Everyday Educator - Stories From When the World Was New - Summer Book Club
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.580 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:09.280 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:11.020 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.280 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.640 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.600 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:24.000 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:26.160 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:28.320 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:32.260 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:35.700 | But don't forget,
00:00:37.000 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:40.340 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:45.340 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:49.680 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:53.180 | Well guys, I'm super excited to be with you again
00:00:57.600 | for another episode of our Summer Book Club series.
00:01:02.200 | Today, we are going to be reading a couple of selections
00:01:06.440 | from "Ancient World Echoes",
00:01:08.800 | one of our Copper Lodge Library editions
00:01:12.360 | that is so perfect for family read-alouds.
00:01:15.160 | Whether you do those first thing in the morning,
00:01:18.200 | snuggled up at the breakfast table,
00:01:20.600 | or before nap time,
00:01:22.440 | or last thing at night, cuddled up on the couch,
00:01:25.980 | they are excellent stories for enjoying as a family
00:01:30.760 | and also for digging into some deeper conversations.
00:01:35.760 | I always have people say,
00:01:39.460 | "Yeah, but it's just so hard to make time for reading.
00:01:43.200 | What's the big idea?"
00:01:44.900 | This is what I think.
00:01:48.180 | Reading aloud can be relaxing.
00:01:52.980 | It can be informative,
00:01:56.340 | but it can also be sort of magical.
00:01:59.200 | Myths and poems and fables and fairy tales,
00:02:04.200 | all of those kinds of stories allow us to think about
00:02:08.520 | long, long ago and far, far away and once upon a time
00:02:13.440 | in ways that are somehow thrilling to our imaginations,
00:02:18.440 | our kids' imaginations and our own.
00:02:22.820 | These stories of beginnings are really intriguing to us.
00:02:27.820 | We all like to be in on things from the beginning.
00:02:32.200 | It helps us feel connected and in the know.
00:02:35.600 | It helps us feel powerful and part of the magic.
00:02:40.200 | Listen, you and your children can thrill together
00:02:43.040 | over stories from long ago and far away this summer
00:02:47.000 | by enjoying "Ancient World Echoes."
00:02:52.180 | The stories collected in this Copper Lodge Library volume
00:02:55.580 | are tales from when the world was new.
00:02:59.940 | They're origin stories.
00:03:02.840 | A lot of the stories explain the world
00:03:06.320 | and its creatures and its peoples.
00:03:09.520 | These are important tales for several reasons.
00:03:13.760 | In this volume, we are gonna read stories
00:03:16.640 | that helped make sense of the world
00:03:20.340 | that early people experienced.
00:03:24.280 | And a lot of these stories explain natural phenomenon
00:03:28.100 | and animal habits.
00:03:29.900 | These kinds of stories appeal to your little kids.
00:03:34.200 | You have tons of questions about why things are
00:03:37.300 | the way they are and how they got to be that way.
00:03:40.880 | They appeal to everybody's desire to know why
00:03:44.280 | when we look at the world.
00:03:46.200 | And the stories will draw your attention
00:03:50.120 | to the natural world and call us to explore.
00:03:54.640 | It's a great activity for families to enjoy together,
00:03:58.920 | reading about the world and then letting it
00:04:01.400 | pique your interest to go out and explore together.
00:04:06.400 | The stories in "Ancient World Echoes"
00:04:09.440 | help us confront our own frailties and our own failings too.
00:04:15.800 | Reading these stories, we learn lessons in humility
00:04:20.320 | and lessons in honor, lessons in kindness,
00:04:24.120 | as the characters in the stories experience hard lessons.
00:04:29.120 | Sometimes we're just encouraged and soothed
00:04:33.000 | by stories of rescue and redemption.
00:04:36.800 | You know, if it could happen in a story,
00:04:39.360 | it could happen to me.
00:04:41.400 | So the intro to "Ancient World Echoes" says it best.
00:04:46.400 | And so I want to read a couple of pages,
00:04:52.040 | well, an excerpt for you from page 12,
00:04:57.040 | near the bottom over to the very top of page 13.
00:05:01.660 | By sharing these stories as a family,
00:05:06.220 | we can grow young again and share in the truth,
00:05:10.080 | goodness, and beauty of childhood.
00:05:13.600 | We can be filled with wonder and worship again.
00:05:18.600 | We can see the right path to pursue,
00:05:22.600 | the path that leads to mercy and justice.
00:05:27.040 | The echoes of fairy tales are perhaps more needed
00:05:31.180 | in our day than ever before.
