My dd11 and I are reading Beowulf: A New Verse Transalation by Sean Heaney. I vaguely remember avoiding actually reading Beowulf in high school. I probably worked pretty hard at not reading yet pretending as if I had. It probably would have been less complicated to just read the poem but at that time I didn't know what a great story it was or how much I'd enjoy it.
The thing that has struck me most recently about Beowulf is the part of a mother. Through this poem I have come to believe that Beowulf is a hero worth cheering. I have enjoyed the strong male relationships and the give and take between companies. All of these characters are worth meeting but I was surprised that Grendel's mother was the one that I found to be the most familiar. I hated Grendel for his greed and heartless waste. I cheered for his defeat and ultimately his death.
Yet, when his mother came to avenge Grendel's loss, I totally understood her need. I saw myself in the hurt, the anger and the longing for what was lost. I know what it is to put all that I am into my children and the idea of one of them being harmed, in any way, for any reason, is beyond bearing. I can only imagine the lengths I would go to to protect or avenge the loss of part of my heart. I never expected to identify with the mother of a monster but I suppose the reality of being a mother is the same no matter what your child becomes.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
A Divergence
I've made it through chapter four and from here I'll be jumping off onto my own path. I don't have the time or the energy to deal with Don Quixote right now. By necessity my reading will be chronological but it won't stick to one genre. My dd11 and I are currently reading Beowulf while my dd13 and I are reading Confessions. All my reading for self-education and child education will be from the middle ages and early renaissance but we'll be covering all genres over the next nine months. I intend to use the rest of The Well-Educated Mind and this commonplace book to respond to those readings.
As we progress, I'll keep a reading list in the margin and continue to make my notes. I'll even go back and make notes for the reading we've already done in those two selections. I may even include the notes and summaries for our history text as well. It seems that this type of record keeping appeals to me.
As we progress, I'll keep a reading list in the margin and continue to make my notes. I'll even go back and make notes for the reading we've already done in those two selections. I may even include the notes and summaries for our history text as well. It seems that this type of record keeping appeals to me.
Chapter 4 Starting to Read: Final Preparations
At the end of chapter 3, Susan Wise Bauer assigns beginning a commonplace book and starting the process with chapter 4 of A Well-Educated Mind.
I am to write the chapter on the first page. See above.
Read through the entire chapter once without stopping. Record any particularly interesting or meaningful information in my journal as I go.
Summarize each of the three sections in my own words.
Write my reactions to the summaries I've written.
Sounds simple enough.
Notes upon first reading:
Read and keep reading. The task of the first reading it to finish the book and basically understand it. Summarize each chapter. Write down questions as you go but don't try to answer them. /This is the what of the book.
Go back and ask questions about style, structure and purpose. Develop own thoughts as dig deeper into meaning and purpose of book. The why and how of the book.
Think about and discuss what the author was hoping to get across and how well the purpose was accomplished.
Summary for Chapter 4
The most important thing it to keep reading. The first reading is for completion. Get through the book with a basic understanding of what the author is trying to say. Don't let questions, vocabulary or confusion stop you. Make a note and move on until reaching the end. I find this to be comforting. Sometimes pressing forward is half the battle.
The second reading is for clarity and purpose. Go back and see if initial reading questions have been answered. Determine why the author wrote the book and how the argument was made. Reading 2 and 3 times concerned me. Reviewing and rereading with this purpose in mind makes sense and doesn't seem so rigid as word for word re-reading.
The third reading is for response. Now that the book is read and we understand what it says and what the author hoped we'd get from it, how do we respond. Do we agree, disagree, think the author was right or wrong? It never occurred to me that evaluating the author's argument was part of my job as reader. I like this perspective and look forward to seeing how it works in the reading to come.
I am to write the chapter on the first page. See above.
Read through the entire chapter once without stopping. Record any particularly interesting or meaningful information in my journal as I go.
Summarize each of the three sections in my own words.
Write my reactions to the summaries I've written.
Sounds simple enough.
Notes upon first reading:
Read and keep reading. The task of the first reading it to finish the book and basically understand it. Summarize each chapter. Write down questions as you go but don't try to answer them. /This is the what of the book.
Go back and ask questions about style, structure and purpose. Develop own thoughts as dig deeper into meaning and purpose of book. The why and how of the book.
Think about and discuss what the author was hoping to get across and how well the purpose was accomplished.
