On Chicken Little

Before I say what I'm really going to say, I feel I must give a little background on the usage of animals in children's literature. If you have been reading only children's books written, say, the last fifty years or so, you may be tempted to believe that the types of the animals in a children's book have little to no significance.

This is not so.

Historically speaking, certain animals are symbolic. I have written before about dragons, and how they have always represented Satan. Well, there are other animals that have represented evil, or evil people, or even Satan, in children's tales.

I am thinking of the fox and the wolf. Even the Bible refers to the sinister sides of these animals: the wolf snatches and scatters sheep in John. The disciples were sent out as sheep among wolves in Matthew and Luke. In Acts, Paul warned about the wolves who would come in among the disciples. Jesus even called Herod "that fox" in Luke.

These animals are sly, tricky, and dangerous.

And we neglect the old stories at our peril.

Do you remember the story of Chicken Little? A piece of grain falls upon his tail, and he takes this as a Bad Omen.

The sky is falling!

And thus begins the parade. All the animals in the barnyard are convinced by this little fool.

Do you remember where they all end up?

Chicken Little was in the woods.

A seed fell on his tail.

He met Henny Penny and said,
"The sky is falling.
I saw it with my eyes.
I heard it with my ears.
Some of it fell on my tail."

He met Turkey Lurkey, Ducky Lucky,
and Goosey Loosey.

They ran to tell the king.

They met Foxy Loxy.

They ran into his den,

And they did not come out again.

The fox here sees the panicked state of the animals as an opportunity to get them all into his den.

The old stories were clear. Who thinks the sky is falling? Fools. Who follows them? Other fools. Who offers to protect them from the chaos? The fox. Where do the fools end up? In the fox's den, from which they never escape.

This is not to say that bad things never really happen. But it is to say that when rumors of bad or terrifying news begin to circulate, the wise man is on the lookout for the fox.

What has concerned me lately is that Christians within our culture seem to be like gullible barnyard animals, and they aren't at all aware that they should fear the fox more than they fear the sky (and the LORD most of all, of course).

Let me list a couple things (to my peril):

• Global warming. Whether you believe that particular sky is falling or not (and Christians really should keep in mind that we know how it ends, and it isn't from a worldwide flood due to melting polar ice caps, now is it?), there is a fox out there making lots of money off of barnyard animals everywhere.



• Swine Flu. All of the hysteria over this one has been fascinating. You even have the homeschoolers up in arms that the vaccines are being saved for public school children. Well, my friends, whether you believe it is a dangerous epidemic or not, are you remembering to look out for the foxes? I found an entire blog post called How to Profit off Swine Flu. This is basically a how-to for stock investors, but there are plenty of drug companies out there that stand to make billions off of every disease that scares the world. And if the world gets scared enough, they can sell it to the public without even adequately testing it first!

I could list more, but I think the point is made.

The world has always believed the sky was falling in one way or another.

So, word to the wise: Beware the fox.

The Fruit of Her Hands

The Fruit of Her Hands:
Respect and the Christian Woman

Three books down! I'm sort of embarrassed about this one. Because I was reading it online, I didn't realize I only had two pages left! Still, I'm enjoying the sense of completion.

This is a great all-around Christian woman's book. Though a lot of the book deals with the issues surrounding marriage and motherhood, there were some words of wisdom for women in general.

I was surprised that my favorite part was actually the odd assortment in the last chapter, which was titled Leftovers. Wilson tackled the proper handling of criticism, widowhood, honoring parents, and a brief Christian perspective on the nature of the wedding ceremony. Here is a quote from the latter:

The wedding is a beautifully decorated doorway into a house. The substance is found beyond the doorway in the house, which is the marriage relationship of husband and wife. Keeping this simple but important distinction is a protection from becoming too distracted and mesmerized by the doorway.

And also:

Most couples today assume they can make all the decisions, and paying for it is all Dad's problem. This is not honoring father and mother.

In all: this is a good, solid book in the Christian living genre. Recommended.


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Possibly Related Posts
More quotes from this book can be found here, here, and here.
This book is available for online reading at Google Books.

