Facts Are Stubborn Things

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

Title Swap

The Brainy Bunch: The Harding Family Method to College Ready by Age Twelve by the Hardings
And What About College?: How Homeschooling Leads to Admissions to the Best Colleges & Universities by Cafi Cohen
Founders and Prophets by Jeff and ShaRee Hymas
The Wright Brothers by Davie McCullough
Better Than Before, Happier at Home and The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin
Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand
Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell
American Sniper by Chris Kyle
The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe

The Talent Code

As a hard-core-Suzuki-violin-mother of four violinists, I came across this title at a Summer Suzuki Institute camp.  Both of the teacher trainers talked about this title to the parents.  I thought, hum... I need to see the book for myself.  I bought a copy and read it a year ago.  This last year our practicing has gone to a whole new level of deep and effective practicing.  I may dare even say that my children made more progress in this last year, than the did in the 3 years prior of practicing.  I began video recording our teachers' (Suzuki and Fiddle) lessons.  We studied every sound and every gesture that our music mentors made.  My children started to study the very Essence of what made their teachers so great.  It worked. They are playing more beautifully than ever.  This book  is a fascinating read that can help you with any Talent you want to develop.  Enjoy some of my favorite quotes.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. —W. B. Yeats” 

“The sweet spot: that productive, uncomfortable terrain located just beyond our current abilities, where our reach exceeds our grasp. Deep practice is not simply about struggling; it's about seeking a particular struggle, which involves a cycle of distinct actions.” 

“According to a 1995 study, a sample of Japanese eighth graders spent 44 percent of their class time inventing, thinking, and actively struggling with underlying concepts. The study's sample of American students, on the other hand, spent less than 1 percent of their time in that state. “The Japanese want their kids to struggle,” said Jim Stigler, the UCLA professor who oversaw the study and who cowrote The Teaching Gap with James Hiebert. “Sometimes the [Japanese] teacher will purposely give the wrong answer so the kids can grapple with the theory. American teachers, though, worked like waiters. Whenever there was a struggle, they wanted to move past it, make sure the class kept gliding along. But you don't learn by gliding.” 

“Although talent feels and looks predestined, in fact we have a good deal of control over what skills we develop, and we have more potential than we might ever presume to guess.” 

― Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code: Unlocking the Secret of Skill in Sports, Art, Music, Math, and Just About Everything Else

Title Swap

The Bronze Bow- Elizabeth George Spear
Calico Captive - Elizabeth George Spear
Jon Schmidt Music Lessons - Piano Guys
The Blue Caste - Lucy Maude Montgomery
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloo
The Brainy Bunch: The Harding Family's Method to College Ready by Age Twelve

Favorite "Emma" Quotes

"Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.”

“I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control. ” 

“Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised or a little mistaken.” 
― Jane Austen, Emma

Treasures Found in Treasure Island by Sara Sweet

When Treasure Island was assigned as our book of the month, I groaned (silently to myself) about reading it. Isn’t it just when we think we won’t enjoy something that it has room to pleasantly surprise us?

I enjoyed my time spent in the imagination of Robert Louis Stevenson reading this book. I was attracted to the ideas of growing into our true selves, discovering our real purpose and inner character in the crucible of trials, and defining our allegiance to principles and people as our story takes shape. That was just what happened to our unlikely boy hero in Treasure Island. Young Jim embarks on a treasure hunt and is presented with the most alluring and well polished specimens of men from two opposed walks of life. Who would be his mentor? One is the pirate Long John Silver, and the other a gentleman and physician named Dr. Livesey. A gentleman might be what every responsible parent guides their boys to become; polished, articulate, accomplished, knowledgeable, well-to-do, influential, refined. A pirate might be what every young boy would like to be (just ask Tom Sawyer and his gang); tough, mean, powerful, indulgent, rich and lazy, commanding, terrifying. When confronted face-to-face with both icons of the “perfect man,” will Jim’s fantasies prevail, or will he be convinced of the value and advantage of a gentleman?  Can Dr. Livesey fight and win against the principal pirate? is his strength and ability sufficient? or is a pirate as invincible as his reputation purports? On the other hand, is Long John capable of kindness, concern, and domineering power? Can as person, perhaps, have it all wrapped up into one hero? How can Jim, in his naivety, tell if the men he’s associating with are manipulating, scheming, honorable, or trustworthy?

Through the persuasions of flattery, in-your-face brutality, personal endangerment, and real-life adventure, Jim must take sides in order to survive. He must choose his allegiance, and is forced to abandon his objective perch on the fence of indecision about who he is, and what he wants to become – a perch that all adolescents find themselves upon.

What I believe Jim learns is that the world isn’t black and white. The Yin and Yang of the universe are intertwined, and we can often see the drawbacks of choosing “good” as well as the benefits of choosing “evil.” What guides us, then, are our principles and our allegiance to what we honor. It is why women endure childbirth in order to hold and raise that precious baby, why we toil in the soil that we may reap the bounty and feed ourselves, why we are loyal to our spouse and choose to be old and gray together instead of to pursue forbidden pleasures.

