Lying with the Truth

I had a couple of public school teachers who posted the same meme about Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos.

So we're all on the same page here's the meme:

Along with it appear comments about how bad things are going to be for school teachers. I have no information on whether any of the points are true in regards to Ms. DeVos, but am willing for my argument's purposes to suppose they are. First the last five points are entirely political and are to be expected of a Republican appointee. And I suspect because of the dishonesty in how the other points are presented that they are probably stretched out of proportion and not how Ms. DeVos would shape them. Funneling money out of public schools could be empowering poor parents to make their own choices in regards to their children's education, it depends on what side of the political fence you are on. 

So I went over to Wikipedia to look at the bios of Obama's two Secretary of Education appointments. And guess what? In terms of personal facts they are identical to Ms. DeVos. They are John King and Arne Duncan. Below you can find my summary. 

Education Degree: John King received a master’s and PhD in education (as well as a JD). Arne Duncan does not have an education degree.

• Personal time in public education: John King's bio does not detail all his educational experience prior to college, but it does indicate he attended Phillips Andover one of the most elite and exclusive college prep schools in the country. Arne Duncan attended U Chicago Lab Schools, while less elite, I suspect this school was an in house perk of U Chicago professors like his parents.  
• College and beyond: John King attended Harvard, Columbia and Yale. Arne Duncan attended Harvard.
• Teaching time: John King taught for three years, two of which were in a charter school. Arne Duncan never taught.
• Experience in School environment: John King also started a charter school, I can’t tell from the Wikipedia bio if his teaching time was in conjunction with that or not (if so his teaching time may be inflated). He served as New York Commissioner of Education. Arne Duncan served as Chicago CEO of Education, but no direct in school experience as an adult.
• Children’s education: John King has two children, but his bio does not indicate where they attend schools. Arne Duncan’s two children attend private schools. 

It's fine to dislike someone's political stance, but you need to be honest about that and not obfuscate your stance in personal details that turn out to be the same as every other political elite. If you want to bewail the elitism in political appointments at the high levels, I'm with you, but I suggest your strongest approach would be to those you agree with first.

Mind Mapping

I"m in the process of reading Tony Buzan's The Mind Map Book. I'm trying to complete the exercises in the book and had the bright idea to mind map the rules and recommendations from the book.

Tag Cloud

This is a pictorial representations of the tags thus far in this blog.

To do something similar go to Tagxedo and work with the create feature.

While it does not yet have an ability to work directly from your blog, you can easily edit your tags and paste them into the text box. What I did was copy mine into MS Word, remove the bullets, use the numbers to copy and paste additional copies of any tag that repeated mored than once, and then remove the numbers themselves.

Tagxedo has the ability to use other images than the basic ones (like this heart), but I had difficulty to get that feature to work in a neat way.

Classics and Potboilers, and Penny dreadfuls

Image via Wikipedia

I can't help contrasting two books I recently finished reading. One I read out loud to my ten year old and many home school moms would say it is a classic. The other I read myself and probably quicker than the one I read to my son. Most home school moms wouldn't recognize it and would be leery of letting their older children read it without some investigation.

At a certain level they were both great reads. The one has been made into many movies (and I think a TV series). It's the story of a child reared in the jungle by animals who eventually encounters a group of humans and saves them (multiple times) and falls in love with the girl in the group. He returns to civilization with one of the party and learns French and that he is the son of a well to do man and pursues the girl. Alas, she is already promised to another. He returns to the jungle.

The other is a play about a man who's brought home a war captive and her child. He's fallen in love with her and she will have none of him. He's also got a promised bride who loves him. Into the scene arrives another man demanding the death of the child (son of the enemy in the last great war) and who is also in love with the promised bride. Two die, one is insane, and the captive woman is ruling the country at the end of the play.

So which is which? Which the classic? Which the potboiling penny dreadful?

War, politics, and poular opinion

Image via Wikipedia

Growing up in the South, I often heard lists comparing Northern and Southern assets at the beginning of the Civil War. One of the items on the pro-side for the South were military leaders.

As I've studied the Civil War this summer, I've realized that this isn't quite correct. Instead was most important early in the war for the South was a president who understood war and tactics and who was willing to do the correct thing militarily over the politics and popular opinion.

I learned for instance that the general I most think of when I think of the South, Robert E. Lee, was sent to South Carolina for perceived faults early in the war. Later, Davis brought him to Richmond to help him coordinate war materials and tactics. It was only later that Lee received command of the army of Northern Virginnia.

