Main ideas: There's a difference between gathering data and wrestling with ideas and achieving understanding/wisdom.
"Wrestling with truth, as the story of Jacob warns us, is a time-consuming process that marks us forever."
You can be informed just by skimming the newspaper. To be enlightened, you must read broadly and deeply -- history, political theory, philosophy, etc -- and make connections between what you've read.
Here she writes a lot about the mechanics of reading, and how to train yourself to improve your vocabulary, your comprehension, your basic reading skills (like not letting your eyes jump all over the page -- which I notice I do if I've been spending too much time on facebook or similar manic websites).
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
WEM, Chapter 1
(I did a lot of reading at my parents', this week, and journaled in a notebook there -- since it feels important to me to keep my notes in one place, I'll be putting those entries here, post-dated)
Main ideas: The brain needs to be trained to study, to be part of the great conversations, just like you'd need to train to run a marathon. First grasp basic info, then evaluate, then form and express your own opinions.
She spends a lot of time talking about the differences between reading for fun, for data-gathering, and for reflection and being part of the "Great Conversation". Of course, my plan this year is a lot of data-gathering (although including some more philosophical and analytical reading, too), in preparation for deeper reading later on, so some of her dismissal of data-gathering rubs me the wrong way. But I do agree that it's not sufficient in itself, it should be prep for deeper analysis and for forming your own opinions. I'm just starting with an extremely broad Grammar stage, apparently.
She feels strongly about her rules, it seems to me:
* no more than half an hour of reading at a time, at first
* morning is better than evening
* don't do your reading time immediately after checking email
* stick to one book/subject at a time
* read in chronological order (she's aiming her advice at folks who are planning to make a study of the novel, or the autobiography, or the history, or poetry, which is not my plan, this year -- if you're sticking to one area, though, she makes a good point)
* follow the three stages -- grammar (understand the basics), then logic (analyze the author's positions), then rhetoric (form and express your own opinions). Maybe she'll ease up on it, later in the book, but right now she seems a little too picky about keeping all the stages separate. (obviously, I'm not following the rules -- my journaling is falling into a combination of narration (just summarizing from memory what the chapter's main ideas were), analyzing the strength of the author's arguments, and jotting down my own thoughts on the subject.
I'm planning to try most of her suggestions because they appeal to me, and I think they'll work with my strengths and balance out my weaknesses (such as the tendency to flit all over the place, reading bits and pieces of 6 different books and never finishing any of them). But her insistence on the virtues of her scheme... I don't buy it. She gives persuasive arguments for a few aspects of her plan, but mostly she fills the first several chapters with quotes from famous people who used this sort of a system, and with references to "classical education" (without, as far as I can recall, defining what that is, or explaining why it's superior to other schemes, other than the fact that it's what was used in some former Golden Age of Thoughtful People). There's an automatic respect for tradition, which isn't an attitude I share.
Reminds me of Charlotte Mason (habit building, narration), except CM has you studying even smaller bits of more subjects at once. Which approach is better? Where's your research-based proof?
Main ideas: The brain needs to be trained to study, to be part of the great conversations, just like you'd need to train to run a marathon. First grasp basic info, then evaluate, then form and express your own opinions.
She spends a lot of time talking about the differences between reading for fun, for data-gathering, and for reflection and being part of the "Great Conversation". Of course, my plan this year is a lot of data-gathering (although including some more philosophical and analytical reading, too), in preparation for deeper reading later on, so some of her dismissal of data-gathering rubs me the wrong way. But I do agree that it's not sufficient in itself, it should be prep for deeper analysis and for forming your own opinions. I'm just starting with an extremely broad Grammar stage, apparently.
