For a long time the educational belief (myth) was that the mind was like a vessel, or a bucket that held knowledge and It was the teacher’s job to “pour” knowledge into it. But the more we learn about the mind we know this simply isn’t true. It turns out Charlotte Mason was right (again); she believed the mind is a living thing, a spiritual organism, that feeds on ideas. She said,

In saying that “education is a life,” the need of intellectual and moral as well as of physical sustenance is implied. The mind feeds on ideas, and therefore children should have a generous curriculum.

Tell Me a Story

In cognitive science, feeding the mind with information is called encoding. And scientists have discovered that the best way to remember, or to encode, is through story. 

You’ve probably noticed that things you remember best and longest are tied to a story or an emotion — a memory from your childhood, a story from history, or a science formula that reminded you of a personal experience. Cognitive scientists are discovering that the human mind is made to deal in narratives, not just facts. It remembers information that is wrapped up in a story. And what, exactly, qualifies as a story? Something with a question or problem, a climax, and resolution; and it usually has characters and evokes emotion. In other words, a story is full of ideas. 

Think about it this way: When a new mother calls her friend, or her own mom, she doesn’t say:  “a newborn wakes up, on average, four times during the night.” We just don’t talk that way because that’s not how humans communicate, it’s not the way our mind prefers to process information. Instead she might say, “Porter woke up four times last night! I’m so exhausted I can barely form sentences today. He woke up right after I dozed off at 11pm, and by the time I was done feeding him I was wide awake. I sat in bed staring at the ceiling for two hours, then when I finally fell asleep he woke up AGAIN. This happened over and over until 8am. How will I survive?” 

Every subject benefits from storytelling, or narrative. Instead of just reading a textbook and science formula, read about the scientists who discovered it – the questions he/she asked, the problems that arose, and how the scientific truth was discovered.

Instead of having your child memorize dates and names for history, read the stories of people and events, only then will the dates and names make sense and will be remembered for longer than the next exam. Instead of telling your child how to solve a math problem, read them the story of how that mathematical truth was discovered, or let them try to solve the problem on their own. They will ask questions, come up against problems, and try to find solutions. This is the climax and only when someone has asked questions and experienced a climax will they truly appreciate the resolution.

Charlotte Mason said that ideas feed the mind, just like food feeds the body, and stories are the most nourishing food, the most easily digested by our minds.

Homework Assignment

1. Watch my video on Living Books.
2. Go to the library and read a few books, look for living ones. You can find booklists on my website www.simplewonders.org
3. Write down two things you remember about each tool you learned about this week. Or you could do a brain dump and write down everything you remember learning. DON’T go back and rewatch! Remember: Retrieval works best when you don’t rewatch or reread.

Extra Credit

If you’re interested in learning more about the tools I’ve discussed this week these are my favorite resources:

• Power of Story by Edward Wilson (article)
• Why Don’t Students Like School? by Daniel Wilingham (book)
• Powerful Teaching by Pooja Agarwal and Patrice M. Bain (book)