A Quote to Remember

Just ask yourself how I could keep my eyes dry when, close by, I saw the image of our human form so twisted.

~ Dante, Inferno

New Blog Policy

I've decided to begin a new policy. You know the "New Year's Resolutions" that everyone forms right around December 31? Mine never seem to materialize. So, here's my new deal. I'm going to put in a new resolution each month. I'll then see how well I do each month and report back to cyberspace in the next month's resolution.

So, for May I'm going to try to use British vocabulary like "petrol" and "lovely" which are much more pleasant and elegant than the American "gas" and "pretty" or "nice".

Let's see how I do!

It's Just So......Overrated

Styles differ, it's true. People are unique, so they cannot be expected to agree on everything. Yet there are some trends which can be counted as pretty far-stretching, pretty universal. These opinions and tastes form a sort of cultural majority, defining what it is the culture will be remembered as liking and disliking.

Let's put it this way: I'm a cultural minority. With many popular fads, I'm really at a loss. I find myself wondering, "Ok, so this has its good sides. But why is everyone making such a big deal out of it?" Here's a far from definitive list of things I think are overrated in our culture.

1. Country Music. (One or two songs are cute, but beyond that...)

2. Volunteer Hours. (They really AREN'T as important for your college application as people make it sound, and they don't "teach you leadership skills")

3. Certain Movies (The Matrix, Braveheart, and The Phantom of the Opera among them). 

4. Finding a clique, though it doesn't always go by that name. I mean that "special group of people" everyone is supposed to need so very badly. Though such groups do form, it's the "finding" of them which I think so overrated.
5. Movie Ratings. (Honestly, do they really tell us much?)
6. Computer skills. (Once again, it's useful to know how to use a computer, but people emphasize it WAY too much.)
7. Prom. (Youths should learn how to dance, but prom is now taken way too seriously.)
8. Driving and cars. (I have a neighbor who is this short of putting a tarp around his car every night to ensure its safety. He washes it almost everyday. What can I do but shake my head?)
9. Youth group. (I like John Stonestreet's term for youth groups. He says, "they're Christian junkies, moving from emotional high to emotional high")
10. Self-esteem. (Just pause and look at that word for a minute. Are the words "pride", "arrogance", and "conceit" ringing a bell?)

Here's a Thought from Dante

ma per trattar del ben ch'i' vi trovai,

diro de l'altre cose ch'i' v'ho scorte.

~Inferno

It means: "But if I would show the good that came of it/I must talk about things other than the good."

Perhaps It's Not What We Think

I was sitting here on our creaking couch, when a thought occurred to me. The biggest academic issue in the homeschool world today is English, and to be more specific, writing. Parents fumble around, desperately trying to teach their students coherent thought and expression.

This is reflected in the many homeschool curricula that try to teach students how to write. Go to any homeschool convention. A great many of the talks will be variations of "Teaching Your Student to Write - Guaranteed!" and "The Subject We All Hate Most - How to Teach Writing". Yet though there are lots and lots of people who claim to understand the art of using words, the facts belie their assertions. The inability to write permeates our society, and homeschooled students are on average no better than public schooled students.

If you glance into these numerous curricula and books, you'll find mostly the same material. They tell how to doctor up your sentences. Add conjunctions here, turn this into a gerund, use more adverbs. They show transition strategies and essay organizations. And though this is all very well and good, I have to say, none of the profuse works on writing seem to be making much of a difference. Even when students do all of the doctoring, expanding, and transitioning that is required in their exercises and essays, their work still seems mediocre and out of place. They seem uncomfortable in the words, phrases, and organization they use.

Now, let me ask a question. What if what makes a good writer is not using these components of good writing but thinking them? Could it be that the good writer is the one who thinks grammatically correct sentences, thinks organized essays and flowing thoughts, not the one who simply fixes his composition? That good writing comes from being comfortable in these (for you Strunk & White fans out there) elements of style?

Let me explain. Anyone can doctor up a piece of work. It's like putting a bandage over a wound, like covering a coffee stain on the floor with a desk. But the result is never as satisfactory as if the wound had never been received, as if the coffee had never been spilled. I am here suggesting that it is the writer who thinks stylistically, grammatically and fluently whose work is truly good. It's the difference between who you are and what you wear. What you wear may fit you or not, but it is not your actual self.

Not that this cannot be learned; on the contrary, it must be. No one is born feeling comfortable in great style. It is merely that you must learn to think great style, not just copy it. I believe that it is not enough just to "fix" your writing. Though all writing will always need to be reworked, you must begin to think in terms of the tools you use.

Perhaps, then, all the curricula and guide books are wrong. Maybe we ought not to teach students how to use tools, but how to be them. Quality should not be a mask we put on, something we use to hide who we really are. It ought to become a very part of our being, the very essence of our souls.

Don't be content with cover-up. Have your students become the style that at first they only emulate.

There's Nothing Like a Sassy Greek

This selection is from the Apology of Plato. Socrates has been condemned and he must now, as was Athenian custom at the time, suggest a counter penalty to that suggested by his accuser, death. Socrates says:

εἰ οὖν δεῖ με κατὰ τὸ δίκαιον τῆς ἀξίας τιμᾶσθαι, τούτου τιμῶμαι, ἐν πρυτανείῳ σιτήσεως.

It means, "Therefore if I must propose a penalty according to the justice of my deserts, I propose the penalty of eating at the city hall. "

Essentially, "Going on what I deserve, I suggest you put me on welfare."

Talk about cheeky, huh? :-)

Another Story

But here begins a new account, the account of a man's gradual renewal, the account of his gradual regeneration, his gradual transition from one world to another, his acquaintance with a new, hitherto completely unknown reality. It might make the subject of a new story - but our present story is ended.

~Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

Dostoevsky is brilliant. It's as simple as that.