Literary Analysis or Amateur Psychology?

A friend recently shared her son’s 7^th grade English assignment.

 

 

 

This worksheet makes my stomach churn.  It entirely misses the point of this often referenced, much misunderstood passage. In it, Tom Sawyer must white wash the fence but instead, convinced his peers to do it for him and pay him to do so.  The importance is not in the "manipulation" but in the understanding of the meaning of work versus play.  Tom lies and deceives his friends, but look, he's a scoundrel.  He's a likeable and very funny scoundrel and the scene is one of literature's notable passages. 

How about teaching that the attitude you take towards "work" makes all the difference? That indeed, if you enjoy your task, it's a pleasure and people may even pay to do it.  Then discuss the merits of Tom's conclusion and Twain's genius. Does the reader think that such behavior will always work out so neatly and nicely? Instead of examining literary elements and the author's intent, the worksheet is an exercise in amateur psychology.

These questions are not far from the logic used by a high school teacher to take the Nazi position that Jews are evil (link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/12/jews-are-evil-writing-assignment_n_3070222.html)   and empathize with why they acted as they did, or to take the position of any culprit, criminal, and antagonist in literature.  To study vice is meaningful and there's a lesson for the reader, but study NOT empathy needs to come from understanding the character's flaws, bad choices, risks.  Is the vice what we hope to teach children?  the behavior we wish them to emulate?  to deceive and lie?  to be scoundrels? 

Somewhere in the middle of the last century, educators divorced the curriculum from goodness, virtue, and the association of knowledge with excellence.  This worksheet is a foul and perverse result of the absolute vacuum of moral study today.  Toleration AND empathy of every viewpoint, often the victim and the antagonist, inevitably leads to this wasteland of thought. 

Will your child learn what he needs to from this worksheet?  You can read the complete chapter from Tom Sawyer here, http://www.literaturecollection.com/a/twain/tom_sawyer/2/

Twain concludes the value of the anecdote himself and Tom learns something important at the end of his charade. 

 

Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He 

had discovered a great law of  human action, without knowing it--namely,

 that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only

 necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great

 and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have

 comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do,

 and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And

this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers

 or performing on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or

 climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in

 England who drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles

 on a daily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them

considerable money; but if they were offered wages for the service,

that would turn it into work and then they would resign.  

The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place

in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to

report.  (Tom Sawyer, Twain)

Here is an excerpt about the assignment the teacher gave to high school students.
 

"You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!" the assignment, posted on the Times Union website, reads.

The Albany newspaper reports that one-third of students boycotted the assignment, prompting Albany Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard to apologize to families, adding, "I don't believe there was malice or intent to cause any insensitivities to our families of Jewish faith."

The superintendent blamed tougher Common Core standards that require “sophisticated” writing linking English composition to other subjects, like world history. But not all are buying it.”  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/12/jews-are-evil-writing-assignment_n_3070222.html
 

The superintendent’s comment exposes the problem in the educational establishment today, that somehow only Jewish families might find this insensitive! 

 

 

 

 

 

On Writing and Orwell

Friends often ask me about writing and here are four things I want to share. 

To write well, you must write.                      Practice often.  When we think of improving our reading skills, we read.  Friends often share how well their children read.  This makes sense because their children read all the time.  But do they write?  Not nearly as often.   Write every day:  an essay, directions, report, summary, poem, letter, outline, notes.   Spend more time on technical writing than creative.  Fewer than one percent of people will ever make a living writing fiction.  But every one of us will write reports, summaries, evaluations, letters, and essays in school and for our jobs.  Writing is thinking on paper. It forces you to analyze and organize your thoughts.    Don’t worry what it looks like and how it sounds, just get it down.  The more you do it, the better you’ll get.

Study English and its rules.                I’m not a grammarian, but it’s important to know something about the rules if you wish to play the game.  Or as Ernest Hemingway wrote in his letters, “The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green.  You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.”

It’s not fashionable to teach English, AKA grammar, today.   My children did not know the eight parts of speech or the four types of sentences when we began our English home study last year.  They used them, of course, but they did not understand them.  To play sports, you have to know the rules.  Our language is the same and infinitely more important.  In the Information Age, people will know us through our writing.    I just read an excellent 50 pages on Grammar in the Penguin Writer’s Manual, The Essential Guide to Writing Well.  That’s just 50 pages of rules.  It is the Queen’s English and a tad different and there’s a lot there, I won’t deny it.  It’s tantamount to saying the rules of chess are contained in two pages, yet it takes a lifetime to learn.  So it goes with English.  Why would we expect our math skills to improve if we don’t practice?  Or our piano performance?  But we want our English to simply improve.  Read, read, read, yes.  “But write, you must,” says Yoda. 

Learn to write a paragraph well.      This is the building block of all writing.  Every paragraph should have two things, unity and coherence.  A well- ordered paragraph usually includes a topic sentence.  For budding writers, this is often the first sentence.  Every sentence must develop and support this idea.   Good writing includes varied sentence length, type, and order.  For example, most sentences are declarative or statements.  Ask a question.  Change from normal to inverted or mixed word order and by all means, change the length.  Consecutive, long statements bore readers.  An excellent text will model good and poor paragraphs.   I don’t think schools use this much anymore, sadly.  

Orwell’s Six Rules for Better Writing         Learn and practice.   

(i) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

(ii) Never use a long word where a short one will do.

(iii) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

(iv) Never use the passive where you can use the active.

(v) Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

(vi) Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

 

George Orwell shared these in his original 1946 essay, “On Politics and Education.”  I encourage any serious writer to take the time to read it.  Its commentary on the English language is as ominous as his keystone novel, Ninety Eighty-Four.  This is a quote from the opening of the essay.

