Something amazing and magnificent happens when a child has confidence. In fact, I truly believe, confidence is what thrust our children toward success. We can believe he or she can achieve a goal all day long, but that exact moment when he or she believes is when they will actually do it.
Literature – A Piece of the Puzzle
As we cannot take actions for another, many times we cannot have enough faith for two people. The question arises for many parents, “How do we build that confidence and courage, so the child/student takes the necessary actions?” The answer is literature. How in the world does literature build a child’s confidence? It is in the way one experiences literature and finds his/her voice. Literature is this amazing piece of the puzzle that sits the longest waiting to be picked up. Math goes first. Maybe science because experiments are fun goes next. Spelling is a must. Breaks and lunch the children beg. Even though reading and comprehension are including in the school day, children must be fed the joy of literature.
Confidence and joy go hand-in-hand, and when the student learns to express his/her feelings or finds the thought process, smile through schoolwork is achieved. Maybe teaching literature is foreign to you or it isn’t your “forte”, well you are in luck, because it is my “forte”! Literature provides the outlet for freedom of expression. Often times, there is not a right or wrong answer. Do we truly know what the author is saying? The only way to know for sure is to ask the author. What we can do is look at history (so we incorporate a cool subject), explore the author’s life, take a peek at some other works to compare, and we discover evidence! Thus, we have become attorneys in a literature-based world.
Debate and Certainty
And, every kid loves to argue at some point, right! Building on the found evidence, students develop outlines capturing their ideas and thoughts. They use the outline to “debate” or share when asked an open-ending question. No longer does a student simply answer yes or no. Their brains have been molded to look deeper. Their certainty in their opinions allow their voice to shine.
This shining is captures in other areas of life. Johnny steps up to the plate in baseball. The confidence found shows in his stance. Susie stands on stage holding her violin ready to give her solo, the spotlight right on her. Success through tenacity. Think about your child’s first job interview. Johnny or Susie will have the ability to think, speak, and make the all-important key first impression. Confidence continues to build. College essays and interviews — nail it! Internships achieved because they are able to express well thought out, complete ideas. First job out of college is a success and promotions happen quickly all due to the confidence found in experiencing literature. Their morale sees no limits and one day … well one day holds a confident future because they learned to build their creativity through literature.
During 2018 – 2019, Erin will be offering the following classes at Open Tent Academy:
Horsing Around: All Tales and Fun!
Introduction to High School Literary Analysis
Greek Tragedy Drama…. Ancient Style (Spring)
Business, Marketing and Communication
Erin Forte-Froehling is a teacher as well as a homeschooling mother. As a homeschool mom for twelve years, she understands the importance literature has on our students. For Erin, this influences our understanding of language and history, shapes our experience of inventors in science, lets us into the lives of musical composers, and can even help with those pesky word problems in math! Currently, Erin is heading back to the classroom as a student to earn a PhD. Being educated in Neuro Linguistic Programming, opened her eyes to the world, and allowed her to truly share the gifts of medieval literature, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickens, Wordsworth, Poe, Twain, Fitzgerald, and modern authors including: Tolkien, Roth, and Collins.
