$$hopper: Books and Shopping Tips

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Classical Educators' Books

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• Why Formal?
  Thoughts from Andrew Kern about teaching formal English grammar
  
• All Truth is God's Truth
  By R.C. Sproul, on faith, science, and knowledge
  
• Free Online College Fair for Homeschool Students
  Last day: Saturday, Nov. 7! Visit College Week Live to get started.
• Students Compete in National Bible Bee in D.C.
  In the vein of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, students test their Bible knowledge.
• Homeschool Robotics Takes First Place in Competition
  Students shine in BEST (Boosting Engineering Science and Technology) competition.
• Focusing on Process, Not Understanding in Math
  The problem with rushing through learning math...

Leigh's Thesis: Appendix 1 (3)

See Note to Readers

Index

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APPENDIX 1: “THE LOST TOOLS OF LEARNING” (part 3)

Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adult and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the arguments of speakers on the other side? Or have you ever pondered upon the extremely high incidence of irrelevant matter which crops up at committee meetings, and upon the very great rarity of persons capable of acting as chairmen of committees? And when you think of this, and think that most of our public affairs are settled by debates and committees, have you ever felt a certain sinking of the heart?

Have you ever followed a discussion in the newspapers or elsewhere and noticed how frequently writers fail to define the terms they use? Or how often, if one man does define his terms, another will assume in his reply that he was using the terms in precisely the opposite sense to that in which he has already defined them? Have you ever been faintly troubled by the amount of slipshod syntax going about? And, if so, are you troubled because it is inelegant or because it may lead to dangerous misunderstanding?

Do you ever find that young people, when they have left school, not only forget most of what they have learnt (that is only to be expected), but forget also, or betray that they have never really known, how to tackle a new subject for themselves? Are you often bothered by coming across grown-up men and women who seem unable to distinguish between a book that is sound, scholarly, and properly documented, and one that is, to any trained eye, very conspicuously none of these things? Or who cannot handle a library catalogue? Or who, when faced with a book of reference, betray a curious inability to extract from it the passages relevant to the particular question which interests them?

Do you often come across people for whom, all their lives, a “subject” remains a “subject,” divided by watertight bulkheads from all other “subjects,” so that they experience very great difficulty in making an immediate mental connection between let us say, algebra and detective fiction, sewage disposal and the price of salmon—or, more generally, between such spheres of knowledge as philosophy and economics, or chemistry and art?

Are you occasionally perturbed by the things written by adult men and women for adult men and women to read? We find a well-known biologist writing in a weekly paper to the effect that: “It is an argument against the existence of a Creator” (I think he put it more strongly; but since I have, most unfortunately, mislaid the reference, I will put his claim at its lowest)—“an argument against the existence of a Creator that the same kind of variations which are produced by natural selection can be produced at will by stock breeders.”

One might feel tempted to say that it is rather an argument for the existence of a Creator. Actually, of course, it is neither; all it proves is that the same material causes (recombination of the chromosomes, by crossbreeding, and so forth) are sufficient to account for all observed variations—just as the various combinations of the same dozen tones are materially sufficient to account for Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and the noise the cat makes by walking on the keys. But the cat’s performance neither proves nor disproves the existence of Beethoven; and all that is proved by the biologist’s argument is that he was unable to distinguish between a material and a final cause.

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Source: Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning," Lecture. Oxford, 1947.

Copyright © 2009 by Leigh A. Bortins. All Rights Reserved.

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Soft Love/Real Love

Sometimes being a parent means saying 'no' to a soft love. Peter Leithart writes this on the concept of love in Song of Songs ("Song of Songs: Love's Violence"):

Love is “as strong as the grave” and ardor “as hard as Sheol.” [...] Love is not a soft passion.

But more, love is a match for every difficulty Israel faces. The sea that threatens Israel may be strong, but Yahweh’s love is more than enough. A king may be harsh, and invaders cruel, but love is as strong as death.

Pharaoh subjected Israel to bitter and hard bondage, but love is as hard as Sheol. Israel’s own hearts may be stubborn, stony as flint, and they may set their faces like rock against the Lord, but His love is more stubborn still.

As parents, I'm sure you have days when it feels like a lot of tough love is needed. On those days, I encourage you to remember a couple of things.

First, that God's love for us stubborn, rebellious children offers a model for love that is always strong, always just, and always seeking repentance and reconciliation.

And second, that those days are an opportunity to remind your children how much you (and God) want good for them. That means showing them real love, even if it's not always warm and fuzzy on the outside.

Leigh's Thesis: Appendix 1 (2)

See Note to Readers

Index

---

APPENDIX 1: “THE LOST TOOLS OF LEARNING” (part 2)

Before you dismiss me with the appropriate phrase—reactionary, romantic, mediaevalist, laudator temporis acti (praiser of times past), or whatever tag comes first to hand—I will ask you to consider one or two miscellaneous questions that hang about at the back, perhaps, of all our minds, and occasionally pop out to worry us.

When we think about the remarkably early age at which the young men went up to university in, let us say, Tudor times, and thereafter were held fit to assume responsibility for the conduct of their own affairs, are we altogether comfortable about that artificial prolongation of intellectual childhood and adolescence into the years of physical maturity which is so marked in our own day?

To postpone the acceptance of responsibility to a late date brings with it a number of psychological complications which, while they may interest the psychiatrist, are scarcely beneficial either to the individual or to society.

The stock argument in favor of postponing the school-leaving age and prolonging the period of education generally is there is now so much more to learn than there was in the Middle Ages. This is partly true, but not wholly. The modern boy and girl are certainly taught more subjects—but does that always mean that they actually know more?

Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy throughout Western Europe is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined?

