Whether in homeschooling, public or private schooling, the teacher finds that the appeal and wonder of narration that Charlotte Mason employed is not without its challenges. This episode addresses commonly asked questions and confusion surrounding the implementation of narration to offer some practical solutions to difficulties you may encounter in the classroom.

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“Even with regular lessons and short lessons, a further stimulus may be occasionally necessary to secure the attention of the child. His desire of approbation may ask the stimulus, not only of a word of praise, but of something in the shape of a reward to secure his utmost efforts. Now, rewards should be dealt out to the child upon principle: they should be the natural consequences of his good conduct.” (1/142)

“In considering the means of securing attention, it has been necessary to refer to discipline––the dealing out of rewards and punishments,––a subject which every tyro of a nursery maid or nursery governess feels herself very competent to handle. But this, too, has its scientific aspect: there is a law by which all rewards and punishments should be regulated: they should be natural, or, at any rate, the relative consequences of conduct; should imitate, as nearly as may be without injury to the child, the treatment which such and such conduct deserves and receives in after life.” (1/148)

“Let the boy read and he knows, that is, if he must tell again what he has read.” (6/261)

“…while we grown-up persons read and forget because we do not take the pains to know as we read, these young students have the powers of perfect recollection and just application because they have read with attention and concentration and have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration, or, the gist of some portion of it, in writing.” (6/185)

“Not only is narration not verbal memory, but reading and narration do not constitute the whole of the lesson. They are the kernel but not the whole fruit. There is the introduction and connection with the last lesson; there is the intelligent use of map, blackboard and pictures; there is the time after the narration for discussion. If a part of the lesson for any reason has to be omitted, this part may never be the narration, for narration is not, as so many people think, a test of the knowledge gained, but an integral part of the acquisition of knowledge, and the means whereby the ‘food of the mind’ (i.e. knowledge) is digested.” (PR36, pp. 780-782)

“Narration, however, if of many kinds, though always the answer to the question (put mentally): ‘What comes next?’ Obviously it requires some power of concentration from the first. Very young children, in the nursery class, are not expected to narrate, but often they insist on doing so because of this instinct to ‘tell all about it’ to somebody. How many of us can refrain from telling that good story we heard yesterday? And anything that must be remembered, do we not repeat it even if it is only ‘First turning to the left and third to the right’? Narration is extraordinarily satisfying to the narrator, though, alas, a little boring sometimes for the listener since he is getting it at secondhand.

“It must be, we know, the child’s answer to ‘What comes next?’ It can be acted, with good speaking parts and plenty of criticism from actors and onlookers; nothing may be added or left out. Map drawing can be an excellent narration, or, maybe, clay modelling will supply the means to answer that question, or paper and poster paints, or chalks, even a paper model with scissors and paste pot. Always, however, there should be talk as well, the answer expressed in words; that is, the picture painted, the clay model, etc., will be described and fully described, because, with few exceptions, only words are really satisfying.

“When children reach the middle school other types of narration may be used; they can offer headings to cover the lesson and then narrate by filling in the details under each heading or the class may be divided into small groups with a leader in each one and narrate part of or all the lesson…

“As to the interesting extras that the teacher can add, they may either come at the beginning, to arouse interest or curiosity or, generally better, at the end in those few minutes so jealously saved for questions, remarks, etc., which round off the perfect lesson.

“Narration in silence needs great concentration, but once mastered it gives the possessor the power of carrying on his education for the rest of his life.” (Wix, PR 68, pp. 61-63)

Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

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Episode 196: Short Topics #3

Homeschooling with Charlotte Mason’s method is truly a joy when employing her foundational, and unique, use of narration. This episode unpacks the basics of why children make excellent narrators and learn abundantly through building that skill, as well as some basics of how to begin and make use of “telling.”

