Book Club: Poetic Knowledge {Chapter 7}

Here we are at the end, it seems. Next week is the summing up week, but this week finishes all of the reading {for now…I plan to reread this book every other year or so as it is…my favorite}.

I know that Mystie the Summarizer will probably boil a lot of this chapter down for us, so I thought I’d dig into some of the details to answer the question, “What would education in the poetic mode look like today?” My short answer is: like Ambleside, done rightly.

I’m not saying it’s the only way, mind you, but it embodies the elements in a way I’ve never seen anywhere else.

Plus I’m biased because it’s ours and we love it.

Ahem.

So what are some of the components? Taylor says…..

• Grammar: Grammar is not poetic, except for possibly when done completely in conversation. For instance, a child says to you, “Me and him are going for a walk in the backyard,” and you correct the child and say, “He and I are…” and have the child repeat the phrase back to you properly. Other than this, Taylor very firmly believes that grammar should only be taught after years of exposure to literature.
• Even a year ago, I would have said that I doubted the wisdom of this, but I acted on faith because my oldest is such a natural with words that I didn’t think I could really harm him by following this advice {which is very similar to Charlotte Mason’s advice–formal grammar is introduced around ages 9 or 10 and not before}. The funny thing is, if my son’s Term Three written exam answers are any indication, grammar really is improved upon with each passing year of reading {as long as the books are of the highest possible quality and content} without much intervention on the part of the teacher. People tell me that he “speaks and writes like a book” and that they can tell that he “reads a lot.” This is really an indication that even within the broad culture there is an underlying poetic understanding that it is good books and brilliant authors–the absolute masters of their trade–that best teach grammar.
• One other aside: this whole train of thought has derailed one of my plans for the coming school year. I procured, upon the advice of Meredith from Australia {thank you!} a copy of First Language Lessons by Jesse Wise. My plan, in order to be efficient, was to incorporate it into Circle Time. I’ve decided not to do that, but rather to schedule regular grammar lessons one-on-one with only my oldest student. As my students become ready for formal grammar, I will slowly transition this into a small group. The more I think about this, the more I like the idea of having a version of Circle Time once or twice per week with my older students, to feed their brains better and connect with them on their level. Perhaps this could be during naptime and I could serve herbal tea? {Crumpets, anyone?}
• Latin: Latin is to be taught conversationally, by a tutor who is fluent…much like grammar, actually.
• The problem is that the ideal and the real don’t balance here. I. can’t. teach. Latin. I mentioned this on Monday–I’m considering Visual Latin for Year Four as an alternative to…well, doing nothing much. All of the reviews say that there is a lot of laughter and that the teacher’s love for Latin is contagious, and that is about as poetic as I think Latin will get around here. Some of this recovery work is necessarily generational in nature.
• History: Names and dates? Yes, but always embedded in their stories. Children are never to read textbooks, but rather primary sources or history story books. My guess is that there wouldn’t be a lot of drilling, either.
• This is something I really trust. Any history fact memorization that was ever required of me, I have forgotten, but I manage to remember a ton of history that I have read in story form. I might not be as precise as someone who has been drilled–sort of like when I remember a verse and know where it was located on a page, but not the exact reference–but the recall is much, much better. My memory works very poetically in this way, and so I use this approach with our children. I never drill facts, at least not that I can think of. For poetry, scripture, and other memorization, we learn entire poems, complete passages, and so on. The importance of this is that it keeps everything in context. All of this reminds me of what S.S. Laurie said about Comenius’ approach:
  

  But the exercise of the memory does not mean the wearing the pupil out by requiring him to learn things off by heart; but the frequent and sufficient presentation of things clearly understood, till, of their own accord, they adhere.

• Science: At the young ages, at the level of beginner, biology is the name of the game. But this is biology Fabre style–observation of the living rather than the dead {no dissection}, of wholes rather than parts {which includes viewing something in its natural habitat rather than in a classroom or laboratory}. In fact, the great outdoors is the child’s biology lab. Once again: no textbooks. Children are to keep a nature journal that includes their own notes, pictures {drawings}, poems, and stories of what they have seen.
• Once again, we see that this perfectly dovetails with Charlotte Mason, and reaffirms the recent changes made to Ambleside’s science emphasis. In Ambleside, we are to use the Handbook of Nature Study mainly as a reference for the mother/teacher. Also, a library of field guides is recommended, to help us identify {rightly name and therefore know} what we are seeing.
• Ambleside also includes some books written by naturalists. I have found these to be beneficial: Clara Dillingham Pierson’s Among the People Series, The Burgess Animal Book for Children, and Secrets of the Woods. I have found that the last one especially gave the example of the heart of a naturalist, and I think my oldest had the desire to emulate Mr. Long.

I think that, once again, we can see what a genius Charlotte Mason was, and I cannot help but wonder why Taylor didn’t include her among the “voices for poetic knowledge” after Descartes. I suppose it is possible he simply hadn’t heard of her at that time. But he managed to feature an obscure school in France, so I wonder.

Nevertheless, I think that Charlotte is a voice of poetic knowledge, not just for yesterday, but for today, for it is she {thanks to Susan Schaeffer Macauley} who has managed to bring it into the homes of American family schools.

A Note on Faith
At my reading group on Monday night, we had an interesting conversation about what the point of all of this is, and who decides what a classic work is anyhow? And so on and so forth. Our discussion centered around the last pages of Chapter 7 from A Philosophy of Education:

We forget that it is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God shall man live,––whether it be spoken in the way of some truth of religion, poem, picture, scientific discovery, or literary expression; by these things men live and in all such is the life of the spirit. The spiritual life requires the food of ideas for its daily bread.

And also this:

I have sometimes heard it said that you should not teach patriotism in the school. I dissent from that doctrine. I think that patriotism should be taught in the schools. I will tell you what I mean by patriotism. By patriotism I do not mean Jingoism, but what I mean by patriotism is an intelligent appreciation of all things noble in the romances, in the literature and in the history of one’s own country. Young people should be taught to admire what is great while they are at school . . .

Of course there is a great deal to criticise in any country, and I should be the last person to suggest that the critical faculty should not be exercised and trained at school. But before we teach children to criticise the institutions of their country, before we teach them to be critical of what is bad, let us teach them to recognize and admire what is good. After all life is very short; we all of us have only one life to live, and during that life let us get into ourselves as much love, as much admiration, as much elevating pleasure as we can, and if we view education merely as discipline in critical bitterness, then we shall lose all the sweets of life and we shall make ourselves unnecessarily miserable. There is quite enough sorrow and hardship in this world as it is without introducing it prematurely to young people. {emphasis mine}

Teaching in the poetic mode is, in one sense, simply encouraging children to fall completely in love with God’s creation and with His order. It is teaching them to love what is good. The training that we attempt for them while they are young will allow for them to fulfill this command as well:

[W]hatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.