[I apologize for the long list of links. I missed last week and only posted two the week before. I had to catch up! Remember, you can always follow me on Facebook—link in the sidebar—if you are interested in reading the links in “real time” as I discover them.]
“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.” ~Goethe (HT: Homegrown Learners)
:: Chesterton and the Meaning of Education @ The Imaginative Conservative [Go read this one. The Chesterton quotes are priceless.]
“The truth is that the modern world has committed itself to two totally different and inconsistent conceptions about education. It is always trying to expand the scope of education; and always trying to exclude from it all religion and philosophy. But this is sheer nonsense. You can have an education that teaches atheism because atheism is true, and it can be, from its own point of view, a complete education. But you cannot have an education claiming to teach all truth, and then refusing to discuss whether atheism is true.” ~Chesterton
:: The Teacher Who Believes Math Equals Love @ nprEd
:: The Secret to Understanding “Alice in Wonderland” is Math @ From Quarks to Quasars [Alice in Wonderland is next our our read-aloud list, so I’m looking forward to watching this video again after we’re finished.]
:: The Value of Literature in the Classroom: An Internal View @ Education Week
Literature and the arts in general create pathways to discovering personal vision—to imagine a world that values one’s creativity. Imagination informs innovation.
:: Why Are the Humanities Deteriorating? @ First Things
“In this course, you are going to encounter words and images and ideas that are going to change your life. We’ve got Hamlet and Lear, Achilles and David, Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Bennett, Augustine’s pears and Van Gogh’s stars—beauty and sublimity and truth. If you miss them, you will not be the person you could be.”
:: Morality, Myth, and the Imagination @ AfterThoughts [This is an old blog post, but it’s excellent. Go read it!]
Here is the important point: what the mind is full of is what the mind can imagine for its own character.
:: Podcast: How to "Illicit" Good Questions from Reluctant Learners with Matt Bianco @ CiRCE
:: Podcast: David Hicks Q&A @ CiRCE [I’m currently working my way through Norms and Nobility by Hicks in anticipation of hearing him speak at the upcoming CiRCE Pacific Northwest Regional Conference.)
My boys have enjoyed N.D. Wilson’s children’s books, and I loved his Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl: Wide-Eyed Wonder in God's Spoken World in which he expresses many of the same ideas as he does in this video. I’ll have to disagree with his assessment of Harry Potter, though. And that sends me on a new tangent:
:: The End @ Story Warren [Check out the video about Harry Potter in the comments.]
Stunned by his insight, I returned to cleaning the kitchen and wondered how my life would be different if I walked confidently in my knowledge of The Ending.
:: Harry Potter, Jesus, and Me by Andrew Peterson @ The Rabbit Room [Andrew Peterson is the author of The Wingfeather Saga. This is an old blog post, but I love it.]
But listen: we’re free to enjoy the good and the beautiful, even from the most unlikely places. We’re free—and this is huge—to look for the light in people (and things!), to give them the benefit of the doubt, to laud their beauty, to outlove unloveliness—in short, to love as Christ loves us. That includes billionaire authors like J.K. Rowling. She didn’t grow up in the Bible Belt of America; she grew up in England. And yet, in defiance of a culture that tends to snub its nose at Christianity, she wrote a story that contains powerful redemptive themes, stirs a longing for life after death, piques the staunchest atheist’s suspicion that there just might be something beyond the veil, and plainly shows evil for what it is—and not just evil, but love’s triumph over it.
:: 10 Reasons Why Kids Need to Read Non-Disney Fairy Tales @ Read Brightly
Many fairy tales offer hope — hope of redemption, hope that good can conquer evil, hope that our enemies will be vanquished. G.K. Chesterton said it best, “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
:: Asking the Insufficient Questions; In some ways, 'Fifty Shades of Grey' and 'God's Not Dead' aren't all that different by Alissa Wilkinson @ Christianity Today [Might be stepping on some toes, here, but Wilkinson always has interesting things to say about movies and culture. This article reminds me of my impressions while reading Twilight. I was going to share an excerpt of the article, but I don’t want to ruin it. Just go read it.]
:: Fr. Barron on ‘Cinderella’ @ Word on Fire [I haven’t seen this one yet, but I’m looking forward to it!]
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