New Teaching Reading Blog

One of the biggest search hits this blog gets is, of all things, "How do I teach reading using Bob Books?"Since I recently began using my set again with Neighbor M., I wondered if it would be helpful to share the process. I always thought of it as self-explanatory, but then again I have taught reading before, without said Bob Books,so perhaps I take forgranted how much I bring to the table.

After all, I didn't know how to change a diaper or unfold a stroller when I had my first baby. The teenaged neighbor girl who helped me figure out my stroller looked at me like I was crazy. Wasn't it obvious how it worked? No, it wasn't. Not to someone who taught reading and didn't babysit.

Sometimes we forget other people don't know the things we know.

You know?

Ahem.

As I was saying, I'm working on this new blog. It is going to be very, very simple. After I get up a couple introductory posts, the posts after that will essentially be my journal of teaching Neighbor M.

If you are interested in teaching reading using Bob Books, feel free to join me over at Teaching Reading with Bob Books.

The Gift of Good Land

The Gift of Good Land:
Further Essays Cultural and Agricultural

This is book number two for my Finish the Book Challenge to myself. I'm having such a good time finishing books that I've decided to make myself finish two more, making a total of four, before I commence reading Umberto Eco's Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages.

Wow, I hope Eco's work is as good as the rumors say it is. Otherwise, I'll have built myself up with anticipation for nothing.

Ahem.

The Gift of Good Landis a worthy read on a number of levels. For you armchair agrarians out there, it'll put the culture back in agriculture and give you a taste of land management. For those of you with backyards like mine, which have more in common with strip mines than the Garden of Eden, you just might glean some creative solutions. But on top of all this, Wendell Berry is simply a marvelous writer.

I think my favorite essays were, appropriately enough, the first and the last. The first was called An Agricultural Journey in Peru. It is a travelogue in a way, a journal of Berry's adventure through some of the most difficult farmland in the world. Through the details he shares, readers get a glimpse at a different sort of land management, as well as a first taste of the principles shared throughout the book: strength through biodiversity, fitting farming style to the land at hand, the necessity and wisdom of pasture, and so on.

If more folks understood the nature of healthy soil, that pasture and the (edible) animals that graze it improve soil, while row-cropping strips soil of its nutrients, we would quit allowing ignorant world leaders to say, or even imply, that vegetarianism will "save the planet."

The last essay, which I'll offer some quotes from in a moment, was where the book gets its title: The Gift of Good Land. I expected this to be Berry waxing eloquent over the joys of good topsoil. Instead, it is equating a steward's relationship with the land to the Promised Land of the Israelites: it is a gift in the truest sense, completely undeserved, though we might (and should) venture to prove ourselves worthy of it.

This book is not a must-read for everyone, but I highly suggest it nonetheless. I mentioned in my last post that I believe knowledge is hierarchical. Classically speaking, when it comes to the four sciences, the natural sciences are on the bottom rung. This means that there is an extent to which we must master them before we can understand the sciences that come after them (which are the humane sciences, the philosophical sciences, and, finally, the theological sciences). If we want to become wise ethically, or theologically, and yet we eschew the natural sciences, we are always going to come up short in our understanding, for precept builds upon precept in learning.

The Final Essay: The Gift of Good Land
I thought I'd share a few quotes from the pinnacle essay of this book. It is so beautifully and thoughtfully written.

Berry starts out by arguing that we can learn more about our relationship with the land in the story of the Promised Land than from the story of Adam and Eve. He says that this is because:

the Promised Land is a divine gift to a fallen people. For that reason the giving is more problematical, and the receiving is more conditional and more difficult.

So let me leave off right here and make an argument that Berry doesn't make, but I think it is important. I have met a number of Christians who, though they wouldn't take issue with Berry's conclusions per se, simply think that Christianity isn't concerned with the land anymore. They approach Christianity in a way more akin to Buddhists, as a search for the other-worldly. When Berry starts to talk about Christians having a relationship to the land, I think he loses a lot of moderns.

I can't go into extensive detail here because I'll lose the purpose of this post, but I do want to briefly mention a couple verse that I think might help bring modern Christians back down to earth. Let's start with the Fifth Commandment:

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Exodus 20:12

Notice that the reward of faithful children is a prolonged sojourn in the land. Now, I used to be dispensational, so I understand how some folks will have a knee-jerk but-that-was-written-to-the-Israelites reponse.