Eventually Lincoln became both savvy enough to understand military tactics and could overcome the unwillingness of his public to (or built his and the army's public capital to a point where they could) understand that sometimes victory came through slow protracted events and would not be accomplished by a head on engagement.

Even in the final year of the war, Lincoln still struggled with incompetent and yet politically connected generals.

The mythical better generals vanish as I contemplate how the same forces of politics and public perception were at work during the Civil War as in modern conflict.

More Meaning

Image via Wikipedia

In looking over the reviews of the commentary by Ben Witherington on the book of Revelation. I noticed one reviewer complained that he never told which meaning the original readers and writer would have given an image in the book. I'm now about half way through his book and haven't found this to be a problem, but it does raise for me an important point about reading metaphoric literature of all kinds.

That's the fact that often an image can have more than one meaning and the author intended that multiple layer of meaning. It gives a piece much more depth to have this multi-level approach. To look for the one right meaning is to miss the point.

I can remember studying Yeats' "Leda and the Swan" and having a teacher walk me through those mutliple meanings that both overlapped and meshed together.

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

This poem has at least four such levels, maybe more. Certainly Yeats contrived to have them there and to interlock them to allow the reader to get more than just the first reading of such a poem would give.

First, there's the basic story, Leda, a girl, is raped by a swan. To embellish that more and explain the lines about Agamemnon and the burning wall, we find the second layer, that of Greek mythology. The swan is Zeus and the children of this mating are Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra, who marries and later kills Agamemnon.

But Yeats wasn't willing to stop there. He had is own view of history as a cycle of rising and falling events. For him the fall of Troy was the fall of Greek culture and signaled the rise of a later culture, Christanity. For him this moment is the beginning of modern history.1

Yet even all this doesn't quite explain that last lines, "Did she put on his knowledge with his power, Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?" Which takes us to yet a fourth level of meaning. That of the creative person who struggles to capture that one flash of creation that comes from a greater and higher force before that moment and that creativity are gone.2

This adds depth and meaning to the poem and to try to decide which of the four is right just wouldn't be, well, right.

My Book Books

Sometime between the age of twelve and fourteen, I started writing down the books I read in a notebook. It's now about four decades since I started. Recently I started a new volume, number four. I thought I'd share the covers of each of these books.

This is the first book.

This is the second book.

This is the third book.

This is the fourth book. I have included both the spine and back cover since they are decorated as well as the front cover.

Dog Manners

Cover via Amazon

It is hard sometimes realizing that dogs don't really like everything that people do to them in a spirit of kindness and love. In McConnell's The Other End of the Leash, she includes some photos of people hugging dogs where the dogs don't look particularly happy.

She also shares two stories that make the point as well.

Imagine walking down the street and seeing someone whom you know and are happy to see. What do you do? Most of us call out his name, maybe wave to get his attention, and move directly toward him. It’s especially polite to look directly at his face as you get closer, walking straight toward him, looking right into his eyes and smiling. As you get close enough to touch, you might reach out your hand to shake his or wrap both arms around his chest in a warm hug. Perhaps you move your face directly to his and kiss his cheek. The ultimate in friendliness is to look deep into his eyes and kiss him directly on the mouth. Ummmm, so sweet and friendly. Not if you’re a dog, it’s not. That oh-so-polite primate approach is appallingly rude in canine society. You might as well urinate on a dog’s head. (pg. 14)

That’s the way Letterman greets Julia Roberts, and that’s the way we all greet people we really like. In dog society that would be a scene from a sci-fi horror movie. You just couldn’t be more rude to a dog unless you walked up and bit him. (pg. 18)

Since I've read this part of her book, I can't help but watch my dog closely to see when she is putting up with something that she isn't too happy about on her own. She's a good dog.

Context

Image by Mikey G Ottawa via Flickr

I've noted in other posts that sometimes the writings of person in a time period prove to be different or unexpected or less accurate than we would expect. My study of Luther's commentary on Galatians has given me many moments to think about this concept.

Critics of the Reformation often complain about the multitude of denominations it spawned. Certainly the Bible talks mostly of one church (although this is less starkly clear as we often read in the Bible of churches linked to the place they meet). So it gave me a moment of head scratching to read this from Luther on Galatians 5:15:

By these words Paul meaneth, that if the foundation, that is, faith in Christ be overthrown by false teachers, no peace or concord can remain in the Church, either in doctrine or life ; but there must needs be divers opinions and dissensions from time to time, both in doctrine and life, whereby it cometh to pass that one biteth and devoureth another, that is to say, one judgeth and condemneth another, until at length they be consumed. Hereof not only the Scripture, but also the examples of all times bear witness. When the church of Africa was perverted by the Manichees, by-and-by followed the Donatists, who also disagreeing among themselves were divided into three sects. And where is that Church to-day? At this day how many sects are springing up one after another? Thus when the unity of the spirit is broken, it is impossible that there should be any concord either in doctrine or life, but daily new errors arise without measure and without end. Paul therefore showeth how such discord may be avoided. Let every man do his duty in that state of life to which God hath called him.

