I have not read much of G. K. Chesterton in the past, but I have read and loved quote after quote after quote of his. In fact, I think he may be one of the most quotable writers ever. He has a way of taking profound thoughts and turning them into clear, short, brilliant, and often witty or playful statements. In many ways he greatly, in all the best ways, reminds me of C. S. Lewis.
I have his book of essays, and have delighted over several of them, but this is the first book of his I’ve read, fiction or non-fiction. This story happens to be the best of fiction in that points to Truth in a way that non-fiction cannot. I knew nothing going into it, and I think that’s the best way to experience it. Therefore, I intend to tell you nothing about it. [grin] Other than, of course, that I found it brilliant, thought-provoking, and witty in an inimitable Chesterton style. And, of course, I must share a few quotes that struck me but, I hope, do not give away the plot of the story.
"What is poetical about being in revolt? You might as well say that it is poetical to be sea-sick. Being sick is a revolt. Both being sick and being rebellious may be the wholesome thing on certain desperate occasions; but I'm hanged if I can see why they are poetical. Revolt in the abstract is--revolting. It's mere vomiting.
"It is things going right that is poetical! Our digestions, for instance, going sacredly and silently right, that is the foundation of all poetry. Yes, the most poetical thing, more poetical than the flowers, more poetical that the stars--the most poetical thing in the world is not being sick."
"Through all this ordeal his root horror had been isolation, and there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematicians that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy."
"The fear of the Professor had been the fear of the tyrannic accident of nightmare, and...the fear of the Doctor had been the fear of the airless vacuum of science. The first was the old fear that any miracle might happen, the second the more hopeless modern fear that no miracle can ever happen."
It is a rare vacation, in my experience, that meets the needs of parents and a wide range of ages of children (from 14 year old boy down to 5 year old girl). And vacations with kids are rarely vacations for parents. Maybe I’m alone in that assessment, but there you have it.
Russ and I decided that our 20th wedding anniversary was occasion enough, so we returned to Great Wolf Lodge this past week. This time around we had much better driving conditions, and our stay at the resort was fabulous. It started off even better than expected when, during check-in, our basic room was upgraded to a suite with a separate master bedroom and bath (for free!). Bliss.
Two strange things happened while we were there.
The first: I heard a knock on our door at 3:30 am the first night. It was a staff member who informed us that a young child had wandered into the lobby and they had to knock on every door to make sure all kids were accounted for and find the parents of the lost child!
The second: We decided to try out the lodge’s buffet restaurant the second evening, even though it was a little more than we might have spent otherwise. We dried off, got dressed, and hit the restaurant as soon as it opened at 5 pm. We were impressed by the great food selection and filled our plates with food. We had barely sat down to our meal when the power went out! We ate in the semi-darkness until they had to close down the buffet because they could not keep the food warm. We still had our fill of delicious food, and they did not charge us! The power was out for more than an hour and a half (across a large section of the town, as I understand it), and I felt sorry for those families who were swimming at the time and were wet and hungry (the restaurant did not open again that night). We were happy as clams, however! The boys still had a little time to swim in the evening after the power came back on and Lola and I were in the Grand Lobby for the Great Clock Tower Show.
We were able to truly relax and enjoy ourselves. The boys are completely independent in the water park, and Russ and I took turns hanging out with Lola who is now old enough to go on the big waterslides with us (other than the Howlin’ Tornado—and I was perfectly content not to go on that one). She had a blast.
Other than a couple pictures on Instagram, I didn’t even take pictures. These are from two years ago. It all looks the same. [grin] I spent my time relaxing, playing, and reading books. That’s my kind of vacation! Honestly, two nights here is just about perfect. Guests can swim starting at 1 pm on the day of check-in and they can swim until close (9 pm) after checking out (and use the locker rooms after swimming).
Speaking of anniversaries…
My 9th blog anniversary came and went without even a hint of celebration this year (blog slacker that I’ve been). February 17th marked nine years of blogging here at Mt. Hope Chronicles.
NINE YEARS!
I think I’m going to have to plan something extra stupendous for next year…
Now it’s time to return to the real world.
We need to buckle down and FOCUS for the next three weeks.
Math. Honestly, it has never been my favorite subject to teach.