00:05:34.640 | Our children are being raised in a culture
00:05:37.320 | that tells them every individual should decide
00:05:40.840 | what is best for themselves.
00:05:43.920 | Fairy tales argue that virtue lies in the common good
00:05:48.320 | and often makes us subdue our whims and passions
00:05:52.800 | in order to love our neighbors well.
00:05:55.240 | Because there was a break in the tradition,
00:05:59.160 | sometimes our culture echoes the past
00:06:02.240 | without knowing what it means.
00:06:04.880 | Let us reject this world in which everything is echo
00:06:08.880 | with no substance.
00:06:10.600 | Rather, let us embrace the old tradition of fairy tales,
00:06:15.600 | which argued that the world is a mysterious place.
00:06:20.640 | The ability to accept the mystery
00:06:24.400 | nurtures faith, hope, and love.
00:06:28.240 | Like little children, we must believe that miracles happen
00:06:32.720 | and that the unseen is palpably real.
00:06:37.360 | As my friend Jen argues, postmodernism says
00:06:43.320 | we only ever see in a glass darkly.
00:06:46.720 | Scripture tells us that we only see
00:06:50.320 | in a glass darkly temporarily.
00:06:54.880 | Remember, too, that the echo is not an end,
00:06:59.160 | it's a beginning.
00:07:00.600 | We can keep it running through the ages,
00:07:03.280 | but it will fade unless we take up the chant again.
00:07:08.280 | It is my prayer that this book will start the echo
00:07:12.040 | for a new generation,
00:07:13.480 | for although the times and people change,
00:07:17.600 | the echoes of truth, goodness, and beauty
00:07:21.760 | will continue to reverberate through the ages.
00:07:27.960 | That's an encouragement for you guys to dig into
00:07:32.040 | the fairy tales and the fables
00:07:35.640 | that "Ancient World Echoes" offers
00:07:39.760 | as family read aloud time.
00:07:41.560 | Now, I'm gonna read a couple of the stories
00:07:47.000 | in "Ancient World Echoes."
00:07:49.120 | So call your children if you want to.
00:07:51.880 | And then after the stories, we'll go back
00:07:55.000 | and we will suggest some questions,
00:07:58.320 | some ways that you could savor this book with your kids.
00:08:03.320 | All right, I want to share with you today
00:08:10.560 | a story from "Ancient World Echoes,"
00:08:14.040 | a Copper Lodge Library edition.
00:08:17.600 | And first of all, I want to share with you the story
00:08:21.640 | how the birds saved the emperor's life,
00:08:26.640 | a tale from China.
00:08:29.280 | There was once an emperor of China
00:08:34.000 | whose palace was the most wonderful in the world,
00:08:38.200 | being built entirely of priceless porcelain.
00:08:43.200 | In the garden were the most beautiful flowers,
00:08:48.520 | on some of which were little golden bells
00:08:51.400 | which tinkled in the wind
00:08:53.080 | so that you could not help looking at them.
00:08:56.920 | It was a really wonderful garden and so large
00:09:00.600 | that even the head gardener himself
00:09:02.680 | did not know where it ended.
00:09:05.560 | If you should reach the end of the garden,
00:09:07.960 | you would come to a magnificent forest
00:09:11.160 | in which were great trees and deep lakes.
00:09:14.960 | The banks sloped down to the water,
00:09:18.440 | which was as clear as crystal.
00:09:20.840 | Overhanging the lake were the boughs of some trees
00:09:24.600 | which were so large that ships could sail beneath them.
00:09:29.600 | In one of these trees there lived a nightingale
00:09:34.680 | which sang so beautifully that a poor fisherman
00:09:38.680 | who had a great deal to do even stopped his work
00:09:42.320 | to listen to the birds singing.
00:09:44.840 | "How beautiful it is," he said,
00:09:48.040 | but he had to attend to his duties
00:09:50.080 | and then forgot about the bird.
00:09:52.280 | But each night it was the same.
00:09:54.680 | The fisherman could not resist the temptation
00:09:58.800 | and he left his work to listen to the bird.
00:10:02.040 | The emperor's palace and garden were so magnificent
00:10:07.000 | that many travelers from foreign countries
00:10:09.800 | wrote books describing their beauty.
00:10:13.800 | But every scholar who wrote said
00:10:16.200 | that the finest thing of all was the singing
00:10:20.240 | of this nightingale.
00:10:21.920 | These books were read by many people all over the world
00:10:26.360 | and at last some of them reached the emperor
00:10:30.160 | who sat in his chair of solid jade
00:10:33.480 | and read and read and read.
