"Creating a lifelong love of learning was Mason’s goal. If children developed an early hunger for ideas, she reasoned, it would sustain them through life. Mason’s philosophy was that in addition to the proper nutrients needed to thrive, children require ideas to chew on, to properly grow. And the source of these ideas, she reasoned, was not typical textbooks. Rather than suggesting that these ideas originate in the mind of the teacher, administrator, or even the parent, Mason believed that the best resource for these ideas were books of “literary quality” or great books."