Currently I’m reading A Philosophy of Education by Charlotte Mason. While I’m only in the introductory passages, I’ve already been impressed by the strength and elegance of the ideas presented. One idea in particular has stood out above the others— the power of narration.
What is narration? Simply put, it is a retelling of a literary passage. After a single reading, a student is asked to “narrate” back the events of the passage, either orally or in writing. In this way, a memorized pattern of events becomes assimilated into the very fabric of the mind; it becomes knowledge. The student takes the information and makes it his own.
So, here I am. In truth, it’s not my favorite style of writing. I love reading passages over and over before summarizing them, sifting out my favorite quotations from the author, keeping the book open for reference as I go. But there’s something incredibly appealing in the idea of “reading to know”, of assimilating knowledge through reciprocation, of truly gaining a lasting understanding of a subject based on one single read.
In addition, if I’m considering employing this form of education with our children someday, should I not first try it on myself? It seems only beneficial. This being the case, I’ve set myself a challenge: to narrate each section from Charlotte Mason’s book, based on one reading of the passage. These narrations may not be as refined as my other writings, but hopefully I will learn something in the process. And hopefully I will not spend six months writing each one, as I did my last essay.
And…after writing a narration, I will most likely feel a strong inclination to re-read the passage anyways. And I might tag some of my favorite quotations along at the end. I’m just not sure I can resist.
introduction narration
The entire purpose of education is the attainment of knowledge, the pursuit of a deep and lasting understanding of a given subject or literary passage.
Often times, schools emphasize the order in which facts are presented or even the method which a teacher employs to transmit ideas above the simple assimilation of knowledge. This backwards philosophy, which places the method before the result, forces teachers to work harder than their students. The teacher-student relationship is beautiful yet difficult; in order to be beneficial to both parties it requires a perfect balance of roles. Generally speaking, the person who does the most work also learns the most. Therefore, curricula ought to be established in such a way that the student always does more work than the teacher. The teacher ought to act as a guide rather than a lecturer: answering questions when asked, listening to and refining the student’s ideas, and helping to navigate the student’s moral compass towards the good. The teacher lays out a feast of good intellectual fare, and allows the student to partake freely of what they need and desire. They do not force feed, rather it must be the student’s responsibility to reach out and take what is offered.
In many ways, the intellect can be compared to the digestive system. Each human being is born with the capacity to nourish themselves. We experience hunger and have effective systems in place to process and assimilate nutrients. We simply require wholesome foods to thrive. The body is an amazing organism: it takes what it needs out of the sustenance provided and grows and benefits thereby. Wholesome fare makes for a healthy body and a healthy appetite, while weak and insipid fare does the reverse.
In the same way, each human being is born with the capacity to learn. We have a hunger for knowledge, that is, curiosity, and we also have systems in place to process that knowledge. All we require to make full use of this capacity is intellectual sustenance. The mind feeds on ideas. Ideas—not facts—bring growth, development, and intellectual delight. Just as with food, providing wholesome ideas for the mind to feed on cultivates a healthy mind and a healthy appetite for learning. A lack of proper intellectual food emaciates the mind, killing its appetite (curiosity) and making it feeble and weak.
Standardized curricula forces children into standardized boxes. It asks them all to learn the same things in the same way. Yet what child is standard?
The system of learning outlined in the introduction respects the individuality of each child, and also respects the innate capacity to learn that is built into every human being.
The morning hours of school are spent with books—real, living books written by the greatest authors and thinkers. Text books, lectures, and “twaddle” are avoided After a single out-loud or silent reading of a passage, a child narrates back what they have learned, either out-loud or orally. Depending on their age and skill level, they may read up to 3,000 pages per term, providing narrations for each book or passage.
As each child is different, so each narration will be different. They will all resemble the original work in some way, but each will bring their own unique personality and interests. Their minds will take from the text what they need to grow, just as a body takes from a meal what it needs to grow. Each will be suited to the child’s needs and unique path of development.