00:10:37.280 | He was very much pleased that so many people
00:10:41.120 | who were scholars should write so much
00:10:44.280 | about his palace and garden.
00:10:46.880 | But he was surprised to find that in each book
00:10:50.280 | the nightingale was spoken of as the finest
00:10:53.480 | and perhaps most wonderful thing of all.
00:10:56.980 | "It is very strange," said the emperor.
00:11:01.000 | "I've never heard this nightingale
00:11:02.960 | "and it does seem unusual that I should know about it
00:11:07.240 | "for the first time from reading books written by travelers."
00:11:13.240 | He called his first lord to him and said,
00:11:16.260 | "In all of these books there's mention
00:11:18.160 | "of a very remarkable bird
00:11:20.000 | "which is called the nightingale.
00:11:23.260 | "The writers all say that it's the most glorious thing
00:11:26.120 | "in my kingdom.
00:11:27.640 | "How is it that no one has ever told me about it?"
00:11:32.040 | "Why, I don't know anything about it myself,"
00:11:35.280 | said the first lord.
00:11:37.140 | "But I will go and find out."
00:11:41.640 | The first lord didn't know where it was,
00:11:44.200 | so he ran all over the palace and asked everybody there,
00:11:47.420 | but none of them had ever heard of the nightingale.
00:11:51.660 | Then he returned to the emperor and said,
00:11:53.720 | "It must be an invention of those who had written the books.
00:11:58.640 | "Your royal highness must know
00:12:00.620 | "that not all that is written is true
00:12:03.320 | "and that much of it is invented," said he.
00:12:07.060 | "But the last book I read," said the emperor,
00:12:10.680 | "was sent to me by the great ruler of Japan
00:12:14.000 | "so that it must be true.
00:12:15.980 | "And I insist upon your bringing the nightingale
00:12:19.780 | "here this evening.
00:12:21.600 | "If you do not, everyone in this palace
00:12:25.140 | "shall be trampled under foot."
00:12:27.700 | "All right, your majesty," said the first lord,
00:12:31.880 | and he ran up and down the stairs,
00:12:33.920 | through the halls and corridors,
00:12:35.960 | and as he told the people what would happen to them
00:12:39.540 | if the nightingale were not brought there that evening,
00:12:42.600 | they all followed him because they had no wish
00:12:45.360 | to be trampled under foot and all were most anxious
00:12:49.280 | to know about this wonderful nightingale,
00:12:52.580 | which it seemed that everybody in the world knew about,
00:12:56.040 | except those who lived in the palace.
00:12:58.520 | At last, they met a poor little girl in the kitchen
00:13:02.780 | who said, "Why, I know the nightingale,
00:13:06.160 | "and I've often heard her sing.
00:13:08.680 | "Every night when I go home to my mother,
00:13:11.300 | "I'm so tired that I sit and rest
00:13:14.600 | "for a little while in the wood,
00:13:15.940 | "and then I hear the nightingale sing,
00:13:19.060 | "and it is so wonderful
00:13:21.300 | "that it always brings tears to my eyes."
00:13:24.800 | "Then," said the first lord, little kitchen maid,
00:13:28.120 | "if you can lead us to this nightingale,
00:13:30.780 | "you shall have leave to see the emperor
00:13:33.620 | "at dinner this evening,
00:13:35.760 | "for she is invited by his majesty
00:13:37.980 | "to come and sing to him."
00:13:40.140 | Then they all went into the garden
00:13:42.960 | where the nightingale lived,
00:13:44.640 | and on the way, they heard the mooing of a cow.
00:13:47.780 | "Oh, this must be the nightingale.
00:13:51.840 | "How wonderful that such a little bird
00:13:54.040 | "has such a tremendous voice," said they.
00:13:57.680 | "That is not a bird singing.
00:14:00.880 | "That's a cow mooing," said the little kitchen maid.
00:14:04.480 | "We have a long way to go yet."
00:14:07.660 | A little farther on,
00:14:09.000 | they heard some frogs croaking in the marsh.
00:14:12.320 | The Chinese chaplain was with them,
00:14:14.320 | and he said, "How sublime.
00:14:16.780 | "That is just like the ringing of a church bell."
00:14:21.040 | "Why," said the little kitchen maid,
00:14:23.780 | "those are frogs croaking."
00:14:26.520 | "But very soon, we shall hear her."
00:14:30.560 | Just then, the nightingale began to sing.
00:14:34.100 | "Hark!" cried the little girl.
00:14:35.700 | "Listen!"
00:14:37.080 | And pointing to a little bird sitting up in the branches,
00:14:40.520 | said, "There she is."
