Many parents and teachers, and college professors, encourage (perhaps require) teens and young adults to read Classics. If you are pursuing a Leadership Education for your children, you know that Classics is one of the key components. But our children should be gaining a love for classics well before they enter into scholarly studies. If they love classics before they enter into more intense, scholarly studies, they will have an easier time tackling original classics as older students.
First
of all, what do I mean by Classic? In my canon, a literary work gains the
title of Classic by meeting these
three criteria:
1 The story has a timeless theme – teaches a timeless lesson about
human nature or truth.
2 The author uses rich language and literary devices to enhance the
theme.
3 The story contains a true hero – a protagonist who completes a
full hero cycle (more about true heroes and the Hero Cycle in my next blog)
Our
children need to hear and read whole stories. These are stories in which good is portrayed as good, evil
is portrayed as evil, and good wins in the end. Stories that blur the line between good and bad are
confusing to young minds. Save
those shades of grey for older students, beyond puberty, who are ready to
discuss the subtleties and true nature of goodness.
Search out stories that teach universal truths about human nature and our
divine life missions.
“Seeing
ourselves as active characters in new and healthy stories
carries the
power to transform lives.”
Daniel
Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories
Our
children need to meet truly virtuous people in the stories they hear and
read. They need these hero models
in a world that praises celebrity over character. Classics give children a chance to befriend truly good
people, observe how true heroes behave, and experience the consequences of
choices in a safe environment.
“Our own
characters are greatly shaped by the characters
in the
stories in which we partake.”
Daniel
Taylor, The Healing Power of Stories
So
HOW
do you inspire a love for classics? If you break out Shakespeare or Dickens
this evening and begin reading, you will most likely be met with yawns and
objections. And the greater danger
is that your children will grow up believing that Classics are boring stories they never want to read. Here are some steps to help your
children get inspired:
1 Read Classics yourself!
And share your enthusiasm for the story with your children. Leave them
feeling jealous that they are missing out on this great story.
2 Share children’s versions, especially those with good
illustrations. Simply familiarize
children with the stories of classics.
The foundation needed is a familiarization with classics and positive
associations (gained through reading together). This way, when they are older and ready to read the original
version, knowing the basic story will make understanding the elevated language
easier.
3 Read different versions.
Fairy tales, especially have different versions of the same tale, such
as Cinderella tales from around the world.
4 Tell stories.
Summarize the stories of the classics in your own words. Encourage your children to tell the
stories to you, in their own words.
Change the endings together.
5 Have them draw pictures of the characters and settings.
6 Watch movies together and discuss the similarities and differences
from the original stories. Which
one do they prefer? Why?
7 Teach them what a Classic
is, so that they can discover their own classics.
All
of this applies to children in the Love of Learning Phase – typically between 8
and 14 years old. But, if you have
an older student who has not yet acquired a love for classics, try the above
steps rather than pushing him or her to read the originals. I will leave you with a passage from
one of my favorite classics, Lord of the
Rings.
It's
like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of
darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it
was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing,
this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun
shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with
you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I
think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots
of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they
were holding on to something….That there's some good in this world, Mr.
Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
