NARRATION

Narration is assimilating information and retelling it. Anyone would listen closely if they knew they were going to retell what they had heard. Just like when you've seen a documentary and tell your friend all about it the next day, you will remember it better.

Charlotte Mason uses an illustration of a doctor visiting a sick person in the hospital. The patient is in extreme pain and the doctor has written the remedy on a three-by-five card. He tells her this will alleviate the pain, however, he's only going to let her look at the card for a few minutes. Then the card will be destroyed permanently, and he won't be writing it for her ever again. Can you imagine the attention you would give to that card? This is the kind of attention Charlotte wants the children to pay to their reading. When they are retelling they have to leave some information out and that's one of the choices being made by their minds. Charlotte says it is not a mere act of memory because we let their minds act on the material in their own original way. They will classify and connect information. Remember, you cannot narrate what you do not know. If you can narrate it, you know it.

Narration can be used in all school subjects and in all experiences. Charlotte says years later the child will be able to narrate the same passage with "vividness, detail and accuracy of the first telling."