00:14:42.840 | "It doesn't seem possible
00:14:46.960 | "that so very common-looking a bird like that can sing,"
00:14:51.800 | said the first lord.
00:14:53.380 | "It must be that she has lost her brilliant plumage
00:14:57.960 | "because there's so many distinguished people here."
00:15:02.280 | Then the little kitchen maid called out,
00:15:04.500 | "Little nightingale, our gracious emperor invites you
00:15:08.080 | "to sing before him this evening."
00:15:11.000 | "It will give me great pleasure to do so,"
00:15:14.420 | said the nightingale.
00:15:16.140 | And then she began to sing so gloriously
00:15:19.740 | that they were all entranced.
00:15:22.420 | The first lord said,
00:15:23.940 | "I've never heard anything so beautiful before.
00:15:26.900 | "His majesty will be delighted."
00:15:30.820 | The nightingale, thinking the first lord was the emperor,
00:15:34.620 | said, "Shall I sing again for you, your majesty?"
00:15:38.860 | "My dear little bird," said the first lord.
00:15:43.100 | "His most gracious highness has sent me to invite you
00:15:45.900 | "to his palace this evening
00:15:48.800 | "so that he may listen to your charming song."
00:15:51.900 | "Oh, it's much better out here in the forest,"
00:15:55.300 | replied the nightingale.
00:15:57.020 | But when she heard that the emperor wished her
00:15:59.460 | to go to the palace, she gladly offered to go with them.
00:16:04.380 | At the palace, everything was splendidly prepared.
00:16:08.900 | The many lights made the porcelain walls and floors glitter
00:16:13.180 | and the gorgeous tinkling flowers helped
00:16:16.260 | to make the place look very beautiful.
00:16:19.380 | The people moving back and forth
00:16:21.380 | caused the little golden bells to tinkle all the time.
00:16:25.100 | In the center of the great hall,
00:16:27.340 | in which was the emperor's throne,
00:16:29.580 | was a golden perch put there for the nightingale.
00:16:33.500 | The whole court was present and the little kitchen maid,
00:16:37.320 | who had shown the first lord where the bird could be found,
00:16:40.620 | was allowed to stand behind the door
00:16:43.860 | where she could see and hear everything.
00:16:47.780 | All were dressed in their best clothes
00:16:51.020 | and everyone looked toward the little bird
00:16:53.700 | whom the emperor requested to commence singing.
00:16:57.540 | And how the nightingale did sing!
00:17:02.420 | Very soon, the tears came into the emperor's eyes
00:17:06.140 | and ran down his cheeks.
00:17:08.340 | At this, the nightingale sang even more beautifully
00:17:12.300 | and the heart of everyone was touched.
00:17:15.360 | The emperor was so delighted that he said
00:17:19.260 | she should wear the golden necklace around her neck.
00:17:23.040 | But the nightingale said that she had already received
00:17:26.220 | a sufficient reward, for she had brought tears
00:17:29.980 | to the eyes of the emperor.
00:17:32.100 | Even the servants, who were always
00:17:34.620 | the most difficult to please,
00:17:36.700 | said that they were greatly touched.
00:17:39.480 | This in itself proved how successful
00:17:42.340 | was the nightingale's concert.
00:17:45.020 | The emperor requested her to stay at the court
00:17:48.060 | and he gave her a large golden cage
00:17:50.700 | and allowed her to go out twice every day.
00:17:53.860 | He provided her with 12 servants,
00:17:56.940 | each of whom held a silken string,
00:17:59.620 | which was fastened to her leg,
00:18:01.660 | and you may be sure that she found
00:18:03.580 | but little pleasure flying about, hampered in this way.
00:18:08.140 | Very soon, everyone in the city was talking
00:18:11.900 | about the wonderful bird and even the tradesman's children
00:18:15.460 | were all named after her,
00:18:17.500 | although none of them could sing a note.
00:18:20.540 | Sometime after this, the emperor received a large parcel
00:18:24.660 | on which was written, "The Nightingale."
00:18:28.260 | "This must be another book about our famous bird,"
00:18:32.260 | said the emperor, but he was mistaken,
00:18:36.020 | for it was a mechanical toy, an artificial nightingale,
00:18:39.980 | which looked something like a real bird,
00:18:42.980 | but was covered with jewels.
00:18:45.580 | When it was wound up, it could sing the piece
00:18:48.300 | the real bird sang and moved its tail up and down.
00:18:52.980 | Around its neck was a collar on which was written,
00:18:56.000 | "The Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan
00:18:59.060 | cannot be compared with that of the Emperor of China."
