This Month's Books - January 2006

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
An enjoyable read, but a little disappointing. It's a fantasy set in the land of Prydain, which somewhat resembles ancient Wales, and the characters and mythos are to an extent inspired by old Welsh legends. It has lots of Welsh names too, of course, which are simply scrumptious. The story is about Taran, an Assistant Pig-Keeper, and his search for an oracular pig which draws him a bit deeper into things than he intended. It's lighthearted (the tone is closer to The Hobbit than LotR) and there's plenty of humor. Some things (in my opinion) didn't fit the mythos and the book as a whole seemed a little...loose? I'm not sure that's the right word for it. Still a good read, and recommended if nothing else as the introduction to the Prydain series (which admittedly I have not finished).


The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
The second book in the Prydain series. Also very enjoyable, and I liked it better than the first. Taran and the friends he made in the last book are part of a quest to find and destroy the Black Cauldron of Annuvin. The characters, both new and old, are good, and one in particular I liked very much (Adaon). The plot too seemed to move better than the last book. And of course, more Welsh names. :D


To Have and To Hold by Mary Johnston
An adventure set in early colonial America. Ralph Percy, a retired soldier, marries in haste and is like to repent at leisure. He gets no leisure (let's just say the Pirates and Indians saw to that) and does not repent, but he does make at least two good friends and two dangerous enemies. The story is romantic--in the way Robert Louis Stevenson's stories are romantic--and has romance also. I enjoyed it a lot, but it kept me up a' nights because I didn't want to put it down.


Farmer Giles of Ham by John Tolkien
An account of the great deeds of Farmer Giles, accidental protector of Ham against giants, dragons, and other nuisances. It is a short book, but there is more of Tolkien's humor than even in The Hobbit, which makes it a lot of fun.


Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson
Actually a re-read, but I understood it far more this time through. This is Tennyson's version of King Arthur. Most of the stories are different from the accounts in Malory or Pyle, and a lot of stories are left out. But Tennyson's version is more coherent overall: the changes all seem to have been made with a specific end in mind. He modified plots and events to "fix" them so that everything works to move the story, and each individual story is part of the larger story of the rise and downfall of Arthur and the Round Table. This larger story is an explanation, almost a musing, on how the lies of Vivien and the illicit relationship of Lancelot and Guinevere destroyed the realm from the inside. The downfall is appropriately sad, in a thoughtful way, but it begins before the halfway point and it's a little difficult to get through so much downfalling. The atmosphere has almost no traces left of the old Welsh and English legends, which is unfortunate, but the book is still well worth reading (especially for a lover of Arthurian legend like me). "Gareth and Lynette" (the story of Beaumains the Kitchen Knight), "Geraint and Enid," and "Lancelot and Elaine" are the best of the stories in my opinion.

Because of the changes Tennyson made, this seems to me the most likely of all the versions of King Arthur to be made into a film. The stories have already been adapted to fit more modern sensibilities and they "make sense" more than the old versions, at least according to film standards. (I wouldn't mind going deeper into Tennyson's changes, the history of Arthurian legends, and King Arthur in general, but this isn't the place to do it. Someday in another post, perhaps.)


The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis
Another re-read, this time reading it through with my mom. This is one of those books that really require several readings to understand. An author must always suppose that the reader has some knowledge, but this book "seems to presuppose one's having mastered almost the whole intellectual history of the West."¹

The story, like the Pilgrim's Progress, is an allegory about a man's journey through life. But this particular man ("John" in the book) often represents Lewis himself, and the Regress is about his journey from boyhood religion through many variations of Atheism to true Christianity. (Compare this with the Progress, which is about the Christian walk--life after becoming a Christian.) Consequently, the Regress is a study of different worldviews and their insufficiency to explain the world. It is also about Joy, that desire for something outside this world, and about the two great errors of mankind--roughly Atheism and Superstition, or pure intellect versus pure emotion. It goes very deep sometimes. It helps if you know something about C.S. Lewis's own life, so I might suggest reading a biography first. But I certainly recommend The Pilgrim's Regress--not just as an aid to understanding Lewis's own life, but as an enlightening look at philosophy and worldviews.



¹ "Review by Thomas Howard published in Cornerstone Magazine
Chairman, the Department of English, St. John's Seminary College, Boston
Author of The Literary Legacy of C.S. Lewis"

Montessori - ch 14

Herbartian education comes up in this chapter, so it will be helpful to know who he is.

