Let’s look at the difference between a living book, that is full of ideas,
and a non-living book, that’s full of dry facts.
Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonya Shafer.
It seems like one of the hardest concepts to wrap your head around when you're homeschooling
with the Charlotte Mason Method is the concept of living ideas versus dry facts.
Now, we give our children living ideas in several ways; but for this episode I'm going to focus on
living books, because living books make up a large part of a Charlotte Mason education.
Charlotte said, "Why in the world should we not give children, while they are at school, the sort
of books they can live upon; books alive with thought and feeling, and delight in knowledge,
instead of the miserable cram-books on which they are starved?" (Formation of Character, p. 291)
"Books alive with thought and feeling." But what does that look like? Most of us were given
textbooks, or what Charlotte called "cram-books," in school, because the majority of them just cram
in the facts with very few ideas in the mix. So we're used to the textbook, just-the-facts
style of writing and not so familiar with this concept of living ideas in books.
Today I'm going to give you an example of the difference
between a book with living ideas and a book that presents dry facts. Now, I've given other examples
in past blog posts and podcast episodes, so I'll leave links to those in the show notes.
And let me encourage you that, just like any other concept that is new to you,
the more you see it and practice it, the easier it will get. With living ideas in books,
the more you see them and look closely and compare them to their dry-facts alternatives,
the more confident you will become in recognizing them and spotting the difference.
All right, today we're going to look at four different books
on Albert Einstein. They are all books that are recommended for children about 8–12 years old,
and I will be sharing the first page of each one so you can compare and contrast their styles.
Let me take just a moment to review the characteristics
that you're looking for in a living book. It's usually written by one author who has a
passion for the subject, rather than a committee that has been hired to put something together.
It is usually written in what Charlotte called a "literary style." Listen for a narrative
or a conversational tone. It will sound like someone
telling you a story or chatting with you in everyday language across the kitchen table.
It touches your emotions and fires your imagination. You can usually picture in
your mind's eye what is happening as you read, and you begin to feel a personal connection
with the person or animal or event that you're reading about.
It is well-written, not twaddle. Twaddle is dumbed-down language,
often presented in short, choppy sentences. Most importantly, a living book will contain
living ideas, not just dry facts. Ideas that help shape who you are becoming as a person.
Ideas that feed your imagination and spark other ideas of your own.
Now, let's take a look at the four book samples to help illustrate what I mean.
The first three books do not give an author's name. That should raise a flag right there.
They were most likely not written by a single author who has a passion for the subject.
All right, here's the first sample. Listen for the tone—narrative or conversational is
what we want—and see if you are able to picture what the passage is talking about. Here we go.
"Einstein was a scientist during the early 1900s and came up with some of the greatest
discoveries and theories in science. People referred to him as one of the most intelligent
people of the 20th century. His name and face are often presented as the description
or picture of the consummate scientist." (Baby Professor, Albert Einstein: The Genius
Who Failed School, Speedy Publishing, 2017) That's a classic example of "just the facts,
ma'am." Do you feel like you've gotten to know Einstein as a person,
a fellow human being? No. We were told when he lived and what he was famous for,
but there was no personal connection formed through emotions or imagination.
I would put that sample in the category of dry facts, not living ideas.
Okay, let's try the second sample. This is the first page of a graphic biography for children.
"Albert Einstein was born in Germany in 1879. He became famous as a scientist and as one of
the most important thinkers of our times. In 1933 when the dictator Adolph Hitler came to
power in Germany, Einstein left his native land for good. Einstein was a Jew. Hitler hated Jews.
In 1940 Albert Einstein became a citizen of the United States."
(Albert Einstein, Graphic Biography, Saddleback Educational Publishing, 2008)
What did you think of that sample? It was full of dates and facts. You might possibly have formed a
connection with the idea that Hitler hated Jews, and Einstein left his native land because he was
a Jew. But it wasn't really stated in a way that touched your emotions or fired your imagination
and encouraged you to picture it in your mind's eye. The rest was just stating the facts.
Let's move on to the third sample. And let me just insert here that my purpose is not
to bad-mouth or bash certain books. I simply want to do a comparison in order to help you recognize
two distinctly different styles. Some books are written in a living-ideas, literary style and
some are not. In a Charlotte Mason approach, we want to use the books that contain living ideas
as much as we can. So let's take a look at the third sample and see which style it is written in.
"Science was Albert Einstein's first love, yet he always found to devote tireless efforts
to political causes close to his heart. His ardent humanism led him to strive for peace,
freedom and social justice. The young Einstein found the authoritarianism and militarism of the
German educational system profoundly disturbing. The virulent nationalism and brutality of the
First World War served to confirm Einstein's pacifist and internationalist convictions.
Einstein was not a purely abstract thinker. He grasped the world in concrete images
and strove to translate them into words and equations that could be understood by others."
(Know About Albert Einstein, Maple Kids from Maple Press, 2012)
What do you think of that one? Does it contain living ideas that spark
your imagination or touch your emotions? Does it tell the story of Einstein's life
or is it mainly a recitation of dry facts? Now let's go to the last book sample. This
one was written by one author. Listen to the style and see if it sounds different from the others.
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to ride upon a beam of light?
In the first years of the twentieth century, there lived a young man who wondered about that.
In fact, he wondered about a lot of things, and what became of his wondering you shall see.
"In 1905 Albert Einstein spent his days in an office in the Swiss city of Bern, working
as a patent clerk. He helped inventors fill out the paperwork so they would own their creations
and no one else could claim them. He typed out the forms and filed them in their proper places,
chatted with his friend in the office next door, and ate his simple lunch every day at his desk.
When evening softened the sky, he walked home and greeted his wife and newborn son,
and then shared with them a dinner of beef and potatoes, or pea soup and cabbage.
"But all the while he was doing these normal, homely deeds, his mind was somewhere else.
He might be typing or chatting or eating,
but he was thinking about light and time." (Lambert, Lorene. Stories of the Nations,
chapter 11, "On a Beam of Light," Simply Charlotte Mason, 2012)
Now, to me, that's a world of difference in style and tone. Suddenly I have a movie playing in my
mind's eye. I can see a fellow human being who is going about his daily life. I'm forming a
connection. The facts are still there. You know when and where Einstein lived, but the
narrative couches those facts within living ideas. Some of the living ideas that stand out to me
are the idea that you can be doing your usual tasks but thinking about something else;
the idea that it's all right to wonder, and that wondering might lead to something important;
and the idea that you can be doing your usual tasks but thinking about what is important to you.
Do you see the difference? A book like this presents living ideas, not just
dry facts. And that's the kind of books you want to use in a Charlotte Mason approach.
Give your children ideas that make the subject come alive.
Oh, the facts will be included, but they will be couched within those ideas. And it is the ideas
that feed your children's hearts and minds, rather than just the dry facts. There's a big difference,
and I hope these samples have helped you feel a bit more confident understanding that difference.
You'll find hundreds of my favorite living book titles in the Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum.
In fact, the living book sample that I read last today is from a book that we
recommend for modern world history. It's called Stories of the Nations, Volume 2,
by Lorene Lambert. I'll leave a link in the notes to that book and a link to our full curriculum, so
you can have access to all of our recommendations of living books that your child will enjoy.
Thanks for joining me. If you enjoyed this video,
be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. I'll see you next time.