00:19:03.540 | "How wonderful," said everyone,
00:19:06.620 | and the man who had brought the clockwork bird
00:19:09.260 | was given the title of bringer
00:19:11.660 | of the imperial first nightingale.
00:19:15.300 | They sang together, but it did not sound well,
00:19:19.460 | for the real nightingale sang her own song
00:19:23.080 | and the clockwork bird sang Waltz's.
00:19:26.000 | "It isn't its fault," said the bandmaster.
00:19:29.760 | "It keeps very good time and is quite after my style."
00:19:34.400 | Then the artificial bird had to sing alone.
00:19:39.660 | It was very pleasant to listen to,
00:19:41.400 | and it was also pretty to look at,
00:19:43.940 | as the jewels with which it was covered sparkled so.
00:19:47.660 | It sang the same piece many times without becoming tired,
00:19:52.180 | and then the emperor thought
00:19:54.140 | that the real nightingale should sing again,
00:19:56.920 | but she was not to be found.
00:20:00.220 | The window was open, and without anybody seeing her go,
00:20:04.940 | she had flown away to her beloved forest.
00:20:07.680 | The emperor was very angry when it was discovered
00:20:12.660 | that the real bird had gone away,
00:20:15.020 | and everyone agreed that it was a very ungracious thing
00:20:18.460 | for her to have done,
00:20:20.180 | but they all said that the bird sent by the Japanese ruler
00:20:23.500 | was the better of the two,
00:20:25.300 | and especially did the bandmaster praise it.
00:20:28.740 | He said that one knew just what to expect
00:20:31.900 | from the artificial bird,
00:20:34.260 | but the real one would sing the most unusual tunes.
00:20:38.260 | The bird they had now could be opened,
00:20:41.780 | and the inside shown and explained,
00:20:44.500 | but if this were done to the other, it would die.
00:20:48.820 | Everyone agreed that what the bandmaster said was correct,
00:20:52.060 | and the emperor commanded that all the people of the city
00:20:55.500 | should be allowed to listen to the bird's beautiful music
00:20:58.840 | on a certain day of the following week.
00:21:01.620 | So on the day appointed,
00:21:03.300 | the bandmaster showed the jeweled bird to the people,
00:21:07.020 | and after they had heard it sing,
00:21:08.780 | everyone said that its music was wonderful.
00:21:12.020 | That is, all but the poor fisherman
00:21:14.540 | who had heard the real one,
00:21:16.140 | and he said, "This one looks very pretty,
00:21:19.980 | "and is quite pleasant to listen to,
00:21:22.980 | "but its singing does not compare with that of the other."
00:21:27.600 | The emperor banished the real bird from the kingdom,
00:21:32.540 | and the artificial one was put on a golden perch
00:21:35.400 | by the side of his bed and given the title
00:21:38.260 | of Imperial Night Singer.
00:21:41.040 | Several months passed away when one evening,
00:21:44.620 | as the emperor lay in bed listening to it,
00:21:47.540 | something inside snapped, and the music stopped.
00:21:51.600 | The royal physician was summoned but could do nothing.
00:21:55.940 | Then the royal clockmaker was called,
00:21:58.100 | and after examining it very carefully,
00:22:01.340 | he took out the works, which he found to be almost worn out.
00:22:06.080 | It took him quite a long time to put these back again,
00:22:09.040 | but at last he got it into something like order,
00:22:12.360 | although he said it must not be used more than once a year,
00:22:16.480 | and then only for a very short time.
00:22:20.660 | Sometime after this, the emperor became ill, very ill,
00:22:25.080 | and as the physician said that he could not live
00:22:27.720 | for more than a few days, his successor was chosen.
00:22:32.720 | The poor emperor lay all alone in his great bed,
00:22:36.240 | and as everyone believed him to be dead,
00:22:38.960 | the courtiers left him to pay their respects
00:22:41.460 | to the new ruler.
00:22:43.520 | But he was only in a trance, and when he came out of this,
00:22:47.440 | he felt very lonely indeed,
00:22:49.960 | for there was no one to speak to him.
00:22:53.040 | He turned his head and saw the artificial bird
00:22:55.880 | by his bedside.
00:22:57.800 | A great longing for music came over him,
00:23:00.840 | and he cried, "Sing, golden bird, please sing!"
00:23:05.560 | But there was no one to wind it up,
00:23:07.440 | and he was too weak to do this himself.
00:23:10.680 | It was so quiet, and he felt so terribly lonely and sad
00:23:15.680 | that he was sure he was going to die.
