This is the second half of the last chapter of Poetic Knowledge. It's been a very interesting journey. I like this book, struggle to understand some of it, and think that James Taylor is on the right track. He suggests starting small schools with a couple of like minded teachers. They would carefully read a book, somehow creating a whole curriculum from it and pass on a liberal education to their few students. Well....maybe for a literature class. I agree with Charlotte Mason that a curriculum should be varied and not go off on (too many!) rabbit trails. What Taylor describes sounds very much like A Thomas Jefferson Education. This also sounds good in theory, but unless we hope all our kids get jobs as liberal arts professors this is not enough. The facts are that our children and especially our sons will have to get jobs that hopefully will support a family. This means math and science, and not just what can be picked up by reading Carry on Mr. Bowditch. We are not independently wealthy here and my kids have relied on scholarships to get through college and to get the good scholarships you have to score well on the SAT and to do that you have to study algebra, geometry, and Latin! Those subjects are hard and require work to master. But learning to work hard is a great skill for college and life!
That said, I think this is a wonderful method for a literature or history class! To read a book carefully, discuss its fine points, place it in time and geography, analyse its characters and plot, this is the best part of homeschooling! Especially with teenagers who definitely have opinions and want to share them! We didn't do this with many books. With my daughters it was Pride and Prejudice and with my oldest son it was With Fire and Sword by Henryk Sienkiewicz. This one was especially interesting as we knew next to nothing about Polish history but we learned alot reading this very rich trilogy: politics, religion, military strategy, even farming, but not much math!
I once had a teacher like this in Junior High. Our regular English teacher suffered a heart attack and was replaced by a young woman right out of teacher's college. She led our class through The Odyssey and then Great Expectations. It is one of the few classes I remember. She made all the characters come alive. Sometimes she read out loud and sometimes we took turns reading. I can still picture Odysseus tied to the mast to hear the sirens or Pip walking down a foggy street to Miss Haversham's house. Just once though in 12 years. The rest of my teachers were a pretty bland bunch. I think homeschooling is one of the very few options for our kids to have this kind of discussion. Even in college it is rare.
To quote Taylor,"The end of education is the cultivation of the senses, the imagination and the will." I whole heartedly agree with that. But, I think it can and should be done in a family and a community. For an education to be "something very much like perfection" it has to be like a banquet, and a banquet is carefully prepared. It definitely is not a rush of activities and media diversions. I hope we have time enough to have both lively literary conversations and still get a handle on algebra and Latin translations.
More on this discussion at A Healer's Geste.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
Nature Study--Snapper
The boys found this guy (gal?) in the road this morning. Actually, I think it might be a female as I read that they tend to migrate a bit (for a turtle) to lay their eggs. We relocated her (him?) in the pond out back. I'll let you know if we have little turtles later!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Poetic Knowlege Chapter 7
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!
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!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Poetic Knowledge and the Integrated Humanities Program
This week we started chapter six which describes the Integrated Humanities program instituted by professors Quinn, Nelick, and Senior at the University of Kansas during the 1960's. This gets to the nitty gritty of how they tried to return poetic knowledge to the university system which was lacking then as well as now. Forty years ago these professors realized that their students had been deprived of a poetic childhood and were in need of poetic experiences. The program they began seems a model of gentleness to me. To quote Taylor," The professors knew that a materialist society, with all its utilitarian goals that suffocate the poetic nature of the human being, had rushed many of the students through childhood, that time of leisure in which the wonders of reality are encountered simply as wonders." The pragmatist in me understands why parents would complain that the classes provided in these programs were hardly necessary for a college degree but the romantic in me would loved to have attended!
As the discussions between the professors about various classics (carried on during a leisurely lunch, pg. 149) was described I was reminded of listening in to conversations conducted by my parents and aunts and uncles around the dinner table when I was a young girl. Not that they discussed the great books! But, they were all raised in a time before electronic media (my mother was born in 1917) and they were all expert conversationalists and were filled with stories of a childhood that moved mostly at horse speed. A ride in the rumble seat was still fondly remembered in the 1970's! I think we have TV to blame as well as Dewey's ideas for the mess our national education is in. We just don't know how to converse anymore. Our story telling abilities have atrophied.
I will end with this quote by Professor Quinn,"Mistake me not: wonder is no sugary sentimentality, but, rather, a mighty passion, a species of fear, an awful confrontation of the mystery of things." This program was bold as well as gentle. We can't recreate it in our homes but it is a valiant example to us for what can be done!
As the discussions between the professors about various classics (carried on during a leisurely lunch, pg. 149) was described I was reminded of listening in to conversations conducted by my parents and aunts and uncles around the dinner table when I was a young girl. Not that they discussed the great books! But, they were all raised in a time before electronic media (my mother was born in 1917) and they were all expert conversationalists and were filled with stories of a childhood that moved mostly at horse speed. A ride in the rumble seat was still fondly remembered in the 1970's! I think we have TV to blame as well as Dewey's ideas for the mess our national education is in. We just don't know how to converse anymore. Our story telling abilities have atrophied.
