Update on Gatto post

I added this postscript to the Gatto post, it is my personal take on public schools:

P.S. Also, I want to make sure those of you who like your public school or have no other option, know I have nothing against the public schools. I came out all right and lots of people I know came out way better than I did. When I say that the public school system has failed to produce well-educated and free thinking people, I am saying that as a generalization of the entire school system and not for individual students. Parents are definitely the key to well-adjusted and educated children. Many of them make public school work, and their kids do great. I'm glad we are all free to teach our children how we see fit and do what is best for our families. I do think we all gain by understanding the disadvantages we face in our public schools. Those who choose to stay in them can combat those disadvatages when their children are home, and those who choose to homeschool or private school or whatever can make sure they don't duplicate the disadvantages in their new educational choice. I think the public schools do well at some things like math and science and not as well at others like history, languages and classics. There are definitely disadvantages to homeschooling and other educational choices too. The key is to decide which ones you are most willing to deal with and go from there!!

The Iliad by Homer

I did it!! I listened to 14 1/2 hours of audio to hear the whole thing!! I can't say that I understood the entire thing, but I think I got the main jist. The biggest surprise I encountered was that the story of the Trojan horse is not included in the Iliad. Apparently we don't have all the writings, but it is refered to in the Odyssey. The Iliad also was not written originally, it was sung by a bard and the people would gather for a couple days to listen to it. Maybe someday I will be able to read it in the original Greek because I'm sure it sounds great in Greek. The story is excellent although there are a ton of fighting scenes, that made it reminiscent of The Red Badge of Courage, but hey, war is not pretty and I'm just reading about it, I'm not actually there so I think it is only fair I try to understand the ugliness of it so I can appreciate that I don't have to fight and so that I know what is actually involved before I give support to any war. I better be sure the war is really just and necessary, because war is terrible and I don't like it.

O.K. here is a quick summary of the story: At a wedding feast, Eris who was not invited throws in a golden apple with the inscription: to the fairest, three of the goddesses in attendance want the apple and Zues makes Paris a mortal decide who gets the apple. Each of the goddesses promise him a reward, he picks Aphrodite because she can make the most beautiful woman in the world fall in love with him. That woman is Helen, the only problem is that she is already married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, so when she runs away with Paris to Troy, Menelaus declares war on Troy and all his allies come to his aid. None of this is in the Iliad, the Iliad starts around the end of the war and deals with that year to the time of the deaths of Hektor, the hero of Troy and Achilles the hero of the Achaens which are all the other Greeks.

So Achilles refuses to help the Acheans anymore because Menelaus dishonored him. Hektor is the main leader of the Trojans and does an excellent job defending his city and causes great havoc among the Acheans so that Achilles decides to send his friend Patroclus to fight and help the Acheans. He is killed by Hektor, but the Acheans save his body and bring it back to give him a proper funeral. This infuriates Achilles against Hektor and he decides to fight and eventually kills Hektor, but shows him no mercy when he pleads that his body be taken back to his family. Achilles drags it through the street. Hektor's father recovers the body with the help of some of the gods and the Trojans mourn his death. That is where the Iliad ends. Achilles is killed later.

The contrast between Achilles and Hektor is striking. Achilles is selfish and revengeful. Hektor is fighting for his city. There is a sweet part where he parts with his wife and baby son. It is very tender and you can see that he doesn't thirst for blood and he really loves his wife and son, but knows he must fulfill his duty even though he may die.

There are many good points I gleaned from this book. No wonder it is still around and has passed the test of time. I highly recommend it. I'm tired now so that's all for now.

Here is a point I was going to work in nicely but oh well:
I think we are too far removed from actual fighting in this day and age. Back then, they faced their opponents and killed each other head on, now we push a button and a bomb will be released that can kill thousands without us ever personally knowing or seeing our victims. I think it makes us more likely to kill when the enemy has no face. These Greeks saw and respected each other. They would stop for various reasons and talk to each other, then when it was time to fight again, they would kill each other the next minute. It was very open. That is a big difference from today. An ironic point given in this book is how glorified the war seems to be, and everybody wants the glory of performing well in the war and they look forward to the spoils, but in the end it takes about 10 years to sack Troy and in that time so many people on both sides are dead I think it shows how awful war really is.

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

I didn't read this book because I was trying to finish the Iliad and the Communist Manifesto for my other book club and because I was kind of tired of 19th century England classics especially Portrait of a Lady that was sooooooo long. But it turned out to be a favorite that the ladies couldn't put down!!! It is on librivox.org, so I will download it when I need a little less heavy sort of a book, but I just downloaded War and Peace from audible.com and finished the first 2 chapters. It is already interesting. I'm excited to hear how these people dealt with all the wars going on around them. Has anything really changed? I will let you know!! It is about 30 hrs. long. We'll take a couple months to get through this one!!

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

This is one of the best books on the modern public education school system. It really helped me understand what goes on in the public schools better and what I went through as a student. I read another of his books called A Different Kind of Teacher, after I read this one and it was just as good. I can't get enough of Gatto's insight into this subject and the subject of humanity as a whole. Some of the things I got out of these books are the need we, especially children, have for time to think about things and to daydream, the importance of spending time with family and appreciating them, I did not need to feel any guilt about not completing every assignment given to me, and that the public school system has accomplished its goal. That goal was never to assist students to become free, independent thinkers and human beings, it was always to fit people into their proper place in society and to make them complacent with their station. It has worked!!! The reason so many people see the system as being a problem is because they thought school was for academics and learning and it has failed miserably in that regard. What they don't realize and Gatto does an excellent job of documenting this in his book, Underground History of American Education, is that public schools were set up as social institutions for the good of the whole and not as not places of learning for the good of the individual.

