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Fictional as Factual
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Is anyone concerned about incorporating fiction into your studies?
I never really thought about it until information from our fiction readings started surfacing as historical facts. My 4th (eldest) and 2nd grader cannot separate the ficticious stories from the true facts, even when I mention which readings are factual and which are not. I do realize that these books may include *some* truth, but how can they decipher it all?
Currently, we are working with a spine which we begin each chapter’s study with, and then they provide an illustrated narration for their notebooks. We then read a related fiction book.
Last night I ‘happened upon’ someone else’s thoughts during my curriculum web search (grammar for next year) which supported my reasons for concern:
“…we do not believe in teaching with historical fiction. Fiction is not real, and a history student has no idea how much of what he reads is history and how much is fiction. Hence, his ideas of history will be based on many misconceptions that were only fiction in the first place.”
Anyone care to share? I would greatly appreciate your input. 🙂
Actually, I do not worry much about this at all. To be frank, the line between “factual history” and “historical fiction” is sometimes pretty hard to find. Just send me whatever history book you are working from and I’ll be delighted to point out the “fictions” in it. 🙂
What you are mentioning, the problems your children are having separating fact from fiction, is a skill, that is learned like any other skill. Lots and lots and lots of practice in separating out this is what is called for. If you read imaginative literature to your child from an early age, tell lots of stories, and just keep pointing out the differences, you’ll eventually be OK. And even if a few things get mixed up—for example, when I think of Richard the Lionhearted, I always think of him as depicted in a book I read years and years ago–it’s OK. All I can do, anyway, is try and imagine what he might have been like that would conform to the basic facts known about him. Perhaps he WAS more like the Richard in that book than the dull guy described in the textbooks. 🙂
If you read widely, and keep pointing out the differences, it’ll all sort out in the end. Sometimes it takes a while–I believed in changelings and fairies until I was a teen, for instance–lol.
I think the key here is the book being well-written. A well-researched, well-written fiction book can actually tell you MORE about the age, the day, the figure, help you to imagine it, feel it, smell it, see it–and a dull, dry textbook can shut you out of an entire world. We experience history with our imaginations anyway, and I see nothing wrong in using great writers and “imaginers” to help me to do this. Even if it means I go to my grave mistakenly believing (against all the textbook authors) that Richard really did love Berengaria. LOL
I wouldn’t worry about it either and trust that your children will eventually mature into the skills needed to differentiate between fact and fiction. What better experience to gain that skill than to read both fact and fiction.
Also, I consider writing an art form. The author is communicating ideas through the written word – just as painters or dancers communicate ideas with their art. I sure don’t want to live my life without creative expression and art.
Humans love words and word play, and we love a good stoy. I sometimes think that “truth” is best conveyed through fiction and art.
Once in awhile we run across something in fiction that we know is inaccurate, but that can be an amusing moment…and it leads to interesting discussions about how and why that inaccuracy happened.
Enjoy the fiction, is my advice.
live2inspire
I would encourage you to keep this in prayer as you move forward. I also share a concern for facts and fiction getting muddled. I think cm said not to get between the child and the book by explaining everything for them, however, when we have it in our power to clarify, we should! I personally enjoy reading to my children and sensing that they are so right there! When I read a description of a place or event adn I see them creating mental pictures,.. well that is joy in my heart. Fictional writers have a freedom to use words that envoke a sense of emotioanl connections with what is being written and it stays with us a long time. Keep asking Him and He will lead you!
Heather in MO
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