Fact · Dictation
10minutes
Charlotte Mason wrote that after the preparation of a dictation lesson, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling.
Checked against its source on October 17, 2026
In the source's own words
“After the sort of preparation I have described, which takes ten minutes or less, there is rarely an error in spelling.”
Home Education (Home Education Series, Volume 1), Charlotte M. Mason, Project Gutenberg, eBook 71087, 1886, Chapter XII, Steps of a Dictation Lesson.
Open the original- What it measures
- The preparation is the child's own study of the passage and the teacher's help with the hardest words, before the dictation starts.
- What it does not show
- Mason's observation from her own classrooms. It is not a controlled study, and it does not say how many children or how long the passages were.