Tag Archives: learning

Best Of

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I picked up a book and learned enough HTML on Saturday to add a little module on the side called Best Of.  I put  links to my favorite posts there.  When I’m new to a blog, I appreciate reading the writer’s favorites, especially if I don’t have time to scroll from the 2005 to the present.

If you need a laugh, go to the post on Millet and read the comments.  If you need a cry, go to May 7, 1968.  It’s that easy! 

Now I can add links to non-Xanga blogs.  Woohoo!

It energizes me to learn something that, at first blush, seemed so scary-hard.  I remember when I felt that way about depreciation. 

Reading Around the World, Part 1

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My son and I are studying the 20th century this year in our final year of History/Literature.  Although the 20th century is chock full of atrocities and evil, I can honestly say that I’m really enjoying our study.  Hardly a day goes by without an “aha” moment.  I have always loved connecting the dots.  •-•-•

This two volume set by Edward Kantowicz was a random purchase several years ago from a book wholesaler.  I think I spent $5 for both of them.  Although each book retails for $40, you can pick up used copies for about $5 each. When I perused my shelves for books relevant to our studies, these fit the bill.  The writing has been excellent and engaging.  Collin is 350 pages ahead of me; he agrees that the books are eminently readable.

The subject is vast – how does one cover 100 eventful years in 900 pages?  Kantowicz does a great job of paring down the information to what you need to know. The contents are accessible through Google Book Reader. I have particularly enjoyed learning about the Meiji Restoration in Japan, a brief history of the Balkans, the birth of Turkey, modern history of the Middle East (I’ve read about the Balfour Declaration but never quite knew what it meant), the independence of Ireland and the Mexican Revolution.  And I haven’t even gotten to the Great Depression yet!

The title of the first volume comes from Handel’s adaption of Psalm 2: Why do the nations so furiously rage together?  Kantowicz declares his point of view: “I was raised and educated with Catholic Christian values and a deep revulsion against warfare, based on Christian teachings about war and peace.” 

From the introduction:

Though citizens of the world need to know the facts about the twentieth century–the who, what, when, where, and why–it is even more vital that they ask the next question, so what?  Why should anyone care about these events?  What is the context that makes them meaningful?  What connections do they have with everyday life?  How do they challenge or confirm our deepest values? 

Each chapter (about 20 pages) could stand alone.  The set would be a great addition to your reference books giving you more than a Wikipedia article and less than a book on many historical events.  

The suggestions for further reading is very helpful and – oh my! – sure to keep my shelves groaning under the weight of books.  He recommended the film Michael Collins to understand the Irish war for independence.  We watched it last night: gripping, but not for the faint of heart.

Finally, the guy is a word bird.  If you love seeing words explode into technicolor you will enjoy this book.  Soviet means council.  Caliph means successor.  Sherif is an honorific title given to all Arabs descended from the prophet Mohammed.  Yugo mean south.  Slavs and Yugoslavs. 

Regrettable

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The high-school English teacher
will be fulfilling his responsibility
if he furnished the student a guided opportunity,
through the best writing in the past,
to come, in time,
to an understanding of the best writing of the present…

And if the student finds that this is not to his taste?
Well, that is regrettable.  Most regrettable.
His taste should not be consulted; it is being formed.

~ Flannery O’Connor in Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

Learning Purringly

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Honestly?  I think my job-teaching myself and my children-is the cat’s meow. 

I love learning something new, connecting it to what I already know, asking more questions, reviewing new information, tossing it out for discussion.  It is a glorious cycle that doesn’t seem to have an end. 

The “aha!” moments are pure sizzle. 

We are studying the 20th century and I am simultaneously appalled at what little I knew and delighted to start figuring out the back story of the years of my life.  The flow of history and culture fascinates as never before. As I am reading about the collision between Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Muslims in Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and the Yugo (= south) slavs, early in the 20th century, I receive an email with a photo, asking for prayer for a refugee Serbian family searching for a country where they can live and work in peace.  That puts a face on the long struggles in the Balkan Peninsula.

This morning I found a word which I’ve read several times before and realized I didn’t know the meaning of it.
Sartorial (of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes) from sartorius (muscle that crosses the front of the thigh obliquely and helps one to sit like a tailor).  Curt and I had a fun little debate about how tailors sit.  Any guesses?

Here is the context of the word sartorial, from the essay Why I am Hopeful by Andy Crouch, written about the present economic afflictions.

I am not hopeful because I think we are well prepared for what is ahead of us.  We are not.

We are a terrifyingly unserious people, our heads buzzing with trivia and noise.  This is more true, if anything, of American Christians than the rest of our country [world?].  The stark contrast between what I experience among Christians anywhere else in the world–and not just the “Third World,” because Canada and Germany and Britain and Singapore come to mind as quickly as Uganda and India–and American Christians is astonishing.  We are preoccupied with fads intellectual, theological, technological, and sartorial.  Vanishingly few of us have any serious discipline of silence, solitude, study, and fasting.  We have, in the short run, very little to offer our culture, because we live in the short run.      

Any learning sizzles in your life lately?

Here’s a mug in my sister-in-law’s collection in Maine.

 

No Dancing in Waltzing Matilda

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File this under: “You Learn Something New Every Day.” 

I’m catching up on People and Places itching to get out of the “A” countries and into the “Bs”.  But the section on Australia is HUGE.

And next thing you know, I’m disabused of the notion that Waltzing Matilda is a nice woman on the outback.  Oh no! A waltzing matilda is an Australian hobo. 

Ay! 

A matilda is a blanket roll; to waltz matilda is to tramp the roads. 

The who knew? questions burns in my brain.  Tell me truly, did y’all know this already?