Do you put this down to the mere mechanical fact that the press and the radio and so on have made propaganda much easier to distribute over a wide area? Or do you sometimes have an uneasy suspicion that the product of modern educational methods is less good than he or she might be at disentangling fact from opinion and the proven from the plausible?

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Source: Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning," Lecture. Oxford, 1947.

Copyright © 2009 by Leigh A. Bortins. All Rights Reserved.

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$$hopper: Moving Sale and Homeschool Days

Get your week off to a smart start with more coupons and deals from 1 Smart Shopper!




BIG FALL MOVING SALE - Only 5 Days Left!

20% off* plus FREE Media Mail shipping on qualifying items. Now until midnight on November 5, EST. This sale is not to be combined with any existing CC specials or discounts. Click here to start saving now! At checkout, enter coupon code: BIGFALL20

*Excludes: IEW products, Veritas products, CC registrations, and CC gift certificates.

Homeschool Day at the National Building Museum
Washington, DC

November 18, 2009

10:00 am-2:30 pm

Individual families can register for the Museum’s first ever Homeschool Day on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. The following programs, the same programs offered throughout the year for school groups, are offered on Homeschool Day. Pre-registration is required by Monday, November 16, 2009. You are welcome to register for a morning program and an afternoon program. $10 per program per child.

Homeschool Day at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute

Brevard NC
November 5, 2009

The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) holds Homeschool Day twice a year, in the spring and fall. Register and learn more about the next Homeschool Day at PARI, Thursday, November 5, 2009. PARI is continuing its series of events for homeschoolers with an all-new educational experience. Our astronomers and educators have designed age-appropriate (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12) modules.

Know of another homeschool discount or special opportunities day? Post a comment or e-mail us at 1smartmama(at)gmail.com. You can do it! You're 1 Smart Shopper!

• What Does the Best and Wisest Parent Want?
  Longtime educators are asking this question - are you? How would your answers differ?
• A Sunday Reminder - Prayer
  "Yesterday, October 31, marked the 492nd anniversary of Martin Luther’s posting his 95 theses..."
• Student Debates Linked to Gains in Urban Achievement
  A Chicago study shows links between debate league participation and GPA, college-readiness, and high school graduation rates.
• Bad Economy: Sharp Rise in Runaways
  When family pressures affect children...keeping work in proper perspective
• Facing Our Fears
  RC Sproul commentary on living coram deo, before the face of God

Wanting More

When some of us started to center our children's education at home, it was a risky thing to do. It certainly wasn't socially acceptable. Today, it may still be suspect in the eyes of some, but it's becoming more popular every year.

On one hand, that's great news! But on the other, it requires that we monitor our motivations and our methods to see if we are still as different - in the quality of education we seek for our children - as we set out to be. Is it enough to bring your children home, sit them at a desk, and register as a "home schooler" with the state? Of course not!

Check out My Greatest Fear Realized? from the CiRCE Institute:

Everything has changed now. Home education is mainstream. The publishing companies have found it marvelously profitable. The home educators insecurities have driven them to the bottom of the heap for validation.

And now I’m hearing that a “rash” of home educated kids are unable to score high enough on the ACT to get into college. ...

Do you know why home educated kids used to think better than their peers? Because there were so few professi[o]nal materials available to them. They had no option but to think.

Some new materials and technologies can be a great supplement, as long as they remain just that: a supplement to learning and thinking.

I'm excited to see a broader group of parents wanting more for their children, but I'm just as excited when I see families who already center their children's education at home and who constantly challenge themselves and their families to master the tools of learning anything.

What do you think? How do you fight the battle against complacency in your home school?

Leigh's Thesis: Appendix 1 (1)

See Note to Readers

Index

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APPENDIX 1: DOROTHY SAYERS’ “THE LOST TOOLS OF LEARNING” (part 1)

That I, whose experience of teaching is extremely limited, should presume to discuss education is a matter, surely, that calls for no apology. It is a kind of behavior to which the present climate of opinion is wholly favorable. Bishops air their opinions about economics; biologists, about metaphysics; inorganic chemists, about theology; the most irrelevant people are appointed to highly technical ministries; and plain, blunt men write to the papers to say that Epstein and Picasso do not know how to draw.

Up to a certain point, and provided the criticisms are made with a reasonable modesty, these activities are commendable. Too much specialization is not a good thing. There is also one excellent reason why the veriest amateur may feel entitled to have an opinion about education. For if we are not all professional teachers, we have all, at some time or another, been taught. Even if we learnt nothing—perhaps in particular if we learnt nothing—our contribution to the discussion may have a potential value.

However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the reforms I propose will ever be carried into effect. Neither the parents, nor the training colleges, nor the examination boards, nor the boards of governors, nor the ministries of education, would countenance them for a moment.

For they amount to this: that if we are to produce a society of educated people, fitted to preserve their intellectual freedom amid the complex pressures of our modern society, we must turn back the wheel of progress some four or five hundred years, to the point at which education began to lose sight of its true object, towards the end of the Middle Ages.

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Source: Dorothy L. Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning," Lecture. Oxford, 1947.

Copyright © 2009 by Leigh A. Bortins. All Rights Reserved.

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Support Classical Education

Are you interested in supporting Classical Education? Visit the CiRCE Institute, a friend of Classical Conversations and a leading provider for classical educators throughout the U.S., to learn more about their year-end campaign, Further Up and Further In.

The idea is simple and elegant. You can download talks from the CiRCE conference and/or an article by Vigen Guroian just for making any size contribution to the work of the CiRCE Institute. ...

Our target for this support campaign is $50,000, which would enable us to direct the resources that The Lost Tools of Writing and our annual conference urgently need. ...

If you would like to partner financially in this work that we are committed to because we believe our country and the Christian community need it so badly, we welcome and cherish every contribution. Take a look at the website at www.circeinstitute.org or go to the support page.