Johann Friedrich Herbart 1776-1841: "In education he emphasized the importance of relating new concepts to the experience of the learner so that there would be less resistance to apperception of new ideas. He stressed the need for moral education through experience and brought the work of teaching into the area of conscious method." [more here]

Herbart's 5 steps:
"The five formal steps prescribe the order and method of procedure in an ideal lesson. PREPARE the mind for the reception of the new matter by repetition of questions which freshen the pupil's recollection of ideas related to the subject of the coming lesson. Next PRESENT the matter clearly, developing it in an orderly method. Then, or pari passu by comparison or illustration ASSOCIATE the new ideas or facts with those already familiar. After this GENERALIZE the results and finally APPLY the knowledge gained in some form of practical exercise." (Another site lists steps 4 and 5 as ILLUSTRATE the lesson's major points, and TEST students to assure they learned the lesson.)

More about Herbart

Enough background, here's the chapter:

Chapter 14 - Movement and Mental Assimilation

The teacher/directress's main job is to introduce children to learning materials and get them to the point where they're working with those materials. It's during the time that they're touching, moving, and manipulating the materials that learning is taking place. This is very much based on Herbart's philosophy [he said that the brain is like a vacant stage, and ideas clamor to take the stage. They gather in clusters with other similar ideas in the same way that children separate into groups on the playground according to what they have in common. It's a cute idea, but Charlotte Mason didn't buy it and had a lot to say against it.] Maria used the example of a hostess who wants two ladies to live together. She introduces them (the book likens this to Herbart's 'presentation') so that now the ladies recognize each other (likened to Herbartian 'apperception'). But it takes more than that to get them living together. In the same way, a Montessori directress does more than introduce the child to the materials. She has to get the child interested enough to explore and continue to use the materials on his own.

Children are always moving, they're never perfectly still [except when they're zoned out watching TV?] Montessori said that movement was necessary for the child to 'create himself,' as his senses take in information that grow his intellect and personality. [Charlotte Mason was very clear that physical movement did nothing to enlarge or enhance the mind. Only ideas and mental activity develop the mind. Physical movement developes the physical body.] Montessori said that physical movement was necessary to learn - children can't learn just by seeing and hearing. [Partially right - the brain does need to be engaged to learn. Passively receiving information via TV doesn't really teach. The mind needs to be in gear, actively taking the knowledge. Maybe Maria noticed that kids whose minds were engaged were alert and not in a vacant trance, and she confused the symptom of movement and thought it was the cause rather than the effect?] Maria said that children couldn't learn their colors if we just showed them different colors. They had to touch and feel the color boards. They wouldn't learn to read by hearing the letter sounds.They needed to handle and feel the shapes of the letters [this doesn't sound logical to me - I just don't believe it. If manipulatives speed up the process, I'd attribute that to increased interest from the child, not to the role of physical movement itself in the process.]

Maria said that physical movement and mental activity had to work in concert. She said that schools who break up intellectual effort with periods of physical movement [recess?] were like a man hopping on his right foot to refresh himself after hopping on his left foot! Nature designed the mind and body to work together: if the man used both feet and walked instead of hopping on one foot, he wouldn't tire in the first place. Maria thought that organized sports required thought while physically playing, so that would be better for developing character than gymnastics (?), but eurythmics was even better yet Eurythmics (teaching music through physical movement) requires 'interior analysis' during listening, and 'a corresponding external activity.' Therefore, Montessori believed it might 'bring about something almost resembling a moral transformation of character.' [Charlotte Mason mentioned eurythmics in her books, and not favorably as it regarded developing the mind.]

As a sidenote, the author points out that Montessori relied on practicing life skills instead of calistenics ('drill') or gymnastics for exercise/coordinaton.

While some advocated letting children run free and natural, Montessori thought that such unfocused movement did nothing for their intellect. Instead, she thought a child should channel his movements into perfecting something in himself as a way of building up his inner character. Such activities might include washing tables, arranging flowers, doing a puzzle - but the child had to want to do it. His wanting to do the activity made it his choice of work, which built up a child's confidence. Since the child needs to be free to develop/create his own self/personality, it would be wrong for his teacher to pressure him into doing any kind of character-enriching activity. [Charlotte Mason felt that it was wrong for a teacher to pressure children to learn with rewards, or threats, or too much influence over them - but not because children needed freedom from constraint to be who they needed to be. For her, it was because it destroyed their pure motive for learning. The whole idea of children needing to be free to create their own selves sounds very Rousseau-influenced, too much like the philosophy of 'I gotta be me!' and too TCS to put much stock in. I think Charlotte Mason is a better balance of child respect combined with an acceptance of their fallen nature that needs some gentle guidance.]

In contrast to Herbart's '5 steps' that focus only on the child's invisible inner mind, which is too personal and sacred for us to tamper with, Montessori felt that education should concern itself with the more visible 'peripherals' of the child - his five senses and his muscles. The child's inner self must be left alone to grow in its own way. All we can do is provide the best conditions for his peripherals [maybe the peripherals themselves are part of the 'prepared environment' that the directress orders?] and let the child work on his own inner 'centre.' So, Montessori's method provides opportunities for the child to use his muscles and his senses by presenting an environment that invites him to explore and handle and do. Every item in the classroom is carefully selected, and the goal is for all the children to be always busy at one activity or another.

