Out of Lascaux

Harper Lee

I have a confession to make. I had not read To Kill a Mockingbird until last year when I assigned it to my son to read. We both thought it was just as good as it was hyped to be. And the movie was, as well.

I saw this in the New York Times today. What an amazing lady. She never wrote another book - really, how could she top that one? - and she's been very reclusive. But she comes out to meet the Alabama high school students who write winning essays about her book at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

I probably would not have blogged this at all, except for this quote:

She is not a judge in the essay contest, nor does she make any formal statement at the ceremony. Her one stipulation for the contest was that children who were home-schooled be eligible to compete.

Very cool lady.

Launching the 19th Century Textbooks

As some of you may already know, I have been working on a project for some months now that has to do with 19th century textbooks. To date, I now have 5 books scanned and on CDs and the worksheets for 2 of them complete or almost complete. I am going to go live with some of them on eBay in the next few days.

So, why 19th century textbooks, of all things? Well, I posted a few things from one book HERE and HERE, so you can get an idea of what prompted this. However, I think what is really motivating me is the fact that today's textbooks have had all of the vitality, morality and intellectual rigor sucked right out of them. They are pure pablum, not fit for any thinking person. When my son was in 5th grade, he had a version of The Wizard of Oz in which many of the vocabulary words had been changed to "easier" ones. Please! The Wizard of Oz is not a difficult book to read. I could see doing it with Ulysses or even Jane Eyre, but not The Wizard of Oz. But this is just one of the many atrocities that are committed on literature nowadays in the name of education. If you want to read more, read The Language Police by Diane Ravitch. That was a real eye-opener for me.

After reading The Language Police, I found myself looking at old textbooks. The ones I remember as a kid do, indeed, have more interesting content, but even then textbooks were being bled dry. They still had some soul, but not as much as they started with. Going back further, to the 1870's, I found the first real textbooks, readers produced for schools which were just beginning to spring up around our growing nation. These are the books that shaped our great-great grandparents view of America, and from them, our own views. These books are often very religious, mentioning God and admonishing children to thank Him for all His works. These books are also very moralistic, teaching lessons about right and wrong in a very straightforward manner. And, of course, they have stories about the founding of the United States, with moralistic lessons about its founding fathers. Many people will find the above subjects objectionable in one way or another. 19th century readers are not for them. However, I have weeded out a selection of secular stories and poems that some people may be interested in: teaching morals is important, and should not be limited to those teaching Christian values.

I also have a selection of short stories by Saki that I had my son reading, along with the worksheets I created for him. Saki (aka H.H.Munro) is hilarious, and really likes to zing the Edwardian values of his time. Well worth reading, even if you don't want any worksheets (Saki is free at Project Gutenberg.)

So, if this sounds at all interesting to you, take a look at what I have on eBay by using the button on my sidebar. And I welcome comments and suggestions.

Four Things Everyone is Dying to Know About Me

I've been tagged!! Ok, it was my DH, but it still counts.

Four jobs that you have had in your life:

Bookstore Cashier
Education Consultant
Windows Guru and Trainer
University Lecturer

Four movies that you could watch over and over:

The Miracle Worker (with Ann Bancroft)
My Favorite Year
Some Like it Hot
Men in Black

Four places that you've lived:

New Haven, CT
Chicago, IL
Alexandria, Egypt
El Paso, TX

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Stargate: SG1
The Daily Show
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (on DVD)
Ghost Hunters

Four places you've been on vacation:

Clearwater, FL
Cairo, Egypt
Silver City, NM
New Haven, CT

Four of your favorite foods:

Chocolate
Oreo Cookies
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Ice Cream

Four sites I visit daily:

eBay
Blogshares
RewardTV
TWU Blackboard (schoolwork)

Four Bloggers I'm tagging:

Well, I no longer have 4 regular readers (you two know who you are :-), so I tag everyone. Knock yourselves out.

GAAH!

I knew the shark had jumped on Stargate, but they proved it last night. The phrase "rift in the time-space continuum" came out of Sam's mouth and both I and my son howled in anguish. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, it - or one like it - was the catch phrase on Star Trek: Next Generation for any episode with a plot so implausible that even the writers couldn't explain it. There were always several versions of Picard or Data wandering around the Biazaro world Enterprise.