However, comma.

Paul repeated this promise to little Gentile Ephesians millenia later:

HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.

Ephesians 6:2-3

The word here translated "earth" is referring to arable land, to the ground. So now, God gives His people the whole earth as an inheritance, not just the ancient Promised Land. There is so much that can be discussed here, but the only part of it that is pertinent to this context is the idea that we and our children and our children's children still have a relationship with the earth, and the earth is still the reward for the honoring of parents.

Jesus's birth, death and resurrection did not cheapen the value of a good farm.

Ahem.

Berry goes on and explains why the land should be considered a gift:

It is a gift because the people who are to possess it did not create it. It is accompanied by careful warnings and demonstrations of the folly of saying that "My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:17).

I do not have space to quote all that Berry says in regard to the Promised Land. He talks about the concept of tenancy, that the land is the LORD's and His people are just tenants. This is why the Israelites were not allowed to permanently sell their land.

Berry also speaks about the virtue of charity, and he explains that we must see it in light of the entire created order. He also speaks of charity requiring skills in a way that I thought would be interesting for the members of the Leisurebook club:

The requirements of this complex charity cannot be fulfilled by smiling in abstract beneficence on our neighbors and on the scenery. It must come to acts, which must come from skills. Real charity calls for the study of agriculture, soil husbandry, engineering, architecture, mining, manufacturing, transportation, the making of monuments and pictures, songs and stories.

Some of my other favorite quotes include:

It may, in some ways, be easier to be Samson than to be a good husband or wife day after day for fifty years.

And also:

For the principle of good work [the industrial revolution] substitued a secularized version of the heroic tradition: the ambition to be a "pioneer" of science or technology, to make a "breakthrough" that will "save the world" from some "crisis" (which is usually the result of some previous "breakthrough").

I would compare this to I Thessalonians 4:11:

...make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you.

Here is true evidence of Berry's wisdom:

A typical example of the conduct of industrial heroism is to be found in the present rush of experts to "solve the problem of world hunger"--which is rarely defined except as a "world problem" known, in industrial heroic jargon, as "the world food problematique." As is characteristic of industrial heroism, the professed intention here is entirely salutary: nobody should starve. The trouble is that "world hunger" is not a problem that can be solved by a "world solution." Except in a very limited sense, it is not an industrial problem, and industrial attempts to solve it--such as the "Green Revolution" and "Food for Peace"--have often had grotesque and destructive results. "The problem of world hunger" cannot be solved until it is understood and dealt with by local people as a multitude of local problems of ecology, agriculture, and culture."

Remember that next some politician claims he can solve your problems (he is not local and is completely unfamiliar with your circumstances) or, even worse, some other country's problems. Problems are, by definition, local.

If you haven't read Wendell Berry, you should start.

_____________________
Possibly Related Posts:
Other quotes from this book can be found here, here, and here.
Jayber Crow and "The Call"
Wendell Berry's Hannah Coulter
Hannah Coulter: When Geography Separates
Hannah Coulture: Double Incomes and Still in Debt

The Marks of the Educated Mind

I have been listening to Andrew Kern's talk The Canons of Rhetoric: The Deep Logic of the Language Arts over and over (and over) this week. My mind is mostly uneducated, which is why I have to listen, listen, and take notes while listening, in order to understand. There is so much in this talk that I cannot possibly convey it all.

At one point, however, Kern speaks of the three desiderata (Latin for "desired things") of all learning. These things, or marks, prove whether or not one's mind is educated. Here they are:

1. Discipline. An undisciplined mind is not educated. A mind that cannot control itself and direct its activities toward a purpose is not educated.



2. Perceptive. The mind that cannot perceive reality--reality for what it is and as it is--is not educated.



3. Creativity. The mind that cannot perceive reality, absorb it into the soul, and reincarnate it in a new body, is not educated.

He makes this list right after he explains:

The seven liberal arts are medicine for disordered souls.

The seven liberal arts, Kern says, are the natural curriculum for a soul to grow through. He concedes that this is where he often loses modern Christians their conception of education is steeped in a world of egalitarian subjects rather than a world where knowledge is hierarchical in nature.