I started out using RightStart Math with Levi. It’s an incredible program, but incredibly teacher-intensive. It was difficult to teach Levi (my distractable non-math kid) with two younger brothers running around getting into mischief. It was even more difficult to consider teaching two boys at different levels. RightStart Math was only going to be great if I actually used it, and it started to sit on my shelf much more often than it was off the shelf in use. [I’m considering pulling it back off the shelf to teach Lola early math, however. We’ll see.]
After much math frustration with Levi and then a long break to regain sanity (around 2nd or 3rd grade), I purchased Teaching Textbooks and ended up using it for all three boys (my two younger boys were advanced in reading and math) for a few years. Honestly, it was a God-send. Math was much more enjoyable for everyone. I loved that the boys could do it independently, that it gave them instant feedback, and that it was self-grading.
Last year, Levi’s first year in the Classical Conversations Challenge program, we switched him to Saxon Math. I can see how Saxon Math is a thorough, rigorous program. But it almost killed us. Even doing only half the problems.
What I really wanted was an interactive, inspiring, engaging, self-teaching (with excellent visual/audio instruction), instant-feedback, self-grading, mastery-based, challenging, attractive, comprehensive math program. Similar to Teaching Textbooks, but better.
I had used Khan Academy occasionally in the past for a video here and there, and I loved Sal Khan’s teaching style. What I hadn’t realized is just how much they’ve added to Khan Academy recently. It is now a complete math program.
So we’ve been using Khan Academy as our main math “spine” since September and I adore it.
It is an online math (and so much more!!) program, and it’s free. Let me repeat that in case you didn’t read it correctly the first time:
It’s FREE.
It blows my mind.
Students can work online on a computer or on mobile devices with the Khan app.
Parents sign up for an account and then their students sign up for their own account under the parent.
Students choose a grade level (K-8th) or a subject (pre-algebra and up through college math). They complete a Mission Warm-Up to assess their current knowledge.
When a student logs in, they can go to their mission page (the grade level or subject they are working through).
This is what Luke’s mission page looks like:
On the left it tells him what percent of the mission (grade level or subject) he has completed. It also tells him which skills he has practiced, which skills he has mastered, and which skills he has yet to complete in each topic. He can click “show all skills” to see all the little boxes, or “hide skill breakdown” to minimize it. He can click on any one of the little squares if he wants to choose his next skill to practice. When he hovers over the square, it will tell him what the skill is and give a preview.
On the right he is given suggested next tasks.
When he clicks on a skill to practice, his screen looks like this (I think this is a screen-shot of a 5th grade skill):
The program is mastery-based. In the upper right-hand corner, students can see exactly how many problems they need to complete correctly and independently to successfully practice the skill. For this particular skill, they must get the first two correct or five in a row if they miss one.
If they need instruction, each problem gives them a direct link to the video with instruction for that particular skill. The video pops up on their screen. They can watch it and then return directly to the practice. If they need help working through the problem, they can click on “show me how.” Each time they click the button, they are shown one step of the problem. (This screen shot shows one hint.) They can watch every problem worked through and explained step by step! If they ask for a hint, that problem does not count as correct. Students then work through the problems until they can get the designated number in a row correct.
Students can use a scratchpad on the screen when needed (with a mouse on the computer or finger with the app), but my boys usually use scratch paper and a pencil. A calculator function pops up on the screen when they are allowed to use it for the skill.
After a student has successfully practiced a skill, they are given a mastery challenge after a specified amount of time has passed (often 16 hours). Previous skills are randomly tested in mastery challenges to determined whether the skill or concept is still mastered. If not, it gets bumped back down to “practiced” status rather than “mastered” status.
The levels are connected and build on each other. Some skills are covered in multiple levels. If a student masters a skill in 4th grade that is also covered in the 5th grade level, it will already show as mastered when they move up a level so they do not have to repeat concepts (unless they show up briefly in mastery challenges).
Students work at their own pace. They work on skills and concepts until they are mastered. They level up as soon as they are ready.
I’m not even touching the surface of the program. Students earn “badges” and avatars. They can see graphs of their activity. You can add “coaches” to their account so other adults can encourage or challenge them.
One of the best aspects of the program is the parent page. Parents have access to detailed, customizable reports for each of their students.
I can see with an easy glance at his activity summary, for any specified period of time (including daily), just how much time my child has actually spent working on Khan, what videos he watched, what skills he practiced, what skills he is struggling with, and more. Or I can click on “full progress report” (below). I can expand or minimize each category.
So here are the cons:
Students have to have internet access. (But they can log in from anywhere at any time!)