Summary for Chapter 4
The most important thing it to keep reading. The first reading is for completion. Get through the book with a basic understanding of what the author is trying to say. Don't let questions, vocabulary or confusion stop you. Make a note and move on until reaching the end. I find this to be comforting. Sometimes pressing forward is half the battle.
The second reading is for clarity and purpose. Go back and see if initial reading questions have been answered. Determine why the author wrote the book and how the argument was made. Reading 2 and 3 times concerned me. Reviewing and rereading with this purpose in mind makes sense and doesn't seem so rigid as word for word re-reading.
The third reading is for response. Now that the book is read and we understand what it says and what the author hoped we'd get from it, how do we respond. Do we agree, disagree, think the author was right or wrong? It never occurred to me that evaluating the author's argument was part of my job as reader. I like this perspective and look forward to seeing how it works in the reading to come.
A Commonplace Book: Beginning
As a middle aged woman with a career as an educator behind me, both an undergraduate and Master's degree in my possession and four children at various stages of home school education, I expected that self-education was something I'd checked off my list of things to do. Frankly, it never really occurred to me that a purposeful, systematic course of self-education was valuable nor timely. I was educated, past tense and didn't need to worry about my own learning. My purpose at this stage was to focus on the education of my children. Dealing with the day to day was the height of my personal expectation. Laundry, dishes and meal preparation took up most of my time. Providing reading instruction, basic mathematics, history and science at a grammar or logic level occupied most of my attention.
This year, I embarked on the task of providing a rhetoric stage education to my high school age student. As I read through the list of recommended reading and reviewed the topics to be studied I realized that my own education, while adequate for success in the modern world, was not up to this task.
When I began homeschooling my children, a friend recommended The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer as a starting point. The method and reasoning struck a chord with me and classical education is the choice for our homeschooling. We set about creating life long learners, teacher included. As I realized the limitations of my own education when providing a rhetoric stage education I turned, once again, to Peace Hill Press and found The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
My daughter and I began our high school adventure a few weeks ago. In preparation, I gathered resources, wrote syllibi and re-read the most pertinent parts of both books mentioned above along with several other homeschooling high school references, web sites and forums. We waded into physical science, medieval history and literature, Latin and algebra.
Now that we've made a start and I've found a bit of breathing room, I thought it would be helpful to go back and read more carefully. And that, is how I came to this place at this time. The Well-Educated Mind recommends that part of reading is keeping a journal. My most successful journal to date has been my blog. Granted, I've kept it for less than a year. However, I think my previous forty years of journals might record a week of consistent entries, then a week or perhaps two of inconsistent entries, then nothing. My blog has been a much more consistent endeavor. I've made entries more or less bi-weekly for over eight months. That kind of success is worth repeating so I've created this new blog as my journal of self-education.
In chapter 3, Bauer refers to the journal as an expanded "commonplace book" to be used as a place to record what is read, summarize it and reflect upon it. In this commonplace blog, that is exactly what I intend to do. And so, we begin.
This year, I embarked on the task of providing a rhetoric stage education to my high school age student. As I read through the list of recommended reading and reviewed the topics to be studied I realized that my own education, while adequate for success in the modern world, was not up to this task.
When I began homeschooling my children, a friend recommended The Well Trained Mind by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer as a starting point. The method and reasoning struck a chord with me and classical education is the choice for our homeschooling. We set about creating life long learners, teacher included. As I realized the limitations of my own education when providing a rhetoric stage education I turned, once again, to Peace Hill Press and found The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer.
My daughter and I began our high school adventure a few weeks ago. In preparation, I gathered resources, wrote syllibi and re-read the most pertinent parts of both books mentioned above along with several other homeschooling high school references, web sites and forums. We waded into physical science, medieval history and literature, Latin and algebra.
Now that we've made a start and I've found a bit of breathing room, I thought it would be helpful to go back and read more carefully. And that, is how I came to this place at this time. The Well-Educated Mind recommends that part of reading is keeping a journal. My most successful journal to date has been my blog. Granted, I've kept it for less than a year. However, I think my previous forty years of journals might record a week of consistent entries, then a week or perhaps two of inconsistent entries, then nothing. My blog has been a much more consistent endeavor. I've made entries more or less bi-weekly for over eight months. That kind of success is worth repeating so I've created this new blog as my journal of self-education.
In chapter 3, Bauer refers to the journal as an expanded "commonplace book" to be used as a place to record what is read, summarize it and reflect upon it. In this commonplace blog, that is exactly what I intend to do. And so, we begin.
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