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“As we have already urged, there is but one right way, that is, children must do the work for themselves. They must read the given pages and tell what they have read, they must perform, that is, what we may call the act of knowing. We are all aware, alas, what a monstrous quantity of printed matter has gone into the dustbin of our memories, because we have failed to perform that quite natural and spontaneous ‘act of knowing,’ as easy to a child as breathing and, if we would believe it, comparatively easy to ourselves. The reward is two-fold: no intellectual habit is so valuable as that of attention; it is a mere habit but it is also the hall-mark of an educated person. Use is second nature…” (6/99)

“Children Narrate by Nature.––Narrating is an art, like poetry-making or painting, because it is there, in every child’s mind, waiting to be discovered, and is not the result of any process of disciplinary education. A creative fiat calls it forth. ‘Let him narrate’; and the child narrates, fluently, copiously, in ordered sequence, with fit and graphic details, with a just choice of words, without verbosity or tautology, so soon as he can speak with ease. This amazing gift with which normal children are born is allowed to lie fallow in their education.” (1/231)

“Indeed, it is most interesting to hear children of seven or eight go through a long story without missing a detail, putting every event in its right order. These narrations are never a slavish reproduction of the original. A child’s individuality plays about what he enjoys, and the story comes from his lips, not precisely as the author tells it, but with a certain spirit and colouring which express the narrator. By the way, it is very important that children should be allowed to narrate in their own way, and should not be pulled up or helped with words and expressions from the text.” (1/289)

“…power of knowing, evinced by the one sure test,––they
are able to ‘tell’ each work they have read not only with accuracy but
with spirit and originality. How is it possible, it may be asked, to
show originality in ‘mere narration’? Let us ask Scott, Shakespeare,
Homer, who told what they knew, that is narrated, but with continual
scintillations from their own genius playing upon the written word.
Just so in their small degree do the children narrate; they see it all
so vividly that when you read or hear their versions the theme is
illuminated for you too.” (6/183)

“Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons,
and leave the handling of such material to themselves.” (1/247)

“Value of Narration.––The simplest way of dealing with a paragraph or a chapter is to require the child to narrate its contents after a single attentive reading,––one reading, however slow, should be made a condition; for we are all too apt to make sure we shall have another opportunity of finding out ‘what ’tis all about’ There is the weekly review if we fail to get a clear grasp of the news of the day; and, if we fail a second time, there is a monthly or a quarterly review or an annual summing up: in fact, many of us let present-day history pass by us with easy minds, feeling sure that, in the end, we shall be compelled to see the bearings of events. This is a bad habit to get into; and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first.” (3/179-180)

“The value of narration does not lie wholly in the swift acquisition of knowledge and its sure retention. Properly dealt with, it produces a mental transfiguration. It provides much more exercise for the mind than is possible under other circumstances and there is a corresponding degree of alertness and acquisitiveness. As a Yorkshireman would put it, the children become very “quick in t’ up-tak” (quick in the up-take). Psychologically, narration crystallises a number of impressions. It also tends to complete a chain of experiences.” (Wix, PR 28, p. 697-693)

“So, probably young children should be allowed to narrate paragraph by paragraph, while children of 7 or 8 will ‘tell’ chapter by chapter. Corrections must not be made during the act of narration, nor must any interruption be allowed.” (6/191)

“If the lesson has been misunderstood, narration will show where, and when that is finished it is the teacher’s part to start a discussion in order to clear up misconceptions, etc.” (PR 36, pp. 780-782)

“Narration lessons need very thorough preparation so that she does not notice till too late that there are names and unfamiliar long words which will bother the class. Such interruptions do no less than ruin the very best lesson, the thread of interest and intense concentration has been broken and the class will have great difficulty in picking it up again…So, all names should be on the board directly the introductory question on the previous lesson has been dealt with, and the children should say them over until their tongues find them easy and familiar.” (Wix, PR 68)

“Knowledge [is] received with attention and fixed by narration.” (6/259) so attention is clearly an important aspect of our children’s education and their ability to narrate. In fact, Miss Mason called it the “prime agent” of education. She said: “You want a child to remember? Then secure his whole attention, the fixed gaze of his mind, as it were, upon the fact to be remembered” (1/156)

“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” (6/14)

“I dwell on the single reading because,.. it is impossible to fix attention on that which we have heard before and know we shall hear again. (6/261)

