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Follow the money to the Common Core
“I wouldn’t mind it nearly as much if I didn’t feel like I was just part of a big corporate and political campaign,” said a third-grade teacher I know. She was talking about…
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Encyclopedia of Outdated Information
…up until the last generation it was possible to be born, grow up, and spend a life in the United States without moving more than 50 miles from home, without ever confronting serious…
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Homogenization
Very few of us have contemplated more rigorously what is happening through media change than Jacques Ellul, who has sounded some chilling alarms. Without mass media, Ellul insists, there can be no propaganda.…
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Grinding Machine
I’ve had some time to read today and find that I can’t really ingest any more of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction without pausing to reflect. This excerpt in…
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Lady of Shalott
This week, Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott” was on my 6th grader’s reading list. She read it, then last night I read it aloud to both girls and basically we all registered our…
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Cognitive Toolboxes
A week or two ago found me musing on my role in relation to my 6th grader’s classics reading list. I realized after writing the post that I failed to note the role…
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Reading, Teaching, and Wondering
My 6th grader has been following this reading list from The Well-Trained Mind. It corresponds to her history study this year — early moderns. A few of these have been abridgements or have…
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Outliers
My pastor mentioned Outliers in a Sunday school class. He’d read part of it, and it sounded interesting. I picked up a copy at the library to read, but I wasn’t expecting it…
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Homeschool days
I thought I should record some of the tweaks I’ve made in materials this year, as well as a brief description of how a typical school day goes. I see these on other…
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For the Children’s Sake: I am, I can, I ought, I will
For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School, published in 1984, represents an argument to rethink educational priorities in light of the ideas of British educator Charlotte Mason (1842-1923). Written…
