The Living and the Dead: History as Conversation
By Dr. Meredith Donaldson Clark
“Is this story true, Mama?” is the common refrain I hear from my eight-year-old whenever we start a new school book. There is something about a story which recounts actual people and events that sparks a child’s interest. When that story is also about the past, it makes for an enticing blend of the familiar with the unfamiliar. Charlotte Mason offered a method of history instruction where, when “the imagination is warmed” throughout their years of education, students will come “to possess a pageant of history in the background of [their] thoughts” (Philosophy of Education, 178). Such an approach is a departure from the reduction of history to memorized dates and facts which has been a standard in many history classrooms, both then and now. As an educator explains in the article “History and Fiction” from the Parents Review, “in the study of history there is large room for imagination - the imagination that enables us to realize at once the oneness of distant times and unfamiliar conditions with our own, and also their unlikeness. Without such realization our historical studies are dead studies, our memory a retention of mere unassimilated facts (vol 5, 258).
This image of the “pageant of history” is a potent one. Elsewhere, Mason describes it in more detail: “History shows you its personages, clothed as they were clothed, moving, looking, speaking, as they looked, moved, and spoke, engaged in serious matters or in pleasures; and, the longer you look at any one person, the more clearly he stands out until at last he may become more real to you than the people who live in your own home (Ourselves, 36). The “warming of imagination,” the “pageant of history,” the idea that historical figures can become as real to us as the flesh-and-blood people in our lives — these are all the results of spreading before our children a feast of living books. It is a phrase we hear so often in Charlotte Mason education that we quickly skip over it without hearing it properly, but in the study of history, “living books” (and this includes the varied forms of primary sources as well as secondary ones) are what allow us to listen to, learn from, and ultimately form a relationship with the dead.
This week in the Hive, we wrap up our book discussion of Prof. Tracy McKenzie’s A Little Book for New Historians with the question “what connections do you see between Charlotte Mason and the ideas in this book?” Charlotte Mason’s unifying idea for education generally and for history specifically is that it is a “science of relations.” McKenzie’s guiding metaphor is that the work of history is “a conversation with the past” which consists of “remember[ing] the flesh and blood on the other side of the evidence” and “listening for the whispers of those who have gone before us” (71-72). For McKenzie, this conversation can take various forms – that of host and guest, or of juror and witness – but like Mason, he outlines a relationship between the present and the past, and here is where I would suggest their ideas are most closely connected. For Mason, through the study of history, “the present becomes enriched for us with the wealth of all that has gone before” (The Philosophy of Education, 178), while for McKenzie, the historian “listens to the dead in order to speak to the living” because “knowledge of the past is essential to seeing and understanding the present” (84-85). It is never too early to build a relationship with the past, so when I’m able to answer “yes!” when my daughter asks, “Is this story true, Mama?,” I know that I am furnishing her mental pageant of history with living stories.
Want to continue the conversation? Listen in as Dr. McKenzie himself answers your questions in our recorded discussion!
Lesson Plan Spotlight
You’re probably already familiar with Our Work— a compilation of the year's recitations, hymns, folk songs, and artwork. What you may not have noticed are the drawings in the back of Our Work! These are designed to inspire students as they create their own Book of Centuries illustrations. See it here.
Notes
- NEW Resource: Alveary’s High School Handbook is here—50 pages of guidance on transcripts, testing, college, trade careers, and more!
- Office Hours: Here is the link to the recording of this week’s Office Hours focused on High School.
- In the Company of Ideas: Our October book is Charlotte Mason’s Great Recognition: A Scheme of Magnificent Unity. You can learn more about the CMI Monograph Series here. Then, join us in October for weekly reading prompts and a special book discussion with one of the authors later in the month!
- Student Showcase: Creating is a big part of a Charlotte Mason education, from handicrafts and poems to artwork, compositions, and lab reports. Often, one of the most popular parts of a CMI conference is a display of students' work, and we're hoping to share this inspiration more broadly! If your student would like to share their work with the CM community, please upload it here and watch for CMI blogs featuring collections of work over the coming months!
- Conference: The Guiding with Grace Virtual Conference Ticket is still available! Gain access to all keynote sessions plus 23 professionally recorded workshops. Want a preview? Enjoy these short snippets for a taste of what’s waiting for you. The Role of an Educator with Kerri Forney and The Great Recognition with Dr. Deani Van Pelt
- Alveary Merch: From tees to totes, you can rep your love for Books, Nature, Ideas wherever you go. Shop here.