We here at Afterthoughts, for the record, believe that knowledge is hierarchical. We agree with Kern that the seven liberal arts are prerequisite knowledge for the natural sciences which are prerequisite knowledge for the humane sciences, which are prerequisite knowledge for the philosophical sciences, which are (surprise!) prerequisite knowledge for the theological sciences.

We believe that theology is the queen of the sciences.

And what a beautiful thought that is!

Ahem.

As I was about to say before I wandered into the first person plural, this list can give one pause. In regard to discipline, I remembered the need to train my children to attend. I do this continuously during lessons, and I have been scowled at more than once this week. Though I welcome discussion during lessons, relish it even, I insist that the discussion be concerning the matter at hand. Some of my students chafe at this sort of mental discipline. They would really rather talk about their favorite color, or what they will be having for lunch, or some other such thing.

I say, "That is very interesting, but we will have to talk about that later because right now we are talking about x."

And then the person I said that to glowers at me just the slightest bit, and the schoolgirl in me questions myself briefly. This list reminds me that it is my love for them that compels me to help them learn to discipline their minds, directing them toward whatever subject is at hand.

In regard to perception, I found myself feeling grateful to Charlotte Mason.I am convinced that our time spent out-of-doors is well spent due to her guidance. This week, we took an autumnal tour of the microhomestead. We saw leaves turning colors in the orchard. We looked at different shapes of leaves. We felt them with our hands. Some children even smelled them! We examined pumpkins almost ready for harvest, tomatoes that haven't yet given up, and late-season volunteer sunflowers. We found carrots hiding underneath a bush. We ended by admiring some marigolds.

The children, thanks to Miss Mason's encouragement, were practicing their powers of perception, and I was on-hand for advice and correction as they ventured out with their sketchpads.

In regard to creativity, I think of children seeing pumpkins, and then drawing them. This is a very concrete form of creativity, not unlike an adult's painting of a still life. However, I see how these habits we build now can be a foundation for reincarnating abstract concepts, such as virtues and vices, when they are older.

Balancing creativity with perception is a challenge at times. I think of nature journals (I won't name any names here, but it was somebody) where giant purple flowers ended up on top of the corn. Also, pumpkins were given crowns. When the children are having Craft Time (which is deserving of the capital letters), there are no limitations that I place on them (other than that they respect the nature of my carpet). However, when we do nature journals, I have insisted on drawings which are as true-to-life as possible. Inexperienced sketchers may draw some funny things, to be sure, but this is different from supposed "creative" embellishments.

Here is the important part: Embellishing nature in this way is actually a sign of a distracted mind. It is a refusal to see nature as it is. It is, perhaps, symptomatic of an inability to perceive. Since the drawings are assigned to them for the purpose of enhancing their powers of perception, and to train them to look longer and deeper and further than they would otherwise, we must insist on accurate drawings.

The beautiful thing is that as each of my students so far has learned to limit themselves to reality when they are nature journaling, they have finally learned to enjoy it. The "creative corn" was actually a type of chafing against the assignment. The student's heart, in that moment, was yearning to be somewhere else, doing something else, and the result was a drawing which looked more like a daydream. When the student learned to pay attention, the result was an almost immediate fine-tuning of powers of perception.

I find myself once again going over what we do with a fine-tooth comb. Why do we do what we do? Kern says, quoting Mark Berquist, I think, that the end determines the beginning. Keeping lists, such as the desiderata list above, in mind as we go helps me evaluate our life here during the day. Does this thing takes us closer to the end? Or is it really a distraction from meeting our goal? What I still sometimes have difficulty with is discerning a distraction from various components which make up a broad and generous education. I suppose this is why beginning with the end in mind is so important.

____________________
Possibly Intersting:
The CiRCE fundraiser is still going on. Donate any amount, and download wonderful talks in return!
1,001 Ways to Build an Attention Span
1,001 Ways to Build an Attention Span (Part the Second)

Guess What Came!

The Fallacy Detective:
Thirty-Eight Lessons on How to Recognize Bad Reasoning

What a delight to get in my mailbox this week! I cannot wait to master the names of the fallacies and, as a result, torture my seven-year-old, who will be mystified and yet pleasantly enchanted by their names, especially any of the names that are Latin.

