Reading, reading, reading ....

I posted weeks ago about our dramatic move - sometime in early December, we took computer time away from our 10 year old.  Without a lot of fanfare, mom and dad quietly took his computer apart and moved it in pieces to the basement.   He did not cry; he actually seemed relieved.   It has stayed there and he does not ask much about it.  He has always loved reading and now he spends his evenings happily buried in good books.  Below is the latest installment from the local library.  I give this pile two weeks, tops.  Then, I will spend another magical afternoon with him at the local library, running from one shelf to the next, and will watch with pleasure as he fills the book bag.

He finished two of these in as many days and tonight he sits wondering which one to begin next ....

I do not know how long I can maintain this course, but as each week goes by he picks up reading speed, reading endurance and, most importantly, reading pleasure.

Counting my blessings ....

Our son John was with us for a full week - spring break at University of Pennsylvania.  His sibs (and his parents) are so happy to have him back that everyone wants these visits to be one big party.  I'm not sure James left his side for more than 10 minutes.   Andy, who has been working on a shelter in the backyard (said shelter is dry, warm and comfortable!) was very glad to have John help with some finishing touches.  And, of course, they found time to row together.   Nora greedily picked his brain on the insider track at Penn and mom and dad just sat back and smiled alot.  Several nights we went to bed and left them all chatting and laughing together in the family room until ....well, let's just say it was quite late (!)

Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, and happy to know it ....

Dr. Frankenstein's Epic Fail

I assigned Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to my Senior English class because of the book's unquestionable stature in literary circles but also because I had never read it myself.

I had no idea what I had missed by skipping over this gem.

While discussing the book with my students today, I was singularly dissatisfied with my own summary and I tried in vain to get at the thing that escaped my grasp.  It came to me while driving home.

You see, Dr. Frankenstein sets out to create a life.  He succeeds but he detests his creation.  Terrified, he denies what he has done, he abandons his creature and much suffering results.  His monster suffers most.  The monster works hard to become human but fails in the end to "feel" human, because nothing can or will ever love him.  He is too hideous.  Rejection and violence  turn him into a murderous wretch.  Frankenstein tries to kill his creation but he fails.  In the end, the reader is left feeling that society is somewhat to blame for the creature's inability to find its proper place in the human race.  We don't think that society is an excuse for the monster's brutal killings, but it leads the discussion in why Dr. Frankenstein's experiment was a failure.

But, I think Shelley missed something.  The dialogues between Dr. Frankenstein and his creature are very detailed, logical, and convincing.  They are the meat of the story and we get pulled into the debate of what it means to be human very rapidly.  The problem is that Dr. Frankenstein's creation is not human.  He is a close approximation; close but no cigar.  He doesn't grow gradually over, say, 20 years, until he has  fully formed intellectual and emotional apparatus.  Everything about him is unnatural.  From the beginning, he was a solution in search of a problem.  Since he is a fake, every reaction he has and every moral conclusion he draws is highly suspect (well, to my mind, anyway).   Dr. Frankenstein's monster is more like a mythological creature.

Yet, because the rabbit is placed into the hat ahead of time ("Dr. Frankenstein's creation tells us what it means to be human ....") we mostly spend time in this space in discussions about this book.

You'll never guess where I'm going with this blog.  Right .....education.

Books, newspaper articles and, internet articles are proliferating on topics in education and they ALL put the rabbit in the hat.  We find ourselves in deep debates about bullying policies, merit pay for teachers, school boards, standardized testing, teacher's union contracts, school safety, tax increases to fund school improvements, curriculum choices, school bus violence, grading, the list is endless.  No one seems to notice that the rabbit is already in the hat, so no one is asking the most important question.  Just as it took me a while to say ....'wait a minute ....Frankenstein's monster is NOT human and that's the most important thing in this debate' ....it seems that no one is willing to ask if public education is sensible. Everyone assumes that it is necessary and somehow legitimate.  No one is asking for a complete redo because of the myth of public education.

American education was founded on myth and myth reigns there still.  Myths are created to explain things that are otherwise impossible to decipher.  America needed answers to social ills, crime and unemployment, among other things.  The idea of compulsory education as a way to control, indoctrinate, influence and streamline took hold and state conditioning centers spread like crab grass.

When we read Greek mythology, no one is actually outraged when Cronus eats his own children because, well, it's myth.  But, when we have a bloated population of young adults who cannot read at a high school level, it is time to call a myth a myth and demand a re-do.

Until the spell is broken, America will continue to watch this failed experiment spiral tragically downward, to this predictable outcome:  those who can afford better education will find it in expensive private schools and those who cannot will fall further and further behind.

I say to the architects of public education the same thing I would say to Dr. Frankenstein , "It was a bad idea
from the beginning.

Visits home from college ....

It was a delight to have my oldest son home from U Penn for the weekend.  We were celebrating his 19th birthday; where, oh, where, does the time go?  Life is in a terrible hurry.   If only I could turn back the hands of time ....

John makes us proud every single day.  He is a profound thinker, an amazing athlete, a terrific musician, and the nicest young man you could ever hope to have the pleasure to meet.

Here he is 19 year ago ....

And here he is at his 19th birthday dinner last night

And this is how time flies and why I am so glad I was home to see it all ....

Gold Medaling at the Center City Slam

My 13 year old erged his way to a record breaking 2K time at the Center City Slam on Saturday, February 9th.   He won a gold medal and broke a record at this annual event for his age group!  He gave it all he had as you can tell from the pictures below.  He fell off the machine afterward and was unable to move for a disturbingly long period of time.   What a performance!

Disassembling for Success ....

In the Fall of 2012, my youngest son came under the spell of attractive online computer games.  For over a decade we have resisted going down this road and have never owned a GameBoy, PlayStation, XBox, Wii, or anything like this.  "Playing" time on the computer was also very restricted.  It was extremely difficult and it continues to be difficult.  We believe it is a hill we must be willing to die on, though.  Our oldest son thanks us for maintaining our stronghold on this hill, now that he is in college.   He uses the words that we used at the time:  "It could have robbed me of my childhood, but you wouldn't let that happen.  I'm better for it."

So, when my husband and I saw James coming under the spell, we disassembled his computer and put it in the basement.  This was 6 weeks ago.  Below are pictures of the books that James has read since then and he shows no sign of slowing down.

Big problems occasionally require bold action.  The most interesting part - he hasn't complained.  The rich life he lives in his books at the end of the day is much preferred.

Deja Vu

My husband and I can both recall our long-suffering parents rolling their eyes as we played the same 45 over and over and over, singing along earnestly.  It was usually the Beatles or Motown.

Tonight we heard our youngest, with his friends,  singing along to the same song, over and over and over, and although it was a CD, not a 45 or an lp, the spirit was exactly the same.  What is interesting about this is that, 40 +  years later,  it was the same song !   Who knew?

Beatlemania is alive and well at Labereeland .....