Charlotte Mason included a subject uncommon to most modern teachers: recitation. This podcast episode explains why she did, what it is, and how it differs from memorization. This is an essential in the feast and a great gift to the students and the people around them.

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“Children know how to read, but they cannot read.” (Burrell, “Recitation”)

“Without them the best pieces of English writing lose half their value; the best paper read before a cultivated audience misses its aim; the best lecture is only half a lecture, and the best sermon is an opiate. With them all is changed; the light from the writer’s soul is handed down from one generation to another. For good authors cannot die; the human voice is for-ever conferring immortality upon them. So magical is the power of a good reader that he can convey to an audience shades of meaning in his author which he himself does not suspect.” (Burrell)

“Recitation and committing to memory are not necessarily the same thing…” (Vol. 1, p. 224)

“And if such appreciation can be born when a good reader and a good audience meet, is it not worse than madness for us to look on English literature as mere work for the study, mere dictionary stuff? It was meant to be interpreted by the voice of life; there is only half the passion in the printed page. If there were more good reading round English firesides, do you suppose that the masterpieces of English thought would be studied, as they often are, merely with an eye to the examiners’ certificate?” (Burrell)

“The child should speak beautiful thoughts so beautifully, with such delicate rendering of each nuance of meaning, that he becomes to the listener the interpreter of the author’s thought.” (Vol. 1, p. 223)

“Knowledge is information touched with emotion: feeling must be stirred, imagination must picture, reason must consider, nay, conscience must pronounce on the information we offer before it becomes mind-stuff.” (In Memorium, p. 4)

“At this stage, his reading lessons must advance so slowly that he may just as well learn his reading exercises, both prose and poetry, as recitation lessons.” (Vol. 1, pp. 204-205)

“Perfect enunciation and precision are insisted on, and when he comes to arrange the whole of the little rhyme in his loose words and read it off (most delightful of all the lessons) his reading must be a perfect and finished recitation.” (Vol. 1, p. 222)

“The teacher reads with the intention that the children shall know, and therefore, with distinctness, force, and careful enunciation; it is a mere matter of sympathy, though of course it is the author and not himself, whom the teacher is careful to produce.” (Vol. 6, p. 244)

“The gains of such a method of learning are, that the edge of the child’s enjoyment is not taken off by weariful verse by verse repetitions, and, also, that the habit of making mental images is unconsciously formed.” (Vol. 1, p. 225)

“There is hardly any ‘subject’ so educative and so elevating as that which Mr. Burrell has happily described as ‘The Children’s Art.'” (Vol. 1, p. 223)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

Home Education, Part V, Chapter VII: Recitation

Recitation: The Children’s Art, Arthur Burrell, Parents’ Review, Vol. 1, pp. 92-103

Lady Clare, Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Charlotte Mason Soiree Facebook Group

Recitation Program Details by Form from Nicole Williams

Bible Passages Set for Recitations

Is “co-op” a Charlotte Mason term or concept? This podcast episode addresses the pros and cons of sharing the feast with others.

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“We have still to complain that Grammar and Arithmetic are rather weak. When this has been reported more than twice under the same teacher, the parents absolutely ought to get help, in these subjects, from some teacher of a neighboring elementary school.” (Parents’ Review, Vol. 6, p. 75)

Nancy Kelly’s Co-Op

This Charlotte Mason podcast episode explores what can happen when we join with other Charlotte Mason families to spread the feast together in settings beyond our home. Amy Snell shares her experience in starting mothers’ study groups, a charter school program, nature clubs, and Truth-Beauty-Goodness afternoons with her community. Her wealth of wisdom and experience is not only helpful in considering what kind of shared experiences are beneficial, but what happens when relocation takes you away from your group, how to initiate groups, organizing and maintaining them, and perils to avoid.

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“[W]e endeavour that he shall have relations of pleasure and intimacy established with as many as possible of the interests proper to him; not learning a slight or incomplete smattering about this or that subject, but plunging into vital knowledge, with a great field before him which in all his life he will not be able to explore.” (Vol. 3, p. 223)

“Not all this at once, of course; but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as opportunity offers.” (Vol. 1, pp. 328-29)

Charlotte Mason Institute

Truth, Beauty, Goodness Community

A Delectable Education podcast on the Charlotte Mason method answers frequently asked listener questions in this episode: what if my child hates to narrate? where and how do I begin habit training? how do I challenge my gifted child?

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“By “education is a discipline,” we mean the discipline of habits, formed definitely and thoughtfully, whether habits of mind or body. Physiologists tell us of the adaptation of brain structures to habitual lines of thought, i.e., to our habits.” (Principle #7)

“It is possible to sow a great idea lightly and casually and perhaps this sort of sowing should be rare and casual because if a child detect a definite purpose in his mentor he is apt to stiffen himself against it.” (Vol. 6, p. 102)

“Let me add that the appeal of these principles and this method is not to the clever child only but to the average and even to the ‘backward’ child; indeed we have had several marked successes with backward children. Just as we all partake of that banquet which is ‘Shakespeare’ according to our needs and desires, so do the children behave at the ample board set before them; there is enough to satisfy the keenest intelligence while the dullest child is sustained through his own willing effort.” (Vol. 6, p. 245)

“Lack of proportion should be our bête noire in drawing up a curriculum, remembering that the mathematician who knows little of the history of his own country or that of any other, is sparsely educated at the best.” (Vol. 6, p. 232)

Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton

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Nancy Kelly on Habits

Term examinations in Charlotte Mason’s schools were mandatory. This podcast explores the purpose of examinations, what was covered, and how we evaluate our child’s performance.

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“The children write with perfect understanding as far as they go and there is rarely a ‘howler’ in hundreds of sets of papers. They have an enviable power of getting at the gist of a book or subject. Sometimes they are asked to write verses about a personage or an event; the result is not remarkable by way of poetry, but sums up a good deal of thoughtful reading in a delightful way…” (Vol. 6, p. 242)

“During the examinations, which last a week, the children cover say from twenty to sixty sheets of Cambridge paper, according to age and class; but if ten times as many questions were set on the work studied most likely they would cover ten times as much paper.” (Vol. 6, p. 241)

“The terminal examinations are of great importance. They are not merely and chiefly tests of knowledge but records which are likely to be permanent.” (Vol. 6, p. 272)

If you would like to study along with us, here are some passages from The Home Education Series and other Parent’s Review articles that would be helpful for this episode’s topic. You may also read the series online here, or get the free Kindle version from Fisher Academy.

School Education, Appendix II

Sample PNEU Examinations from Programme 93

Sample PNEU Examinations from Programme 95 (click each link to see full Programme and Examination for each Form)