Roadwork

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Teaching is, by nature, incomplete.  I have always struggled limiting the scope of the subjects I have taught. 

In their last year of home education, I look for gaps in my students’ knowledge and understanding.

More like potholes.

Grand Canyons! 

Ay-yi-yi! 

Quick, bring in the National Guard and let’s fill and tamp those holes!

One of our roadworks is geography.  I had thought we could learn it “organically” through reading books and news magazines.  Sorry, Charlie!  Didn’t happen.  We’ve added two items to our Morning Routine. Oh, how I wish we had started this, say, twelve years ago.

•    Daily Geography Quiz   These are designed to let you know what you don’t know.  A motivated student –or mom– could learn even more if he or she was curious.  I have found that getting a third party, as in a computer, to ask questions is so much more efficient time wise and attitude wise.  We both love taking the quiz, even though we’ve never gotten all ten answers correct.  I can see myself doing this in my seventies.  Stand up, Sudoku, and make room for the Geobee Challenge.

•   Read about one country a day using World Book’s Encyclopedia of People and Places.  When our public library updated their set, the children’s librarian let me know the old set was for sale on the cheap. If your library has these books in the reference section, you could photocopy the page of Country Web Site listings in volume 6 and use the internet to study a country a day.

Ask me about Azerbijan, baby!

A Teacher’s Prayer on the First Day of School

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Lord Jesus,
merciful and patient, grant us grace, I beseech thee,
ever to teach in a teachable spirit;
learning along with those we teach,
and learning from them whenever thou so pleasest. 
Word of God, speak to us,
speak by us us, what thou wilt. 
Wisdom of God, instruct us,
instruct by us, if and whom thou wilt. 
Eternal truth, reveal thyself to us, in whatever measure thou wilt;
that we and they may all be taught of God.

Christina Rossetti

Father in Heaven, this day always brings with it internal quivers and questions.  Give me strength, I pray, for the task ahead.  Help me to work hard and to finish well.  Help me “not to hinder our children from growing in faith and love towards thee”.  Remove my selfishness and restore to me the joy of my salvation.  Keep us from distractions.  Help me to love physics, O Lord, and I will give you the glory.  Make me a blessing to my family.  Thank you for the gifts you have given.  You are my King.  Amen.

Filling In the Cracks

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8:15 a.m.

My son, a junior in high school, just left the house for his part-time job.  He started work on Monday, doing odd jobs, yard work, and maintenance for a small farmer who is starting a microbrewery in our town.  This is his second year with his employer. So the challenge is to fit his remaining schoolwork, paper route, and our yard work into the second half of his day.  Two things encouraged me this morning.

Part of Collin’s morning routine is to check his emails and read the news headlines.  Walking into the kitchen, I saw him on the computer and asked what he was reading. 

“I’m reading about epi, Mom.”

“Epi?” is she a contestant on American Idol? Perhaps a missionary who started an orphanage?

“Epi-, Mom: epigram, epigraph, episode, epitaph.” 

“Ah.  Yes, I know epi-.  Around, right?”

“On or over.”

What Collin was reading was Daily Writing Tips.  I started receiving the daily email to help my writing.  When I realized how word-oriented it was, I instructed Collin to sign up for it.  While he wouldn’t like admitting that he enjoys the email, he reads it faithfully.

Daily Writing Tips gives a clean daily dose of grammar, punctuation, spelling, words misused, and writing basics. I recommend it for you and yours.

~     ~     ~     ~

Our favorite and most time-consuming subject is history/literature/theology via Omnibus III published by Veritas Press.  For one year there are twenty primary books (including Of Plymouth Plantation, Tale of Two Cities, Rousseau, Mein Kampf and 1984) and sixteen secondary books (including The Old Man and The Sea, Gulliver’s Travels, Tom Sawyer, The Killer Angels).  We manage to get through all the primary books, but have never made it through all the secondary books.  [That will be a delicious chunk of my “retirement” – reading through the stuff we missed.]

Last night Collin was dinkin’ on the computer and I asked him, optimistically, what he was working on.  He was downloading all the books he hadn’t read in the Omnibus Secondary section that were on Librivox. Collin’s employer asked him if he had an ipod or mp3-player yesterday and gave permission, nay, encouraged him to listen to it while he worked.  Little does he suspect that Collin is listening to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Pride and Prejudice, and Gulliver’s Travels this summer.  

You know The Best Part, the whipped créme on top of the hot fudge sundae?  It was his idea.

What Would You Say?

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Graduation speeches are hard to write.  They must be – I have sat through a score of wretched ones.  I’m sure you have too.  The three good ones I heard are memorable because they were so rare.

The most recent speech I heard was a monotone, tiresome recitation of the speaker’s career changes, a boring oral curriculum vitae.  The speaker’s main assets seemed to be fashion-model good looks and the fact that he worked for the richest couple on earth.  Ayup. 

So what are the key parts to a graduation speech? 

Acknowledgment of work completed, without fawning, blarney and adulation.
Thankfulness for the people who helped you get to this place.
A charge or admonition. 

Am I missing anything?

Neil Postman wrote a graduation speech before he died giving permission for anyone to use it.  It is worth the ten minutes it takes to read it. 

What do you think are the key ingredients to a good commencement address? 

Do you know of other great speeches online?

I’m asking.

Commencement

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Hurrah!  Carson graduated with a degree in
Management Information Systems in
the School of Business.

We had a weekend together celebrating Carson’s completion.
Taryn put on a scrumptious feast for 15 – her first fancy family dinner.


The happiest of all are these two!
Carson starts working for Boeing in a few weeks.