Students are not given a specified day’s lesson. I usually give my boys a set amount of time, and I can verify the time they spend and their activity from my parent account. I’ve found this helpful because the boys can work on math even if we have varied amounts of time available depending on the day.
Some kids may struggle with deciding what to do next. They are given suggestions, but they may feel it is too open-ended. Some kids may need more parental direction.
A student must be able to read and follow directions or have parental assistance. (Teaching Textbooks, on the other hand, has a narrator reading the problems aloud, so that is helpful for struggling readers.)
Khan is constantly upgrading and improving the program, as well, so look for more features in the future!
Well, there you have it. I didn’t even mention the computer programing or the science or many other subjects that Khan offers. You’ll have to check it out yourself. [grin]
I’ll end this post with one of Sal Khan’s instructional videos, just to give you a taste.
I spend my days educating my children. Well, I use the term “educating” loosely. I attempt to provide an atmosphere of learning and quality content to draw from. Some days (not often) that looks like strict lessons in Latin and grammar. Most days, for better or worse, that looks suspiciously like unschooling.
One of the greatest things parents can do to create a home atmosphere that encourages learning is to let their children see them learning. This benefits children in several ways, but I’d like to highlight just one benefit at the moment.
Learning new things is hard.
I think parents forget this sometimes.
Some of us have been long-removed from situations in which ideas or skills are brand-new to us. Maybe we forget the frustration that sometimes accompanies the learning process. Maybe we forget how it feels to be awkward at something new. Maybe we forget the stress that hits when we are asked a question we have no answers for.
Have your kids watched you struggle with something new? Something difficult? Have your children watched you choose to learn something for its own sake, because learning is a worthwhile pursuit?
When your kids are struggling with learning something new or doing something difficult, do you think of a time when you felt the same way?
Have you experienced that moment of break-through, when a skill or an idea you’ve been wrestling with suddenly (or not so suddenly) comes with something resembling ease? Have you shared that moment with your children?
I’ve had Spencerian handwriting copybooks on my shelf for a few years, always meaning to get around to them—some day. This past month I realized that I needed a now or never moment, so I pulled them off the shelf and just began. No planning. No ceremony. No beautiful fountain pen. Just the kitchen table, a pencil, and me.
It so happens that I discovered something: Spencerian handwriting is difficult for me. It’s frustrating. I, who have always enjoyed handwriting, have found a challenge.
So each day, as the boys sit down at the table to do their math on Khan Academy (which deserves a whole post of its own), I sit down at the table with my handwriting copybooks and my belated inexpensive fountain pens and write. I’m still waiting for a break-through. But my boys are watching me try and struggle and keep at it, and I’m experiencing empathy for them as they try and struggle and need encouragement to keep at it.
In addition to the Spencerian handwriting—which is just for me; I’m not requiring the kids to do it—I’ve also restarted Duolingo Spanish. Just a few minutes each day is all it takes (at home on the computer or on the go with the app, and it’s FREE!). The boys are not learning Spanish; it’s just for me. (Though guess who wants to learn Spanish now? That’s right. All of them.)
Just a few minutes each day—but I make sure my boys see me trying something difficult and keeping at it…
In my last post on the subject of formal rhetoric, I introduced you to the canons of rhetoric, the basic arrangement of a persuasive essay or speech, and the modes of persuasion. I’d like to focus on the modes of persuasion and a new topic (elocution) in this post.
Elocution pertains to the style in which you state your ideas. This includes word choice, sentence structure, and figures of speech.
“Parallelism is actually a “figure of speech,” a sentence pattern that varies the ordinary or conventional use of language. Figures come in two types, those which vary standard word order and those which vary standard word usage: a figure is either a scheme or a trope. If parallelism is the most important scheme, metaphor is the most important trope. Metaphor is like similie since both compare two items; a metaphor is an identity, however, where a similie is an analogy.” [Scott F. Crider, The Office of Assertion]
There are two main categories of figures of speech: schemes and tropes.
Schemes appeal to the senses.
These figures of speech have a pleasing or attention-grabbing sound to the ear. Many schemes use repetition of sounds or structure, rhyme or rhythm.
Alliteration is one of the most familiar schemes. It is the repetition of consonant sounds in close proximity, usually at the beginning of words. For example, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is loaded with alliteration in every line.