So last night, when a multitude of SG1 teams kept showing up through the stargate, I really was not expecting to hear that phrase, but I should have known better. Later in the episode, Mitchell mentioned that his counterpart couldn't be an evil Mitchell because he had no beard, a la the original Star Trek epsiode that started this whole mess. You know, the one where Spock has a beard and Uhura is dressed in an even skimpier uniform than usual and wearing a dagger? Yeah, that one.

Anyway, as my son so eloquently put it about SG1 last night, "That was the best episode that ever sucked!"

Jargon

I have had it up to here with jargon and scientific double-speak. Why is it that when you get your PhD you suddenly can't write in plain English anymore? I'll tell you why: it's because people with doctorates have to develop their own code that no one else will understand. It puts them on a higher plane than the rest of us peons. I say "us," but I got closer to getting a doctorate then most people do, so I'm in on their little secret. I learned a lot of the jargon that art historians use. But I have this problem: whenever I come across it, I am so disguted by it that I tend to throw the book across the room.

And now I am trying to get an advanced degree in Library Science, and you better believe they like to put the "science" into their jargon. It's far worse than anything I encountered in art history. The other day, it took me three reads to figure out something that was actually quite simple. And this isn't the first time.

So what do I mean by "jargon?" Well, I want to try an experiment. I will write a sentence in art history jargon, and see if you can figure out what it's saying on the first read.

When examining the image for the intrinsic value inherent in its purpose, we find that in order to conceptualize its true meaning, the image must be experienced in the visual realm.

Ok, that's a terrible sentence, but I think I got my point across. Here it is in English:

The image is valuable not only for its importance as a religious object, but we must see its beauty as well.

And you know what I had to do to get there? I had to write it in English first and then translate it into jargon. It ain't easy. My point is that when scholars are writing, they should always be thinking about their audience. Most scholars who write this way are merely trying to impress their peers, because no one else will ever read it or ever want to read it. If they have any hope of breaking out into the mainstream in any form, they had better learn to write in English. Myself, I am a firm believer in communication - I write so that people can understand what I'm trying to say. I don't always succeed, but at least it isn't because I am obfuscating the issue.

Stuff Found via Blogshares

Have you seen Madonna's new video for "Hung up?" (I think that's the title; I know she starts by saying "time goes by so slowly...) Anyway, the tune is good, I like it, but I sort of sat open-mouthed watching Madonna - who is about my age - prance around in leotards in an empty dance studio. OK, so there is some amount of jealousy due to the fact that I could never look like that in my wildest dreams, but I still think she's too old to do the "look at me, I'm such a sex kitten" thing. Then I saw this via Movable Walls via Blogshares. I clicked on it because the title was "Apache Madonna" and I just had to know what that was. It has a certain charm that Madonna's video lacks.

I also found this little time waster via Gambling Gringo. My DH wouldn't go through the whole thing, he doesn't have that kind of patience, but I did, and laughed the whole time.

And speaking of Gambling Gringo, I've found a few more El Paso bloggers. Here are the ones who blog in English, (and that is a post for another time.)

Helloyvetty

Sometimes it Seems if I Just Dream

Lone Star Molly (very entertaining, and the one who brought us the Red Dot.)

You may notice a dearth of El Paso bloggers. I've noticed, too, but there are still 200% more than when I started.

American African Quilt

Just a note on the progress of this quilt. I finished piecing the smaller blocks, and I have to say, it looks very different from what I had envisioned. However, it is still exactly what it should be. Here is a shot of some of the pieces on my "design wall." Each block is 7.5 x 5.5 inches, and there is a black strip set between every two blocks.

If you are interested in my sources of inspiration, take a look at the quilts of Gee's Bend, quilts by elderly African American ladies in Alabama, and these wonderful African textiles (Warning: MANY pop-ups). I think I have succeeded in creating something that is somewhere in between the two. I'll post the finished product, but don't hold your breath. Once classes start on the 17th, I'll disappear into a hole again.