00:23:19.000 | Suddenly, there came through the open window
00:23:21.640 | the sound of such beautiful music
00:23:24.000 | that new life came to the sick man.
00:23:27.120 | He raised his head and saw,
00:23:29.520 | sitting upon the bough of a large tree,
00:23:32.160 | the real bird whom he had banished from his kingdom.
00:23:37.080 | "What divine singing," said the emperor.
00:23:40.380 | "You have given me new life in return for my unkindness
00:23:45.080 | in banishing you from my kingdom.
00:23:47.880 | What can I do to reward you?"
00:23:51.320 | "I need no more reward than the sight of the tears
00:23:55.040 | which came to your eyes when I first sang to you,"
00:23:58.240 | said the nightingale.
00:23:59.900 | "That is something which I can never forget.
00:24:03.000 | But now you must sleep,
00:24:04.920 | and tomorrow, when you will feel much stronger,
00:24:08.240 | I can promise you such music
00:24:10.400 | as you would not possibly believe."
00:24:13.320 | The emperor smiled happily
00:24:15.960 | and fell at once into a deep, calm sleep.
00:24:20.240 | He was awakened in the morning by the sun,
00:24:22.400 | which was shining brightly.
00:24:24.400 | So much better did he feel
00:24:26.720 | that he was able to get out of bed
00:24:28.640 | and walk to the open window,
00:24:30.640 | and there his eyes beheld a wonderful sight.
00:24:35.360 | Upon every bough of the tree in front of him
00:24:38.840 | were perched many birds,
00:24:40.580 | and in the center of them sat the poor fisherman
00:24:44.520 | who held to his lips a reed instrument.
00:24:49.120 | On seeing the emperor at the window,
00:24:51.560 | he gave a sign,
00:24:53.200 | and there came forth from the throats
00:24:55.300 | of the assembled birds such a glorious burst of melody
00:24:59.640 | that tears of thankfulness flowed from the emperor's eyes.
00:25:03.460 | He could scarcely believe
00:25:05.520 | that such wonderful music was possible.
00:25:09.320 | No longer was he a sick man.
00:25:12.000 | The bird chorus had brought back to him
00:25:14.880 | the health and strength which all the doctors,
00:25:17.960 | with their medicines, had not been able to do.
00:25:21.680 | In his gratitude to the birds,
00:25:23.880 | he gave them the tree for their very own,
00:25:27.200 | and the poor fisherman he appointed bandmaster in chief.
00:25:32.200 | Wasn't that a great story?
00:25:39.000 | I loved to hear about the birds,
00:25:42.440 | the nightingale, the real one,
00:25:44.400 | and the artificial one.
00:25:47.240 | We'll talk in a minute about how you and your family
00:25:50.000 | can enjoy that story together,
00:25:52.060 | but I want to share one more story
00:25:54.400 | from "Ancient World Echoes."
00:25:57.100 | This is an Aesop's fable,
00:26:00.520 | and it is called "The Bees and Wasps and the Hornet."
00:26:05.440 | A store of honey had been found in a hollow tree,
00:26:12.200 | and the wasps declared positively that it belonged to them.
00:26:18.040 | The bees were just as sure that the treasure was theirs.
00:26:23.040 | The argument grew very pointed,
00:26:25.440 | and it looked as if the affair could not be settled
00:26:28.520 | without a battle, when at last, with much good sense,
00:26:33.000 | they agreed to let a judge decide the matter.
00:26:37.440 | So they brought the case before the hornet,
00:26:41.360 | justice of the peace in that part of the woods.
00:26:45.040 | When the judge called the case,
00:26:47.520 | the witnesses declared that they had seen
00:26:50.200 | certain winged creatures in the neighborhood
00:26:53.400 | of the hollow tree who hummed loudly,
00:26:57.240 | and whose bodies were striped yellow and black like bees.
00:27:02.240 | Counsel for the wasps immediately insisted
00:27:07.560 | that this description fitted his clients exactly.
00:27:13.040 | Such evidence did not help Judge Hornet to any decision,
00:27:17.000 | so he adjourned the court for six weeks
00:27:20.160 | to give him time to think it over.
00:27:22.960 | When the case came up again,
00:27:24.560 | both sides had a large number of witnesses.
00:27:28.800 | An aunt was the first to take the stand,
00:27:32.000 | and was about to be cross-examined
00:27:35.040 | when a wise old bee addressed the court.
00:27:40.040 | Your honor, he said, the case has now been pending
00:27:45.040 | for six weeks.