This king lay at Camelot at Christmas-tide with many a lovely lord, lieges most noble, indeed of the Table Round all those tried brethren, amid merriment unmatched and mirth without care. There tourneyed many a time the trusty knights, and jousted full joyously these gentle lords; then to the court they came at carols to play.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds rather than consonant sounds.
Parallelism (about which I’ve written at length here and here) is the repetition of structure (words, phrases, or clauses), and many other schemes of repetition rely on parallelism.
For example:
Chiasmus is reverse repetition of a group of words, clauses, or sentences.
The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. [Milton, Paradise Lost]
Antithesis uses parallel structure to contrast opposing ideas.
Eloquent speakers give pleasure, wise ones salvation. [Augustine] (Eloquent vs wise and pleasure vs salvation)
Anaphora is the repetition of a word or a phrase at the beginning of clauses, lines, or sentences.
Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric, out of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry. [W. B. Yeats]
Epistrophe is the repetition of a word or phrase at the end of clauses, lines, or sentences.
Justice is the grammar of things. Mercy is the poetry of things. [Frederick Buechner]
Tropes appeal to the imagination.
These figures of speech twist the usual meaning of words and show resemblance. The two most common tropes are similie and metaphor.
A similie shows explicit resemblance and uses the words like or as.
A metaphor shows implicit resemblance by asserting that one thing is another thing.
We could continue on with symbolism, personification, onomatopeia, and more, but this is only a brief introduction. American Rhetoric is an excellent resource for definitions and examples of figures of speech if you want to learn more.
Elocution is related to the modes of persuasion, because the writer or speaker must keep his audience in mind when considering what style will be most appealing or persuasive.
Let’s quickly review the modes of persuasion before moving on to the practicum.
Ethos is an appeal based on the speaker’s credibility. Logos is an appeal based on reason and logic. Pathos is an appeal to the audience’s emotions.
Now it’s time for us to practice what we’ve learned using the following video:
Here’s an imperfect transcript to make discussion easier:
And on the 8th day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, "I need a caretaker." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper and then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board." So God made a farmer.
"I need somebody with arms strong enough to rustle a calf and yet gentle enough to deliver his own grandchild. Somebody to call hogs, tame cantankerous machinery, come home hungry, have to wait lunch until his wife's done feeding visiting ladies and tell the ladies to be sure and come back real soon -- and mean it." So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody willing to sit up all night with a newborn colt. And watch it die. Then dry his eyes and say, 'Maybe next year.' I need somebody who can shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, who can make harness out of haywire, feed sacks and shoe scraps. And who, planting time and harvest season, will finish his forty-hour week by Tuesday noon, then, pain'n from 'tractor back,' put in another seventy-two hours." So God made a farmer.
God had to have somebody willing to ride the ruts at double speed to get the hay in ahead of the rain clouds and yet stop in mid-field and race to help when he sees the first smoke from a neighbor's place. So God made a farmer.
God said, "I need somebody strong enough to clear trees and heave bails, yet gentle enough to tame lambs and wean pigs and tend the pink-combed pullets, who will stop his mower for an hour to splint the broken leg of a meadow lark. It had to be somebody who'd plow deep and straight and not cut corners. Somebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week's work with a five-mile drive to church.
“Somebody who'd bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing, who would laugh and then sigh, and then reply, with smiling eyes, when his son says he wants to spend his life 'doing what dad does.'” So God made a farmer.
And now a few questions for you. (I’d love for you all to play along in the comments.)
Is this an example of a persuasive argument?
What is this particular video’s purpose?
In the end, who is trying to persuade an audience?
Of what?
Who is the intended audience?
Whose credibility do we consider? Does the video make an appeal based on credibility? How? By association?
Does this video make an appeal based on reason or logic? In what way?
Does this video appeal to the audience’s emotions? How?
Which mode of persuasion is the strongest? Why?
How is elocution—or style—used in this video? What is the overall style of the presentation? Do you notice any figures of speech?
Do you think this video is persuasive? Why? What is most effective about it?
Any other thoughts?
[Spoiler alert. Grin.]
The recording is a speech originally delivered by Paul Harvey in 1978. This particular video is a Ram commercial from the 2013 Super Bowl. (Paul Harvey passed away in 2009.)
I indentified some of the figures of speech as examples.
