Happy New Year!

In my reading this morning I came across this passage from Psalm 4 which seems befitting for the start of the new year.

Many people say, "Who will show us better times?"
     Let the smile of your face shine on us, Lord.
You have given me greater joy
     than those who have abundant harvests of grain and wine.

I will lie down in peace and sleep,
     for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.

I love this. It is at once a prayer for blessing, a song of thanksgiving, and an expression of trust. As the year begins we are all hoping for better days, days of peace and plenty. The psalmist directs us to God, who is the foundation of all our hopes. He gives thanks for last year's blessings, and reminds us that we are blessed whether or not we've had an abundant harvest, because we have been given life and love by our God. Finally, he reaffirms our trust in God by reminding us to rest, to keep Sabbath with God, because it is he who keeps us safe, whether we wake or sleep.

Have a blessed new year, everyone!

While we're celebrating the new year's eve

Here is a lovely rendition of Auld Lang Syne with the original melody. Tradition has it that this, not the well-known melody, is the tune Burns intended for his lyrics. Whether that's so or not, I do think this old Scottish folk tune is prettier and more fitting than the one everybody knows (which, as far as I can find, is also an old Scottish folk tune).

C. S. Lewis on Christmas

Found this through NarniaWeb. Devin Brown writes about Lewis's belief in sacred merriment rather than religious dreariness or commercialized celebration.

...How can we exult in a world where there is so much to lament? Where can we find joy in a world where hate is strong, as Longfellow has written, and mocks any expression of peace on earth and good will to men? In the “jocund” Psalms—where music, festivity, and agriculture are not things separate from religion, nor is religion something separate from them—Lewis claims, “I find an experience fully God-centered, asking of God no gift more urgently than His presence, the gift of Himself, joyous to the highest degree, and unmistakably real.”

Read the full article on the C. S. Lewis Blog.

New Photoblog!

I am moving my Blogger photoblog, de Lumine, to a new account with a dedicated photoblogging host. Blogger has proved to be unwieldy; I guess it wasn't really made for photoblogging. My new host is Aminus3, and I already love the features they have: archives, and a portfolio page, and automated updates, and more, all for free! My new photoblog is http://delumine.aminus3.com/. Check it out!

Aaand I just figured out how to put a feed from my photoblog on our sidebar, so now if you scroll down you can see a slideshow of pictures from de Lumine!

New Kitchen!

I loved this post at The Common Room. Miss M loved it, too. But we don't have an old entertainment center hanging around. And, in fact, she already has a pretty nice little toy kitchen.

She got this almost exactly four years ago. Look how adorable she was, just turned two years old:




The kitchen was cute, but the oven opened sideways, not really like a real oven that opens out, and it wasn't very practical for organizing stuff to put away. But the examples inspired me to put some work into remodeling her kitchen. We had some cup hooks, old wire shelving and an old towel rack. I splurged and spent ten dollars on a couple of wire baskets to hang on doors, and Mr. B did the labor, including changing the way the oven door opens -- here is the result:



Look how much she's grown in four years!! She used to not be able to reach the microwave; now she can reach the very top of the unit.



Note the cup hooks for hanging utinsels over the stove-top, old towel rack over the sink, and baskets hung on doors. The baskets under the sink are for silverware. The oven opens the right way, and it even has a real oven rack.

Miss M insisted on pictures of her cooking and eating. Since we did the remodel, she has played non-stop with her kitchen. (It probably didn't hurt that we also got down some dishes and things that had been boxed up because she was too little and/or didn't like to pick up toys.)

Norms and Nobility ch 9 and 10

PART II: The Practice of a Classical Education

9 - A Curriculum Proposal (What Might Have Been)

Theorists who have little experience have been allowed to ruin education with new-fangled objective experiments and ideas that leave a lot of important aspects out of education. But humans engaged in real learning can't be measured with objective, testable results. Relationships between student and teacher don't work that way. In order to be certified, teachers are required to take dull classes that don't make them better teachers. After WWII, we were finally able to provide education for all people of every social class - but then schools began to detour from training the whole person to live well, to political objectives of materialistic success and equality that would eliminate poverty. Education began to focus on material rather than spiritual growth. The focus turned to lowering academic standards and raising poor people's skills to get them better jobs. But, for all that, utilitarian education has not ended financial or class inequality. We teach students to desire wealth, but we deprive them of the knowledge that will bring them true contentment. David Hicks then lists suggested books in his ideal curriculum, such as Beowulf, Churchill's history, Keats and Tennyson, Tolkein and other recognized classics.