She feels strongly about her rules, it seems to me:
* no more than half an hour of reading at a time, at first
* morning is better than evening
* don't do your reading time immediately after checking email
* stick to one book/subject at a time
* read in chronological order (she's aiming her advice at folks who are planning to make a study of the novel, or the autobiography, or the history, or poetry, which is not my plan, this year -- if you're sticking to one area, though, she makes a good point)
* follow the three stages -- grammar (understand the basics), then logic (analyze the author's positions), then rhetoric (form and express your own opinions). Maybe she'll ease up on it, later in the book, but right now she seems a little too picky about keeping all the stages separate. (obviously, I'm not following the rules -- my journaling is falling into a combination of narration (just summarizing from memory what the chapter's main ideas were), analyzing the strength of the author's arguments, and jotting down my own thoughts on the subject.
I'm planning to try most of her suggestions because they appeal to me, and I think they'll work with my strengths and balance out my weaknesses (such as the tendency to flit all over the place, reading bits and pieces of 6 different books and never finishing any of them). But her insistence on the virtues of her scheme... I don't buy it. She gives persuasive arguments for a few aspects of her plan, but mostly she fills the first several chapters with quotes from famous people who used this sort of a system, and with references to "classical education" (without, as far as I can recall, defining what that is, or explaining why it's superior to other schemes, other than the fact that it's what was used in some former Golden Age of Thoughtful People). There's an automatic respect for tradition, which isn't an attitude I share.
Reminds me of Charlotte Mason (habit building, narration), except CM has you studying even smaller bits of more subjects at once. Which approach is better? Where's your research-based proof?
Monday, February 6, 2012
The Well-Educated Mind
After trying a few different approaches to the daily reading habit and finding that none of them quite fit my life or reading style, a conversation with a friend led me to Susan Wise Bauer's _The Well-Educated Mind_. I knew her books aimed at parents educating their kids, but this one's aimed at adults focused on their own self-education.
Her approach is not far different from Charlotte Mason's, with the exception of focusing on reading one book at time (something totally alien to my own usual approach, but a habit I'm willing to build, if it will help me cut down on the temptation to flit from subject to subject, never quite finishing up a single one).
Bauer models her recommendations on the trivium -- in each area of study, first you gather the basic information, then you evaluate and analyze, then you form and express your own opinions on the subject. (the three stages: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric)
She recommends starting off by reading for half an hour, 4 days a week, and keeping a journal, like a Commonplace book, in which you jot down quotes or ideas that stand out, write down a few sentences that summarize the day's reading, and note any questions or arguments that come to mind. That's what I'm going to be doing here (although the while-reading notes will go in a notebook - those are likely to be mostly lists of books or authors or words to look up).
Her emphasis is on the Great Books, so she's assuming her readers are going to go on to focus on novels, autobiographies, or histories. That's not my plan, at least not this year, but I think her approach will work just as well for the broad reading I'm planning to do.
I welcome anyone interested in discussing whatever book I'm currently working on reading (I'm happy to discuss past ones, too, as I start building up more of a collection of entries, here).
Her approach is not far different from Charlotte Mason's, with the exception of focusing on reading one book at time (something totally alien to my own usual approach, but a habit I'm willing to build, if it will help me cut down on the temptation to flit from subject to subject, never quite finishing up a single one).
Bauer models her recommendations on the trivium -- in each area of study, first you gather the basic information, then you evaluate and analyze, then you form and express your own opinions on the subject. (the three stages: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric)
She recommends starting off by reading for half an hour, 4 days a week, and keeping a journal, like a Commonplace book, in which you jot down quotes or ideas that stand out, write down a few sentences that summarize the day's reading, and note any questions or arguments that come to mind. That's what I'm going to be doing here (although the while-reading notes will go in a notebook - those are likely to be mostly lists of books or authors or words to look up).
Her emphasis is on the Great Books, so she's assuming her readers are going to go on to focus on novels, autobiographies, or histories. That's not my plan, at least not this year, but I think her approach will work just as well for the broad reading I'm planning to do.
I welcome anyone interested in discussing whatever book I'm currently working on reading (I'm happy to discuss past ones, too, as I start building up more of a collection of entries, here).
