Immediate or Delayed Narration

Volume 1, Home Education, pages 231–233 is a nice overview section. The part subtitled “Method of Lesson” gives a sequential list of steps and specifies that “this sort of narration lesson should not occupy more than a quarter of an hour” (for that age range). 

Now, the students also do narration at the end-of-term exams, which would fall under the Delayed category; but they have been doing immediate narrations all along during the term as well.

There is also an interesting passage in Volume 6, Philosophy of Education, page 29, that refers to older children and includes the sentence, “An older boy or girl will read one of Bacon’s Essays, say, or a passage from De Quincey, and will write or tell it forcibly and with some style, either at the moment or months later,” again, referring to both immediate and “delayed” at the exam time.

And evidently, that practice was continued through college—or at least, through Charlotte’s teacher training college. In The Story of Charlotte Mason, page 150, a former teacher-in-training recalls that “No notes were taken at lectures. Instead time was given immediately after the lecturer had left the room in which to write a report. These reports were expected to be short, clear and to the point, covering the whole matter of the lecture.”

I find that concept challenging!