I wondered what Luther was talking about. Was he looking forward and seeing that the Reformation he began was going to cause splits in the church? Was he already seeing many sects in his break away movement? My commentary has no annotations so I am left on my own to puzzle things out for myself. So I placed a post-it on the spot and continued on in my readings.

Some pages later I came to what I believe was Luther's meaning for this splitting that he describes.

Heresies, or sects, have always been in the Church, as we have said before. Notwithstanding the pope is an arch- heretic, and the head of all heretics; for he hath filled the world, as it were, with a huge flood of infinite sects and errors. What concord and unity was there in so great diversity of the monks, and various religious orders. No one sort of them, or sect, could agree with another; for they measured their holiness by the strictness of their rule. Hereof it cometh that the Carthusian will needs be counted holier than the Franciscan, and so likewise the rest. Wherefore there is no unity of spirit, nor concord of minds, but great discord in the papistical church. Contrariwise among the Christians, the word, faith, sacraments, service, Christ, God, heart, soul, mind, and understanding, are all one and common to all.

So unexpectedly (at least to me) he sees division and sects in the Roman Catholic Church of his own day. This is unexpected to my modern mind which looks back and sees the Roman Catholic Church prior to the Reformation as a monolith (well mostly). It is also unexpected to note that he sees it with so much diversity in it and not under one head. I also see the Roman Catholic Church of today as more orderly with a single head who rules all in his church. It seems Luther saw something else in his time.

Insubordination 4

Image via Wikipedia

During the Battle of Copenhagen, Lord Nelson was told by a lieutenant that his commander had signaled him to withdraw from battle. He ignored it. He was blind in one eye, so he placed his spyglass to his good eye and said, "I really do not see the signal."1

Nomenclature

Image by Ollie T. via Flickr

A system or set of terms or symbols especially in a particular science, discipline, or art. 1

The classification of items sometimes varies by the system being used to classify. I wrote a post that include a teacher who marked a child wrong for saying a tomato was a fruit. The problem in that story is that there are two system to classify a tomato.

The first system is that of science and the parts of a plant. In that system, a tomato is a fruit,. a carrot is a root, and broccoli is a flower. Each is a part of a plant.

I suspect the teacher wasn't thinking about that system when she marked the student wrong. Instead she was thinking of another system: food groups. She might have even taught a lesson on food groups. In that system the tomato wasn't a fruit instead it was a vegetable. While that system is less precise in its divisions, it was nevertheless a valid system. Most of us can divide the things I listed above as well as others by the same set of rules. Fruits are sweeter and have more simple sugars. Vegetables don't have a lot of sugars. Starches are plant parts that include more complex sugars. Finally, oils are extracts of plants that contain pure fat (and are the only category that can also include animal products). Unlike the plant part system this one has no clear dividing lines and some items are sorted differently depending on who's doing the sorting.

Children mostly grow up figuring out hundreds of these informal classification systems. Is a color green or blue? Is that a bird or an insect? What's the weather like? In many ways they are much more advanced scientists than us adults who don't have to sort all of life into categories because we have already excepted those divisions of life.

How to Read 2

This is the third of a series of posts about this article.

Lastly Bauer includes some tips on how to go about thinking about and setting up a reading program. Most of them I agree with.

In large part, the project of classical education is an act of resistance against mainstream culture. It sends a message: “I don't care how fast I do this. I don't care how much of it I do. I don't care how many books I get through. I am not in search of immediate gratification and visible results." This pushes back against our society, which tells us that the faster we work, the more we do, the more we produce and accumulate and experience, the better we are.

I agree. I would add that sometimes it helps to take a break midway in a book. I find this to be especially true of long works of nonfiction. I even decide with some books when I will take a break. In one long history of a very minor technology that I am interested in, I took a break every 200 pages. The material was dense and I need to spend a few days reading a light weight novel. In my most recent book on the Civil War, I planned and took a break at the middle of the book.

One point I did not completely agree with is her suggestion to read in the morning. I've heard that advice a lot over my life, but it just doesn't work out for me. For me the morning before breakfast is a time to get things done. I read, gasp, at the end of the day when my children go to bed, but I admit I also manage to sneak in reading through out the day. I encourage you to find your own time and sneak some reading into those empty moments that happen all through most people's day.