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction
The study-for-X-minutes-a-day approach is working much better. Still not entirely at goal -- I'm still in the process of helping Sarah get into the habit of doing 30 minutes of solo-work every morning, so that I can focus on my own work. I often, but not always, get a little more time to focus on my own work in the afternoon or evening. Ideally I'd like to be studying an hour a day.
Eventually I hope to start writing down my thoughts on each day's reading, in a Charlotte Mason sort of narration. Right now, though, I'm just going to jot down what I remember about each of the books I've read this summer.
The Charlotte Mason approach to narration is (as I understand it) about your relationship with the text, so this is a little about seeing how much I remember, but also about what questions came up for me, and what subjects the text made me want to follow up on.
First up: Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction
I like these books -- around 100 dense pages on a subject, giving the lay reader a solid sense of the topic.
Prehistory -- the time before recorded history -- doesn't stop all at once. History starts gradually, in fits and starts. Recorded history starts around 55 BCE in England, with the arrival of Julius Caesar, while it starts around 3,000 BCE in Mesopotamia (although for the first many years it's almost entirely about accounting -- tracking business, counting sheep, calculating costs), and in the 1930s (I forget the exact day, but the book mentions it) in Papua New Guinea, the day a particular tribe first encountered white men when they landed their plane nearby.
The author writes about the difficulties of knowing when it's appropriate to use modern "common sense" to make logical or poetic leaps in describing prehistory, in coming to conclusions about what the concrete evidence means. What does it mean to be human? When did social cooperation begin, when did true hunting begin (as opposed to scavenging)?
For some sections of the book I jotted down new words, or information about which I wanted to pursue more information:
ambit, penumbra, proto-history
quipu, the Dreaming, Incan history, Dark Ages, Renaissance, Darwin, 19th century religiosity, Quaker history, how litmus paper works, Tim Ingold, Mbuti pygmies, Batek Negritos, cosmology, Weber (most of these weren't new ideas to me, but are all things I want to learn more about)
Why did writing disappear in Europe around 1200 BCE and reappear in the 700s BCE?
I was surprised to see the author point out that, for Biblical Literalists, there is no prehistory -- the Bible is believed to have recorded the very beginnings of existence. Obviously I knew that, but I'd never thought about that aspect before -- that that crowd rejects not just Evolution, but so much of what we know about early farming, math, cooking, building... As always, I hate seeing all religion tarred with that particular brush. I like that he pointed out that Quakers and other liberal religious folks were arguing on the side of Darwin in the debates of the 19th century over Natural Selection.
What else? Let's see... Before 8,000 BCE is paleolithic era, 8,000-4,000 BCE is mesolithic, 4,000-1800 BCE is neolithic, then Bronze Age, then Iron Age. I forget the exact years for the last 2 eras. Those are Eurocentric labels, though, based on when early humans used different materials in Europe -- we started using different materials at totally different times and sometimes in different orders or skipping some materials entirely, in other parts of the world.
I had trouble with some of his charts and graphs. Either he needed to take a math/statistics/logic class, or he needed to take a class in how to use graphs in a clear, non-fuzzy manner. I'm not sure where the problem lay.
He touched only very briefly on the ways that we see the world, that we construct the world (not just concretely shaping culture, but shaping the way we *see* culture, the way we experience the world), in our own image. Western scientists frame genetics and evolution from a selfish, survival-of-the-fittest viewpoint, while those of certain other cultures would have framed things very differently (he mentions Mbuti Pygmies referring to the forest as Mother and feeling that the rainforest gives them affection, as well as the resources they need to survive; also the Batek Negritos who see themselves as having an intimate relationship with animals, plants, and creator spirits [that description resonated with me]).
Eventually I hope to start writing down my thoughts on each day's reading, in a Charlotte Mason sort of narration. Right now, though, I'm just going to jot down what I remember about each of the books I've read this summer.
The Charlotte Mason approach to narration is (as I understand it) about your relationship with the text, so this is a little about seeing how much I remember, but also about what questions came up for me, and what subjects the text made me want to follow up on.
First up: Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction
I like these books -- around 100 dense pages on a subject, giving the lay reader a solid sense of the topic.