Not only do principles rightly guide our judgment, but outcomes do not prove the value of a principle-driven life. (you might want to read that again…) If Dr. Livesey had failed in this adventure, if he had been marooned on the island instead of pirates, would we say Jim had chosen poorly to place his allegiance in a gentleman over a pirate? Would we then wish Jim had sided with the brutal Long John and lived (if the gentlemen had all died on the island)? It’s easy to be proud of the boy for siding with justice when justice is served, but what about when it isn’t? What about when the tables are turned, and evil prevails as it did in the stories of the prophet Abinidai or the slaughter of the people of Ammon in the Book of Mormon, or the early Church’s temple builders in Kirtland, Ohio? Do we labor, as did Moses, for the welfare of our people, our families, only because we know we will find success in this life? And if we never realize the fruit of our earthly pursuits, as Moses who never himself reached the promised land, do we conclude that we have failed and our trust misplaced?

When our faith, or in other words our action, is rooted in eternal principles, the temporal outcomes and whether we “succeed” or “fail” in them is largely irrelevant. Because our goal is eternal, we may look past the present and the temporary to what we cannot see, which is true. We may look on to eternal accomplishments. On the tropical Treasure Island, Jim chose sides before he knew the outcome of that choice. He didn’t know that the gentlemen with whom he sided would have the physical and mental capacity and stamina to prevail over the band of rugged pirates. Perhaps in “real life” they wouldn’t have. But what Jim did know was that he didn’t want to be used or manipulated, and he didn’t want to perform the atrocities he witnessed firsthand. I’m sure as he watched the brutal murder performed by Long John and witnessed that betrayal, the boyish allure of ultimate and unrestrained power and force quickly withered to give place for the growth of the reason and understanding that supports instead justice, compassion, and mercy. Dr. Livesey, on the other hand, exemplified mercy as he aided injured men from both camps with compassion.

Treasure Island was a great tale of the process of forming one’s own principles over time through experience and understanding, which is vital to establishing good character and allegiance to those principles. It is definitely a story that can help a reader of any age consider his or her own character and determine which practices and pursuits reflect his or her principles. Thanks for choosing it!

"As You Like It" Quotes

“Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak.” 
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” 
― William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Title Swap

Latter Day Liberty by Connor Boyack
Leon Garfield's Shakespeare Stories
Shakespeare - the Oxford School Version
The Jefferson Lies by David Barton
Alicia, My Story
The Real George Washington by the National Center for Constitutional Studies
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright
Little Men by Louise May Allcott

Title Swap

Blood Brothers - Elias Chakour
Headgates - Kerri Tibbits
Unsteady - Jeanette G. Smith
An Enemy Hath Done This - Ezra Taft Benson
Return to the Hiding Place - Hans Poley
Inequality for All - Documentary on Netflix

My Thoughts on “A Thomas Jefferson Education” by Jesse Edwards

I read this book after several people have told me how wonderful it is and how it is THE way to homeschool my kids.  However, I came at it with mixed emotions.  Some people use this philosophy/model with great success, but others do not.  I do not agree with the idea of not “requiring” things of your children being an excuse to not expect things of them, and to not encourage them to become who they can. I believe our children can’t reach their potential without a strong education. 

I firmly believe that education is the key to success in life.  It gives us confidence and self-worth.  It opens windows and doors that otherwise we may not be able to open, and allows us to see things more broadly, and clearly with a more expansive view.  The huge question is how.  How do we do it?  I am a product of public school and got through school not learning much, yet receiving high marks in my classes.  I want my kids to know more.  We never learned ancient history.  We never learned world history.  We never learned about principles of freedom or the constitution.  We didn’t learn finance.  We wasted so much time.  I want different things for my kids, and I want their learning to be deep and ingrained into who they are.

Since I started homeschooling I knew I wanted my kids to have a classical education.  I was given many suggestions on how to do that, the main one being “The Well-Trained Mind.”  As I read “A Thomas Jefferson Education,” I didn’t find the two styles contradictory.  They both encourage the usage of classics as a source of true lasting education.  The difference, for me, was the idea of the mentor.  That I, as a teacher, need to do more to guide my children in a better way.  The things that the DeMille’s suggest for a teacher/mentor are not easy however.  It is time consuming but building.  This is probably the section of the book that I will take the most from.

I did find some arguments wanting.  For example his thoughts on a national book.  The idea I agree with.  I did not like, however, how he claimed each country’s national book to be defined by their great writers.  England with Shakespeare, Italy with Dante etc.  If we were to continue that argument, the USA would not have the bible be it’s national book, but something by Mark Twain, or Faulkner.  The bible would belong to Israel.  I would think that many people in Italy and England would love to claim the bible as a national philosophy just as many people here would and do.  In fact, with the Vatican they might stake a claim on it.  The fact that people revere their great writers is different than a national book that people turn to as a guide on how to live and act and govern themselves.  I would say that most countries would source some sort of religious text as a national book, like the Bible, the Torah, the Quran and other religious texts.  That’s a side note, but it bothered me.

All in all, I came away from reading “A Thomas Jefferson Education” thinking that it seemed pretty innate.  Do I think I’m going to drop everything I’m doing now and join the DeMille cult?  No.  Will I adapt some of the mentor ideas and standards?  Yes.  I think that section was the best, and from it I will try to be a better guide and leader to my own children and family.