Bauer also suggests reading genre's chronologically. I don't see the necessity in this. Certainly there is an evolution in literature's forms, but if you always wanted to read War and Peace, don't fell you must read 25 other novels before you begin it.

Image by thefost via Flickr

One point I would suggest is to take some time deciding what level of reading you are at. If you've been reading light weight popular novels and books of encouragement then you may wish to not immediately leap into deep and dense works, but instead begin with some shorter less dense works of literature or more popularized books of nonfiction. Going from Stephen King to Plato might be an unwise choice. There are many easier works to begin with; Greek drama, in my opinion, is easy to read and enjoy.

And if one works stumps you, put it aside after a set number of pages (10 -25 percent is a good goal) and try something else. Whatever you do, don't pick something because it is a classic instead pick something you are interested in.

How to Read 1

Although overall I love Susan Wise Bauer's "Stop Cleaning the Kitchen and Read," I admit to not much liking her advice on how to read.

I certainly agree with her that what happens to many moms who decide to read "a classic" is that they get a few pages in and get tired, bored, or confused by the book and give it up. That certainly has happened to me in the past and I don't personally know anyone who reads more books than I do (with the possible exception of my dad). So for a mom new to reading regularly the experience could be even more daunting.

Where I depart from Bauer is her recommendation to read a book in a three level process that, oddly, follows the same three levels of the classical curriculum she writes about. I would never had made it through a lot of books I've read if I had had to go three times. While I'm sure that the third time might make some things pop out that I did not catch the first time through, I'm equally sure that some of my first insights are also valid and important.

I also have some questions about the idea of a reading journal. I'll grant you that part of what this blog is about is that, but to have to write each day as I read would be another hindrance to my actual reading and learning.

I do think Bauer has a great idea about marking difficult passages and just moving on with whatever you are reading and then coming back at the end of the book or chapter to reread the difficult section or sections.

My way of taking "notes" is to keep a stack of post-it notes in the places I read. I keep the small 1 by 1.5 inch ones. There are also ones designed to flag reading points, you could get those as well. Whenever I read something I want to remember I put a note on it. I arrange the note so that only a tiny dog ear appears outside the page of the book.

The other thing I use the post-it notes for is to keep my on target with any end notes. I much prefer notes on the same page, but that's not something I get any control on. For books with end notes, I put a post it on the footnote page that is where I am currently reading, so when I have a note in the text I want to check on, I can quickly turn to that page.

In my experience with used books, I can't help but note that some folks use other systems, underlining and writing notes in the margin. These systems can work for you, too.

My feelings are not to get bogged down and doing something that makes it no longer a pleasurable experience (even if hard work). For some moms that may mean writing in a reading journal would add to their experience, but for me that would artificially add a level of frustration to the process.

Selling Ourselves Short 2

Image by National Media Museum via Flickr

Susan Wise Bauer has written a wonderful article, "Stop Cleaning the Kitchen and Read a Book"; she encourages moms reading each day to learn more. This is what this blog is about. I am thankful that two years ago Marcia Sommerville challenged me (and all Tapestry of Grace moms) to read the Rhetoric (high school) level literature in her curriculum whether my children were at that level or not. I was fairly well read, but I still had holes and I've found that classics are better after 40 than at 16.

But in the last two years I've expanded Sommerville's definition and also spent time reading other topics that relate to what my children are studying. It's been an amazing experience.

Bauer's article includes some points most home schoolers would agree with, "As home schoolers, we rely too much on experts; this is true not just for home schoolers, but for the American culture at large." Almost all home schoolers I know would be quick to say that standard schooling is incorrect in it's reliance on experts to teach children. But many home schoolers rely on various insider experts in the homeschool world.

Prior to my switch to Tapestry of Grace I used a curriculum that included a guide to the series of books it used to teach American history. Over the years I had heard raves about this guide. I even bought a copy when I switched to Tapestry just in case. So when I finished reading my second books on the Civil War, I turned to that section of the guide. Only to be dumbfounded by the numerous factual errors and poor reasoning of the writer.

Bauer is clear in her article that it is exactly this that moms need to do:

In order to embark on the project of classical education— not just for our children, but also for ourselves—we have to rediscover a much older way of thinking.

In order to get educated, we do not have to go to graduate school. We have to read, take notes on what we read, and discuss ideas with our friends.

The first step in classical self-education is to turn away from the classroom and turn towards reading.