Gatto is so insightful in his books. I learned so much and realized some things about my own education and some misconceptions that I may have passed down to my children had I not read his book. He also does not hold back on his descriptions and when he says something outlandish, I was surprised at how true his statement actually was. Now, so that you will want to go grab His short book, Dumbing Us Down, I will give you the title of the seven lessons he taught to the students as a public school teacher for 30 yrs. in New York city, you will have to get the book so you can read the explanation and realize he's right, he's not making this up!!!

Here they are, the seven lessons he taught to students as a public school teacher:
1-Confusion
2-Class Position
3-Indifference
4-Emotional Dependency
5-Intellectual Depedency
6-Provisional Self-Esteem
7-One Can't Hide

I know it is hard to believe at this point, but go get his book at the library or online or borrow it from me and read these 10 pages, and I think you will be very surprised as I was to see that he is right, and all that time you felt a little uncomfortable in school, you may find you were perfectly justified!!

Take care and have fun, I would love to hear comments on this one!!!

P.S. Also, I want to make sure those of you who like your public school or have no other option, know I have nothing against the public schools. I came out all right and lots of people I know came out way better than I did. When I say that the public school system has failed to produce well-educated and free thinking people, I am saying that as a generalization of the entire school system and not for individual students. Parents are definitely the key to well-adjusted and educated children. Many of them make public school work, and their kids do great. I'm glad we are all free to teach our children how we see fit and do what is best for our families. I do think we all gain by understanding the disadvantages we face in our public schools. Those who choose to stay in them can combat those disadvatages when their children are home, and those who choose to homeschool or private school or whatever can make sure they don't duplicate the disadvantages in their new educational choice. I think the public schools do well at some things like math and science and not as well at others like history, languages and classics. There are definitely disadvantages to homeschooling and other educational choices too. The key is to decide which ones you are most willing to deal with and go from there!!

Craters of the Moon National Park

This park is in Idaho and it is basically a huge area full of dried lava rock. We even got to look down the centers of two very old volcanoes. One of them had snow in the bottom. It was pretty cool. It is interesting to see the rocks covered with lichens and then once the lichens turn the lava to small rocks other small plants come in and grow and then eventually the lava is broken down enough for sagebrush, trees and other vegetation to start growing. What a planet!! We also saw a lot of chipmunks there!!

The Teaching Company

We love the teaching company!! We have almost all of their lectures and they have all been fabulous. They are a major part of the high school education we want for our children. My favorite is The History of Freedom by Rufus Fears. He starts with the battle of Marathon in Greece so we learn that the marathon is named for that battle when a soldier ran from Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians not to let the invaders in because they beat them at Marathon and then he dropped dead after delivering the message and it was 26 miles that he ran. Dr. Fears tells it much better of course!! Then Dr. Fears go through some Roman history and Alexander the Great to Constatine, to England and finally the United States and the constitution. That's just what I remember from first listening to it about 2 years ago so my facts may not be exactly right on. It was so enlightening to hear all these historical events in perspective with each other and how we got to the United States and the constitution. I highly recommend that lecture. The others have been very interesting and enlightening too. I just love learning new things!! I think libraries have them too because they do get expensive, always buy them on sale!!

Their website is www.teach12.com

I hope you enjoy. They have free lectures you can download and those are always interesting too!

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

This was a very long book!! My audio files came out to about 17 hrs. Volume I is especially lengthy in describing and protraying the main characters of the story. The real interesting attention-getting part doesn't come until volume II. If I had to recommend the book to anybody, I would explain the point of vol. I which is that Isabel Archer is a perfect American lady who attracts the very best of men and turns them down. She is also admired by her invalid cousin, Ralph, who convinces his dying father to bestow half his inheritance on her, thus making her a free and rich woman- able to do whatever she imagines in life. There are some good comparisons between the old and new worlds and the difference in social behaviors between the 2 that are quite interesting and just seeing the way things were back them might be worthwhile, but it does take a long time.

Then we get to vol. II. Isabel actually gets married!!! She was deceived into it though on account of her large inheritance. She also comes to find out that her husband had been an adulterer and her good friend his partner and the true mother of his fine daughter. The descriptions of the way Gilber, her husband, treats Isabel and Pansy, his daughter are very educational. He was so underhanded and good at manipulating appearances so that he would always be obeyed. Even so, Isabel has a hard time breaking away from him to comfort her cousin before his death, because she is so commited to the contract of marriage and admits she did it of her own free will. This is admirable and yet Gilbert was so mean, that I hoped she would leave since there were no children involved. Her longtime suitor whom she turned down many times again tried to canvince her to marry him, but in the end she returns to Rome although we don't know what she does once she gets there.

This book is all about relationships. There are several throughout. It is interesting to read about the different ones described. It is also nice to see the consequences of the heroine's decisions. Overall, I think it was worth listening to, but there are probably many other better books to study before this one.

Thanks for reading!!