On Writing and Other Educational Endeavors

I am not a great writer and probably never will be. I do hope though that I am able to convey ideas accurately and in an organized fashion. I know that there are many people who have a natural flair for writing and don't have to work at it too much. But I think there are probably a lot more people like me than like that. In teaching my own children in our homeschool, it is all too easy to avoid the hard things, and I've become more convinced the harder something is for me or my kids the more we need to work on it. This quote from I'm the Teacher, You're the Student (book I wrote about in an earlier post) even uses the music analogy that I have used before. It isn't just applicable to writing, but in a lot of educational endeavors. It also can be instructional for us as homeschoolers to know areas of potential weaknesses in college students.

Most Emory undergraduates are bad writers; most Berkeley undergraduates are bad writers; and I know from talking with my academic pals around the country that most students at Yale, St. Louis, Stonehill College, Colby-Sawyer College, Hiram College, Notre Dame, and Duke are also bad writers. They have not done enough writing to become good at it. They've been cursed with a lifetime of multiple-choice examinations instead, so even the highly intelligent ones come to writing as a strange and alien activity that is occasionally forced upon them. But writing is an activity that needs constant practice if you're going to be good at it. It's like being a violinist--if you once had a few lessons but then got into the habit of picking up the violin just four or five times per year, you would not make sweet and beautiful sounds on it to delight an audience. So it is with the students' papers. They haven't written much, ever, most of them, and they don't really know how to do it, with the result that they can't convey their knowledge and intellectual ability in writing.

Dr. Allitt goes on to explain other problems in students' writing--one of which is grammar. Mistakes in grammar he finds in students' papers are subject-verb agreement problems, mixing tenses, misuse of past participle forms in verbs, misuse of apostrophes, and lack of understanding of the use of the pluperfect tense. Confident usage of these things take practice. If the teacher/homeschool parent doesn't know these things, she will be unable to help her student correct them in writing. If the teacher/homeschool parent does know them, she will be much more able to help her child in his writing. Much can be learned about grammar in the context of writing if the parent is educated herself. So learn that grammar with your kids! You'll be glad you did.

Not to be outdone by Renee, I thought I'd go ahead and post pictures of my son and his fiance. Nate will be marrying Amy Nisbett on December 31st in Rolla, Missouri. Even though Nate is dirty in the one photo after having worked that day, I think it's a nice picture of the two of them.

Books

I finished Habits of the Mind today and started back on Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. A few years ago I had read the book she co-authored with Charles Thaxton The Soul of Science which is an interesting account of the history of philosophy and science. I liked it so well I bought copies for my two college-aged sons. This quote from page 95 of Total Truth sums up the beginning section of the book, and as thoughts of a similar sort were running through my brain after a recent online conversation regarding academics vs spiritual training in our children, it really stood out to me:

"What we learn from this brief survey of theological traditions is that Creation, Fall, and Redemption are not only the fundamental turning points of biblical history--they also function as marvelously useful diagnostic tools. A genuinely biblical theology must keep all three principles in careful balance: that all created reality comes from the hand of God and was originally and intrinsically good; that all is marred and corrupted by sin; yet that all is capable of being redeemed, restored, and transformed by God's grace.

"These three principles also provide a way to overcome the secular/sacred dichotomy in our lives. The biblical message is not just about some isolated part of life labeled 'religion' or 'church life.' Creation, Fall, and Redemption are cosmic in scope, describing the great events that shape the nature of all created reality. We don't need to accept an inner fragmentation between our faith and the rest of life. Instead we can be integrally related to God on all levels of our being, offering up everything we do in love and service to Him. 'Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,' Paul says (I Cor. 10:31) The promise of Christianity is the joy and power of an integrated life, transformed on every level by the Holy Spirit, so that our whole being participates in the great drama of God's plan of redemption."

A book I've recently finished is I'm the Teacher, You're the Student by Patrick Allitt who is a professor of history at Emory University in Georgia. I got this book because I saw that Dr. Allitt had been a guest on the Phyllis Schlafly radio show. I don't normally listen to radio much, but downloaded this program. I've enjoyed lectures of Dr. Allitt from the History of the US DVD set from The Teaching Company. He teaches the final third of the course. I've put post-it notes in several places of I'm the Teacher, You're the Student and so I hope that in a few days perhaps I can tell more, but I was impressed by the high standards he holds for his students, his love of teaching, and his love of history.

Two other books I'm reading but haven't finished yet are The Americans: The Colonial Experience by Daniel Boorstin (former head librarian of The Library of Congress) and Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling by James Sire. The Americans is actually a trilogy, and I've already read the second in the series The National Experience. Boorstin tends to focus on the history of the common man and common events rather than the major events. Because of my interest in genealogy and also the fact that my ancestors were not among those famous people written about in most books, I find it fascinating to think about the ancestors I know of in various locations living in the situations and circumstances he describes.

I've been busy the last couple of days sewing in preparation for my oldest son's wedding on December 31st. But I thought I'd post about a few books I've read or am in the process of reading.
One reason the Thomas Sowell book I mention in an earlier entry was recommended to me by a long-time internet friend was that Sowell copiously references a favorite book of mine. The book is Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer. It tells of the four "British folkways in America" detailing the groups colonizing in the new world, what types of "folkways" were indicative of their places of origin in Britain, and how those folkways were demonstrated in various areas of America colonized by those groups. Groups coming to Massachusetts were primarily from East Anglia. Those going to Virginia were from the southern part of England. The northern midlands people colonized Delaware. And those from the borderlands (England/Scotland) went to the back country. These are roughly chronological migrations and the Scots tended to be relegated to the back country (as the Germans were later) because it was what was available. They ended up acting as an unwilling cushion between the Indians and the earlier colonial groups. It has been so long since I read this book (due for a re-read, I think) that I'm unable to give any interesting tidbits, but it is a fascinating account.

The reason that this book is referenced often in Sowell's book is that Albion's Seed makes the case that many of the customs often thought to have originated with the slaves from Africa and therefore often viewed as part of black heritage, really have their roots in the southern England culture which was predominant in the south in colonial days.