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

10 - Some Questions and Assumptions (What Ought to Be)

I

The chapter opens with a quote by Jose Ortega y Gasset dividing the world into two kinds of people: "those who make great demands on themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves" because they can't be bothered trying to improve themselves.

Every educational plan is based on some foundational assumptions. The amount of thought put into the questions and assumptions determines the quality of the resulting education and its goal/vision, and the assumptions need to be regularly assessed and re-evaluated if the plan is going to stay on course rather than dissipating in different directions, catering to the whims of parents, teachers, board members and everyone else. We must ask what ought to be done rather what can be done - we mustn't confine our vision to practical limitations.

Administrators should ask themselves:
What are our priorities?
Does our school reflect those priorities?
Are we influencing/inspiring our surrounding community to grow spiritually/intellectually?
Do we keep our goal/vision for educating the whole person at the forefront, rather than obscuring it with methodology and details?

Teachers should ask themselves:
How are we teaching better writing and communication skills?
How are we teaching students to think critically and clearly?
Are students learning the differences between poetic, scientific, religious and historical truth, and why they are all needed?
What are the important questions, and are students encouraged to ask them?
Does our faculty communicate well together, and do we know what our students are reading/learning outside of school?
Am I a good teacher? Am I still learning and teachable? Do I accept that I don't know everything and encourage my students to seek answers elsewhere?
How well do I really know my students?
How can I get my brightest students to translate knowledge into responsible action instead of arrogance?
Am I accessible to my students? Do I make time for them to seek me outside of class?
Do I assess my teaching and share what I've learned about teaching with other teachers?
Do I understand that education is a whole, and am I a whole person? Do I teach with vision and passion, or am I simply teaching to the test?

Administrators and teachers should ask:
What is the role of parents/home in our school?
Do we allow for change, or are we afraid to grow?
Do we have clearly articulated reasons for our curriculum? Does it fit our vision?
Do we encourage teachers to continue learning, even if it means taking a sabbatical?
Is our school leading the way in some area?
What are our school's ideals for its students? For its teachers? Do we encourage/work towards that?
What is our goal for our graduates? What do we hope to leave them with; what can they look back on later in life?

II

After reminding us that our assumptions are influenced by attitudes and preconcieved ideas that have unwittingly become a part of who we are, David Hicks lists his own "idealistic" assumptions that his ideal education is based on. I don't trust that I've done a fair job summarizing these points; in fact, I suspect I've misrepresented his point at times and oversimplified to the point of butchering. If this looks intriguing, you'll need to read the chapter yourself.

1. Liberal education prepares a person for any job and is more important than training students for a job.
2. No one can do everything; better for students to do a few things well than to fritter time exposing them "to a kaleidoscope of new ideas."
3. Teach basic skills early and refine them later.
4. If taught well, any subject can be learned at any age. (so, start grammar at age 5??)
5. Selectivity of subjects should be done as a school with its vision/goals in mind, not haphazardly by individual teachers/departments.
6. "Begin with the best," teach excellence by using excellent resources and examples.
7. Books are fine, but inspiration comes from a great relationship with the teacher.
8. The bond between teacher and student eliminates the tension between educational freedom and discipline.
9. Provoke questions and stimulate curiosity; don't jump to provide answers too quickly.
10. Teaching students to ask the right questions is more important than being an expert in your subject.
11. Isolating subjects encourages analytical criticism (bad); integrating them encourages wholeness (ggod).
12. Team-teaching, with each teacher only knowing his own subject, discourages integrated wholeness of education.
13. Curriculum must be structured to correspond to the continuity of development (does he mean that difficulty should progress as students mature?)
14. If the curriculum is well-structured and cohesive, students will learn more in less time and retain it better.
15. This kind of cohesive, well-rounded education should eliminate the need for guidance counselors who must fit utilitarian-educated kids (pegs) into the job market (round holes).
16. God and religion are part of the cohesive whole and shouldn't be isolated and removed from education.
17. Schools shouldn't mirror popular culture. They should stick to their own vision.
18. Teachers should reflect the school's commitment to learning by seeking to grow and learn themselves.
19. Education's purpose isn't to prepare us for a job. It is to teach us to live "fully in the present, while we grow in wisdom and in grace, in conscience and in style, entering gradually into 'the good life.'"

C. S. Lewis college underway in Massachusetts

Saw this news over at NarniaWeb. The C. S. Lewis Foundation has become the owner of the Northfield Mount Hermon school in Northfield, Mass., as a major step in its plans to start a C. S. Lewis College. The college will be a private Christian liberal arts undergraduate school. It doesn't look like it will be devoted specifically to studying Lewis and his works. Rather, it will have a great books curriculum with fine arts programs, with Lewis as the patron saint, so to speak.