Prehistory -- the time before recorded history -- doesn't stop all at once. History starts gradually, in fits and starts. Recorded history starts around 55 BCE in England, with the arrival of Julius Caesar, while it starts around 3,000 BCE in Mesopotamia (although for the first many years it's almost entirely about accounting -- tracking business, counting sheep, calculating costs), and in the 1930s (I forget the exact day, but the book mentions it) in Papua New Guinea, the day a particular tribe first encountered white men when they landed their plane nearby.
The author writes about the difficulties of knowing when it's appropriate to use modern "common sense" to make logical or poetic leaps in describing prehistory, in coming to conclusions about what the concrete evidence means. What does it mean to be human? When did social cooperation begin, when did true hunting begin (as opposed to scavenging)?
For some sections of the book I jotted down new words, or information about which I wanted to pursue more information:
ambit, penumbra, proto-history
quipu, the Dreaming, Incan history, Dark Ages, Renaissance, Darwin, 19th century religiosity, Quaker history, how litmus paper works, Tim Ingold, Mbuti pygmies, Batek Negritos, cosmology, Weber (most of these weren't new ideas to me, but are all things I want to learn more about)
Why did writing disappear in Europe around 1200 BCE and reappear in the 700s BCE?
I was surprised to see the author point out that, for Biblical Literalists, there is no prehistory -- the Bible is believed to have recorded the very beginnings of existence. Obviously I knew that, but I'd never thought about that aspect before -- that that crowd rejects not just Evolution, but so much of what we know about early farming, math, cooking, building... As always, I hate seeing all religion tarred with that particular brush. I like that he pointed out that Quakers and other liberal religious folks were arguing on the side of Darwin in the debates of the 19th century over Natural Selection.
What else? Let's see... Before 8,000 BCE is paleolithic era, 8,000-4,000 BCE is mesolithic, 4,000-1800 BCE is neolithic, then Bronze Age, then Iron Age. I forget the exact years for the last 2 eras. Those are Eurocentric labels, though, based on when early humans used different materials in Europe -- we started using different materials at totally different times and sometimes in different orders or skipping some materials entirely, in other parts of the world.
I had trouble with some of his charts and graphs. Either he needed to take a math/statistics/logic class, or he needed to take a class in how to use graphs in a clear, non-fuzzy manner. I'm not sure where the problem lay.
He touched only very briefly on the ways that we see the world, that we construct the world (not just concretely shaping culture, but shaping the way we *see* culture, the way we experience the world), in our own image. Western scientists frame genetics and evolution from a selfish, survival-of-the-fittest viewpoint, while those of certain other cultures would have framed things very differently (he mentions Mbuti Pygmies referring to the forest as Mother and feeling that the rainforest gives them affection, as well as the resources they need to survive; also the Batek Negritos who see themselves as having an intimate relationship with animals, plants, and creator spirits [that description resonated with me]).
Friday, August 5, 2011
Two months since I last posted. That's pretty sad. I aim to do better.
What I've learned so far: AS much as I like to make lists of books I plan to read and projects I plan to complete in a given amount of time, what actually *works* for me is to make a list of the things I'd like to get around to learning and then commit to devoting a certain amount of time each day or each week toward learning those things. And then accept that it'll take as long as it takes to get through each individual book or video series.
I find that I go through phases -- some weeks I made it easily through all my magazine articles and often read twice as many as I'd planned to, but then totally forgot to crack even a single book. Other weeks I made it through three books but never picked up a single magazine because I just wanted to get back to whichever book I was currently engrossed in. And some weeks I read steadily every day but didn't come close to finishing even a single book because whatever I was reading either required frequent breaks to contemplate what I'd read or else got me so riled up and enthusiastic that I kept taking breaks to go out and take action (planning homeschool activities for my daughter, looking up new educational resources, decluttering the house, writing political letters...).
