This is the last chapter of Poetic Knowledge and all the previous threads are coming together. I am enjoying reading what James Taylor has to say about teaching and schools. I've been homeschooling for quite awhile now and am still looking for ways to tweak the process. Is there a better way to teach Latin? Immersion is not an option! (and my kids enjoy chanting conjugations anyway!)Is there a biography we just have to read? What about map work?? It's constant. But reading the first half of this chapter has been soothing to my home school spirit. I think homeschooling is poetic by nature. I even believe that the parents who home school with workbooks (oh! the horror!) are poetical in the way they keep their kids wrapped in family life.
I particularly liked this quote,"If poetic experience first plays upon the beautiful, the wonderful, the proportionate thing that is intuitively pleasing to our senses, where are we to find this beauty in the noise, glare, and glitz, the noxious air, the tasteless food, the vulgar democratization of manners, the desensitization of emotions and resulting wanton violence from suburbs to cities to nations, that so inform the life of the twentieth century." Where indeed, if not in our homes? Certainly not in our public schools which drain our resources filling themselves up with computer labs and gyms and sports arenas but defund the art room and the library (Oh, I mean media resource room!). I was reminded of my old elementary school which was recently torn down and replaced by a much more modern facility of steel and cement blocks. The old school was built in the early 1900's and made of mellow red brick. It had huge windows framed in walnut.Most of the classroms faced the maple lined street. What I remember most from those days is sitting in class and watching the seasons change from those windows. And also the play ground games that are forbidden now--Red Rover and Dodge Ball. But mostly I remeber being bored and wishing I could just go home and play!
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2 comments:
I think you are so right that homeschooling is poetic in nature. My problem is I sometimes forget that and start looking for ways to make it more standardized and less poetic.
I think your contrast between the old schoolhouses and the new ones is quite memorable! Even the more progressive "learning centers" are often really artificial and over-stimulating and set apart from nature -- lots of expensive educational supplies but little personalization. I've been to lots of well-equipped facilities in relation to my son's therapy needs and find that they are often subtly depressing, and confusing to my child, though I am sure that is not the intention.
I'm glad you are inspired too. I agree, even those 'less than perfect' ha ha ha (aren't we all this at the end of the day?) parents who homeschool have a great deal of poetry.
I also remember my old school, the first of the three I went to before college. It was truly poetic. We did not have central heating either but radiators, and we needed to start the day with a thick coat and peel layers as the heat started to kick in the air.
We even had mice in the gymn, but not because of lack of hygiene, it's simply that old buildings host mice. It was a lovely day that when we saw a mouse than the teachers couldn't... sigh, many poetic memories.
I hope our children will have theirs too.
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