I often wondered if my children would be able to speak in public since we were in a home learning setting and didn’t have opportunity for speaking to an audience. I didn’t enroll them in a coop or other setting to practice public speaking. Actually, I did, but we only made it a couple weeks- babies, littles, I was tired… we dropped out.
I worried about public speaking. Always in the back of my head-… What if they had a business presentation when they were adults, what if they had to give a toast, what if they had to address a church congregation, what if they wanted to go into politics? They’d choke- and I let them down by not getting them accustomed to it. How could they give a speech? Without a class and setting to practice??
Oh the pressure.
But, I wasted a lot of subconscious energy worrying and wondering if my children could speak in public. While they haven’t had to speak in front of a crowd of hundreds, I have found that they are very capable of speaking in front of moderate sized groups easily and effectively. Adult professionals who work with children, have commented that they are all very articulate when communicating. hum…. what do you know!?
How did they learn this?
I credit that ability to the power of narration.
I imagine that this may also have to do with personality. Some people are not comfortable in front of large crowds and tend to the introvert side, while others are born performers. These things I can rest to God’s control and their God-given ability and His direction for them as they move in the world using the bents and talents he has given them. But overall, my children, the introvert and extroverts, seem just fine speaking to a group.
The skill of speaking in a organized, logical, purposeful way is something that is trained over and over in the daily process of a CM day. I do say skill purposefully. Because it is something we train, it is not an ability. Ability comes into play when it comes as a gifting. Because narration and its by product of speaking well is trained through consistent repetition and practice, this tells us that children can learn it, children can do it. It is not an event to be geared up to, as in a special performance. It is just done naturally- as is everything in a CM education. It is a natural, daily part, worked on little by little, not practiced for a show.
Why is it valuable to do this? There are probably many obvious reasons to be able to verbally communicate clearly to other people. Charlotte, as she usually does, gives us a reason that we many not have thought of and also, as usual for Charlotte, goes deeper than mere surface reasons. She makes the point that an ability to communicate to groups in public is of value to one’s country. Scripture also gives us a deeper motivation to be able to communicate well. One of the directives Christians have is to “be ready with an answer.”
What better way to train our children to be ready with an answer and be of service to their country than through the daily process of narration?
“Fitness as Citizens.—The value of self-managed clubs and committees, debating societies, etc., for young people, is becoming more and more fully recognised. Organising capacity, business habits, and some power of public speaking, should be a part of our fitness as citizens. To secure the power of speaking, I think it would be well if the habit of narration were more encouraged, in place of written composition. On the whole, it is more useful to be able to speak than to write, and the man or woman who is able to do the former can generally do the latter. – Volume 3 p. 88
“They will welcome the preparation for public speaking, an effort for which everyone must qualify in these days, which the act of narration offers. – Volume 6 p.124