One thing that was consistent, though -- the reading doesn't mix well with the projects. I don't know why. I'll have to think about
I've forgotten the specifics of many of the articles I read, so I won't be reviewing them here. But I'll be reviewing the books I've finished, and I want to start writing up short overviews of the articles I read from here on in (very Charlotte Mason -- I really do remember better when I give a narration after I finish reading something).
What I've learned so far: AS much as I like to make lists of books I plan to read and projects I plan to complete in a given amount of time, what actually *works* for me is to make a list of the things I'd like to get around to learning and then commit to devoting a certain amount of time each day or each week toward learning those things. And then accept that it'll take as long as it takes to get through each individual book or video series.
I find that I go through phases -- some weeks I made it easily through all my magazine articles and often read twice as many as I'd planned to, but then totally forgot to crack even a single book. Other weeks I made it through three books but never picked up a single magazine because I just wanted to get back to whichever book I was currently engrossed in. And some weeks I read steadily every day but didn't come close to finishing even a single book because whatever I was reading either required frequent breaks to contemplate what I'd read or else got me so riled up and enthusiastic that I kept taking breaks to go out and take action (planning homeschool activities for my daughter, looking up new educational resources, decluttering the house, writing political letters...).
One thing that was consistent, though -- the reading doesn't mix well with the projects. I don't know why. I'll have to think about
I've forgotten the specifics of many of the articles I read, so I won't be reviewing them here. But I'll be reviewing the books I've finished, and I want to start writing up short overviews of the articles I read from here on in (very Charlotte Mason -- I really do remember better when I give a narration after I finish reading something).
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Old business
In the midst of setting up for this weekend's birthday party, I'm also finishing up a few of my old projects, so I feel all ready for a fresh "semester" on Monday.
One of my projects was putting together a list of songs I want to be able to play independently (this is separate from the list of songs I've been working on with different friends, and from the list of songs I've been working on with the bass, which I'll need to eventually persuade other people to play with me). I made the list awhile ago, and I'm now about halfway through gathering the chords for all the songs and I've added about half of those to my regular practice schedule. I intend to finish gathering the chords this weekend.
Today Sarah and I watched an episode of Rich Steves' Europe -- it's a lowkey little show, kid-friendly (at least for all the episodes I've seen so far), and he's got an upbeat, friendly style of speaking. This episode was on micro-nations in Europe, including Vatican City, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, and a couple others. I was particularly fascinated by the fact that the pope was holed up in Vatican City for something like 60 years until he signed a treaty with Mussolini giving the Church total control, making Vatican City an independent nation. Tonight I'll probably watch one of the science programs I've got saved.
This weekend I'll also gather all my resources in one place in preparation for both my and Sarah's summer sessions, and post the online ones here. I'm holding myself back from trying to finish up any other projects, though -- between Sarah's birthday party on Saturday and volunteering for Pride on Sunday (and gearing up for Monday's dentist appt :( and Tuesday's mini-golf party), I need to conserve my energy, no matter how enthusiastic I'm feeling right now.
One of my projects was putting together a list of songs I want to be able to play independently (this is separate from the list of songs I've been working on with different friends, and from the list of songs I've been working on with the bass, which I'll need to eventually persuade other people to play with me). I made the list awhile ago, and I'm now about halfway through gathering the chords for all the songs and I've added about half of those to my regular practice schedule. I intend to finish gathering the chords this weekend.
Today Sarah and I watched an episode of Rich Steves' Europe -- it's a lowkey little show, kid-friendly (at least for all the episodes I've seen so far), and he's got an upbeat, friendly style of speaking. This episode was on micro-nations in Europe, including Vatican City, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, and a couple others. I was particularly fascinated by the fact that the pope was holed up in Vatican City for something like 60 years until he signed a treaty with Mussolini giving the Church total control, making Vatican City an independent nation. Tonight I'll probably watch one of the science programs I've got saved.
