Enriching Classroom Education
By Penny Gardner

Do you have a relative, a friend, or a neighbor who is a classroom teacher? Do you have a child in public school? Will you possibly teach in a classroom again some day after your children are grown? Or are you a classroom teacher looking for a better way? Here are some ideas to share with classroom teachers to enrich the education of all students in that environment. For an in-depth study, read When Children Love to Learn.

The Arts
This is one of easiest areas to enrich a classroom. I recently visited a classroom at a local middle school. The teacher is the sister of a home educator and she was open to my visiting with her and sharing some ideas. The first thing I noticed in Miss X’s classroom was a wall covered with large prints of great art. I spoke to her about narrating from great art; she has tried it several times since and it is now one of her favorite things to do. During our visit, I could tell that this was a sincere, dedicated teacher who was already doing many wonderful things in her classroom.

Another painless way to culturally enrich a classroom is to play classical music. You might choose baroque music to listen to during math time since research has proven that this style of music (Vivaldi, Bach, Pachebel, and Handel to name a few composers) helps with math. Listen to classical or romantic music during art time.

Literature and Language Arts
Read great literature aloud to the class. This should be start in kindergarten and continued through high school. Some children are not read to at home. Some students are not able or choose not to read. Those who do read may not be choosing to read great, enriching, ennobling literature. Teachers may never realize the profound effect that their oral reading has on some students. Even if you are a junior or senior high teacher of math, science, or history, you might consider spending the first 10 minutes of each class period reading from a living book in your subject field. I’m happy to report that Miss X reads aloud to her classes regularly from great literature.

Poetry is a vital part of literature. Perhaps more emphasis on reading poetry aloud and holding a poetry recitation rather than analyzing a poem to death would develop more positive feelings in students toward poetry.

Use meaningful copy work instead of penmanship workbooks. Some schools are open to italic penmanship. If your school is, please contact me for volume discount information on Italics, Beautiful Handwriting for Children.

Give dictation of poetry or a paragraph from the fine literature that is being read in class. Remember to let the students read the material for themselves so they can notice punctuation and how words are spelled. Supplement textbooks with great literature.

Homework
Encourage the classroom teachers you know to assign less homework. The homework they do assign should be meaningful homework, like reading a biography or historical fiction, instead of word searches and other busy work. Give extra credit for independent reading of good literature.

In class or as homework, ask for a narration instead of book report. A narration may be oral, written, a skit, or a drawing. Ask for a narration instead of worksheets, questions, or test. Requiring too many worksheets can kill the love of learning. They stifle creativity and reduce learning to fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice. Narrating requires much more thought and provides students with the opportunity to tell what they know in their own way and express their opinions.

Miss X has been using narration in her classroom. She is excited about the results although a few of the students struggle with this since it is something new. Miss X used narration at the end of a book instead of a test. She was very pleased with the results but is struggling with evaluation; it is much quicker to correct multiple-choice tests.

Keep a nature journal as part of science or art class or for extra credit. This is a wonderful, expressive learning tool. A student at St. John’s University reported that she kept a nature journal as part of her college biology.

Some of these ideas are easier than others to implement. They all reflect ideas from Charlotte Mason’s method that was used in hundreds of public schools during her lifetime. Let’s each spread the word to those classroom teachers we know – for the children’s sake.

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