I will end with this quote by Professor Quinn,"Mistake me not: wonder is no sugary sentimentality, but, rather, a mighty passion, a species of fear, an awful confrontation of the mystery of things." This program was bold as well as gentle. We can't recreate it in our homes but it is a valiant example to us for what can be done!
Monday, May 30, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Poetic Knowledge Book Club--Chapter 5
This chapter is called Voices for Poetic Knowledge After Descartes. It describes a private French school run by Andre Charlier, the poetic research methods of Henri Fabre, and the musings of an education professor and Catholic priest, Dr. Thomas Shields. I was most interested in Dr. Shields insights. He wrote an autobiography called, The Making and Unmaking of a Dullard which is now on my to-read list. He brings up a very good point, that growing up on a farm gave him the best possible preparation for his academic life. My one regret as a homeschool mom is not being able to raise the kids on a small farm. I think this is the healthiest way to raise children, especially boys.
To answer Mystie's question,"What are some conditions of life we can create so that 'souls can bloom'?" I can only write about what we got right looking back on the beginnings of this ongoing journey. Certainly, these were not all conscious choices on our part but God worked with us anyway and a lot of things fell into place almost perfectly.
First, we bought a home on four acres of mixed ecosystems in a small and very friendly town. Our "yard" consists of lawn, woods, a small field, a marshy wetland, berry brambles, crab apples, larch ( a favorite of nesting orioles), maples, birch and beech trees. We don't have room for a cow but we do keep chickens. Our boys do get the seasonal work experience mowing lawns in summer, cutting wood in autumn, shoveling snow in winter and vacuuming mud in spring!
Second, we filled the house with nature books, field field guides, butterfly nets, flower presses, cages and aquariums for observations. We tried to keep up with their questions and interests and to also take them to other wild places to explore and hunt for salamanders or sea shells.
Third, and maybe most importantly and most providentially, we live in a very small town that still keeps seasonal festivals. There will be a Memorial Day parade with a gathering in the center of town and the list of all the people from the community who served in the military and have dies will be read. This list starts with our town founder who served in the Revolutionary War. Next will be the 4th of July when we will have a boat parade on the lake and fireworks at night. There is also a weekend long Harvest Festival in September which is mostly a crafts fair and farmer's market.
And last but not least is our entering the Catholic church as a family and living the liturgical year together. It's not easy in a secular world to keep the Holy Days and to remember the seasons of the Church but it makes it all the more meaningful, I think, when you abstain from those Christmas cookies until the Christmas Octave! Not that we are always successful at that! Or hold off decorating for Easter until after Lent is finished.
I think family life in general is very poetic and souls will bloom anywhere they are loved and nurtured!
To answer Mystie's question,"What are some conditions of life we can create so that 'souls can bloom'?" I can only write about what we got right looking back on the beginnings of this ongoing journey. Certainly, these were not all conscious choices on our part but God worked with us anyway and a lot of things fell into place almost perfectly.
First, we bought a home on four acres of mixed ecosystems in a small and very friendly town. Our "yard" consists of lawn, woods, a small field, a marshy wetland, berry brambles, crab apples, larch ( a favorite of nesting orioles), maples, birch and beech trees. We don't have room for a cow but we do keep chickens. Our boys do get the seasonal work experience mowing lawns in summer, cutting wood in autumn, shoveling snow in winter and vacuuming mud in spring!
Second, we filled the house with nature books, field field guides, butterfly nets, flower presses, cages and aquariums for observations. We tried to keep up with their questions and interests and to also take them to other wild places to explore and hunt for salamanders or sea shells.
Third, and maybe most importantly and most providentially, we live in a very small town that still keeps seasonal festivals. There will be a Memorial Day parade with a gathering in the center of town and the list of all the people from the community who served in the military and have dies will be read. This list starts with our town founder who served in the Revolutionary War. Next will be the 4th of July when we will have a boat parade on the lake and fireworks at night. There is also a weekend long Harvest Festival in September which is mostly a crafts fair and farmer's market.
And last but not least is our entering the Catholic church as a family and living the liturgical year together. It's not easy in a secular world to keep the Holy Days and to remember the seasons of the Church but it makes it all the more meaningful, I think, when you abstain from those Christmas cookies until the Christmas Octave! Not that we are always successful at that! Or hold off decorating for Easter until after Lent is finished.
I think family life in general is very poetic and souls will bloom anywhere they are loved and nurtured!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Poetic Knowledge Book Club--Descartes Part two
I've been pondering what to write about for this second half of the chapter on Descartes and his legacy. How nature study is fundamental to a poetic vision of the universe? How nature study grounds us and makes it harder for the promoters of scientific theories to waylay us on our journey to Heaven? My healing from my own public school education? None of these really formed a cohesive theme.