Yet a room full of beautiful Montessori props is useless if the students are ignoring them. The teacher needs to make sure that a 'point of contact' is made, where the child's movements are actively involved in the music, or puzzle, or whatever materials are there. If the child's body is engaged, then his mind is engaged. Children are exposed to color, shape and sound every day in their real life, but engaging their minds so that they focus on them is what brings those things to their notice. How does the teacher make a 'point of contact'? After getting the class's focus on her by doing a group activity or song, she has to work with one child at a time. She might move a chair silently, and then challenge a child to see if he can do it without a sound. Children sometimes even help other students to take on a challenge. The goal is get the students concentrating and interacting independently with the materials. When their bodies are engaged with something intellectual, their minds are concentrating, and their focus can be intense enough not to mind distractions.

Once children have mastered the materials, they like to do it again and again until they have an explosive 'aha!' experience and intutively realize some new concept with an unusual mental leap. It's like an inspiration of genius. One common example in her schools was that pre-reading children would suddenly just start writing words.

------------

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book, and it just occurred to me that the subject of books hasn't even come up! How strange that the concept of passing ideas from one mind to the next through stories and poems and talking hasn't even been mentioned!



Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Problem Solved!

I have a toddler who loves the challenge of unsnapping snaps, pulling off leggings, untaping her diaper - yet is not interested in potty training. But I finally figured out how to keep her clothed, and it was so simple! I turned her thermal bodysuit around! Now the snaps are in the back, where she can't reach - no more problem!

I Think, Therefore I Blog

Or something like that.

Athena in a Minivan shared this comic about blogging that was too good not to pass on!

(This one is funny, too!)

Too Many Changes!

Too many things are changing in my life!

Our beautiful scenic view is gone. As of a few weeks ago, instead of seeing pastoral hills out our front window, we see the front door of a new house. Suburbia has come.

Our church is going through changes. Drastic changes that have meant that many of our friends have moved on, and left us unsure of our next move.

And, in order to make more time for Life, I'm having to cut back in an area of my e-life that I no longer have time for.

There's more, too, but, on top of all of that, my chest hurts, like a sore throat, only lower, It hurts to breathe, and hurts to move, especially if I change positions. Funnily, when I changed my diet a few years ago, this happened. It hurt to even tie my shoes, so I saw a doctor. She said it's an inflamed windpipe. And now, when I get a virus, instead of coughing, I get this.

Sunday's Update:

Chest pain is gone today, hooray! It was a warm, beautiful day, and we went for a walk. I felt so great, I started jogging, and it felt good to be running. Very unusual for me, being so unathletic!

Thank you, my friends, for all the nice comments and prayers!

Montessori Chapter 13

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 13 - The Exercises of Practical Life

Montessori children work at domestic tasks such as sweeping, setting tables, or polishing brass. But it's important for the teacher to understand the purpose of these tasks in order to make the most of them. The goal isn't to get the floor cleaned, or the table set, or the brass polished. Children have a biological and psychological need to practice and perfect the kinds of movements that will enable them to do tasks well and easily. But they need to practice with real things - setting real tables for a real meal, cleaning real floors, polishing brass that's really tarnished. They need to be maintaining their own selves (clipping their nails, washing their faces, cleaning their clothes) or maintaining and ordering their surroundings (this includes food preparation.)

Related to this is learning grace and courtesy - the social niceties, such as when to stand up, how to close a door quietly, which fork to use. These skills are taught objectively so that the child is doing it because he wants to, not because his teacher/directress wants him to. The directress shows him how, but in such a way that he doesn't imitate her exactly. The goal is to teach the necessary steps, but to allow the child to be independent in deciding exactly how to do it, and when. Children need freedom in order to show initiative. Limiting skill-building lessons to one period of the day doesn't encourage children to jump on a task when it needs doing (such as, mopping the floor when there's a spill). In skills and social manners, they need the tools, but they need to be free to use those tools at their own discretion. A child can be polite to a visitor or not, it's his choice. But he needs to know how to be polite so he can when he wants to. The child who wants to be polite, or do some cleaning, should have the skills he needs at his disposal when he needs them. Yet the child should never be pressured to do something.

Children are pefectionists. Once they're comfortable with a task, such as setting the table, they can rise to new challenges: can they set the dishes down without a sound? They will enjoy the attempt, using their own ear to judge their success. Thus, the teacher doesn't need to be his judge and critic. Other challenges include pulling out his chair quietly, or washing hands without spilling a drop of water. If these challenges are perfected during the sensitive period for muscle coordination (before age 7), they will become automatic habits.