During reading times, there is a sense of implied “must”. After a reading, the student must provide a narration. This intellectual obligation is stimulating, and encourages the child to read purposefully. They do not read to be amused, or to pass time. They read to know, and so they learn.
How does a teacher maintain a student’s attention during this sort of intense reading? Most importantly, the teacher must provide wonderful books that are full of beautiful, rich ideas. This type of living book captures a child’s attention in a way that watery children’s books, twaddle, and textbooks cannot. After all, children are born persons. Their natural curiosity responds to interesting ideas and literary stimuli and rejects boring and insipid materials. Don’t adults respond in the same way? Doesn’t our attention wander when the book in front of us just is not well thought out, or our interlocutor is addressing us with condescension? We ought to feed our children on the best that our society has to offer—both in literature and conversation.
Secondly, adults should not summarize passages for a child. The child will learn something from the text, they do not need a summary to understand it. They have the capacity to understand within themselves, and will ask if they want or need clarification. Perhaps, even if they do not understand completely, they simply want time to think about a passage on their own. Allowing the child to narrate, rather than listening to a summary from an adult, inspires their imagination and stimulates their intellect.
Finally, lessons are kept short and simple. Book learning is completed in the morning hours, and includes a wide variety of reading and narrating exercises, as well as short structured lessons in applied sciences and mathematics. The shortness of the lessons takes into account and respects the child’s natural attention span.
During the morning studies, the child is also aware that they will have the afternoon available for free play, nature studies, arts and crafts, or other activities of their choice. Their lessons will not consume all of the day, and they won’t have homework to complete. This time of free play is essential for their growth and development, and gives them further opportunities to process all that they have learned in the morning hours.
This educational system brings stunning results. Children obtain knowledge on a wide variety of subjects. Unlike simple memorized facts, which often serve a unique purpose (such as passing an exam) and then are forgotten, the process of reading to know and narrating passages stimulates an assimilation of knowledge that lasts a lifetime. Students are thoughtful, attentive, respectful, and delight in learning. They are respected as persons and appreciate the individualized attention they receive through oral narration. There is a purpose behind their education: they are gathering knowledge. Both the student and the teacher are aware of the progress they make every day, week, and term, and this adds to the excitement and enjoyment of the educational process.
key ideas
- Reading to know utilizes different mental energy than reading for enjoyment.
- Narrations ought to be done after a single reading, not multiple refreshers.
- Summarizations of passages are often offered by teachers to help students understand better. These summarizations kill the child’s natural curiosity and desire to learn, and should be avoided unless specifically asked for.
- Every child wants to be listened to in some way. A narration provides them with this opportunity.
- Every child has an innate ability to learn. The teacher’s job is to spread a feast of ideas for their intellect to feed upon.
quotes
“It may be that the souls of all children are waiting for the call of knowledge to awaken them to delightful living.”
“Enthusiasm sees in advance the fields white to harvest.”
“The mind of a child takes or rejects according to its needs…whether in taking or rejecting, the mind was functioning for its own nourishment.”
“The Desire of Knowledge (curiosity) was the chief instrument of education; that this desire might be paralyzed or made powerless like an unused limb by encouraging other desires to intervene between a child and the knowledge proper for him: the desire for place—emulation; for prizes—avarice; for power—ambition; for praise—vanity, might each be a stumbling block to him. It seemed to me that we teachers had unconsciously elaborated a system which should secure the discipline of the schools and the eagerness of the scholars—by means of marks, prizes, and the like—and yet eliminate that knowledge-hunger, itself the quite sufficent incentive to education.”
“We must read in order to know or we do not know by reading.”
“Children no more come into the world without provision for dealing with knowledge than without provision for dealing with food. They bring with them not only that intellectual appetite, the desire of knowledge, but also an enormous, an unlimited power of attention to which the power of retention (memory) seems to be attached, as one digestive process succeeds another, until the final assimilation.”
“The mind is restricted to pabulum of one kind: it is nourished upon ideas and absorbs facts only as these are connected with the living ideas upon which they hang.”