This weekend I'll also gather all my resources in one place in preparation for both my and Sarah's summer sessions, and post the online ones here. I'm holding myself back from trying to finish up any other projects, though -- between Sarah's birthday party on Saturday and volunteering for Pride on Sunday (and gearing up for Monday's dentist appt :( and Tuesday's mini-golf party), I need to conserve my energy, no matter how enthusiastic I'm feeling right now.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Summer 2011
Sarah and I decided to take off most of the Spring from any sort of structured learning, because we've just been so busy with limited-time-only homeschool opportunities -- swimming, bowling, soccer, etc. The plan is to start up again the week after her birthday, and I'll be writing more about that over on the Sarah-homeschool blog at some point this weekend.
For us, summer starts the day after her birthday celebrations finish up, and runs until September 23 -- for people who love the cooler weather of Autumn and early Spring, we sure do stretch summer out for as long as we possibly can!
So my summer session runs about 16 weeks, which can be further broken down into four 4-week segments.
I'm breaking down my plans for this season into 4 main categories: alt ed, music, science, and what I'm thinking of as my distribution requirement, which will be a catch-all sort of category.
Alt Ed:
* read 4 books on alternative ed, write a synopsis/analysis of each one, and discuss them with various alt ed colleagues
* read 4 articles on alt ed, write a synopsis/analysis of each one, and discuss with various alt ed colleagues
Music:
* prep for homeschool music gatherings, family music gatherings, sacred song
* practice each instrument on a regular basis (tentatively 3 times a week each)
* find mentors for each instrument
* do one small research project on music theory
* do one small research project on the history of each type of music I'm drawn to
* find one musician in each musical genre and familiarize myself with their repertoire
Science:
* read 4 books on basic/general science
* finish watching the series on physics I've been watching
* read 3 articles a week from my backlog of science magazines
* keep nature journal with Sarah
* build one thing
Misc:
* finish the books I've got out of the library (intro to blues, prehistory, archaeology, congress, american presidency)
* read 5 newspaper articles a week (or equivalent)
* each week look into one topic in further detail inspired by the above assignment
* read one book (or equivalent) on basic polisci
* prep for the civics class I'll be offering in the fall
* work my way through the New Testament
* watch one program a week related to one of my educational goals
That comes out to just about:
* 1 book a week
* 8 articles a week
* 2 small research projects a week
* 3 videos a week
* 9 music sessions a week
* finishing one misc project every 4 weeks or so
It'll be interesting to see whether that's feasible.
For us, summer starts the day after her birthday celebrations finish up, and runs until September 23 -- for people who love the cooler weather of Autumn and early Spring, we sure do stretch summer out for as long as we possibly can!
So my summer session runs about 16 weeks, which can be further broken down into four 4-week segments.
I'm breaking down my plans for this season into 4 main categories: alt ed, music, science, and what I'm thinking of as my distribution requirement, which will be a catch-all sort of category.
Alt Ed:
* read 4 books on alternative ed, write a synopsis/analysis of each one, and discuss them with various alt ed colleagues
* read 4 articles on alt ed, write a synopsis/analysis of each one, and discuss with various alt ed colleagues
Music:
* prep for homeschool music gatherings, family music gatherings, sacred song
* practice each instrument on a regular basis (tentatively 3 times a week each)
* find mentors for each instrument
* do one small research project on music theory
* do one small research project on the history of each type of music I'm drawn to
* find one musician in each musical genre and familiarize myself with their repertoire
Science:
* read 4 books on basic/general science
* finish watching the series on physics I've been watching
* read 3 articles a week from my backlog of science magazines
* keep nature journal with Sarah
* build one thing
Misc:
* finish the books I've got out of the library (intro to blues, prehistory, archaeology, congress, american presidency)
* read 5 newspaper articles a week (or equivalent)
* each week look into one topic in further detail inspired by the above assignment
* read one book (or equivalent) on basic polisci
* prep for the civics class I'll be offering in the fall
* work my way through the New Testament
* watch one program a week related to one of my educational goals
That comes out to just about:
* 1 book a week
* 8 articles a week
* 2 small research projects a week
* 3 videos a week
* 9 music sessions a week
* finishing one misc project every 4 weeks or so
It'll be interesting to see whether that's feasible.
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