Imagine with me that you want to take a class at your local community center in order to progress in your favorite hobby.

It might be knitting or blacksmithing or photography. Whatever it is, you want to improve your skills.

So you look over the classes that are being offered and you find three options.

One is labeled as a beginner class. one as intermediate and one as advanced.

Now, reading through the descriptions, you determine you already know how to do the skills that are being taught in the beginner class.

And the advanced class looks way too complicated, so you choose the intermediate class.

But when you go to register for that class, you are told that since you are 31, you belong

in the beginner class.

How would you feel?

It's frustrating when you already know the skill, but you're not allowed to advance.

Or what if you go to register and you're told that since you are 34 you belong in the advanced class?

It's also frustrating when you're forced to tackle an advanced skill that you're not yet ready for.

Now you may be thinking, but that's not going to happen.

They don't assume my skill level based on my age. And you're right, it doesn't make sense to

dictate a person's skill level based on her age. Yet we do it all the time with our children.

Let's talk about it.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast.

I'm Sonia Schaefer.

It's true that there is usually a vast difference between what a six-year-old can do and what a

17-year-old can do. But there can also be a vast difference between what your six-year-old

can do and what someone else's six-year-old can do when it comes to certain skills.

And that's the key word, skills. In any curriculum, there

...