OCALA, Fla. – In Florida, it’s easy to find choice-enabled approaches to teaching and learning that blend different influences, in accord with what families and educators think is best (like this, this, and this). But it’s also impossible to miss how some enduring education traditions are finding new life in their “old school” forms (like here, here, and here).
You can add Charlotte Mason to this education revival.
Charlotte Mason was an influential British educator whose vision emphasizes great books and ideas; a deep engagement with nature; and the cultivation of curiosity and self-discipline. A century after her death, Mason’s philosophy is enjoying a comeback, particularly among homeschoolers and in a growing number of private schools like those affiliated with Ambleside Schools International — a network of Christian schools named for the town where Mason established her teacher-training college.Ocala
The network began in Texas in 2000. It came to Florida in 2006. That’s when a couple in the north central Florida city of Ocala, Ken and Shari Ausley, planted the Charlotte Mason flag just as private school choice was gaining traction.
Surrounded by rolling pastures, Ocala may be an especially fitting backdrop for a throwback story. It’s the capital of Florida horse country, with an equestrian tradition that goes back generations.
Ambleside Ocala began with eight students, five of them members of the Ausley family. By 2016, it had 120.
Now it has nearly 300 across three locations.
The original Ambleside serves students in K-12. It’s split between two nearby sites downtown. Younger students attend the main campus at Grace Episcopal Church, while high school students learn a few blocks away in the Wolf House, a historic 1913 home that was moved to its present site in 2019. Between them, those locations have 204 students.
Meanwhile, 78 students are enrolled at a second school that opened last year, Ambleside Magnolia. It’s housed at Highlands Baptist Church and is, for now, K-5.
The nonprofit behind Ambleside Ocala decided to open the second school to ease a growing wait list, filled mostly with families whose children were struggling in traditional schools.
“They were desperate,” said Jill Romine, an early Ambleside Ocala parent and now its principal. “We have very low attrition, so the families would call every month. ‘Do you have an opening?’ “
Ambleside represents multiple trend lines in the state leading the country in school choice.
Even before choice in Florida went universal in 2023, 60% of the students at Ambleside were using choice scholarships, a testament to the network’s vision of serving all students.
“Charlotte Mason had such a heart for educating students regardless of their socioeconomic status or income level,” Romine said.
At Ambleside Magnolia, most students were formerly in traditional schools.
“We have a lot of redemption stories,” said principal Greta Owens, also an early Ambleside parent and teacher. “A lot of students who thought they were dumb, weren’t treated well, were getting in trouble … “
“Here, it’s very structured,” she said. But there is also “joy and connection.”
Charlotte Mason began with the conviction that “children are persons,” whole human beings who should be engaged with serious ideas. She saw education as the cultivation of relationships, not just with people, but with literature, art, history, nature, and God as creator.
In practice, that means embracing “living books,” including many of the great works prized in classical education. In elementary school, Ambleside students read “On the Shores of the Great Sea,” a historical narrative about the ancient Mediterranean world. In sixth grade, they read classics like “The Prince and The Pauper” and “The Yearling.” In eighth, they read Corrie ten Boom’s Holocaust memoir “Hiding Place” and Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451.”
Like the classical tradition, Charlotte Mason embraces enduring ideas and “the good, the true and the beautiful.” But her approach is distinct, particularly in its emphasis on students forming their own relationships with those ideas through observation and narration.
Ambleside students do extensive nature study and nature journaling. They’re also routinely asked to describe what they’ve read or heard, to not only help with retention and comprehension, but to become more active participants in their own learning.
Marlaine Puerto enrolled her three daughters into Ambleside after frustration with traditional schools.
They were learning a lot in their former schools, she said. But at the same time, she felt they were losing their love for learning because of pressure from standardized testing and an overemphasis on screens. Puerto feared long-term progress was being sacrificed for short-term gain.
During the first week of kindergarten, for example, her youngest were asked to practice typing their names and passwords so they could log into their computers. Puerto thought that was too much too soon. Meanwhile, her oldest, who loves to read, was coming home anxious, fearing she was going to botch the next standardized test.
“She would tell me, ‘I’m worried. I’m not ready. If we don’t do well, Ms. So-and-So is going to be upset,’ “ Puerto said. “That’s how they were rating their own success. I had enough.”
Puerto researched several schools before calling Ambleside. She was impressed when the school told her to visit anytime – no appointment needed – and even more with what she saw (a lot of one-on-one help) and didn’t see (screens).
Puerto said tuition probably wouldn’t have been affordable without Florida’s choice scholarships. She makes a living as an equine insurance adjuster; her husband is a law enforcement officer. At Ambleside, the scholarships cover most of the cost.
Puerto is confident she made the right decision. The other day, one of her daughters cried, not because she had to go to school, but because she didn’t want to leave.
“They’re still learning, but I feel like now their education is being fostered in a loving way,” she said. “They’re flourishing.”
There are no A's, B's or C's at Ambleside. In keeping with Mason's suspicion of grades and other external rewards, teachers instead give parents detailed assessments of students' academic progress as well as growth in habits like attention, self-management and work ethic.
“We don’t do the shame and reward system,” Owens said. “They’re learning for the sake of learning.”
(Quick note: Florida law requires choice scholarship students in grades three through 10 to take a state-approved norm-referenced test or state assessment each year, with results reported to parents and a state university for independent analysis. Students with disabilities for whom standardized testing is not appropriate are exempt.)
Renewing Christian education is central to the Ambleside International mission, too. School leaders describe their approach as “missional” rather than “covenantal.” Families do not have to profess Christianity to enroll, and the Ocala schools include students who are not Christian.
Vibe wise, the schools are incredibly warm.
The classrooms don’t fit modern stereotypes. Many include sofas and lamps and paintings in frames. Meanwhile, most of the students wear uniform polos, but button-ups and bow ties are in the mix, too.
Ambleside Schools International now counts 31 schools around the world, including 22 in the United States. Three are in Florida, including a new one that opened this fall in the Tampa Bay area.
In Ocala, demand continues to grow. Both campuses have waiting lists. Parents of all backgrounds, Romine and Owens said, are desperate for an education that pairs a life of the mind with character formation and spiritual formation.
“That’s the gift we’re able to offer their children, whether they go on to become a plumber or a university professor,” Romine said.
All they have to do is go back to the future.
