Narration in Lifestyle and Oral Cultures

One of my themes on this blog is Charlotte Mason education and surrounding conversations. Narration is a central aspect of guiding children using the philosophy into actively learning and processing content. A historical phenomenon that comes to mind lately when I consider narration is the existence of oral cultures in the past and present, especially in cultures whose writings resulted in the canonical Scriptures. Let's explore how these two things fit together.

Overview of the Charlotte Mason Philosophy

Briefly, Charlotte Mason is not so much a curriculum as a philosophy, that is, a way of thinking about education and implementing that education in a way consistent with thinking and congruent with the individual's family environment. The CMEC has multiple pages devoted to resources and philosophical description of how many families implement CM. Subsections below outline major "physical" components of the outworking of CM philosophy. (Here's a link to her core principles if you're interested in the more theoretical reasons she chose the particular elements.)

Living books

The definition of a "living" (versus "dry") book is one written by one person, personally interested in the tohpic, using a conversational tone. While all books used in home education per CM don't have to be living, it helps for a substantial number of them to be. Living books exist on almost any subject, and most "pure" CM educators use almost exclusively living books rather than worksheet-based curricula.

Nature time and study

Charlotte recognized benefits of children spending regular, copious time outside, preferably around plants and animals rather than sterile soil and concrete. Nature time in general, and nature study in particular, are central parts of education. Simply Charlotte Mason gives some tips on how to do nature study at any age:

• Have a blank sketchbook with drawing/writing tools along
• Pick a focus (e.g., a part of nature)
• Learn on location
• Take time to examine closely
• Record observations--draw, paint, write, etc.
• Lower level: nature walks with conversation
• Higher level: flesh out with poetry, Scripture, master list of what you've identified, object lessons, projects

Art and music study

In line with exposing children to a "feast of ideas," the study of music and visual art should occur a few times per week. Here are 3 tips:

• Limit to 3 composers/artists per year
• Play or expose children to the work throughout the day
• Learn in more depth about 1 work/week

Narration

Sources for this section are from Simply Charlotte Mason for ideas, process, and tips for the transition from oral to written. In terms of frequency of scheduling components, narration is king. In the early grades (1st-3rd), Charlotte recommends that children orally narrate rather than write down, to minimize excessive cognitive load. Starting in 4th grade, children should write down at least 1 narration per week while keeping the rest oral.

What goes into a narration? First, the parent or other teacher reads a passage from a living book, aloud, and only once to ensure that children pay attention. The passage length can gradually increase with children's skill and age, although this isn't a hard-and-fast rule if content is very new.

Second, the child is asked to retell via a paraphrase, including interpretation and mental connections formed during the listening. The parent should not interrupt the train of thought except if absolutely necessary (e.g., to remind the child not to parrot).

Finally, the parent and child can discuss related ideas and questions, and if the child is older select one narration per week or so to polish. The rest are treated as rough drafts. In earlier grades, the parent can choose to write down exactly what the child is saying during a narration to keep a record.

Some ideas for oral narration include some sort of dramatization, "tell me everything you know about __," or answer another interpretive question posed by the person reading the passage to the child. Some ideas for written narration include finishing what the parent has started writing down, using a specific literary form (e.g., letter, obituary, play), drawing, or building with a physical medium.

By using narration throughout all grades of a child's CM education, certain skills are maximized. These include attention, creative thinking, connection of past and present knowledge, and organized thought and speech. CM examinations rely on the power of narration to cement knowledge into children's memories, so that end-of-term reviews are not needed before mega-narration exams.

Oral Cultures and the Scriptures

In my reading for this post, I was surprised to learn a few things about oral traditions and cultures. However, as Husband and I had quite a few conversations about oral transmission relating to Scripture, I had a decent beginner's background in the topic.

Examples of Oral Cultures

According to trusty Encyclopedia Britannica, all cultures were oral-based for communication until the invention of writing, which first emerged locally around 8000 BC, and more widely around 3200 BC. Still, many cultures in the 21st century remain predominantly oral even when writing exists in their cultures. Examples include Aboriginal tribes, Native American tribes, and Pacific Islanders.

Features of Oral Transmission

What is oral transmission like, as compared and contrasted with written transmission? According to Britannica, there is much more to oral transmission and associated culture(s) than "just talking." Oral transmission can exist as the sole or as a supplementary mode of communication, even if the culture uses literature and has high literacy. Orally transmitted works include the Bible, Epic of Gilgamesh, and Beowulf.

Because oral transmission does not involve written records, it cannot be studied by means of written artifacts, but more by interacting with the people who use it, whether as a temporary member of their society or by utilizing historical skill to interpret what has been left in the remote past.

One goal of oral transmission is faithfulness over time combined with creativity of the transmitter. This point is ignored or oversimplified by those scholars who claim that oral transmission equates to more rapid corruptibility of manuscripts, specifically Biblical. Rules for oral performance of a work are extensive and systematic, including "formulaic phrases, typical scenes, and story patterns." Thus, cultures giving a role to oral transmission are rule-governed, expect an active audience, and place constraints around the performance within which one can vary.

Many types of communication are used in oral cultures. Just a few include . . .

• Territory maps
• Praise/criticism of a public or private figure
• Life storytelling
• Describing appropriate moral behavior
• Conveying history
• Preserving law codes
• Performing poetry/drama
• Communicating social protest

Oral Transmission and Scriptural Manuscripts

New Testament scholar David Bauckham, who wrote Jesus and the Eyewitnesses (which I hope to at least begin reading by the time this post comes out), dives into the meaning of eyewitness testimony in relation to the written Gospel accounts. As relevant to this section topic, key points in sequence are:

1. Society in which the events recorded in the Gospel accounts happened were not as literate as US society today. 
2. This same society (New Testament) was an oral culture, therefore having oral culture features discussed earlier in this post. 
3. Eyewitness testimony forms the content base of all 4 accounts, which were written down when at least one eyewitness to said events was still alive (this is scholarly consensus). 
4. Due to features maximizing reliability over generations of oral traditions and testimony, the Gospel accounts are reliable. 
5. Because New Testament culture is significantly different from contemporary US culture, “reliability” does not connote the same modes of composition, quotation, etc., across both. 

This is a very large topic that can’t be discussed fully even in a book the length of Bauckham’s, much less this post. Hopefully, though, I have piqued your curiosity and clarified the basics of need-to-know information on scriptural reliability as situated within oral cultures. 

Using Narration in a Non-Oral Culture

Like everyone else living in the United States today, Husband and I do not live in a primarily oral culture. Yet, we both gravitate toward the method of narration to convey and learn certain types of information and analysis, especially with Child who is not yet reading (so everything is oral in that department right now). 

As the Britannica article notes, oral features are widespread for selected types and modes of communication even in the most non-oral cultures. Here are a few ways we incorporate such communication in our household culture:

• Transform written to oral by reading Child’s favorite books aloud often enough that we all can recite them from memory
• Use stereotypical phrases and sentences when performing routine actions (e.g., diaper changes, bedtime sequence) so Child knows precisely what to expect at each stage and can respond appropriately
• Take Child along to weekly worship, which uses the same liturgy every Sunday. By now, we don’t refer to the Book of Common Prayer except for things that vary by Sunday (Psalm, specific Collect sometimes) so worship is now an act of contextual memory for our family

What are your thoughts on narration? How do you use it within your own household or friend group?