The C. S. Lewis Foundation is an American non-profit organization which wants to start a "renaissance of Christian scholarship and artistic expression within the mainstream of the contemporary university," according to their website. They don't have direct ties with Lewis—i.e., they're not connected with Douglas Gresham or the C. S. Lewis Company Ltd. which owns the rights to Lewis's works—although they do own the Kilns Association which takes care of Lewis's old home in Oxford.

The funds for the purchase came from HobbyLobby, which is dedicated to supporting Christian ministries. I didn't know that about them before; we have a HobbyLobby in our area and shop there occasionally, but I might have been more eager to support them had I known their company background. I also noticed some references to D. L. Moody in the articles about the new college. As it turns out, Northfield Mount Hermon was originally a private school founded by Moody, and his birthplace is near or on the campus.

I almost wish this had happened a few years ago, so I could have attended school there. I say almost; I like my current school. But the C. S. Lewis College interests me, so I may keep an eye on the project.

Norms and Nobility ch 8 - The Promise of Christian Paideia

No, I didn't forget this book. It's just been busy and I haven't had the time for it. I've also been reading a couple of King Arthur books, which meant that this took a back seat.

8 - The Promise of Christian Paideia (paideia=education)

Why should anyone strive to improve himself through education and morality? The pagan Greeks could never answer this. Their best attempts at self-improvement and balance made them ego-centric, elitist and materialistic. But modern [Christian] classical education has its foundation somewhere between humanism and Christianity, creating a tension between the two. Christ embodied logos (rationality) and mythos (story/parables), which brings both together in a way that I'm skimping too much to explain well.

Greek pagans and Christian both agree that self-centeredness is a big problem. Ancient classical education strived to make students focus on something other than self, like duty and sacrifice. Ancient philosophy tried to help men focus outside the self through reason. Ancient rhetoric sought to build character through literature examples. Ancient art tried to draw man out of himself through focus on a better ideal and inspiration to live divinely. They had the right idea, but they lacked Christ to empower them and make them able to be better people through love.

Christ gave men the 'why;' the purpose for being better: in order to be perfect, like Christ. Christianity answered the questions the Greeks had been unable to reconcile, such as whether man is good or bad (the answer is that he was created good in God's image, but sinned and fell from perfection.) Man can choose to live according to God's law, but he more often chooses to be self-centered. His errors are avoidable sins rather than noble, fated tragedies that are out of his control. Christianity offered hope instead of unescapable fate.

Modern utilitarian education doesn't offer any high-striving idealistic attempt at self-improvement, or a Christian hope-based striving to be better. It offers a value-less secular model of relativism. There's no ancient complexity or Christian mystery; it's all analytical data. In trying to get away from the religious blind faith of a divine God, modern educaton replaces it with the religious blind faith of science that disconnects responsibility from what is learned/known. The student's education doesn't help him live better or be better.

But Christian classical education offers a focal point apart from self (Christ), a reason/purpose for being a better person, and an ideal to strive for (again, Christ). There's a whole-ness to it. Learning isn't an end in itself for the sake of knowledge; it's means to holiness and right living. It teaches love for God rather than egotism.

Modern education doesn't acknowledge any supernatural force; the mind and facts are all that matters. But ancients and Christians recognized something beyond the chemical/physical/material world. Christians relate it to faith and divine revelation. Faith is regarded as an aid to understanding, not a hindrance that opposes fact and intellect.

Ancients wanted the intellect to influence the will - learning truth should make people want to do the right thing. But it took Christianity to connect knowledge with will. After Christ, there were no mythological supernatural heroes because he was the perfect and ideal person -- he couldn't be topped. After him, saints were the new heroes. They were like Christ, the new hero, but not quite as ideal. They combined faith and knowledge with their will by trying to live out what they knew was right.

We can see the final results of ancient classical education in the book of Acts: in Athens by that time, the people only cared to hear the latest ideas. The focus wasn't on truth anymore. Learning had become trivial, and the people had become superstitious. Christianity gave them something worth learning, and something worth learning for. We need Christian classical education today to prevent students from becoming smug in their knowledge of data but incapable of being wise and responsible.

What would you do with $10 of Sharpies?

How about some interior decorating?

An article about charter schools' performance

versus that of public schools. From the Wall Street Journal. The article is a few months old but still interesting. It's about the performance gap between students from charter schools vs. students from public schools. Some recent studies show that charter schools do not, as some critics say, cull the best students from public schools; they simply educate their students better. So, not only are charter schools cheaper than public, but they work better too. (Surprise!)