More than Competence
From Kathryn Avery, CMI Program and Services Coordinator
Flannery O’Connor’s* thoughts on writing resonate deeply with Mason’s, and one of her articles furthers this month’s writing theme and helps us consider our foundational purpose: What is composition? What are our goals for our students and their writing?
Surveying writing instruction in nearby schools, Flannery O’Connor writes, “We want competence, but competence by itself is deadly. What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this from a writing class” (“The Nature and Aim of Fiction” in Mystery and Manners, p.86). She mourned the formulaic writing instruction which taught students the three-step recipe to write a short story but did not care whether they had ideas to communicate.
Further, she was concerned that this mechanistic vision of composition inappropriately separated it from “the whole intellectual life” (ibid, p.83-84). She hated the idea that a student could think they had mastered composition because she knew that writing is an ongoing process and that the “writer—no matter how long he has written or how good he is—is [in] the continual process of learning how to write” (ibid, p.83). O’Connor encourages us to remember that learning to write builds on and is tied to the much larger goal of learning to think and live.
O’Connor proposes that educators approach writing instruction with a different motivation: “If you go to a school where there are classes in writing, these classes should not be to teach you how to write, but to teach you the limits and possibilities of words and the respect due them” (ibid, p.83). O’Connor argues that the teacher’s work should focus on explaining ideas rather than rules. As she puts it, “I believe the teacher’s work is…largely a matter of saying, ‘This doesn’t work because…’ or ‘This does work because…’ The because is very important.” (ibid, p.86). She doesn’t want students to just know the recipe for a five-paragraph essay but why and when they might use that form of writing. She wants more than competence, not less.
Flannery O’Connor’s thoughts dovetail nicely with Mason’s. In her twenty principles, Mason says that the mind feeds on living ideas, and she wanted living ideas presented through books and experiences in every grade and subject. This rich backdrop of words, experiences, and ideas gives students the vision O’Connor saw lacking in so many. Mason’s broad curriculum provides students with wide interests to share and an already extensive vocabulary at their disposal.
Mason’s vision also sets a much higher goal for writing instruction than simply mastering a set of rules and formulas for good writing. While PNEU students learned the discipline of subjects, objects, predicates, adjectives, and parsing in grammar, they also studied the distinctions between words, how poetry works, the effect of different words in a sentence–what makes for quality writing, and why.
PNEU exam questions and answers during Mason’s time (here is one example) demonstrate the depth of PNEU lessons and curriculum around composition. As they grow older students are asked to describe scenes, show cause and effect, explain a topic with supporting examples and implications, write in the style of a particular author, and write stories, short paragraphs, letters, and a variety of essays.
Mason, like O’Connor, aimed for more than competence. She too wanted students to appreciate and understand the “limits and possibilities of words and the respect due them.” Mason wanted students equipped to communicate well and wisely in a variety of ways.
Next week, we’ll dive further into some of the practical ways this instruction progresses through the grades. Share your thoughts, questions, or reactions to these ideas from Flannery O’Connor and Charlotte Mason in the Hive!
*High School Students are reading works by Flannery O’Connor this year.
Notes
1. Member Survey: Help us serve you better by completing our Fall survey by October 22! Randomly-selected participants will win a thank-you gift of choice such as a curated collection of books delivered to your door!
2. CMI Conference: Our 2024 CMI Conference, “The Joy of Making: Artistry, Handicrafts, and Creativity in the Digital Age,” will be held at Asbury University on July 25-27. Save the date!
3. YouTube: If you have a neurodivergent student, you may benefit from CMI’s Blue Orchard Bee resources. Learn more in this video.
4: Recently Read: Missionary Frank Laubach’s Letters by a Modern Mystic includes his “Game with Minutes”–the fruit of a life spent seeking to live in conscious moment-by-moment communion with God. See link in the Alveary Reads List.
