READING:

  • The disappearance of childhood and what we can do to get it back ~ by Jamie @ Simple Homeschool
  • I appreciate this article: Is Self-Promotion Sinful?—  it hits at a lot of questions that have nagged at my brain. Authors are in a different place now than in the last hundred years because publishers have all but stopped publishing unknowns, and so in order to have a book published at all, one has to be self-promoting or find others who will do so for you (which is still self-promoting, in a less direct way), and it makes for a conundrum for the Christian writer who wants to promote Christ and yet also explore the options that exist for him/her to eke out a living in print media.
  • A Charlotte Mason Education: A Homeschooling How-To Manual— I’ve recently picked up this book again, by Catherine Levison, as a gentle nudge toward this whole book philosophy I’m moving back toward this year. I try to self-motivate and invigorate our homeschool through reading/re-reading a book or two every year about home education.

THINKING:

  • How One Tweet Can Ruin Your Life — (warning: language) 14 minutes of insightful, thought-provoking TED commentary about social media, bullying, humiliation, public shame, followed by a short Q&A. What is the outcome of public jump-on-the-bandwagon shaming of private individuals? Have we created a market for constant, artificial, high-dramas where everybody’s always a magnificent hero or a sickening villain, even though we know that’s not true? 
  • About the relationship between education and discipline — because the lyrics to an old song came to mind: “School Days” (written in 1907) “reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic, taught to the tune of the hickory stick.” I looked it up because I couldn’t remember all the lyrics, and this article with alternative lyrics for different generations came up.

The real 1907 lyrics: (about education in the first half of 20th century)

School Days, School Days Dear old golden rule days Reading, and writing and ‘rithmetic Taught to the tune of a hickory stick You were my queen in Calico I was your bashful barefoot beau You wrote on my slate I love you so

When we were a couple of kids