Is there such a thing as the art of speaking? Oh, yes. I could mumble my way through this episode

and slur my words and dropping the endings of words and barely making eye contact. I think you'll

agree I'm still speaking, but I'm not speaking well. I'm not communicating as well as I could if I used better speaking practices.

The art of speaking well is something we can all grow in, and it is part of the collection

of skills that we call language arts.

So how can we help our students to grow in the art of speaking

well? Through everyday conversations, of course, but also through a method called recitation.

Welcome to the Simply Charlotte Mason podcast. I'm Sonia Schaefer. We've been talking about

language arts and how we can help our students to grow in the four areas of using language

well, hearing, speaking, reading, and writing. If you missed the previous episode, check the description for a link.

Today, we want to focus on how we can use recitation to help our students grow in the art

of speaking well. Recitation is simply reciting or speaking aloud, something that you have

memorized. In the Charlotte Mason approach,

recitation is built around ideas, not just dry facts. So we don't assign a student to memorize

a list of names and dates or words and definitions. We give them scripture and poetry to memorize and recite.

Bible verses and poems are filled with ideas that feed the mind.

Recitation is not just an exercise to train the mind.

It is an outflowing of the ideas that the student has taken in, pondered over, and

allowed to settle into her heart and mind, there to influence her thinking and behaving.

That's the power of an idea. Charlotte Mason believed that recitation was good preparation for public speaking.

Now, if you think about it, there are really two things that concern a person who is asked

to speak in public. One, what am I going to say? And two, how do I handle all of those eyes

...