Rhyme/rhythm: seed, weed, feed, breed
Assonance: “sigh, reply…smiling eyes”
Alliteration: “planned paradise,” “plow and plant,” “ride, ruts, race”
Parallelism (so many examples!) “clear trees, heave bails, tame lambs, wean pigs…” “tie the fleece and strain the milk and replenish the self-feeder and finish a hard week’s work,” “shape an ax handle from a persimmon sprout, shoe a horse with a hunk of car tire, make harness out of haywire…”
Anaphora: “God said, I need somebody”
Epistrophe: “So God made a farmer.”
Antitheses: “strong enough/gentle enough” and “heave bails/tame lambs”
Metaphor?: “bale a family together with the soft strong bonds of sharing” “plow deep and straight and not cut corners” (Is he just talking about plowing here?)
Foreshadowing: Images of Ram Trucks in film before identifying item being advertised
I have been slaving (delightfully) over creating a reading challenge list for myself for 2016, but I’m having trouble organizing it this year. I’m reading for several different book groups and classes, and I’m not sure how to list the books nor how many books I can possibly read this year. I’d love for that number to be over 100, but it’s never going to happen! So many books, so little time!
I didn’t want to put off posting about books until I could get my act together, so we’ll begin with a starter list and the books I’ve already finished this past month. I hope to have something resembling a final list by next month, but we all know I’ll add a bunch over the course of the year and not get around to half the books on my original “hope to read” list.
January Reading
Children’s classic novels, sci-fi, classic short stories, biography, faith/culture/education, classic novel, fantasy, devotional, picture books, Shakespeare, essays, epic poetry… I think I read a little of everything this past month!!
:: Daddy-Long-Legs [Easy, short, old-fashioned, charming, funny, romantic novel—in short, a perfect way to start the new year.]
:: The Martian [Gripping, fascinating, hilarious, and stressful sci-fi novel. The most interesting scientific and technical “manual” I’ve ever read, and science/technology/sci-fi are not my things. Lots of language and short, choppy journal-style writing for most of the book but it fit with the story. It is a fantastic tribute to human ingenuity and spirit, with an up-beat can-do attitude.]
:: The Terrible Speed of Mercy [I loved this biography of Flannery O’Connor. It is peppered with quotes from O’Connor’s own writings (letters and essays) as well as details about her stories. I feel much more equipped to understand her fiction writing.]
:: Dragonflight [Classic fantasy, and Russ’s favorite author. Fantasy is not my genre, but this one was enjoyable. Definitely some adult situations and not for young children.]
:: Far From the Madding Crowd [This was my first Thomas Hardy novel, and I loved it. His descriptions are vivid paintings, and I laughed out loud more times than I could count. His characters sprung to life. This is an early contender for 2016 favorites. I enjoyed the new movie version as well. 4 1/2 stars.]
:: Heidi [I don’t know that I had ever actually read this one all the way through before. The boys LOVED it. Every day they would ask for me to read just one more chapter, and then just one more! In fact, one evening Russ sat down and listened with us and he wasn’t content with the two extra chapters, so he sat next to me after the kids went to bed and I watched a movie and he read the rest of the book, laughing out loud and reading passages to me from time to time. 4 1/2 stars]
:: Mystery and Manners [I read a few of her essays this past month and hope to finish the book in February.]
:: The Iliad [I’m limping along and need to pick up the pace!]
:: Words Aptly Spoken: Short Stories [I’m reading this collection and discussing with Levi and McKinnon over the next few months. We read nine of the stories this past month.]
:: Listening to Your Life [I continue to enjoy this daily devotional filled with excerpts from Frederick Buechner’s writings.]
God Lives by Hans Christian Andersen The Teapot by Hans Christian Andersen The Bet by Anton Chekhov The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde Little Girls Wiser than Men by Leo Tolstoy Rikki-Tikki-Tavi by Rudyard Kipling The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke Araby by James Joyce The Schoolboy’s Story by Charles Dickens That Spot by Jack London The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Celestial Railroad by Nathaniel Hawthorne A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett A Man and the Snake by Ambrose Bierce The Cop and the Anthem by O. Henry The Necklace by Henri Guy de Maupassant The Hammer of God by G. K. Chesterton The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County by Mark Twain The Bird on its Journey by Beatrice Harraden The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde A King in Disguise by Matteo Bandello The Startling Painting by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Last Lesson by Alphonse Daudet
"Margin is not the wasted space on the page where more words could have gone if only we would knuckle-down and work harder. Margin is the place where the words we carefully compose and place show their best...
"Margin makes your story clear, legible, and beautiful. At least, if your story really is beautiful, the margin will not contradict it. It will enhance and testify to its worth and beauty, to how compelling it is."
