A Nation Hypnotized by the Arts of the Spell Binders
Sep. 2, 2008

Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy throughout Western Europe is higher than it has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined? Do you put this down to the mere mechanical fact that the press and the radio and so on have made propaganda much easier to distribute over a wide area? Or do you sometimes have an uneasy suspicion that the product of modern educational methods is less good than he or she might be at disentangling fact from opinion and the proven from the plausible?

Have you ever, in listening to a debate among adult and presumably responsible people, been fretted by the extraordinary inability of the average debater to speak to the question, or to meet and refute the arguments of speakers on the other side? Or have you ever pondered upon the extremely high incidence of irrelevant matter which crops up at committee meetings, and upon the very great rarity of persons capable of acting as chairmen of committees? And when you think of this, and think that most of our public affairs are settled by debates and committees, have you ever felt a certain sinking of the heart?

Have you ever followed a discussion in the newspapers or elsewhere and noticed how frequently writers fail to define the terms they use? Or how often, if one man does define his terms, another will assume in his reply that he was using the terms in precisely the opposite sense to that in which he has already defined them? Have you ever been faintly troubled by the amount of slipshod syntax going about? And, if so, are you troubled because it is inelegant or because it may lead to dangerous misunderstanding?
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Is not the great defect of our education today--a defect traceable through all the disquieting symptoms of trouble that I have mentioned--that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils "subjects," we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning.
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For we let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armor was never so necessary. By teaching them all to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word. By the invention of the film and the radio, we have made certain that no aversion to reading shall secure them from the incessant battery of words, words, words. They do not know what the words mean; they do not know how to ward them off or blunt their edge or fling them back; they are a prey to words in their emotions instead of being the masters of them in their intellects. We who were scandalized in 1940 when men were sent to fight armored tanks with rifles, are not scandalized when young men and women are sent into the world to fight massed propaganda with a smattering of "subjects"; and when whole classes and whole nations become hypnotized by the arts of the spell binder, we have the impudence to be astonished. We dole out lip-service to the importance of education--lip- service and, just occasionally, a little grant of money; we postpone the school-leaving age, and plan to build bigger and better schools; the teachers slave conscientiously in and out of school hours; and yet, as I believe, all this devoted effort is largely frustrated, because we have lost the tools of learning, and in their absence can only make a botched and piecemeal job of it.

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Free Grade Book Template
Sep. 1, 2008

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Contented Domesticity
Aug. 27, 2008

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First Week of School
Aug. 20, 2008

Here are the schedules we are working off of for this week:

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Beautiful Song
Jul. 24, 2008

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On the Reading of Old Books
Jul. 23, 2008

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Wordless Wednesday
Jul. 23, 2008

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Curricula for 2008-2009
Jul. 16, 2008

Bible & Catechism


History: Winter Promise: American Story 1


Science: NOEO Science: Chemistry I: Bubbly, Sticky, Bouncy and Icky!

Math: Singapore Math 4a & 4b; Saxon Math 65
Spelling: Rod and Staff: Spelling Grade 4
Grammar: Rod and Staff: Building with Diligence: English 4
Penmanship: Rod and Staff: "Penmanship for Christian Writing" Gr. 4
Memorization: Year Three Memorization
Reading: Sonlight: Readers 3 Advanced Package - Five Day
Latin: Classical Academic Press: Latin for Children Primer B

Math: Singapore Math: 2a & 2b; Horizons 3
Spelling: Rod and Staff: Spelling Grade 2
Grammar: Rod & Staff: Preparing to Build: English 2
Penmanship: Zaner Bloser: Handwriting 2 M
Poetry: First Year Poetry Memorization
Reading: Sonlight: Readers 3 Regular Package - Five-Day
Latin: Classical Academic Press: Song School Latin

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Memorization
Jul. 16, 2008

1) The Books of the Bible
2) The Mayflower Compact
3) American Wars from Colonial Times to 1850
4) Opening to the Declaration of Independence
5) Preamble and Outline of the US Constitution
6) The Bill of Rights
7) The 50 States
8) The First Twenty American Presidents

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It's Time for Some Campaignin'!
Jul. 16, 2008

Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!

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