A Carden Education

Carden Philosophy

Mae Carden (1894-1977) was one of the outstanding educators in the twentieth-century America. She developed an effective reading method for teaching reading, as well as a comprehensive elementary school curriculum that gives the child the basis for a broad liberal arts education.

According to Ms. Carden, a child’s character formation is a primary goal of education. In 1946 she wrote, “The purpose of the Carden method is to develop well-adjusted, capable, confident, eager, alert, courageous, generous, just, compassionate, courteous, happy children, who have a sense of humor, who will be able to develop their ingenuity, who base their actions on the idea that we come to life to make a contribution to the welfare of the human race; children who realize that happiness is a by-product of doing for others; children who realize that the goal of living is not the amassing of money or possessions, but the attainment of the desires of the heart.”
Miss Carden had a clear idea of the larger aim of education. She wanted children to become well informed, cultured individuals who enjoy learning and life, and who, as she said, "live triumphantly." She also felt that "the basic purpose of the school [is] to awaken in each student the desire to learn and to equip him with a solid foundation of learning skills and basic knowledge which will enable him to reach logical conclusions and to proceed with confidence through a lifetime of learning."

Carden Method

With the Carden reading method, children in pre-kindergarten start to learn the consonants and vowels and the sounds associated with them. They also learn the various rules by which the sounds of vowels and consonants change. Children acquire the ability to sound out almost any word by themselves. In the Carden method, a child also develops the ability to form a mental image of the word. The Carden readers do not contain pictures. Thus a child is expected to form a picture in the mind's eye of the meaning of each word and of each sentence and be able to describe that picture. The teacher works with children individually and in small groups, asking questions and making sure that each child is creating an accurate inner picture of what is being read. The text-only readers also give the children an opportunity to create their own illustrations for the stories.

Children also learn that there is a rhythmic grouping of words in a sentence. Thus when they read aloud a sentence such as "In the last days of Rome" forming something like a musical phrase. Miss Carden emphasized that this rhythmic phrasing of sentences is essential to reading comprehension.

In the Carden method, grammar is used as a tool of comprehension. The children learn to analyze sentences. They learn to pick out the key word - the word that most carries the meaning of the sentence- and to emphasize it in reading and speaking. For example, in the sentence, " Jack made a cake," "cake" is the key word. They also learn to identify the parts of speech, for example, the "who-word", the "what-word," and the "when-word."

Additionally, children learn to summarize sentences, paragraphs, and chapters and to give a title to groups of sentences. They thus learn to comprehend the meaning of the text and to express it in their own way.