Wednesdays with Words: Not Because it is Old
Well, I owe many of you an apology. I didn’t make it to any of your posts in the last week and this week has rolled around again. I know that was one of the best things Cindy did when she began and hosted WwW; comments and consideration of your ideas all around. I will be going back to last week’s posts and catching up. I apologize for the tardiness.
I also hope to get back to posting these earlier in the day. I know others have enjoyed following your links!
Anna, at Mahers Hill Academy, very kindly shared her hard copy of Karen Glass’ new Consider This (which I assume many of you have read). I have barely started it, finishing the wonderful introduction by David Hicks and there are ideas there to ponder. I have been pondering our school for next Academic Year (a little) and some major changes I’m thinking of making. This book looks like it will be quite integral to those changes should Hicks’ outline of what Glass has to say bear fruition.
I love history and tradition. I love historical and tradtional things. A lot of the time that’s part of why I think I chose Classical Education as a framework for our homeschool. (That and I loved the academicalness of it). Hicks challenges that idea on page x:
The classical tradition as it informs teaching is good not because it is old or “classical,” but because it works; and what works, whether old or new, is best.
I have wanted to hang onto a lot of ideas from The Well Trained Mind and have fought and fought against giving up and changing to a more truly Charlotte Mason inspired education, but I suppose if Hicks is right and
Glass shows, irrefutably it seems to me, how the trivium, properly understood, is applied in every teaching moment at every stage of our learning and growth … (pg xi)
that I will be doing some horse changing midstream. I’m uncomfortable with that idea and hope you will bear with me as I change.
‘);
Midstream change is difficult. I will be looking forward to see what you do.
I've said I'm a narration dropout, but as I read Consider This I realized I have 3 children still to begin. I might have botched it with the first two, but #3 is only 6 and so I could actually start with her and with the other younger 2. Then that got to the root of it: It seems like so much work and I don't want to. Whiney, whiney. 🙂
Narration is hard. We've cheated and said one sentence per grade about what you've read. I suspect this will be a big challenge for us in 2015.
Mystie, I didn't really get serious about narration until my son was 17.
That's good to know, Carol!
Well, I hope your blog your transition because I am already curious what this will look like for you.
And I'm stopping my ears to the whining above. 😉
That's my plan and I'm curious what it will look like, too.
Poor Mystie, no pity.
Your whetting my appetite to read this book, but I'm holding off until next year. 🙂
We are on break now, so I need to do some of this reading. We aren't even doing most of our general Yuletide Session stuff this year.
Up until I had child no. 4 The Well Trained Mind sounded good but my turnaround came when I realised I had a child who would be crushed by the 'rigour.' CM's view that all children deserved a liberal (ie Classical) education nailed me – plus the fact that she had a method I could use. Look forward to reading how everything goes, Dawn.
My kids can all handle the rigor, I am just unsure that we're focusing on what I want to teach …and I really want to keep them together skewing only the amount of expectations for their age. I'm still thinking.
My copy of Consider This has just arrived and I am looking forward to reading. I'm not sure what changes you will be trying to make, but I will be interested in seeing what you come with.
Me too, Heather! I'm glad I'm not the only one reading it now 🙂
Even though a parent's paradigm shift isn't always easy on the kids, yours are so young they'll be able to adapt — it'll be a lot harder on you than on them.
I am a little nervous I've let it go too late for my 10 year old, but we're going to try. Thanks, Kelly.