Interestingly for Bauer, she is often seen as an expert on history and literature and has written books for parents on history. But what she encourages is taking the next step to leave her behind and face the open road of learning on your own.

Not every mom will study the same topics, but as part of a network of moms they can become more knowledgeable than the experts they now rely on. Topics are often interrelated. My military history of the Civil War pointed forward to the failures of WWI generals to recognize the same facts of battle that the Civil War generals had already faced and learned.

Insubordination 3

Image via Wikipedia

After the loss of Atlanta, Hood attempted to disrupt Sherman's communications (military talk for his supply line) and lure him back to Tennessee. Unfortunately for Hood, things went badly awry.

As his army retreated further south his men changed the words to the popular "Yellow Rose of Texas" to match their feelings about their commander:

So now I'm marching southward,

My heart is full of woe.

I'm going back to Georgia

To see my Uncle Joe.

You may talk about your Beauregard

and sing of General Lee

But the gallant Hood of Texas

Played hell in Tennessee. 1

Insubordination

Insurbordination 2

Insubordination 2

Image via Wikipedia

Bragg was not the only Civil War personality to have remarks address to him that might seem pretty insubordinate to our modern sensibilities. No less than Abraham Lincoln was told while visiting a fort under Confederate fire to, "Get down you Fool!" by a young captain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 1

There's even a historic marker at the site.

Insubordination

Footnotes

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things I learned as an adults that sometimes there was pretty amazing stuff hidden in the footnotes. They function not only as a place to indicate where information and ideas comes from but as a place for the author to put points that aren't strictly on topic.

I first found this in a comprehensive American history book where the author included not only details that weren't in his text but often made wry remarks.

As I've read more books with extensive footnotes, I've learned this is pretty common. Often if you want to find the author's sense of humour on a point, you'll find it in the footnotes. Or if you want to find what other topics might relate to a point, again the footnotes.

Of course, students rarely get to learn this as textbooks don't footnote much or anything factually and instead only footnote things like definitions of words or dry facts that relate to the text itself.

Paraphrasing and Plagiarism

Image via Wikipedia

Thinking Mother has a nice post on plagiarism. I've been reading a book written to classroom teachers about handling plagiarism in the classroom. One of the things I noted in both the blog and the original article on plagiarism was the focus on blatant copying. This is something that is pretty easy to teach. Don't copy. Yes, even if you change a few words, it's still copying.

But there's no mention in either article of what I suspect is a much more common form of plagiarism. In fact one of the comments following the blog describes a writing program that trains students to paraphrase. I may be misreading the writer's intent, but it seems her point is that if students learn to paraphrase then they won't plagiarise. Unfortunately paraphrasing another writer's work without citing your source is plagiarism as well (see here, here, or here).

The difficulty is determining what information is common knowledge and not original to any author which won't need a citation. For instance a biography of Lincoln would likely not cite a source for his wife being Mary Todd Lincoln, but would cite a source describing their first meeting.

The Thinking Mom includes a great example of why this kind of citation is so important not just to avoid plagiarism, but also to prove your case:

To make matters worse for me as a student in fourth grade, when I wrote in my report that the tomato was both a fruit and a vegetable the teacher marked it wrong, chastised me in red ink saying that it was NOT a fruit and lowered my grade. 1

While I'm sure that a footnote wouldn't have made a difference for some readers, it's possible that a footnote for this fact might have convinced her teacher to check this point (although I'll be quick to admit I'm not sure a tomato being a fruit is really a fact that needs a source).

I've read academic books where a long list had every single item footnoted not with just one source but many.

I'm not sure I understood this point about footnotes until I began to seriously read academic writing frequently enough to be exposed to meticulous footnotes (and some pretty sad ones too).

Total Depravity

Anyone familiar with Calvinism will recognize this as the first point of the "TULIP."

Image via Wikipedia

In my study of history, I learned that Calvin and Luther agreed on many points and it wasn't until the century after Luther's death that Lutherans separated themselves from what would become Reformed Theology.

Witness this observation of Martin Luther in his commentary on Galatians, " Furthermore, we are all subject to the devil both in body and goods, and we be strangers in this world, whereof he is prince and god. Therefore the bread we eat, the liquids we drink, the garments we wear, yea, the air, and whatsoever we live by in the flesh, is under his dominion."

Swine

Image by james_michael_hill via Flickr

As I read more works by original authors, I become aware that contemporary belief in a time when debate was more mannered and orderly is a myth. Take this little insult from Martin Luther's commentary on the Galatians, "So that these swine do think that righteousness is but a moral thing, only beholding the visor, or outward show of the work, and not the heart of him that doth the work: . . . ."