“This is a bad habit to get into; [she warned] and we should do well to save our children by not giving them the vague expectation of second and third and tenth opportunities to do that which should have been done at first. (3/179)

“the power of such composition is innate in children and is not the result of instruction. Two or three points are important. Children in lB require a quantity of matter to be read to them, graduated, not according to their powers [ — ] which are always present, but they require a little time to employ their power of fixed attention and that other power which they possess of fluent narration. (6/191)

“…he learns that one time is not ‘as good as another’; that there is no right time left for what is not done in its own time; and this knowledge alone does a great deal to secure the child’s attention to his work.” (1/142)

“…that the school tasks be done, and done well, in the assigned time, should be a most fixed law. The young people will maintain that it is impossible, but let the mother insist; she will thereby cultivate the habit of attention…” (5/195)

“…the unspoken demand of children for a wide and very varied curriculum.” (6/14)

“The natural provision for the appropriation and assimilation of Knowledge is adequate, and no stimulus is required; but some moral control is necessary to secure the act of attention; a child receives this in the certainty that he will be required to recount what he has read. (6/18)

“…you must not only fix his attention upon each new lesson, but each must be so linked into the last that it is impossible for him to recall one without the other following in its train.” (1/157)

“Even with regular lessons and short lessons, a further stimulus may be occasionally necessary to secure the attention of the child. His desire of approbation may ask the stimulus, not only of a word of praise, but of something in the shape of a reward to secure his utmost efforts. Now, rewards should be dealt out to the child upon principle: they should be the natural consequences of his good conduct.” (1/142)

“Marks, prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame, or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect.” (6/7)

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 (Vol. 3), Chapter XVI

An Essay Towards a Philosophy of Education (Vol. 6), Introduction, Chapter X

Atomic Habits, James Clear

Writing to Learn, William Zinsser

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Episode 186: Method of Lessons

A helpful article on narration from the Parents’ Review

Charlotte Mason summed up her underpinning principles of education in a few succinct points. This episode is the first in a series that will take a related group of principles and unfold them one by one. Find a friend or share with your study group to discuss the questions after listening to the content and thinking through the accompanying questions.

Listen Now:

(1) Children are born persons.

(2) They are not born either good or bad, but with possibilities for good and evil.

(3) The principles of authority on the one hand, and of obedience on the other, are natural, necessary and fundamental; but–

(4) These principles are limited by the respect due to the personality of children, which must not be encroached upon, whether by the direct use of fear or love, suggestion or influence, or by undue play upon any one natural desire. 

“…the fact is, that a few broad essential principles cover the whole field, and these once fully laid hold of, it is as easy and natural to act upon them as it is to act upon our knowledge of such facts as that fire burns and water flows.” (1/10)

“Questions there will always be, but if we continually keep in touch with Miss Mason’s thought by constant reading of all her books, we shall have a sheaf of principles at command by which we can test the value of this or that criticism, this or that book.” (Franklin. PR 36 p. 419)

“We believe that the first article of our PNEU educational creed–’children are born persons’–is of a revolutionary character; for what is a revolution but a complete reversal of attitude?” (Children Are Born Persons Pamphlet/2)

“…that all children bring with them much capacity which is not recognized by their teachers, chiefly intellectual capacity, ([which is] always in advance of motor power), which we are apt to drown in deluges of explanation, or dissipate in futile labours in which there is no advance.” (6/31)

“But the educator has to deal with a self-acting, self-developing being, and his business is to guide, and assist in, the production of the latent good in that being, the dissipation of the latent evil, the preparation of the child to take his place in the world at his best, with every capacity for good that is in him developed into a power.” (1/9)

“Sin, name we it, wherein we all have part
If any way be open to save his way,
Willful, we make our choice to disobey.
In man’s first disobedience shine we all;
That little thing we’re bidden works our fall.”
(SOTW)

“He knows better, it is true, but then he does not trust his own intuitions; he shapes his life on any pattern set before him, and with the fatal tint of human nature upon him he is more ready to imitate a bad pattern than a good.” (1/18)