00:27:47.880 | If it is not decided soon,
00:27:50.800 | the honey will not be fit for anything.
00:27:54.760 | I move that the bees and the wasps
00:27:58.200 | be both instructed to build a honeycomb.
00:28:02.760 | Then we shall soon see to whom the honey really belongs.
00:28:09.840 | The wasps protested loudly.
00:28:13.740 | A wise Judge Hornet quickly understood why they did so.
00:28:18.740 | They knew they could not build a honeycomb
00:28:22.920 | and fill it with honey.
00:28:25.240 | It is clear, said the judge,
00:28:27.920 | who made the comb and who could not have made it.
00:28:32.600 | The honey belongs to the bees.
00:28:37.600 | The lesson, ability proves itself by deeds.
00:28:42.600 | A short story, all of the fables are very short,
00:28:50.400 | but they teach us really good lessons.
00:28:52.900 | They give us lots to think about.
00:28:55.600 | And that's why we want to take time, parents,
00:28:59.640 | to savor the stories that you share with your children.
00:29:03.880 | It is fun just to read a quick story and enjoy it.
00:29:07.500 | And laugh about it together.
00:29:10.080 | And wait to see how it turns out.
00:29:12.640 | And pick the characters that we want to succeed.
00:29:16.520 | And pick the characters that we know are the bad guys
00:29:19.480 | and root against them.
00:29:20.880 | But it's even more fun to savor the story a little bit.
00:29:25.880 | To draw it out, to talk about it some more.
00:29:31.400 | So you can always go back and ask your children
00:29:36.200 | who was in the story?
00:29:37.700 | Tell me, let's name all the characters.
00:29:40.900 | And you could name them and count them out on your fingers.
00:29:45.860 | You could name them and draw a little picture on a bookmark
00:29:50.300 | so that you would have all the characters.
00:29:52.280 | You could even put the name of every character
00:29:55.020 | on a popsicle stick and hold up the correct stick
00:29:58.580 | when you read the story next time
00:30:00.700 | when it comes to that character.
00:30:02.260 | So you can ask who was in the story
00:30:05.700 | and who are all the characters,
00:30:07.300 | the big characters and the small characters.
00:30:10.900 | Your children will be able to tell you perhaps
00:30:13.420 | what the characters look like.
00:30:15.860 | Sometimes we don't get a description
00:30:18.920 | of what the characters look like.
00:30:21.500 | In "How the Bird Saved the Emperor's Life" for instance,
00:30:26.060 | there's not really much of a description
00:30:29.980 | of the head gardener or the fisherman.
00:30:33.700 | But I bet you that your children have an idea.
00:30:37.780 | So ask them, what do you think this character look like?
00:30:42.300 | How tall do you think this character was?
00:30:44.580 | Do you think he was young or old?
00:30:47.140 | What color hair did he have?
00:30:49.420 | And if you're reading a story from a different time
00:30:52.780 | or a different place, you can say,
00:30:55.040 | what do you think the character's clothes looked like?
00:30:59.140 | Were they like yours or different?
00:31:02.020 | What colors do you think his clothes might have been?
00:31:05.560 | All these kinds of surface details are great
00:31:09.980 | for diving in to the story.
00:31:12.780 | And you can ask imagination questions.
00:31:16.020 | What do you think the weather was like in China?
00:31:19.300 | What do you think, was it spring or was it summer?
00:31:22.620 | Is it cool or warm?
00:31:25.180 | And what kind of weather do they have?
00:31:27.780 | Do you think it was rainy?
00:31:29.860 | Do you think it was cold?
00:31:32.280 | You can ask all those kinds of questions.
00:31:34.640 | You can even ask, what do you think it would be like
00:31:37.640 | to be a fisherman who had to fish every day,
00:31:41.240 | not fish when he wanted to?
00:31:43.500 | So what might the characters have felt like?
00:31:47.420 | What kind of jobs does a gardener have?
00:31:50.580 | What kind of job is emperor?
00:31:53.340 | You could ask them, what does an emperor wear?
00:31:56.420 | And what does a gardener wear?
00:31:57.980 | And what does a fisherman wear?
00:31:59.540 | And how did their clothes fit their jobs?
00:32:03.940 | You could ask your children to retell the story.
00:32:08.220 | So this kind of is a way of narrating the plot of a story.
00:32:12.440 | What happened first, and what happened next,
00:32:15.740 | and what happened next, and what happened at the end?
00:32:19.580 | Tell me about the story.
00:32:23.060 | It's always nice, especially in some of these origin stories,
00:32:27.940 | these beginning stories, what is the conflict?