Children should be made aware of the sequence of motions needed to do any task. People trip up when they do motions out of sequence--they stumble when they move forward before their foot has moved up. They spill if they pour water from a pitcher before setting the glass in place. Every task is made up of a series of smaller movements. It's helpful to be aware of them, and graceful to do them in order.

Balance is practiced by walking a straight line. Challenges can be added, like holding a flag, or holding bells but walking the line so steadily that they don't ring, or balancing a basket on their head.

Children love stillness and quiet. They enjoy playing the Silence Game, where the teacher puts a sign ("Silence") on the wall, and the children sit in perfect silence in response, waiting to hear their name called in a whisper so quiet that it doesn't break the silence. They love the power of knowing that silence is something they can create collectively by being still. In silence, children can hear their inner selves. The ability to play and enjoy the Silence Game can only be achieved by normalized children who have inner calm as a result of a Montessori education.


Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.
CM's Letter to the Editor regarding Montessori

Some Linguistic Humor

With educational value, too. I found this while researching neologisms a while back (but I haven't been over the rest of the site).

Neologisms, Paleologisms, and Grelling's Paradox

The Homeschool Carnival is Up!

And we're in it!

There are lots of neat blogs listed, and posts linked that I can't wait to read. Check it out at The Common Room!

What is your Perfect Major?

This is a bit of a surprise!



The quiz is here.


I took it again. This is more what I expected - low on math. ;)

Montessori chapter 12

Maria Montessori Her Life and Work by E. Mortimer Standing
Chapter 12 - Movement in Relation to Instinct and Reason

Human babies are more helpless than newborn animals. They can't walk at birth; they can hardly lift their heads. This isn't because they lack strenth, but because they lack coordination. Humans seem to have less instinct than animals because their instinct is mostly in the mind and will, where it's not as apparent. Animals are born with physical instincts; humans are born with mental instincts and must create their physical tools by developing the body. She didn't agree with psychologists of her day who taught that all human drives (love, knowledge, worship) were really just physical instincts manifested through the mind. She didn't agree that what separates humans from animals is which instincts are more important, and how we manifest them. She believed that human intelligence and ability to reason was what separated us from animals.

Man is mysteriously infinite and spiritual, so it's no surprise that the beginnings of a baby's conscious life are a mystery to us. Maria lived when Darwin was blurring the distinction between man and animals. But she based her perspective on her own observation rather than on the theories or religious traditions of others. She felt that science was too focused on the negative aspects of humanity (deviations, psychoses) and ignored higher values and morality. She felt that art, morals and religion weren't the expressions of our subconscious, but that art, morals and religion were what shaped our subconscious.

Man's reason allows us to do what no animal can: to have a consciousness of history and a future, and to have a conscious awareness of ourselves. Man's will allows freedom to choose one thing over another. Our ability to choose makes it possible for us to develop character and integrity if we deliberately make right choices. Grace and salvation can only exist for reasoning, intellectual creatures with free choice.

Babies collect experiences and knowledge, and from this, they develop the ability to reason. [CM felt that we were born with Reason and we just needed to learn how to use it and control it.] Maria explained the growth of a baby's head in its first year as a quadrupling of its intelligence and psyche. Between the ages of 0-3 years, 'the child creates his own mind.' Children start from nothing, and they build their intelligence from their tactile experiences (explained in her book The Absorbent Mind). A child's impressions from his environment are the building blocks of his conscious mind. [This is very different from CM; she felt that the child was born with a mind. Belief that a mind is created out of sensory impressions means that, if we control the environment and experiences, we determine what kind of mind gets created. CM was opposed to that notion.] As the mind is being created, coordination is developing and creating a physical residence for the child's self.

Montessori said that children adapt to their environment, as evidenced by the way they pick up the language and customs of the culture they live in. Dogs don't do that - a poodle in France behaves exactly like a poodle in Africa. Even their bark has no influence from their home country. But humans adapt to fit whatever place and time they live in. If babies had more instincts, they couldn't adapt. Instead, babies are born 'incomplete' in all aspects, so that there's raw material to adapt. Even their bones are soft enough to adapt to whatever kind of movements they'll need. In other words, humans are still unfinished embryos at birth. [The bun in the oven comes out only half baked?] Mind and body are undeveloped. But the mind dictates how to develop the body to whatever's needed to express the inner person. The mind doesn't adapt to fit the body, the body adapts and develops to fit the mind. The inner spirit builds the kind of instrument it needs by shaping the body and telling it how to develop. The body can develop to be as specialized as needed. A surgeon, for example, can develop the hands to do intricate surgery with practice and deliberate effort. Dancers, artists, musicians develop special muscles to do what their minds want. At birth, the baby's mind and body aren't working together, there's a dualism because the baby hasn't achieved 'progressive incarnation.' He can't make his body do what he wants.

Read the next part of this series, or start at the beginning.