“One of many ways in which parents are apt to have too low an opinion of their children is in the matter of their faults. A little child shows some ugly trait––he is greedy, and gobbles up his sister’s share of the goodies as well as his own; he is vindictive, ready to bite or fight the hand that offends him; he tells a lie;––no, he did not touch the sugar-bowl or the jam-pot. The mother puts off the evil day: she knows she must sometime reckon with the child for those offenses, but in the meantime she says, “Oh, it does not matter this time; he is very little, and will know better by-and-by.” To put the thing on no higher grounds, what happy days for herself and her children would the mother secure if she would keep watch at the place of the letting out of waters! If the mother settle it in her own mind that the child never does wrong without being aware of his wrong-doing, she will see that is not too young to have his fault corrected or prevented. Deal with a child on his first offense, and a grieved look is enough to convict the little transgressor; but let him go on until a habit of wrong-doing is formed, and the cure is a slow one; then the mother has no chance until she has formed in him a contrary habit of well-doing. To laugh at ugly tempers and let them pass because the child is small, is to sow the wind.” (1/19)

“The man who can make himself do what he wills has the world before him, and it rests with parents to give their children this self-compelling power as a mere matter of habit.” (3/20)

“The man who can make himself do what he wills has the world before him, and it rests with parents to give their children this self-compelling power as a mere matter of habit.” (3/20)

“…laying ourselves out for the thanks of our children….has more share in the undoing of families than any other single cause.” (2/12)

“The centurion in the Gospels [who] says: “I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, ‘Go,’ and he go; another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” (3/15)

“Now, the first thing we ask for in a ruler is, ‘Is he able to rule? Does he know how to maintain his authority?’ A ruler who fails to govern … fails in the essential attribute of his office. This is even more true in the family than in the State” (2/10)

“Children are quick to discriminate between the mere will and pleasure of the arbitrary teacher or parent and the chastened authority of him who is himself under rule.” (6/71)

“…must see without watching, know without telling, be on the alert always, yet never obviously, fussily so…choose to obey of their own accord, their power of initiative is strengthened.” (3/31)

“Nobody knows better than the wise mother the importance of giving a child time to collect himself for a decisive moment.” (3/22)

“Obedience to conscience, law, and divine direction are the whole duty of man (1/161)

“Only at home can children be trained in the chivalrous temper of ‘proud submission and dignified obedience‘; and if the parents do not inspire and foster deference, reverence, and loyalty, how shall these crowning graces of character thrive in a hard and emulous world? (2/13)

“Docility implies equality as both are pursuing the same ends” (6/71)

“It is the part of the teacher to secure willing obedience, not so much to himself as to the laws of the school and the claims of the matter in hand. If a boy have a passage to read, he obeys the call of that immediate duty, reads the passage with attention and is happy in doing so.” (6/70)

“To give a child this power over himself — first in response to the will of another, later, in response to his own, is to make a man of him,” (3/20)

“…habit of ‘proud subjection and dignified obedience’ which distinguishes great men and noble citizens. (6/70)

Bestowing the Brush: Foundations in Drawing Video Course

Synopsis Reflection Questions–printable PDF with Reflection Questions to use personally or with a Discussion Group

Episode 2: Children are Born Persons

Episode 4: Three Tools of Education

Episode 115: Authority & Docility, Part I

Episode 116: Authority & Docility, Part II

Episode 117: Authority & Docility, Part III

Charlotte Mason’s method of education creeps into our entire lives as educators–not just school time. This podcast is entering its sixth season and we celebrate this landmark number and beginning of season by reviewing and reflecting on a number of topics. We take a brief look back on our time together so far, changes the COVID circumstance has made on our own lives, share some news, some plans for the future personally and on the podcast,  announce coming opportunities and ideas for our listeners, and wind up with tips for surviving the constant juggling of home, work, and schooling at home.

Listen Now:

Bestowing the Brush: Foundations in Drawing Video Course

The 2020-21 ADE Parents’ Educational Course

New Teacher Helps Products

The Lazy Genius Podcast

The Next Right Thing: A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Reflection

Juniper Grove Journals

The Lost World of Genesis I, John Walton