Did I ever mention that Si began to memorize the names of fallacies when we were either in college, or early marriage? I can't remember exactly when it was, but I do remember that I wasn't mature enough to handle it, was apparently poor at argument at the time, and ended up in tears at least once.

Why, oh why, wouldn't he just try to understand??

Now, however, having a heart hardened by giving birth to numerous sinners, I am ready to triumph over my foes using air-tight logic with fancy names.

*evil laugh*

Dear Oldest Son,

You like to argue. You have no idea what is headed your way. Mommy has some new ammunition. And I won't let you read this book for a few more years.

Love,
Mom

The Darndest Things: Q. Finds Her Voice

When Q. first starting talking, we used to call her Marble Mouth. She knew a ton of words for such a tiny thing, but no one could understand much of it except her mother and sometimes her mother's mother (it's a woman thing) because she wouldn't open her mouth but the slightest bit. And then around 18 months or so, her lips were loosened, and she spoke much more clearly.

By two years she spoke well enough that others could understand her.

However, I never, ever, ever had a problem with her talking during reading. This was mostly because she was emphatically not interested in books. Between birth and 18 months, I had thought she was like her brother E. and had a future in reading. But with toddlerhood came a complete rejection of the written word, or sitting in general. She would only stay on my lap for maybe two or three pages before she was off again, doing her own thing. If she was very, very tired, perhaps she would sit in my lap for a short book, stone silent.

And this was fine with me.

But suddenly, lately, she has regained interest, especially in picture books. This seems to correlate with her recent mastery of her colors, shapes, and animal names.

There is only one problem.

I don't know how else to put this: Q. has become a chatter box. School lately consists of me telling her over and over and over to please stop talking.

Please.

Stop talking!

Please.

It's like she is completely oblivious to the fact that she is doing it.

The older children find it slightly annoying because it takes some of the charm away from the plot to have constant interruptions.

One recent evening, for instance, A. begged for her one millionth reading of Chanticleer and the Fox.Here is how it went:

First page: We meet the widow.

Q. asks: Why her husband died, My Mommy?

Second page: We meet the family's farm animals.

Q. shrieks: Pigs!

Third page: We learn about the family's living and eating habits.

Q. points out the fire, the table, the girls, the broom, and ends by asking why the room is so dark.

Fourth page: We meet Chanticleer the rooster.

Q. identifies every color on the rooster, then says cock-a-doodle-doo.

Fifth page: We meet Chanticleer's seven hen wives.

Q., having heard the story before, begins to ask me where the fox is, and also where has that pig gone to?

Sixth page: Chanticleer has his bad dream.

Q.: Where is that fox, people? And the pig? Where is the pig??

Seventh page: Chanticleer walks in his pride.

Q. lets all of us know that the fox is, indeed coming soon. Also, where is the pig?

Eighth page: We see the fox for the first time, lurking in the bushes.

Q.: THE FOX!!!

Ninth page: The fox flatters Chanticleer.

Q. points out the fox, asks about the pig again, and also declares that the fox is "bad."

Tenth page: The fox's flattery works, and the fox grabs Chanticleer by the neck and carries him off for dinner.

Q.: Why that fox bite Chant-kweer? Where the pig go?

Eleventh page: The hens freak out and the great chase begins.

Q.: Cows! Chickens! Red! Blue! Green! (Pointing, ever pointing, all over the page. Can anyone see? I cannot. No one can.)

Twelth page: All of the barn animals get in on the chase.

Q.: PIGS!!! (And also red and blue...and green...and also brown...and trees.)

Thirteenth page: The neighbor's farm animals get in on the action and raise a ruckus.

Q.: Why dat goose fwying? What do bees say?

Fourteenth page: Chanticleer tricks the fox.

Q.: FOX!!!

Fifteenth page: Chanticleer and the fox both tell us what they learned through the use of clever dialog.

Q.: What that blue thing? (I tell her it is the sky, so she proceeds to ask me why it is there.)

Sixteenth page: Warm family reunion between the widow and Chanticleer (THE END)

Q.: Where dat pig go, My Mommy?