Scribblings from a twenty-year homeschool veteran about homeschooling, life after homeschooling, occasional peeks into the world of writing for children, and the ups and downs of life in general.
I found this on the internet while researching Dime Novels of the 19th century. Poor "Johnny" has been the subject of many debates the last couple of centuries. [note the date of the article}
WHAT DOES JOHNNY READ? (from The Little Corporal, January 1872, p. 34)
"Oh, every thing," says his father, proudly. "Johnny is a perfect book-worm, and we just have to drive him away from his book."
Sorry to hear it, master Johnny; a live boy has no business to be a book-worm. It is no more a sign of a smart boy to be a great reader than it is of a strong man to be a great eater. One may read too much as well as eat too much, and the brain as well as the stomach be loaded with undigested food that is only an injury to it. It is not what you eat, but what you digest, that makes you strong. It is not the food in your stomach, but the food taken up by the wonderful machinery of your body and made over into blood, and bone, and nerve, and sinew, that keeps up the daily growth of your body and builds you up into a man. And just so the food which you give your mind must be taken up and worked over, and become part of the mind itself, or it is good for nothing. If it has no nutrition in it, nothing to make new thoughts and new ideas, if it can not give something to the mind, or waken something in it, then it is chaff, rubbish, poison, any thing but food. Half a dozen lines of the right sort, read in the right way, are worth volumes of trash, or even of good sense carelessly read and then forgotten.
Do n't throw away your books, Johnny, but learn to go through them as the miner goes through his panful of sand and quartz, watching for the gleam of gold, and carefully picking out the precious bits.
And we should like to say to Johnny's father and mother, do not rest satisfied while your boy "reads every thing." It is a direful day for you if you have neglected to direct and cultivate his taste until he has come to be a mere devourer of the stories of wild, improbable adventure and exciting fiction, which is poured out like a flood for the destruction of our boys; but even yet you can do something to counteract the evil if you are willing to work for it--by taking your child with you into the fields of art, of history, and of science, which may be made as charming to the unfolding mind as the regions of romance.
Suzy, I found that old post by clicking on your categories tab. :-)
Yes, we are still hs'ing. Dd is in 8th, so I get all of her assignments ready over the weekend. If she gets stuck, she either has dh help her, or she waits until I get home. DH is really starting to see the value of hs'ing, now that he is helping somewhat. He is still learning where to find all of my teacher keys.
It is a blessing to still be able to hs because when dd gets done w/hs'ing for the day, she has a few chores to do which helps me immensely. I am learning to delegate things to dh as well. With my health issues, it helps to not have a whole house to take care of when I get home.
I got to hear an interesting sound this morning -- the lifeline helicopter landing over the top of the ER department. (That is where I'm working this month.)
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Oct. 12, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Yes, we are still hs'ing. Dd is in 8th, so I get all of her assignments ready over the weekend. If she gets stuck, she either has dh help her, or she waits until I get home. DH is really starting to see the value of hs'ing, now that he is helping somewhat. He is still learning where to find all of my teacher keys.
It is a blessing to still be able to hs because when dd gets done w/hs'ing for the day, she has a few chores to do which helps me immensely. I am learning to delegate things to dh as well. With my health issues, it helps to not have a whole house to take care of when I get home.
I got to hear an interesting sound this morning -- the lifeline helicopter landing over the top of the ER department. (That is where I'm working this month.)
It was nice to "see" you again. Take care.