00:32:32.100 | What's the main struggle that the character has?
00:32:36.300 | In the case of the story that we read about the birds,
00:32:41.100 | how the birds saved the emperor's life,
00:32:43.400 | what was the problem that the bird solved at the end?
00:32:49.740 | How did the bird save the emperor's life?
00:32:54.940 | The bird was not a doctor,
00:32:56.820 | and he didn't have any medicine.
00:32:59.100 | What was wrong with the emperor
00:33:01.780 | that a bird could save his life?
00:33:05.340 | So you could talk about what's the main struggle
00:33:08.060 | of all the different characters.
00:33:10.100 | What was the main struggle of the bird
00:33:13.360 | once the bird came to live with the emperor?
00:33:17.500 | What lessons did the characters in the story learn?
00:33:22.380 | And is there a lesson for us?
00:33:25.780 | These are all great questions to ask about the story.
00:33:30.480 | You could ask your children
00:33:34.180 | to draw a poster of the story.
00:33:36.980 | I used to love to make dioramas,
00:33:39.140 | take a shoe box and make everything,
00:33:42.380 | a scene from the story in miniature inside the shoe box,
00:33:47.380 | and it was my shadow box.
00:33:50.700 | You could, as I said before, use Popsicle sticks.
00:33:54.480 | You could make paperback puppets
00:33:57.340 | and have a puppet show of one of the stories from today.
00:34:02.300 | You could have your student,
00:34:05.260 | have your child recite the story again.
00:34:09.280 | You could have them act it out or draw a picture.
00:34:12.480 | You could even have them make a replica of the nightingale.
00:34:17.480 | What would they use to make a bird
00:34:21.200 | that would look like the real nightingale?
00:34:24.140 | And what would they use to make a bird
00:34:26.260 | that looks like the artificial nightingale?
00:34:29.760 | And how would we be able to tell them apart?
00:34:32.360 | You can even use one of the five common topics of comparison.
00:34:37.280 | You could compare all of the ways
00:34:40.480 | in which the real nightingale
00:34:43.860 | and the artificial nightingale were alike,
00:34:47.780 | and then all the ways that they were different.
00:34:50.960 | What made the real nightingale special?
00:34:54.860 | And what made the artificial nightingale special?
00:34:59.000 | You could even vote in your family
00:35:00.760 | on which bird your family likes the best.
00:35:04.440 | All children love to tell stories,
00:35:08.760 | and these origin stories a lot of times give them an idea
00:35:13.000 | of telling their beginning story.
00:35:16.160 | So many of your children, of course,
00:35:18.760 | don't remember when they were born,
00:35:20.800 | but they remember hearing stories
00:35:23.160 | about when they were born.
00:35:24.920 | You could have a grand time
00:35:27.560 | asking every child in your family,
00:35:30.160 | parents too, to write down stories
00:35:33.200 | about when they were very, very small.
00:35:36.000 | And you may even ask them to write a story
00:35:38.760 | that would explain how they came to be as they are now.
00:35:43.760 | This could be a great rainy day activity,
00:35:50.360 | a great vacation activity,
00:35:52.880 | or just a really fun way to spend an evening,
00:35:55.360 | and think how grandparents would love to receive a book
00:35:59.140 | of those stories for a Christmas gift.
00:36:01.800 | I hope that you and your family will spend some time
00:36:05.840 | this summer reading aloud together,
00:36:08.440 | and more than just reading the stories,
00:36:11.520 | I hope that you will savor them.
00:36:16.800 | Parents, if you want to learn more
00:36:19.640 | about how to be a classical educator,
00:36:24.640 | I wanna encourage you,
00:36:25.840 | because we at Classical Conversations
00:36:28.000 | really believe that parents can provide
00:36:31.880 | the quality education they want their children to have.
00:36:36.240 | We know that parents sometimes feel unsure
00:36:39.320 | about how to accomplish this goal,
00:36:41.240 | so if you are eager to learn
00:36:44.440 | how to be a better classical educator,
00:36:48.200 | our Classical Learning Cohort Program can help.
00:36:53.200 | Think about it this summer,
00:36:55.080 | and go to classicalconversations.com/cohort
00:37:00.080 | and find out some ways that you can grow
00:37:05.480 | as the lead learner in your home.
00:37:08.920 | Thank you for being with me today,
00:37:10.600 | and I will see you next week with some more stories.
00:37:14.720 | Bye-bye.
00:37:15.760 | (gentle music)
00:37:18.360 | you
00:37:20.420 | [BLANK_AUDIO]