Mason promoted a humanistic and highly integrative model for education which emphasized cultivating a love of learning in children as well as spiritual and moral formation.

Mason was employed in 1874 at the Bishop Otter Teacher Training College under the Lady Principal of Fanny Trevor in Chichester.

In 1894 Franklin became the secretary of the renamed Parents' National Educational Union and she undertook speaking tours to major cities in America, Europe and South Africa.

[9] Mason moved to Ambleside, England, in 1891 and established the House of Education, a training school for governesses and others working with young children.

Mason wrote and published several other books developing and explaining her theories of education: "We may not make character our conscious objective," she wrote, but she believed that parents and teachers should "Provide a child with what he needs in the way of instruction, opportunity, and wholesome occupation, and his character will take care of itself: for normal children are persons of good will, with honest desires toward right thinking and right living.

[16] Mason spent her final years overseeing this network of schools devoted to "a liberal education for all."

After her death, the training school was developed as Charlotte Mason College and was run by the Cumbrian Local Education Authority.

In March 2008, the University announced plans to end teacher training in Ambleside, and to develop the campus for postgraduate work and a conference centre.

Today, one can find Charlotte Mason inspired homeschool curriculums in many subject areas including maths and science.

[21] Mason placed great emphasis on the reading of high-quality literature, and coined the phrase "living books" to denote those writings that "spark the imagination of the child through the subject matter.

[23][24] Mason and her teachers organised the Parents' Union Scouts for boys and girls around the country, both those educated at home and those at schools using the P.N.EU system (date?).