From Shannon Whiteside:
I love coming across current books that reiterate ideas that Charlotte Mason articulated a hundred years ago. An author that has been especially helpful in this area is Leland Ryken. He is a former Wheaton College professor of literature and has written numerous books about Shakespeare, the Puritans, reading the Bible as literature and his latest, Recovering the Lost Art of Reading, which I wrote about here. His writings have brought guidance to me in the areas of literature, Bible, and history. However, I wasn’t expecting him to bring inspiration in the area of recitation, until I came across a series of books about hymns that were published a few years ago.
In his introduction, he states that until 1870, it was usual for a hymnal to contain only words and not musical notations. Ryken says that when the musical notations are taken away, we realize that every hymn is a poem first, and only later becomes a hymn. When we reflect on a hymn as a poem, we can appreciate the poetic devices such as imagery, allusions to Scripture, parallelism and metaphors.
I had always wondered why Charlotte Mason included hymns as part of recitation and not just part of singing. This understanding of slowing down and taking time to understand the meaning of the hymn makes sense. Recitation is not just memory work, but it is actually oral interpretation of a passage. Mason stated, “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). Sometimes we forget recitation is about ideas and making sure our students understand what they are reciting. The practice of recitation is a wonderful way to get to know a hymn in a meaningful way and get at the ideas that abound in every hymn. What hymns have been meaningful to you? Head on over to our Fabulous Friday post on the Hive and tell us about your favorite hymn and what you appreciate about it.
Notes
1. CMI Conference: The Charlotte Mason Institute annual conference, “Words for the World: To Read and Respond,” is just a little over a month away! A group of us visited Asbury Seminary last week to walk through the rooms, check all our sound equipment, and dream up plans for June. We’re excited. Are you? Please note that dorm lodging and in-person registration rates for groups and students end this weekend (11:59pm EST on Sunday).
2. Exams: While not strictly required, we do find it invaluable to receive a copy of completed and scored exams for the purposes of research and book evaluation. If you are willing to share your student’s exam with us, please compile any separate files you have (from scanned pages, etc.) into a single PDF. Name the file “[Student’s Name] [Grade] T3 Exam.” Upload the exam PDF via the Dropbox link appropriate to the student’s Form:
Form 1 (Grades 1-3) Exams Form 4 (Grade 9) Exams
Form 2 (Grades 4-6) Exams Form 5 (Grade 10-11) Exams
Form 3 (Grades 7-8) Exams Form 6 (Grade 12) Exams
Complete instructions are provided at the beginning of each exam document.
Queries
1. Office Hours
Office Hours: Here are the links from our Office Hours on May 4:
Pre-reading and Preparing for the Year
Our next Office Hours event will be Wednesday, May 18, at 3:30 pm EDT. Lisa Cadora will be with us to answer your questions about the Alveary reading lessons, specifically, and/or about reading instruction, in general. Please submit your questions at least 24 hours in advance by commenting on the event in The Hive.
Have a great weekend!
The Alveary Team
