied to education means (making Mason even MORE cutting edge for her time than I had previously known her to be).
What one or two ideas do you most hope people take away from reading your monograph?
Jen: The RAISE criteria I mentioned above have the potential to align assessment with the overall philosophy. It's something we have struggled with up to now--a key that has been missing. That is the biggest thing. Another idea that I think invites us to think more critically about our practice is Personalism as a middle way between Individualism and Collectivism. I want to explore this topic more. As Mason practitioners, I think most of us have rejected the idea that education should be standardized or that education exists to serve the interests of society, corporations, or government (the collective "we"). However, I am not sure we have reckoned yet with the hyper-individualistic nature (the "I") of American Christian conserve ideals, to which the majority of the people I've met in private schools and homeschools subscribe. The idea of the definition of a "person" being distinct from the definition of an "individual" is one I think is important. It will take some time for this one to simmer before we know exactly what to do with it, but I think there is a germ of revolutionary thought there that has the potential to improve many fields and allow us all to live more fully as persons--the "I" in context.
Deani: That the concept of personhood has potential to radically influence how we view, engage, educate, and learn with others.
Who do you think should (especially) read your monograph?
Jen: I think teachers (in both classrooms and home schoolrooms) and school leaders would benefit, especially, from the section on assessment.
Deani: Educators interested in teaching within a religious perspective. Scholars who are learning about and analyzing Charlotte Mason's approach to education.
Any other comments you'd like to include?
Jen: I am very grateful to have been able to be a part of this project, and I look forward to seeing its impact on the Mason community and on the world.
Deani: It was a joy to work with this group of authors--dedicated, committed, and vibrant
Bio
Dr. Deani Van Pelt and Dr. Jen Spencer coauthored the monograph Students as Persons: Charlotte Mason on Personalism and Relational Liberal Education.
Dr. Deani Van Pelt of Canada, editor of the Charlotte Mason Centenary Series, is chair of the Charlotte Mason Institute board and Visiting Research Fellow in Charlotte Mason Studies at the University of Cumbria. She is delighted to have led collaborations funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada which led to the digitization of the Armitt Museum’s Charlotte Mason Collection. Her master’s and doctorate degrees are from Western University in London, Ontario. During her studies there she prepared a defended thesis “Charlotte Mason’s Design for Education.” Currently president of Edvance, an association of over 90 independent Christian schools, and a senior fellow at the think tanks Cardus and the Fraser Institute, Van Pelt is also a Non-Resident Scholar at Baylor University’s Center for School Leadership. Previously Associate Professor of Education and Director of Teacher Education at Redeemer University, a home educating parent to three children, and earlier a secondary school teacher, Van Pelt received her initial teacher certification at the University of Toronto. She has researched, published, and presented at numerous academic conferences across North America, and her work has been featured regularly in Canadian print and broadcast media.
