The Power and Simplicity of Narration

When I was teaching high school I used to marvel at many of my otherwise intelligent students inability tell me what they had read in their assigned books or articles from the previous night.  Most were simply incapable of putting it into words.  The majority would howl in protest at my suggestion that they hadn't read the selection.  I'm convinced that most of them had read the words, but they lacked the skill of narration.

Now that I have been involved with homeschooling for a few years and using Charlotte Mason's practice of narration, I am starting to see how brilliant this simple technique can be.  Basically, students read and then re-tell what they have read.  Pretty simple, though there are some do's and don'ts, especially for the parent/teacher.  After the narration, further discussion can take place, especially to note what was noble or good in the reading.  But basically it is a simple re-telling.  What does that accomplish?  Here are a few things:

1. Attention - The reader/listener must be fully engaged to be able to re-tell.  He must pay attention.  This is one of the most important starting points of any kind of discipline and learning.  Narrating many readings over a number of years will develop the faculty of paying attention as well as the other faculties below.
2. Memory - The reader/listener must remember.  
3. Organization - It is remarkable to see the high level of organization required to retell a story after hearing it one time.  Names, places, the story sequence, the important events must all be organized in the mind rapidly prior to speaking or writing.
4. Communication - Narration forms the basis of speaking and writing well.   

Though simple, narration isn't easy, but the benefits are manifold.  Compare this method to the more typical study guide approach - usually a selection is read and then several questions are to be answered about the reading.  What typically happens?  Attention is not strictly necessary, as students can look back at the work to "find the answer", assuming of course that they have even read the text in the first place.  I find it more common for students to read the study guide first and then go on a quest for the answers.  The faculty of memory isn't required.  Further , the mind is typically not required to organize the material.  Finally, the skills of speaking and writing are not developed.

For more detail on the practice of narration see:

• The Charlotte Mason Educational Review, Winter 2007-2008 Vol 2 Issue2  (there is a great primer on narration beginning on page 14)
• Charlotte Mason Answers Your Questions about Narration.
• Advice on Narration from various moms at Ambleside Online.

 

Another Quote on the Power of Stories

Even the anti-C.S. Lewis, Phillip Pullman gets it:

All stories teach, whether the storyteller intends them to or not. They teach the world we create.  They teach the morality we live by.  They teach it much more effectively than moral perceptions and instructions . . .We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence.  (source: John Granger's The Deathly Hallows Lectures, pg. 46)

Perpetual Childhood vs. Maturity

Reading old books has a way of revealing the peculiar features of our own age.  One of those great contrasts is between ideas about childhood and maturity.  Mark Anderson in his book Pure describes our current state as American Adolescence.  In his aphoristic style he writes, "The First Commandment of contemporary America: Thou Shalt Not Mature.  Hence blue jeans, video games, popular music, and pot." and "The many products of popular culture rated M, for "mature," should of course be rated I."  It seems that adolescence is ever prolonged even well past the college years.

This morning I was reading Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son Philip and was struck by the contrast with today.  Lord Chesterfield had written his son over sixty letters educating him in virtue, history, mythology, geography, Latin, poetry, and more.  The I came to his seventieth letter written in 1741.  It is addressed to "Philip Stanhope, Yet a Little Boy, But To-Morrow Going Out of Childhood."  Here is how the letter begins:

This is the last letter I shall write to you as to a little boy; for tomorrow, if I am not mistaken, you will attain your ninth year; so that for the future, I will treat you as a YOUTH.  You must now commence a different course of life, a different course of studies.  No more levity; childish toys and playthings must be thrown aside, and your mind directed to serious objects.  What was not unbecoming of a child, would be disgraceful to a youth.  Wherefore, endeavor with all your might to show a suitable change; and, by learning good manners, politeness, and other accomplishments ...

Intelligence Defined

"Men are often called intelligent wrongly.  Intelligent men are not those who are erudite in the sayings and books of the wise men of old, but those who have an intelligent soul and can discriminate between good and evil.  They avoid what is sinful and harms the soul; and with deep gratitude to God they resolutely adhere by dint of practice to what is good and benefits the soul.  These men alone should truly be called intelligent."  (from On the Character of Men, in the Philokalia, Vol 1)

Do Not Be Anxious and Transforming the Culture...

Quote from Andrew Kern at Circe (see the full post here): 

Promised practical benefits or utility are usually the solution to anxiety. I understand that parents are anxious about education. For the most part, we didn’t receive one growing up in spite of the years we spent in school, so we know the scam of schooling intuitively and we also know that in an ever-growing domain of life you have to perpetuate that scam to get a job. This makes us anxious.

But we are still told to be anxious for nothing and that only one thing is needful. Everything changes when we believe that. We are called to faith, not fear. We are called to be “more than conquerors” not timid. Educators speak of transforming our culture, but then we let the culture tell us how to teach. You can’t transform something by conforming to it. Here is one place where it is better to die than to surrender, even as a school.

The Loss of the Language of Virtue

The Circe Institute has defined of classical education as, "the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on truth, goodness, and beauty."  My own reading of the history of classical and Christian education has convinced me that this is truly reflective of the tradition.  As the Apostle Peter says, "make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge" and the Apostle Paul, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence [virtue], if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."   Not only that, but the language of the virtues is ubiquitous in the great works of Christian faith in the history of the church.  Theologians, ascetics, and other writers on the Christian life all dwell on how to become virtuous and put away vice. A short list of names would include; Augustine, John Cassian, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, John of Damascus, John Climacus, Aquinas.  Those are just scratching the surface.

The virtues can be classified and arranged in many ways, but perhaps the most well known is the classification of the four cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance) and the three theological virtues (faith, hope, love).  All too briefly, prudence is practical wisdom; it surveys the past for consequences of actions and makes predictions about the possible outcomes of decisions in the future.  Both in order to act wisely in the present.  Justice is giving to each man his due (this is how we treat others and give honor to whom honor is due).  Fortitude is patience and courage in the way of virtue (virtuous action requires perseverance and bravery).  Temperance is another word for self-control.

Unfortunately, this language has been completely lost in the culture at large and has virtually disappeared from the church as well.  It has largely been replaced by the language of "rights".  Though I don't have time to explore this fully, comparing the two approaches is quite revealing.  Notice that the virtues are all about personal responsibility.  They are the things that I should "do" and "be".  "Rights" are all about what society or others owe me.  Rights can be taken away and lost whereas virtue is independent of society and the actions of others.  For more, see one of my favorite books on virtue and the darkness of the Enlightenment, Andreas Kinneging's The Geography of Good and Evil.