By this philosophy, beauty incites spiritual longing.
Today the word eros refers to sex, but to the Greeks it meant the fervent desire to reach excellence and deepen the voyage of life. This eros is a powerful longing. Whenever you see people doing art, whether they are amateurs at a swing dance class or a professional painter, you invariably see them trying to get better. “I am seeking. I am striving. I am in it with all my heart,” Vincent van Gogh wrote.
Some people call eros the fierce longing for truth. “Making your unknown known is the important thing,” Georgia O’Keeffe wrote. Mathematicians talk about their solutions in aesthetic terms, as beautiful or elegant.
'Crow describes this undetected pressure to create an identity for oneself as a kind of subtle bondage. He finds its source in his education: “If I was freer than I had ever been in my life, I was not yet entirely free; for I still hung on to an idea that had been set deep in me by all my schooling so far: I was a bright boy and I ought to make something out of myself…”'
In some ways, today’s teachers are simply struggling with what the Harvard Business Reviewrecently termed “collaborative overload” in the workplace. According to its own data, “over the past two decades, the time spent by managers and employees in collaborative activities has ballooned by 50% or more.” The difference for teachers in many cases is that they don’t get any down time; they finish various meetings with various adults and go straight to the classroom, where they feel increasing pressure to facilitate social learning activities and promote the current trend of collaborative education.
There is a way to relieve the burden on yourself to be providing the all-too-elusive “complete education” for your children at every moment. And it’s the same solution to the opposite problem, which is resting too much confidence in that school you are sending them to — the one that you may be paying a lot for, but which simply can’t give them the depth of experience with a life lived with books that they need.
“This book does not seem to have any Christian lessons in it,” she said. “It’s disturbing and full of hopelessness and despair. Is there a way to redeem this story, or at least understand it better, by reading it from a Christian perspective?”
The truth is, Darcy is sometimes placed so high on a pedestal that we forget the many ways he is very much like your modern everyday man today—full of his own flaws and far from perfect.
Jane and Bingley, Elizabeth and Darcy, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, even Charlotte and Mr. Collins—every relationship Austen portrays teaches us what it is to be devoted, selfless, authentic, and most of all open-minded to love. But especially as a man, I can tell you, I find it all extremely relatable. Here’s why.
Still, I am an optimist. Most nights last year, I got into bed with a book — paper or electronic — and started. Reading. One word after the next. A sentence. Two sentences.
Maybe three.
And then … I needed just a little something else. Something to tide me over. Something to scratch that little itch at the back of my mind — just a quick look at e-mail on my iPhone; to write, and erase, a response to a funny tweet from William Gibson; to find, and follow, a link to a really good article in the New Yorker. E-mail again, just to be sure.
The left hemisphere of our brain is where our judgment resides. It is the logical part of the brain. Our right hemisphere is where our emotion resides. When boys aren’t using good judgment, they are having a difficult time accessing their left hemisphere. Sometimes, this is due to a lack of essential fatty acids, essentially brain starvation. Information can’t travel across the corpus collosum if it isn’t nourished properly. The solution is for us to fatten up their brains!
:: A Crash Course in The Art of Constructive Critique @ Psychology for Photographers (and other creative professionals) [I’ll admit it: I am not good at receiving constructive criticism. This article, however, shares great advice for giving constructive critiques in this culture of widespread online criticism. These are fantastic general tools for peacemakers in leadership positions (hello, parenthood), as well.]
A constructive critique is delivered in a manner, time, and place that the recipient will 1) hear you out and 2) be likely to take action. That means it has to start with compassion and genuine concern. Advice given out of frustration and anger will elicit defensiveness and retaliation – not action.
Before offering a critique of someone’s work, check yourself: Who are you writing this for? You? Them? The gathered audience? Know your motivations. If you’re trying to help, meet them in a way and a place that they will hear you out.
"Did C. S. Lewis foresee the rise of Donald Trump? Not specifically, I’m sure. But Lewis had a remarkable understanding of human nature. He knew what it was like to feel that all hope was lost. And he knew that fear and despair can drive decent people to look for someone, anyone, who projects an appearance of strength."
We’ll wrap up this post of links with an entertaining and brilliant video.
![On Rhetoric - Socratic Dialogue 2 [Paul Harvey] @ Mt. Hope Chronicles](https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1552/24727681521_e6cfcddb25_c.jpg)
