Parents' National Educational Union

The '''Parents' National Educational Union''' (abbreviated '''PNEU'''), founded in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1887 as the '''Parent's Educational Union''', was an organisation providing resources and support for teachers and homeschoolers in the United Kingdom in accordance with the educational ideas of Charlotte Mason.<ref>Christina de Bellaigue, "Charlotte Mason, Home Education and the Parents’ National Educational Union in the Late Nineteenth Century", ''Oxford Review of Education'', 41/4 (2015), pp. 501-517.</ref> Mason was co-founder of PNEU together with Emeline Petrie Steinthal.<ref>Margaret A. Coombs, ''Charlotte Mason: Hidden Heritage and Educational Influence'' (Lutterworth Press, 2015), pp. 152-153.</ref> The word "National" was adopted as part of the name in 1890,<ref name="Coombs2015">{{cite book|author=Margaret A. Coombs|title=Charlotte Mason: Hidden Heritage and Educational Influence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzgZCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA295|date=24 September 2015|publisher=The Lutterworth Press|isbn=978-0-7188-9402-3|page=156}}</ref> and in the same year, the organisation began publishing ''The Parents' Review'', "a monthly magazine of home-training and culture", under the editorial leadership of Charlotte Mason.<ref>{{cite magazine |author= |date=1890 |volume=1 |number=1 |title=Editorial |url=https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR01p001Editorial.shtml |magazine=The Parents' Review |publisher=Parents' National Educational Union |access-date=2023-08-03}} </ref>

==History== After its founding, Henrietta Franklin played a key role in the organisation's development. She had met Mason in 1890 and by 1892 she had opened the first school in London based on these principles. In 1894 Franklin became the secretary of the PNEU and went on speaking tours to major cities in America, Europe and South Africa. She devoted her own money to the cause and wrote on its behalf, and her efforts ensured that PNEU gained national and international attention.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Franklin [née Montagu], Henrietta [Netta] |encyclopedia= Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |volume= 20 |page= 784 |date= 2004 |last= Oldfield |first= Sybil |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |doi= 10.1093/ref:odnb/53683 |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-53683 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2023-08-03}}</ref>

In 1978, the ''World-Wide Education Service'' (WES) was created as a separate division of the PNEU, encompassing an overseas educational service for company schools and home-schooling.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Power |first=Marlene |title=Guides: Charlotte Mason Digital Collection (CMDC): Charlotte Mason Timeline |url=https://libguides.redeemer.ca/cmdc/timeline |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=libguides.redeemer.ca |language=en}}</ref>

The last PNEU branch in Birmingham closed in 1984, with the organisation itself closing five years later. The responsibility for the overseas service was given to Bell Educational Trust in Cambridge. Mason's Ambleside-based House of Education (renamed Charlotte Mason College in 1938), founded in 1892 to train governesses, eventually merged with St Martin's College and other institutions to form the University of Cumbria. The teacher training programme at the site was ended in 2010.<ref name=":0" />

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://amblesideonline.org/PR/PR.shtml ''The Parents' Review'' article archive]

Category:Homeschooling Category:1887 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:History of education in the United Kingdom Category:1989 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:Distance education institutions based in the United Kingdom