A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts. The point is that the process is reversible. Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble. If one gets rid of these habits one can think more clearly, and to think clearly is a necessary first step toward political regeneration: so that the fight against bad English is not frivolous and is not the exclusive concern of professional writers. George Orwell

Here’s a link to the essay in its entirety. 

https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm

NOTE:  The eight parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction, preposition, and interjection.   The four types of sentences are declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory.  

 

How to Homeschool and Travel

We’re back on the bus.  Or at least David and Laura are anyway, and I’m quite thankful for it.  I should be clear about my gratitude here, which has more to do with reclaiming my time back than it has to do with the school part of it.  I’ve given some thought to last year and wanted to share things I learned.  This letter is geared towards parents interested in breaking away from the traditional bricks-and-mortar schools for any period of time as well as those who simply want to supplement their children’s learning. 

 

Let’s cover the law and regulatory concerns first because this is an obstacle for many of us.  It took me over half a year of research to come to terms with doing this on my own, walking into my district offices, and withdrawing my three children.   That only took a few minutes.  I admit that the withdrawal letter took longer to write because I included a page of information the district didn’t really care about.  Only a paragraph is required for our state.

 

Effective immediately, I am withdrawing my child, Jane Doe, from the Your Town Public School District. I will be homeschooling my child in accordance with CT General Statute (C.G.S.) 10-184. 

 

There you go.  I waited to meet the Superintendent but she was busy and the district never asked a question the entire time we were gone.  This proves that indeed Connecticut is a “Green State” because it is one of eleven states that have no requirement for contact with parents.  Too bad if you reside in New York or Massachusetts, because these are “High Regulation” states.   

 

Curriculum choices may consume you, but I want to tell you that it is easier, far easier than you imagine.  There is so much wonderful stuff available today, but you need only focus on three things in grades K-8, mathematics, English, and history.  I used Saxon Math (the old books not the new Common Core ones published by McGraw Hill), Rod & Staff English set, and Story of the World by Dr. Susan Wise Bauer.  The English set is arguably the best English program available; it includes writing assignments every 4^th or 5^th lesson.   It’s dated, I agree, and there are bible lessons and references which we found entertaining, but the program is excellent and I learned a lot I was never taught myself.     Math is a traditional program and Story of the World is a history book which lends itself to reading aloud.  I purchased the DVDs to reinforce learning in the car.

Outside the big three of math, English, and history, do what your kids like, or better, do what you like.  I believe in the classical model which stresses learning from the greats, building a solid knowledge base in the elementary years, learning to question and engage in the middle school years and developing persuasive rhetoric in the teen, high school years.  Our extras included Latin, piano, logic, physics, penmanship, typing, athletic pursuits, and reading classics.  

Schedules are helpful for everyone because let’s face it, kids need structure but you will as well.  I printed a schedule for each child and they worked on math first, then history, and English.   Working on math first thing is important, the other subjects they can study as they wish.   On a good day they’re done the big three inside of three hours.  In the middle grades, math will take an hour if they are working at the appropriate level.   Our children had very full schedules because of the extras.  

 

Traveling changed the routine and the children took only their math and English books with them, studying two or less hours in the morning, touring during the day, journaling in the evening.  We carried a lot of books the first couple trips and found that tearing out chapters or copying helped lighten the load.  History comes alive when you travel to the destination and the world becomes the classroom, like visiting Kensington Palace after studying the Victorian Empire.  But after weeks of travel, we were ready to go home, to see our dogs, to do laundry, and to sleep in our own beds. 

 

To stay in touch with friends at home, we joined some fun groups and started some too.  We hosted a weekly board game with my son, invited friends over for both daughters and joined the youth groups at church.  The kids tried new things like riding lessons and travel teams and they went early while their peers were still in school.  But it was their friends they missed most, and that is a lifestyle change.

 

Our lives changed.  I have taught soldiers, corporate employees, and college students, but teaching your own children is different because the relationship is unique.  All parents are educators to some degree because you are models in all you do and say. Parents are in the driver’s seat for education and if you forget that, don’t be afraid when you crash.  We had a few accidents this year.  Teaching three children is consuming and changes your way of life.  My eighth grader became very independent, the sixth grader needed occasional help and the fourth grader needed routine instruction.  It’s a few hours of your time each day and kids have good days and bad.   They are growing emotionally too, so that can be quite challenging.  The rewards are great, but the stressors are too.   The path is not better, it is different and it is not for everyone.  It helps to have an abundance of patience and an open mind.  The concern is not the curriculum or whether your child will keep up, because she will.  The challenge is most likely your sanity.

 

It’s taken me time to complete this letter because it’s hard to evaluate our year without seeing how the children transitioned back into school.  Caroline chose, with our full support, to attend a private school.  She has found a level of contentment and challenge that was not on her horizon one year ago because she was so influenced by her peer group.  We met for conferences yesterday and Dr. Z who teaches Spanish exclaimed with some fervor, “Caroline speaks English! “ which was a surprising statement from a foreign language teacher.  He continued, “And she is the only student in the class who understands the correct use of whom.”    He congratulated me as her English teacher that she actually understands our language, its usage, and in this she is unique.   Her English teacher also commented on this.

 

I was flattered, but I knew it had more to do with the curriculum than my teaching. The more I used Rod & Staff, the more I liked it.  David and Laura have mentioned homeschooling again, possibly next year.  If I had it in me, I would teach each child two to three years to ensure they knew English, history, and the fundamentals of mathematics.  I have been close minded about education and this year, for the first time, we explored other paths, homeschooling and private school.  I have serious concerns about public school and it’s refreshing to see excellent teachers simply teach in private school.  It’s even more compelling to know that my kids learn and grow wherever they are, in school, at home, or abroad.