Then something in the readings took hold. It was this quote by Emerson,"I advise teachers to cherish mother-wit. I assume that you will keep the grammar, reading, writing, and arithmetic in order; 'tis easy and of course you will. But smuggle in a little contraband wit, fancy, imagination, thought." Now, Taylor considers this a reactionary statement, but it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from G.K. Chesterton," As long as wit is mother wit it can be as wild as it pleases." This is from Orthodoxy, the chapter called The Ethics of Elfland. Frankly, Taylor was beginning to depress me so a foray into Orthodoxy seemed a good antidote and I re-read that chapter.
Still, I wasn't sure what I wanted to say here but as I opened my Google News homepage I saw this article about Stephen Hawking Heaven is a Fairy Tale?? In the interview Hawkings states,"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is just a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." It seems to me that Stephen Hawkings represents the logical conclusion to Descartes reliance on the mind. Living in the mind has certainly been his experience and I think he is very brave, but also very wrong and lacking an understanding of fairy tales and (I hesitate to say this!) the universe in general. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the complexity and creativity of the universe from cell regeneration to the spiral of a galaxy and not see a Creator. I just can't. I have never been able to envision no God. Just like Chesterton says of elfland, 2 + 2 must equal 4 and the universe must have had a creator. It defies reason to think it is random. Chesterton, of course, says it best," There are certain sequences or developments (cases of one thing following another), which are, in the true sense of the word, reasonable. They are, in the true sense of the word, necessary. Such are mathematical and merely logical sequences. We in fairyland (who are the most reasonable of all creatures) admit that reason and that necessity." But to return to mother -wit or what we would call common sense I'm going to thank Rousseau here. He, I think, saw through Descartes sterile rationalism and sensed ( and promoted, although certainly didn't live himself) an education for children that Incorporated the family. As a homeschool mom I've come to appreciate educating my own children and realize what a great opportunity it is for healing and educating myself and for grounding my children in the "laws of elfland" and so protecting them from the "laws of educational theorists".
I'll close with a quote from Charlotte Mason, "Whatever extravagance he had seen fit to advance, Rousseau would still have found a following, because he had chanced to touch a spring that opened many hearts. He was one of the few educationalists who made his appeal to the parental instincts. He did not say," We have no hope of the parents, let us work for the children!" Such are the faint-hearted and pessimistic things we say today." Parents and Children.
Then something in the readings took hold. It was this quote by Emerson,"I advise teachers to cherish mother-wit. I assume that you will keep the grammar, reading, writing, and arithmetic in order; 'tis easy and of course you will. But smuggle in a little contraband wit, fancy, imagination, thought." Now, Taylor considers this a reactionary statement, but it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from G.K. Chesterton," As long as wit is mother wit it can be as wild as it pleases." This is from Orthodoxy, the chapter called The Ethics of Elfland. Frankly, Taylor was beginning to depress me so a foray into Orthodoxy seemed a good antidote and I re-read that chapter.
Still, I wasn't sure what I wanted to say here but as I opened my Google News homepage I saw this article about Stephen Hawking Heaven is a Fairy Tale?? In the interview Hawkings states,"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is just a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." It seems to me that Stephen Hawkings represents the logical conclusion to Descartes reliance on the mind. Living in the mind has certainly been his experience and I think he is very brave, but also very wrong and lacking an understanding of fairy tales and (I hesitate to say this!) the universe in general. I just don't understand how anyone can look at the complexity and creativity of the universe from cell regeneration to the spiral of a galaxy and not see a Creator. I just can't. I have never been able to envision no God. Just like Chesterton says of elfland, 2 + 2 must equal 4 and the universe must have had a creator. It defies reason to think it is random. Chesterton, of course, says it best," There are certain sequences or developments (cases of one thing following another), which are, in the true sense of the word, reasonable. They are, in the true sense of the word, necessary. Such are mathematical and merely logical sequences. We in fairyland (who are the most reasonable of all creatures) admit that reason and that necessity." But to return to mother -wit or what we would call common sense I'm going to thank Rousseau here. He, I think, saw through Descartes sterile rationalism and sensed ( and promoted, although certainly didn't live himself) an education for children that Incorporated the family. As a homeschool mom I've come to appreciate educating my own children and realize what a great opportunity it is for healing and educating myself and for grounding my children in the "laws of elfland" and so protecting them from the "laws of educational theorists".
I'll close with a quote from Charlotte Mason, "Whatever extravagance he had seen fit to advance, Rousseau would still have found a following, because he had chanced to touch a spring that opened many hearts. He was one of the few educationalists who made his appeal to the parental instincts. He did not say," We have no hope of the parents, let us work for the children!" Such are the faint-hearted and pessimistic things we say today." Parents and Children.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)